Farewell, Whitechapel

After working Whitechapel Gallery since last September and then staying on for a freelance job this past month, I've now finished my time there as design and production intern/freelance graphic designer. A book I designed in conjunction with the upcoming Stephen Willats exhibition is due to be printed soon, can't wait to get my hands on a copy!

Where Are The Girls?

The Last Mermaid Show

Reminds me of a happier version of the burlesque mermaids in Middlesex. Beautiful.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/magazine/the-last-mermaid-show.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Things

I've been interning at a wonderful studio for the last month and a half // spent a couple of my weekends making decorations for Imfest 2013 - R took the pictures (thanks brah) // listening to Jarvis Cocker's Wireless Nights on the gross balmy commute home in an attempt to grapple some magic from the mundane // trying to make a start on a self initiated project that I've been mulling over since December // reading this in the hopes that indignation will kickstart aforementioned project (it hasn't yet) // watching this (and making notes - even though it's been a year since graduation too) // “the pains of loving pop culture while female.”

1111111111111111111

First year anniversary for the CreateVoice blog this week! 

Or, around this time as it took so long to do and i remember missing the opening ceremony amidst mild coding induced hysteria. It looks great, now with bulked up content and a range of subject posts, from exhibition reviews and gallery tours to documenting workshops and events

 Have a look at it here http://createvoice.blogspot.co.uk

SibleyGrove Christmas Cards 2012

Update to the company's website with the cards I designed for them last year - more photos here. 

The Signal

I watched The Future last weekend and have been humming my brain mangled version of this song ever since whilst pottering around. It only occurred to me now to find out what the song is it is so I can hum it for reals and swoon in private.

Holiday Motel

Just found this illustration I did that was included as a selection of 'limited edition 

gum cards' in sweetie bags for sale at the Pick & Mix show last August. 

I'd like to do more stuff like this! 

Golden Girls + Clueless

Take More Risks//Take Up Space

"If there was room to get emotional and not fear being written off because of it; if I didn’t struggle to control those emotions in order to be taken seriously, and then become angry at the thought of silencing myself, and then silence that anger and so on in a continual loop; basically, if I could Take Up Space in a way in which I could still be myself, then I have a feeling that it all wouldn’t seem like Being Too Much anymore. I wouldn’t feel like I was spilling over the boundary of “appropriate behavior,” if that boundary were a little more malleable, a little less judgmental. There wouldn’t be the same urge to smash up against it or kick it down. And since I don’t see permission to alter those boundaries coming from anywhere else, maybe I just have to give it to myself."

and 

"Chris Kraus recently said in an interview that the work she loves the most is “the work that doesn’t try to make itself loveable.” I, too, love this kind of work. I find it brave and exciting and truthful and important. And I admire it because it’s hard to break those habits. To realize that the love and approval of someone else is not going to get you to a place of trusting yourself. And any worthwhile work is not going to come out of any other place. This is, for me, tied to the idea of giving permission to yourself, of deciding to Take Up Space in a way that doesn’t stifle. Trusting yourself to make your own limits." 

This makes me think that I really really need to read Heroines.

 Above text from this wonderful article http://maisonneuve.org/blog/2013/01/28/kate-zambrenos-heroines-being-too-much-and-taking-/

Internships

I've been interning on and off at two lovely design studios these past couple of months SibleyGrove and Lollipop, both very different experiences but a really nice introduction to working in a small design company. Here is the christmas card I designed in early November for SibleyGrove, which I have just found out was included in Dezeen's pick of their favourite designers christmas cards which is a wonderful surprise! 

A playful twist on the traditional christmas cards, it was designed as a Santa Claus-style beard to be cut out and worn by the participant. I have yet to get my hands on a actual card, so will take some proper pictures as and when I do

Beards Beards Beards. Gold Beards.

I have some loose ends left over from last year that I need to tie up - to photograph to update my portfolio and to actually get hold of some physical copies first to do so. I'm a bit annoyed I didn't get to do this before the end of last year.

I've done 2 placements since the beginning of November and am due to finish my current one next week I think. 
Getting that awful sinking feeling now when looking for another one. 

