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WEEK THREE - FIELDS OF PRACTICE

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Final output:

Exploring the categories of the latest D&AD awards was a bounty of inspiration. This was my first time exploring the awards and it’s completely mind-blowing to see the level of work being produced globally.

Upon my first glance of the design categories my mind immediately expanded. There were categories I hadn’t considered could be as part of the design industry.

Some particularly intriguing categories were:

Art Direction | Casting | Creative Transformation | Direct | Experimental | Future Impact | Impact

Press & Outdoor | Side Hustle | Spatial Design | Sound Design & Use of Music | Writing for Design

I imagined what could possibly be inside some of the more unusual categories to see if the descriptions accurately matched my vision.

I also explored some of their Youtube channel and found some interesting talks with designers in their process.

10 different types of graphic design practice:

Animation | UX | Typography | Sound design

Illustration | Branding | Video Production

Copy writing | Book Design | Data visualization

When invited to think of a piece of design that crosses or breaks boundaries I immediately thought of Sketch, London.

Sketch is restaurant in London that invites artists to inform not only the interior design of the dining room, but also it’s menu, and atmosphere.

Formerly, David Shrigley dominated the main dining room, and now it’s artist Yinka Shonibare’s turn. He created 14 pieces of art specifically for the new restaurant, and so the decor and menu is refreshed to reflect the art, and continuing the collaboration between the artist and their culture.

The digital presence of sketch is an experience on its own, but makes perfect sense conceptually when so much of the dining experience is driven by art.

The website is equal parts baffling and fun. Instead of perusing a menu, you’re invited to play with digital food, stacking and dropping a roast chicken or petit-four on a pile of plates.

Sketch London’s category-breaking digital presence:

EXPLORE THE WEBSITE >>

Boundary crossing social media presence

I noticed an unusual and interesting pattern on Instagram that reminded of crossing categories and how brands can show up. Fashion house Chloe posted only inspiration and influences to their Instagram for a period on months last year. Here are some of my favourite expressions.

Readings and Lectures

The Effect of Globalisation on Design

Kjell Ekhorn’s video really got me thinking on influences, being influential in the digital age, and how it feels to have people replicate your work. It reminded of a very popular artist and graphic designer among musicians, Robert Beatty. His popularity in demand for his work has made him somewhat of a is a reluctant muse, and a critic of the culture of demand. His style was heavily influenced by airbrushed album art of the 70’s and 80’s, and the animation style of Monty Python, but he interprets it in unique and thoughtful outputs, custom for each artist. It’s also his signature style, that he developed organically out of a true love and respect from those influences.

Beatty’s cover design for Tame Impala’s Currents

On this twitter thread he shows the influences he gathered for a recent work, and then the final output. You can see the influences in the work, but nothing is a replication.

The final output


Harriet Ferguson’s talk really invited me to ponder my own relationship on the global design scale:
- Shared semiotics vs. local interpretations
- Is inspiration turning into imitation

I live in a city of half a million people, but it’s fairly isolated from other bustling areas. The largest city from mine, in Montreal, a 12-13 hour drive away. What would my practice look like if I was closer or further from larger cities? How do I participate in design trends now?

With apps like Canva making design more accessible, I find that trends cycle through at a much more frantic pace than ever before. Any time a major political event happens, Instagram becomes a sea of Canva-templates of watered-down, over-simplified info-graphics.

I’ve noticed a movement of anti-design in opposition to these trends – which are absolutely a trend in itself, but with a hint of being self-aware.

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WEEK TWO - INDUSTRY TODAY

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I had so much fun researching the local print industry, and I’m always thrilled whenever I can share about the incredible printmaking program NSCAD offered in the 70’s.

As one of the oldest cities in Canada, founded in 1749, there is a rich history of press, reproduction, offset, design, letterpress and conceptual printmaking in Halifax.

