The end is nigh...

Hello final year!

Looks like it will be a bit of a hardcore year what with dissertation writing, briefs, design competitions and possible placements. Scary but exciting - bring it on.

BIG BANG.

The Universe is a beautifully designed and crafted book by Amanda Mocci. The book is broken down into 5 parts: Introduction, Big Bang, Galaxies & Nebulae, The Stars, and Asteroids & Comets. Each section is separated by the accordion fold spine, which expands to symbolise our Universe in constant expansion. 

I've been very fond of book binding since I took a series of workshops in it earlier this year, and I think this is a really interesting way to display her idea. The design and art direction of the book is also so simple yet imaginative, I really love this piece of work.

Film Season Posters

These are my final designs for my art house film season "CONTRA". The season celebrates the work of Julian Schnabel, who has spent his life pushing the limits of painting and crossing artistic boundaries as an award-winning film maker. 

Basquiat (1997)

Before Night Falls (2000)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

Miral (2010)

Willow.

Nice design work from Willow, who have done the art direction for LQ magazine, below.

Contra Film Festival

ZUT ALORS!

Awesome identity design and art direction from ZUT ALORS!

New...

The new content for the next edition of Flux Magazine has arrived in my inbox! I am fortunate enough to have  been asked to work on it while art director John Walsh is on his jollies! Really pleased to be working with them again; it's all interesting stuff so far and I feel like I currently have a lot of responsibility which is exciting. Keep your eyes peeled for its release this Autumn :)

RATED

Awesome art direction and typography from Rated Magazine, a design and fashion magazine edited in Copehagen, Denmark, by Flydende Lava Studio. Their website showcases even more beautiful work (despite currently being under construction), check them out here.

Mr L'Agent et le Stadium Paris

I love this little publication, edited by Mr L'Agent and art directed by Leslie David. It isn't a recent project, as this issue was released in May, but the art direction of the magazine is lovely.

The Infinite Library.

The Infinite Library is an ongoing project by Daniel Gustav Cramer and Haris Epaminonda.


It is primarily an expanding archive of books, each created out of pages of one or more found books and bound anew. Each is beautifully arranged and printed; the duo have redesigned the found pages using bold shapes and patterns. Could Cramer and Epaminonda be questioning the purpose of print? Who knows, but whatever their concept, it is a really interesting and gorgeous outcome. See more here.
 

CONTRA.

Over summer, we have been given a brief in which I have to design and promote an Art House film festival. I've chosen four films, all from the director Julian Schnabel; "Basquiat", "Before Night Falls", "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and "Miral".

I have long-appreciated the movie "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and so it seemed the right choice to want to develop my knowledge of the director further. I discovered that Schnabel originally made his name as a neo-expressionist painter in the 1980s, and was highly acclaimed. However like many artists, his work was deemed very controversial also. This is how I came up with the title of the festival: CONTRA. It comes from the latin for "against" or "anti", and each of the movies portrays very tragic stories of gifted figures who have lived / are living flawed lives. Each of the protagonists are in a fight against the environments they are living in, be it physical incapacity, an oppressive dictatorship regime, drugs or poverty.


Adding to this, Schnabel became famous for his "plate paintings"; which he created by applying paint and layers of texture onto broken crockery. His work reflects the mosaic styles of  Gaudi; abstract, bold and colourful and, like the artist himself, very extravagant . Despite winning Academy Awards for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and receiving high acclaim for his directing role on all of the films, Schnabel affirms that he is primarily a painter, and that directing is more of a side project than a career. For this reason, I want to showcase elements of his artwork into the film festival also, maintaining his style and eccentricity in the designs I create. It will be difficult for me to distinguish between the tragic nature of the films, and his more extravagant painting style, but I feel this will be an interesting approach to the brief.


Here are my very first designs to promote the festival; a LOT more work needs to be done as I don't feel they are well considered enough just yet but I'm quite pleased with where they are going.

 

These made me smile...

 

Dr Corn.

Mr Gurka.

Mr Shy.

These little vegetable characters were created by Carl Kleiner. They reminded me of some of the questionable veg my Dad has been bringing home from our allotment...

 

...interesting.

London Film Festival

I discovered these beautiful poster designs from the British Film Institute's archives, designed for the annual London Film Festival. The festival has run since 1957 to the present date, and some of the posters are really interesting. Although some of the posters are somewhat aesthetically garish, a few really caught my eye - especially the earlier dated posters from the archive. It is a shame that many of the more recent posters lack the simplicity that many of the older ones achieve successfully. It has to be said that, when it comes to design, often less is more.

This year's festival will be held in London from the 13th until the 28th of October, for more info click here.

letters from summer.

Last summer I created a typeface from naturally occurring letter-forms. None of the images have been staged or edited. This is a selection from the set, which I like the most.