Wednesday 16 December 2009


Part of don't panic brief. This image is produced fairly quickly which was my personal aim. I wanted to add humour and catch attention visually. Overall I think it has been successful process and I can use it later on the future projects.

Tuesday 15 December 2009


This one is going against the grain, making a statement. We are always told one way or the other to what to do. So don't panic if I am going the opposite way. Hopefully this image illustrates this point

Part of dont panic brief. Animal are getting their own backs at human in this one. they want to do things when they want to as oppose to someone guiding them all the time

Don't panic!!


Its just a video game. I tried to tackle the video game issue as many people would consider them being too influential on the players in a negative way so here I am saying to the critics dont panic its just a game.

Thursday 3 December 2009

Alex Williamson


Alex's work is been quite influential and now I am referring back to his work just to remind myself what got me going in the first place.

Very clever composition. I am quite keen on seeing what I produce after studying Frazier's work.

Craig Fraizer


His work is very interesting in terms of his approach to a brief. His compositions are filled with clever ideas and solutions to the problem. I am taking in what he does and incorporate it in my work. I need to think out side the box more to achieve this sort of results

Wednesday 2 December 2009

Colour, shape and texture


Very beautifuly crafted image. Printing played a big part to create these posters and the end result is brilliant. The textures combined with flat colours and simple shapes help achieve the dynamic impact which these posters give. Great colour combination and is kept to the minimum for greater impact.

Russian posters


For my current brief, Ill be looking at russian posters. My approach will be similar to the posters in terms of dynamism and composition. These posters communicate to the observer quite clearly as the approach is kept simple and at times uses obvious cliches to convay its point.

Tuesday 1 December 2009

Andy Martin


Andy is been quite influencial not only through his work but also in person. He poped in our studio at college and he shared his experiences with us. It made me understand more about the industry and also gave us tips on how to produce ideas quicker. I have been looking at his work and its been a great help as I've learnt a lot more about compositions and what not.

Thursday 26 November 2009

marks and spencer competition


This is a mothers day card for the competition. I opted to take part in it and see if I could put what I have learned in practice. I am happy with it and I do hope it goes all the way!!!

Tuesday 24 November 2009

This is the other version.


This is how it would look like if it was to be published.

Are animals smarter than we think?


I have done two versions for this particular theme which was are animals smarter than we think? Wanted to create an atmosphere within the image so I created shadow and prints which hints that an animal was here moments ago. I have used similar techniques such as printing and illustrator to create it.

Front cover


This is my front cover for the 25 enduring science questions.
My first version was a bit weak so i decided to go back to one of my other ideas for the cover. Its got humor and visually is more interesting I feel from my other version.

Monday 23 November 2009

Calender


I was given the month of December and the winds are quite strong. This is my final piece. I wanted the carrot to be emphasized in terms of colour. It does work against the muted colours around it.

25 enduring questions of science


Can robots be conscious? That was the main description I chose and responded to it. It was a tricky one but luckily my initial idea was quite strong and I just went for it. Printing was my main method which gave me the texture that I wanted.

Monday 16 November 2009


He is constantly working on his ideas and compositions. Its a great way of keeping ideas flowing and refering back to them when stuck!

Andy Martin

Andy's sketch book.

Colours, shapes and objects are working together beautifully here.
A well thought through composition. the sheer simplicity
of this image captures my imagination. The lines are
pure and the way they cross each other is a stroke of
geniuess. I have already learnt so much about composition by just observing his images so I feel that I can improve.






Patrick Claufield

Patrick is an interesting illustrator who's work mainly focuses on intricate details such as line, shape and colour.
He manages to use the space in a composition effectively and therefore giving the overall image a solid feel to it. I personally do struggle with space and how to use it. It will be a great asset if I could improve on it. So I will be looking at Caulfield's work quite closely and it hopefully should help me achieve a better composition.





Andy Martin

Andy Martin is a versitile designer as not only he produces still illustrations but he also has produced some top quality animations. His still work is what intrigues me the most. Its simple clean and the composition is well thought through. Ill be focusing on him in my next few projects and hopfully he can influence my work in a positive manner.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

Dream illustrations

Some of the illustrations I have produced over last few days. These are combination of illustrator and mono-printing and I was quite curious about the results. These however turned out in my opinion fairly good and manage to capture some nice marks which creates more depth to the overall image.

