fool circle
AGATA RYBICKA
Published by Agata Rybicka 1009575 Graphic Design Year 3 Unit Code EGRD6001
Registered Offices: UCA Epsom, Ashley Road, Epsom, Surrey, KT18 5BE. First Published 2012
Copyright Agata Rybicka All rights reserved Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any for or my any means without the prior written permission of the author . Set in Univers and Baskerville Designed by Agata Rybicka
Introduction
Have courage to use your own understanding!
Immanuel Kant
This term has been a steep learning curve for me. I always knew that it is really hard for me to work without a specific brief but what I never realised before is that I always unconsciously seek approval to confirm that what I am doing is right. It is probably the most important thing after leaving University to be able to know what is wrong and what is right and to not be scared to do things your own way. I have yet to overcome the fear of doing something wrong by doing it against the rules. The Final Major Project is for me an opportunity to loosen up and let myself get carried away with the process and the subject I am passionate about. I think I am experienced enough in the technical aspects of producing a book (my mother has a publishing house and I have worked on projects that involved printing before) and am aware how long things take me, so I can plan those things quite well and manage to keep to the deadlines. However what I am not good at, which will be the biggest challenge of the project, is to do the content I generate justice and produce a piece of work I will be proud to put my name under. This would give me an unbelievable boost in confidence and courage to trust my own knowledge and understanding.
type directors club exhibition at JWT In October I was very lucky to take part in putting together the Type Directors Club Exhibition at JWT for the Typo Circle. It was a great opportunity for me to get out of my comfort zone and work with other students. It was one of the first times I had the opportunity to work as part of a team as I have only done work as an individual and never had to work things out with other people. I have had some involvement with putting exhibitions up in the past, but never in a role of a curator. I definitely gained some useful experience especially in preparation for the Final show next year which I would very much like to be part of. The exhibition was split into 2D stuff like posters and bussiness cards and 3D like books and other artefacts (there was even a laser engraved baseball bat - which proved quite difficult to arrange, until we found its stand). I was in the group taking care of the books. We first looked through all the books and other objects to see which ones we liked most - that wasn’t a great idea as it turned out that
everyone liked different things, so we decided to put everything we had space for out. There was a table at the entrance which was our designated space for the books. After some deliberating we decided to create an illusion that all the books were the same size, so arranged them smallest first (on the front) to the biggest ones at the back which worked quite well. Then there was the baseball bat in a kind of nook and some square stands for which we cut some card to create nice white backgrounds for all the objects. It was a real pleasure to work with other students from the course that I never worked before, and also a privilege to look through some beautiful books. I would definitely recommend this day to students interested in exhibition design next year.
Examples of some of the books that caught my attention, which were part of the exhibition. I am drawn to different printing techniques embossing, spot varnish, but also unusual layout and typography.
manifesto for a better me This was my first response to Brief 1. “Who am I, What do I Do�. The idea behind it was to create a manifesto/ credo /mantra for myself that would be the basis for my future career. I have not presented this in front of the class because after a day of presentations I felt it didn’t fit in with what other students were doing. I have put quite a lot of thought into it and done research on the subject which was really interesting. In hindsight I realise I should have presented this, as the things I presented were rushed and put together on the day of the presentation.
&
who am i what do i do? My first presentation went pretty badly as I wasn’t well prepared (last minute changes). I didn’t really know what to say but the brief asked to think about who we are and present it to everyone. I talked about my childhood in Poland and how I graduated as a musician and didn’t want to pursue that, but after coming to England ended up singing. I then talked about my experience as a Graphic Designer outside of college - my client work that I got through, mainly, singing. I said I really enjoy working with clients and have gained a lot of experience in how to talk to clients, printers and how to prepare files for print and how to typeset large amounts of text. I spoke about the passion I have for print making but also the fact
that I can’t see myself doing it as a professional practice. The future at this point wasn’t clear but I mentioned that since I have experience in it I could pursue design for music industry. Feedback The feedback received was that I have to focus on the research side of the FMP, and that my commercial work will not be sufficient to cover the 60 credit unit. I need to have personal work in my portfolio after finishing as this is what most agencies will look at when interviewing. They look to see if the person will fit in with their studio and what they do. It was also said that I have clearly demonstrated that I can work to a specific brief and that the FMP is
an opportunity to do something beyond that, and that the whole year is an opportunity to experiment, and explore. Looking back I am not quite sure that I have explored all the possibilities that I could have this term because I focused on a specific area of graphic design (book design). I feel like I have been pushed into making a decision about the FMP a bit to early, and because I am quite serious about the subject I wanted to extensively research what it was about before I made any decisions, which probably was the wrong thing to do but gave me a deeper understanding of the publishing world, but meant that there isn’t much work to show for it.
