TYPOGRAPHY

 Typography is a subject we can easily forget. Words surround us and everywhere we look our attention is captured by them.
This last week I have been enlightened; never will I look at billboards in the same way again.
We have begun to explore the reasons why words of advertising catch our precious attention. Because the reason we looked at that poster for more than 2 seconds wasn't because we were deeply intrigued by the content, at least not yet, it was the way the poster looked and in particular the way the words looked.

This week, I will continue to investigate the power of font, case, space and layout.

Visual communication- week 3- all is well. The area suits me and my ways of working. The pace is quick but not too quick for one to get overly stressed. The briefs have been clear and the tutors have been giving us a  lot of help with the development of our work. Week 1 was more of a reflective week as we furthered our "30 things to do" project and narrowed it down to one idea. These illustrations bellow of the chickens were part of an animation for " before and after" - the ending being, as one can guess, the sacrifice of the chicken. I enjoyed this project  however fashion and textiles were words that still resonated in my mind.
Week 3 I feel more comfortable in the area as I have realised how the fast pace of this course suits my way of working. I feel guided and looked after ; this reassures me.
The project for week 3 has been "lists".I chose the "10 things i have lost"and made a visual narrative of a teddy bear loosing his innocence/dignity. The teddy bear idea emanated from the idea of finding a motif that would feature in all of the 10 boxes portraying a child. I wanted to illustrate the forgotten tale of growing up and making mistakes; the ugly side of life. We learnt the importance of a visual hierarchy in our display; which allows the message to be properly conveyed. I made an attempt with this in my final piece.

a before and after story

 May the chicken adventure commence !

Praise for Emilia

Crossroads II

When I arrived at Chelsea this September, after a long summer , I was determined to test myself and broaden my skill and knowledge of  the different areas in art.

I came onto the foundation course with an open mind and  have found  all the workshops enlightening. Thanks to the rotation  system , seminars and contextual studies I  have discovered  a great amount about myself, the art world as well as discovering a new life philosophy: to be less rigid and instead more instinctive. The  variety of  different briefs and projects  have allowed me to be playful and  learn new skills  which I could use in the following rotations.  All the tutors have  treated our work seriously , seeing the potential in our ideas but  have never been afraid to give us honest and constructive feed back.

My experience of all the workshops  being so  positive  makes my choice of area very difficult.  I am still very reticent about making my decision therefore I will firstly discuss the rotations that  taught me a lot about myself and secondly the workshops that I am hesitating the most between.

The  most challenging rotation for me was 3D spatial; never had I  been  very good at making things nevertheless I was very  determined to make the most of the two weeks and to test my abilities. I have always been interested in design  so  the workshop gave me an insight in what a career in product design or architecture might resemble. I enjoyed experimenting with a wide range of materials and exploring  the pragmatic side  of 3D spatial;  for example having to think about what the real object and not the model could be made out of and  the way it could be manufactured.

Secondly, the Fine Art  workshop also  surprised me. Drawing and painting have always been long, detailed and considered processes,  however in Fine Art never had  I been  this spontaneous.  However,  one morning I  had just sat down  at a table ready to begin drawing  the mad  installation in the middle of the room when a tutor came up to me and shouted “ get up you’re not at school anymore” . Indeed we weren’t and  maybe this is when I realised that Fine Art wasn’t for me; while others  were able to  impetuously splash paint on their A1 sheets , all I wanted to do  was  to take out my fine line pen.  Nevertheless, Fine Art showed how  being instinctive entails to  very interesting work.

 It seems that despite both these shake ups  I couldn’t help but gravitate to my passion for illustration. The next two workshops seem to encapsulate my strongest interests and choosing between them is impossible at this stage.

During  the Visual communication rotation I immediately felt  a deeper excitement about the projects. The area seemed to cover so many of my favourite interests; illustration , animation, film and  graphics. I liked collecting  photographs , clippings from magazines  and then personalising the “borrowed  images” , creating a totally new image out of them.

I researched artists sketchbooks on the moleskin website  and on heartagency.com such as Ceri Amphett, Marion Deuchars and  really wanted to emulate their work. I  admire designers  who can convey a complicated idea thanks to a single beautifully executed image.

What I also liked were the structured briefings we received from our tutors. This characteristic can be found more generally in the Design world ,as I discovered during the discussions  about the differences between art and design; in design the brief is crucial because as a designer you are looking to “ solve a problem”  for the client .Design is pragmatic as well as creative and  I appreciate this balance.

Next, Fashion and Textiles revealed to be very different to my initial preconceptions of the area: it wasn’t about making clothes or fabric, in reality I could pursue the things I  had learnt to do in 3D  spatial mixed with my love of illustration explored in Visual communication. Therefore for my final project I created patterns and illustrations that  would become ,when we  moved from 2D to  3D ,  pieces of jewellery and intricate objects. I loved  working on this project and immediately after  wanted to  specialise in this area. Nevertheless, looking back I also felt like this after  Visual communication…

My choice between  both these areas will probably be very superficial as I  like them both equally. I now seek the advice of my tutors and in the meantime I  will attempt to ask myself what I expect from  both the areas and  continue to question my motives.

Indeed c'est vendredi

Vendredi

Tributaries

Ne pleure pas

DELTA-

Week two of fashion and textiles and we are moving from 2D to 3D as we did in 3D spacial.  Both these areas have this similitude ; first we start  drawing to generate ideas and the next step is to make these images more 3D. In fashion textiles this involved photo manipulation.
Over the weekend I looked back at the work I did in my mini sketch book about Deltas. This work was more interesting than the work I did in the studios which was pretty poor. This idea of rivers "compressing" from thousands of tributaries to one single river interested me. I  played with the idea a bit more and came up with a pattern which I liked. The pattern was evocative of the theme; pressed flowers and pages of old books (compressed speech? Why not ?!). These "tears" made of paper, sand paper, tissue and flowers went well with the fine line that would later become wire when I would make some final pieces for the crit on Friday.
After today, fashion textiles seems to be my favourite area, but who knows....

DELTA-

FASHION/TEXTILES

YAY! was my reaction when we began drawing our installations. Finally I was drawing from observation again. The class went well; we used different techniques to ensure different line qualities. For example using only one's fingers to draw, the other hand firmly holding the wrist to stop the whole hand from moving. This produced very expressive drawings; some looked naively drawn and others intricate and fluid.

Final project

3D

c'est l'heure du spectacle

100% design

100% design

Week 3 is 3D spacial for me and also the start of design week in London. Wednesday night was  Tom Dixon's party at portobello dock; in the shop hung copper spot lights and to sit on were wingback chairs and in terms of conversation there were interesting people in the design  industry to chat to. Thursday was my visit to 100% design. The exhibition was great and really stimulated me and got me thinking about product design, interior design, furniture design, which are all key branches of  3D spacial.

Me and Ren

Mademoiselles