Visual Culture Unit Images

Finally found the images for Dr Anna's essay and a possible title that sounds something like 'The Sexualisation of the Food Industry'...maybe I should have a little more thought on that...

So anyway! The images:

My original 2009 Burger King advert (above)

A 2009 Arby's advert for 'The Sport's Illustrated' Swimsuit Edition (above)

2001 Cadbury's SnowFlake advert- the tagline says 'How much would you like this girl's job?' (ref. to blowjobs perhaps?)

All of these food companies have a history of sexualised and sexist advertising- but Flake being the only British modern-day example I could find. Cadbury's Flakes have had the 'Flake Girls' since the 1980's- provocative images of women sucking a dick- sorry, I mean Flake.

Burger King also have some sexist adverts other then the example I've given, such as men-orientated poster campaigns.

And Arby's, although new to me as a fast food chain being American, has very (we're talking 18 certificate here) sexual undertones in their TV advertising.

I guess sex sells and that is an undisputable fact. But, it's been done again and again and fast food is one of the most UNsexiest things I can think of. Also, a lot of the adverts I found were derogative to women- stick this food in your mouth and pretend it's his cock.

I'm a little angry now so I'm going for a cigarette...

Black Box Day Project

On the last day of the Autumn term we were placed into groups and given a black box. When given a giant black box, the ol' imagination starts going crazy. Inside...was an envelope...with a single piece of paper saying 'Pedigree Chum'. Our clues to another group were a picture of a burger (food), a picture of a dog in a top hat, pipe, monacle and walking stick (posh dogs- 'Pedigree'), the cast of 'Friends' and the sentence 'Rhymes with 'bum'' (to represent 'Chum'). We then swapped the box with another group and received the clues;

- Comes in a variety of colours
- 'Soft, kind and gentle'
- Can be used as lubricant (preferably not sexually)
- An image of a baby in a bubble
- Featured frequently in Art Attack and can be made into a rocket

Our resulting answer was Fairy Liquid. We then had to create a visual representaton for the product. Basically, an advert.



We created a leaflet that automatically went to your address once you sent your details to UCAS for new university students. We gave a 'personality' to each Fairy Scent-Sensation liquid:

- Pink Petals- girly
- Fresh Lavender- mellow, chilled, homebody
- Apple- organic, active, health
- Lemon- optimistic, lively, zesty, hippy

To find which scent suited you, you answered a quick quiz that gave you a scent based on your answers and then the leaflet folded out where there were free sachets of each scent to choose from. This was our final piece:


The crit was the hardest we've had so far. The tutors became our clients. They had comments for all the groups and their outcomes:

Group 1: After Eights- Fun but very recently been done.

Group 2: Fairtrade Bananas- No cultural awareness (world trade centres), outcome shows bad group work.

Group 3: Fairy Liquid (us)- Good use of direct mailing (DM). All like it. If they were associated with Fairy Liquid they would be interested.

Group 4: Pedigree Chum- Good idea to see it from the dog's point of view.

Group 5: Aquafresh- Photoshopped to death but good idea for younger audience.

Group 6: Dorset Cereal- Shows good research into company and good design.

Awesome Retro Lego Advert!

I have literally just seen this advert on TV. Lego have recycled an old advert from their past for Xmas this year. Enjoy.

Wha-? Aw Man! It's Okay, I Know Where To Go To Make Me Better

I couldn't describe today in a nice little bundle of quirky sayings or quotes so instead, I've used some of the words I said today as the title. In case you were wondering...

Today, was just one of those days, where you truly believed if you left the bed it would all go wrong as soon as your head left the pillow. I was wrong. Not everything did. In fact, when reminscing today and really evaluating it, nothing went wrong. I woke late, but managed to catch the bus. I didn't forget anything. I did fall over a little though but that's okay. I was given my Unit 1 marks which weren't as bad as I thought (I passed with a 2:2 and now have a solid base to grow from). I worked my little socks off and overthought my ideas.