i am
caught
by the river I submitted an entry to this mini competition brief which was set for us by some people from a online magazine “Caught by the River”. I thought it looked interesting and as I’ve never tried setting out a magazine before, I gave it a go. The briefing was really inspiring and it seemed like my kind of magazine, but as soon as I set out to work on it I realised I wasn’t very good at making it look “edgy”. I really like typesetting but no matter what I did, it always seemed to look like a book spread. The text was a few stories about train journeys from London to Brighton. And the illustrations provided for us to use were drawings on tickets. I had this idea of making the text run across the pages in two lines - like train tracks but then I realised that the whole zine is supposed to be only 32 pages long, and if I went with my idea the whole story would be twice as long as that, and be very hard to read. I think this is quite often the case with my work, I keep to the brief to tightly, which means that I don’t come up with crazy ideas. My work is, most of the time, quite boring. I am not usually happy with it, but there is nothing wrong with it per se. So in a way, if the client is happy, I won’t push it further just to make the design better. I am not quite sure how to get out of this comfort zone and do some great work, which I know I have in me. I think it was a valuable experience though, as I realised what I am not good at, so I will not have any delusions in the future.
Eureka moment. After the briefing on Monday, I decided it was time to make a decision about what I’m going to focus on this year. So I went to the library. Remember when I said my dissertation is about book cover design? Remember when I said I like type, printing, and paper? Well..at the library I had a bit of an epiphany, maybe more of an eye opening experience. I randomly went to the Typography section. Next to it was Printing, and right next to that – Book Design. I love books. I love reading them. I love their history. I love learning about them… I enjoy typesetting and printing and have an understanding of the processes involved. Oh, and my mother has a what? A publishing company? Wouldn’t Book Design be a good direction? So for this next brief, I am going to investigate that path. I am already excited about the possibilities for FMP.
I’ve been quite overwhelmed by the amount of research I’m doing and all the information that is going through my head…One thing I’m certain of, this is the right direction as I’m enjoying it very much. One of the books I read today was about William Morris and his Kelmscott Press, and in it I found this quote from the master printer himself, that made my day:
“The fact is, that a small book seldom does lie quiet, and you have to put it on the table with paraphernalia of matters to keep it down, a table spoon on one side, a knife on another, and so on, which things always tumble off at a critical moment, and fidget you out of the repose which is absolutely necessary to reading;…”
@
Donald Jackson the art workers guild
I was really excited in anticipation for this lecture, first of all because I was going to a new place and didn’t know what to expect in terms of who was going to be there, and if I knew anyone. Secondly because I was so familiar with Mr Jackson’s St John’s Bible as I used to work at St Martin-inthe-Fields and was responsible for turning the pages weekly to rest the spine of the massive folio. The lecture was part of a series of talks put on by The Letter exchange, a society of lettering artists, and so Mr Jackson spoke a lot and in very fine detail about the actual writing/ lettering, but also about the mistakes when writing the Bible, one of them being writing a few pages from a completely wrong version of the bible. We were shown the stages of illuminations, and photos outlining the process of making such a huge book. It was very geeky in a good way.
A couple of things that stuck with me: Measure before you can manage it – in relation to the St John’s Bible project – Mr Jackson thought the whole project would take 5 years. 9 years later they were still working on the illuminations and the text. Sometimes you get a really complicated, or boring project, but only when you get under the skin of it you can deliver something good. All in all I am very please to have been to this lecture as it gave a ‘behind the scenes’ look into how this magnificent piece of work was created. It was also a very humbling experience to be in a room with so many distinguished lettering artists. I will definitely be attending more events of the series in the future.
DJ at AWG
becoming a book designer After my presentation for brief 1 and feedback after it, I did a lot of thinking about what I actually like doing, as opposed to what I see myself doing, and had the eureka moment I wrote about in one of the previous posts. I love books and would like to work with them, so I took out a whole lot of literature about them from the library. Of course all that reading led to research online and I discovered a whole lot about book design and was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of it. I looked at videos and listened to podcasts. I particularly like Type Radio, which interviews designers in a non typical way. The books that made the biggest impact on me where ‘A book is made for you’ by R.H. Havercroft, and William Morris’s The Ideal Book (which also includes and extensive introduction with some background about the Kelmscott Press, and the influence Emery Walker - a brilliant typographer in his own right - had on Morris). I am really drawn to the ideals that William Morris set in producing the Kelmscott Press books, and would like to research more into it.
I read about the history of the book, and about the influence the designers above had on the way books look like today, but also about the different parts of the book, the importance and significance of paper on the reading experience. I learnt about the different types of books, the process behind making them, different factors that contribute to how the book looks like and the things the Book designer has to consider: Format, size, typography, layout, materials, reproduction, printing, finishing and distribution.
work. The second lecture was Donald Jackson talking about the St John’s Bible at the Art Workers Guild
I also looked at the different books of literature I have at home, and looked at the publishers whose books I like the look of most.
Improve presentation skills – drifted a bit when speaking
I discovered book packaging companies who buy out rights to the text, put books together (usually one designer) and then sell them off to publishers. This is something I would like to find out more about as I have never heard of it before, and don’t quite understand. I attended 2 lectures, one was by Arnold Schwartzman, who gave a very entertaining lecture about his life and
So where I’m at is: I would like to get some work experience in the publishing industry, and also just start designing some books and book covers. I would also like to interview a few practitioners which would also tie in with doing some research for my dissertation. FEEDBACK: Presentation was clearly visualised and “did what it needed to do”
Look into: Mette Ambeck bookbinding workshop Penguin book design competition Next steps: Work placement – get some contacts in the industry Maybe have a chat to Becky Chilcott Think about what books mean, and what is the future of the book.
