Joseph Egan - Colourblind Design

It's Been a While

2012-01-27T16:13:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since my last post. Since then I have returned from my four months in New York, have moved back to my house in London and am now back on my course at Chelsea. I'm super excited about some of the work we've been doing already but won't have much to show for it until next week when hopefully I can post a bit more about what's happening with pictures.

Above are pictures of this awesome postcard I bought in N.Y. which changes its message depending on the angle you look at it. Positioned it so that when I'm sat at my (new and most amazing ever) desk on my laptop it says YES but anywhere else in the room it says NO.

Good, forceful inspiration I think you'll agree.

Breuckelen Gin

2011-12-04T16:51:00.000-08:00

It's weird the little connections that happen to you every single day. I watched this short film three or so days ago all about the Breuckelen Distilling company which is the first in Brooklyn since prohibition. It ia the first part in a series called 'Made by Hand' directed by Keef Erlich which aims to promote that which is made locally, sustainably, and with a love for craft. Based in Brooklyn, the project takes it influence from the handmade movement there and elsewhere.

Yesterday I found myself in a bar and noticed the wonderfully designed label of Breuckelen Gin poking out amongst the liquors behind the bar. I knew that if I didn't try it there and then that I would probably never get to try it. One gin and tonic later and I was an ever so slightly drunker man, a fantastic Gin with one hell of a lot of flavour. Definitely worth the $6.

I actually stumbled across 'Made by Hand' by watching the second part in it's series about Cut Brooklyn, a handmade knife shop which makes some amazing blades. I would highly recommend checking out the series, if not for the great products featured then for the wonderfully filmed and edited footage.

Redesign The Bible

2011-11-30T11:12:00.000-08:00

A quick post about a new brief we have just been given in advanced typography. Essentially our end of semester project we have been given the task of designing at least two book jackets for the world's all time best seller, The Bible.

We can split the text itself into as many books as we want with the obvious choice being the New and Old Testament as separate books which is the option I am leaning towards at the moment. However I still need to have a good sit down and think about this project. We've been given free reign with format sizing, imagery and typography so I really want to go as far as I can with this.

Above is Chip Kidd's front cover design for The New Testament, translated by Richmond Lattimore and commissioned by Farrar, Straus and Giroux publishing house. Here's what he has to say about it...

“If I am remembered for one jacket I would pick this one. I really have to hand it to the publisher for having the balls to go with it, and thus getting screwed by the major chains who refused to carry it. I’d also like to thank the photographer for allowing me to use this image in this context.” — Chip Kidd

The image used is a photograph by artist Andres Serrano, of the face of a man, eyes half closed who had just been involved in a fatal car accident. It's use is a fantastic example of how simple imagery and type can be combined to create amazing pieces. Obviously eluding to the crucifixion, the climax of the New Testament it is full of bare emotion and meaning. I especially like the elongated cross used as a divider between the title and translators name.

However we have the opportunity to work with both old and new testaments, or each gospel as their own. We have the chance to create something really special which I what I am to try and do and hopefully not fall into the pit of literality whilst doing it. Updates soon.

A Year in New York

2011-11-29T14:41:00.000-08:00

Firstly let me say that the video above is not mine in any way shape or form. I wish it was.

Just stumbled across this gem on a website somewhere and felt like I needed to share it. Made my filmaker Adam Clancy it's just footage of his day to day life in New York edited into a roughly five minute film with some music and uploaded to Vimeo. Ticks all the boxes of what makes a good film and for most people is great to watch and get an idea of what it's like to live in New York day to day as opposed to a five day holiday.

For me this video will be somewhat relevant in a year, I watch it now and recognise so many of the places that I've been to over the past three and a bit months and realise how quickly the time has gone. In a year I will be back in London and this video I'm sure will bring back memories of my time here, more so than photographs (although they are also amazing), postcards or receipts. The music is also weirdly relevant as I first heard this song in New York and fell in love with it instantly. Everyone should listen to James Vincent McMorrow - We Don't Eat, it will forever remind me of New York, the people I've met, friends I've made and the places I've been.

On another New York note I recently stumbled upon the work of E. B. White, a very talented writer who wrote a short essay called 'Here is New York' in the summer of 1948 which is as accurate today in capturing the spirit of the city as it was back then. A short quote from it below which I hope to include in some work I will be doing in the near future...

"There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter—the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these trembling cities the greatest is the last—the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion. And whether it is a farmer arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbours, or a boy arriving from the Corn Belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart, it makes no difference: each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love, each absorbs New York with the fresh yes of an adventurer, each generates heat and light to dwarf the Consolidated Edison Company..."

Beyonce Knowles

2011-11-27T21:47:00.000-08:00

This is my 100th post on this blog, one I've become very attached to and in the future hope to keep up a lot more regularly than I have been at any point during it's relatively short life.

Above is something silly in honour of this post, if you recognise the song then good for you and if (as a graphic designer) you know what I'm talking about then even better. Came up with this whilst in a lesson with Eli and have been wanting to make something of it ever since so I'm glad I finally found a use for it.

Zoo York

2011-11-27T11:48:00.000-08:00

So if anyone who reads this blog of mine hasn't heard already, I am three quarters of the way through a four month semester studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. To document my stay I have a photo blog which can be accessed by clicking HERE just finished a mass upload basically covering the last few weeks including thanksgiving which I spent at my awesome friend Liz's (pictured above) in Long Island. Much more to come in the last few weeks of my stay, so sad to think about leaving right now but sort of excited to be going back to Norwich for Christmas and then London in the new year.

Hopefully going to get the chance to blog some more work in the coming week once I get my stuff together.

The Laughing Heart

2011-11-13T14:13:00.000-08:00

Above are a selection of pictures/pages from one of my earlier screen printing projects.

A one-off edition of two screen printed and hand-bound books based around the poem 'The Laughing Heart' by Charles Bukowski. The larger format book is a black and white photocopied version of the smaller, full colour version. Bound using Japanese stab binding with french folded pages allowing each spread to be visually connected to the next whilst not letting the text be read in it's normal orientation or natural flow.

I chose this poem because of it's feature in a short video animation my friend and fellow student at Chelsea Bradley Bell made as part of our after effects project last year. To me it is near perfect, I will never forget watching it for the first time and the effect it has had on me since. I've realised pretty recently that you should post about other people's work just as much as your own and that recognising/praising great design is not quite practiced enough. Below is said video, watch it and appreciate every single goddamn thing about it.

Type Truck

2011-11-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Me, Miriam, Jules and Alice took the Subway to Brooklyn to go to Fort Greene Flea Market where, outside the market was parked a van with a whole letterpress inside. The van and letterpress are part of the Type Truck project and are the brainchild of Kyle Durrie, a letterpress printer from Portland, Oregon. Using the Kickstarter website to raise almost $18,000 towards the project she bought a 1982 Chevy step van and converted it into a fully functional letterpress print shop and is now traveling around the US teaching printing and selling her work. We each had a go printing as she told us about her travels. This is such a fantastic idea, I am beginning to wonder if it would be possible to do the same thing in the U.K. bringing letterpress to the masses. Pictures to come of the poster as soon as I retrieve it from Jule's room. Last picture of the Type Truck courtesy of Julia Salotti herself. Please take a few seconds to check out the link below and follow Kyle's amazing journey through the U.S!

www.type-truck.com

Acetone for the Painfully Alone

2011-11-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

Pictured above is the book that I made for my Bookbinding class midterm titled

'Lost in Translation'.

The only guidelines we were given by our tutor Nancy was that the content of the book had to be autobiographical, we had to use a binding we had covered in the first half of the semester and that we were not allowed to use any text whatsoever (for fear of writing our life story from birth).

I however ignored one of these instructions and instead decided to use text and only text in recording some of the problems I've had with using more than a few words since arriving in America just over two and a half months ago. On the left of each spread is an English word whilst on the right is the American word for the same object/thing/action. Some are well known to everyone (especially in the U.K.) however some you can only find out about whilst actually living here so I decided to document them in this book.