The Idea And How It All Got Fucked- (I don't know why but since writing that I really have the urge to write 'Once upon a time' with flamboyant type) Okay, it all started with target audience research. Both of my target audiences (18-24 and 25-35) are big drinkers. 1 pint is on average about £2.50. Sweatshop workers in factories making clothes for Asda, Primark and Tesco earn 5p an hour. To earn £2.50 they would have to work 50 hours. So, why don't we just give up a pint every now and then and give it, instead, to War On Want?

Which is when I started thinking about my birthday (6th January). Obviously, I'm at home and obviously, I'll be visiting all my old haunts with all my friends and obviously I'll be tasting the tipple a little. Why not try my little idea on myself?

Then I began thinking, why doesn't everyone do it on their birthday? Why stop at your birthday? I thought, to get more drunkards interested, I could make it into a drinking game. This is where I should of stopped. But no. Enter obnoxious, shouty poster designs. Then I was told I couldn't make it into a drinking game. Legal people would frown and it would give a misassociation to WOW. Okay, pulling away from games. How about focusing on the fact that you've given away a drink? You're drinking less. Oh look, I've made an anti-drinking campaign. I came up with the idea that, when paying the £2.50, you're given a cardboard cut-out of a pint with facts of the cause you've just given money to. And why stay with a pint? Have a wine glass! And a half-pint! And look! There's my brain parachuting out of the back of my head! By the time I had my tutorial with Kit I was exhausted. Me and Kit had a little 1 to 1 chat at the end of the day about my worries that I had in fact, created an anti-drink campaign that completely overshadowed the cause I was trying to advertise. The advice Kit gave me was extreme and helpful. Go back. Go back to my birthday. Realise I've taken the idea to its limits and strip all the bullshit away (not exactly Kit's words).

So, my little readers, that is what I'm doing now, nesting away and burrowed into a corner of the room, focusing on how I advertised my own birthday (facebook events obviously) and how I can use this and my birthday nght to create a pretty sweet, laid-back charity ad. Go me! (And Kit)

Not So Much With The Good Times

Missed my Democracy day but hopefully, if I grab the brief tomorrow I'll be able to do it over the Xmas holidays. I'm stressing slightly right now with this brief, not just because of the brief but also because of some personal shizzle and Anna's essay (due 11th Jan). I feel like I'm not working, even when I am working, which just means I'm working all the time while feeling like I'm not getting much headway.

I am ready for the holidays.

Democracy and Tutorials

To build up for tomorrow, I do believe Sally's asked us to think about groups and how we work in them as we will have a 1 day brief around the theme of 'Democracy'. I do like working in groups occasionally although, in work, I'm a bit of a loner. But, in the right mood, with the right brief, I think group work can be fun and rewarding. Not only do you have a number of brains which means a number of ideas, you also get to see how other people work. I'm a loud mouth so usually take over the running and organising of the group- which will be interesting to see tomorrow as I think we have a number like that in class and if I'm in the same group as one or more I don't know how I'll react.

Today was productive. After my large amount of research over the weekend and more tonight I think I might be coming up with a few tentative ideas. Nothing finalised but I'm finding a theme and a context and with that, I'll find my feet. I think, once you gain so much information you need to filter out what inspires or influences you. Adshel has really done that for me as has some other charity campaigns (Amnesty International especially) and I've decided to concentrate on only two of War on Want's issues; sweatshops and bargain clothing and banks and arms trade because we (as a Western country) are immeadiatly affecting and affected by them.

I also signed up for another tutorial today. I've decided to really use the chances of tutorials and have signed up for each one so far this project. Last week, I found Kit's research tutorial really helpful and Justin's today was just as interesting, albiet, a little more tangenting. Due to the fact only five of us signed up for a tutorial, what was meant to only be half an hour, turned into a full hour chat about idea generation. This has also given me some good starting points when I'm ready to move on from my bulk research.

We also had PAL group today which I found extremely useful. We chatted about Anna's essay and it really cleared some of my concerns and the fog in my brain.

Excellent. Bring on tomorrow.

OMG! Water in a poster? There's magic in the air!

