Camp America Recruitment Fairs

For the love of all things holy. This date change is actively ruining my life one small nugget of control at a time.

Camp America have recruitment fairs where a vast majority of the participating camps attend, applicants get to meet them, find out all about the various camps, and there's a good chance you may even get hired on the spot - which, if not apparent, is incredibly handy and solves a lot of problems.

There are 3 held around the country and the nearest one by far to me is Manchester (other options being Edinburgh and London), cheap travel, close to home, everyone's a winner.

OHHHH THAT'S RIGHT IT'S ON THE 28TH.

Hello extortionate train fares to get to London on a Saturday on what will turn out to be a 6 hour round trip that will result in extreme difficulty maneuvering myself around a city that's on acid 24/7 crammed full of people that hate me because I'm breathing air that could be potentially be put to better use as pollution. Can't wait.

This whole exhibition change is just throwing more and more shit at the fan, I've already had to take a week off work because I can't afford to not do uni work and if one more thing goes wrong I'm resorting to the fetal position.

Exhibition Design/University Gallery Visit

Lovely little talk from Terry Jones, the exhibitions manager at college, today. It was incredibly useful to get a realisation that actually creating the work is only one minor part of an exhibition - if it's not curated and organised well then the work is effectively rendered irrelevant. Things like spacing, positioning, fixing and finishing are all things to bare in mind when the exhibition comea around. It's good to know that he's there to help if our exhibition plans go tits up.

We then pottered down to Parkinson building to have a look at the gallery there. There was a permanent collection that belonged to the university but it the the Wilhemina Barns-Graham exhibition that we were particularly interested in. After discussing the curatorial decisions that go into an exhibition as a group with Terry it was pretty easy to spot the key details. Here are some of the things I noticed:

Firstly, they've used a complete mish mash of frames ranging from solid white to greys and also wood effect. Initially I thought it looked shit, but as I went round I started to realise that the frames were representative of her thematic drawings - all natural colours that are as varied and unpredictable as the landscapes in her images.

There were about 5 of these text boards - I didn't read them, I didn't want to. It could have just said 'Rocks, Ice, Trees' and I would have got the jist.

All of the walls had been painted white, except the partition walls that had been purposely created, these were painted a warm grey colour. This is something I don't really understand and can't work out the logic behind.. Maybe it's to make their presence less intrusive? Maybe it's to emphasise that the curator has made an informed decision to build them and that he wasn't just working with the four walls he was given?

When it came to framing the drawings there were 3 different ways in which they were presented. The image above shows mount board cut with an inward facing gradient - tunneling your eyes to the drawing and making the join less harsh.

This example shows a background of what looks like hessian that's been painted white, with the drawing simply positioned on top - it gives it a more raw feel and was appropriate for that particular drawing but I can't really say I'm a fan.

I dunno what went on in this one.. It's a combination of the two; mount board framing the drawing with a small border of the hessian-like material showing. It doesn't really show well in the photo but this particular drawing had been warped under whatever adhesive had been used and the way it was framed just made it glaringly obvious. Fail.

Frames were hung with mirror plates that had been painted white. Terry was right, this is a really inconspicuous way of hanging as on my first walk round the gallery I didn't even notice them.

I did however notice these ones... and this decision somewhat baffles me. On the partition walls that were quite obviously grey they've still painted the mirror plates white? And what's more, they've done it while the images have been hanging on the wall and have messily flicked white paint onto the grey wall behind.. I've got nothing on this one...

The photo doesn't depict this clearly, but each drawing's label was cased in a holder. To be honest I don't really see the advantage of the holders over the standard mount board, if anything I think they look substandard, but that's just personal opinion. And also, as the exhibition manager pointed out, why put Barns-Graham's name on ever image? IT'S HER EXHIBITION.

When Terry was talking about spacing he was pretty set on the fact that all of the pieces in the exhibition should be evenly spaced. Which was mostly the case in this exhibition, however there were the odd few drawings that seemed to just be placed randomly for no apparent reason. This may have been understandable if they were the joining pieces of any of the four 'quarters' of the room but they weren't - they were in the same section and just made things look a bit odd..

This was what I was particularly hoping for when Nick said that we were going to a drawing exhibition. Since I'm practicing drawing as my visual language I really had my fingers crossed that there'd be groups of smaller drawings so I could get some sort of general idea of how to exhibit a small series. In this case, they've been laid out in an irregular hexagonal formation on the wall, with one image central. The central image was hung at eye level much like the larger pieces in the exhibition and then the remaining drawings were placed around it. For this particular exhibition I think the format was very appropriate, not distracting from the contect of the drawings at all. But for the sort of atmosphere I want to create in the exhibition I think this is a bit too structured and formal.