The book is a soft cover, multi-signature book constructed using 150gm Canford stock and hand printed using Acetone and photocopies.

1 Hour Business Card

2011-11-01T22:47:00.000-07:00

Self initiated brief to design, print and cut a business card for myself for an upcoming networking opportunity later this week.

Designed on Photoshop and Illustrator, printed using photocopies and acetone onto Canford 'Ice White' 150gsm stock.

Beyond This Place

2011-11-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Having seen 'Fever Year' last month at the New York Film Festival, I had the opportunity to go see another new independent film with a quite incredible musical connection this weekend at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music).

'Beyond This Place' is a film about a 30 something year old Kaleo trying to reconnect with his father Cloud Rock La Belle who has been absent from his life since he was born, only keeping in contact via irregular letters and few and meetings few and far between. Cloud Rock's absence has been due to his lifestyle of Psychedelic drugs and absolute freedom which for him are almost religious beliefs.

Together the pair undergo a 500 mile bike tour across the Pacific Northwest. Documented by Kaleo (who himself is a film maker), the film is an exploration of what fatherhood really means to him, to Cloud and to the viewer. A new father himself, Kaleo's questions to his father are simple and to the point, full of emotion and resentment.

Though the film (and Cloud Rock) doesn't give answers, there is no final coming together of father and son, there is more of an understanding of each person and their standpoint. Why people choose to live like they do and the affects that it can have on others.

The musical link in the film comes from the magnificent Sufjan Stevens (along with Rayond Byron Magic Raposa of the Castanets) who scored the film at the request of Kaleo who is a childhood friend of his. Sufjan and Raymond were sitting onstage as the film was shown, playing their score live along with the film and spoken audio. This double performance was amazing to witness although it took me ten minutes to stop watching the musicians play and concentrate on the film itself. Two incredibly talented men, childhood friends, bought together by their creativity was just great to watch with the music only adding to the film it was a very clear collaboration. Again as with 'Fever Year' there was a Q&A afterwards which was fascinating especially on Kaleo's film making practice with this film and his now dorment again relationship with his father.

Four Eyes Colourblind Prints

2011-10-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

Above and below are a couple of shots of my first 3 colour separation screen prints based on the self portrait photograph I posted a couple of weeks ago. Screen printing is something that I've never had the opportunity to try before until now and it's one of those things that always seemed weirdly magical as I never had any idea how the process worked.

Now however, after more than a good number of weeks colour mixing, test prints, taping, reprinting and endless experimentation I am finally getting comfortable with how it works. Being able to hold a sheet that only you yourself have printed, from creating the artwork, shooting the screen, mixing the ink and pulling the print is really amazing.

Four Eyes

2011-10-06T12:00:00.000-07:00

First in a selection of self portrait images for a screen printing project I'm working on. Way more work to come on this blog from all of my classes when I get the time to upload it.

For now stay tuned.

Norman

2011-10-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

Everything seems to be weirdly connected at the moment...Yesterday I posted about Andrew Bird: Fever Year, a music documentary cum live concert film following a year with Andrew Bird, a ridiculously talented musician who's touring schedule almost (but not quite) got the better of him in 2009.

Today whilst spending my usual time browsing the web I came across the trailer for a new independent film scored by the man himself (Bird) titled 'Norman'. I won't try to explain what it's about or why you should watch it but I have posted the trailer above for your viewing pleasure. All I will say is that it looks fantastic and that I am pretty happy I'm over here in the good ol' U S of A as it's being released here in just under two weeks time. YES.

Side note: going to try blogging a lot more regularly from now on. Not quite daily but, I'd like to avoid 4 months gaps ever again if possible.

Andrew Bird: Fever Year

2011-10-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

Chronological isn't always logical so it turns out.

Here is a post from something I have been doing today, in New York.

This evening I went (alone) to watch a film titled 'Andrew Bird: Fever Year' as part of the 2011 New York Film Festival. For those not as musically inclined as others, Andrew Bird is a musician who's relentless touring and recording schedule over the last decade has left him with a huge following across the globe but very little success in the form of 'hits' and record sales (not necessarily a bad thing).

The film is a music documentary cum live concert film combined together in a very natural way, with neither side really dominating over the other. It documents Andrew at the tail end of 2009 where he played 165 shows throughout the year and the resulting effect it has had on his health; the film is aptly titled 'Fever Year' as it's mentioned many times throughout it's rare that Andrew doesn't have a temperature of below 102, but yet he continues unabashed and very enjoyably to perform every night.

The film was fantastic, made even more so by a Q&A with the director (Xan Aranda) who's thoughts really helped complete the circle and made me appreciate the film so much more. There was a very clear collaboration between subject and director, they both knew each other as friends and as creatives. It was great to see the film as both of them had wanted, instead of watching an exotic and talented animal in an glass case being poked and filmed by it's master who didn't know it's name or understand what it did.

I am not a writer, I tried to write a few paragraphs about the film and found I just wrote the same thing over and over again. I know what I feel about it and that's fine by me. I feel very lucky to have seen it as it's only going to be screened in film festivals and not made into a dvd or distributed widely. To quote Xan..

"He (Andrew) doesn't write anything down so why would he make a DVD?"

Below are some of the concert posters showcased within the film as Andrew likes to collaborate with creatives rather a lot as the top picture is testament too. Anything like that is great to see but especially for me as a designer it was just fantastic, a few of them below. I've gone on too long, it's 2AM and I'm tired.

So little information about this film to be found online. For anyone who's interest has been stirred you can try the link below...

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/andrew-bird-fever-year

Five Leaves Left - Finyl Vinyl

2011-10-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

As per usual it's been quite some time since my last post on this blog and I now have quite a bit of work backlogged to begin to blogging over the next week or so. To that end here is one of my final projects from the end of 1st year at Chelsea. For anyone who isn't aware I am just over one month into a four month exchange programme at F.I.T. in New York. Blogging stuff has been the last thing on my mind (until homework day comes round) hence it's taken this long for me to get round to it.

Above is my redesign of Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left vinyl cover worked on as a collaboration with our guest tutor Peter Chadwick of Popular studio. Looking back at how I approached this project I suffered with my normal method of approaching a project and even regressed back to a high school style of being afraid of our teacher as I hadn't done the work certain weeks, didn't see him and therefore lost out. Lesson learnt.

The Dancing Printer

2011-07-15T01:26:00.000-07:00

I think I got that thing you get when you are at home for too long and get so ridiculously bored that even the smallest, most pointless thing will entertain you for a few long hours. Having said that here's a short film I made of my printer whilst at home in Norwich last week after noticing that whenever you print something it does a little (happy?) dance. It amused me so hopefully it'll amuse some of you.

Back in London now so slightly less cabin-fever-ish...

Loads more stuff to come soon hopefully as and when I get some free moments

Watch This Space

2011-06-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

Golden Foam

2011-06-24T04:25:00.000-07:00

So finally here is Golden Foam in all it's one minute glory.

Enjoy.

Film Poster

2011-06-20T04:12:00.000-07:00

Movie poster for our film 'Golden Foam' will be collated with the 9 other groups posters and be printed as one long reel. Photos to come of when that happens and stuff. Oscar night is almost upon us, hopefully there will be some photos of that too appearing at some point after Thursday!

Lights, Camera, ZZzzZzzzzz

2011-06-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

Started shooting our film 'Golden Foam' on Friday, here's one of the first stills which we shot in Luke's house. Shooting now on Tuesday and Thursday with final hand in on Monday.

Tax On Oh Me

2011-06-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday the entire class spent a entire day in the Graphics Studio with Nigel & Pete who organised something of a one day print workshop for us.

We were each told to bring in one mechanical or electrical item that that had once served a purpose in our lives and that we no longer needed. We then were told to take them apart into as many pieces we could manage and arrange them by size, shape, colour, material etc. Above are is my super old digital camera pre disassembly and my final taxonomy piece from the workshop. After arranging all of our pieces very neatly and photographing then we were told to ink up and print as many of the pieces as possible in a printed taxonomy. Things quickly got messy, photos below...

