Working like elves...

Well... December is here, advent has started and I am yet to do any Christmas shopping! I am shocked an appalled at myself! I suppose I still have enough time though. It is the end of term in less than two weeks, and though I will probably be given a mountain of work to do, I am hoping to have a small amount of time at the being of the holidays to relax and enjoy seeing everyone back home. I am starting to miss it all quite a lot, even though I swear there is nothing to do, I still wish I was sitting in the Slug (and Lettuce) with my friends, enjoying and overpriced cup of coffee and chatting for hours, because it is just too cold to go outside.

I went home for a weekend the other week. Had a couple of nights of really good sleep in my own bed. I had a really lovely surprise when I got back to Leeds as well. My Mum has packed a parcel in my suitcase, it contained a new homemade advent calendar, which in the last 3 days has yielded wonderful little presents, so THANK YOU MUM! I was worried that wouldn't have an advent calendar here (and buying one for myself just felt a little sad), but I am now very much enjoying advent.

Since handing in all of our first modules work for evaluation work seems to have come in flurries (a little like the snow I wish would fall here "up north"). We were given a research brief for the few days we had off whilst our work was being marked; we had to choose our favourite subject, and produce 40 A4 pages, plus a sketchbook of research about it. I chose skiing as my subject and worked really hard to get all the information that we had been asked to collect - sorting through family photos from the 12 or so years. The day back at uni we had to swap work with someone, this proceeded to happen 3 more times, each time the work we were given would require more research. Eventually we were given our own work back, and are now working on a new brief. The idea of the whole process was to get us all to understand the process of research a bit better. I can safely say that yes, I do understand research better, but I am no fan of giving my work to other people. Surely it isn't a particularly efficient way of motivating students to do work... especially if you get a subject you hate, or have no interest in!

Anyway, we've all been pretty busy which has meant a fair amount of sleep loss, and getting irritated quite easily about all the other work we have to finish for critical studies, and the brief for visual language!! Never mind, it will soon be Christmas and I will have an excuse for being lazy :D

We received our grades back for the module we've completed. Everyone was pretty nervous, as we have to pass the first year to continue onto the second (therefore requiring us to pass every module), even though the grades we do get this year, don't count toward our degree. I passed with 66% (which equates to a 2:1) so I'm really pleased, and know where I need to improve now!

Forest...

I went up to Edinburgh with some friends, to visit another friend. On the Sunday morning she took us to this amazing cafe called Forest, a non-profit, run entirely by volunteers, vegan cafe. It was a huge, rather cold room (people kept leaving the front door open) with battered sofas and massive coffee tables. Emily (vegan) and I ordered the full English vegan brunch - I dont think I've ever eaten a better breakfast, whilst being able to feel good about the complete lack of animal products I was ingesting.
The best part of the whole experience was the required trip into the basement to use the toilet. The stairwell walls were covered in amazing illustrations and there was a darkroom and studio avaliable for use if you asked nicely!
I couldn't resists taking a few photos, if only point out that Leeds more places like this!!!






















http://www.theforest.org.uk/

Message and Interpretation - Response

3 A3 Scale Posters (2:1 format)
















The second part of our Message and Interpretation brief, using the word Selective as a stimulus

A Creative Countdown...

We were given a brief that required us to produce 10 A6 postcards using illustrator relating to 10 things we had learnt since starting our course. These could be things specific to the college/course or things related to the city, or moving away from home.

We had to use Adobe Illustrator to produce these postcards and were only allowed to use type and numerical forms, no image. We had to randomly select two colours that we had to use throughout the designs, now other colour was allowed.


These are my 10 resolutions

Banksy

Having spent a fair amount of time in London in the past few years I've noticed the random graffiti around the city. I can't really say I'm a huge fan of Banksy's work, but you have to admit that it is pretty clever. Some of the images are a little disturbing but most of the time they make a political statement of some sort (don't expect to explain these, I'm useless when it comes to politics) Anyway, I've found a few images of my favourites...



"Pooh" - This makes me so sad, but I still love it.





"Red Carpet Rats"






"Balloon Girl" - This is my favourite Banksy piece. I always feel so sad when i see this picture, but I love it. I think that the balloon represents the important things we need to hold onto...plus I just like balloons

The best sandwhich shop in Leeds

Chris came to stay last weekend, and for want of something better to do on Saturday we decided to walk into the city centre and get some lunch.
We went to a deli in Queens Arcade called Pickles and Potter and proceeded to choose from a large range of sandwhiches and salads. I chose the recommended favourite (i like having difficult decisions made for me sometimes) which was Tuna with lemon and black pepper mayonnaise, sundried tomatoe chutney and something drizzled in pesto. Chris chose the "Award winning Beef" which looked amazing and apparently had horseraddish mustard in it. My sandwhich was incredible! I have never tasted a better sandwhich, and I've eaten my fair share of sandwhiches.

