Kino4: Dead Man (1995)

What a let down for Kino! Not only was it a rather poor turn out but I don’t think many people thought much of the film its self. It wasn’t a film I had heard of but I was willing to watch it as the previous films for Kino had been really interesting. I think I lasted about 2 thirds when I totally lost interest in the film and could not grasp the concept and story within the film.

I almost felt it was an awkward film, and I was constantly thinking “what’s that all about?” Saying this I did find there were some beautiful moments and shots within the film. I also found it to be quite humorous and quite odd in places, like at the beginning when they start shooting buffalo out of the carriage window!

I hope the next Kino4 film is better and there is more of an atmosphere and turn out for it. I think if this had been the case with Dead Man, a lot of people would have tried to watch it with a better frame of mind. I know I would have!

Pretty Pretty...

While researching for my silent brief I came across these hand made pieces that I thought were quite beautiful. I like the collage feel to them and the simplicity that comes with that. These pieces are just cards but I can imagine them as either pieces within a book or even a book cover.

I found these images on the blog of Tina Jensen a designer from Denmark. She had been going through a faze of liking birds and nests, and thats when she thought about having a go at creating a few cards herself.

These images have given me a few ideas for my silence brief and given me more things to think about. They have also inspired me to want to make some cards of my own!

Craig Lecture

"...like the "f*****g dark arts to me!"

- Craig talking about web design.

What an interesting lecture! Unlike the one presented from YCN i was absolutely fascinated with this lecture, maybe that was because of all the swearing, or the information that was given!? It seemed Craig liked to fill in the gaps with the words "F***" or "F*****g", every other word! Which was quite amusing considering the "Emmerdale" like accent he pointed out he had at the beginning! This lecture was something I think will now help a lot of people, there were some really good points Craig spoke about, and on a down to earth level gave us some pointers.

The lecture was also given to us in a large handout newspaper format, which I thought was a brilliant idea, something we have to look back on and read whenever we need. The lecture consisted of 12 things Craig learnt whilst being a designer after leaving uni, things he felt would help us that we do not learn through education but experience. It was really helpful as most things he said will help us during our final important year of uni.

There was a lot said about placements and portfolios which was very helpful and has made me consider a few things more carefully. I really did find this lecture to be very helpful although a little nerve-racking that we will soon be leaving the comfort of university!I found Craig to be very modest and like he said he didn't want to blow his own trumpet! I found it comforting that even he, who now has a good design job, still finds certain aspects and elements of design hard. For example making and creating grids are hard for Craig and take a long while to do.

It's nice to have a lecture and not to hear how hard things are, how hard it was for them to get a job and generally negative vibe. It was good to hear how he went about working and how although still in debt he is enjoying every minute of it. There is hope yet!

Essay and it's bits...

While researching and writing the essay I have found myself even more interested than I realised in the subject that I was writing about. Although the main subject of my essay is album covers and I'm asking such questions as "will downloading jeopardize the existence of the sleeve?" I wanted to explore the history behind many influences of design and some eras where the sleeve was considered a monumental hit!

And even though this part of the essay was not intended to be a large chunk it ended up being rather large! I was researching into the 50's right through to the late 70's punk era. Looking at people such as Johnny Cash, and Elvis right through to The Sex Pistols, Crass, and the Buzzcocks. I've also been listening to the music as well as looking and reading into the sleeve art that was produced around these periods. (which I've really enjoyed, as I already particularly like Cash and Elvis!)

I've found some lovely looking album sleeves from that era which I saw in an exhibition when I went to New york. The exhibition was called 'Looking at music', looking at all sorts of music related things in different materials but there was a section on old sleeves and this was very helpful when trying to explain some points I've made during the essay. Learning and reading about how punk became to be, and the history behind some sleeves is so interesting. I knew I was interested in this subject but didn't quite know how engrossed in the history side of it I would get. Great stuff! :)

Live Brief: Ted Baker

Recently we were given the list of live briefs to choose from, I found there to be quite a good choice and found it hard to choose from. It was between the paper brief, Ted Baker and the H.G wells book cover brief. After much thought, I decided on the Ted Baker brief. Not only was I excited about starting this new brief but I was about to work as part of a pair, the other half being Jemma Connor (or ‘C dawg’ as I like to call her!). We have been waiting for the chance to work as a pair, as both of us feel we bring different design qualities to the table, and wanted to learn off one another.

It wasn’t long at all before we had almost 5 A4 pages full of exciting ideas, and that was before a drink in weatherspoons and further brainstorming! We sat down and wrote absolutely every idea we had, and followed that up by re-searching into existing and previous window displays by other stores and obviously previous Ted Baker windows. Most of which we found to be oddly our taste!

The Ted Baker windows were wacky, strange, oddly funny and definitely a little bit out there! I now understood precisely the type of thing they are looking for within this brief.

Ted Baker is asking for it to be:

Irreverently British
In your face explosions of fun!
Simple to understand
(And to put a smile on people’s faces…)

…something we feel is quite up our street! We have only had this brief a week and I think it’s safe to say we have had so much fun already, thinking of ideas, visualising images and layouts. To be honest we have been quite silly about it, but I think that’s what they are looking for. We’ve started thumb nailing ideas now, trying to get one step closer to visualizing what it could look like. We’re looking forward to start making some mock ups, and have a go and sticking and pasting a few ideas down on paper! Let’s get making…

Lucy's Workshop

On Friday I had the chance to spend all day being tutored by Lucy, and what a breath of fresh air it was. Since the review I’ve found myself a little stuck on the silence brief and on Friday we had the chance to show Lucy what we’ve been doing and where we’re up to.

In the review I was told my concept wasn’t strong enough so this is where I needed a stronger concept. Lucy had a look at all my visuals and listened to my ideas and gave me a few ideas to think about. It was really nice to have another tutor’s opinion, where as before I was feeling quite down about it, now I feel quite hopeful. We spoke about a few ideas and a few things she wants me to have a think about before the next tutorial on Friday.

We also had a walk over to the special collection in the library where we had the chance to look at some really nice books and ways of presenting work within a book like way. This was also quite inspiring. We returned to the book binding room to try out some ways of binding, the pamphlet stitch and the French stitch, both of which were quite simple but very handy for future projects!

I’m working on and thinking about the things Lucy mentioned and trying to suss out what kind of book I would like to produce for the silence brief and its contents, it would be great to get it done before Christmas, one less thing off the long to do list!

YCN Lecture

Although I did attend this lecture, I may has well have not been there! None of my notes make sense apart from the one note which says, boring! I think this may have been a mixture of me being excited about the new brief (there for, not listening) and it possibly being one of the dullest lectures I've had in the last 2 and a half years.

I dont want to be harsh but I dont feel like I got anything out of this lecture, maybe a small brainstorm for the live brief but that was it. I usually enjoy all lectures and can find something to take from it, this time I felt nothing. I do like the briefs YCN write but I cant quite put my finger on why I didn't enjoy the lecture. I do respect and understand how hard it is to present but I just didn't feel engrossed in the lecture.

A teeny tiny update

It's impossible to blog start blogging all about New York, especially at the moment with essays, briefs and journals coming out my ears! There's so much I have to say, yet I cant find the words to describe my experience. I absolutely enjoyed New York and it was worth every penny and the long wait! I just cannot believe it's over so soon.

It was everything I expected and more, and has made me want to see more of America, although not just America more of the world. It made me realize that there is so much more out there, and I really am considering exploring that after uni!

Ill have to wait until there's time to blog,there's other important things to be thinking about right now! Back to the grind and the lovely essay....