R.I.P. Gil Scott-Heron

2011-05-28T01:06:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of an out of the ordinary post for me I'll admit

This post is a dedication to an extraordinary singer, songwriter and poet who has died aged 62.

I discovered Gil Scott-Heron and his work whilst working on a college project last term and have not stopped listening to him since. The results of the work have still not yet been finalised but, due to recent events their release may get pushed forward by the people I have been doing it for and hopefully you will see it soon.

I'm not going to link you to any of his music, you can find it yourselves. His recent collaboration remix album with Jamie XX is highly recommended though. Instead here is a quote of his I get to see every so often painted on the wall of his record company's office. I only wrote it down last week; to me it's perfect.

"There is a proper procedure for taking advantage of any investment.

Music, for example. Buying music is an investment.

To get the maximum you must

LISTEN TO IT FOR THE FIRST TIME UNDER OPTIMUM CONDITIONS

Not in your car or on a portable player through a headset.

Take it home.

Get rid of all distractions, (even her or him).

Turn off your cell phone.

Turn off everything that rings or beeps or rattles or whistles.

Make yourself comfortable.

Play your CD.

LISTEN all the way through.

Think about what you got.

Think about who would appreciate this investment.

Decided if there is someone to share this with.

Turn it on again.

Enjoy yourself. "

R.I.P Gil Scott-Heron 1949 - 2011

Slowly But Surely

2011-05-24T04:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had our third meeting with our tutors about the current film brief. Now halfway through we have 3 weeks left and have just decided on the final story of our film, the real work begins now I guess but I am super happy with the idea and can't wait to make this film.

Just got back from Canary Wharf after doing some location scouting. Such a weird area but managed to take some nice photos one of which is above...

LP

2011-05-23T01:39:00.000-07:00

Just some hand drawn type I did as as test for the LP redesign brief this week. After coming to Peter on Friday with a selection of different ideas and concepts we decided to go for a combination of all of them. Not going to reveal too much just yet as I want to do some test shots and stuff but I'll be making something physical and photographing it.

Five Leaves Left

2011-05-14T15:16:00.000-07:00

So bar our film brief we only have one other ongoing project this term. We have been given a brief by Peter Chadwick, a pretty famous "graphic designer" to redesign a 12 inch vinyl sleeve of our choice. I chose Five Leaves Left by Nick Drake as it is one of my favourite albums but with probably one of the worst designed covers I have ever seen. Everything about it is shameful, especially the kerning of the title. Shudder. Going to try and have as much fun with this project as possible. See as vinyl is such a physical format I want to try and reflect that in my process so there will be a lot of drawing and printing going on over the next few weeks. Working with a square is not something we do a lot nowadays as well so I am really going to try and take advantage of this fact, how I'm not quite sure though. Hopefully development will be being posted up pretty soon.

Butex Scholarship

2011-05-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

A poster I have designed as part of my application to the Butex Scholarship 2011. Each year BUTEX awards a number of scholarships to students studying abroad for either a semester or for a whole academic year. Each scholarship is worth £500 to each student and all you have to do is design a poster promoting study abroad, seeing as I am a graphic design student I couldn't turn it down. Going to print and send it off next week, fingers crossed!

Golden Foam

2011-05-10T01:45:00.000-07:00

Ok so time for some new projects. Last Tuesday we were given our first film brief by tutor Ed Gill who worked with some of us last year on foundation at Chelsea and who has made TV ads for Innocent Smoothies, Sony and a ton of other companies as well as some pretty awesome music videos.

We were put into groups of 4/5 and just given the title of our movie and told to produce a one minute skit based on our initial ideas. Our film title is 'Golden Foam'. We have just under 6 weeks to produce, film and edit the movie itself with the final results being screened at our very own oscar night at the end of term where we are going up against all the other films to win oscars handmade by each group. We're also going to be producing posters and other promotional material for the film which will be collated and put into a programme which will then be printed and sold on the night.

That's all I'm giving away for now, above is a picture of our group. I love the idea we have for the film so much, just really excited about this project. Below is a film I found as part of my research, completely unrelated now but so nice.

Zoetrope pt.2

2011-05-05T09:34:00.000-07:00

Okay so here's another update on my layered zoetrope project. I am still waiting on the video to be finalised and stuff so that'll have to wait till the next time I post about this which probably won't happen till it gets all signed off.

This in short is this is basically a run through for when I present my work to my class and my tutors. Nigel has a saying that if you tell an a difficult idea/concept 10 times to 10 different people that you slowly get better at it, so that's what I'm trying here.

Above are a couple of photos of my final zoetrope and the equipment I used inside my GLAMOROUS studio (Ben's room, thanks for that) to shoot the video. As I explained in my first post my original idea was to create a triple layered zoetrope where the first layer would be a cutout shape, second a printed acetate sheet and third a printed card sheet.

I started by designing the base for my zoetrope, initially trying to work out how to have three circles, all on the same level and all spinning at the same speed. After a lot of head scratching I came up with the neat idea of a tiered base which meant I could place it onto a record player and use that for my rotation. After designing I got it all laser cut, basically to try and minimise any error I might make if I tried to make 3 perfect circles by hand in the workshop. Last minute I changed my mind about materials, choosing corrugated card instead of mdf as I was worried about weight and the spinning power of the record player.

Also got my first layers laser cut, again for the same reason. Bought some acetate and got my third layer printed.

Sadly after a lot of long afternoons and quite a lot of frustration I still haven't got anywhere near having 3 animating layers that remotely look like they have anything to do with eachother. In the end I think I was a little ambitious trying to get one layer to work was hard enough, let alone three working all together.

HOWEVER, all is not lost...

I started thinking about playing around with layers still, but instead of animating them having something else going on instead. Light is such a versatile medium I wanted to try and incorporate it into this piece. I bought a piece of frosted plastic from paperchase and dug out my industrial light, setup my tripod and started filming. I'm super happy with the final results which hopefully you'll be able to see pretty soon (fingers crossed).

Even though the results are completely different to what I had initially imagined that was the whole point of this project. The direction I took this project in has so much potential, hopefully I'll get the chance to explore it a whole lot more soon. The point of this project was to experiment, try something new, make something awesome looking even if it doesn't have a purpose. That's where I was a little different though but all will be revealed as soon as it's all done and dusted...

Facecake

2011-05-04T05:23:00.000-07:00

Having a trawl through my pictures earlier, came across this gem of a snap of my 21st birthday present from Francesca Pequeur. The one and only the I had on my wishlist, Facecake. Cheers m'dear.

Zoetrope pt.1

2011-05-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this is the first of a series of posts about a piece of work I am super close to finishing which should have happened around a month ago but it took a different direction and proved to be a bit more of a challenge than I expected, in the end producing a totally different result than that I had first conceived.

The brief for this project was called "New Languages", we were given the task of discovering either a brand new or already existing technology/technique and taking it somewhere new with the aim of creating something completely original that neither we or anyone else had never done before.

Instead of try and create something brand new using loads of computers, programming and technology I opted for a slightly different and more analog approach. I came up with the idea of making a triple layered zoetrope. For anyone who is not familiar, a zoetrope was one of the first forms of animation. A cylindrical drum which on the inside has 16/17 frames of animation which when span can be viewed by eye through slits at the top of the drum - pictured below.

My idea was to reverse the zoetrope so the images were on the outside of the cylinder and incorporate three different layers of animation into one image. When viewed from the right angle it would look as though they were one image but when moved slightly then the illusion would be revealed. The first layer would be a cut-out shape, the second would be printed acetate and the third would be a printed layer.

Look out for the next posts coming pretty soon and you can see what actually happened, hopefully with a video once it's been approved the people I've made it for. All very exciting stuff.

Print Is Not Dead

2011-04-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

This evening I hopped on a train to Shoreditch and visited The Book Club where I attended I talk presented by Stack magazine distribution entitled "Printout! - Why print when you can blog?", the talk/discussion was given by...

