PPP Blog: 2013

Thursday 12 December 2013

Analysing Brosmind (Expansion on contacting/analysing designer task)

A studio I am still following even after my change through the year turning from an image based only designer to someone who considers concept, typography, layout and other fundamental graphic design elements in there work. I still enjoy catching up on what these guys are doing, I love how carefree they seem. The work they create is so humorous and original. They see no limitations in what they do.

A great example of there "limitations" is shown in this playful physical construction they created for there studio in Barcelona.

"Brosmind RV, an exclusive vehicle made of picture frames. We built the whole structure at our workshop and then drew the illustrations directly over the glass. This unique piece powered by pedals, it is totally functional"

This description from them explaining the work really does justify there diverse production methods, the images they create can be digital or analogue like here, but all possess that accurate linear line drawing style/complex and busy layouts yet so much humor and playfulness is communicated alongside it.

Friday 29 November 2013

Contacting Si Scott

I put together an email aimed more towards gaining a response from Si. This time I won't make it so informal and base the questions about more general factors as I established he is probably not going to reply when I mention I'm contacting him to meet a task criteria and create an overall too technically literate message.

Hi si, apologies for the previous mail I'm sure it almost had you falling asleep.

Did you enjoy New York? Few quick questions interoperate them how you like if you have the time obviously.

I here your from Leeds, do you hate it as much as me or do you miss the place? Whats your favorite thing about he place and worst?

What got you into design?

Who or what inspires your working practice? You have one of the most unique & innovative styles of design out there with so many people trying to copy your style and failing miserably. Your an inspiration to me and many others.

Monday 25 November 2013

PPP Task 1

The past task we were required to evaluate a person or designer we admire. I chose to evaluate Si Scott from Leeds. I evaluated him and took it upon myself to contact him myself, but after looking over my email I feel i made a drastic mistake so with help from this task & session I will now create a plan on how to set up a better set of questions aimed at gaining a response.

How will I reach them? As mentioned previously I have found his contact email on his website, so this will be the preferred method of contact. I also follow Si on twitter so may contact him through this.

What will I say & Why? I will be brief in what I say, I plan on asking him about his main inspirations, he can interpret this how he likes. He could reply with artists/designers who inspire him or he may inform me of hobbies and interests outside of the design world that inspire him. If answered this will help me add to my bank of designer inspiration and maybe teach me how to think outside the box and not be inspired by just art & design subjects.
Best thing about Leeds & Worst thing about Leeds? I discovered through research that he was from Leeds and as I am local to Leeds it would be interesting to share some feelings on our hometown as we have some similarities there as its obvious I can't compare with him from a design point of view.
What got you into design? I am asking this as it is very open and informal, so his reply could lead to a variety of responses. What I hope for him to say is something like how he felt there was a gap in the market for a certain type of design as I feel he has a very unique style so this would make a lot of sense.

What I expect him to say? Well If i did gain a reply which would be lucky due to his high work load and recent trip to New York I imagine he would be brief in his responses. He would obviously list a few designs or artists that would help inspire me and my practice some more, or even inform me of some weird hobby or interest that influences his work. I expect a quite comical reply when it comes to the question about Leeds and i feel we could share a few opinions on the subject, it would probably be refreshing for him to be asked questions outside of graphic design topics. Finally in response to "What got you into design?" i feel he will as mentioned inform me of his reasons why he got into design in an informal manner. I expect references back to his childhood maybe a past love of drawing or something daft like an obsession with spirograph which lead on to his crazy geometric style design outcomes.

In terms of a timeline I am going to give it a good few days before putting an email together so he can catch up with more important emails after a trip to new york and lots of projects he has that are upon completion. I feel contacting him at a time when he will be less busy gives me a better chance of reply.

To improve my past email I will create a more brief to the point mail as the last one was far too long.
Keep it informal and stick to 3 main questions, if he elaborates further thats just a bonus. A response would be a good start.

I will also add a comical element too it mentioning how boring my last mail was in the subject box as I have discovered this is the first thing they will see and decide from this weather to read or delete. An apology for putting him to sleep with such a boring mail before would also do well.

Monday 14 October 2013

PPP Session 1 & Task 1

Today we had an introduction to PPP and how these sessions will help inform me and how I am to keep my blog. The aims of this module are to support me in identifying areas of personal interest within various creative practices. These influences can come from varying sources of inspiration from principles, processes and resources.

