what i have learned so far...

As this term draws to a close I thought I'd write a little about how things have been so far..
The course is undoubtedly the right one for me - it is vocational and really focused on teaching us how to get a job and work as Graphic Designers. The students, all 100 of us, seem a great mixture of ages and cultures and the teachers are friendly, inspiring and, most importantly, seem to know what they are talking about. I am already looking forward to next term's project  (hopefully I will get a place with Okido) although I have to say I've found it challenging to get my head around how the course works and to keep up with the plentiful and various assignments we have received this term. One of the hardest parts so far has been keeping up with this blog itself - learning how to use the frustrating templates available on blogspot and also learning how to describe the way I feel about art when my appreciation always seems to be more visceral than intellectual. The first project, Graphic Design Fundamentals, has been a really useful one in learning different methods of research. Now I am just looking forward to actually making something! Here's to the next term...

type in the environment

We were asked to take about 20 photographs of interesting examples of type in the environment. Here are my 20, which I have put into black and white for the sake of avoiding clashing colours (my worst thing). Some are corporate, some vernacular, some are fun and some are serious. 

I took this photo on the tube on my way to college (it is a bit blurred as I took it quickly - you are not allowed to take photographs on the tube in case you are a terrorist). As a person who thought the White Stripes were the big new thing (after discovering them a decade after their first album came out) it is unsurprising that I had never heard of Antony and the Johnsons. I love this vernacular type though, kinda naive, kinda squiggly and cool. Might just have to listen to their music!

I came home one day to find this on our fridge - our painters had been busy with Lola's fridge magnets. I actually want to get her some new magnets because I really hate the font of the ones we've got - none of the stroke widths make any sense and the colours clash really badly. Don't think Lola minds though.

Gordon's Wine Bar - a fantastic little cellar bar just by Embankment tube station on Villiers Street. I've no idea how long it has been going but judging by this lovely delapidated old lantern it must have been around for a while.

This EAT. logo was designed by Pentagram studios back in 2007 and is fantastic in its minimalist and clean cut look. No mess, no fuss, just EAT. The font is Akzidenz Grotesk Bold.

Herman Ze German. A brilliantly stereotyped  German man turned into a logo. He is a sausage, he has a funny moustache, he is called Herman and he can't pronounce his 'th's. Lovely.

This is a crop of the sign for the 'ha ha bar and grill'. The typeface is traditional and comfortable but the actual words 'ha ha' and the lack of Upper Case lettering says ' we are easy going, we don't bother with formalities, we like a joke, come on in and join us!'. Very effective.

I used to work for Foyles when I first moved to London in 2003, and again when I came back from Istanbul in 2006. This lit-up sign will always evoke fond memories for me.

This type was printed on a tarpaulin on the Southbank. Because of the heavy rain and howling wind I couldn't, as hard as tried, get a photo in focus. But because the word is 'move' I think the blurring is quite suitable.

Let's go to heaven - why not? I took these 3 photographs at the Southbank skate park. There is so much grafitti there I almost missed this message, spray-painted casually across the concrete. I wonder who wrote it?

Not really sure what to say about this one other than it is a nice message to come across when hurrying along on a wet and miserable evening.

I took these 2 pictures on my way to the corner shop this morning. I live on Holyport Road and Crabtree Lane is just around the corner. They are both brilliant old rusty signs and much nicer than the modern, reflective plastic ones. (note the snow coming down over the 2nd picture!)

I took these 2 pictures at the V&A museum on my way to a Photoshop class. I think they are both screenprints or maybe Letterpress. I love the way the word 'taxi' jumps out of the first picture as is it is being shouted from a street corner. The 'Cor Blimey Trousers' is a close up of an Evening Standard billboard poster. Great.

Not so much type in the environment as my own handwriting. This is a page from my 'book book', a notebook in which I write down all the books I have read. Sad, I know.

Some nice examples of typographic work from 'Pick Me Up', a contemporary graphic art fair held earlier this year at Somerset House.

