adamatkinson.co.uk

Website; Type News

2008-10-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

This site has many many topics on type, illustration, design basically everything in the communication world, but its main priority is typography. There are some excellent examples of work on here and many illusive type designs. It offers inspiration and other designers portfolios of work. If there s any new type out there thats hitting the world hard its guaranteed to be on here. Great for that all need inspiring spark, if your searching for that perfect logo font or 3d text with an impact. I also noticed it has a cool packaging section with great ways of displaying information design on the packaging certainly worth checking out.

Drawing; Jen Starks Felt tip drawings

2008-10-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

Anyone feel high just looking at these? They are produced by Jen Starks and whats so cool about them is that there done using felt tip pens!!!! They look digitally illustrated but whats better than using a felt tip pen. I'm glad to see some one is keeping the old traditional ways strong!!

The drawings are original and amazing the way they incorporate space and colour and seem to endlessly flow into one another, you can pick out so much detail and little things from them. I love the creativeness behind them. It would be awsome to find out what inspired Jen to do them and how they initially started. The rest of her work is presented at www.jenstark.com. Check it out

Design, Innovation; Car Parking

2008-10-07T07:43:00.001-07:00

In the New York Times online they have a great article on new car parking. This cool new innovate way takes up less space, is more eco friendly and saves time. They are popping up all over Europe and I reckon it wont be long until they hit our sunny island of England. Who could resist taking your car to be moved around and parked by robots its amazing!

Photography; Dave Hill

2008-10-07T06:28:00.001-07:00

I have no Idea how Dave produces these photo's, I'm pretty sure they are photos digitally enhanced and placed on alternate backgrounds. I reckon he uses HDR to produce the hugely enhanced almost painted effects. Either way the results are cool. The dark photos emit a large sense of respect and urban feel whilst the picture of the dog and family enhance the excitement feel. Dave's website is at www.davehillphoto.com and I would recommend checking out his portfolio its very inspiring.

Motion; Lock Stock Typography

2008-10-07T06:21:00.000-07:00

Finally I love this piece too (Its not fair just to have one). Ok this one is different because it uses the type in the way the actor is speaking it, for example he uses the word slap and the text slaps the other text he uses annihilate the text shakes, it just adds this little bit WOW factor which the other two don't utilize. The sans serif font used also gives a more solid rigid look compared with the serif, the colours agin are mainly yellow red and black. What I lso find impressive is how the screen conitnually moves and zooms in closer and closer as the actor get more and more aggrevated, its as if the viewr is getting closer to the shouting. Another must see !!!

Motion; Fight Club Typography

2008-10-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

Along with pulp fiction is this title sequence which has been an inspiration to me, the echo used and on and off lighting puts you inside the building with them. The rust coloured yellow wall makes you feel like your leaning on it and the black and yellow type/background combination presents danger. The incorporation of the red type then suggests the blood that is going to be spilled. A must see.

Motion; Pupl Fiction Typography

2008-10-07T06:11:00.000-07:00

The use of type is great in this motion sequence, there are loads of these motion movies out there quoting famous movie lines but this one is a true favorite of mine. The strong bold use of type for the main characters voice and the weaker choice for the defendants increases there tone of voice. I love the colour scheme to a strong bold tiled brown background is very pulp fiction and the powerful energetic yellow of Samuel L Jacksons Voice is impacting. Very inspiring and certaily worth a watch.

Photography; HDR

2008-10-07T06:08:00.001-07:00

Tutorial; HDR photos

2008-10-07T06:03:00.000-07:00

Ever Wondered how to achieve those en-hanced photos where the colours an extremely impacting. Well here's another awsome know how tutorial for it. I came across it when exploring through abuzeedos forums. Its simple and a very un used cool effect offered by photoshop.

Heres the link (http://abduzeedo.com/hdr-not-only-the-magic-effect)

Book; 100 Monsters

2008-10-07T05:51:00.000-07:00

100 Monsters is the work of 344 artist. They have been his obsession for the past year, they began as an exercise of drawing something everyday and evolving everyday items as inspiration. "What better to blow a few drops of ink into a shape and make that shape a monster" Quoted from the artist himself. For one hundred days he filmed himself drawing a different monster everyday and posted it on the blog dailymonster.com, the site gathered people from all over the world who began to comment on the monsters and create stories for them and personality's. The monsters brought together a network of people and created huge online debates and funny scripts. Thus he decided to produce this book which is like a time capsule of the 100 days and includes the monters drawings, names and stories from all the people that left comments about them. The book features all 100 monsters and 257 stories about them. This this goes to show how some small drawings/doodles caught the attetion of the people and how from one innovational idea to another lead to the end book which I am sure will be a huge seller. A must see I think its brilliant, the creative monsters all stemed from ink are a classic.

Design; Paper cut outs

2008-10-07T05:46:00.001-07:00

Granted from the title it doesn't sound to exciting but just look at the final creation. The work is by an artist called Jen Stark who is a big drawing inspiration of mine. She produces these fascinating sculptures by layering hundreds of pieces of card together and then precisely cutting out individual sections and crafting them. Talk about creativity from paper to this, in my opinion its awsome.

I guess you could call it modern day art or sculpture but the time and patients it must take to produce these is impressive and I dont think there ll be much room for the error of an over cut. Her website is www.jenstark.com its a must see to views these amazing pieces.

Motion; Mark Coleran

2008-10-07T05:33:00.000-07:00

www.coleran.com

Probably one of the best show reels Ive ever seen! Ever wondered who does all those cool looking effects on the computer screens of films such as the minority report, blade, Star wars etc. Well this is one of the main guys for it. Working along side pixar, New Line and other hugely branded film production companies, his skills in motion and film production are amazing. I don't know the software that is used for such films but I imagine it incorporates the use of 3D production software along side the likes of final cut or after effects. His portfolio is certainly worth checking out to see the standard in the film company industry.

