HG Wells Book Covers

Panic

Helen, our class rep won us a place at Noiselab in the heart of Manchester to run a 5 day exhibition for our final year. 'Panic' was our theme to respond to and the only other restrictions were that work had to be A2 minimum but we could look at moving image if we wanted to.
I decided to make this work personal to me, and to reflect the way in which I panic; which is silently, it often goes unnoticed as I'm quite reserved. When I panic I freeze up, seeming calm but on the inside manic thoughts are running through my head.
I then began to think of how I could represent this visually using typography, how to portray calmness with inner panic. I came up with 'PEACE AND NUMB INACTIVE CALM' and highlighted the letters which spelt 'PANIC' within this phrase. Then came how to tackle the visuals, what colours to use etc. I already had the set knowledge that I knew I wanted to screen-print the poster, and thought printing white on white or experimenting with gloss would be interesting to represent the invisibility of my panic.

The White & Red Exhibition @ Triangle Shopping Center, Manchester

A collaborative exhibition held by second year design students from both sides of the Pennines - Manchester School of Art and Leeds College of Art. I went to the preview in Manchester held in an empty shop in Triangle Shopping Centre, a different yet engaging space for such a small exhibition. There was some good work on show, a nice mix of typography and illustration but being honest, I preferred the cropped versions of work on the postcards the student’s had made for people to take with them. It’s always nice to take something away to keep, which reminds me I need to create something similar for the degree show, it’s a way for someone who liked your work to keep and remember you by and maybe they’ll even get in touch for possible work. The postcards are ultimately business cards but actually physically showing your work on them. 

Morag Myerscough

What I loved most about her work was her use of large lettering and the fact she hand painted most of it herself to keep costs down. All of her work was interesting but my favourite was the ‘branding’ for Westminster Academy School in London, I love the rich colour scheme and think the bold use of typography for the signage is beautiful and makes a statement within the school. She mentioned how the design of interiors changes people’s attitudes toward a particular space as the students at WA haven’t vandalised the building but respect and admire it. 

Running her own studio since 1993 and only working with a few people, Morag’s been really independent and successful, though she did stress how successful collaborative work can be, even working with non-creatives, ideas spark and can be bounced off around the group. All in all was a really interesting lecture, shame it had to be cut short and a great insight into creating and building exhibition spaces.

^ No confusion as to which floor you're currently one with this beast, keeping in sync with the building by using the concrete and not purposefully blocking it all out. 

She has a very distinct style about her work, bold, colourful and playful, which I love. 

The Walls are Talking @ Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

This exhibition had some really interesting wallpaper designs, before this I'd never really thought about designing for wallpaper use. 

Damien Hirst's pill wallpaper. 

Damien Hirst's Butterfly wallpaper

Andy Warhol's Cow wallpaper