30/04/17 – Just get it to end!

Sunday through to Monday was a pretty hectic time for me, we had a gig (a terrible one at that) and things just seemed to escalate from there really. Being in a bad mood on top of the stress of deadlines lead me to shut down most of Monday. I can’t really remember doing any work but I’m sure I’m still on track and ready to hand in all the work needed for Tuesday.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday – have all been spent just throwing up my ideas. I hadn’t really evidenced them before but I thought now was a better time then ever. I started off with my pricing list – a folded out brochure kind of thing that just gave all the prices for stuff that I think would be featured in the Pop Up. It was a good chance to use some of my  drawings previously done in the unit too.

The image on the left (the lighter one) was my first attempt in what the pricing list would look like – I felt like i’d started to loose the colour scheme a bit and decided to start again. I found a cheesy “Halloween” phone screen wallpaper thingy on Pinterest and just went from there and made the darker mock on the right. That was a lot more powerful and bold to me so it was a no brainer to use that as my starting point.

The actual physical mock ups are in my sketchbook but this took me a while! I had to try and figure out where to put the image in order to have it be folded out when the list is opened, but match when its shut. And then I had to worry about how the pages printed out and had to make the front smaller then the inside so it didn’t show a white gap where the printer slightly prints double sided not in the same place. This probably makes no sense but I did get to the conclusion and they look great!

Using that design as a starting point I started to do my presentation package, and as I went along with what page I was doing I made the mock up images for. I started off with how my animation screens would fit in the area.

I chose to use Rivington Street in Shoreditch as the proposed venue for my event as I felt it was the most genuine to the subject matter. Its a large capacity space that has a stage and a overpowering sound system so I felt it was perfect just for the subject matter. So I took images of the venue from the site appearhere.com and then drew over them in photoshop. I felt like this would be the easiest way of customizing the space to my needs. The space above includes a temporary wall, with a large decal over the top giving out a fact, and the screen built into it playing the animation. Also included is the till area, and the sound system.

I did a couple more as shown above. One was what the outside of the event would look like, including signage and decoration. The other is my favourite because it uses the stage area in a really cool way, my aim is to have models on the stage too wearing iconic outfits from the band.  I also managed to find the perfect place to use my massive mural for.

Above is all my signage and labels for the event. I made sure to use similar colour schemes, patterns and images just so it all looks part of the same thing. I think its really important to have continuity that way, especially when you’re using your own artwork because sometimes people just don’t get it. Its really easy to draw something which means everything to you but other people might not see who it is or what it is or understand what its for. Its very different to a photograph where it’s straight to the point and you either know who it is or don’t. Drawings are more of personal look at something. I have used photos within some of it because I love the combination of drawings and photos within collage, I think it creates a quirky style.

Here are two wall decal examples – I think they’re a really good way of presenting info. Its very similar to when you walk into a museum or gallery and see the initial wall with the basic info on it. The textures/images give it a bit more though and are a lot more interesting.

Putting all of this together and my presentation package is all I’ve been doing this week really – I had my first interview with a review zine for local bands on Friday and that was really interesting. I’m looking forward to the summer because I really want to re-brand the band. We’ve come a long way since August and we’ve lost members, gained members, lost supporters and friends but gained new ones. We’re ready for a visual change and have a lot of plans.

Lets have a drink for next Tuesday, wish me luck.

19/04/17 – eh.

Its been the Easter break so I’m sort of struggling with working and feeling inspired.

The first weekend I had off I found this company in the spam in my inbox, called VIDA. I don’t entirely trust them but what they offer is the availability to turn your art into regular merchandise. Such as Cushions or Tote Bags. I had a go at making some items using old artworks.

Its nice to just see them in a 3D format I guess. Majority of the weekend I spent looking for a job still!

As I struggled to make it into the silk screening room that Friday, I ordered my T-shirt with my aunt who also makes t-shirts for a living, just as a back up in case I couldn’t make it into the room after Easter. That Monday I tried to get in again but there was no luck. I received it the other day, it’s pretty good! The design isn’t as big as I’d have hoped but I’m just happy to have something to show for this unit really. It’s a shame I haven’t had chance to silk screen it yet but maybe I will. The print isn’t as big as I’d have liked but its still cool to see your idea in the flesh really.

I’ve realised this unit has sort of influenced my dissertation a bit, I think what I’m trying to do is present information in an interesting way and that’s what I’m looking at for my essay. Its started off with the V&A exhibition ‘You Say You Want A Revolution’ – which has probably been one of the best shows I’ve ever been too. I’ve also noticed in recent years that shows/exhibitions and documentaries – two ways of presenting info, have totally upped their game! Its weird how separate parts of your life kind of co-inside with each other and influence each other too.

Last week I also had the chance to start on my animated wall decal thingy’s for the pop up. It was actually really easy to do and I’m quite impressed with the way it flows. I only finished it today. I added an instrumental of Manson’s Disposable Teens to it as well, just to see what impact it would have. I imagined there would be Manson songs playing overhead in the pop up but maybe when you approach one of these screens against a wall you just hear a specific song/instrumental underneath the overall sound? I’m not sure, it’s pretty interesting to play with anyway. Apologies for it being sideways – John said if I were to put it on the screens at uni and then turn them sideways I’d have to animate them so.

