The Fantastic Mr.Fox!

Oh my god, I was so lucky to go to the opening night of The Fantastic Mr. Fox!! I worked with Mackinnon & Saunders back in 2008 starting off with just one day a week whilst I was at Uni. I did that for a few months and once we finished Uni they kindly took me on full time! I loved being part of the Mackinnon and Saunders family! Mackinnon and Saunders have worked on so many films and animations, the puppets they are incredible! They've done Corpse Bride, FiFi and the Flowerpots, Bob the Builder, Pingu, Mars Attack and Frankensteins Cat!
Seeing all our hard work up there, on screen god I love the feeling I've been part of something so big! If anyone manages to see it, please tell me what you thought of the film...??

I was employed as a costume department assistant and my main jobs involved dying fabrics to match an exact pantone! which is a very long process and taught me a lot about patience! I also helped with a lot of the screenprinting (like Mrs. Fox's yellow dress with the strawberries and Beavers son's number 8 top) I helped with odd jobs such as painting buttons, making headscarves, belts, painting patterns etc. Its great to see it all up there. The one big thing I helped with was the knitting of Ash's cardigan which you can see below. It was such a detailed process. We had to order special wool which was probably the finest, thinnest wool ever! I machine knitted pieces and then this was shrunk and then Michele would knit these pannels into the minute white cardigan! So proud!

Meeting the Media

On Thursday evening we went to see MFN's 'Meet the Media: Conde Nast Special' at Malmaison. The pannel included the online Editors of Vogue, Glamour and GQ. The event was really interesting and we were able to ask the pannel some questions. They talked about managing online content, trends for the future, driving traffic, how to grab an editors attention or gain publicity, and the flexibility and the challenges of the online medium in comparison to the printed.

I nervously asked the pannel what the future held for their websites in terms of how people are changing the way the use and access the internet. How their content would have to adapt? Dolly (Vogue.com) talked about trying to keep Vogue exclusive and yet involved. Too much coverage and you loose quality. They didn't want to Vogue to be a big hit on twitter, they wanted the latest news, the exclusive reports. Natasha (Glamour) talked about the power of the celebrity and Jamie (GQ) had mentioned how GQ had put a moving cover/video of Sienna Miller online. Or having exclusive behind the scenes material only available on the magazines websites.
The Editors talked about their journeys to becoming online Editors how they all gained their positions by contacting the right people and through work experience.

The audience included journalists, PR agents, Designers, students and creatives. The talk was really interesting and informative about managing online content and managing a 'brand'. I thought it was really interesting when Dolly was asked whether she would ever swap her online editor position for editor of the magazine......She was quick to explain the attention, focus and pressure of that position and confessed she was a bit of a control freak and that's why the online medium worked for her.

"Homeless people are a bit like ads........no-one wants to listen to them"

On Monday, I went to a talk by DDB. I love all the work DDB produces and what the company is all about. They talked a lot about what is involved in account planning and account management. I don't think many people know the difference!

They talked about how DDB is structured as one of the biggest design agencies in the world. What DDB Health, OMD, Interbrand, DDB Grapevine, DDB Touch, DDB Matrix, DDB Tribal, DDB Unheard voices, DDB Signbank all do, wow so many effective advertising in the world. It was an amazing, insightful talk. They showed recent work that they'd done such as the major relaunch of Monopoly (City Streets) combining Google maps to involve their audience on a global scale. If you don't know DDB UK some of their clients are VW, KwikFit, Tropicana, Budweiser, Lurpak, Match.com, Phillips and Johnson & Johnson.

Angels of Anarchy

I went to go see the Angels of Anarchy exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery. I've seen an exhibition of Frida Kahlo at the Tate in London a few years ago and it was brilliant, so I'd had some previous knowledge of female surrealists. There were only one or two pieces of hers in this exhibition. The exhibition was interesting but I feel I didn't learn very much. I did like the areas the exhibition covered such as the female surrealists view of the interior. There were a few pieces I liked such as the whip made of two plaits of her own blonde hair by Mimi Parent Maîtresse. One piece really shocked me and that was Lee Millers photograph of a severed woman's breast. What shocked me most was the story about it. Lee Miller was invited to witness a mastectomy, once the operation had finished Miller asked if she could take the breast. Next, she sneaked into the Vogue house in Paris. She got into a photography studio where she quickly set up a dinner table and place setting, she snapped this before being thrown out of Vogue onto the streets....with the breast being thrown after her. I thought this was an incredible story. The photograph had only recently been recovered after the story had been told and retold someone came across the photograph and knew exactly what it was.

