Ivan Hoo

Well, who is Ivan Hoo? He is a visual artist and art instructor from Singapore. As a self taught artist, he has been constantly drawing since a very young age. He focuses on hyper-realistic drawings and still life drawings of everyday things, and prefers to work with dry mediums such as pastel but would like to do more paintings in the future. 

Recently, he has been working on wood with pastel. Yes, wood. A medium from which paper is derived from, yet has a completely different texture. Below are some of his works:

One thing that absolutely baffles me about his work is that once the drawing is complete, the grain of the wood disappears beneath the image. I always thought that would have an effect on the drawing, making it more difficult to produce but Hoo makes it look as easy as pie.After a closer observation of his drawings, he appears to create a base layer of colour first, from which he builds more solid colour blocks before adding in the finer colour and detail. His artwork is rule astonishing and at a first glance, I actually thought they were photographs. 

Although I work in a completely different medium, I could still reflect his way of working by working up the base layers and adding the detail, which I definitely need to start doing as I just dive straight in, head for the details and then get frustrated when it doesn't work as half of it is complete and the other isn't.

What have I learnt from this artist? Don't believe everything you see at first glance.

The Man Who Punched a £7.8m Painting

Whilst watching the recent news, it was brought to my attention that a man who was visiting a gallery, thought it would be a great idea to punch a Monet painting that was worth an estimated £8million. After further research online, I discovered that the man was actually jailed for his wrong-doing, and I also found out how they restored the damaged painting.

The Daily Mail (Mail Online) states that Andrew Shannon, aged 49, entered the gallery back in 2012 in a calm manner, and claims that he 'collapsed' onto the painting due to a heart condition, although witness say that he clearly used his fist. He has been jailed for six years out of a maximum of ten and has been banned from entering all galleries.
What truly shocked me was that art was protected in such a way that if damaged, you could be sent to jail for it.

After two years, the painting has finally been able to be repaired by finely sewing the tears back together with the same material that the painting was on, and then after collecting all the tiny, microscopic fragments that fell from the painting when hit, they carefully placed those back onto the painting after hours of research into the painting. This site explains how.

This gives artists a sense of security in a way, to know that their artwork will always be protected when on display, and to know that whoever damages it could get sent to jail for such a crime. How has it affected me? Well, I know that I won't be going round punching paintings anytime soon! (Not that I would anyway…)

blink.

Ignorance is bliss.

This artwork is about how much information we read online each day, but how most of it just disappears before as our eyes, and we ignore it. It also reflects how sometimes the most important information doesn't affect us, where as just 20 years ago it would have been a different story.

With modern day technology, we are exposed to almost everything online, including things of horror, macabre and just things that we shouldn't be seeing often. This includes video games, where the graphics are becoming more and more life-like, almost making us feel as though we're there, right in the middle of a battlefield shooting someone down. We see them fall down, but it has no impact on us as it's what we've gotten used to as we grew up.

Me, personally, was allowed to play violent video games when I was younger, but I haven't realised how much this has impacted me, as well as seeing horrific images in the news as technology has got more advanced. I grew up seeing these types of things, so I thought nothing to it until I saw this. The modern day people have got used to so many horrifying statistics, images and events that they have almost become normal to us. They don't shock us anymore, when really it should do, as we now care much less than before. 

The way the piece of artwork is designed it rather unique, it lives up to the message on the paper, and it reflects what we see in day to day life but ignore it. By showing these shocking facts in this way, it really opens up our eyes and minds as to what we're missing, and makes me wonder 'how much are we reading but ignoring in day to day life?'. I believe the aim of this project is to shock the viewers, into realising what has become of this world and how little people know about whats really happening out there in different countries. 

CargoCollective

Earlier this week, a friend of mine who is off at university shared a link with me which led to a collection of beautifully designed posters by the artists/art director Shauna Mae. These are minimalistic designs with few colours, but to me this makes them even more appealing. Take a look yourself here

I can relate to this artist is that they don't have a set style, which is what I struggle with. I cannot seem to stick to a certain style as I want to explore many, and not just be stuck doing the same style all the time. Although the styles are different, the majority of them relate to one another as they have a simple shape and line style, with the use of empty/negative space helping draw attention to the designs. An element of Mae's work that catches my eye is the colour. They don't stick to a colour scheme, but some of the colours they use within each artwork blend together subtly, where-as others contrast strong against each other, giving the artwork a certain pop that just makes you look. 

After further research into the website cargocollective.com, I have discovered that it is a personal publishing platform for various creative areas, from photography to digital. It is a great way of finding new and contemporary artists, or even students to reflect from and be inspired by. However, I don't think I'd use this site to search for artists that much, as it doesn't feature that many graphic designers, which is my specialism.

