Lecture Poster - David McKendrick

For the David McKendrick lecture I made the rather obvious decision to make the poster look like a cover of Esquire magazine, of which he is Creative Director. I know it's a bit of a cliché but it is often said that clichés work for a reason, plus everyone knows that supersized versions of things look cool.

The image of David was the best I could find on the internet and it was pretty lo-res, so I had to live trace it in Illustrator in order to get it up to A2 size at a decent quality. I know it's a bit of an amateur's trick but at the end of the day I am not an illustrator and I actually think the end result is quite pleasing in a slightly Hockney-esque kind of way:

A Research Trip to London - Day I

I decided that before the big push at the end of the third year, perhaps some creative inspiration was in order. So, at the end of November 2012 I packed my bags and headed off to London to see what all the fuss was about. Luckily I was able to doss on my cousin's floor in Clapham, which kept costs to a minimum.

First thing I did was head for Oxford Circus and then a short stroll to The Photographers' Gallery.



Once inside this impressive building I headed for the Tom Wood exhibition on the second floor. Wood's work reminded me a lot of what Martin Parr does, photos of (sub?) working-class people in their natural habitat, that could easily be seen as somewhat exploitative. I think that Wood's stuff is more interesting than Parr's, and he has been doing it a lot longer too. Some of his shots I found especially funny, powerful or moving:



Three Wise Women



Not Miss New Brighton

Afterwards, I went upstairs and paid two quid to see the exhibit entitled "Shoot! Existential Photography". Most of the exhibition was taken up by photos of famous people at shooting galleries back when they were popular at fairgrounds. I like this one of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre:



There were a few other interesting pieces, involving cameras that were set up to capture the very moment they were struck by a bullet. But the really emotive piece for me was a room of sixty or so prints of the same Dutch woman, Ria van Dijk, taken one-a-year over the course of her life. These shooting galleries at fairgrounds in Europe used to have a camera built in - the prize for hitting the target was a photo of yourself having just fired the winning shot. Ria van Dijk started collecting these photos at the age of 16; she is now 92 and still doing it! The only gaps are from during the war years. I found it very powerful seeing this woman age as I walked around the room. In some she has hardly changed whereas in others she looks quite different. Did she have a bad year? And how much of a toll did the war take on her? Is it discernible in her features? I love stuff that makes me think about life and death.



I left The Photographers' Gallery and grabbed a bite at a great Buddhist eatery in Soho before heading for the Cartier-Bresson exhibition at Somerset House. "Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour" in fact only featured 10 of the great man's works (all black & white), alongside 75 full-colour works from photographers who "measured up to Cartier-Bresson’s essential requirement that content and form were in perfect balance."

I was really blown away by some of the work I saw; not just the quality of the photography but also the scale of the images and the exotic processes and materials onto which they were printed (aluminium sheet?). Here are a few of the ones that really impressed me:



Karl Baden had a series of mundane images all shot from his car window. The body of the car frames the shots consistently and the over-saturated colours give them all an otherworldly feel.



I love this shot by Saul Leiter. None of his photos simply capture a scene or an event, they are more expressive in themselves and I definitely consider this to be photography as art. Beautiful.



Carolyn Drake's work is I suppose documentary, although they are always really crisp and colourful in a way that makes them appear hyper-real.



This shot that Boris Savelev took in Moscow has a real "decisive moment" thing going on. I don't know why this composition works so well, it just does. If only I could take shots like this...



This is a very surreal image by Melanie Einzig. It was of course a very surreal event but the way the UPS guy seems oblivious is just really powerful. Is he oblivious or is he a consummate professional? "UPS delivers. No matter what."



I really love the street photography of Joel Meyerowitz. There's something about the colour and lighting in this shot that makes it look like it could have been from Mad Men. I actually think it is far more recent than that, but I will look into it further.



Another of Meyerowitz's shots. I am not sure whether this is staged or in fact another example of "decisive moment" photography. I hope it is the latter but why is that important to me?



This is the work of Trente Park. Again, it's a rather surreal image in which a man is puking in the street. It looks almost like a religious experience at first glance. I love the over-saturated colours which really add to the piece.



