Finding it really hard to focus on my war on want project with the essay deadline looming... Think I may have to put it on hold for a few weeks. However, on the up side, my essay is coming along. Finding it hard to make up the word count though.

Completed my draft for my essay! Just need to start now...

Black box project

Really fun day! We were put into groups and got given a mysterious black box....

inside was an envelope with a piece of paper saying 'pedigree chum'. Our instructions were to go away and provide clues as to what the product was, and then hand them back to another group.

The clues our group were given were:

-Comes in a variety of colours

-Soft, kind and gentle

-Can be used as a lubricant (preferably not sexual!)

-An image as a baby in a bubble

-Featured frequently in Art Attack and can be made into a rocket

So we concluded that the product had to be...

Fairy Liquid!

Then our task was to create a 'visual representation' of the product.

We went through lots of ideas and finally decided to create a leaflet sent to student properties. We decided on stereotypical 'personalities' that go with each Fairy Liquid flavour. These were:

-Apple- organic, active, health

-Pink Petal- girly, feminine

-Lavender- mellow, chilled, cool

-Lemon- optimistic, lively, zesty, hippyish

The leaflet then had a flow chart which led to telling you which kind of person you are, and therefore which flavour Fairy liquid you should buy and stick to. It then folded out and supplied you with a sachet of each flavour liquid.

I really enjoyed this project as our group gelled really well. We were good at bouncing ideas off each other, and then when had decided, we equally allocated jobs to each person and then came back at the end to collate all our ideas.

The crit was really successful and all the tutors really liked our outcome :-)

All in all, a really good last day before the xmas holidays!

Yesterday we had a talk by Bond and Coyne Associates which was really helpful. Moreso, we had group tutorials with the guy afterwards where we got to show him some of our initial ideas for War on Want. He liked my idea of having a bunch of flowers with a card in saying 'how much did these flowers REALLY cost someone?' so I think I will run with this idea and see how it turns out.

Democracy group project.
SO today we had to do the group project 'Democracy'. In groups we were told to design an A3 poster exploring the theme democracy. Our group took a while to get off the ground as we weren't very good at communicating! However, after some brainstorming and discussion we came up with this idea:

however, we thought that this didnt really show what we were trying to communicate so we ended up using the logo next to Labours Manifesto. The poster got the message across, however, it wasn't very visually stimulating.

I had my tutorial with Anna today which was really helpful. She gave me feedback on my essay idea and gave me lots of tips and books that I should research. I am quite looking forward to writing my essay as I haven't written one in ages and need to practice my essay writing skills!

Plan for next week is to create an essay plan so that I can get on with completing it over christmas.

From researching the WOW website, I discovered the Cut Flower Industry issue. Whilst everyone else in my class is focusing on the clothing sweat shops issue, I have decided to further investigate this subject as it is something I had no idea was happening.

I found out some really interesting but harrowing facts:

Flower workers in developing countries like Kenya and Colombia risk their health for unsafe, insecure jobs supplying UK supermarkets. In our new report Growing Pains War on Want investigates the human cost of cut flowers in British supermarkets.

Supermarkets sell 70% of all the flowers bought in the UK - the highest proportion in Europe. But the workers in Colombia and Kenya supplying those flowers to the supermarkets face low wages, health problems such as repetitive strain injuries and miscarriages through exposure to pesticides. Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury's all source from one or both of these countries, and have enormous influence over flower producers and ultimately the health and safety of workers.

and are powerless to stop it. Most patients in Columbian hospitals work in the flower industry. Two-thirds of Colombian and Ecuadorian flower workers reportedly suffer from work-related health problems, including headaches, nausea, impaired vision, conjunctivitis, rashes, asthma, stillbirths, miscarriages, congenital malformations and respiratory and neurological problems. When the children become sick they don’t receive sick pay or medical care because most are employed on temporary contracts, which do not include benefits. In addition, run-off from the farms contaminates the water supply with pesticides.

When they are eight or nine, we see children mixing pesticides in the tanks without gloves, masks, or any protection. We may not see the effects until five to twenty years later when they can no longer move their hands.

I am looking forward to working with this issue further as I have already found out some shocking things and it is making me more aware of problems around me that I didn't even know existed.

Research for War on Want project.

I have been looking at the Barnardo's ad campaigns for my research. They are a very controversial and hard hitting approach, designed by Saatchi and Saatchi. Whilst this tactic is very successful, I think I want to try a different approach rather than the typical shock tactic.

Today we visited London. I managed to get lots of new art materials and some photographs of generalness that could be useful for the future. I always enjoy going to Camden as everyone is so individual it is inspiring to see such a difference in styles and cultures.

The talk by Paula Scher was really informative and inspiring. She has achieved so much it encouraged me to push myself harder as I've just been sailing along in my comfort zones.

