Saatchi Gallery

I decided to visit the Saatchi Gallery as I was very interested in the work I had seen on their website. I was near the gallery and although it doesn't fit with my project I felt it could benefit my research by looking afield. The first room was filled with ants made out of sticks and skulls. I felt incredibly small as though an ant would feel and started to feel a bit uneasy stuck in the room. Nevertheless, it was one of my favourite pieces. I was taken back by how realistic they actually looked for a couple of sticks put together and the way that they had been placed on the wall must have been carefully thought out as they crowded towards the far corner of the room. Having read the information about the work I can understand why Rafael Gómezbarros has used the skull casts. 

 His intention was to make a statement about the millions of displaced people who constitute the invisible but pervasive mass of immigrants crossing the planet. Ants are usually associated with hard work and show complex social organizations that have acquired the capacity to take over national monuments. He has managed to put his ants onto historical buildings such as Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino – the haçienda where Simón Bolívar spent his final days – as well as Barranquilla’s customs building. 

I also saw the work of Richard Wilson where at first I had no idea of what I was meant to be seeing. It then hit me that it was not just a room but one filled with recycled oil. It was reflecting the ceiling and therefore meant that a lot of people where confused on what they saw at first but after the initial reactions many admired its natural beauty from something so dangerous.

Someone else who I felt had real meaning to their work was Ibrahim Mahama who makes enormous drapes by sewing together the sacks imported by the Ghana Cocoa Board and repurposed by charcoal sellers.

The sacks have the markings and traces of the traders’ names and locations and I love this because you can see where the bags were imported to as well as the purpose. The bags filled the entire room and once you stood back and looked it was quite dark and mysterious to see brown material bags the way they were presented. 

There were many other works in the gallery but these were my top three. I feel that they possess the most meaning and make you think a lot more than your first initial sight. However I do love some of the other works for example the works by Vincent Michea who's works were of a pop art style. He had made albulm covers and generally showed stills of people in a comic book like way. It was interesting to see such bright colours as well as a contrast to the rest of the gallery. I loved the way block colour was used to create a flat image but also a used dots combining processes.

Trip to Berlin

On the 16 March we went on a Trip to Berlin. This was a very exciting event as I have never been to Germany before and was a real eye opener into another culture and country itself. We arrived late afternoon in Berlin and immediately wanted to explore the city. Despite getting lost trying to find a supermarket it didn't lower our spirits and excitement into wanted to find out more. A group of us decided to take on Berlin's nightlife and attended Matrix Club. making our way home late at night we realised how beautiful the city actually was. The feel of the city resembled London in ways but had such a different feel to it.

 

The 17th March was the start of exploring the city in daylight and although the miserable weather didn't help with the tiredness of last night I was intrigued to know what was next on the agenda to visit. The first stop was the Reichstag Dome. The amazing views both from standing on the bottom to walking along the spiralling sides of the dome. The experience was spectacular. The dome was built to increase the amount of light within it however it was a horrible day and it began to rain as we were inside. This didn't ruin the experience but made it harder to see the views through the glass sides of the dome. I would love to return in the summer or even at night because I can imagine how it could show off its beauty in another light.

After being left at the Reichstag Dome we were to make out own way to the Berlinische Gallery. Although we were startled by being left in an unknown city we managed to get to the gallery in time. The gallery was very interesting and bigger than I was expecting. As soon as I entered I was taken back by the big paintings high on the walls. They were very bright and you had to really look to find out what they were trying to show. I really liked this section of the gallery and has to be my favourite of them all because of the amount of colour and boldness. Some of the works were debatable in concept and I was not very keen on the works by Dorothy Lannone. They appeared to be very feminist and the work was not very comfortable to view. 

Left to our own devices me and my room friends decided to explore the city further. We were able to walk to checkpoint charlie and found some of the Berlin Wall left. It was uplifting to know that the wall was taken down but really interesting to see the paintings and artworks left behind. It wasn't long before we were hungry and decided to take on the culture and ordered Currywust. I instantly found a love for the food and this wasn't my only potion during the trip.

Being St Patricks day we took the opportunity to visit an irish pub. The country may be different but the celebration was not. There were so many people we had to stand outside in amongst the green of the crowds. 

The 18th March was the day that we visited the Holocaust museum. It was very upsetting to see what actually happened in detail and extraordinary how far it actually spread. I was deeply saddened and after the visit the mood was very tense and down. I feel that the museum really does open your eyes to what happened and how bad it was. I am now able to fully understand rather than just briefly knowing. 

