A big welcom first issu Amaze m
me to the ue of mag. #inspiredtocreate
STAFF Editor-in-cheif
Director of photography
22 year old, Graphic Design 1st year
19 year old, Graphic Design 1st year
Writer 20 year old, English littrature 1st year
ISELIN MJELDE BERGESEN
JOHN CUBILLAN
JEN APPIAH
If you were a drink, what would you be?
If you could be any character in fiction or film, what would you be?
What is your favourite movie song?
“Sweet’n sour”
“Harry Potter, so I could put a spell on you!“
“Soul Glo in Coming to America. Lots of grease and slick 80’s beats“
Graphic Design & Writer
Layout design & Researcher 20 year old, Graphic Design 1st year
Graphic Designer
27 year old, Graphic Design MA
20 year old, Graphic Design 1st year
CATHERINE BOHN MØRK
ROSE MOORE
JAK EVES
If you were written about in the newspaper, on the front page, what would the headline say?
What starwars character would you be?
If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title would be?
“Lost cause: Graphic student on the loose again!”
“I would be Chewbacca, he was named one of the greatest side kicks in film history by Entertainment Weekly. He is a hairy, gentle and cuddly giant, not to mention he speaks wookie...aarrrrrgggggg”
“Lost in Translation“
Graphic Design & Writer 21 year old, Graphic Design 1st year
PAUL DEVLIN A penguin walks trough the door wearing a sobrero. What does he say and why is he here? “We had a sick night bitches“
CONTRIBUTORS Katherine Smith-Blinkhorn Nick Jeeves The Student Union
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CONTENT ABOUT .........................................................................................................................................................06 - 07 STUDENT WORK OF THE MOTH .......................................................................................................08 - 17 BEST BEER IN TOWN ..............................................................................................................................18 - 19 UPCOMING TALENT: ROB DAVIS .......................................................................................................20 - 25 HIDDEN PLACES IN CAMBRIDGE ..................................................................................................... 26 - 27 REWIEVS ......................................................................................................................................................28 - 31 INTERVIEW: CATHERINE CROWE ..................................................................................................... 32 - 35 CARTOON: STUDENT LIFE ...................................................................................................................36 - 37 ARTIST CYCLE ...........................................................................................................................................38 - 41 STREET FASHION .....................................................................................................................................42 - 45
AMAZE
#inspiredtocreate
About The first issue of Amaze Mag Amaze is a newly found magazine made for students at Cambridge School Of Art, started by three first year Graphic Design students. Changemaker is funding our first issue, and we are depending on receiving funding from elsewhere to be able to continue with future issues, which we are eager to do. Our main vision is to create a feeling of unity among the students at Cambridge School of Art. We also intend to create a platform where we can inform about what’s going on at CSA, and show a variety of work made by our students. It’s also a great opportunity for students to get hands-on experience in their various fields. It is important for students to interact with different fields of art, and to cooperate with students across CSA. All the different courses at CSA will be involved in some scale. We want to balance between being a informative/educative and entertaining magazine.
To give a brief summary of what we expect to be the content of the magazine; information about the interesting happenings in Cambridge and CSA, displaying student work and upcoming talents, interesting articles and pages generally filled with inspiration. We especially need film, music and littrature students. But if you study at Cambridge School of Art and are interested in working with us, send your work amaze.aru@gmail.com
AMAZE
Student of the Month.
#inspiredtocreate
t work Illustration: Sorcha Faulkner Graphic Design: Kelly Smith Fine Art: Georgina Gerrard-Cook Fashion: Li -Qi Saw
AMAZE
Illustration Sorcha Faulkner We are currently in the process of making a six page book about our earliest memory. Mine is about feeding the foxes over the back fence of my house when I was little. We had to make images of characters from a set of shapes, where I made a family of foxes and other critters. These are a much more colourful and graphic style because I creatd the images in Adobe Illustrator. I loved the way it pushed me into working in a totally different style.
I’ve just finished my first year of illustration at ARU and I loved it. I got to use the printmaking facilities which I’d never done before. The whale is a lino cut that I made for my Print and Process module. We had to respond to the poem Bagpipe Music by Louis Macneice and make a hand bound book of prints. I’ve always loved animals and natural history, I think this shows in my work and what I choose to include in my illustrations.
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Graphic Design Kelly Smith
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Self discovery. Self intervention. Self awareness. As human beings we are forever reinventing ourselves; whether its through our appearance, the way we act, the things we do, the choices we make, the food we eat or the things we learn. We all say hello to the new invention and goodbye to the old one. We presume our identity for as long as we want to, until the need arises then we must presume our new self. Much like a portal from one world to another; its our choice to venture down the rabbit hole if we want to, if we must. A mirror reflection a course of means. Time its assistant. Goodbye old world, hello utopia.” attracted to things that were really well-informed.
I have just completed my first year of the BA graphic design course at ARU. Since I was little I have always wanted to do something in the arts. I was always the kid in the conner of the classroom with a colouring book or sketchpad minding my own business as I never seemed to be good at anything else. I’m quite old school when it comes to my work, I tend to favour traditional medias such as watercolour and fine liners or biro. I see the computer as an editing or enhancement tool for a design rather than it controlling my design for me. Even though
technology is advancing I’d still like to believe that traditional medias will be continually used in the future. I’m still in a very early experimental stage of becoming a budding graphic designer but I see that as the fun part of my long journey. Some of my works can be found at: http://smithywithay. tumblr.com Typography Project I based my work on the quote “hello and goodbye” taken from Quentin Crisp’s novel ‘The
Naked Civil Servant.’ The quote is the soul human interaction and greeting between us all. With this I wanted my page to be the human body where subtle interaction is taking place. The forming shape of the mouths in the first image and the shape of the hands in the third image show the reflection of human interaction. (An extract I wrote to go with the images)”Hello and Goodbye - A Human Interaction.
