D&AD Degree Show

The end has come...

we finally had our D&AD degree show hosted at The Manchester School of Art. The work included hand-made publications and books, screen-prints, vinyl work, branding, packaging design, posters, info-graphics and even laser cut sculptured pieces. To showcase exactly what the Design & Art Direction BA Hons course was about.

Our preview evening flew past, and so did the remaining days of the exhibition - here's a little sample of some of the work...





The show's site displays more of the students work HERE

The identity for the School's Degree show was designed by D&AD Graduate Jenny Davies.

The identity for 'Design &' By D&AD graduate Adam Brandon

Lilac wine

Came across this beautiful moving image work recently...

A cover of Jeff Buckley's Lilac Wine, the videod was directed by Blind's Vanessa Marzaroli.

Quite relaxing to watch...



The cover was created for DR. Martens Cinematic Orchestra, which includes 10 artists, 10 video's and 10 covers for the brands 50th anniversary. Some other great covers I particularly like the Noisette cover of 'Ever Fallen In Love With Someone You Shouldn't've'

Curious of how the video was made I checked out Blind's site and had a look at some of the storyboards - I love sotryboards and seeing how the idea is transformed from paper, check these out

The Enchanted Palace

The Enchanted (Kensington) Palace has been transformed by the Cornwall based Theatre company Wildworks into a fantastical, visual adventure which is exciting, engaging and I believe pushing the boundaries of exhibition design with a new contemporary direction in an attempt to re-engage with visitors - particularity children. If I had children I'd take them, If I had grandparents I'd probably suggest they sit this one out - I saw quite a few 'elderly' visitors wandering round, looking somewhat confused and nervous.
I'd read a few reviews and was impressed by the creative handling of the project, lead by Bill Mitchell. The theme of the exhibition was discovery, as the palace went through its renovations new secrets were uncovered and the rituals and lives of its princesses are told in a unique way.



There were some introductions to the exhibition on the way in (as can be seen in the pictures.) An iron gate in the gardens hung with different keys, and a tree encased in a decorative mirrored vine that ran upwards, which I really liked. Cabinets in the entrance hall held an amalgamation of items which were left up to the visitor to interpret. My only criticism of the exhibition would be about the historical paintings on the walls of the rooms, their significance and relevance I think had been overlooked.

The rooms were transformed with ambient lighting, dancing shadows, children's whispers, tree's, footprints, filled fireplaces, and mirrors. There was one room of suspended headwear, a stairwell with a dress designed by Vivienne Westwood titled 'A dress for a rebellious princess' and a room with a dress displayed mid-flight by William Tempest. It is hung above a doorway and is formed buy hundreds of paper cranes.

The leaflet guide was aptly designed in a hand-drawn style with a scribbled buried treasure looking map on the reverse. Pages were left for children to collect information and respond to the exhibition.

I suppose it was letting your imagination run wild within the history - allowing yourself the opportunity to enter the worlds of the Princesses or more likely entering their dreams?

Inspiring nonetheless its a visual feast of inspiration, with a pinch of escapism. I think its exactly what I needed.

Doctors orders

An Apple a Day

DR.ME's opening of the 'An Apple a Day' exhibition at Common, in the Northern Quarter. "a visual exploration and dissection of the medical profession overlaid with the collectives personal theme's served in their signature satiric style." Half exhibition half interior installation, including window vinyl wraps - on until September 2010.

RE:VIEW

A second year Manchester School of Art photography exhibition at Beehive Mill, Manchester. The exhibition explored the theme of revisiting. It was interesting to see the different themes which each individual chose to 're-visit' a memory, a place, a journey - some of the themes were personal and some students had chosen to interpret another persons memory or experience. I began thinking about how the passing of time can effect a memory or experience?

Du Vin

Thought this branding work for the hotel chain 'Hotel Du Vin' was very clever with its copy, playing with the words on its menus and promotional material. Simple, clever branding.

.....It's a Unicorn

Clever little buggers, I remembered that Johnny Hardstaff mentioned back in November he was working on a (top secret) project with agency DDB. Well the clever clogs (along with the RSA) commissioned Johnny and four other RSA directors to produce a response to a very unique script. The (short) script goes...

What’s that?
It’s a unicorn
I’ve never seen one up close before
Beautiful
Get away! Get away!
I’m sorry

what would you do?

Check Johnny's response below.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue55SLIA3tc

Out of the five films I think Johnny's is my sure favorite in second would be 'The Gift' by Carl Erik Rinsch and then 'El Secreto de Mateo' by Greg Fay. I didn't really connect with the other two - but check out these bespoke boxes which carry through the visual language of the films.

A Scarborough affair...