Tutorial; Abuzzedo

2008-10-07T05:29:00.001-07:00

This tutorial (http://abduzeedo.com/super-cool-frilly-bits-typography) is awsome. I came across it when searching for positive typography for my 1 week brief. Basically it shows you how to create this fancy swirly text as seen in the pic, you can then broaden and expand on the text and re production side adding any symbols or textures you want to different font styles. Just a cool little know how.

Motion; MGBD

2008-10-07T05:25:00.000-07:00

MGBD are a school of students in America and this you tube site hosts their work. The reason I find it cool is the way in which they choose to represent their chosen topic in motion. The videos on their site are all re vamped opening movie title sequences, their fun, cool, quick and quircky and different take on what were origianlly used to for our cinema screens. Great use of typography also.

Website; Dont click on it.com

2008-10-07T05:19:00.001-07:00

Think you need a mouse to use a computer? Thin again!
Dontclickonit.com has created a powerful interactive website investigating the need or no need, for the click i.e selecting icons, buttons and generally interacting. They have harnessed clever original ways of selecting links on their site and thus removing the need for the click! The interactive possibilities generated by the site are amazing and spawns a whole new potential for how we engage ourselves on the net and with software. They have an interesting pole on the site of how many people couldn t resist the urge to click, myself inluded. Its certainly a one to check out.

Illustration; Jason Brooks

2008-10-07T05:12:00.001-07:00

Jason Brooks otherwise known as HedKandi, produces these fantastic illustrations. I find them to be powerful, energetic and motivating. The girls obviously look amazing and for a lad they kinda represent what your perfect girl would look like, they also create the buzz which I imagine is why HedKandi choose them for there advertisiments. They are unique and have great branding power instantly recognizable to the HedKandi Name for there target audience.

website; antmacari.net

2008-09-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

just as interesting as his work.

Museum; The National Glass Centre

2008-09-13T07:04:00.000-07:00

The National Glass Centre is a unique venue situated in Sunderland thats allows people to see how how glass works from all over the world are produced. It also lets them explore there own visual creative ideas with glass by allowing them to mould and sculpt pieces from themselves.
The building is made from steel and glass the entire roof is created from glass allowing people to go up and look down 'Not good if your scared of heights trust me!'
The Centre provides local exhibitions and National exhibitions for the general public and also education facilities for schools.
There aim; 'Our aim is to be a centre of national excellence supporting the production, exploration, presentation and enjoyment of contemporary glass.' You certainly learn alot about glass when you visit more than I ever thought went into the production of glass and also the endless possibilities you can achieve with it.

Website; Neave.com

2008-09-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

Neave .com is avery impressive website created using flash.It is the interactive playground of 'interactive designer' Paul Neave. The pieces of work that allowusers to test,play and exxperiment in 3d worlds and even interacts with your built in camera and microphone. The site is a great example of how to keep your audience interested with simple navigation, sounds and by challengeing the user. The site works across all size pixel screens and even has the option of enlargeing to full screen.It is similar to the lynx efect website with its use of coding and interaction.

What makes this site extremely powerful is its use of 3D interaction it is allowing new possibilities in the way the internet can be viewed and interacted with. The use of powerful colour schemes makes it fresh and gives it a new technology feel.

This site is must view and a very impressive use of flash and interactive design.

Book; The Angels Weep

2008-09-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

by Wilbur Smith

The Angels weep is a story based on war and how people sow there seeds of hatred in battles all around issues of race and land. I found it an exciting tale, very moving and colourful.
I believe it is the third of the Ballantynes sequence of novels. The author creates a time older than ours with many the same problems as ours. The story portrays the violence and war fought between pioneers such as Ralph Ballantyne, a man who's ambition and sense of destiny made him the greatest leader and betrayer to his leader. The Rhodesia pioneers claim the land they sow their crops in, however far in the hills the Matabele indunas are preparing for a bloody assault to claim it for themselves.
The book is a great read for anyone and gives true depth to the characters and world they live in.

Museum; HMS Belfast

2008-09-11T03:39:00.000-07:00

Although it is not on land the boat is still a facinating museum to look around, its just on water!! Being from a family where my Grandad served in the navy, on vesels similar to Belfast, during the war he always talked about them through my child hood and it became an interest to me to know about them and learn about them.

HMS Belfast played its part during the second world war and helped in the destruction of Germanys biggest battlecruiser the Scharnhorst. It is amazing to see the 9 deck ship right from the sleeping and eating quarters up to the huge gun terruts and head naval offices. Whilst wondering around the sleeping decks it was easy to relate to my Grandads storys of the struggles of sea sickness and his emotional story of being torpedoed and looseing many friends in the lower decks.My self personally and I think many others take the wars for granted and do not realize the lengths and imense struggles people went through so the likes ofmyself and my generation are free to live and carry on with our lives. The HMS Belfast really allows you to appreciate how they worked and the conditions they faced as well as appreciate the amazing technology and skill it takes to build a vessel like this. I will always take away a sense of pride when I have the oppertunity to see things like this and be thankful to my Grandad and all those that gave there lives in the War so we could live how we do today.

