Nia Banwell

FONT

2012-01-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

Something to remind myself

2012-01-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

Super geeks and circus freaks

2012-01-08T04:49:00.000-08:00

A parteeey involving some freaky geeks. Happy Birthday Shiv!

NOTE TO SELF

2012-01-03T13:34:00.000-08:00

....I'm forever forgetting to tell customers the yellow situation.

MEXICOOOO!

2012-01-03T13:27:00.000-08:00

NEW YEAR 2011.

Let the season begin!

2011-11-26T05:39:00.001-08:00

FIREWORKS

2011-11-12T11:21:00.000-08:00

Fireworks at Chester racecourse. ...also included cider and ale

PANTONE HANDS

2011-10-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

Over the past year i've been doing a side project. Nothing immense but due to the fact Sarah and myself always turn up at work with different coloured nails. I decided to match each new coloured nail to a Pantone. I now have a tonne of photos and I think its about time I blogged them on here! (Thanks to my hand model Sarah)

OFF DUTY! so lets have a party

2011-09-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

I was asked to make some retirement invites/tickets for a lady (Eirwen) from the NHS District Nurse Team.

My ideas behind the invites (Although very subtle) circle around old medicine bottles which carry stunning uses of typography( show above). These bottles would now portray a very nostalgic and vintage feel put into todays environment.

I used red as a representation of the medical sector. I didn't want to make it obviously 'medical' so I kept this idea to a minimum. I did however sneak a little '+' in the design for good measure as I was asked to add some sort of relation to the job Eirwen is leaving, but I made sure I kept away from the tacky and predicability of patient information leaflets and so forth that we are swarmed by.

Take a look. Make an opinion. Feedback welcome.

Also I was on a £50 budget. Times are hard!

NEW FONT- 'BUILDING BOCKS'

2011-06-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

I decided to set myself a new project. To create a new font. I based it around buldings and structures that we are so surreounded by in ctites... something i dont see much of these days. I originally sourced old photos and cut them into block shaped letters. I wanted to keep the sort of structred feel that buildings portray and came up with this. I then scanned the letters and played around with them... I made some silly posters to show the sort of context the font could be used in. I haven't yet made the glyphs etc but decided it would only be an upper case font as the letters are very linear. It's named 'Building Blocks' and is made by meeee (Nia Banwell)

Glyndwr University Degree Show 2011

2011-06-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

Lorna Hussey

It's that time of year again when you get bladdered on free wine... Yep that's right degree shows! It's always good to get some inspirational ideas and to socialise with fellow art types and this year I went to see a good friend Lorna Hussey's MA illustration for children's publishing work. I've always loved her work and my god she has some talent... I have to big up her work because she bloody well deserves it!! For her MA she created books for autistic children. Lorna has an amazing ability to create the most beautiful intricate drawings and also has the talent to use a more loose approach to her work. Her ability to be able to adapt to both styles just inspires me greatly. Superwoman comes to mind! I think theres a big market out there for autistic children's books and i'm really rooting for her. Quite like the framing work too! :P

Here are some photo's of her work along with other work i saw at the show. Enjoy!

cheeky vimto perhaps?

2011-05-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

I broke my instax.... but at least i got this freaky photo out of it :)

The art of mistakes!

2011-05-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

Save the Letter!

2011-05-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

Because everyone texts these days

Can i get a REEEEply(wind)

2011-04-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

This reply deserved a blogging! Good ol' cousin banter never goes a miss!

2011-03-31T13:25:00.000-07:00

kevin spacey

can i get a REEEEply(wind)

2011-03-31T12:50:00.000-07:00

well at least someones coming! :)

I tried to make a mothers day card but came up with these

2011-03-31T12:35:00.000-07:00

Like father, Like son

2011-03-01T11:40:00.000-08:00

Brother Banwell aged 25

Father Banwell aged 25

Birthday joys

2011-02-25T15:20:00.000-08:00

Made the mothers birthday invites. Still teaching myself the world of type. I shall persist! I wanted to make something very typographic... obviosuly

2011-02-25T13:31:00.001-08:00

2011-02-25T13:31:00.000-08:00

new work (for Jonny Monk's photography)

2010-10-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hello, It's been a while since i've been on here. Heres some new work which i did for Jonny Monk who is a local photographer round Oswestry. His works pretty neat! He asked me to incorporate photography, cameras and such into illustration pieces. Theres more here!

2010-06-02T14:20:00.001-07:00

"Young people working in the printing industry in Czechoslovakia from 1920s to mid century were graced with a beautiful journal, Typ. The decision to use only a couple of colors, lots of negative space, play with alignment, and change the placement of the title kept the design on the forefront, in the late 40s and today."

cute vintage covers :)

haggis crisps

2010-06-01T12:20:00.001-07:00

well i haven't heard of this flavour before.

second font

2010-05-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

some playful pics

cattle chips

2010-05-28T04:14:00.000-07:00

In shops now... but not really. Although someone did ask if they could try a crisp...unfortunatly the crisps are made from plastic. good luck eating them!

degree show (grafik)

2010-05-28T03:02:00.000-07:00

Grafik Magazine has uploaded work from design and art direction at Man Met. Yep thats my course! somehow a couple of pieces of my work are in it (4th thumbnail from the end)

check it out HERE

also come to the degree show!

the crisps....

