RECYCLING GRAPHICS *festive edition*

Bit of a laugh this really

i love it but i HATE hp printer/scanner i got its just such a massive arse to scan things in its just such a massive fannying about with poxy little photosmart studio that isnt smart at all and just irritates me it wont save into photoshop and its a massive massive arse just saving it elsewer so i can edit them and upload etc and now its not even scanning and just being completely shit i hate it so much i could cry

HATE HEWLITT CRAPARD

now thats out the way, these daft images where quite a laugh even to make. in fairness i again took alot from it, letterpress is still new to me and thers so much i want to say about it. this was, if anything, regurgitating what i learnt from it and seeing what else i could do.

and first time using glyphs!thers a massive load of em!thyre great fun!

I did these by using a job lot of old screenprints which i had previously cut to A6 size originally for the collages, to use as backgrounds or just saving my nice white card for stencils or something.

on their own these cropped bits of peculiar mistakes and colours where quite fun, and just lobbed them on top of some lumps of type and this happened. 

-obviously its rude, but its fun. and i wanted something silly that ud know was from me. 

did take it a little too far with the 'you c**t' ones, they were a limited edition and intended for one particular individual [roland aka massive Git] who loved it, and turned out this particular one was one of the most popular!!went down a treat!

funny how different things turn out when u let it loose in the wild. was secretely tempted with giving one to letterpress alex for a laugh as he has oceans of hatred for xmas cards. but i like letterpress and i wna continue with it so i wont be getting on anyones wrong side there. and i hear hes quite handy with one of them pointy futura 'x's 

Something else of note, this time last year, i was obsessed with screenprinting, and infact the whole studio and all the processes we could do. and im almost ashamed of not making more use of it this year. too much going on i suppose , but, if u read my previous post, ive a serious reason for thinking up and making new images to work with which was my major problem with not screenprinting this year. and photography too, its mostly been chucking armfuls of film a ian and scanning them in, no developing at all. 

-Perhaps i should put up a few of my photo experiments and ramble about what ive learnt from them. my biggest issue with this practice is coming accross as a bit of a dick to anyone else thinking i know it all n so amazing, im still figuring stuff out and im enjoying it so ill jus have to get over it and stick two fingers up at anyone who thinks otherwise.

litrally the most amazing thing in the world

This!!this was amazing!! i really really liked this exhibition

this is how it should be done this is just it i loved it, was exactly done by artists, street artists all contemprary and just about as cutting edge and true as it gets

no fannying about jus damn fine stuff.fannying about-see my post about the saatchi gallery visit!

just loved this took so much from it wish it was still going!

i went twice infact!the second day to take pics and listen to what people had to say about the pieces learn what they liked what they like about it etc etc i wanted to learn more about what people like in preperation for this project im working on

there was just so much there!stuff made from what we ignore and throw away, allsorts really talented fantastic stuff

The Beginning...

Ive titled this post the beginning as this is exactly what its about.

The way i see it the purpose of this blog is that is serves as a Personal professional development tool, ands acts as a soundboard and a record for not just my thoughts and whats going on but what im learning also in the proffessional environment.

and recent activites, i think im going to be learning a fuck of a lot, and drawing upon what i have learnt in and out of college.

-So what the fucks all this then?...

some of u know already ive been applying for work, the kind of work i want to do when i finish this course. yeah it ballsed up and i nearly ruined our last project focusing on it. But it was still time well spent, i have an online portfolio i can so easily fire off and instantly show my work, ive more experience talking to employers, ive drawn so much from the lakes of experience from our tutors, facilities and stuff as part of our college that i never knew existed last year all of which adding more to my job application armoury.

and then this happened...ive kept quiet on whole about some previous employment but one such job has led me onto a brand new project working with an owner of a hairdressers [bizarrely] transforming his space into an art gallery. is a very forward thinking idea, it sound like chalk and cheese but listening to the guys zeal and energy, and seeing the place itself, am well up for it. and it comes with a healthy dollop of challenges ive not encountered before.

firstly i have to create of body of work to fill the space by around the time we hae to get back to college. this is great love it love it love love it!!not my first working under pressure, but not quite on this scale, and for the public consumption as it wer. 

this in itself has made me think and use our research tools, who's going to buy this?what do they want?what do they have to spend?

and had some interesting times making a note of what people wear, who they are, learning their likes attitudes etc all helps, n i like im using something i learnt. i probably wouldnt of even questioned the type of people who go there, but now i know thyre quite well off decent/affluent proffessional sorts, who have enough to spend some cool money on their appearance and their backgrounds and ambitions stands a solid chance of them being interested in the genre i work in and actually paying for a piece of it they can keep forever. if thyre going to spend on something to last a few weeks months, then the money theyd spend on a lovely piece of contemporay art is a bargain. and will liven up the salon some n all, which im sure will do his custom a world of good.

Ill keep his name and the address private for now before things start rolling proper. ut hes well on it, and knows exactly what would sell for how much.i was being modest at first, but well this is my first venture into this realm of producing something creative, letting loose in the wild and seeing if anything comes back. 

please dont feel im going into this with every confidence of being some kind of major success, i dont think my heads that far up my own arse to realise im simply not amazing, or clever or skilled to pull off some kind of artistic coup. but i have made a modest living from it in the past and i have the kind words of encouragement from my peers to fuel me into jus bloody well going for it!!

so i lookin to get out of this real world experience, dealing with money such as pricing commission percentages etc and importantly what the public like and want, what works and what doesnt.selling a couple print on top of this will definately be an added bonus. 

and im keen to get others involved im at such a hive of creativity at lcc i can peel off a lists of names off the top of my head who could also take a lot from this and im talking with him about rotating people over the course of this year. 

all in all an outstanding opportunity and a chance to give something to people who have supported and encouraged me. if you are reading this and this sounds like something you could be interested in, im a freindly guy come say hi and ill be happy to put your work forward im in the same boat as everyone else so why wouldnt i?

something else of note

this also relates to some conversations with other students of setting up our own exhibition in one of the gallerys at college, as a channel for more artistic urges and i was delighted ot be let in on this little idea.

and another you ought to hear about sooner or later from one of the design innovation students is a meet where we can discuss our work and projects with others from mix of different courses and getting allsorts of different flavoured feedback.i cant believe its not being done already actually.

