Footloose

Released 1984

It is a classic tale of teen rebellion and repression and features a enchanting combination of dance choreography and realistic performances. Its about a teenager ‘Ren’ and his family moving from big-city Chicago to a small town in the West, he's isn’t accepted easily and has a big culture shock. Though he tries hard to fit in, the streetwise Ren can't quite believe he's living in a place where rock music and dancing are illegal. Dancing and music was banned 2 years before when drunken teenagers were in a crash and so the minister and the police decided to prohibit what caused the event.

Ren cannot live without his beloved music and style and begins to rebel, the town doesn’t like him for mixing up the status quo and he is an outcast. But unbeknown to him the minister’s daughter ‘Ariel’ strives to be rebellious against her strict father and wants to join him in pulling the town back into colour. And bring back the art of dance and creativity, Ren has the courage to initiate a battle to abolish the outmoded ban and revitalize the spirit of the repressed townspeople.

This film is fast paced and concentrates on the ever-changing social acceptance of all walks of people, I think it tries to pick up on problems with the old American lifestyle of the era, but subtlety and not too abruptly to offend the viewers. It is very American in the way its directed but I just love the cheesiness of it all and how happy go lucky the ending is. I think Kevin Bacon is superb in his role, as he is not the typical ‘hunk’ we see nowadays, he was skinny and had a attitude problem but instead of being a ‘asbo’ riddled bad boy he shows his frustration through dance.

Ps I am So gonna learn the ‘footloose’ dance!

laterooms.com

Never see much of laterooms.com

My sister works for them, so I know about them through her, but I rarely see any adverts for them, once on tv last year with a load of doors, but that was it.

I like this ad I found in the Guardian I think it was, type shaping out a key to instigate a hotel room. Using contrasting colours and gradient shades to make the key jump out of the page.

Weegee

While I was looking for interesting articles for my project I came across this article about the infamous Weegee. I found it extremely interesting, learning how this photographer was so passionate about his work he would carry a police radio with him at all times, trying to find a story. He loved to stage his images too, he asked a model and an art student to ‘make love’ at the cinema, trying to capture real life in a ‘real’ situation. I think his idea of working is superb: Especially all those years ago. He inspires me to create a situation to capture and maybe I can incorporate this into my work?!

 

Weegee was the alias of Arthur Fellig (June 12, 1899 – December 26, 1968), an American photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography.

Weegee worked in New Jersey as a press photographer, and he developed his signature style by following the city's emergency services and documenting their activity. Much of his work depicted unflinchingly realistic scenes of urban life, crime, injury and death.

Weegee published photographic books and also worked in cinema, initially making his own short films and later collaborating with film directors such as Jack Donohue and Stanley Kubrick.

“His nickname was earned because of his eerie ability to appear at the scene of the crime within moments – as if he was using an Ouija board. But in fact he traveled with a police-band short wave radio.”

Ford Advert

On Saturday I bought the The Times magazine and newspaper. While I was flicking through I saw this intriguing advert or ford. I felt compelled to read the whole advert, it made me chuckle a fair bit. And it only mentioned a car once in the entirety of the ad. I love this style of design and I think it is a really witty piece coming from Ford. Has a definite target audience and really connects to the viewer I think…… nice.

Alan Fletcher Exhibition at The Cube

On the 11th February I went to the Cube Gallery, to see the Alan Fletcher Exhibition.

Graphic Designer (1931-2006)

“Synthesizing the graphic traditions of Europe and North America to develop a spirited, witty and very personal visual style, ALAN FLETCHER is among the most influential figures in British graphic design as a founder of Fletcher/Forbes/Gill in the 1960s and Pentagram in the 1970s.”

 

Now I don’t know a lot on Alan Fletcher but I do know that he is a amazing man and had immense talent. He can put his hand to anything and achieve greatness. He intimidates and inspires me at the same time simultaneously. Seeing all his work in this exhibition was overwhelming and there was so much variety to his style, he creates type, print, packaging, logo design, image making, letterheads, posters, books and many more. His work was influencing and playful, he kept a happy medium with his work, light hearted and visually superb.

