Creative Futures 2014

Day One

Monday 3^rd March 2014

Today is the start of the Creative Futures 2014 convention. Here we will get to attend various lectures with speakers who have huge experience and knowledge in working within the design industry. After the lectures have taken place we will have the opportunity to tap into this knowledge and come away with a better understanding of what is takes to succeed within this competitive industry.

Introduction - Opening Address

Dr. Stuart Cunningham

The first lecture we attended gave background knowledge within the design industry, we were provided with statistics and shown what design is regarded as within the world of business.

Key Note Address - What is Art?

Barry Purves

Barry is a well known illustrator and puppeteer winning over sixty international awards such as OSCAR, best film and director, Grand Prix and BAFTA, he also said that he has worked with one of my favourite films Lord of The Rings which I didn't know. Through the lecture he shown us a short film showing us his whole career which one animation popped out called 'Plume'. It's about a angel looking man that falls to earth and is robbed of his freedom by daemons taking away his wings, He then finds redemption by casting off his former existence.

Another piece of work he shown us was called 'Tchaikovsky' which he had the actually puppet on stage with him which cost £8,000. People would think the piece of work would be about Tchaikovsky but his daughter asked him,

''This isn't about Tchaikovsky is it?''

Barry replied, ''No, it's about me,''

The Business of Brands

Sid Madge

Sid Madge is the partner of Mad Hen Design, he showed us on branding has a huge part to play in the development of companies and industries throughout the world. He showed us how branding works on a global scale, and gave us interesting statistics regarding branding. A whole range of advertisements where also presented and views on what the public saw when they watched the advertisements.

Day Two

Tuesday 4^th March 2014

On the second day of the Creative Futures 2014 I visited some of the lectures which I felt went into the more business side of the design industry. I felt I gained a lot of information should I look into become a freelance graphics designer or wanted to possible setup my own graphics studio.

Versatility - Standing Out From The Crowd

Abbie Carter

Attending this lecture presented by Abbie gave me the knowledge I feel I require in order to become one of the top graphics designers in the industry. She explained to us how it is important to work hard at our designs and also how to advertise ourselves through our CV & Portfolio. She did touch on the topic of interviews which gave me insight into how interviews take place and what employers are looking for in graphics designers.

Enterprise Support - Starting Up A Business

Judith Alexander

I did find this lecture helpful in many ways. One being it explained many ways and opportunities in which you can set up your own company. It also went through the legal side to setting up a new company such as making sure you conform to the HM Revenue and Customs and standards which must be met and upheld. This was interesting I did not realise how much was involved in setting up your own company.

I really enjoyed today’s lectures, it gave me some knowledge into how to set up your own company and also succeed as a graphics designer in what is a very competitive industry.

Day Three

Wednesday 5^th March 2014

As the week closes on Creative Futures 2014, today I have had the chance to meet some interesting people who are actually working within the design industry. The knowledge I have gained through meeting these people has helped me gain a better understanding of the industry which I am hoping to enter when I gain my degree.

The Business of Running a Creative Web Company

Phil Jackson - Managing Director of FotoFire

This had to be one of the most informative and entertaining lectures of the week. I gained a huge understanding what it is actually like to work within a graphics design studio. I loved the idea of the relax areas within the studio which were there to help you relax while you were completing a design brief.  The lecturer Phil was an amazing person with vast knowledge and experience in working within a graphics studio. He explained what was needed for a developing graphics designer like me to succeed within the business. He also handed us his personal business card should we ever have any questions relating to our briefs.

University and Beyond, a Career in the Entertainment Industry

Dave Boydell

I found this talk extremely informative, however I did feel it was more geared towards game design students. It did however make me realise the same software is used in designing games as we use for our graphics work.

Portfolio Building - Digital or Print that is the Question

Anne Marie Perks

I didn't intend to visit this lecture because I was supposed to be at a different one however  I did enjoy the lecture as it did help me to understand what should and shouldn't go into a portfolio. While I must admit it was at sometimes boring due to the lack of photos. I did expect there to be more information for what is required to go into a portfolio, however all in all I did come away learning some valuable information on portfolios even if I didn't intend to come to this lecture.

Summary of Creative Futures 2014

I have really enjoyed this week, and all the lectures which I have attended. The opportunities I have had to meet some of the people actually working within the different industries has given me great insight into the different areas of designing careers. I have also gained some useful contacts who I will keep in touch with in the future.