1 2 3
Content. What is it about?
Audience. Who it is for? How and when will the book be read?
What is the appropriate format and size for that type of book? How will it sit in reader’s hand? Proportions.
4 5 6
Layout: Symmetry, margins.
Typography: Type, letter space, word space, line space, column space/text area. How does the type interpret the book?
Production: materials, paper and reproduction. What is it made of? How is it going to be printed?
7
Cover design. How well does it communicate what the book is about? Is it appropriate to how it will be distributed?
also:
In most cases the designer won’t have any input into content and audience, production, reproduction, and distribution. In which case the following things will need to be considered/designed: Cover, title page, copy typography, chapter headings, table of contents, illustrations, bibliography, index, appendixes etc, endpapers,
book as artefact Last night I went to the Book as Artefact discussion at the Free Word Centre. The panel was led by Sam Winston, and it included Prof Nicholas Pickwoad, Dr Athanasios Velios, Russel Merryman, Darryl Clifton, Susan Johanknecht and introduced by Natalie Brett. The discussion went into very different areas which made my head spin. There was so much to think about. Below are some things I noted down during the discussion, which lead into further research. Oxford University Press vault of rejected words (that aren’t in the dictionary) Is format changing the content? Is technology affecting the creation process?
www.unbound.com – a kickstarter for books, authors pitch their ideas and people put money on the books they want published. Also allows the buyer to choose options from paperback to a limited edition of calf bound signed edition. Crowdsourcing: kickstarter Format is important for an artist – you first have the content and then think of the format. (This got me thinking about writers – should they have creative control of the book? Who decides what goes on the cover/format/paper etc.) People treat books with reverence students have more respect for information if it comes from a book (it’s easier to plagiarise something written on a blog found on the Internet) Book as an object of power.
Self publishing /print on demand the future of book publishing? Are libraries going to be museums in the future? Information is outdated before it’s published in book format.
Left to right: Susan Johanknecht, Dr Athanasios Velios, Prof Nicholas Pickwoad, Sam Winston, Russel Merryman, Darryl Clifton
history of the book edition 2 covers – process Last week I produced collagraph plates for the covers of a new edition of my History of The Book. Here’s how I made them. First of all I had to cut the letters out of thick cardboard. I used the laser cutter as this speeds up the process 10 times if not more than doing it by hand. While the letters where being cut I realised that I could use both the cut out letters and the board out of which they were cut out of – allowing me to make an embossing as well as a debossing. Then I arranged the letters to glue them on the plate. I really like the shadows that the plate produced so I took a few photos while preparing the plates. I then got the old files out for printing the books on the acetate. I borrow one of the big screens from Rose especially to print the whole book in one go - using the arm on the screen printing bed. Unfortunately, after I spent a few hours screen
printing my books I realised that I printed them wrong - when printing on acetate to expose onto the screen I didn’t tick the box for not fitting it onto A2 and they printed to small for the covers, and also that the crop marks were wrong (I didn’t adjust them for the way I printed the books- last time in two halves), which meant that the books weren’t square anymore and the folds were in wrong places. This meant that I didn’t have anything to submit for Handmade and Bound and was behind with schedule. Looking back at it now I think it was a valuable experience, as it made me realise how important it is to triple check the files that are going to print. In relation to FMP this means that I won’t even attempt to print anything myself and will get at least the inside of my book printed in one of the commercial printers I have worked with while working on client briefs.
beyond the book society of young publishers annual conference 3/11/2012 The day of the conference came and as always with those things I was a bit nervous to be going to an event I didn’t know anyone at. The conference took place at the LCC in Elephant and Castle. On arrival everyone was given a “goodie bag” with the schedule for the day, a Book from the World Book Night ’12 (I got David Pearce The Damned UTD), a Folio Society magazine, their catalogue, and a few other promotional leaflets. Coffee was served, which meant awkward looking for a place at a table with friendly-looking people to sit with… Anyway, the opening debate Game Changers was about moving beyond the unified concept of the book. It introduced everyone to the subject of publishing and the changes related to digitising books. The speakers were: Julia Kingsfold (World Book Night) Laura Austin (Yudu Media) Sarah Taylor (Matador) Trevor Klein (Somethin’ Else)
For anyone interested in publishing - it would be a good idea to check out their web sites and learn about what their companies do. Afterwards everyone was split into 6 groups and each group went to the 3 seminars they signed up for when ordering tickets. I went to: Beautiful Books by Johanna Geary Senior editor at Folio Society. Johanna spoke about the lengthy process behind producing Folio books. As an example she took Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. The first decision that the editor has to make is which edition of the book to publish. Folio strives to publish books that are closest to the authors intended text. Sometimes the author is directly involved in this process. Two different proofreaders proofread the text. All the typography and design is done in-house. The goal is to make reading more pleasurable and easier. The typography is always well researched and always justified (no pun intended). So for example the In Cold Blood book is set in Adobe Caslon with drop caps -
modelled on The New Yorker from the time the novel was first published in the newspaper as series of essays. All Folio books are illustrated. The Fiction illustrations are always commissioned from different artists. The nonfiction - usually photographsis done in-house but is always extensively researched. The bindings are specific and appropriate to each book as is the printing (done in different European countries. Folio works exclusively with the printers it trusts, and the ones that use the methods required). Folio only do small print runs of each book as the storage isn’t good for the books. I loved this talk and afterwards we could all come up and touch the different books that Johanna brought to show us. I had a chat to her about “The Hunting of the Snark” my favourite Folio book, for which she was editor for. And also about her history in the company. She said Folio look at education and previous employers and that it has to be evident that you have a passion for books to get a job there.
