≥ read from poster (large)

Uncanny – Websters Dictionary tells me ‘uncanny is suggesting the operation of supernatural influences’.

Something which is different, unusual not quite right. It leads me onto think what is canny? Dictionary says – having or showing shrewdness and good judgement. So, the different between real and surreal? Opposites? Deja vu can often leave you feeling uncanny. This common sudden and fleeting experience • which you imagine/see in such detail but at the same time it is difficult to recapture. Is this uncanny because you reconnected with something else in that precise time? But reality suggest that whatever happen prior to the deja vu, what just happened is an entirely new experience. This acts on the idea that something familiar can react with something foreign. We don’t live in the Matrix, but does it mean we can ever really announce that the supernatural isn’t real?

Development has shown that the uncanny, is always what is ahead and not in the past. If we’ve seen something, and figured it out its deemed as canny – but the second we can’t figure something out it deemed as uncanny. There are millions of cases of religious experiences • a sense that doesn’t fit in the morn of everyday activity and life experiences which cases believe that they have encountered God/other beliefs. This minority experienced something out-of-this-world, suggesting that the uncanny can very much still be here and around us ≥ just you haven’t experienced it yet.

What is reality? º It’s comfortable, reliable and it makes sense. However I feel I’m not moving, in bed – casually writing a response to the question of ‘what is uncanny?’. However I am actually speeding 67000 miles an hour around the Sun. This could suggest that time is just an illusion? If we are travelling so fast yet not moving to suggest any movement • it’s that another mysterious phenomenon. ¬ Uncanny?

Quantum reality, nothing is quite what is seems. Anton Zeilinger, a quantum physicist is famous for his experiments and revelations with single light photons particles. The experiment was shooting one a single particle to two slits on a board, giving the single particle two options. However using a camera which depicts single particle, it splits up in two and throughout bought slits. How can a single particle split? The first uncanny idea, however what remains even more uncanny is that results show after the photon moved through the slits they don’t create two projections, they create three. How can a single photon of light have two options, go through both slits and then in that process create third? This shows that something uncanny, is still very real. To further this unearthly idea, if Zeilinger puts detectors on the experiences, by the slits the photons miraculously start to behave and move accordingly, one by one, with no trace of a third reading. We can change the way reality behaves, just by looking at it. This shows to me that reality can the uncanny are not as opposing as they might seem. Seeing something uncanny, can the uncanny through the idea of being canny. ¬ Hmmmmm

Supernatural, the uncanny, I think is very much a real thing. This world, this solar system was created through a big bang. The universe can only been created through imperfections (something foreign/uncanny), if the big bang exploded in the canny fashion, this stars would not of causes any friction and through leaving no reactions with gases, which ultimately create stars and planet, which keep us alive. It may take time to see something truly uncanny, millions of years perhaps. Our solar system is a mere mist of what the what this bang caused. To suggest that there are no aliens out in this large cosmos would be an assumption. Just because the uncanny hasn’t been discovered yet doesn’t mean it’s not out there. If we see an alien now it  would be a very uncanny experience, but if its becomes a reality – this will then make this alien canny. The norm.

What is the uncanny? I think it’s just something that is unproven and that any notion of the sense can have an explanation over time.

¬

Understanding the uncanny, was something which took me longer then I thought, I watched a lecture from Rick Roynor on the uncanny, surrealism and graphic design.

Read about Anoton Zeilinger, a quantum physicist which I found on a BBC Horizon programme on Tuesday 18th called ‘What is reality?’

Download

I missed a few blog posts over the summer. I’m sure you’ll forgive me. > New photo. The return of British rainy weather captured through a lamp outside my front door. Lovely glow from the rain

Become a chef with Bhav Mistry.

