Publication Project - Photography

I decided to go and photograph the various kit that members of Bath Astronomers used to observe and/or image. I knew that some of them had pretty sophisticated observatories in their back gardens but I was still pretty surprised by what I found.

I spoke to Colin, our photography tutor, who gave me some tips on ISO and exposure settings. He told me to try getting a big torch and backlighting the scene so the subject would stand out against the dark sky. Here are some of the best images I managed to get:

I am really happy with how some of these shots came out. I especially like the ones where you can see a bit of drainpipe or a washing line, highlighting the fact that this is very much a backyard, amateur pursuit.

Publication Project - Secondary Research

I managed to get some brilliant books on magazine design from the library:

I want to own pretty much every magazine featured in these books. They are all beautifully designed and often far from conventional in terms of layout and format. The Derek Birdsall book has been really useful on a more practical level, helping to inform my decisions on typefaces and image placement within a grid structure.

My favourite book on print design was not available in the library, so I went out and splashed £30 on it. I don't regret it for a minute!

I love everything published by Gestalten. All of their books are so nicely made and the content is well-chosen and totally inspirational. The other massive influence on my project is the brilliant Little White Lies magazine:

I have a subscription to this wonderful mag and eagerly await each issue that pops through my door every two months. I'm not particularly bothered about the actual movie reviews and news, it's all about the wonderful editorial design and stunning illustration. Each issue is themed to a specific film, with interview and features as well as the review itself. In this issue there is a brilliant photo feature whereby someone has photographed the scene of celebrity death crashes on the exact date and time of day that they occurred.

Another great thing about Little White Lies is that it just "feels" lovely. Its one of those magazines that you just have to stick your nose in and give a good sniff when you open it. The paper stock is heavy and uncoated which really adds to the perceived quality.

I think I will take this approach on my astronomy publication. The feel of the paper is really important to me. Also, I think I will go for a magazine-style instead of a book, which will give me the chance to play around with different layouts, treating each feature/article as a separate entity. Of course, the real skill is to make sure the whole things feels varied yet still consistent.

Publication Project - Primary Research Questionnaire

Here's the list of questions I sent to all members of Bath Astronomers:

1. How long have you been observing?
2. Do you consider yourself to be an observer, an imager or both?
3. Do you have any tips for new astronomers?
4. Any good observing anecdotes?
5. How far do you have to travel for a good, dark observing site?
6. What is the furthest distance you have travelled to observe/image?
7. What got you interested in astronomy?
8. What are your favourite astronomy magazines?
9. What are your favourite astronomy websites?
10. What are your favourite astronomy books?
11. How about software? (RegiStax, Stellarium, Celestia, etc)
12. Do you believe in extraterrestrial life?

In my experience most astronomers are very logical thinkers. Many of the members of Bath Astronomers work in engineering or for the MoD, so I am especially interested in their responses to the last question...

Publication Project - Astronomy

I have decided to do a book on amateur astronomy. I am not quite sure exactly what I am going to have in the book, so my plan is to interview some of the people I know through Bath Astronomers, perhaps go round and photograph their kit. It would be nice to go out on an observing session and get some shots of shifty silhouetted figures hunched over their telescopes. Won't be able to use a flash though, which could be problematic.

Publication Project - Initial Ideas

We've been set our final big project for year two. It's a publication on a "non-viable group or individual". Is anything non-viable these days? I mean a quick search on Amazon came up with these two:

How Carrots Won The Trojan War

How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical & Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening for Writers, Artists, Contractors, Flange Turners, Anglesmiths, & Civil Servants

Seems anything goes these days, but I see where they are coming from. They want us to find something a bit quirky and then try to make something beautiful from it. My initial ideas regarding the subject of my book are as follows:

• Undertakers (we have some living opposite us)
• Typographers
• Steve Ricketts (maybe expand this to all Sion Hill technicians?)
• Astronomers
• Store greeters
• Pizza delivery drivers
• Taxi drivers (my dad and uncle)
• Ticket touts
• Homebrewers
• Chap on the turnstile at Bath City FC/Bath Rugby
• Local politicians *shudder*
• Door-to-door salesmen
• Pest controllers
• Dynorod
• Prostitutes
• Drug dealers
• Polish car washers
• Unemployed people
• Tapophiles (people who love cemeteries)
• Window cleaners
• Burlesque dancers
• Freemasons
• Mummers
• Roleplayers
• Transvestites
• Morris dancers

I think undertakers could be interesting, and my neighbours don't seem very creepy and are actually pretty friendly. However, I am not sure I have the mental strength to really investigate the subject of death. It's a shame because it is a great subject, and it's something most of us don't know much about. There is also a lot of unusual equipment involved, for preparing bodies etc. No, I really don't think I am up to the task.