Rob Orchard - Delayed Gratification

Tim Hayward - Fire & Knives

John L Walters - Eye Magazine

All three men are heads/editors of their respective independent magazines which they are all at different stages of starting up or doing business with. Each of the magazines, though similar in format all have completely different subject specialisms and with it, completely different approaches to the way they approach the running of their magazine.

Rob Orchard with Delayed Gratification has coined the term 'slow journalism' to as a direct reaction to the internet generation of journalism where every story must be investigated, researched, written and published all within a matter of minutes. His magazine is a quarterly publication of exquisite journalism and beautiful infographics, a modern almanac. Other than a website DG has no online presence whatsoever, launched only last year it'll be interesting to see what happens to them.

Tim Hayward with Fire & Knives has created the ultimate foodie magazine, based around his passion for food and journalism he gets people equally as passionate, interesting, literate as him to write his articles. By his own admission he is "basically printing a blog" taking talented writers who have not yet had much exposure and giving them the opportunity to have their work published for no fee which then leads to them having more work and the magazine gaining more exposure. They have a website and a twitter account which allowed them to get enough subscribers based on a mock-up issue to print their first issue and have gone on from there to bigger and better things.

John L Walters from Eye Magazine, I don't really need to explain their ethos. If you read this blog chances are you'll read theirs too and maybe even their magazine and have a very clear idea about what they're all about.

Despite their differences in topics, journalistic ethos and relationships with the internet each of the mags. and their directors/editors are passionate about publishing and printing. The magazines are their souls and it shows in printed form. When asked about 'the green issue' of the environmental cost of printing a magazine Tim summed it up nicely "No-one has ever thrown away a copy of our magazine" stating "We design a beautiful object as possible, it is not disposable media. People keep them. The first thing I see people do when they get the magazine is smell it, personally I think that is much better as a form of interactive media than facebook or twitter." All of the magazines tick those boxes. There was a small library of tonnes of independent magazines which we flicked through over a drink and were even given a couple of complimentary copies of Eye Magazine, Fire & Knives and Article (see the photo above). All of the magazines were beautiful, like popular magazines like 'OK' and 'Hello' they are printed media but overall they are in a world of their own.

My copy of Fire & Knives is just amazing. Overall well worth the fiver entry I'd say.

Chillin' with the guys below, John, Tim and Rob (right to left)....SWAG

Boy Can Sew

2011-04-25T02:42:00.000-07:00

Spent all of yesterday fixing my slowing breaking laptop case with a scrap of leather I bought from a shop in Brick Lane about 2 years ago. Was really nice to make something with my hands for once and very satisfying to know I've fixed something myself and hopefully given it another couple of years of use. Looking forward to see how the leather ages and whether or not my stitching will hold up to me throwing my laptop + case in and out of my bag on a daily basis. I have always loved this laptop case since I got it almost 2 years ago now and always get compliments for it whenever I produce it from my bag. Now have a whole new level of love for it.

If you're in the market for a new laptop case check out the company I got mine from. http://www.colcasac.com/

Stop the Violence

2011-04-24T02:36:00.000-07:00

Now we all know the easiest way to a student's heart is free stuff. This coming post pretty much justifies the rather large amount of time I spend surfing teh internet and it's creative blogs looking for work that inspires and excites me. This is Colossal is one of those blogs, a personal favourite of mine and the other day as always I was reading through the newest posts and came across one about this rather neat looking book....

'Stop the Violence' is a collaboration between Thirst founder Rick Valicenti and Photographer Francois Robert and his series of the same name. Each spread of the book features an individual letter from the alphabet—compositions made of human bones arranged by Robert—in juxtaposition with a page from President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech from 2009. The book is 36 pages long and quite extraordinarily more than a foot in height. Everything seems pretty normal up to this point however when I came to the end of the post there was a link to a website where you could request a copy of this rather amazing book FOR FREE. Amazed, I clicked through the link and filled out the little form with my address etc and 10 minutes later got an e-mail saying that my copy would be shipped by the end of the week! Another 10 minutes later I tried to access the page again set up a link from this blog so anyone else could request one but the edition had 'sold out'. Not sure how that's possible with a free book but anywho, no idea how many were printed but I'm guessing pretty small numbers and the publisher (Classic Colour) seem to specialise in really limited runs. I'll post again when I receive my copy with more details and pictures.

Who said you can't get anything for free these days....

Video above taken from Thirst's Vimeo page:
Pictures below taken from This is Colossal:

Always Remember to Print Fair Children

2011-04-22T01:23:00.000-07:00

This week through the most tedious link imaginable I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to help with the setting up, hanging and dismantling of 'The London Original Print Fair' at the Royal Academy. The print fair is an annual exhibition where printers and galleries come together to showcase and sell their wares to collectors and the public for a very short 3 days. There was a huge mix of contemporary prints from artists such as Gavin Turk and Damien Hirst to more classical fine art prints which was nice to have although it was quite intense walking round trying to take it all in. Below are a few photos I took of pieces that caught my eye when I had a walk round on Wednesday. Overall it was an invaluable experience to see how an exhibition is put together and hopefully I'll get the chance to do myself one day.

Not So Innocent

2011-04-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

Ok so over the past month I haven't posted anything here at all due to a pretty epic 12 week term and rather a lot of work. All of this work is still in progress and will be uploaded over the coming weeks as and when I get it done but for now a project that I have finished...

In short, I made a 30 second advert for innocent smoothies as part of a competition they are currently running. The only rules were that the advert had to use the music provided by innocent and involve the super smoothie character (see above) 'saving the day' in some way. Thanks to Jules and Don for being sports and agreeing to help me film/play a part in the ad itself. If chosen my advert will be on t.v. and I could win £5,000...which could come in very handy at the moment. Watch the ad below and I may be asking you to vote for me fairly soon, fingers crossed...

Read The Signs

2011-03-12T01:58:00.000-08:00

This Thursday we spent an entire day having a workshop with ex Chelsea student Lizzie Gove who taught us the basics of sign writing, a subject she studied in depth for her dissertation and final degree project. It was great to spend a whole day doing something physical instead of staring at a macbook for hours on end as I seem to be doing a lot recently. It was quite a challenge at first to get the brush technique and the ink viscosity just right but after about an hour of painting some not so great letters we all began to get the hang of it with some people clearly having a natural talent. During the afternoon we were set a mini brief to paint an alternative word for 'gorgeous', the idea being that everyone in the class would paint a different word, the end results would be scanned and put on one sheet of A1 paper and then each student would get a copy. I chose the word killer as I particularly liked doing 'k's but my 'r's let me down somewhat. Ho Hum. Below is some of Lizzie's actual final work which I saw in last years degree show and have recovered from her flickr in the depths of the internet. It was great to talk to her over the course of the day about a subject she clearly loves, knows an awful lot about and is very good at.

Lovely stuff.

I Spy a Fisheye

2011-03-04T12:51:00.000-08:00

D.I.Y. Fisheye Lens

2011-03-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

So this is going to be quite a text and photo heavy post, apologies in advance.

On Saturday my friend Joakim who I work with at American Apparel was showing me his portfolio for his application to the Graphic Design Communication course I'm currently on at Chelsea. On one of his pages was a bit about how he had made his own D.I.Y. Fisheye lens out of nothing but a lens-cap, door peephole and some bluetac with what looked like some amazing results. My imagination was sparked and almost a week later I have my own D.I.Y. Fisheye lens for my Canon 550D.

Above are photos of the finished products and the parts I used to make it.

Door peephole, bought from Leylands for £4.31

Hama 58mm lens cap, bought from Amazon for £2.57

That's really all it takes.

All you need to do is drill a hole in the centre of your lens cap that is the same size as the viewing end of your peephole. Unscrew the peephole into the separate parts and thread through the hole and screw back together. BE CAREFUL that the end part of the peephole sits nicely inside the depth of the lens cap otherwise there is a huge possibility of scratching your lens! Other than that, attach to your camera (obviously make sure the lens cap your drilling will fit your lens), set your camera up just so and you're ready to shoot some fisheye shots!