This photo by Fred Herzog makes me nostalgic for a time and place that I have never been to. And I am sure life was not exactly peachy for the people in the shot either, particularly the black folks.



Another great shot by Herzog that really invites you in and makes you want to know the stories of the people in the scene. Has the guy cut himself shaving? Did he also injure his hand in the process? The old woman's expression is fantastic. Love this shot.



This shot by Harry Gruyaert looks like a painting. The colours and composition really blew me away. You really need to see it full-size in a gallery to appreciate it fully.



This is a beautiful portrait of Gene Kelly by Ernst Haas. And I don't just like it because Kelly is one of my all-time heroes, although I am sure that plays a part.



I am not sure if this surreal shot by Alex Webb is a piece of collage or a single shot. Looks to me like someone surfing down a river!

Wow, this is becoming a huge blog post and I am only just at the end of the first day of my three-day trip. I think I will pick this up again tomorrow...

Thursday Lecture - Si Scott

This lecture was eagerly awaited by everyone at uni and there was a real buzz about the place before it kicked off at 5pm. We were not disappointed.

Nigel Robinson introduced Si as a mate and one of his former pupils. Si apologised for his lecture style, saying that he doesn't use notes and tends to go off on tangents. He started by showing us some of the work he did in his final year of study (back in 2002 if I remember correctly). There was a beautiful fold-out journey through New York, comprising photographs and hand-rendered typography. It would appear that hand-rendering his one type was a big thing for Si even then. Interestingly he mentioned that he had not found his own style until late in his third year. Perhaps there is hope for me yet...

It turns out that his distinct style didn't arrive consciously either - he just kept doing loads and loads of work that he enjoyed and it just kind of emerged. This endless repetition goes some way to explain how he manages to work in pen directly onto paper, usually without pencilling any sort of guides. A risky way to work but in a way it adds real value to the outcome. Just look at the intricacy of his beautiful work:

Si was incredibly frank about working in the design industry, regaling us with tales of arsehole art directors, pompous designers and a run-in with a representative of Madonna. The latter involves a design he did for a greatest hits album. Si took an existing photo of Madonna on a cross (yeah, you are a lapsed catholic Madge, get over it), photoshopped the naff cross out and had her kind of intertwined with a beautifully hand-rendered MADONNA, each letter unique and representing the various personas she had adopted over the years.

Her representative was hugely impressed with the concept but was worried that he had had no input himself and that she might notice that he was superfluous. So, he started demanding unnecessary and unreasonable changes to the artwork. After a bit of playing along, Si decided that it was not worth the hassle. He didn't want his name attached to something that was not really his any more and, as he puts it, "it wasn't like they were paying me a life-changing sum of money". So he told them to do one. The representative was less than happy about this and warned Si that he would never work in this town [Los Angeles] again. Needless to say Si has worked in LA since and is no longer worried about a visit from the Madge Mafia.

Come to think of it there were quite a few stories about unpleasant people. One of my favourites involved a charity auction that Si did a series of illustrations for. Each poster used the lyrics from songs by legendary Manchester bands and was for a kids' charity in the area. As a courtesy, Si contacted the agents of all the bands to check that it was okay to use the lyrics. Everyone was fine about it, even those pricks from Oasis, except for Morrissey. What an arse. I am pretty sure Si used the "There Is A Light" lyrics regardless. He then told us about a jumped up self-styled design legend who was a total pillock, although he said he would prefer not to tell us who it was (at least until we got to the pub), so I won't share it here either.

Back on the subject of Si's work, I was totally blown away by this gig poster for The National:

Lovely, isn't it? Even lovelier when you take a closer look and realise that the lillies are hand-drawn!

Amazing stuff. Si is certainly one of the most talented people I have ever met, so it was really nice to find that he is also a genuinely nice bloke without an inflated ego. He invited us all to join him and Nigel in the pub after the lecture, which was a lovely touch, and many of us obliged. The biggest thrill for me was when they strolled in and Nigel told me that Si loved the poster I had created for his lecture. I told Si that he must be mistaken and was talking about one of the other posters, so he got out his phone and showed me the photo he had taken, before asking me how I made it. Wow! Perhaps I should stop being so critical of myself.