‘New: Technology, Language & Design’, this was a name of quite possibly the most open brief of the year. It felt like we (gdc1) had to think of a Final Major Project – expect we only had two weeks, and one of those weeks we had to complete an essay – so really. It was a one week project on a very open brief. My first pitch was to re-invent the way we use a cook book. The problem I came across whilst cooking is that some cookery books are very dense and generally (maybe just me being a retard) I sometimes find myself getting confused about what-to-do-when-or-if-I-did-something-completely-different. I wanted to essentially make cooking idiot-proof. I wanted to make something tactile as I find myself in my element when making books. I wanted to make a book with something ‘new’ (?), For research, I went into Waterstone’s, where I started to look at childre’n’ book and came across a fantastic Thomas the Tank Engine book with real lights! I really wanted to make a book with patronising lights, and really thick – inspired from that Thomas book. Obviously, I couldn’t make an entire recipe book, so my ‘book’ was one recipe. The idea where if you had one book with one recipe, you’d get pretty damn good at that recipe. So, you’d have an entire shelf instead of one book – it would take up a lot more space but at least you will learn all the recipes and never neglect though dense recipes.
The book has a real-time video of someone (me) cooking with fully functioning Start, Stop, Fast-Forward and Rewind. You can choose to follow me cooking whilst you do the same thing in your own kitchen. Also, you get a golden star for each step you complete!

Split the Atom.

As a class we were told to bring in an object (mechanical/or non-mechanical), something from which means something to you and something which you are willing to ruin, (but how much does it really mean to you if you’re willing to ruin it?). Well, the object I chose to bring in was a very old yoyo, I fucking love my yo-yos’. I got to a split-the-atom stage – very proud. Anywho… In class the exercise was to deconstruct the object and ‘design’ a layout of the object. We then got some roller and some ink and attempted to print with our object. The print kind of speaks for itself really. I was reasonably happy with my prints, however there is only so much you can do with a yoyo – Joe Mania was by far my favourite, he got a old school camera and made some exceptional prints.

We’ve got this print based brief called ‘Apple+P’. It’s a brief which is all about ‘the medium in the message’ – basically its about process more so then the result (I think?). Working with Joe Mania, we wanted to start this project by making a drawing machine – so. thats. what. we. did. I bought two bargain remote control cars and Joe bought a pretty classy one. We toke them apart, removing all the body, and basically started to put a kind-of-robot together. We didn’t plan any prior to this, we just made it up on the spot. It’s quite and exciting process! I want to make more and more. We kind of realised its more drawing then printing… so yeah we have some developing to do… we want to get some helicopters going on, printing/drawing whilst airborne sounds like even more fun. The Apple P brief is also in conjunction with this CMYK printing workshops we are doing – so far its been pretty interesting.

Picture.

Myself and Danny Wheeler were given a brief to design an identity for a new music TV channel. The brief itself was set by Peter Chadwick of Popular. He is an experienced designer in the music industry quoting ’80% of his work is music related’. He showed us a pretty awesome presentation at college and is well respected by all. In groups of two we had to bounce ideas and come up with a realistic concept for a music channel (although he has told us to do any kind of music channel – I thought we might as well make one which might be real).

Our concept. We wanted to create a channel which was solely based around the music video itself. To cut out all the shit we see day in day out on music channels. Imagine a channel which credits the director of the video more then the musician. Looking for simply beautiful directing skills. I have a Stash 2 DVD (thanks Joel Baker) which is all about cool videos from concise illustrators to fanatical CGI. So, more or less our music ethos was nicely directed music videos with an element of escapism. We wanted viewers to escape from the mainstream in the world and watch great video (or short films in this case) A small part of the channel would show up-and-coming musicians who need a up-and-coming director to make there video, This is where we have our  Music Video Generator. Which selects a genre of music and a style of a director to suit that music collaborate to create each-others visions.

We chose to call our music channel – Picture. Sounds simple we wanted to convey that our music channel was about the art direction. We wanted it to be a cinematic music channel, each shot, each frame, each colour would/should be all considered to deliver exquisite quality.

Our ethos: Picture Music Television is a channel dedicated to showcasing the very best collaborations between musical and visual artists. Creating an eclectic, inspiring, and subversive playlist, from Kanye West to The New Pornographers, Chris Cunningham to One In Three. Picture is your only means of escape.

