Polski and a guy named Chopin

Possibly the greatest opportunity I will ever be handed on a plate! A few weeks back I flew over to Poland. I spent the Sunday afternoon lunching with a film producer, an assistant director and a lovely girl from the production office called Aga. My base for the week was at Aga's flat and my job for the week was uncertain. The next morning I climbed a flight of derelict graffitied stairs and I arrived at the Project Chopin studio, I was shown around and left to watch the art department at work whilst they found me a job...I sat in silence no one dared to speak to me and I didnt know a word of Polish. After what seemed like a lifetime a lovely girl called Ala popped her head round the corner and shyly asked me if I wanted to help her. I did. We were making props, we made newspapers, light switches and boxes. I was begining to learn about the world of stop frame animation. We watched some of the first 3D experiments being put together and everyone got excited at lunchtime as there was a new catering team serving us this week!

(Ala in the Art Dept.)

(the main studio space, lighting department and awesome fire warning on back wall!)

To be honest the first couple of days were hard: I was shy, nervous and embarassed about the language barriers but I got used to it. I began to enjoy reading body language and communicating through mime. Infact it was interesting to discuss with Aga (whos english is better than mine) at the end of the day whilst we were shopping, eating or laughing.

Towards the end of the week I started to help make a street out of black latex! This was most fun, latex is like sniffing a thousand marker pens and is incredibly satisfying to peel off your hands.

(me being good and wearing my gas mask)

(our street, drying)

By this point I had also learnt that the reason for the graffitti was there was a skatepark in the unit opposite the studio as well as a textiles mill! What a magic place to be!
thursday night wsas my last we went to see some crazy polish jazz called Shofar in an amazing surrealist bar called Kaliska basically the only way to describe this place is 'fucking sexy' the ladies toilets upstair have those walls like in a police station where they appear mirrored on the outside but when your sat on the loo you can watch the whole bar! It was a sweet night and a great send off.

(Martin, Aga and Antek in Kaliska, fun times!)

Friday at work was sad. I said my goodbyes, people were shocked. They had only just got used to me being around. Ala's English had improved incredibly my polish not so much but I could manage the bare essentials. My journey home was not good.
The greatest thing about my experience on Project Chopin was that I got to know the entire crew, from every department and how they worked and what made each of them tick and how they all slot together like one massive puzzle. Other students on placement dont get such a well rounded experience. On my last day I took Ala to Martin's (anamatic director) office and asked him to show us the full anamatic for the Paris scene (which had been approved that morning) she said that was the first and last time she would get to go in that office!
One thing I have learnt from my time in Poland is that you will always fight for happiness. Even when you are in a job you love, in an amazing country, where everyone is so lovely and Vodka is so cheap. I don't think as humans we will ever be satisfied with what we have, I don't think I met a single persion there that was. But I dont think thats a bad thing, fighting for something better is what keeps you alive. Right?

In The Studio

This is a very very late post but mainly because what I'm about to tell you about is still on going.
Back towards the end of July, I went to a work placement with Darren Leader who teaches on my course. He helped me fall head over heels in love with type (opposed to the small crush I had on it before we met) and therefore I grew a lot of respect for what he does the way he works and the way he thinks. Placement with Darren was great, he was really busy at the time which was tricky for me I had to be patient and shut up and wait. Not my greatest skill. Despite this Darren gave me jobs that he knew would help me learn. And I did. He gave me basically my own job to design the corporate ID for a music management company called Fast Tractor, cool name, cool company, cool client (who bought me doughnuts and flowers! before I pitched!) so were still in the process of finishing it off. I'm really excited to post the final product once its all printed and shiny!

The First City Break

So I've been to a lot of cities and I guess to say this was the first would be a bit of a lie. But it was the first time I've been away with a female friend to a city just to see what was there, just because I could.
So we decided we'd go to Berlin, because I had a couple of days off work. the next day we booked it and 5 days later we were on the plane! which was pretty cool in itself. and the trip followed in the same vain, fast paced and exciting. I'm only going to write about the highlights mind, otherwise ill be here for days.

