Susan Archie

"I like to think that my strength as a music packaging designer is as a documentarian. I’m not a particularly good logo maker, I’m not a great designer, my strength is editorial. I make a beautiful book(let) from a pile of photographs and words. I present/filter the information/artifacts I am given in such a way as to make a compelling story."

Recently when researching for sleeves and album covers I came across a web site hardformat.org on the year 3 blog. Here I found a few artists I like one of them being Susan Archie.

Susan Archie has produced striking designs for Revenant, Dust To Digital and Table of the Elements which we’ve been happy to cover here on Hard Format. Her work imparts a sense of profound respect for its subjects which are fleshed out with biographical and critical detail. She often makes much of limited resources, for example the one surviving photograph of Charley Patton on Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues. As with so much of the work we cover, we recommend you go out and buy this work to experience it properly. I really like Susan's work, there is something really quaint about her designs and something nice about the way she uses old images and words. As my dissertation is set on album sleeves and music art work I think her influence and way of working may be a great help.

Sun Recordings: Blue Moon by Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley, Bill Black Scotty Moore & Sam Phillips February 3 1955

Recently I was asked to look and listen at Sun Recordings, a recording studio that recorded the likes of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. I was asked to listen to a specific song, "Blue Moon" sang by Elvis.

"Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can't help but move to it. That's what happens to me. I can't help it." - Presley

Sun Recordings, founded by Sam Phillips on March 27th 1952. Here in Memphis, Tennessee is where the magic began for Presely, Cash, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins. Sun Recordings was to help them hugely in launching their career. After listening to this track i found myself sat for hours listening to Elvis, but more than that Johnny Cash (as I'm a huge fan of the film "walk the line"!).

FACT: Did you know that Elvis wasn't allowed to be shot on TV below the waist?Middle aged mums and dads didn't want their daughters seeing the sexual thrusting!I was fascinated by this!

Guard House : Giza

The Guard House

I stumbled across this image while researching for the silent brief. I was looking for old abandoned buildings or places that had once been busy and now derelict. When I first saw this image I thought it was a toilet, one of those American outdoor loo's in the back yard! but when reading into it it's actually a guard house at the pyramids of Giza!

Who ever thought something this small could be in charge of guarding something so big and sacred! It looks nothing bigger than a match box!

KIN- DZA-DZA

KIN-DZA-DZA

Recently when researching for the silence brief I found this image. I thought it was quite bizarre what looks like a house in the middle of no where, held up on a slab by only a small proportion of the house.

It's almost like a shell, a mould of something that was once there but that has gone. I like the way it looks like it was once alive, like it was someone's home and they've just left it to deteriorate. I think the uncanny plays a big part in this image. The way we can recognize what it is, but that there is something oddly placed with it.

National Conservation Centre: "Liverpool People" by Stephen Shakeshaft

"Fantastic Fans From Rome To Runcorn"

"Much of my work involved sports and news stories but there were often quieter periods when I might see an everyday scene making a great picture."

Recently I took some time out to go to liverpool and while I was there I saw this exhibition. The exhibition held photographs of the city's characters - famous and unknown taken by Stephen, a former photographer and picture editor for the liverpool daily post and echo newspaper.

Capturing the news and events from the 1960's through to his retirement in 2005, Stephen captures a mixture of published, alternative takes, unseen images and stories that shape the city's evolving social, political and cultural landscape. Stephen Shakeshaft is particularly successful with the everyday photography, and manages to create almost a comforting nostalgic feel to his pieces.

Minister for Merseyside Michael Heseltine visits Liverpool, escorted by young lads.

Amongst the images of unknown everyday people there was only a small number of images that included famous people such as Cilla Black,The Princess of Wales, and Paul McCartney, Showing us where his priorities maybe stand, within the heart of the community. It's clear that everyday life and watching and documenting people in their own habitat and environment is important to Stephen.

"Candlelight portrait"

"Liverpool was changing. Edge Hill was disappearing, the houses of Everton were on the builders' skips. Left with only gaslight or candlelight, electricity was long gone.."

This was one of the pieces that caught my eye. Although it's a sad image as Liverpool was having a difficult time, I find it to be quite a lovely photograph. The feeling is totally expressed through the face of the old lady, and I think maybe with her looking so frail this helps play on our emotions and makes us feel for her. As I have a strong family background from Liverpool and spent a large percentage of my childhood there, I found it very interesting seeing Stephen's photographs, as I'm always being shown childhood photos by my mum.

Walker Art Gallery: Bridget Riley "Flashback"

"You can never see colour by it's self, it is always affected by other colours"

When I took time out to go to liverpool as well as going to the Stephen Shakeshaft exhibition I also attended the Bridget Riley exhibition in the Walker Gallery. Bridget Riley is one of Britain's most celebrated contemporary artists. During the early 1960's her black and white paintings made a huge impact, following that her studies in greys in the lst 60's.

An example of a trial drawing.

Amongst the work that was shown in Bridget Riley's exhibition I found myself drawn closer to the trials and studies she was doing for the actual large scale pieces. The work was made on a variety of papers, but the graph paper was very successful, and my favorite. When making these trials Bridget Riley explains that is allows her to trust the eye at the end of her pencil. These pieces made with pencil and paint, show us the exact measurements and lengths she goes to, to ensure the scale is just right.

Bridget's Studio 1983

'Ecclesia' 1985

Though the colour pieces were not my favorite, I did enjoy the exhibition but much rathered seeing the process and images Riley had created to get to the final stage of her piece. I found more of an interest in her thought process and her working out than her final design, sometimes i think the journey can be better than the destination, and in this case it definitely was.

Kino4 : Rollerball (1975)

Monday night was the first night of the Kino4 film showing, and Rollerball was a brilliant film to begin with! I had actually seen this film a few years ago, but in a different frame of mind, and slightly older I saw and understood things I hadn't before, and had also forgotten just how violent it was! I enjoyed this social event, and I'm excited to see what other films are coming our way!

Plot:

The film is based in 2018, a world where there is no crime and no war, in a futuristic society where corporations have replaced countries and are now the leaders of the world and controllers of the people. A violent game, rollerball, is used to control the populace by demonstrating the futility and individuality. One player Jonathan rises above this and fights for his personal freedom and threatens the corporate control.