Problems with the Blog Layout…

Hey readers,

For some strange reason the slideshow to the ‘self-initiated project: destroy!!!!!’ is showing images right at the top of the screen blocking recent posts.

I’m gonna try and get to the bottom of this and fix the problem but in the mean time I can only say that you’ll have to click on the title of the most recent post and also click on the ‘self-initiated project: destroy!!!!!’ post to view the slideshow without any glitches.

Although one slight hitch to this post is that you might not be able to read it ’cause of the glitch!!! X,X!!!! GRRR!!!!

Till next time~

destroy create // graphic design

LOGO DESIGN

Please note: some images in this post are enlargeable and some are not.

In this project, I furthered the development to ‘Destroy’ and at the midway through the project I came to rename it to ‘Destroy Create’. As it turns out, in America, there is already design group named ‘Destroy Designs’ and I didn’t want to infringe on their identity (trust me, I was in a duality of whether to take the name as my own and use it within the UK but I thought that would be just dishonorable and I wanted to actually have my own and own it fully as mine.) The logos above are the final for ‘destroy create’. In the second image down, you will notice that I have highlighted in yellow a certain section. This is because I accidentally designed the ‘y’ and fullstop at the end of ‘create’ to form an exclamation mark (!). This totally works in favour of the design as it reflects on the energy of the company. The image in white (the 3rd one) shows the alternate visions of the design as well as 2 other different outcomes.

Elements that I looked at in inspiration of lightning, electricity, broken glass and also negative graphics. Oh yeah, I also copyrighted it XD.

BLOOD TYPE O

preliminary sketches

Design Process

The idea to ‘Blood Type’ was conjured in my notebook. The idea was simply based upon the pun of the 2 words ‘blood’ and ‘type’. Upon designing it, I decided to make it function for headings. I actually wanted to go more in depth with it and produce packaging to accompany it; I actually still want to design packaging for it to further create the atmosphere behind the design.It’s quite funny because if you look at my design sketchbook you may notice that I was potentially looking into giving blood so that I could be further immersed into what I was designing. That’s commitment for you!! I was going to bleed for my work!!! 0,0 lol! So far, ‘Blood Type O’ has been created and it’s letter forms are all in Caps and soon to be added in the family are: A, B, AB and X.
If you look at the design to the type. Although it is simple, it portrays the visuals of blood cells, cells in biology and also the shape of bold type which can be located on hospital packaging. The design to it, is also based upon the shape of ‘Myriad Pro’ as well as the concept of decorative type.

WEBSITE

I also developed a website for ‘destroy’. What I wanted to do was to create something that was accessible to an audience wherever they went. So I decided to design the website in Dreamweaver/html/css. I’ve already got experience in designing in Flash but that isn’t accessible on mobile phones (well they may play flash, but it would take a long time to load.) It was also my first time fully using Dreamweaver so I had to build my knowledge from the ground to the top. I have to say, that I am also proud that in a short amount of time, I was able to use and understand the basics of the program.

Whilst I was working on the website, I created an ‘under construction’ page to let users know that it was being built. I also demoed it on my phone (Sony Ericsson w910i) to make sure that it was fully functional on that operating system.
The image above, is the work in progress version of ‘Destroy Create’. At this moment in time, I created the website from scratch using no custom interfaces by Dreamweaver. This however, proved to be a problem as the layout wouldn’t ‘stick’ to the area which it was placed. Sure, I’d take a break and fix the problem and I did good for a person who had no prior experience but it was taking too long.

So in the end, with advice from my classmate who has experience in web building, I used a preset layout by Dreamweaver and based my original layout around that. It paid off but one bug that I have to still fix is the ‘blue border’ around the ‘red’ back button. It is only visible on firefox and not on Safari but this means that it is also visible on mobile phones. For any advice to people designing on a mac, ALWAYS preview in Firefox and also make sure that you view what you are designing on a PC since the screening for Mac will greatly differ!

So~ CHECK OUT THE FINAL DESIGN TO DESTROY CREATE!!!!

Newman Street

OK, so I’m in the process of figuring out my Final Major Project. I know that the content is going to contain as it is going to continue with ‘Destroy’.

So anyway, I was wandering around London when I found this street called ‘Newman Street’ and it looks like it has alot of design studios on that road (I’m only assuming that they are I’ve never been in them). Still, I found them reaaaaaallllly inspiring and I fantasized/visualized the possibility of ‘Destroy’ becoming like that. So I took some pictures and I’m using this street as reference to spur me on to create a good visual identity for the company.

You’ll be seeing how it goes soon.