From seeing his work, you can see that he enjoyed every minute of it, I think that’s why he is so renowned for his brilliance, all his work was different but still conveyed him, from his fun, off the wall posters to letter heads for businesses. This exhibition really does make me panic and makes me want to up my game, and tells me I shouldn’t just stick to one medium, I should engaged in all aspects in design, push myself to the limit, because seeing his work proves it can be done, if you are dedicated.

self promotion ideas and researching logos

self promotion

Im thinking for my final project at university I would base it on self promotion of...well... myself …..

So I thought of how to do this and researched what I can do to really put myself out there. I want to produce more than just a business card, so iv been brain storming 

and Iv come up with: individual business cards, website, packaging, calendars, flash advert, postcards, badges, posters and collages of my work. Maybe even tacky ideas like paper chains and gift ideas.

But besides these I need a logo that fits to my personality and conveys my style of design subtly and interestingly. So I have been looking through my logo designs books: LOGO by Michael Evamy and Logo Design volume 2 by Ed. Julius Wiedemann, so I can see what different styles work best. There are many different styles of logo design, which I was unfamiliar with as I was taught 

to keep them very simple and not too illustrated but these books have enlightened me to a wide variety of brilliant designs.

These books have informed me about a vast amount of things I can include in a logo, such as:Just type, handwritten, joined up, intertwined characters, incomplete characters, cropped, reversals and rotations, symmetry, stacked, 3D, illustrative, decorated, in squares, triangles, circles etc…, using crosses and arrows, speech marks, lights, flames, globes etc…

I have included some images from these books

 that I think work exceptionally but are so diverse to the common logo. Some are very commercial and business like while others play with the words and entertain the viewer.

Urbis

Sooooo

Iv not blogged in a while....

. and I'm drawing a blank. Been a bit preoccupied recently with our assessment hand in last week and dissertation hand in this week I have not had to urge or mind set to post anything of value. But I am going to the Urbis has left the building exhibition at Urbis.It is closing its doors on the 27th February finally after 6 years, and is sadly turning into a Football Museum. I have visited Urbis numerous times over the years, it has had some wonderful exhibitions on art and culture from around the globe. One of my personal favourites is from last year - Black Panther Party & Emory Douglas, he became an active member of the Black Panther Party in 1967 and quickly became responsible for the design of the Black Panther's, Black Community News Service, the official paper of the party, he used his strong graphic style to communicate recent news and events to the largely illiterate local black community. using images of rats and pigs to represent the opposition aka the Police and politicians. He also created the slogans 'All power to the people' & 'Revolution in our lifetime' which as still used today.This exhibition was so moving to see, as they wernt scared of showing the truth, presenting huge images of men and children being hung and showing their side of the fight. So eye opening and unashamed of the past.

My Portfolio

This is my first terms portfolio so far.... keeping the layout simple with little or no type. Hopefully it can explain its self?!

My sketchbooks

These are my sketchbooks for first term of my third year at Manchester Metropolitan University. Projects: Silence, Don't Panic - Resistance and D&AD Students awards 2010 Brief - Lastminute.com

my collection of design books...so far

Silence - Diary Of Noise

Silence

Diary of Noise, this idea enveloped from an idea I had to note down a bus journey I took. I have expanded this idea to design a Diary Of Noise, using my own imagery, photography and collage to create a concertina book. Also I have included the written word into my design, to give the design more strength to convey silence and express the essence of a diary. I have used quotes and song lyrics to describe some of the images I have created.

I felt that I didn’t want to show silence with just one image, as everyone has a different silence and different emotions, this book shows an array of stylings of silence, which I think communicate on a more personal level.

I have tried to capture the essence of a diary but with snap shots of emotions, feelings, thoughts and opinions.

Some convey certain mannerisms and others, the quintessentially British; I have also tried to show inner emotions, sadness, feeling trapped and loneliness as well as trying to connect to the subconscious.

