Studio Brief 01 - Joan Cornella

Yesterday I went down to Joan Cornella's first exhibition in the UK at The Gallery at Munro House. I first saw his work on the internet and was immediately drawn to his illustrative style and dark sense of humour. The Gallery showcased a range of his work and had his prints and book for purchase.

Study Task 02 - Why am I here - What do I want to learn?

I wanted to study in the UK because of the art scene. I feel that there is great exposure for the creative industry in the UK as compared to Singapore. More of it is encouraged and celebrated as a professional career. What drew me to Leeds College of Art was the wide range of facilities offered and the exclusivity of the college. The range of facilities would allow me to learn new skills that I haven't yet been exposed to for example screen printing. And with the course relatively small, I felt that I wouldn't be another number if you will.
With Leeds being in the north of England, it gives me the opportunity to be part of the emerging art scene as mentioned during my interview. I think studying in London would have been good but there were comments on it being saturated with creatives and it might be harder to get your name out there in the already established industry. The choice to study in the field of Graphic Design was because of the future. There are debates on whether print is dying and the emergence of artists going back to tactile production however there is no dismissing the fact that we are growing ever more digital in today's age. Therefore I wanted to enter a field of art which had longevity and versatility for myself to be a creative. Furthermore, I like to have direction with my work, so my initial interest in becoming a freelance fine artist may not have been ideal.

What I want to learn during this course are the skills necessary to become a professional creative and the various outlets associated with Graphic Design. I want to learn effective layout design used in publications. I want to learn about the process of screen printing. This could help me with my poster design, editorials and just learning a new skill altogether. I want to learn about the details in working in a design studio. I would be beneficial to have a general idea before heading out into the real world.
As a strength, I think my unique illustrative style is something that I'm proud of. I haven't yet to see anyone with a similar style and hope to have it as something that identifies me. Also it would be good if I could incorporate into my own style of graphic design. My style also relates to how I am with my work. I think by being meticulous makes me more attentive to the finer details and it polishes my work. My other strength is that I am good with colour choices. I am especially fond of pastel colours that offer a softer look as compared to the bold and bright. I think having a strength with keeping up in current trends/affairs also serves well in adapting to the current times and thus appealing to the correct audience.

I hope to increase my proficiency with design programs, namely illustrator and indesign. By doing so it will allow me to create better work at a more efficient rate. To be more aware of the world of graphic design would be more helpful too. It will allow me to draw from more sources and create work that's more informed with its design decisions. I would like to improve my articulation as well in communicating my ideas. I feel that despite having a plan of what to say in my head, in reality I find it difficult in piece it together coherently. I keep stumbling on my ideas and don't elaborate as much as I want to. I think the weekly feedback sessions will help in getting me more confident in projecting my ideas. 

Daniel Arsham is my main source of inspiration today. I find his work to be refreshing and relatable amongst the historical and contemporary pieces of art. Mainly because he incorporates everyday items and mass consumer goods within his art pieces. He was the artist that inspired my interest and illustrations of renaissance and classical statues. He is also an artist that collaborates with people within the fashion industry such as Ronnie Fieg of KITH NYC. Which is another one of my sources of inspiration. I like to read up on what's happening within the fashion world, particularly in streetwear. Another source of inspiration would be Aaron Draplin. He drastically changed the way I work. Telling his audience to embrace every idea, to value quick sketches and to save every design decision in case there was potential in previous iterations. Instagram is also another one of my sources as it exposes me to so many of the artists I follow today. With Instagram I'm able to follow what my followed artists are doing and keep up with their exhibition schedule. Its a great platform for their work to be spread across a global level.