Steve Ricketts would be a good one. Lots of my fellow students (and tutors) would benefit from a user manual for Steve in order to get their work printed. I don't want to take the piss though. Perhaps I should do something broader, something about all of the techies at Sion Hill. What would be great would be to have interesting facts about each one that are unrelated to their work - for instance Steve plays the accordian! Steve's page could be set in letterpress, as that is his speciality, and I could then do something similar with the others - the pages for Penny and Jane would be done as etchings or lino-cuts. Would be a lot of work but I think this could be a really nice book.

I am a member of Bath Astronomers and it would be nice to produce something about this strange nocturnal hobby. Our founder Dick Phillips died a few months ago, so it would be great to dedicate it to him. If the book is any good, perhaps our friends at The William Herschel Society could sell it in the museum shop.

Not sure what I could do with taxi drivers, although I do hear some great stories from my dad about the people he has picked up and the conversations he has had with them. Could be confidentiality issues though, especially with some of the celebs he has ferried around Bath.

I would love to do something about prositutes and/or drug dealers but they are probably not going to want to be photographed so let's forget that one (for now). Same applies to the Polish chaps at the many hand carwash places - I could approach them but language might be a problem, plus I wonder if some of them are illegal immigrants? Don't want to get them in trouble.

Freemasons are obviously very secretive, so I doubt I would get much from them. Shame as I would love to do something that really takes the piss out of them.

The "Mummers" are rather interesting. It's some weird pagan thing that seems to be related to Morris Dancing whereby they dress in outfits made of torn paper and act out a strange play in the streets on Boxing Day. It's been going on since the 12th century apparently and there are a group of them in nearby Marshfield.  Problem is that by Boxing Day I will have missed my deadline by about seven months! Damn. Maybe I will get some photos of them for a future project.

Roleplayers might be quite a good one to investigate. I know a group of forty-somethings who still have weekly gaming nights. Some of them even dress up as wizards or elves and the like when they play! I could just go along and observe, taking notes and photos. Not sure how I could make something good out of it though.

I was out in Bath with my partner a few weeks ago and, as we waited at the bar in Cosy Club, we noticed two rather tall "ladies" with rather large hands standing nearby. A few minutes later, a couple more came in and joined the first two. And then more. And more. At the last count there were thirteen transvestites in the bar - it was like some kind of tranny convention. What really interested me was the looks on the faces of the other patrons; the grins and the whispers behind hands. I would love to make a book about this. Perhaps I could follow the transvestites around the next time they meet and document the reactions. Not sure I will be able to find them again though.

Finally we get to Morris Dancers. I don't like Morris Dancers at all - they are beardy and weird. Not so Mr Wilkins' Shilling, a women's morris dance "side" from Batheaston. I didn't realise that women got involved in this. I thought they were too sensible for such nonsense! Maybe I should do something on them. Would be pretty cool to do it as an iPad app...

A Couple of Designs for Screenprinting*

I would like to have another go at screenprinting but none of my usual work (whatever the hell that is) is really suitable. So I knocked out these two *illustration* pieces that might be worth using:

Dogshit Rose is the first in what may be a series of prints, whereby I take an image and caption it with a word that is just plain wrong. Here we have a rose, which most people associate with a nice smell, and the word "dogshit", which most would associate with a bad smell.

I like the use of the single word "dogshit", over the more common "dog's shit" or "dog shit". I like the words "dog" and "shit" as well though, in their own right.

My other screenprint candidate is The Colourful World of Innards:

It would make an ACE t-shirt. It is also a great name for a band. It may be a bastard to screenprint though due to the number of colours. Fucksticks.