beyond the book
Publishing Services by Leila Dewji (Acorn Independent Press) and Ian Ellard (Faber Academy)
Interactive and Social Reading by Andrew Rhomberg (Jellybooks) and Jon Ingold (Inkle)
Leila spoke about the services Acorn offers authors, the process of selfpublishing, and changes to the publishing model in the e-book age. It was good to learn about those things as I haven’t been aware of some of the aspects and pro’s of self-publishing (like greater control over the creative process).
Have to say I don’t own an e-book and don’t wish for one and didn’t really know anything about them before this seminar so this was probably the most eye-opening seminar for me.
I’m not a great fan of self-publishing, which for me just means churning out crappy novels (like Fifty Shades and all the others that followed. “Grey is so last season” SERIOUSLY!!!) by the thousands. These things get writtenedited - re-edited - written again and again till someone says that version will sell… Ian spoke about The Faber Academy - the only course for writers run by a publisher. This lecture wasn’t of much interest to me but I still learned I whole lot about publishing.
Andrew’s presentation was about his company Jellybooks, and how it works. It is based on Social reading. The idea is that you can try a portion of any book that they sell for free and then decide if you want to buy it or not. But there is more. If you read your sample and like it and can get say 10 people together to buy 10 books then…you get a massive discount! Pretty genius, don’t you think? There is more to Jelly books than that and I recommend looking through the web site. Also Andrew is all about social media and sharing so the whole of his presentation can be found at: http://www.slideshare.net/ Jellybooks/jellybooks-syp-presentationv er7-03112012-15019775
Jon spoke about Inkle, which “brings books to life”. He explained the idea behind his company’s ground breaking app Frankenstein for iPhone and iPad. Frankenstein is a responsive book that reacts to your preconceptions about what you’re reading, which means that you choose what you’re going to read, therefore changing the shape and your interaction with it. The idea is brilliant but, I don’t think it works with recognised “classics” like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but I see the potential for books especially written for the purpose and am curious to see how this app progresses. This was a really great, educational day. I left with a head full of all the things people said and with an urge to find out more about how publishing works. I would love to be part of it one day.
penguin book cover competition My copy of The Big Sleep finally arrived a couple of days ago, and I loved it. It’s a really easy and quick read even though the plot is quite convoluted – Chandler put a few of his successful stories together to form this one, he apparently didn’t care much about story lines as much as the atmosphere and characters. And they are brilliant. The novel is of the hard-boiled fiction type (tough, unsentimental style of American crime writing) and is written in the first person. Marlowe (the main character, private detective) tells the story of one commission. He is employed by an old general, Sternwood, who made his fortune on oil pumping, to discover who is blackmailing him and if his son-in-law (who disappeared) has something to do with it. A few corpses, whole load of shooting, lots of drinking, pornography selling and gambling later, Marlowe finds out that gen Sternwood’s daughters have been hiding the truth all along… I first had a go at getting my head round the different connections between the characters:
Then I took that to illustrator and InDesign to make it into something visually pleasing and in tune with the style of the novel: This could probably be improved by screen printing it and making it into a poster. I quite like the visual quality of the Character diagram, maybe it is a bit too derogative…but maybe some ideas could be used for the book cover. Like the bullet hole for Marlowe, or the shooting target board. I read a few articles available online from the library. Then I had a think about the different recurring themes in the book. I wanted to represent them visually as that might trigger some ideas later when I’m onto designing the cover. I will make further mood boards for each of the themes to create appropriate atmosphere and to decide on the style I want to use for the cover. I also did some preliminary visual research into previous edition covers.
I’ve been thinking about type I would use for the title and came up with using a “ransom note” kind of type. I had a look around the Internet for some typefaces but I couldn’t find anything decent so got myself a newspaper and got cutting. It really is quite difficult to make something look rough and ready. Here are a few examples I made the other day. In my opinion the last one is quite successful, but I’m not sure I’ll use this idea, as I might just go with something simple. The brief did say though that they are looking to see typographical responses, so I’ll see. I do think it’s a bit of a cliché. I’d like to try my hand at collage for this cover but I never seem to be able to find any good images…I’ll try to get to the library one day and go through some ancient Penrose annuals.
