VISITING PROFESSIONAL TALK//DR.ME//OUGD602

dr.me
Dr. me came in from Manchester to give a presentation and workshop for the day.  I really liked the studio and the work they produce.  Quite a lot of it incorporated photo montages and collages as part of the design which is something I really like the style of and want to try and include in my own work.

They talked to us about how the company was set up, the kind of work they do and then we were given a collaborative brief to work on.


'DR.ME is a multi-disciplinary art and design studio based in Manchester. Since 2010, the studio founders, 

Ryan Doyle (DR) b. Perth, Scotland, and Mark 'Eddy' Edwards (ME) b. Portsmouth, United Kingdom have collaborated and worked for clients based across Europe and the USA. The studio relishes the challenge of taking a project from the initial concept to eventual successful realisation.

We learn through play.'

This is some of the work that I particularly like from their website:
Using photographs in this way is something I would like to have feature in my work this year, I think visually its the kind of style I aim to produce.

EXTENDED PRACTICE CRIT//FEEDBACK//OUGD602

studio crit & feedback

Today we had a crit where we were split into two groups, one group would give feedback on the other groups work whilst being out of the room.  I found this crit to be helpful in terms of feedback but feel as though I should of been more prepared to get the most out of it.  Most of my design work hadn't been fully displayed in a way that was easy to give feedback and so this obviously contributed to the type of feedback I was getting.

Because of this I found it hard to word some direct questions, these were the two I came up with in regards to brief_01 contemporary culture and brief_08 spectrum.

what other printing techniques could be used for the spectrum brief?

• really strong visuals here
• opportunity to produce something beautiful with a definite wow factor 

the contemporary culture brief relies heavily on photography as its main visual, do you think the collection of zines would work better with type to give it context or as photo zines?

• a combination of the two would be useful and also make the zine stronger x2
• start looking at visuals and experiment with type and image

flag collaborative brief:

• collage is looking good
• good to work collaboratively as work produced is different from normal
• get finished soon - good to have one brief done and out of the way

general feedback:

• good organised plan
• cant see much visuals - quite hard to crit concepts! although briefs sound interesting!
• your plan looks organised, perhaps more research needs to be done
• museum of childhood - there needs to be more visible research to be able to crit the brief - maybe mock ups of way finding/primary research
• good primary research emailing people for contemporary culture, would be nice to see some research on zines.
• exhibition of a life looks really interesting, more secondary examples?
• good to see development of flag
• marbling looks like something that would be fun and would be a good process to experiment with unpredictability of outcomes
• digital collage could be another technique to use

my thoughts:

I was really happy with the feedback seen as though I felt quite underprepared for this crit, it was encouraging to know people understood and found the briefs interesting even though I had not presented them the best I could.  For me this brief has been really helpful in allowing me to see the pace I should be working at and how to better my time management.  At the moment I feel quite behind as no brief is actually fully completed and so everything feels over whelming.  I am using reading week to really focus on one or two of the briefs instead of trying to do more than three at the same time, I find this slows down the pace of each brief.  When one brief is complete it will feel a lot more encouraging and because I have started several briefs I feel everything isn't as organised as it should be.

I will now write a new plan that will start from tomorrow and take me through to the end of reading week, this should hopefully allow me to get back on track and cross off some of my list.

COP3//FIRST TUTORIAL//OUGD602

first cop tutorial
I had my first tutorial today with Phil which basically helped me to get a better understanding of the structure of the essay and organising the project in a more successful and effective manner.  As it was the first tutorial we went over the basics of how to start organising the essay and looking at possible directions for research.

I feel I now need to properly organise everything I've done so far and write everything up in a structured way, this week I will aim to start piecing together some paragraphs whilst undertaking more research.


notes from the tutorial - structuring

• 4-6 chapters 
• abstract 

summary of what the argument is, main points I'm covering, stating what you're going to tell

• contents
• introduction

introducing question - brief outline of what you're doing.  Who, what, why? Tell the reader what you're going to do - lay out all information

• main body of discussion

different number of chapters - discuss research - case studies - analysis and evaluation of discussion - own opinion - don't put anything that you cant prove

• conclusions and findings

research 
state clearly - answer the main question - rationale - definite conclusion
further suggestions for research, if another person was to build on your research what further questions would arise 

• bibliography

references, source materials


tutorial record

PLANNING//RESEARCH WEEKEND//OUGD602

research weekend_London.

I will be going to London for the weekend to collect some research for my COP project and for brief 04.  I will be attending a talk on monday the fourth at the TFL headquarters by Oliver Green.  I think this talk addresses really important areas of research for my possible question and so hopefully it will be really helpful in pushing my project forward.

talk: frank pick's london

Date: Monday 4 November 2013
Time: 18.30-20.00

Frank Pick changed the face of London in the twentieth century through innovative design.. Described by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘the greatest patron of the arts whom this century has produced in England’, he was managing director of the Underground in the 1920s and the first chief executive of London Transport from 1933-40. Pick’s passion was for good applied design in everything from posters and graphics to station architecture, from bus engineering to tube trains, giving London the best public transport system in the world.

Oliver Green is London Transport Museum’s former Head Curator and now its Research Fellow. In this talk he will be introducing his new book Frank Pick’s London: art, design and the modern city, published by the Victoria & Albert Museum in association with London Transport Museum. The book will be available at the event for purchase and signing.

museum research

I thought it would be good to get some visual research from the Childhood Museum and some ideas for rebranding by looking at existing branding and exhibition posters.  This will hopefully direct my design ideas further.

INDIVIDUAL BRIEF DEADLINES//EXTENDED PRACTICE//OUGD602

deadlines_before christmas.

-brief 05: unsung heroes_12/11/2013

-brief 08: spectrum//collaborative_20/11/2013

-brief 06: london stories_28/11/2013

deadlines_after christmas.

COP deadline_17/01/2014

-brief 04: museum of childhood_05/02/2014

-brief 03: la langue française_15/02/2014

-brief 02: zanzibar spice tour_01/03/2014

-brief 07: pen pals_25/03/2014

-brief 01: contemporary culture_1/05/2014