AMAZE
Fine Art Georgina Gerrard-Cook The inspiration of my work came from a lot of Renaissance art, in particular works by Peter Paul Rubens in particular The Three Graces, Andromeda and Venus in a Mirror. The classical representation of women inspired me to create my own paintings of women at their most exposed. I have always had an interest in the female form, intrigued by curves and shape. I also was very interested in the process of painting them, they still aren’t at their finished state and I don’t think they
ever will be - this makes me think about never being fully satisfied with the way we look; the road to perfection. I can speak for many women when I say that we all at one point in our lives have an issue with the way we look which is why I painted these works on a big scale so they draw the attention of the viewer, the attention empowers the image. I look to continue painting women as part of my practise throughout my degree.
#inspiredtocreate
AMAZE
Photography JOHN CUBILLAN @WWW.JOHNCUBILLAN.COM Model B么ng Bay V猫o
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Fashion Li-Qi Saw
As a fashion student in Cambridge School of Arts, I have a great passion for fashion as it brings out personal identity and personality to an individual. I love being able to turn abstract concepts into designs and transform these designs into art pieces that can be worn by an individual to make one feel good, and unique in their every way. The dress that I have created is based on the concept of fragmentation. Fragmentation is defined as the process or state of breaking or being broken into fragments (according to the Oxford Dictionaries). As fragmentation is a vast
concept, I have narrowed the concept down to only focusing on the movements involved in fragmentation. Throughout my research for inspiration, I have found techniques in folding and playing around with fabric to form clear shapes and lines that indicates movement. Eventually, I have decided to use pleats as the surface textile in the final design. The use of colour on the other hand was designed to show effects of shades from light to dark which brings further emphasis to movement as light reflects across the fabric while being worn on the body.
AMAZE
UPCOMIN TALENT Robert Davis
Written by ISELIN MJELDE BERGESEN
Robert Davis is an upcoming gratuate from Wigan, just finishing his Fashion Design degree at cambridge school of art. He makes fashionable unisex wear, and his lates collection is inspired by the end of the world. We met him for a chat about his thoughts on fashion and life in general. Is it only fashion that you do?
Where do you find your inspiration?
I do menswear, unisex menswear. It’s pretty much all I do now, because I’ve done photography, styling and all that, but I’d rather be great in one field than be alright in many. All I wanna do is make and sel clothes. If you wanna go ahead and do everything it’s fine, but I like collaborating with other professionals aswell. Right now I’m collaborating with another illustration student who draws the illustraions for my fabrics.
Anything really. This collection inparticular is inspired by the 2012 end of the world scenario. When it was in the news, to me it was a lot of shit, but it seemed verry in the eye at the moment. So the collection is based on a breakdown of the developed society and how it would continue after the apocalypse or a neuclear explotion.Then politics and the government wouldn’t have the same athouroty, and it would be up to yourself to survive; which made me base some of the pices on army clothes for youth riots.
How would you describe your style? What is the best part of studying Fashion? On gad, not this question (laughs..). I don’t think I have a style really, because everything I do changes out of what I’m interested in at the time. This season I’m doing a collection inspierd by the apocalypse, a break down of societies. But last semester I did a collection out of fetish wear for men. I change my style quite a lot, so whatever I wanna wear myself is an inspiration for my collection. It’s basically a reflection or extention of me really. When I found out that I wanted to do fashion, I never wanted to be like an actual designer, I just wanted to make clothes for myself, so it’s based on me as the consumer.
(Thinking..) Tacky as it sounds, fashion is a way of expressionism, and it is a way for me to express myself. I wear a lot of girl clothes, so designing my own clothes is a way for me to dress how I want and look how I want without being djudged in a way, becuase I know that everything I’m wearing is my own. It’s not like im wearing a womans dress of a pair of leggings, I rather make it myself so there’s no gender involved. The best thing for me is that I can design clothes that I’m happy with and comfortable wearing.
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Photography JOHN CUBILLAN @WWW.JOHNCUBILLAN.COM Model LEE BRIDGEMAN @AMCK
AMAZE And what is the hardest part? The stereotypes that goes with it; the djudgements and the bitchieness. Many designers make very basic clothes, and many of them is just trying to follow the high designers like Gucci, Channel etc. So if you’re trying to do something out of the box they see you as an attention seeker. It’s a miss conseption that what I’m doing is for attention, and not for the shockvalue or the drama of it. To me it’s more than that. It’s about doing something you’re passionate about, and not to show off. Even though you take things to a level other people are scared of, if you don’t tryit, you never know what you’re capable of. Not everything in fashion is ment to be warn, so it’s not nessesarly practical but more conseptual. A lot of my work is like that, I don’t really care that you can’t go walking in the street with it, it’s more about axpressing who I am trough a media. Like fine artists express themselvs trough sculptures r paintings, I ecspress who I am trough fabrics and garments.
“Like fine artists
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express themselvs trough sculptures and paintings, I ecspress who I am trough fabrics and garments
What’s your plans after University? I’ve been designing clothes pretty much for eight years now. So I’m going to take a break this summer, and then focus on my brand; The Freak Show. I’ve had it now for 8-9 months now, and I’ve had a few sales so far but obviouslt I havent had time to focusing on it as much as I likedbecause I’ve been at University. I don’t want my brand to go into mass production, so now all the clothes is costum made and unique. I don’t have any plans about being a massive brand; I’m happy to just make clothes myself. When first I started university I wanted to be bigger then everyone with thousands of pieces every year, but right now I dont think that’s for me. I rater keep it niech, small and intimate. I hate walking down the street and see people in the same clothes, so everything in my collection is eighter one pice or very limited.