The deii itself was voted best sandwhich shop in Leeds, and I can't say I'm surprised. The shop is really tiny, they're expanding so that they have more seating next door. They sell loads of preserves and condements, not paticularly conventional ones, but they all sounded pretty good. I am tempted to go back and buy the gin and lime jam.

Anyway, I erge those requiring sandwhiches of high quality to visit this lovely little shop and enjoy which ever takes their fancy.

Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&q=queens+arcade,+leeds&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wl

An efficient waste of time...

Staring out for a train window is hardly my favourite activity, but it sure does help pass the time! My father always tells me that "an intelligent mind should never be bored"; I have taken this wonderful nugget of wisdom on board (its hard not to after hearing it so often) and I'm trying to fill my time efficiently.

My course is going fairly welll; for the first couple of weeks it felt quite steady and consistant, but now - in week 5 - I'm starting to realise that my life is about to get a whole more complicated! We have just been given a brief to complete over "reading week", we also have an illustrator based project due in at the end of the module, a critical studies photo essay, the instruction to continue with our blog, and do other general research! It feels like the end of reading week already seeing as I have already filled up most of my days with advance planning!

I'm off home on Tuesday, which I am really looking forward to now. I really want a bath. If I were at home with the opertunity of having a bath everyday, I know I wouldn't use it. But the complete lack of bath here in my halls makes me want one so much! I guess you don't know what you've got til you loose it! So I shall have to indulge a little whilst I'm at home!

The other days of my week off are to be filled with a day trip to France with my Dad, work and a visit from Chris when I get back to Leeds! So as you can see, I'm getting good at filling my time, I just can get around the efficient bit yet!

I think that the change of season doesn't help. The quick transition that has taken place from late summer to autum here has made me some what lazy. I love autum, and happily found a big pile of fallen leaves to jump around the other day on my way home. I'm a big fan of the chilly mornings and the way it gets dark so much earlier, but it is hardly conducive to doing work and being motivated! I really like those days when it is gloomy outside and you can justify wearing your pyjamas all day long and drinking ends cups of tea and cocoa. I much prefer autum and winter to summer. There is so weird sort of nostaglia feeling that goes along with autum. I really can't pin point what it is, but its definately a mixture of wearing nice warm coats and gloves, eating heavy food and the strong smell of car fumes on crisp clear mornings. It makes me feel all sort of happy for some reason, and usually puts me in a good mood for the day.

I like the way you can break events and certain times of year into small groups of smells and particular feelings. Like a skiing holiday; the smell and taste of vin chaud (mulled wine, but french), crackling fires in cosy resaurants, mountain sun screen and strong wind whistling in your ears. Or a car journey to see family; clean car smell, diet coke, minstrals and fresh shampoo hair smell. I love being able to instanly associtate things with feelings like this, I suppose that is where tradition orginates from, the things you remember, no matter how small or insignificant.

Thinking about tradition makes me wish christmas was sooner. Though I truly detest the sale of christmans related good before the 1st of Novemeber (some people think that it should be the first of December, but they are the disorganised people!) Who really needs to purchase christmas cards in August? But I do love christmas, or rather the run up to christmas.. but I suppose i should save this stuff for nearer the time...

Personal Professional Development...

Last week we were asked to bring in 6 pieces of work for a special sort of tutorial session (as mentioned on 10/10) . We were given a specific list of categories that the pieces had to derive from: a photograph, an illustration, a piece of packaging, a designer we liked, a piece of typography and our favourite piece of our own work.

For my own piece I chose the Visual Countdown ribbon numbers


An Illustraion: Liselotte Watkins

Packaging: Coco Mademoiselle, Chanel purfume box

A Photograph: The Untitled Film Stills, Cindy Sherman

A piece of Typography: Big Red chewing gum wrapper

A Designer: Harry Beck, The London Underground Map

Hugs...

Just a quick post before i head off to Birmingham for a wonderful night of Musical nonsense...
I was sent a lovely happy email from my boyfriend with links to this website. I love these little characters and I hope you do aswell!
















http://www.ponandzi.com/

Studio Development...

We have these wonderful days timetabled into our week known as "studio development". Basically these are *whisper* "days off" when we are meant to carry on with the work and briefs that we have at the time. I however am finding these days increasingly difficult to make productive due to their lazy nature. It is very tempting to remain in my pyjamas all day long and do nothing but drink tea for hours on end. Today however (Wednesday, therefore Studio development) I have managed to get and actually do some work. I am ignoring the fact that later I intend on spending some time in Topshop as it is 20% off for students this evening, and believing that this day is actually very productive.

**have just returned to the computer with a nice cup of tea - See i said tea was a distraction!**

And Jaffa Cakes. I wonder if evreyone likes Jaffa Cakes? I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't like them. There are those people who eat them in a weird way; by this I mean picking off all the chocolate first, then removing the orange center as one whole piece, eating the cakes part and then the orange part. I personally don't do this, I'm not really one for playing with my food. But I have seen it done before and can say that it looks no more satisfying than eating a Jaffa Cake in the conventional way i.e. biting it!

