Annie Phillips

Annie Phillips presented her work at MCM over lunch break the other day. She is a Batik Artist. What is Batik, you ask? Well, "Batik is a wax and dye process on fabric that originated in Asia and Africa: it works on the principle that wax resists colour."

Phillips' images are composed of a range of colours - from dull to bright and funky! I love how they are all so unique and versatile. They can be used as wall hangings and even as rugs! She caters to individual clients as well as designers and architects, for both domestic and commercial projects. Her pieces of art show particularly well in bright, light, contemporary spaces, she says. Locations like clubs, offices, hotels, restaurants, and even your bedroom could make use of this Batik art. I guess it depends on the interior of the room.

"Durex, it's all in the positioning"

Elmwood has re-designed Durex's condom packs. Durex is the world brand all consumers trust. The new design attempts to move Durex to a brand focused on sexual wellbeing in addition to safe sex. The packaging no longer only promotes that 'masculine' feel, but more of a softer tone of voice, promoting a friendly brand identity.

Newspaper Hat

While touring around London, we also went to visit the Buckingham Palace where we witnessed the famous changing of the guards event. I couldn’t exactly see much because of the massive crowds of people (and because I’m short) but I did spot this newspaper hat, which I thought was quite creative and cute  It was an extremely hot day, and I’m sure that newspaper designed hat protected that man’s head.

D&AD New Blood

I forgot to mention my visit to the D&AD Blood Exhibition! I went to visit it around the beginning of summer (the last week of June, if I remember correctly) at Old Billingsgate in London; was quite inspiring browsing around everything from advertising to illustration to packaging, etc. Looking around graduates’ work gave me a taste of what I would be doing/ what like to do in a couple of years, after my year out in industry.

I was a bit taken aback by this particular piece of work above (the top 3 images) because it closely resembled my own work (the bottom 3 images). I can’t remember the name of the student or which university he or she was from, but the brief was a D&AD one advertising Puma and its performance fashion. It seems like our concepts/ thinking were quite similar in terms of incorporating the vibrant Puma figures in the surrounding environment. While the other students’ figures were more stylish and placed around Leicister Square in London, I designed mine in such a way that they actively interacted with glass features of key buildings around the city.

It’s interesting how people have similar concepts, but portray them differently...

Namesake

I’ve just completed reading the novel Namesake by author Jhumpa Lahiri; what a great book. (I watched the movie on the plane as well, but as they all say…movies are nothing compared to their books.) Although the story is primary about the struggles between first-generation Bengali immigrants to America, and their children, I would like to focus particularly on Gogol’s identity.

When their first son is born, Ashoke and Ashima decide to name him Gogol, a name of a person that was dear and life changing for Ashoke (hence the title Namesake.) Gogol would be his temporary name because his parents wanted to wait for a letter from their son’s grandmother in which she would reveal the official birth name she had chosen for her first grandchild. When Ashoke and Ashima discover that Gogol’s grandmother had passed away a few weeks later, and that the letter was probably lost in the post, they decide to change his official birth name name to Nikhil and keep Gogol as a pet name at home.

Gogol refuses to be called Nikhil at school and outside the house, as he was used to being called his nickname of Gogol while growing up. At a legal age, Gogol then decides to officially chance his name to Nikhil, a name he thought would probably work better in the society he lived in. This identity uncertainty shaped many aspects of Gogol’s life.

Indirectly related, this whole identity confusion made me think of the comprehension of identity in design. As we’ve learned, the design of a product should represent its identity and its values (both core and tonal.) The design should confidently live up to its essence and ‘name.’ This is then portrayed at the end of the novel, Namesake.

Dalí

As I continued walking down, I came across this peculiar elephant- giraffe looking structure created by none other than the master himself, Salvador Dalí. I must say that out of all the artists I’ve studied, Dalí’s wild and twisted artwork seems to amaze me the most. He is, after all, the greatest surrealist of the twentieth century.

Street Entertainers

Walking down the street, I was also entertained by, well..the street entertainers :) Similar to the entertainers at Convent Garden, I’ve always wondered how someone has the patience/ stamina to stand like a statue all day. Like this grey man for example; he stood so still that the pigeon must of thought he was actually a statue and stood on his head. I guess it’s an easy way of making money off gullible tourists, like myself, who want to see what happens when they move.

Southbank

On the same day, I also walked down Southbank. I thought the way in which this billboard advertised the Thames was neat in terms of the concept and its typography (although relatively hard to read.) It reads (from left to rightish) – London Aquarium, Vinopolis, Tate Modern, Royal National Theatre, Mayor’s Thames Festival, British Airways London Eye, Skylon at the South Bank Centre, Tamesa Restaurant, and BRI South Bank – all the attractions around the area.

