THE MORE TOOLS YOU HAVE,THE MORE VERSATILE YOU ARE.“I’ve always considered illustration and graphic design (along with photography, animation or any other creative discipline for that matter) as tools in a toolbox. The more tools you have, the more versatile you are and the more things you can build. Why bother trying to confine yourself to one specific tool? You’ll only hobble yourself with limitations.”

Olly Moss

I ADJUST THE WAY I WORK DEPENDANT ON THE BRIEF.My example of work is a minimalist illustration for the TV series Game of Thrones, like most of my work it is heavily based in a digital realm, though it does allow for easy readjustment in order for me to move towards the work I aspire to such as Bravo Company. Who focus in branding and art direction, heavily inspired by pop culture in order to create strong imagery via an assortment of mixed media. Such as screenprinting, letterpress (of which I wish to learn), even digital processes, but they don’t lit it overule the project. I also with to try bookmaking which would be another process for me to learn. Within my work I don’t think there is a paticular theme of subject that suits me best as I adjust the way I work dependant on the brief at the time. Them main audience that I would hope to appease would be a client in my eyes as I consider myself a designer rather than an artist, aiming to solve design solutions rather than portray events or emotions in a graphical manner, and when that client is myself I wish to communicate the best of my ability to those that view it.

SELF INITIATED

'TAKE TIME'

My self initiated project has been based on me outputting more of the kind of work I wish to produce, using varying locations (Butcher’s Lane, Hyde Park Picture House) as stimuli for my creative process to lead into different processes such as screenprinting and animation. I hope that this will help me to develop myself techincally as well as to be able to look at everything with a graphic eye and find inspiratation from anything.

‘This is an opportunity to explore the concept of time: considering how you mark the passing of time/seasons’ I have taken this quite literally when starting this brief as I began by marking time using pen markings and from the I plan to explore more processes that I can use to mark time.

SELF INITIATED

HYDE PARK PICTURE HOUSEWith the Hyde Park Picture House nearing it’s centenary anniversary, as part of the Hyde Park Picture House brief, we were invited to explore the past, present and future of the Hyde Park Picture House. With the assistance of Helen Cross we are exploring it through a series creative writing workshops, in order to result in a piece that can be used for the live audio broadcast on 28th of April along with visual pieces fed by the creative writing. This brief wasn’t my first choice for an external brief but I feel it has fed itself into my self initiated work by adding another location that I can produce work from.

THE PROCESS

1. Research - To begin any project I like to research before I dive into anything, looking for inspiration for ideas and seeing what has already been done.

2. Idea Generation - I then begin making notes about what I’ve found and also what kind of processes I’d like to use within the brief.

THE PROCESS

5. Bringing it all together - The final pieces are taking aspects of all the experiments with process and finally merging all that worked to create a piece that I am happy with.

3. Process - From the notes I begin to work with the processes that I am wanting to use and see how viable it is for the brief. Finding out what works and what doesn’t is key when I bring everything together.

THE WORKIn the beginning I had planned to create a brand for a butchers, but within a short tutorial we flipped it upon its head to now be using a butchers as stimuli for image making, as this semester I wanted to focus on creating as much work as possible using processes that I was interested in using in the future.

This begun with going down to Kirkgate market in order to find inspiration for artwork within them, one of the main things I noticed was the volume of textures within the environment, I wanted to capture as many of those as possible to be placed upon the silkscreen that I had booked later on that week.

THE WORK

I think my appreciation of screenprinting has stemmed from seeing like likes of Morning Breath their use of layering found imagery from vintage magazines, I tried to do something similar with the selected imagery from my photographs I took at Butchers Lane.

When going into the screenprinting process I didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted to produce, the whole process was led by trial and error and set the tone for the whole of this semester as it has been heavily process led as it was about making work with the processes I was interested in, with the ideas behind them coming second. I was quite pleased with the way that my prints came out as they created some interesting imagery with layering, but when it came to having some meaning behind it the work fell short. As a designer I’m always looking to portray a message and my work failed to do this.

Going on from this I was looking to gain more meaning to my work and not just have something that just looks good.