Blustry drive through Scarborough brought back so many childhood memories, the arcades, the fish shops, the sweets and rock. Love to just photograph all the neon shopfronts and unique seaside shop signs,

Masculinity

My friend Jennifer Smith (who is studying photography and is in her final year) required some flyers for her recent photography exhibition which explores the theme of 'Masculinity'. With just a few days turnaround I sent Jen some variations and she selected the most appropriate one. Jen decided to go with the design above. Out of the selection of designs I liked this one - especially with the text. I wanted to show how the perception of Masculinity can be so diverse so I tried to use a bold, masculine font and merge it into a lighter, italic font. I hoped the designs reinforced the theme of the exhibition in a neutral way. Visitors to the exhibition were encourage to fill out questionnaires and submit their thoughts and so that is why I chose the neutral colours.

PANIC @ NOISELAB

The Countdown

Panic slowly encroaches upon us, getting more and more intense until we fully acknowledge the fear. The familiar sense of counting down the days, hours or minutes until an anticipated moment is something we all know a little too well.

On Wednesday Rachael, Helen and I were invigilating our PANIC exhibition @ NOISE in Manchester. I was very impressed with the layout, display and overall curation of the exhibition.

FLUX500

Several weeks ago I competed in MMU's inter-faculty Flux competition and was
selected to join a team to compete in the finals. I've just returned from the Flux500 Inter-University Business Competition in Nottingham. 33 Universities, 43 Industry experts, 1 Business challenge and.....about 30 hours.

I'm absolutely exhausted after a brilliant and intense three days in Nottingham. Our MMU team performed extremely well amongst strong competition. Where do I even start? The event is one of a kind and offers individuals the opportunity to develop key skills which overall build employability. These skills include communication, presentation, team work, creative problem solving, business plan development, negotiation, selling and leadership.

All 33 teams were handed the exact same business scenario, using an existing business and a current and relevant topic (developing training and working opportunities for the disabled.) At the end of the 30 hours each team pitched their entire business idea in a five minute pitch to an audience and several industry experts ('dragons'.)Followed by seven minutes of questions ('grilling'.)

The top four teams then went onto compete in and extended challenge, resulting in the winners taking the title of The FLUX500 National Champions of 2010, oh and also £3,000, cash. Most importantly for me it boosted my confidence and self-belief. It was a great experience and I gained valuable skills, met some great people and contacts and discovered things I didn't think I was capable of.

PANIC

My submission for the Noise Lab exhibition 'Panic' by Design & Art Direction third year students.

"Panic slowly encroaches upon us, getting more and more intense until we fully acknowledge the fear. The familiar sense of counting down the days, hours or minutes until an anticipated moment is something we all know a little too well."

Oswiecim

After my trip to Poland and Auschwitz back in February I decided to use some of the photographs I'd taken on the trip to produce a small personal photographic response of visiting there. I found it easy to arrange my images in a way that would emphasize their composition, however I found it really hard knowing what text if I wanted any at all should I place on the images. I felt it required some narrative/explanation/poetry but I felt I tainted the simple interpretative language of the images. In the end I combined some found poetry with words of my own and produced a few small concertina books. The book folds out and on the reverse is a really poignant juxtaposition of two images of the same scene. The focus shifts. I began to think of the psychology of prisoners and how they may view what is beyond the fences.

I printed one book onto newsprint and when I began to photograph the book using strong lighting I realized you could begin to see the image on the other side of the paper, I though this added a new layer in the communication of the piece, perhaps I could contrast some images?

Push.

A lovely lady called Marissa from Push print came in today, she brought with her a selection of (beautiful) examples of print work which Push has produced (mainly litho). With clients such as Adidas, Kurt Geiger, The V&A, Levi, COS, The Tate and a selection of High end property agencies and jewelers, Push can produce almost anything to meet your needs.
We talked about print specifications, relationships with designers and printers and with paper suppliers. Here is just a selection of the samples she brought...



We learnt a little more about terms such as Foiling, Flockage, Flood-colour, Die-cut, Flouro, Duplex and Pagination/imposition.

When writing a specification or approaching a printers for a quote, Marissa recommended that we:

- Title the project in an email
- specify the format
- specify the size
- specify the print process (e.g. 4col? 5col? dbl page printing?)
- specify the stock (or ask for a recommendation)
- Finishing
- Quantity to be produced

Finish with a deadline and specific dates, perhaps some examples of similar work, and follow it up with a phone call explaining how you are awaiting a quote.

The all-round clear favorite piece of the day was the...**magic book** wow was this a mystery, ok so imagine a beautiful glossy brochure for a new office build 'Wells & Moore' If you flicked through the brochure one way (e.g. front to back/left to right) it revealed all the information/details/type, however if you flicked the opposite way (e.g. back to front/right to left) you could see large scale photographs and images. The book is absoleley genius and my photographs do not do it justice. Pure magic? the trick is in the page sizes - as is revealed below.

