30 Nov 2011

MacGuffin

A concept based project that involved creating or identifying a MacGuffin (a plot element used in films to catch the viewers attention & keep the story rolling.) We identified a MacGuffin in everyday life; the discourse particles used in speech as verbal thought, for example 'Like,' 'Um,' and 'Erm.' Each of them are interchangeable, so we created this glyph that combines the three.






We also made three separate films of people saying 'Like,' 'Um,' and 'Erm.' When played together they appear to be having a conversation between each other, a conversation consisting entirely of MacGuffins.

27 Nov 2011

Emotional Objects

Our latest project has been to give an everyday object an emotional response. I'm working with Lucy and we chose Pens as our object to work with.
We decided to play with adding scent to our pens, as scent is the most emotive of our senses. Firstly we made this prototype of a perfumed pen, where the perfume pump at the top gave out scent and also clicked the pen nib up and down,



This was quite messy and didn't always work so we took a new slant on the idea and have made a set of aromatherapy candle pens that each give off a different scent.





23 Nov 2011

Layout in progress

In uni we're doing type workshops, learning the basics of layout in Indesign.. kerning, tracking etc. This is one of my layouts, not finished yet but just wanted to upload it in-progress..



EDIT: More layouts, finished..




16 Nov 2011

Small Publishers Book Fair



Last weekend I went to the small publishers book fair in Holborn. So many amazing handmade books, I got this one..






13 Nov 2011

SIP

A one week self initiated project, my chosen subject was 'Greetings.'



It is becoming harder to judge which greetings are appropriate in certain situations, especially in more formal situations such as business. In Germany social etiquette groups are even campaigning to ban cheek kissing in the work place because they've had so many complaints that people find it awkward and uncomfortable!
I devised this colour coded ID system where employees can display which greeting they'd feel most comfortable with. Its not necessarily something I believe should be implemented into real life businesses, its more of a what could happen if people continue to feel this way.
I'm looking at expanding the idea now that the project has finished and maybe playing with the visual language to see how else I can get people to display their greeting.

11 Nov 2011

Three Minute Wonder

We were set a film project based around the three minute wonders on Channel 4. Working in groups of three we were given a profession (we got taxi driver) and were told to interview someone who worked in that job to find out how they use design in their everyday working life.
This project was a lot of fun, definitely one of my favourite so far. I learnt how to work a big camera and a fluffy mic and also how to edit in Final Cut Pro.
We met some really interesting characters, it was just a lucky dip getting into cabs in london and chatting to the drivers. Here's the finished three minute film..

22 Oct 2011

New books

I got some really good things in the post today, a few days ago I ordered Tree of Codes and a print handbook and they've both arrived..


I've wanted a copy of Jonathan Safran Foer's Tree of Codes for ages after seeing it on the Visual Editions website. He took his favourite book, Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles, and literally carved a new story through die-cut technique from the existing pages.





And then here's the Print Handbook, its got information about paper sizes, dpi, colour & density, paper folds etc. Going to be a pretty good reference for printing I think!




21 Oct 2011

Zero

Our first project of Second year is 'Zero.' We were just given the word Zero and told to explore it... a very open brief. I looked into zero as a starting point, a changing point and a beginning. I became interested in the possibility of measuring zero and have been looking at the possibility of 'Ocm' existing.
When I photographed these rulers up close, I realised how different the 'Ocm' measurement mark is. I came to the conclusion that zero can't be described in the measurement of cm, 'nothing' cannot be measured. But if nothing is something... zero, then there must be some kind of measurement for it? For our crit I put up these pictures of blown-up rulers to show the difference in the zero line..




I need to work out how I'm going to properly visualise what I've found out and what to do with it now!

20 Oct 2011

Chandelier Spectacle





Stuart Haygarth's reinvention of discarded NHS glasses. Currently hanging in the Design Museum as part of the This is Design exhibition. I loved how the chandelier gave out a mixture of different lights & colours through the hundreds of lenses that it's made up of.

19 Oct 2011

Motion sensor clock

This digital clock is in the design museum at the moment as part of the Designers in Residence exhibition. At first when I just walked up to it it was just a plain black clock, but when it sensed some presence, it flashed up 'Hi'.. then quickly the time, then 'Good god' and then 'Bye.' It had a mind of its own..


It was designed and made by Hye-Yeon Park,

"On first glance the Mr. Clock has the illusion of having its own personality, it seems to playfully flip between nonsensical configurations of each seven-segment digit. Our expectation is for the digital display to show us the time but this clock rebelliously refuses. If clocks had personalities we must ask “what does a clock do when we are not looking at it?”. But this clock still retains its relationship to its owners, as you walk up close it remembers itself and resumes its time keeping function. It is only when we pay attention to this clock that it responds by telling us the time."

24 Sept 2011

London Design Festival

So much good stuff going on in London this week as part of the Design Festival. We went to the Kemistry Gallery in shoreditch to see Alan Fletcher's, Mind over Matter exhibition. It was really interesting to see all his research pages, it really reminded youhow important it is to gather as much visual research as possible!


We also went to Outline Editions in Soho where Noma Bar was exhibiting his cut-out prints that play with negative space. He's also got a huge die-cutting dog in the middle of the gallery where people can produce their own cut-outs which looked pretty cool.


And then we went to the home of the Design Festival, the V&A. The textile field in the Raphael gallery felt like a really weird fine art installation, it was very surreal, but also very comfy to have a lie down on/in(?)...


Outside the V&A the huge 'Timber Wave' installation by Amanda Levete Architects was really impressive. A 3D lattice-work spiral of oak, it really announced the Design Festival arriving at the V&A.