To develop a critical and reflective approach to evaluating individual personal creative interests and practices.

To identify and develop areas of unique and individual creative interest through practical investigation like visiting galleries and shows to inform contextual research.

To develop individual communication skills through practical research (visits) and contextual research and development/presentation of elements.

My first set task requires me to evaluate a person I admire and outline the main attributes to who they are. Attributes are to be listed in a top to bottom format and I will be giving reason as to why these points are important to me and what I can draw from this into my creative practice.

Why did i chose them? What drew my attention to them and what do i believe makes them, them?

What plan would i draw up if I were to investigate into them deeper if I were given a 24 hour period, is this long enough? How could I contact them?

What would I say? What would I ask? WHY would I ask this?

How will this influence my practice?

Si Scott.

The person I am choosing to review is, Si Scott. A UK based designer from Manchester who's illustrative examples of typography greatly inspire me to break out of common traits and make my working style stand out from the rest. His main attributes to me are the following:

His illustrative style yet it maintains a geometric mechanical accuracy.
His freehand approach to creating visually striking design outcomes.
The diversity in which his works can be applied too ranging from tattoo art to branding to interior design.
Instantly recognisable house style that many try emulate but don't really come close, has lots of originality in his style.

The main reason I chose to evaluate this designer/illustrator is as mentioned due to his completely unique style and diversity of productions he creates. What drew me too him was his extremely accurate style of freehand geometrical drawing a few years back on an Adidas rebranding campaign. The contrast off simple and complex emulated through the use of technical geometric hand drawn elements combined with a simple 2 colour scheme and minimal layout with only 2 main elements within the composition. This contrast of obvious technical drawings emulated in an extremely minimalist way is a very clever thing to do. Such technical drawings and use of complex swirls usual cause a composition to become crowded, busy and confusing. But Si Scott produces clear cut examples with crystal clear clarity in terms of composition and layout.

What distinguish's Si's style is definitely his geometric free hand drawing style that simulates computerised vectors and his continuous experimentation of media and materials he uses to present a range of messages.

If i were given 24 hours to investigate into Si further I think I would like to watch him in his practice as a fly on the wall so to speak. Watching his working styles, his technical craft skills, were he gets his inspiration from and who inspires him would prove very beneficial for me and my practice. I feel 24 hours wouldn't be long enough though because it would be interesting to see his hobbies and interest outside of the creative world as this to me provides equal inspiration to ones style and practice. For example my style is quite mechanical and deconstructive and accurate and feel this is distinguished from my OCD nature and my love of car mechanics. So it would be nice to see how or were this style originated from. But within the time frame I feel i could learn a lot in terms of what techniques he uses and materials and process's he goes through. This is what will form the basis of my contact message to him. How in which his style is influenced and his process he goes through. I am going to ask these questions to help inspire me into creating a more personal style.

Here is what I sent Si to his business email (method of contact) found on his studio website.

"Hello Si
Im a first year Graphic Design student studying on a degree programme at Leeds College of Art, and have followed your design practice for a while now. For part of a Person Professional Practice assignment we were required to contact a designer that inspires us.
Im just after a little bit of advice really, a few tips so to speak. I see your design practice and style very different to the current house styles of agencies and designs out now and this is something I want to emulate in my practice. Originality. It would be interesting to know where your influences come from (creative and non creative) and the processes you go through to create a piece of design and how you break up a client brief as I feel you create very distinct and well communicated messages that still carry your distinct visual style. I like how playful you are with typography and when designers describe "type as image" i feel your illustrative style fits this statement better than anyone else.
Thanks for the response and advice If you haver time to reply.
Johnathan Pell."

I feel if he answered this It would help me develop into my own unique style and language if i could base my decisions on processes, inspiration and such elements around my existing practice. It would be like an editing phase so to speak of my broad style at the moment as I would like to begin narrowing it down into a more distinct language that presents me better. Also I feel it would be an interesting way in discovering new things I didn't know was out there as there would be a possibility of been introduced to lots of new things that may interest me.

The Adidas campaign is what first drew my attention to him, I presented this to show how he can make a contemporary fashionable brand have a feeling of tradition and elegance in its branding. An interesting concept seen as the brand is sport based, this creates a nice contrast because when you think sport you think bold, garish styles but this design shows it can be presented with elegance and subtly.