I've been doing a little research on Adshel. From what I can tell, not only do the clever monkeys make bus shelters, they also make some of the most ingenious campaigns to go inside them. I was going to chuck a bit more information into my sketchbook with some photos off the site (www.adshelcreate.com) but then I found videos so thought I'd throw them here aswell. Their work is really interesting. Some of my initial ideas when thinking about the brief for the bus shelter poster was to somehow incorporate the passengers waiting for the bus into the message and Adshel have some real audience participation ideas that I'm getting inspired by.







The 'Raining Bus Shelter' I thought was particularly useful for this project as it was a stunt to increase awareness and raise money for charity, much like what I'm doing for this part of the brief. It's also fun, which is what I want to bring into the message- not that sweatshop working is fun, but, as I explained before, you engage an audience much better if they have a smile on their face, and it'll be remembered more. Like the 'Raining Bus Shelter', there's a serious underlying message but the audience is still getting drenched inside a shelter. Also, it brings better publicity then an average poster with a sad face on it.

Double Blog Day- Further Research Yo

Since writing my last blog earlier this evening I've been scouring youtube for interesting, shocking, funny charity adverts and also other adverts that focus on difficult subjects (anti-speeding, anti-drink and drive and anti-smoking adverts) that grab my attention. Some have actually made me go 'Holy Jesus. Fuck. God...' etc with a number of disgusting language as I stare at the screen open-mouthed. Some have made me laugh (like the Oxfam Unwrapped advert that plays with the same idea that I was talking about where I switch off to black and white voice-over ads) and some have made me go 'Oooo. I like that' (again, Oxfam- Be humankind- LOOK AT THAT TYPOGRAPHY SKILL!). So here are some examples.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Today, so far, at half 12, has been a mixed day. The Ugly: I woke up late. My tendency to be an owl is not helping me on this course and I have been given a warning. So, a new leaf and a new alarm I think. It's not, I'd like to point out, because I go out. Ask anyone, I am a hermit nerd. I just like my sleep. So yeah, new leafing.

The Bad: Handed in my Unit 1: Text and Image a day ahead of my extension which although I'm proud of, feel I could of done a lot better on. Fingers crossed I don't fail before I begin.

And, finally, The Good: New brief, new brief, new brief! Excitement is in the air like the first few weeks in September when your school shoes are polished and you have sharp pencils. WAR ON WANT is a smallish charity that needs a new campaign to attract young people that don't donate to charities. Hey look, I'm my own target audience. Fantastic, I'm already on a roll.

I've been thinking about this for about a week, before I've been given the brief. I've checked out WAR ON WANT's youtube channel and to be honest, if I hadn't been given this brief they would have gone under my radar. They are your classic charity videos. 'Look how bad this is. Give us money' which immediately turns my attention switch to 'Off'. I'm not bitching, I am merely saying how my 'target audience' (ie me. Saying my views are the views of my target audience is deliciously attractive and vain) view these videos. I change the channel when a black and white advert appears on my TV screen with sad music and a serious man doing the voice over about starvation and poverty. Bad me but I've seen it all before. Have an example;

The number of views? 758 and I'm three of them. The number of subscribers? 216. Pitiful, considering Peter Andre, the man who can't sing and married a balloon on legs, has 2229 subscribers. Just for being a pillock. I blame media. I blame our parents. I certainly don't blame the target audience...who would rather watch this guy then these women, more interested in the rags of his relationship then another human being's starvation and abuse.

I have made a conclusion. Shock tactics just don't work on a generation brought up with the ability to have photos of real-life dead people and videos of executions at their fingertips. But humour does. Gritty real life is lost when you can watch it on TV 24 hours a day with pretty people put in hilarious 'reality' situations ('I'm a Celebrity...' anyone? 'Big Brother' is a given. Obvious example is obvious) for our entertainment.

So humour. In a charity advert.

I've seen this advert before on TV (one of those I didn't switch off because I'm not a completely heartless bitch) and at the beginning, yeah, the use of cartoons

make you smile. And then the smile begins to fade.

Like A Bolt of Creativity There is Progress...

I have been fighting visual equations for some time until the other day. I sat down, nested, a good range of music (I cannot work without music- favourites being The Clash and Gogol Bordello) had my sketchbook and started work.

