The City In Flux Jed Cooper
IDEA 1 - COLLAGE
Alan Fletcher
I wanted to include Alan Fletcher into my artist reference as he is a big influence and inspiration to my reconstruction themed final major project. I’ve recently loved looking at different fonts and how a new image/word can be created by using different pieces and collaging with them and I think Alan Fletcher does a brilliant job with his collage work along with other graphic design pieces of work.
Wolf Vosell
Wolf Vostell was a German artist who specialised in painting and sculpting, he’s known as one of the first artists to start experimenting with art including videos and installation pieces, he’s also known for his creative decollage work. What I like about Vostells work is that you can see how many layers they are and how rough he goes about creating his decollage pieces, the bold colours, pieces of text and how new images are created from combining other pieces of work.
Mimmo Rotella
Mimmo Rotella was an Italian collage artist and was best known for his decollage work which were made from advertising posters, I like the work that he creates from using this technique, especially the block colours and worn finished look from the finished outcome. I also love the typography in the work, the different styles and ripped text really stands out to me and i think it adds to the overall look of the work and it’s what I love most about Rotellas work.
IDEA 2 - TYPOGRAPHY
Oliver Jeffers
While researching typography I came across an artist called Oliver Jeffers and took an interest in his illustrated book called ‘Once upon an alphabet’. I thought this would be useful research as I’m looking at lettering and thought it could be a kind of food for thought piece of work. I really like the lettering that he’s created in this book along with the quirky illustrations he’s done along with the lettering, the colours that he used to make the message come across about what each letter stands for shows really well and communicates with the audience.
Photoshop experiments with typography
These are a couple of photoshop experimental pieces of wok inspired by Tal Rosner, using my own photos I took around the city I tried to create a piece of work that I thought fit in with our project. I like the pieces of work and would like to carry on creating pieces like this and maybe edit them all into after effects to create a finished piece. I think I’ve only scratched the surface of what I can do with this project, after effects and photoshop and would like to continue exploring and creating the theme.
Ira Glass - The Gap
I came across this video by Ira Glass called ‘The Gap’, the video portrays a meaningful message to the audience about how to get better at what you like and how you can do it, essentially it’s the secret of creative success. I personally think the message in this video is important, it tells you that you can’t give up and you need to stick at it to get where you want to be in life which is essentially true, I think the video is well made and connects with the viewers especially people in the art industry. I also like how the typography visually connects with what it says such as:
Rob Draper
Rob Draper is a freelance illustrator and letterer who illustrates on everyday objects, my favourites of his work are the coffee cups and five pound notes. I feel this would fit with my project as it displays the different way of how you can create typography, I also like the level of creativity.
Typography Research
Further researching into typography I decided to go and look for more styles of typography around the city centre. Out of the ones I found the ‘Zephyr’ logo my favourite, I specifically like the font as well as the design that the font is placed on top of. I think that they work well together and make a clean and finished look to the logo.
A Love Letter to the City - Steven Powers
Linking from the last post I made about art in the city, from that I then started to research more thoroughly into signage around streets and cities. An artist called Steve Powers who creates colourful and bold signage around cities, even in different countries such as Belfast, Dublin and Philadelphia. What I like about Power’s work is that the pieces that he does and the colours that he uses are strong and they stand out and contrast from the city or space that they are in.
Photography - Sheffield
While out in Sheffield I thought I would photography the bits of work that I would often see on a day to day basis, I liked these the most as some of them are by graffiti artists that I like the most and the others that I photographed are just pieces of work that I liked, some of them have typography in them and that’s what I like about these pieces specifically.
IDEA 3 - MOTION GRAPHICS
Tal Rosner
Tal Rosner is an israeli film maker and video artist based in London, he uses footage taken in public and develops them further with graphics and audio to create a fantastic finished piece of work. I really like Tal Rosner’s work as I think it’s kind of a fly on the wall effect of peoples every day life. I think that the videos that I have selected do a good job of presenting a feel of the ‘City in flux’ project, I’d like to do something similar to this as it’s something that grabs my interst. Another thing I like about his videos are the colours and graphics that he uses to place over the footage or to change into a different clip, the colours look great when contrasting with the dull footage and then the bright colour and graphics make their away across the screen. The typography used in his videos is another thing that I love about his videos, even though their isn’t a lot the times that he does include typography it fits with the feel of the video.
Jane Cheadle
Jane Chealde is a stop motion artist and video maker, I also came across her work in a lecture and was interested in the stop motion videos that the did, out of the videos she’s created this one was the one that I liked the best. I liked how she created a 3D like image of a swimmer emerging from the water.
Matt Hattler
Max Hattler is a German video artist and film maker, Hattler is best known for his videos that have a kaleidoscopic effect to them, I came across Hattler’s work when In a lecture, I was shown the video called ‘AANAATT’ which I thought was very creative. I liked the video and liked the way that he uses stop motion to move the objects on the clear roof which adds to the overall effect of the video.
Experimental Time Lapse
I wanted to get a better understanding of the term ‘City in flux’ and from that I went out and recorded a time lapse video showing the Huddersfield city centre in its morning rush and daily basis atmosphere. I liked the finished video but I think I set the photo capture for two seconds instead of one so the footage is spaced out and doesn’t really work as well as it could have. If I was to do this again I think I would make sure the settings for the video are perfect for what I want and I would stand still in one place rather than walking around and compare the two videos. With this footage I plan to add text, symbols, signage and other things that I have taken photographs of and edit them into one finished video.
https://vimeo.com/110895498
Pinterest mind mapping/Idea Generating
I came across Pinterest in a lecture about mood boards and creative ideas, I find that if I’m ever struggling for ideas or inspiration I can find help on pinterest, it’s where I keep all my inspirational art by a wide range of artists who specialise in a vast amount of techniques and processes. The spectrum of colours, scale, typography and overall level of creativity is what I like about the website.
Eugina Loli
What I like about Eugina Loli’s work is the way she she’s images and how she uses collage to take images even further. Being a lover of collage these really inspire me to continue working with collage and to develop one of my three ideas further. I also like to see the level of creativity she has, to me her work opens a window into her mind so we can see a little of how her mind works.
Event Photography
I went to the Festival of light because I thought I could get a range of photos that I could use in my project. From the event that took place in Huddersfield I managed to get a good amount of photos that I was very pleased with, the photos above are just a few that I thought stood out to me and showed what kind of photos that I were looking for. I thought that the day off was a successful one and I’m looking for further events to take more photos at.
Screen shots
Screen shots of my progress with the Adobe After effects work that I have been working on. The video clip is still being worked on but so far it’s coming along well, it still needs more work added to it including text and finalising the changes made to it. I think the photos that I chose to include work well with the city in flux video as they give off a city vibe feel which is what I was aiming for when thinking about the photos.
Final Piece
My finished piece of work for the city in flux project. I think the outcome of this video is successful with the fact that this is my first time using after effects so I’m not very experienced with it. Although I would like to continue using after effects to get better and to broaden my skills as I believe I could continue to create better pieces of video work with the programme as I continue to learn. I still think I could have done better things with the video such as better photos and footage but due to idea changes and time I could not get the material I wanted. I think the video fits the city in flux project well and therefore I am happy with the finished video.