2010-05-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

Cattle Chips...come and get your Cattle Chips.

Mrs. Brown

2010-05-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

This was such an amazing opportunity. The pub where i work in Manchester are close friends to the Mrs Brown theatre production team. Amazing bunch of irish comedians who kindly gave me a day of work experience behind the scenes of one of the live shows. I wanted to learn more about set design and how everything works in the art and prop side to the show. Heres what the set design looked like... there was also a kitchen. During the interval i did wander onto the set and learnt some of the tricks they use. amazing experience :)

sneak peak

2010-05-10T12:11:00.001-07:00

heres a sneak peak of the journal.

the bag resembles somewhat of a wash bag/laundry bag.

oh well

crisp packet

2010-05-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

i made a forest cardboard set up from where the animals once came. However i'm not sure what to do with them now.

i was thinking for the advertising/promotion side of the crisp packets??

my initial intention was do try an animation but later came to realise i don't have the patients for animations and thought the photos would prob look better.

Russel Hancock

2010-04-28T14:50:00.001-07:00

Russell came in to give a lecture (a friend of Craigs from Music). This was such a motivational booster of a lecture! He gave an insightful presentation of his work and he was brutally honest about what he did. He took on work for free after graduating which is something i'll probably end up doing..the thought of selling work is something i can't quite picture yet. His stories were entertaining and i did have a few giggles at his jokes but it was also put into a serious context as he did fall into some traps and it sounded like he had a tough time getting work. He mentioned some important factors about pricing your work, terms and conditions and getting that all important signature! It was invaluable information which i'm definitely going to reflect on and use. I loved how truthful he was with his work. He showed work he wasn't best pleased with to show us even good designers do rough sketches. The clients he's worked with also seem like they haven't got a clue what their talking about so Russell noted that sometimes you just have to give what they want even if its a piece you've done in 2 hours and is quite terrible. i think he did go into things in too much detail at times though but this just added to the joy of his presentation. It was an overall very useful and enlightening lecture

panic

2010-04-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is my final panic piece.

might make the background a little lighter but other than that i think its okay...maybe text needs sorting out but type is giving me a headache right now but hey least i'm trying to push myself in the field i'm not so strong in!

budgie madness

2010-04-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

my wild fluffy budgie jumper... appropriate attire

I've been staring at budgies way too much lately. thanks to Cattle chips...my invented crisps designs

poster and spread layout attempts of ye olde font

2010-04-28T06:20:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to contextualise the font that i made into a spread or maybe just individual posters. Here are a few. I've had a little trouble figuring out how to attempt the poster but after looking at fuse magazine for inspiration i came up with these.

Owen Gatley

2010-04-26T15:56:00.001-07:00

i was stopped in my tracks by Owen Gatelys work. i love this Arnie piece and its also available for wallpaper download. It's a must have!

chekhov turned blue!

2010-04-20T09:07:00.001-07:00

After making a concertina book of my chekhov work i felt i needed something else... a splash of colour perhaps??? I took it to screen print but becuase my work has a lot of grey in it the image lost a lot of its other texture. This image didn't have as much grey in it so i decided to screen print this one. I may have a go of a few others but not necessarily all of them. I dont think they would all work because of the added grey they have. I might play around on photoshop to manipulate the colours later on

Wild Font

2010-04-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

After naming my font 'wild' i decided to do some screen prints of the letters. I wanted a real nice paper stock and chose Fabriano again. I think its a great paper as it absorbs the ink nicely and it has a nice texture and feel to it. I still feel like its missing something though but i can't quite put my finger on it yet

personal work

2010-04-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

Some playful experiments with screen printing. The top piece was a pure case of accidental mark making. An act of chance. The paint began to dry so the image was not fully printed and therefore created this juxtaposition of half printed deers. i think since my dissertation about mistakes in art i have become a little obsessed with the beauty of mistake. :)

so cute

2010-04-12T07:44:00.001-07:00

Love these designs. From the agency B&B. They've also done t-shirts, website and other points of sale for the nibbles. Thinking the t shirt idea is really good.

dammit

2010-04-01T07:53:00.001-07:00

chekhov

2010-03-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

here are some of my final illustrations for the story 'the fish' by Anton Chekhov... Just need to finalise the imagery into some sort of narrative.

2010-03-24T04:25:00.000-07:00

panic

2010-03-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

representation of 'panic'

the idea is that panic is an explosive emotion which comes explosive thoughts. So the lines represent the emotions veering of in different directions with explosive colours.

Its sort of a mapping piece. each coloured line represents a different thought when panicking (with a key at the bottom).. although i need to rectify the key. Just seeing if the key would work.

need feedback please.

2010-03-02T05:42:00.000-08:00

innovation at its finest

Holden Gallery

2010-02-26T05:50:00.000-08:00

Heres what my work looks like at an exhibition.... Think i'de rather have them in someones home or office. To be used rather than just looked at!