"As the founders of Cargo we have our own respective backgrounds as artists, designers and filmmakers and share a deep commitment to the creative culture we support. "

HeForShe

Whilst lightly browsing Behance earlier today, I came across a quite simple, well thought-out logo that really caught my eye as I felt as though I recognised it, even though I'd never laid my eyes upon it before. This was a pink and black logo, made up of generic straight and angular shapes for the HeForShe campaign. Here is a link so you can see for yourself: HeForShe 
After a while of looking a the logo I suddenly realised the connection between the logo and the name - the black right angle represents the male symbol (Mars symbol), and the pink upwards arrow represents the female symbol (Venus symbol), in a highly simplified manner with its own twist, though it still leaves you able to identify it once you look deep enough into it. It's unique and thought out logos like this that draw me in and make me want to look more into what it stands for, as it has a very professional, modern and clean look to it. When looking further into the branding of the campaign/organisation, the designers have developed the logo into a unique pattern on the back the products, linking it right back to the company, rather than have any old pattern stuck on there. The minimalistic colour scheme also give this a more professional feel by sticking to the rule of three - yes, I believe in this, it's not just English literature that goes by this rule.

This project was uploaded by DIA, a New York based strategic brand consultancy, design studio and production company. They described the work as "Overall, the identity communicates with shared masculine and feminine sensibilities. The typography is bold, but thoughtful while the colours are powerful, warm and energetic." with which I completely agree.

It's Been A While

I would just like to apologise for not updating this as frequently as I should, as I've not been very well recently and because of that I haven't been writing as much as I'd have liked to. I should be back up and posting often again soon.

Extracting Knowledge from the Creative Field

Alexis Winter

One artist/designer that is definitely on me 'must interview' list is Alexis Winter. Her work is so varied, from graphic design, paper embroidery and photography, to a combination of them all. I can really relate to that as I don't just want to focus on one thing, I want to mix and match, continue to explore and learn as I design.Winter spends her time in Melbourne, Australia working as a Communication Designer, and loves 'layered concepts with hidden meanings.
Here are a few examples of her work (also some of my favourites):
Pad loves 'layered concepts with hidden meanings.

Contact Details
Email: alexis.k.winter@gmail.com
Blog: http://alexiswinter.tumblr.com
Shop: https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/AlexisWinter#_=_


Oliver Munday

Oliver Munday lives and works in New York as a graphic designer. He co-founded a socially based design collaborative named 'Piece' with Bernard Canniffe and Mike 
Weikert. Together, they believe that designers can play a key role in social justice and 
positive change. I love how Munday's work is so simplistic yet eye catching, with the minimal colours playing a key part as they contrast well together. 
These are just a few of my favourites:
Wire Poster Project
Knopf
See, Mix, Drink 

Contact Details
Latest work shown on: http://omunday.tumblr.com
Email: oliver.munday@gmail.com

Avinoam Noma Bar

Noma Bar is an Israeli born graphic designer, who studied typography and graphic design and states that he's “after the maximum communication with minimum elements”. He's currently working for the design agency Dutch Uncle, who have office in London, New York and Tokyo. His work has become well known within the advertising industry, resulting in him winning numerous awards for his work. One thing I would love to know is where the ideas are derived from and who his influences are, as those are the types of things I struggle with the most. He has such an effective and creative way of using the negative space within the images that he produces. 

Here are what I feel are his best pieces of work:

Tea for Two

Winter

Cut it Out

Contact Details
Twitter
Facebook

Metaphors in Art & Design

During my time at college today, we started to look into metaphors in things such as commercials and numerous works of art. We were shown different images and each had to write down what other meaning they could have, such as a runner wearing high heels on a racetrack - an advert for Pirelli tyres. The meaning behind it was that you could have the most powerful vehicle in the world (the runner) but if you haven't got good grip/tyres (represented by the high heels) then you won't get very far and you won't get the optimum performance. We then went on to look at other things similar to this, such as the Bill Viola 'The Messenger' artwork (rather scary in my opinion!)
To this collection I would like to add this rather strange advert, Beagle Street. Life insurance. Reborn., as i think it's a great way of saying that most insurance companies can be a right pain and hassle with life insurance, making them not very approachable. When the fluffy, more approachable creature arrives, that represents Beagle Street, making them appears to be kind and approachable to customers. 

