Manchester International Festival Face installation

This was basically a giant head that was created for the Manchester international Festival. I came across it while looking a few weeks ago for another project and was drawn to it as it is very bold and stands out. But i remembered it for this project as it has a lot of vorticisum elements with its geometric shapes, but also it fits in more with my style as i am not a massive vorticisum or futurism. But this piece has a graphic design and a fine art feel to it which i like. This head has been made from later cut pieces of plastic which have been glued to a basic wooden frame to form a face, which had digital imagery projected on with a social media aspect to it as well.

Heres more info http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/interactive-design/neighbourhood-creates-interactive-digital-installation-for-manchester-international-festival/

vorticism

vorticism was a art movement that was founded by Wyndham Lewis in 1914 that calibrated and promoted the modern world. Its work always involved very geometric jagged shapes to create a more abstract modern look as by 1914 there was starting to be a influx in technologies and mechanics so this art was a representation on that. But also to break away from the classic landscapes and nude artwork that was around at the time, which was like British equivalent to what the italians did with futurism although Lewis was in all accounts was hostile towards this Italian movement. Vorticism also took elements from cubism which was a moment that started in the early 1880s and shared very mechanicalized aspects with its sharp geometric shapes. So in many ways they are both relevant to each other.

Vorticism art first became a moment when it was published in the modern art magazine first edition Blast. (Which was predominantly written by Wyndham Lewis) which promoted this new modern world which was trying to break away from the normal British conventions. Although this was a very short lived movement as it sadly came to a end by world war 1, as a lot of it artists had to enlist for the army but also because people prior to this had a very idillic and positive look on technology. But also had now realised is it the way forward as by this point there was a lot of technology advance in weapons and machinery so they could dominate the war. So i think the idea of killing was not directly linked to these killing machines, But supported the advance in the technologies they using which consequently led to the moment dying out.

Heres some vorticism artwork...

Wyndham Lewis classic vorticism artwork.

First issue of Blast magazine. This is what magazine recognised
Vorticism as a art movement. 

Wyndham Lewis

Meeting with client paul.

Today I have had a meeting with paul horn the project manager for the new worksop bus interchange regarding the vinyl manifestations that will run along the glass. This meeting has been extremely useful not only for me working on designing and developing it but also for him in terms of his mind has been broadened to what this manifestations could become. As originally I think he was expecting just a small banner to run around the glass. Although now after talking to us he is open to the idea of stretching up and down and going a little higher. But still allowing people to be able to see out easy.     



Heres the quick notes I made of paul's replies from the discussion we had. They are quite simple notes for a few reasons, one so I could write things down quickly but two so I wrote simply what he meant so when I further develop my work on from this. there is no confusion as to what I have to do to meet his standards.

Evaluation

The left drawing I feel Is quite good but it could do with some darker shades putting in. However the freeness and shape is all correct. Unlike my other one. 

These last 2 drawings I really like because they are both very sketch like drawings with light and dark shades that my other drawings lacked! 

Alan Fletcher

Alan Fletcher.









He is a very highly talented and sought after graphic designer. His most famous work was the logo for the Victoria Albert museum, which was extremely elegant, simple but also had some depth to it with the V and the & sign looking like it is together.

This is a very simple design again, but one which is extremely effective and bold- which is something I want my future work to have. Also he has done some other design like this piece which also caught my eye for its bold and bright design!



This design incorporates the push and pull method where initially the audience is drawn in to the bright yellow, but then they are drawn to the dark Silhouette of the man. Which makes the artwork very interesting!

Evaluation

The task for this project was to design a a front and back cover for the NNC survival guide which was basically a guide to aid students with their learning in college giving them ways to for example, manage their time or revision techniques. So for the college it was important for the the front cover especially to stand out and grab its audience which was young adults from 16-18 but also through to the more mature students that can be mid 20’s, of course you get the minority that maybe much older. But if your design is strong enough it will also work on a secondary level for people like that who will just appreciate its artistic value and it should still stand out to them. As the whole point of the front cover is to catch peoples attention, as i am not bothered what the content of the booklet is, because it is irrelevant as my job as a designer is just to draw in the potential audience to pick up the booklet. However the audience they are wanting to have is important as i have to taylor my design to fit that.

So from my original thoughts of having to have my magazine bright and eye catching i then went and researched into existing college or university guides, to see what element they include in theirs. Which i found a lot of them were very dull and boring and something that you would automatically associate with school or college, which is i wanted to avoid with my design. As no matter what people think students will not want to pick up and read any booklet that looks boring, and i don't see the point in going to produce a information booklet that is actually probably very useful for nobody to read it. From doing this research i now had a much better idea of what i needed to do for my front covers to be successful. So after this i did some more research into very successful magazines like NME, Rolling stones and 

life to see what techniques they use to create a simple but yet eye catching front cover as that also appeals to the same target audience as mine so they were good examples to look at! But when i was looking at these magazines i noticed they all have something in common, in the fact they are all very simple but also very eye catching in their design. They weren't all cluttered or what i consider as fussy they had a strength and puzzling look that drew me in. Which i have wanted to try and replicate in my own work. 