*Both these ideas came to me when I was stricken with a heavy cold. Interesting...

Music Poster Project - Final Designs

Of course I couldn't just leave it there. With a week to go until the final crit, I had plenty of time to come up with a better idea, surely. Here's the first one:

I like the look of this one, although I don't think the concept behind it is as strong as my earlier efforts. I am rather fond of the Japanese emoticons. To make it even more Swiss, here's a red version:

Okay, so that's another new idea. I do quite like it but perhaps not as much as some of my other designs. Ho hum. Next!

We have a winner! This idea kind of popped into my head when I sat down and really thought about the lyrics in Psycho Killer. He can't seem to face up to the facts, he's tense and nervous and he can't relax... wait a minute... how about presenting this as a giant A1 psychiatric assessment form!

I scoured the 'net for various forms, especially American ones (Talking Heads are from New York) and then designed one of my own. The main section is a series of yes/no questions, such as:

Able to face up to facts?
Tense?
Nervous?
Can relax?

My personal favourite is:

Sleeping well?      Yes/No     If no, why not?    Believes his bed is on fire.

Oh how I laughed. No, really I did. Anyway, there it is. Many of the real forms had a barcode at the bottom. I saw this as an opportunity to add one of those cool-looking QR codes. If you scan this with a smartphone, you will be taken to the song on Youtube, so you can listen while admiring my poster!

Music Poster Project - Further Development

I decided to stick with the solid block of text in the middle of the page. I toyed with off-setting it slightly to cause discomfort but realised that it ended up looking like I had just designed the poster badly!

Anyway, here's the block of text set in Impact:

Then I had the idea to add extra psychosis to the text with a nod to Saul Bass:

Pretty cool but I figured it was just a bit too much, so I opted for a compromise:

Here it is in the middle of the page, with secondary information about the song/artist added to the bottom-right corner for balance:

I then tried a version in a disgusting green colour, in an effort to make the poster more unsettling:

There's something I quite like about this one, although it has a major flaw - the hideous green colour is not really very disturbing. In fact, it is quite calming... FAIL!

I do like the subtle radial gradient in the corners though, so I tried a version in white/grey:

Here's a closeup on the secondary data from the bottom-right corner:

That's much better. Now if only I could just leave well enough alone...

Music Poster Project - Moving Forwards

I decided to stick with Talking Heads' Psycho Killer from this point forward, and in particular the first verse:

I can't seem to face up to the facts,
I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax,
I can't sleep 'cause my bed's on fire,
Don't touch me I'm a real live wire.

 First up, I decided to take the "live wire" bit literally:

See what I did there? I thought it might be an idea to hook the wire up to car battery or something, so that it actually delivers a shock to anyone stupid enough to touch it. It's not like they aren't warned!

My next idea was to use a font that looked like stab wounds. The plan was to print this then cut the letters out with a scalpel, showing a blood-red piece of card underneath. It was a bit shit to be honest:

Why do I include my bad ideas here? I don't know. Then I hit upon the idea of having the text really tight and constrained to reflect the "tense and nervous" lyrics. I thought it would look good to have this little block of neurotic text swimming in the vastness of an A1 sheet:

For added tension I thought that the text should be uncomfortable to read:

Or maybe:

In the end I decided to use the typeface Impact and set it in a strict block:

This seems like a good point to end this post. The next thrilling instalment follows shortly, after this message from our sponsors...

Music Poster Project - Initial Ideas/Experiments

The brief was to create an A1 poster based on a song or a piece of music, using only type and no other graphical elements.

The first song I looked at was Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division. My first idea was a bit of a lame pun but there is something I quite like about it:

The typefaces and colours were just placeholder at this point, I just wanted to test the concept...

Bit of a painful pun but sometimes these things actually work really well. No? So my next idea was to have the poster ripped already to reveal the chorus lyrics beneath:

I chose Helvetica to reflect the lyrics about "routine" and how "ambitions are low". Seemed apt. Here's another version where the flap hangs down, giving the poster a 3D quality:

I then switched my attention to another song, Rip It Up by Orange Juice:

Nuff said about that one. I just needed to get the idea out of my head and into reality so I could move on to the next thing - A-Bomb in Wardour Street by The Jam:

Hmm. Didn't really see where I could take that one. How about some Radiohead?

