Postcard and bookmark design project

So this is a really fun brief, we were tasked with designing a set of four postcards and a bookmark for a poetry festival as part of the ticket package. We were given a list of poems to choose from as the theme and ideally are to use one poem for the branding/promo set. I have had loads of workable ideas and the one I am currently working up is that patrons would be given a poster, rolled up like a newspaper, it would unroll to reveal a faux newspaper with headlines and sensationalist stories with the bookmark as the header.
the final will be printed on card heavy enough to go through the post and the cards will tear off with perforations. Here is the one I did today to test out the idea,using four of the poems. I like it, it is a workable idea and I shall do up a few more. Click pics for larger images. update: below this is one I just did today (31st), a light hearted parody on the literary world.

Work for a photography brief

The brief is "Where I am at" and there are many ways this could be interpreted of course, where in the world or in life. I have a few different things on the go for this one. I have been experimenting in the darkroom with some techniques and am relatively pleased with how it is coming together.
Thie images I am working on are about being in the same places every day, passing the same things on the way to and from college or wherever and taking pictures of the same things each time I pass, I do like how they look like there is motion going on, like you are looking at time in a different way almost.
So here are two, it is still a work in progress, more to come later.

this one is comprised of a set of shots taken in a small space during a day at work.

further developments in artistic magnificence

Well, artistic exploration at any rate. So after much deliberation and conferring with my tutor ( she was so clearly right and honestly echoed my thoughts anyway.. think I was being a bit lazy for some reason) the conclusion has been reached  that, this piece either goes on like this:

Which to be honest is more relevant as the entire idea behind all my pieces originally was restriction of movement or it gets put into second place behind the original docking station idea. I will definitely do this one anyway as it is built and I think with little copper wires coming out of the negative space, in this position to show the back pain that inspired all these concepts but I am currently building the full sized model of the docking station, seriously, why did even think it would not be possible? it is easy and has also taken on a new dimension today.. pics tomorrow. This above however already has some new possibilities.
So there we are.

Just a few photos from around the place

Victoria Baths, Manchester

I took this one at the Hepworth gallery in Wakefield    

Manchester Art gallery

Victoria Baths

Layers Brief, final outcome animations

For this brief I did a lot of experimenting and created some physical pictures as well as these little animations.
The original idea was to show them in an enclosed space such as a photo booth or a screened off little room.
I also like the idea of having a bit of music to go along with it but then I thought it would be fun to see what music other people would think of when they saw them and then play around with that somehow.
I originally did them as PDF presentations which is great because they can be full size but unfortunately they are not uploadable.
I will add them as I convert them from pdf to gif but I am having some trouble as they seem to be really large files.. here are some of the pictures and stills from the animations to look at in the meantime:

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these are a few stills from two of the slideshows I did, I made 6 in total and used a range of photographs I have taken over the years combining the urban and derelict with the rural and pristine as well as some xrays of myself and bits and pieces of other relevant stuff. It is a sort of self portrait thinking about how we construct layers in ourselves over time and build upon old ideals and priorites with new ones or just smash them down and start again. It refers to the dreams and how jumbles of past and present occur in them.

Ultimately the viewer will be able to see what he or she wants to see and hopefully find a way to relate the concept to their own lives.

Order Disorder/Body Adornment brief

This brief involved a lot of research on order and disorder and then we were to find a way to break down elements and create a piece to interact with the body. I have ideas and maquettes for two full sized pieces that would interact with the body in a fairly non traditional way, the first one is intended to lock a person into a particular position or pose and not necessarily a comfortable one.

 the idea is that the person "docks" into it and the structure is held together by the spine at the back as well as the person interacting with it. I am yet to make a proper maquette for this but will get to it next week.

 The second one is similar in that it is about how a body fits into the structure so this one is a "chair" of sorts but not in any way a practical one, the idea behind these two pieces is to challenge the concept of form and function as being for comfort or practical purposes, neither of these fit that bill!

sculpture is made from the same pieces I am using for the final wearable option.

the idea would be to have 3 shelves and cut out a pose into the structure so the body can only interact with it in one particular and not necessarily comfortable way.. don't get me wrong, not torturously uncomfortable but enough to do what it should.

This brief is now at the making maquettes and planning final outcome stage and not surprisingly I have once again gone straight to geometry, certainly answers the order part! I am looking at tesselations and snowflakes which came about quite randomly after playing with a few clothing design ideas based on fountain pens and steam trains!
It then evolved into an arm piece that went across both shoulders

and has now become this. it really changed as I played around with different configurations of the same little geometrical pieces.

I am making the final piece out of postcards, brochures and promo flyers, stuff like that, I think it gives a nice randomness as well as colour.
So it is a chest and arm piece, will hang around the neck and the structure will extend down both arms as they are held out straight to the sides, I think this will have a pretty dynamic symmetrical effect.

Each piece is made of 3 separate pieces measured and cut individually so it is a lot more time consuming than it looks but it will be worth it when I am done. It has also given me a thousand ideas for some sculpture pieces that I would like to make.

Helped out on this

As part of the Whitworth Art Gallery's grand finale Lucy made this recreation of Jacob Epstien's Genisis sculpture in the park and I was fortunate enough to have a full on week helping out with it. It was hard work but well worth it and I learned a lot about weaving with willow. It gave me some ideas for some rather large pieces I would like to do as well.

Positive Posters Design Contest

Each year the Aussies at Positive Posters run a contest to find a poster that tackles the issues of the day and ones that the contributors care about, I love it and enter whenever I have the time to. These are my contributions for this year.  Food, water and natural resources areone of the most important topics of discussion for a sustainable future so I wanted to find a nice simple graphic way to describe these ideas.
my entries on the Positive Posters site

The Noun Project

You don't need me to tell you that The Noun Project exists, but here is a link to my portfolio of original icon designs created for the Noun Project. And if one or two are not enough the above collection is available on some stock agencies.
so check it out here

Live to ride

I am a borderline cycling obsessive and I have been doing a load of bike themed stuff lately, must be the... weather... well, it was....
so today I made this and I am still chuckling to myself. Stay tuned for a few equally ridiculous variations on the theme.

get it here for the walls or here as a wearable parody.

One Day Pop up at the Chinese Arts Centre

The wonderful venue in Manchester, The Chinese Arts Centre are hosting a one day pop up for local artists, check it on FB HERE
Titled 7 hours it is to explore the temporary nature of things and was lit with glow sticks to facilitate this as when the light ran out the show was over.

showing him my stuff and having all of them selected as a single piece

I am participating and exhibiting a couple of photography pieces in this show.
here's the website for the event at the  Chinese Arts Centre :

The must have T-shirt of the BBQ summer season has now arrived, to much fanfare.

So I made this shirt, it's a bit of fun for the summer and as you can see comes in as much colour variety as the sauces it pays its respects to.
You could purchase it Here at Skreened or Here at Red Bubble or even Here if you like. Have a great summer and don't stop grillin!

Need reasonably priced design work with a fast turnaround?

Poster for Manchester Piccadilly Vertical gardens

A fantastic project by some great people to grow a vertical garden on the ugly grey concrete wall in Piccadilly Gardens, check out the links for info on the project.. in the meantime here's a poster.
http://manchesterpiccadillyverticalgardens.blogspot.co.uk/

Tour Poster

A fairly simple tour poster for Cornish poet Aaron Kent to support his charity tour.

Check out what he is doing here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/feeling-hostel-aaron-kent-spoken-word-tour?c=gallery http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/feeling-hostel-aaron-kent-spoken-word-tour?c=gallery