Book; Dawn

2008-09-11T03:24:00.000-07:00

by Elie Wiesel

I found the book haunting, disturbing, and thought provoking. The book is based on the final hours of two men one is the executioner and the other is the victimof the executioner, the doop is very deep and quite emotional from time to time. As the main character comes to gripes with how things will be once the execution has took place is really moving. You tend to want the main character to realise the right thing and stop what he is about to do, I found myself almost trying to tell the character what to do,he then is effected by his reflections in his earlier experiences in a concentration camp, and holding cells on both sides of the war. The English have provoked the Jews, and each will assassinate their opponent to make a point. David will be hung by the English, and Elisha will shoot John Dawson. You wonder how such brutality ever took place. You then follow how themain character must come to grips with what he has to do and face .“A man hates his enemy because he hates his own hate. He says to himself: This fellow, my enemy, has made me capable of hate. I hate him not because he’s my enemy, not because he hates me, but because he arouses me to hate.” quoted from the book. The book is a great refelction of war by focusing on specific people and the roles they play toinfluence and effect it.

Museum; Guggenheim New York

2008-09-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to visit this museum when I went to New York with 25 friends and our design teacher on an expedition to to view design, innovation, architecture and design within Manhattan.

The building itself is a tribute to architecture and was created by Frank Loyd Wright. Quoted from the museum entrance "I need a fighter, a lover of space, an agitator, a tester and a wise man. . . . I want a temple of spirit, a monument!"
—Hilla Rebay to Frank Lloyd Wright, 1943

The museum itself has a mission to promote an understanding and appreciation of art, architecture, and other manifestations of visual culture, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, and to collect, conserve, and study the art of our time. The one thing I noticed about the museum was its international diversity. Obviously being in New York it see s visitors from all over the world and yet the museum had exhibitions catered from all over the world, some places I had not even heard of. The meuseum also embraces dancers, writers, composers, poets and musicians and exhibits regular audiences to them. The museum was a huge inspiration to me and the cultural diversity and art it choose to show to me really broadened my mind to what can be art and how different cultures show it and express it.

Book; Flanimals

2008-09-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

I think the creativity behind Flanimals is awsome!! The way each Flanimal has its own personality, some are complex and some are just so simple and the way they are all linked like a true animal kingdom gives it that almost non fictional sense. Ricky Jervais has always been a favorite of mine and the book really expels his sense of humor, the book isn't only designed for children, there is a lot of thinking behind the animals and the story's and descriptions of them are quite intellectual.

From that the graphic illustrations of each Flanimal is really interesting they look fascinating, right down to the little details such as the eyes, hair and body parts. Its a great short book to get lost in and slip away from everyday stresses. I sometimes find myself evening comparing the struggles in my life to theres and I soon realize mine aren't as bad, especially for the unlucky Flanimals that are born inside out or who get eating by all the other Falnimals. The book inspired me to dig out all my old math books and lecture pads with all my own personal animal drawings on from being young right up to current day lectures and I begin digitally illustrating them with my graphics tablet in illustrator. The characters so far are on my website in my portfolio. This book is a defnit for the shelf in the easy reading funny pile for when your feeling a bit down or stressed, I haven' t yet seen the second book but i'm sure it'll be just as good.

Website; Drupal

2008-09-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

http://drupal.org/

The site itself is not of interest unless you are focusing on what it offers. Drupal is a content management system that is completely free and the site is a huge constantly expanding user guide and module download for the content management system. For the website I produced for the river canteen www.rivercanteen.com.au I used Drupal and also for my own. It has very powerful back end features so staff and outside users can log in and change/ incorporate things into a company's website. The drupal site offers a huge diversity of help to people who use Drupal to build and produce websites, modules that can be easily downloaded and then uploaded to your personal site along with endless instructional help and forums dedicated to problems and solutions of HTML CSS PHP XHTML relating to Drupal. The best thing about it though is that everything on Drupal is changeable, you can edit every single bit of HTML and CSS to style your website how you would like if you are not satisfied with the templates that are included free.

The site also provides you with very clear and easy to use instructions on setting up Drupal on your server and FTP files in and out. It regularly has new downloads of Drupal that solve problems of the ever changing HTML internet. You can also create themes for Drupal that anyone can download and use, or you yourself can download someone else's. There is very few other content management systems that come with all these benefits for free and I would defiantly recommend Drupal and the website to anyone .

Film; The Deer Hunter

2008-09-10T06:41:00.000-07:00

A film based on a group of friends and there service in the Vietnam war, the picture on the left is probably one of the most recognizable images from the movie. The red head scarf is symbolic of Russian Roulette and is used in adverts like the revels marketing ad.The film itself won 5 academy awards.

To me it shows the struggles of war, honour and patriotism between a close group of friends and community. I love the way the film goes into before and after circumstances showing a normal group of friends, there local pub, family, hobbies and then there lives and personality's after the Vietnam War. Many people are scared from wars and obviously find it hard to fit back into social circumstances after having been in one, this film portrays this and really grabs the audience and brings them in and close to the friends and the struggles they have during there times of capture, blood shed and coming home. The movie shows real depth into the characters not so much the story of the war but the actual people in it such as this group of friends, virtue, self mastery, the idea of broken bodies, memory and the self, and the role of religion and the afterlife have a huge influence on the characters.

Website; Logopond

2008-09-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

http://logopond.com/all/

You might think that most logos are not very 'cool' or inspiring especially when your trying to design the perfect logo for a client and there doesn't seem to be anything out there giving you the edge or motivation. This site proves otherwise, its full of some fantastic and very clever identity designs, great for inspiration and motivation. The site allows you to leave comments and upload Logos/Identity's yourself and have discussions on the Identity's commenting on what you think of them. The site is simple to use and really cleanly laid out with HTML that works across all browsers. It also has a really interesting and relevant forum all dedicated to logos in many types of industry i.e, car, book, film etc. It features individual designers who show there logo portfolios and allows new users to sign up and gain a user name and password to start uploading the same.