There is something I like about all the overlapping 2s and 5s. Apart from that it's a bit shit. Then I came up with an obvious one for my favourite Radiohead song How To Disappear Completely:

And then I decided to pick one song and bloody well stick to it for more than one or two ideas. But that's for the next post...

Abstract Development

As part of my Hidden project, I wandered around the house taking extreme close-up photos of stuff. I didn't want them to be recognisable, I just wanted to see if I could get some interesting shapes and colours. Some of them were pretty good and I felt that they would work with an extra layer of something - vector art or perhaps typography, maybe both.

I haven't played around with them much yet but I may revisit them at some future date. It's kind of useful to build up a library of these colours and textures as they may be of some use on another project.

Animation for Illuminate Bath 2012

Here's my "Currency Blizzard", a short animation to be projected onto a building in town as part of Illuminate Bath 2012:

I made it in After Effects using the Particular plugin. Wish I could also pass this off as my Hidden project...

Books ready for assessment

I've been pretty busy over Christmas, procrastinating (read flapping) over my Hidden project. It's not been totally fruitless though, as I made these rather nice books for my assessment, one for each project.

Dynamic Image - Moneyspinner Animation

After Effects is incredibly powerful but seriously daunting when you get started. I jumped in with both feet and got stuck into some free tutorials I found online. While fiddling around with these I came across some nice animation tricks that procedurally generate seemingly random strings of text that weave around on the screen. This got me thinking...

How about strings of currency for my Dynamic Image movie? I created some strings of dollar, pound and euro signs and got them to move around the screen in a pretty cool way. Then I set up a camera and got it to focus on a "null object" in the center of the currency maelstrom. Then I set the null object to rotate, causing the camera to orbit the currency strings, and the "Moneyspinner" was born! I then fiddled with the camera aperture to give a pronounced depth-of-field effect. It's certainly coming together now:

So my idea for the project is to fade in to the moneyspinner animation, then bring in some captions in red as follows (one after the other):

• The banks gambled with YOUR MONEY and lost
• YOU are footing the bill through CUTS to services, such as
• EDUCATION
• HEALTH
• PENSIONS
• While the bankers continue to take HUGE bonuses

Then the screen will fade to black, pausing for thought and dramatic effect. Then the following caption will appear:

• What are YOU going to do about it?

This will hang for a while, maybe zoom towards the viewer slightly before fading out. Then the footage I took at the protest march will fade in, complete with "Revolution" chant audio. This will be the first time audio is used in the piece. After ten seconds or so of the protest footage, an Occupy logo with come into the center of the screen, maybe with a call to action beneath it, such as "Get Involved!".

Well that's the idea!

Dynamic Image - Work In Progress

For the second project of the year I get to create a short moving image piece of 15 to 45 seconds under the heading "What if...". We had to research the Situationist International movement, which was quite interesting, and lead me to draw comparisons with the current global Occupy Movement.

So I headed off to St Pauls and filmed the occupation, taking in a few of the excellent speakers, including veteran CND campaigner Bruce Kent and Gay Rights activist Peter Tatchell. They were both great and inspiring, especially the former, although I felt most stirred by "the UK's most ethical MP" Caroline Lucas of the Green Party.

I ended up joining a march on Westminster, getting some nice (albeit shaky) footage on the way, using my new Canon EOS 600d. I actually think the shakiness adds something and maybe captures the energy of the march. Judge for yourself:

Oh you can just fuck right off

Got our first brief for the year the other day - I need to look at a publication that also has a website or app (uh, so like any magazine or newspaper). Then I need to make an iPad/iPhone/Android app for it, by tweaking and condensing/editing the content so it is suitable for a smaller format.

I chose the fucking Guardian, which already has a great website and apps on every platform. Those apps probably cost them tens of thousands and were designed by teams of great designers. How the fucking fuck can I improve on what they have already done? Also, the branding/fonts/colours etc have been tweaked to perfection over many years, so there's not exactly much scope for change.

Why the fuckery did I choose The Guardian? What a dick!

So, having wasted a day and a half already on this I am now going to think of another publication, preferably one that has a shit website and no apps.

I already hate the second year...

