No news is still good news...

Continuing with the same message as the previous brief - that creativity is needed in advertising - meant that yet again I was making life difficult for myself. The mailshot brief required reproducing 10 of the mail shots...so obviously being a sucker for punishment I decided to hand craft all mine.
The idea I went with was "Put creativity back into advertising" and experimented with how that could be done physically...I ended up creating a logo and removing the word creativity. I made the mail shots interactive so that it was the target audience who had to put "creativity back into advertising"...showing that it was them that had the power to do it.

Pretty pleased with aspects of my work on this one. There's still a lot that needs to be improved with it but time was a bit of an issue...again.

Lukes Typeface....

After taking about an hour a letter I have FINALLY finished the typeface for Luke on illustrator...

One of my new favourite designers....

Been meaning to post this for a while now but just been reminded by an article in Computer Arts about using craft work in Graphic Design. In the last few months I've been making more use of 3D in my work and been asked about it. I couldn't really explain why I liked using crafts but there were a couple of interesting interviews which basically said that maybe using craft work and 3D was a reaction to the rise of the more linear work and almost "anti-technology".
Anyway...the reason for this post was just to show a few bits of work that I'd been shown recently which maybe other people might be interested in too...





These two images are from designer - Julien Vallee...
His work seems to have a real life to it and almost demands attention.

Another image that has interested me recently is something most people have probably already seen but I wanted to include it anyway. Its an image called "The Magic Machine" and was a competition winner for "Don't Panic".



There's also a video that you can watch which shows how they put the installation together...

Feeling a bit sketchy...

Just a quick upload of a sketch I did of Liam (Rep) while he was watching the elections a week or so ago...don't think I've actually managed to do any proper drawing since May/June so am hoping I'll be able to get back into that soon...

No news is good news...

For this brief I chose the quote "Adverts are terrible things". After researching the topic and talking to people about their views on adverts I've come to the conclusion that with a bit of innovation adverts can actually be very entertaining and enjoyable...it's those that lack in the creativity department which justify the mentioned quotation. So...for my brief I decided to aim my posters at those producing advertisements with the message, put creativity into advertising.

"Stop hiding potential"

The coloured type represents the possibilities that advertising provides...the brown represents the prevention of this, with the hands signifying possible clients stopping advertisers from producing something original.



"Creativity is waiting to burst out"

This image shows a box which acts as a metaphor for trying to control creativity, and hands which are ripping it open to let the *creativity* out. The hands are important as it shows that it is down to the target audience to allow creativity to be free and it is them that can let it happen.



"From creativity comes originality"

This image works on the idea that from the creativity that is let out of the box comes original ideas. The type was made from wire and took ages...I'm not too sure if it was worth it but I don't think anyone else made their letters from wire so at least it is original...

As I was discussing with Jo I made this brief a lot harder for myself than I needed to...trying to communicate a message which put enormous pressure on my own work. I'm not sure how well I've answered the brief to be honest...at least this is another lesson learnt...

metaphors, metonyms and synecdoche....

ok so I completely forgot about this until I was reminded about it approximately 5 minutes ago...also because I am so organised I can't get my hands on that sheet and any definitions I can find on the internet seem as though they have been written by people who have literally swallowed a dictionary. what i'm saying is...i'll sort this out tomorrow when i'm in a better state of mind. until then here's one image i've found which acts as a metaphor for the future of a marriage. the well recognised wedding cake is symbolic of the relationship between the couple and the fact it is split in half signifies the predicted seperation. it's quite a cynical image come to think of it...i quite like it though.




Right so...a metaphor is...something that isn't necessarily anything to do with what is being represented but is symbolic of it or is associated with it. In this example cake doesn't really have anything to do with a relationship but it is understood that the split is symbolic of what will happen to the couple....

A visual synecdoche is a part that represents a whole.



Here these two hands represent two different people. The hand is only a body part, but we know that it belongs to a person without it having to be shown.

A visual metonym is an image which is symbolic of a subject. The image and subject are related however not exclusively.




Because of the context you may associate these rings with marriage and the commitment that they represent. The fact that the rings are interlinked also represents a "joining together" which supports the idea of a relationship. Although rings are symbolic of this, they are not exclusively for this purpose. The can also be worn as an accessory.

Roll it, print it, clean it, repeat...

...the makings of a successful print workshop.
Mono printing was actually not bad at all. Even though the main purpose of the day was to experiment with the technique I think most of us got a few images we were pretty pleased with. Bit disappointing that the colours weren't as vibrant once printed than on the actual boards but the texture of the print probably made up for that.



Screen printing was next to come, and although it was a pretty interesting day - with a lot of team effort - I wasn't too impressed with the work I produced that day.



Learnt how to use the print room now though so hopefully I'll be able to pop back at some point and produce some decent images...

What is violet...?

Knowing the answer to that question would've made this brief a whole lot easier. Working on the theory that we're supposed to be making mistakes I'd say I did pretty well on this project...

For starters I didn't get involved in the whole *thought process* for a few days and then when I did I think I managed to spend a good 9 hours "polishing a turd"...that's one shiny turd.
Anyway...with one day to go I finally decided on how I could approach this brief. Rather than pick one idea of what violet is I thought I'd try and convey the different connotations of the colour. Ambitiously I tried to create the images using 3D crafts, I think this could've worked if I'd started a bit earlier on in the week but unfortunately I didn't - which meant I only managed to present 7 of the series. Soz!

Collecting objects...

To launch us into colour theory we were asked to collect 10 objects of our *chosen* colour. By chosen I obviously don't mean we actually got to pick our colour...it was more of a random selection. My colour was purple/violet...depending on how you're feeling.
In groups we experimented with different ways we could organise our objects in order of colour. One of the ways we presented them was by making use of our pigeon holes...starting with the violets verging on blue, working our way through the lighter shades and ending on the violets which were starting to merge into red...



We watched the *blues* intently line up their objects from light to dark...which ended in a colour very close to violet. We thought it would be interesting to add our objects onto the end and before we had finished everyone seemed to be getting involved. The result was a huge loop which took over both the corridor and the studio - attracting a lot of attention. I think it's fair to say everyone was pretty impressed with the result and is a good example of what collaboration can achieve...