The final outcome of this project is something myself and Danny Wheeler are both very proud of. In the final crit we presented the three darker images as they had more of a relevance to what we were trying to create with this profound vision we had. Picture TV wasn’t about cheap gimmick like T-Shirts, excessive posters, press-packs and other stationary. We aimed for a more intellectual audience, one we who understand good music, care for each bpm or note. If we were to create stationary, it would be business cards made of really high-end printing with expensive embossing or fine leather stationary with PICTURE engraved into it.

These photograph are not to be taken lightly, to took them as if they were a production. By no means I can ever claim it was a one man job, it was definitely a team effort. We wanted elements of fine detail inspired by Gregory Crewsdon. Something special. No messing around with contrast or saturation on photoshop or changing colours. Just refined photography.

Please check out the larger image via flickr.

Jan Tschichold.

I took this photograph after being inspired by Gregory Crewdson. I know it’s nothing on his standards but I wanted to reach small details he does with his photography. If you check out the large size of this picture – I really wanted to capture the Greenwich Meantime green laser beam.

You must buy Beneath the Roses by Gregory Crewsdon. Just amazing for a mere £20. Bargain.

I’ve never really cared for this whole advertisement game. It’s been a long long long time since I’ve seen an advert and gone ‘oh cool – thats actually pretty impressive’. Not since the original Cog advert for Honda in 2003.

It seems the raw ideas have lose a lot of creativity, something interesting, some-kinda-spark. Where have all these ideas gone? Absolut tried this whole Sagmeister-esque thing. Well… it looked okay. But, because you know it’s not Sagmeister. your left feeling a bit cheated. Ultimately – saying it’s shit, even though it probably doesn’t deserve it. (hmmm…)

Luckily. Sagmeister is back with another masterclass of how typographical messages should be done. Let’s be honest… Banks need some lifting. Gradually on-the-up they are desperate to show the world ‘you can trust us’. A brand new (April 2010) campaign from Standard Chartered hired Sagmeister.inc to produce this beautiful and refreshing take on something conceptual type. This makes Absolut’s ‘absolutely’ feeble attempt to do what should be left with the real pioneers of conceptual type.

V for Vendetta, 2005.

Bad Type project. Make a campaign to celebrate/embrace Bad Typography. This is one of the weirdest outcomes to a project – however one my my favourites of all time. I came into the project quite late and was pretty much allowed to join any group I wanted. Groups making sisters, signs, interactive games and all sorts of nice graphics things. Which usually I’d be all for and doing that direction. HOWEVER. I heard this group were thinking about doing a musical of something of that nature. So, I thought why not?! My group consist of Dan Cooper, Olivia Tytherleigh, Emma Noble & Sophia Ray. The idea was to sing a Bad Type related song in a Fried Chicken shop… Every time you are wasted, and you have this urge of Chicken or some kind of greasy food. We wrote a song which had a few Typography puns and a few pun. The melody was to the classic ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’ from Singin’ in the Rain.

We got permission to sing and dance at his Chicken Shop in the late night on a monday night. It was hilarious. So much fun. I doubt I’ll do anything like that every again but it was fun whilst it lasted. I then went about to editing to the video on (my first time on Final Cut). We chose to make it quite a funny video with bad (intentional) dubbing and general scrappy cuts. It worked with the kind style we were aiming for. We were all pretty happy with the end result – as well as going down a treat on Crit day.

Also a return of the white suit worn in MJ shoot.

Here are the lyrics for the song if you fancy a sing-a-long…

It’s 4 in the morning
We’ve searched the whole night through
It’s late any chip shop will do.

The kerning’s appalling
But you’re the one we want
The lights over shine your crap font.

Blue and red and yellow and white
We don’t care if it looks shite
Let’s feed our drunken appetite
And round off this great night.

(man) The pictures don’t please me
But they make our lives so easy.
Type’s tricky when picking your food.

(all point) you and you and you
and you and you and you and you

The shop next door looks classy,
(man) “Aren’t the waiters really arsey?”
Chick’n Lick’n
Our heart lies with you.

