This is not a Spleen

Project 1: Organs

Each Group was given a different organ, we were given the Spleen. We quickly realised that none of us new anything about a spleen. I thought it was just made up for cartoon violence. Subsequently we found out pretty much everything we could about the Spleen and decided it was quite an ambiguous organ. Despite it being very important, it is not vital, yet you could die without it... Anyway seeing as no one knew anything about the Spleen we decided to make up everything about it and make a presentation on how little the general public by lying straight faced to them, telling them what they didn't know was false.
So yes... this is not a Spleen... C'est Splean.




Week 1: Travel

JETPACKS! After having several ideas, I went back to my first idea, which wasn't even mine... Jetpacks. Probably not a great move considering the feedback I got was "whoever wrote that is a lazy thinker" perhaps a little harsh, but I admit I missed the point completely. However i stand by my point... who doesn't wanna look this awesome while traveling.




Tea break Challenge

The first day of many at Kingston Graphics. Spent the day meeting our tutors and getting to know our 88 strong group. We were instructed to play games involving meeting new people with opposite tastes to you, filling a booklet with phone numbers and choosing an ice-cream flavour that reflects us. On our break we were sent to have tea with 3 people you have only just met and take a photo. So here's me with 5 people minus the tea, which has been replaced with awkward hands in our laps.

Dining Table Project

This summer, my girlfriend Jocie (check out her awesome blog) and I decided to embark on a project together; to design and build our very own Dinning room table to go in our new house.  With all the excitement of buying a house, we got a little carried away/over ambitious, deciding it wouldn't take that long. We weren't following a recipe as such, just a vague plan Jocie sketched delicately on a piece of paper, including precise measurements on how to make a table look random yet considered. Here's how it went down. Step 1. Bought wood from B&Q 4x(200cm x 9.3cm x 1.5cm). Step 2. Cut it down to varying sizes based on the design. Step 3. Laid out the wood to check they fit together.  Step 4. Numbered each piece so we always knew where each went.  Step 5. (This was the fun bit) We distressed the wood using nails, screws, hammers, files, and many other sharp, blunt or heavy items to make each piece look like it had history. Step 6. We varnished the wood individually so they wouldn't quite match up. The vanish would thicken where we had distressed it, making it appear burnt or weathered but generally old and well used. Step 7. Was the longest step; each piece had to be doweled individually about 5 or 6 times to give it strength and support. Step 8. Using wood glue, a lot of clamps, and Jocie's Dad as backup, the table was bound and left to dry.  Step 9. The ends were planed flat then attached to the end pieces using ten dowels each side. Step 10. The legs were made from two B&Q fence posts that were cut in half and bracketted on using four 'L' Shaped brackets on each leg.

Despite vicious rumors that I built this table alone, it was very much a team effort. My part was simply brute manliness, and a love for playing with power tools... But as a great man once said... "it wouldn't be nothing, nothing, without a woman or a girl"

Here it is in action, in the new house. Since this photo it has been varnished, and the rest of the room looks a lot better than it does here. 


Tate Modern: Miró

Miró is a hero. I went to see the enormous collection of his works held on loan to the Tate. Since doing history of art and studying the surrealist movement, I've loved Joan Miró. Like many of his peers, the insanity in their work is their genius. I walked around the gallery listening to Mogwai which may have heightened my sense of awe, but yes I was in severe awe. There is a sheer diversity to his work that is like few others. The show is presented more or less chronologically, so as you continued the work became freer and freer, shape reduced to form reduced to line. From a different perspective I can see that it would look like he was just getting older and lazier with his work but I know this is far from true.  Yes he got older, continuing his work free from the conventions of the society he was brought up in. A sense of enlightenment that comes with age perhaps. He was and always will be insane... and I mean that in the best possible way.





