Website version III

As well as doing a new website for my parents' new B&B venture (www.salcombeclosehouse.com), I've been redesigning my online portfolio. It actually works (version II was a bit temperamental) and doesn't look too bad, more work will be up there soon - photography session desperately needed.

Three of your five a day

A bit of knitting fun from the past week...

More Secret History

The results are online for the Penguin Design Awards, lots of lovely designs, not too sure mine looks that good on the small screen all digitised, it looks better in the physical. Because of the complicated printing methods, Penguin have asked me to make up a 3D copy and an A3 flat version for the awards ceremony, damn it! I couldn't feel my fingertips after the first version. Boo. But looking forward to the evening, much fun.

(Click on the title of this entry to move magically to the Penguin Design Award website, I'm finally getting used to this blog thing.)

Secret History not so secret

I found out that I was shortlisted for the Penguin Design Award! Although I didn't get into the last three I am still very pleased. Prize giving ceremony is in London later this month, so I'll be up for that then the week after we're going on a field trip to various studios in the city. One place we're all excited about is Greyworld, as Andrew Shoburn came down to visit us at the beginning of the year and definitely made an impression. What a character! He got a standing ovation and whistling from the BA kids, now that doesn't happen that often in the lecture theatre.

Kaleidoscopic Hands for all to see!

So I've finally let the piece of moving image from earlier in the term into the wilderness of the www and here he is. I'm mulling over another moving image piece, but the plot isn't there yet. Lets just say it involves custard.

kaleidoscopic hands from hblikethepencil on Vimeo.

Molto Bella!

After a whistlestop tour of the Milan Furniture Show, I feel energised and insipired even more than before. Highlights being work from Danish, Dutch and German exhibits, a selection of favourites shown above. Craft and process were key themes I noticed, which are areas I am looking into in my own work.

Links:
http://www.zpstudio.it/
http://www.rawcolor.nl/welcome/
http://www.pepeheykoop.nl/
http://www.llotllov.de/

That's Design!

Just a quick one to direct your attention to the Falmouth page of the Milan furniture show website, we are exhibiting in That's Design! which is a showcase for students and young professionals from around the world. The scarf is finished and is flying over (cargo - no first class seats left) this week, and I'll be joining it next Tuesday. Exciting times. Penguin book jacket is being sent off tomorrow too - its all go!

http://www.thatsdesign.it/?page_id=1099

Ghost of a Teacup

Fellow knit enthusiast and member of the MA Design cohort Sarah Hunt and I have been collaborating on a piece for the Milan Furniture Show. We've been having study sessions fuelled by tea for a while now as we bounce ideas around nicely and are interested in the same things, namely the relationship of craft and technology. This project started with Sarah coming to me wanting some decorative forms for a box for a set of teacups she had designed, but over the course of the weekend we decided to use acrylic inlay to make silhouettes of saucers and spoons for the teacups. Because it is all being designed on the computer using 3D Studio Max, we can import vectors from Illustrator without too many problems, and will be making the main body of the box out of ash wood using a CNC miller, and the inlays with the laser cutter. This is a test Sarah made on tuesday with some foam, pictures of the final piece to follow shortly, as soon as we can get the machines to behave! It has been a great experience, I've enjoyed working with someone from another discipline, expecially as we can understand each other and are on a similar wavelength, and the potential for more work together and the alternative mediums is very attractive.

FTSE Scarf

As part of my investigation into the role and perception of craft in today's society, I have been knitting a scarf based on the daily results of the FTSE100 stock market. I wanted to make something that depicts a form of data that is normally viewed in a digital context, constantly being updated and viewed by people all around the world, in a format that is associated with very traditionalist methods of making. Simply, it is a knitted bar graph of the FTSE results of the last three months that can be worn round the neck, or displayed flat to make it more readable. This aspect, the way in which it is read and how much information can be gathered, is an area I would like to explore more into. It has been chosen to go to Milan Furniture Show as part of the UCF MA Design stand, which is great. I get to go to Italy! I'm not sure on the stand design, so don't know how it is going to be displayed, all I know is that it will be next to a collaborative piece I am doing with Sarah Hunt, a student on MA Contemporary Craft. See next post for more on this piece, it is hopefully the beginning of an exciting collaborative partnership!

The Musical Meanderings of Mr Martin Coote and more...

Not being known for my musical prowess, I was at a loss for what to give to the ears of the YCN O2 judges when it came to my kaleidoscope video piece. Luckily a very talented friend of mine offered up his services, and I now have a FANTASTIC bit of audio to edit to, it really is the business. He also did a sterling job supporting at the launch of The Black Maria Memorial Fund and Yossarian joint EP, Counting The Moon, on Friday at the wonderful Babahogs in Falmouth. A spectacular evening was had by all attending.

Ooh links:

www.last.fm/music/martin+coote

http://www.last.fm/music/darwindee
http://www.thememorialfund.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yossarian/5868183150
http://www.babahogs.com
Not sure why some of these are live while others lie dormant, I suggest good old copy and paste.