Fun; End of the Internet

2008-09-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm

Film; Sleepers

2008-09-09T11:57:00.001-07:00

The Book is fantastic and I think the film lived up to it. The reason I love the film is simply because its about revenge and no matter how hard we try, we all feel it and want it over someone. The acting is awsome by the whole cast with Robert De Niro playing his usual brilliance. I've always believed that what comes around goes around and your past will always catch up with you and thats exactly what this film portrays. I also felt a slight sense of how I felt after reading of mice and men, because the boys plans were only to have fun and a little joke but they end up killing someone thus 'the best laid plans of mice and men often go wrong'. Although the film and book is supposed to be based on truth there has still not been any underlying evidence to prove it is correct.

Film; The Blue Planet (Documentary)

2008-09-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

I know its not technically a film but I really wanted to share my thoughts on the amazing and truly fascinating documentary of our blue world. Being a BSAC sports diver and having dived in England, Asia, Turkey, Spain and Australia whilst living there for a year, surfing on a regular basis, I ve developed a huge interest and respect for our seas. The life in the sea, the power of the sea and the physical effect that the sea has on us and the world we live in is often overlooked. The Blue Planet goes where people didn't even know existed and the marine life and animals the documentary uncovered, some, had never before been seen by man. The fact that more people have been to the moon than the places they investigated, to me shows how ignorant we are of our own planet. Very rarely do you see documentary's uncovering the mysteries of the deep blue ocean and this one is defiantly one of the those special rarities that was aired over our televisions. Films can have amazing special effects fantastic acting, historical quotes that last for years and years, but there all planned. When you stumble upon and new species in a place on our planet that has never been explored before and see it in its natural place unplanned, unpredicted, then I think that can be better film than any perfectly scripted movie and thats exactly what the Blue Planet series delivered.

Book; Of mice and men

2008-08-06T05:32:00.000-07:00

The best laid plans of mice and men dont always work out as planned. The book follows the storyof two men in the industrial revolution age travelling across America seeking work with a final dream in hand. One of the men is a smart man who has worked all his life, the other has a disability and is not as you would say very switched on. Regardless of this they stay together seeking work where they can find it with one looking after the other. There dream is to one day settle down in a nice quiet cottga ein the mountains with vegetable patches and easy living. But the best laid plans of men do not always work out right, when lenny the one with a disability screws it all up. It is referenced along side mice becausethey are just like us they collect food and build a home trying to make it in the world travelling where neds be, but lenny has an obsession with them for a pet, but keeps killing them becasue of his sheer size and his disability, he doesnt know how hard to hold them. Thus it goes hand in hand and follows the story of all the trouble lenny gets them both into and the final action his friend must take to rectify the situation and maybe fulfill there dream. It is a book that you personally can relate to as we all have plans that dont seem to work out just as how we want them too.

Film; Citizen Kane

2008-08-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

The film traces the life of Charles foster kane, a man whos career in the publishing world is born of idealic social service but gradually evolves into a rtuhless pursuit of power. It foucuses on flashbacks through the film of different incidents and from different points of view. Basically Kane dies and uters a last breath saying "Rosebud" a reporter then goes delving into Kanes life and past before he died to try and dig up any mysterious findings and also to find the meaning of his last word.

The film has been voted number one many times in American poles and it does take some getting into when you first begin to watch it but as the plot thickens and puzzles get solved the overall feeling I got from the film was through Kanes rise into power taking over the newspapers and gaining a dominant stance in the world the only time he was truly happy was when he was poor and had very little and no desire to gain power. The rest of his life although being wealthy and powerful he wasnt truly happy, and it goes to show that power and money are not what can solve things or make you happy.

Design;Apple i phone

2008-08-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

Using a laptop to work on the move is becoming almost as common as reading the paper on your daily commute. More than a quarter of us read email and get a head start on the working day, according to the future foundation. One in 10 commuters works on a laptop on the train and just as many email on their smartphone. Although they're first and foremost mobile phones and we'll always use them to make calls, the new breed of phones do much more. Once restricted to executives with a blackberry and an IT department, mobile email is easy to use on a wide range of phones. Mobile web browsers have been primative, but the iphone has improved the experience dramatically and other smart phone browsers are set to catch up quickly. Iphone users search with google 50 times more than other phone users but mobile browsing generally has increased 89 percent in the last year according to measurement service M:Metrics.

The Iphone has lead the way in innnovation it is changing the face of mobiles and putting pressure on its competitors, it looks good, is simple to use and aas i forementioned allows you to work and email any where. I think within the next few years all or most of all mobiles will follow down this path almost cancelling out the need for laptops.

Artist; Ant macari

2008-08-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

Macari is an artist with a difference, quoted from the baltic "Macari’s direct physical response to the space has resulted in a new series of site-responsive drawings, traceable throughout the building. This presentation of Ant Macari’s work is expansive and involving, presenting new visual challenges to us in and around the gallery that reaches beyond the conventional art exhibition."

He uses as you can see from the photo all the space he has available to him in the room he is situated in to produce his art. He leaves codes and hints in his work and forms paths to illusions hidden secrets. He uses a diverse array of techniques from tonal to line shading and isometric drawings, he involves the viewers in a fantastic way when his art is displayed. I see it as marketing art in a different sense taking in and using everything he can around him. His art could be classed as grafitti if seen on streets etc but is grafitti classed as art? However becuase it is setup in exhibitions it is known as contemporary art . Viewers are often handed guides asking them if they can find the puzzles hidden within the art of lines and crazy drwaings. It reminds me of alice in wonderland sorts of themes or pans labrynth.

Website; www.walkit.com

2008-08-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

Co-owner and founder of walkit.com launched the UK'S first online walking route planner and now turns over 250,000 pound and recives 55,000 hits on the site a month. This site to me is a simple product with good innovation and design. Walkit was started for people to be able to measure how long it would take for them to walk from a meeting to their office in central London rather than them driving, as walking is the quicker option but people didnt belive or seem to realize it. The essence of walkit is ' given the right information people can beat the grind of the daily commute using their feet. ' The wevsite doesnt spend anything on marketing and only uses word of mouth, which of course is the most powerful marketing a company can get. People having been giving up the car and bus ride to work because through the site they have realized that walking is quicker, this is leading the way to a more enviromentally friendly City and healthier people.