#inspiredtocreate
AMAZE
#inspiredtocreate
Hidden Places in
Fudge Kitchen The traditional confectionary has evolved, tampered and reconstructed into conforming to 21st century expectations.
You enter the store with a stubborn, sticky mentality, just like fudge. The traditional confectionary has evolved, tampered and reconstructed into conforming to 21st century expectations. The Fudge Kitchen aims to recreate fudge from its early 19th century recipe to modernise it; with bursting flavours such as classic Chocolate and Vanilla to dessert flavour Mississippi Mud Pie, the freshly made fudge still retains its crumbly, decadent texture. AMAZE had the opportunity to gain some insight on this hidden pleasure in Cambridge...and two of course get some free fudge. How was The Fudge Kitchen created? Fudge was originally brought in from America by John Holt who it sold to Jim Garrity. He set up the first store in Blackpool although it’s not there anymore, as we decided it to be located in historic locations. How is the Fudge ‘devilishly different’? Our fudge has a nice smooth texture, not gritty and grainy. We get a lot of people converting when they try ours; we come up with loads of different flavours like weird selections such as dark chocolate and salt which is quite popular actually. All our ingredients are the same every time; butter, sugar and whipping cream helps keeps it smooth.
Written by Jen Appiah Photograph JOHN CUBILLAN
We make it in store on display on a marble slab they know where it is coming from. What are your recommendable flavours? Our most popular is Belgian chocolate, but everyone is aware that the most traditional is toffee, the coffee ones are also a hit. Dark chocolate and sea salt was actually a suggestion from a customer and it’s been there ever since. We are happy to receive suggestions- if there’s a flavour we haven’t tried before we’ll test it out. How is working at the fudge shop? Well obviously you can eat as much fudge as you want, you don’t always get to eat so much sugar on a job in other corporations but they’re very free and open here. After a while you’d assume that eating fudge becomes boring but different flavours keep it fresh, we get to go to other stores and meet new people and we always have special events like our 30th Birthday here in Cambridge, we’re aiming to make 30 batches of fudge- it takes 45 minutes to make one single batch, so you can imagine the scale of fudge we will have to make tomorrow! Address 11 King’s Parade Cambridge CB2 1SJ
in Cambridge
Bill’s Bill’s restaurant pays homage to the ultimate British cuisine with a modern twist. The kitchen with over 20 locations around the UK presents itself with authentic seasonal atmosphere; fresh garlic bulbs decorated around the dining area and a garden style seating for the contemporary, outdoor feel. The hidden location behind Sidney Street is underestimated when the waiter approaches you with a welcoming smile but a disheartening message ‘there will be a fifteen minute wait, I’m afraid.’ Hunger suffices all the waiting guests at the entrance, however this is quickly suppressed as the food arrives within half an hour of ordering, which is reasonable considering the Saturday 2pm service in the plentiful cobbled back streets of the Market Square. The meal started off with beautiful salted cubes of breaded feta cheese fried and tossed in a slushy watermelon salad. The salad was certainly in season with the refreshing weather in May and set the palette perfectly. The second course consisted of Macaroni Cheese which can only be described as the ultimate true home comfort. The pasta had been baked al dente and absorbed the creamy cheese sauce, it oozed into the holes and with every bite, the sauce burst with flavour that soon became too
rich to finish. The thin, crispy, buttery breadcrumb topping was sprinkled on for added guilty pleasure; this was truly an aesthetically pleasing macaroni cheese. Although both dishes were left uncompleted, the meal would be desired and chosen without a second thought. In terms of prices, Bills certainly lives up to the great quality of lunch. For £13.50 not including drinks for a student, it may appear a reasonable but not a regular place of occasion to eat, whereas standard professionals would relish at the thought of a locally desired eatery available at such a tolerable price range. All in all Bills offers a very acceptable standard of sumptuous dishes that would appear in an artisan café in collaboration with an exceptional gastro pub. For hearty dishes, welcoming and attentive customer service and a feelgood atmosphere, Bills would be appropriately ideal.
Address 34-35 Green St Cambridge, CB2 3JX
EVIEW Books Jen Appiah Music Paul Devlin Games Katherine Smith-Blinkhorn
By Jen Appiah
BOOKS BOOKS
THE GREAT GATSBY F. Scott Fitzgerald
Picture the American dream in the 1920’s: Over dramatic make-up, a glowing city buzzing with glamorous cars and elaborate mansions overlooking the East coast. F Scott Fitzgerald plays upon these predictably failing features of American society through the Great Gatsby elegantly. The great aspect of the book is the pure simplicity of the narration through Nick Carraway who not only discusses Gatsby’s issues, but somehow demonstrates his own faults. The story becomes a metaphor of tradition vs. change and threatens the society no matter how long the century’s a family has been established. The battle between Tom Buchanan and Gatsby over Daisy, Tom’s wife becomes a growing issue in the tale. The simplistic style which Nick is able to retell the story as if every scene had occurred half an hour ago allows it to becomes so easy and attractive to the reader even though the era dates back 80 years ago. The love between two forbidden characters is disheartening, in any given situation. However, in the perception of Gatsby, it is almost as if jumping into the book and killing off Tom would be a reasonable option.
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25 WAYS TO COPING ANNOYION PEOPLE Wolfgang Riebe Basic, straightforward, doesn’t beat around the bush.You’re a tempered person who wishes to very quickly turn yourself around within an hour. These are very amusing techniques to help calm you down in difficult situations, it happens, trust me. As the ambassador to the short temper club, I guarantee the book is a great guideline for situations where you honestly don’t think you will be able to control yourself. Available as an eBook, it’s readily accessible when your lecturer has given you a 3rd in your work and slated it in front of you. Or your mum has finally cut you off from pocket money and your left with your penniless student account and all you would like to do is gouge her eyes out.
