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Tuesday, 1 July 2014

Foundation Diploma in Art & Design End of year show 2014, Leek School of Art

Photographs below are of the wonderful work in exhibition of Final Major Project  from the Foundation Diploma in Art & Design  students end of year show:

Students:

Beth Dobson - Graphic Design - 'Fit to Move' - 
Progression: University of Derby: BA (hons) Dance & Education








 


        

For my final major project, I produced the corporate branding for “Fit to Move”; a  sports and fitness shop. Throughout the 8 weeks of doing this project, I have produced a number of packaging & branding design to incorporate the logo onto which were carrier bags, shoe boxes and swing labels. I also transferred my logo onto T-shirts using the inkjet transfer paper for light fabric and super imposed my logo as a shop front onto an existing shop. The whole process was about experimentation and developing different ideas and most importantly taking your time and reflecting on successes and results.
 Throughout the whole process of this project I have increasingly asked for feedback from my fellow peers, the constant constructive criticism allowed me to produce my work to the best that it can be. The beginning stages were researching into existing logos, where I discovered that a majority of logos are simple, plain and black and white. So I wanted to follow the same idea but make it original and alive by adding a hint of colour.  I believe my final design has achieved this. I feel that the project went smoothly and successful, however I did hit a few obstacles such as issues with my memory stick corrupting however I soon managed to resolve that through back up. My influences for my project were graphic illustrator Tim Marrs and artist Roy Lichtenstein. I also came across many other artists to inspire me in my experimentation, some being ones I had looked at in previous projects. I really feel this project is the best one I have done I have produced a huge range of experiments and considered a good amount of experimentation and everything is clearly displayed. It gave me a great insight into what is currently trending and how trends are constantly coming back around repeating itself time and time again.   


Emma Morris - Illustration - 'Fairy Tales'
Progression: John Moores University, Liverpool BA (hons) Illustration








My initial idea was to re-develop a well-known children book and create several illustrations that will be presented within it. This interest was first started when I began to look at children’s fairy-tale illustrators, more specifically the contrasting styles by H.J.Ford and Quentin Blake. These light hearted, imaginative designs are what inspired me to do a fairy-tale theme that would allow me explore a new pathway of illustration. From this course, I have learnt to appreciate different illustrative style and how they can inform your work. As a result, I was inspired by different illustrator’s work which was found in ‘Illustration Book 35’ by the Association of Illustrators which became extremely influential throughout my testing and development stages.
There were a few difficulties throughout my project; however these where quickly resolved with the help of my classmates and the tutors. The main one was finding a story to base my illustration on, as most primary influences that were mentioned in them would have been difficult to find. Although, the suggestion of creating my own story did come up within a group discussion, not only did the advice significantly help me into my project, but I also had the freedom of creating whatever designs I liked.  Additionally, there was quite a big issue regarding the style of my illustrations. This especially became prominent in the last part of my testing stage where I was tried too hard to create an illustration similar to Quentin Blake’s work, as a result my work became very forced and unnatural. This problem did take a while to resolve which lead me on to doing more realistic drawings with a watercolour wash, from this I feel like my own personal style has significantly developed.
In comparison on my past project, I do feel that this one is the strongest I’ve done. Overall, I am very pleased about how the final designs came out however if I was going to improve I would develop the hands and feet slightly as I did miss them off due to the fear of losing quality in the illustrations. Apart from this, I have met my objectives outlined in the brief by creating 6 illustrations and a completed book; ‘Greedy’. After this project, the main thing that is going to influence me is the drawing side of illustration. 


