One of my obsessive collections.. tins!

I have been collecting on and off for about 4 years now, when i get bored of one i'll give it away or sell it, then the next time i get a sweep of the obsession, i regret getting rid of them!

This is an image ive just quickly found on google. But this is how i'd like my collection to look one day!

These are the sorts of tins which interest me most...

I love old typography, the colour pallets they used, i like how they age.

My balloon portrait photographs

I've only just uploaded these photos onto my laptop, which is why its taken so long to put them up on the blog.

I think that they resemble me quite well! I wanted one front on , and one in a cameo style.

I also made some balloons of the facial featyres alone, i did this by looking into a magnifying mirror and drawing as closely as i could to what i saw in the reflection.

When i'd finished photgraphing them, i did the research which is on this blog from July (i think), and i found the balloon which had been drawn on and then all of the air was let out, so the image shrinks. But when i tried to deflate both of mine, they poppped. So here are those photos.

New fave Tv show

I have been watching the Discovery Channel's 'Oddities' for a couple of weeks now, and find it absolutley fascinating.

Here is a photograph from the website, i would love to visit this shop, Manhattan's Obscura Antiques & Oddities.

There is some mind blowing stuff on this program!! Things you'd only ever find once in a lifetime. I personally am interested in collecting old tins and vases.

A very peculiar find

Whilst looking through different sites this morning, I saw an article about "World’s weirdest roadside attractions" and thought it would be intersting to read.

I liked John Buckley's 'Untitled 1986'.

This was the information given on the site.
A local radio presenter, Bill Heine, commissioned the sculptor John Buckley to create the fibreglass behemoth, which was craned into position on the 41st anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing. Despite the British weather and numerous bureaucratic objections, it has survived relatively unscathed since 1986.

This stood out to me the most out of all of the other examples because of the meaning behind the art. I have recently started to become more interested in History, so this piece reached out to me more than the others.

Culture pub website

Our new lecturer told us that this website is a good place to watch adverts, and he was right!!!
I've been sat watching this screen for about half an hour, which doesn't seem long, but when youre watching 30 second adverts, it is.

The funniest ones i came across were the ones advertising 'Snickers' chocolate bars, there were only two out of about twelve i watched today that I'd seen. The adverts all have the same theme/ selling point, "when you're hungry, you're not yourself". The different scenarios that have been thought up and created are funny, clever and memorable. I think that the older ones are funnier.

This french advert site is something that i will be checking on a regular basis, a great source.

Publications

In a couple of weeks, on my course, we will be learning some book binding/making techniques to help us when we come to make our won publications for our degree shows in 2nd and 3rd year.

I found 'Publications UK', whose clients include Michelin, NHS, Reanult and Crown Paints. This company does everything needed to advertise companys, such as organise events, produce brochures and magazines, design logos and posters.

The next one took me a while to find, i was searching through a long, long list of names of publications, finally i came across 'MediaEDGE'. They have over 50 clients, and the website says that they have made over 100 industry specific products.

All i need to do now is look for some techniques how to make publications...

Adverts

I love watching T V, but adverts these days are so long, the break between programs gets longer and longer everytime i turn the damn thing on!

But not all adverts are annoying and stupid. We looked at Ridley Scott's 1973 'Hovis' advert and Alan Parker's 'Birds eye beef burgers' advert. Very funny, witty adverts.

Then i came across all of the adverts for 'Hamlet mild cigars', these really made me laugh! There is one i love youtube, uploaded in 2006, but i don't know if that is when it was produced. It is the advert where there is a man sat in a photobooth, he has a combover, and everytime he looks down, the photo takes, so funny!

Visual culture; John Berger

Our tutor has told us to look at John Berger's video "ways of seeing". The first thing that caught my attention, was the typography used, very 70's!!
I watchedthe first quarter of the first episode and funnily enough, found myself feeling like i were in a trance, which we talked about in class, when learning of advertising. The images and the music/ voice over are very calming, the camera zooming in and out of the picture made me feel like the painting was actually real infront of me, and as if i were leaning into a gallery wall to get a closer look.

Eventhough this was filmed in the seventies, it makes real sense with what he says in relation to the ease of art work being seen all over the world, by thousands of different people, at the same time. Technology has allowed us to do this, allowed me to visit a gallery without leaving my house- thanks to the internet, allowed me to see my favourite piece over and over thanks to my camera, allowed artist's work to become famous thanks to mobile phones.

The soap...

Here is one of the photographs i have taken of the soap carvings that i did at the start of the summer holiday.

When i'd made the face, which i wanted to resemble a cameo, i had the idea to make my name, with the head as the 'o'. I think that it looks good inbetween the 'z' and the 'e'.

Then i got an idea for the viral that my tutors wanted us all to try and come up with to advertise our degree course.

Idea... Carve letters to spell out 'fine art for design' out of bars of soap, then use everybodies individual carved head, to act as light bulbs around the title, which would then look like a sign lighting up. This would only be the first few seconds of a viral, but i thought it would look good, and it will advertise our work at the same time!