Fawns, unicorns and Tea parties

When I was in Australia I saw this at an event. I love the Art Direction of this photograph. It cracked me up. Living in OZ It was fascinating to see what the people there think of Britain and Europe. The whole idea of Britishness, this advert definitely reinforces the stereotype....

" One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place "

If....

Firstly I would like to say that I believe Malcolm McDowell was the only actor able to carry the role of Mick Travis. His large, cold eyes communicated a world of unspoken thoughts.

Would I go and see the film again, probably not. I felt there was one or two scenes which defined the movie, they were rightly slow and full of connotations. Such as the scene where Mick is whipped and the preceding scene. The other scene was where the young homosexual boy watched the older boy on the bars, whilst putting on his sweater. I thought this was really well done. Whilst I watched the film I was anticipating a sudden violent eruption. The film lacked some pacing and build-up. I felt the ending was going to involve more of a physical retaliation rather than shooting from a distance. I felt the ending could have been longer I felt the film ended abruptly.

For me the metaphorical scenes made me believe these were illusions and a realization of Micks fantasy. I did not believe the girl truly existed. I cannot now say whether I thought the film was realistic or surrealistic - If the switching of monochrome and colour was used to identify the two I think I would have made the distinction. But the worlds together tainted my believability of the scenes.

I found it interesting seeing what life was like at a boys private boarding school during that period. I thought the young boy Jute acted his part well. I enjoyed the scene during the shooting practice where the boys had to practice their shouts of hate, very good.

UTS work - Personal Directions

This assignment was quite confronting and we had to really discover what career paths we would attempt and what our strengths and weaknesses are. I actually failed this assignment....yes that is correct I failed it big time. I don't think I've ever failed anything before! But I'm so glad I did, I now realise it did fail as a communication piece it was mainly because the yellow text of the blue was hard to read. The original piece folds up into a booklet. I'd attempted something too complicated and wasted a lot of money printing it. LESSON LEARNED!



..............So, as I'd failed I had to re-submit a piece, this is what I handed in and it got me a pass as I couldn't get any higher from failing it. I was a happier handing this is in. Because the piece was crafted it felt more personal and intimate. It too folded up into a small booklet.

UTS work - Personal Identity/Branding design

Here is some work that I did over at UTS in Sydney. I will post up some more of the work I did. So this was the subject 'Concepts of Professionalism' we learned how to promote ourselves, organize invoices, communicate with clients, create style sheets, advertise our abilities and how to present to clients. It was a very interesting subject which provided me with some useful tools for the future.

**Business card and with comps slip**


**style sheet**


**Invoice and letter heading**


**Website - Homepage**


**Website - Work page**


**Website - Contact page**

He who reserves the right to make string bananas

***JOHNNY HARDSTAFF***

I've felt quite inspired by Johnny in the last few days. I found it fascinating hearing about the type of briefs he receives and how he really pushes the limits of these - but I guess this is why he is approaches by companies. I love how he has created a role for himself, he is both Designer and Director.



After seeing ROLLERBALL I could see exactly why Johnny had chosen it. There were moments where I felt the film lost its direction. I didn't really understand how the women were being used in the film. I know for certain that I have benefited from seeing it. It made me think of social order and control and I liked the stylized look of the film 70's meets Futuristic. Johnny's work incorporates lots of futuristic ship-like structures, I could see some reminiscence of the film in his work.

I think because he is interested in politics, Imperialism, English heritage and culture this really gives his work an edge. These issues inform his design practice and without the conflict he feels for and against the corporate world I don't think his design would take the same direction.

Stick around for a while.......

Love this print! Saw it a while ago but I thought I'd share. I believe its by 'Skinny Ships' also known as Richard Perez, a designer in San Fransico his website is here