The city is quite strange in that there seem to be a lot of space. It's not all crammed together with a tower block wherever they can fit one. I first noticed this when we got to the holocaust memorial. it's absolutely stunning. unimaginable. overcasting. enlightening. powerful. probably better than any landmark or sculpture or statue I have ever seen and its so interactive. AND MASSIVE! I'll leave you with the pics:

(the pretty lady is my best mate Lu)

Die Neue National Gallerie was designed by Miles van der Rohe, and kind of looks like a swimming pool thats turned inside out. its a big glass box with a flat black roof you go in and the downstairs to get the the main exhibitions but your not underground there is still natural light. its quite exciting. we saw some lovely surrealist work there but I think I liked the architecture best.

Helmut Newton: is basically the shit! We went to the Sumo exhibition at the Helmut Newton Foundation. Bloody brilliant made me want to take my clothes off even more than normal! Couldnt decide which pic to put up so I thought I'd give you a taste of the most obvious.

One evening we went to the cutest bar, kind of reminded me of the Birdcage in Norwich. It was called Schokoladen. The beer was cheap and the ladies were pretty. The guys were pretty hot too actually. there were 3 acts: Stefana Fratila from Canada she was good but the whole cute girl singing high pitched and playing the ukulele thing is getting a bit common. Next up was a girl who goes buy the name of Umiumi. She does this kind of electro pop act and dances, with no shoes and no bra, like a swift or some other beautiful bird. Basically I fell in love and I think half the crowd did as well. The last act was Little Pictures. they were good and put in their all and were a really cute pair of best friends. The kind you wish were a couple. I have a feeling we will be seing more of them in the future.

(Umiumi: click pic for her myspace)

So my few days were jam packed full of exciting and cultural stuff. I could go on but I think ive told you the most important parts.

Lovely city. I highly recomend it.

New Blood

I was the only first year on my course that went, which did make me a little sad but hey, I had fun. the day was amazing you arrive and walk onto a bright yellow carpet that glows like the sun! there were so many colleges there, it was great to see what everyone was doing from around the country. It was interesting to see that work of graduates from colleges I didn't end up at. It was good to see how to display work and what works and what really doesn't. Farnham were a good bad example of this they printed the work on big sheets of rubber and clipped them at each corner to their space. it did not show off the work well at all. Alternatively Bristol had a good layout at their space and I was impressed by the quality of work. some of it was lovely. I think I was most impressed with ECA and Falmouth, you can really tell that they are independent art schools, the work is of such high standards and so refreshing.
I went to a couple of talks whilst I was there. I saw one called 'Digital on The Move' presented by Alasdair Scott from The Bright Place who only produce work for mobile e.g. any screen you can take on the move: phone, Nintendo DS, PSP, etc. They take the concept of 3 screens (tv, computer, and phone) and reverse them saying your always have your mobile on you and it rarely turned off, which is so true. This makes it the most accessible point of communicating with audiences. Interesting point and very relevant to Graphic Communications.
then I saw a panel talk on own brands and supermarket structure in this economic decline. The talk was chaired by Linda the editor of design week and the speakers were:
Richard Murray from William Murry Hamm (Hamm being the current president of D&AD)
Doug James from Honey
Jonathan Ford from Pearlfisher (one of my favourite agencies)
and Kate Blanford who was the design manager for Sainsbury's own brand range for 8 years!
also Bruce Duckwork walked in and sat at the back halfway through and to be honest I was too star struck to learn a lot from it but there were some nice quotes that I will put on the 'Quote wall'
New Blood Site

The Show-NUCA 09

There was a lot of movement and drama and stress in school the last few weeks before the end of term, but all with good reason as I found out when I went to see the end of year show. I was really impressed with the standard of work, it was so high and the show looked lovely. Really professional. There was so much work that I loved and barely any that I hated. but there was one that stuck out.. in a good way: from illustration Natsuki Otani. I have never met this student, I dont know if its a boy or a girl, I'm going to guess girl (sorry if your not) but her work is gorgeous. The kind of this I'd like a tattoo of because you could never get bored of seeing it. The work she showed was a piece of each of the four seasons. I made myself choose a favorite. It was a very trick decision I liked parts of each but over all autumn won which is cool because it's probably my favorite season.