BP Portriat Award 2011

I went to check out this years BP Portrait Award. As I walked into the exhibition I was greeted by a lifesize painting of two sisters by Tim Okamura called 'Little Sister'. What struck me about this painting was mostly to do with its process. Whilst still retaining realism it's very painterly; brush lines turn into drips further down and the hair is created through thick layering of paint.  Next to that was a very different style of painting (one that I could have sworn was a photograph) by Jan Mikulka called 'Jakub'. It was just so soft, I still don't know how people do it. However I think my favorites were Nathan Ford's 'Abi' - a very small and seemingly incomplete painting of a crazed man, whose eye lures you into the mess of smudged black paint and simple line; 'Holly' by Louis Smith - which depicts a young fiery haired woman chained to a rock (an allegory of the Prometheus story) held in an enormous 12 foot gold frame.  I do wonder how the award is judged, considering this years first prize winner... The painting wasn't at all bad, it just wasn't interesting. The depth to any meaning being it felt far too weak to have deserved £25,000.



Sistine Chapel - now Online

Found this while checking the Vatican Website. A 360 degree image of the Sistine Chapel! It's pretty detailed too, you can zoom right in and find some cool shit you couldn't see before. I went once, and it was a little overwhelming, then a little under. But all in all i think it was actually great. But its all the way in Rome? Not anymore... now you can go everyday!


Logorama

Logorama is a 16-minute long French animated film written and directed by François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain. The film depicts events in a stylized Los Angeles, and is told entirely through the use of more than 2,500 contemporary and historical logos and mascots. The film won the Prix Kodak at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the Academy Awards. Oh and its pretty darn rootin' tootin'.


Photographer: Sean Vegezzi

Sean Vegezzi has been exploring the subways of New York since he was 12 years old, and has walked every line there is. He's only 21 years old, but his work already shows intellect and great talent. His photography documents explorations of a world of abandoned subway lines, hidden under Manhattan. The feeling that the subjects want to escape the city is strong and emotive. It's hard to tell if they are rejecting the city in which they live or trying to embrace a lost part of it, but there is definitely a sense of freedom in their actions. A rejection of culture and rules... outside the box thinking. I fear the world would be a very different place if people never questioned their surroundings, or the things they are told.



Jeff Jarvis

I found these type samples by Graphic Designer, Jeff Jarvis, living and working from Brooklyn. Something drew me to his subtle and selected use of colour, playfulness execution. 'Fizz' has and incredible double 'z' and against that faded black the text has context.  I'm sure it was his intention but I love the way 'there and back' makes your eyes travel forwards and backwards re-reading it while your eyes swivel in there sockets. 'Moving' is deliberately cropped to show movement in context, to show that it has moved. None of these things have any place in fonts but as concepts or as ways of demonstrating fonts they are lovely examples.



Back to the Future: Part 2

Hopefully you'll remember the awesomeness Now, I wasnt around in the 50's when Velcro was invented but that was designed to make putting shoes on easier right? Well back in 1989 Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale prophesied a world where shoes no longer needed to be done up and lights on shoes also came in adult sizes.  Well 4 years ahead of schedule, Nike have decided to make 1,500 of these very shoes. They come equipped with the Back to the Future patented 'power-laces' and several different colored lights. So as long as you can pull these off, let alone afford them, I will forever worship you as some of the most bawler shit around.


Underwater

The feeling of being underwater is tranquil. I've always loved being submersed in it's embrace. Apparently I was meant to be born in water, but couldn't because I was being difficult. I learnt to swim at a young age; it was on a sailing holiday in Turkey that my parents threw me into the sea without arm bands in faith that I'd work it out. Which I did. The immense nature of the sea and what it represents makes for a very spiritual space. The sense of weightlessness makes you feel at one with it all yet so aware of your effect.  I have come across many a thought, many an idea, in the sea.

 

Troika

Although they aren't just one designer, I have to mention Troika as one of my favourites. Troika are Eva Rucki, Conny Freyer and Sebastien Noel, who are widely known for their experimental artworks. Their work is a combination of art, design, science and architecture. They produce work that's highly original based on surreal observations, scenarios and experiences, playing with sound, sight and movement in clever and innovative ways.




