For this group project we were to create an alternative themed tourism experience in Edinburgh. My group decided to create an Edinburgh café crawl with treasure hunt theme.

This is aimed tourist who love to eat in cafés and would want to visit some of the independent branded cafes in Edinburgh. In each cafe would have the opportunity to document their experience with series of photo cards. On the back of each photo would feature a map to lead onto the next café.

This idea will not only provide a fun tourist experience around Edinburgh but will help to promote the independent businesses that don’t get a lot of attention.

We started by going to visit some independent cafes in the area taking note of their styles, what they offer and taking photos.

My part of the project was then to create logos for the experience starting with sketches and finally creating a digital version of the logo design the group decided on.

 

 

 

Alternative Tourist Experience

For the colour wheel task I took photos out and about collecting examples of colour in design. I was then to arrange these photos in a colour wheel, this was the result

The colours I found easiest to find examples for were reds and blues and the colour I found most difficult to find was definitely purple.

In 1956, pop artist Richard Hamilton created an iconic photo-collage “Just what is it that makes today’s home, so different, so appealing?” It consists of images of consumer items
and role models at a time when the UK and USA were rebuilding their economies in the aftermath of World War 2.

In 1992, with the emergence of technology capable of creating similar works of art Hamilton updated the piece with a new collection of contemporary images and icons that was more up to date reflecting the times 36 years later.

I had to create my own version of this collage with images and themes concerning the world today.

My collage focuses around the issues of climate change and plastic in the ocean and people turning their backs to it pretending not to notice.

For the t-shape project I was tasked to create a collage of images that reflect myself as a designer. The vertical part of the T was made up of images that influence and inspire me whilst images from other design and visual arts disciplines that influence and inspire me formed the horizontal part.

Some of the images, particularly ones in the vertical section, contain text as typography in graphics is a particular interest of mine.

The images along the top are things of great influence to me such as Christoph Niemann, one of my favourite illustrators and printing by Rebecca Coleman. Also there is illustration by Jamie Hewlett who’s work for the band ‘Gorillaz’ has been of great interest to me for years.

On the 26th November I visited the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. These were some of my favourite pieces they had on display there.

This glass was created by American glass artist Dante Marioni who is known for using traditional Venetian glass making techniques, for example, Reticello.

“Reticello is a glass blowing technique which combines canes of coloured glass in a criss-cross pattern, which are then merged together to form a grid. The process also traps a bubble of air in each square of the grid creating a complex and beautiful effect”.

From left to right – Carbon Chair by Bertjan Pot and Marcel Wanders, Full Grown chair by Gavin Munro, Fat Fresh chair by Tom Dixon. I was really interested in these chairs on display, their intricate forms got my attention. “Carbon Chair was woven by hand using carbon fibre to give a structure which is rigid, strong and light. Fat Fresh was also formed by hand, using molten plastic. The Full Grown chair is the product of years of skilled grafting and pruning”.

Vine Arm and Shoes designed for the Alternative Limb Project, 2017. “Vine Arm is a bespoke prosthetic made for Kelly Knox, a model and advocate for body positivity. The botanical tentacle is controlled by sensors fixed into the big toe of the shoes. The sensors allow the arm to curve and grip objects”. I liked this piece a lot as body positivity is something very important to me.

On the 12th November I visited several museums in Glasgow such as Kelvingrove and the Lighthouse. My favourite however was the Gallery of Modern Art.

Many of the pieces on display at the Gallery are very interesting but these ones were some of my favourites. Work by Andy Goldsworthy is on display here, his work is also on display at Jupiter Artland which I saw several weeks ago.

Work by Andy Warhol was also on display here. I particularly like Warhol’s work as he works heavily with printmaking and is synonymous with pop art because of this you can see the similarities between this piece and The Velvet Underground banana design which I was coincidentally writing about for another project. Warhol’s subject matter across many of his paintings consist mainly of everyday things e.g the soup can and banana which I find fascinating.

Also on display at the Gallery was this model made of the gallery itself. I found this interesting due to how detailed and exact it was, even though it’s not a painting or piece of graphic art.

On 1^st October I visited Jupiter Artland as part of the Visual Research Methods module at my university. Jupiter Artland is a contemporary sculpture park and art gallery and so there are many interesting and inspiring pieces of artwork on display here but there were a few in particular that stood out to me.

For example one of these pieces was ‘You Imagine What You Desire’ by Nathan Coley. This piece is made up of many bright lights spelling out this phrase that contrast with the calm of its surrounding environment.

However it was another piece of work also designed by Nathan Coley that really caught my attention. ‘In Memory’, a small family graveyard surrounded by high walls of concrete. On the headstones however I noticed that the names of the deceased had been blanked out. I like this piece in particular as it prompts us to think about the ways we mark the deaths of those around us and the ones we love.

Another piece which I found very interesting at the time was ‘Landscape with Gun and Tree’ by Cornelia Parker which she designed after closely studying the landscape of Jupiter Artland. Her idea for this piece came from the painting ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews’ by Thomas Gainsborough. Parker enlarged one of the shotguns and laid it against a tree almost like it had been accidentally left behind. After studying it her intention was to show the power the land had. This piece was inspiring to me as at the time of visiting I was tasked with creating five posters around the theme of war and peace. This served as great inspiration.

One of the most memorable pieces at Jupiter Artland in my opinion is ‘Weeping Girls’ by Laura Ford. Ford was inspired by a story her friend told her about his daughter having a tantrum whilst looking at herself I the mirror to see the effect “The site I have picked at Jupiter has a quiet melancholic atmosphere and I felt it was the perfect place to introduce some unnecessary drama in the style of the story above. What I have made for Jupiter are 5 little girls dressed up as sculptures in positions of high drama which animate the landscape they inhabit.” I like this piece as it creates a sense of unease in the viewer as well as giving the area a gloomy as creepy vibe. https://www.jupiterartland.org/artwork/weeping-girls

I would recommend a visit to Jupiter Artland for those wishing to see thought provoking pieces of artwork in a beautiful outdoor setting.

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/07/25/janson-goldstein-creates-bicoastal-atmosphere-alc-clothing-boutique-soho-new-york/

I wanted to share this article as it is of particular interest to me. This article is about the American architecture firm Janson Goldstein who have created a ‘bicoastal’ atmosphere in an ALC boutique in New York.

What I find interesting about this is the use of design and interior architecture to create different feelings and atmospheres.

“Each store is designed to draw from different parts of the brand’s heritage, playing into the designer’s bicoastal roots and world travels,” the architects said in a project description.

I like how the designers have put a lot of thought into this project. By breaking up the space in such a way they have enabled ALC to be able to tell different stories with their collection.

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/02/brixels-modular-blocks-breakfast-moving-walls-installation/

I wanted to share this article as it is of particular interest to me. This article is about a piece of technology created by Breakfast, a design studio from New York. They have created Brixels, a “building block for moving architectural art.”

“We saw an opportunity to blur the lines between what is deemed art, infrastructure and a digital display,” said Breakfast co-founder and head of design Andrew Zolty.

I find this particularly interesting as we are now beginning to incorporate even more technology into the world of art and design using technology to create something that is first seen as art and also providing and inspiring experience.