Tuesday 22 September 2009

Photography

It can be amusing taking your own pictures but it has to be done!!! Coming to the point, ill be using real images as my reference point and basis of my project. I have more control over what I want and how I want it. Expressions can be more accurate making the end results quite dramatic. Combination of photography and other mediums will visually enhance my work which is my aim really. Will Eisner, Frank Hampson are some of the artists which I am looking at who use photography as their main medium. They have influenced me to work in this manner and thankfully its working for me and its quite enjoyable as well.

Barbra Kruger

Barbra has been quite controversial as her work and subject matter touches the more sensitive note within the viewer. That however does not mean that her work is "rubbish" it actually enhances the experience and takes the viewer on a roller-coaster ride as there is a deeper more real issues she tackles within them. Influences of a certain theorist Roland Barthes are quite evident in her work as the images and the structure of her work is cleverly used and well thought through. She uses semiotics to engage the viewer in to her work. This means she does not need to portray the full situation but she uses the right signs and signifier to illustrate her point. She leaves most of it to the observer's imagination therefore the effect of it is more powerful than ever. Ill be looking at her for my dissertation and also for the visual guidance.

Andrzej klimowski

Klimowski plays a vital part in my project. His work is quite surreal and very interesting to observe. The reason why is so important is that he has produced series of illustrations with no speech and they tell a simple story. Not only the stories which are told simple but they are beautifully illustrated and well thought through. I will be referring to semiotics and signs as each image that i will use has to communicate to the viewer the right message hence the outcome will be more effective. His story-telling inspires me as they are very creative indeed. I want to incorporate this quality in to my work and the combination of clever/surreal plot and over the top images should result in some explosive series of illustrations.

Akira toriyama

Akira is probably one of the most successful character designer to emerge from Japan in recent years. He has worked on numerous projects such as tobal no1, dragon quest and dragonball series which is arguably his most successful project to date. I am very interested in how his characters come across to the viewer in terms of expressions and body language. Through out his work, his characters tend to be quite expressive and easy to read which is reinforced by over the top expressions, body language and tongue-in-cheek humor. My project will have no speech therefore the expressions and body language are key components for my series of illustrations. I will be referring Akira's work during the process of my project.

Sunday 26 July 2009

There's also a quite dramatic aspect about his work as camera angles emphasis on the action in the sequence.

Will Eisner



Will is a very important artist for me as I will be focusing on his work for my 3rd year project. In his career he has produced sequencial art in which facial expressions play an important role. It is an important factor in my project

Friday 8 May 2009

Comparing and contrasting two designers.

For the past few months, I have looked and studied few different designers from different backgrounds. They all have influenced me one way or the other but the two designers which manage to grab my attention and found more interesting than others are Damian Gascoigne and Tal Rosner. These two designers are from different creative backgrounds. Tal has varied experience as he started off from being a graphic designer to creating interesting and experimental short films. Damian on the other hand is film maker and seeks influences from people and environment around him. One of the most important aspects for any designer is to have a relevant subject matter which would appeal to its target audience. Tal’s work is quite experimental and visually unique. He is self-learnt when it comes to film making therefore he likes the full control of his projects and have full command of it. He would usually have small team with him, which makes it easier for him to keep an eye on things and progression of his projects. Tal likes to get involved quite heavily with his work so when the final piece is being edited, he will know when to do what and when to add effects and what not to the piece. Damian works quite similar to this. He has worked in the graphic design industry for more than twenty-five years, which gives him a lot of experience and knowledge about this field. Damian himself is not that skilled when it comes to some of the programs he has to deal with so the way he works around it is that he hires students to do the work for him. Even then he still has most of the control over his project and adds input to any thing that he feels need adding. So he is quite similar to Tal’s approach, as they both like to have full control of their projects.
It is always a great pleasure to know how different designers approach their work and how they manage to generate such great ideas without much hassle or problems. What I have found out is that the most successful designers have a particular way of generating ideas which helps them to come up with ideas a lot quicker and it speeds up the over all process of their creative work. Damian is vey interesting designer to look at when it comes to generating ideas. He looks at ordinary things and people around him to help him. He is constantly looking for interesting natural forms that someone has made by spilling a drink or even looking at natural patterns created by nature it self such as old leaves or cracks on the pavement. And to be able to catch all this and much more, he is constantly carrying a digital camera and is always on the look out for any thing that might intrigue him. Rosner is bit opposite to Damian when it comes to research. I did email him and asked him few questions and one of them was how he generated his ideas and it was very kind of him to reply back and help me with my queries. He looks at other people’s work for inspiration and ideas. He looks at books, magazines, television and pretty much anything, which has a visual content and it helps him to generate ideas. To honest, I work in a similar manner when it comes to research and it is quite helpful to look at other’s work and it does help. Tal keeps his eyes open for any thing, which might spark his interest but his research is not as effective as Damian’s method. Damian also scribbles and doodles a lot and saves them away in his sketchbook and he often comes back to them and chances are most of the time he will re-use them as a character, pattern or any other from of creative piece. Tal has recently been involved in more television work as oppose to Damian who is involved in more animation work. Tal has produced opening credits for the hit television series skins and also has produced award-winning pieces. There’s a big transition in Tal’s work as he only produced work to trance music but later in his career, he managed to produce work for a classical music as well. This shows maturity and a greater understanding of the creativity and shows that he is willing to push himself to greater boundaries in order for him to evolve himself as a designer. Damian has taken a similar step in career spanning over twenty-years. From using just paper and pen for his illustration to taking in the variety of digital programs and combining the two together. Tal has done exactly this as he manages to combine his graphic designing skills in to his television work. The result is outstanding and a lot of depth can be found in both designers’ work. There’s an inspiration that drives these two designers. Damian is inspired by body postures and is intrigued by different people and their unique postures. Tal is predominantly inspired by television and the possibilities of it. The media has a lot to give and is now the basis of promoting yourself. Tal has taken this route and through this he mange to get the where he wants to be. Both of these designers are special in their own way yet their aim is pretty much the same, which is to bring out the best in them. Therefore, they constantly pushing themselves and taking on challenges, which in the long run make them a better designer than they already are.

