work

Wednesday 29 December 2010

"NEVER GIVE UP" A-Z extention // [mantra] letterpress development

What with the current job market,
what with fee's going up,
and cutbacks on so much of our education and daily lives
theres just a thing I want to remind you all for 2011....

This is part of the A-Z OF GRAPHIC DESIGN extention.
I really wanted to develop a competent level of experience with letterpress.
My first poster wasnt that great, but still cool.
im not uploading any more images of it but was the same 'face with slightly less leading
and it was silver on black.

- With a week of open access I wanted to develop my letter press skills
and I felt the original poster I made could of been so much better

and try out a few things Ive been dying to experiment with
but never had the time or space [it gets proper busy in there]

I began by simply printing each word,
from the previous poster I felt the spacing between letters was fine
so left it as it was

I used the prints to cut out and make this 'Paste-Up'
this allowed me to visually see how much space i wanted, the positioning and layout on the page etc

This was also very useful for me when printing for registration
and to be able to determine how much space I needed to fill with 'furniture'
[lumps of lead or metal]

I spent frigging ages on this.

I set my type out on the printer the evening before and woke up ready to print.
I spent a good hour or two picking the right colours I imagined,
picking paper
and tr

 

this is a truly evil looking machine, but cuts paper beutifully
I chose a size just shy of A2 ["A2B2"]


The First print!!
the first proper print was, as nerdy as it sounds, damn exciting
I went insane at this stage.
i find it so satisfying pulling off a perfect coloured collection of type or image,
with either letterpress, photographic development or printmaking.

After a decent few prints I tried out some blendings, nothing too fancy,
A darker red into a lighter one,
quite subtle but i felt supported the message of the text
having this deep burning red heating up towards the end of the quote


this is a technique id been dead keen on for ages
and is another reason i like getting my hands in and on with the elements i work with

As the type is physical objects I like to use that uniqueness and work onto the type
creating this mini monoprint
and looks insane!
make a cool camo pattern too

In the examples ive uploaded further below ive put varying levels of white spirit on it too
-something we use to clean it with!
I layed the paper down onto the type to create a blurry soft outline of colour
then overlayed it
and did all this with different colour combintions.
as happy as larry


My main objective was to print white onto a selection of oil based monoprints I made
I been saving them for ages
I wanted white for them,
but I also had in mind applying a pure white onto an off-white paper stock
with the intention of overlaying some text on top of this,
with the intention of each supporting each other,

- As this mantra Ive chosen is designed to be motivating and inspiring,
I plucked some key notes I picked up during some basic research into next years project.
I overlayed these in a strong colour and much smaller point size
on top of the white on dark white mantra,
the concept being that the smaller type draws you in, revealing the mantra.

I used some notes ive been told of things to bear in mind as a designer:
  • AIM HIGH
  • VALUE YOURSELF
  • DONT BE SCARED
  • DONT BACK DOWN
  • STAND OUT
  • GO FOR IT


I used 18pt GROT for this element
someone told me GROT is only available in letterpress
not sure if thats true, but i never used it and really wanted to have a go with it
I wanted this poster to be Very letterpressed,...

Because I felt that to use, what could be argued as a particuly enduring process,
a process by its very nature completely obselete
-yet still going strong!
still valued and has carved its own kind of niche

also the process itself can be quite frustrating, difficult and time consuming.
it does take time patience and a little practice, another reason I wanted to practice it
its actually also quite a dangerous process,
constantly handling poisinous metals, inks and highly flammable cleaning products.
I personally feel the time and effort it takes to produce something is well worth it
the quality and feel is just delicious and special

so I argue that using this process for these reasons, greatly supports the message of the mantra.


once you've finally figured out the registration, that each line of text is where it should be,
-remember to put the f*cking paper the right way round!

an important part of experimenting and doing is the discoveries along the way!
I noticed this, this embossed type
and i htought hey, people do that for real why not try it without the ink
and I did!
just put an extra half dozen sheets of newsprint under your paper and there you go
looks fantastic with or without ink

I noticed in some fancy japanese magazine people using letterpress [and type] in interesting ways
something thats very much capturing my interest lately

I am still keen on the idea of combining that which is handmade with digital,
and the above is quite a cool example of that
this is quite inspiring of how to further treat the work i do
to give me something more to stand out and fit in with current trends

something i definately need to keep an eye on


some of the finals!!!

very satisfying seeing all the difinished pieces stacked up drying


 





These are some examples from the first project I did using letterpress this term
Its significant as I used two diffeent colours and spacing out the type was a total arse
spent ages just setting it up
but worth it

This was originally to 'TYPE' but changed it to fit with quote
Its A2 folded into an A4 [to fit in the A3 box, something i considered from the start]
again using letterpress and the reasons mentioned previously to support the message






Wednesday 22 December 2010

entry for V+A Illustration awards 2011

this is one of my sumissions for the v+a illustration awards.
I did a series using chine collage as well as monoprint.
check it out!

'Lost Knowledge', Benjamin Rider, 2010
'Lost Knowledge'
Benjamin Rider
London College of Communication, FDA Design for Graphic Communication
http://issuu.com/benrider
13 December 2010

My main submission is a cross process etching print. Part of an edition I wanted to use a repeatable image making process and combine with unique one off mono prints and chine collage. My original concept is to illustrate how as humans there is a lot we dont know from one another through how and what we choose to show one another. By studying the human form in its most honest, combined with my approach I want to show how we are each incredibly different and fascinating, and not all cast the same. 
View the whole edition a

Tuesday 21 December 2010

A-Z// Z is for ZOMBIE!!



as you see i began with a sketch, i traced over this scanned, resized and worked on top
to define with stronger lines and used photoshop for some simple effects.
Made 3 seperate images for three different colours.

 Theres a few things in life I think are just brilliant;
spaniels
robots
dragons
and zombies.
i think thyre just awesome.  i think thyre such a strange but cool thing in popular culture. and of all these things the great potential for cool imagery

with Z being a bit vague and open i just went for it with this,  I wanted to practice my image making skills and printmaking.

I did go insane, producing over 80 finished prints. But this was mainly to experiment and learn with technique and most importantly colour co-ordination and a took alot from this.

the below are a handful of favourites I handed in. If you know me, One of these will turn up in the post.


 

the colour of the photos is a touch blue, but that aside
this colours are great
 


 

this is also the first time i used metallics , relaly just to see the results
thyre rediculously metallic, gold is proper gold
did 5 or so on black backgrounds. looks ace

Monday 20 December 2010

Negative Space // brilliant star wars posters!

Not a massive fan of star wars, its alrite, but in terms of graphics, i think its damn cool. Loving this negative space.

I know its been ages since I last posted I owe you all something special.

working on it.