Below are some photos I took about 2 minutes after I got home from Chelsea with Ben in our garden and house. The camera I'm using is a Canon 550D with the kit 18-55mm lens set on manual focus mode (very important) and non-flash setting. This is such a cheap and easy way of having your own fisheye lens. Let's face it the quality was never going to be brilliant but the photos do have a certain lomography-film-likeness that people are spending a lot of money getting with plastic cameras nowadays. I also took a short video whilst out in the garden which I will upload pretty shortly after adding some audio to cover up my inane chatting about fisheye lenses whilst wandering round our garden.

It Might Get Loud

2011-02-25T03:47:00.000-08:00

All I do nowadays is watch documentaries

On Wednesday we were given a new motion graphics brief based around learning Adobe After Effects which is all rather exciting.

We've been asked to source a piece of spoken word audio between 10-20 seconds in length that we find 'inspiring'. Initially we were supposed to use interviews with creative practitioners, graphic designers we find inspiring etc but over the course of the briefing it seemed to transform into anyone we were creatively inspired by whether they are a designer, painter, sculptor or musician.

Once we have our audio we are then to animate the words spoken within the interview in After Effects, what we'll be creating is kinetic typography. We had a great presentation from our tutor Pete who always seems to inspire me in some way with his examples of previous work. These I won't share with you but I am already thinking about the possible mixtures of analog and digital media for this project.

I spent pretty much all of yesterday watching my favourite things, documentaries, about my second favourite thing, guitars (and their players). The video above is the trailer for a film titled 'It Might Get Loud' featuring Jimmy Page, Jack White and The Edge. I'd urge everyone to watch it, even if you're not into guitars and stuff as much as I am. It's really interesting to hear how 3 of the best known guitarists ever talk about their very different styles, techniques and approaches to playing what is in essence is the same plank of wood with 6 strings stretched over it.

We all know that we love and are inspired by graphic design, I feel like I don't need to reiterate it. After all we are on a GRAPHIC DESIGN COURSE. The thing that inspires me more than anything is listening, watching and playing music (remember the passionate presentation) hence that is what I will be basing this project around. Personal is powerful.

F.I.T. New York

2011-02-24T09:06:00.000-08:00

So yeah about a week late, I will be going to New York and studying at the Fashion Institute of Technology for the first term of my second year, around 4 and a half months from August to December.

Excited is not even the word.

Thanks again to everyone who helped with the video.

How To Set Up Your Own Pirate Radio Station

2011-02-23T07:14:00.000-08:00

Above is my final outcome for the 'Do This Brief' project. A not very concise guide on how to set up a pirate radio station. Overall I am really happy with the way this has turned out, the whole subculture, DIY aesthetic is exactly what I was aiming for and the tone of the piece again is spot on. I was trying to get it so that you could photocopy this and mass distribute it easily if required. I spent a lot of time researching pirate radio trying to break it down to just the essentials which was really fun though quite complex at times. Marrying the information with how I wanted the illustration to turn out was a bit of a challenge as well but again I am super happy with it all. The whole idea of this project was to learn Adobe Illustrator though which although I was fairly familiar with anyway, spending more time with it really allowed me to fully get to grips with the specifics and shortcuts of it and I am now full competent. CLICK THE PICTURE FOR A BIGGER VERSION.

Illustrate-her

2011-02-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

Since I have now handed in my New York piece I have been able to concentrate my efforts on some of my other projects which are currently on the go.

Now working on a "How to..." project which is based around learning Adobe Illustrator. We were asked to produce a range of instructions, guides and plans to clearly communicate a range of events and activities that will enable people to survive and thrive in times of austerity.

We were kept in our mail art groups and each group was given a 'life theme' to take inspiration from. Our theme was communication which was a challenge to initially brainstorm but once we had completed a full workshop day in class with everyone donating ideas to each other's themes we were getting into the swing of things. A lot of people are focusing on trying to save money but cutting down on things within their various 'how to' guides, however I wanted to try and be proactive, setting up something creative for as little money as possible seemed like a great concept to start with, especially something that you can communicate with.

So with this concept in tow, I came up with the idea of:

'How to set up your own pirate radio station'

Pretty psyched to really get my teeth into it now. I have a basic idea of what I want to do. Now the tough bit is going to be researching it and finding out exactly what I want to do with and where I want to go with it. After a few hours of note taking, book reading and googling I came across this awesome trailer for a documentary film called "Drowned City" about London Pirate radio stations and the people who run them. I'll leave you with the trailer for now whilst I go stare at a computer screen for hours on end.

SWIMNY

2011-02-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

As promised, here is my final film.

Enjoy.

Trans-Atlantic

2011-02-13T02:45:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the hand in for our New York project.

The edited film will appear here immediately after.

I have spent the last 2 weeks filming and editing.

All other projects have been sidelined for now.

Very excited to show everyone the film.

Regardless of whether or not I get to go.

I am so happy I made it

and how it turned out.

So yeah.

Tomorrow.

Good luck

everyone.

Submarine

2011-02-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

This afternoon at Chelsea we were given a lecture by a lovely illustrator who's name is Nina Chakrabarti.

About half way through her talk she showed us this piece of her work which happens to be the illustrations for one of my favourite novels ever. The novel in question is called 'Submarine' by Joe Dunthorne. I first encountered Joe last summer in the poetry arena at Latitude Festival where I spent some considerable listening to him and his band of troubadour poets. I bought his faber booklet there and since then have been really inspired by his poetry and his DIY ethos (he puts on a poetry night called Homework which runs every first wednesday of the month at the working men's club in Bethnal Green).

http://www.aisle16.co.uk/homework-ldn/

Submarine is Joe's first novel and one of my all time favourites since reading it last summer. Last year I learnt that the book had been taken up by I.T. crowd star and Arctic Monkey Video music director Richard Ayoade and was being made into a film. Well that film is now finished and is being released very soon in the UK after taking worldwide film festivals by storm. I have been a massive fan of Ayoade for years after he directed the Arctic Monkeys DVD Live at the Apollo and their more recent music videos. Alex Turner has even completed a 6 track EP for the film's music.

It's weird how cyclical this whole affair has been, I think that the film has the potential to be the British cinema hit of the year but then the equal potential become an indie film classic, unrecognised by the masses who are used to hollywood blockbusters and rom-coms churned out by the apparent same 10 or so actors and actresses, YES Jennifer Anniston and Paul Rudd I am looking at you!

Below is the trailer for Submarine and you can make of it what you wish...

NEW WORK

2011-01-29T14:57:00.000-08:00

So yesterday we given a talk by three second year students about an opportunity we have as Graphic Design students at Chelsea to compete for the chance to win a place on a semester long exchange with F.I.T. (fashion institute of technology) in New York.

The brief in short is that we have to create a piece of work that expresses why we want to go to NY and the lengths we would be willing to go to to get there. Responses can be any media and size so literally anything goes. However they suggested that we use famous New York icons like the statue of liberty, the street layout, pretzels, yellow taxis etc as our inspiration. Really excited about this project, despite the potential amount of money it could cost nothing could compare the experiences we could have there. Pretty much the same project as last year, one girl got a tattoo of a dollar sign on the sole of her foot and said she'd 'put her heart and soul' into the trip and won a place. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!

Milton Glaser designed the logo above, quite possibly one of the greatest logos of all time.

I will be making a video in response to this brief. That is all.

MALE ART

2011-01-25T06:50:00.000-08:00

Moving swiftly on, last Thursday we were given a new project based around the concept of 'Mail Art'.

I stupidly missed the briefing for this project which was a massive error as we got to choose our own groups for once but luckily Mr Harry Holt and Johnny Holmes claimed me and Ben for our group. Here's some stolen blurb from Miriam's blog as like I said I missed the briefing...

To give an overview- 'Mail Art' is a movement which began in the early 1960's in which networks were formed and would use the postal system as means of communication to exchange art as well as to collaborate with others on projects.

This has been given to us as a starting point and in our groups, we may create a project of our choice that in roughly three weeks time we can present to the class in analogue form. RAD THANKS MIRIAM.