(man spoken) The lame abbreviation only works in this situation.

It’s 5 in the morning
We’ve sung the whole night through
Chick’n Lick’n
We fucking love you.

(might of been edited…)

This was the first project set on the very first day back from Christmas. Well, partly. As mentioned in Faded – We were given this project called WordPlay. We have to make a A2 Poster of our chosen Word. Something at the time I thought was going to be piss easy Illustrator job. Not the case. I was given the word Celebrity. A very difficult word, I know nothing about Celebrities or famous people – all I know is I couldn’t careless about them. Even the word ‘CELEBRITY’ is just a shit word – the letter forms and all. I started to loose a lot of care for the word and project. I started off with some pretty standard Illustrations. Some with no care and some with no concept – just made a pretty image. Things started to look shitter and shitter.

My solution came from just doing simple line drawings of random things celebrities have in common, paparazzi, sex, tv, glamour. I then thought this should be my starting point to how I solve this celebrity poster. I found this Manifesto on the net ‘How to become Famous‘. I wanted to base my poster around this manifesto…

01. TV

Enter a reality show. We all know someone who is famous just for appearing on a reality show! It’s hard to turn on the TV now-a-days without seeing some sort of show on which are great to have the chance of becoming famous! The most famous being Big brother. Enter one of these shows and you can become famous overnight just like Jade Goody’ from Big brother or Leona Lewis’ from X Factor.

02. Sing

Become a singer, actor/actress or model like the singers Beyonce, and Alicia Keys who have natural raw talent, or actor/actress Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie who just look and act fantastically. Without any skills other than just looking good, get instant fame and become a model like one of the worlds richest supermodel ‘Gisele Bundchen. This way is beautifully easy.

03. Invent

Invent something which is a sure way to becoming famous just like ‘Erno Rubik’ who was the inventor of the Rubiks cube. The wheel has already been invented and is still being reinvented to this day, but there are still many things that have not…Sometimes invention have been created purely by accident!

04. Sports

Do something your good at like Football, Baseball or Ice hockey. Become an athlete and be famous In 9.57 seconds by breaking the current world record holder Husain Bolt’s 9.58 seconds. Some sports can be quite easy way if you’re naturally the fastest or strongest. if sports is not for you, there are many other records you can break, but try not to break a leg doing so!

05. Write

Write a best selling novel, I’m sure you all know many novelists by name more than face. If you have great writing skills you could be the next ‘Jackie Collins’ or ‘J.K. Rowling’ or who wrote the ‘Harry Potter’ books.

06. Find a cure for a disease

This is not the easiest of routes but find a cure for the common cold and you will not just be famous but you will be in the history books and be remembered forever.

07. Be a Comedian, Magician or Entertainer.

If everyone tells you your funny and you naturally make people laugh, you may just have something! When it comes to comedy it’s not what you say, it’s how you deliver it and of course……timing. Some people are just naturally funny without even trying! If this is you,  your half way there.!

08. Become a politician.

We all know the former prime minister Tony Blair and president George Bush Even if you don’t become a president you can still become famous just for being in a political party. You may not get much respect or be liked and it’s not the coolest of fame, but you have so much power!. The former US president and late Ronald Reagan and the 38th governor of California Arnold Scwarzenegger were former actors!

09. Have a successful business.

like ‘Bill gates’ who owns Microsoft, or Mohamed al-Fayed who owns Harrods. This route is not the easiest, and requires a lot of hard work but is a sure way to become famous and have all the trappings of success,

10. Publicity

The most easiest way is to marry, date, or be a relative of someone famous like Katie Price?

Click here for a larger & clearer image.

Beware. This might just be one of the sadest, most lame, uncool, geeky blog post since Christmas Helvetica.

Most people, bar those with blackberries, have access to an iPhone or iPod Touch. The App Store has always had awesome apps but now I’ve discovered Type related apps.

