Final images for Silence project promoting free speech.

I have used a simple layout as i would like the images to show the meaning through texture, light, and shapes formed. 

Screen prints for my silence project

Layering up photographs, photocopying, then screen printing over the top creates great shapes and texture to the image. I am now going to experiment and see how these images work for my project with creating hand out booklets and poster design. 

Resistance, Dont Panic

My new project is on resistance, where i am looking at breaking the rules and being different. Photographing thread and layering creates lines and shapes that really show freedom of the individual.

Hamish Muir

Hamish muir came in to talk about his design career and the work he has produced over the past years. hamish co-foundered 8vo with mark holt and simon johnston. Producing many album covers & promotional material for factory records as well as record covers for the band duritti column.

 8vo had a very hands on approach to design, they would make full size collage pieces by hand and stick/paint/cut to size for each project and then document them as they developed the work. most of the work had strong bright typographical elements.

Helen Murgatroyd

helen murgatroyd came in to talk to us about her work and life after graduating from the d&ad couple of years ago. She then went onto do an ma in printmaking at the royal college of art in london after a gap year as a post lady doing sketches as she delivered the post. Her work from her third year at mmu still influences the work she is currently doing at royal college at present. Focusing on the process of creating something & the wonderful journey of experimenting her work has a really nice feel to it and shown above her mapping sketches of a house really captures her style. 

Craig Oldham

craig oldham came in to talk to us about 12in12,a booklet of the twelve things he had learnt in his first twelve months of finishing university. 

the twelve things included:

understand what graphic design means to you

be honest with yourself about your strengths & weaknesses

a portfolio is for life, not just for an interview

placements matter, do them

the design industry is small, everyone knows everybugger else

participate with other people & share your ideas

graphic design is just a job, but being a designer is different

fall off your bike, if you don't fail then you are not trying

life & work exist outside of london

designing is only about 20% of your job

have a life outside of design

work hard & be nice to people

craig use to work for the chase but currently working at design by music. He was really honest and good sense of humour. One final tip was to learn how to make a good cup of tea=-)

yulia brodskaya's paper-cut illustrations:

yulia brodskaya is a russian born graphic designer / illustrator now based in london. she specializes in a paper art techniques to create distinctive typography and interested in diverse creative practices ranging from Textile Painting, Origami and Collage to more traditional Fine Art practices. Following an MA in Graphic Communication (2006, University of Hertfordshire) she has continued to experiment and explore ways of bringing together all the things she likes most: typography, paper, and highly detailed hand-made craft objects. I just love the intricacy of her art and the beautiful images made. 

http://www.artyulia.com/

British artist Su Blackwell hit on an unusual way to bring storybooks to life – by fashioning their pages into origami-like sculptures. Her intricately worked scenes are 3D illustrations of the stories they are made of. The artist says they are 'often pervaded by a sense of loneliness, since the stories on which they are based are rather sad'. 

Faltjahr 2010 is a paper pop-up art project by Johann Volkmer. 12 motifs for 12 months, The Faltjahr 2010 project shows what paper is capable of. I love how the shapes are formed and the structure and organization of paper can look so good. 

Check his work out here: http://www.faltjahr2010.de/

Alex Ostrowski: Visiting lecture

Alex from YCN came to talk to us about who they are and the changes that they are making within their design agency. Recently graduating, Alex joined the studio last year after doing an internship with them. 

YCN began as an awards program for young creatives in 2001, Partnered with brands as big as orange and Ben & Jerry's. 

Alex showed us pictures of the new trophy they are giving away, a rubber cast of the letter A, for the student awards and a wooden one for the practicing designers. 

Internships are also available within YCN, taking on six students on at a time, last year they did this for the first time and it worked really well and the students created some really nice work. So for further information keep your eye on the website. 

Let the Right One In

Tuesday film night: Iv seen the film once before, and for the second time i really enjoyed watching it. The film has as the way through beautiful music and art direction, due to the lighting and setting of the backgrounds it felt soft and not hidden jumpy scenes but open to what was happening.. It was a slightly disturbing story between two kids, and how the girls's killing spree in the town didn't effect their friendship ...was she in love with him or comforting his loneliness?Films like this always make me think of the other life and if they are real or not? Its surreal and abstract, everything that happened all happened for a reason.

Graham came to show us some of his work- mainly on promoting himself as a designer. Self Promotion is something that you should always think about.  Its this stage where I as a designer must shout out and be original to get noticed, differentiate between the other thousand designers that will graduate with me. 