Kirstin Reay - Mixed media & Photography - 'Tales of Staffordshire'
Progression: Mid Cheshire College, Foundation Degree in Fine Art










  

My aim for this project was to create a book of images highlighting the stories and folklores of places in the Staffordshire Moorlands and the surrounding area such as the Mermaid Pool. I began researching stories and folklores in many books and websites and they all turned out to be ghost stories or related to deaths or something eerie.
I started out by being inspired by local photographers such as Jon Cruttenden and Brett Trafford by their use of composition and atmosphere, and tried to create atmospheric images. I was also inspired by Matthias Heiderich to create dark, creepy and atmospheric images to portray the ghostly stories of the locations.
I visited as many locations as the time and weather allowed and ended up with eight stories/locations - Butterton Moor’s Headless Horseman, Consall Scout Camp’s Ghosts, Eyam Plague Village, Eyam’s Phantom Cyclist, Ilam Hall’s Ghosts, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at Lud’s Church, the Mermaid at the Mermaid Pool, and the Murder of Allan and Clara at Winnat’s Pass.
I experimented with many different ways of portraying the stories of the locations, and found the technique of printing on acetate. With this technique, I experimented with different ways of including the text for the stories in the image – under the acetate in a collage, and transparent text on the acetate. I went with the transparent text on the acetate because you can read all the text, see the collage underneath, and the image on the acetate. I am pleased with the final pieces on display as they tell the story effectively and are very detailed.
I think my final pieces worked out very nicely as I achieved my aim of creating a book highlighting the stories of places in Staffordshire Moorlands and the surrounding area.



Emily Kinder - Surface Pattern - 'Aboreal' 
Progression: Staffordshire University BA (hons) Surface Pattern 






Ideas for my project of “Arboriculture” (trees) originally came from a small vintage birdcage that I had at home. I initially wanted to explore the theme of birds and trees but decided to focus on trees. I wanted to produce a surface pattern design for home ware items for a living space that would include a lampshade, cushion, a vase and a wall paper to finish the look.
I began this project following on from a discussion with a fellow student, he suggested a photographer Chris Farrow, who specialises in photographing trees and nature. With this in mind I started to look out for interesting shaped trees, taking my camera with me and producing some varied and interesting photos. These images were taken and I used various techniques to produce a surface pattern and used Photoshop to create my final designs. I went by one of my own colour palettes with “Nature” themed colours; these are similar to the Colour Trends 2014 and after advice, I used “Picalicious” to select the colour palette from my photographs.
One of my inspirations is Jackson Pollock and his wild style of drawings. In pathway stages I enjoyed the extended stick drawing technique so I developed this and used it to paint branches, Lucienne Day was a great inspiration and she produced a lot of designs based on the theme of Nature which inspired me to use layering and quick biro sketches in my work. Others I looked at were Marimekko which is a well-known design company. Marimekko create bold and unique design patterns which I am inspired by and encouraged me to look at basic shape of trees and branches instead of looking at all the fine detail.
Overall I am pleased with the project and with my pattern design outcomes and how successfully they have turned out. I feel that I have met the guidelines in the brief and I have followed through with the action plan. Through this project I feel that I have gained more skills by returning to the techniques I enjoyed in pathway stage. I originally wanted to involve a vintage theme with however by speaking to tutors and peers I feel with the outcomes have worked even better. From gaining more knowledge and understanding about I will now take this further and this will help me to my reach my goal of attending university and my career as a surface pattern designer.


Luke Williams: Photography - 'Friends and Family'
Progression: Employment








My family and friends are really important to me and I wanted to celebrate this by recording their hobbies and daily life stories through pictures. I wanted to try and achieve a traditional, abstract and surreal side to some of these images and had a great time experimenting with my photos.
One of my main influences for this project is Rankin, his traditional portraits are inspirational and I wanted to try to create this type of photography. Giuseppe Mastromatteo is another artist I researched for my surreal photography and Sebastian Del Grosso for abstract photography. Some of my surreal ideas, such as the image of the model, poised in mid-air, reading a magazine and wearing PJ’s was great fun to perform and create!
Advice from tutors and fellow students has been invaluable and has given me the confidence to progress and take my ideas and the project as a whole, further. I feel that I have achieved what I set out to do in my project and have produced some interesting, diverse and entertaining photographs.