KIOSK Kioosk was the first Independent Publishing Fair in Poland. I decided to go on an impromptu visit to check it out as it overlapped with my research area - book design. I really didn’t know what to expect - the only other experience of an independent fair was for me the Handmade and Bound in 2011. I was positively surprised with how well organised it was, there were posters everywhere in Krakow and they had lots of media coverage. The fair itself was a bit under whelming - there were hardly any actual artists there, most of them just sent through their submissions. Maybe it was because I was one of the first people there (on the first day), but I didn’t feel very welcome. On the other hand I did meet Basia, a designer working in Krakow who was keen to have a chat about life there and gave me some insight into the realities of being a graphic designer there. The main things I learned were that it is possible to get a job as a designer, but
all the publishing industry is mainly in Warsaw. It was also really good to chat to a group of students from the Academy of Art in Krakow who were there as a collective. I was very sad to hear that they didn’t have any access to print making facilities. They never even tried screen printing. We had a nice conversation There was a variety of work on show from all over the world but I wasn’t blown away by the quality. I don’t know why but I thought that there would be some amazing work there that doesn’t get international recognition. I think this goes back again to my self criticism and the fact that I don’t think my work is good enough. Maybe that isn’t the case and maybe I should be more confident about it, but I feel like I still haven’t found the thing I am good at. I can count on the fingers of one hand the pieces of work which I did that I am proud of. At the same time I do realise that I am ahead of some people in that I have an overall
knowledge of design and, mostly, art, because of the simple fact that I am interested in it and have a natural curiosity for all things visual. I was talking to this lady at the open day at my fathers studio the other day. She was telling me about her practice - she makes collages - and I asked her about where she sources her images for the collages, as I can never find anything. She told me that she’s been gathering Sunday magazines for 30 years... Which made me think about my photography. I don’t really think of myself as a photographer, and don’t take very good photos, but I am always on the lookout for different “backgrounds” for my posters or other possible projects. I have recently used a photo that I took almost 3 years ago, which fitted a project I was working on. I am pleased to have visited the fair and I am curious to see what becomes of it in the future, maybe will even take part in it next year.
bookbinding with
mette ambeck
I’ve been really looking forward to this workshop since it was first mentioned to me after my second presentation. The workshop was a good refresher of the techniques used in book binding. I really enjoyed it and it has given me a new incentive to make books. I really enjoy the tactile aspect of making books this way, it is so much more personal and special. At my action research presentation I showed the few books I made as a trail run, to explore the different possibilities and advantages in different bindings, but also to see how long it would take to bind my own publications - if I chose to do that for my FMP. It was dismissed as being completely the wrong thing to do and since then I have given up on it for the time being.
I am not going to pursue that path till I finish University because the fact that something is hand made doesn’t seem to have any effect on the grade, which is fair enough. One of the things mentioned at the Beyond the Book conference was that digital books are the future, and that the physical book market will become like the vinyl book market - niche, highly valued and to the best quality possible, unique. I love books that are made to last and are a pleasure to read and hold because of the care and knowledge put into making them. One example that I will always come back to is Folio Society books. The process behind each of their volumes is extraordinary. It takes about a year, and begins by selecting the right edition of the book which is closest to the authors version, and intention.
Folio Society employees have love and understanding for books and are passionate about their products, and the process behind them. I feel that by making books and learning about the different binding techniques I am gaining that kind of understanding and will therefore make me a better designer. I don’t know if this is the right thing to do but it feels right to me, which I think is the most important aspect of a designers practice.
brief 3 presentation meltdown I find it really upsetting that none of the teachers had anything positive to say about what I’ve been doing for the past fees weeks. The only time when I feel like I like what I’m doing and really enjoying exploring the ground – something that all the tutors said there was plenty of time to do this year, at my first presentation. I feel really down after todays presentation especially as I had shown way more interest in the field and work than some of the people. All of which I’ve done alongside a very big client project and several smaller ones. I want to be a book designer. Not an artist book maker. I learn about making a book because I think that furthers my understanding of how books work and how people interact with them. I think it is a very important factor, for at least some of the publishers that may be my future employers. I find it really hard to create content, and if I do I lose interest in it very quickly, or it’s an insignificant amount. I’d rather work with something that someone has made and make it better. I am not Alan Fletcher, or Phil Baines. Why do I have to be? I want to design books but not write them. I just want to cry really, because for once I thought I was doing the right thing. Actually wipe that, I was upset earlier, now I’m just angry.
In hindsight I can see that I completely overreacted to what was said in my feedback. I also realise, and it’s not an excuse, that I probably should not have take on a big client project this term. I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of work required for it - I did the same thing last year and thought it would be easier second time running but it didn’t turn out this way because of complications in communication, and also the fact that I wasn’t able to attend a few meetings because of Uni days. I am also aware of the fact that I haven’t tried out enough things for my FMP, but at the same time I am confident that I can pull it off because of my experience of client work. I am pretty good at keeping deadlines and the only reason I haven’t done more experimentations is that I still wasn’t sure which way it was going to progress to. I like to be as knowledgeable about the subject I study as I can, and feel like the events (Book as Artefact, Beyond the Book etc.) have given me a deeper understanding of what the current publishing situation is, but also the history and importance of books in modern society.