Unfortunately I had parental duties to attend to, so left the pub after just the one pint (I was also driving), which was a real shame as I was enjoying chatting with Si. By all accounts I missed out on a pretty eventful night. Anyway, enough of the idle gossip. I will finish with another example of Si's awesome work. He has recently been doing a lot of stuff with paper, like this amazing butterfly wing:

That CD cover is not actually 3D; Si made the wing out of paper and then got it photographed rather beautifully. It is a stunning effect and I am very keen on doing some work like this, whereby I make real things and then photograph them and add type, rather than working solely on the computer. It really adds something.

So, thanks to Si Scott for sharing his amazing work. Hopefully he will give us a masterclass at some point next semester and I will be able to buy him a pint or two for giving the most inspiring talk I have ever experienced.

Live Brief - Raw

While I was London last month, I caught up with an old friend for breakfast. He told me that he was starting a new business, growing micro-salad leaves and other veg hydroponically in a tunnel in Lambeth. He had seen my packaging work on the Then & Now project and he and his business partner were keen to get me involved.

They had the working title "Raw", so I went away and looked at premium health food branding and packaging. Some typical examples of the sort of thing they were after include:



I think the idea is to have the product speak for itself, so probably clear packaging where it is in full view, perhaps with the logo on a sticker. The other idea we discussed was to have the micro-salads in small pots, maybe six joined together like an egg box, made from compressed and moulded recycled board. The logo could be moulded into the board itself or applied as a sticker. This would all depend on budget constraints.

They wanted something to look at pretty soon, so I set to work creating a few variations on a theme:



I really think they should push the idea that this stuff is actually grown under London in disused tunnels. Perhaps they could play on the "Made in England" slogan with something like "Grown Under London". I hope to come back to this project in the future when they have more concrete plans and I am not so busy with other uni work.

Lecture Poster - Si Scott

When I set out to design a poster for the upcoming Si Scott lecture, I started by trying to do his name in his trademark style, like in this example (Si's work, not mine):

I know all his stuff is hand-rendered but I thought I could knock something decent up in Illustrator using the twirl tool. It was going okay but it was also taking forever and I cam to the realisation that it would just look like a poor imitation of his work. Not only that, everyone else will probably be doing the same thing.

So I decided to try something else completely. First I set the text in a suitable poster font, in this instance Gotham. And then I got annoyed because I couldn't come up with any ideas. And then I started scribbling angrily all over the text. And it started to look quite good. But what really set it off was something to do with blind luck and good observational skills...

I had been scribbling in white over the text, so that the very fine lines only showed on the heavy Gotham font and they made it look kind of fibrous. Initially I thought it looked sort of like cracked ice, which was nice, but I felt the urge to continue scribbling until it got really detailed. Then, as I moved the cursor over the scribble path, I noticed that Illustrator highlighted the whole thing in that sort of cyan colour and it just looked awesome! So, I duped the scribbled layer and made it cyan(ish) and stuck it behind the text layer and this poster was born:

Here's a closeup showing the detail:

Funny thing is I have had a better response to this than anything else I have done in the last two years. In fact, after the lecture Nigel told me that Si Scott himself really liked the poster. I thought it must have been a case of mistaken identity until Si showed me the photo of it on his phone. Amazing!

Just goes to show that the tutors are probably right when they bang on about doing rather than just thinking.

Professional Contexts Task 1: Find Your Future

The Brief

When thinking about the future, everybody is unique. Personal circumstances, ethics and ambitions play a large part. Being clear about these things will help you plan better. So what’s your perfect future? Write (and if necessary) illustrate this.

I'd like to think that in a few years I will have a small design studio with a beautiful office space in or near Bath (some of the spaces over at Paintworks in Bristol look really nice). Anyway, something really modern and inspiring with lovely views would be ideal. I would like the studio to consist of no more than four designers, each operating in both a creative and account management role and each responsible for handling a number of clients.

