LEARNING AGREEMENT
Hoorah!!! finally finished
I am finding my place in the world and I want to reflect this in my work choosing to be more self-expressive rather than brief led. My typographic content is a reaction to the world around me, important or trivial; a mixture is good to reflect life’s fluctuations between the good and bad in any way; a stream of consciousness commenting on popular culture and modern society. Critical and subversive my opinion of the world is open for interpretation. Following on from my previous work with text I have continued along a similar line of investigation considering the typographic work that I produced in my previous project as the strongest, and so, choosing to play to my strength.
Focussing on hand-rendered type I began simply by filling a sketchbook with a variety of typography using only felt-tip pens; in part for purely self-indulgent aesthetical reasons, the other for the speed of creating vibrant hand-rendered type, continuing my personal interest in the lo-fi end of the design spectrum. Another source that I have used in my work is newspapers; to me a good design resource; low cost, high quality typography and photography to take and mould for your design needs. Again the subject matter is a report of everyday life. We all experience the world and take from it what we can; I want my work to be the same.
Taking the words from the felt-tip sketchbook and the letters and images from the newspaper I began to do some classic cut and paste photocopy design work having looked at Terry Jones in Instant Design: A Manual of Graphic Techniques and reading Despite Everything: A Cometbus Omnibus. I came across two seams which have run through the spine of my work this project; Underapound Ninety Nine Pence, a comment on consumerism and how by being a penny less than a pound makes it seem like more of a bargain; and You Look Down For Your Stars, I Look Up For Mine, a play on words about celebrity obsession and glossy magazines about them; both things which I try not to be a victim of. After a workshop of mono printing these had emerged as the two strongest and most culturally relevant standpoints, which, alongside the artist’s book fair project I combined with the photocopied work from before to make a small zine for sale at a tongue-in-cheek 99p.
This bringing together of two sections of work drove me to consider a more contexutalised message behind my work. Whilst I understood what was happening, my message wasn’t perhaps always communicated. So I started to take into consideration composition and content for my next set of mono prints. Anthony Burrill, whilst employing a similar approach to writing that I use in my work, his work been a leading example of how modern design can be both minimal and simple, using basic materials to create high quality results. Lo-fi design shouldn’t mean low quality design, a good designer should be able to craft well constructed work even with limited materials. This belief is what has led me to generally restrict the selection of materials and processes I use at one time, forcing a more problem solving attitude rather than wallowing in a mash-up of different disciplines waiting for chance rather than developing skill. Adam Hayes is another designer who caught my eye early on in this project whilst using felt-tip pens after he had taken part in a felt-tip exhibition in association with Grafik magazine in 2006.
I favour stencil mono printing because of the thick, bold contrast it gives between the paper and the ink, this combined with the character that you get with each print, bringing a residue of the previous print through just in the background hidden in the natural pattern the ink takes, each print is truly individual. In this world of readily accessible mass media the allure of creating something both permanent and singular is a treat.
Looking through my sketchbook I noticed a page featuring the phrase Machine song made beautiful something I remembered writing whilst watching a television version of George Orwell’s 1984. Also I had drawn a Victory motif from the background scenery, although for cigarettes in the story I converted it into a brand of Tea for the purpose of my design having brainstormed the motto Machine song made beautiful I came up with tea being the beautiful result of a kettle whistling, or “machine song”. I’m pleased with how these mono prints worked out, however I didn’t feel that these weren’t relevant to the my line of investigation thus far; consumerism and celebrity.
After some thought on how to bring these together in a concise and poignant manor it struck me that people yearn for celebrity since they cannot be one themselves. Interestingly magazines focused on celebrities are fuelled by critiquing celebrities rather than glorifying them, constantly finding fault to bring the celebrity down to the level of the reader, or perhaps more accurately elevate the reader closer to the status of celebrity by emphasizing their flaws.
Following on there has been a lot in the press recently about CCTV and how in our culture we are constantly under surveillance. Captured 300 times a day on camera, store cards that help companies keep track of our buying habits and mobile phones becoming tracking devices. All sounds rather far fetched and 1984-esque but people don’t take it into consideration so therefore Big Brother is a massively popular television programme that is basically glorified CCTV creating celebrities from civilians; and at the other end of the spectrum the press constantly record the movements of celebrities. So this became the basis of my final result: CCTV LIVE, a television channel dedicated to the 24/7 transmission of regular CCTV footage flipping over the celebrity culture onto the consumer culture; Do you feel like a star yet?
Although this result has moved away from the lo-fi aesthetic, I don’t feel that it relates with the content and message, which are consistent with themes that have been running through my work and are relevant on a social and political level in contemporary culture. The design has remained simple and versatile, both attributes that I would associate with lo-fi design ethic, merely interpreted through a more commercial fashion. A visual link between the bold statement on the poster for CCTV LIVE and a tabloid headline shouting the latest celebrity story since yesterday acts as a reminder that you could end up on that front page yourself if you wanted it or not.
In my opinion the addition of this concept has carried my work up a level from where it had been previously by utilising visual identity with a poignant idea that unfortunately has been discovered at the final point in this project, as there is scope to develop it further for another project in the future; continuing with the design ethics that I have previously outlined with no set course other than discovery.