Through the week my favourite lecture was by Barry Purves even though I don't do illustration or animation I'm a graphic designer but it doesn't stop me from experimenting with my own work which Barry shows through his work.

Understanding Constructivism, Bauhaus, Futurism, Postmodernism, Modernism and Sustainable Design.

Introduction

Through this semester I've attended many lectures informing the design of history through the years of modernism, post modernism, futurism, constructivism, Bauhaus and also sustainable design. which I have taken notes and been assigned the task of writing a blog with my notes and findings of what I have learned and what has interested me. I will go more into depth with the notes I have taken and add images that are relevant and interest me where I will be giving my own opinion and thought. I will also disagree with the things that I don't agree on and things I agree on and why. Through this I will also be learning thing that I did not know in the design world and educating myself the history of design.

Constructivism

Is an artistic and architectural which started in Russia beginning in 1919, which had a great impact on modern art. This artistic way was apparently an unwelcomed influence at the beginning changing architecture, graphic and industrial design, theatre, film, dance and fashion. However the technique was liked because it gave artists a new style of design and to create pieces of art to carry out a message to the people which is where propaganda came into it, creating pieces of work in the easiest of ways communicating to the people on the streets. Constructivism effected modern art in the 20th century which influenced well known architecture such as the Bauhaus.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyUyYaJ_GUQVa3C9WcG-K8Hy7Ns9X6b6xNHhpKD1ecs9L2ghJLOq2ZUICIPFUi0Juou7xO8uLO46f1VplD6aPjdPIV6dn2pt6yDNwjR8gIV2TMm3Fwm7EdjM9X8xx_zlq-na4J22qzYOY/s600/Ev_timeline_RussianConstructivism_800wi_jpg.jpg

(Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova – Books)

This poster was designed for opening a new book store with the use of limited simple colours with just the use of red, black, green and blue. The bold geometric shapes and imagery used were also simple but effective with the help of typography shouted out by the woman which gave the poster a voice and movement with a bold clear typeface that can be seen from far away grabbing the reader's attention.

Attending this lecture reminded me about the propaganda artist Alfred Leete who I've done much research on before. He is a British artist and the leader of propaganda posters. He is well known for his wartime propagandist includes the poster for which he is known above all, the Lord Kitchener poster design, which appeared on 5 September 1914.

 http://www.historytoday.com/sites/default/files/leete.jpg

(Alfred Leete's Lord Kitchener poster)

This is one of his well known pieces of work which I like  where the graphics are very simple, The use of bold typography which is very directive and grabs the audience attention. Also the imaged used of Lord Kitchener makes you feel like he is actually speaking directly to you which worked well for this design of poster.

Bauhaus

House of construction", stood for "School of Building"

Was a school in Germany which was opened from 1919 to 1933 which combined artistic crafts and the fine arts. Doing so was famously known for its approach to teaching it publicized and taught. The school was set up by an architecture Walter Gropius, founded by an architecture I would of thought he would of had an architecture department which he didn't during the five years. despite this the focal point for the school was to bring all design medias together. The Bauhaus was a huge architectural impact of its time which influenced in Modernist architecture and modern design which changed architecture, art, graphic design, typography and industrial design. The School was pressured by the Nazi to close down because cause the thought it was a centre of communist intellectualism but this didn't stop the staff from teaching as they left Germany and went across the world.

 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/228205906088929643/

(Weimar Typography)

I admire the concept with the play of typography through this piece of work which gives it movement, words curving around shapes, I even think that the shapes could possibly be lettering.

 http://www.aidecworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Bahuas.jpg

 (Bauhaus products)

Really like the architecturally structured arm chair which is very modern but simple. It could be looked at as a piece of art/sculpture with the curves and the simplicity.

Futurism

In the early 20th century was a artistic movement that came from Italy which associated with concepts of the future. This would include anything that was new and in the future such as technology, speed, violence, youth, politics, car, plane, engineering and architecture, even though UK and other places were involved in this movement Italy was more involved.  The people (futurists) used every form of media, graphic design, fine art, painting, photography, architecture, film, fashion, music, engineering ect....

