-craters, shell holes
-hill slopes uphill
-topthorn is ahead
-a few horses behind in the squadron
-wire is hidden among trees

Shonen Knife screen printed

I screen printed Shonen Knife today but ended up with really mixed results with the prints. On the first day of printing I didn't have enough ink and binder so was left with splotchy blues.

I bought more the next day but then found that keeping pressure along both sides of the print (I was pulling lengthways) was difficult. Therefore, I ended up with a lot of prints where the top blue bar was printed well, but the plate at the bottom was faded. I think I should try using the squeegee arm next time  I print, as that allows more even distribution of pressure along the print.

More positively, my registration for the orange text was really good in a lot of the prints, so I'm definitely getting better at that. The non-A format size also looks great.

War Horse developments

I tried out various different things for my War Horse images in order to make them less representational and regurgitative of the text. I thought about using the sheep to achieve this with a new composition to the ploughing one which was pretty boring in retrospect.

I also had another look at Bill Bragg and Victo Ngai and realised that i really needed texture to make the images more interesting, so I tried to apply them quite haphazardly in the right image. Neither of these images were working though, so I scrapped them as well and decided to go for a completely different approach inspired by my recent COP work:

 The idea is that it takes after Modernism - a movement that tried to convey the fragmentation of the world after the Great War. I will convey the world through the simple shapes of Modernism and show how the War fragmented the world. This narrative is introduced in the above image through the crack forming at the back, foreshadowing the shattered aesthetic I plan to continue with throughout as the War becomes more relevant to the story.

Shonen Knife gig poster

I was initially going to do a poster for Fatima Yamaha's gig in London in February, but after the frustration of trying to get the previous solution to work, I lost interest and inspiration. Luckily, I discovered that the all-girl Japanese band Shonen Knife are touring next April.

Their music is really kooky so my initial idea was to do a composition with a clothes line of socks with kooky things on them like cats and flowers (which they sing about a lot) because of this lyric which really spoke to me: 

Feel in your pockets for something fun /Wash your socks and turn them inside out

And I've always felt that socks are a good outlet for people to express kookiness. I also did a couple quick ideas of how to layout their band name - I want to feature the Japanese characters as well.

In the end though, I went off the clothes line idea and thought that the breakfast plate idea was equally kooky and potentially more interesting. I did a quick thumbnail which sold the idea to myself and went for it:

 

In the end I decided I against the bar at the bottom.

I think this makes for quite a funny poster since despite the fact that they're Japanese, maybe they'll be eating english breakfasts all month. Putting in drumsticks by the plate like chopsticks was an idea too, but I really wanted to avoid making the image cultural as it could be quite cliched or even offensive. I feel that the vertical text refers back to their heritage in an acceptable way and this was as far as I was willing to go. I feel as though the type treatment was quite inspired by Sonnenzimmer's posters as well.

What I really like about this poster is the fact that the illustration is not related to music in anyway, yet I feel it works. Definitely an interesting approach. This is also the first posted designed in non-A2: it's 18"x24", like most posters you would find online 

Didactic drawing

So I tried to draw according to the section 'Formal Additive Programs' at the back of the Sonnenzimmer book, but don't think it worked quite as well as I had hoped. I started with a drawing of Holland and ended up with some strange images.

I ended up with lots of sheets, some with some really interesting shapes on them which inspired me to start thumb nailing for the next poster. I was enthusiastic about the thumbnails which had 3D forms like my recent COP work, but when it came to designing the actual poster, I couldn't make the image work which was really frustrating.

While the process has been a bit of a failure this time, I feel as though there is still value if you stop yourself early and evaluate what you have made so far and see where that can go.

Niklaus Troxler's jazz posters

 

Niklaus Troxler's jazz posters have quite a varied look across his whole body of work, but I really like how playful and full on they can be. I don't necessarily make similar imagery, but some of the ideas where the saxophone is subverted are interesting.

Didactics

SONNENZIMMER (2015) Didactics: Warp and Weft: Poster Construction + Formal Additive Programs. Chicago: Green Lantern Press

Didactics finally arrived in the library last week and I've been giving it a peruse for the last few days and can safely say it is the most insane book on design I have ever read. It gives a really detailed report on Sonnenzimmer's various event poster designs in terms of project information, connection between the visuals and the event/music, and the composition, including intended line of sights and areas of interest. Along with each of these is provided a short exercise for the reader to carry out in order to inspire a creative process of their own.

The last part of the book, 'Formal Additive Programs', takes the reader through a process of deconstructing a drawing in order to produce something completely new. I'm excited to begin trying out some of these exercises myself as part of my poster brief and further studio practice.
This section can be found online here:
http://s147083.gridserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/sz.formal.additive.programs.pdf

Some notes:

• Surfer Blood and Turbo Fruits poster: The most energetic images arise from an improvised approach to design, which they can do because they don't show preliminary work due to the payment structure of concert posters. 
• Many designs begin with a quick character count and an exploration of ways to utilise the words' structure in the image "Redundancy is a constant danger in graphic design, and unless used subversively, rarely offers an original entry point to a subject matter". "
• It is important to take note of a band's visual aesthetic in order to steer clear of redundancy or even plagiarism. The downside of this preparation is that it can lead to procrastination through endless ideation. One way we avoid this is to impulsively 'throw down' a colour".