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THE PROFESSOR AND THE HOUSEKEEPER Yoko Ogawa When I first came across the book in Waterstones, I knew this would feed my exact booker hunger to throw me way off my comfort zone; a tale translated from Japanese about an old Mathematic Professor plucking an unconventional friendship with his very young housekeeper, a single mum of one boy that has a head described as a square root shape. Now, there is a lot to take in this nutshell, but the gentle approach to the story makes this as manageable as an article. The sweet narration through the eyes of the housekeeper makes this friendship appear to be the best discovery as the lonely two have no one but themselves. With every relationship it starts off awkward and bitter, but after a few stumbles it really takes off and the addition of Root becomes such a comforting group. It’s an easy read for a four hour train ride somewhere or a bedtime story but in contrast to the complementing reviews in the Guardian, I don’t believe this truly deserves the critical attention it receives.
AMAZE
MUSIC
By Paul Devlin
DAFT PUNK Random Acess Memories Random Access Memories is the fourth studio album from the French duo. When it comes to the collaborations the pair have chosen to team up with musicians with distinctive sounds, the likes of Panda Bear, Pharrell Williams (The Neptunes/N.E.R.D), Julian Casablancas (The Strokes) Giorgio Moroder and Nile Rogers. By creating a cast of their favourite musicians, the have produced something as emotionally true as any singersongwriter. There are moments on the album that try to innovate in the way that only Daft Punk can manage to pull off. The album has received ratings of 10/10 from big names such Q magazine, NME, The Daily Mail many more.
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JAMIE CULLUM Momentum
The English Jazz-Pop singer-songwriter has just released his first album for Island records. Momentum definitely goes past his Retro-Jazz comfort zone with its piercing electric piano, electric organs that lend a vibrant, visceral edge to its songs. This album is Jamie’s sixth studio album and is as strong as all the previous. There are twelve tracks on the basic version of the album, ten of which are originals. The two covers are Cole Porter’s ‘Love for Sale’ and the other, the slow, re-harmonised ‘Pure Imagination’. The average rating for the album is a very respectable 8.
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LAURA MARLING I Was Once An Eagle
The 23 year-old folk singer-songwriter and guitarist has just released her fourth studio album which is again produced by Ethan Johns who has worked with the likes of Kings of Leon and Ryan Adams. The opening of the album is quietly audacious, seven of the sixteen tracks merging into each other so well that can’t tell them apart. The emotional spectrum changes from ruminative to anxious to imperious. The album is separated into sections by a distorting cello and bursts of Ethan John’s percussion. ‘I Was Once An Eagle’ has a well-deserved average of an 8.5 for its ratings.
#inspiredtocreate
By Katherine Smith-Blinkhorn
GAMES
TOMB RAIDER A Survivor Is Born I was wary at first of Tomb raider’s re-boot by Square Enix, due to its advertising that deviated from the traditional games, but after giving it a go, it came out on top as my favourite Lara Croft game to date, and not just for the incredible graphics or character re-design. Lara starts as a grad student, setting out as an archaeologist to find the lost kingdom of Yamatai, when the ship crashes in a ‘freak’ storm, stranding them on Yamatai, the most terrifying island they could have discovered. This game gave Lara genuine human qualities, both good and bad. Features of the plot like her reluctance to make her first kill to survive and her guilt in having brought her friends to the island, truly added to the empathy and struggle I felt for her as I played. This one’s a definite must play for all you action adventurers out there.
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NI NO KUNI Wrath Of The White Witch
Only just recently released in Europe, this Japanese game is the first game created by Level-5 that is in association with the very popular anime film studio, Studio Ghibli, giving it’s graphics an amazing art style that is polished beautifully. The collector’s edition of this game comes with a cute plush toy of the sidekick character ‘Drippy’, and a physical copy of the ‘Wizard’s Companion Book’ featured in the game that’s made to a very high quality. The story itself is a rather predictable RPG, with a fairly basic ‘command menu wheel’ combat that is akin to Final Fantasy mixed with Pokémon, in that it includes ‘familiars’, a range of collectable mythical creatures that will aid you in battle. Although it’s not the most original game, if you’re looking for a family friendly RPG to play you’ll find lots of hours of enjoyment in Ni No Kuni.
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ASSASSIN’S CREED IV
Black Flag
This is the latest addition of Assassin’s Creed due for release on 01.11.2013 in Europe. The game follows Edward Kenway, grandfather of Connor (Assassin’s Creed III). Edward Kenway is captain of the Jackdaw during the golden age of piracy. The game is set in the Mediterranean, specifically; Havana, Kingston, and Nassau. The game keeps the hunting aspect and a new underwater component has been added, it will also feature multiplayer along with a more free-to-roam campaign style. Considering the quality of the previous Assassin’s Creed games, I predict with the continuation of an enthralling plotline and an impressive graphics update, this game will be one of Ubisoft’s best.
Catherine AMAZE
Catherine Rowe graduated from the CSA BA Illustration course in 2013. Working in scraperboard, she primarily selects animals and their twilight activities as her subject of choice.This conversation was initiated by Nicholas Jeeves, a tutor at CSA in graphic design, as part of his own MA studies. Here they discuss books, reading, and how illustration can contribute both positively and negatively to the experience of discovering a text. When did stories first appear in your life? I asked my mum about this recently, whether she read to me as a child. Because I don’t remember at all. She said, ‘Of course I did! What kind of mother would I be if I didn’t?’ [laughs] But I really don’t remember being read to. I remember reading, having lots and lots of books. What were those books, and when were you reading them?