One thing I did take note of was how each drawing in the group hang was labelled. Under each of the 3 lower level drawings in the hexagon, there were 2 or 3 labels right aligned to the image respectively. This I think worked very well. The group hang was not intersected by any unnecessary labeling yet all the information was immediately to hand should you require it.

The exhibition title was created in the same way as the viscom graduate summer exhibition greeting! A typographic transfer was applied to the wall on the immediate right hand side of the exhibition. Although the exhibition was presented in a four walled room with no indicative flow, the placing of the title with such an overwhelming presence definitely encourages any visitors to automatically veer to the right as they step back to engage with the greeting. This, I think, is a very clever way of provoking a narrative in a space that seemed to repel order.

There simply aren't enough hours in the day..

Hmmmmm aye let's move the exhibition forward. That'll be a really good and not at all inconvenient alteration. I love being so stressed I have to resort to the fetal position and not being able to go to work due to it wasting my valuable time and rendering my drawing hand otherwise occupied. Aye. Love it.

Seriously man, why.

So in light of the recent module changes I have since revised my to do list accordingly; competition briefs are taking a back seat. I'm quite upset because I would have liked to submit my vogue illustrations as my collections project, then coupled them with my competition entries to try and sum up my visual language a bit more, because it is in no way restricted to pencil drawings.. But on the positive side I'll still be submitting my development so far as back up work, and in the week between the exhibition and deadline I might have chance to work a bit more on them.

So, my to do list now comprises of:

• draw a million pictures (that is still a fundamental requirement I reckon)
• source some ornate frames to put them in - to create a salon style exhibition effect
• book the laser cutter for my obligatory wall piece (before which I have to draw out my frame images and make rough decisions on layout and size)
• develop a postcard along the same theme as the wall piece (possibly embossing? If so, arrange to go make a plate in Vernon st.)
• finalise curatorial decisions - finishing etc.
• since I agreed to be part of the curatorial group and also an exhibition technician I'd probably better whack that on here as well, it's only dawned on me that I actively added to my list of jobs, I'm a complete spastic.

Wall-piece/postcard

I want to keep my obligatory pieces relevant to my collections project, but at the same time I want them to be able to hold their own. I've had the idea to run with the idea of the frames as a theme that ties the two aspects together. Because I'm going to be doing so much drawing for my main exhibition piece I'm a bit apprehensive to use it for the brief requirements. Through my D&AD resistance work I've become quite interested in creating images by manipulating the paper without actually making any marks, and I'm quite partial to a good old-fashioned 3D element so I'm toying with the idea of throwing that in there as well.

My idea is to take the shapes of the ornate frames from my collections work, just as simple solid block shapes (like the one above), use the laser cutter to produce loads of template like frames out of paper/card varying in size and shape, then use foam board to built them all up in different layers within the 50x70cm boundary.

I really don't think I've described that very well but I have such a clear picture of it in my head and my imagination has made it look pretty good. And I don't think many people will use the opportunity to produce something that comes out of the wall so it should, in theory, look quite interesting.

And as for the postcardddd.. I'm thinking along the same lines. I don't actually want to use physical mark making, I'd prefer to build up an image through textures. So I'm thinking of applying the same logic of frame layering, but in an embossed context. Take a study of a small overlapping area of the wall piece and depict it in varying degrees of embossing on a postcard. I know embossed postcards are far from practical but no one said they had to be conventional right?

Fashioned myself a little to do list, I did! Reads something like this:

• draw a million vogue pictures (I'm never one to exaggerate)
• finish D&AD - posters with antagonistic/contradictory theme
• visit galleries - study exhibitions/how to organise a collection of images/finishing touches
• get started on my laser cutting/embossing
• continue development of my wonderland typography

Vogue Drawing #2

Got my draw on again, I like this one so much better. Still needs a Rachel Weisz thumbnail thrown in the middle, and maybe the headline, but I like the idea of being selective about the content. It makes my pieces more personal by dissecting the layout, my illustrations document what appeals to me and therefore helps to determine my visual language a bit more.

I spoke to Christian about the work (or lack of) that I'd done over Christmas and it made me feel so much better about myself. My plan now is to simply keep doing what I'm doing: my drawings because I enjoy them, and my competition briefs because they challenge me. The comp briefs help me to gain a better awareness of myself and my abilities, whereas the drawings give my a chance to work towards an aspect of collections whilst showcasing something that I'm good at and passionate about. Win/win.

