What I did in the 2 Weeks Off - 19.02.24
For the two weeks off from uni/college, I mostly focused on exploring as much as Bristol that I wanted to see with my friend. She was also interested in things such as museums and Art galleries, so this give gave me the perfect thing to try and do some primary research for the design of the magazine.
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
The first museum/art gallery that we went was the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. This gallery hosted both a history and art museum and was the first things that we did in Bristol (other than eat and visit my family). The photos that I would like to talk about are shown below, as these are the photos that I took and got inspiration from, in this project.
I liked the way that the hexagonal pattern was shown in the bee’s nest as this shows a sort of symmetrical design to the pattern, whilst also being able to not be symmetrical as well, due to the way that the nest is broken. I can take inspitration from this as with my design, I could experiment with patterns and how they can be formed within the design. The symmetrical design also shows how everything is balanced and how having a balanced mental health will be useful for someone.
I also liked the way that the shadows on the wall was shown, as this is something that I could play with in Illustrator. Playing with the different opacities and different overlapping colours could show how different moods of a person and how one person is made up of many different moods and colours.
I liked how the sculpture is not the thing that I mostly focused on in this photo, as this is something that did not catch my eye when walking around and looking at things. I liked the way that the shadow was the one that caught my eye first, compared to everything else.
I also liked the vase that was made by creating swirls on the side of the vase. The vase was created to look like (to me) a turbulent flow of things (think of how coloured dye in water is mixed in). The colours also melting into each other or swirling into each other is something that I can imitate or even when just using paint to imitate as well, as creating this in photoshop is something that I can do, but creating it analogue techniques is much easier, but harder to get right.
I also liked the way that the last set of pottery has been made. To me, it relates to the project, as this shows a sort of black and white out look in life, which to me, signifies that the person only thinks in black and white, not in more greys. Thinking in black and white only signifies that they are more of a firm person in believing that they are okay or not okay, not believing that their mood can change throughout the day.
I also like the aesthetic of these things as this is something that drew my attention to, compared to the other things on display.
Bristol Print Fair and Other Inspiration
The next thing that we went to (in another day) was a print fair! This was something that we stumbled across and found interesting to see, as I have had some print-making skills and would be interesting to see what they would come up with the skills that I know.
The prints that I enjoyed the most were the hexagonal designs by Emma Studd and the coordinates pieces by Emily Ketteringham.
I found the pieces from Emily Ketteringham to be very inspiring and interesting as the specific coordinates are shown to be places where the colours of the surrounding area were created to be within this minimalist design, where you can still see where the place is but in a less-detailed look due to the colours of the place still being within the piece. This made her pieces stand out from the rest of the designs there as I felt a sense of belonging, whilst still not being able to pin point exactly where the colours came from specifically. Only after looking up the coordinates, I was able to understand the journey that Ketteringham was taking, only passing through this road and taking inspiration from it, like how people in our lives come and go in our own journeys.
I also liked Emily Studd’s work too, as this was more contemporary work and this is something that I always gravitate towards whilst taking inspiration. I liked her hexagonal piece on wood as the texture on the wood, with the print textures made the piece whole and made for a more interesting design, that could work for a home setting. I also think that choosing colours that are less vibrant and mute pulls the design towards my liking a lot more.
The slideshow below shows the photos that I took of the designs that I liked on that day;
Other than the screen printing show, we also stumbled across a stall that sold a lot of old things such as screen prints and magazine clippings and it was interesting to see what they were and what was the oldest and what was interesting for us to see for each design.
The slide show below shows the designs that I liked whilst looking through the antique pieces.
Arnolfini
Another art gallery that we went to was the Arnolfini, which hosted an exhibition of the works of Elias Sime, who is an Ethiopian Visual Artist who was born in 1968.
All of his works of art in the exhibit, it mostly comprised of recycled electrical components and wires and seeing that I had a background in electrical engineering, this would be up my ally in terms of works of art, as I was able to recognise the small details of what the components were before being made into the work of art that we can see in the wall. The slideshow below shows the exhibit. I liked the piece that looked like magnifying glasses, magnifying the area that they are over and magnifying pieces of a map (by the looks of things).
The piece that inspired me the most was called Veiled Whispers, which is shown below;
For this piece, the way that the woven wire was created to make something look like either soundwaves or water after a droplet has been dropped into it was inspiring as I know that I can try and create the same effect as this on the scanner. Whilst we were there, there were some beanbags that we were able to sit on and think about the whole piece and that was where I was able to think about how I would be able to recreate this look on the scanner.
I also liked the way that the piece made me feel so at peace with everything, being able to slow down and relax and be able to sit and ponder on what my life is and how my life is so at peace when I was there, instead of being so frantic and rushing. It was an interesting and eye-opening experience in my life.
M Shed
The next place that we visited was the M Shed. This had more to do with Bristol and the following area’s history and thus, not a lot of things to take inspiration from, but inspiration, none the less, which can be shown below;
Other Inspiration From Bristol
The last pieces here was just some random pieces either found in the streets of Bristol or found in art shops in Bristol. This is also shown below;
Accidentally Wes Andereson
In the last few days during her time here, we both went to London and I managed to book us a slot to Accidentally Wes Anderson Gallery it was interesting to see how people have taken inspiration from Wes Anderson and his films to get everything so perfect with everything.
Anyways, these are the photos that I have taken from the exhibit;
All of their work can bee seen on the instagram page @accidentallywesanderson
