My Book Project!

In the spring term, we had bookbinding workshop and some classes about books. They were all interesting. On 7^th March, we had Design for Print with David. On 8^th March, we had Design for Print with Marit Münzberg. After these sessions, I knew a lot about printing in paper and ways to make a book. On 5^th April, we had Book Design Page Layout with Sigune and we drew some grids in one A4 paper. There are different sizes of layouts we can design on one A4 paper. I learned something I did not know before in this session.

Now I have to make a book. I used what I learned from these classes to make my book. However, saying is easier than doing. When I set up every pages of my book and went to print them out, I met a lot of problems. I wanted to use ink jet printers to print them, but there is a little extra ink in papers. Then I tried different kinds of paper to print, but the results were the same. I had to print them with laser printers. So I went out to print them and also tried to print in different papers. Finally, I printed them out and the result was not bad.

Sometimes, what you think can not be true. You should make it out to see the result. Maybe the result is not the same as what you think. Printing is important to designers. I should learn more about it.

Lecture – Your Future

Yesterday I went to a lecture ‘Your Future’. I think this topic is concerned by all students who are going to graduate. So I went to it. We had a short presentation, then we were separated into several groups and finally we made a feedback.

In my group, many of us talked about money and practice. And we also talked about what we wanted to do in our future. I am from different society in our group. I mean it is different between China and European countries. So I listened to others and tried to understand the situation of them. Also, it is not totally different between us. In China, I also need to balance money and practice. Some challenges we are going to face are the same. Here, I just want to say something different in China.

Designers do not have as much freedom as here. Sometimes designers need to do works whose ideas are totally from clients. For example, some clients will say they want what images in the works and the color may be decided by them. The worst thing is some clients will not respect designers. These situations are not special in China, they are normal things. Also, the trend of advertising in Chinese market is not very nice now. There are some fixed models in advertisement design and most of clients like these models. You can earn money using these models to do works, but it will not creative. The area of design in China does not develop well.

In future, I will go back to China to have a job, because I need to feed myself. I know I need to prepare myself to work in China. However, I have my plan. In China, I need some experience of working as a designer. I need to face to clients and satisfy them. Maybe I will work in a design company for two years, then I will have my own studio. At the beginning, I will be chose by clients, but when I have my own studio, I will choose my clients. I know it is hard to do this, but I will work hard for this.

Burning Experiment!!!

I did a experiment about cigarette burning. At the beginning, I wanted to have a mark of cigarette burning that I can use in my work. However, it was windy yesterday, five cigarettes burned together made the papers under them begin to burn, too. So the mark is like this:

But I gained other things through this experiment. I recorded this burning video and knew how much time of a cigarette burning in nature. It is about ten minutes. Laias said it would be so long if someone had a cigarette. I got a smell in my whole body, from my hair to my clothes. Actually this was terrible. Finally, thanks Laias for helping me in this experiment.

Here are some pictures of this experiment:

This picture is interesting. It made a mark on the ground...

Beautiful Packages of Tabacco

I found the packages of tabacco were beautiful. These two kinds of cigarettes are my friend's favourite and I found they were beautiful. Are they wanting to attract women to buy them?

The package is colorful. Its design is elegant. Open it, you can find cigarettes in it have their own colors. My friend said sometimes she would choose different colors on purpose. Maybe different colors have different tastes? In fact, if I see this tabacco, I would like to buy one. Because it is beautiful. If I collect beautiful cigarettes, will I start smoke one day? So the package of tabacco will affect people to smoke?

Another Package

Happening – Memory

I use a series of photos to make a flash. These photos I took at a crossroad near London Bridge. If I put them on the surface according to priority, they look like a moving film. However, I made them a flash, a digital way.

Of course, this method is not special, but it is interesting. In 1887, the technique of camera was not so advanced as today. Eadweard Muybridge used his camera to take many pictures to make his work ‘Cockatoo, flying, plate’. These works are amazing. The photos present every details of a happening thing.

