Typography Of New York

If you didn't know already, I'm a bit of a geek for typography. 'Helvetica' is potentially my favourite film ever, I believe there's nothing more elegant than a well designed ampersand and I laugh a bit to much at comic sans jokes. I just love type, and New York has it in abundance. There's nothing I love more than seeing type out in the environment, so today I thought I'd share some of the lovely examples that I've photographed while exploring the Big Apple (p.s. don't you just think the above picture sums up life in Britain perfectly?!).

Alan Kitching: A Life In Letterpress @ Somerset House

It's been a long time since I wrote up an exhibition visit for my blog, which is odd because I've been going to galleries at an insane rate over the last 6 months! On Monday I visited the 'Pick Me Up: Graphic Arts Festival' at Somerset House, which was wonderful for me as a design student. Running for it's 7th year, Pick Me Up showcases the very best movers and shakers rising up in graphic design and illustration. They have some very inspiring work on show so I'd really recommend spending some time exploring it. This year however, Pick Me Up is also hosting a retrospective exhibition of work by one of my personal design heroes, Alan Kitching. 'Alan Kitching: A Life in Letterpress' features over 100 prints, following Kitching's career from apprentice right the way through to the world-renowned designer he is today. 

My First Experience With InDesign

One of my blogging goals for this year is to share more of my own work. Originally I created this blog as a space to document my creative journey, and while the content that I write has evolved and broadened, my confidence in publishing what I do as a design student has declined. I think it comes with the territory of being a creative that we only want to share something if we feel as though it is our best. In reality though, it's not always about 'the thing', sometimes it's about getting to the thing, or the mistakes we made on our journey to the thing.

My Everyday Art Tools

To me, it's so interesting to know what art tools other creatives use on a regular basis. What are their absolute staples and complete essentials? What could they not do a days work without? What do they carry around with them in their pencil case? Today I thought I'd share the tools that I'm constantly reaching for and that probably would be in my pencil case if they weren't sprawled all over my desk! I haven't included any wet materials here such as paints or inks, just the real basics that serve me very well.

Painting 20 Summers of Jazz

Recently I received the very exciting news that Manchester Jazz Festival are going to be using a piece of my work across their marketing campaign for their 20th anniversary celebrations this year. Yesterday, the design went live on their website and in the coming weeks there will be lots of physical marketing too, from catalogues, CDs and badges to bus station posters around central Manchester.

The event itself is a 9 day long showcase of contemporary jazz from the north west of England and beyond. So far it has hosted over 4,900 artists, had 200,000 attendees, commissioned 17 new pieces of music and is Manchester's longest running music festival. 2015 will be their 20th annual event and they have teamed up with a company called Marketecture to design their advertising campaign - 'Celebrate 20 Summers of Jazz'. Students from my foundation course at Manchester School of Art were asked to listen and respond visually to one of a set of 20 jazz tracks. The track I was assigned to listen to was 'Makanitza - Gankino Horo'. We could choose to work in any medium and size we felt appropriate and I chose to work in oil paint.

In terms of my process, quite obviously I began by listening to the track I had been given from beginning to end. My knowledge of jazz music is incredibly limited, however I feel as though this helped me in creating the most raw and honest response I possibly could to the music I was hearing. There were no limiting pieces of information or facts to hold me back, I simply locked myself away, put the track on repeat, and made art. The key for me was never to think about what I thought the jazz festival wanted me to make. As far as possible I wanted to forget that this was for a brief at all. Only then could my work be a true and honest response to the music. Allowing myself the freedom to create honestly was my main focus, rather than making what I hoped they would like. Aside from this, the idea behind the painting was movement and vitality. The first thing I immediately thought of when I heard the music was a far away marketplace, and I wanted to capture the spirit of this rhythm with swirling motions and bright vibrant colours. On a personal level, it was such a refreshing change to make a painting based on sound an emotion. My university work has been very typographical/design based recently and it's been a long time since I spent time with just a canvas, paint and my thoughts.