Kerry Austin - Mixed Media - 'Countryside'
Progression: Apprenticeship







The title of my project is ‘Countryside’ and for this project I produced a series of mixed media art pieces-cards and a larger scale piece that could be exhibited in gallery’s local to the area. My main inspiration comes from the countryside and what Derbyshire has to offer to tourists. I chose to focus on local areas of interest within the countryside as its full of history through generations, focusing on a variety of areas to begin my initial research I looked at buildings, form small cottages to the grand halls, not only this but everything in Derbyshire is surrounded by beautiful scenery. I felt this theme had a lot of scope to work from such as its, pure beauty, history and activities. I have a huge interest with local countryside and I want to show this in a new contemporary way throughout my work, which I felt I achieved. My chosen location to work on, after carrying out research and experimentation was the village of Tissington.

At first my main priority was doing general research, as my main inspiration for this theme is my love for the countryside. I wanted to promote and highlight where you can visit and what you could do in the area. I wanted to explore various techniques and process throughout my work in ways that I could combine my love for photography within my mixed media project whilst including textiles. In my opinion my project was really successfully. I think this because the final pieces I created all link really well within each and include everything mentioned above it also highlights and supports all my initial experiments which show development throughout l my work.

A lot of my experiments for this project were massively influenced by previous projects but I took the ideas a lot further to develop them more. sellotape transfer, printing on acetate then exploring various compositions and interesting new ways to transform images, I like incorporating stitching onto photos, my inspiration for this comes from Kirsty Whitlcoks work particularly her technique of creating a ‘checkerboards’ effect.  Which I have enjoyed creating my own twist on this, the use of old discarded materials helped to represent the history of Tissington and help highlight the message I wanted to get across. With all these techniques which I managed to combine and feel worked well together I feel like I have achieved what I set out to do which was the exciting part, but without my action plan and reflective diary my time management skills would of let me down but by using these it enabled me to see clearly what I had completed and what need further work.

I feel I have successfully answered my brief because I have completed everything I set out to do. I have achieved this by completing my series of mixed media art pieces and a larger scale piece. However if I could have done one thing I would have made my larger scale piece a lot bigger than the finished resulted but that doesn’t take away the fact that I am really pleased with the results.

Kelly Ratcliffe: Fine Art - Derelict Building
Progression: Employment


 For my final major project, I produced the corporate branding for “Fit to Move”; a  sports and fitness shop. Throughout the 8 weeks of doing this project, I have produced a number of packaging & branding design to incorporate the logo onto which were carrier bags, shoe boxes and swing labels. I also transferred my logo onto T-shirts using the inkjet transfer paper for light fabric and super imposed my logo as a shop front onto an existing shop. The whole process was about experimentation and developing different ideas and most importantly taking your time and reflecting on successes and results.
 Throughout the whole process of this project I have increasingly asked for feedback from my fellow peers, the constant constructive criticism allowed me to produce my work to the best that it can be. The beginning stages were researching into existing logos, where I discovered that a majority of logos are simple, plain and black and white. So I wanted to follow the same idea but make it original and alive by adding a hint of colour.  I believe my final design has achieved this. I feel that the project went smoothly and successful, however I did hit a few obstacles such as issues with my memory stick corrupting however I soon managed to resolve that through back up. My influences for my project were graphic illustrator Tim Marrs and artist Roy Lichtenstein. I also came across many other artists to inspire me in my experimentation, some being ones I had looked at in previous projects. I really feel this project is the best one I have done I have produced a huge range of experiments and considered a good amount of experimentation and everything is clearly displayed. It gave me a great insight into what is currently trending and how trends are constantly coming back around repeating itself time and time again. 