Creating leaflets for my silence project. 

Pop up is the new flat!!! 

I have continued using the same abstract shapes that i have used throughout my project. I think these have come out really nice. 

When you or I look at a teacup we think “put some Earl Gray in it and a couple lumps of sugar”. When the innovative duo behind domestic construction sees a teacup they think “let’s make a hanging lamp out of this”…and that’s just what they did. The “ted” lights are a unique and creative option for anyone looking to light their life with style. The vintage ceramic or porcelain teacups, acquired from flea markets and thrift stores all over the country. They also do wallpaper design and manny others. Check their work out!

http://www.domestic-construction.com/press/

All over the world millions of burnt light bulbs are thrown into garbage. 

How about recycling them into innovative, cool lighting designs? 

You can see more at: http://www.bulbs-unlimited.com/gallery/index.htm

 Designer Jeremy Grove , his ideas are so simple yet intriquing….

Lampshades that slowly fan out using the heat generated by a light bulb. It reminds me of plants and how they open towards the light. 

Creating lamp shades that can be a flat hand out too. I am experimenting with interacting pieces of work that people will want to keep and use. 

More of my mobile madness! love the shapes and shadows. 

Creating paths of light really can look great if you go about it in the right way. Creating my mobiles i was able to capture different levels of light and shadows. 

I have started making my own books relevant to my project on silence. I have used my own pictures of hanging mobiles to create the shapes and images. These are so nice to make and are quick if you know how to put them together. 

The first of manny to come i hope =-) 

Guest Lecture

Nikki from last year came in to give us a talk about placements and her life after uni. She is self imployed and has started selling manny designs including cushions. The advise given by her was to know your current affairs, use the environment and be yourself. (www.nicolarowlands.co.uk)

Guest Lecture

mandi goodier & libby scarlett from last year came in & gave a talk about their life being in third year and what we should expect from our final year. they showed some of their work and explained where some of their inspirations came from. one of the best advise they gave was to get out of the sketchbook and actually make things. 

Visit to the Walker Art Gallery

'Cow Mutations'

One image i was attracted to was Cow mutations by Tim Head. Generated by the image on a supermarket milk carton, it explores a synthetic imagery only tenuously connected to the 'natural' world', uncovering simulated textures and shapes in which, silently, anything can be changed into anything else. His paintings are all based on found things, enlarged and then projected onto canvas. He emphasizes the gap between our materialist 'packaged' society and the natural world on which it depends. 

Tate Liverpool Day Out

I went to Tate Liverpool to see 'Joyous Machines'. The exhibition saw Jean Tinguely's work and how it inspired Michael Landy's creations.

I liked the rough drawings Tinguely did in to understand his vision opposite to Landy's detailed drawings depicting the same mechanisms.

Rollerball

In a futuristic society where corporations rule, the violent game of Rollerball is used to control the population by demonstrating the failure of individuality. One player, Jonathan E., rises to the top, and fights for his personal freedom and threatens the corporate control. I really like the film shots and the sense of loosing or having control between the characters.

Johnny Hardstaff Lecture- Tuesday 6th October 

Our first guest lecturer of the year i was pleased to see some inspirational work from Johnny Hardstaff 'He loves to re-personalize commercial work and the process of selling products but hates corporate businesses'.

 His power point presentation really showed his skill in drawing and how you can make animation through individual drawings and then manny hours on photoshop moving each component one at a time. He told us for his first animation it took him around six months to finnish. Tedious, but when you have no experience of moving image these pieces of animation are amazing.

Johnny Hardstaff- "we all direct people in some form or way"

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

French Art Director of ELLE rendered MUTE by stroke - the amazing true story of Jean Dominique Bauby 

I really enjoyed this emotional film. The film work and lighting really portrays how this man feels being trapped in a body and not able to speak. The blurred lighting and film work of a man in a old diving suit surrounded by water was a good representation of how he feels. 

I love this map! Something so simple made into something stunning. 

Paper cut Paris map

famillesummerbelle.typepad.com/ fsblog/2009/04...

John Walsh day project at university. 

Went out around manchester to be an investigator. From the pictures i took we then were put into pairs to create something out of our combined work. This one day project made us think outside the box, and explore shapes, items, colours from our environment that can create something amazing. John Walsh's work really shows the personal approach but still commercial and can sell.