Welcome back, James

So I haven't posted anything in a loooonnnggg time. I need to get on this, right after I finish my beer...

Introduction to Typography

These typographical pieces were created in response to an article we had to write about a chosen subject/issue. I chose to write about the negative impacts of the Lottery and how it fuels greed.

This piece resembles the "hidden side" to the lottery, shown by the layered paragraphs.

"A sudden fortune can be extremely traumatic." Created to resemble a heart monitor and a stock chart, the ascending lines contain positive words, and the descending lines negative.

This image is made up of syllables from the previous piece, the most pleasant sounding at the top in light green and the more harsh sounding towards the bottom in darker green, forming the lottery logo. This is supposed to show the mental frustration that takes place from the dream-come-true to the pit of loneliness that is far too common.

The final piece is made entirely from the letter "0" which resembles the shape of a coin. The intention was to show the attitude that so many people have towards money, and how it controls their lives.

The other half of the project was mostly researching and experimenting with typefaces, which the end result being an A1 poster of free reign. I chose to produce a broadside poster to promote the typeface "Sabon" :

Photography - "Collections"

The brief for this project was very broad:

"Produce a series of photographic images, which create a significant collection. Choose your subject carefully, it may or may not include people. Try to develop a unique approach to the making of this collection. The very nature of collecting suggests an obsessive and fastidious approach to making the work and you should take an analytical, considered and yet experimental approach to the project. Y our collection could be historical, cultural, contemporary, social etc. For instance you could be collecting water, sky, noise, people etc. Consider what meanings and observations may be generated by viewing the collection you create."

I stated by simply photographing and making collections of anything and everything. I headed out several times to gather photographs, and since I live in an area with a lot of farmland, the shots more often than not ended up being of trees and landscapes. I kept going with this, as I became fascinated with the complexity and menacing nature of tree silhouettes when taken at night/early morning. This made me think about the effect that darkness has on objects, as trees are not typically freighting things, yet in the dark they appear so. Things that seem so innocent when in daylight become unimaginable horrors from beyond when swamped with darkness, all down to the powers of the imagination. Using imagery of the countryside, something that we all have pre-conceived imagery of in our heads of blue skies, green grass and peaceful animals, I attempted to photograph them so as to make them appear threatening. I did this by photographing at sunrise, as the level of light is low enough to cut out most of the detail from the subject, and the rising sun causes enough light behind the objects to create a silhouette.

The final collection of photographs I have produced are of regular countryside occurrences, but featured as detail-less silhouettes against a pale blue sky. This recreates the haunting atmosphere of the night, with the cold blue tones in the background giving a sensation of temperature and even loneliness.

Illustration - "Visual Narrative"

Keeping the theme of games from the previous illustration project, we were asked to create a visual narrative, taking emotions into consideration:

Illustration - "Happy Families"

The brief for this project was to create two new sets of families for the traditional card game "Happy Families." One set had to be a recreation of one of the original families, the other of an original profession.

Bones the Butcher Family:

Gun the Tattooist Family:

And the back of the cards were kept pretty simple:

Introduction to Graphic Design

This work was all produced during my first few weeks at Uni, which was really just to get us into the habit of working.

All of the work was based around a bogus company that we had to come up with; mine was "Clearline Airways"

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Company Logo:

Logo Board:

Used to show the colours/fonts used, and how well the logo works at different sizes/formats.

Letterheads:

Business Cards:

These were designed primarily for internal use which is why there is such a large amount of white space in the centre, allowing the person to write their name and details as well as abandoning the need for customised cards.

Vehicle Signage:

Logo with Tagline:

Advertisement 1:

Feedback from tutors suggested I got the focus wrong with the phrase here, it should have said "One small step for us, One giant leap for you" which I agree makes a lot more sense.

Advertisement 2:

Introductory Project - "Partners"

In the holidays before starting uni, we were all sent a load of information in the post about starting university including maps, an equipment list etc. There was also a brief in with this titled "Partners," asking us to create a life-sized portrait of a partner to present to the rest of the class.

The brief stressed that a partner does not have to be a love interest, and could be for example a partner in crime, an imaginary friend etc.

After a lot of thinking and doodling of ideas here's the final piece I created:

The idea behind this is that it's how I imagine my dog Suzi would look if she were human. She has strangely human characteristics anyway, and she's very loyal, shy, playful, cheeky and just generally good to have around.

The image was put together in Photoshop using photographs I took and a couple of pictures from iStockPhoto, and then painted onto the canvas, which is about 5 feet tall, with acrylics. She has various items with her that say something about her personality, and she's set in the four colours that dog's can see.