Thursday, 15 September 2011
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Up above the streets and houses
Claire and I took Timmy the dog for a walk in the rain yesterday early evening. As the clouds cleared away, a fantastic full double rainbow revealed itself. Unfortunately my camera phone was never going to be able to do justice to this amazing optical illusion but the photo above at least sets the scene. However, what was interesting, other than the natural visual phenomena itself, and the fact that a few other people also walking across the field stopped and gaped in awe just as Claire and I did, was that a train running along the bottom of the field slowed right down, we assume, to allow the passengers to gaze at this wondrous sight. It was one of those moments that demanded you look. Nothing else, just look.
Timmy largely ignored the spectacle.
Saturday, 10 September 2011
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Plantation Garden, shhh!
Yesterday, Claire and I took my Mum to a 'secret garden' in Norwich that some friends introduced us to last year. Started in 1856, the garden was abandoned after the Second World War, but has been slowly restored since the 1980s. It is one of those special places that demands you sit back and relax in wonder.
However, the reason for me posting about it here is to showcase these wonderful 'medieval' walls that run around certain sections of the garden, lining the banks of what was once a chalk pit.
I love the fact that found remnants of different buildings appear to have just been shoved into the wall as seemed appropriate at the time, creating a bespoke folk art memorial of different dwellings from the local area. A complete hodgepodge, it juxtaposes amusingly against the more formal aspects of the garden.
Alongside this, there are church window arches and gargoyles placed in flower boarders, seemingly at random, that give the place a strange quirkiness not dissimilar in feel to Clough Williams-Ellis' Portmeirion.
If you are in Norwich and want to get out of the hustle and bustle, then it's well worth finding the time to pay the gardens a visit. Check The Plantation Garden website for more details of its history, restoration, and more importantly, how to get there. Just don't tell too many people.
However, the reason for me posting about it here is to showcase these wonderful 'medieval' walls that run around certain sections of the garden, lining the banks of what was once a chalk pit.
I love the fact that found remnants of different buildings appear to have just been shoved into the wall as seemed appropriate at the time, creating a bespoke folk art memorial of different dwellings from the local area. A complete hodgepodge, it juxtaposes amusingly against the more formal aspects of the garden.
Alongside this, there are church window arches and gargoyles placed in flower boarders, seemingly at random, that give the place a strange quirkiness not dissimilar in feel to Clough Williams-Ellis' Portmeirion.
If you are in Norwich and want to get out of the hustle and bustle, then it's well worth finding the time to pay the gardens a visit. Check The Plantation Garden website for more details of its history, restoration, and more importantly, how to get there. Just don't tell too many people.
Mirror image
For some reason someone decided it would be a good idea to mirror the windows in the building behind the one I work in. This leads to a disconcerting sight every time I look out of the window; I see the roof of the building I'm in reflected back at me, below the roof of the building I am looking at! If I glance down, I see the windows of the floor below me. Windows within windows!
It has been like this all week, and it catches me out every time I turn around from my desk. Thankfully the floor height of where I am based and of those adjacent are different. I will therefore never catch a reflection of myself staring back at me as if standing in a different building. That really would be freaky.
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Stock replies
As someone who suffers intermittently from RSI, I get tired of writing the same email responses over and over again. I have therefore started building a database of stock replies that I can just cut and paste as needed and amend according to the specific enquiry. Here are two that I use most regularly:
Reply to poorly written emails
As a university student, it will be worth getting into the habit of ensuring your emails are grammatically correct. You don’t capitalise your ‘I’s on many occasions, your spelling needs greater attention, and you use colloquial phrases throughout. I know emails are not essays, but if you get into the habit of ensuring you pay close attention to how you write in all your communications, this will become second nature and much easier when you do have to write essays/dissertations. It will also make sure you don’t accidentally write like this when sending emails to prospective employers, which would pretty much cancel out any chances of getting an interview.
Reply to request for free design from students by local businesses/organisations
Thank you for your email and details of what sounds like an interesting project.
Firstly, as I’m sure you can appreciate, students are approaching the end of the academic year/at an important stage in their studies (delete as appropriate) and therefore all levels of the course are currently extremely busy.
The ideal situation for this sort of project would be to include it as part of an appropriate academic module, but unfortunately we are too far into the teaching programme to introduce something new—we plan our scheme of work well in advance of actually delivering them. While this brief is something I would be happy to field to students as a personal project, as we could not include it as part of the curriculum, it would be up to students individually as to whether they got involved or not. I therefore cannot guarantee any would take up an offer of involvement.
