Wednesday, January 26, 2011

4 Experiments


First week of our EMP brief was to spend 4 days doing 4 different and new experiences.

1. Learning to play the Ukulele.


2. Being in an Austrian bar and not understanding anything being said.


3. Experiencing skiing down a mountain in the dark, feeling scared and confused.




4. Watching a documentary I know nothing about.

'The Brain: a secret history' watched on BBC iplayer. Though the most interesting part of the program that I found was this clip:


This led me to think about human testing, psychology and ethics. My response to watching this was very simply this:


Traveling

Over the christmas holidays I went with my family to South Africa. I am now realising the importance of experiencing and seeing new places and environments. I found the trip very inspiring and since my 'not just fleurons' project was coming to an end it was the perfect opportunity to be thinking up ideas for my Extended Major Project. I found the country incredible due to the divide between the richer and poorer people, some sights were very overwhelming and others were just like being in a city like London.

As far as graphics goes, this penguin logo for the penguins at Boulder's beach near Cape Town was probably the nicest bit of design I saw.


This trip made me realise how much I enjoy taking pictures of the people of a country in order to capture the mood and feel of the country. I now strongly believe that even though the sights and views can be magnificent, it is only after meeting and watching the locals go about their daily lives that you really see what a country is like. I would absolutely love to spend time photographing people from all over world! I think by doing this, it would open up my eyes and allow me to have the inspiration to become the designer I really want to be.



Saturday, January 8, 2011

Deadline


I haven't updated this for awhile, but I had my Specialist Project hand-in yesterday so now I have a bit more time! My last post was about flowers, pixels and numbers. The brief was an ISTD competition brief called 'Not Just Fleurons'.
On November 26th I started my final piece and approximately 163 hours later on January 3rd 2011 I finished it.
This typographic piece is made up of approximately 130,572 numbers. The flower (a marigold) is made from 14,508 (approximately) pixels, in the form of RGB numbers.

Since climate change is a very topical theme in the current environment, this typographic piece portrays to the public the severity of climate change. Since each pixel of type represents a plant in the world that is under threat from extinction. Keeping the numbers as RGB with the relevance into that it is how humans essentially see relates to the idea of extinction. Since how we see the world and climate change is very important, and perhaps it is only when we are shocked with the facts and figures that we understand the truth and damage we are causing: It is in the detail that we realise the truth.




With the font at 10pt, the piece fits nicely onto A0. I think I would quite like to sell this piece. It would be a one off, and I would give half the money to a chosen charity (most probably Alzheimer's Society). If you think you would like to buy then please get in contact with me. Thanks