Harold Edgerton

I stumbled across some great examples of motion photography when I was looking through a few books. Harold Edgerton has produced some truly amazing shots capturing motion. From the series that shows bullets piercing through different objects to the the series showing people in motion. His book is fittingly called 'Stopping Time' which is pretty apt for this project. I have been thinking how I would be able to achieve something similar to show the different stages of time my paragraph talks about

Photographs courtesy of edgerton-digital-collections.org

Emma Hamilton

As I am nearing the end of my second year I have started getting in touch with practitioners to arrange portfolio visits and to enquire about the industry. As I will be fresh from university when i leave i thought it was a great opportunity to contact an old friend from when I lived in Bristol. Emma graduated in Graphic Design when I started and spent a few years doing odd jobs before finally putting her efforts into finding a design job. I thought she would be a perfect person to ask about those all important steps to becoming a designer as someone who still has it fresh in their mind! below are a few questions i asked her and what she had to say..

Em's reply:

Eadweard Muybridge

As I have begun to look at different examples of photography I remembered Eadweard Muybridge who I researched whilst in college and I remembered his interesting study on motion and capturing motion. He underwent the study shown above that proved that all four hooves left the ground whilst a horse gallops and experimented with many different animals and the human form to show movement over a variety of different motions. I like the way the movements are shown over a series of pictures and think it shows past, present and future really well.

Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski

As i have been reading and rereading my passage over and over again something that has stuck out is this sense of past, present and future and the idea that they exist independently through time so i have looked at Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and his depiction of space, time and motion, and really like the way he has combined different photographs to give a new dynamic to the overall picture, which i think could work really well when looking at past, present and future.

I also love this idea of a series of photographs that tell a story or show a particular movement. The series below in itself shows before, during and after so would be good to show something similar or have each photography in the same style.

Fran Herbello

I have begun looking through photography magazines and books to try and get some inspiration and i came across the work of Fran Herbello. What i really love about these photos is the surreal nature they come together and how they look awkward but there's something that feels really natural about them. I love the simplicity in the idea aswell They look extremely realistic and gives you that huge shock factor as you see the pull in the skin!

Photographic Narrative (Einstein's Dreams)

As part of a new brief we have each been given a chapter from 'Einstein's Dreams' which is not so much a novel but a collection of dreams he had questioning and exploring the concept of time. Each chapter looks at time from a different angle and we have been asked to breakdown our chapter and create 8 photographs that capture the essence of his dream. My passage looks at the effect time has on the present and that past and future is only relevant to time. It also talks about actions make in the present as impulse and talks about them holding no consequence on the future. etc etc. confusing stuff. I'm not the biggest fan of photography work so I can see myself struggling with this brief. I do however find my paragraph very interesting and a few of the other ones I have read. As soon as i was given this brief i instantly thought of Salvador Dali's 'The Persistence of Memory' which was again based on a dream and challenges the concept of time with the melting clocks that are thought to symbolise the irrelevance of time.

Music

Over the past few weeks I have been pestering Craig Oldham to take a look at my work and was pretty chuffed when he invited me to Music to have a look at my portfolio. Again I was pretty nervous about going as I regard the work both Music and Craig have done to be pretty amazing! Because Craig is pretty much the easiest person to get on with we had a decent chat about what I had been up to, where about I was up to in the course which was good, he is familiar with the college and has seen many previous students from years above which was a talking point when we spoke about a few projects. I began talking through my projects and we stopped to chat about the various ideas and design decisions etc. He picked out the Helvetica brief and Pasta festival from the PDF I sent him as the reason why he'd asked me to come in and spoke highly of the decisions i had made when creating the Helvetica Neue spread, saying I had really captured the typeface at its strengths with the grid, colour, layout etc. We skimmed past the T-shirt designs and he later said they don't say alot about me as a designer and if I'm honest I struggle talking about them as enthusiastically as other projects so i think I will probably take them out! A new addition to my portfolio is the V&A end sting (well the story board and flick book) Craig seemed to enjoy playing with the flicker book and said it was nice to have in my portfolio, We spoke at length about the photography project and the 'unfolding' idea, I realised I had put the wrong image of one of the leaflets in (major foepar) but he like the idea of folding something back to reveal information and we talked about other ways to push the idea such as making the poster interactive or looking at other things that naturally fold in the environment! He liked the specimen sheet and said although it didn't say anything personal about me as a designer that the typeface was interesting and the choice of colours and layout brought the best out of the type. We had abit of a chat about the Door(way) brief and he really liked the attention to detail and the photographs of the box and said visually it looked great. He was abit wary of its relevance in my portfolio from a graphic point of view. The Pasta festival was a great opportunity to get some advice in where to direct the project, we spoke about how it could work in a graphic sense but then also how to give it an organic feel. He suggested strongly that i end the portfolio with that project as it is a great talking point as it is an ongoing project. He suggested removing the plate from the poster and just having the spaghetti river shape to exist on its own to really engage its audience and making them stop and think. He thought it was best not to over complicate the logo and thought removing the circle and shape of the river all together was the best solution and to just have the logo as just type. I liked the idea of simplifying the poster to force the audience to think more about it! The final piece i showed him was the Water brief which he really liked and was interested to know about how i had reached the final outcome. we also spoke about other ways to develop the project and other suggestions how to show the contrast in the opinions from each society, he thought the nature of the brief had restricted me in the length i could go with the final piece.