Global Cities

The below post relates to an exhibition I went to visit at the Tate Modern back in London. The exhibition, entitled Global Cities, was displayed and raised the question: Can Cities Be Improved By Design?

“More than 50% of us now live in cities and, according to the United Nations, this number is set to rise to 75% by 2050. A century ago only 10% of the planet’s population lived in cities.”

It is vital that we understand the impact of this urban growth on people and the environment, as the links between architecture and society become both more complex and more fragile. How we – as architects and citizens, artists and policy- makers – choose to shape our cities, buildings and public spaces will determine how we respond to a range of problems. These include environmental challenges such as the escalating effects of climate change, as well as addressing the human rights, justice and dignity of the billions of people who are moving to cities in search of work and opportunity.

Global Cities encourages us to take account of the scale and pace of this change and consider its consequences on the way we live and the decisions we take. It examines the social and spatial conditions in ten large, dynamic cities spread across the globe: Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, San Paulo, Shanghai, and Tokyo. The exhibition explores these cities through five thematic lenses: size, speed, form, density, and diversity. In addition, it aims to raise awareness of issues such as sustainability, public space, and social inclusion, at the global and human scale. By exploring the resonances between our individual experiences of everyday life and our physical environment, Global Cities challenges us to think again about the connections between art, architecture and society at the heart of the contemporary city. The shape of our cities will determine the future of the planet.*

The three diagrams above show the partial layout of the cities of London, Mumbai, and Shanghai. The black spaces show the amount of area used in the city, while the white represents unoccupied space. Notice the stark different between the three cities; Mumbai very crowded, Shanghai the opposite, and London in between. If Venice were to be added to the above diagrams, I think it would compete with Mumbai, by the looks of the image from the previous post.

*introduction from the exhibition’s pamphlet.

View of Venice

The view of the city of Venice from St. Mark’s Campanile: A collection of crowded orange roof tops with what seems like no sense of organization.

St. Mark’s Campanile

While standing in the queue to go up to St. Mark’s Campanile (the famous bell tower of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice), this unique image hanging on the wall caught my eye. It’s black and white colours and sense of loneliness was most intriguing. The double arch reflections in the puddles of water seem to be slightly unrealistic until one realizes that that the building has two sets of arches, one above the other.

Streets

While holidaying in Austria, we drove down to Venice for the today – what a remarkable city. Walking down the streets of Salzburg in Austria compared to those of Venice were two unique paths…obviously because they’re both different cities, but comparing the architecture (cracked walls of the buildings in Venice; brightly painted walls of those in Salzburg), the ambiance (Venice seemed to be a hot tourist spot while Salzburg seemed quite quiet), and just the weather in general was an interesting contrast being two European cities.

Ceilings of Salzburg Cathedral

I immediately noticed the symmetry in these ceilings of the Salzburg Cathedral in Austria. The intricacy and powerful structures of the ceiling on the left amazed me. Similarly, the depth of ceiling on the right was quite mesmerizing as well. This cathedral dates back to centuries ago and because this is so, it made me conclude that most of the designing is done by hand…or am I wrong?

Mountains of Austria

Art = nature’s beauty; nature’s beauty = art. Austria’s mountain range; a beautiful site. The colours faded with distance, but their depth was just as intoxicating.

Floor Pattern

This floor pattern walked upon in Cairns, Australia reminded me of Escher’s style of art – patterns of colour and repetition.

Australian Art

While in Australia, we also came across the indigenous Australian art produced by Aboriginal Australians. Their contemporary style is based on traditional culture with the use of vibrant colours, abstract regional animals, and a central motif surrounded by intricate patterns (mainly using dots).

Shadows

So I know I was meant to start this GLOG a few months ago, and I know I’m off on a bad start, and I know my excuses don’t matter, but I’ve captured the design moments of my summer journeys so far which I’d like to share from this day onwards…

Shadows have always fascinated me. Their shapes and sizes in relation to what one would think to be the focal part of an image, actually capture the viewer’s attention first. Well, me being the viewer in these two cases at least…

I went to Australia in June 2007 to attend a Global Young Leader’s Summit (GYLS), in which students around the globe are invited to participate and voice their opinion on world issues as young leaders of today’s world. The photograph on the left was taken on the steps leading up to Sydney’s Opera House (one of the spots we visited during our free time). I thought it was quite interesting how our silhouette figures were put together, yet broken apart while we climbed down the stairs.

Notice the relation between the direction/ blockage of the light and the shadow distortions in the picture on the right as well. While holidaying in Austria the following month, my siblings and I are seen playing with our shadows on the pavement.