Silence is finally silenced!

Hand in has been and I think for most people getting the long, lingering brief silence was a relief! After the review I felt a little deflated and a little bit like "Argh where do I go now!", not that it was a bad review but I was told that the concept was a little weak, as all I did was draw and paint birds!

After much thought and a workshop with Lucy, I decided on staying with the idea of birds and looking at Carrier Pigeons. I then came up with a concept. The idea of silence being the none verbal communication between people. This is where I came up with the idea of a narrative of two people sending and receiving a message with nothing actually said, and also getting chance to use the carrier pigeon idea.

After playing around visually and drawing up a quick narrative, I then began to draw the images I would be using in my book. I then got a family friend (who is brilliant at writing!) to write me a small narrative that I could use in my book. I sent her the images and she wrote a poem to go with the images. Each image was matched with a line from the poem.

I then experimented with forms of concertina books, folding them, I also stitched books up the side with a machine. I also had a go at packaging the book, thinking about different ways I could present the book. I then had the chance to make a hard back book in uni, and this was to be my final outcome for silence.

I was happy with the final piece but wished that I had been able to make a hard back book earlier. I felt like the lack of time pushed me to make decisions I may not be totally happy with, like the cover of the book. Making the book has made me realize that I do really enjoy and appreciate handmade things.

Beautiful Birdies

Recently I was sent a link by a dear friend :) as she thought I would really like the work and images produced by Kate Wilson. And coooor blimey I really do! Kate is an illustrator based in London, and she illustrates such cute little drawings from birds to food to plants.

Although they look simple there is something really lovely and cosy about them. I particularly like the paper and backgrounds in which she draws her illustrations on. There is something nice about the feel of the grainy background with the black linear illustrations on.

This has made me realize that I really want to develop my drawing skills, and get into a more illustrative mind (although I feel I am heading this way anyway). Is it too late to make a new years resolution?... I think mine should be "I intend to better my drawing and making skills" Lets do it!

'The filth and the fury'

"You don't write a song like 'God Save The Queen' because you hate the English race. You write a song like that because you love them, and you're fed up of seeing them mistreated.” -John Lydon

I recently watched the documentary (or 'rockumentary') 'the filth and the fury' directed by Julien Temple in 2000. The documentary was in aid of my dissertation, to get a real feel of how things were during mid to late 70's. The documentary followed the sex pistols career from the very beginning, showing and telling us about all the ins and outs of their career.

Although I had already done a lot of research into Britain and the social problems after the war and the rebelling punk scene I was genuinely shocked at how it actually was. Seeing archive footage taken from the day its self opened my eyes to what it was really like. It seemed a lot more in your face and the 'I don't give a shit' attitude was in fact everywhere!

I was particularly shocked (and I think the nation were!!) when watching the cringe interview with Bill Grundy. As you can see above it made the front news, they were rude, being sarcastic (as far as mocking Grundy), using foul language and not even listening to what Bill was saying!

I thoroughly enjoyed this film and found it very helpful for my dissertation as Jon Lydon was talking back on past events and his feelings, I got some really good quotes and references from this. Before I had watched it I felt I knew a bit about the scene, but until you actually see the footage and hear it from the people who were actually there, you know nothing!

I obviously watched this for my dissertation, but I would recommend it to people if they have a couple of hours free and that are interested in this area. Brilliant!

Ready Teddy Go!

Here are a couple of the final designs made by me and Jemma for the Ted Baker brief. The bottom image is the actual image of the final shop window. With the idea of launching and traveling in mind we thought for the doorway that runway lights would be appropriate along the floor, welcoming you into the store.

Above the doorway as you walk into the store would be the words 'Arrivals' in lights and on the opposite side when vacating the store 'departures', again the idea of traveling being within the store as well as the window display.

As we had the Manchester store in mind we had noticed that the left window(of the image) of their store always displayed mannequins where as the right always had the display, so this is what we did. We brought some of the theme into it but not too much, in the right window are birds launching themselves into the new season (but also the idea of traveling and migrating). The large bird would be in fact coming out of the window, its body on the inside and head on the outer. We also included the slogan we had to go with this theme, "Ready, Teddy, Go!" on the window.

IT (International Times)

While researching for my essay, I was looking into the underground press during the 60's to the late 70's, and was looking at the magazines that were produced during these times. Such magazines such as 'OZ', ' Sniffin' Glue', and 'IT'.

When looking for examples of 'IT' I came across the International Times web site and the archive of images from 1966 through to 1994. There are some really nice pieces, I was particularly interested in the articles and covers that were designed and created during the 70's.