I am finding my place in the world and I want to reflect this in my work choosing to be more self-expressive rather than brief led. My typographic content is a reaction to the world around me, important or trivial; a mixture is good to reflect life’s fluctuations between the good and bad in any way; a stream of consciousness commenting on popular culture and modern society. Critical and subversive my opinion of the world is open for interpretation. Following on from my previous work with text I have continued along a similar line of investigation considering the typographic work that I produced in my previous project as the strongest, and so, choosing to play to my strength.
Focussing on hand-rendered type I began simply by filling a sketchbook with a variety of typography using only felt-tip pens; in part for purely self-indulgent aesthetical reasons, the other for the speed of creating vibrant hand-rendered type, continuing my personal interest in the lo-fi end of the design spectrum. Another source that I have used in my work is newspapers; to me a good design resource; low cost, high quality typography and photography to take and mould for your design needs. Again the subject matter is a report of everyday life. We all experience the world and take from it what we can; I want my work to be the same.
Taking the words from the felt-tip sketchbook and the letters and images from the newspaper I began to do some classic cut and paste photocopy design work having looked at Terry Jones in Instant Design: A Manual of Graphic Techniques and reading Despite Everything: A Cometbus Omnibus. I came across two seams which have run through the spine of my work this project; Underapound Ninety Nine Pence, a comment on consumerism and how by being a penny less than a pound makes it seem like more of a bargain; and You Look Down For Your Stars, I Look Up For Mine, a play on words about celebrity obsession and glossy magazines about them; both things which I try not to be a victim of. After a workshop of mono printing these had emerged as the two strongest and most culturally relevant standpoints, which, alongside the artist’s book fair project I combined with the photocopied work from before to make a small zine for sale at a tongue-in-cheek 99p.
This bringing together of two sections of work drove me to consider a more contexutalised message behind my work. Whilst I understood what was happening, my message wasn’t perhaps always communicated. So I started to take into consideration composition and content for my next set of mono prints. Anthony Burrill, whilst employing a similar approach to writing that I use in my work, his work been a leading example of how modern design can be both minimal and simple, using basic materials to create high quality results. Lo-fi design shouldn’t mean low quality design, a good designer should be able to craft well constructed work even with limited materials. This belief is what has led me to generally restrict the selection of materials and processes I use at one time, forcing a more problem solving attitude rather than wallowing in a mash-up of different disciplines waiting for chance rather than developing skill. Adam Hayes is another designer who caught my eye early on in this project whilst using felt-tip pens after he had taken part in a felt-tip exhibition in association with Grafik magazine in 2006.
I favour stencil mono printing because of the thick, bold contrast it gives between the paper and the ink, this combined with the character that you get with each print, bringing a residue of the previous print through just in the background hidden in the natural pattern the ink takes, each print is truly individual. In this world of readily accessible mass media the allure of creating something both permanent and singular is a treat.
Looking through my sketchbook I noticed a page featuring the phrase Machine song made beautiful something I remembered writing whilst watching a television version of George Orwell’s 1984. Also I had drawn a Victory motif from the background scenery, although for cigarettes in the story I converted it into a brand of Tea for the purpose of my design having brainstormed the motto Machine song made beautiful I came up with tea being the beautiful result of a kettle whistling, or “machine song”. I’m pleased with how these mono prints worked out, however I didn’t feel that these weren’t relevant to the my line of investigation thus far; consumerism and celebrity.
After some thought on how to bring these together in a concise and poignant manor it struck me that people yearn for celebrity since they cannot be one themselves. Interestingly magazines focused on celebrities are fuelled by critiquing celebrities rather than glorifying them, constantly finding fault to bring the celebrity down to the level of the reader, or perhaps more accurately elevate the reader closer to the status of celebrity by emphasizing their flaws.
Following on there has been a lot in the press recently about CCTV and how in our culture we are constantly under surveillance. Captured 300 times a day on camera, store cards that help companies keep track of our buying habits and mobile phones becoming tracking devices. All sounds rather far fetched and 1984-esque but people don’t take it into consideration so therefore Big Brother is a massively popular television programme that is basically glorified CCTV creating celebrities from civilians; and at the other end of the spectrum the press constantly record the movements of celebrities. So this became the basis of my final result: CCTV LIVE, a television channel dedicated to the 24/7 transmission of regular CCTV footage flipping over the celebrity culture onto the consumer culture; Do you feel like a star yet?
Although this result has moved away from the lo-fi aesthetic, I don’t feel that it relates with the content and message, which are consistent with themes that have been running through my work and are relevant on a social and political level in contemporary culture. The design has remained simple and versatile, both attributes that I would associate with lo-fi design ethic, merely interpreted through a more commercial fashion. A visual link between the bold statement on the poster for CCTV LIVE and a tabloid headline shouting the latest celebrity story since yesterday acts as a reminder that you could end up on that front page yourself if you wanted it or not.
In my opinion the addition of this concept has carried my work up a level from where it had been previously by utilising visual identity with a poignant idea that unfortunately has been discovered at the final point in this project, as there is scope to develop it further for another project in the future; continuing with the design ethics that I have previously outlined with no set course other than discovery.
posted by matt penrose at 1:15:00 am
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