Coming from a social science background (my A Levels included Social History and Sociology) I do usually jump to that for contextual research. My favourite idea was boy/girl opposites and possibly simplifying them down the 6 images until left with something like a circle and square. However, then I jumped on the idea of blurring, which then moved onto postmodernism. Postmodernism literally means 'the end of modernity'- pure postmodernism believes that in society we are no longer trapped by the circumstances we were born with (gender, class, race, location, religion, age) but that we create an image for ourselves by what we buy- the consumer society. Women can be men, white people can be 'black' (tanning), old people can stay young, we can choose our religion and our location etc.

So I started by taking photos by the things around me. Below is Mike, a friend, and one of his housemates, Caz, for the male/female blurrage. Mike (he will kill me if he reads this) comes from a middle class background. It's not cool apparently so he won't admit it but there we go. I, on the other hand, come from a low working class background. I was having a bit of trouble about representing class without going down the cliche route of chavs and emos but teenagers from different classes do have severely different fashions. So I took photos of our shoes (below). The Dr Martens are mine (those talked about bought from Camden Market) and the trainers are Mike's. Dr Martens usually represent punks and skinheads which are working class fashion statements- DIY, Oi music etc and 'metallers', 'skaters', 'emos' etc usually come from middle class backgrounds.

A Double Blog Day

It's 1:38am and I've finally done it. After weeks of following me in my nightmares and winking at me while I eat I have finally sat down and finished my Poole editorial design.

This is my nest. I need to nest while I work. I am loving the antibiotics by the laptop :)

And ta-da! The final piece.

My Body May Be Dead But I'm Still Fighting

Okay, what I don't need before a big deadline is a week of gastroenteritus, swine flu and a chest infection. I think I may be living in a nightmare. However, Sally has been awesome and I have been given a 5 day extension. Seriously, this is the first day that I've felt even a little better and I had to go to the bank because they keep charging me.

The doctors gave me this medicine that made me hallucinate- I shit you not- and made me think I was dead. The time not with my head down a toilet was asleep (sometimes beside said toilet) so I've been through it a bit BUT I am alive (I think) and I will be back tomorrow fighting but not necessarily fit.

Bring on the extension and throw work at me. I think I can do this :)

I'm Going To London To Buy Heat Magazine...

I am, I suppose, a country bumpkin. When at home in Devon I'm one of the city kids (due to the fact my family moved from Birmingham) but here in Bournemouth, I'm a farmer. I can't win. I've only ever been to London three times in my 19 years- once for a GCSE Art trip, then another to Heathrow airport for the sci-fi convention in October and then again yesterday. Unable to believe this, Rachel decided to take me to Camden as part of our Londony arty goodness. I bought Dr Martens and officially fell in love with our capital. Or, parts of it anyway. Why are the buildings so big? Does there need to be that many people? Why is the policeman chasing that guy? You see my point.

Above: Paula Scher Talk

Below: Camden Market

A magical day. We also went to Whitechapel to see Sophie Calle's exhibition 'Talking to Strangers' and her use of type really inspired me- the way she presented it. I particularly liked one piece where someone had highlighted the text (an email an ex lover sent her which became the centrepiece of the exhibition) and drawn over it but the text itself was missing, leaving only the notes.

We were also there to attend Paula Scher's talk about her work- from the beginning to present day which also really inspired me. There were some things she said such as 'Make it bigger' and 'Things have their own rhythm' which stuck with me and her view on pigeon-holing designers and fine artists so they couldn't merge made me realise that it didn't matter so much that I'm not really sure what job I want to do. I don't have a dream job because there's just so much I want to do!!

Shits and Giggles

Updates:

Dada: Finally created a Dada collage for last Monday. It was a bit Fine Arty I admit, and Anna said it might need some anchorage with a little text, but I felt it was successful for the complicated message I was given. Themes such as loss, femininity and mass-media culture were carefully brought together with a hole and 'Heat' magazine.

The egg is to represent the female aspect, the magazine collage; the mass-media surrounding us daily ('Heat' used in contrast to the fact I found the words in 'The Guardian') and the hole to represent the hollow loss we try to fill with materialistic shit. Happy Tasha.