Luke Clitheroe: Photography - 'Supernatural Experiences'
Progression: Manchester Metropolitan University - BA (hons) Photography











My exhibition has been inspired by my project ‘Supernatural Experiences’ I originally began looking into haunted locations in and around Leek and photographing them as well as looking at individuals that have had supernatural experiences. I then took an interest in fashion photographers such as Brooke Nipar and David Bailey I therefore decided to incorporate photo documentary and fashion photography both together in my current project.
 My photographs for this project are based on the idea that  the supernatural could be due to mental health rather than a physical ‘being’ I have represented this in a number of my photographs by using dark and confusing imagery. The idea that an individual’s current emotions and circumstances could possibly affect the things that they see and hear fascinates me and I wanted to present this idea through my photography set by using a model that has both had supernatural experiences and mental health difficulties.
I experimented with my photography before taking on this particular style, throughout my course I have looked into different types of photography as well as cameras effects and places. I achieved these particular photographs by using an ISO number of around 800 to give a darker affect and a aperture of 16 to get the texture of the walls and buildings as well as getting a clear shot of my model.
Overall I am pleased with the outcome of my exhibition photographs as I feel that I have got the ‘spooky’ and mysterious look I set out to achieve as well as making my model look almost unhuman and demonic.

Megan Hulme - Surface Pattern - 'Let loose in a sweet shop' 
Progression: Employment








My chosen theme for this final project is sweets. I was inspired by the colours and mixture of shapes of sweets found in a sweet shop and the fun of being in a sweet shop and getting a bag of pick and mix, from this I came up with the title for my final project  - “Let Loose in a Sweet Shop”. My aim was to create surface pattern designs for home-ware products: tea towel, mug and a plate. Using sweets as a starting point I looked into the different shapes, sizes, colours, textures and types of sweets by taking a variety of photographs of the different sweets I found and decided to use.
I looked at illustrators and surface pattern designers who used sweets and food in their designs but also taking it a little further and looking at artists who worked in a style that I liked. My influences for this project have come from the artist Charlotte Farmer who works in an illustrative style and what I liked most was the small intense details that features throughout her work, I also looked at some other artists that worked in a similar style.  I then also looked at artist who have done kitchenware designs such as  Jill Tytherleigh who uses her designs for mainly tea towels looking at this variety of artist  has helped me create samples in the style of their work but from my own photographs that I had taken. 
After designing my final surface pattern using Photoshop and illustrator, I needed to make sure it would fit onto a tea towel, mug and plate, whilst still looking like a design range. The challenging part I had in the printing stage with my silk screen as the first one didn’t work out, however I overcame this by having another one made, which worked out.   
Overall, my project has worked as I think this is because the final piece I have created works well and links with all the samples and research I have already done. 

Seb Bridgwood: Photography - 'Anti-smoking campaign'
Progression: Employment




For my project I created a collection of posters for an anti-smoking campaign. These posters are aimed at people who currently smoke and people who are starting to smoke. The aim is to raise awareness of the effects of smoking. Initially I explored how smoking is glamorized in today’s society and how it has been for quite some time through media. This initial experimentation was done through photography. Then I developed my ideas from these photos to work in the style of different graphic designers and other existing anti-smoking posters.
When I started this project I created an action plan and a statement of intent, which I have stuck by throughout the project to ensure that my work doesn’t lag far behind. Also I kept a reflective diary to document my progress and my ideas throughout the whole of the project. Furthermore alongside a diary I had a little notebook to write down any artists, ideas and anything else relevant to my work.
I feel that my project has been successful. I think this because I have explored many different styles of working, using different artist’s styles to work from. I have displayed the many negatives of smoking through mainly vulgar wording, combined with imagery. My main sources of inspiration were from graphic designers David Carson, Kyostic Varis, Wataru Hasgawa Michael Bierut and Sebastian Del Grosso. Also other influences were photographers Adam Von Mack, Rankin and Kelly Angard. Using these artists work as inspiration I have been able to display my work in a different way to how campaign posters are usually displayed, and create an outcome with a meaning but without being too repetitive with the outcomes.
The things that I have learnt in this project are how to explore styles of photographing smoke/people smoking, and various ways of designing posters. Also I have had a brief insight to the gruesome reality of smoking and how it can affect people’s lives and others around them.
In this project I have had a first person perspective of smoking, as I wanted to involve myself within the project more so than just photographing and designing the posters, I wanted to actually smoke to try and see from a smoker’s point of view. This enabled me to take in both perspectives and in the end run; try to create posters that will actually have an effect.

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