Wednesday 9 December 2009

Collections

People collect very strange things.

I myself can't help but keep my cinema tickets when I go to see a film and this has resulted in a rather large collection!

As part of a university module one of the projects is about collections and as part of this I began to research what different people collected and I came out with some very strange results.

Among these were "The worlds biggest coca cola collection", "A collection of celeb hair" and "A collection of navel fluff".

Over the summer as part of my university module I began collecting jam jars.



The question now was what to do with these jars I had accumulated?

After much thought and research into what jars could be used for I decided to portray other peoples collections and memories into jars, this way my outcome would have a personel quality for the people who viewed it.



One of my jars would be full to the brim with train tickets as I take the train almost everyday and never tend to throw my tickets away.
My next task is to hand out jars to various people and ask them to fill them with a collection or memory. The interesting thing will be not knowing what I will get back as it is now down to other people how my project turns out.

Monday 7 December 2009

Potatoes!

"We want a tray of potatoes 3-4 ft wide with some potatoes painted into the Certis logo, the surrounding potatoes just left normal and only those in the logo formation painted"

A strange brief you might say- this concept was created by a PR agency on behalf of a client. After reading the brief outline myself and a fellow student stepped up to take the challenge.
At first glance I considered this project to be quite simple, however after ideas started to generate it became clear that quite a few elements needed to be considered, for example what type of box would we present this logo in? What type of potatoes would be most suitable?



We agreed on an idea that involved creating the logo purely from a mosaic of different coloured potatoes. Next came the potato research.
I, myself am no expert in potatoes so I was surprised to see how many different types we came across, for instance in Marks and Spencers we came across some potaoes no bigger than a 50p!

After conducting some experiments with the different potatoes we were able to decide which ones to use and how to paint them effectively so they fit in with the logo.



Next to consider was the making of the boxes, as the client now desired two of the same design.
After an unexpected "hurdle" we decided to construct the containers ourselves and paint them white so they would embrace an elegant quality.
The potato mosaic itself was next on the list and this step was the most challenging. This task involved literally putting the potaotes together like a puzzle, not just any potato would do.
The final outcome consisted of a red potato border with white potatoes surrounding small painted blue potatoes presented in the logo shape.

Finally to make it look professional a perspex lid was added.
If I'm honest with myself I didn't think poatoes could look so goodand artistic!
So far we have had positive feedback from the clients and are waiting to hear how the stands were percieved at the Farmer's show which they were produced for.

Friday 6 November 2009

Four Illustrators/artists who greatly appeal to me are Sarah Coleman, Tim Burton, Glenn James and the band The Tiger Lillies. These four seem to easily convey emotion throughout their work as though the subject in the image is really taking place. Some artists, me included find it difficult to portray this in their work.


Tim Burton’s illustrations emit emotion in every scene. For example these illustrations from “Vincent” show exactly what the character is feeling without the use of any words or hints. From simple pencil sketches it can be seen that the character Vincent is clearly unhappy This appeals to me as I would like to express this in my own work.








Sarah Coleman creates emotion and feeling in her work by using effective typography with small drawings around the outside. This illustration for the Notting Hill Carnival creates the pleasure and cheerfulness that can be felt when in presence of the carnival festivities. I admire her work greatly as I have always wanted to use typography as effectively as this.






Glenn James who I was lucky to meet recently , is a Gothic artist situated in Worcester. By using biro as his main medium he manages to create these atmospheric eerie illustrations. Like Burton’s work, The work of Glenn James seems to emotionally pull you into the scene. James greatly appeals to me as I to like to use biro as a main medium in my own work.






Although not classed as illustrators or artists in the traditional sense, the band The Tiger Lillies manage to create worlds of their own. The play “Shockheaded Peter” emanates emotion throughout as it can seem disturbing. The play, about cautionary tales for girls and boys would clearly shock and scare children and when watching it myself I felt the eerie atmosphere it created especially with Martyn Jacques voice ringing out for the narration. His voice alone produces the eerie emotion created in this play.