The Grand Canyon

Last year I spent two week traveling down through the Grand Canyon. As you look up to the top of the 6000ft cliff face above, you can't help but feel insignificant. Humbled by the mighty earth, I felt empowered to be so close to it. Having two weeks free from the distractions of technology, of noise, of time itself, you gain a lot of time with your thoughts. The sense of freedom is unparalleled. It's such a spiritual place.


Mountains

Mountain climbing/walking has been programed into me from a young age. When I was five I climbed Snowdon having done several climbs in the Lake District previously.  Once a year we usually go on holiday to some mountains and spend the week climbing and huddling in the cold evenings.  The process of walking is great facilitator of thoughts, and climbing a mountain is the ultimate experience of this. The journey has purpose and structure and to be at the top feels like enlightenment. I've had many thoughts whilst climbing many a mountain.


EasyWalker

Would somebody please explain this to me.. i just don't understand. Directed by David Lewandowski, an a computer animator who has worked on the likes of tron, his latest video is madness, but I kinda like it. Very curious to know how and why but I guess I'm never going to know...

One day i Plan to Top this

Sumo Science and Aardman have teamed up again to produce the worlds largest animation, as well as holding the title for the worlds smallest animation 'Dot'. The scale is just immense. I think in at least some of the shots the guy on the boat is a real person, which just shows you how epic the animation of the sand is, especially in the end bit.  Also i have to say that the underwater scene reminded me distinctly of 'A Town Called Panic' when they go underwater in search of treasure. Awesome movie by the way and y'all should watch it.



Big Ideas Are Small

There is a Barcode revolution happening people. The Japanese company 'D-Barcode' has taken it upon themselves to make barocdes a fun and enjoyable for all.  For some reason I had never questioned barcodes. I thought they were this thing that had to remain uncreased and untouched in order to be read by the magical infrared light wielded by seemingly untrained but somewhat mystical people. Now they just look jokes!

A Giant Fuck

This is a typographics piece I found on 'this isn't happiness' by Rita Gomes which I sort of like but can't explain why exactly.  I have always thought that it would be interesting if you could make a handwriting font for a computer that would generate letters slightly differently at random so as to make it more free-form, like regular handwriting where letters are not uniform.  This made me think of that, then it made me think of me being a fucking idiot...

A French Magazine for Him

I'm not too sure why I even posted this let alone how I found it, but here is the cover of the french adult entertainment magazine 'Lui' from the 60's. Sex has been selling quite well ever since it was first tried, but can it be an accredited means of design? It does seem a rather easy job to find someone who looks hot, take off their clothes off and take photos of them so you can hand them out to the public. If it didn't work then so well it would probably be a crime or outdated method of arousal. So if this really is an example of good advertising/graphic design then the grounds for it being so are not as well-rounded as it would appear...

Skin Type

While looking through 'ilovetypography.com' I discovered this really gross typeface by Thijs Verbeek entitled simply 'typeface in skin'.  He uses clothes pegs to pinch various sections of skin into letterforms. Looking through the entire collection I found myself wincing at each image trying to work out where on the body it must be.  For the entire alphabet click here.


Daniel Eatock

Daniel Eatock is still my favourite graphic designer. 

I sat in a lecture of his, as a foundation student doing Graphic Design at Kingston, and marveled at the intellect, wit, and general awesomeness that spilled out of his mouth and circular slide show presentation. He explained the way he works as a freelance graphic designer. It is to set himself rules and guidelines, and then to question them rationally or maybe irrationally. Despite having always thought I would be a fine artist, I had spent the whole year studding Graphic Design (I still wasn't sure why, it had just felt right). But as I sat there mesmerised I finally understood why fine art was so limiting... There were no rules. Without knowing limitations and boundaries, what was there to compete with? What was there to question?  Fine art is art, art can have meaning, art can question anything you want it to question, but it can't ever have the same forethought that Graphic Design has, if it does it's just Graphic Design... call it what you want.

Maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about, maybe i still don't know what I'm talking about but it made sense then.  And I hope it will again some day...


