Bolshio acid attack

 

 

This shocking acid attack shows the amount of stress and conflict that can happen in the world of ballet. A well known soloist dancer part of the Bolshio ballet company was jailed after throwing acid in the face of the ballets artistic director. The attack was provoked after Mr.Filin denied dance roles to Pavel Dmitrichenko and his ballerina girlfriend which angered the dancer.

Josef Muller-Brockmann research

 

                      
                                        
                                                    

Born May 9th 1914 Josef Muller-Brockmann was a Swiss graphic designer and teacher at the Zurich School of Arts. Brockmann can be classified as one of the many designers part of the Swiss International style and he was also influenced buy other art movements such as Bauhaus and Russian Constructivism. I have looked into his work due to the fact that like Scher his work was on advertisement posters one of his most iconic being for Zurich Town Hall. Again I have focused in on the simplistic style of his works and enhancing space on a page. I like the way in which he layed his work out and use of shapes like circles and rectangles which can be seen more on his other works. Josef Muller-Brockmann also uses mostly sans serif fonts adding to the designs looking sharp and clean.

Paula Scher research

   

 
                                           

Paul Scher born October 6th 1948 is an American graphic designer, illustrator and painter. Scher began her career in the 70's and 80's due to her typography being a big influence and by 1984 she co-founded the Koppel & Scher with fellow designer Terry Koppel. Over the six years she produced identities, packaging and advertisement for wide range of clients. However in 1991 she became Principal at the international Design consultancy, Pentagram.
I have looked into her works she produced for the Public Theatre and the New York city ballet. I love the way in which she places type against an imagine always using large or bold sans serif fonts. Her advertisement for the Ballet sticks to having a lack of colour by using tonal black, white and grey making it look simple and almost elegant. In my posters I will create I may take influence from the way she uses typography to enhance an imagine or how it is placed sometimes even diagonally.

Billy Elliot research

                                  

Billy Elliot is a well known British film from 2000 starring Jamie Bell as the lead character 11 year old Billy. The film is about one boys dream to become a professional ballet dancer that secretly attends ballet classes. However he has to deal heavily with the negative stereotype of male ballet dancers from his farther and misses his first audition for the Royel Ballet School.  After all the trouble Billy is finally accepted in to the school and fourteen years later performs lead role in Swan Lake.  

This wonderful film, although it touches on the harsh stereotype of male dancers it is opposite to how  Black Swan perceives ballet dancing. Billy Elliot shows a more far fetched dream and perfect view on dancing that would make a lot aspire to it thinking it is a beautiful thing. Although it is true that the dance is pure and uplifting it does not take a closer look to explore the harsh truths. 

Black Swan research

 

The well known American thriller movie Black Swan starring Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman is based on the world of ballet dancing and explores the life of one dancers dream to be perfect. However as the dancer becomes under more intense pressure and having to compete against rival dancer for the part of the black swan she cracks and loses grip on reality.
Although this movie is exaggerated I do think it allows a slight insight into the reality of ballet dancing and that it isn't always perfect. A lot of ballet dancers are under pressure to produce a performance that is faultless and they do have to compete to either be in the best ballet companies or be a lead role.

Statement of Intent

The project brief is Take a Closer Look wanting us to explore a subject that has two opposite sides that may not always be accepted or seen. I have chosen to take forward the subject of Ballet Dancing, not only is it a passion of my own but I think its not something that many would see as possibly being controversial and having two sides. One being the pure beauty of ballet dancing and that a lot aspire to be a dancer but secondly that in reality it is both physically and mentally demanding due to the pressure and how perfect it has to be. I aim to produce a general piece of graphic design, either an advertisement/campaigne style poster using typography and illustrated imagery or a serious of simple images evolving showing the opposing sides. I will be using Adobe Photoshop software editing and adjusting imagery which is a building on my digital skills as I have only used it once before. I will also be taking my illustrator skills to a higher level.

So far I have took influences from designers Josef Muller-Brockmann and Paula Scher looking into their layouts and styles of their advertisement and posters they created. Brockmann's Swiss international style is simple and uses light tones of colours. Researching into Schers Public Theatre and New York City ballet advertisement I like the strong bold type she uses which is mainly sans serif fonts and how she places them against images. Also I researched into the new Black Swan movie and the way in which they perceived the ballet world and it does show the side that I am taking a closer look into, being that it is not all beauty. However I still do need to further my research into designers who use both Photoshop and illustrator and how they use them to manipulate images or to create their own imagery. I may explore dance photography and how a simple captured image can make an impact. Opinions are the strongest thing when looking into controversial subjects, I could gain these by going to talk to a dance school or dancers that have trained from being young, this allows me to have a real point of view to work with.

For this Project I intend to produce my designs using Photoshop and Illustrator. However I hope to combine them with traditional made images using watercolours, sketches and stitch work. Stitch work I feel would be appropriate to use as it often looks elegant like ballet dancing and using ribbon relates to the dance shoes they use. If I was to change and produce hand made work I would photograph the work displayed either in frames or on the wall to upload to the computer.
I have a vague idea of how I will manage my time. I need to dedicate my time most to the development of ideas and producing my final pieces as they are time consuming and need to be of a professional and presentable standard. I will divide my time into weeks, dedication either one or two weeks to each element of design. For the next 2 weeks I hope to develop my imagery and typography that I will put in my final pieces. Experiments will be the main part of this stage.

Cosmetic surgery

 

 

 

My second subject I am looking into that is controversial  is cosmetic and plastic surgery. the two differ. This cosmetic surgery is an optional procedure which is done on normal parts of the body to improve the appearance which over a million every year choose to have done. Some of these procedures are: Breast argumentation, liposuction and eyelid surgery. However plastic surgery is more for the correction or restoration of a body part. Most of those procedures are known as reconstructive surgery.

I think there are two sides to this, one being that having cosmetic surgery for some will improve their confidence about part of the body they dislike instead of feeling insecure although many people including celebrities take advantage of this surgery option when infact they do not need these procedures whereas their are genuine people with problems that need plastic surgery to help. Should surgeons time be taken by people wanting cosmetic surgery?