We also started to look at professional websites to take advice and inspiration from, and I found one which I signed up to a while ago but didn't really look into as I didn't know how to use it - Behance. This is an Adobe run website, making it a specialist site mainly for graphic designers of all subcategories, including photographers. On this site you can find artists and designers from professional to amateur, resulting in a mix of talents and creative knowledge in 30+ creative fields. The site is mostly used to post ongoing or completed work by the users, but it can also be used to post jobs for others to complete. It's such a great site, especially for freelancers as it can be quite a good way for them to showcase their portfolios and to get them noticed and recommended by the community, essentially boosting their career.

YSP

Ursula von Rydingsvard was born in 1924 in Deensen, Germany. She attended the University of Miami – Coral Gables in 1965 where she received a BA and an MA and an MFA in 1975 from Columbia University. She then attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore in 1991 where she received an honorary doctorate. She spent the majority of her childhood in post-war refugee camps and Nazi slave-labour, which she reflects upon within her work. The aim of her sculptures is to show the trace of the human hand and for them to resemble wooden bowls, tools and walls that reflect on her past, pre-industrial Poland before WW1. Her work almost reflects puzzles with the staggered forms and surfaces. Rydingsvard has achieved many awards during her lifetime, including a Joan Mitchell Award in 1997 and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1979 and in 1986.

Rydingsvard uses cedar wood beams that have been commercially cut in 4x4 pieces, which had been central to her work since 1975. Sometimes when she’s creating her sculptures, she uses cedar molds. For a period of 20 years, she cut all of the wood herself but now has a team of four cutters; two men and two women. They use circular saw, chisels and personally developed and adapted tools to suit their needs. To begin with, Rydingsvard marks the wood with pencil so can execute her designs. As quoted by the artist herself, “my cutters are very experienced and know exactly what I want, we work and eat together and we are like a family” “I can only hope that the cedar feels that all the abuse we inflict on it is worth what it becomes in the end”. She applies graphite power with a soft bristled brush and sometimes chalk or plaster to the wood to give it subtle age.

A New Study

Today, I started a new course - a HND in Art and Design (Graphic Design). Hopefully this will be a new start for me to develop my skills and broaden my knowledge; I'm looking forward to the two years ahead of me.

Whilst looking through a collection of Eye magazines down in the library, I came across one which has quite an interesting look into packaging - mainly focusing on the typographic side of things. The Eye magazine I picked up was a food edition (maybe I was hungry at the time…), where I came across an article called 'Identity Preserved - The labels for Tiptree jams stand out by staying the same' by Jay Prynne.

The article is about the changes and development of the identity of 'Wilkin Sons Ltd.', a company that produced 'fruit jellys' or more commonly known as jam. It begins by talking us through how the company came around in 1888 and was originally called the Britannia Fruit Preserving Company and that by 1905 the company changed its name to Wilkin & Sons Limited. The writer then talks us through how the company used an oval label, that looked optical round when places on the jar (quite a good technique if you ask me). Over the century the labels haven't changed much, with only the typographic side of the labels being changed such as size, typefaces, more type etc and the fruit decoration around the lid staying the same. Throughout the older changes of the label, all the lettering was originally drawn by hand; though two years ago they decided to stop the different typefaces and have their own recognisable type. They re-thought things and went back to the hand drawn sans serif days of Donald Sutherland with a condensed width and flexibility for the curvature of the labels. When the writer interviewed my Thurgood was asked who took care of the labels, he said that it was important to the they they had somebody that actually cared about the design of the labels.

Whilst reading through the article I couldn't help but notice some quite good quotes such as "I like to think its a breakable brand - if you dropped it on the floor and broke it into bits you would still know it" which I thought was a good quote to resemble a recognisable company.

I thought the article was rather interesting, with the fact that the company is still successful with such an old base label design. However, one problem I believe is that by sticking with such a similar design for such a long time, the company hasn't had chance to change much and could be restricted in some things,  but I believe that the element of the design that keeps it successful is the simplicity of it - it looked good then and still does now, and it doesn't look too dated like some older labels may do.

Below is an image of the various different labels used by the company:

From reading this article, it has made me think a little differently about rebranding. Sometimes little changes work really well and just flow with the most up to date technology and whats 'in style', and that maybe little but subtle changes are a good thing,rather than completely changing the brands style, almost making it unrecognisable.

