Rationale

Having kept a blog in North Carolina as a requirement to our course I had a fair idea of what I would be expecting to do. That, however, was purely type based and we had very specific rules about what we were suppossed to write each week, so this more self-learning based structure was at first daunting, but turned out to be a lot more interesting and useful.

I started off blogging anything I found interesting or what I thought might be classed as 'good design' but moved on to sticking to the groups, defining the types of things I would write about which helped me to gain focus in the way I looked at posts and what information I would write in them. Once I began narrowing my search I also began to find that I could sift through my findings and post only things that interested me thoroughly and that I will be able to use in the future, my finest moment was when I caught myself needing to use a website I had viewed earlier in the week and realising there was no need to panic, I had the address on my blog ready to be called upon! It also turned out to be a great resource for remembering lost findings. I am a very forgetful person and often forget to jot down if I see something I think is up my street or will help me in the future, it is only when I get to that point that I realise I need a picture or some information that I realise I have no idea where I found it or how I will even go about finding it again. So the blog often steered me in the right direction, not only helping to job my memory of posts forgotten but also encouraging me to take note of something that may help me in a future project.

Being able to look at other blogs and discuss with fellow students what they were searching for was also a great tool. Seeing what kind of things others were posting about showed a whole other world of things that were out there to be discovered as well as giving an insight into what kind of things other people were interested in. I remember meeting up with a course mate early on in summer and spending the day discussing what other people had posted on their blogs, this kind of discussion not only gets the design-talk ball rolling, but leaves you feeling encouraged to show your own interest in the subject, even if it's just for personal enjoyment. I liked the sharing aspect of this sight because sometimes people are not too forthcoming with their interests but this gave us all the opportunity to share and discover new things.


During the one week brief we were assigned, I found myself looking back through posts and wondering where I could go from there to help inspire myself. It was at this point that I also realised, a lot of the things I mentioned were similar in style or focal point, I clearly have a style I hadn't noticed before and it started to define itself as I looked through posts from the beginning of this summer. One example of how this steered my design was in the one week brief. I have only used video software twice before, very briefly, but I am so interested in videos that I was inspired to have a go myself...I soon found out it was harder than I thought but it just made me more determined to look back at the blogs, particularly the Sin City Commentary by Robert Rodriguez, and go on to find more help on the internet and in books.
Keeping the blog has gradually steered me to define my searches in design, I have always known there were certain aspects I liked more than others but when it came to putting them all into a box I just couldn't do it. If I was handed a graphic Design magazine, I would spend hours pouring over the content, but if you asked me to pick out the top three designs I would have an instant panic attack...it's all good! Although this seems like a positive attitude to have, at the same time, some sort of distinction in taste leads to refinement in personal work. I have often been critacised for being 'all over the place', one minute I want to do photography, next type design all whilst trying to make some sort of animation out of it, I had no idea where to begin and ended up with three different designs that just wouldn't gel. From this blog I can see how I can begin to make my designs interact with each other. I am greatly inspired by illustration, and from blogging about artists such as 'Ben and Julia', 'Kid Acne', 'Silas Munro' and 'Nate Williams' I have been given a clear picture of how, by attaining a certain style, all of these things can be shaken up together to produce a clean and very personal piece of work. This aspect, the personal side of design, seems to be what has struck m the most. Looking back throught the posts, I have a lot of design which is very personal to the creators (the monsters designed by Ben and Julia are a personal favourite of mine as the describe them as 'like children') and this has worked very strongly with my video interest to inspire the idea for my personal project. The '50 People, 1 Question' is a video I LOVED when I first came across it, but, again, an example of something I thought I'd jot down and never did, so when it came to the blog and it cropped up in my memory I had to find it all over again. But it was upon finding it and watching it that my personal project idea was inspired. Without having to keep the blog I would never have remembered the video and most likely not come up with an idea that I am so excited about.

My initial aim from the blog was, honestly, to get it finished, with anything that fit the requirements. As time went on, however, I realsied that this is an invaluable tool, an online log book to steer my work in a more focused direction with the appropriate research and inspiration and I truly appreciate it.

Sheffield Millenium Gallery

A while back I went to Sheffield and happened to be passing the 'Millenium Gallery' when I realised there was Vivienne Westwood exhibition on, having some spare time I popped in and really liked the exhibition.

Sheffield is not far at all, and probably only around six pounds on the bus or 12 on the train, the gallery is a ten minute walk from the station and usually cost under ten pounds for students so if you fancy a nice day out then here is the link to their website so you can check if there is anything good on!

http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/coresite/html/millennium.asp

Hand drawn A-Z

I was looking for some interesting type for some inspiration for the personal project and I came across this website:

http://www.n8w.com/gallery/color/l/

This is an artist called 'Nate Williams' who produces hand drawn type. I love the personal touch, along with the fact it can not be reproduced and it can be molded to fit with whatever you want it to.

I want to include this kind of thing in my personal project as it is all about personal stories and reaching people on a person level so I will take inspiration from this chap and his work.