Research thoughts. I think I might have mentioned this already, but again I feel like my research isn’t very effective. Maybe it is the way i research and the extent of it, but I feel over-saturated with other peoples work. It may be why it is extremely difficult for me to generate original ideas. It also makes me feel like my work is awful and not worth a GD graduate. Should I feel I have wasted the last 2 months on reading and watching and listening and learning, because I feel completely drained of ideas? Maybe instead of doing that I should have been in the print making studio just experimenting? I don’t have any work to show… On a good note, I think my tutorial today was very useful because I finally managed to gather my thoughts (I think) and ask the questions I wanted to. I ran a few ideas past Mike and he seemed pleased with a couple of them, so that gives me a direction at least for the FMP.
FMP research I spent the whole of yesterday at my father’s studio gathering material to put together a proposal for my FMP. It was a long day with lots of people around (it was an open day for the studios), so it may not be a typical day but still.. I have A LOT of text – 7 pages of dialogues, 1 or 2 videos and 90 photos (some of them not good). I haven’t decided on the format or type of book I would make out of it. I was thinking of making something like Alan Fletcher’s “art of looking sideways” but I think it won’t be appropriate, as my father talks so much.
I think the book would have to be split into subject related chapters – e.g. about art, living in Poland, music, politics, etc. And I will have to steer it as Richard goes off on tangents a lot. But at the same time I have to be conscious of the fact that people won’t want to read a page long monologue, as he sometimes does. So things to decide: What is this book for? How am I going to make people want to read it/ look at it? How can I make it attractive How much material do I need? And how long will it take me to gather it? Should I leave our conversations untranslated?
R: So, I hope next year you come back with the little baby, and you can have whisky and we make a photo with the baby. Oh come look at that! (Shiny reflection from the shard). You have a chance for the photo now. Come on, have a background here and your shadow made by shard. Stand here with your perfect shape. Look! Catch the shape. S: Amazing! Look at That! Woow! R: Perfect, you see, next year you come and take a photo with the baby. S: Yeah with a real one! R: Well it’s real now but it’s just a bit more wrapped! You see! And the title of this painting is Wrap! He is just wrapped at the moment,
R: Oh hello! Another wrap woman (pregnant). Look quickly, Imogen, you have a chance to have a brilliant photo! Agata take a photo because it will be gone in a minute (the reflection). R: I think i should open a service - shard shadow! For people to have a photo in the reflection from the shard. Stand like that, you see.
R: One day when we first got here (London) I quarrelled with Maria, and she said she’ll find me the worst possible job in London. And she did! I was walking back home one day after work through Portobello, and I spotted this box, I was so depressed, you know. No future, no proper job, Maria and Agata really sad and upset, and we quarrelled a lot and I thought, what madness, what shit is this. And I saw this box, and it was 10% of my weekly salary: £7. And I had a vision, one day this box will be full of whisky, and look! It’s done! I have this box full of whisky. And it’s good to remember this situation when I was in deep shit.
R: In the end there is a story behind it (The train track painting), like Dalai Llama said, what the world needs now is heelers, storytellers, not TV, where they are bombing you, hammering your brain with information, what you have to see. I want to give you an opportunity to see something, probably even more than I was thinking when I painted it. So I work in a lot of different directions. And some people say: How can you do that? Always different. And I heard a Zen master, I didn’t know before, he said: be empty, start again. Be new, you’re a different person every day, how can you do the same stuff if you’re a different person? I am open, I don’t care. I can’t choose how I’ll feel tomorrow. I am doing it for arts sake and not for my career. The more empty I am, the better paintings come.
fmp research
A: Did you see the photos with our Christmas tree? R: No, oh maybe Maria sent it through. Oh yes, wooow what a lovely tree. Why does the star have 5 arms? A: how many should it have? R: 8! A: you make it then. In 3D. I had one with 5 so I made one like that!. Jesus…
R: I just thought you knew that Bethlehem star is 8 pointed. This is a Masonic star, Soviet star! A: And you know what swastika is? R: Yes. On the other hand, did you know that the branches of Christmas tree grow in that shape (5 pointed star). A: So, there you have it. R: yes, you’ve got a lovely photo. Lovely.
R: Ok
A: you want to make a drawing of it?
A: Always something. You’ll always find something to be upset about, don’t you.
R: no, no, photo is better. You made a lovely star too… we’ll have lovely Christmas this year. I can’t wait.
R: I have the most amazing daughter; we had a great time in Fort William. Drinking Ben Nevis whisky, we were so pissed. We walked back to the hostel for an hour in the dark, and there were those two guys making problems and I don’t know how but they knew that they’d be in trouble if they did anything.