We were then introduced to our external brief, when I first heard the options, the ‘Publication’ brief was what really stood out to me as book making was something I stated I really wanted to work with in my pitch. But when it came to signing up the places had all gone. I ended up with ‘Hyde Park Picture House’ a creative writing brief where we were invited to take part with ‘Was is will’ the centenary celebration of Hyde Park Picture House. Even though the publication brief was my first choice, I thought I would make the best of the situation as having access to the whole of the venue it allowed me to use it as a new stimuli for my work like I did with the butchers. Coming into the brief I didn’t know what to expect as I haven’t had much experience with creative writing, but I was open to the experience and I was surprised with myself with what I produced, as the exercises that we did really freed up my writing.

Helen Cross, our mentor for the brief really helped out in forming the pieces, listening to radio plays to inform our decisions when it came to recording, her advice was vital for this project when I had little to no experience with writing creatively.

Recording was an interesting process as it was strange to hear myself back but what I was really interested in when it came to this project was the visual and textual resources that I managed to compile which I wanted to feed into my self iniated work, the photography that I took within the Hyde Park Picture House was of interest to me, and I wanted to find a way of combining the text of my creative writing with metaphors for what I saw within, combined with the photographs of the great setting. I saw this as a good opportunity to create a small publication in order to compile all the imagery I had collected along with my favourite lines of my creative writing. To follow this I also created a simple collection of just my creative writing pieces with hand written text which has a more heartfelt feel which I think suits the venue of Hyde Park Picture House.

Not long afterwards we were introduced to the time brief bringing it up to a total of three briefs running simultaniously. Not long after the start of this brief I had a snowboarding accident which impeded my mobility and so my access to the resources was lost. But never the less I proceeded with the brief taking it at face value, marking time. Up until this point I hadn’t touched animation this semsster but I saw this brief as a good opportunity to experiment with it, making four animations in total for this brief keeping account of measurements of time during the whole process (four animations, four seasons. Sixty frames, sixty minutes/seconds).

Starting with merely pen on paper, each animation has it’s own personality, but the coldness of the vector images really comes across when compared with the other animations, the movement of the camera due to a lack of tripod only added to the character of the pieces in my opinion.

When considering what inspired my experimentation into animation has been the animations of Blu, a Brazilian street artist who’s well known for ‘Muto’ a stop motion animation which spans whole walls, I think that this would have been the next step with regards to my own animation, taking it to an external location and in order to take it out of the studio.

When looking through my photographs I’ve taken for one of my animations, it was noticed that there was a strong sense of composition within them, and thinking about it, the photographs that I had taken to that point had all fed into my other pieces that I had created within the briefs. I think that Jo Hassall as my tutor has really fed into my work, pushing me to be more open minded and even with my photographs, finding art in the everyday, from washing up bowls to corners. Like tutor like mentor. Following my own home, the studio seemed like the perfect place to photograph next with regard to interesting subject matter.

When taking photographs of the studio I wasn’t interested in documenting the work itself, it was more about making work for the work that was already there, creating new compositions with what was already there. I find that sometimes the best discoveries are the ones that you don’t expect, when looking for interesting pieces I began to look at the desks that we all work upon, photographing them as I walked around the studio, framed by the camera they became abstract art pieces in themselves, similar to likes of Pollock and Rohko they hold their own character despite lack of distinction. With the possiblity of an end of year exhibition I wish to assemble a series of these marked desks as prints in order to exhibit, produce a proposition for the layout of my pieces, and select promotional materials advertising the exhibition itself. Overall this year has been hit and miss with regards to my work produced, but I think I’ve discovered myself this year and can look towards the future with a more open mind.

THIS IS HIGH SCHOOL

A second year Graphics ExhibitionBroadcasting Place Block A22nd/23rd May

CRITICAL REVIEWChristian Marclay’s ‘The Clock’ is a piece I had the pleasure of seeing two years ago at Tate Britain, only seeing five minutes is all you need to get an idea of how much time and dedication has gone into this piece, twenty-four hours of film footage that contains time itself, definitely required planning as who knew that you could cover every minute of a day. In fact even Christian himself required two years of trawling through footage with his helpers to find out the the piece was even possible.