Check out Otanis work at Flickr

Richard Billingham

It was the day of Hand In FGC4! I hadn't slept, well maybe for an hour or so, and Andy told us post hand in that we should go to a lecture that was this afternoon. I groaned in that 'I know I'm going to go but when will I get time to shut my eyes kind of way'. I went to see him talk: Richard Billingham. I had always thought he was a good photographer with interesting subject matter. Turns out he's a painter at heart and just takes snaps of his folks! It's composition and almost a lack of care for his work that makes it o good. most of his best, earlier work he has lost the negatives for and just has paint splattered prints to show, this would be a real shame in most cases but it adds so much to his work it tells a real story of a boy trying to follow a path that turned out to not be right for him. Billingham's paintings were never appreciated by his tutors or peers and he became accidentally pushed into photography which he eventually accepted. Something that he said really hit home to me, and made me feel warm inside. Billingham was rejected from 16 universities, most importantly Falmouth and Norwich as I was also rejected from both of these. Rejection is hard but it seems like we've both dealt with it well.
Favourite Quote: 'the more mistakes the better really.'

Hue, Saturation and Tonal Value

This is my fvourite chart of the moment and is helping me to think about colour in a more simple and accurate way. It's from the Ambrose/Harris book Colour. recommend it.

Young Blood Brass Band

I saw these chaps on the 4th May they were bloody good. I didn't know what to expect, I was told to go by the cute girl that works in the wine shop. So I went. Young Blood Brass Band are a brass band that play some seriously good music that is kinda funky rocky jazz but with rap vocals kind of the style of Rage Against The Machine. It works very well. I danced lots and got in a big sweat. also there poster was very cool and had a lovely bit of type so I stole one. here you go:

Norwich and Norfolk Festival 09

Oh dear its been far to long again, Ive been rather good at ignoring my computer recently.
anyhow. most important thing that has happened this month was the Norwich and Norfolk festival which was a bit bloody brilliant. Well the bits i caught of it. To open the festival at 5.30pm on the 1st May Ulik & le Snob performed at 'millennium plain'. i caught the performance by complete accident after buying a milkshake so i stood there amazed in the middle of the afternoon whilst these floating musicians in long black cloaks and fire hats blasted out some beautiful music from there odd shaped instruments. one had a tuba that wound its way around his entire body another had a cornet with a big wiggle in it and one a trombone that sat itself over his shoulder. The 'conductor' was this woman who looked like a witch with crazy hair and had 2 poles that shot fire from the ends. it was so perculiar im not really sure what to say it was simply the most bizare thing i have ever encountered on a fiday afternoon in a city center.

The next night I went to Earlham park to see Bombs Per Minute. Another french act that was basically a group of pyrotechnic percussionists: a fantastic firework display with 4 amazing percussionists using the fireworks as simply another instrument to their set. I would have paid to see the fireworks and I would have paid to see the music but together and for free it was stunning. No one I was with quite knew what to say afterward. one of my housemates described the feeling as 'having had a a really good shit' where as I felt like I have just had sex despite this I couldn't shut up afterward, I was on a complete high for the whole night. Again I'm not sure what to say about the experience you would have had to be there to understand but if you ever get the chance I'd highly recommend going.

Long Motorway Journeys and Design

So I've always been interested in maps, road signage, and how the fuck motorway systems actually work, but they're the given beauty of roads. However this toime whilst driving the 6+ hours back to Norwich, alone, there were 2 things that really got my design brain going. Firstly: lorry graphics, this isn't something I think about alot but when your on the roads a strong graphical presence on a lorry can be important. I think visually the 2 best lorries I saw were: Red Bull (half of the logo e.g. one bull was shown at the front end of either side of the vehicle so) it looks like the bull is pushing the lorry forward, and Ocado who i did not know about until seeing there brightly coloured fresh food orientated delivery vans on the road.


And secondly Tunnels. There is something about tunnels that I really like. A lot. I think it has something to do with the lines on the ground being mirrored by the lines in the lights, and something to do with it being a bit more dark and a bit more dangerous and your inside something and you cant get out until its finished, and it makes you feel like your driving faster and it just looks so pretty. I don't care if you think thats odd, I'm perfectly happy to admit I get a bit of a thrill from driving through tunnels, there, I said it.