This design is full of information and is quite overwhelming to look at as spread but making it like a concertina book instantly makes the work feel delicate and precious to me.

Its not just one silence I am describing, everyone has their own silence. And everyone has a diary of noise.

ora- not - so - gami

Haha! oh dear I can NOT make Origami for the life of me, trying out an idea for my new project..... looks like its not gonna happen!!!

even was looking at how to for kids!

shameful ........

Holden Gallery Exhibition

Tuesday 15^th December

Holden Gallery: Student Showcase.

Last week my friend Sandra became a curator at the Holden Gallery at MMU. And her job is to present an exhibition each month showing students work that they submit to be chosen. It is held in a gorgeous little area in the Gallery, with amazingly tall walls and has a very Victorian-esq style to the room.

I submitted my work for my Don’t Panic Project; this was a collage representing Resistance to Religion.  I was proud to see my work up on the wall, as I was unsure of how my design would work, presented.

The Dean showed up at the exhibition as well as our tutors and students from all of the art courses. The opening exhibition was a success and I was very pleased to show my work in the first ever showing.

The images I have showed are of my work, and other students work up at the showcase:

Anna’s book for ‘Silence’. Exploring the silencing of women in surrealism.

My work for Don’t Panic ‘Resistance’ competition.

Betsy’s Silence book, and developing work.

Jon’s book cover screen prints, and Arran’s Don’t Panic ‘Resistance’ poster.

Neasden Control Centre

Neasden Control Centre

Stephen Smith came to our University last year to give a lecture, I had not discovered Neasden Control Centre before this lecture and was pleasantly surprised.

I am writing about this again as I feel this company is a encouraging group and can provoke people to step over the boundaries of design. He has definitely made me challenge my way of designing and making sure I develop my creative skills.

 

Steve Smith has been working for many years, his company is in London in a place called Neasden and therefore his company is called the Neasden control centre. It was an exceptionally very interesting lecture and inspired me to start drawing again. I was disappointed that I wasn’t picked to do a workshop with him but it was for people who didn’t really do illustrations or draw so am sure it was so much more encouraging for them.

 

 

Neasden Control Centre is Stephen Smith - working broadly across disciplines in creative direction, graphic, installation, film and motion. Since its establishment it continues to develop by hand a raw, layered, collaged, and primal approach while expanding in scope and vision. The mission is always to remain experimental and diverse working closely with clients, curators, galleries and institutions on a broad range of specific print executions, billboards and other one-off projects. NCC has released three monographs/books: Neasden Control Centre (Die Gestalten Verlag, 2003); Smithfield Building (Rojo, 2006); and Lost Control (Die Gestalten Verlag, 2007). Both the 2003 and 2006 books have sold out. Other work includes editioned screenprints, zines and working with universitites / publishing houses on a broad range of exhibitions, public programme's, installations, talks and workshops. NCC has exhibited widely including solo exhibitions across Europe and in Group Shows that include the Spank The Monkey exhibition at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art where NCC together with Banksy and David Shrigley were the three invited British artists. As well as regular commissions, NCC has attracted Arts Council of England and British Council support for its projects.

 

the 00's

http://nymag.com/arts/all/aughts/62525/

The 00's Issue Covers 

By New York Magazine

For the cover of the ’00s Issue, several graphic designers were invited to illustrate “’00s” however they wanted. Two were selected for the cover (one for subscribers, the other for newsstand).

This was something I came across while looking for inspiration for my new project, it caught my eye immediately. It interested me because it is building up to 2010, and what we have achieved in the ‘noughties’. New York magazine asked numerous illustrators, graphic designers and artist to produce a design each and for a few months these were the featured front cover designs.

I just wanted to blog about this because I think it is a great idea and celebrates this past decade.

