Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Design Packaging Brief, Quaker Oats



Last illustration degree brief of the year!  Soooo close to the end. Deadline day is the 4th of May, which is next Friday, which is also my 20th birthday :D I'll wake up in the morning, haul ass to the studio and hand everything in. And then will spend all weekend being un-busy and calm as a calm thing. But that day is not yet this day. Still spending days at Studio Liddell, and by night I attempt to be social, do housework (yeah really -.-) and keep uni work up to date. Everything in between is trains.  So many trains o.O

For this project, we had to go to a supermarket, find a product for £1 and redesign it.  I firstly chose Maxwell House brand instant coffee, but found it so boring I switched to Quaker Oats oatmeal pots, which actually was really fun XD



All I did was redesign the little oil painted Quaker Oats man, and try and make the pot look like his head :3
The idea was that it looks like people are eating instant oatmeal out of his hat ^^ but 'cause the pot is so deep, and porridge looks a bit like liquified brain anyway (yummyyyyy), it's more like eating oatmeal out of his skull B-) awh yeah
Also thanks to David for his ingenious poses on webcam XD
I thought this afternoon I'd make several colour palettes, or even a variety of faces, for different flavours, but I've got no further with that. Spent the remainder of my Wednesday night watching tv with Jon (watching Jon watch South Park is deffs the funniest I've seen all day! So much giggling) and drinking soy milk from the carton. Up and at em for 7am, joyyyyy more trains.
All in all though, things are good. Still a bit tired, and nervous about extreme portfolio organization week (and last weekend of being teenager ever) but am very much alive and well XD

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

DD2000: Design Practice - Contemporary Exhibitions 2


Earlier this year when we attended the Manchester Art Gallery, me and Rosie had a look at several other exhibitions aside from the jewellery exhibit I have already reviewed for DD2000.  Today is now the very last day of DD2000 work! I gave my PechaKucha presentation this morning (shiverrrr,relieved that's done!) and am now at home, slowly getting down 300 final words for this review and making chicken risotto.  Here goes...I put any mistakes down to my lack of sleep -.-



The exhibition was called In Translation: Women, Migration and Business. As dull as that sounds on paper, it was a gorgeous exhibit.  There were these huge lithographic prints, given to Manchester Art Gallery in the 30's but not revealed till the 90's.  This was because people didn't like the way the British Empire was portrayed.  It was propaganda for migration in the Empire, of such stunning and colourful design that it effectively disguised what was actually 'ruthless colonial domination'.
Women were made to look as if they easily adapted to the change in their lifestyle, with the new trade and British Exports from the West Indies and other foreign countries.  It was great as an illustrator to see powerful examples of design.  These essentially created an illusion of peace to present to the public and other countries, that we look back on with hindsight and find contrary to the truth we know now. With fair trade and gender equality being such important issues our society, I thought this was a very exciting and relevant exhibition, well suited to such a culturally popular venue in Manchester.
The exhibition featured a huge panorama that went full circle in a ring in the centre of the main room. It was very interesting in that it contrasted totally with the other art in the room. It showed a life drawing class at the Lowry, with various women drawing a model.  And at the end, there was a questionnaire asking everyone who visited to write down ‘what does it mean to be British?’.  It was an good question, having just been faced with the propaganda about trade that the Britain we know today is based on.  I really liked the cultural issues in the past that this exhibit looked at, and although it was uncomfortable viewing in a way, the beautiful posters were worth the visit.
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