Olafur Eliasson

I saw this exhibition by Olafur Eliasson 5 years ago and I can still remember just how monumental it was. It was so bright, warm and relaxing, myself and my friends lay on the floor looking up at it. This influenced one of the designs for the D&AD brief.

Claus Oldenburg

I am a fan of the work of Claus Oldenburg, a Pop artist. I particularly like the way Oldenburg produces monumental sculptures using everyday objects produced in greater scale to give them heightened meaning.

Andreas Guersky

This is a photgraph by Andreas Guersky, I like the way he captures patterns in architecture.

pull your finger out

Hi Liam,

You need to add Labels to this blob to ind out how and why look at the Professional Practice briefing pack.
Also have a look at this book might be interesting to look at for the D&AD brief Italia Modern Design - Published by PIE Books c2007 i found it on grain edit.

Get some more activity going on this blog over the break its gone a bit dead lately.

Language head

One of the things I have been aiming to do is take more photographs and after reading the text I picked up on the idea of Spain wanting to have a single personality but Catalonia wanting to be seperate. So working with the theme of multiple personalities and heads to denote the mind I took one differentiating factor mentioned in the text, language to produce my first head. Im not overly pleased with this but I think it does look interesting and is experimental.

The Number 23

The film 'The Number 23' has been an influence on another image I have produced denoting the differential factor between Catalonia and Spain being the language. 'The Number 23' is a psycological thriller about a man's life unravelling when he reads a book of the same title. The character played by Carrey becomes obsessed with the book convinced that it is based on his life without realising the book has darker connotations. The poster for this film was an aesthetic influence on the head I produced as I liked the idea of writing text over a face. However where as the lighting and colours with the expression is darker the head I have produced isnt aimed to be negative it is more indifferent.

Scroll face

This is my face of Verdaguer I like the idea of old fashioned paper to denote the traditional scroll that may have been used to write poetry on. To be honest Im not exactly sure whether they did write on that sort of paper but I think it works on a stereotypical level.

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore has been an aesthetic influence on my book cover for 'The Madness of Verdaguer'. I used the theme of madness and the idea of unravelling to produce a scroll that rolls out into a face.

Through the Keyhole

'Through the keyhole' is a program I remember as a child and has influenced my Barcelona project. I thought the idea of looking around someones house and then attempting to guess the celebrity from the objects in the house was an interesting idea. I felt that the text I was reading about the Catalan wishing to be seperate from the rest of Spain was an issue about identity and the idea of Verdeguers exorcism papers being kept under lock and key informed my design. Also the text was about secrets and I think a lock and key is associate with keeping things locked away.

NOISE Festival

I have just attended a two day event called 'Noise Festival' which was an event at Manchester Town Hall to make connections between practitioners and professionals in music, the media and Art & Design. I was advised to take 4-6 pieces of my work in my portfolio and although I wasn't able to reserve a one to one session I waited around all day, both days and they squeezed me in! I was able to speak to two people Greg Burne from the Big Active agency and an art director from The Independent newspaper. They offered me advise on areas I should market my work for and advice on the aesthetics of my work. It was a great chance to meet people and I am planning to contact the practitioners and speakers that I met with further. It was interesting to see the diverse styles that contemporary illustration practitioners have and also Fine Art graduates attempting to get into the commercial arts. The one to one sessions were held in pods in the main hall and outside of them were tents filled with fine art exhibitions. I spoke to a man called Jonathan, a newly graduated fine artist about his take on fine art now and his passion for it. Also I met another fine art photography graduate from North London who was really struggling financially to support herself and get work, which I thought was down to the fact that illustration is in competition with photography. Overall it was well worth going to the event and I am going to look out for more events in the future.

This is part of my product poster where the hand is attempting to grab the falling coins.

Noel's House Party

The TV programme 'Noel's House Party' has been an influence on another poster that I am producing that highlights the process of a product catching your eye. I used to watch and enjoy the programme broadcast live every Saturday night because of its mix of variety, celebrity and public involvement. The 'Grab a Grand' part of 'Noel's House Party' in which a member of the audience would stand inside a booth while money would be blown around at high speed for the person to catch and deposit in a container attached the side of that booth has influenced the money element in my poster. The fist appears to be grabbing falling money one of the themes is money grabber.     

Takeaway bag

This is one of the elements of my food poster, the idea of world food on sale at a supermarket in the form of a takeaway bag influenced the Band Aid song- 'Feed the World'.