The Font Game

Cheese Or Font

Kern

Eye vs Eye

Oh Em Gee – best commuting games ever. I found this pretty awesome App called Helvetication (it even sounds awesome). The aim of the game is to correctly guess which word is either Helvetica or Arial. SO ADDICTIVE. I must say I was playing for ages… (I say ages, I mean the time it takes to go to college). Admittedly – I have mastered the game. I think everyone should play this game. There is a similar online game called Ironic Sans – which is 20 questions (100%), still good. Helvetication bought this lame game to a newwwww levels being all portable and having a variety of questions.

I thought I’d teach everyone (those sad enough to get this far) the main differences between Helvetica and Arial. I made this simple ‘see the difference diagram’ (below). The main ones to look out for are the a’s and the t’s, they have the most distinctive features. And then there’s the c’s, r’s, s’s and j’s. EASY.  Some characters are genuinely really hard to tell apart The p and the o can be difficult – lowercase L’s are virtually the same, as are VWXYZ. Well, Yes. Download the App. Enjoy. And beat my 100% 3200 (Above).

Download Helvetication for your iPhone/iPod Touch

(Click to view larger image)

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Marshall Mcluhan

2428.

I faded away for two months, damn.

I must say I have had a pretty slow start to 2010. After a rough/uncertain January, a more promising February began, and now a March. No.1. Been a bit lost, thought it was appropriate to relaunch on the first.

Now – GDC1 were given a variety (?) of projects, starting from a Illustrator project which involved a random word and to produce a A2 landscape poster of the word. I was given Celebrity… WTF? random and all n all shit word. I’ll be honest this project was a struggle. Pssssh. We had a short stop-frame motion project. But the result wasn’t what I had in plan, so thats the end of that. Nigel (course tutor) has this obsession with bad type – so he gave us this brief which was to make a campaign for bad type. This turned out to be a loads of fun – I mean the white suit makes another appearance anddddd I sing and I dance….not often you’ll come across that! Our latest project is with Peter Chadwick of Popular. Awesome guy, showed us some great work he’s done. He’s even had his designs on a Aeroplane! That’s something to aspire to. He was also a Chelsea graduate which is always promising. He set this project to create a TV Channel out of – pretty exciting stuff. I also get the chance to work with Danny Wheeler - fantastic driven classmate. Well, me being away for a long time was too slack. So, I am going to get my graphics game on. I’ll post more and more and more and more… (this means a lot of fillers or links to other websites.. ha)

2428.

Hardly graphic design or anything of that nature. I felt this needed to blogged about as I’ve recently finished all series and quite frankly it was fucking awesome. I was pretty late with The Wire, having only starting watching it this year. But fuck me it’s been the best 5 series I have ever seen on TV, or on a screen or anything really. Okay, to be fair all I watch is Family Guy and Curb your Enthusiasm. So, I don’t know about shows like 24 or Band of brother or Gossip girl (ha) etc.  I’ve just been inspired by the whole journey from series to series. It’s made me realise that CSI and all them kinda shows wants to be what the Wire is. REAL. I mean it’s even Obama‘s favourite show.

My favourite character is (like most) Omar Little. This man is everything a gangster wishes to be. He’s oozes confidence and he’s so god-damn ‘Arddd. He’s been quoted to be Baltimore’s Robin Hood of the west side project, something I couldn’t agree more with. If you haven’t already check out Young Omar, in 1985. Omar’s first hold up is with two older kids.  They rob a man who waits at a bus stop on his way home from work.  When Omar finds that the man only had sixteen dollars on him, he points his gun at one of the older kids and demands that they give the man his money back.  He’s even got the signature scar on his face! Something we never find out about but he must of been even younger when he got it. Ahh…Omar is the best.

Favourite series list…

1# Series 3 2# Series 4  3# Series 5 4# Series 1 5# Series 2

(Not to say series 2 is rubbish at all – I really enjoyed them all.)

This is one of my favourite scenes from season 2 where Omar testifies against Bird for the murder of a witness who testified against D’Angelo Barksdale. Next one is Omar with a pretty awesome confrontation with Brother Mouzone.