How UnBloggy: The reason I haven't been blogging recently is purely because of the amount of work I'm doing. I know it sounds slightly lazy, but once working flat-out really from 9:30am til about 10pm every day (circumstances permitting), I just can't be bothered. Which will change. Honest. Bad Tasha.

Lists and Good-Meaning Plans:

Work That Needs To Be Done (to be re-edited. Red= done :) )

1) Poole Illustration

- Final Editorial Illustration

2) Glyphs

- Research

3) Promo Booklet

- Finish pictures in booklet

- Mini-crit

- Print and present

4) Visual Equations

- Research

- Thoughts

- Experiments

- Mock-up

- Finals

5) Essays

- Evaluation of Unit (1000 words)

- Anna's Essay (2000 words)

- Evaluation of Anna's Unit (800 words)

6) Anna

- Branding and Anti-Branding

-Groups

7) Management Skills

- Sort out sketchbooks and handouts.

FINAL UNIT HAND-IN- 25th NOVEMBER 2009

Basically. I believe I may be fucked....

Dadaism and Blood

Okay, so Wednesday and Thursday and there's me all no show because my head is down a toilet staring at my own blood. Sorry for the graphic image but it wasn't really rainbows and puppies for your trusted author either. So, I heave myself out of my deathbed (okay, now I'm just exaggerating and I know it) and get my arse to uni on my day off, to be given the new brief, 'Visual Equations'. And I'm staring at this brief thinking to myself, 'have I missed something?', like I've just walked into a drunken conversation with two strangers and one is arguing about penguins and melting ice-caps and the other is trying to compare this to his grandmother's typewriter. The slurring obviously isn't helping.

SO (I swear the blood came from my brain and now I am crazy) I'm starting how you usually do- with research. I'm starting with a favourite photographer, Dan Eldon, whose life is a fascination to me, Matisse (for classical comparison) and The Lazarus Corporation (a mixture of contemporary collage artists and writers- screams Dadaism).

On the Dada note- that thing is still driving me crazy. I DO NOT want to do an illustration and I have good reasoning for it. If the brief is to be inspired by Dada then I am surely going to have go down the collage route. But my sentence/poem was about emptiness. EMPTINESS!! How can I make a collage empty? Jesus I'm giving myself a tumour. Unless...I use a lot of negative space. Me thinks this is a dire situation.

A Dire Situation- in thinking for a project, when I feel a little lost I get on a bus. A long bus ride is perfect to think. If it is a mini dire situation I go for a cigarette. Headphones, a sketchbook and tobacco are my tools.

Okay. Plannage-

1) Stop being so ill. It's not sexy nor is it helpful.

2) Go for a cigarette and a bite to eat.

3) Dada- read the sentence again and have a little scribble in the old sketchbook

4) Research Glyphs (which I missed the mini-crit but that is a whole new story)

5) Research for new brief

6) Read through shizzle to see if there's anything else

Excellent. A plan. I feel like I need some Post-Its to really set it off :)

Happy ill days x

A Little Sally Tutorial

Had my letterpress mini-crit today. I was a bit annoyed 'cause the best of my letterpress weren't dry so I had to use some shitty ones. Okay, thats a bit harsh. They're not shitty, they're just a little crap- the experiments that didn't work.

Anyway, so then I signed up a tutorial with Sally- because I was worried where I was in the course and it quelled some fears which was pretty good.

Will upgrade the whole blog properly soon. Enjoy these breadcrumbs x

I thought I'd share some research love about kinetic typography. These were found during a search for Letterpress research.

I Have A Boot Filled With Crap Now. This Was Not Well Thought Out...

Today was ace. Smiles all round I cry! This morning was my first letterpress session. Granted it was much later then most and I felt a bit behind but I had a lot of fun. Hopefully, photos to follow but my little moments of genius are drying at the moment. I played with the 'Don't let the if's get in the way of life' idea that I've mentioned before and I concentrated on the words 'Freedom' and 'Boundary' but I remembered a piece of Alan Kitching's that really inspired me while I was researching him and everything that's going on in the papers about the new census trying to find out who we're sleeping with and the political state of the country- we as a nation find freedom in our boundaries. So I did a big 'Fuck This!' with a St George's flag painted over it. I get bouts of political anger. You may have to bare with me... but I think I may be on to something...