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Live abroad? Outside of London? Or too lazy to find the street and see it?

Then type this into Google Maps:

‘Newman Street, Paddington, United Kingdom’

Look @ what I found~

So I was pretty much wandering around London’s Soho district when I bumped into this poster. I thought I’d take a pic and share with you guys since it intrigued me.

It’s made of 2 A2 posters rotated at a 45º angle. I find this design very interesting with it’s alternative complexities and it definitely is a rarity as many posters advertising clubs are in your standard portrait format :/

I admire this advertisement as it has an alternative vision that is still just as visually attractive as the usual suspects which you see on a regular basis.

ICA (Institute of Comtemporary Arts) Deconstruction

Okay!! I’m back again! It’s been awhile and I’ve noticed that I haven’t being posting my work as consistently as I did last semester, but I’ve been quite busy so most of my time/free time has been focused upon getting my thesis up to scratch as well as getting individual projects completed.

Here is one of those individual completed projects. The brief to this piece was basically to deconstruct an exhibition; so I chose the Rosalind Nashashibi exhibition which was shown at about October to mid-November. The piece which you are about to see is the rehashed version. The original, now that I look back on it, was quite sloppy but it served as the base template for the redesigned version.

In the next post I’ll be discussing my brief which explores how to present land art/environmental art to an audience. This project is ongoing and will be finalised at Christmas so stay posted for that.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that the images in the PDF are scans from the ICA’s art magazine called ‘Roland’. Since I was unable to take pictures at the exhibition, I referred to the magazine as a reference guide.

Originals:

You’ll see in the PDF, that the design doesn’t differ from this original submission.

Note designs I took at the ICA: (when I get scans of them I’ll upload into a photo gallery)

Redesign Exhibition Deconstruction

Exhibiting Land/Environmental Art

OK, so I’ve had 2 concepts for portraying Land Art to the masses, or at least introduce them to the subject.

I’m actually only going to portray ONE of those concepts to you guys unfortunately. The other idea I actually wanna materialise into reality and I don’t want anyone taking it away from me!!! O,o! lol. Anyways, this one which I’m gonna show you it a conceptual idea about exhibiting land art to people (obviously) but – this takes an interesting twist to it.

Some Environmental Art works aren’t forever, for it’s name sake, the work can potentially decompose if it is made out of earthly matter. So what I propose is setting up an exhibition where the ‘extinct’ land art can be portrayed to the general public. This would be a good chance for people who haven’t seen the art in its natural habitat to see it again.

Although, the new habitat mat be synthetic, the exhibition will try to get a close grip onto the natural harmonics which the original work portrayed by manipulating the gallery spaces: sound, lighting, temperature and wind. In order to get closer to nature and the work’s canvas.

PLEASE!!! Check out the PDF for a clearer, visual example: Click here to download~!!!

Self-Initiated Project: DESTROY!!!!!

I’ve been working on my self initiated project. I personally see this as an upgrade to my Almanac that I really want to update as I feel that it doesn’t represent me as I think it should. I suppose that is because I believe that my character is ever changing: one day I may be ‘X’ the other day I can be ‘F’ :p

Anyways, the idea behind this project, was to produce a piece of work which contained the themes of violence and visual intrigue.  I explored different advertisements and methods that could capture the eye of the audience such as the banned Mortal Kombat advertisement And also Nagi Noda with her Coca Cola ‘What Goes Around’ advertisement. It inspired me to add the element of movement on direct mail.

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So here is the design for the consertina direct mail that I designed. The typography is made out of sugar paper and I created it free form; meaning that I just teared out the shape into however I wanted for it to suited the mood of the project.

Which reminds me that I haven’t talked in depth about the project! OK, so this project was I said earlier was the update to the almanac. But I wanted to make this as a foot hold in visualising my ‘graphic identity’ with the early thoughts about starting it as my pseudonym for my graphic style. Also, a lady named Caroline who works as an editor oversaw development of this work and on one of the ideas (the phrase ‘Destroy what you enjoy’) she said to copyright it. Although I didn’t have the time, it’s definitely something that I will look into for the future as I intend to materialise ‘destroy’.

The thought:

I feel so passionate about this project. Destroy doesn’t intend to just ‘destroy’ work. What it means is in the act of destruction; something can be created. For example, like in stylish movies when things are blown up or shattered in slow motion… it looks COOOL!!!! Also in Hindu mythology, Shiva is the creator and destroyer of things.

So here is the concertina design: CLICK TO ENLARGE THE WORK!!!! I’ll try and get scans of the real thing soon!

