[Intro to Graphic Arts (Wednesday Lecture): Christopher Brown]

Of the many interesting and inspirational thing Chris spoke about within his lecture one particulalr idea/quote stuck with me.

"...I am serious about my work but my work is often not serious"

The reason that it stuck in my head is that this idea of being serious about the un-serious is how I approach my own work. Although I am completely serious about my work my work is not serious and not just in terms of what is actually contained within it, it's design work if i make mistakes or do a god awful piece of work noone will die, nothing bad will happen.

Chris also spoke about the fact that our inspiration doesn't just feed of what we are currently working on but is collect over our whole lives starting from birth. For instance Chris made the link between his colour schemes and the work of Hergé more specifically in "The Adventure of Tintin"

Some other interesting things Chris Spoke about:

Pookie,

Jeff Fischer

Parallax,

Naive Signage,

Importance of colour,

Don't be apologetic about your work,

Sell yourself (Have an ego,)

Barney Bubbles

Work should be led by experimentation,

Inform and delight,

Get on with it,

Americans don't like Dog's bumholes to be coloured in,

[Intro to Graphic Arts (Wednesday Lecture): Chris Rodenhurst]

If one word could describe one of the main things I took from Chris' lecture that word would be "Experiment"

Experiment with different styles,

Experiment with your approach,

Experiment with different tools and techniques,

Basically JUST EXPERIMENT!

Use LOTS of refrences (Alpaca's have weird feet...[see below])

In general people within the creative profession are nicer people.

When working in a agency you need to have a thick skin. "Nothing personal and super snappy"

I really like the fact that Chris has fun with his work and experiments with style keeping his work fresh.

Whilst looking at the Sketchybeast blog  I came across more of Chris' experiments drawing over photographs digitally and frankly they are awesome.

[Intro to Graphic Arts (Wednesday Lecture): Cecilia Garside]

It's perfectly fine to draw people without them noticing...

Creative process and approach (Nine Steps)

Keep a Sketchbook.

Don't be precious with you sketchbook. (Be messy, doodle, scribble whatever helps you work out your problems)

Experiment. (Make and embrace mistakes)

Be Inspired by others.

Set additional restrictions.

Be inspired by your surroundings.

Collect things.

Don't sit with a blank page. (could possibly used line or graph paper, paint on the page first, doodle etc)

Eat the frog. (Tackle the hardest part first)

Also really enjoyed how the rules were presenting incorporating mixed media and 3d-type.

[Intro to Graphic Arts (Wednesday Lecture): Carole Potter]

"If people did not do silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done" - Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Absolutely loved the Brendan Dawes clips we were shown during the lecture (Full video I THINK below might be a different one still good though)

I really like Brendan Dawes' approach to graphic design, very laid back yet obsessed if that makes any sense whatsoever. He is a very quotable man!

"(Referencing Tron) Reminding people of something they have never seen before."

"The lack of undo" when you use a pen on paper forces you to keep and acknowledge mistakes.

"Update your approach as well as your software."

[Intro to Graphic Arts (Wednesday Lecture): Jon Spencer]

Not Allah (I may have read that slide wrong...)

Used to sit and copy fonts from a book which could be considered some what of an obsession but many artist/designers are obsessive which reminded me of the Sagmeister quote "Obsession makes my life worse and my work better."

"It's not important to develop your own style but your own approach." - Massimo Vignelli.

Collecting can be very important and will inform your work and approach. (Some of the stuff I collect Badges and random toys and shart)  

Have a varied set of skills, play with everything you can get your hands on even if you never end up using it within your work.

 Has an interest in Encyclopedias as they are only ever really true for a very short period when they are published giving an insight into the time they were published.

Did work for atman-bay... (Random bit of pig latin but feck it)

Has made me interested in the idea of imposing restriction on myself to see what comes out such as limiting the colour palette, size of the outcome, no text etc.

"Simple ideas beautifully executed" - Jon Spencer 

[Intro to Graphic Arts (Wednesday Lecture): Mike O’Shaughnessy]

There was alot to take away from Mike's Lecture such as:

There may be a difference between traditional and digital technologies and techniques within the subject of Graphic arts but that doesn't mean with the right ideas and skill set they can co-exist, even within a single piece.

The easiest way to see wether an idea will sink or swim is to just rough it out and sketch it to get you ideas across.

Typography is also useable a purely decoration to the piece.

A poster doesn't always have to contain the complete story of what it depicts, as long as it is engaging and engaging causing the person viewing it to decipher the rest of the info.

The ampersand (&) within the typeface is stunning.

But I think the most important themes underpinning the whole of the lecture where never to underestamate the power of drawing wether that be with a crappy HB pencil (or my personal favorite Staedtler Mars Lumograph(B) pencil) or using a graphic tablet/vector program on a computer.

Even more important than that I was to always be inquisitive, always try out new ideas. It doesn't matter wether you have say never looked at typography seriously before make it ft your style and purpose whilst you learn about the skills needed and also to always carry/use a sketchbook, it doesn't have to be clean and neat it can be dirty with scribbly doodles and ideas in, think of it as an external "hard drive of ideas.

Overall I was struck but how much I still have to learn and do to even get a fraction of the work quality that Mike has, which scared me...

[Intro to Graphic Arts (Wednesday Lecture): Ian Mitchell]

I found this lecture both very interesting and very very useful as we were shown/introduced to work/designers/idea/artists etc that we were perhaps not aware of in the past souch as Emigre magazine and a trailer for a short film titled 'Enter The Void" by Gaspar Noe (LINK) but to name a few.

The lecture was also interspersed with very intersting quotes and ideas that will no doubt feed into my work as the modules and projects progress such as:

The meaning behind a symbol or image only really exists through a public consensus of the meaning.

The fact that fonts/typefaces are only really symbols for the "code" that are language is.

'Never ask a designer to design a bridge, ask a designer to design a way across water' - Zelda Warrison.