Gainsbourg revisited

I've just added a "tricolore" smoke effect to the Gainsbourg portrait. I think it gives it that little bit extra. Not sure the effect is right yet but I like the concept...

Another portrait...

... this time it's the legendary Serge Gainsbourg. It's not exactly "alternative", so probably not valid as part of my summer project, but I really enjoyed doing it and it's great Illustrator practice.

I may even get an A2 print to go on my wall.

An Alternative Portrait of Bath

Finally finished shooting and editing my short film portrait. There are some bits I like...

Don't worry... it's Bill Murray!

I got distracted from my film-making yesterday by Bill Murray. Don't know how he popped into my consciousness, although the fact he is the greatest actor of all time may have played a part.

Anyway, I knocked up this retro poster with 35 (count 'em) Murray heads...

I'm going to print it A2. Should look pretty nice.

More ideas for Summer Project

If I am to do an alternative portrait of an actual person, then I have decided it will be either Serge Gainsbourg or Woody Allen. Or Peter Griffin. Okay, probably not Peter Griffin. Hey, if I type Peter Griffin a few more times, could I perhaps lure unsuspecting Family Guy fans to my blog?

Not sure I really want to do something based on a specific person, so I have a few other ideas, like:

America - keywords racism, greed, religious (funda)mentalists, space exploration, stupidity, violence (specifically gun crime/gangs).

21st Century - focus on how shit it has been so far. Where are the flying cars and the domestic robot servants? All we got was reality TV.

The Ramones - a portrait using just icons representing the shapes of their hairstyles.

Bath - I am thinking of doing a photobook of the really shitty areas in Bath. Or maybe photos of all the well-known landmarks, out-of-focus in the background, with various crap in the foreground. Or photos of all the generic shops in Bath, that could be anywhere in the UK. How about a book of just descriptions of the photos, in a suitably Georgian font?

I am still toying with the idea of a jazz-scored Godardesque film of the dark side of Bath. Perhaps I should stop thinking and start doing...

Bummer in the Summer

I've really had it now with this summer project. Only two weeks before we go back and I have NOTHING! I was going to do a short film or perhaps a book showcasing the seedier side of Bath but that is such a literal "alternative portrait".

No, I think that what I need to do is pick a subject and then gather extensive data on it. Then take that data and reinterpret it in a visual way. The end result needs to be aesthetically pleasing but somewhat abstract, so that when I explain how the strange forms relate to the data the viewer will be blown away.

Okay so I understand the concept behind a great piece, shame I am shit at actually realising it.

Could be worse I suppose. There's a "designer" in Dartmouth who has a shop selling his awful prints. He appears to have been commissioned by the local council to do some "down wid da kids" grafitti-style signage all around the lovely town, including this abomination outside a church:

Watching Blade Runner - Final Cut

It's set in 2019. That's eight years from now. Why hasn't the future happened yet? All we got were better videogames and cheaper tellys!

Oh and spotting replicants is easy as they all have shit hair.

Another idea...

An Alternative Portrait of Amphetamine

This will be an A2 print with the text intentionally bleeding off all four edges. Click for larger (readable version).

A couple of ideas (at last!)

Both of these will be A1 posters. I need to tweak them a bit still but they might look pretty cool.

An Alternative Portrait of Ian Curtis (yeah, student cliche #2 after Che Guevara)

An Alternative Portrait of Drug Use

I'll probably hate both these ideas tomorrow... anyway, will get on with my third idea tomorrow, which is an exciting video project!

I give up!

Well, for now anyway. On the summer project I mean. This is a really important project for me, one that will influence the work I do in the second year, so I have to make sure it is great.

So I am taking my mind off it for a while and busying myself with tutorials for Illustrator, Photoshop and After Effects. But I am also tired of those, so I started thinking about setting myself some limits for the coming year. You see, that's the problem with this damned summer project - there are practically no limitations, so I am finding it incredibly difficult to get started. You need to impose certain rules in order to create but you sure as hell had better get those right in the first place.

I have been thinking for some time about limiting my print-based work to a maximum of ten typefaces. This morning I allowed myself to indulge in some stream-of-consciousness bullshit, by the end of which I had my list.

Check it out if you can be arsed...