Design; Lexus GS450h

2008-08-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

The Lexus S450 is the world's first luxury car to go into production employing a petrol-electric hybrid powertrain. This is a fantastic idea of innovation especially with the ever rising cost of fuel prices, it apparantly cuts the price of fuel for the user by a quater if not more, The GS450h also emits 30 grams less of climate changing carbon-dioxide per kilometre, which is a massive kay point as global warming is becoming such a major issue in our current time. The Lexus isnt cheap coming in at approximatly 100,00 american dollars, but I think its leading the way for all car manufacturers and industry. Imagine how much cheaper it would be to run your car on a quarter if not less of the price. Performance isnt an issue either the engine kicks in at certain rev points for those steep hills or important quick takeovers. However the engine only kicks in when needed and thus is fantastic for those long cruising journeys at a steady speed which will save you loads on fuel price and consumption.

Architecture; Durham Cathedral

2008-08-04T04:57:00.000-07:00

As you driveup and over the A690 into Durham and glance at the welcometo County Durham sign you will then be amazed at the sight in front of you which is now a world re-nowned world heritage sight. Durham Cathedral is the greatest Norman building in England, perhaps even in Europe. It is cherished not only for its architecture but also for its incomparable setting. In a nationwide BBC poll held in 2001 it was voted the nation's best-loved building. Like Hadrian's Wall and the Angel of the North, it is an icon of north-east England, its image is instantly recognisable to people who love this part of Britain.

The cathedral sits on a hill of land surrounded by the river wear. The cathedral is built in Norman style and architecture and is also the tomb of saint Cuthbert. When I've visited the Cathedral its stain glass windows and pillar stone supports whcih reach up to 30 feet high are sculpurtured and crafted to perfection. You get a strong emotional feeling when you enter the cathedral from the huge vast halls and endless room between the floor and ceiling. The student housing and accomadation for Durham University is also built onto the church and all the first year students still live there as was the same in Norman times for settlers in Durham. The court yard was deigned to open up onto the main town centre and so is a beautiful spot for students and familys to rest, picnic and just chill out. For me the building itself is beautiful and is a grat landmark to have for Durham as it is the first and last thing you see whn entering/leaveing the city.

Museum; Sainsburys

2008-08-01T05:56:00.001-07:00

Lets face it if your doing a brief based on or anything to do with food, where's the best place to visit? A food supermarket. Its full of branding, attracting colours, user guides and information layout ideas. If you ever get the chance to look around a supermarket simply for research purposes rather than with food on the mind you ll notice a lot more. You even notice what people are attracted to and how the supermarkets attract them by interior layout, whats in your face, whats not!! the height of the shelving the colours of the products? Look along a shampoo shelf ? hundreds upon hundreds of bottles all lined up next to each other, which one is screaming to you grab me as you look along because 90 percent of the time it will be screaming to people looking for what your looking for, ask a friend to do the same and see what screams to them. Its a great way and source of gathering fast information for marketing products. Even Product design itself, there are vast amounts of all asorted packing methods and ideas on the shelves. Think of it as a library but with physical objects rather than books and pictures. You can even touch !!!!

Books; Jim Krause Idea Books

2008-08-01T05:39:00.001-07:00

I own these books and there a fantastic source of inspiration, ideas, research, valuable information and general interest. There a collection all by the same author Jim Krause, each book is full of examples of work related to the title not designed to be copied but designed as possibly a starting point a a spark of inspiration for when your stuck on that impossible brief. From experience they really do work as well, taking two minutes out just to skip through a relevant book provides you with hundread's of flowing ideas. I would strongly recommend them to any designer with lots of briefs on the go. The colour index provides a vast archive of rgb and cmyk colour codes all in order of 'nature', 'love', 'fresh' etc so if your looking for that perfect colour its basically a massive colour wheel in one book.

Artist; Yoshitomo Nara

2008-08-01T05:13:00.000-07:00

I actually first noticed this artists work in the Baltic Flour mill As pre-mentioned in one of my earlier posts and his work immediately stuck with me and so I started looking into his work and collection and they are a vast funny, original, different and interesting collection of work.

Yoshitomo in my mind uses his talent to bring ordinary everyday people and there actions to life by simple and stimulating illustrations. He has produced thousands of pictures and he often goes to small villages and observes the community and begins to base and draw his illustrations on the people in the community depicting out things that they are doing which are unique. It shows a very simple way of how otherwise normal things that we overlook and don't notice can become intriguing and interesting. His style is very individual and he seems to always use pastel colours and light tones, he uses outlines rather than dark and light shading to depict shadows and depth, however some use of gradual gradient can be seen in the dominant black and whites. The picture below is a great example of how ordinary life can be brought alive and become fascinating through Yoshitomo's characteristic illustrations.

Film; Muhammad Ali The greatest

2008-08-01T05:04:00.000-07:00

Not the film with Will Smith in, but actually the story and following of Muhammad Ali throughout his life and the amazing beliefs he stood for and trials and tribulations he went through to stand by them.

The film portrays Muhammad Ali and his amazing fights and life story, it has footage never seen before on television or ever aired and is kind of like an in depth documentary on him. Ali is a huge inspiration of mine from being the best boxing fighter in the world he didn't let the fame and fortune corrupt him. The film starts as a young boy and his dreams and ambitions and follows him through the stripping of his heavy weight title, his imprisonment, his fights and most of all his beliefs and what he stood for. I find it quite an emotional and inspiring film to watch and you find out alot more about Ali than just his fame, you begin to get a deeper understanding of the life he choose to live and how even the government is strong enough to weaken one man.