My inspirations in the design industry include, Japanese graphic design, Leif Podhajsky and his influence on music, Muji and Geoff Mcfetridge. Japanese graphic design is one of my influences because I'm interested in its ability to work with unorthodox colour palettes and layouts. What this creates are pieces of design that are so different from the usual swiss influenced west. I wish to further research into this and hopefully incorporate its design cues into my work. Leif Podhajsky is an inspiration mainly because of his influence on the music industry. I didn't realise that a designer could have an effect on something so big. He was creating album covers for some of the artists I was listening to. This sparked my interest in venturing into this field of work. Muji is an inspiration to me because of their product design and design principles. They have principles of simplicity, modesty and being free of excess to name a few. This can definitely be seen within their product design which can be related to principles of Dieter Rams. Their collaboration with creative agency PARTY to re-design Narita International Airport Terminal 3 also demonstrated how their products can work seamlessly with clean, effective graphic design. Geoff McFetridge is a graphic designer in LA that is recognised for his design work in the movie Her and his paintings. He inspires me that graphic design doesn't have to be limited to digital or printed platforms but can be replicated in fine art. Also, by getting onto the big screen its let me know the possibilities of working in the field.

Whats Happening?

Here are a selection of events happening in and around Leeds in October and November

Leeds


Leeds Print Fair - 7th November, 10am to 5pm

Leeds Print Festival has entered its fourth year featuring an exciting programme of workshops, print exhibitions, a talk series, and a print fair. This annual event has also brought together a host of high-profile print makers, design champions, and internationally-renowned lecturers to discuss and debate the traditional and contemporary printmaking processes. It is truly a celebration of all things printed and is great for fans of printmaking of all types.

The Leeds Comic Art Festival - 9th November to 15th November, 10am to 5pm

Thought Bubble is the UK’s largest annual event which celebrates sequential art in all its forms, including everything from superheroes to independent and small press comics.
The 14th and 15th is the actual comic-con. From the 9th to the 14th are various other events occurring at the Thought Bubble. 

29th Leeds International Film Festival - 5th to 19th November

Showing a range of 6 film programmes such as Cinema Versa, Fanomenon, Free Cinema, Official Selection, Retrospectives and Short Film City, LIFF aims to present audiences with a wide range of films British and International alike. 

International & in the UK 

The Big Draw -1st to 31st October

The Big Draw is the world's biggest drawing festival with thousands of enjoyable, and mainly free, drawing activities which connect people of all ages with museums, outdoor spaces, artists, designers, illustrators - and each other.  

The Modern Magazine 2015 - 29th October

A celebration of creative editorial design as well as forward-looking advice and opinion on the future of our industry. Includes speakers such as Scott Dadich, editor-in-chief, Wired US and Charlotte Heal, design director, Kinfolk. 

The Amazing World of M.C. Escher - 14th October 2015 to 17th January 2016, 10am to 5pm 

Dulwich Picture Gallery presents the first major UK show of work by the Dutch master draughtsman, bringing together works which made him one of the most famous artists of the 20th Century. The exhibition will include woodcuts, lithographs, drawings, watercolours and mezzotints, as well as exclusive archive material.

The exhibition has been organised by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, and showcases nearly 100 works from the collection of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in the Netherlands.


 

Mixing a passion for stamp collection and Graphic Design

I stumbled across an instagram account called "graphilately". It combines Blair Thomson’s obsessions: philately, the collection and study of postage stamps, and graphic design. The stamps shared by Blair tend to be typographic or illustrated, and most come from the ‘70s and early ‘80s. 

The stamps are simple and modernist in style with muted colour palettes. What I love about these is that even in 2015, the designs look as fresh as ever.

10 New Inspirations

I was told to be a sponge. By being culturally aware, by immersing ourselves in life's opportunities, we can broaden the way we think. Sources of inspirations are everywhere, from concerts to family members. Its how we share our ideas and open ourselves to new experiences that we become more aware of the world around us.
This can help immensely with my personal & professional practice. By having more sources to draw from in my mind, it will be easier for me to think creatively and formulate new ideas. However drawing on these sources should be a habit. It shouldn't become a task you do. I think if you're less pressured to actively search for it, you're more likely to retain that information.
So in class today we shared our sources of inspirations.