Walls are talking

2010-02-26T05:33:00.000-08:00

After discovering Deborah Browness wallpaper i was shocked to see a few days later her wallpaper designs at the Manchester Whitworth gallery in the exhbition 'Walls are talking'.The pieces consider print, pattern and design. Seeing wallpaper from different ages was pretty fascinating. From Andy Warhol, Barbie and Timorous Beasties there was an array if different wallpaper. I have to say the wallpaper i

would least likely have on my walls is the Football or the penis one. There were some odd wallpaper, obviosly art pieces than interior pieces. There was one wallpaper covered in different pills which i thought quite depressing.

But on a lighter note i didn't realise how much of an art wallpeper design is. Really quite thought provoking.

Overall the exhibiton is worth the visit.

Points of view

2010-02-26T05:15:00.001-08:00

This was an exhibition i accidentally discovered when i got lost in London. The exhibition 'points of view' was shown at the British Library. The exhibit explores how photography was developed, industrialised and democratised through the 19th century. There were more than 250 rarely seen images from 1839 to the early 20th century as photography grew into a form of social documentary, visual expression and art.

Some of the photos and the lengths some photographers went through to take photos was amazing. Photo's of the underground being dug out to developing photos in hot sunny countries like egypt by making their own portable developing tent was quite extraordinary. The scale of the cameras was amazing.

There were photographs of experiments to the movement of early stop frame animation. Looking at old images really makes it feel like a whole different world. I really enjoyed this exhibtin. It was very educational and was full of old antiques.

British museum, London

2010-02-26T05:07:00.000-08:00

I also attended The British Museum in London. They show a collection of art and antiquities from cultures that spans over two million years of history. Artefacts from the Vikings to the Romans to the Egyptians and Medievel Europe. It reminded me a lot of the Manchester museum but on a greater scale, The building itself is quite spectacular and i did get lost in that place. I got to see the mummies of cats and falcons as well as Cleopatra.

Tate Mod

2010-02-26T04:10:00.000-08:00

The Tate Modern in London is always an inspiration. After recently finishing my personal study essay on mistakes in art i noticed a few artists i wrote about had work shown at the Tate. I had no idea of this and in fact it was amazing to see the work i spoke of such as Cy Twombly, Arp, Pollock, Duchamp and Picasso. This exhibtion was in fact all about 'Poetry and Dream'. It showed aspects of surrealism, or related themes such as the world of dreams, the unconscious and archetypal myth it even showed aspects of chance. The surrealism did convey mixed feelings. My favourite i would have to say was Twombly's 'Mushroom' piece. A collection of mixed media collages in in style i love and appreciate. The Tate was also showing large canvas red paintings by Twombly. I wasn't so keen on these because the red was so intense.

'No ghost just a shell'. This was another exhibtion shown at the Tate. Collaborative group of works uses the copyright for a manga character, Ann Lee, attempting to free her from her status as a product and question the nature of images and identity. I wasn't so keen on this exhibit but i did enjoy the graphic design posters. I do enjoy a bit of Manga now and again but i do feel there has been an explosive focus upon it. Some i enjoy such as the studio Ghibli films but exhibitions about a character talking takes the fun and enjoyment out of anime.

'The status of flus' was another outstanding exhibition which showed Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism. These avant-garde artists broke with traditional ideas of picture making, seeking a more dynamic visual language to represent the complex reality of modern life and the machine age. The displays showed how these developments influenced experimental film, photography and design. Artsits such as Jeff Koons, Liechtenstein were shown. i was excited to see Richard Hamilton's replica of Duchamp's 'The bride striped bare of her bachelors, even'. Although not the original i was pleased to see Hamilton had gone to sheer lengths to make a replica. It was really inspiring and i was in my element seeing pieces which i had written about in my essay.

The displays in another exhibit 'Energy and Process' looked at artists interest in transformation and natural forces. A central room focuses on sculpture of the late 1960s made from a diverse range of everyday materials - sometimes industrial, sometimes organic - rather than those associated with fine art. It reminded me a lot of interactive arts just purely for the conceptual elements.

There was a lot to take in at the Tate and has made me think about aspects of art which i'm interested in so it was an overall enjoyable visit .

2010-02-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

I've decided to turn this into a side project along side the Checkhov brief.

I'm intending to do lowercase, numbers and maybe some glyphs.

london Town

2010-02-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

Had some fab times in london. Will shortly be updating the exhibitions i went to and places i visited.

My font

2010-02-15T13:07:00.000-08:00

simple as CBA. Leaf/ Petal?

Basically took the initiative to make what i had been doing for the H.G Wells book cover designs and make a font. Enjoying the hell out of it ...thats the main thing!

Thanks Nicola :)

2010-02-10T09:22:00.001-08:00

Just want to say thanks for Nicola putting a piece of my work in the online magazine blanket.

wallpaper

2010-02-06T06:28:00.000-08:00

I discovered this wallpaper artist Deborah Browness. She's been at her designs for about 7 years which are hand printed. The grainy old feel to them gives her designs a real edge and i cant help but find them breathtaking. There such fun designs as well as you can see...

teacup (valentines edition)

2010-02-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

We're back! Emma and i went back to teacup to rub out the snowflakes and replace them with a valentines window design... the decision was made not to focus to much on valentines (i also personally think it can sometimes look too cheesy!) we drew lots and lots of different teacups but yet again we had a massive condensation problem but never mind hey.

