Another couple of pieces for Resistance. Still exploring the idea of creating a glitch illustration stylie.

Having a go at illustrating a glitch...

Holden Gallery Exhibition

I and a number of others from Design and Art Direction, Fine Art and Photography now have our work on display in the new cafe/exhibition space in the Holden Gallery. I printed out an A1 copy of Resistance for the occasion. Noice.

More Experiments

Trying a slightly different method to reach the final result.




There's a lot of trial and error with this technique of working, but occasionally you achieve something that works perfectly, like this one. Blinded and silenced.

The Thing on The Big Screen

Ah yes. My favourite film of all time, something I want to rave about ... Back in September I went to see John Carpenter's The Thing at the cinema - a 1982 remake of the Howard Hawks 1951 horror film.


I haven't seen the original, maybe I will someday but Kurt Russell leads a strong cast in this remake as a group of scientists who are stuck in the Antarctic being attacked by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people that it kills. I love the special effects as the monster evolves and attacks... A group of paranoid men and not a single woman in sight to ruin it. Perfect. It was amazing to see such a classic on the big screen, hopefully the beginning of a trend.


I have also just found this nice illustrative poster for the film by Tyler Stout, much better than the original. I love silk screened posters. These are extremely limited, only 100 were made. Doesn't look like I'll be getting one then. It even has glow in the dark ink :(

Burlesque Design

These are some examples from my plethora of favourite music posters for Arcade Fire by Burlesque of North America. They are a mob of graphic designers, illustrators, screenprinters, poster slingers, photographers, record collectors and pixel pushers. They never fail to make me drool with their gorgeous palette of rich colour, geometric designs and stunning typography.


You can actually see some of these posters at the Richard Goodall gallery if you're interested, the real prints look so much better. They've taken them off the wall now though.

Manchester Artists Book Fair

I recently visited the fourth book fair in the Holden Gallery at the Manchester School of Art. There were about 40 stands and the MMU special collection of artists' books. It was a very inspiring and diverse collection that demonstrated not only the incredible scope of the craft, but the ingenuity and creativity of the people that produced them.


I bought a gorgeous little accordian book made from a nautical map, with an alphabetic journey through the related terminology. It fits in the palm of my hand, and is very delicate and beautifully made. I am really fond of carefully thought out and finely crafted artefacts that are truly unique and reflect the heart and mind of its creator through materials, media and production.


This fair went on to influence what I created for the 'Pointless' workshop. I'm still a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to join in the bookbinding workshop simply because it didn't work with my current project! Hopefully I'll get the chance soon...




While there, I spotted Libby Scarlett's rather splended selection of books that she talked about when she gave us our 3rd year pep talk. I love Mapping the Mundane...

My Long Lost Gift from Ian Anderson

Ian sent me out a jolly nice book for participating in one of his workshops back in April. I have unfortunately only just got my hands on it as it's been buried in Hitch's office for too long without my knowing! It's pretty yummy huh? Aye.


After what he's just said to me, I'll give him a thumbs up ;)





^ Awesome.

Work Placement

I have just set up a work placement at The Big Issue magazine, starting W/C 11th January, running alongside my personal project. Very much looking forward to it as it will be quite different to the four placements I have done to date which were all in creative agencies. I want to try something different in order to discover what I really want to do most. I reckon it will be good experience to work within restraints such as existing templates and house styles.


Coincidentally, I picked up the latest issue of Sheffield's good ol' Now Then magazine which actually features a short article about The Big Issue encouraging people to purchase it. Gowan!





Not only this, there should hopefully be some work coming my way from both Article and Gaze magazine. Watch this space. Oooh.

Resistance

This is one of my responses for the Don't Panic poster competition based on the theme of resistance. The piece is reworked from earlier, now much more appropriate in black and white. Check out those bloody eye sockets for signs of resistance! This is definitely one of my more happy accidents that I believe fits the brief the most successfully. I therefore intend to select this piece for the final submission.


The plan next is to print it out A1. In this case, bigger is better! Huzzah.

Writing My Own Brief

I would like to do a personal project based on magazine design, particularly the spreads. I want to try something more industry-based than what I have been exploring so far. Since doing a lot of experimentation recently, I think that the next step for me to be a better graphic designer would be to improve my skills with professional type and layout, and bringing things into a context.


I want to learn to love type and play around with it more, while using grid systems etc. I have neglected this side of design quite a bit, and perhaps need to develop it more in preparation for the big wide world! My chat with Cafeteria Design originally put the idea in my head a few months ago.


I am trying to find my niche, discovering what I want to do and what I am good at while eliminating what I don't enjoy. It is the opportunity to try a different type of work placement too, it's healthy to explore. A lot of my work to date has been out of a graphic design context and I would like that to change a little. I want to develop skills that will be most useful when working.



What the magazine is about will affect the visual style, so picking a good subject matter will be important as well as how much research I do, and in what area. How much I play around with the content will be key also. I haven't done any proper spreads before so will need to do a lot of research!

IdN DVD Titles

A piece of illustration from one of my zines was used on the IdN DVD title sequences of the Self-Promo issue :) Works well I think. Yeah. Very nice.

Further Experimentation with Type

I love destroying things. Especially type. It's been a while since I've last done any of this!







I particularly like playing with the colour separations, which gives a really nice layered effect like this.