Well, we lived in our first house until I was five, and when I think of those early memories of reading, it’s there. And I do know that I read before I went to primary school. I have two older sisters as well. The eldest, she’s five years older than me and she was a prolific reader. As was my other sister, actually. I was probably a bit behind them, in terms of how early they were reading. So we had loads of books in the house, because of them. Mainly picture books. Do you remember any in particular? I loved Mogg the Cat and I remember really loving the pictures. And when I think about it now, I probably wasn’t really reading, as we might understand it as grown-ups. I was more just enjoying the pictures, which I suppose you would as a child.You know, I was actually scared of picture books, too. I had this one book, I don’t remember what it was – a fairy tale about a giant behind a big wall, and the children who weren’t allowed to go near it… Oscar Wilde – The Selfish Giant.
I was subconsciously attracted to things that were really well-informed That’s it. And in this book was this illustration of the giant with really long hair, and I was so terrified of it I hid the book in the wardrobe. I was scared of loads of my books! The being scared thing is really interesting. I was talking recently to Brenda Jobling, a writer for younger readers, and she talked about Alice in Wonderland, and how the illustrations that particularly gripped her were the scary ones. I remember the same thing in my childhood. One of my favourites was a Ladybird book called Underwater Exploration. On one page there was this terrifying image of a shark, and I would turn the pages knowing it was coming. But compelled to keep turning the pages anyway. I think fear is a crucial part of a reading experience.There must be peril – certainly in fiction. Someone must want something, and it must be dangerous for them to go and get it. Yes, I think so. When you talk about the shark in your Ladybird book, it reminded me of a book I had called Twinkle Twinkle Chocolate Bar. [4] I absolutely loved it. But there was one short poem in it about an escalator, about a child getting swallowed up by it. And the illustration showed the escalator with a giant mouth at the end. I was absolutely terrified, but I kept going back to it. But I’d also try and be casual about it [laughs], like if I was with my sister or my mum, I’d be desperately pretending not to be scared of it. One of the things that I’m trying to get to the bottom of is the effect of the reading experience on an individual, and the role of illustration in that. Again, when I talked to Brenda, who is a writer but who had tremendous trouble with reading and writing as a child, she described books as a place that she went, rather than being a thing that she read. And that the illustrations were a very important part of that.What I’m trying to ask is whether reading and narrative were or are important to you, being that you are now an illustrator, or whether they are just vehicles which enable you to make illustrations. Yes… Well, I think that, with most of the work I’m doing now, it doesn’t have a written element at all – they’re pure picture books. Like with The Hare – there are no words, and I liked this because
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#inspiredtocreate
Rowe
Th e Aesthetics of Magic
readers had lots of different interpretations of what the story might be ‘about’. So for me the books I read as a child were less about the written word, than making the story out of the illustrations. This seems to chime with what many people have said.That the illustrations can be another gateway into a story.With Brenda they were what she used to ‘read’ the story when she wasn’t being read to by her dad. How old were you when you started reading more substantial written texts? I’d say around seven. What were you reading?
At that time, at school, we had the library, and you could take so many books out per week and they really encouraged you to do that. And I remember that I was in love with this book called The Farthest Away Mountain by Lynne Reid Banks. And I took it away and I read it, and I absolutely loved the illustrations. I still love them now. And that’s sort of the foundation of what I love and how I work at the moment, just black ink. It’s a funny story actually. When I put returned that book back to the library, all through my school years I could never find it again. I told my mum about this – she worked at the school – and she found it and took the original copy for me, brought it home for me, saying ‘No-one’s going to read it now – no-one’s taken it out for years.’ I’ve still got it.
So you were being quite discerning about the books you were selecting, and the illustrations were a big part of that? Yes. In contrast to The Farthest Away Mountain, when I think of the first Harry Potter book, [7] the cover illustration didn’t do anything for me, so I didn’t pick it up. The illustration is of Harry standing by the Hogwarts Express, but he looks… old! Like he’s in his twenties. You know, it was one of my contemporaries here at Cambridge who did that cover.Thomas Taylor. Really? Yes, he’d probably just graduated when he got that job. [Catherine looks slightly embarrassed] It’s okay, I agree with you!
AMAZE
The thing is, I didn’t read it, but I had to write a book review about it for a school project, so I made it up from what I saw on the cover. And judging from the illustration, I wrote that it was a book about a man that travelled by train, and because on the cover he looks like he’s thinking about something, and because he’s got a backpack, I wrote something about him going on trains and writing about his travels. When I finally did read the books, and found out what they were actually about, the cover illustrations continued to really annoy me. I just couldn’t warm to them. You felt misled by them? By the depiction of Harry, and the content? Yes. In this sense we’re talking about book covers, though. Can we talk about illustrated books? I was talking to Will Hill recently, and he said he’d written an essay about the things that writing does that illustration can’t, and the things illustration does that writing can’t. And that those two areas are at their most exciting when they’re playing off against each other. For example, it’s easy to say ‘fifty-thousand elephants’ but hard to illustrate them.Whereas if you were describing the positions of snooker balls on a table, an illustration would be much more effective than words. So I’m wondering what the function of an illustration is to you, when it comes to books?
It’s not really about reflecting the contents of the book but more… Well, when I was looking through this long bookshelf at school, and making a choice of which book to read, I would just flick through them, looking for a cover that appealed to me. And as with the Lynne Reid Banks book, one would just draw me in. I couldn’t have said why. Even now, as someone who’s meant to be analysing imagery for that very purpose. That raises a couple of questions, particularly about what the function of a book cover is. For what it’s worth, I think the primary function of a book cover is to make sure you to take the book off the shelf.The secondary function is to make sure you don’t put it back on the shelf. And the books you selected are doing just that. So it’s not about describing the content at all, as you say, but providing a gateway. In hindsight I think I was subconsciously attracted to things that were really well-informed. On The Farthest Away Mountain, there’s a little girl looking up, and there’s a gargoyle there, looking down at her. And the gargoyle is very captivating. He’s not scary but there’s… emotion there. It draws you in. And if we think about the Harry Potter book again, it’s just… empty. There’s no sense of what we might find out about him if we read on.