We still need to go back and finish a few gaps but i think the window looks a lot more creative than last time and we got some good feedback so an overall successful day :)

2010-02-02T16:54:00.000-08:00

i've reached a fork in the road...

who knows where it will take me

Urbis

2010-02-02T15:08:00.000-08:00

Another exhibition!!!

This was quite a sad moment in time when i visited the museum for the last time before it turns into some pointless football museum.The urbis showed a few exhibitons which were all differnt but all inspiring. For one thing its the best plact for presenting the work. The way the walls are placed and the mood, feel and pure effort that goes into each exhibtion is outstanding :)

The main exhibit has to be 'Urbis has left the building: six years of the best exhibitions in pop culture'

Going round the exhibition brought back memories from past exhibitions i've visited such as Emory Douglas and the Hacienda. It was a blast from the past and i think it was important they did this exhibition before it closes. It was also a chance to have a quick glimpse at some of the exhibitions i missed.

I think the 'Manchester, Television and the City: Ghosts of Winter Hill' was a really fun exhibition. It celebrates the city’s contribution to Television, and looks at the way TV has fine-tuned its distinctive voice and identity. You could literally sit down and watch t.v for a few hours. There were different rooms to enter, representing the current year through wallpaper, sofas and the interior deign and through the t.v changing over time. From black and white t.v to colour and the variety of programmes being shown. It was pretty amazing stuff. I did have a little sit down...all i needed was a cuppa and i would have been sorted for the evening!

The last exhibition which i felt i didn't enjoy as much was the 'HomeGrown: The Story of UK Hip Hop'. All i can say is that i'm not exactly a dedicated hip hop fan..although i do like a bit of Run DMC.

The exhibition tells the story of how a generation of youth took the spirit of Ameica and fused it with their own British influences. In doing so it shows how a US subculture featuring art, politics, rhyme, dance and music was adopted, adapted and embraced to create a powerful, complex, cultural force.

I do appreciated that it was a big part of the countrues music scene and still is. I got to see a few old tapes and the artwork for various other music cover designs but to be honest the hip hop music blaring at me was more annoying and skipped past this exhbition quite quickly.

Alan Fletcher

2010-02-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

"Alan Fletcher: fifty years of graphic work (and play)"

I attended the Cube Gallery opening in manchester on the 21st January. Obviously a must been exhibition. I was quite surprised at first that the cube gallery which usually shows work from the built environment was exhibiting Fletchers work but i can't complain. His work is needless to say quite compelling. His bright vibrancy of colour mixed in with his design. I loved the pencil display. I'de never seen this piece before and it was nice to see a concept not on a piece of paper from someone who did graphic design.

The added addition of Peter Saville giving a small speech made the night feel extra special. The environment was really relaxed but it seemed like everyone enjoyed the exhibition especially me. Owning his book ' The art of looking sideways' which was also displayed along with his work such as Domus magazine and plenty of other work which was spectacular. I definitely recommend you visit! 10 gold stars Mr Fletcher.

stamp design

2010-02-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

The final 6 stamp designs above

some experiments

In context

For my personal project i decided i wanted to be really free and experimental with my illustrations and this stamp design brief really allowed me to do this. The brief asked to design 6 stamps based on the awareness of biodiversity and that 2010 is the international year of biodiversity. Although the imagery is quite obvious i don't think this is a bad thing especially when it needs to show its biodiversity. Instead of the traditional stamp designs of flowers and nature, usually photography or really well illustrated i decided to be more playful which i think stamps need a lot more of. They are all depictions of nature and its growth. Although i'm happy with the stamps it has made me aware that the brief wasn't challenging enough and that for my future briefs i should possibly try out other areas of design where i can incorporate a concept and work with it

preston book fair

2010-02-02T14:11:00.001-08:00

This is what i made...plus the bird poster in a tree and a pole.

On the 29th and 30th of January. Charlotte, Katya, Hannah and i decided to do something different and outside of uni. After talking to Craig Atkinson we decided to do an artist book fair in Preston which he set up. I had such an enjoyable time but i also learnt a lot form it. It was the first time i've ever sold my work which was a very odd feeling but it also made me realise and think more about what i want to do after university. It has in fact got me into panic mode. I decided to do work which i'm quite passionate about. I made two zines of random pieces of work, doughnut constantia books, posters, bags and stickers. I would have like to have made more but i didn't quite know what to expect or how much to make and it also had to be done around university work so i tried to think about these factors. It was the first book fair done in preston from what i was told so i decided not go into quantity overload. The only unfortunate part was having no wall to put our posters up but the tree worked quite nicely!

I felt one of the best parts about the event was the socialising and people i got to speak to. It was really inspiring seeing a variety of work around me and seeing some work from other university's, people in industry and even speaking to two students from illustration which i share my studio with...that was quite a nice way to meet my fellow MMU students.

silence

2010-01-24T16:37:00.001-08:00

My final solution to the interpretation of silence.