Television Adverts

I don't have a TV so consequently miss out on almost all TV ads these days (the only bit I really miss) however I went back to my mums over easter for a few days and caught up with the latest in TV ads! Yay! I'm sure you've already seen them all but these are my hot picks:



Just nice eh?



Very clever



I'm not sure why but it gives me goosebumps.



Completely freaky, made me feel ill rather than wanting chocolate but I dont like Cadbury's anyway.



I didn't get this at first, until i found out who Bill Shannon is, then it just becomes a genius idea.

So that's my top 5 until I watch some more TV. They were closely followed by the new Anchor butter, T-Mobile, Wall's Sausages, Pepsi Max and of course the new Cravendale milkbar.

2012

So when the 2012 Olympics logo was released, almost a couple of years ago, it created quite a lot of controversy mainly because it doesn't seem to say anything about... well anything. It just seemed so dull and politically correct that I couldn't even be bothered to try and understand or even hate it. I got used to seeing it around and it became invisible until I went home last week and my 16 year old brother and I were watching the national lottery and he said 'look at that stupid logo, think like a teenage boy and tell me what you see'. Ha! well I saw it instantly. Perhaps I'd just make a good teenage boy or maybe it just is that blindingly obvious. Seems like a fair few others have noticed too! It did make me chuckle how that it's what our country is going to be remembered for, for a very long time, well done Wolf Olins!

Can you see it yet? heres a hint:

Norfolk Wildlife Trust

A Couple of weeks back I was given the opportunity to do a work placement at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Now this was something a bit different to what I had expected from a work placement. basically the trust and a shoestring budget charity don't have the funds for a design department they have one lovely lady called Rebbeca who does all of their PR and communications! So a third year named Brendan and myself were invited to go in as their temporary design team to take on a sweet brief to design some recruitment posters for volunteers for their 5 visitor centers! Exciting stuff! The brief was a bit tough as its asking people to give their time for free. Which implies that they already have to be interested in the subject to some extent.
We decided there were likely to be 3 different audiences for our posters: students, perhaps agricultural or environmental students who have the summer free and would benefit from having done volunteer work. Secondly the unemployed who may feel that by volunteering they are needed, also it shows commitment for when they are job seeking and thirdly the retired who may want to give back some of their stories to younger generations and also spend time in a natural environment. The work was progressive and fresh, it was difficult not to just play by the rule book and come up with something very NWT house style, we knew we had to break that mold if we wanted to catch attention so the rules were bent but not too much. the whole NWT team seemed pleased with our work and the posters will be put up this week that's when we will find out if they do what in theory we think they will: bring in the volunteers!

Apirat Infahsaeng

So its Easter and I'm still busier than ever and unfortunately not finding as much research time as I'd like so i thought I'd go back through some older stuff as good work need to be looked at at least twice anyway.
This guy: Apirat Infahsaeng is a bit of fresh air. He is a designer and visual artist who has so far worked mainly with typographical posters. He is based in New York and is one of the best kinds of designers; the kind who want to get out explore and try different things to make their work better. I first heard about his work in Territory 9 which is a beautiful journal (i'll write about it and link it soon).


Image scanned from Territory 9


for bunch studio


very lovely use of colour, I wish I had more confidence with colour

Police Pledge

These are popping up all over town on every other adshell. I like them, partly because the message is simple and also because the idea is nice and strong. I'm not a fan of type set on blue because it can be difficult to read but I think the choice of blue works well and when you see it in the street it stands out very well from all the concrete and tarmac. And uppercase Gill Sans is of course gorgeous, beautifully legible and just looks great the change in point size draws you eye into the middle of the text to read the smaller 'hidden' word. http://campaigns.direct.gov.uk/policingpledge/

I tend to think the government do a good job with their campaigning. This one made me 'pull my finger out' last year.



and these two are pretty good and wont be forgotten, especially considering the tricky target audience.