PS: If you haven’t seen The Wire yet, don’t complain if I’ve giving much away. You don’t have to watch the youtube clips. If you wish to watch them when you get to them in whichever series you’re on. then do that. dur.

But one of my favourite of the whole series is one I luckily found on YouTube from the first series.

If you haven’t seen it yet. Then, DO SO. you can buy all the series at HMV for £60! Thats £1 per episode. BARGAIN.

Me and Joel Baker, we don’t like  baubles or tinsel we like type. So, we thought we incorporate this love with this festive Christmas time. It originally started for wanting a helvetica A for the angel and I thought I’d just make all the capital letters of this iconic typeface. The photo doesn’t the tree justice in all honesty.

Don’t judge me. ha. GCD1 all got set this project to re-enact an iconic photograph. This project was strictly in a photography studio – we all had to bring in all our costumes to our appointment in this fantastic studio.

With the expertise of Alex Madjitey (photography technician at Chelsesa) to use the correct studio lighting and framing with minimal photoshop to re-enact the Thriller album cover by Michael Jackson. Yes, I own a white suit. Not so proudly these days – but back in the pre-teen days I thought I was one fly mofo. The only part photoshopped was the glow and the mj logo.

Waiting for my favourites to post theres to reference there!… Some AWESOME iconic photos this year.

Checccckkkk Ouutt…. Olivia Tytherleigh’s Vogue; Joshua Stocker’s London Calling; Christian Jeffery’s 1966 England Team, Joel Baker’s Jimi Hendrix.. more to come… (hopefully)

This project is for a Library Collection project. GDC all have to make 50 copies of an entry which will go into a book called ‘The Rules’. I’m not keen on Rules, not great with discipline either – so I’m really feeling being ‘sensible’. With this is idea I wanted to go down a Paul Arden route from his book ‘Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite’. He speaks about Stealing is a good thing – as long it’s authentic.

“Authenticity is invaluable. Originality is non-existent.” – Paul Arden

I have made my own version of Paul Ardens ethos – expect I’ve used passions of all those in my class (GDC).

Stealing is perceived as bad. More like merely borrowing. Steal anything that inspires you to elevate your imagination. Devour films, music, eavesdropping, christmas lights, the 50′s, lists, origami, children, tree houses, roads, Hitchcock, beards, God, rubber ducks, documentaries, your team, fashion, police, typewriters, early mornings, shoes, mad dolls, technology, northern souls, oktoberfest, stuff, dance, architecture, cheery design, random images, skulls, robots, halo, beer trash television, paper, chick peas, cooking, old people, your home…

Although you must only steal things which speak directly your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.

It’s not where you take things from – it”s where you take them to

Continuing from my earlier post of Burn Comic Sans Burn. I went out to Greenwich pier and started to have a play around with my alginate model and my clay model of my letter ‘I’. I wanted to burn the shit of the letter but with it being in water too. So, with successful photo of the the letter in the bath tub I NEEDED TO TRY IT IN THE THAMES. So, I did. Thanks Joel Baker.

My alginate model had trouble standing so I let it placed in the water, at the time it the tides were low. Then, I applied the bbq lighters and started with the lighter fluid. I intended the background to have all the thames but I now think it worked better without canary wharf etc in the background. But yes. FIREE. After this I was well up for more and more and more FIREE!…

I found a pier which was very wet and had a good enough dampness to the surface. So, using my clay model with bbq lighters in inside – this time I wanted to go full out and test how big of a flame I can get. With the wind against me it took a long time to get it alight but once I had it alight… OH MY. The flames began. TOO MUCH FUN. BURN FUCKING COMIC SANS BUUUUUURRRRRRN!

We were given a brief to DESTROY a Comic Sans character. I was given capital ‘I‘, which was an interesting letter a) it is the only letter in the alphabet to have a meaning b) comic sans is not a serif font, yet ‘I’ has serifs? How weird. GDC had to all make a white wooden letter – to show we can use the 3d workshop and another material of the letter which we destroy. We were allowed to destroy it in any way we liked – which at the time sounded eaaaasssssy. However, once I got round to thinking of ideas – I found it quite hard. The ideas I ended up going for is.