The brief asked to put the images into a visual folded document. This is what i came up with. I'm quite pleased with it but the more i look at the front page of the document the more i feel i could have changed something. But i guess this is always the case.

doughnuts

2010-01-24T16:18:00.000-08:00

I should be reviewing, or talking about inspiration on here or perhaps my personal study but recently (even though i should be worn out after assessments and personal study) i can't turn my brain off and i don't want to either. Next weekend i'm doing a book fair in Preston with a few fellow arty friends. Mind you my book making skills are pretty dire so i wouldn't expect anything amazing. I've also had some teeth problems and food is on my mind. but the paracetamol is working nicely.

bunch of feather brains

2010-01-24T16:14:00.000-08:00

...

2010-01-20T12:22:00.000-08:00

This is what my brain is doing at the moment.

my name originates from insomNIA

H.G Wells book covers

2010-01-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

These are my three final book cover designs. After much deliberation i settled on keeping the covers quite neutral. Keeping them beige/ creams/ greys and orange to make them work as a set but also work on their own. I printed them on Fabriano paper which gives them different texture to which the average book cover would feel (glossy).

I used a typewriter font for the title and synopsis. I felt this worked with the genre on the books and the overall feel of them. I prefer the cover for 'Love and Mr Lewisham'. I'm still not 1000% sure about the other 2 books. i always feel theres room for improvement.

help a student

2010-01-19T12:25:00.000-08:00

I'm selling this as a poster because i'm in need of money.

sies A2/A1

in fact i'll sell any of my work as posters

please email me niabanwell@hotmail.com

oof

2010-01-10T14:27:00.000-08:00

found some work which reminds me a lot of Si-Scott's.

gorgeous though.

it's by Chow Martin.

xmas eve's eve

2009-12-23T12:39:00.000-08:00

Black and white...

remember don't eat the yellow snow

happy christmas

2009-12-17T15:15:00.001-08:00

some xmas lable's i made

lost but found

2009-12-12T05:17:00.000-08:00

I found these newspaper articles folded in an old book....Strange how things change. No more cigarette adverts in this day in age

Tom Phillips

2009-12-12T02:25:00.001-08:00

Tom Phillips alters a Victorian novel to create these wonderful pieces called Humument. He paints, collages or draws over the pages, leaving some of the text peeking through in bubble shapes. I've come across his work a few times and i really like the way nothing is altered on a computer.

I think i should try something like this for my book covers considering they could look better in their original state. After having a PDP with Mack he made me recognise this. Maybe i shouldn't be worrying too much about the format.

font

2009-12-10T05:10:00.000-08:00

Nice folded paper typeface by Daniella Spinat

2009-12-06T10:52:00.000-08:00

book covers

2009-12-06T07:43:00.000-08:00

This is what i've got so far. Having trouble with the type. :(

The idea behind these books is that different flowers mean different things. The rose= love, femininity. Jasmine= wealth. Originally in Victorian/edwardian times which is also the time when these books were set flowers were painted of given to people with more meaning. Some meanings have been lost over the years but we still see some flowers as certain symbols like the rose still represents love.

I wanted to incorporate other books by H.G wells... science fiction element. this is when i decided to put the flowers in an uncomfortable space. in other words making the imagery quite messy. i wanted to stray away from them looking too feminine even though there are issues in the books covering femininity, love, social class and so forth.

I chose these three books out of pure random selection.

Love and mr Lewisham= Love, ambition, politics, educated

Kipps= class, consumerism, money, wealth

Ann Veronica= love, feminism, freedom,

LEON

2009-12-05T04:29:00.001-08:00

No idea whether it was played at kino 4 the other day but when i'm told to watch a film i'll watch it!

The film is about a professional hit-man and a young girl, Mathilda. He see's the girl with a black eye and smoking a cigarette, living with her dysfunctional family in an apartment down the hallway. After doing some food shopping she returned with her family brutally murdered after her father had taken cocaine from DEA corrupt agents.The hit-man Leon reluctantly lets the girl into his apartment before she herself could be murdered.

To cut the story short Mathilda wants revenge and Leon gets involved.

It provokes the idea of children and women with guns. Its quite a terrifying thing to see a 12 year old girl shooting from and even just holding a gun.I thought it was a brilliant film by French director Luc Besson. The film featured Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, and a young Natalie Portman. The characters are sympathetic and likeable, There is a lot of emotion and scenes which make you sit on the edge of your seat but i wouldn't call it an action film. There is a relationship between them both which you see build up through the film.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries

2009-12-05T04:10:00.000-08:00

New Contemporaries, formerly Young Contemporaries has a long and illustrious history, dating back to the first exhibition of young graduates in 1949. For the past 60 years this annual show has been dedicated to profiling the work of young, new and emerging artists at the start of their professional careers. The selectors for the 2009 edition of the annual show, featuring 47 artists, are Ellen Gallagher, Saskia Olde Wolbers, John Stezaker and Wolfgang Tillmans.

