Saturday 19th March 2011:

I attended the ‘Pick Me Up’ Graphic Art Fair at Somerset House in London today. Before entering this particular exhibition, there was another one next to it called ‘The Joy Of Living’ – (‘Joy Of Living’ is a charity project that unites over 100 leading lights in the design community to galvanise support for Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres. London Design Guide editor, Max Fraser, has set the challenge to new and established UK designers to create a desirable artwork that expresses the joy of living - all starting from a simple sheet of A4 graph paper’).

I really liked this work, as it was so simple and unusual. One piece which stood out to me, ‘Sector 7’, had the alphabet written out on it, and after the artist had written these out, they noticed that the word ‘joy’ had appeared down the side in a vertical line. I really liked this because so far in this project I have found it interesting finding words within words, and this piece relates well to this. I also liked the piece ‘It Is My Heart’, where some of the paper had been cut and lifted to reveal a bright colour underneath. I could create something similar to this and maybe have the emotions written underneath so that it represents what the victim is feeling like inside, etc. A really unique piece was ‘Star Boxes’ where the paper looks almost embossed as some parts had been raised to create patterns. I might experiment and try something similar this to see how it turns out.

As part of the actual ‘Pick Me Up’ exhibition, I found that the work by Jules Julien really stood out and made me think about how it could inspire my anti-bullying project. There was a set of four images (silkscreen), under the title of ‘Release’ where the person’s face seemed to be disintegrating. I feel that this is how the victim may feel when being bullied – like pieces of them are just being broken down and they’re getting weaker and weaker and they are pulled apart at more and more.

I also found an amazing typographer/ designer/ illustrator, Jessica Hische. Her work is really lively and detailed. I could use this as inspiration when considering the ‘type’ aspect of my work. For example, I could create a piece which says ‘Calling Me Ugly Won’t Make You Beautiful’ (aimed at the bullies), and then have the words representing their meanings, so have the word ‘ugly’ big and boring, and the word ‘beautiful’ really detailed and graceful (and I could study her work when creating this word).

There was also an interesting piece by Stefanie Posavec. She creates pieces using statistics in a unique way. For example, in the piece ‘Literary Organisms’: ‘The structure of Part One of On the Road visualised using a simple tree structure that has been worked with manually in order to give it a more organic feel. Here, Part One divides into chapters, chapters divide into paragraphs, paragraphs divide into sentences, and sentences divide into words. Everything is colour-coded according to key themes in On the Road.’ I thought that this way of displaying information was really interesting and attractive. I could maybe display statistics about bullying in an extraordinary way like this.

I also bought a book called ‘Playful Type 2’ (Published by: Die Gestalten Verlag, 2010), which looks like a really useful and inspiring book full of different typography work and designers.

On the train, I saw this poster for Christian Aid. I found it interesting how in the word ‘Poverty’ they word ‘over’ stood out. Yet again, this could relate to my work, as relevant words are being picked out and made to stand out within other words.

Also, I saw an advert for Childline on the TV today. It started off well as it really captured the essence of how someone could feel when they’re being bullied/ feel alone/ need help, etc, as there was a girl sitting by herself in a corner and then it showed different people whilst different words such as ‘sad’ and ‘lonely’ were being said in the voiceover. But then suddenly everything kept repeating itself and a tune/ beat was being created out of the words (words such as ‘happy’ were then being included). I feel that this then made it look like you should contact Childline if you are upbeat and happy. It may have been trying to show that you may start off feeling lonely and sad, but that Childline can help, however I felt that this message wasn’t communicated very well. This made me think about my own project and that perhaps showing the after effects of seeking support won’t be a good idea, and just showing the strong emotions that a victim/ bully may be feeling right now will portray a stronger message.

Target for today: Attend ‘Pick Me Up’ – Graphic Art Fair and see how work can influence and inspire own.

Target for tomorrow: Look through ‘Playful Type 2’ book and create a page in sketchbook based on these designs and inspiring designers seen at ‘Pick Me Up’ Graphic Art Fair and ‘The Joy of Living’.