Too Cool For School

There has been something i have wanted to do for a while now, which is create a poster out of cut out letters, using random patterned paper . I have also wanted to do something with a certain quote for a while now too and decided i should put both ideas together and i created this!

It now hangs on my studio wall, all nice and neat in a frame.

A-Z of Birds

I have started my Bird Series for Brief 3 and have decided to do an A-Z of Birds for a small book. I started at Z as i already had a Zebra finch all drawn out, so I'm going backwards, making my way to A. I will be putting these into a small book once i have drawn them all and I have already drawn out the following (which you can see below) -

1. Zebra Finch

2. Yellow tit

3. Xantus Hummingbird

4. Warbler Finch

Home Sweet Home

This is something i have started today and will be working on as part of Brief 5. It is on tracing paper and i used a black 0.5 black fine liner pen from Muji. I have started to embellish the text and i think i will develop a border or use this scan with a photograph as a background. I might even turn this into a paper cut design. hmm.

Paper Cuts.....

I have been creating paper cut quotes as an experimental series (that i am using for Brief 4) using Alice in Wonderland Quotes and have been selling them in my etsy shop, one even made it to the front page of etsy's website! (well they are for sale, but no buyers as of yet) and i never thought to include them on my university blogs as i have always thought of my shop as separate to my university work but i feel as though i can start to link the two together. Below are all the paper cut designs i have created so far (the first image is of my design on the etsy front page)

Summer Briefs

After having built my skills of serious layout and typography at the Leeds Guide i would also like to develop my other weakness - illustration. I don't feel so confident when illustrating and i would like to use this summer to develop my own methods and techniques for mark making/illustration/drawing. I would like to create a zine of my doodles and illustrations in a way that fits my style and interests in materials/techniques. Also i illustrated a zebra finch in illustrator a while ago and would like to develop this into a set of illustrations of different birds. i think they would look quite good in a mini book with a small piece of text that explains some interesting facts or trivia. I would like to play around with typography and illustration together so i think i will also carry on my Alice in Wonderland quotes that i have been creating out of cut paper and try experimenting with some illustrated, hand drawn typography, maybe using well known sayings. Whatever i create i would like to put the contents into handmade books as this is something i would like to create in future and would like to focus on small publications in my final year as well as it fitting in with my dissertation!

So...

Brief 1.
* A Zine containing all my doodles and quick sketches from summer 09.

Brief 2.
* A small handmade book of all my work that i created at the Leeds Guide during my work experience placement (about 30 cover ideas, experimentation on illustrator and some layouts that i created for the magazine, oh and the interview where they featured me and my apartment!)

Brief 3.
* A series of digital illustrations of different birds, starting with the zebra finch i have already drawn and using this as inspiration for a style of illustrating, then put these into a small hand bound zine.

Brief 4.
* Carry on with my series of paper cut Alice in Wonderland Quotes and create an A1 design of one quote.

Brief 5.
* A series of (Great British??) sayings, hand rendered, based on typography and put into a small publication.

I will also be getting on with my dissertation research, changing my main university blog and this blogs layout, creating a business card, getting it printed and finally updating my digital and printed portfolio.

Handmade Publications.....

I would really like to create a zine over summer, as it will relate to my personal design practice and my dissertation. If i keep up with my research, ideas and illustrations for this zine i will have some work to include in my summer brief and then once i have all this work i can bind it in a 'zine or book' format. This is something i am becoming more and more interested in and i would like to focus on more of in my final year. Small publications and handmade books are something that i find really interesting and creative and i love the qualities that they have. I think handmade publications have a special quality that is always a really original feeling and i find they always have really interesting, diverse content. I have made a tiny start on zine ideas by just writing down things that i would like to create a zine about. i am going to be on the lookout for ideas and inspiration everywhere! i downloaded kerri smiths "100 ideas" and i think by getting a start on these i will kick start my creativity and get my brain working creatively. I cant wait to have a finished product, all hand stitched by me and printed in full colour, or black and white.... i haven't decided yet, but i would like it to be slightly more substantial, in content, than a small leaflet and would like to include body copy text and illustrations. I would like to attempt a full double page spread too and include some kind of free poster or sticker set to go with it. I think this will be a project that will take a whole summer, researching, experimenting, testing, developing and eventually creating a final product. I would like to create this zine as a one off experiment and if i enjoy it, create a whole set or series of zines based on similar topics. I will need to gather all my text/body copy research and adapt and write it in my own words and as i think this is the thing that will prove the most difficult, it will take the longest time. Also i was thinking that if i created a zine based on a specific subject, and i wanted the illustrations a certain way, then i could contact some people i know to see if they would contribute their drawings to the zine. All this talk is making me excited to get it all started....who would have thought that i would like researching my dissertation topic so much and in such a way that i actually end up making my own zine! I have bought this DIY guide to zines and zine culture from brainscan on etsy......



and i hope that this will help me with my research and with creating my own zine! i can't wait for it to arrive so i can get my hands on it and get reading and creating!