Museum; Baltic

2008-08-01T04:49:00.000-07:00

The Baltic Flour Mill

This art/modern contempory museum sits on the river Tyne's keyside. The Baltic has no permanent collection it is an ever changing archive of exhibitions by talented artists from all over the world, it ranges from blockbuster shows to art and the community demonstrations. It is a great place to discover fresh ideas and inspirations with its ever changing pieces of work. The building itself was converted from an old flour mill into what is now the museum. The Baltic is the biggest gallery of its kind IN THE WORLD. It has seen over 2 million visitors in the 6 years it has been opened and has become a landmark of Newcastle. Inside it has vast shelves of books on art and the design world as a great archive for research, along with lecture theatres and workshops it is a fantastic learning and motor-vating place.

Architecture; Interior; Sports World International

2008-07-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

The reason I ve decided to debate a post on this isn't because of the clothes they sell, the colours they use, there identity. Its because of the way the interior has been designed and laid out although for a lot of you who have shopped there in the past may think ' but its just a mess' it is actually designed to be layed out and planned like this..... and guess what it works!! hugely works. I worked for the company for 5 years in the one same shop and I know myself trying to just get to the next floor is a nightmare. People with prams cursing and screaming about the lack of space cues of single isles weaving down to the tills at the back huge metal ball bins slammed right in your way just as you think your at the till, which yes is at the very very very back of the store, not at the front like most stores so you can pay as you leave.
All this is done on purpose, stands are crammed onto the shop floor to make it harder for people to get past for the simple reson that it makes them stop and look at the stand!! As there fighting there way past I would see them all the time swearing and getting annoyed due to lack of space then suddenly stop and ' oooo that looks nice' pick it and continue on this would happen all the way to the tills at the back. Thus the tills are placed at the back so the customers have no other choice than to pass every single stand and have no choice but to view every single item before they can pay and in most cases ensures they leave with a lot more than what they came in for.

Sports World is now almost a Monopoly in the department store market with only JJB competing with them.
I think the statistics speak for themselves at how clever Architecturally interior designing of a shop even in the case of being annoying to the customer actually works. Super markets like Asda and Tesco are the same, its all about getting the customer to notice and be interested in as many items as possible.

Architecture; Penshaw Monument

2008-07-30T14:48:00.001-07:00

No this is'nt Greece Its Newcastle!

Penshaw monument was built in 1844 on the hill of Penshaw in memory of the first earl of Durham. It was based on the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens the one seen on Jason and the Argonourts. It is 100 feet long and 73 feet wide, each column is 6 feet in diameter. The monument features on Sunderland afc s Football badge and is also said to be the place of the lambton worm. I find this piece interesting probably for the wrong reasons, I appreciate the structure and that it looks impressive but like I said this isn' t Greece!! Whats funny about this design is that if you ve ever travelled up the A1/M1 to Newcastle and turned up the A19 to head into Newcastle you ll probably see this and to put it simply it looks out of place, Architecturally its fantastic, it even has an engraved staircase all the way round the pillars that lead to the top for you to walk around, but looking at it, you have a symbolic Greek Structure on a hill surrounded by bright red brick housing, 3 Industrial estates one of which produces huge amounts of steam 24/7 and a huge fast pace constantly busy motorway?? Now to me just talking about this makes me smile, Architecturally this has no symbolic reference to the North at all I could understand if it was a Monument of stature based on our mining in the old days or our ship yards, but its based on a Greek gods temple. I guess for me in my opinion this is Architecturally designed well but Architecturally placed wrong.

Architecture; Sydney Opera Theatre Tiling

2008-07-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

Now we all know the Sydney Opera house is a fantastic piece of Architecture, but what struck me most when i saw it was the tiling structure it made from. When seen on all the post cards it looks white and plain but when looked up close as you can see in the photos its far from this. It has a very symmetrical tiling system that runs over each part of the Theater consisting of white diamond tiles and a dark cream diamond tile that is separated down the middle. Even the separations are interesting they appear at exactly the same distance apart spread every where. When you get up close and forget the obvious fact that the structure is meant to be viewed from a distance you see a different side to the structure. You could say it looks dirty as the cream tiles are a close tone to soil and muck.

Or is it done on purpose to stop strong reflections from the sun blinding the ships on the river?????

The tiles reminded me of a space shuttle and the overall structure which is comprised of 10 segments reminded of individual orange pieces cut in half or shark fins sticking out from the water.I havent been able to find the answer to why the tilings were created like this but never the less I find them an interesting piece of architecture design.

Architecture; Tyne Bridge and Sydney Bridge

2008-07-30T07:15:00.000-07:00

"An over looked piece of design" in my opinion.

The tyne bridge is a compression arch suspended-deck bridge over the river tyne in Newcastle where im from. It links Gateshead and Newcastle and was designed and engineered by Mott, Hay and Anderson. It was officially opened by George 5th.

The bridge although not that well known is actually quite a landmark in the North East it has become symbolic of our awsome nightlife and brand new key side which holds the Baltic and Opera house with new developments springing up all the time making it one of the most wanted living areas in the North. I guarantee if you've ever been on the train into Newcastle traveling over the water and seeing the bridge with Newcastle's key side back drop will excite you.

Besides that it is more famous, the well known Sydney Harbour Bridge was based on the Tyne bridge, its structure, colour, design and ergonomics were all based around the Tyne's.
Compare the two pictures you will notice the similarities. Now for me living in Newcastle to have our bridge be studied and copied and then built in the famous and beautiful Sydney Harbor makes me feel proud because it s a bridge that I ve crossed and millions of people cross every year but it doesn't get recognized to the extent that the Sydney Bridge does and for this reason I think the Tyne Bridge is a fantastic architectural design having influenced one of the most famous bridges in the world.