These are the 10 that piqued my interest:

Booooooom.com
Behance.com
One minute briefs on twitter
Glasturd & Walker Studio
Friends of Type.com
Nowness.com
Sightunseen.com

All of them are art blogs essentially. Showing whats hip and happening in the art world today. But I think what was important to me today was my suggestion of inspiration. It was a video entitled "Miley Cyrus: Tongue Tied by Quentin Jones". What was interesting was the impact a short video had on me. Prior to this video I had no idea an art form like that was available. I'd always thought artistic videos were always kind of obscure with their message. Random images, alternative camera angles and a slow tempo soundtrack. The ones you always see in art galleries that I could hardly get my head around. But this video was unique. Every frame could be a piece of artwork. It was a moving piece of art in my mind, even though it didn't really say much. 
This was one of my sources of inspiration because of what it represented. You don't really know what's out there until you actually see it. I that ties in with what I was told today. By having these sources of inspirations at my disposal I can become more creative in a sense. Because I know what's possible. 

The John Peel Lecture, 2015 with Brian Eno

In this lecture, Brian Eno aimed to answer two questions. "Is art a luxury?" and "Is there a way to create a situation where the arts flourish?". These questions were based on the education secretary's comment discouraging students not pursue the humanity and arts sector, as there are not as many job prospects compared to the field of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). The idea that STEM is much like a STEM and that the arts branch off from it.

He identifies that one of the main problems about why there is a discouragement of the arts is that it has too many variations for the definition of what the purpose of art is. STEM is favoured over the arts because its contribution to the country can be represented by a single number. Governments want sectors that help boost the economy and country as a whole. Therefore there is a desire to make the art world an industry in order to legitimize its usefulness to the government.

So he defines what the arts is for us, "art is everything you don't have to do". We stylize everything that we do, from our hair to the way we communicate. People invest a lot of time and effort into how they stylize themselves, and more importantly we don't do it randomly. We don't need to do it, but we do because of our ability to imagine and that is what separates us from animals. Our imagination makes us empathetic and it makes us human. By immersing ourselves in imaginary worlds we grow stronger in our ability to empathize, imagine and to compare our real ones to the ones created. 

Therefore he believes that the arts are worth pursuing for because of how important the imagination is to our lives. He doesn't think that creativity bursts out from people randomly. New ideas articulated by individuals but generated by the community. Often times we celebrate the individuals rather than the source they're drawing from. He comments on how we're moving from an era of scarcity to abundance. Productivity will rise however humans will be ever more disconnected due to automation and robotics. We live in a world of ultra fast change and now people will have to stay coherent and constantly be involved to re-sync with one another, imagining to understand things and connect things together. He feels that it is important that we think collectively and share ideas.

Therefore you get a sense that from our ability to imagine things and thus stylize everything, the arts is completely and utterly intertwined within our nature and society. It is not an add on but a central thing that we all do and that connects us with one another.

Light Night

The Sognefjord, Norway by Adelsteen Normann

On Light Night I made my way over to Leeds Art Gallery. This painting had quite an impact on me because of its composition, detail and implications it could have on my Graphic Design practice.

Before going to college, I did visual art. I loved the aesthetic of impasto paintings and using the palette knife.  The ability to create chaos within order was appealing. This painting reminded me of those days with Normann's precise use of the palette knife to create the mountains. The clear indication of multiple layers of knife work got me thinking whether I can apply that to my graphic design practice. In a trend where more and more are going flat, would it be possible to show a form of complexity through layers comprising the final image? Could I experiment this with future screen printing?

Another reason why I this painting caught my attention was the views it reminded me of when I was traveling in America back in May. Seeing views like this, 

It made me appreciate Earth's beauty and realised that there is so much out there waiting to be seen.

Getting to know Design Studios 02

A brief overview of the other design studios I looked at today.

Hey Studios are a graphic design studio based in Barcelona Spain, specialising in brand identity, editorial design and illustration.
 

Their work identity revolves around geometry, color and direct typography. They work closely with our clients, big or small, in one-to-one relationships.