There is something that really interests me about those ads you'll never forget. I think it must be because they are often based on such a simple idea but are presented in often a slightly shocking manner. I may do an entry on them in the near future, just a thought.

Wired

My housemate came home with The Times the other day and inside was a 'magazine sampler' for a new magazine due to be launched on the 2nd April, Wired. The magazine is already running in the states. Its a journal about ideas, science, culture and people and basically the future. The most interesting section I found in the sampler was 'infoporn' which is basically a section that uses beautiful graphics to display information and facts and figures surrounding a particular subject. the subject in the sampler was Worldwide Bandwidth. Heres the chart: 2009 Global Internet Map, deisigned and researched by Telegeography. Its absolutely gorgeous, pure infoporn. Take a closer look.

Turning Virtual

Oh deary me, where to start. It's been a very long week. I think what I want to talk about most is pushing yourself. I feel like since I started my course I've only really had time to keep things safe. Well safeish. As in a 50% chance from the offset that it was achievable anyway. But for the last project I simply didn't care if we had enough time or not, the brief was a little dull and obvious and all I wanted to do was for us to come up with something different. The brief was to re-design Fruit Shoot and make the product appear healthier but at the same time make it cool for kids and something they would want to be seen drinking. This brief was set to real design agencies and the client bought Brandhouse's concept before briefing us students to see what radical stuff we could come up with. My teams main focus was the bottle. Packaging should be cool, if its somthing you want to have and to hold it can make or break a product, and the subconscious of kids knows this. did you ever see a kid was round Asda and pick up a Smart Price item? So our bottle had to be shit hot but easy, cheap and ethical to produce. We took inspiration from Original Source shower pouches, but decided to keep the main elements of the Fruit Shoot graphics the same with a similar logo and similar colour range. In order to achieve an understandable visual we had to mock up our product. there was no way we could have done this for real and still have it looking slick. so we went on a digital adventure. We went over to games design and learnt how to use their crazy software. It was hard and very, very confusing. we built our product in Silo and then mapped it in Maya. 2 weeks ago I had never heard of either of these pieces of software but now I dont feel scared to use them or be more ambitious with what I might use them for. I'm really pleased with our outcome for fruit shoot and I can honestly say if I was Britvic I would rather have our idea than Brandhouse's.

Brandhouse redesign


vs The Students (package should show a sports cap but there's no way we could figure out how to build one of those in Silo)
And just one more thing, I think I'm actually getting used to this pitching thing, it's awkward and a bit fake and nerve wracking but I secretly enjoy it, especially when I know I've done my best and I can talk about it.

Here today goo tomorrow

Easter is coming and despite not even having a TV I am a bit excited about the possibilities of how I can kill my creme egg this year. I absolutely love these ads, there humorous, cheeky, slightly disturbing, and strangely sexy. I'm only posting my two faves here but check out this playlist on Youtube for near enough the whole lot.

Exam Premier

I met Gareth Unwin through one of those difficult to explain family connections on Christmas day '08. He is a film director, so for a change I had someone different and interesting to talk to at Christmas! We got on well and have kept in touch. a few weeks ago Gareth dropped me a line saying 'Do you want to put that new iMac to some use?' The task in hand was to design the flyer for the premier of his latest film exam. The requirements were specific. The deadline was tight. I did it and was invited to the premier, which was yesterday. It was very interesting milling around with beautiful people in pretty dresses and shiney shoes at BAFTA! Bafta is lovely the door signs are written in gold Avant Garde caps and made me go ooooh! The film was stunning. An intense, loosely Sci-Fi story of candidates competing for the same job. The acting was suberb, I believed all of it. The film was a 35mm and predominantly shot with a very shallow depth of focus which increased the intensity tenfold and let your into the heads of the characters just a little. The afterparty was at the Penthouse at Number One Leicester Square. We were VIPs, queue jumpers, wristband wearers, I felt special and more comfortable than I expected. We drank wine and champagne and danced. Londoners cannot dance, well not in the fun way we do it up here anyhow. At 02.30 we left for an ice cream. It was good. I want to do it all again. and I totaly recomend the film.

http://www.bedlamproductions.co.uk/



FRONT OF FLYER


BACK OF FLYER


VIP WRISTBAND!

