Guest Lecture- Simon

He is a fine artist who ran a practice that started in 1990 based in Chicago. He has been in the academic world lecturing for the last 4 years. He explained about his anxiety when he graduated University. He went on to discuss what happens to us when we graduate as a professional in June. You become independent and hopefully find a job in your desired field. Have a portfolio ready for employment and possibly get a job in any field to gain experience. You should aim for your dream job and not set the bar low.

He then went on to discuss with us what happens 18 months after we have graduated. Hopefully have security in a job, maybe still not be in a design job, have a steady income or up for a promotion. He explained how his fine art work at university in the studio didn’t stand out and he struggled to capture attention. After he graduated he explained how didn’t have very much money but he had aspirations. He used his resources of: discipline, social skills, time management and creativity. The people: connections, family, lecturers, the art scene and networking. The plans/dreams: gives you focus, motivation, goals, organisation, inspiration and unique to you as a professional. Your dream is unique to you and defines you as to who you are.

His career started in Chicago in 1990 and graduated there in 1989. He went on to explain how his artwork captured attention from certain individuals. He collaborated with another student from West Virginia. There first project took a year to create it was called “The Body”. It was five installations that were in 5 churches in Chicago. They were installations of research on what they found in each community that the church was located in. They also created a book of the work and it was a map to help people go from church to church. It was also sent to the media in Chicago. It is good to get validation on how good your work is from a professional in the industry.

Overall his presentation was encouraging us to take a risk and experiment. We should aim for our dreams after graduation and push ourselves as far as we can in the industry.

Guest Lecture -Hospice Of The Good Shepherd

It is a charity that looks after people with cancer ranging from younger patients to older. They are all in different stages of there illnesses. They get a small amount of funding from the government. There are 100 members of staff and over 300 volunteers. They are always looking for more volunteers. It has taken over 25 years of building up the charity.

The charity came to speak to us to ask for help on designing an environment suitable for all. The building is starting to be built they have planning permission. From this expansion the charity will be able to care for more people and provide more services. There aim is to make the building as attractive as it can be. There is growing evidence that the impact of the physical environment on the health and well being of the patients. The design needs to be practical and fit the legal requirements to ensure safety of all. At the moment there isn’t enough space for the patients to do crafts without having to tidy them away. The rooms for the patients aren’t decorated enough to be pleasant for them.

It is a live brief from the charity and they are asking us to get involved in the local area. Vanessa is asking for us to help design internally and make it more pleasant. It could be a brief that helps us get more involved with the local area and work with others. It may be a way of collaborating with others.

Guest Lecture: Henry Pulp – In House

We had a presentation from Henry Pulp who studied Graphic Design at University. He owns a range of different businesses now and describes himself as a contextual designer not just graphic designer. He explained how he grew up as part of a working class family so during his final year of university he chose to start his own business then.

His first ever business venture was taking on board the rent of 132 Bold Street in Liverpool. It was his responsibility to rent out the studios and pay the overall rent. He explained how like Andy Warhol did he rented out other rooms from the space to musicians, artists, fashion designers etc. It was a huge risk for him and to make the rent he started hosting parties that were “insane”. There was one party that he hosted and explained how he layed turf down in all the rooms with a bed in the centre. He said how it was all about networking and getting contacts.

From his first business venture he went on to expand to other venues. He now has shares in 11 businesses. He owns a venue in Liverpool now which is his main business. Manifest includes a restaurant, music space, coffee shop and art events. He does his own promotion and branded it all himself.

Overall from this lecture I took on board his advice of to always take a risk and never limit yourself to what you think you can do. Always speak to other designers and collaborate where you can it can only add to your work. His main points were to be: innovative, motivated, confident and passionate. I found his lecture to be very helpful and inspirational for how I can develop my work ready to go into industry.

New York- Cooper Hewitt Exhibition

Pixar Exhibition

Wall-e

Illustration

Lamp Animation

Lamp Animation Script

During my time in New York I visited the Pixar exhibition in the Cooper Hewitt design museum. This exhibition told the story of Pixar and the way in which all departments collaborate to create their films. The way in which the exhibition was layed out showed the process of how films are produced. I focused on how copywriters create their scripts and then go on to work with illustrators to create animations. There was concept art from Toy Story, Wall-E, Brave, The Incredibles, and Cars, among other films reveal how the visual design process and story development work hand in hand at Pixar. It was useful to see how a script was simply written in note form but from the initial notes it then created a base for an iconic animation that is well known across the world. 

The exhibition itself was interactive as there was a table placed in the centre of the room that had pens and paper on to draw your own monsters. Also when you paid for you ticket into the museum you were given and electronic pen that allows you to click onto the exhibitions and save them to your pen. You can then use your ticket number to log in at home and see which exhibitions you found most interesting.

The Pixar exhibition shows how  film progresses from it’s earliest stages, Pixar designers use the design processes of iteration, collaboration, and research to create appealing characters and believable environments that ultimately contribute to the success of the film’s story. Also there are over 650 Pixar artworks on view on the touchscreen tables in the Process Lab and the Great Hall, and are tagged to link the Pixar works to thousands of Cooper Hewitt-related collection objects.

When I was walking through the exhibition I saw one particular quote that caught my attention. ” The storytelling and the emotional content is what gets into my heart and soul and brain, and then eventually down my arm and out of my hand onto paper.” – Ralph Eggleston. As my main area of focus is copywriting I found this quote to be inspirational and summarises how important it is for all areas of design to collaborate together to create something really impressive. This quotation  shows how if there isn’t a good narrative then it is difficult for the design team to create effective animations from it. They need a detailed story that will stimulate them to create visuals in their minds that they can put onto paper.

Overall, I found this exhibition to be very useful in giving me more information on copywriting and how writers collaborate with the design teams. I also feel that the way in which the exhibition was interactive made it much more appealing as there was so much to do there. It was also a great way of taken in the knowledge without reading all the signs.