1) Shit on my comic sans – put my letter on each square of a toilet tissue. 2) Make letter with a fruit and power juicer it. 3) Make it out of plasticine and crush it. 4) Make it out of alginate and set it alight. 5) Go to a prison and get it locked away (emotionally destroyed).

I really liked the idea of setting things alight – I used to procrastinate a lot with lighter fluid. Years ago I remember putting lighter fluid in the bath tub and setting it alight – I was surprised at how much fire it actually caused. So, I thought I use this idea of water and fire with my comic sans ‘I’.

With our wooden pieces, all of GDC got together with our characters and had a ‘comic sans’ day out. Which was meant to be a happy day with our letters and following years made a good day of it, however they had Helvetica. Because it was comic sans I came up with the idea of having a bad day out – something people were a bit weary about. The idea was that it is such an awful awful awful font that it does not deserve to go to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. We set on our ways to having a bad day with our letters. The moment we stepped out we saw a bin and we all put the letter in! We then lined all the characters up at a bus stop and made them wait for a bus, however we just ended up going to McDonalds and getting with our letters as our ‘hot date’.

My favourite Destroy Comic by a mile is Simon French’s Birthday Party. Just awesome, aswell as Jonathan Endres Golf.

More to come as I want to develop my burning on water idea to outside. On sunday I am planning to go to an industrial construction area near greenwich to take a photo of my letter burning on the pier.

We were set this a brief to design two manifesto. One to be a personal one and the other to redesign an existing manifesto from 1890 – 1920 (I think)…  My personal one was about Envy. I would like to explain it, but I think it will be easier to just to post it…

Envy.

Everyone in the world has shown envy to another person, but why is being envious the solution? Surely being envious helps no-one. How does it improve what you do? We are constantly in denial about whether we are envious of the next person. End of the day being envious is pointless.

These are the four moments when realise you are being envious…

#1. The Stare.

This is one of the most obvious of reactions to being envious toward someone.  Your telling yourself that what you’ve done is just not good enough, this provokes an element of embarrassment. The Stare is notorious for making you less confident, treat this reaction with a lot of self belief, tell yourself that ‘It’s not the end of the world”. As long as you know you gave it your all – the envious nature of the stare proves there is nothing you can do there and then.

#2. Negativity.

You under-sell what your offering. Somehow you suddenly believe that what you have produced is utter shit. Negativity shows weakness from what you are presenting – something you never want anyone to see. If you are being very pessimistic because you are being envious you should realise that you need pride with what you are presenting and trust your ability.

#3. Those Excuses.

“Oh I only spent two minutes on this last night that’s why it looks like crap”. Somehow you know haven’t produced the what you are capable of due to being irresponsible. If you really want something bad enough you need to show how badly you want it. Making excuses shows a lack of confidence with how well you cope with under pressure.

#4. Trying Too Hard.

You see something you wish you done, and you bend over backwards to try and make your work as effective. The intention is to try so hard that you can come up with this idea which is ‘perfectly formed’ but ends up being over-complicated. By all means you need your ideas to stand out and show your style. What is the point of being so driven that you end up losing the plot. Don’t get too carried away, pretend to be the one looking at your work then simplify.

Envy is a complex and quite baffling emotion, one you are not entirely sure you can control. When you come across any of these moments just stop. There is nothing being envious does, apart from cause stress. It doesn’t do anything – so just get on with your life.

If you’ve made it this far… thanks for reading! What did you make of it? Felt it was bullshit? maybe you did? Well cool. The other manifesto I chose to do was ‘What did Expressionism want?‘ A manifesto from DADA in 1918. I had so much fun with playing with this – at the time I thought I went rather overboard with the designs but I eventually found myself really liking what I’ve done – which is rare as I never really like work I’ve done. Some great manifesto from GDC this, some not so great. My favourites were Joshua Stocker’s ‘leaving it to the last minute’, Jon Endres ‘How to be Miserable, Simon French’s Nerdism, Danny Wheeler & Daniel Cooper.

