Shooting an Elephant

This book contains a collection of short stories/essays written by George Orwell.

Some of the essays are autobiographical describing Orwell's experience, observations and thoughts about being a police officer in imperial Burma. Orwell is forthright with his observations. It can also be said that his opinions were progressive for the time. Working for the British empire in a place where it was unpopular would have been a difficult task. Orwell describes his disgruntlement to the regime, and sensitivity to the locals.

Looking at the book critically, the series of novels provides a great insight into the mind of the famed author Orwell. It also demonstrates the feelings of people working for a dominant regime and indeed the people it affects. The book continues to add to my interest about George Orwell and his thought processes and is well worth a read.

David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle is a photographer and director most noteworthy for his photography pieces including celebrities.

His style is unique and surreal, with most of his pieces notoriously provocative in appearance. Despite this his photography is world-renowned and he is highly regarded in fashion photography.

Recently LaChapelle was reported to have been inspired by artists of the past including Baroque. His piece Deluge (below) certainly has qualities of paintings from this time period.

David LaChapelle’s Deluge

You can find an interview with LaChapelle discussing his inspirations here.

Looking at LaChapelle from a critical point of view it may be said that his pieces play on the ‘sex sales’ claim and celebrity culture. I would agree with this comment, however it must be noted that LaChapelle pioneered this style of photography and it is still effective.

LaChapelle pushes boundaries and is an inspirational artist, more of his work can be found on his website here.

Craig Holden Feinberg

Craig Holden Feinberg is an internationally recognised and award winning graphic designer from America.

He worked on many campaigns for the communications research and development company Fabrica. (See the bottom image which puts emphasis on competition.)

Feinburg's work is very provocative in its approach and certainly grabs the attention of the viewer. It could be said that their is an abundance of designs currently which try and grab the attention of the viewer in the same way, however Feinburg's work is not superficial with meaning and is creative in its approach.

You can find more of his work here.

Daniel Eatock - Thank You Pictures Website

Daniel Eatock is an award winning U.K based graphic designer. I recently came across one of his website projects which members of the public and/or designers could contribute a photographic piece.

Lightning Car: Rudin Swagerman

Siamese Cats: Hoagy Houghton

The contributers use titles that change the context and/or meaning of the photo often in a humourous way. After looking through a selection I thought some were better than others, but the concept overall is pretty interesting and reminds me of the book 'The Art of Looking Sideways' by Alan Fletcher in the method of changing perspectives of things around you by applying a different meaning.

You can find more of the selection on Daniel Eatock website here.

Trainspotting - The Novel

Before seeing the film that has become a cult classic, I decided to read the book. I read a synopsis of the novel and it was apparent that the novel had caused just as much controversy and partial outrage when it was released in the early 90’s.

The novel (which was written by Irvine Walsh) follows the life of heroin addicts in Edinburgh. The issues experienced by the characters in the book are both gripping and shocking.

The book gives an insight into a world that is not often seen by everyday people and provides accounts on a personal level. Looking at the book critically it may be difficult to grasp an essence of the 90’s Scottish drug sub-culture, but this book does conjure up negative images. The novel may have caused controversy, but I think it is important to discuss and acknowledge current and past sub-cultures and issues that we are usually do not think of on a daily basis.

Skyscrapping

I have always been amazed by huge buildings that force your head upwards in astonishment, but building high and tall has been a controversial issue, especially in the U.K.

This is the Renzo Piano's design for London Bridge Tower (dubbed by the press as 'The Shard') which is currently being constructed.

There does seem to be a culturally different attitude to tall buildings. In the U.S. the skyscrappers of Manhattan are home to the rich and famous with aspirations of owning a penthouse in the sky. Whereas in the U.K. the general norm seems to oppose building upwards, in addition tower blocks are often synonymous with poverty and poor social housing.

Renzo Piano came up against many critics when designing London Bridge Tower, but managed to create a design which was inspired by church spires and gently merging into the sky. When the design was nicknamed 'The Shard', it was reversed to became more endearing term; reflecting London's scenery.

Scottish Parliament Buiding

I recently visited the city of Edinburgh. During this visit I took an excursion to the Scottish Parliament building. I was interested in the design of the building, because it was so different from the norm. It is also famous for its ‘eco-friendly’ sustainable architectural approach.

When the building opened first, it received a mixture of responses about the design. The building is probably the most abstract design of a parliament building in the world, with inspiration being taken from many sources including historic paintings.

When I viewed this building it made me think back to my previous post about the Brutalist movement (click here to view) and questioning what is right and wrong in design. Good design evokes a response, and this building certainly does that. Critically another view may-be that good design is democratic, a possible topic to debate.

The Wellcome Collection

I received this flyer whilst out and about in London. I kept hold of it because I liked the use of old type and illustration for medicine. I decided to visit the exhibition (an example of effective advertising). Although the exhibition did not delve into the dynamics of typography in medicine, it did show the importance of design for medicine in the past.

The current exhibition displays anatomical wax works from the 19^th century, which were of great interest to people at the time, and a necessary part of medicine.

Although some of the exhibition was somewhat gruesome (even for today’s standards), it was informative about how science and design were combined to educate.