Band Aid

I have been designing some posters for my supermarket project and for one of my posters I have focussed on Supermarkets blurring the edges between eating out and takeaway food. Band aid in 1985 was a collaboration of differing singers and groups led by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure that aimed to raise money for suffering third world people. The song they produced was called 'Do they know its Christmas' and I remember my Nan playing it to me as a child the lyric- 'Feed the World' stuck in my memory because it sounded such a positive message. These words informed the takeaway bag part of my poster reflecting the world foods section at Supermarkets. 

Consumerism faces

This is the first and last face that I have produced with the idea of untouched nature reflecting the beauty, fun and relaxation changing into aggressive, angst and coldness that I associate with the retail environment. 

Yellow Submarine (1968)

This is a image from 'Yellow Submarine' (1968). I love this film, I saw it as a child and thought that the imagery was dreamlike. The characters' of the Beatles legs were long and accentuated, the sound effects were unlike anything I'd heard before and the colours were bright.

Ivan Chermayeff

While producing my changing face designs I was looking at Ivan Chermayeff's face collages.

Matthew Richardson

Matthew Richardson is an Illustrator who similarly to myself works with collage, print and digital media. What interests me about Matthew's style is the abstraction behind his work which I feel is appropriate to Fine Art aswell as Illustration which is an area I am examining in my journal.

Chris Corr

This is a piece by Chris Corr, an illustrator whos work has been inspired by his travels around the world. I love the charm and his vibrant colours depicting a world that 'He would like to live in'. I feel his work is childlike but sophisticated and it is no suprise to me that he is illustrating for children too.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was the artist who I studied in the second year while completing my PostModernism essay. I felt that Warhol had made a significant contribution to the industry on many contemporary designers, myself included. What interested me was Warhol's experience as a commercial Illustrator before becoming a Pop Artist/Fine Artist. What is also interesting is working in a Supermarket I have noticed the 'Campbell's' soup label has become 'Batchelor's' soup, this image is now truly unique!

Shopped

This is another influence on my self initiated project 'Shopped: The shocking power of british supermarkets'. Blythman documents how supermarkets bully suppliers, claim to offer customer choice but control what they stock and stock poor quality goods among many other points. Similarly to the fictional 'Kingdom Come' Blythman comments how supermarkets are taking the character out of places/towns.

Kingdom Come

This is a book Im reading at the moment 'Kingdom Come' by JG Ballard. It is based around the idea of a shopping mall controlling the minds of people obsessed with shopping as part of their daily routine. What I find interesting is that 'Consumerism' is described as a plague.

Andrew Pavitt

This is a piece of work by Andrew Pavitt an Illustrator who did a talk in the second year and who similarly to Gillian Blease works with digital media. I instantly liked Andrew's style because of the clearness and simplicity of it again using pattern, form and shape. He talked of developing his own fonts being influenced by the 1975 film 'Rollerball' and to consider developing your work to expand into other areas such as card design.

Gillian Blease

This is an example of work by Gillian Blease who works with digital media in the formation of her visuals. What I like about Blease's work is the use of pattern, shape and form which is a way I like to work. I was interested in the versatility of her work because of its simple style especially with her experience in surface design with Jenny Duff.

Doctor Who- Changing faces

Another childhood influence on my Consumerism project is Dr Who. I have produced different heads to reflect the process of formation of a supermarket and what is entailed in doing so which reminded me of the way the character of Dr Who's face continually changed to form a different personality.

This is a new composition i have produced, the idea is that the natural face reflecting the beauty of nature is built on by a supermarket chain. I have collaged all the things I would associate with building. 

The Borg

Continuing with the theme of childhood interests this character- 'Locutus' was an influence on my face compositions. The idea of human nature being interfered with by an aggressive mechanical race, intergrating the individual mind into a collective intelligence reminded me of the Supermarket chain style of building over nature and influencing human behaviour.

Freezer

This is a piece of collage/digital work I've done to do with the component parts of a supermarket. I can't see at this stage how it will tie in with the face compositions I'm producing at the moment but I would like to use it.

Sim City

Sim City is a game I used to play on my Super Nintendo when I was a child. Based around the idea of building this is an aesthetic influence on my compositions. I love the birdseye view style and flat but sort of 3dimensional graphics that we dont see in games anymore.

Simon Bartram

This image by Kids Illustrator Simon Bartram was an influence on my composition particularly the bricks, believe it or not this is a painting I thought it was a photograph

Own Work

This is one of my compositions, working with Supermarkets and the idea of the process involved with building a supermarket, paired with the idea of Consumerism getting inside your head.

EBOY

I've got this poster by EBOY on my wall I really like the 'Toy Town' style