Self

Retrospect


You know when you are in primary school and you come home with a painting and your parents say "That's nice, what is it?" well, I'm still getting that. Growing up I used to love science, how things work, taking stuff apart and then putting them back together. I wanted to be an inventor. I would come up with an idea and then try to make it work. 


Not much has changed. I still love coming up with ideas and then seeing how to make it work. I like taking an idea part, disassembling it down to its elements and then rebuilding it, or putting the elements through different processes to discover new things.


My creative journey started in sixth form. I hadn't done art at GCSE and missed drawing, I had done technical drawing in Design and Technology which I really enjoyed but it wash;t quite the same. I wanted to be an Architect, I loved the idea that you could build these massive structures that people lived with/within. Antonio Gaudi was (and still is) an idol of mine. I loved the organic way he worked out his buildings. He started with an idea and then worked out how it would work, rather than the materials dictating how his building would be.

The nave in the Sagrada Familia with a hyperboloid vault. Inspiration from nature is taken from a tree, as the pillar and branches symbolise trees rising up to the roof.

I'm not sure what changed, maybe the over emphasis on maths did it, but I was suddenly faced with uncertainty. I stopped paying attention in physics, dropped some courses and was left with just two, Art and Photography. I was much more comfortable if, a little aimless.


I went on to do a Foundation Degree in Art and Design at the Lichfield School of Art and Design. This was ideal, I got a to try out everything, experiment, make mistakes. I even got t visit some of Gaudi's buildings. I was doing work I wanted to do again. They were big, sculptural pieces, textural images. All stemming from my original interest of architecture, but also bringing in new techniques. I would spend a lot of time in the dark room, playing with processing, seeing what I could do with it. Projects were definitely multi disciplined, often moving an idea from one process to another. New firm interests in photography and graphic design started to develop.

Singer/Bassist of Dirty Habit taken at a local band night. 1600ISO 35mm film to get textural grain and high contrast in enlargement.

My tutor introduced me to the work of David Carson and, from that point on I decided I wanted to do Graphic Design. He embodied the strong images, using mixed media that I was interested in.

David Carson cover for MTV magazine "Blah Blah Blah"

I went to the University of Lincoln to do Graphic Design and Contemporary Lens Media. A joint degree incorporating film and photography with graphic design. I learnt many new techniques, and begun to realise how rule based Graphic Design really was. I suddenly realised how little I actually knew about Graphic Design and in hindsight probably tried to hold on to what I knew too much. If I am honest, it probably took me a bit too long to get it. 


So I got my degree, graduated and signed up to every Graduate scheme I could, eventually getting a 6 month internship at Air & Ground as Graphic Designer (plus working part time pushing trolleys at Tesco) they kept me on, eventually doing a 6 month Short Term Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Staffordshire University. This was fantastic, I learnt a huge amount from my tutor Mark Garner, which grew my confidence in my understanding. I completed the KTP and, having met Barbara a few times during the course of the Partnership, was asked if I would be interested in the MA Creative Futures.


http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/Shoppers-baffled-batty-bus-stop-signs/story-11198911-detail/story.html#

University work - poster on news articles - internet bullying 

Identity for an alternative clothing company - unused

"Taxi Driver" fact book - using script from main action
scene projected onto model of the set to illustrate

Spread from "Taxi Driver" fact book

Air & Ground Logo refinement

Air & Ground Literature

Air & Ground Website

I would say, although I am working in the field I now know I want to be working in, I'm not producing the kind of work I am happy with. There is very little sign of my original passions, nor new ones. I am extremely interested in design for social good, especially with recent events such as the Occupy movement, designers such as Bruce Mau, Jonathan Barnbrook and ideologists such as R. Buckminster Fuller. I have become more web and screen based, which, while not a bad thing, takes me away from the kind of work I would like to be doing.






Introspect


I want to be better at what I do. I feel like I need new challenges and experiences so that I can grow professionally and personally. Currently I am the only Graphic Designer at Air & Ground working in house, which means I am looking at the same things every day. My dream is to have my own creative studio. Ideally I would work my way up within the studio structure, as well as freelance before to gain experience. I feel this MA will help me do that, as well as provide an escape from the solitary in house work I am currently doing, helping to prevent a staleness setting in.


I would say I have weaknesses in project management, typography and confidence in my work. I struggle to feel work is finished. For this reason I have not managed to do much in the way of self promotion.
I would love to learn far more typographically, it is a rich area that I have not explored as fully as I could have and I would like the opportunity to do so.


My strengths are ideas, experimenting and the ability to learn quickly.


I feel I need to re-focus, with the kind of work I am doing, the things I am looking at and how I work as a designer. I need to address my practice, personal and professional so I can move forward as a designer.










I would also one day like to live in California, it's warm in California and I do hate that cold.