The piece takes samples of over seventy years of film history, notable mentions being the likes of Titanic which is followed by High Noon which is suprising when you think you know a movie and it appears up only to be cut into a different film that you wouldn’t usually expect. Designed to be played for twenty-four hours straight, from midnight to midnight. The times shown in the film correspond with real world time where the exhibition is being held, though unfortunately due to opening times of galleries, most people will never view the whole film, but that wasn’t how it was intended to be viewed, and they are small moments in time between events, much like real life there isn’t something happening twenty-four hours a day, so what you view of the piece is like just looking at the time, you only glance at it for a fraction of when it’s actually running.

The ‘walk-in’ nature of the piece and it’s placement is what makes the exhibit so interesting to me, as after a few minutes of marvelling in the editing that would have been required, I began to turn my attention towards those that came through the exhibit, and how long they watched the piece itself, some only glancing at it like looking at your wrist for the time on your watch, others spending long periods of time literally watching time go by.

Personally I feel that the piece makes you consious of time itself, as it is continually portrayed through dialogue or clock faces on screen. The narrative of the piece itself seems to be put on the back seat as it now makes you aware of clocks and time not only within the film, but your day to day life. Since viewing this for an hour, it has brought me to try and become much more considered about how I use my own time, as if Christian Marclay can fit seventy years of film within twenty-four hours, anyone can become more aware of time.

CRITICAL REVIEW

BIBLIOGRAPHYMoss, O. (2012). Do you define yourself as a graphic designer or an illustrator?. Available: http://www.moss.fm/post/16467470599/do-you-define-yourself-as-a-graphic-designer-or-an. Last accessed 30th April 2013.

Maerkle, A. (2010). Christian Marclay: The Clock. Available: http://www.art-it.asia/u/admin_ed_feature_e/yvKBQHCwb9cmLxYnEO2l. Last accessed 30th April 2013.

Heller, S. (2012). Miss Fixit. Eye Magazine no. 83. 21 (1), 30-31.

Elgar, D. (2008). In: Grosenick, U Abstract Art. Cologne: Taschen.

Dietrich, L. (2009). In: Dietrich, L 60 : Innovators Shaping Our Creative Future. London: Thames & Hudson.

BIBLIOGRAPHY WHERE I WORKSHOW US YOUR WORKPLACE

The course, our course, how do you feel it’s grown you

Well to begin with I had like no idea what I was doing, I kind of waddled through stuff, I suppose in second year I realised how to work through projects, and this year, my third year stuff sort of happened, I gave it direction, it clicked, I realised the sort of stuff I like to do, some it’s quite process led

What kind of work do you do?

I do both art and design, I don’t do one of the other, I like quite experimental work, but I also like work that’s quite a straight forward brief.

I’m in this point where I’m not quite sure where I’m at, I like design, but recently I’ve been producing more artwork and in my head I’m considering that I’ve got one more year and then I’m in the real world and I want to make a job out of this.

Well I was trying to work out which one I want to do but I’ve decided that I like both, so I’ve done projects to do with both, so I’ve done art projects and I’ve done design projects and they can converge, one does help the other I’ve found rather than separating them, it allows you to be a bit more free things and experimenting helps your design as you’re more open.

The stuff I’m most inspired by is design not that I can’t appreciate art

We had a project this year where we did branding with the DBA where we did a brand but it was more conceptual, rather than just going straight for the design you think about what you want to portray.

I’ve been steered away from branding with my self initiated work

If you want to do branding then next year is your chance

I’m think about possibly doing it over the summer at least getting something in there

PRACTITIONER INTERVIEW

PRACTITIONER INTERVIEW

She (Jo) likes having things open, and she’ll make you think about things

I’m thankful for that now as I’ve done much more, but at the time I was like ‘Please just let me do this’

It’s been good this year, I think what I learnt in second year was how to approach briefs, how to get a process going and figuring what I like and what I want to do, which is both art and design. Though a girl I know has just done design, but this year has added some art into her projects in order to stay fresh.

I think you need to keep elements of both as I came from a foundation art course, where I was taught a wide range of processes and it showed in my portfolio, and I want to come out from this course with a more up to date version of that. I’m a multidisciplinary practitioner, I’ve even gone into animation most recently, I’ve used a wide range of processes, I’m here to learn and making the most of it.

That’s really good because you never quite know when you’ll need something. Especially when you go into a project and you’re not just thinking ‘I’m going to make this’

I think that’s what Jo was worried about with my branding project as she felt that I already had an image in my head, and I did which is why I’m glad I moved away from it.

