#4004gd

[dfoxreflectiveblog-blog]

I record my progress with drawing certain things I struggle with in this book:

As you can see, I've annotated some parts and I redo the drawing on another page to try and fix the problem.

When I'm not trying to achieve a certain goal or create a certain thing, I work in this book:

It's a more personal record of my imagination. My wildest thoughts and even some art without thought.

[davedodd]

"Should have an Occupy Liverpool table-tennis tournament in the middle of town, whilst informing people of Occupy Liverpool"

Ladies and Gentlemen, the hard HARD work of Occupy Liverpool...

[davedodd]

This is my fave.

Treat Me - Campaign Montage from Lucas Redfern Brooking on Vimeo.

[davedodd]

DAMN RIGHT HELLOVON

  This bit isn't so much about the content of this lecture but more the dickery of people in the room, phones going off, people chatting, messing around and basically being pricks. Even if you aren't interested in what's being said at least have the respect to make it seem like you are paying attention, it was Von's first big talk for fuck sake and there where a lot of good points raised and interesting work shown.

Now that's done onto the actual lecture...

  Von's talk was broke up into sections so I will try to stick to them as much as possible but there will most likely be tangents...

Inspiration.

Dad and The Box: When he was young he used to get to look at a special box full of his dad's old drawing as a treat, the idea that his dad could draw seemed like a hidden superpower.

It seems his Dad sparked his interest in the infinite majesty and beauty of nature, taking him to parks when he was young and describing the irreducible complexity and age of something that looks as mundane as a tree. 

He then displayed some of the work of Photographer Bernhard Edmaier, who photographs nature untouched by man noting that withought man made structures the images loose perspective they could just as easily be massive landscapes or something seen through a high powered microscope (example below taken from here)

He also showed the video 'Dilly Gent'Radiohead/Street Spirit [dir Jonathan Glazer])  commenting on how the overlays and surreal nature of the video inspires him to this day. 

The idea of going online or looking at books to force inspiration can often lead to plagiarism of ideas/style.

Work.

Really loved the Scorsese illustraion.

After talking to people during the break before the Q&A the idea of knowing what type of work to turn down came up (Due to the mention that Von turned down work for JLS and some other prick with a recording contract) I couldn't care less about JLS but the idea that you would turn down some shitty pop group in case it hurt your career but you can be utterly excited about working for a large multi-national like Nike who have be know for poor working conditions and under-age workers is a bit of a weird moral stance.

Also looking at the illustration work for the Paralympic Games (below) it seemed the illustration was brought down by the naff design and typography work. It just looks too 'Grungy' and a bit out of date. (Also WHAT THE HELL is with the Paralympic Logo, well done on making a awful piece of design worse whoever did that, holy crap on a cracker.)

Overall it was a very interesting talk with a lot of useful tips and references.

(sidenote: Someone needs to sort those mic's out the feedback was piddling me off)

[davedodd]

Damn Right Chris!

[Intro to Graphic Arts (Wednesday Lecture): Christopher Brown]

Of the many interesting and inspirational thing Chris spoke about within his lecture one particulalr idea/quote stuck with me.

"...I am serious about my work but my work is often not serious"

The reason that it stuck in my head is that this idea of being serious about the un-serious is how I approach my own work. Although I am completely serious about my work my work is not serious and not just in terms of what is actually contained within it, it's design work if i make mistakes or do a god awful piece of work noone will die, nothing bad will happen.

Chris also spoke about the fact that our inspiration doesn't just feed of what we are currently working on but is collect over our whole lives starting from birth. For instance Chris made the link between his colour schemes and the work of Hergé more specifically in "The Adventure of Tintin"

Some other interesting things Chris Spoke about:

Pookie,

Jeff Fischer

Parallax,

Naive Signage,

Importance of colour,

Don't be apologetic about your work,

Sell yourself (Have an ego,)

Barney Bubbles

Work should be led by experimentation,

Inform and delight,

Get on with it,

Americans don't like Dog's bumholes to be coloured in,

His new book 'An Alphabet of London' that contains around 200 lino-cut images.

[davedodd]

DAMN RIGHT SKETCHYBEAST!

[Intro to Graphic Arts (Wednesday Lecture): Chris Rodenhurst]

If one word could describe one of the main things I took from Chris' lecture that word would be "Experiment"

Experiment with different styles,

Experiment with your approach,

Experiment with different tools and techniques,

Basically JUST EXPERIMENT!

Use LOTS of refrences (Alpaca's have weird feet...[see below])

In general people within the creative profession are nicer people.

When working in a agency you need to have a thick skin. "Nothing personal and super snappy"

I really like the fact that Chris has fun with his work and experiments with style keeping his work fresh.

Whilst looking at the Sketchybeast blog  I came across more of Chris' experiments drawing over photographs digitally and frankly they are awesome.

Also Dinosaurs are AWESOME!.

[davedodd]

Damn Right Seel!

[Intro to Graphic Arts (Wednesday Lecture): Cecilia Garside]

It's perfectly fine to draw people without them noticing...

Creative process and approach (Nine Steps)

Keep a Sketchbook.

Don't be precious with you sketchbook. (Be messy, doodle, scribble whatever helps you work out your problems)

Experiment. (Make and embrace mistakes)

Be Inspired by others.

Set additional restrictions.

Be inspired by your surroundings.

Collect things.

Don't sit with a blank page. (could possibly used line or graph paper, paint on the page first, doodle etc)

Eat the frog. (Tackle the hardest part first)

Also really enjoyed how the rules were presenting incorporating mixed media and 3d-type.

(Also think Seel may be a salesperson for the book Visible Signs if so would have been brilliant if she went all cillit bang with the name drops for example "In lis design which can be found in  VISIBLE SIGNS! BANG AND THE SIGNS ARE VISIBLE! are based on...")

[davedodd]

Damn Right Carole!

[Intro to Graphic Arts (Wednesday Lecture): Carole Potter]

"If people did not do silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done" - Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Absolutely loved the Brendan Dawes clips we were shown during the lecture (Full video I THINK below might be a different one still good though)

I really like Brendan Dawes' approach to graphic design, very laid back yet obsessed if that makes any sense whatsoever. He is a very quotable man!

"(Referencing Tron) Reminding people of something they have never seen before."

"The lack of undo" when you use a pen on paper forces you to keep and acknowledge mistakes.

"Update your approach as well as your software."

The topic of technological progress also came up which reminded me of Moore's law