My idea has a little similar with Eadweard Muybridge’s work. However, I do not just want to express a happening thing. I made every photo in different sizes and transparencies to express some feelings of our memory. The first picture is the biggest, but is has the least transparency. The last one is the minimum, but it is clearest. You just want to remember something, but this thing is always ‘running’.

I also did a physical work with these photos. It has different feelings. Maybe I can took a photo of it, but it is hark to ‘stand up’. However, I will take it to my unit 1 assessment.

ATLAS GALLERY – A FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY

I know this gallery because I searched some exhibitions about photography in London. Then I found its website. In its website, you can see its latest exhibitions and also its online exhibitions. I love to surf this website.

I love to use my camera to record my life and I always find something interesting when I am using my camera. Watching some exhibitions in this gallery, I can have some inspirations about photography. For example, an online exhibition now in its website is called ‘ELLIOTT ERWITT SEQUENTIALLY YOURS – PHOTO SEQUENCES OR INDECISIVE MOMENTS’. It shows a series of photos and they can be connected together to show a complete scene. However, these photos are separated and the objects in them are in the same size. They show a matter happening. I just feel they look like a short movie. The photographers use photos which are graphic things to express a moving thing, which is interesting. I mean the form is worth thinking. And I will think if I use camera to express this moving feeling, what I will do?

Finally, I think this gallery is worth following. The photos it exhibits are always amazing.

Butts in Paris

People in Paris are also throw butts in the streets. I can see many butts in the streets in Paris.

One interesting thing is that garbage cans in Paris are like this:

If people throw the butts into this 'garbage can', maybe it will burn? And I found butts inside it:

Maybe people in Paris are familiar with this situation, they know they need to put out the cigarettes when they throw the butts into these 'garbage cans'.

Interesting Photos

When I found this, I thought it was beautiful, but how could them be cleaned?

Visitors + Work = Another Work

In Paris, I visited Louvre. I love it! I enjoy paitings, sculptures and other works in it. They are all wonderful. However, there were too many people there, so I couldn't watch every piece of work carefully. When I came back, I found many photos were people who were in front of what I wanted to take photograph of. I found it was interesting.

Mona Lisa and Visitors

Venus and Visitors

Because there were too many people standing in front of Venus, so I just could go back of her to take photos.

Sometimes, I think what will be look like when I am standing in front of a piece of work and thinking. At that moment, can I understand that work? Can I 'speak' to the designer who make the work? This communication between visitor and work can also be a new work.

The Nature creates it. We make it become a work.

This is Stonehenge. It exists many years ago. Nobody knows who move these huge stones here and how they do this. When people found them, they thought they were beautiful. Then people protect these stones like the photo as below:

These stones are here. The Nature continue to creat them. Maybe one day they will disappear because of erosion by wind and rain. It is a piece of work. People in the world should know this work which created by the Nature. We appreciate it and admire the creativity of Nature.

I heard of many designers would like to watch programmes of National Geographic. They love to enjoy the nature. Actually I think we are living in this world, we should keep a harmonious relationship with the nature. And many things the nature creats for us are perfect, we should learn and understand the nature, then use what we know from the nature to make more good works.

Function Changed

WINDSOR CASTLE

Many visitors went there to watch this castle!

Windsor Castle was designed for the Royal Families to live, but now it is also a tourist attraction.

In fact, many buildings today have this ‘function’, such as Swiss Re Tower. Design can make the work has its original function. Attracting people’s eyes, design also can make the work become a piece of art for watching.

Roman Baths in Bath is the same as Windsor Castle.



Use My Camera!

I love to use camera to record my life and do some works. Maybe at the beginning, I just like a normal person to use camera to remember something interesting in my life, but when I deal with these photos, sometimes I found that I became a designer at some moments and these photos could be made as a work.

In this holiday, I traveled to some places and used my camera to record my trips. I visited Windsor Castle, Oxford, Bath, Stonehenge and some countries in Europe. I can understand more about Western Culture through these trips. I will show some pictures and write down what I think……