Keep Calm Gallery

(poster by Hayley + Lucas)

Quite appropriate at this stage of third year....

Found this lovely website 'Keep Calm Gallery,' full of screen prints, typography and letterpress! YUMMY

Libby Scarlett

A little bit of a late post...but I thought it was something I had blogged. Libby Scarlett is a former student who came in to talk to us 3rd years about how she survived her final year. The main point of the lecture was a look at journals and what to include, with a strong emphasis on us recording everything we do as we go along. (and I'm really trying hard to do this and keep up with the year!) Libby's journal had a really beautiful aesthetic and was so well executed, something I would like to replicate with my final journal.

I really liked the idea of the postcards in the box, a much nicer idea than the standard file format I usually use! We are frequently being told, that it's the content rather than the appearance of the journal which is most important and the method and language we use to contextualise the past year. But surely theres something wrong with making something look pretty...

Libby's lecture was a great inspiration especially with regards to dealing with the final year and the journals. I also really enjoyed seeing how she developed her blog and website, it has clearly helped her self-promotion Libby also reassured us that keeping the blog is definitley the way forward to mapping out thoughts, feeings ideas etc based around this final year!

Mid-term reviews

 I felt rather nervous in relation to last Thursday’s review. I wasn’t too sure how my work would be perceived and I felt completely clueless in regards to what direction I was heading in, with both this current brief and any other future briefs. I began by showing the summer Kino project, initially I was really pleased with my outcome as it had meant I had produced the final designs on the computer (something which I am a little afraid of doing) but after analysing it and presenting it to the rest of the review group I was able to look at it with a critical eye for the first time. My inspirations were drawn from the work of Kuntzel and Deygas and their opening sequence for the film ‘Catch Me If You Can.’ I chose to use a similar theme in my poster however my design for the identity didn’t comply with the overall design. It was suggested this was something for me to work on further, and we discussed how I could use typography and incorporated that within designs for the identity. It was good to finally discuss the work carried out over summer to gain a better understanding of what everyone thought. It is definitely something I would like to carry on with, I would like to pick my own range of films and complete a series of designs, which eventually may end up in my portfolio.
Next I presented the current Silence project, my work for this included pages of research from my sketchbook, illustrations, and paper and photographic experiments. I went onto explain my current struggle with sourcing a suitable narrative, which would be easily associated with my imagery and the subject of 9/11. I really want to keep the narrative sympathetic to the subject matter still at the same time not turn it into a memorial towards the event. I was given a number of pointers to think about in order to collect suitable narrative such as; thinking about my target audience think about a title and how anything found will relate to my chosen imagery of feathers. I don’t think it was clearly understood why I had chosen the image of feathers but it was all in relation to the photograph taken of the ‘falling man.’ Before the review I was in the process of gathering peoples thoughts and recollections of the event but John and Hitch suggested I look at quotes from the workers, the families and the witnesses- anything I could source from the media. I feel maybe the more mundane quotes may work against the delicacy of my imagery. I found the review at this stage totally useful- especially getting a chance to see where everyone else was up to. The only aspect I of the review I was not pleased with was being given our grades in front of the other members of the group, I’m not trying to argue with my grade as I agree and understand why I was given the grade I was given however I just didn’t think it was fair and thought it should’ve been done confidentially. The review allowed me to gain a more positive view of the Silence and Kino work and has really motivated me; this was down to gaining a critical perspective off two tutors and also see everyone elses work and processes. Definitely not as scary as I first thought it would be!

Long time no blog...

Well it seems I haven't been updating this much recently as I feel like I've been really busy. So I've taken some time out to sort out what I've been upto....

Keep Calm (well at least try too...)

Some inspirational posters from the guy's at LoveCreative, they may be useful...

Running out of time...ALREADY eeek!

Oh dear, had my 'not so wacky week' tutorial with Sue yesterday and it seems although we're only half way through the first term, we don't have long left and I definitely need to buck my ideas up!! So here I am on a Friday night blogging and being (well trying to be) creative hmmmm...lets see how long I will last. Glad I signed up to chat with Sue and the other girlie's in the tutor group as the feedback has really helped and motivated me....I will DEFINITELY be doing full studio days now for the rest of 3rd year, I guess I've said a sad goodbye to any form of social life, or just life in general for the next 7 months. Oh the joy!