2010 looks to be good and im still thankful to be where i am

this was an amazing day!i loved it thought it was great fun, i really like the way we do things, putting up all our collages when handing them in, it gets us and anyone else to judge them but in a more interesting way i like this.

up here you can see a handful of some of my own i quite liked. some of the better ones i didnt photograph for some reason. im sure ill make a special post on my faves i think they deserve it. im going to upload some of my faves from other peoples work too

we did start out trying to co-ordinate some form of structure and it kinda happened but fell into a shambles. but i think what happened at the end was best way to do things for this, and that was for everyone to display them as they like!-there was ones coming off the ceiling dangling accross the gallery, on the floor, forming large shapes-brilliant!

i love days like these great fun. i was lucky enough to have a small squad of people from other courses check it out and gave me some solid feedback to chew on. and thanks to you

and thanks to darren for the cheeky beer!

different research

After the assessment, and even before it, i knew i could use a bit more research into my project. So i attended the workshop held by some of the 3rd years with an open mind and was delighted to find i could bend the stuff we were doing to work for my project.

we were offered a table of mad bit and bobs and was outlines the different approaches we could use in our research and the different info it could yeild. Similar to Orlaghs workshop right at the beginning but with a bit more figure out how you can use it for your own project n just go out and do it !

at first i really thought how the F am i going to use any of this mad stuff to conduct research, and something interesting/fun enough to take into the great outdoors and experiment on real people.

Luckily i found myself with a decent team member and something very workable came out of it. Normally i dont work well in groups, i can find my best freind turning into my worst enemy and can quickly become frustrating for all when a hundred solid but varied ideas come up but none we can all agree upon.

The idea we had was to use this box of different coloured beads,and a set of button bags, and to use each colour to represent a different theme. this worked well for us both as the themes we chose were relevant to each of our target audiences for our project:

money issues

health

being greener

more excersize

more holidays

more work etc etc

the aim was to approach people of various ages and backgrounds and ask them to pop a bead or however many beads into a bag for each theme they felt they needed most.

the results where very interesting, and in the time we had we were still able to take something from it. but with only a limited amount 

it was particuly interesting being able to 'see' the research layed out on a table of different coulours and sizes of beads. 

very interesting little project,i took alot from it and it has streched my thinking about the project. ill be trying more of this in the future

arty elephants update

These are coming along quite nicely

i look forward to seeing how these turn out when thyre done and what the hell thyre actually going to do with them

once thyre released into the wild i could see myself not being that arsed about it, i just find live art and interesting creative projects sponsored by councils really positive and encouraging. i hope thers more of this and e+c could always use a bit of extra colour

Formative assessment 8/12/09

this was alrite! n alot less painful than i was expecting

so for those of you yet to do it, nothing to worry about its good! dont listen to those lies circulating that you have to present your work on the projector to all the 2nd years as well like spyros breifly believed.

i was expecting something akin to a crit where we stand up and describe our work, and these are good but can get a little tedious after litrally the 20th one in th day

so i liked how we did this and really took alot from this

one thing i do wna say before i move on im really liking the way this course does things, it feels very forward thinking and cutting edge. at first i was dubious about some things but i think now im going to digest everything on offer and see where it leads me i gta lot of faith with what were all going to be doing.

firstly i learnt soemthing really significant and for any of you bothering with reading this should take note-turns out the PDFs we have to do a really significant!i knew coming on this course that working progress/process was expected/celebrated -one of the reasons i joined-  i put 99% of my effort into the final outcome, presenting it in a fancy plastic sleeve n all that n got a low mark for presentation which spooned me out a bit. it was becuase my PDF was shite and didnt explain how i got to the end

amazing, fuck it am well up for pdf's, im happy i jus need to switch a bit of effort into that, i saw them as more of an afterthought, an add on kind of thing. not at all, so that was a solid learning curve for me. and pdfs are great for sharpening my layout skills n all that so im well up for that

and another reason i like this course, i much prefer that we do pdfs instead of labouring over a sketchbook storming thru pritt sticks and print outs. 

moving forward with my project:

I aim to look further into type heirarchy, i knew mine needed work but i felt happy with it. which was all bollocks so ill learn more on that

sort my pdf right out

jibb off the colour outcome as it takes away from the energy of the original image i used

expand on my sub brand.

ill upload my recent final soon, for some reason my images didnt upload. i think it has to be jpegs for this site?

all in all happy with my feedback now i know how and what to spend my time on everything ll b sweet

photo cropping workshoppage

Bizarrely blogger has chosen to upload my images in this crazy mishmash way.

i was hoping for quite a nice neat post to demonstrate my cropping. but to be honest i much prefer it this way!

well from the top:

narrow vertical

narrow angle vertical

narrow angle vertical.2

enhance emotional value

emotional impact

depersonalise people

crop to show distance

crop to look distant

crop to abstract

close up detail

bold+exciting

bold+exciting.2

crop to define