Victoria

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Vaporwave

Because my experiments were not looking very exciting, during a 1:1 session, one of my tutors told me to look into vaporwave, which is a musical genre, a visual art style and also a meme that emerged around 2010 on online communities. 

Its aesthetic was very pleasing to me, personally, and I thought it could help me improve the ideas I was working on by using its color palette, graphics from ’80s to early ‘00s, grids, lines and shapes, and also because of its ironic character, which contains an ambiguous or satirical take on consumerism, capitalism and pop culture. This project is all about creating a fine tension between opposites, giving it a comical context, and the vaporwave aesthetic suits this right on.

Using this aesthetic, this is what my work started to look like:

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Some ideas that came up in the process:

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Playing around and experimenting with Photoshop was fun and I was kind of enjoying the outcomes, but they all felt very unfinished. Something was missing, it looked flat, a bit boring. 

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TOILETPAPER MAGAZINE N.18

"Toiletpaper is an artists’ magazine created and produced by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, born out of a passion or obsession they both cultivate: images. Number 18 is powered by TIM. The magazine contains no text; each picture springs from an idea, often simple, and through a complex orchestration of people it becomes the materialization of the artists’ mental outbursts. Since the first issue, in June 2010, ‘Toiletpaper’ has created a world that displays ambiguous narratives and a troubling imagination. It combines the vernacular of commercial photography with twisted narrative tableaux and surrealistic imagery. The result is a publication that is itself a work of art, which, through its accessible form as a magazine, and through its wide distribution, challenges the limits of the contemporary art economy."

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Researching...

When doing some research on this project, I came across a bunch of different photograph and editing styles, and when I gathered the references I liked most, there was an aesthetic very much predominant on the pictures. I noticed I like when people are portrayed, but they are usually odd looking, be their faces, the angle of the photograph, the choice of colors, the posing or the scenery. 

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Project 06: Luxury Goods

The definition of luxury has been changing for ages. According to its etymology, the word comes from luxus, meaning excess in latin. In English, it appeared circa 1300 and had a pejorative taint with exclusively sensual meaning, but it has drifted away over time, leading to the definition that is used today of something nonessential or indulgent, as in a welcome change that is not always possible or available.

I grew up looking at luxurious brands as something classic, conservative, clean. For years, expensive shoes, bags and jewelry were the only luxurious objects I could think of, and only those designed by the biggest maisons around the world. Now I see that luxury can be spotted in any aspect of life depending on how you present it. 

Virgil Abloh, former artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear, and creator of the brand Off-White, was responsible for breaking down the barrier between streetwear and luxury. Quoting Darnell Libby Jame, fashion historian and curator, “If you look at the past 40 years of fashion, you see this transition, and when Virgil comes into the industry, he really takes the ball running, cementing what many of us from the black community always saw as luxurious into [elite] mainstream luxury and Paris fashion. Essentially, his brand, among others before him like WilliWear or even Sean John, proved that luxury can be a state of mind rather than solely focused on price point and brand exclusivity.”

Bringing this idea of luxury to this project, we spent the day in the photo studio working in groups to produce a photoshoot, and later choose 4 pictures taken that day to express this luxurious approach. I worked with Ana again and she was my model! It was super fun and we worked really well together. I directed the photoshoot and she modeled brilliantly, being very expressive and giving her own insights as well. I was very pleased with the result, and decided to work by myself to edit the photographs.

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We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.

John Berger

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Project 03: Alternative Histories

The project started In class: we were supposed to choose one of the items provided and work in group. Everyone easily chose their object and teamed up, and one of the girls in class was alone with The Knickerbocker Glory. I didn’t know what that was, but I decided to join her, and it was awesome. First of all, I like team work, I love brainstorming and the ideas interchange. It was very pleasant working with Ana and she gave me a perspective to the story that I don’t think I would have come up with by myself. 

The original story was about Aunt Jean giving the kids the best Knickerbocker Glory ever and them being in awe by it, quoting the tale “We swore to never ever touch them. Something so carefully made shouldn’t be ruined. We just sat there looking at these truly magical creations, completely mesmerized and all feeling very, very special.”. Although the kids end up eating the treat, Ana gave the idea of using the ice cream melting as time passes, the character growing old and never eating it because “we just sat there looking”.

That was the starting point for my journey that is being working on this project of alternative histories.

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Project 01: Observe

It's a different feeling when you just look at things and when you really see your surroundings. Project 01 of the BA Graphic Design and Illustration, first semester, is all about paying attention to what is around you. Walking through different parts of the city, or even the same path you take on a daily basis, but with a different perspective: observing. 

Besides finding really exciting the observe bit of the project, for me the most challenging one has to be exploring different media to register what you see. I admit my sketchbooks haven’t always been full of colors or different textures, but because of this project I have been noticing a change in my perspective of the world because I am constantly trying to portray my surroundings using something that is not a pencil or a fine pen. 

Also, the “capture” part of this project have transcended into my everyday life: whenever I’m out, either on the streets, at a restaurant or in the car, I feel I am looking for interesting hidden things/moments that I don’t think I would have noticed prior to this activity. At the beginning I was always looking for materials to add to the project, but now it has become natural for me to pay attention to what is around me, it’s as if I have put rose tinted lenses on to see the world in a more artistic way, with otherwise invisible details catching my eyes.

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Ways of Seeing (1972) - John Berger

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Agency Cossette creates a visual identity for public exhibition under a Toronto expressway encouraging play in the city

The brand agency is celebrating Toronto’s Year of Public Art with a visual identity for a Covid-safe exhibition.

Play and design are synonymous. They both “rely on imagination and a sense of discovery, and we used this connection as a jumping off point for this project.” Hence the tagline, “We All Speak Play”, which alludes to the universal nature of play.” 

Chelito Rubio

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Ruby Sgueglia physicalises feelings in their textural, colourful illustrations

The artist tells us about breaking free from their comfort zone, and the satisfaction of carrying techniques and concepts from one project to the next.

“I’ve got to roll the brief around in my head for a long time before I’m ready to start putting pen to paper, and when that happens I basically scribble out a bunch of stuff and then my real ideas come from interpretations of those sketches,” they explain. Layering also plays a major role, and often they will draw on top of drawings, again and again, a technique they learned from their favourite art teacher in high school. 

Ruby Sguelia

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How can art and design bring people together to improve our mental health?

“To me, designers are first and foremost dreamers who try to give life to one or many ideas they have in mind. To make a change in society, you cannot dream alone. You have to connect and relate with your environment – human, non-human, the planet and above – to jointly compose with a new reality.”

Cynthia Voza Lusilu