This project has come at an interesting time as my laptop has just decided to break itself. Currently in a state of flux where using analog is the only option at the moment for me and so doing a 'Mail Art' project seems incredibly apt at the moment and I am throwing myself into this project head on. Really excited about our idea but it needs an awful lot of work to make it happen. Myself and Holmes spent this morning in a Bethnal Green model shop with some nice little Chinese ladies and a laser cutter.

More to follow shortly.

You Utter Dingbat!

2011-01-25T06:30:00.000-08:00

A quick overview of the first project we have been given since our return from Christmas break. We were put into groups of 3 and told to produce a 20 second long stop motion animation based around the typeface Zapf Dingbats (shown above). By based around, I mean we were only allowed to use the Dingbat characters only changed in colour and scale. The animation was to be produced on a flat 2D surface out of paper/card and shot using istopmotion, a pretty nifty little stop-motion programme we were provided with in a slot of 2 hours. All editing was to be done in shot so for zooms etc we had to produce a number of the same element in different sizes which was quite time consuming but the week before we had an awesome storyboarding workshop to help us out with pre-planning and spent a good amount of time storyboarding our own animation and creating the character and elements in illustrator. Nothing was left to chance.

I was with Sunnie and Chloe which was lucky as they are as sick and twisted as I am apparently and loved my initial idea of animating a Dingbats Peepshow based around the early animation machines we were shown as part of the introduction to the project. Once you start looking it becomes very apparent that Dingbats is full of absolute filth and our animation can be summed up by one word, TASSLES! We had a good week to prepare our animation which was lucky as Chloe was stuck in the USA until last Tuesday but managed to get it all done for yesterday which was our alloted time. The final animation has yet to be exported in its full glory but hopefully we'll be able to get our hands on it and I'll post it up here. There might even be some kind of Dingbats showreel using clips from the other groups in our class. I am super happy with the way it came out, it is almost exactly the way I imagined it, if not better. Props to Sunnie and Chloe as well for putting up with me being so immature and working so well together, very good start to the year. We definitely bonded over burlesque, tassle technique and "Lacie" as she will be forever known.

Below, a few pictures of yesterday. Animating and being silly.

Bad Type's Bad Day Out

2011-01-17T16:53:00.000-08:00

On the 14th of January 2011 myself and my class mates took our Bad Type white letters for a Bad Day out around Chelsea and Pimlico. Above is a video I made of that day using my new Cannon 550D camera. Having never used it for video I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to test it out and have a go at editing in Final Cut Pro for the first time as well. I am pretty happy with the results although I'd like the shots to be less shakey although I guess that comes from practice (maybe even investing in a tripod?). Editing wise I could have done a lot more but again with practice and patience. Below are some photos of preparation and the day itself...enjoy

Shrinally...

2011-01-13T02:38:00.000-08:00

Above is the final image for mine and Rachel's shrine project where we had to combine our passions of playing live music (Me) and ice cream (Rachel). Shot in Thamesmead on a very cold evening at the base of Honours Ice Cream who me and Rach. got in contact with and visited twice over the course of this project. This was probably the longest project we were given over term one though only reflected in one photograph, many hard hours of work went into this running round trying to hire/buy smoke machines and industrial lights as well as going to and forth to Thamesmead twice. Huge thanks to Onur for being so welcoming and enthusiastic with us, massive props to Rachel as well for being an awesome partner to work with. Both linked above. Below a few images from our working process with involved making home made ice cream, teaching Rachel how to play 'Seven Nation Army' on guitar, visiting Onur the first time and combining a microphone with an ice cream scoop (more photos to follow of that).

New Year

2011-01-11T02:15:00.000-08:00

A few resolutions,

1. Draw more.

2. Go watch more live music.

3. Play hard, work harder.

Wes Andersonism

2011-01-02T05:47:00.000-08:00

Manifesto 2 of 2.

For our second manifesto we were allowed to choose any subject whatsoever, write and then typographically represent a manifesto on that subject. I chose to write a manifesto based around my favourite film director Wes Anderson.

A slap in the face of public taste

2011-01-02T05:46:00.000-08:00

Manifesto 1 of 2.

Above is the first of two manifestos I have designed. The brief was for the first manifesto to be based around an arts/design movement from 1890 to 1930. I chose the largely unknown Russian Literary Futurist manifesto 'A Slap in the Face of Public Taste' purely for the title and the fact it is so unknown.

Jam Master Joe

2010-12-22T08:46:00.000-08:00

No more jam till next year. Promise.

Snow business

2010-12-19T14:40:00.000-08:00

when life gives you lemons, make...

2010-12-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

Ok so, in addition to the numerous and wonderful presents I have already bought my family for christmas this year I decided to make a batch of lemon and lime marmalade as a sort of nice homemade thing that everyone can enjoy. The ingredients are pretty simple but the process itself is somewhat more complex and time consuming. Don't attempt if you have any sort of cuts on your hands, citrus and open wounds do not mix well. I got the recipe from my housemates Leon cookbook if anyones interested in making some of their own. As well as making the marmalade I have designed labels for the jars which hopefully I will be printing tomorrow and will post here once they are all done and photo'ed. I have designed the labels around the idea of myself starting up a jam making company called king of preserves. and am super happy with the results, the jam tastes alright too which is good news.

Golden Boy

2010-12-11T02:53:00.000-08:00

Above is the final outcome for our iconic photo project where we had to choose and recreate an iconic photo with the only condition being that it had to be 'properly iconic' and not just a photo of a modern day celebrity. We had to organise all props, clothes etc ourselves then each student had a group session in the photography studio with the awesome Alex Madjitey. Basically a short introduction to the photographic facilities, each student would shoot another's photo while Alex would sort out lighting etc. I actually made it to the studio 3 times no less to complete shoot for this photo but it was totally worth it with Alex now referring to me as exclusively 'golden balls'. YES I did actually paint myself Gold.

Props to Alex for his awesome lighting and general photography skills, Paige Shaw for shooting my golden boy photo, Vanille VDC for shooting the suited photo and Julia Salotti for being my Bond girl.

Below is the original film poster which I based my shot on. I spent hours trying to find the right weight of Gothic to match the fonts exactly but to no avail.

XL

2010-12-08T01:42:00.000-08:00

SNOW

2010-12-02T08:35:00.000-08:00

DISCLAIMER: The white powder you see in the images above is icing sugar NOT cocaine or any other illegal narcotics.

Ok so now that's done with time to explain. Above, for the most part is the final set of images for one half of the Destroying Bad Typography brief. The brief states we must make our allotted letter (mine is capital E in Times New Roman if you're in any doubt by now) in using two different materials. The first material was wood which each person has to use by way of an induction to the workshop which I posted a few weeks ago. The second material is completely up to each individual person and is where this project really comes into it's own, the only rule for both letters is that it must be white and that you must destroy it yourself. Below is a detail shot of the 'E' itself before being cut and snorted by me. Massive props to Ben for helping me set up and shoot the whole thing.

Charlie

2010-11-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

Experimentation for an ongoing project based around destroying bad typography. More to follow this week.

Let Her Press

2010-11-22T16:06:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I was lucky enough to spend the entire day at the New North Press in Hoxton with Graham Bignell and a few of my course mates working on our class letterpress project. Collectively we are a class of 52, which handily is 2 alphabets worth of people. The project is called Cockney Alphabet, each student is given a letter with a cockney phrase to go with it:

'A for 'orses'

'B for mutton'

'C for miles'

etc...

If you don't understand it then don't worry, neither did I at first. Took me a good few minutes to work it out by saying the examples over and over again. I was given the letter 'i' and went with the phrase 'I for looting'. Slightly more sophisticated than your average, it tried to subtly hint at it's meaning, avoiding anything too literal which wouldn't have worked as well and arrived at the final scan you can see above which I am really happy with. Setting type is something I had never done before and it was just amazing how technical it was and the sheer amount of stuff Graham had in his workshop. Thousands of tiny (and not so tiny) metal and wooden letters in hundreds of draws is quite daunting at first but once I was shown how to do it and got the hang of manoeuvring round the studio and found where everything it was dead easy & super fun.