Turner Duckworth

An ex NSAD (now NUCA (where I go)) Graphics student who now works as a creative for Turner Duckworth came in to talk to us on friday. I'm 90% sure his name is Gavin Horrell but I can't seem to find him on the internet! Anyhow it was very very encouraging to see someone come from our school and recieve 4 job offers including one from Turner Duckworth just from his grad show! He was quite inspirational and talked in a fun, witty, english and slightly nervous manner that held my attention even on a friday morning. He spoke of the company and how they operate using their base in San Fransisco and their base in London to run projects simulatiously so they are almost being worked on 24 hours a day just on seperate sides of the world! Genious in it's self without metioning how stunning the work actually is.

Their company values and beliefs are:
To initially approach every job in the same way.
To have a clear vision. 'We create clarity.'
Emotion makes the first connection.
A brands true personality resides in the detail.
Nothing should be included that doesnt serve a specific or useful purpose.
And to evolve at a rate that doesnt alientate current users.

and that is how they can produce stuff like this, consistantly:

Check out 'The Quote Wall' for more beautiful things that were said.

Getting Back in the Studio

So I did a photography A-level but that seems like forever ago. Despite being one of the best courses of my life I don’t really remember a huge amount about studio stuff, lighting etc. Plus on my A-level we pretty much only used black and white film. Which was not a bad thing b&w film will always be one of those things that makes me go oooh! And I liked it because it was real and it was very easy to fuck up at many different stages be it loading, taking, processing or developing. But that’s part of its charm. The fact you have to trust yourself to know what your doing and hope a bit that fate is on your side. Otherwise your screwed, simple as.

Medium format image I took with Hasselblad during A-level.
Possibly my best photo to date.

So when I got my DSLR I was not so interested and I'm still not. Digital photography will probably never be a passion to me and I'm not sure whether it's because I don’t like the buttons and the pretending or whether it’s because I find colour very difficult. Black and white is so easy to make sexy, white balance is not so important, but colour is a pain in the arse. Despite this I obviously understand why it exists and why it has become an industry standard that no one uses film anymore. We live so much faster lives nowadays.
So anyway we had the opportunity to get back into the studio last week and in groups of 4 were set a word to represent, ours was Anticipation. Unfortunately I've had a pretty bad cold and as stubborn as I am the lighting didn’t end up quite the way I wanted but I think we did a good job considering the somewhat tricky subject matter, my advice: never take a picture of a translucent shiney object in a studio. I did learn a fair bit but mainly about where equipment was kept and so on, some of which I knew already as I've already used the NUCA studio twice, but none the less the more time spent down there the more the technicians will like me, or that’s what I hope.

Anticipation: taken last week at NUCA with a converted medium format camera, shot to screen as a RAW.

If You Could:...

I was having a bit of a browse and I came across this lovely project:
where basically once a month an up and coming and a well estabilshed designer have their submissions picked to become limited screenprints.
i had a quick browse through the chosen images and was a bit shocked to find that I only knew the names of 4 of the illustrators/designers! however all the work it top quality. Below are the 4 I already knew and 2 that I really liked.

Dan Mumford + Kate Moross

The Designers Republic + Rob Ryan

Alex Trochut

Anthony Burrill

Typography Served

Oh dear lord! I just found this website and nearly wet myself! It's actually bloody gorgeous and i will probably end up spending far too much of my life looking at it. so I thought I'd better stick it on the pinboard before I get too carried away.

David Carvalho

The Portuguese designers are looking a bit hot this week. Just discovered David Carvalho, Illustrator/Graphic Artist. He has some lovely work I especially like this piece entitled 'Blind Peony'. It's massive!


He also does some very nice type work, logo types and has designed 2 of his own faces!


one to check out me thinks: http://www.behance.net/Karpa/Frame

Stop Frame Illustration

Also whilst we're on the subject check this one out too. I think these two have to be my all time favourite stop frame illustrations.

L Filipe dos Santos

Just discovered this Portuguese illustrator, his work is pretty stunning and fresh. for this project (see saw) I wonder whether he knew what he wanted to draw before he made the ink shapes. hmm...?