Reflective 3

Birchover reflections

I have been focusing on making positives for screenprint - I made 5 prints a A3 in the last few weeks. I'm sticking with a colour scheme to give them all a consitent feel - green, grey, orange - and black?

making positives has began to stall - at the moment I only seem to be able to have about 2/3 of an idea for a print.

The publications I saw during MassArt really excited me - and reminded me that thats what I kept meaning to do - so I went in on Saturday and just photocopied sketchbook pages and loose sheets (some on coloured paper - loosely sticking to the colour theme.) and then grouped the pages based on location and theme.

The result is quite an abstract publication - but it got me thinking. I've had a creeping feeling I've been too fixed on printmaking and not allowed my ideas to flow as much as I should. With a bit more experimentation and some simple integration of type - it could be quite a nice publication. One thought was that I could make 2 - one for the top half of Birchover (Nine Ladies and Stanton Moor) and another for the bottom half (Rowtor Rocks and the Druids Inn - Winster Guisers.) I've been thinking about ring binding for a long time - its simple, almost tacky - and it keeps a feeling of the kind of guides you get from a small, historic place like Birchover.

Going though the work I'd done and compiling it all made me get an overview of the work I have done - and what still needs doing. It also made me get a sense for a) how much work I've made - how many sketchbooks - and b) how much of that is good/useable

I also thought I could do a similar publication at A3 - and properly bound. It may well be that photocopied sheets are mixed in with screenprinted pages (and digital?)

The work is still flowing fairly well - but it really needs pushing on somewhere else in order for it not to get stale. Much of the work is fairly abstract - so I think type is going to be really important in showing context.

Competition Briefs reflection

I have also completed a few competition briefs. These are the Bicebe Political Poster competition on 'the age of disinformation' and the penguin books student competition. I did 'the establishment' by Owen Jones and 'Norwegian Wood' by Haruki Murakami.

For the Bicebe competition I had half an idea based around a head from a book showing mixed messages and the confusion of media and social media today. I spent a few days trying to formulate it into a proper composition - using abstract ink drawing cut up and re-organised - they ended up looking a little confused. I also tried using other bits of collage but couldn't compose them correctly. I have tried both working to scale with physical bits of paper and on screen. In the end I've ended up with the design below - its ok - but I'm not sure I quite mastered the design dilemma I've had (/not quite knowing how to realise an idea I have in my head.) 

The penguin books I had a few ideas for 'the establishment' partly inspired by the Mai 68 posters, showing a crowd. I was going for a D.I.Y. kind of look. I didn't really feel any of these really worked. I had another idea for using old images of country houses and general opulence in the cover, I liked the idea of using tapestry or similar symbols of the British establishment. I gave photocopy transfers a go - just experimenting. All I had was nail varnish remover - so it didn't really do a great job. I just wrote the title around on the sketchbook page. When I showed it to be he said that it was done - and after editing it and doing a back cover in my handwriting I agreed. It ended up the slightly crap photocopy transfer does the job of showing the hidden nature of the British establishment - as well as giving the cover a slight punk aesthetic. 

I hadn't initially intended to do a cover for norwegian wood - but I found as part of my Birchover project and other things I had quite a few images of trees. I did some experimenting and playing around with different layouts. In the end I stated doing the type like trees - with shadows. - and this is what i went with in the end (type- based)

I have enjoyed doing these briefs alongside the Birchover stuff- and they have definitely helped drive each other further - but I think now I'm going to focus more solely on the Birchover work in order to push it as far as I can.

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