Happy Clappy Technicoloured Kalaidascopes

We've been doing an introduction to AfterEffects and moving image, I spent yesterday up to the elbow in poster paint and began playing around with the results today, it's looking promising! It's for the YCN O2 brief, to communicate the idea "we're better connected". I've been really interested in the part that hands have to play in learning and communicating, so thats what sprouted this idea. A weekend of editing fun is ahead I predict!

Wastelands

We're working on some concepts for the MA Curatorial Practice students' exhibition at the Newlyn gallery just outside Penzance. The work on show is by local artists, with the theme of wastelands. This is my favourite of mine at the moment, its one of a set of 4. Not sure how it'll go down, I'm going to come up with some other applications of the contour/map idea over the next few days...

The Craftsman

I was so excited about this book that I pre-ordered it, and it came today! Not only is the cover one of the best I've seen recently, but it looks to be very relevant to my work.

"In this provocative and enlightening book, Richard Sennet explores the idea of craftsmanship - the desire to do a job well done for its own sake - as a template for living. Pure competition, he argues, will never produce good work. Instead, the values of the craftsman, whether in a Strativari violin workshop or a modern laboratory, can enrich our lives and change the way we anchor ourselves in the world around us."

Exciting stuff.

Snow!

OK so I guess there are loads of blogs with photos of snowmen and snowball fights, but how many people got to see snow on the beach? Well, probably quite a few (England - island), but Falmouth and the surrounding beaches were beautiful yesterday. All gone now though, boo.

Prisms of Process

For the final project of semester one I made this installation to represent the process involved in the development of each project. I realised that the most important discovery I had made on my MA was the process of process. It is not just a linear path, there are junctions and experiences which throw up new ideas and avenues at multiple points in a project, meaning it is impossible to predict where a project may end (or not).

I thought that prisms would be an effective metaphor for this, with the prisms representing external influences that throw up more options, from which I have to pick a path. I used wool to make the light (referencing my own personal interest in knitting and craft based materials), and used the same material to construct a large spiderweb sprawling along the back wall. Using the same material is meant to represent the fact that I then use these paths to 'capture' ideas. In the installation there is also a wastepaper bin full of scrunched up tin foil, rather than paper. This shows that all research and ideas are valid, even if they're crap. You have to get them out your system, and may potentially help uncover a better idea. On the back wall behind this all there is a small piece of card with the beginnings of a manifesto for my working method, which reads:

Don't try and predict where an idea may take you
External influences lead to new perspectives
All research is valuable
Nice paper is essential
Make something
Who is it for?

For a piece that was conceived and produced in two days, I'm pleased with the outcome. It has led to potential new routes to follow in the rest of the year, which is pretty exciting. More to follow I hope...

Precious Pocket Money

I'd been keeping my eye out for the 50p to complete the set of coins designed by Matthew Dent for the Royal Mint, and was lucky enough to get one in Tescos the other day, how it made my day! But then, alas, I had to use the twenty and ten to get a bus, back to the drawing board. More muttering over change outside shops to come, what joy.

The Secret History v1

This is the mock-up of my book jacket for the Penguin Design Award brief for The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It isn't how I was envisioning it at the beginning of the project, but I suppose that is only a good thing, as it shows that I've adapted and analysed the brief and my own development of the project as I went along.

It is a matt white cover, with type in members of the Fruitiger family. There is then a dust jacket in red card with ivy leaves printed on in greyscale, which sprawls over the cover, hiding some of the copy. I added a layer of sticky backed plastic to indicate a high gloss finish. It is only a partial dustjacket, a job for a laser cutter (or me with a very sharp scalpel). I wanted to represent the secrets and deception in the story through layers, so all was not obvious to the viewer on first glance. I chose white because of the snow that the second victim is hidden underneath, but also the description 'the river ran white', which stuck in my head. The ivy on the dustjacket refers to both the symbol of Bacchus, but also another line from the same passage about the ivy running up the trees before their eyes. The way it sprawls over the cover is related to this also, and causes an uncomfortable feeling. The similarity to a blood spatter could also be mentioned.

I only made the choice to go down this route a few days before the final crit, so there are still tweaks to make on the typography and I also want to tackle the end papers etc inside. The paper stocks aren't quite right yet either, I want a very matt, maybe slightly textured stiff paper for the white, and a high gloss for the semi-dustjacket. Neil Buchannen would be proud of my application of sticky backed plastic...

I didn't know that

Foxes are one of the animals connected to the Greek god Bacchus, the study of which is a key theme in The Secret History. This is a picture of how a fox pounces on it's prey - something that looks quite ridiculous really, not very predator-like.

All I want for Christmas...

... is this book! And that is what I found under the tree on Christmas Day. One of my favourite books and a very covetable object that will take pride of place on my book shelf. Second on my list of presents was a frog shaped tape measure, I'm such a wild child.

New Year, new stuff... nearly

Well after a refreshing break its back to the studio and the drawing board (my Grandpa's old Rotring), results of which will follow shortly. During the holiday I went down to Penzance just for the heck of it and found this treasure trove of a book shop. I took some photos to help pad out my research for the Penguin book jacket competition, there were some beautiful examples of old book jackets, especially the ones without dust jackets. Oh and happy birthday me. The big two three.