Another one from the Southbank Skate Park. I like the way the D has a little devil horn coming off it. And that makes 20. Phew.

okido!

This FdA is flying on by and it is already time to decide on a project for next term. Out of a list of 8 interesting choices I have decided to go for a project that is slightly out of my comfort zone. Although I enjoy drawing I have never considered myself to be an illustrator but I love the medium and think this is too good an opportunity to pass up. I actually have some postcards of Rachel Ortas' up in Lola's bedroom although I did not know her name until now. Very exciting to think I might get to work with her. Here below is the brief and a few of her beautiful illustrations...


Okido: Illustration

This project will be led by Rachel Ortas (www.rachelortas.co.uk) who is an illustrator, graphic artist and artist in residence at Central St Martins, in addition to contributing to many art publications.

Her screenprinted illustrations include weird and wonderful characters who look cute but have a slightly menacing edge, which is what makes them appealing to adults as well as children. One of her most well-known characters are the AiAis, monsters from outer space, which have been exhibited in Magma and the Science museum. These characters appear in comic strips, books, cards and in 3D form.

Rachel is also one of the creators and founders of OKIDO (www.okido.co.uk) an educational and fun art and science magazine for children.

If you choose this project, led by Rachel, the kind of work that’ll you’ll be working on includes:

Designs for young children (based on a theme) including:

● developing/researching ideas

● working for a magazine

● graphic design

● illustration

● interactive design

● typography

All the work you produce for this project will be evaluated by the Okido publishing team who will decide on the best pieces of work that could go forward and be published in Okido Magazine itself.

the top 5 publishers i'd like to work for: number 3. MC SWEENEY'S

Born in 1998, Mc Sweeney's Quarterly Concern is not so much a publisher as a literary review.
I have been collecting Mc Sweeney's since about 2004 when they started doing The Acme Novelty Library series by Chris Ware, author of 'Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid on Earth' and one of the top Graphic novelists around today. I am not quite sure who the actual publisher of McSweeney's is - some editions list Drawn & Quarterly, some Hamish Hamilton/Penguin and one of the latest is done by Tate Publishing. Nevertheless collectively, in my opinion, they make some of the most astonishingly beautiful books in print, both in terms of design and content. The production values are exquisite; gold embossing, wrap-around dust jackets that open into posters with mini comics embedded in their folds, glow-in-the-dark ink, cloth spines and numerous other expensive finishes. Below are a collection of my favourites. (note to any family members looking to get me a christmas present - I don't yet have 'Art of McSweeeny's)

book cover junkie

Turns out I am not the only person who buys copies of books I've already got because the cover alone is worth it. I've just found an excellent blog, Nonsuch Book: Musings of a Print Junkie, which has some great stuff on it, really inspirational and totally after my own heart.The blog explains that:

     Publishers have been forced to re-invent the way they market books as they compete with downloadable versions of the same material. The result has been an explosion of outstanding design the last several years. Both the behemoths and small or boutique publishers are producing treasures for the hands. Those of us who covet and collect have been on the receiving end of all this creativity and high production value.

Here are a few featured covers which caught my eye

bodoni love

I'm very excited to be doing a short course in Letterpress, the practice of hand setting print using little squares of lead type. It is amazing to get to know the history of typography, the points, the picas, the way it used to be done in the good ol' days. For this project we have to create a poster displaying Ultra Bodoni. Hopefully, if our work is good enough, it will be included in a newspaper A-Z of typefaces which is being produced by the letterpress department. Below are a few posters featuring Ultra Bodoni that I have been looking at for inspiration. I've never really used Bodoni before but, having seen what can be done with it, I can't wait to get started. So watch this space!

the top 5 publishers i'd like to work for: number 2. VINTAGE

 Vintage is another publishing company with top design standards and another company I would love to work for. Below are some of my own favourite Vintage book covers. I particularly love the Vintage classics, not just for the excellent list but also for the fact that each book has it's own unique and retro style. The bottom 3 of the pictures below are Vintage Classics. Read more about Vintage here.