Typography

I was sorting through some old work and came across my final project at Kingston, for my foundation.
Completely unfamilar with proper techniques (like usual paint and a brush!) I used a parker pen and
dark blue ink. I remember it was raining on and off all day while I was trying to take pictures of them
but somehow they're still in tact. The ingenuity and inexperience of youth!

Signpainting Workshop with Mike Meyer - June 2014

Last week, I took part in a signpainting workshop with the amazing Mike Meyer. A complete learning experience for me, considering I'd never so much as used a quill and before but I'm glad I did it this way, learning it the *proper* way rather than on my own. I've wanted to do a self initiated signpainting project for the past couple of years but a general inexperience and having no idea where to begin has always stopped me.

These pictures are from the second day of the workshop, which ran for two days on Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th, and where I began from scratch after a bit of a shit show the day before. I spent a good few hours doing basic exercises; straight lines, horizontal lines, practicing straight finishes and flicked finishes (it was only last week and now I can't even remember the proper terminology...)  I then began using some of the reference materials to just start painting words and get more comfortable using the brush to write letters. I discovered that find it much easier to do script or freehand rather than geometric/bold typefaces, using a rough pencil sketch as a guideline (as i did for 'Hubbs' below) or just beginning to paint straight (as i did on 'Luckies pay higher prices' and 'french'). I was really happy with a 'young' i did in grey at the end of the session on Thursday, but it dried stuck to a sheet of newsprint so it's more of a ghost! 

It was a real joy to get more *hands on* with typography, like I found with letterpress. It really gives you an understanding of the letterforms and how treatment (how you position and angle the brush, know when to push down and lift off) can make such a difference. It also taught me that, while it's necessary pay close attention to detail and focus, it's really important to be relaxed and to trust your instincts (also, to try to get a good line with one stroke - a shaking hand and increasingly thickening paint the first day working on bold letterforms meant that really didn't work the first day.) 

Now to get some paint and quills and start practicing again! 

Titles

The top 4 by Saul Bass; Charade by Maurice Binder.

(Why am i always drawn to black and white?)

'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World' is wonderful, see here

V&A...again

I've been doing bits and bobs at the v&a for a few months now, helping out in workshops as well as designing an identity for their youth forum CreateVoice. Nothing that was a huge departure for me though; black outlined and hand rendered type but I had some lovely feedback from it which is encouraging. Now to start designing a postcard pack to woo a supermodel!

Anton Chekov

I'm not too good with colour in my illustrations and have recently found that using coloured typography instead of my standard black outline really lifts the image. This is Chekov quote that stuck a chord with me and i just thought it evoked such rich imagery. I wanted to play around with a different technique than my standard black outline so tried out the waves by filling then with lines of varying thickness to show the different tones.

\/ + /\

This was my entry for the image for the V&A website. i really like it and it's really similar to the chintzy cheeriness on i posted a little while ago from my sketchbook. I didn't win but i'm to do an identity for the CreateVoice scheme instead! pressure pressure pressure

Old Old Old

Tube or False

Dream campaigns; i saw them yesterday on the tube and think they are the loveliest things. They're like fabric throws, all woven and type and pattern and HERITAGE. The patterns are seat cover designs used on the circle, northern, piccadilly, jubilee and metropolitan lines from the 1039's to present.

No surprises, but they're all true but i guess the slogan tube or false sets up the idea that they seem unbelievable but aren't and that just how exciting and interesting the underground is.

I just need to find out who did it now...

(pictures courtesy of the tfl website)

62.

I've been reading John Betjeman a lot recently.

Bit of a fail

but i tried! And made whole £3. Although with the sickening deadline the day before, I was happy that i generated anything for the London Zine Symposium (Sat 29th)

With my penchant for bad taste, i made a mini collection of... bad taste things. they were all unintentionally animal related (a carmen miranda duck, dog costumes, glass bird ornaments) just done in continuous line. Here are some pictures that i lifted from the Nest facebook group, complete with some unimpressed looks. Maybe £1.50 was too steep? [mine's the 'good taste bad taste one in the bottom left]

New Finds

After perusing the internet for pretty much the whole of yesterday i found some lovely little titbits.

I want to live in Rennies Seaside Modern or buy up everything with pretend money to have in my pretend house. i would happily live amongst the delightful postcards and silken scarves and every single one of the old books. James Brown's Linoprints would also do VERY nicely. The one above is my favourite, taken from his website.

Seb Lester is another absolute favourite. Some of his calligraphy stuff reminds me of Letman. Tits, Arse and Keep it Simple are my faves. Pictures all from his website.

The Dot and the Line

It's Perfect.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

My final A1 poster for the second project set at Camberwell.

The brief was to only use typography, strictly no imagery allowed, and one colour to depict 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' by Gil Scott Heron in an A1 poster (min 25 words) and a double page spread containing the whole poem. I wanted the imagery to be purely greyscale but by a happy accident there were highlights of purple when it went for printing which i thought set it off quite nicely (thankfully).

Insipred by the 'Tower of Babel' concrete poetry, i made jenga sized blocks initially in black outlines. I thought these looked pretty poor though so i filled them in black and put text around the blocks rather than just on the face. They were a beast to position though. Three different sessions because i wasn't happy with the photos. I threw things. And them. That's why they're a bit dented. oh well.