HENDERSON. J PORTFOLIO
STUDIO DUMBAR WORKSHOP
Work from our one-day workshop with studio dumbar.
STUDIO DUMBAR WORKSHOP
Work from our one-day workshop with studio dumbar.
topman presents Autonomie, a concept store with in-house facilities to cut and master dubplates available by appointment only. availanble at the launch party will be limited copies of the first co l l a b o r at i v e A u t o n o m i e & Livity Sound release from K o w t o n . With monthly instore showcases from labels including Opal Tapes, Ostgut Ton, L.I.E.S, Clone Records and many more, Autonomie aims to cater to the lifestyles of the contemporary, c r e a t i v e young man.
TOPMAN LIVE BRIEF
Work produced for the topman live brief to develop a concept store to be launched in Berlin in 2016, the company’s first venture into Germany.
TOPMAN LIVE BRIEF
Work produced for the topman live brief to develop a concept store to be launched in Berlin in 2016, the company’s first venture into Germany.
UNIT X MAGAZINE
Poster developed for our Unit X magazine “Gutter Press�. the poster was developed by the group using ripped photographs that we had gathered for the magazine and arranged into an anstract form to create a sense of intrigue whilst also displaying the strong attitude that is subversive of other magazines.
UNIT X MAGAZINE
Stills taken from our Kickstarter video. similarly to the poster, the video uses abstract forms and composition to generate intrigue and marginally confuse the viewer. Coupled with the fast cuts and soundtrack sampled from a mid-90s rave structing anybody form London to “Fuck off out�, the video is a short, not-so-sweet statement that quickly informs the viewer of both the content and attitude of Gutter Press.
UNIT X MAGAZINE
Spreads and inner covers from Gutter Press Magazine Volume 1.
UNIT X MAGAZINE
Gutter Press Magazine front cover. Perfect binding, 32 pages, roughed up and ready for coffee tables and bookshelves.
SELF EVALUATION What are the key influences you have identified out of your research? And why?
I don’t think I have really picked up on any key influences I wasn’t already aware of to at least some degree. I think, if anything, I have become more confident in making bolder references to the things that I care about, like making the inserts for the magazines smaller as a reference to old skateboarding magazines like transworld or Sidewalk, that I used to read when I was younger. I have looked at a lot of material since the last hand-in, and quite a broad range in all honesty. As lazy as it sounds, I’ve watched a lot of films with art direction that I Really enjoy like Bladerunner, Leon the professional and Alien. I feel a lot more confident in making not necessarily explicit, but esoteric references to those films with the use of typography and composition, as well as regularly appropriating imagery from things I Read and see on the internet. I’ve used my blog a lot less for this project and tried to focus more on making books, as good practice for actually making the magazine, so my research has been more active and less casual. For the Topman brief, I didn’t really get inspired to look at anything new, mainly because all of the reference points that were provided during the brief were things I was already aware of, which I guess is fine because I don’t think fashion (in as much as Topman can be considered “fashion”) is an area I really wish to pursue, particularly not in any long-term capacity. Possibly the best thing I have discovered (or rediscovered) was Bruno Manari’s DEsign As Art, which I found at the bottom of my bag which I took home for Christmas and thought I had lost. I have found many of his views insightful and helpful
in my own practice, both visually and musically. His views are really well articulated and mostly inarguable. He made me question the role of the designer in modern design, as well as challanging my perception on being able to design in a way that is completely neutral in a way that an engineer builds things only to function as they are meant to. I’ve recently turned a bit of a corner in being able to identify why I like the things I do like, and also looking at certain aspects of things that I have liked in the past and being able to connect the dots in ways that I didn’t see before. I’ve come to realise that my design is not functional in the way that it is easily perceived in what is meant to be taken from the design. I understand now that I feel most comfortable leaving a certain degree of agency in the viewer to decode what it is they’re seeing and that Their interpretation of my work is as important to me as how I understand it.
SELF EVALUATION Creative responses. Identify aspects of the projects that you developed further in line with your own creative practice.