Eye Magazine Vol.11 Spring 2002 - Colour Overprinting

Whilst reading through this magazine, I came across an article about a feature in Adobe Illustrator that isn't the most obvious feature of the software. This is the overprinting feature. Hidden away in the Attributes palette is the Overprint Fill setting, this allows the colours that are layer on top of each other to 'blend' as such. For example, when the overprint fill is turned off in the palette, a blue circle placed on top of a yellow circle would block out all the yellow from the circle behind. Where-as with the overprint fill on, it would the colour produced from overlaying a blue on top of a yellow would be a green circle, as the two colours have been merged together. 
When this setting is on, when being send to print, the printer adapts the way it prints to these settings. Instead of the printer printing the colours separately, leaving space for complimentary colours as such, the printer literally overprints the colours to get the overprint colour effect. Below is a photograph of the overprint design featured in the magazine:

This shows the mixing of the four colours of CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black), the base colours used when printing.
This printing/designing technique only came around in the 1940s when designers have taken to this technique as a device of image construction, around the time when the Swiss International Style started to become known and widely used. Adobe Illustrator is similar to a digital version of old printing techniques, example: The overprinting technique is very similar to the manual printing process, with inks, rollers and different materials like lino. If you were to use this traditional printing technique and to print blue over yellow, or yellow over blue, you would get two different shades of green, as the pigment in the inks would have mixed together. Back in the nineteenth century, the colour mixes were practiced and perfected as overprinting was an important process back then as it meant less colour plates to print, which meant less ink and time spent printing, which then led to lowering the costs of printing.
Below is another design featured in the overprinting article, as an example of how a professional designer (Bradbury Thompson) exploited colour overprinting for production purposes: 

In this design, along with the overprinting technique being used, transparency has also been adjusted so that the image underneath shows through a little more. I really like this design as it's a complete mix, showing a detailed drawing with digital elements. 

During my final major project, I did experiment with overprinting block colour shapes to try and create a bird. I quite liked this process, as it reminds me of the Swiss International Style, which I'm really fond of. I think I will continue to use this technique more prominently within my work in the future.

References: Eye No. 43 Vol.11 Spring 2002, Pages 36 - 45

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Here on my blog you will find posts on:

Alexis Winter
Satchel & Sage
Chesterfield College Arts Festival 2013
Chesterfield College Fashion Show 2013
Marian Bantjes
The Holocaust (propaganda)
Art Deco Artists
Counterfeit Goods
Photomontage
Evan Hecox
& many more that will be added following on from this post!

Alexis Winter

Whilst browsing the web the other day, I came across the blog of an artist named Alexis Winter, who is based in Melbourne, Australia. She is currently studying a masters in communication design and loves making things from different mediums.

On her blog, she says that when creating her illustrations, she starts by sketching and adding a small amount of water colour for the base. She then draws the line work by hand using a 0.7mm black pen and then scans it onto the computer to touch up the colouring in photoshop. 

Here is some of her work:

'Love Birds'
In this piece, I really like how each section of the birds feathers is a solid colour, but each one is a different shade. Another thing I like is how the branches are bend into a heart shape, mimicking this weeks valentines theme.













I really like this piece, the colours blend really well together through the lines, unlike the one above where each section is a solid colour. Another thing I like is how you don't see the the texture of the background in the illustration, because it's hidden by the wonders of photoshop - it gives it a really interesting contrast!













Recently, she has taken part in a self portrait challenge, where each week she posts an illustration of herself, describing her work. This is a really interesting challenge and i'd like t take part in it, but unfortunately I wouldn't have time to create such interesting pieces. Alexis also does some paper embroidery, by sewing typography. Here are a few pieces:

I really like this kind of thing and I may take up on it when I have a bit of spare time - it could help me develop new skills and it would also expand my range of work for my portfolio.














Here are a few links to view her work:
Blog
Instagram
Online Store

  

Satchel & Sage

Whilst at college today, my friend suggested that I check out this small company/business online who have a love of design, illustration and typography. They produce 'colourfully designed printed goods and textiles that incorporate hand-drawn typography, playful illustrations, and sophisticated patterns.' This, is Satchel & Sage.

I've become quite fond of this company, as their word is cute, fresh and hand-made.
Here are a few of my favourite items of theirs:

On the site, it states that these are screen prints on wood. I really like how they look, they appear to be very natural and subtle. I'd love to have a go at screen printing onto wood myself, but I'm unsure of how the process works. I feel that printing them on wood instead of another surface helps to life the print from the background, but it also brings them together as they both have a theme of nature.                         

They also sell many different products such as gift tags greetings cards, cushions, notebooks, post cards, frames prints and calendars. There are a series of similar prints on the site which I'd love to own -  they're just lovely and simple, basic colours and not too 'busy' as some would say. They also feature a trio of words that could be considered as 'motivational' or 'inspirational', linking them together in the middle like a venn diagram. I also like how a selection of shapes and different typefaces have been merged together in an interesting way to create these pieces, I'd love to know where the companies ideas come from.

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