I would however like to find out just how many people in the UK don't like Jaffa Cakes, not really a survey I could pull off on my own, but maybe I could write to National Statistics office and ask them to do it for me....do they do that? Thinking about it I'm guessing not...never mind.

I suppose I should really get on with some work now...I have been trying to think of the 'Top 10 things I've learnt since starting the course" for ages now. I'm not saying I haven't learnt anything, there are just so many new things that it is hard to pin point things in particular. I've done my Personal, Professional Development preparation. We had to find 5 pieces of work by other designers: a piece I like, a photograph, an illustration, a piece of typography, and a piece of packaging. At this point I have no idea what we are meant to be doing with them...guess I'll find out later this week!

A Visual Countdown

Brief #2: A Visual Countdown
Stimulus word: Desirable



10 finished numbers based on the word Desirable. Made from ribbon, organza, embroidery beads, sewing thread and double sided tape.

Leeds Vs Harpenden: The Backlash

Certain people, who shall remain nameless, have informed me that there are plenty of good things about Harpenden. So, I apologise, and in response to their request I am going to include some of the things I really like about Harpenden, rather than only the silly pretentious stuff i talked about last time.

So, Harpenden is actually quite nice. It is a pretty town (though i refer to it as a village) with lots of trees. It is about a 30minute train journey from central london, which is why lots of commuters live there. Driving to town is not advisable in the morning as there are several bottle necks on both sides due to the station, and the three secondary schools all within about 10 minutes of each other. The schools, according to statistics (and the local parents) are pretty good. I went to Roundwood Park (clearly the best!) for 7 years, even though it was the furthest away from my house. The other two schools were nearer to me, one only 5 mins walk and the other about 10minutes. But Roundwood had the best uniform by far - none of this bottle green and tweed blaser nonsense! We wore black and grey....and red occasionally.

The people there are rather nice too I suppose. I have to say i prefer food shopping in Harpenden; everyone in Leeds seems to either plow at you with a trolley, stop in the middle of an aisle so no one else can move, or think they're out for a walk in the park and strol around so slowly you want to jump up and down behind them and scream.

There seems to be a general concensus that people are friendlier "up north". I personally don't agree; granted no one in London speaks to each other, even if you're strap hanging on the tube and squashed into someone elses arm pit. At home its not too bad, though granted I do know a lot more people in Harpenden than I do in Leeds, which is possible why I haven't noticed the difference yet.

If you're still not convinced these links are to websites proving how nice Harpenden really is, so feel free to explore and tell if I'm wrong about anything else!

http://www.harpenden.gov.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpenden
http://www.harpendenvillage.com/

Flat Pack Penguins

On the request of a friend I produce the following piece of work. He asked for a penguin, I then promised to make him a penguin and post it to him. For obvious reasons the penguin had to be flat so that it would fit in the post box...the rest is pretty self explanatory...

Finished photographs to follow...

If anyone wants a Flat Pack Penguin please leave me a comment and include your email address, Thanks!

UPDATE

Photos of finished penguins...

How to live my life

This is a random piece of work I did on a rather grey saturday. The entire piece is based around things I like, images that caught my eye in magazines and generally nice stuff. I would like to think of it as maybe a visual guide to being me...im not totally sure if it's just right though....

Leeds Vs Harpenden

I've just finished my breakfast. It was quite yummy. For as long as i can remember I've been one of those really undecided breakfast people. Some people don't eat breakfast, I have no idea how they get through the day, I can hardly function without breakfast. But I'm never very good at deciding what it is exactly i want.Today I had Special K (I'm not really sure what it is that makes it special though), but it was the only thing I had in the kitchen, so i really had no option. Sometimes on Saturdays and Sundays my Mum would make me pancakes for breakfast. I love pancakes, and they pretty much make a meal at any time of the day. I sadly dont really have time to make pancakes in the morning here.

I dont think I'm missing home too much yet. I thought i would be really home sick, but obviously I'm enjoying myself too much! Thinking about it, home and here are completely different. Harpenden is pretty much the anti-leeds. There is almost nothing to do (for young people anyway) there are however 21 hairdressers and 12 estate agents, more than enough for any town where the population is less than 30,000. I really do wonder how any of the hairdressers stay in bussiness, no town needs 21 hairdressing salons.

There is also a lot of common land in Harpenden, east, west, north, south, you name it, that bit of harpenden has some common and this includes 4 different public and private golf courses. The main open common area encompasses more than 238 acres, impressive huh!? Apparently the average house price is £400,902 (2006), and disproportionate to the rest of the country. It seems to be a town of dissproportions. There must be about 4 or 5 expensive ladies wear shops on the highstreet, yet there are no mens clothing shops. In comparison to Leeds which has more than enough shopping areas for the whole of Yorkshire it seems pretty pathetic and pretentious.

30th September 2007
UPDATE
My mother has informed me that apprently there are two mens clothing shops, so you can all be reassured that the men in Harpenden are not walking around naked. It would probably make the place a whole lot more interesting if they were though...