I’d have to say that the thing I have developed most is my ability to collaborate with people and to get a bit more loose with how I work and what I consider to be an acceptable standard of work. Working with two people in the Unit X group who consistently work together outside of university was a really interesting look at a collaborating dynamic. Obviously I’ll mostly be working with other people when I leave university, either working alongside them or doing work for other people, so being able to really have an effective working relationship will be paramount in order to create the best work possible for the client. From the Topman brief, I’d say that I kind of learnt to deal with briefs that really don’t excite me. I know a lot of people on the course were really enthusiastic about the project (and that’s absolutely fine) but I really struggled to find a way into the project because I felt generally unenthusiastic about the prospect of it. Being able to work around briefs for brands whose values you don’t believe in or on a project that you don’t agree with has been heavily debated in the design industry, so it felt kind of good to get a firsthand experience of what it is to work on such a brief. for the Studio Dumbar workshop, it was nice to be asked to respond emotively to a brief rather than to be objective about something, which I think links back to what I said in response to the previous question about being more open and less authoratative about my design. Obviously, this ethos generally makes for harder marketability and also probably alienates me from working with larger clients, but I don’t think that’s something
that really appeals to me anyway, particularly at this point in my life, so I’m going to carry on designing things that some people will probably look at and think “What is that?” and others might look at and think “Yeah, that’s nice”. It’s been a broad unit in terms of the work I have produced I Think, Which I’m glad about, because I think it’s easy to stagnate and to develop an overlyclinical and impersonal style, particularly on a structured course of any kind. I’m happy to see my style change and morph in different ways and to continue to take in new ideas and methods and references because I find that really enjoyable. I think my scope for researching has also been something that has increased dramatically in this unit, mainly owing to working directly with other people who all brought a different slant to the project.
SELF EVALUATION Reflect upon your engagement with each aspect the unit.
Going chronologically, I guess I should start with Studio Dumbar. I found the workshop interesting, but in all honesty I was quite reserved that day and didn’t really want to interact with the people around me, just because it was one of “those” days. I think it’s probably difficult to discuss engagement with a one-day seminar, either you were there and you participated or you stayed at home and watched Emmerdale. I tried to take on the brief in an unconventional way, but I don’t think it was a really great response in hindsight and I’m not overly proud of the work, especially considering some of the other people’s responses who approached the whole thing much more lightheartedly and seemed to have a much better time than I did sitting on my own. Topman (as I mentioned previously) wasn’t an overly magnetic brief that made me want to knuckle down and bang out the best work I’d ever done. I came to the briefing and tried to take in what I could, but if I’m being honest, I just didn’t enjoy the brief and I Didn’t commit to it anywhere near as much as I could (and should) have. The publishing unit I felt like I put noticably more effort into, but in all honesty I did coast through a lot of it and should have made more of an effort to really do the best I could, at least for the sake of the group. I make no excuses for why I didn’t put more effort and engagement into the brief other than that I’ve generally felt out of sorts with the course for most of this unit, but have managed to come out of the other end of it feeling much better about my work and what I want to achieve in the course, so I guess alls well that ends well. Unit X always seems
to chew me up and spit me out a little bit better than I Was before, which I think leaves me in a pretty good place to start third year, hopefully feeling much less docile and wanting to participate more with the course. I didn’t attend many of the lectures in this unit, except for the Hey! and Mucho lectures, which I did find somewhat interesting, even if I didn’t see much in common between my work and theirs. There wasn’t much that I wanted to go to and I felt like my time was better spent working directly on the project. I think generally throughout the year my participation with the course has drifted somewhat, and I’d like to address that and take more ownership of what I Want to get out of the course and to utilise the available resources whilst I have the chance. I felt more comfortable at the beginning of the year when seminars were regular and talking to people without working with them to try and help them better their work and similarly them helping you was a really nice thing to have, but that seems to have been replaced with semi-regular roastings and hole-poking sessions. I get that the industry isn’t a friendly place and that’s just how it works, but I feel like whilst the opportunity is there for people to be helpful without being cold about it, we should all be able to benefit from it.