While much of the print industry has been displaced and outsourced to areas of larger industry and business away from the city centre, the historical significance is still recognized and celebrated today through building and street names.

An excerpt from Halifax Gazette - Canada’s First Newspaper, the Nova Scotia Archives.

On 23 March 1752, the history of printing began in Canada. On that Monday, from a small print shop on Grafton Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, John Bushell sold copies of the Halifax Gazette — Canada’s first newspaper.

Printed on just half of a single foolscap sheet, the two-page tabloid featured news from Britain, Europe, New England and the other British colonies to the south — items that would be of interest to local government officials, military personnel and business leaders.

In 1887, the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design (NSCAD) was established, and later, a printmaking workshop space dedicated to lithography, intaglio and other print resources.

During the 1970’s, NSCAD was an area of significance and influence in conceptual art, and printmaking in particularly, saw artists pushing the boundaries and definition of what printmaking and reproduction can be.

Joyce Wieland. O Canada, 1970.

Lithograph on white Arches paper, Collection of NSCAD University.

An excerpt from Print’s Not Dead, CBC Arts.

When the workshop was founded, NSCAD itself was unlike any other Canadian college. In 1969, it became the first degree-granting art school in the country. Its new president, a young artist named Garry Neill Kennedy, was transforming the place into an environment where students could mingle with the most innovative artists of the era. The Lithography Workshop was one strategy for luring them there. No educational institution had anything like it.

“You’re getting these people like John Baldessari and Vito Acconci who were performers or writers, and they did these one-off projects. [The print workshop] tried to get them here to make a physical object that they could then sell. And conceptual artists weren’t selling anything — they were doing live work. So this was then something that they could profit off of.” - Melanie Colosimo, director and curator, Anna Leonowens Gallery Systems

Collins, L., 2019. Print’s Not Dead. CBC Arts.

Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/arts/in-the-70s-the-world-s-top-artists-flocked-to-halifax-this-new-project-revives-that-moment-1.5351935

DESIGN PRACTICE

Trampoline Branding is a 50+ person branding and advertising agency who work across traditional and digital mediums to help clients achieve greater brand presence or marketing goals. They bring energy and life to corporate projects, while keeping within professional boundaries.

1489 Hollis St 2nd Floor, Halifax, NS B3J 3M4 | https://trampolinebranding.com/

Midnight Oil is a one-man design, screen-printing and letter-press shop. His highly illustrative designs make him a go-to for tour poster designs, custom art prints, packaging design and tactile business cards. Midnight Oil also hand screen-prints complex, multi-layered designs which make him a one-stop-shop for many of his clients.

2168 Gottingen St, Halifax, NS B3K 3B4 | https://www.midnight-oil.ca/

DOSE Media are a two-person design team who inject their personality and perspective in every project. They push boundaries and standards we typically see in client branding, bringing boldness and fun to their designs, no matter the client or project.

No public address.| https://dose.media/

DESIGN PRODUCTION

NSCAD University has a public print shop that has capabilities to print and bind presentations, art books, one-off letterpress prints and more.

5163 Duke St, Halifax, NS B3J 3J6 | https://nscad.ca/design-print-services/

The Printing House is national chain that can bring any project to life. Any material, and size, and output — they will make it happen. The team at the Halifax location are focused on customer service and developing relationships with longstanding clients.

1809 Barrington St Suite B101, Halifax, NS B3J 3K8 | https://www.tph.ca/059-2/

Inkwell Boutique is an stationary boutique with an on-site studio. They offer custom letterpress printing and graphic design of personal stationery, business cards, event invitations, posters and art prints. They approach letterpress printing as an art form and work with clients to create unique, hand printed pieces.

1453 South Park St, Halifax, NS | https://inkwellboutique.ca/

Readings and lectures

In conversation with Maziar Raein.

I enjoyed both of their perspectives on how the access to resources have changed for students and professional designers. We have the luxury of endless images at our fingertips – but what is often missing is context. This could be a common pitfall of my generation when we search for things to fit our need as opposed to learning about where work fits in greater context.

