Painted illustrations

These illustrations, in many ways, are a form of antidote to the work I describe in my artist statement. They are utterly devoid of any underlying communication, deep meaning or thought process and address no issues other than the sheer engrossing pleasure I get from producing them. The colour vibrancy of the finished paintings is one aspect where there is cross over with my 'real' work and the spot varnishing of selected areas within the painting is also similar to the finishing I employ in the commercial work that I detail in the statement also.

Concept & Visual Development

Draft Statement Version 1

My work is an ongoing conversation between personal creative exploration and professional practice. The goal is to achieve an healthy balance between design that works strategically and design that creatively pushes at boundaries – whether those boundaries be personal, aesthetic, about the message or about the choice of medium. I get an enormous sense of energy and accomplishment from meeting the challenge of capturing the essence of the brief requirements, while engaging with the viewer in a meaningful, provocative and aesthetically pleasing way.
More here about goals and aspirations?

When I work, particularly in the initial stages, I follow a pattern that I have refined/evolved over my years of practice. It involves at the outset a ‘setting of the trajectory’ for the project, whereby I define the parameters of the brief, ensuring I establish clear objectives for myself before launching into the exploratory process of concept and visual development. I define the objective using keywords and research into the subject in hand, which helps to enhance my understanding of the communication challenge and therefore expand my thinking beyond it. My primary tools are a thesaurus, brainstorming, mind maps and referring to my influences. My own memories and experiences are a rich source of inspiration too. There is also a strong element of collecting and selecting in how I work – I collect, collate, curate, create – the gathering together of visual elements before really getting into the task of creating the visual entity itself. This part of the process relates to formulating a colour palette, possible font choices, a range of suitable imagery, investigating relevant tactile finishing processes (die cutting / embossing / folding / foil blocking / use of metallic inks / spot uv varnishing). After I have explored avenues for visuals through the sketching of thumbnails, which moves my thinking towards richer and more stimulating content driven directions, I establish a grid for the work and commence the layout on the computer. I review, refine, examine, seek opinion, sleep on it, show it to the client, implement feedback (where appropriate!), review again until I reach a point where I am satisfied the solution communicates in a revealing way, while engaging the viewer emotionally and intellectually.

Visually my work is usually underpinned by formal typography, the use of rich colour, tactility (through finishing or paper stock choice) and, when possible, abstracted / stimulating imagery. I aim to create a dialogue between the client, myself and the viewer, that by necessity can only be completed by the viewers own interpretation, ensuring a fluidity of communication. My work has really always involved attempts to imbue its own voice alongside that of the clients/tutor intended message. For me , the modernist idea that designers are transparent messengers with no opinions of their own is no longer valid, and I have maintained many of the same creative influences over the years: Jonathon Barnbrook (subjectivity in graphic design, type designer), Tomato (embracing the message, contemporary mediums), Irma Boom (scale and integrity of her work, colour, personal voice), Bruce Mau (the range and scope of this work and conviction to ‘designer as author’), the writings of Rick Poyner (thought provoking, current) . I have added to this list and it has evolved in time to include influences where the focus is often more aesthetic: Oded Ezer (tactile, playful typography), Dick Bruna (simplicity of style, freshness, restraint).

The questions that concern me in my work are not simply those of graphic design but issues of ambient information and meaning, questions of sense and message, when people see my work I am hopeful that they engage with it, question it, relate to it, remember it.

Interpret the Meaning, Describe the Work

One week into MULL and it's been busy. My heart sank earlier in the week when I went to uncover my old sketchpads and discovered that they'd fallen victim to one of my 'clearouts' (about two years ago my husband reliably informs me!). In the box where they used to be was a bunch of old computer cables and a single 4th yr thesis. So I've been reduced to the few sketchpads that relate to more commercial work and drawings, which aren't nearly as exciting or extensive as the older ones. Still its been an interesting process this week going through them and the work itself and photographing, and trying to curate it all. I've enjoyed too looking at links for my influences, but have discovered that this is like entering a time warp... I've spent a crazy amount of hours getting utterly side tracked online admiring other peoples work. It's been great to revisit some of those earlier influences.

The writing of my artist statement is getting there too. That has been so interesting - to step into the work and get centered on it in this way. It feels exciting to really look at and interpret the work in such an intimate way. I can't remember ever taking to the time to attempt to describe the motivations, methodology, process, style, reasoning and rationale behind what I do, and why, and how. I've pages of stuff written looking at various questions I asked myself to help get my thoughts together and list of words that communicate my feelings about my work and the value I place on it, favourite aspects of it, patterns that have emerged etc. It's been a really revealing and confidence building thing for me to do. Hopefully I'll figure out the techie bits now and manage to get some visuals up on Picassa/Flickr by Monday.

when i've a chance...

When I've time, I occasionally do some acrylic on canvas illustrations.

Kal, my 3 year old son is my only fan!

some student work

Here are a few examples of my students work. This is a series of posters describing the experience of being in a queue.