As Italy was the biggest involmeant a great futurists came out of the country such as Filippo Tommaso Marinette who was a poet and was a key figure. He produced important works such as the French Le Figaro newspaper, Boccioni's sculpture, The Dirigible, In the Evening, Lying on Her Bed, She Reread the Letter from Her Artilleryman at the Front, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, and Balla's painting. French Le Figaro newspaper was Flippo's first major work which started him becoming a futurist as other futurists started joining to the movement. This group had their own beliefs  that anything old is rejected and not even glanced upon and that the future was the way forward in art. My own thought on this subject is that I agree but also don't agree, I agree because we should always be moving forward in design and experimenting which new techniques and methods. But I also disagree because old techniques have their stamp in the design industry where retro styles are still around us even with using futuristic methods.

 http://bittleston.com/artists/giacomo_balla/images/Giacomo_Balla-Dynamism_of_a_Dog_on_a_Leash-Oil_on_canvas-1912.jpg

Giacomo BallaDynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912 Oil on CanvasThis piece of work is probably one of my favourite works by Giacomo Balla showing obvious movement from the owner and the dog which is a great technique used, this is a great exampleof movement in art work. 

 http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4060/4484586548_cbae6b4f17.jpg

The Strength of the Curve (Tullio Crali, 1930)Marinetti was an Italian futurist and fascism which is a new artist I came across when doing research. The technique used is in the name of the artwork '' curve '' the way that he has just used curves to create movement is so simple but affective which make the red car look like that it is actually travelling at a fast speed. The limited colours also work with the painting which I like.

Postmodernism

started in 1972 modernism had failed but what postmodernisms thought, where modernists though less was more postmodernist thought that was not correct and that more was better. For example Picasso is a worldwide famous artist with people all over the world loving his work, postmodernists people were not a great fan and thought just one technique of style was just too boring so experimenting with other medias and techniques for one piece or work was acceptable by using collage, reputation, manipulation and so on which were more interesting and fun. By doing so this wasn't just for fine art it was also for architecture, sculptures, graphics, music and fashion. Not everyone agreed to this because they thought it was wrong to recycle the past to make something new and thought it was pointless, however the rise of media helped postmodernism take of all over the world giving this movement a force to be recognized with to question things why  things are the way they  are and the ways they aren't.  It serves as an overarching term for sceptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism.

 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T07/T07573_10.jpg

Duchamp FountainEven though I like postmodernism art there is a big part I don't like, for example Duchamp Fountain sculpture I find it really pointless and can't even call it ''art'' because in my opinion it's just a urinal with crappy writing on the side which anyone can do even a drunk man in the toilets can just create this piece of work as he is using a urinal.

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/In_the_style_of_Andy_Warhol.jpg

Andy Warhol is an artist I know about which I know was a big influence to Postmodernism who as an American artist who was a visual art movement known as pop art. This painting of Marilyn Monroe is a symbolic piece of work repeating the image 4 times but coloured in bright bold colours which pop which gives it a retro feel which I like.

Modernism

Modernism is the movement in art and cultural movement which changed the western society in the 19th and 20th centuries. This had a big impact on the industry and rapid growth which was followed by World War 1 were the factors that shaped modernism.  Modernist reject religious beliefs and rejects enlightenment thinking therefore  not moving on and not thinking into the future and keep the more traditional form of arts, architecture, faith and literature which were becoming outdated in the new economic/social and political condition in the world. Modernists always thought that anything designed should be designed for its use and not how it should look.
ludwig mies van der rohe - less is moreGerman-American architetect and served as the last director of Berlin's Bauhaus, , and then headed the department of architecture. He establish a new architectural style that could represent modern times just as Classical and Gothic did for their own eras. He created an influential twentieth-century architectural style, stated with extreme clarity and simplicityV&A Victoria and Albert Museum which is the largest museum of decorative arts and design, holding a collection of over 4.5 million objects covering 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. The holdings of ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking, drawings and photographs are among the largest and most comprehensive in the world which is a great way of experiencing modernism.

Lester Beail - felt like design ''must work with one goal in mind-to interrogate the elements in such manner that they will combine to produce a result that will convey not merely a static commercial message, but an emotional reaction as well.

  http://pablo-picasso.paintings.name/images/Les-Demoiselles-d-Avignon.jpg

Les Demoiselles d'Avigon (1907)

This is a  oil painting created in 1907 which portrays five nude female prostitutes from a brothel. The work is widely considered to be of early stages of both cubism and modern art. I actually like the  angular and disjointed body shapes which drawn me into the piece of work, I actually like the technique used with cubism which i add into my own graphic work.
Guernica, 1937 by Pablo Picasso is my favourite piece of work but also his most famous work which shows the pain a suffer war does to innocent individuals. This is a powerful political statement aimed at the Naz's casualy bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War which surrealism and symbolism comes into the painting.