Secondly, as for the idea of a competition, I would not consider offering this up to students unless there was some sort of appropriate reward. We are asked a lot by different organisations if students would like to be part of a live project, which has obvious benefits for a student’s portfolio, but I believe it is ethically responsible to offer some recompense for what would otherwise constitute a free piece of design. The additional benefits of this are that it would offer some sort of incentive for a student to take part.
(In light of the above, if there was any extension to your proposed deadline, this would further encourage students to get involved as they are always looking for work to do over the summer break once the intensity of university projects subsides.)
Once again I’d like to thank you for your enquiry and I look forward to hearing from you.
Reply to poorly written emails
As a university student, it will be worth getting into the habit of ensuring your emails are grammatically correct. You don’t capitalise your ‘I’s on many occasions, your spelling needs greater attention, and you use colloquial phrases throughout. I know emails are not essays, but if you get into the habit of ensuring you pay close attention to how you write in all your communications, this will become second nature and much easier when you do have to write essays/dissertations. It will also make sure you don’t accidentally write like this when sending emails to prospective employers, which would pretty much cancel out any chances of getting an interview.
Reply to request for free design from students by local businesses/organisations
Thank you for your email and details of what sounds like an interesting project.
Firstly, as I’m sure you can appreciate, students are approaching the end of the academic year/at an important stage in their studies (delete as appropriate) and therefore all levels of the course are currently extremely busy.
The ideal situation for this sort of project would be to include it as part of an appropriate academic module, but unfortunately we are too far into the teaching programme to introduce something new—we plan our scheme of work well in advance of actually delivering them. While this brief is something I would be happy to field to students as a personal project, as we could not include it as part of the curriculum, it would be up to students individually as to whether they got involved or not. I therefore cannot guarantee any would take up an offer of involvement.
Secondly, as for the idea of a competition, I would not consider offering this up to students unless there was some sort of appropriate reward. We are asked a lot by different organisations if students would like to be part of a live project, which has obvious benefits for a student’s portfolio, but I believe it is ethically responsible to offer some recompense for what would otherwise constitute a free piece of design. The additional benefits of this are that it would offer some sort of incentive for a student to take part.
(In light of the above, if there was any extension to your proposed deadline, this would further encourage students to get involved as they are always looking for work to do over the summer break once the intensity of university projects subsides.)
Once again I’d like to thank you for your enquiry and I look forward to hearing from you.
Friday, 19 August 2011
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Spectacle of the big society
Here's an interesting article about links between graphic design/advertising and looting that is worth a read:
the-politics-of-desire-and-looting
It is particularly interesting when you consider how major youth fashion brands use imagery of protest to flog their goods. Levis decided to pull an add in the aftermath of the UK riots last week. See this feature on Creative Review blog for details:
Awkward timing
All this creative navel gazing should make for a lively debate at the forthcoming St Bride Library conference Critical Tensions.
the-politics-of-desire-and-looting
It is particularly interesting when you consider how major youth fashion brands use imagery of protest to flog their goods. Levis decided to pull an add in the aftermath of the UK riots last week. See this feature on Creative Review blog for details:
Awkward timing
All this creative navel gazing should make for a lively debate at the forthcoming St Bride Library conference Critical Tensions.
Monday, 15 August 2011
The Inside Out Project
A friend & colleague sent me a link to the video below stating how much it moved him. Cynical as ever, I watched and waited to be moved. Around the point that the shanty town is featured with the roof tops adorned with posters of their inhabitants, that's when it got me—the vinyl prints also help keep the rain out you see.
Then there's the shot of the train passing above posters on an embankment completing the picture, a thing of beauty where there isn't much. Watch for yourself:
Inside Out is impressive enough to have won the TED Prize 2011, an annual award that goes to a person whose one wish is to change the world.
As the project's website details: "INSIDE OUT is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. These digitally uploaded images will be made into posters and sent back to the project’s co-creators for them to exhibit in their own communities".
Where will you be exhibiting your portraits?
Links:
The Inside Out Project
TEDPrize
Thanks Dave.
Then there's the shot of the train passing above posters on an embankment completing the picture, a thing of beauty where there isn't much. Watch for yourself:
Inside Out is impressive enough to have won the TED Prize 2011, an annual award that goes to a person whose one wish is to change the world.
As the project's website details: "INSIDE OUT is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. These digitally uploaded images will be made into posters and sent back to the project’s co-creators for them to exhibit in their own communities".
Where will you be exhibiting your portraits?
Links:
The Inside Out Project
TEDPrize
Thanks Dave.
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