Graphic Nothing.

Some amazing work by Graphic Nothing; a Manchester-based designer. His posters are created using the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio. I really love his work, it is bold and interesting with a very complex concept behind them, yet the designs are all minimal. I would love to have these on my wall!

Fibonacci numbers used to produce colour values.

Segment size related back to the numbers in the sequence.

Triangle tessellation created through following the sequence.

1.6180339887...and so on

I've been looking at the Fibonacci sequence and the golden number (1.618 0339 887...etc) during my research for my latest project. Really interested in the relationship this series of numbers has on plants and nature, and life in general. It's a very powerful and influential numbers and appears in the structure, layout and design of many things around us. Examples are pine cones, petal and leaf arrangements in flowers, trees and plants, branch growth and the proportions of many life forms, to name but a few. The Egyptians also used it to create the pyramids and it can even help to explain population growth in rabbits and other species.

I created the above typeface by using sections of a Fibonacci spiral (see illustration below) and rearranging them to produce the letter forms. I quite like how it has turned out, but this is only a starting point for this brief as I feel my outcomes need to be a lot more developed. I want to show the importance of this magical number in life. It's a tough idea, but one that I hope will be interesting!

Cabinets, envelopes, boxes and tins.

Today I visited the Herbarium at Manchester Museum, in order to gain a wider insight into the world of plant matter while working on my most recent project "Not Just Fleurons". The work in the Herbarium is based upon the extensive research and reference collections of preserved plants. There are about one million specimens, from all across the world; and some of which are the first ever specimens to have been recorded from that particular species.

I was in awe at just how much there was to look at; it was all fairly overwhelming and I really wasn't sure where to begin. I was also quite aware that the majority of the specimens were extremely fragile, often only one-of-a-kind and much of them up to 200 years old, so handling them was quite a daunting experience. 

Although the plants were fascinating in themselves, I was more intrigued by the way in which they had been collected and stored. There were hundreds upon hundreds of carefully filed boxes and cabinets - some of which featuring some really beautiful old stamps and type. There were also boxes of small packages containing moss samples, which had been intricately folded up in old newspaper sheets, old letters and envelopes dating back to the 1800s. The type on the paper and tactile quality of these little packages were really intriguing and fragile; they seemed a lot more precious knowing that they were wrapped in fragments of the past. A lot of these were then stored in old cigarette tins and old packaging, which featured some really lovely type and illustrations. 

Maybe I missed the point of this visit slightly - I ended up spending more time looking at the packaging than I did the actual plant matter. However, this was possibly a valid activity too. My brief is to come up with a way of showing the importance that plants have on our lives; and the way in which they are so carefully stored shows that they are treasured by many. People have spent a long time collecting, referencing, studying and curating these millions of specimens. If plants weren't important to us then this wouldn't be done. The way in which they are stored becomes a part of how we treasure these species; time is taken in keeping them in decent condition (mercury solution is used to preserve and reduce the risk of insect infestation - which is extremely poisonous to humans) so it is clear that these are highly valued fragments of information.

More than just fleurons...

I love the textures and details that plants / plant fossils can produce when photographed closely.

Day at the Museum.

I went to Manchester Museum today for the first time; it's been somewhere I have wanted to go since I moved up north but I've never got round to it. I was really impressed with what they had on display - I felt like a child! I am fascinated in all things historical, looking at artefacts from our past just amazes me. Here's some images from the trip, lots of which are of spirals as I have been looking at the Fibonacci Series (how spirals are constructed) in my latest project.

Reasons to be Cheerful

...the Life and Work of Barney Bubbles.

Paul Gorman, journalist, author and owner of fashion label The Look Presents, came to talk to us about Barney Bubbles; the radical graphic designer of the 70s and 80s. Although radical and highly acclaimed, Bubbles was an incredibly private individual; never signing his work or attending interviews. In fact Bubbles, whose name is actually Colin Fulcher, only ever gave one interview throughout his whole career - and poignantly only 2 years to the date before his death in 1983 - to The Face magazine, and provided them only with a collaged portrait (below) rather than a photo in order to maintain his anonymity. His career was not really recorded of celebrated until long after his death, and much of his work is still being identified.