The design of the characters where inspired by Saul Bass and Matisse… Well mainly Matisse. I think that it totally adds to the expressionist vibe and carry the general tone of the piece. The heading text ‘destroy’ would be die-cut. More information on that soon.

[Visual References: Matisse's Jazz and 52 and Saul Bass]

Making of the ‘Box Idea’ Installation

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Here is a making of the installation I created. It was ALL handmade including the near 180 cubes which I had to cut and glue together. Trust me, it took alot of hard work and focus!!! I have to give credit to blackpluto for cutting some of the box nets to lighten my load!!!

The images that you see are the base models for the installation where the small boxes go.

I’ll upload a document where you can fully read the basis, idea and design of the installation~ Click the images to enlarge~

UTOPIAN CITIES EXHIBITION

You may have noticed in a previous post that I uploaded a submission form and guidelines. This was due to an exhibition event which I was part of.

The exhibition was surrounding the theme of ‘Utopian Cities’ but I think the great thing which our group explored, was what Utopian cities meant to people; and find their point of view, rather than the stereotypical futuristic stuff that you constantly are subjected to.

In the exhibition featured 2 interactive installations, a video and posters complimenting the subject matter.

Here are uploaded pics I took on my camera phone, sorry if the quality is bad!! (+ I’ve just checked the preview and unfortunately wordpress has rotated some of the images which are originally in portrait, to landscape so I’m sorry if you guys have to crank your head 90 degrees sometimes.)

Linear Notes:

1-5: The exhibition space.

Acquire Arts in Vauxhall, South London.

6-50: Upper floor.

Here the 2 installations were laid out as well as posters including the Guideline submission that I designed.

The installations featured an interaction with the question. The one question (images 22-25) asked the audience what is their life like right now. Image 20 coincides with the answers and to compliment that it asks what is their ideal world like.

50a-52: Stairs leading downstairs.

We made use of the stairs and added painted footprints on notes symbolizing that money isn’t a real matter in Utopian society.

53-61: Lower floor.

Feautured more more posters and a video created by one of the group members.

Personal Notes:

For the group, I produced one of the installations (26-50), guideline submission poster set and an A2 poster

(I actually knocked up the poster in a night which I am proud of. It’s type based and utilises the concept of seeing things from far way; but they are indeed close. I’m glad that we got to add this feature into the exhibition).

The installation I created was mounted on 2 nails and all posters were mounted via a mixture of heavy duty double sided tape and velcro.

Update 2010

OK!!! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything on the old blog and right now is as good a time to tell you guys what I’ve been up to!

The previous post (Guidelines and Submission Form) was a submission form for an exhibition on Utopian Cities which I was involved in and I’ll update you guys on what the exhibition was about in a separate post. The actual project itself was VERY demanding. I’ve never worked so hard on a project and in the end I walked away from it knowing a more clearer understanding about myself and how I operate when it comes down to working. I pretty much know now that sometimes I give myself more work than I can handle and it’s a good job that I figured that out now rather than later. This has really helped me to mature in taking realistic approaches into what I can achieve with projects in the future. To tell you the truth, I feel as if I’ve become more decisive in executing ideas and actions. Working in a group really does allow you to know more about how your mind works leading you to become a better worker in whatever field you operate in.

I’ve still gotta post these projects which I’ve been working on:

• Exhibition Deconstruction
• Land Art (I’m actually not going post this project until it is developed fully. More details of this will be made soon.)
• Self-Initiated project.

Recently I’ve also been carrying on my studies in Japanese Language. I went to Japan last year and whilst I was there, I realised that I needed to top up my vocab!  Also more recently I’ve been back into practicing in music. I’m pretty much an on-and-off drummer (since I haven’t got easy access to any) but I own a Bass guitar and I’ve been working into at least playing at a fluent level. After a hard days work there’s nothing more relaxing than jamming on my bass!!! Still, the drums are my first love and I wanna bash on them sometime soon haha! Oh yeah, I’ve also been studying in texts and reference material in Graphics. I have to say I’m heavily immersing myself in the subject and I gotta say that I owe it to the Exhibition project which I did. So, sometime soon I’ll be sharing some useful books with you guys.

I’ve been so busy that I needed a heavy mind vacation!!! Still sorry to you guys for not posting any updates for awhile and I’ll be sure to post my recent work in the coming week. BTW Happy Late New Year~ :p!!!!

Speak to you guys soon.

P.S. Sorry for the bad grammar, spellings and sentence structures. I’m very tired and I haven’t had anything to eat yet :p!!! I hate bad grammar!!!! O.O!!!!! lol