Also, we did book binding today- using three different ways of creating our own books. Although by the end of the day my sugar levels were low and I started feeling a little sleepy I did understand the importance of this session. FIrst of all, it was fun. Secondly, it's cheaper to create your own sketchbooks from scraps of paper then buying one (and it makes them more personalised) and thirdly, its a good skill to have for employers, CVs etc.

Personally I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed. We have two mini-crits next week and two things for Anna to do by Monday and I'm more then scared about it, due to the fact I lose two days because of my Buffyfest (which, regardless of my nerdiness I will be posting photos up here. Who knows? They could have some artistic merit). I just hope my body lasts without sleep for a few days. I decided to crack on tonight with the DaDa poem/phrase.

I picked the G2, a pullout from inside The Guardian (dated 05.10.09) and had my wicked way with scissors. I picked words that jumped out to me, nothing more, nothing less.

But I don't have a hat, or bag. So I put all the words in my boot and shook it. Yes, I know, I now realise the mistake as some of the words fell into the holes in my boot and now I have scraps of paper somewhere in my shoes.

But it was more fun then a hat :) The words I got, in order were 'Forgotten that interest stand music heartless women I'll art called of people ask stuff minimalism'.

I'm not sure what this says about me. Or what it says at all...about anything. It sort of rhymes at a stretch (women and minimalism) and I guess, if you add grammer, it could become a short poem or something.

So I'm kind of stuck on how to represent this visually and also, what that even means. Its extremely vague. When I first read it, I focused on the words 'heartless women' and 'stuff minimalism'- like this character has lost everything in their life. I don't particularly want to do an illustration. Dadaism wasn't really into that anyway from what I've researched. Dada is anti-art. It's about being the opposite- chance and randomness. To lose everything- material objects, emotional stability, time and space...I couldn't really imagine that. But I do know someone who has. Whose personal foundations have been rocked to the core, ripped away and she's had to start from scratch. So maybe, in losing everything you gain hope? You gain a chance to become someone else- to start afresh.

Look Mom, Look What We Did Today!

I think I may be in love with layouts and grids...This is not just a throw away comment, this may be a concrete realisation of inspiration. It might seem a little nerdy, but I do actually enjoy learning the bones and law of design- the first rule of design is you need to learn the laws before you can break them. The first thing we had to do in Kit's lecture was empty our pockets and create a layout with them;

I really enjoyed doing this and tried to pick things that were random but meant something to me. I'm proud to be a doner, I've had a doner card (numerous due to the fact I keep losing my wallet because I'm a twat when drunk) since I was 11, the keyring was from a friend over the summer who taught me a lot about myself and introduced me to some critical punk bands (Billy Bragg anyone?), the tattoo card is the guy who did my sailing ship on my ankle...you get the idea. This is me, summed up on a piece of paper covered in pocket crap.

Then, we had group work, creating a variety of layouts using grids. I don't mean to, but I usually take the lead in groups- I've got such a mouth and so many opinions and I don't have that thing in your brain that filters what you think and what you say- I am what I speak. This was my outcome:

As you can probably tell already, I like big, bold, brass and simple. Simple in the way that if it's there for no reason- what's it doing there? Another thing I learnt from North Devon College... One side of the text is upside down as well, if you can't see it in the photo, to give it a bit more of a twist. The group I was in decided it would be good as a front page- the introductory page you see in a magazine before an interview. The group's final layouts were this:

We also got a new brief- to create a promotional booklet about ourselves and our work. I feel a little overloaded but I think if I crack on with it I can do it. The only problem I have is Adobe Illustrator and Neil's glyph project. Me and computers have a fine friendship- we hate each other and Illustrator is just so complicated! Am enjoying it though- I love to learn new skills and its an important programme for the field I want to go in but I can see a long and difficult road ahead. I am overwhelmed.

Okay, Let's Crack on Shall We?