Robert Samuel Hanson.

I found this when I was browsing the internet and it really caught my eye. It made me think about my Visual Equations project. I have changed my mind YET again. I want to focus on polor opposites in the world. For example: nature/man made. love/hate. new/old. etc. This image gave me the idea that I could create one of the opposites from the opposite. that doesn't make sense ha. I mean, I could create an image of nature i.e some kind of insect, out of man made structures or something along those lines? I was also looking at perhaps just making typefaces, so I would photograph some buildings, structures- anything man made really- and create the word 'nature' from these images.

Hannah did presentation skills with us today. It was good to see previous work to help get ideas with my sketchbook layouts etc. I need to make my sketch book more exciting and visually stimulating. I want it to kind of look like a scrap book...

Final intro to Quark. Gradually getting easier. I'm finding my layouts bland though, I wish I hadn't chosen a 2 column grid... too late to change it now though. I'm just going to have to do more research. Also need to research a designer that inspires me...

I've changed my mind since yesterday. I was brain storming juxtaposition and Shakespeare came into my head, as in oxymorons. Maybe this will be challenging to do? To illustrate his oxymorans either through photography- I don't know....

Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Parting is such sweet sorrow. O brawling love! O loving hate!

The lady from War on Want came in to talk to us about the work they do and mentioned the live brief that we're going to be working on in December. I'm so excited!!! I can't wait to get stuck in. The work they do seemed really interesting and also intriguing as some of it she wasn't allowed to talk about as it was top secret. Its making me want to get the text and image deadline even more out the way so that we can start the new project.

Annas task for the Dada poem needed to be handed in today. I thought my illustration was quite minimal in a good way but when she looked at it she said it looked like I hadn't really thought about the message and had done it really quickly. bit disheartening. Apparently we needed to write an 800 word analysis to go with it but nobody knew about this?? Maybe I'll re-do my visual interpretation of my poem. Finding it quite hard to focus on so many things at once though at the moment. Keeping up to date with my blog, contextual studies, sketchbook, looming deadlines/crits. My heads all over the place. I know it'll be fine soon though I always get like this with an approaching deadline but I always seem to pull it off. Fingers crossed its going to happen this time too.

Found this image in 'Street Logos' from the library. I think this is something to do with visual equations??? apparently we need to focus on juxtaposition. This juxtaposes reality with technology. In this day in age technology is such a huge part of peoples lives, people even stop living in reality and spending all their time on computers and social networking rather than actually having a life. I think maybe I could focus on this concept somehow. Maybe through photography? I seem to be using illustration as a medium too often and I would really like to get into my photography as it fascinates me.

Really quite disappointed in myself this weekend :-( I went back home for the first time since coming to uni and planned on doing LOTS of work but I have done none. Getting pretty worried now that I'm going to be rushing around for the deadline which is slowly creeping up. I'm really enjoying the course but I'm finding it so hard to motivate myself in terms of my sketch book. I've never really been brilliant at sketch books but living in a house with so many people and so many distractions is proving pretty difficult!!! Argh I need to sort my life out. A.S.A.P

Had my crit for Glyphs this afternoon. Everyones work was really good considering a lot of people had never used Illustrator before uni. A few people had done quite a bit more work than me but the majority had done about the same amount which made me feel better.

I think I could have attempted something more complex. the dolphin is really simple, but I do think my type 'court' was quite challenging.

Got briefed on our final (yay!) project for this module. 'Visual Equations'. I'm quite confused about this project. Usually I have a vague idea of what I want to do but this time I literally have no clue. I think because I'm not completely sure about the task that is why I'm finding it difficult. I need to ask around and see what ideas other people have...

Had my letterpress crit this morning. sally said my piece was really good. before I came to uni i was dreading having regular crits because I get really embarassed, but they seem to get easier every time. It's also reassuring and encouraging when you get positive feedback from people.

Then this afternoon, Kit introduced us to Quark. I've never used this programme before which feels really alien as all the other workshops I've had pretty good knowledge of. I'm slowly getting the hang of it... But its so regimental! I'm finding it hard to keep everything so perfectly measured etc. It'll be good to have for future projects though so that my layouts can be perfect.

finished my glyphs project today. worried I haven't done enough?? it seemed to simple. I was really confused about the brief as it seemed so easy? now i'm not sure if i've done it right?!

yesterday we did book binding! love a bit o book binding, I did it on foundation too. It's handy to know how to do because you can make your own sketchbooks etc and I like making novelty things for example my flipbook I made in college I may re-print and bind it properly. My favourite was the Japanese style bind. I really want to bind all my small letterpress' but we're not allowed to do anything with them for the assessment...