Sagmeister & Walsh are a NYC based design firm that creates identities, commercials, websites, apps, films, books and objects for clients, audiences and themselves. The company name represents Stefan Seigmaster, who has worked for famous music bands such as the Rolling Stones, and Jessica Walsh who has received multiple awards and distinctions, Zipeng Zhu a Chinese designer and animator, and Molly Brunk their project manager. 

Heydays is a Norweigan design agency based in Olso who help create visual identities and digital solutions. They work closely with their clients and utilise a well-developed network of other talented professionals to help carry out the project.

They have a noticeable Scandinavian identity throughout their work as seen the clean lines and minimalist aesthetic. 

LUST is a multidisciplinary graphic design practice established in 1996 by Jeroen Barendse, Thomas Castro, and Dimitri Nieuwenhuizen, based in The Hague, Netherlands. LUST works in a broad spectrum of media including traditional printwork and book design, abstract cartography and data-visualisations, new media and interactive installations, and architectural graphics. 

Along with their design studio they have LUSTlab, a really experimental entity where the research into the future of digital media lies in the design of its use. 

Studio Dumbar is an international design agency that is based in the Netherlands whilst having a liaison-office in Seoul. They have won number awards in highly regarded design competitions and have worked with high profile clientele such as Apple and Nike. Their scope of work mainly focuses on creating a visual identity for the client.

Build is an award winning creative agency who work with creative, design-led clients. Their portfolio of work range from branding & identity, editorials & print, art direction & design and interior spaces. 

Elmwood are a self acclaimed "most effective brand design company in the world", with offices in countries such as London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Melbourne. They are a design company to have made their own set of bespoke creative tools and have links with design consultancy Tin Horse and Tickety Boo an environmental consultancy. 

As their claim suggests, their portfolio of work is entirely branding and identity. Clientele ranging from food & beverage companies all the way to Law firms. 

Bleed is a multidisciplinary design studio based in Oslo and Vienna. Mixing both 2D and 3D works in their portfolio and interactions with social media.

Face is a "super modernist" design studio specialising in developing honest branding projects across the world aiming for work to stand the test of time. Based in Mexico, their work ranges from identity creation, branding and web design. Whats unique about Face is that the clients receive a a customized list of questions of which helps them understand what information is needed to help their project development and conceptualization.

Dessein is a design studio based in Perth, their work is clean, effective, modern and colourful whilst incorporating an illutrative style. A multi-cultural team makes for an interesting mix of talents where no one person is responsible for each individual task. 

 

Wolff Olins are all about making brand logo's last forever. They have global teams of designers, strategists, technologists, programme managers and educators who deliver meaningful change beyond their client's organisations. Most notably they created the logo for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

After looking at these design studios, there are a few similarities which run throughout. 

1. Design studios today have very small teams of designers. 
2. Most of them have a clean and minimal visual aesthetic. Often aiming to go flat in their designs, perhaps indicating or following the current trends in graphic design.
3. Effective communication with the client is a big selling point and is seen to be more personal than ever with some design studios offering one-to-one interaction. 
4. They produce their own work on the side and sell it online. 
5. Design studios can have a broad range of work within their portfolio's but add their own artistic identity to the final product.

Getting to know Design Studios

Studio Ah-Ha are a Lisbon based communication and graphic design studio led by Carolina Cantante and Catarina Carreiras. They work across a variety of mediums from brand identity to interior design.

Taking a holistic approach towards design and branding, they work together with clients through every stage of the process, filtering their inspirations, ideas and motivations into fresh, engaging and compelling brand messages. 

Prior to working at Ah-Ha, Carolina and Catarina have worked side by side with their design heroes in Treviso, New York and Rotterdam. This exposure to different design practices around the world allowed them to broaden their mindset; producing richer and more informed works in the long run. 

Throughout their range of work, a muted colour palette, minimal design, emphasis on typography and tactile end products form their identity. How the work is displayed on their website reflects their professional yet lighthearted personality.