Adidas campaign

Bellow are examples of the range of productions he can create. Typography in an illustrative nature on its own. Type as image. Standard type in context with imagery to communicate a message through his style using his distinct illustrative style through the imagery. Again creating a contrast between simple and complex.

And the butterfly is an example of the delicate illustrative productions he can make using paper-craft. I chose these images to present the diversity in style outcomes and processes used that Si Scott undergoes to create finished outcome

Monday 30 September 2013

Why am I here? What do I want to learn?

Why did I chose this program?

One main reason was the reputation of the college, after looking round all the courses the success and the employment rating for students completing the course was quite high.

The contact time with tutors, coming from a foundation course were I had a lot of contact time with tutors allowing me lots of feedback I wanted to join a course where I had similar amounts of contact. I can get lots of feedback from tutors and peers as we are timetabled in for most of the week.

Facilities, when I came on the open day and had a walk around the college I was very impressed with the amount of facilities at my disposal, the space we had to work in the studio was also quite impressive.

Local to me, as I was staying at home this was an ideal choice.

Visiting professionals, another opportunity I was keen for was the chance to meet lots of professionals through the 3 years, meeting such a range of professionals talking about there practice will help inspire me to reach that sort of level of success.

What do I want to learnt through the program?

I want to learn lots of different physical techniques, facilities lacked at my old college so my design outcomes had limited design production methods. I want to make the most out of the facilities at hand when creating work.

Im quite an image based designer at the moment, I want to learn about all principles of typography.

Theory behind graphic design, I sort of understand how to make things look nice but thats not good enough really, I want my designs to have meanings and concept so this will be a key thing I want to learn throughout the years.

Learning to collaborate with other people, all my past work has been solo. Not really done any group work before, mixing peoples skill sets and learning how to work with different styles and personalities of people will be beneficial.

Digital design, been quite a traditional image making designer I would like to develop skills in creating digital outcomes, motion graphics and using programmed like adobe illustrator.

My Strengths

Traditional image making.

Attention to detail, OCD for perfection, I never really see a piece of work as complete I always see room for improvement.

Motivated person.

Good time management.

Quick learner, I soon pick new things up when it comes to techniques and process's.

What I want to improve on?

Confidence, I want to become more confident in things like presentations and having confidence in the work I produce.

Typography knowledge, I have some basic knowledge on this are of design but want to really expand on this particular area. Been an illustration image based designer I feel I need to bring in elements of properly considered typography into my work.

Experimentation, don't just play it safe, take risks to learn new things.

Gather broader examples of research. Visit more places to gather a different range of inspiration instead of just relying on the internet.

Ideas generation, I have a habit for going with my first idea I think of. To create better work and more thoughtful work I should create a broader rand of ideas to develop from.

How will I evaluate my progress?
Using the blog I will constantly record everything I do to use as a tool to look back on and see how I have advanced and to gather a body of research to also inspire my work.

I will review my progress every 3 months or so analyzing how well I am doing in all areas within the course.

Also evaluating each module on the blog posting all evaluations I carry out on other modules and posting them on my PPP blog.

Gathering feedback from peers and tutors and posting this on my blog and reacting too it will help me evaluate and also progress my work.

Evaluate the process's I use, constantly improve and experiment along the way.

5 questions that I want to find the answer too?
What kind of designer am I? Print based or digital? Image based or typographic? Corporate or more playful?

How do i get my work out there into the graphic design world?

Where can I find influence and inspiration from?

What makes a good graphic design student?

How do I go about designing a professional typeface?

5 Things that inspire me?
Everything, anything can be an inspiration I think, limiting yourself to just looking in books and online isn't going to provide with a good range of design influences, I'm influenced by everything I see around me, nature, mechanics, weather, architecture etc.

Past designers and artists, I find it nice to look back at old designers and artists. Ones who were pioneers of techniques and ideas rather than modern, meaningless design.

Exhibitions, seeing work first hand in considered surroundings lets me understand the message and concept behind the work rather than just looking at it two dimensionally in a book.

Peers, I want to be inspired by my peers and peers in the higher years as the work they will be producing will be something I want to aim to realistically rather than looking at designers work who have been in the industry for years and trying to replicate them.

Literature books, been inspired by the images words and literature can simulate is a more out of the box way I inspire myself.

10 examples of designs that demonstrate my creative interests.
Brosmind. quirky, playful, colorful, bold.