At the end of this project the typographically best letters of the alphabet will be chosen by Graham and our tutor Nigel and then compiled into one Cockney Alphabet poster. This poster will then be printed and editioned to around 30 copies and be shown in the exhibition 'Reverting to Type' which will be running from the 10th till the 24th of December 2010 & 4th till the 22nd of January 2011 at the Standpoint Gallery in Hoxton. Now all that remains is to see if my letter makes it onto the poster!

E is for Egan

2010-11-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

Spent my Friday morning in Chelsea's wood workshop making this roughly A4 sized Times New Roman capital 'e' out of mdf. Essentially it was our hands on induction to the workshop and went amazingly well, I used a nice selection of bandsaws and sanders that could quite easily have taken my hand off but managed to avoid that happening thankfully. Next will be painting this white and bringing it in for a collaborative project with the rest of my class in December sometime. Till then however I am going to be making a (much) smaller version of this 'E' and finding an awesome way of destroying it.

Gif City

2010-11-02T17:44:00.000-07:00

One outcome from my now completed logo project.

More results and explanations to follow shortly.

The Typographic Dictionary

2010-10-24T01:46:00.000-07:00

We have just spent the last week starting a logo project which is continuing into this one. Above is one of my 100 outcomes which gave me this idea, click the link, read the brief and submit something!

http://thetypographicdictionary.tumblr.com/

Hi, my name is...

2010-10-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

First post since starting my BA in Graphic Design Communication at Chelsea. This is what we got up to on our first day, put into groups by the first letter of our surname and told to make an image which spelled out or involved that particular letter. I am the only 'E' in the class so was put with Luke Fitzmaurice and Anna Fearon and the above image is what we came up with. Two and a half weeks in now and it's intense but RAD.

THE NEW GAP LOGO

2010-10-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

My housemate just told me to look at the the new GAP logo (no the above is not it but it could be). Back in the day at school if you wore GAP it used to mean that you were Gay. And. Proud. - smart logic I think you'll agree. Here's my own parody of the logo which took all of 1 minute on illustrator, can't believe that they probably paid a 6 figure sum to some advertising agency to come up with this. It now looks like GAP are an I.T. services company, specialising in data storage FUN. Obviously brands these days are constantly looking to keep the look and feel of their company 'fresh' but BLACK BOLD HELVETICA?! How original.....

Here's a cool link for you to vent your rage over:

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/new-gap-logo-met-with-outrage-general-indignation_b9152

Also if anyone from GAP reads this ever:

1. What on earth was wrong with your first logo?

AND

2. If you really do desire to change it, please employ me. Despite being only a first year design student I will 100% do a better job than the retards you employed to design this one.

OK, rant over....

A Magazine

2010-08-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

So I haven't update this blog in almost three weeks now. However since the last post mine and Hunter's anamorphic typographic work has been featured on a number of pretty high profile creative blogging sites and now things are starting to get interesting to say the least. Last week I got an e-mail from the editor of Maru interior design magazine asking us if we would be interested in featuring in their latest issue. Sent all the stuff off earlier today and now waiting to hear back from them. More to follow shortly about some pretty amazing things that could be happening for us soon.

17.5 point

2010-07-26T04:02:00.000-07:00

I found these books in the world's smallest, dustiest & most amazing bookshop a long time ago and thought it would be cool to share some pictures of them with you. Hopefully I will get the chance to use them sometime this year.

Fish 'n' Chips & Salty Lips

2010-07-03T03:07:00.000-07:00

Wear & Tear

2010-06-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

FIN.

2010-06-23T01:46:00.000-07:00

Above is the final edited video of mine and Hunter's anamorphic typography installations we created in the morgue corridor and our studio both in Chelsea college of art & design. Big thanks to Ed Gill who let us borrow his awesome homemade tripod tracker which is essentially a triangular piece of plywood with three skateboard trucks attached to it. RAD.

It's a point of view

2010-06-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some shots of mine and Hunter's anamorphic typography studio installation which we were asked to complete by our tutors at the start of last week in to be ready for the private view which took place last Friday. For this piece we incorporated some geometry into our design as well as copy. Videos to follow of both our pieces soon.

"There's so much wall on the floor"

2010-05-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

Some slightly more professional photographs of mine and Hunter's anamorphic typography installation in the morgue corridor in Chelsea. We're still working on getting the video done of this piece which I am pretty psyched about. Last Monday we were asked by our tutors to create another installation in the vis. com. studio for our exhibition. Below is a quick snap shot of the work taking place with photos of the finished piece to follow on Wednesday when I am invidulating the exhibition.

It's more than just print

2010-05-19T05:42:00.000-07:00

Above are the pictures from mine and Hunter's collaborative FMP final piece. We were incredibly lucky to be allowed use of a whole corridor in Chelsea College of Art & Design to carry out our anamorphic typography installation. Completed in exactly one week from start to finish our work covers the entire corridor as well as venturing into the fire escape it's without doubt the biggest work I have ever undertaken. Some of the letters cover more than one surface, with the 'M' actually hitting 4 walls overall whilst some letters are left untouched by anamorphosis and perfectly formed ('J' in the fire escape). The biggest letters without doubt are the 'A' and 'U' on opposing walls of the corridor around the 4 to 5 meter mark - "Anarchy" as Ed put it. The phrase we chose reads "it's more than just print". We chose this phrase for a number of different reasons. It's supposed to challenge what people consider to be conventional graphic design, working with flat 2D surfaces and designing business cards, posters etc. as well as being a comment on the process we used to create the piece. Below is a really rough video I took with my phone to give a bit more of an experience to the piece. Hopefully next week we will be recording it properly using a triangle frame and videocamera. It will be on show as part of the Chelsea Foundation Show from the 29th of May to the 3rd of June, which is completely free and should be great fun. For more info. go to

http://www.chelsea.arts.ac.uk/summershows2010.htm

Anamorphic Typography

2010-05-02T04:41:00.000-07:00

So over the past month I have not posted anything on my blog. This is because I have been busy working on my Final Major Project which started just over 6 weeks ago and still has another two weeks to run before being marked and presented at our final exhibition. I am doing a collaborative project with my friend Hunter Thomson based around anamorphic typography which happened totally by chance as we found out we were exploring exactly the same thing since returning from easter holidays. My original project title was based around the relationship between architecture and graphic design and Hunters was around typography and shape. I am confident that we can both answer our self initiated briefs within this project whilst creating some amazing and interesting work around Chelsea. The photos above are a test piece completed last week in the Fashion studio. I have a hundred more photos of this piece taking shape but I think it's more intriguing to show the finished piece and leave you to decide how we did it.

two of four (the ringing in my ears)

2010-03-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

So here is the second instalment of my four book works as promised. This was made in response to a project titled "three extraordinary books" (nothing extraordinary about the title) and we were given a number of words to base our books around. This book came closest to 'a book of multiples' which was only the means to an end as I had wanted to make this book for a little over 2 years now.

The title of this book is called 'The ringing in my ears', essentially it is my gig-ography from around 2004 to present containing tickets from a good percentage of every gig I have ever been to along with a few other mementos.

This book is made solely out of materials sourced from those concerts I have attended and represents hundreds of pocket money pounds, days of waiting in line, meeting the band, litre of sweat and thrown pints, ten pairs of ruined trainers, three bruised ribs, many hoarse throats, my endless love for music and the ringing in my ears at the end of every night.

The covers are made using set-lists from different bands woven together, the covers are held as one by a strip cut from one of my first gig t-shirts. Each page is a gig ticket or memento from a gig, torn setlist, signed stuff and maps, travel tickets etc. The pages are bound using two festival wristbands (Reading 09 and Underage 08). This book is one of my favourite pieces of work I have produced this year and hopefully one that I will keep forever.

Laugh and you know you're a graphic designer

2010-03-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

I Met The Walrus

2010-03-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

For anyone with a Beatles obsession or a fascination with illustration and animation. In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto and convinced him to do an interview. 38 years later, Levitan, director Josh Raskin and illustrators James Braithwaite and Alex Kurina collaborated to create an animated short film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. This video blows me away on so many different levels every time I watch it and I now think is possibly one of my favourite videos on youtube.

