Saturday 28 June 2014

Exhibition Pit-Stops Pt1


To split up the final year project posts I thought I would talk about a few exhibitions I've been to over the few months. Living in Sheffield for three years really allowed me to explore a lot more of the art and design scene with the amazing range of galleries and all within about 10/20 minute walk from my house which; on days where you just need a bit of inspiration, is just perfect.
So lets get to it! The first exhibition was held in the B&B Gallery and as the photo suggests, was called Inside / Outside, a site specific installations by Zosen & Mina Hamada (ES).   Barcelona-Tokyo based visual artists.  (taken from the website) 

"Their passion for colours and free forms has led to a seemingly endless series of collaborative murals from Paris to Miami, Mexico to Japan - all incorporating their signature style of enigmatic shapes within vibrant compositions of harmonious dreamscapes." 

Myself and a couple of friends went down for the opening and the atmosphere was buzzing with creatives, the exhibition to sum up in a few words would be vibrant, creative and most definitely fun. The exhibition ranged from brightly illustrated prints to 3D installations of hand painted tin cans and wooden planks and was just a really enjoyable experience. 
I managed to get a few not so great quality photos on my phone, but I thought I would share them with you anyway.  I would of course have suggested visiting the exhibition if it were still on but I shall link there tumblr below which showcases more of their works and a few more images from the Sheffield exhibition. 




Tuesday 24 June 2014

Final Year Projects Pt2 // The Big Draw


A bit of background on the The Big Draw;  running every years from about October to November, the big draw  bring together designers, artists and illustrators from around the world and connecting them in a big event to show and share their talents. Website link here 
This years campaign bought Simon Spilsbury, an illustrator known for his spontaneous and energetic work to our university to work with us on it. The project was only a one/two day deal and despite being very skeptical of the workshop, actually turned out to be useful as well as fun. The theme we were given was Future Sheffield, now as someone who doesn't have the strongest illustrative skills, I was very apprehensive about this until Simon suggested other forms of illustration.

Sunday 22 June 2014

Final Year Projects Pt1 // Everything About One Thing


This is going to be quite a short post but; If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may have seen me do a couple of posts about this project before which I will link here & here Where I talked through my idea generations, design processes and what my final outcome was going to look like. Well since then both the booklets have been printed and so I thought instead of repeating myself about the project, I would show you the finished product and talk about my thoughts on it and my improvements.
So here we go, these are a few photographs of the first book "The Wonderful World Of The Brain". Printed colour, double sided on I believe it was 160gm paper. I was really happy with the stock, the image quality really popped on the paper and with a shine sheen, the book wasn't too shiny and cheap looking.

Saturday 21 June 2014

Back To Business


Well this feels weird... I haven't sat down and took to the blog in such a long time, I feel almost like I have no idea what to say anymore, But I guess I'll just jump straight into it. I have been terrible at keeping this updated, but for good reason. The past couple of months have been absolutely mental as I have been and have now completed my final year of university. WOW that came around quickly.  My time had pretty much just been spent work, work, working and trying to complete all my projects to the best of my ability. That sounds kinda cheesy but thats pretty much how it went. 
I thought a good way of starting this blog back up would be to just give you a brief update on whats been happening and whats going to going on with this blog. 

Deadlines:  I think I can without hesitation say that it was probably the most stressful and mental few months of my life. There were laughs, tears, breakdowns and triumphs as I'm sure most final year students can back me up on. I'm not saying this to scare anyone who might not be there yet, but honestly Its better to be prepared for these things. I always knew that it wasn't going to be easy but my lord, I didn't think it would hit me as hard as it did. Luckily I had a great support system of friends, family and housemates by my side to sort of slap it out of me and get me going again. I don't mind saying that I was definitely one of those people who on the last 2 weeks broke. I cried more than I think I ever have before because I felt like I couldn't do it, that I was rubbish and everything was going to go horrible wrong but after talking to my parents and friends I realised that this wasn't the be all and end all and as long as I gave it my all and tried my hardest, what else was there for me to do. There's no point wasting time crying when I could be getting more work done, so thats what I did. I worked my butt off and hopefully when my results come, they will have all paid off. If not, yeah I'll be disappointed, but then I'll pick myself up, carry on and improve. 

Degree Show & Portfolio: As well as getting together my work for my deadlines I also had my portfolio to perfect for the degree show, again another slightly stressful time but I'll be going into more detail in another post. 

What's Next For Me?: In terms of myself, I've moved back home to Suffolk with the parents and am on the look out for a job, internships and experience as well as carrying on with my own and hopefully come collaborative projects. It's going to be insanely weird coming back home after living with my friends and without adult supervision for 3 years but I guess its just something that I'm going to have to get used to and just try and fill my time up to make it go faster. I'd be lying if I said I was completely happy to be back in sleepy Suffolk but I'm looking at it as a just another step to getting where I actually want to be and doing what I want to be doing.  

What's Next For This Blog?: One of my main aims is to improve and work on this blog; I started this with the intention as using it as a platform to showcase my work, but now I want to do more with it. I want to try and upload more regularly and to make good worthy content, not just for whoever reads it but also for myself. Blogging is something that I've really enjoyed doing and something that I want to make more of a part of my life. I'm aware that probably sounds "totally lame" or whatever but thats just how I feel. With this said I've structured up the next few posts, in which I'm going to take you though my final year projects, taking you through the processes and outcomes and breaking those posts up with some exhibitions and adventures that I've attend and haven't had the time to tell you all about. I'm looking forward to finally having the time to get back on track with this and hopefully I have a blog to be proud of.