A studio like this would be rather nice:

Or perhaps this:

I would like the studio to be a place where I am happy to spend a lot of my time and can bounce ideas off the other designers. I would not like this to be a competitive environment, where each designer is trying to get ahead; it will be about doing what's best for the studio. It would be good to maintain strong links with Bath Spa University, offering paid placements and mentoring to graphics students, and putting freelance work their way after they graduate. I also intend to stay in touch with some of my friends from uni, as loads of them are incredibly talented and might be open to some form of collaborative projects in the future.

For me it is important to do work that matters, and not just stuff that looks nice. I understand that it is also essential to make money and that worthy well-paid jobs probably don't come along very often. As such I plan on spending some time each week doing pro-bono work that is about the stuff I care about, things that actually can make a difference or raise awareness of important issues. However, I am not naive enough to think that design can really change the world and I have enough business savvy to realise that such work can also serve to enhance my profile and reputation.

Design is important to me and it is something I am passionate about but I do not live and breathe it. Life is too short and there are other far more important things to worry about. Making good money would of course be lovely, and it would be great to get a nice house, new car and more than one ski holiday per year. Indeed, if we are talking about my perfect future then I would like a lovely Georgian townhouse in Bath, a Porsche 911 Turbo S (plus something more family-friendly for weekends, say a BMW 5-series estate) and my own ski chalet in the Dolomites. But money really isn't everything and I am happy so long as I can pay the bills without too much worry at the end of each month. And ski at least once a year.

Although I would ideally like to be self-employed, I can certainly see the benefits of working for an established design company in the short term, as it is surely the best way to see how the industry really works. As such, I wouldn't rule out taking a junior role if one were to present itself. At the very least I would like to get a few placements lined up for when I have graduated. I know that most of these opportunities are in London but at the end of the day that is where the majority of the 15,000 new graduates will be headed, so hopefully by staying in the South-West I will be able to find plenty of work.

I think perhaps a week or two working under James Victore in Brooklyn would be an inspirational start to my career as a designer. Or how about Dieter Rams?

Thursday Lecture - Rose Blake

I must start by saying I was half-tempted to not bother with this lecture as I am a bit tired of naive hipster illustration. I ended up going along simply to make up content for my Professional Contexts dossier. I am glad I did.

Firstly, I was surprised that Rose looked very normal, in a kind of shy librarian sort of way; nothing like the ironic xmas sweater and glasses type I was expecting. Shame on me for my stereotyping. Best of all she opened by admitting that she can't draw - obviously she can but she certainly fits into that exclusive group of honest and modest designers, along with David Pearson and Si Scott. This is a personality trait that cannot be faked and should not be underestimated.

So to her work. Despite my reservations regarding contemporary illustration, there is something I really like about some of her stuff, especially her depiction of Gilbert & George playing volleyball with a tomato on top of a kebab:

I guess it appeals to my love of the surreal, and Gilbert & George of course. I also liked her illustration depicting a visit to a Henry Moore exhibition, in part because I like Henry Moore's stuff:

Some of her work for No Brow was very generic, looking just like about a quarter of last year's degree show (and the year before), but at least that is only one of her styles. She also showed an example of an illustration that was used repeatedly on the BBC website, earning her around £3000. Not bad at all and perhaps a reason why I should never say that I am definitely not an illustrator - surely I can knock out some of this naive stuff too, even if I do it *choke* ironically. Isn't it all ironic anyway?

Rose does quite a lot of editorial illustrations and some of these have been commissioned by The Independent and even The New York Times. Her work for the latter reminds me very much of Maira Kalman, which may be why they commissioned her in the first place.

I was also delighted to hear that she had designed a bunch of t-shirts based on Robyn Hitchock songs. I have a soft spot for his unique brand of lyrical madness - who wouldn't love The Cheese Alarm?

Illustration aside, Rose had her fingers in a couple of other interesting pies. Firstly she is involved in a collective called This Is It, that started out with a 'zine (like Artshole perhaps?) and now makes mental art films. These look like fun projects to be involved in, providing a bit of a break from drawing while keeping the creative juices flowing. I think it is important to occupy yourself with a range of creative pursuits outside of design.