Bubbles embraced messiness; his work and concepts influenced many designers, for instance Peter Saville. He is most renowned for his distinctive contribution to the graphic design associated with the British independent music scene.

I've admired the work of Barney Bubbles for a long time now, however I did not realise the vast array he had produced - or even the fact that he wanted to remain away from the public eye. I'm not sure what my opinion is of his choice to remain private, but I do feel that it was a shame he couldn't step forward and take credit for the amazing work he had produced. It is true to say he was a very troubled man; he suffered from depression and long-term financial problems, which eventually led to him taking his own life. I think it is significant to mention that his death occurred just 2 months before the introduction of the Apple Mac computer - Bubbles worked entirely by hand and rigidly stuck to using grids, despite his work being quite "messy". However by the time his death, design styles had changed - there was less of a need for his quirky style, which led to rejection from some clients. This definitely contributed to him wanting to end his life long before it could have been celebrated. I think this is quite a poignant thing; I would hate to find myself becoming less and less popular due to the changing of styles. I feel it is important to remain open and not too close-minded with the way that you approach your work; but also maintaining those elements that are recognisable to you. In the current age of the digital and ever-evolving technologies and design techniques, this is a really difficult skill to hold on to, and something that I will need to refine when leaving university and taking on work in the outside world.

Zines, zines, zines.

I was really excited when I discovered Teal Triggs was coming to speak to us, as during my dissertation research I had come across her name quite a lot, and her research work on fanzines. Also, I had received her “Fanzines” book as a gift, just a week before I discovered she was due to visit, which was even more exciting.

Fanzines is such a varied subject; and also very hard to define. Teal helped to explain what exactly makes a zine, and referenced a lot of really interesting pieces during the lecture. This was really helpful, as it is an area that I am looking into for my dissertation, and until now have been unsure as to what they actually are. More importantly, she spoke about the rise of the webzine which I am writing about as my dissertation topic. It was really helpful gaining first-hand insight into what the internet and online publishing will mean for the printed fanzine from someone who is so knowledgeable about the subject. I was pleased to discover that she had a similar viewpoint on the subject as me; that the internet will not mean that the future of print is dead, but more that it is a tool to help promote and distribute it. A really interesting and highly influential lecture.

Further to this, I recently purchased OWT creative's first zine, "Beginnings". The design group studied Design and Art direction (like me) at Manchester School of Art and have since set up the design collective in order to help young creatives in the North West and showcase some of Manchester's most exciting talent. The issue shows the five members of OWT's interpretation of the word Beginnings. Produced in a limited run, each 52 page zine has a hand-screened cover and centre spread as well as being numbered in its run of 100.

I loved their responses, collected in a beautifully compiled publication. They have since released issue two, so keep your eyes peeled for further work from them.

Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means

Earlier this month I visited an exhibition of work by Abram Games, one of the twentieth century's most influential graphic designers. For over 60 years he produced some of Britain's most iconic images, for instance the "Blonde Bombshell" ATS poster of 1941, below.

I was really impressed with the body of work Games has produced during his career. His clients included London Transport, The Financial Times, The United Nations, Guinness and Shell. His influence even reached the infant television service in 1953 when he created the first moving BBC on-screen symbol. He created 100 posters during his role as Official War Poster Artist.

Games used a lot of clever and interesting devices in his work, for instance when signing his pieces he would sometimes incorporate elements of his designs in his signatures, as apparent in the poster he designed for Guinness, below.

Another feature of the exhibition I enjoyed was being able to see the sketches and developments he created when designing his posters. Games fervently documented every idea he came up with, creating hundreds of tiny thumbnails for each poster he designed, in order to aid his development. He sustained that if the design worked small-scale then it would work when placed into the public eye, because it is how you would initially view his posters; in small scale from afar. This is a habit I need to put into practise myself, as I often find myself rushing straight to the computer when creating my initial ideas. I think it would help my work greatly if I were to sketch all my rough plans out first and allow the pen and paper to develop the ideas that are in my head.

Your help is needed!

I am currently in the process of writing my dissertation on "the value of print in a digital world". I would greatly appreciate anyone's input to this topic so if you could follow the link below and complete my survey I would be very grateful!

"Click here to take part in: The Value of Print: A Survey"

Thank you!