This has been my first ever experience with working on a live brief in the industry and I am so grateful for the experience, and the fact that my work has been chosen by 'folk who know what they're doing' is such a huge compliment. To have my painting out there online for the world to see and see my name printed on the 'partners' page is surreal. I can't wait to share some of the physical marketing on here once is trickles down into my little hands. For now though, I have added some screenshots of the online visuals and below is a computer generated mock-up made by Marketecture of the kind of thing that will be popping up around Manchester in the coming weeks (where the colours are will be replaced by the image of my painting). I feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity and it makes it all the more exciting that the results will be on display around my home city this summer. So if you happen to live in Manchester - keep an eye out!

Manchester Jazz Festival runs from 31st July - 9th August 2015

You can check out their website for more information about the event (+ see my work!) here: www.manchesterjazz.com

5 Things To Consider When Setting Up Your Creative Space

Many of us dream of having our own creative space, but sadly we don't all have the luxury of an entire room to dedicate to our practice. It may be that you are limited to just one multi-use desk in your bedroom, but any sized space has the potential to be somewhere creatively stimulating and beautiful and it certaintly doesn't have to come at huge expense. Here are a few pointers to get you started with creating an inspiring place to work in, no matter how small your workspace or budget. 

1. Good Lighting

Make sure your desk is close to a good source of natural light and get your hands on a bright desk lamp for all of those late nights. This point is pretty self-explanatory - you need to be able to see your work in its full beauty! Good lighting is also essential if you plan on taking photographs in the space. 

2. Storage 

You'll need to seek out some practical storage options to keep all of your materials and bits and bobs organised. Having said this, 'practical' does not have to mean ugly. It's really important that your desk is a place that invites you to stay and work, potentially for long periods of time. Make it as beautiful as you can and it will become somewhere that you love and look forward to working in.

3. Pin-board

Go 'old-school' with your very own physical Pinterest board! Get yourself a pin-board and use the space directly around you as a mini gallery. Think of it as a place for you to start collections, play around with arrangements and kick start your inspiration, all of which can be especially useful in times of creative block. You don't just have to stick to existing artworks either, pin up something of your own which you're really proud of, surround yourself with scraps of materials, colours, inspiring quotes or magazine cuttings.

4. Folding Table 

Particularly if your space is limited, a folding table can be incredibly useful for the times when you just need to spread out a bit more. They are available pretty cheaply and are easy to store under your desk space. It's great to have some extra working space that you can just whip out and put away whenever it's required.

5. Comfy Chair

For me this is a must. We all know that art and design can be a lengthy process, so make sure you've got a nice comfy chair to work in. If you can't afford a whole new piece of furniture, even just a pretty throw or cushion can add new life to an old basic chair. After all, you want to be able to sit back and enjoy the experience of sitting and working in your beautiful new space!

I hope these tips help you with creating an inspiring space for you to work in and enjoy. What are your studio essentials? And do you have any tips for making the most out of limited space? I'd love to hear your ideas as I'm always looking for ways to bring new life to my workspace!

Final Major Project #2

Last month, I shared some work which formed the beginning of my Final Major Project at university. I had such a lovely response from that post and I think it's about time a did a little update. As well as the fact that I love sharing my work on my blog, it'll be so nice for me to be able to look back and see how things have improved over time. My project has come such a long way since the original post and it's kind of scary/exciting to think that in just a few weeks time I'll be putting up my exhibition, and soon after that it will be open for the public to view.

While my FMP subject is still 'Experimental Typography', I have now become much more focused within this subject. Textiles has begun to play a major role and I can't wait to share that part of my project once it becomes more developed and final. For now though I thought I'd share some images from various things that I have done within my work since my last post.

Above is an image which I created within the time constraints of one day while I was on holiday in Devon. I decided to make use of the seaside environment and went on the hunt for naturally formed letters on rocks and pebbles. It was surprising how easy it was to find letterforms once I'd started looking! I've always loved beach combing so it was a really fun little thing to break up my main project.

This next image is another 'mini-project' which I based around phrases and idioms. I wanted to illustrate the saying 'humble pie' in a literal way using typography and this is what I came up with. It was a nice, easy, quick image to make and was great fun - plus I got to eat the apple pie afterwards.

I was so overwhelmed and happy with the positive response I received from my first FMP post and so I hope these updates are something you enjoy seeing. I can't wait to share more of my work soon as my Final Major Project comes into it's final stages and ultimately post photographs of my complete exhibition in June!