Continuing from my earlier post about Inspiration for TimeOut. I have just received the printed issue with my photos from on Flickr published. This being my first published piece I’m rather excited, raring to do more and more. Seeing the photos which were taken in my front room in a official magazine is quite a special feeling – maybe I’m getting a little too excited? Possibly.

I got to take all the photographs used within the supplement. It features work from five contributors, Me; Obie Campbell; Dominic Sowa; Jennifer Lipman & Justina K Ogunseitan. I’m pretty happy with the turn out of the whole project starting from a blank bit of a paper to a printed version on nice silk paper. Many thanks to Rob Greig (TimeOut Staff Photographer); Alan Rutter (TimeOut editor); Obie Campbell (Supplement Designer) and Joel Baker.

Taken from our campaign posters…

Julius Caeser, Tutankhuman, Darth Vader. All preachers with an entire nation holding on to their every word, commanders of men willing to fulfill their every desire; Emperors in the truest sense of the word.

Emperor is the new Chelsea School of Art and Design initiative to reinvent the lecture theatre; inverted and reverted. Instead of the lecturer looking up at their audience, the theatre will be turned around and the audience will be looking up at them. When the lecturer looks over his audience as if he were a great emperor he will be filled with both courage and confidence. Then, as the audience look up they can do nothing but have unquestioning belief in this higher authority.

A short badges project. I don’t feel they’re the strongest ideas in the world for a badges. Something I want to continue experimenting with them – just thought I’d keep updating this blog with more and more things. Some great badge designs going around the GDC1 group… My favourites so far are Simon French’s boobs.

On friday I had the opportunity to give letterpress a go. It was simply amazing. I loved the atheistic of the studio to all the bits of metal and the way the whole thing was organised. We were all set a brief to make a poster, titled ‘How to make your design successful’. So, as a group we all chipped in ideas to abide by the rules. Someone said, ‘repetition’. This developed to ‘Do it again…We decided as a group to design a poster which said, ‘Do it again and again and again and again and so on… This was pretty much a never-ending  sentence. I loved the simplicity of the idea, and I can’t wait to go back to the studio and get the finished print.

Photo I took for Matt Flynn/Sduk (stək) for his new website. www.mflynn.co.uk/. Recently signed by Starkey on his record label Slit Jockey. Check out his myspace.

Timeout / Relox mentoring Project.

Two weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to do some work at timeout. This meant I will get work published and properly credited.  This being my first in office job, I was raring to go.

Relox were supposing this piece, which is a full size pull-out. The contributors of this are all under 21 and will be responsible for the articles, photography and design.

I was put in charge of all the photography that was going into this pull-out,  which I was pretty excited about being in a real photography studio opposing to a living room with a desk light. Also, in a few weeks I will be working in a similar photography studio at Chelsea for a project. So, everything seems to fit together well.

My mentor was Rob Greig, a hugely experienced staff photographer who has been with Timeout for 6 years. Firstly, I started with going to a few photography gigs with him, I learnt so much about lighting and composing that ‘perfect’ photo. Went to the Globe theatre and shot this Christmas play called Footbarn (looked pretty poor).

The theme the designer and I wanted to go for throughout the pull-out was abstract/vivid colours. I had previously done a lot of light drawings, which the team loved. I was more then happy to go down this route again.

I had to convey ‘inspiration’ with long exposure/light drawings. My idea was based from a light bulb – and how it’s the symbol for when someone comes up with a new idea (obviously not really but that tinning sound). TING. I thought I’d take this idea a little forward with a strobe light. I cut out Inspiration in a rather sexy Futura Bold Olique on a ikea box, and made it almost into a lamp box with a strobe light. With long exposure I was able to make some very exciting movements within the frame.

I was also put in charge of taking all the portraits and byline photos. Which was useful to learn how to organise all the studio lighting worked. (thanks Rob).

Here are a few of my favourites so far of this Inspiration project. To be continues…