We fell into that trap with the DBA project, rather than thinking about the way we wanted to portray the brand we jumped straight into making the logo look sleeker, rather than making it represent what it was. It’s growing the project naturally rather than forcing it.

I think it’s growing yourself too, like once you understand your own process, once you get into that rhythm of things I think it’s a lot better, I just want to find that rhythm.

I find that the best way for that is to keeping yourself open. Researching and experimenting as much as possible but then pull everything together, and knowing when to stop experimenting in order to be a day before deadline and not having a final thing to show for it. You can’t just draw something and have it as we are required to show our path that lead to the result you finish with.

I totally agree, I didn’t at the beginning of this year but I think I’ve grown a lot just in this year, but hopefully I’ll grow more before I finish, as leaving uni is a scary prospect for me right now.

It’s definitely a case of having to make opportunities, talking to people and making connections in order make progress, getting an internship over summer is hard but can be worthwhile. Even finding friends that want bits and bobs doing just to get your name out there.

Well currently I’m merchandise co-ordinator for the Snowsports team, I’ve designed the hoodies, merchandise so I’ve got my branding outside of uni, and I think that helps keep my uni work to be open.

For a lot of people it’s going to be baby steps, but coming out of uni with those kind of experiences is going to help, most people don’t go straight into these big studio jobs, they get there slowly.

I realise that but in my head as someone who’s coming up to being 23 this year I’m think that I want to get into a studio as soon as possible. Not that I’m not thankful for the life experience that I’ve gain from these extra years as I think it is to my advantage.

There’s several older students in our year and you can tell that their experience has helped as they are more confident in their presentations and can put across their thoughts much more cohiesively.

Leeds met wasn’t my first choice but in hindsight I’m glad that I picked it as talking to my friends from my foundation course who went on to do graphics, and compared to theirs our course is so open that it makes theirs look like a train track that they are to ride on.

They show you you how to do stuff and I’ve seen one of my friends work, it’s good, but it’s not exciting, it’s just what I’ve seen before.

PRACTITIONER INTERVIEWCONTINUED

I think the biggest thing going for this course is it’s facilities, I’ve even used laser cutting on wood to then create a relief print from it.

I don’t think you get that with other courses, it’s logos and it teaches you set things, ‘the rules’ so to speak like typography, etc.

Whereas this course I feel there are no rules, which is strange considering you come to university expecting to learn stuff, and I realise that university is meant to be self initiated, but for people coming in with a blank canvas it must have been a big step for them to take.

I had no idea how to use Illustrator, I was thinking how could people make nice visuals in such a short time when I was struggling with photoshop to make it. So over summer I used many youtube tutorials in order to learn it.

I think that’s the way it is with this course, it’s very down to you to learn the skills that you want to learn rather than a standard set of skills, which is strange but then if you’re learning what you want to learn that must be a good thing, I learnt illustrator quite a while ago, but last summer I used illustrator so much as merchandise co-ordinator that I’m very quick at creating mock ups, I had around 200 different logo designs, which ate up most of my summer, luckily we’re keeping the same logo for next year.

I think that will hold you in really good stead, I wish I had an experience like that to get some experience.

The weird thing is your client in that situation is your friends, and I got agitated as they aren’t from a graphics background and so I didn’t want to argue with you, but trust me.

I had the same I did some business cards for a friend, and even when you make them understand where you are coming from they still want the change.

Well I just recently read in Eye an interview with Ken Garland, and people say that clients are awkward and he considered himself lucky as none of him have been. He wrote his manifesto and only one client had issues with his bold claims. I think that it was a case of when he started the clients couldn’t argue and by the they could, he’d become that big that why would you? Anyways thank you for taking time out to talk to me.

Words by Sian James, edited by Tristan Graham

PRACTITIONER INTERVIEWCONTINUED

My aspirations for the future of my creative practice is to continue to grow as a practioner, developing my skills to the best of my ability in order to come out of university with the strongest portfolio that I can. In order to do this I want to keep producing as much work as possible and pushing myself to move continually forward. For this summer I intend to look into gods and deities,from a range of pantheons as I believe there is a lot of content within the subject that can be explored in a variety of different processes and has a lot of material that can be looked upon for research.

THE FUTURE