At first I was unsure as to whether there was any point in carrying on with my drawings; as much as I enjoyed them they seemed to lack any real purpose. But now I think about it collections gives us a perfect opportunity to incorporate self-initiated briefs and my drawings are definitely relevant to collections: not only is it a collection of drawings based on my collection of Vogue magazines, but it raises the question how have I decided which images to collect?

Then I had the issue of the 'book'.. Considering a book can be virtually anything I'm pretty sound on this one but it still needs justified.

At the minute I'm visualising a series of drawings of various sizes, in old-style ornate frames being displayed in a haphazard salon style layout on a wall. A drawing of a Vogue cover being the focal point in the centre (drawn to scale on a larger sheet of paper to emphasise the portrayal of this particular book as an object) and the rest of my drawing gravitating around it. Because all of my images will be grey scale I'm thinking of painting all of the frames black for impact - but this is assuming I can actually find a lot of ornate frames for cheap, cheap prices 'cause my bet is this is a pretty optimistic vision..

So if all goes to plan, my 'book' will be a collection of images contained within a restricted amount of wall space; the pages will each be framed and how I choose to position them on the wall will be a direct reflection of page layouts in an actual, physical book. My book is my space and how I organise it.

D&AD - Development

Anti-Design sought to harness the social and cultural potential of design rather than embrace style as a means of increasing sales.

D&AD wants something they can reproduce, in effect something that they can sell to everyone else (sell in the sense of justifying acknowledgement, recognition or merit). Anti-design would be something that could only be fully appreciated through the original entry - photographs, prints etc would reproduce it but never truly capture it.

D&AD - Development

I started messing around with layouts and writing styles on top of the Don't Panic logo. I was initially using the phrase 'don't waste your time' then slowly migrated to 'don't bother' as it was a lot easier to manipulate.

These are scans of just some of my attempts, I've got about 20 pages scattered on my desk and more balled up and thrown in the bin (in a stereotypical frustrated, misunderstood designer fashion). I've written it out so many times that I've completely lost track of what the whole purpose is, and they're all blending into one massive waste of time (ironic, I know). There are a couple that stand out as marginally better than the rest - the very first 'waste your time' scan, and the 4th 'bother' from the bottom - but because I'm incorporating the logo, to me, none of it reads quite right..

After sobering up from my angst induced fit of frustration, I had a moment of clarity that begged the question "well why are you even using the logo in the first place?". BOOM. That gets round the disrepute clause in the rules as well - my idiocy shocks me at times, it really does.

I still needed to step back and get my head around what exactly it was that I'm trying to say. Revisit the brief. Resistance. What am I resisting?? WHAT AM I RESISTING?! I'm resisting the brief - what does the brief want? What have I found from my critical theory approach? The brief wants innovative, out of the box, avant-garde on the surface level, but has so many contradictory terms - and the idea of them asking us to be progressive makes the whole thing kitsch anyway - it's under the umbrella of 'craft: illustration' but truly 'progressive' artists are those that create their own 'craft', as it were. What's my message? It's on the tip of my tongue, but for once I'm really struggling to put my thoughts into words. Am I trying to say that thinking is a craft? Careful analysis and the concepts it produces are forms of art in their own right? Trying to provoke thought processes in designers/artists? Is it an overwhelming resistance to 'thinking outside the box'?

... And there we have it.... I think... Being told to "think outside the box"... There is no fucking box, it's not as if people hold themselves back and are constantly sitting on the fence until someone prompts them: "oh yeah guys, you can think outside the box on this one" THANKS MATE. No. People worth winning the competition are those who think innovatively no matter what, and this is reflected in all of their work, so when the brief tells us to 'think the opposite of your standard practice' then all the innovative thinkers should essentially hold themselves back and produce something completely mundane, which in turn will never win them the competition. You see my problem? The brief is just one massive paradox.

So.. What does the brief fundamentally want? Something forward thinking yet 'oh-my-god-amazing' from the moment you clap eyes on it. Since don't panic is primarily a poster production company I assume that the idea is for the final image to be print-ready and appealing. Therefore if I'm resisting the brief I'm resisting all of these things: it needs to be understood before it can be appreciated; it can't be something typically appealing for a poster design and if I'm feeling particularly wild then perhaps it's not even physically possible to manufacture as a poster.

Cooking on gas here. I apologise if this makes little to no sense to anyone else but typing out my though process as I go along helps me to get my head around things

I'm thinking.. Entrants can submit up to 4 A3/A2 boards.. But they're not submitting boards, they're submitting illustrations mounted onto boards.. They're expecting work that is essentially constructed on top of a board.. What if instead of building up my work on top of the board I work backwards and take it out of the board itself? Let's roll with this idea for a while.