Tuesday, 20 February 2018

Bogota x Barcelona: Collaborative Publication

A Photographer friend of mine went to live in Colombia for 3 months. He took a few different cameras however the one film camera he took with was the one that becomes the topic of this publication. A few months after returning home to London, he went to Barcelona on a short leisure holiday with friends. He proceeded to take photos on the camera of the latter holiday, and it was only once developed that he realised he had left the film in and double exposed the images. The end results are something raw and visual, combining two stories into one; 'where two worlds collide'. Both the context and the aesthetic of the images produce a conceptual and abstracted series that merit great scope for a focused publication.

The nature of the end compositions takes on a sense of total organic collating. With the linear aspects within the individual subjects taking the role of deciding the light and visual qualities of each area of each photograph. The end result is for a series of images that depict what is to be seen. Youth, colour, shape, and scene to name a few. The narratives of these two cities, and two completely separate experiences, fuse and combine at the will of the camera itself. What is left is a rooted feel for the atmosphere, aromas and aesthetic of what the scene has to offer. 

The grand mistake that becomes an accidental delight, or a delightful accident. 
As if the original photographs themselves were never meant to stand alone. 

Photographer's statement:

This is a series of photos taken across 2 different cities, Bogota and Barcelona. The photos were taken on two separate point and shoot cameras bought at flee markets in each city, and both broke on finishing the roll of film. I used the same roll in order to double expose street scenes and moments I experienced on each trip. The result combines street photography, landscape and nature photography, and general photos of old and new friends who showed me their native home cities.

























A lot of the photos have this strip / horizontal rectangle that can be used as a design feature for the publications identity. It is the naturally occurring strips and shapes that collate the final compositions. How these linear qualities break the photograph is what forms the collage of final composition, thus taking these sectors to frame certain parts of the imagery is what the publication should draw in on. As the overall images are quite busy and hard to understand at first, maybe by sectioning off parts, the viewer can understand their stories with greater ease. 

Research & initial ideas:

Front Cover initial experiments:


This photograph really stood out to me amongst the bunch, as it is an absolute disguise. The perfect block doesn't merge with the former image but blocks its subjects. The resultant composition is solid and inquisitive, adding an element of mystery. The shape of the exposed film is stained and this shape becomes the border for most of the following imagery, these following photographs feel subsequently different to the entire collages. I thought by taking the block and manipulating it to its most basic form, presenting its textures and tones, possibly through the medium of print, would be a relevant cover, inviting the viewer into the story through this door.











These experiments look at the possible colours the photograph can emit, as well as inverting techniques to get the central block to be the focus. It almost creates a concrete-like feel, juxtaposing the nature it originally depicts. This idea of the material versus nature and environment is the perfect blend to encompass both the physical and natural beauty of the travels - the metropolis and the desert, the people and the colours. 

The colour of the flags (blue yellow and red) should be references in some way, that's why yellow was experimented with for a full gradient solution. It was also tested to see how repeating the image could look, almost like construction. The possibility of having two to reference the two cities could work, having them merged together to create a new shape - as this publication is set to notice how line produces form. 


Tuesday, 13 February 2018

Political Graphic Design

Poster design and its ability in contemporary times to spread agendas effectively and efficiently - as a result of the Internet and social media platforms - is a key aspect to ethical design considerations. The ability graphic designers have in using their communication skills to promote ethical agendas or raise awareness of concerning political progressions is a vital part of the practice. As a result, research was conducted into existing political poster designs, considering the use of colour, type, layout and form, as well as the language choices and communication techniques used to fulfil its purpose.  

EU Referendum Posters




Equality & Ethical Posters

Paul Peter Piech (1920 – 1996). He was a graphic artist in both the U.S. and England. Aside from his commercial work he had his own printmaking studio as a way to channel his ideas and art to the world.

His use of illustration and typography together to mould the message of the design is effective alongside its cold colours and intimidating compositions. The roughness of the printing technique further aids its feel of worn away and tattered subjects. 

https://gregwhitedesign.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/the-work-of-paul-peter-piech/
Linocut print by Paul Peter Piech part of the Paul Peter Piech Collection at Yale College, Wrexham.Paul-Peter-Piech-3'Faces' by Walt Whitman


Collage and techniques 
Florencia Buraschi – Afiche Social, via Behance
Looking at how Type and Illustration can work together in format and layout



How type itself can utilise its shapes to form the depiction / communicate the intended message

Sasayaku Shiriyou The Whispering Dead | book covers by kiyoshi awazu

Environmental Design - Image connotations



https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/political-posters-oped/index.html 

The pedestrian visual language of established party candidates makes the all too rare, visually adventurous political campaign posters memorable and effective. 
The best ones that promote a candidate inspire hope and optimism. The best ones that oppose a candidate use humour or satire to critique the candidate for what they've done, or for what they promise or threaten to do.

Supporters hold up a poster during a campaign rally by Bernie Sanders.

https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/w-magazine-art-issue-political-campaign-posters-311016


W magazine commissioned 15 artists to reimagine the political campaign poster, giving a blank canvas to artists. The posters have been published as part of W’s tenth anniversary art issue, inviting each creative to come up with the posters they would like to see. “In this charged election season, we should all show that we give a damn,” says the W team.
Maurizio Cattelan’s poster defaces the one dollar bill, replacing George Washington with a duck, “suggesting the quackery threatening our most revered symbols”. Nina Chanel Abney’s uses sugary colours and silhouettes to draw attention to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Jeremy Deller worked with Fraser Muggeridge Studio to create his poster, titled Vote William Morris, which enforces the link between the arts and social activism. Zoë Buckman worked with Hank Willis Thomas on a poster starring Jemima Kirke from Girls wearing rose-coloured glasses made from specula, aiming to create a provocatively feminist and satirical campaign.
The Italian provocateur Maurizio Cattelan is best known for satirical art works that send up art history and notions of grandeur—institutional or national—such as his life-size wax effigy of Pope John Paul II downed by a meteor. For W, he created an original image suggesting the quackery threatening our most revered symbols.

Nina Chanel Abney’s large-scale paintings confront the social issues of the Black Lives Matter movement and the relationships between police officers and people of color. Irreverent, bold, and pop-savvy, they’re layered with words and faces in a bright mash-up that recalls Matisse’s cut-outs.
This message has been approved by George Condo and W magazine.
George Condo burst on the scene in the early 1980s alongside artists like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, helping to usher in a new age of painting that mashed up classical sources with a street-art edge. His most widely seen artwork is likely the five provocative covers he made for Kanye West’s 2010 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. He has titled his W poster All Saints All Souls Election Day...CAMPAIGN FOR FREE TIME.

Supermundane: political posters have the power to reach beyond our bubble
https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/supermundane-anti-tory-posters-for-the-uk-general-election-150517

In the lead-up to the UK’s general election, graphic designer Rob Lowe, aka Supermundane, has released a series of posters that are free to download, which he is encouraging us to print out and “put where people can see them”. Here, he writes about why he’s returned to posters and how they might have the power to break us out of our bubbles.

Supermundane-anti-tory-posters-5_itsnicethatSupermundane-anti-tory-posters-4_itsnicethatSupermundane-anti-tory-posters-2_itsnicethat


https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/fons-hickmann-amnesty-posters 
Fons Hickmann M23 put together some powerful political posters for Amnesty

A great representation of the iconic slogan poster design. These punchy, minimalist images accompany each new issue of Amnesty International’s Amnesty Aktion magazine, taking a subject high on the charity’s agenda and reducing it down to a hard-hitting graphic.
Bold, straight to the point, minimal yet bright and eye-catching.

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