Design; Coke a Cola the can, bottle, slogan

2008-07-29T09:46:00.001-07:00

The coke side of life!! I love illustration and I especially have always liked cokes, I've never yet seen a more interesting glass bottle, not only do you get coke out of it but just look at these adverts and see what else you can get from coke. The colours used are very specific and unique and proclaim mountains of emotions and feelings and also symbolisms.
The far left one reminds me of the 'beautiful game' quite a few years ago with the old full colour strips and real raw passion and emotion behind each player.
The middle one gives me strong vibes of real Spain, strong intense red with blues and violets a fast pace samba dance, with rhythm and feeling behind it.
The far right one again is similar although veering more on the Jamaican side of life all chilled like Bob Marley feelings strong nature and going back to your roots feelings away from city life and hustle and bustle.
What is also different about these adverts is that the colours and images used are generated from other cultures other than English but also ' the coke side of life' is printed in another language and says something different, i think about music, enhancing the 'samba' essence feel.

I love the way Coke introduces another side of life its always been ' always coca cola' or or the coke side of life both two very powerful statements to make but i think they live up to there slogan through there design, the coke bottle is such a symbolic icon now and to hold and touch and feel, its great, it feels solid in your hand through the thick glass they use slightly, coloured blue to give that chilled feeling and the deep dark black and browns fizzing inside, it feels like your holding more than just a bottle.The bottle hasn't really changed much over the years and of course they ve always kept that distinct embossed cocal cola on the side.

I always feel like coke is constantly the in thing and cool to drink it never seems to get old and fizzle out like how i feel Pepsi has. They always manage to keep it fresh and I think its strongly to do with the designing of the bottle and strong use of slogans that keep them in the now.

'The classic 6.5 ounce contour bottle was developed at the Root Glass Company in 1915 as part of a nationwide competition for a standard bottle for Coca-Cola.

Until the development of this unique package, bottlers had used straight-sided containers in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors.

The contour bottle received a rare distinction for packaging when, in 1977, it was granted registration as a trademark by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Experts estimate that the contour bottle is recognized by 90% of the world‘s population.'

(www.signature-line.com/.../02_ContourBottle.html)

Website; http://www.lynxeffect.com.au

2008-07-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.lynxeffect.com.au

Despite the OBVIOUS fact of why a lad my age would this site, thats not actually why I've decided to make a post on it.
This site is unbelievable, its more like a games console than a website, to date I haven't found a website that is as interesting and as stimulating as this, and its not just because of the pretty girls. The site use flash and some PHP coding and if you've ever used flash you ll know its not to bad certain things are tricky etc depending on your knowledge and then obviously getting the correct coding is even harder.
However this site makes it look easy its very very fast loading times are impressive and the fluidity of the changes and response times are even more. Most sited with flash I ve found although look great often take time to load and respond THIS SITE DOES NT!!!! Whats even more so is the content and interactive side it can entertain you for hours. To some Flash expert once viewed it may seem an easy task but to a 21 year old student who's just experiencing the endless limitations of Flash and coding its certainly an inspiration.
The only flaw I found with it was the accessibility obviously it does nt gain w3 schools certificate due to the flash encoding etc but the navigation is a bit complicated and tricky for the site, I found myself going through endless pages of girls and girls (not that i was to bothered) before i found information I was looking for.

Website; http://www.dna11.com/

2008-07-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.dna11.com/
produce art based on you SERIOUSLY BASED ON YOU. They use your DNA to create DNA portraits or your fingerprints or kiss prints to do the same, opening up a new market in art that really is based on you. This blog post goes in hand with my ' can a fingerprint be classed as design debate'. They have used great innovation to think of a simple method that will people to won art specifically for them great for couples or newly weds. I suppose the down side is that you wouldn't really know if it was your DNA match or finger print match unless you were a biologist and could splice your own DNA but regardless i think the concept and idea behind it is great.

I would personally rather have this that all the new contemporary art that is pouring into our society, I still appreciate the modern artist that has new and invigorating ways of expressing themselves but i think this type of art would be a lot more specific to the client for obvious reasons and would express the client in art rather than the artists expression of the client in art.

Design; Finger Print

2008-07-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

We look at art as design, buildings, sculptures, books, films, adverts! but why not ourselves?

Take our finger print for example, it is unique to us, it is our own personal identification system, it is perfectly formed and shaped and is renewable, free and available for us to view 24/7 at our own pleasure. I cant think of any other design that matches that criteria.

SO CAN OUR FINGERPRINTS BE CALLED DESIGN???

In my opinion yes, nature is classed as deign and also as a work of art in some cases and we are nature. Our finger prints are unique to us but other nature has there own fingerprints with there own unique 'design'. Trees have there circles of life once cut, dogs have there paw prints even each specific coral in the ocean has its own unique pattern design like our fingerprints.
Although we cannot change or colour our fingerprint like we would a painting I still think it is classed s a form of design.