Si Scott

Si Scott

 

Si Scott is a graphic designer and illustrator who is the driving force behind the UK-based Si Scott Studio. His obsessively hand-drawn pen and ink illustrated typography, graphic design and illustrations pull from both modern and traditional influences. Some of his clients include BBC TV, Burton, GQ, Hugo Boss, MTV, Unicef and Volvo.

 

Last year Si Scott came to our university to give a lecture about how he and his work has progressed thought-out the years. I had heard about Si Scott in college and I love his style of work and design. The patience and drive he has to create beautiful drawings and type is incredible. He really inspires me to incorporate illustration into design, its so different to most graphic designers and you can see the passion he puts into every design.

He explained his progress and he states he works 90% hand drawn and 10% on the computer but you wouldn’t think it, his work is so precise you would think its made on illustrator, he intimidates me but at the same time is inspires me to branch out.

 

“Its what you bring to the table”

 

He works all over the world, mainly in the big apple and someday will move there. His inspiration for ideas can literally come from anywhere even brothel signs….

 

He does many designs to do with animals and they are so visually stunning, they don’t even need to advertise anything, people have even asked him to design tattoos for them.

“Talk your way through ideas and you’ll go far”

His work has meaning behind it as well as beauty, one design he did for Tank Theory was of a animals skull but it was made out of pregnant women, this was to do with voodoo and human sacrifices. It is visually astounding and is my favourite of his pieces.

He has designs a coffee table book that is now shown in MOMA in New York, which to me astounds me and really shows he is worth his salt.

“I don’t like seahorses, there perverts of the sea”

Hamish Muir

Hamish Muir

 

Hamish Muir was our visiting lecturer today, he showed us his work, his studio and told us about how he formed 8vo and Octavo. His work is very type based and clean cut. He described how most of 8vo’s designs were made by collage and then photographed and re edited. It was an amazing process that he explained. He was very open with what he thought about graphic design and wasn’t scared to say what he thinks.

He met Mark Holt and Simon Johnston at Basel school of Design, together they formed 8vo (named from a meaning for a printing process)

8vo designed a wide range of typographically-based projects in identity, print, publishing, record packaging and information design for clients in the UK, Europe and the U.S. between 1984 and 2001. Clients including factory Records and Hacienda.

http://www.swisslegacy.com/index.php/2007/12/17/interview-with-hamish-muir/

Swiss Legacy:Interview with Hamish Muir

“I am a graphic designer who uses type. I am not a typographer. I happen to use type a lot. But to me ‘communication’ is more important. Typography is only a means to aid communication, not and end in itself”

 

“in the UK things generally followed a kind of traditional approach and it seemed type was always there to support the idea or image, it never seemed to be the idea or image itself.


So what we set out to do was to make design where type and typography were central to the idea. Where type would be the image. Our influences were from outside the UK; Europe (Switzerland in particular) and the USA (Holt had spent time working freelance in San Francisco). But we didn’t want to copy what we knew – we wanted to develop our own approach which was relevant to the context in which we were working in terms of clients, jobs, purpose and audience.”

 

Hamish Muir isn’t really my sort of designer, but it was interesting to see his process and how he has made such an impact on designing. He is very much ‘the design process’ and I am more the ideas person so I think we are like opposite magnets in that sense.

 

From what I learned from Craig Oldham in the last lecture i consider Hamish Muir to be in Bunch A (logical designers)

While I am in Bunch B (emotional designers)

Sarah Hanson

this is by Sarah Hanson, i found this brilliant collage designer on www.debutart.com

She is brilliant and you can see how much thought and effort she puts into each and every detail. Her work is very diverse and is similar to Matin O'Neill. Her work is messy and hands on but still coherent and readable, I have chosen this particular design because it is what I am feeling right now, I think it speaks volumes even though it is simple to look at. One word = Pressure.

the Holidays are coming

ooooo I don't half love the Holidays, and the iconic coca-cola advert is the icing on the cake for me. Who knew that some red lorries with lights on could be connected to christmas, and become The Christmas advert (as well as the M&S ads)

I feel all festive now..... Im going to put my decorations up.....