R: you want beer? A: why are you making me drink? R: I’m not making you drink, just asking. I’ve got beer, you like beer, you like whisky i can get you some if you want. It’s a good time for it now, 4 o’clock. A: And what else have you got? R: I can make you Tea with Rum and honey, if you’re cold. I’ve got a lovely whisky, single malt, you haven’t tried it before, it’s very delicate, breakfast whiskey (we laugh together). Richard opens the squeaky whiskey box. A: oh is that mead in there? R: yes, ah no, that was sake, but it finished A: ok I’ll have that whisky then, NOT THAT MUCH! R: I kept it for a special occasion fmp research
A: don’t drink anymore, you’ve had enough already! R: (curses) You and your mother, I’ll sell you and go to Taiwan and no one will control me there. I’ll never come back.
R: Sfumato, this is like a homage to Leonardo da Vinci, my favourite artist. Harmony. Are you a musician? S: No, Science teacher, how boring R: No, this painting (harmony) actually, somebody told me that it looks like atoms bumping into each other produce that kind of line. S: Traces, yeah R: These are some windows from the house where I was born S: oooh, they are beautiful, you won’t be selling those R: no I don’t think so, it’s part of me you know I just carry on with them R: Harmony is from my last exhibition at St Martin in the fields, it’s amazing, kind of meditation. I can look at it for hours. You know I didn’t know until last week, when I watched this program with this Zen master, that all my life I’ve been practicing Zen.
R: next year i think I should get a medal from the queen for surviving in London for 10 years. Are you Londoners? S: oh yes, R: well so you know what I’m talking about! Surviving in London is an achievement, especially, you know, when you’re foreigners you come and it’s so different. I love London but in my opinion it is like a cocktail - you take one sip and its hell; another one and it’s heaven. So it’s heaven and hell in one cocktail, perfectly balanced 50/50 a small difference and you feel like in hell.
Colacja by Ryszard Rybicki
R: Art is priceless, so £10,000 is not too much.
S: Now art is business.
S: Depends how well known you are.
R: I’m not interested in taking part in this world. I don’t need to beg for it. Quality always wins. Quality people, quality ideas. We’re (society) now on the road to perdition, disaster. I am an artist and I cooperate with the universe and god, and try to prevent this world collapsing. That’s why I don’t want to be part of this game. This game is leading people to hell. There is no hope, no future in this what you’re talking about. I’m not interested. One day, this guys comes to me from a gallery and says - Richard we love this, we can represent you and we’ll be selling your stuff. I need only stuff like that pointing at Let it Be - 300 paintings like that a year, and we’ll represent you. And I said, are you mad? I don’t know what I’ll be doing tomorrow, and he wants me to promise him 300 paintings. You cannot do that. Red here, then there. That’s not a different painting, it’s the same, I cannot do that.
R: And we’re coming back to labels! Sorry, are we talking about labels or art? S: You cannot just say, I am a great artist and that’s why my work is so expensive. It really comes down to almost a mathematical formula. R: that’s bullshit. I’ll tell you something, in 500 years, it won’t matter what some gallery was saying about me, what some art critic was saying about it, or what your mathematical formula was. It’s bullshit after that amount of time. Piece of art must speak for itself, that’s it. It’s like, the anonymous builders that built Chartres Cathedral, it’s a bloody piece of art, and it speaks to this day. That is art. Not what bullshit, critics said because they’ve been bribed, and they make foam, and make the Damien Hirst the greatest artist ever, which is bullshit. That is an perfect example of what you can create from bullshit. I am a better artist than Damien Hirst. It doesn’t matter. I’m not making his money. M: How many paintings did Van Gogh sell? R: Good question. Tell me how many? S: I think he maybe sold only one. R: ONE! Exactly! And now they cost too much, and insurance is too expensive, so they don’t exhibit any of them. They keep it inside. This is madness!
S: Welcome to the world of Damien Hirst. R: That’s what I said, go out, I am not interested. I know my quality, I’m not arrogant, I am humble. Because we must do what we must do. That’s it.
fmp research
R: When Agata was young, she saw our neighbours dog jump the fence and eat her guinea pig in front of her. And you know, she (Agata) survived this, she didn’t even cry. And the neighbour comes and says, sorry I’ll buy you a new guinea pig, and I said, no, now I’ll buy an animal that will eat your dog! We watched this really good film the other day: Ghost in darkness, about two lions in Africa. The railway was being built and the 2 lions were eating the workers, they ate 130 people in half a year. They had a taste in human flesh. And they were such good hunters because there were 2 of them. And the movie is about how two guys try to kill the lions to stop them eating their workers. Amazing, true story. So the hunter comes with 20 Maasai men to try to catch them, and something happened and the Maasai said - they are not lions, they are devils, and they went home. R: So please take a card and visit my web site, there are other paintings there. And you can buy my calendar for £10 and also I have a lottery you pay £1 and can win a book about David Hockney or Alan Haines, so if you’re keen to take a risk you can win a book or another book. So you put a £1 in here and draw out a ball, if it’s orange it’s this book and if yellow that one. Either book is worth it! So money in here, and ball out there. And you won the Hockney one! And these balls (golf) is how I painted this picture (Harmony)- rolling it on the canvas. So it’s not really me, universe created it, God created it. If you believe in god, if not - universe did it. Kind of Icon. This was part of my exhibition at St Martin-in-the-Fields crypt gallery and when I said that to one of the priests there that this is an icon, he ran away immediately. For an Anglican priest, talking about icons, especially this kind of icon, I think was too much. He was afraid, he just ran away.
fmp proposal
FINAL MAJOR PROJECT PROPOSAL 13th December 2012
Project Goals To produce a book or series of books about my father artist Ryszard Rybicki, As yet I have not decided on the title because I would want it to come out of the content. But possibilities include: “Things my father says”, “A portrait of a man as an artist”, “RyszART” My aim is to generate unique content and allow it to dictate the style of the book accordingly. I will try to put it together in a manner that will be of interest to a wide audience.