Have you looked at some of the international jackets? How Harry is portrayed in different countries? No. They’re quite interesting. In the US, they’re more epic, more blockbuster-y.The way that the illustration and typography is deployed, he’s instantly drawn as more of a hero. On the UK jackets, something tends to be happening to Harry; in the US, Harry is happening to something.We underplay him, they overplay him. We’re getting a bit off-topic here. That’s okay. [laughs] Okay. So when one is, say, eleven or twelve, the terms ‘illustration’ or ‘graphic design’ don’t really mean anything.You may be familiar with the terms, but what the practice actually involves is a mystery. Can you tell me when drawing, or making illustrations, began as a serious endeavour for you? I was always really interested in art throughout my education. And around the GCSE point I was doing lots of painting and perhaps heading down that route. But increasingly I really relied on the briefs they were giving us, and I found it harder to work with no indications. I much preferred having a set project to do. Once I was at secondary
school I didn’t really do much in the way of art in my free time. Perhaps some collage, scrapbooks, things like that. I remember going from GCSE to A-Level with the same teacher, and I’d been doing lots of oil paintings. And I liked them and he liked them, but I never liked the idea of how self-indulgent all these self-portraits seemed to be. I didn’t want people to think I enjoyed painting myself in that kind of Frieda Kahlo sense. I was just painting the subject I was most exposed to. So when I was talking to my teacher about what to do after sixth form he suggested illustration because of the way I was working, and how I preferred working to a brief. But I was also very attracted to graphic design for the same reasons, because I was quite interested in all the digital stuff. But at that time I couldn’t connect a digital practice with illustration. I had always assumed illustration was more traditional. That can be a pretty pejorative word, ‘traditional’, because it comes with a whole set of assumptions about how far back ‘tradition’ goes. Both cave painting and Victorian engraving are traditional, but aesthetically they have very little in common. Yes. I suppose, for me, traditional means timeless, it seems to disregard trend or material developments. And by that point my sister had been to Falmouth to do illustration, so I’d seen a lot of her work, and had an idea of what illustration involved as a practice. But I hated my Foundation. I struggled with 3D and sculpture and fashion and some of the other things you do there. I was just drawing a lot. So by the time we were asked to select a pathway I just knew that I wanted to do illustration. Why? Because of everything they’d been introducing to us, illustration was the one thing where I liked being in the zone they wanted us to be in… if that makes sense. With the fine art pathway there was an idea at the time of a very expressive type of painting that I didn’t enjoy. But with illustration there was all the drawing, of course, and the working to a brief. But I still only got a pass, I still wasn’t taking it fully seriously. Being at Portsmouth University, it was also my introduction to a fuller social life. I suppose that, because I hadn’t really found a voice for myself with my illustration yet… well, everyone around me was obsessed with finding their ‘style’, but I was just sort of going along comfortably, and didn’t feel I was really ‘an illustrator’ because of that. So really I was only ever taking the next step with myself, there was no grand plan. I was just doing what came next.
That’s quite interesting, because when we read or see interviews with artists, and they say, ‘Yes, I saw this Francis Bacon painting and it changed me forever,’ or whatever, it gives that moment in their life a larger significance than it probably deserves.We join the dots we’re given, but hardly ever in the right order.The reality is much more nuanced for almost everyone. Just the procedure of taking the next, largely unknown, step, as you say, is valuable. Just quite honest, practical decisions.
idea? And do I even really want to do it?’ There was nothing else I wanted to do, but I also wanted to ‘make it’, as it were. God, that sounds really selfindulgent.
Yes. I mean, it wasn’t always quite as simple as that either. I did a combined English Language and Literature A-Level. I loved it, and I did okay with it, and so I do love reading and writing. And for a time I did consider going down that route. But I liked drawing and wanted to do something with it, but I was also worried, thinking, ‘Where the hell is that going to go career-wise?’ I was lucky that my parents were really supportive. But lots of people at that time were questioning drawing as a career option. ‘Why would you go for a career in art?’
Mm [nods].
I was talking to a friend of mine recently that I hadn’t seen for ages. [8] He’s called Paul, and he’s an artist, quite a successful artist now. And I just asked him, ‘Why?’You know, why do we still make art? And he said, ‘I just still have this urge to see things.’Which I thought was a lovely answer. But if you’re putting forward a proposal for a successful life-plan, you couldn’t propose a worse idea than being an artist and writer. It’s an insane proposition! But regardless, for many artists, there remains that compulsion to make things, as Paul said. Is that the case with you? That’s really interesting. It’s not always been that way for me. Sometimes I’ve been surrounded by work with a deadline to meet and thought, ‘I really don’t want to do this.’ But I’m quite conscientious and I always wanted to do well, whatever I did. And sometimes, with drawing and considering that as a career, I would panic, thinking, ‘Is this really a good
of illustration in adult fiction, and that there was a long tradition of this behind that. Can I show you something? Yes.
I don’t think so. In the end it just comes down to what you’re prepared to sacrifice, because you always have to sacrifice something.
