Thursday 10 December 2009

50 Things - some refinement



In bringing my work work together for my tutorial and critical review of work to date I felt that I wanted to extend the work I started for "50 Things" I have edited down the list to 25 items which I felt could have imagery associated with them. The idea being that from title or notions applied to myself, I could generate what might appear to be a random series of images. I considered how I might extend this as a set and experimented with the idea of mini-images in the form of a series of postage stamps. Although this set represents links to points in my life it can be initially seen as a selection of seemingly random images. The images only demonstrate their links to me by the added visual signs of my silhouette and caption on the stamps.

To further this I considered how the stamps might be used in another visual  association, ie. on envelopes  linked visually by the appearance of an address/franking stmps etc. but, using the visual position of the address as an opportunity to link some meaning or comment to the image on the stamp. In this case, the intention being to see this piece of text as a short piece of "graphic poetry" maybe, directed at the person/character associated with the object. My intention with this excercise was to consider how to develop strands of creative thought moving away from the initial context of "50 Things" towards image and creative text.


Friday 4 December 2009

Reflections on seminar - moving towards manifesto

The session yesterday evening not only gave me an opportunity to review my "Balance" poster but also helped me to further consider a statement leading to my manifesto. I clearly want to reflect on the organisation of space in print through "Balance and Juxtaposition" of elements. Additionally I want to investigate, explore and take influences from periods and trends. 

I have been interested and influenced for some time by graphic design emerging in the 1950's - in particular the "paste up" typography and photography work of Reid Miles for the Blue Note Jazz record label through the 50's and into the early 60's. 

I am equally intrigued by the trend of the last few years of the move to developing design work for print from hand rendered and hand assembled starting points for graphic outcomes. This has gradually moved into the mainstream and now regularly appears in design work for major corporate companies. I feel that development of this work is in some part due to a reflection and in some ways a rejection by artists/designers of the dominance of the computer over design outcomes and seeks to return to some sense of reflection and acknowledge that design and creativity exists/existed before the computer.

I would like to start from the work of the 50's, which will clearly shows the influences of modernism and swiss graphics as a starting point and investigate creating work which relates to periods/trends from the that period to the present day and to try to draw comparisons between the hand rendered/paste up work of  the 50's,60's 70's through the digital transition of the late 1980's to the current trend of hand rendered starting points for some of today's design. 

I am keen to take on the notion of "being in practice" as discussed in yesterday's session; the idea that you continue to "practice" outside of the client brief and the pressure of "linear" design constraints and deadlines.  I am also inspired by the idea of being my own "audience" in developing a body of work through my creative investigations. I hope to use the next module - "Design Methods" to dig deeper into research of my own subject and practice to further this.

In terms of a statement for manifesto, something around "Balance, Juxtaposition and space is influenced by period, trend and process" might be getting close to it and something that I would wish to discuss and get some further critical feedback on.

further refinements to Balance Poster


After discussion at the group seminar yesterday evening with Rob and John the content of th poster was considered. It was felt that whilst the geometric shapes with the addition of the broken "Balance" and "Juxtaposition" carried the message well enough without the addition of the other type at the base of the poster "Space" together with my quote relating to the title. I have now reviewed this and amended so that a comparison can be seen between this and the last posting.