Finally she showed us her Studio Music project. This is a simple website that lists what famous designers (and Kevin Spacey!) listen to while they work. It's an interesting project in itself but more than that it has opened a lot of doors for Rose - she has made some serious contacts in the design world off the back of it and continues to build on it. A very clever marketing ploy and not half as cynical or calculated as most of these kind of things seem to be these days.

As with all decent people, I wish Rose Blake every success!

Lecture Poster - My poster is on French's blog!

Just noticed that my poster is on French's blog:

http://www.funeralfrench.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/lecture-at-bath-spar-university.html

Shame I didn't actually go to his lecture because I was too busy with my dissertation...

Thursday Lecture - Yuri Suzuki

Having looked at Yuri's website while researching for the lecture poster, it was pretty obvious that his talk would be a bit different. He stated from the off that his work was all about 'sound and physicality', which roughly translates to 'making fucking mental mechanical instruments' in order to explore what he calls 'the physical value of sound'.

First up was the Sound Chaser - a tiny mechanical stylus/speaker on wheels that pootles round a track constructed from bits of old records.

This is quite clearly a bit mad and the sound produced is horrendous, but I really like the idea and can imagine it having an application in something like an advertising campaign. I think the idea of making something new out of old junk is a reccurring theme in Yuri's work. I nabbed the image from Yuri's blog - I hope he doesn't mind...

Sound Chaser from Yuri Suzuki on Vimeo.

Next he showed us a clip of his Colour Chaser, an amazing little vehicle that follows a line drawn on paper. When you scribble different coloured areas across the 'track', the thing actually interprets the RGB data as different tones. Very cool. It would perhaps have been even better if he demonstrated the kit by getting it to play a recognisable tune. It's not commercially available, which is a shame, as I am sure my son would adore it.

Colour Chaser 2010 from Yuri Suzuki on Vimeo.

Another interesting project is Analog-Digital, whereby he created a CD with grooves cut into the surface so it could aslo be played on a turntable. Again, there is no real practical application for this but then it is actually a kind of modern art. The thing with Yuri's work is that none of it can actually be described as graphic design, so it's not especially relevant to what I am doing, but most great designers advise students to 'look outside of design for inspiration', so I understand why he was invited to show us his work.

Yuri is very keen on getting people involved in his projects, so he often spends time creating sort of modular kits, then getting others in to help him explore their creative possibilities. One such kit is the Denki Puzzle which consists of stylised pieces of printed circuit board (PCB). The shapes themselves are indicative of the function of the specific piece, allowing people with little or no knowledge of electronics to create simple, functioning circuits. They also look really cool, which is probably why Lizzie Sharp reproduced them for her awesome lecture poster!

http://lizziesharp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/yuri-suzuki-giving-lecture-at-our-uni.html

My favourite piece of Yuri's work is definitely the amazing robots he made for Japanese band's music video. He said that he and his team spent three months making these, as if that were a long time - looks like a lot more than three months work to me!

Music video : androp World.Words.Lights from Yuri Suzuki on Vimeo.

Lecture Poster - My poster on Yuri Suzuki's blog!

http://yurisuzuki.com/blog/lecture-at-bath-spa-uni/

Result!

Then & Now - Mock product shots

I managed to book the photography lighting studio yesterday and took some shots of my mock products. These are the things that I consider to be "in the student's cupboard" in the past and the present time.

Then

I really like this one. It looks very much of the time (60s/70s) and the "peas in a pod" image ties in nicely with the slogan.

This one kind of speaks for itself. Philosophical thought being one of the other worthy things that I attribute to students back in the late 60s and early 70s.

This is another one of my favourites as I believe it properly captures the essence of the era.

I am not so sure about this one now. This is from the first wave of designs I did, inspired by the Sainsburys own brand stuff from the Jonny Trunk book. The problem with these minimalist designs is that they don't really evoke the period readily enough, in my opinion, despite the colours and use of a period typeface (Impact).

Now

The following designs are are all about style over substance. Some work better than others, but I think they all serve to get the intended message across. Like modern food packaging, these have loads of extra information on the back about nutritional value (or a lack thereof).

So there you go. I am not sure quite where to go with these next. One idea would be to take a selection of products and make up mock magazine posters, some in a very 70s style and some very much now. In fact, here's a quick test I knocked up for Apathy...