Going back to stories, what kind of stories are you reading now? Which books do you pick from the shelves now that you’re an adult? It really varies. Strangely, being at university I’m reading the least I’ve ever read. There are things you have to read, of course. But in terms of reading for pleasure… this is really embarrassing, but there are these kind of wartime fictions by Belinda Alexandra. [9] And they’ve got these awful, really cheesy covers.You know, just a Getty image of a boy and a girl sitting on a branch, that kind of thing, and titles like White Gardenia. And they’re always about a young girl caught up in some kind of wartime drama. I’m totally addicted to them. But I also love David Sedaris. I must have read Naked four or five times. The Piano Teacher is a favourite. To Kill a Mockingbird is probably my favourite ever book. So it would seem, from that, that illustration doesn’t play much of a role in your reading choices any more, except for cover designs. And even then that’s not a crucial component for your choices.The reason I ask that is, having talked about illustration for younger readers, I wanted to ask you about your thoughts on why we don’t see illustrations in adult fiction anymore, and why you think that may be. Because it’s not that long ago – say, a hundred years or so – that we were seeing a lot
This book [Gentleman of the Road by Michael Chabon] is a bit of a throwback to those 19th century novels like The Three Musketeers. It’s the only modern popular novel I’ve seen that does this – with these evocative pen and ink illustrations every twenty pages or so, and a short caption underneath, normally a key piece of dialogue.Would it be a better world for adult fiction if more books did have illustrations? Looking at this, it’s lovely. But generally, if I was reading something for adults and it had illustrations in it, I don’t think I’d like it. Why not? I suppose that, when you’re younger, you’re so impressionable, and the illustrations make the story. The images stick with you forever in a way that the words don’t. But when you’re older, I think the illustrations may almost be a nuisance, because your mind has developed in such a way that you can visualise the written word in much more detail. Also, illustrations can knock away everything you’ve been imagining up to that point. For example, with those books I mentioned, the Belinda Alexandra ones, illustrations would definitely really frustrate me, because it would probably counter what’s in my mind, what the text has worked to put there. It’s a phenomenon that’s central to my research. If you take the work of Gustave Doré, his illustrations are for adult texts, like Dante’s Inferno, Don Quixote, the works of Byron and Coleridge. And when I see those
books, even as a pretty well-read grown-up, I still find myself looking forward to the illustrated pages. But you seem to find them a nuisance. Universally a nuisance? Or is there ever room for them with adults, as another gateway into the story? It’s a personal thing for me, being an illustrator. Of course there are exceptions. But a bad, or ill-judged, illustration in a book is so destructive to the experience. And with adults the risks of that happening are perhaps even greater. Perhaps because adult tastes come into account. It could, perhaps, be made to work. It would depend totally on the text, and the type and quality of the drawing. But this is peculiar to a western culture. It’s certainly not the case in other cultures, where pictures remain a vital part of the storytelling experience, and tradition, for everyone. And I’m following a hunch that there is a strong place for that tradition within modern novels, and that’s it’s just out of fashion at the moment for a number of reasons. And that’s why Gentleman of the Road is so interesting. And if you look at the illustrations, the illustrator has been really careful to safeguard us against the risks you mentioned.You never see a clear portrait of the protagonists, they are suggested as part of a larger, more emotive landscape. I think that works brilliantly. Nothing in them corrupts the thing we’ve imagined during the reading. I agree, but I still think they’re mostly a distraction. I think if I was being read to, then the idea of images really appeals to me. But with adult fiction, reading it for myself then… no. But on the other hand, I don’t really want to be a children’s book illustrator. I want to illustrate stories but not necessarily just for children. And it really makes me wonder what other places there are for narrative illustration apart from the children’s book. So what you’re saying is interesting but quite conflicting for me at the same time. And realistically, I can’t imagine being commissioned to illustrate a novel for adults, if I’m honest.
Have you seen the work of Matthew Hawkins? He discovered he had a connection to a famous pirate, and the Oak Island treasure. So he wrote about his discovery of this connection, and his fantasies, and the history of the treasure, and illustrated the text really effectively. It was fantastic and a kind of illustrated text for adults. He seems to have resolved, to a point, that conflict you’re talking about. Well, another thing I’m thinking about is the role illustration can play in education, its informative role. Encyclopedias, for example. Or historical text books. I’m really thinking about this because, with the way I work, I can’t imagine children enjoying it terribly much. The images are just very intense. I do have so many conflicts, because I’m not sure where the place for my work is right now, where it’s going to slot in. But I’m really interested in the idea of reading aloud to adults, with illustrations. I’d really like to see where that goes, where it might take you. When you illustrate your own narratives, what’s your relationship with your readers? How are you expecting them to respond, to react? I’m thinking specifically of your book The Hare. I’m doing things a bit upside-down. Rather than taking a text and illustrating it, I’m making a book that’s purely illustrated and the narrative comes out of that for the reader. I feel that anything too literal doesn’t give you anything as a reader, and there should be something given. With The Hare, I knew the story I wanted to tell, and originally there were words accompanying the drawings. But when I took the words away there were so many more ways to interpret the narrative from the drawings. And I loved that, but I was also a bit worried about it. And when I showed it to people there were so many different reactions and interpretations. But I think that’s what I want to give people, and how I want to move forward. I want people to stay on the page for a long time, rather than the impulse being to turn the page, which is the more usual thing. I think that’s both the difference and the similarity between what we’re both trying to understand.We both want people to engage on a more profound level with
what’s on the page, how the story affects them.You’re talking about unexpectedly removing the text from the pictures, and I’m talking about adding unexpected pictures to the text.We’re both trying to progress something. I have this thing at the moment, an idea that all great art should take at least as long to fully appreciate as it did to make. Yes, exactly. I’m calling the theory ‘anti-chatter.’ [laughs] It’s about ideas of complexity.You’re using a very simple device to do that.You’re narrative becomes more complex because of the very lack of explicit direction for the reader. For you it’s a complexity achieved by removing things. And you work in scraperboard, of course, which is very much about removing things to reveal a picture. Can we talk about that? Yes. I had done a lot of etching previously, but had found the process very frustrating, and a bit open to chance. When I tried scraperboard I found that it’s a much more immediate process, more direct, and much more about drawing, I suppose. And I love the effects it can offer. I have to say, one of those effects is the reason why I really liked your work when I saw it. Because you begin with a black page, you’re revealing the light that hits a body. As a result you get this feeling of twilight hours, of magic, a sort of ethereal space.The witching hour, a place between places, without any explicit sense of time or space. And I loved that. That’s so nice of you to say that, to notice that – the twilight thing, the magic. It’s exactly what I wanted to happen. Also, I want all my characters to be anatomically correct, but I want their environment, their world, to look make-believe. There’s no light pollution in my work, no evidence of human activity. If I was to draw that space on a white page, it would be more explicit. But with scraperboard, with the black page, there’s a sense that you’re observing these creatures in a magical space. There’s also something magical about the material, as you say, in that you are taking away the black, and revealing a world underneath. Perhaps something that was there all along. Exactly. And there’s something very appealing about that.
