Floral Photos

Julie Del'Hopital

Julie is a fine artist who came into college to give us some creative ideas around different drawing techniques for our floral brief. She was lovely and had some great suggestions, for example drawing with our eyes closed, with our mouth , with the opposite hand to the one we write with or with out looking at the page. It was a really useful exercise because it aloud us to produce some much more interesting results which were less controlled and more unusual. Julie also gave us a list of words to inspire our drawing and a single , descriptive word for each flower we drew , we also used different media to draw with like salt and our fingers , sticks , inks etc. The time spent with Julie definitely opened my mind to the possible outcomes of my drawings when i think out side the box , thanks Julie!

Lauren Moriarty

Lauren Moriarty (who finds it difficult to define her job title)came into college to talk to us on Friday 5Th March. She designs and produces textile products and has been very successful in her Field. Lauren did a degree in multimedia textiles at Loughborough then an MA in industrial design at St Martins London.Lauren is inspired by the materials she works with, foams, plastics,rubber and recently a heat reactive ink that maintains a glow even when the heat source is removed, from this product a children's lamp was developed. Illusion is a theme that runs through Lauren's work and she is constantly re-defining and developing her ideas rather than following market trends. Lauren was really helpful and informative , she gave us lots of tips and advice re how to market our work and explained that often it is a long time period between some one taking a business card from a trade show to them actually contacting her to produce some work.She was very down to earth in her approach to the industry and felt that it was really important to build positive relationships with other designers in order to network and support each other. Lauren talked about the importance of regularly updated info on her website and recommended paypal as the best way to sell products on line.She gave a great deal of time to answer students questions and appeared genuinely interested in our future progress, thanks Lauren.

www.laurenmoriarty.co.uk

Sping Fair Birmingham NEC Feb 2010

I visited The Spring Fair at Birmingham's NEC on Tuesday 9Th Feb. This trade show is an annual event where retailers get the chance to view what new products and designs are available. It was slightly over whelming as a first time visitor , due to the vast array of products on display. I spent time in the stationary hall and noticed several trends including delicate laser cuts, silhouettes and embossing, lots of illustrations of animals particularly rabbits and birds. Lots of white , photographs and bold graphic prints and single motifs. I also visited the interior hall and saw evidence of vintage and old English nostalgic design and also very vibrant Scandinavian reds and whites , very complex detailed floral patterns and lots of stitch applique and beautiful embroidery. I was particularly drawn to the French and Dutch designs of both La Marelle and Pip Studio.

La Marelle is a publishing company which was created in 2004 by Pascale Nivet and Fabrice Bernetiere in France. The company produces designs by Mile Heloise and Nathalie Lete and is hoping to become a publishing house for 50 cutting edge illustrators . I love all the product ranges they are very different and eye catching. The designs are striking and quirky lots of little details and humour , tres magnifique!

www.lamarelle.net

Mary and the Wolf

polypropylene bag

designer Miss Heloise

Flexible notebook

designer Martine Roch
Set of melamine dishes

designer Miss Heloise

post card 14 cm x 14 cm

designer Lauranne Quentic

Alan Fletcher Exhibition

Alan Fletcher Fifty Years Of Graphic Work (And Play)

This exhibition is brilliant Alan Fletcher's work is varied and clever. He uses humour in a lot of his work and combines text with illustration to get his message across. He is responsible for some iconic logos and his career spans more than 5 decades. He obviously loves his work and has a playful approach which really appeals to me, i also like the graphic illustrations he uses and the simplicity of the motifs. He often collaborates with other designers and artists and it was interesting to hear Lauren Moriarty who recently gave a talk at collage state that Fletcher is one of designers she admires the most.I loved the collages that made up the Chinese Horoscope Calendar from 1993 the rabbit was made from old envelopes and used bus tickets. My favourite piece in the exhibition was a poster called 'We The Undersigned' from 1971 which was a campaign poster against admission charges at galleries and museums, it lists signatures of all the great masters , genius!This piece was inspired by Fletcher's experience in an office, he asked if any one could lend him a pencil and no body had one because they were all working digitally. He felt that the pencil was becoming redundant so he began collecting them from friends and family in order to create this art work



Alan Fletcher

Walls Are Talking

This fantastic exhibition at the Whitworth Gallery is on from 6th Feb to 30th Aug 10. It has wallpaper designs from over 30 artists including Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol. The art represents four themes , sexuality, imprisonment, subversion and commodification ( i know , is there even such a word!) .Don't let that put you off this is well worth a visit , lots of inspirational ideas and some truly amazing techniques. Catherine Bertola who was commissioned for this exhibition created her exquisite piece with ash from her fire hearth you have to see it to believe it !

Beyond The Looking Glass 2010 by Catherine Bertola

This wallpaper by De Angelis and Garner is called Head Jam from 2008 i like it because the head belongs to Leigh Bowery who was a walking work of art !

Research Interiors

The new brief involves researching whats out there on the high street right now, so i went to check out whats in Vogue in the world of interiors .
I began in Habitat and found neutral colour palettes ,browns ,creams and whites lots of natural materials wood and cotton and minimal clean lines .
Dwell was very similar to Habitat in its display following the same colour themes with the additions of muted greys and accents of copper and silver. There were limited patterns around but several of the smaller accessories( like cushions) had bold graphic illustrations adorning them such as skulls and tatoo type hearts ,cars and maps.
Next had more patterned fabrics on display as did M & S and BHS lots of examples of flora and forna along with other natural images like sea shells and birds. These stores had dark reds,maroons and sage greens in there displays. I noticed there were lots of small details emdroided on the bedding and accessories and crochet ,knit , beads and felt also featured regularly.White was also around in most of the stores and in BHS in particular it featured along with creams ,lace ,glass, mirrors and crystals this was also evident in Laura Ashley which again had accessories which were appliqued with birds, animals and very English cottage imagery like tea cups and roses. Laura Ashley's colour themes were again muted and subtle, pastel pinks, creams, aqua and pale blues.