I’ve spent quite a lot of the week doing my sketchbooks, I’m becoming disheartened almost because it feels like I’ve done literally nothing. I like the 11 week project because it just feels so much more satisfying. When it’s like 5/6 weeks I’m not sure if I’m doing enough work or if I am because the unit is so short. I’ve sort of realised that this unit has been quite hard to do, I’ve had a lot of ideas but I struggle with this brief because it’s very Graphic Design based. But I also struggle with 3D items too? And I’ve felt like I’ve had so much going on inside my head I can’t process it properly to show you what I want for this pop up. In my head it’s glorious! I just wish I could illustrate or present it properly.

I got asked to create the Facebook banner for the create festival after party for the Attic last week. I quite enjoyed doing it because I was working with type placement again. I did a few more posters for them too! My band happens to be playing two events… aha!

Over the past few weeks I’ve been trying to sort out my dissertation proposal presentation, I haven’t included a lot really because I feel like I don’t have a lot to say about it. I’m (maybe stupidly) waiting for the summer to get stuck in with that and properly get into it. Its just been thought about for me, a lot of thought mind you, once I think about one thing my brain goes off on another tangent.

The weekend in the middle of our break saw Aylith’s Flag take to 299 the Venue in London’s West End. It was an exciting experience, but led me to have one of my first extreme anxiety attack in a good few years – so when I came home and recovered it did hinder my work flow for the 2nd week. It’s horrible how it exhausts you but I clearly needed the rest. What also didn’t help is that my bass died out on the last song and I’ve had to get a new one in order to play a gig the following weekend. Sometimes the band is more stress then it should be, and extremely unpredictable!

Finally, I had this idea to come up with a display for rings in the pop up and brought a ring display from amazon. The idea was to draw Manson’s tattoos on it and have it look like his hand. Though I realised within that time frame he didn’t have any… so what personalizes it is the ‘black nail polish’ and the start of his spider web tattoo on his wrist. Though I’d still like to use it!

 

 

 

07/04/17 – Big Pantings

On Monday I spent literally the whole of my day sticking my work into my sketchbook, annotating and doing some artists research. I looked into Julie Verhoeven properly as well as Floria Sigismondi. Sigismondi was the director for the Manson videos ‘Tourniquet’ and ‘The Beautiful People’. She’s well known for her jittery filming style, which I really love because it looks like some sort of mental caffeine explosion thats ended in some sort of mental break and describes insanity. I’m not entirely sure how this could relate to my work yet, I feel if I were to make an animation or something it would work because I could use a script to make it jittery. In comparison to Julie Verhoeven, who I’ve used as an inspiration for a drawing style, there’s no visual element I can take from it unless its moving. I also spent most of Monday trying to find a job for the summer, which was a total let down…

On Tuesday we had our weekly tutorial for Spatial Practise. I got to show everyone the work I done last week as well as John my t-shirt design. John was also really impressed with my A2 Manson illustration from last week and got me to do an even bigger one on the wall!! It was quite daunting at first but I’m really looking forward to using them both in my work digitally now.

I had the intention to finish the last one! but in the end I just left it, anything else I want to add I can in photoshop. After the 3 hours it took me to paint this, I took my T-shirt design to the print shop round the corner and got them printed onto tracing paper so they were ready for me to take to Pete the print technician the next day.

Wednesday morning gave me a tutorial in DYP. Which really made me quite happy really – John was super impressed with my posters for the Attic and what opportunities it was going to give me as work experience. I explained that sometimes it was difficult because some of the bands literally give you nothing to work with because they’re new. We spoke about layout after that, I seemed to stick to the same formulas when creating my posters. Headline act at the top, supports under that, then the rest of the info and logos finishing with the address at the bottom. John showed me some examples of how all this information is moved around other posters from other companies. It left me feeling refreshed really, because it helped when I got on with the posters on Thursday. I managed to take my designs up to screen print after but the black on the tracing paper wasn’t dark enough. However, Pete sorted it out for me so it’s not too bad and said I could come back today to get them done.

Thursday I spent most of my day returning from the band practise I had Wednesday evening. When I came back into uni I had a follow up dissertation tutorial with John. Not much had progressed since the week before other then the fact I brought the sketchbook I’m going to use as my dissertation journal and then stuck one page in. It was more of a thinking week on that front – I was sort of believing that we weren’t going to worry about this (other then the proposal presentation in a few weeks) until summer so I didn’t want to start actually researching for it yet (Don’t I have enough to worry about anyway??!?!?!) John was pretty understanding of it though and helped me just define what the title might be – I can’t remember it off the top of my head but it was along the lines of Inclusivity and Knowledge is Power etc. I spent the rest of Thursday, like I’d planned, at home working on the posters for The Attic. I’m proud of them because they are a little but more interesting to me as well as a bit more experimental.

I think the Paisley Mess one is my favourite – the majority of it was a total accident so… Also enjoying the use of blank space.

Today I came in to silk screen but I can’t find Pete?? Also all of the Vis Com foundation students are in there so??