Final Major Project #1

As I recently mentioned, I have now started work on my final major project at uni, which is the very last chunk of my art foundation course and is what I will ultimately be graded on. It is a ten week long project and we can choose to do it on any subject we like. We are completely free to write our own brief and spend the ten weeks how we see fit. The end result will be an exhibition which will go up alongside all of the degree shows at Manchester School of Art in June which will be open to the public!

The overarching title of my project is ‘Experimental Typography’. Throughout my foundation experience in the graphic design area, I have taken a keen interest in typography and this now reflects in both my work and research. However, so far this has always been within the context of a larger subject matter. For my FMP, I want typography to be the main focus, taking influence from designers such as Paul ElIiman, Oded Ezer and Stefan Sagmeister.  

I thought I'd share some of my initial work for the project. The images here are of an alphabet I created using cake. The idea began as I wanted to write 'A Piece Of Cake' using cake letters. The rest of the images are a selection of the extensions I completed following on from this, from burning the alphabet to a crisp, to making a negative with icing sugar. It was a lot of fun and it's always a bonus when you can eat the work afterwards!

I'm thinking about posting updates on my work as I progress through the ten weeks if that's something people would like to see? Please let me know if it is!

5 Lessons I Have Learnt At Art School

I can't quite believe that I have now started work on my Final Major Project, which means it's the beginning of the end of my first year at art school and of my foundation course. It's all gone by so quickly, it really doesn't seem like more that a couple of months ago that I was walking though the doors of this big scary building on my first day not knowing what to expect, how to dress, what to do and what I was even interested in. I feel like I have come such a long way in knowing what my direction might be in art and design as well as developing my artistic skills. I have learnt such a great deal in a relatively short amount of time and today I thought I'd share 5 of the valuable lessons I have learnt over the past academic year.

1. Breaking Up Projects Is Key

As it happens, my final major project is really the only project on my foundation course which will last longer than a few weeks. The projects up until this point have been very quick, which I have become quite fond of because it stops things going stale. However, even shorter projects can be broken down with quick one day or even one morning projects. I've found that I have created some of my best work under the time pressure of 24 hours, work which can easily stand up next to the final result of longer projects in my portfolio. Breaking things down into small projects just forces you to stop THINKING and start DOING and can really help you make the most of the time available.

2. You Can Achieve A Lot In A Day

As I have said, quick one day projects have been a key part of my art foundation experience. But even day-to-day, it really is amazing what you can achieve in just 24 hours if you set your mind to it. Make a to do list, set an ambitious goal and stick to it, tell your peers what you will have done by the end of the working day so you are held accountable. Everyday has the potential for you to create your best piece of work.

3. Sharing Your Work Is A Good Thing

Before I came to art school, I was very reserved about my own artwork. I didn't like to share it with others and I kept my projects very private. But I was swiftly thrown in at the deep end and encouraged to come out of my shell and share my work, thoughts and ideas with others. Now I'm a convert and a completely changed person! I love to show my work to other people, collaborate and bounce off each other. I even share photos of my work on this blog, Instagram and Facebook which is something I wouldn't dream of doing not long ago. Collaboration is key to creativity, there's nothing more inspiring than learning off of each other.

4. There Are People Out There Just Like Me

Nobody else in my family has ever been particularly creative, and I've never really been around people that 'get' my love of art. So it was a very new and refreshing experience to be around people every single day who are just like me, and share the same traits of collecting *hoarding* everything, taking photographs at every given opportunity and just being generally more creatively minded. I firmly believe that you just cannot use up your creativity, the more of it you use, the more of it you gain, and so being around people that inspire you on a daily basis is key to unlocking your creative potential.

5. Graphic Design Is Far More Than Just Posters

By far my biggest discovery since starting at art school is my love of graphics. I hold my hands up and admit that I had previously written off graphic design as a boring monotonous job for ‘MAC monkeys’, and not something where I could express myself freely in any way that I wanted. Oh how much I had to learn. I now specialise in graphic design and will continuing it onto degree level in September. Never once have I been held back or told I can’t do something because it doesn’t fit into the umbrella of graphic design. That is why a foundation course is so valuable - it challenges all of the rules drilled into you during your a-level.