Asia tozza foundation course

For my final outcome I decided to create a unique, vibrant and bold shoulder piece. Heavily influenced by pop art. As the predominant colours used by artists of this movement were yellow,red and blue; similar to those on my outcome. The triangular shape of my work enabled it to have a comic-like feel and abstract expressionism , these both being one of the main themes explored within pop art. Overall, I am pleased with my outcome and feel as though it conveys an exciting feeling and mood to my audience.

This moodboard is a collection of images that explores the pop art movement. It was a way in which I could openly place all my ideas and experiments onto one page. It also enabled me to show others a proposed look without investing too much in a failed direction. Overall, it helped me establish all of the baselines that ecentually lead into a style guide; colour pallets,typography and layout.

I decided to create a few rough and fast sketches. This process enabled me to get my initial ideas on paper whilst being creative using my imagination. Allowing my ideas to involve was enjoyable and separated my concepts from detail. Influenced by Vivienne Westwood and the concept of modern punk. It has a circular neck created out of cardboard and pointed paper edges for the splits on each side of the dress.  Triangular and pointed dress, influenced by the pop art movement and artists such as Andy Warhol. Incorporating the idea of repeated shapes and patterns.  Distortion created by disc-shaped paper which is wrapped around in a circular manner. It stretches the boundaries and fully embraces the challenge of stepping out of the norm.  Pointy and sharp edges influenced by the Art Deco movement (1920s) and the design of architects/ buildings.  This dress pushes the limits and incorporates non-traditional materials such as layers of scrunched up pape...

Pop art is an iconic movement that appeared in the mid 1950s, characterised by brash, bold, colourful and humorous artwork. It challenges the norms and traditions of fine art. But instead is made up of everyday objects in our surroundings such as washing powders, comic strips, recognizable celebrity’s and soda bottles. Which is then combined with unrelated materials and removed from its usual context.  I decided to look at the work of the best known figure in the Pop Art movement, Andy Warhol. He was obsessed with consumer culture and celebrities.Which lead to him experimenting with mechanical  reproductions based on mass-produced images from popular culture.His work inspired me due to his enduring imagery and his omnivorous curiosity. It was a style that I intended to incorporate within my own work.

Prior to starting my wearable art project I decided to carry out some research, as this would enable me to build knowledge and equip myself with the information needed to make informed decisions when creating my final piece. As part of my research I decided to visit the Museum of London, located on London Wall. This enabled me to establish traditional clothing from prehistoric times, which I could then compare to modern fashion. It could also potentially inspire and encourage creation in my own work.  The following pieces stood out to me:

Fashion and art are to separate entities which tend to crossover and collaborate. Allowing the two to mix enables designers and artists to create fantastic and rare results. Art can really capture the public’s imagination and is by far the greatest influence on fashion weather it be architects and their designs or painters; inspiration is to be found everywhere. For example Gianni Versace, 1991 Pop Art collection, heavily relied on the pop art movement and Versace selected classic Warhol images that originated in the mid 1960s, such as Marilyn Monroe. Having read the exploratory handbook it was clear that I was to create a piece of wearable art also known as 'art to wear' out of paper, in relation to my chosen theme (Pop Art). My final piece would not only involve aesthetics considerations but would also be a unique artistic creation.

Visiting an art museum has always been a worthy endeavour. It enables me to engage with a diverse range of art. Whilst allowing me to explore different ideas, even if they were in opposition to my own thinking. Seeing an art piece in the flesh provides access to new concepts and enables me expand my understanding of the context of the artwork ,with the emotions that surround the piece. As I explored the different exhibitions in the Tate, I tried to keep an open mind and not be judgemental. I, shortly came across the work of the African-American photographer, Lorna Simpson named "then & now 2016". The art work was a combination of photography and ink which, challenges the traditional conceptions of race and identity politics. There was a simple beauty about the work that controlled my thoughts; almost commanding me to constantly gaze at it. The black and white photographs themselves were taken during the race riots in Detroit in July 1967. Although the sixties was consid...

I decided to go to Shoreditch to create a series of photographs, with this being my most successful one. I became fascinated with the huge selection of street art and the visual art which is displayed on almost every street. Personally , generic attractions such as the London Eye are constantly at the forefront of London that they have began to loose their glimmer. Which lead to me exploring a different angel to our diverse capital. When taking the shot I considered different elements that could possibly enhance the impact of my photos. Symmetry and patterns definitely played a huge role in my composition, whether they be natural or man-made. From the pavement all the way through to the windows on the building, there is a strong sense of symmetry creating an eye-catching composition. Whereas incorporating patterns in my photograph allowed me to create a pleasing composition. Experimentation was vital when photographing my composition ;trying with different angles, taking tons of s...