I went to this exhibition at the start of third year. There was a lot of amazing and inspiration work. The pieces above are a few of my favourites

Ian Andeson strikes again

2009-12-05T03:38:00.000-08:00

Over the past few days a group from our course were involved in a workshop with Ian Anderson. Like last time the workshop was involved to make you think. We were put into groups...alphabetically (to try and work with people we wouldn't normally work with).We were then given a colour...BLUE for our team. I was working with Molly Clifford, Kirsty Gilliburn, Laura Taylor and Katrina Currie by the time we got presenting we were two ladies down but we struggled through anyway. The brief asked us to to sell the colour to a world government which will control the world in the future. This put a twist on the task. We could make out that the world has totally changed to fit in with our colour.

We started researching anything and everything we could find out about the colour blue. The sea and sky were the obvious ones so why not involve the obvious things...blue covers the world. We had some good times and some bad times with this project. At first i was really keen and thought it would be a fun project but we started to get stuck and i was getting confused with what route we were taking. I thought it was all over the shop. I like to list things in order to basically organise things but you have to compromise when you work in a group and it just made my thinking a bit lost. We finally got our act together on the last day. After two people left we somehow managed to organise it better...realising we only had a couple of hours to come up with something. We made boards and concentrated on 4 areas. What can blue do for you? Diversity. Tried and Tested and is it cost effective?

I learnt a lot from Ian and Hitch's feedback after having a massive fit of giggles from the presentation(sorry about that)... that we need to answer any questions which may arise afterwards in the actual presentation, This is so we cover everything and we know we have researched and thought about every possible aspect. I also learnt that the lack of visuals and the fact it was only about one minute and thirty seconds may have something to do with it needing more.

I thought that the presentation was quite factual and not fun like the other groups. We took it on a serious level...we basically thought 'blue' spoke for itself and didn't need props, food and other gadgets. I really enjoyed the other presentations from Green, Yellow, Red and Orange. They were a lot of fun and i could see they put a lot of effort into it. Really has made me think about the time and effort which needs to go into a good presentation. I really got something out of the workshop and another great part is I got a free carrot out of it!

early christmas present

2009-12-05T03:30:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the book Ian!

one last thing

2009-12-02T15:13:00.000-08:00

Theres nothing like a good beard to get you to sleep.

This photo never fails to amaze me...worlds longest beard.

YCN

2009-12-02T15:05:00.000-08:00

love the website, love the art, didn't enjoy the lecture.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

2009-12-02T15:01:00.000-08:00

TeeTwelve was set up by Arron Tierney, Adam Brandon andAnnabel Stevens. The idea behind it is to make Christmas gifts for those who are willing to help with our degree show funding based around the 12 days of Christmas. A few of us have got involved in designing the twelve t-shirts and i was asked to make the '7 swans a' swimming'. This is what i came up with... i don't expect anyone to buy it. Theres plenty of nicer ones take a look here

Helen Murgatroyd

2009-12-02T14:30:00.000-08:00

WOW.

This is the sort of work i appreciate much more on a perosnal level. The experimental, the unique, playfulness and the hand made. Non of the computer generated work which graphic design is so swarmed by. Helen really made me feel encouraged with my own work. She made me want to go against what graphic design is and take it on a more personal level. I love how D&AD has varied designers that come in to inspire each of us students on a different level. I think this is really important. Last year student Niki and Helen have really intrigued me.

Helen used to be a student at Manchester Metropolitan but has now gone on to the royal collage of arts in London to study an MA. Her work is more of a personal journey from what i gathered from her lecture. Her work is more about the process of making the piece and the journey and objects she makes to get there.

Her presentation was really nicely planned out. Starting with the work she made at university to whats she up to at the time being. The tools she made felt quite nostalgic of A-Level and foundation experiences i had. I remember making my own brushes and using sticks/leaves and things which may give different textures so it was really nice to hear about her tools she has made.

She also mentioned how much she loves drawing. She keeps wanting to go back to it and makes time to draw even whilst she was working as a delivery post girl. This is pretty fab...makes me smile and i understand this need to draw :)

Craig Oldham from Music

2009-12-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

I think Craig made me realise that i'm not so much a graphic designer but more of an illustrator designer... if that makes any sense. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and trying to figure out what direction i'm swaying towards.

His lecture was very hard hitting and put things into perspective. I think Music's work is pretty darn amazing. There's nothing to dislike. I would love the chance to have work experience with a company like Music but then i came to realise i would not benefit them. I would benefit more as a freelance or a company which would appreciate my style. Craig kept mentioning that work experience is vital but i haven't been able to find anywhere which would benefit from what i do. Although i have emailed a lot of people its harder than it seems finding anyone to take me so i was a little annoyed at how Craig kept saying this especially now third year is here.

In any case the lecture itself was interesting. He has a reason for everything such as there being no need for holding work when taking photos of it unless the hands have relevance. The work doesn't need this type of interference. Craig has worked his way through to different agencies showing his hard earned effort.

He first began to explain that there are two types of designers

A= logical designers

B= emotional designers.

i've figured that i'm definitely in group B. i think there needs to be some kind of emtion in my work somewhere otherwise i don't get the full satisfaction.