Music Video Project

So there's this band called SaintFalcons who play music, and one day they approached me and said "hey, we need a bassist!" and I was all like, "hey, I play bass guitar" and then a few hours later we were shooting the music video for a song they wrote. The shoot was a group collaboration, with all of us wielding the camera at one point or another, as was costume design... A very special thanks to the special effects crew who were on hand 24/7. 

( Shoot: 2 Mornings / Edit: 1 Day / Location: Richmond Park )


Vivian Chiu

Vivian Chiu is a recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design in the Furniture Design department.  An individual that likes to push herself mentally and physically, she believes in the value of hard work, a philosophy that drives many of her designs. Much of her work is a mixture of sculptural and functional, and shows her interest in the materiality of wood.  She draws inspiration from artists such as Martin Puryear, Anish Kapoor, Tom Friedman and Richard Sweeney. 

'Inception Chair'
'Pixel Chair
'Hypercube'


 She also had a nice bunch of photos on her site, the one below particularly caught my eye as a Gerhard Richteresque shot on a trainline. This image applys the same effect Richter uses in his painting method to transform a photo into a mere memory


'TheNortheast'

PIXELATOR

I don't tend to watch much television, mainly because once you start it is hard to stop. Its warming glow draws you into a state of self aware-d mindlessness.  I noticed recently that if there happeneds to be one on in a pub, say, my eyes would tend to glare at it, even mid conversation, despite having little to no interest in the program viewed.

This Pixelator device highlights the uselessness of television into simply light and colour moving mysteriously over the screen.  i.e the effect of the television is the same with it on or not, and to be honest i think i prefer it on.


Linotype

Here is a trailer for a feature-length documentary film made by Doug Wilson about the Linotype type casting machine. About a year ago he partnered up with two good friends on a journey to document the Linotype and the people who loved and still love these crazy machines. After 45 interviews and 26 separate shoots, they have amassed an amazing collection of footage telling the surprisingly emotional and fascinating story of the Linotype.

10 key facts about me



1 My hair is long. When I was a kid would just get my head shaved then let it grow into a buzz before shaving it again at a place that didn’t speak English apart from offering them a number between 1 and 20 which would indicated the length of hair you wanted.  After realising this wasn’t that normal for kids my age I got proper boy-length hair for the first time.  This meant having to go to a proper hairdresser, which is where the fear began.  Failed haircut after failed haircut left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and a hatred of anyone who attempted to cut my hair. So I pretty much stopped cutting it for good.

2  I love music. A lot. Music is definitely a big part of my life. I don’t think I could cope without music.  For the last 4 years I don’t think there was a single point where I haven’t had a ticket booked for a gig or something. I crave the bass; being able to feel the music physically gives it a whole ‘nother level.

3  I can’t stop writing in caps-lock. I think I find it hard to write joined up because it’s too much to think about when trying to spell and think of what to say at the same time. So for I while I went through a phase of writing in lowercase but keeping letters separated, but then I kept missing out the first letters of words for some reason.  Ironically it was when writing history of art notes that I decided to try writing all in capital letters, because I found it harder to read lowercase. Once I started I couldn’t stop, and now I have forgotten how to write not in capitals.

4  Given the choice of getting something done well before a deadline so I can use any free time after I’ve finished to either relax or refine what I’ve done, or leaving it until the last minute so I freak out and work overtime to get it all done… then you’ll probably find me doing the latter.  Not that at any point I’d feel comfortable overriding my perfectionism and scrutinising over minute details that no one but me would ever see.

5  I love making lists. Whenever something needs to be done, or be remembered or anythinged… I’ll probably make a list. I even go as far as making tiny check boxes for each point that needs to be accomplished.

6   I’ve only ever had one pet.  A frog called Trevor. It wasn’t even a real pet, it just kept swimming around this bowl of rainwater in my garden. But everyday it kept coming back. I would just try and touch its back as it jumped around me and we’d play stupid games.  A few days before my 6th birthday I came out one morning to find it skinned alive by my neighbours cat.  It was like seeing Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru burnt carcases in Star Wars for the fist time. My stomach shrank.