Too many typefaces

2010-03-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

Above is a picture I found whilst trawling through files from my old hard drive last night sent to me from a relative in Ireland a good couple of years ago. I didn't read it properly at first and thought that my family may have been involved in the whisky distillery business but it turn's out they only bottled and sold it via their grocery business in County Trim. Pretty Cool.

one of four

2010-03-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

One of four books I have made over the past 3 months in response to a number of different project briefs. This was made as an offshoot to a typography project where we had to produce two typographic works based on two overheard phrases.

Based around the idea that everything is connected in the form of language and how this idea is typified by a book being both physically bound together and being a single entity created by the author for the specific purpose of being read as one work.

Drive well, sleep carefully

2010-03-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

As part of a self reflective journal task set for the start of our Final.Major.Project we were told to use images to illustrate our feelings about a set number of words. This is my chosen image for photography. My cameraphone is without doubt the most useful thing I own as a creative person in helping me record thoughts, ideas and anything that inspires me. I just really like this image I guess.

It's all for a good cause

2010-03-03T16:01:00.000-08:00

Here is some work I have been doing recently about using temporary tattoo's to promote organ donation. This whole idea came from a brief set by Leeds College of Art & Design to create 4 seperate works out of 4 awful word art images in an attempt by them to try and whittle down applicants for portfolio review - one of these was a heart. These two images are now the first pages of my portfolio.

I still have some of the tattoos left for anyone who wants one.

Here's the link in the poster if anyone is actually interested in becoming an organ donor:

http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt/Consent.do

I like your type

2010-02-20T12:39:00.000-08:00

Above is a new the typeface that I have been working on lately and which will be making an appearance in my portfolio. To go with this typeface my personal tutor suggested that I find a quote and write it in my newly created font to enhance and embody the idea and inspiration behind the typeface. The quote I have decided on is this:

"Design is as much an act of spacing as an act of Marking" Ellen Lupton

Below is the link to a website which is the companion to Ellen Lupton's 2004 book titled 'Thinking with Type' - it is a truly fantastic website for anyone interested in typography, extremely helpful as well as being interesting and fun at the same time. Thinking with type is on my list of books I need to own. My favourite part of the website is the fontographic dating game, check it out.

http://www.papress.com/thinkingwithtype/index.htm

You still have that Norwich mentality don't you?

2010-02-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of things that I need to remember:

A combination of old magazine article and conversations today about birthday presents has made me post these two new Lego sets which are part of the new Frank Lloyd Wright Collection which was released in 2009. Recreating the Guggenheim and Falling water in tiny plastic bricks has me quite sadly salivating at the mouth at the prospect of building. Possibly one of the world's greatest and timeless toys combined with the works of one of the greatest architects of the 20th century? Certainly an object of desire.

Be My Valentine?

2010-02-14T02:58:00.000-08:00

Flying Kites with MI5

2010-02-11T16:23:00.001-08:00

Turns out spending an hour trying to fly a kite in central London had no relevance to my final work for my Stingray project at all. But it was an awful lot of fun if not quite 100% successful. Well done to Francesca Pecqueur for the photos.

My current project which is to try and graphically represent one aspect of an animal (mine is a stingray) and has been getting at me for the last 2 weeks. I had almost no solid ideas until today when after spending 2 hours on google I discovered the perfect thing. Hopefully will make some headway tomorrow and over the weekend to maybe post it up on Monday when it is due.

a day in the life of a charity street worker

2010-01-31T13:34:00.000-08:00

I must admit that I am one of those people who never stops when approached by a charity street worker. I usually smile, keep walking, headphones in and mumble something at an inaudible volume along the lines of "I'm late for work" or "I have no time, sorry".

However after my experience today I can honestly say (hand on heart) that unless I AM late for work or some other important event then I will stop and talk to them for a second. Even if I don't give any money, it's just a nice thing to do.

Today I spent approximately 3 hours stood just outside the gates of The British Museum with Will (right) and Myles (left) trying to get people to guess the value of a nice earthenware vase which we were given for our weekend project on Friday. Our brief said we were to take our objects and use our skills as graphic designers to try and increase their value in some way. My idea was to approach people and ask them to guess the value of the vase after being told a little of its history and after letting them hold it in their hands with whichever person is closest to the real estimated value being the winner. For each guess we asked for a small donation of around 50p which we are going to donate to a Haiti related Charity. It was a day of highs and lows, we almost jacked it in after 20 minutes because no-one wanted to know but eventually we talked to some very nice people and in total we collected £30.15 and 4 US cents.

The picture above is of Will, Myles and Walter, a country hopping Australian traveller who came out with easily the quote of the day and summed up our feelings perfectly.

"It's a sunday, of course I have time"

We were also impressed (but also slightly scared) by his beard.

Tomorrow we are going to try at Chelsea and see how much we get.....presenting at 2pm

I stand on the edge of escalator steps to feel like I'm pushing them back into the floor

2010-01-27T16:11:00.001-08:00

Here are some photos from a recent trip to the V&A and it's current Decode exhibition. Quite easily the best £4 I've spent in a while, every single exhibit was either very interesting or amazing fun. Highly recommended if you have a spare afternoon.

2010 New Years Resolutions

2010-01-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

1. Take more photographs

2. Read many more books

3. Play my guitar more

4. GET BUFF

On the 5th day of Christmas a colleague gave to me....

2009-12-31T06:54:00.000-08:00

5 medical stitches

4 hand x-rays

3 different nurses

2 trapped fingers

1 interesting new years

17#

2009-12-21T03:42:00.001-08:00

It's been almost exactly a month since I started this blog and have not paid it much attention since then. However with the new year coming up I have decided that one of my many resolutions should be to try and make at least one interesting post a week (I don't think I have enough interesting things to post something each day) throughout 2010.

Above is a short video piece made over my 2 week fine art rotation in response to a series of 3 zen haikus. This piece has been created from recording of two spontaneous and unrelated ideas/events from two separate entities. However when combined both elements start to relate and reflect each other encompassing the true concept of zen.

With Credit to Robert Brook who kindly wrote and performed a stream of consciousness for this piece without any knowledge of its purpose or inspiration beforehand. All video was shot by myself using my mobile phone. Also thanks to the woman in the pink hat who turned round at just the right time.

23# Review a ball of string

2009-11-20T02:03:00.001-08:00

My first ball of string.

To be honest this is the first time I have ever needed to buy my own ball of string having previously had a communal ball in my family home back in Norwich. However now that I have moved away from home to London I felt that buying my own ball of string was an essential part in establishing myself as an independent and responsible "grown-up" person.

It is not that I needed the string for a specific purpose or use more so that I know, if presented with a situation when I do need string I will be ready and able to deal with it. Over the past 9 weeks of living here in London no such situation has occurred but I am confident one will soon. Perhaps I will need to dry some washing in my room? Or maybe one of my flatmates will insist on teaching me how to play cats cradle?

For the seventy five pence I paid at my local sainsburys I received an approx. 6 meter length piece of string arranged into a geometrically and aesthetically pleasing ball. I would have preferred a shorter length of string and lower price but there was a very limited range of strings to choose from forcing me to pay in the upper regions of what I consider to be a reasonable price for string.

The string itself seems to be of equal quality to others I have handled before. The string's colour is a light cream leaning towards a light parcel paper brown which when combined with the rough, abrasive feel against the skin gives it a very traditional and reliable feel. There are around 50 fibres that make up this one piece of string which are woven together very tightly to produce what seems to be a highly durable strand. The diameter of the string is approx. 4mm, a reasonable width allowing for a variety of applications whether you need to either tie tightly or thread through a small hole.

For me this particular ball of string ticks all the boxes and although it does not bring anything new to the table in terms of string technology that's alright, at the end of the day so long as I can still tie one end to a troublesome tooth and the other to a doorhandle then I'm happy.