Design; Persil Tablet (Unileaver)

2008-07-29T08:35:00.000-07:00

When it comes to design innovation in detergents it is mainly scientific based good performance and practicality is generally still the most important thing to consumers when buying a washing detergent, thus companies need to design better detergents that produce cleaner results. So it is up to detergent companies to use design innovation to produce detergents that are practical, environmentally friendly and that will produce good results on lower temperatures thus being more eco friendly.
Persil were the first company to produce a detergent that was in the form of a tablet, however there was much more to this new innovating design than the fact that it was more easy and practical to use. Persil manufactured by Unilever has a dominant 27% share of the fiercely competitive £1 billion UK household detergent market, where design and innovation is crucial. Unilever considers design to be crucial in pulling together the research, development and manufacturing operations to develop the product, which will secure the most market share (Competitive advantage through design MARCH 2002). Yet just as important to the company are its environmental issues which are a huge concern in the 21st century. Its policies include using environmental management tools to evaluate the potential whole life cycle effects of the Persil product, from the extraction and processing of raw materials through to manufacturing, packaging, distribution, use and eventual disposal (Competitive advantage through design MARCH 2002).
Many detergents have been produced over the past few years that are eco friendly but have failed because they do not do their job as well, but Persil created the tablets that were not only eco friendly but also produced excellent results and were extremely practical; all you needed to do was place a tablet in the washer, which eradicated the need of measuring out certain powders and mixing them. The tablet was also kind to skin and was backed by the British skin foundation, which put again Persil further ahead in there sector because parents of young children now new the detergent would not harm there Childs skin thus that is why Persils campaign comprises of the phrase “dirt is good” encouraging children to play and get dirty. Another advantage of the tablets was the fact they were pre measured. Research showed that most people used more than was needed when it came to pouring the powder and so having the tablet at the right amount was again more friendly to the environment, less powder was being wasted so less needed to be produced.

Artist; Ewan Uglow

2008-07-25T10:37:00.001-07:00

When comparing Morandi to the artist Ewan Uglow whose style of tone is different it is interesting to see how Uglow depicts out the light and dark of the forms and the huge colour differences he uses to display this, more like Cezanne. Uglow is a British artist who often painted the human figure and still life, his work uses block tone to differentiate the differences between the light and dark areas. Notice below how compared to Morandi the way Uglow uses block s of colour to create the shading on the pear rather than a smooth gradient like Morandi. In my opinion it is not as effective as to me it creates a block like structure because the eye cannot gradually move round a gradient it has to see one bock of colour then skip to the next to perceive the form.

I still think the way Uglow achieves the tonal value of the green colour is very effective however I feel Morandi s way of smoothly allowing the eye to see his forms is more effective. I can see that Uglows way could be more perceived as abstract although he does keep a certain distinction of reality in his work the way it is blocked on to me just isn’t realism in still life, although I am open to other forms of realism and admire there technique as an inspiration in other ways. My favourite is the approaches of Morandi and other Italian Artists such as Michelangelo. Another example of Uglows block tonal work can be seen in this still life painting of a figure where the body seems to be made up of segments of tone, this can be a lot like line tonal art as that is a collective of lines in places to create the form where as this is a collective of certain tonal colour values grouped together to create the form.

In conclusion there are many types of tonal art on all kinds media and the way each distinctive artist uses tone to create there work gives the viewer a different experience, to me when I look at smooth deep tonal work with slight values of colour to create form such as Morandi, I see depth and a certain link to real life viewing compared to when I see work such as Uglows I see blocks of different colour that relate flat shapes but each viewer is to there own and there is no right or wrong way it is just an expression of the Artists perception.

pictures:
(http://bavaroclasswork.homestead.com/files/Uglow-Seated-Fig.jpg)
(http://bavaroclasswork.homestead.com/planarartists.html)

Artist; Georgio Morandi

2008-07-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

No artist in my mind in the twentieth century captured as much drama in their work as Georgio Morandi did in his small paintings of still life, flowers and landscapes. Again he was an Italian artist who grew up in small town named Bologna, his work shows relation to ‘Cezanne’ and cubism.
‘One of the few Italian artists of his generation to have escaped the taint of Fascism, and to have evolved a style of pure pictorial values congenial to modernist abstraction. Through his simple and repetitive motifs and economical use of colour, value and surface’ (Ambramowicz Giorgio Morandi: The art of silence. Janet Abramowicz 2004.)
I find the way ‘Morandi’ uses the value of tones to create his work fascinating if you look closely you can see how the deep black tone gradually lightens or darkens as forms are being created and this slight on value gives the work its edge and realism, notice the picture how the swirled vase seems to go from light to dark but still maintain its form of swirls.
A shadow can also be seen but it is very gentle and does not over power the painting, Morandi somehow still manages to keep the texture of the surface but also adds a lower tonal value to create the shadow this again in my opinion is a great example of how the human eye would also observe it. The same can be seen in the examples below.

You can see where cubism and Cezanne have played and influence on Morandi in these pieces or art, however Cezanne to me tended to stray away from the subtle shading and go for a more enhanced way of depicting light and darks even by completely using a different colour such as a secondary or tertiary colour.

pictures:
(http://www.askart.com/AskART/photos/COL20070618_4699/27.jpg) (http://www.artsjournal.com/man/images/MorandiLucas.jpg)
Giorgio Morandi Ntura Morta still life. (Arts right society New York)

Artist: Italian Art ; Michelangelo and Battista Franco

2008-07-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

I find Italian art to be the most powerful tonal art, the way the Italian artists use tone to create shapes and forms and depict out the light and dark to deceive the eye and create such a realism almost like a photo.
Such work as by Michelangelo and Battista Franco of still life using shading to create the forms of the body, to create an illusion and also a perspective to the viewer. The simplicity of the tone shows by how minimal the use of it is, the pieces are not heavily shaded and there is plenty of space on the canvas. Michelangelo and Franco are not scared to show this space and allow the eye to wander, depict and seek out the forms of the body.
This is similar to modern day advertising and modern art, people are often scared of space and feel they must fill but I personally believe when used in the correct way allowing space can be more powerful than filling it up.

Picture 1. Batisa Franco. Seated Nude Youth.
Picture 2. Michelangelo. Christ at the column
(The contribution of Philip Pouncey. The study of Italian Drawings. 1994)