Craig also gave us an amazing newspaper booklet about the 12 things you might learn when becoming a designer. The layout is gorgeous and i really appreciate typography layouts because this is one of my weak areas in design.

In fact Craig mentioned that we should be honest. To tell people what our strengths are because at the end if the day if you cant make something like a website then your going to (excuse my french) fuck it up and stress over it so theres no point. Its better to be honest and its not like everyone is perfect!

update lectures (Graham)

2009-12-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

I have to say this was one of the most uplifting and inspiring lectures i've had in a while.

Graham Jones or 'Gman' as he is also answers to is a graphic design tutor at Manchester Metropolitan. He talked and explained the key issues which he felt are important to becoming a successful designer such as portfolio and self promotion. He basically told us when he left uni he started off as a poor graphic designer. He gave a honest and truthful presentation and i really appreciated his lecture.

He started off in a studio in the Northern Quarter naming the company 'Via'. I absolutely loved the typography of the word via, it really flowed and the colour scheme was very vibrant which would stand out in a distance. My favourite aspect about all the promotional work was the colour scheme and designs were all inspired from elements of the studio such as left over paint and the pattern on the carpet. Just goes to show inspiration can come out of nowhere.

one thing i remember perfectly is his contact cards. He told us how he allowed his clients to have a colour choice. i just thought it a brilliant idea. Allowing the client to have a choice in what card he/she may take gives the impression that he gives varied choices of ideas. A subtle addition and its a nice way to start a conversation.

Little things like this really matter in industry and Graham notified us as we will not learn these things until we leave university. It was a nice reality check and it allowed us to see what graham is up to outside of MMU. His work is really strong and exciting. His choices in colour are brilliant. Graham notified us of the website sellsell and it seems really energetic which come across in the work. I like this idea of him work can look energetic or can look simple depending what image you want to get across to people. SellSell energy makes them look hard working.

Graham also told us that its a nice idea to give out gifts to clients so they remember you and limited edition posters... and lets be honest you doesn't enjoy a nice unexpected gift in the post?

Jorge de la garza

2009-11-25T02:27:00.001-08:00

I remember seeing Garza's work at the corverhouse a few months ago but i totally forgot his name until i finally found it. He was born in Mexico City, 1978 and now Lives and works in London. I love his collage work. Its pretty inspiring.I just love overlapping images and Garza literally does this in some of his pieces.

the impossible is possible

2009-11-23T16:32:00.001-08:00

I really hope this happens 'The impossible project' are trying to reintroduce polaroids by the middle of 2010... Even thats a long wait. Hope it becomes a reality.

"The Impossible mission is NOT to re-build Polaroid Integral film but (with the help of strategic partners) to develop a new product with new characteristics, consisting of new optimized components, produced with a streamlined modern setup.”

spud

2009-11-23T10:40:00.001-08:00

Best bargain bag (excuse the alliteration) of potatoes ever. Basically bought it for the cute design.... such a brill name for a bag of potatoes "polar pack"

Joseph Beuy's

2009-11-22T09:41:00.000-08:00

Beuys’s most famous Action took place in May 1974, when he spent three days in a room with a coyote. After flying into New York, he was swathed in felt and loaded into an ambulance, then driven to the gallery where the Action took place, without having once touched American soil. As Beuys later explained: ‘I wanted to isolate myself, insulate myself, see nothing of America other than the coyote.’

I remember seeing Beuy's work at the Tate a few years a go now.

It wasn't until i was told about him that i realised i had seen his work. I'm not a massive fan of interactive obscure art so this is probably why i looked past his work but this really took hold of me.

I see it as Beuy's letting nature literally told hold of him. Really quite compelling imagery and another piece which brings about the idea 'art is what you get away with'.

colour

2009-11-21T07:01:00.000-08:00

cold heart
spaghetti
balloon tears

I don't often use extremely bright and vibrant colours in my work. Maybe one day this will change? Just wanted to treat myself to experiments. I formed these.

yes please...

2009-11-19T10:14:00.001-08:00

i do want your skills. (Peter James Field)

Teacup take 2

2009-11-16T13:25:00.000-08:00

After a couple of weeks we were summoned back to Teacup to further change and add bits to the window design.We firstly got the original ideas and designs out to show the new helpers Arron and Kat and we got some nice little feedback. Thanks guys! We then cracked on with it, rubbing out snowballs/ polka dots and adding in other Christmas type elements. We also tackled the window above the door. A nice blank canvas. I wanted to pitch in with this but i was terrified of the ladders but i had to get over this fear and yet again powered through!

Whilst doing the window we hoped for the best that it would turn out right. The shutters were closed as we did the window after dark so it wasn't until the end that we saw the whole thing come to life again.

We did come across some problems with the pens being streaky again and a suggestion was made to use a paint roller. This worked a treat and finished off the window above the door quite nicely. Arron was determined to get rid of the streaks and his determination paid off! :) Lesson learnt!

Kill Pixie

2009-11-16T08:03:00.000-08:00

I just want to make beautiful work. Work like Kill Pixies... if only (although the context is a bit strange and hmmmmm).