We then made our way to the Museum Für Fotograpfie, and disappointedly we were not able to take photographs. I was not very interested in this museum due to the fact it was about photography although the first room was quite nice to see all the different cameras that Norman used. However as the works went on I was just viewing the same photographs in different rooms. The subject matter of women in nude did not really interest me and this was the downfall although I do appreciate his talent.  

Having been a packed couple of days we decided to go to a small coffee shop to relax and reflect on the events of the day. It was a nice little café and had a lot of culture which I enjoyed. 

The 19th March was the day that we were to leave Berlin however we had the day to explore what we wanted to before we left. Me and Freya decided that we wanted to visit the Olympic stadium. Having travelled the entire route of the tube we were greeted by a downfall of rain. Soaked we got to the stadium and instantly our spirits were lifted. It was amazing to see the vast surroundings and views inside and both outside. I would have loved to explore more within the place however it was raining and it made it very difficult to appreciate. The olympic pool was left to go green which I felt was a bit horrible. 

 Although Berlin was very wet and windy I have never done so much in 4 days and I loved exploring the city. I would have loved more time but it was very tiring and I am glad to be home. The hostel was also very clean and perfect as it was just next to the station. 

FMP Week 1

My project is to create an awareness of graphic design as an important part of our everyday lives. Many people do not realise how many of the posters around them they encounter are designed by a graphic designer prior to their display; many of these people who do not appreciate the works around them, are the clients that the work is produced for. This is something that I would like to explore and develop into a new way of demonstrating and engaging clients into learning about how important graphic design. I would also like to express how both they and the decisions they make within a job or task set affect the people working within the subject. Many clients hire graphic designers because they do not have the skill set to complete a task but are unaware of how much work actually goes into creating a piece of work. I will clarify and communicate the use of graphic design towards clients in an information-based way, creating and producing posters, leaflets/ flyers, badges, magnets and any other ways in which to get the message out into the industry motivating a response within the audience.

To produce this project I will have to investigate and generate a response of my own within this guiding my thoughts into well-researched and clearly developed pieces of communication. I would create my outcomes using computer software such as Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Adobe Illustrator as well as combining this with traditional skills of drawing etc.

 Having previously planned out the seven weeks of the FMP, I was able to quickly determine what I needed to do in order to develop my ideas and concepts. I immediately started looking at sources in which helped to create an understanding of what Graphic designers thought about the client/designer relationship. One of these being an article called "8 Things Designers Should Teach Their Clients." The article was very interesting as it informed me of what a Graphic designer felt was important for a client to know. This is something that I need to convey with my own product and having on board the views of designers is key to understanding what needs to be taught. This website also talked about communication and how it is key and you are the expert not them indicating that designers should take charge and make sure that the client knows that they are not the one with the knowledge.

I also looked at many other websites such as What designers do. It was very interesting to compare the two different views and realities of both a graphic designer and a non designer. some of them varied greatly especially with the question what does a designers workspace look like? As well as the hours of work a graphic designer does; many non designers felt that they had a simple 9 - 5 job however it appeared that in actual fact they worked from around 9/10 until they had finished the work they needed to do, no matter how long their hours would be. On the other hand they agreed on one thing, respect. In the sense of each others opinions on each other they wanted to feel respected however it was apparent that the non designer talked about the designer in a positive way and they designer talks about the non designer in a negative way .his may be because of their client designer relationships they've had before.

 Worst clients comments turned into posters is another website I have looked at and started to develo my own ideas in the posters that were created out of the clients comments. I really hope that I create some posters like this for my final project so I have decided to experiment with my ideas against the original. Some of them are really good and work well but others really frustrate me.

Clients form hell was a great website that showed me the worst comments i've ever seen. The comments were racist and even generally showed a lack of respect. I feel that this is down to little knowledge of what they are asking designers to do, this is something I have seen throughout research and this backs it further. The client was asking the designer to do things that they didn't know how to do but felt that they were easy and could be done in no time at all.

Graphic Designer Vs Client. All of these websites helped to develop my ideas further, generating an insight into the world of graphic design and their clients within this sector. I would love to say that I have an idea for the final outcome but this is far from the case. The research I have has only inspired my thoughts in the sense of education into the topic and finding out ways in which I could potentially educate and communicate what I found out to clients themselves.

Many of the comments about clients were "you are the professional, not them." This means that you should not let the client take over the design process and should not let them think that they know what they are doing; if they knew what they were doing they would not be hiring you. This is something that I found to be a key comment within many of the sites I researched into. I would make the assumption that the client knows what their idea is and therefore feels that they know how to so things to what they can see in their head. If you do not design what they foresee then this is not correct in their eyes.