Friday 26 September 2008

Images cont.

Yesterday i spoke to our CAD tutor Digger and he threw the images that i had chosen the day before into question. A couple of the images that i had chosen were ones that i had been hanging onto for over 2 years or so and when i told him this he said to me

"Does this mean that your design style/taste hasn't changed over the last 2 years?"

I don't know if he meant to make me think harder about my choices or weather he just wanted a set of brand new images too capture my most recent inspirational sources but whatever he wanted he did cause me too worry a little about hanging onto old inspirational material. Is it a bad thing to hang onto images that inspired me 2 years ago? To be honest i think the main reason is that those pictures appeared in a magazine and at the moment all of my inspiration is through either books or the Internet as i can't afford too buy magazines (no matter how much i want to be able too). And so today i have spent some time in the studio going through some names that i had collected in the back of my moleskin in an attempt to find new interiors that inspire me.

I came across this interior by topotek 1, I love its playfulness and its interactiveness.


Isay weinfeld designed this amazing book shop in Sao Paolo, Brazil. It surely must contain over 3000 books crammed into every available space...but my main attraction to this particular building was the entrance where she made use of bookcases and implemented as innovative doors.


The third interior is an exhibition design by Herman Verkerk, the Arnhem mode fashion biennial in ... This show is arranged every two years specifically for showing state of the art fashion on an international scale whilst highlight socio-cultural aspects.


Nendo Design made this interesting exhibition piece in 2007 showing some of their works in an unusual way. They wanted to challenge the viewers sense of perspective and how you would normally consider objects.


Miffy is the star of the last image that i found, this flagship store (the first dedicated Miffy store in the world) was designed by UXUS design...i love how the designer captured the brand of the product perfectly but then i found out they also designed packaging for Macy D's and i was reminded of a conversation me and my friends had recently.



Selling out is very much part of being an artist or a designer and creative people have always struggled with the idea and notion of selling out too 'the man' but the odds are you will have to at one point in your career even if its just to get one more rung up on the ladder. So we came to a conclusion, our time at art school is probably the best time for us to create our ideas without the huge worry of money or the burden of responsibility so this time has to be used to realise our personal goals (as many as possible) before we sell out. and the world ends.

Tuesday 23 September 2008

5 images

Day 2 was slightly less eventfull but still pretty interesting in terms of how it will all be working in relation too the studio and who will be around to bounce ideas off of. I got into the studio around 10:30 and began work on selecting my 5 images ready for next Tuesday. As i was going into the mac i bumped into my old first year tutor Patrick who was bringing up the first year students too meet drew but i didn't realise that until just now.

The first image was of a space made by an artist called Angela (found in an issue of Elle decoration) i tried to analyze what i liked about the space and broke it down into these points:
  • Evidence of previous use
  • Simplicity (minimalism)
  • Organic forms and materials
  • Neutral colour schemes
  • Eclectic furnishings
  • subdued lighting (not sure if that is the right word)
I couldn't find who designed the second picture but someone called Morten Smidt was connected with it:
  • Decadence
  • Historic Base
  • Symmetry and Harmony
  • Unusual colour scheme
  • Attention to detail
  • Morbid detailing
The third is another magazine cut out:
  • Eclecticism
  • Vintage furniture/textiles
  • concrete floors
  • texture
  • simple lighting
  • beautiful things
  • magazines and books everywhere
  • eclecticism
  • quirkiness/originality
The 4th is by Masamichi Katayama, a store based around the idea of an ice cream parlour, it reeks of his style:
  • Decadence
  • Confusion
  • Mirrors
  • Originality
  • surrealism
  • Parody
  • Humour
1 more too go.

Monday 22 September 2008

Back to school

Today i started the second year of my university degree. So much things have happened since i last posted on here that im not really sure where too start, so i will just begin with today and try to remember as many events from the last month or so as possible.

So to begin with i woke up around 7:30 full of beans, i had the best nights sleep Ive had in a while which for the first day of term couldn't be better. I ended up having too get the tube into uni because somehow i have lost the key for my bike....its locked up inside our stairwell but i have no idea how too remove it, anyone have any ideas? Anyway i met up with a couple of people from my class outside the Macintosh building and ventured upstairs into the studio that i will be spending the last 3 years of my education at the art school. On the door of the studio there was a sign that read '2nd year students meeting at 10:00' so with time to kill i went to get a coffee and chatted too everyone about summer.

Around 10 the meeting began, Drew (the head of interiors at the GSA) went through a few things with us, how time in the studio would be spent, what sort of projects we would be doing throughout this year and what we should be thinking about as trainee designers. He talked about so much i found myself day dreaming about what i wanted too make when i got back home...i feel filled to the brim with creative juices. But the jist of what he was saying, well what i got, was that this year....or at least this term is all about defining my own design style and highlighting areas that i do well and other ones that i need too improve on. We were also given a first project too complete for next Tuesday, which in my opinion is maybe a little too much time for the content of the project, unless i have overlooked some big point?

Basically we have too collect 5 images of interior spaces that 'excite' us and then talk about why we like them for one minute each. I already have a rough idea of at least 2 images that i would like too choose for this project...but as for the other few im sure i could scour my bookmarks/magazines for some images that i like the look of. So far i have decided on a design by Masamichi Katayama as well as some general residential designs and a h.naoto store...im kind of overloaded on interiors now so i will wait till tomorrow to write more.