A few things he said as an overall was that the portfolio was presented well and that having ideas and being able to communicate them was the most important thing they look for, both of which he felt i could do. He picked up on a few things like the boarder around the story board but pointed out that niggling at them meant he had little other complaints with the work which was great. he said if anything i had a few too many projects in the portfolio which was always better than having too little! we spoke about the ones worth getting rid of and at the end said he would see how much work they have on over the summer and try and get me in the studio, which is amazing. Overall the place was great, the studio is very creative. i spent a few moments looking through their book they have made called "Stuff we really like" which had a bunch of stuff in it that i really liked! Craig was great and it was brilliant to hear his thoughts on my work!

Neil Roland

In May I am attending a wedding in Portugal of some friends who lived in Chorlton for a few years before moving back to London, and after a lot of deliberation my sister and I came up with getting them a print made by Didsbury based photographic artist Neil Roland as their wedding present. I became aware of Neil Roland when my mum got one made for the house (shown below) What I really like about the prints is you hand pick the images you want to be included. I went to meet him to discuss the print for the wedding. We mainly wanted it to be focussed around places in Chorlton and the odd place around Manchester that held significant memories to Charlie and Lorna and we sifted through hundreds of photographs of bars, streets, signs and it was fantastic to look all these familiar places but shot from fantastic angles etc. The print will be ready to collect in a few weeks so fingers crossed that it will look great!

Photographs taken from www.neilroland.co.uk

Spencer Tunick

As it is common knowledge that Spencer Tunick is bringing his wonderful exhibit of the human body to Greater Manchester I have been looking at some of his other amazing installations that he has arranged all over the world. Tunicks trade mark is a mass use of the naked human figure in public areas and has created some truly amazing images with the way in which he has arranged each person. The idea of stripping off in the name of art is quite inspiring however I can't say i'll be joining in with the one he has planned to take place outside the Lowry Centre in Salford in early May. I expect it will look just as stunning as his others. You can still sign up if you want to take part just click here.

Photographs courtesy of www.spencertunick.com

Alan Fletcher - Fifty years of graphic work (and play)

"Design is not a thing you do, It's a way of life"

- Alan Fletcher

I recently visited the Alan Fletcher exhibition at the Cube Gallery in Manchester. The exhibition is the same collection I saw at the Design Museum shortly after his death in 2006! The exhibition celebrated the life and work of one of Britons finest Graphic Designers. A man who's intelligent approach to witty design and a fantastic understanding of communication has shaped graphics for over 50 years. Fletcher was probably the first artist that really inspired me to want to do design. I enjoyed the playfulness of alot of his work, and more than anything the hand crafted style he uses throughout. Looking at his vast range of work now, compared to when I first saw it means I can appreciate it in a completely different way. The first time I saw the exhibition it made me realise how much I loved design but I couldn't tell you why, whereas now after a few years learning about design and taking on a real understanding of what design is I have really enjoyed revisiting the same exhibition and looking at the work from a design angle. I think the beauty with Alan Fletchers work is that it can be enjoyed by anyone, I suppose most forms of graphics should be able to appeal to a wide audience as its communication however Fletchers precise playful approach is amazing. The broad range of work on display also shows the multitude of skills and opportunities that his career has given him, and is brilliant to see such an array of different design outcomes. I found the section dedicated to his book 'The Art of Looking Sideways' was fantastic as it showed how he went about designing the book that he effectively spent a lifetime making! I have been to four exhibitions of Alan Fletchers work since 2006 and everytime I am blown away by his work even though it is always the same. One thing that really inspires me looking at his work is the simplicity he uses. The art of making something look so effortless yet perfect at the same time. A truly brilliant collection.