This is an early-twentiuth century poster from the exhibition educating Spaniards about tuberculosis. It would be interesting to compare this to a modern day swine flu poster. (Collection Family Coolen, Antwerp/Museum Dr Guislain, Ghent, Belgium)

Find out more by visiting the Wellcome Collection website here.

Designing For Climate Change

Designing For Climate is an Australian website that aims to tackle climate change in Australia by encouraging intelligent design.

The website was designed by the design agency ‘Tango’ and was nominated for a Webby award.

In comparison to other ethical websites, the site is quite unique. Its use of interactive visuals and crisp images make the design appealing and easy to use. Conceptually it is strong and consistent with imagery relating to architectural design.

You can view the site by clicking here.

Colgate - Don't Forget!

Here is another extremely effective and clever use of ambient media. Every year Colgate holds events for ‘Oral Health Month’ and hands out free samples. This year instead of handing out free samples of toothpaste and brushes it decided to hand out chocolate ice cream and sweets. Why? You may ask. Well after you finish eating the confectionary a message reminding you not to forget to brush your teeth is revealed.

This message instantly resonates in the mind of the person reminding them of why they brush their teeth. It reminds us that in design it is always the simple messages that are the most effective.

This particular campaign was conducted by the creative agency Y&R in Thailand.

The Hours

‘The Hours’ is a film that follows the life of three women. Each character is connected by the novel ‘Mrs Dalloway’ by Virginia Woolf (who is featured as one of the characters).

The film is set over three-time periods (the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st centuries), as a result I thought the film would provide a good insight into understanding whether past issues, trends and culture still apply now.

Suppression, mental health and suicide are just a few of the dark issues covered by the film. It becomes evident that all are concerning issues in current society, but were also throughout history. Most problems caused by social expectations, especially amongst women.

As a man it is difficult for me to understand the suppression felt by women, however I feel this film gives a great insight into the struggle felt by women throughout the past few centuries.

North Kingdom - Coke Zero

The internet is no longer the static environment it used to be. Viral, video and interactive websites have been dominating advertising campaigns. North Kingdom is a design agency based in Sweden, it focuses on digital media and has won a D&AD black pencil for its work.

This website / interactive flash game was a promotion made for Coke Zero. The website brought together the brand values and essence of Coke Zero; aimed at young men. Campaigns like this are effective in drawing users back. Users also tend to email sites like this to friends creating further brand awareness.
You can try out the website by clicking here.

Ambient Advertising – Yellow Pages

In a world where you are bombarded daily with visual stimuli, it has become an increasingly difficult task for advertisers to get their message out to the public. One effective way to make your message stand out from the rest is the use of ambient media.

This particular campaign by Yellow Pages in Canada caught my eye. It was conducted by the agency Cossette Media and was very successful for Yellow Pages; with website hits up 18% and retailers contacting Yellow Pages requesting darts.

It is not the first time ambient media has been used, however I found it fascinating how they effectively merged a concept of pinpointing something on the internet and visually represented it in a non-virtual way.

Being John Malkovich

This maybe not an art-house film, but it is probably the most surreal Hollywood production I have seen in a while.

I knew nothing of the character or the synopsis of the film before I watched it recently. The film raises a number of questions, but only answers a few, making it confusing but still interesting.

The surreality begins with a puppeteer who finds a portal in his very low-ceiling office, which then transports him into the mind of an actor for fifteen minutes. Following this he is then shot out into a New Jersey road-side! Surreal indeed.

To critique the film without ruining it. In my opinion the film raises issues about morality and questions societies current attitudes towards sex, sexuality and living in a world submerged by celebrity culture. These are all issues that we deal with frequently in graphic design. The film uses a very creative approach to dealing with these issues, although not always direct and not always what you would expect. However these approaches could be applied in a design context.

Futurism - Tate Gallery

Futurism has been an art movement that I have always taken great interest in and that’s why I took the opportunity to visit the recent Tate Modern exhibition. Futurism shaped twentieth century art and contemporary art in general. Futurism was all about progression into the future and rejection of the past, however towards the end of the movement it unfortunately became coupled with fascism and war.

Before the unfortunate demise of the movement the surface appearance seemed to relate to cubism, but this was probably more coincidence than similar intentions, because the manifestos for each movement were different.

As can be seen in the work of Umberto Boccioni, futurism celebrated the movement of machinery and people, it seemed to capture and rejoice each frame. For a time when photography was not prevalent, a great job was done of imagining frames and the fluidity of movement.

I have taken inspiration from the initial futurist movement in its way of making observations of objects and presenting it in a conceptualised way. Although this is an old movement it is important to note its successes and indeed its downfall.

Yulia Brodskaya - Experimental Typography

Moscow born Yulia Brodskaya has recently become a well known name in the world of typography and illustration. She often incorporates and combines craft and intricate hand paper modelling into her designs.

A substantial part of Yulia’s work is made and finessed physically using paper and material which is later combined with digital (although not all).

This is a design which was conducted for the Guardian magazine 'G2':

I find Yulia's work insprirational and interesting in the way it challenges advances in technology and reverts to older, yet still very beautiful methods of presenting typography.

You can find more of Yulia's illustations and experiments with typography on her website here.