Professional Mentor

I have not yet discovered a suitable mentor I could easily be in contact with, due to lack of contacts with outside designers. However I do understand my mentor should be a senior designer that not only can guide me through the industry and teach me the first skills I need but can a role model of the position i hope to be in in a few years time. 
The Sign making Designer i interviewed for my professional practice work Carol Lewis, has been helpful towards be. She provides me with information and alerts me on any job opportunity and sites that would be suitable for me. 

Liberty: Rory Dobner

Rory Dobner is an artist working with illustration and creating unique home ware pieces. I came across his work while in London and immediately fell in love, his illustrations of characters are comical yet classic, forced to stand out. I like the way in which his works are black and white appearing simplistic but very detailed.

                            
                       

Trade Journal: Creative Review

Creative Review launched in 1980, is a magazine for the design industry inspires, simulates and informs people within design. The trade Journal covers all aspects from advertisements and typography to photography and illustration.
I first began looking into this journal for inspiration in my first year of BTEC Level 3 Design and ever since have felt it's effective and provokes inspiration for me to gain ideas from. Not only do I love the content within I feel the look and identity of the Creative Review is easily recognisable and shows off what simple design and layout is all about. 

Artist Two: Nobuhiro Nakanishi

Studying for both a B.A and M.A in Fine Art Sculpture in Japan Nobuhiro Nakanishi is a well recognised installation artist. He lives and works in Osaka, Japan.  His work has very intense meaning behind it, in the fact that he wants our bodies to explore spatial awareness and the flow of time. Nobuhiro mainly uses landscapes in his sculptures to achieve this.

Artist One: Karen Hanmer

Karen Hanmer is a Chicago based installation artist and book binder who’s work is based on using text and imagery alongside each other. The inspiration for her works comes from researching into cultural history and the history of science, allowing her work to represent the experience of looking through old photo albums or diaries of intimate memories. To create her pieces she combines the traditional book binding methods with computer software to improve her processes.

                                           

Guerrilla Advertising

Being a graphic designer, advertisment is a huge part of the design and what great influence can be taken from. I have come across the style of Guerilla advertising and find it fascinating the way it makes people perceive things. Guerrilla advertising was originally made for unconventional means using low cost materials to create the work such as: graffiti, flyer posting and stickers.The concept behind this advertising method is to shock people and twist the ideas of reality.

Stitch Work

Throughout my professional practice and projects I have had an ongoing interest with stitch work and embroidery. This past week I have focused on exploring this further researching into works of designers that use this process to create design. One designer which caught my eye was Ana Teresa Barboza, as her embroidered images have great depth and detail. The colour usage is vibrant allowing it to stand out again either simple drawings or plain backgrounds.

Website Review

I have been looking at into websites which are specifically designed to help relevant designers get themselves noticed in the industry. I came upon a new website while researching into designers called 'Dribbble' www.dribbble.com, this particular website began as a side project before becoming a small, profitable company helping to share talent, connect with designers around the globe and give job opportunities. Its headquarters are based in Salem, Massachusetts.  
Dribbble is now one of the go-to websites while starting as a young designer. It is able to offer us a lot, broadcasting screenshots of our work, to gain recognition but also providing a well needed job vacancies page, which you can refine results to your own location to see what jobs are currently available. However the downside is the website adds a charge of $350 for only 30 days use.
This website allowed me to search into designers and look into what current work is being produced, I did find much inspiration that I will take forward in creating my works.

Metaphors in Art

Following on from the given session where we looked into metaphors being used in TV adverts such as Lloyds TSB adverts and Evain Water adverts, I will be finding a design piece or relevant advert to discuss and analyse the metaphor it uses. The Lloyds TSB animation adverts are a very effective metaphor using the train to represent individuals life journeys, which along the way Lloyds will support anyone's needs. Trains are easily accessible by all, giving reference to the way in which Lloyds work. 

                                       

With my specialism looking at graphic design I chose to look into how advertisement pieces for magazines use metaphors. This particular advertisement for the Nina Ricci perfume like most perfume ads revolves around selling their product through the use of metaphorical imagery. An overall concept behind the Nina Ricci perfume ad is to provoke the senses, closely linking smell to taste, sight and colour. Focusing firstly on the use of taste, the idea of the bottle and imagery being based on apples it immediately makes sweet come to mind, which red apples in particular are associated with. Now for sight, when taking a first glance the imagery is magical with the hint of innocence and the colour tone, being very light and simple gives a sense of the smell being fresh. The type font for the advertisement is the final element which can be used as a metaphor 

Yorkshire Sculpture Park Review

       

I am writing a review on the artist Barbara Hepworth and her work that is displayed at the Sculpture Park, after visiting on 25th September. The piece is titled 'Family of Man' which she created as one of her later pieces in the 1970s. 

Barbara Hepworth was one of the first well known woman sculpture artist who created contemporary pieces using traditional methods. She studied at both the Leeds School of Art and The Royal Art College of London, before travelling to gain influence and experience. Artists such as Henry Moore and Ben Nicholas played a huge part in her works.

This particular Art work 'Family of Man' is a 9 piece exhibition, made from bronze, which due to its individuality of the pieces is known to explore into different stages of life/humanity. The set begins with 'Young Girl' ending with 'Ancestors' giving a feel of adding maturaty and depth to each age. The piece also takes influence from her childhood, travelling with her father seeing scenes of working industrial towns and grand landscapes along the way. She wanted her Art to fulfill a landscape, changing the way it's seen in all seasons. 

This piece captured my attention at first based on it's quite simple use of organic shapes and dull colouring, however understanding the meaning and influences make it tell a story. Just the title of the piece is interesting, using the word 'man' could be meaning mankind, what is it? what happens within? which is what she is trying to show. I also like how the sculptures are all individual to their age, building up with more layers, representing how a persons maturity and life experience grows.