Graphics graphics graphics is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I havn't had this much fun doing art before. On the first day each student was given a metaphor, mine was "food for thought"and this is what I came up with ...
This was just notes that were taken during lectures on the first day. Just looking at variations of typography. Here I was shaping letters so the words would look like a thing such as the lips and shopping trolley on the left. i quite liked the jigsaw typography.
This is a menu layout I came up with in photoshop. I thought a menu would be appropriate for the metaphor food for thought, as this is essentially what you do when you receive a menu , think about what you want to eat.
I included the background here to make it look more like a menu layout rather than a white page.
Food for thought, what is food for thought ? The stories we read in newspapers give us food for thought therefore I went and made this piece of typography.
Heres another simple concept. I simply thought what food could I write my message with in the best way and alphabetti spaghetti was a sure winner. I was experimenting with lots of various ways of doing things and wanted to get all of my ideas out on the page and onto paper.
At last weeks critique I put up two of my typography pieces on display and was advised by the class as a group which one I should continue on with. The ones I put up were the menu idea and the newspaper font idea. They chose the newspaper idea as the better one although it was a tight margin . So i decided I'd re-work my idea and make it better. This sheet is an after product of the next page .
Here is my main typography piece at least this is the one that I would pick as being the best , sheerly for the amount of time and effort put into it, but also because I think the finished piece looks well too. I cut the words Food for thought out of that newspaper hour after hour and then stuck green paper on the back of the newspaper as you can see. Why green ? because it was the most suited, I tried loads of different colours but none of them had the same effect.
These are just some rough type fonts that I was playing around with.
The idea for the big newspaper with green food for thought was brought around by this simple collage that I made form newspaper tear-outs.
More experimentation with type here, which was what we were advised to do over the first week, I actually quite like this one due to the different typefaces being combined. I attempted to put bite marks in this one but they are difficult to see.
This was supposed to be a typography sheet but I'm not sure if I was illustrating again by putting the letters into shapes. i was rather pleased with the food font on the bottom left.
Big thank you to Brian Moran for this one as he gave me a couple of menus from the restaurant at the weekend, I couldn't have done it without you Brian ! My plan with these is to fill them with my own menu idea , using typography and only the words "food for thought".
Heres my first page of the menu. I literally looked at what was already out there and manipulated different styles to work for me .
Heres the second page alongside the wine list. This was something I enjoyed doing very much, I don't know why but it appealed to me.
Mind map no. 2 and the beginning of illustration. Ideas have to come from somewhere and a good brainstorm is always a good way of kicking things off.
Here I was just getting all of my illustrative ideas out onto paper in the form of thumbnail sketches , there are a series of theses and not much to talk about but you might see where some of my ideas were created and how they developed.
Our latest project brief consisted of designing a place setting for a celebrity which was chosen at random. The celebrity who I did my project on is Pete Doherty, famous musician, songwriter, poet, artist and model. Pete Doherty's drug habits are no secret either and he has had many encounters with the law over driving over the influence, theft and various other fellonies.
At the beginning of the project I was happy with my choice because i thought there was alot of possibilities with the drink and drug references apparent. I also felt that I shouldn't forget about the positive aspects of Doherty's life and not just focus on the negative and dark side. 
Pete's iconic trilby hat was included.
Doherty has often been seen parading a full bottle of spirits around drinking straight from the bottle, I therefore decided that the inclusion of a glass was uneccessary. I was also told that I wound have to cover up the original graphics on the bottle of bombay saphire gin. I decided to encorporate small hints to who my celebrity was by including unnoficial artwork for Pete's bands the Libertines and Babyshambles.
Pete is a chain smokier whether its just tobacco or canabis, crack or heroin is a different story. I went on the search for an ash tray and included this in my setup.
Court summons and parking tickets and just general letters from authorities make up this napkin design. I was aware that Pete has had alot of trouble with the law for posession of various different controlled substances and decide what better way to show disregard than to make them into something like a napkin. Pete is also deemed to be extremely creative while high and I took him taking his hit of drugs as him having his mealtime .
Pete is also an artist and has exhibited in a gallery in France. His diary(published) is also filled with drawings and artworks that he did over a number of years. I wanted to use this side of his personality so I drew one of his pictures in the middle of the plate, included famous lyrics from one of his songs 'Can't Stand Me Now' with reference to heroin. I included bloodstains on the plate because many of Pete's artworks include his own blood. I also made referance to music through the inclusion of a guitar pick. A wrap of heroin is also included for dinner.
I originally wanted to include a broken guitar somewhere in the setup but thought that would be awkward and wouldn't fit the brief. A simple substitute was made by just adding a guitar tuner which doesn't take up too much space.
As cutlery there were easy changes or substitutions that could be made. Instead of a knife and fork I simply included drug paraphenailia which is rather self explanitiry.
More drugs, perhaps unnecessary although I wanted a wide range of object because I've seen a documentary on the artist himself and his house is a kip, with heaps of unturned mess everywhere. More objects = more mess.
A rolled up £20 note replaces a desert spoon perhaps.
Pete Doherty has what one would call an unhealthy obbsession with cats. He keeps loads of them in his country mansion and they seem to be let roam free. He likes cats that is why i used this specific lighter.
Cat hair, I literally sprinkled this across his dining place just to add some grit and show how messy and poor his living conditions are.
Here is my final setup, not the most flattering picture but you can tell who's place setting it is for sure. I also scattered pages from his diary all over the table at the beginning as this is exactly how he would have it. I was even told in a crit that the only thing that was missing was the man himself. Overall I was happy with the project brief it was alot of fun and was different to a nirmal everyday project.