7  Although he’s 20 years older than me to the day, I met my longest standing friend/best friend of all time while at nursery school. When he was around my age now, he worked at the nursery by day. My mum asked if he’d take me home every other for lunch and then got into babysitting me on the regular. We would just hang out like we were brothers. He was a breakdancer and super talented graffiti artist by night, and as a kid I was in awe of him, I still am. Directly and indirectly he educated my music taste, taught me to draw and fundamental morals and thoughts about life. To this day we still find time to hang, go climbing mountains or whatever. There are many people that have shaped my life, but I know I’d be very different if I’d never met him.

8   I have a brother who is three and a half years older than me. We went to a state primary school called John Betts where once a month they would give out ‘gold awards’ in assembly to students who had excelled in one form or another. Now these were just pieces of paper with some gold writing on but we wanted them bad. There were these other awards called attendance awards for never being late or missing school, which you’d receive at the end of the year if you’d managed this. Well my bro went through the entire 7 years without missing a beat, and so they made a new award for him… The ‘Super Attendance Award’. As his younger brother, of course I wanted to follow in his footsteps… and I did.  So there I am at the year 6 prize giving waiting eagerly to accept my reward, but it never came. I was told they just forgot, but apparently in reception I missed half a day because of an ear infection… damn fascists… 

9   I pissed on someone’s sofa once.  It looked expensive too. Embroided pillows.  Goose feathers. I mean this thing was an antique. But I just needed to go and I didn’t know where the toilet was…

10   Oh and I think a lot. Maybe too much. But i dunno. I tend to write how I would talk so I tend to write too much because I'm carried away with all these words that I like to say, but then again I'm more selective when I type and tend not to write 'like' and 'um' which I say a lot in real life. Haha real life... Also I think I sound more intellectual when I write probably because I can think about what to say a little more and think of big words and stuff.

Self Portrait

This is my self-portrait. It is done in a mixture of 'super sculpey' and 'plastercine' using only my hands as tools. I tried to caricature my face a bit, but hopefully I don't look too similar to this - crazy person. I did another version a while back, but wasn't trying to be anything like accurate, in an animation I made with Stephanie Unger last year on foundation. You can watch that here.

Things I Will miss about Home

1  My family: The thing I will miss most is family, my brother and my Dad and I have always been pretty close. We all sort of need each other without telling each other and have the same crass humour that I will sorely miss. I'll have to go back to see the old man every now and again.

2 Free food:  The fridge in my family's house is massive. It was my Mums idea to get some next, custom made fridge from Sweden or something so that if me or my brother would ever bring friends around unexpectedly she/we would be able to feed them. She always knew it was important for people to eat if they were hungry or about to consume vast quantities of alcohol.

Things i wont miss 'bout home

1  Things getting thrown away:  My Dad gone through a phase of throwing things away that are mine if they are deemed clutter or are just generally in the way.  It has cost me many a fine clothes and general miscellaneous items that I dare not try and remember to save me from remorse.

2   I can't actually think of anything else that i won't miss. Which i guess is flattering to my family and home. Maybe I shouldn't have left... oh no....

Websites I Frequent



      = Blogs                =  Reference               = Artists


                                                                              
www.visual-poetry.tumblr.com
www.ilovetypography.com
www.38one.com/logolog
www.itsnicethat.com
www.moluv.com

                                                             
www.eatock.com

                                                
www.google.com
www.vice.com

The Future

In ten years time I will be... older and wiser. I will hopefully have accomplished things that I can be proud of. Maybe I'll have a kid or something crazy. If I could choose I'd either want time travel to be invented so I could head back to the 60's or for technology to have gotten so advanced that id be able to quote Blade Runner without sounding ironic. I could sit here and think of all of the places or people I could be in 10 years time but it would all be fantasy. Perhaps none of it would come real. I would hate to live in false hope.

Typography

Got given this book about fonts for my Birthday. I think my knowledge of typography is embarressingly limited, compared to most people studying graphic design.  Over the last year I've realised that one would be wise to learn the phopa's of typographics before attempting to show their work. The first chapter is entitled "We don't serve your type", written in Comic Sans... Obviously a classic graphic design joke.  Seems like I got some reading up to do...