Catherine Rowe www.cargocollective.com/catherinerowe
Nicholas Jeeves
www.nicholasofhitchin.com
AMAZE
#inspiredtocreate
RTIST CYCL Third runner up of the Big Pitch.
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Written by Jen Appiah Photograph PERSONAL
Pitch’n’Win: Big Pitch runner-up Samareh Azadi tells AMAZE her excitement in creating an exciting online Artist social network. 8 months ago, 27 year old Samareh arrived with no knowledge of what her year at Anglia Ruskin would hold for her. Fast forwarding to half way through her masters in International Business, Samareh has achieved more than what she hoped for when she first started her course. The Big Pitch is designed to help startup a business idea open to all passionate Undergraduates and Postgraduates. Samareh and her husband Mehran Sanei pursued their concept to win 3rd place and £5,000 towards creating a social networking site for Artists. With fierce competition from hundreds of UK and international students, they were voted through round after round until meeting with the judges for their final pitch, in a bid to win the top prize of £15,000. Samareh and her partner Mehran talk to AMAZE exclusively about the fantastic opportunity that has provided her a future. Samareh had arrived with a smile that infected the room. Her passion as she
spoke about the project was undeniably moving. ‘Art is part of our lives- we can see it from different aspects of our lifeit’s good to improve our culture and communicate with it. For me I always wanted to have a job that as long as I improve my knowledge and have money, I’m finding a business fulfils the things I always wanted. If it helps the art lovers and improves the level of art societies- it would make me happy.’ Samareh began her degree in September 2012 with little knowledge of English culture but managed to find her way with the help of her partner who already worked as an Animator in Cambridge. The dynamic duo elaborated on their roles as a business and a creative venture. For Mehran, ‘I have no business background. For me it was useful because I didn’t know anything about this. And in a short time I learnt a lot.’ For Samareh, the journey had become all too familiar. ‘I had one module
this semester in innovation and entrepreneurship which is exactly the same as the big pitch- the difference was five people worked in a group who had single roles- I was appointed to development – but in the Big Pitch I was the role of five people- but as a business student my husband told me I should know how to do it.’ Mehran provided creative support by making the minute long video to present to students for the voting round. In many ways, his support was vital to the development and marketing aspect of the pitch. ‘We entered a few days before the deadline- she recorded the audio and I did the graphics- it took one or two days to do the whole thing- the project took a lot of time, it’s like a I had five assignments this semester I think this competition is really good for students- not only for business students but for all students to enter, they are really supportive. It is not only the money that helps to start the business; they give your mentoring sessions and any questions you have they will answer.’
AMAZE Not only did she have the support from her partner but also some lecturer’s lend some assistance. ‘I spoke with one of my lecturers and he told me that as it is a competition he cannot get involved. However, there were four people that taught us how to do marketing and how to write a business plan and I booked a consultation on my project with them- they were very encouraging. Walter Harriet the founder of St Johns innovation centre really helped me in this process, also Professor Lester introduced specialists to me, it was really supportive- and the really good thing is that it continues. They have a start-up lab and each of them have few suggestions that added to our concept. The concept derived from their place of origin, Iran. They struggled to find artists around Iran that had a destination to network and share ideas. After finding Deviant Art an unsuitable location for artists online, they consulted friends and family and set up the project to pitch. Mehran declared, ‘We wanted to do something for artists, they love art but they’re not encouraged to follow their dream. For me I have many artists friends- I can imagine their work on the website and I am excited to see all the beautiful work- that’s what excites me visually. I think we will keep the website neutral. We showed the design in our presentation- we want the artwork to shine, not the website- as it is international we want different tastes. Samareh helped to bring a better concept. If it works and they communicate and chat then the next step is to sell the artwork. We are responsible for the transactions- when they pay to our websites. Some websites like deviant art have the copyright and print the art- we want them to feel that this is their artwork- and we are going to help them in the process. Some art is expensive so we want to have their trustsomething like eBay. This website has the potential to grow, if something goes wrong financially- because people are buying from each other that could easily mess up- we could get sued.
We wanted to do something for artists, they love art but they’re not encouraged to follow their dream. Samareh agreed, ‘For Facebook, first it was for students- then more professionals got into it and I think it will follow that.’ The ambitious project with a four month deadline is planning to explore most features of art as Samareh continues, ‘We are going to focus on visual art; photography, fine art, digital art, sculptures and we might add animation later. ‘Last week we had a well-known Persian artist who wants to enter our website- if other professionals see that others are on there, it will encourage them too. We want to add events and communities and people who really don’t feel confident.’ ‘We have so many ideas- they asked us to give a plan for three years- we are not sure, we just see how it goes- what artists want based on their tastes and expectations. I think 5k is enough to start but we really need to find another sponsor.’
For more information on The Big Pitch www.bigpitch.co.uk.
S TREET We have spotted some inspiring young streetstyle this month in both Cambridge and London.
S TY LE We have spotted some inspiring young streetstyle this month in both Cambridge and London. Photograph ISELIN MJELDE BERGESEN
CATHERINE BOHN MORK
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ou sue. #inspiredtocreate
The first issue