The Surgery...

Ian Anderson Portfolio Surgery
On Thursday I had my first ever portfolio review with Ian Anderson
(of The Designers Republic)

Like everyone I was nervous and I didn't realize it would be feedback on our personal presentation, not really the portfolio work. I like to think I can take constructive criticism but we discussed in the studio how hard it is to have an emotional detachment to our work, so I did take it a little to heart. It took me until the evening to fully understand the feedback and to really take it all on-board.
I now realize its a really different language you have to use, I'm so used to presenting my work to tutors I'd mistakenly mentioned I'd worked with Rachael and Jenny (don't mention people you worked with, just mention once that you have collaborated to give the impression you can work with others.) I talked about "my most recent project"...or talking about projects in relation to time (this is not relevant.) Among other things...

- My portfolio was too small
- I didn't talk enough about each of the projects, I should have gone into more detail
- It had too much work, with too much variety

Despite my presentation being full of errors I did do one thing right and this was showing my rather large A2 day-glow Don't Panic poster which ticked the box of a 'memorable piece of work' to close my presentation with - thank god!

I feel I have such a variety of work (film, animation, branding, print, photography..) It's hard to show my best work and not look like I'm a 'Jack of all trades' I get that and I think its going to be hard to give the portfolio a 'style'.
I hate the fact that because I'm interested in a variety of disciplines it puts me at a disadvantage almost? It is quite hard to look at all the work you have done and think which ones are the best and which ones say something about me as a designer?

Ian Anderson gave us lots of advice about presenting to potential employers what they're looking for, and the most common mistakes people make. I'm really grateful we had this opportunity and having the feedback now is only going to help us improve.

Irish eyes are smilin...

We took advantage of St.Patricks day this year to fund raise for the degree show. Working with Rachael, Maria, Helen and Fredi we designed four tshirts for the day. The four designs were...

** Irish eyes are smilin **
** I heart the craic **
** I'm a drinker not a fighter **
** I heart my Paddy Irish man **



We decided to make 80 shirts and we hand screen-printed them all on tuesday. We got to Waxy's where Maria had ok'd it with the manager, because we were fundraising they let us sell inside...what no-one told us was that they were giving away free tshirts upstairs! so we had to convince everyone to buy a £6 shirt! well we definitely had our work cut out. It was a long night but we were determined to sell the lot! which we did and have managed to raise a grand total of....£202.43!

Right and now back to some work....

Mothers day card's

I get this rack of guilt if I don't contribute to any of the fundraising events going on! so I made up a few cards to contribute to the mothers day sale in the Holden Gallery. I loved the Russian doll logo for mothers day a perfect metaphor for a mum! Just bought one of the canvas bags - love it!

Review time...

This review couldn't have been more different to the reviews back in November. Five minutes to talk through 7 weeks work. My last review was like two and a half hours!
Has it really been 7 weeks! yikes I feel I've done twice as much work than last semester already!

I had my review with Sue and Clint, two tutors who I think haven't really seen any of my work since the beginning of second year. Unfortunately I missed my review slot with Hitch and I'm unsure if this has put me at a disadvantage.

It was really interesting to see what other people had been up to who weren't in my studio groups. Sue and Clint both reinforced the fact that every brief we choose we must really consider 'why am i choosing it?' and 'what do I want this work to say about me?'

...So which way do I want to go?

MMU Degree show pitch...

Rachael and I decided to work together and pitch for the Degree show identity. We both found ourselves being unusually inspired by Neil Grants pie charts.

I found it really inspirational working with Rachael we just took off one day into Manchester and photographed our surroundings. We were really excited bouncing ideas off of each other as we both felt like we were on the same wavelength. We were inspired by pie-charts, fans, wheels, cogs, factories, music, manufacturing and arrows.

We wanted to make use of all of the facilities MMU had to offer, considering letterpress, screenprint, laser-cutting, photograhy etc. We hopped into letterpress to get inspired.


We took the idea into a structure, ideally we wanted to create this large scale poster with all these mechanical elements to it and photograph it in the studio and produce that as the poster. The time constraint of three weeks really got us thinking outside of the box. We produced giant jigsaw like posters with movable parts. We created 3 looks, a neon one, a bright coloured on white and a re-cycled looking one.



Inspired by these windmill, pin-wheel structures we looked at their nets and tiles and began thinking along the lines of...



Towards the end of the project we did a little art directed photography around the buildings using textures within some square frames which we had made. I really enjoyed doing this, with each shot we considered the placement, distance and layout. We made a little concertina booklet and hope to make a poster of this little assignment.