 

An excerpt from Drip Dry Shirts

Drip Dry Shirts

I found it interesting that there seemed to be two driving forces behind the development of graphic design industry in the 20th century – advertising and print media. As a former print maker, I’m aware of print media and technology and how it relates to fine art art, but a big blind spot for me is the more industry-driven area of print media – typography for one.

I identified Bauhaus as an area of future research as the combination of aesthetics across many fields, the sharing of information, and related print publications could help me dive deeper in to learning more of historical design industry and how it was driven my socio-economic factors.

 

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WEEK ONE - INTRODUCTION

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Final output

Who, What, Where and Why

An introduction without words. How does one convey their story of who they are through images or symbols? My research starting point was a quadriptych (octriptych?) I was most familiar with, from Matisse’s cut-outs period. The use of symbols, colour and form all tell an abstracted story, up to individual interpretation, but when viewed together, as one, the energy and vibrancy speaks loud and clear.

Landon Metz

One Thousand and One Nights - Henri Matisse

 

My first draft at shaping the symbols to represent me >

Where Are You and Why Design?

As our introductory piece, we were asked to make a quadriptych. For my piece, above, I played with elements, icons, and colours that felt true to myself and where I am in my practice today.

Who | My name is Sara Russell and I’m an artist, graphic designer and brand marketing manager based in Atlantic Canada, with childhood roots in Birmingham, England.
My education and passion is in fine arts, — primarily printmaking and oil painting. My influences come from record covers, textiles, architecture movements, fashion, print media, old show posters, zines, and contemporary artists. I’m shaped by a lifetime of listening punk, disco, 60s folk, new wave, post punk, and love anything that is bold, weird, gutsy, and pushes boundaries and trends.

What | A pivotal moment in my practice was designing two street pole banners representing the community I live in — North End Halifax. This area is suffering badly from the affects of gentrification, which is displacing the very residents and communities that make the North End the vibrant, unique, and artistic community beloved by so many.

My two pieces reflected my daily morning and evening walks around the neighborhood, the still moments that truly make you feel at home. The cats you know by name, the birds you leave feeders out for, music coming from behind a garage door, and glimpses into windows and doorways.

Where | I live in Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia which is a beautiful and complicated place to live. My home in Mi’kma’ki is on unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People.

There is so much about living here that informs my work, and pushes me to learn and appreciate what home truly means to me. It’s my duty to learn about the violent history informed by colonizers, settlers, class, poverty, the catholic church, federal and provincial government that has shaped this region, and the structures still in place today.

Why | I see graphic design as a quilt — each piece connects and represents my interests, passions, education and allows my to think creatively, and conceptually. The quilt always has room to new pieces to be added, welcomes collaboration.

The vision I have for the next step in my career and practice, is to develop a strong personal style and aesthetic that will attract like-minded clients and projects. The more you work on the quilt, the more precise your cuts and technique becomes.

Readings and lectures

I’m a huge fan of It’s Nice That, and was quite surprised to see it evolved from his own online journal as a student.

I’m really interested in data visualization, so the conversation with Stefanie Posavec allowed a peek behind the curtain in an area of design that I’d love to dig into more. She also had my absolute dream job as working as a cover designer for Penguin Books.

Of her recent works, Dear Data really stood out to me: http://www.stefanieposavec.com/dear-data

Dear Data is a year-long, analogue data drawing project between myself and Giorgia Lupi, an information designer based in New York.

Giorgia and I decided to use the language we both spoke for work - data visualisation - in order to get to know each other better, so we came up with a project we called Dear Data: a year of sending each other hand-drawn data postcards.

Every week for a year we collected and measured a particular type of data about our lives (examples include how often we laughed, the negative feelings we felt, times we were alone, our wardrobes, books, music, and so on).