Shanti Khan

This is my final animation of our super hero project.
This was my first attempt at after effects. It was a enjoyable process and I do hope to work on this format in the future.

Friday 1 May 2009

Holly Wales





This illustrator / designer is like a modern day Eduardo Paolozzi - cutting and sticking and adding her own bits of magic. Some of her work is very 'design' and some is very 'illustration', she is flexible to work in either way. This girl can also really draw too! Look at her website http://www.eatjapanesefood.co.uk/

Tuesday 28 April 2009

Frank Hampson


Frank is someone who's approach to illustration is similar to mine. He uses real people to pose for his comic scenes and then he traces them over with his characters keeping the realness and the essence of the structure. Recently in my projects I have been doing something similar such as the kissing dolls project where I used my brother and my sister to pose for me and then I would use illustrator to trace over and I would then end up with quite dramatic and effective postures and compositions. I then went on to add textures and what not. In future I will be approaching my work quite similarly to Frank's method. With this I can not only have accurate human postures but I will also be able to create dramatic angles which tend to intrigue me quite often.

Eduardo Paolozzi


This is the artist I will be looking at for my final project on flight, pattern and information. Paolozzi tend to put different elements together to create his final composition. The structure is been well thought through hence the final impact of the overall image is quite dramatic. My approach will be quite similar as I will be working through the similar method. I will play around with this idea and hopefully I can come up with a decent final image

Wednesday 22 April 2009

Josef Albers


Another one of the artists recommended by Tal Rosner. Alber's work is fairly flat and bold. The main emphasis seems to be on the colours and how well they contrast with each other which creates the overall impact of the composition

Monday 20 April 2009

Christian Marclay

Just looking at Marclay's work recommended by Tal Rosner. It is quite
interesting visually and clever at the same time. Humor seems to be the main theme of the composition.

Monday 30 March 2009

Geoff Grandfield

Geoff Grandfield's work is very dramatic due to the fact that he uses various angles and shadows in his work. I was looking at his work for my project based on creating illustrations for a story. His work has been a great help as it guided me to create some nice compositions.

Wednesday 25 March 2009

Valerie Pezeron

Hi fahad farid,
What can I say? I read a lot, watch as many movies as I can, go to museums and surf the net also looking at design websites. It takes a while to know what you like and what works for you; I advise looking at other illustrators and studying the history of illustration. Eventually you will know what works for you,
Kind regards,
Valerie Pezeron
Freelance Illustrator

Tal Rosner

Dear Fahad,

Thanks for your email - the question you asked is quite big and this email will be too short to answer it in depth. I am influenced by various art-forms and work across a fairly wide range of projects (from art-installation to TV and film).

I think that books, design book and design websites are a good way to start. I don't know how big your library is but I am sure that one of your tutors can supply quite a significant list of good books to look at.

Also - going to see exhibitions in big museums or smaller galleries is always good. I don't really know of places in Stockport/Mancheter but I know that Liverpool has got a good small Tate Museum, and also another centre called FACT which has smaller but very interesting exhibitions all year-round. If you can get to London that is a good place to get 'inspired'.