I will start the process by gathering spoken material. I found it quite distracting to record sound and take photos and talk to people at the same time. I think the easiest way will be to do specific things one at a time. So I think I probably need about two weeks of recording sound (add to that the same amount of time for transcribing it from the recording and translating all the bits spoken in Polish), then a week of taking photographs - shadowing my father in his studio or wherever he is. I would also like to include some drawings that we do together - or my drawings of him.
Audience I will try to make the book quite available to a wide range of readers. It might involve activities like drawing something from a photo, or a page long monologue on the changes to society in the 20th century. My father is a very eccentric character and it is completely unpredictable what he’ll say or do next, which I think is quite an exciting opportunity to leave my comfort zone of planning everything ahead and keeping to straight lines of design, and make something interesting and unique. Therefore I don’t want to define the style of the book for now but am conscientiously leaving it open to be able to get carried away by the process. Process After the experimental day at my fathers studio last week I have gathered quite a lot of material. It was a really good experience to be an observer and record all the things that Richard said. He isn’t afraid to say profound and sometimes quite personal things which affects people. He makes friends (or enemies) instantly. There is no in-between for him, which always seems the case with me.
Timings - sound recording and transcribing - 2-3 weeks - photography - 1 week - drawings + (scanning in) and possible interview - 1 week - research printing options - 2-5 days - draft design - 1 week - development and refinement of designs 2-3 weeks - preparing for print - 3-5 days - production - based on experience, if I have a date booked in with printers - 1 week
bibliography Heller, Steven. The Education of a typographer Butler, David Making ways : the visual artist’s guide to surviving and thriving Shaughnessy, Adrian How to be a graphic designer, without losing your soul. Baines, Phil Penguin by design : a cover story 1935-2005 Hansen, Thomas S. (Thomas Stansfield) Classic book jackets : the design legacy of George Salter Spiekermann, Erik. Stop stealing sheep and find out how type works Müller-Brockmann, Josef, The graphic artist and his design problems Peterson, William S. THE IDEAL BOOK Dodd, Robin. From Gutenberg to opentype : an illustrated history of type from the earliest letterforms to the latest digital fonts Gatter, Mark Getting it right in print : digital pre-press for graphic designers Evans, Poppy, Forms, folds, and sizes : all the details graphic designers need to know but can never find Noble, Ian, Visual research : an introduction to research methodologies in graphic design Drew, Ned. By its cover : modern American book cover design Lupton, Ellen Design writing research : writing on graphic design Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg elegies : the fate of reading in an electronic age Culler, Jonathan D. The pursuit of signs : semiotics, literature, deconstruction A technique for producing ideas / Young, James Webb, 1886-1973. Hochuli, Jost, Designing books : practice and theory Havercroft, R. H, A Book Is Made for You Haslam, Andrew, Book design Rougier, Vincent, Marbling : on paper, fabricand objects Rose, Gillian, Visual methodologies : an introduction to researching with visual materials Seven hundred penguins Smith, Keith A, Structure of the visual book Ambrose, Gavin, Format Title: Politics, desire, and the Hollywood novel Author: Rhodes, Chip. Publication Information: Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, c2008. Chapter 3 Raymond Chandler: Individualism and Populism Irwin, John T., Unless the Threat of Death Is Behind Them : Hard-Boiled Fiction and Film Noir Megan E. Abbott, “Nothing you can’t fix”: screening Marlowe’s masculinity Brian McFarlane, Smoking guns and smouldering lips: ‘The Big Sleep’
Robert B. Parker, Why I love The Big Sleep, Daniel Linder, Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and Chandler’s The Big Sleep Daniel Linder, Chandler’s “The Big Sleep” Gabrielle Robinson, Marlowe’s Sheets or the Murder of Desire http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/nov/28/usa.biography http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/02/the-big-sleep-review http://www.detnovel.com/BigSleep.html http://home.comcast.net/~mossrobert/html/criticism/bigsleep.htm http://rabida.uhu.es/dspace/bitstream/handle/10272/1743/b11980977.pdf?sequence=1 http://www.theliteraryplatform.com http://www.brainpickings.org http://bookstructuresblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/book-arts-terminology1.pdf http://retinart.net/graphic-design/secret-law-of-page-harmony/ http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/static/minisites/ladychatterleyslover/index.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/books http://bookmachine.org http://www.wyvernbindery.com/index.html http://www.designerbookbinders.org.uk/home.html http://londonbookarts.tumblr.com http://fuckyeahbookarts.tumblr.com