BANG! I shot the serif.

Whilst in North Carolina we had a project to produce a book entirely using an old letter press machine. We were given a sentence and asked to come up with the words and images using only the typefaces that were available to us for use on the letter press.
This is the outcome which i thought was pretty interesting:











It was good to be able to use the technology and see what constrains there were but also the positive outcomes from this experience. It also pushed us to think about type in a more interesting way.

This isn't that exact projcet but this is a picture of the letter press machine we used:

Another interesting website

I'm always looking for new websites to inspire me and send me to the right places, so this one ticks the boxes with stories of design, architecture, art, fashion and graphics so it's a good one to check out if you have a spare 15 minutes going...saves you doing the searching for interesting things!

http://www.yatzer.com/

Google go computer geek

I don't know if anyone witnessed this, I did not, I don't know how I missed it but apparently I did! But I'm glad I've come across it because it really is an amazing example of a company feeling VERY confident about their logo (and so they should) and mixing it with something equally iconic...and (in my opinion) it actually working.



Apparently it was heavily criticised but I just think Google pushed the boundaries and I like it. Adding a bit of a challenge to design is a good thing!

Waiting for the bus just got fun!

I found these images celebrating bus stop advertising!
I like this idea of including the viewing in the design - Interactive design!










Not only do they involve the viewer but like the last one states, it does save energy, an advert actually displaying what it is they do is impressive!

flat light bulbs

Their shape is designed to lower cost on materials such as glass and packaging and allowing them to be less easy to break, but still work as well as a normal round bulb.


I came across these Light bulbs recently, designed by a Japanese product designer, Joonhuyn Kim.



I like this idea because you wonder why no one thought of it before...perhaps they did btu it just wouldn't work...We shall see!

Buddah Pears

I found this image a while ago in the news and have been trying to find it since;



This is an example of how you can make design work to your benefit. The farmer who grows these pears discovered that if they were blocked in some way they would just find a way to grow around that...thus, inventing the plastic cases to grow them in this unusual shape.

It just goes to show nature isn't always perfect and a little human aided design can push a good thing a long way.

Practices of Looking

As the dissertation and the personal projects become all too real I find myself looking for texts which are not only relevant but also, that I can actually understand!
This is a book given to us to read in NCSU which is really interesting and helped to get my head around some topics that I hadn't even realised were a blur to me!

"Practices Of Looking. An introduction to Visual Culture"

Silas Munroe

This is another inspirational person I met in America, this time it is a tutor. Silas was our tutor for an imaging class and really picked up the mood in the class so I thought I'd post his website too as it is quite different and has a lot of type made to look like image which was something I enjoyed doing in America

http://www.silasmunro.com/

Fellow Blogger - USA side

Over in America I met some interesting characters, but someone who stood out from the crowd was a guy named 'Logan Sayles'. With a keen passion for design and the attitude that life should be lived to the full, he is always inspirational to those around him. So I found out the group we studied with last year are all starting blogs and I thought it would be nice for people to see the thing he talks about as he always inspires me to try new things and think about design in a different (positive) light.
Here is his blog:

http://pseudotect.blogspot.com/

COOL HUNTER

Following my last post I was back on the website I discovered the stadium on.
It is called 'the cool hunter' and has loads of aspects of design, it is an easy to follow layout and updated regularly. Check it out at:


http://www.thecoolhunter.co.uk/

Mebourne Rectangular Stadium

I was on one of my favourite wesites which has a section about architectre...I'm not normally too interested in that side of design, but since it was part of this project I thought I'd ave a look.

I came across this building, The Melbourne Rectangular Stadium



Reading about it further I was intrigued to find out some of the unique features of the building, such as the LED lights on the top, which will be programmed to change colour and on match days represent the mood of the crowd...it will be interesting to see how that turns out. I think it's due to be finished this year so watch out for it.

If you want more information on the building you can find it at the following places:

http://www.thecoolhunter.co.uk/architecture/

http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/stadiums.php?id=279

Inspired Architecture

It's always great when you come across a piece of quirky art, but when that art is transformed into a bigger scale such as architechture the mind boggles how someone had the balls to a) suggest it and then b) go ahead and make it.

Personally I love to see things like this, I think it livens up a city and what's better than stating the obvious of a company by making the entire building literally speak the words of 'it does what it says on the tin'.



The Basket Building, Ohio, USA.
The official HQ of the Longaberger Basket Company.



Kansas City Public Library, USA
The general public were asked to help pick the books that would go on the front of this building, based on not only content but appearance and more technical aspects such as binding.

Castle of deams.

I found some pictures of a bizarre looking castle and investigated further.



This castle, known as 'Palais Idéal' is the work of a very dedicate French man, Ferdinand Cheval; mailman by day, architect by night.

He began this hge feat by simple collecting rocks and then proceeded to carve into stone for 34 years to create this masterpiece.

I think it is beautiful and admire the fact that Cheval gave his life to do this work.