I am listing below a group of artists, designers, architects and filmmakers that I like. They are from different eras and disciplines - I will leave you find out about them.

Josef Albers
Le Corbusier
László Moholy-Nagy
David Hockney
Christian Marclay
Hélio Oiticica
Sergei Eisenstein
Peter Greenaway
Oscar Niemeyer
Ernő Goldfinger
Saul Bass

I hope this is helpful!

Best,

Tal

Gillian Blease

Hi Fahad, I’ve finally got a bit of time to answer some of your queries.

Who are my influences?: Of course I love all the greats – Paul Rand, Hans Schleger, Abram Games. These were some of the first designers I came across when I started illustrating and they really resonated with me and helped direct my style. Other influences are the artists from my fine art days: Julian Opie, Claes Oldenberg, Andy Wharhol, Peter Doig, Terry Frost. They all combine interesting concepts with great design and composition. They have a real simplicity and richness at the same time along with being quite witty or clever. I look at work from all sorts of sources as much as a I can, especially textiles, graphic design (and logos), advertising, childrens illustration and lots of vintage images – posters and books.

Ideas and compositions: I work really hard on the ideas. When I get a brief I move away from the computer and books and just think, with a piece of paper and a biro. Its important to take time out just to let the ideas flow. Usually I get my best ideas when I let my brain relax – ie on a bus or walking somewhere but mostly there isn’t time for that. If thinking fails me then I’ll start to consult books or my scrapbooks of collected material and see if they spark an idea. The idea and the composition pretty much happen simultaneously. I have to be able to visualise it more or less immediately in my mind’s eye. That’s why I find it very difficult when a client comes to me with their own idea – I can’t get excited about it.

I try to keep things very simple and minimal and contain the interest within quite strict limitations. I find that good ideas need space which has become an integral aspect of my work. The success of an illustration though can very much depend on the client. If they truly appreciate your style/ideas and are happy to give you free reign it’s much likely that you will do a better job as there’s mutual respect all round! I had a job earlier this week and I simply couldn’t understand why they had asked me to do it – probably short of time and a lazy/inexperienced art assistant. Needless to say, it wasn’t one of my better illustrations. Illustrating comes and goes. I find you can have a really good run of several weeks where the ideas just keep sparking and then there are times when it’s like getting blood out of a stone. You just have to go with it and know it’ll get better.

Hope that goes some way towards answering your questions.

Best wishes, and good luck with your work
Gill

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Dmian Gascoigne


An illustrator and a film maker Damian is a multi talented designer who has served the industry for the past twenty five years. His approach to his work is quite simple as he believes that there is always something around us which can incorporated in to a piece of work. He works when he is not working. What this means is that he is constantly collecting images digitally or collecting item which he feels might add something new to his work. He is quite intrigued by body posture therefore he is always observing how people move or even animals behave when not conscious about what they are doing. Damian believes that its not hard to find characters for a story or an illustration as if we observe effectively, people around us can be the characters we are looking for. Being an illustrator for such a long time Damian decided to work with moving image. He is not good with the program therefore he hires people to do it for him. He is now adding 2d with 3d image. Its quite different to what he is use to producing but he feels this is the next step in his career and as a designer.

Monday 9 March 2009

Otto


Otto is an illustrator and over the years has produced work for numerous newspapers and magazines. He did graphic design in 1991 and after he finished his studies, he focused on promoting himself as a designer. He was interested in drawing cartoon characters more figurative work before he got in to screen printing. He finds screen printing more effective as oppose to digital prints. He is interested in the quality of the screen printing and its behavior on paper. As his work is been commissioned based, he has to work quite quick and effectively. He finds that having a good image references can make work and coming up with ideas a lot easier. After doing quite few commissioned work, he felt that his work needs to have a new element to it and thus his work started be more abstract and more playful. He likes the idea of combining real images with his screen prints as it enhances the overall visual impact. His influences are Russian and Polish designers and through out his work there are traces of these influences. Quite bold and simple thus they convey the message quite clearly. He has worked for the Guardian newspaper, Independent newspaper and also has produced his own books of illustration(using re-cycled images at times). Renaissance paintings are vital for his references as he depicts the figures and re uses them in his work. He also uses the motion pictures for his ideas. Especially films made by Alfred Hitchcock. He likes the dramatic acting and the cinematic shots through which he can generate ideas for his composition. It is a good way of working as it will add something new to the work and will keep it fresh and relevant. He likes working alone as it helps him focus and are less distractions to deal with.