I promised myself I would back up a bit and explain the first two weeks before starting this blog. I'll cut out all the boring bits of being lonely, bored, moneyless and having the flu (which I successfully passed onto about six people in my class. A way to meet and influence new friends- cough on them) and crack on with the work.

So jump into your DeLorean and lets go driving in a storm...

Our first real brief (the first week was pretty much the usual. Meet the principal, isn't he nice, do your work, make us proud, have fun, be safe, have a shitload of information that'll take you a month to get your head round etc etc) was in the second week. We took an arty sightseeing trip to Poole to get a feel of the place. In a sentence- Poole is one of many seaside towns whose tourism has dried up and now they're regenerating themselves. I come from the coast- no offence, its nothing new and I have no opinion on it either way. I've seen a lot of it. I feel sorry for the locals- it really sucks when your council is more interested in reflective artwork then the real problems in the area. Anyway, mini rant over, Poole isn't half bad. Some of their architecture is beautiful and I loved the little nooks and crannies.

There was a picture I particularly liked which summed up the regeneration perfectly. There was this building, that if you looked at straight on- it looked quite modern- one of those Victorian buildings spruced up with a bit of paint. However, there was an alleyway called Button Lane down the side of it that was completely untouched.

I decided to use this photo to work on the brief. The brief itself was to create an editorial illustration for a newspaper. I chose The Guardian because the audience is left-wing young professionals and I thought the way I wanted to create the illustration would look best in that environment. I used a cutting method I learnt in Foundation at North Devon College and created a number of experiments with different types of paper. Poole's colours are blues and turquoises and some brown so wanted to use a brighter colour to compliment that. The colours I chose were orange and blue. I didn't really have time to really work into it as the brief only gave us a week before a mini-crit but I do plan to work on it a bit further. I researched quite a bit- at other editorial illustrations in The Guardian and the word 'Regeneration'. I have a sketchbook with it all and I plan to work on it at weekends to really get it how I want to.

The feedback from the mini-crit was positive albeit a little confusing. Because, rather then showing half a finished piece I decided to show what I'd started with, I think Sally must've thought I'd done absolutely no work. And it really doesn't scream 'I AM POOLE!' so I need to step that up a bit as well.

We also have an ongoing project with Anna, about the meanings of images and type, which I'm really liking actually. Not so much the lectures because I'm not really a sit-down kind of girl, but the information- semiotics and the sociology and historical threads through the work (I did A Levels in Sociology, History and English Language and Literature before doing the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design) interest me. I like politics and the way things work.

So thats my trip into time. I'm off the research I think, but first, a little cigarette break.

Excitement? You underestimate how I'm feeling

Picture it yesterday. Pissing down with rain and a small group of VisCommers are running away from the library with scissors in one hand and a roll of tape in another, looking for the next mini anarchic moment.

The Tape & Type project was immense to say the least. As Sally was talking about it I immediately knew I wanted to do something big bold and crass. It was the moment I felt like I was taking the right course for me. This is what I do. The team I was in were fucking awesome- we worked well together and our ideas were pretty much on the same page. The outcome? Our typeface 'One Night Stand' was born. We were more interested in how we could be cheeky- how far we could go without being caught. We went for a type that was quite simple so we could slap it up, take the photos we needed and run for the wind. Most of all, because I was so excited, I wanted to be fun with an upper case F. Sally gave us one rule; stay away from the main reception building. Red rag to a bull much?

We chose the word BULGE because it gave such a reaction to us. We were playing with words that described cheeky or filthy and it had to be five letters, so we could tape up each letter in five different locations and then have a big finalie. I believe Dan came up with the word and after some discussion, it fitted the best. It also gave us the name for our font because it was a wham, bam, thank you mam with a bulge- a perfect one night stand.

We chose the main reception (obviously), the library, a giant window somewhere, corrugated metal and these giant water bottles we found by the Photography section. We wanted our letters to be distorted so it took the viewer a little while to find them, to be all part of the fun and frolics. The final piece was going to be up on the huge winding staircase by the main reception a giant taped BULGE (seriously, Sally should never have said that we couldn't go there). However, rain spoiled our fun and we had to change the corrugated metal to double doors and our final to a lift by Digital Media.

