American Propaganda (Uncle Sam) Exhibition Model

It's the project that's caused me the most stress and confusion but I think I've finally got it! 

(Well.. I'm happy with what I've done now so it's tough shit if it's still wrong)

The aim was to create an exhibition based on something you'd written about previously in the year and so I chose the Uncle Sam propaganda posters by James Montgommery Flagg. 

There is a poster and a postcard to go along with the model, but here is what I've come up with.

Entrance / Exit view

The red lines connect the work to each other and stem from the main 'I Want You' poster.

(Which is technically/historically correct as they all followed in suit after the first one was so successful)

Side View 01

Side View 02

Informational Project: No Pain, No Gain

I haven't blogged in a while due to the sheer amount of work I've been trying to finish (or in some cases put off till last minute) but one in particular has been a real pain.. literally.

For an informational project based on Fish I've been stencilling and cutting out cards (like trump cards) with the picture of them on the front and a scaly reverse. It's been pretty time consuming and finally, now that I've lost all sensation in the tip of my right index finger, along with some skin on my middle finger and thumb... I'm almost done!

Here's a little glimpse of what I'm up to and why my hands are in such bad condition at the moment. 

Please excuse the bad quality photos, I don't have time to take fancy ones!

I've been using masking tape on my hands to protect my skin and reduce the pain in my fingers!

A small preview of the back of the cards

Making Texture With Spray Paint

Today I've been trying to make a sort of abstract pattern using spray paint. The purpose for it is to act as a colour scheme / texture scheme for a project I am working on involving creating an identity.

I tried spraying onto paper and then taking some of the paint back off with crumpled up magazine pages, which worked fine but the best effect I was able to create was made by spraying onto acetate and then extracting. 

This first image is done using white paper, but the magazine paper I used to pick select bits off the page couldn't take as much of the paint off the page as I wanted it to, to reveal more white underneath. 

This second image is much more successful and was created using acetate. Because it is transparent, when I scanned it in - the gaps became even more white due to the light scanning it. Double win! 

This is the image I'll be using for my final colour/texture scheme in project.

These two final images are just the paper I used to cover my floor so I didn't get paint on the carpet! The different layers of paper and acetate that were laid on them made a pretty cool pattern though! 

Bookmaking: Another Finished Project

THANK F**K FOR THAT!

Another project I can cross off my To Do list! 

It's taken me a while but I've finally gotten there, and documented the whole process on video too!

For an idea that started out fairly un-refined and not really sure of where I was going with it,  I'm actually pretty damn happy with how it's turned out. Changing slightly from my original mock-up I think it's come out better at the other side. 

The books are completely different sizes and scales but you can see the initial ideas are the same, but the placement of the spinning wheel and the refinement of the layers have come a long way and a good job too. I think I'd be pretty unhappy if it still looked like that! However, no matter how much I slate the original design, without it I wouldn't have the final piece that I have today! So cheers to you shit mock-up.... You served me well!

I will also be uploading onto here a simple step-by-step video of the process which I recorded as something a bit different to hand in other than a sketch book for when assessment time comes. 

Book Making Catch-Up: Stencilling work

I came home today from a week away from pretty much all of my work and as nice as it was, I knew how much I had to come back and finish. The first thing I picked up today though was my old Book making brief for our first assignment, which was to re-style a book in a sense based around the theme of 'Point'. Mine (which there will be a video for soon, to show the process) bases itself around Points around the world. 

I've cut out the centre of an atlas and the stencils pictured below are going to be positioned correctly to make up their respective images within the hole. It'll then be put onto a wire and that will enable the stencil wheel to spin. 

ANYWAY!!! These are the stencils in their various layers and forms and then at the bottom I've layered them digitally (and adjusted the colours) for you to have some idea of what it's going to look like and what bits of each layer go where! I'm not sure if my final presentation will have anything other than white card though, I dont really like the colour. 

Final layered image makes up 5 famous landmarks:
- London Eye, England
- Sphynx, Egypt
- Eiffel Tower, Paris
- Hollywood Sign, Los Angeles
- Great Wall of China, China

Finished Book Design: Loco Motion

I have finally finished my Print on Demand book and I am very happy with it! I'm hoping the quality is as good on the printed version as the preview of it that I have of it online. It's taken such a long time to do and it's caused me a LOT of problems so I'm hoping it'll be worth it. 

You can actually preview my book by following the link here!

http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/3406253/d9eb1a1d96caf352e768ea03561c74e3583bddeb

Here is the dust cover I have designed to wrap around my book. 

Print On Demand: Continued Development

I haven't posted anything in a while as I've taken a few days off due to it being Easter holidays and all. However in terms of work I'm just adding the finishing touches to my Print On Demand book for a bookmaking brief. I am slightly behind with this due to the time off I've taken but I'm hoping that by the end of the day it'll all be sorted and ready to be sent off to be printed! 

I think the hardest part is figuring out what kind of narrative/text I want to accompany the images.

Full spread preview

Close-up of selected pages (Unfinished)

Close-up of Line/Ribbon Detail

Re-Inventing A Book - Atlas Cutting

Today I began the long awaited task of recording the process of cutting up the atlas I bought for my bookmaking project, ready for the stencil layers (which I am still to cut) to go into. The stencil layers are going to display 5 different famous landmarks around the world and I thought that by cutting it from an atlas, it gives it a more meaningful state.

After I'd finished cutting the necessary layers out of the book, I noticed that some of the pages had been cropped into really interesting compositions - and these three are a few of my favourites! 

I plan on making a big montage of them in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled! The video of the whole process will also be released when it's been sped up so people don't have to sit through hours of footage before they get to see the final piece! :)

Hand Drawn Letterforms

Last year as part of my course we were given the brief of designing our own letterforms, based on anything we wanted. I designed mine around nature and trees/twigs without leaves in the Winter. 

Book Illustration: Abstract Portraits

For one piece of coursework in the first term we were given a brief to illustrate a book to help tell the story. The book was Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, which if you have read it will know is quite abstract and strange in its own right. With this in mind I wanted the images I made to reflect the story and tone of the book. These are not what I have used as my final pieces as I feel the intense colours were not a true representation of the darkness of the world in which the book is set, but are part of the process to getting there.

Stencil Session

This stencil is part of a set I started making a while back for a course set project based on Fish.

The project is still ongoing due to new projects being added on top of it, but if they all turn out like this I'll be pretty happy with the result! 

This is my favourite of the few that I've made due to the packaging paper background, which gives it a more interesting look than just plain black/white backgrounds.

These are some other ones in the set I made as testers, with a plain background:

Valentines Day Vouchers

For Valentines day this year I wanted to do and give something a little different than your standard, shop bought Valentines card and so I decided that I'd make my own 'Valentines Vouchers'.

I decided to make them with the design in the style of an old fashioned ticket stub, with some more intricate detailing around the edges to make it more "Valentinesy". 

I made 7 vouchers in total. Each of these had a front and a back. The fronts all had the same cover design whilst the back of the vouchers all had something different to redeem on them, ranging from sweet things like 'Breakfast in Bed' to 'Wild Cards', which were redeemable for anything.

I think this is a much more personal and specialised gift and it gives you the freedom to have some fun with what the vouchers can be redeemable for! Happy Valentines ;) 

Book Manipulation: Theme of Point

Half a book with pages folded into points, based on the theme of 'Point'