summary of the first fda year-

as usual, I have learned more in the last year than I had ever anticipated. I finished foundation having learnt more about living in London than anything to do with art, but it has been so different this year.

basically, there're certain basic rules I realised I never knew existed until we were introduced to them continuously throughout the workshops and lectures and projects. what helped was putting everything into practice, trying stuff out for yourself and seeing how you could make it work to suit our own interests in aesthetics. also, seeing what DIDN'T work. I'm learning a lot about presentation and how to improve it through learning more about typography and graphic elements and methods, and it really helps that the tutors know what they're talking about and are enthusiastic about it all (unlike last year). being around my classmates and tutors has really helped me continuously try to open my mind to every possibility.

something I found useful last year, and this year even more so, was the importance of undertaking collaborations and projects outside of the course, especially in ones where the other person/people aren't graphics artists. working with other people is great anyway because you're not stuck in some impenetrable bubble making awful mistake after awful mistake and having no one around to tell you you're fucking it up. sharing ideas, skills and time with people has proven so valuable as a learning experience, and it's introduced me to some amazing people. sometimes my failure at time management has come back to bite me in the arse (6 projects at once NOT SUCH A GREAT IDEA PROBABLY), but something tells me I'll keep doing it anyway because it's genuinely a lot of fun, and the results so far have always been worth it. one of the things I am going to do my best to take away from the experiences is the idea that every project, no matter how small, can and has to be done to the full extent of its potential. why only go somewhere halfway if you can go the WHOLE way? it makes for so many interesting and exciting results, but it's something I feel is missing from a lot of design and general artwork that I've seen around, which is kind of sad, both for the work and the artist(s) involved.

in the future I want to continue working on developing as many skills as possible. I'm not so fond of typography but I've come to realise I have to learn how to apply it regardless, because it really is a key component of design and visual communication as much as all the other elements. just because I don't like it and it's therefore my weakness doesn't mean I can't find a way around it, a way to enjoy it. I also want to continue building experiences and relationships with people through collaborations, whatever subjects they may be.

having said all that, the main focus is still learning to organise my freaking time properly. it's been the biggest weakness and barrier, but I'm happy to say that I think I've really been working on it since last year and have improved somewhat.

thanks for everything guys! it all has been/is/gonna be amazing, I look forward to every new week of challenges and other things that keep my small attention span and general tendency to get bored/lazy well occupied...

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illustrations for olympic terra this timethe project consisted heavily of references to local ecology and its restoration. the plants and animals played a vital role in the bioremediation of contaminated soil. I had to do illustrations of the animal and plant species that would be (re-)introduced to the area during that process. the reason certain plants were picked was because they absorb a certain contaminant. barges would be set up, segregating the soil from the mainland. the plants would grow and in doing so absorb the contaminants. I thought this was a fascinating concept, because the flowers everyone regards as beautiful and pristine and whatnot are literally derived from and consisted of awfully toxic chemicals that the industry left behind on Marshgate Lane. they're beautiful but deadly, etc etc. here are some (a Brassica genus left, alpine penny cress centre, and Leptochloa filiformis right), of about 5 -

as you can see, they're put together out of the photos that we'd taken from the area, which kind of reflects the concept of being put together from the chemical contents of that same soil, but to be honest it was mostly just me digging a style I'd been messing around with. it's a lot of fun, and really quick to throw together, and I think it looks pretty neat. I'm no plant expert but photos of the real plant were used for reference, so hopefully they're actually individually recognisable.

I also did the animals, there were 7 or 8 in total. various birds and aquatic life, done in the same visual style. house sparrow and sand martin, and a common newt, made of soil -
here's a detail shot (aka original file size). black redstart, made up mostly of wood (they live in the trees afterall)

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back in march I started a semi-collaborative project with Victoria Lee, a student at CSM doing her MA in Creative Practice for Narrative Environments. her specialty, and project, was architecture-based, so I was her graphics monkey.

so i thought I'd share the process for some of the aspects... it was definitely a lot of fun, despite some crazy hours and hurdles. I think I haven't learned this much about layout/presentation since I had to learn indesign to a relatively professional level in 2 weeks back in high school. plus, collaborations are great because you work with other people and everyone gets so much feedback from each other, it's incredible. I think I definitely prefer it to working alone.

anyway so this is about the logo. the project itself was called 'Olympic Terra' (later referred to as 'Olympic Terror', ha), and was about contaminated soil in the Stratford area, where the new Olympic park is being built for 2012. at one point I was over at Victoria's and she gave me some soil to muck around with (sounds weird but I'm sure there was a perfectly normal reason), and I ended up just doing some random stuff, too distracted by the television (we don't have one in our flat).


later, we came to talk about logos, and I remembered this stuff I'd done. it fit the idea we had in mind pretty well - natural soil, kind of has a 'handmade' graphic quality to it (because it was, eh), and somehow unintentionally I'd ended up drawing a sort of oval in the middle which would fit perfectly as the stadium that was in the middle of all of this, as well as symbolising the more straight-forward O in 'olympic terra'.

so I used some images and put together a logo base. it was time to pick the font. I'm pretty useless with typography but we came to the conclusion we wanted something eroded and earthy to keep with the key element of soil, while maybe adding a kind of documentational feel, like you'd find on old labels of plants and animals from the 1800s explorations. enter tuer's cardboard.
we also did a few more types to fit the 3 main chapters Victoria had set out during the project - contamination, bioremediation and architecture - so we could visually separate the chapters in the book, whilst keeping a general aesthetic going.

in the end, the logo was used in the book layout and was also laser cut (not really, more like burnt) onto some greyboard to use as the covers for the last 2 presentation books we put together. unfortunately I'm an idiot and forgot to take photos of them, but maybe I'll add them later incase I have the opportunity to see the books again (the deadline just over a week ago, they're gonna be kept till the exhibition in mid-June).

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the latest most awesome news -

my friend robert and I have been working together on a music/visual project (he's the music and I'm all the arty farty + web stuff), currently dubbed Bertie Seize the World, for a few months now, and decided to submit it for the Deutsche Bank Award at the end of April. we got shortlisted, and after the final presentations on monday found out he/we won!

um...!!!!!!!! insanity! total insanity!


above is a screenshot for one of the short films we did, a kind of preview of the music. now that we've won the award, the money can (and will mind you!) actually realise a lot of the stuff that's been planned for the project for this summer/autumn. exciting exciting! though it's yet to fully hit me...

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