Tracy Kendall


Tracy Kendall is an interesting designer. She has many interests or better yet she is quite keen on working with various mediums. She has done BA in fine arts and later worked in Royal college as a technical support for print making. She has always been interested in designing prints which were simple but effective at the same time. In order to achieve the simplicity in her work, Kendall focused on simple subject matter in her work such as flower, stem, leaves etc. She has worked as a wall paper designer for many years and therefore posesses a great amount of experience in this particular field. She started off producing wall papers which would normally be around 2.15 meters tall and that would be her format to work within. She then would take hundreds of pictures of the subject matter(a flower's stem for example)and then would choose the image which she feels has the beauty the potentcy and the strength to be the main image for her wallpaper. Kendall also produced prints for lamp shades which has been quite popular with the homeware retailers(sold her designs to Habitat, a store which sells home ware items). She exhibits her work quite regularly and therefore stays in public eye. Paris, Newyork, Milan and London are some of the places Kendall has exhibited her work. She mainly uses black and white as her colour scheme as she is targeting the her audience as most exhibitions are dominated by male audience. The monochrome scheme seems to work for her and also gives that elegant and sofisticated look to her designs. Later in her career, she moved on from using just one particular medium. She then started playing the idea of interaction, the idea of feeling and touching. This added a new dimension to her work as it was starting to become unique and exclusive. Kendall is influenced by fashion and she adores it, so therefore fashion played a big role in this transition. She used buttons in some of her designs all hand stitched and would give her work a new dimension. Paper patterns, jigsaw pieces, photographic imagery are some of many ideas she started to incorporate in her work. She would hire a professional photographer to take series of pictures of book stacks, stacks of dishes etc and would be made in to a wallpaper design. This shows her creativity and self believe in what she does. She has confidence in her designs which is what makes them so successful every time. Her aim is to produce simple, clean and pure ideas and by doing so she manages to capture the audience's attention and the visuall impact needed in order to make her designs stand out from the ever-growing crowd in the world of art and design.

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Tal Rosner


Tal Rosner is a versatile practitioner who has worked from various mediums. He has studied graphic designing and after he got his degree, he moved on and worked for magazines and posters for three years. His interest grew in terms of design and wanted to achieve more. Therefore he turned to moving image in which he felt he had less limits and more possibilities. He wanted to translate his graphic design work in to the moving image which essentially would add a new dimension to his designs. Doppel Ganger was one of his early works which he produced in the final year of MA. Here we get to see numerous ideas blended in one short film. Very experimental, interesting and visually eye catching. The whole film was produced digitally and the process of making it was quite digital as well. Small hand held cameras were used in the process for maximum freedom and maneuverability. The budget was fairly limited so therefore some things he had to be compromised with. In 2004, he produced another short film called Docklands. It was filmed in South London. There was emphasis on repetitions and patterns hence the visuals were quite dynamic and clever. For example there's a bit where a train is going past the camera and what Rosner did was have the same shot flipped in to each other and therefore it looks like the train is going in to each other. Not only that, but this time around more shots were used and evidence of creativity and maturity could be witnessed within Rosner's work. His understanding of the genre seem to be growing with every film he created. He is self taught and learned things and techniques as he went along. He works with minimal crew and the reason is so that he will have full control over his film and therefore he will have the right results.
He prefers to work on a smaller scale as oppose to big. He feels that on a smaller scale, one has more control over the composition and it will be more successful in the end. His work was getting recognized and popular within the entertainment industry. He got commissioned to create a film for a classical music album which was quite different to what he is use to which is techno music. Over the years, Tal has produced his films using techno music and was not a accustomed to classical music at all. It was a big challenge for him but in the end he manage to pull it off and Abstractions is now known as Rosner's finest pieces. The music was quite fast and the pace also varied therefore, the images had more variation to them and again we got to see Rosner's ever growing understanding of the genre. After this, he got commissioned to produced visuals for the opening title of Skins. The budget was limited as it was only the first season for the series but he had more tools to play with and also had some good experience in the bag. The opening title was only few seconds long and had to represent each character quickly hence he used more effects than ever and manage to execute it at the same time. It was a success and was commissioned again for the later seasons for the series which followed after. Rosner's work is quite unique and exciting. He has grown as a designer which is evident in his work over the years he produced. It connects to the viewer and somehow keeps their attention with his wild visuals and attention to detail.