Amnesty talk (Barry Tempest)

Today we had a talk from a member of Amnesty international (Barry Tempest); he gave us an insight to the wide variety of campaigns the global charity works upon. I found his initially quite slow and not overly interesting; yet after the talk we had time to gather some key questions in small groups, before being able to have a one to one question time.

I found this much more helpful, as I already had a small understanding of the campaigns and was able to have vital questions of my initial chosen campaigns answered in detail.

Overall the day was really useful and has kick started my interests into the project. Really beneficial day, cheers Barry!    

Visual Thinking- Amnesty international-new unit

Just handed in the Text & Image unit, what a relief that was. Although I enjoyed the first unit, I had enough of it in the end, and just felt I wanted to move onto something fresh.

"Visual Thinking" is the title of our new unit, which is solely based on creating an advertisement for an Amnesty International campaign (world wide human rights charity); which should be aimed towards a younger generation (20-30 yrs).

This unit looks exciting and I'm glad to be starting a fresh project. We have a talk from a member of Amnesty international coming in next week; he will be able to give us advice and ideas to help start this new project.

This unit also has two live briefs which sound exciting, and am looking forward to them. They consist of encoding and decoding brand material.

Text and Image

Oh god! Unit hand in is tomorrow at 4pm! I really need to stay on top of my time management. This is something I am getting better at but there is room to improve. I need to stop leaving the work for another day. Maybe organize a timetable for home?

Anyway I have most of the work done, just a few bits and bobs to complete. On the whole it has been an enjoyable start to the Uni way of life, and I have enjoyed the challenge of new and fresh work. I especially enjoyed the workshops throughout the unit (letterpress and book binding. etc) and feel I have also taken away stronger computer skills (introduction to- Photoshop and Illustrator).

The unit has given me a strong understanding of semiotics and how they are used everywhere in daily life. I used my skills to create my final book, in which contained all my finished work from within the unit. 

Britshness

Today we have been given an extra live project as part of our text and image unit. It is linked with two other Visual Communication courses abroad, one in Kuwait (AND NOT SURE OF OTHER,JOIN GROUP ON FLICKR). We are required to create a piece of design, illustration or photography that best reflects our home town. The brief is really broad and also has the option of creating your design based on your own country.

I'm going to focus on britain, as there are more things to choose from. Our main aim is to get across our view of the country or town we live in. I want to focus on the traditional aspect of britain and create a colourful illustration that reflects my Britain.

After much thinking and doodling on loads of paper I was able to come up with my final idea. I made the choice of keeping the text to a minimum and just have a short piece that relates to the illustration. I kept the Union jack colours (red, white, blue) throughout the illustration for obviously reasons, which I think look strong.

If I were to go back and edit the illustration, I would only make some minor adjustments; I would look at maybe changing the layout, the policeman I think could be slightly higher as the the text above doesn't look right.

I'm happy with the typeface (American typewriter), it looks strong, isn't too powerful yet gets a simple message across to the reader.

Overall I enjoyed designing my Britishness illustration and to me personally it reflects my views of the country I live in.

BRITISHNESS LINK

London Journey (Drift) & Kyle Cooper!

The day started with a sleepy bus journey up to London. When we arrived we were briefed again on what we were here for (to record and capture a sense of a journey/drift), before then splitting into groups and venturing off into the city. My group and I all agreed on deliberately getting lost to add sense of journey to our visual recordings.

We left the main group and ended up beside the Thames where I did some rough and quick sketching to capture the feel and landscape of London. Shortly afterward we walked up the Thames to the London eye where I captured good and experimental images.(link)

Close to the London eye was an arcade in which I found the inspiration for my vernacular typography.(link) There was a huge range of different typefaces along with individual and unique imagery upon the games; clearly used for luring potential customers in.

After venturing across to the southbank we came across a tunnel/walkway in which there was a smothering of graffiti all over the place. Personally the type of graffiti we saw WAS art and i totally agree with it being there; although recently on the news and papers there has been controversy about an graffiti artist, BANKSY. (banksy link)

Personally I think his work is meaningful and has a strong message of current global matters. Each one has its own message, and it leaves the viewer to their own opinion. What's yours??

After eventually finding our way back to the theatre, having even asked a thomas crown affair styled hotel doorman directions, we still made it on time (JUST) for Kyle Coopers inspirational talk.

Going into Kyle Coopers talk I didn't really have a clue who he was to be totally honest; I came out full of inspiration and ideas. He is probably one of the most inspirational people around and I took a lot in from his talk.

London eye

London eye 2

Graffiti tunnel

Graffiti

Arcade

D&AD (Kyle Cooper)

Editorial & paper Illustrations (Poole)

The day started with an early wake up to catch the bus too Poole. When we arrived in the bleak and miserable Poole bus station I felt like I had just stepped back in time. It was my first time in Poole and it already had a strange impression on me. It seemed the only good thing so far was the KFC I had.

After meeting the tutors and walking to the quay, we were given a short, (but very helpful) talk from Clive on using our cameras properly. We were then given a few hours to go and record visual information such as signs, photos, sounds, drawings etc. I got some really interesting rubbings from benches and signs as well as some drawings and pictures. (see link below)

Later on that week we were given two tasks; using the visual information we had had gathered from Poole we had to create a editorial and paper illustration. The paper illustration brief was given by Neil and we only had one day to complete it, whereas the editorial illustration was a project within the text and image unit and we had until the deadline to hand that in.

For the paper illustration I used influential material from Poole such as a local paper, postcards and photographs from the area to establish some ideas. My personal view of Poole was "Plastic" and "boring" to be honest; and I wanted that to reflect in the paper illustration. I used really simple colours as well as keeping it plain to get my personal opinion across.

With my visual recordings and ideas from the paper illustration I  was able to begin on the editorial illustration. I didn't want to solely base the illustrations on "my" personal thoughts of Poole, so I took the idea from another project within the text and image unit to also base them around a poem. (see link)

The finished illustrations reflect Poole both for the poem, and also my personal view of. 

Rubbing 1

Rubbing 2

Rubbing 3

Poem

Illustration 1

Illustration 2