To distract myself I've just got a tumblr this past week and went nuts. 

Book Covers

Some ideas for a projects that didn't go ahead (pastels pastels pastels). There were tons more colourways, I think almost 40 in total but I do like these the most. I've also been  thinking about the best way of organising my inspiration files and wondering whether getting a load printed in as a hardback book/s I can constantly use for reference would be a good idea.

V&A Create! Fashion Festival

I've started an internship last week! Fun beard things which would be irresponsible for me to divulge until the appropriate time. Odd that, considering a couple of weeks ago I mentioned out loud that I wanted to do a series/continuation of my 

beardy man, albeit stylistically as I can't really do etching as easily anymore. And this pretty much is. Labour intensive though, and done entirely on Illustrator rather than handmade but I can't wait to see what it looks like finished. 

Last night I also tidied up a graphic I designed for the upcoming fashion festival at the V&A which is happening on the 

8th of December. The brief, giving to me by the lovely Jazmine, was to make a teaser flyer along with another giving a breakdown of highlights of the confirmed programme to be sent out to interested parties. Really happy with how these came out (pastels pastels pastels) and make sure to come down if you're free! 

Visual Identity for Creativity in the City - Flyer

Flyer for the CreateVoice event this Friday the 2nd at the V&A that I recently designed. 

Images of the programme cover I designed to be printed on the risograph will be up soon! 

Core to the event is interactivity, through the workshops on offer across the museum. 

The playful element of the building bricks also links to the central theme of 'Creativity in the City', 

with the idea that you could create and adapt your own 'city' through the use of these simple, striking building elements. 

I'm part of the workshop collaborating with Jimmy Turrell and Kate Gibb as well as the structural workshop 

with David Ajasa-Adekunle building element (which probably subconsciously influenced this design). 

Come down this friday if you're free! It's sure to be a good'un

Brutalist Buildings

Some images I have made in preparation for a workshop that I, along with a 

few others from CreateVoice, are doing in collaboration with Jimmy Turrel and 

Kate Gibb from Great Western Studios for the next event on Friday 2nd November 

(more information on the CreateVoice blog) 

I think I did about 10 in total but these are my favourites. 

Looking forward to doing some screenprinting again! 

Troubling Technicolour

Just editing some images of my Tomorrow's World book I made last 

year, which prompted these weird happy accidents. How strange. 

They're a bit fashionable...still, I quite like them despite this. 

The original just seems a bit dull now

'In doing nothing, the student has time to think and has time for intrigue'

Holy shit.

The woven Kente silk uppers for me please. 

Beautifully made film, nice music. 

Those white wedge ones are a treat too.

Camberwell Blog

I was asked last week if I would fill in a alumni profile for the Camberwell blog

 discussing my work with the V&A and CreateVoice as well as what I've been 

up to since graduating this past July (my disposable camera full of graduation 

photos has finally been sent off for processing so no doubt there'll be some

 gurning treats lurking in there).

To point and laugh at my big stupid face (photo credit to Big D) and to read 

my fascinating, witty and insightful answers click here. Otherwise listen to this 

gorgeous song and pretend it's not so cold that your joints are going all jippy. 

(I've discovered a version by Quincey Jones and Akon which is HORRIBLE. 

A travesty. Don't even think about listening to that one. The Brothers Johnson 

one's a treat though so you can listen to that.) 

You're Welcome;

V&A CreateVoice Blog

A bit late, but I spent a fair few painful weeks (or the majority of late July and August...bloody coding) designing the blog for the museums youth forum . The section dedicated to CreateVoice and various other young peoples programmes on the website is incredibly difficult to navigate, with everything kind of thrown in one place leaving the viewer to decipher what they can. It's been mentioned by numerous people who turn up to meetings that they had no idea what the forum is about and what we do, so I wanted to communicate this as clearly and simply as possible. 

I wanted it to be clean, simple but with an eclectic touch so I used the logo I had designed previously as a starting point from which I built around the colour pallet and idea of using stand alone buttons or icons to navigate to specific areas of the site. As with blogger templates anyway, a click of the above logo sends you back to home where you can view posts written by members of the forum. I'm super pleased with how it's turned out!