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.