All this research i did then pointed me in the right direction for my own work as i had a vision and a formate i wanted my work to be. I wanted it to be simple bold and effect. So people would walk past and it would draw their attention to it and puzzle them slightly so out of curiosity they would pick it up and to find out what it is all about. So at this point i jumped straight in to doing various different designs to try and get some creative thoughts i had into a actual visual design piece that i could look at and get a sense of how it would work. But for me with having photoshop on my macbook i felt it easier and more effective to mock more designs up in photoshop than doing lots of sketch designs in my sketch book. As this way i had a much clearer idea of how it would work when coming to actually producing these designs and also to see how it would fit on the template it had to conform to. I have also done some designs in my sketch book but they are mainly quick initial sketches. 

However when i come to doing the designs it came from a initial thought in my head which often ended starting with a strong photograph that i then edited in photoshop. This is why most of my front covers are of somebodies face looking directly at its audience to draw them in but also so it looks like your looking directly at them which will consequently lead to them picking up the booklet. So that was my philosophy behind it, and it is also a trick a lot of magazine companies use as well. Although for this to work it involves having really strong photography so it doesn't look sparse or bland. Which in my opinion having a simple but effective image is harder than having a busy all singing and dancing image because you have to think much harder about what message you want to convey through your images to your audience. But i am not just talking about the technical side using a good camera, having a clear image and positioning but creating a story and a depth to a image that can communicate effectively to your target audience. Which i think works better on a front cover that you want to stand out. This technique is also a very trendy and modern way of working that lots of artists are using. However when i was doing the designs i was very aware that a image can very easily look too sparse and cheap, so i made sure that i spent a lot of time getting really sharp crisp photography that i felt was of a high enough standard and created a bit of confusion which is what i wanted. I then tried to give the covers i did a unusual edge by adding very bright colors that would compliment the image to merge a artistic piece and photography into one so you had a very strong and eye catching image. Because as i found even though the images looked very modern but retro in black and white i was also aware physiologically people are natural drawn to things that are bright and colourful and not dull. So i had to marge the two together to create a front cover that was bright and colourful to attract people to it, but also when they picked it up it still has that puzzling depth to it so it will work on two levels, for different types of people. Also any colors i have used i have tried not to be too gender specific as it mentioned it in the specification i received right at the start of the project, so i might use bright Florissant pink, but then also included bright green and blues. But i don't feel the colors are too much of a issue as the point is that it catches peoples eyes and is light hearted to contradict the black and white images. 

So overall i feel i have created a front and back cover that is very powerful and works for absolutely anyone who picks it up wether that be 16 year olds or 60 year olds as it works on two different levels. One that it is bright and colourful so it catches peoples attention, it subliminally  gives connotations of lighthearted, fun things and could almost be just normal artwork in its own right. But it also has the image of Connor looking directly at them in black and white, which gives it a unusual and puzzling edge making them want to read whats inside. I feel the image of Connor with the jagged tiles overlaid is the best as it just simply looks most appealing and it has lots of elements you want in a front cover, It is bright, eye catching and simple but with a complex depth to it. Unlike my logo designs which i feel aren’t. They are still eye catching in their own way but it had no real artistic merit of its own and was riding on the success of the brand. Which i didn't like as i wanted to create a original image of my own, and it also didn't fit into my view of what i wanted the covers to be like, being simple, modern and bold. Also i felt the front cover had a more cheap and childish elements to it which i certainly didn't want to have in my final design and as a perfectionist it certainly wasn't going to be used.  although these have all educated me and guided me into my final design which i feel is as strong as it could possibly be.

Design idea rocky text

I had a idea that i came up with while in the middle of finalising my other designs. Which was to make it like a actual cartoon surval image with the text as like the rocks, grass and trees. Although when i started to design it on paper it looked great but when i transferred that image into photoshop it didn't stand out enough and looked very weak compared to my other designs so i decided not to run with it. However from doing it i now know that my other designs are much stronger and better and target my audience much better than the design i just did. This is because the Rock lettering idea is almost a bit childish and is being a little bit patronising and also the fact it looks a bit too fussy as well.

This was the original drawing i did of the text which i was then going to add that onto the magazine cover. At this point i still like the idea and need to see what it would be like with color on.  

So i then took the image and imported it into photoshop were i created a layer mask and inverted the image so that i would be left with the black drawing and none of the white. So this meant i could just use the paint tool to paint under the drawing. I also used different shades of colors to get a more realistic look to it. However it was missing something but it also just wasn't appealing to me and was to fussy, so i quite it as a bad job. But now i have confirmed my other designs are strong.

Mod rock

Mod rock is a ruff light material that you have to cut up into strips and apply onto something wet. I have used it a couple of times now once for doing a cast of someone's face and another rapping round wire to create a hard structure. It is important when putting mod rock on skin that you put cling film under first and that you don't cover around the whole face as you cant get it off when it goes hard. Also you have to be carefully that you doing cover the face up so the model can't breath. This is a image of me mod rocking somebodies face, i then took the mod rock off once it was hard and painted it. 

Giacometti

Giacometti is a artist i have looked at alot in my life drawing and also my 3D work. I like his work as it is very much like my style of working. It is very free, figurative and expressive so you get a lot of depth to your images. But giacometti did sculptures which also followed in the same footsteps of his sketch work. His work like this i especially like...

This work even though it is done in different formats they are all linked together and are in the same free style which gives a lot more fluidity and movement to the work which is something i really like. And with 3D not being my preferred way of working i need to try and adapt the work to fit what i like to do.