I seriously had the most fun on this project. It should of had 'Tasha's Perfect Project' written all over it.

And on another extreme happy note- I got a sketchbook finally. And I feel more settled on this course. I've been really worried that I shouldn't be here but the success of this has flushed me with happiness and creative fairy dust.

Hoozah! Have some photos :)

I Really Need The Internet...

The weekend was fun but not really work eventful. Although I did buy some Post-Its. Post-Its are my organisation saviour. They calm me- it's like, if I stick a Post-It on something, its worth something to me. It sends the old shivers of inspiration down the spine. I really went for it on A. Fletcher's 'The Art of Looking Sideways'- that guy's book makes me smile :)

The one thing that's really pissing me off is my internet connection. To put it blankly- I don't have one. I would love to blog every day, or close to, but as soon as I leave university grounds that's it. No internet for Tasha. And it's all because of Vodafone. Regardless that I am a loyal customer (read loyal to say in debt) they won't give me a dongle/doogle thing. And I'm a little 'urgh' about going pay-as-you-go. I'm going to have to have a nose at maybe wireless hub connections. If anyone knows a good price or company it would be helpful to have a starting point.

Also, I am in desperate need of a sketchbook. A little one that can take all kinds of crap. I figure I'm going to have to make my own. Or check out WHSmiths or something. My CB is just too big to lump around with me and CB No.4 is mainly writing. I've realised, that although this blog started on a high, I'm kind of depressing myself. Okay, so plannage:

1) Sketchbook- by hook or by crook by tomorrow I will have a new sketchbook for this unit. It will happen. The criteria- A4-A5, not too thick, with a spine.

2) Check out the internet stuff. However this might not be sorted until after November just purely because I have a sci-fi convention to go to (yes yes this is my secret shame) and a gig in London to get my ass to.

I love lists. They calm me down. I wish I could Post-It this blog...

First Impressions

I am going to have to backtrack at some point this week and explain my first brief...but I was given my second on Tuesday and I'm more then a little excited. PRINT MAKING- LETTERPRESS- to create and design a series of creative typographic designs using block printing using two or more words from the choice of; Sequence, Freedom, Extend, Outside, Boundary and Extensive.

Initially I was drawn to sequence, freedom and boundary because they seemed to me to make the best series. I think personally, thats also how I'm feeling. University is meant to be this big jump but it seems more of a logical step in my life, an added chapter. I do also feel a bit more free, free from the old gossip of tiny old Barnstaple, like I can reinvent myself a little- smooth the rough edges of my personality. But I also miss it, and am bound by education and responsibilities and making new friends and sorting out emergency TV licenses (bad me- that was a bit of a shock through the post) and life- life is a big boundary. It's grounded by rules and laws- some you just can't get rid of, like gravity and emotions. Which fits nicely into my Crazy Book.

A Crazy Book- A sketchbook, diary or journal that if somebody else looked through would think you're crazy. I'm flicking between my third and fourth at the moment because they have separate styles and depending on my mood depends on how I want to express it.

Anyway, the back story is, before I moved to Bournemouth I bought this guerilla art book and was inspired by the quote 'Don't be too timid in your actions. All life is an experiment' which kind of fits me. I don't do anything by halves; if I jump in, I jump far and hard. So in the CB, I was experimenting with it and noticed the word 'if' is in the middle of the word 'life' so was working on somehow bringing that out, sort of, 'Don't let if's get in the way of life'. And the way I'm feeling right now I think life might be an interesting larger theme to incorporate the whole series together.

On it like a tramp on chips. x

Are We Sitting Comfortably?

...then we'll begin. I think this new blog thing (which, for my technological inept brain has just taken me an hour to set up) is a sign that I won't be joining the ranks of university drop-outs. Because, starting a blog and then dropping out is just embarrassing.

Its been about...two weeks (I think we're in the third now) into my new shiny course. I still don't know everybody's name or who is actually in my course, not even by sight. I've only been out drinking twice (which is, by all standards, absolutely fucking shocking) and still yet haven't spent a weekend in Bournemouth. So this week is all change.

Let's go go gadget.