Had my second letterpress workshop. Did a few rough sketches first off to try work out what messages I wanted to convey. Really pleased with my work. I wouldn't mind maybe going into something to do with letterpress in the future. I never really favoured typography. I mean, I always make sure I use an interesting typeface, or hand render my own. I can't stand it when designers just whack in a random typeface that doesn't have any relevance to the image! But, yeah, I never imagined I'd enjoy working just with type so much. Might look into doing something with it for my placement??

Here's some of my finals...

Visual Equation Finals: 'old/new' My rationale for this outcome was making something 'new' ie a young person, into something old, so I photographed my friend dressed as an old person.
'Life/death'. I used colours associated with death in order to juxtapose the word 'life'.
'Hot/cold' I altered the text in Illustrator by adding icicles which are associated with the opposite meaning to 'hot'. The light icy blue also contradicts colours associated with hotness.

'Love/hate' I manipulated my image of a heart in order to spell out the text. I then added nails as a metaphor for pain, hate etc.
'Natural/man-made' I made a natural organism from man-made materials that I found around the house.

Kit gave us our 5th brief today. This project seems quite interesting, I enjoy doing magazine layouts etc. We started learning about grids and layouts. I know its essential to have these underlying structures, but sometimes it makes me feel like I'm restricted in what I can do which shouldn't happen with art. However, I am still looking forward to getting stuck in with this project. Found a cool layout idea in Vice magazine. Might be a bit too complex for my booklet though as its quite small dimensions. Still, pretty inspiring layout...

I know its important to learn about art history and culture and I do enjoy it, but the lectures always feel like such a chore. And it doesn't help that they are in the dark. Even when I'm not tired I seem to start drifting off...

Learnt how to use letterpress today! I really enjoyed it, it makes a change to relying on computers to achieve interesting text. The effect looks really textural but still really neat at the same time.

We had to research Alan Kitching prior to the workshop. I really like the layout of this piece as the letters are all in different directions and sizes, its really busy. Letterpress makes you realise letters are just characters and you can use them not just to spell words but to create interesting images too.

I am looking forward to actually starting the brief next week because I didn't get round to it today as I was just playing around with layout and colours. This was one of my peices. I think the layout works really well as it creates movement, and I like the use of red. (Mines the blue and red one)

Also had my introduction to Illustrator this arvo. A lot of it I knew already as I've been using it since college, but there were a few things that I hadn't come across before. Recieved my brief on making glyphs and icons from our pictures that we took in Poole. Should be quite fun/easy.

Today was so fun. We got put in groups and told to make a typeface purely out of tape only. it was good to work and talk to people who I hadn't get spoken to in our group. We really experimented and had fun with the brief and I think our final outcome was pretty good. When we had to present them to the class it was interesting to see how each group had taken a completely different approach to the brief and some of the typefaces were really original.

had pal this morning which is proving to be quite helpful. its good to have people to talk to who know exactly what situation you're in and can advise you.

Finally managed to finish my project last night. After my initial idea of having buildings being pulled through a door (which was supposed to be a metaphor for the 21st century), I decided to change it as I wasn't happy with it. My final piece now has a timeline instead to represent the years as this was simpler and I found more effective.

I was really nervous about the crit as I HATE showing my work in front of people, and when I got there in the morning everyone elses seemed so much better. Luckily the crit was really laid back and everyone was really positive about everyone elses work and in the end I was quite happy with my final piece as everyone seemed to understand my message clearly.

Also had an introduction to type with Kit which was good but I already knew most of it, but was helpful to go over again!

Today we had our first PAL session which was quite good. The leaders were all really nice and helpful and its good to have someone to talk to who was in the same situation not so long ago.

The hand in date for my illustration is for tomorrow and I'm really worried as I'm nowhere near finished! It's going to be a late one.

Decided to return to Poole today as I was really stuck with my project. Now I think I know what I am going to do for my project, it was a lot easier and I managed to get some good photos.

Today we had tutorials with (cant remember her name!). Tutorial was quite helpful as I wasn't really sure which angle I wanted to approach the illustration from. I decided the illustration would be based on an article about bringing Poole into the 21st century. I'm still really unsure what or how I am going to illustrate this, as we didn't have the brief before we went to Poole, I don't have very many relevant photos so may have to go back.

We got our first brief today: To design an editorial illustration for an article about the regeneration of Poole. Should be quite fun as I enjoy illustration. Kit showed us a good website http://agoodson.com/ which was quite helpful to give an understanding of what exactly editorial illustration is.

Today was quite fun. We learnt about how to use paper only as a medium, without using pens or paints etc. We had to make images using a scalpel. I used my photo of the tower thing by Poole key. I really like this style of working, it looks quite contemporary and it is really clever.

Went to Poole today. Had to take photos and drawings of the environment. Was ok but wasn't really sure what exactly we should be looking at. Don't think I did enough drawings and the ones that I did do weren't that great.