Found their work on Fecal Face online magazine. My friend Hannah showed me their stuff and i was gobsmacked at how amazing their work is, especially the vibrant colours. I also want a studio like this :)

silence fail

2009-11-16T07:35:00.000-08:00

Been really stuck with the ongoing silence brief. No idea where i'm going with it but i've come up with these. Veering off the subject of death and experimenting silence in other areas. I have been looking at how silence can be absent...Mirrors with no reflections... no human reflection or a face and how i can make the image silent in themselves using greyscale or dull cold colours.

Manchester artists bookfair

2009-11-07T05:24:00.001-08:00

Jack Teagles work from Cafe Royals collection.

My purchases :D

A very productive Satuday morning. The book fair was so inspirational. Varieties of different artists were exhibiting and selling their work. Didn't want to leave to be honest. I only wish there was more promotion for it as i only heard about it last minute.

The strangest but most amazing part about going to this book fair was actually speaking to Craig Atkinson. I had no idea he was setting up a stall so i was in my element and it was nice to talk about the essay i'm doing. He said that the course i'm on in Manchester is apparently really prestigious. I was pretty oblivious to this. I guess i can't compare it as its the only university course i've been on but he is definitely right in saying its good.

Another artist i spoke to was Mary Lundquist. Her illustrations are beautiful. I almost bought a note book but i went all out on Cafe Royal before i got to hers. She was very friendly, telling us about how she made her prints and its made me want to start making work again. Since Having my review i've been ignoring my work trying to get some fresh ideas but this book fair has relly opened my eyes to doing some work again. I spoke to Libby Scarlett (last years graduate from D&AD) and the work she has done makes mine look pathetic. Her work is really carefully and beautifully put together. We were discussing how lost you can be after graduating. It's going to be a pretty daunting situation to be in so i need to prepare myself!

It was overall a very educational, inspirational morning with a brilliant atmosphere of people.

hey sailor

2009-11-05T17:03:00.000-08:00

Whats getting me by... Not only does this bottle have a real nice visual element but it also most certainly tastes good. (it's half full not half empty)

teacup

2009-11-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

Emma (click for blog) and i were given a surprise task from John Walsh. John has been rebranding the cafe in the Northern Quarter in Manchester formally named 'Cup' and we were asked to help out with the window design. Combing our brain power and arty skills we came up with a few ideas. After John presented the ideas they said maybe the window could change slightly every week. A brilliant way to transform the window and using all our ideas but we shall see if this happens. Fingers crossed!

We firstly painted on the logo/cafe name onto the window. This was a tricky bit as the paint just wasn't going to plan. We decided to have a piece of cake and a cuppa. A rest from the awkward paint! We then started making a grid shown in the pictures to create the snowball/polka dot shapes. The theme being christmas and also combining the interior of Teacup with the window as the tablecloths are covered in polka dots. A two day project which was completed in a productive and exciting atmosphere. Just goes to show things can get done quick! Although we do have to return tomorrow as there was a problem with condensation which left the paint dripping and the night sky wasn't helping us take some fancy photo's. Hopefully we will resolve this.

I really enjoyed getting out of the studio and having a new environment to work in. It allowed us to get big and creative and i'm so glad to have had the opportunity. The only fear we both had was having to get up the ladder. Being scared of height's didn't help us but Emma powered through. Lets hope Mr Scruff likes it (the owner of the cute tea shop).

continued

2009-11-01T11:57:00.000-08:00

silencing existing imagery of silence work. I don't really like how it turned out but i wanted to run with the idea of silencing my silent work so i ripped, tore and generally manipulated what i made and turned it into a zine.

Mr Andersons workshop

2009-11-01T11:40:00.000-08:00

This was a bizarre workshop. We had no idea what was set out for us so i was looking forward to another break from the silence brief.

When we arrived Ian told us to do something pointless for an hour.... so the first thing that came to mind was nothing. Quite literally until he elaborated on this. We had to somehow document and present what we did for that hour.

After a good think i decided to make dots on a piece of paper until the hour was over, Whilst also counting the dots, jotting down information whilst drawing the dots such as times i lost count, times i got bored and so forth I thought about how i could document it so i took photographs and made a terrible short stop frame animation which looked more like a slide of photographs. Fortunately my usb pen broke and i lost the animation (definitely for the best) so i thought about other ways to document the pointless act. Ian mentioned its a chance to do something you wouldn't normally do so i thought about info-graphics. Something i've never tried playing with before. Before i made another try at documenting I considered questions like why dots? and what pointless information could i get from doing this?... well i chose dots because like most people we all doodle. For no reason and it doesn't achieve anything. A pointless act. I thought dots were the best and quick way to represent a pointless doodle so this is why i came to this conclusion. It was also because i thought its the most pointless way to make a drawing. Their just dots.

i found i made 9,000 odd dots.

its was also very painful for the hand and made my eyes dizzy. There wasn't much joy but it was a very interesting brief and did make me think on my feet.

I then began making the graph. Involving the circle/dot theme within the graph. Although the visual aesthetic is pretty gross i quite like the idea.After presenting i realised i could have put more time in thinking about what i could have said. Still needs working on