http://chicagoartreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Pablo-Picasso-Guernica.jpg

 

Sustainable design

Sustainable design aims to reduce impacts on the environment therefore improving building performance. Therefore the main step of sustainability is to reduce the consumption of waste, non renewable resources and minimize waste, and create healthy productive environments. 80% damage of the environmental impact is determined at the design stage, most of the products involved the inefficient use of energy, water and natural resources. The way around this would be to use environmentally preferable products,

- minimize non renewable energy consumption

- enhance indoor environmental quality

- protect and conserve water

- optimize operational and maintenance practices

- use environmentally preferable products

most of the products involved the inefficient use of energy, water and natural resources, 400 billion pounds is spent on advertisement and marketing which has a big affect when transporting goods, by  travel it creates 2-4% of global carbon dioxide emissions which is 5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually by 2050. In The USA 2,3bn paper cups a year in the, 43 thousand tonnes per year of waste of coffee pods end up in landfills alone. This is one of the reasons why we have to use recyclable materials paper bags vs plastic bags. Fabric bags are the way forward because it takes a few weeks for a paper bag to decompose and 500 years for a plastic bag to decompose. However every person in the United Kingdom uses up the equivalent of two trees a year because the waste of peper makes up 50% (by volume) of our domestic waste 5million tonnes of paper is wasted, glass: six billion glass bottles.

plastic: half the plastic bottles we now put out for recycling are now sent to china for around £50 a tonne

metal: currently only 50% of drink and pet foods cans are recycled, in 1990 McDonalds bowed to customer pressure and switched to cardboard -

- 30% less energy to produce

- 46% less atmospheric emissions

- 42% less water borne waste

Product design is now trying to do its bit creating solar trees, wind up light, advertisement created with sand, snow, grass and architecture which is eco friendly.

As I'm a vegetarian I'm actually helping the world, eating quorn products you save 70% of paper costs. And staying with the theme supermarkets have been re designing the way they package there foods with more eco friendly materials.
 

 

However reducing materials on food products does have its downside, the first image of the chocolate cake the packaging is well designed and makes you want to eat the cake more but with the second Imaged with less packaging has lost its spark to grab the public's attention to make them buy it. This should be pick up upon because yes it is a good idea to reduce the packaging materials to help the planet but they need to find ways to make it more appealing to the audience.

Conclusion

I am happy with what I have learned myself and achieved when attending these lectures and writing my blog. Creating a blog is such a great way to have your own date base where you can store your own information and go back to it anytime you want and also sharing it with the public where it can be commented to you. I am happy with the way I have completed this assignment showing my understanding of the design movements brought up and showing my own knowledge and opinions showing how I feel and how it affects me. Constructivism and futurism which influences my own work and its always great to learn something new from topics I enjoy however postmodernism wasn't a strong point for me because it doesn't interest me as much as the other topics. I have had weaknesses through this assignment with time keeping which I wasn't good at where if i managed my time keeping it would of been a lot smoother and easier which I have learned my mistake now. However I do have strength when doing this blog where i took notes in lectured which helped me with information that I could go back to also most of the artists mentioned in the lectures i knew a great deal about from college which I was able to put my own views and opinions on,  also adding artists that i thought would be suitable for the topic I was talking about such as Alfred Leete about Constructivism and his posters with propaganda. I'm very happy with the outcome and completing this project showing my own views and opinions.

Alan Fletcher

Alan Fletcher

Alan Fletcher was a British graphic designer and has been known for the most highly regarded graphic designer of his generation. He founded the design firm Fletcher/Forbes/Gill with Colin Forbes and Bob Gill in 1962 where they came up with the idea of a graphic book in 1963 called A Visual Comparison in John Lewis's Studio Paperbacks series. However he has many partnerships with many people such as Pentagon, Lloyd's of London, Daimler Benz, Reuters, V&A and more where is done successful work for them. Alan has won the Prince Philip Prize for Designer of the Year and became President of the Designers and Art Directors Association in 1973. An exhibition of his life's work was displayed at the Design Museum in London in 2007 which went on tour around the world to Tokyo in 2008 and in West London. His work has always been inspiring and someone that you can look up to for graphic inspiration which is a good things as he is known to be one of the best graphic designers of his time.