Overall ,I am pleased with my outcome as it conveys a feeling to my audience. The typface I decided to use was 'molluca font family' from 1001 fonts, as this triggers  a feeling of connection. I thought that its such a light and diary-like font giving it a personal feel as though it has been hand written by Martin Luther King, himself. I believe it was also successful in keeping people reading, clearly good typography should allow the reader to focus on content and by using a recognisable quote by a civil right activist it does just that; it just makes sense. However, I do feel that by work could have improved by ensuring that my writing fits exactly into the image, as the background was distracting to the eye. i could have accomplished this by using Illustrator more. Lastly, I could have also used different typefaces in order to add interest to my outcome.

  Freedom  My first sketch depicts a bird of freedom; which is the enemy of my chosen theme 'racism'. Within it is a variety of powerful words. I decided to use a simple black and white colour scheme to show the contrast between good and evil. #ISMYSONNEXT?  Similar to the 'blacklivesmatter' campaign, I decided to create my own movement named 'is my son next?' referring to black mothers worrying if their innocent son is next to be murdered or abused due to their skin colour. The lettering has purposely been slanted to create a sense of confusion and to emphasise on the idea of the mother vomiting out the words, as racism can have both a psychological and physical impact on black families. I also decided that the font will be made out of newspaper articles of innocent victims, to suggest that the mothers son could be the next headline on the front cover. BLACKLIVESMATTER  This sketch reads 'BM' meaning black matters. I used hands within the f...

Attending the workshop was extremely helpful and engaging. We got introduced to the basics of different design programmes including; illustrator, photo shop and indesign. These programmes allow me to design and deliver exceptional digital outcomes, which would be essential in succeeding in the graphic project. As a beginner I had to quickly become familiar with new tools ,due to timing. Whilst trying to not be afraid of explore with ideas and stepping out of my comfort zone. It was a enjoyable experience and it enabled me to start thinking about what programme I was going to use for my final outcome.

Having had a look at the exploratory handbook and researching into my theme, it quickly became clear that typography itself can be presented and created in different forms including; collages, print, by hand, interactive or even a sculpture. I decided that for my final I would create a digital format, as this would enable me ton get familiar with editing programmes, such as Photo shop and Adobe Illustrator. As far as my theme I decided to continue exploring racism. As this is something I am passionate about and want to protest to society.

"You cannot be a good typographer if you aren’t a good reader" Stephan Coles This quote could relate to my theme,as type itself could be considered to be branding and clearly you need to be able to read the visuals to understand what is being promoted ,or the message you are trying to get across to your audience. If my project is not visually engaging then the chances are that it id not reader friendly and can not be understood.

Guillaume Apollinaire He used poetry as a way of escapism during the war. His poems were effective due to his typeface and spacial arrangement which worked to create an image. In this sense the visuals could be considered to be just as important as the text. His style was something I intended to incorporate in my own work; a typeface to add meaning to a composition. Reza Abedini   A recognisable Iranian graphic designer, who combines simple illustrations with poetic typography which has heavily been influenced by his Islamic heritage Persian language. I was captured due to his beliefs being voiced through his artwork.

This interactive digital mood board collects different creative insperations in order to prepare me for this new project. It includes my inital thoughts  and could be considered to be the first draft of my project . Clearly it shows what direction my project could possibly moving towards. 

I decided to create a pencil poster on black paper ,with a racist extremist group in the middle (KKK). Each member is holding a protest poster with quotes.I felt this was powerful image in getting the message of racism across. Within this I used a red background to suggest the blood of the innocents killed and convey the idea of 'no hope'. Whereas, the yellow symbolises the light at the end of the tunnel and hope. Having presented my outcome to tutor and group I was able gain some constructive feedback which I could use as a basis of improvement. My group suggested that I change the clothing of the KKK members to clothing normal people, police guards and those of power to suggest that racism doesn’t have a face and is not always easy to spot. In addition to this my tutor suggested that I remove the coloured background as  the image alone is powerful and that I use an print out for the quotes on the protest board/sign ,as this would make my work look more professional.

KKK (Racist extremists) Ku Klux Klan : an extremist group who have a created a movement in America that targets black Americans, Jews, immigrants and most recently, Catholics. They are recognized for using terrorism against groups/individuals including murder and physical assault. Neo-Nazism ( extremist) A political movement borrowing elements from Nazism and following a similar ideology including racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism.   Cheistopher Cantwell  (extremist) " Blacks are prone to violence and have lower IQs; Jews spread communism and can’t be trusted; immigrants are outbreeding whites; and a race war is all but inevitable."   Malcolm x (activist) Reffered as the most influential African-American in history ,he was a courages indiviual who stood up for rights of blacks. Rosa Parks (activist) An activist in the civil right movement. She refused to obey the bus drivers command to give her se...

Raise your hands against racism. The idea of coming together as a society and fighting against racism. A single hand allows us to send a message of unity and solidarity. Police hate crime Institutional racism can be expressed by those in authority within our community (this can be individuals or a social group). They use their power as a way to support racist thinking.                                                       Racist extremist group (KKK)                                                     A recognisable hate group who have been motivated by                                                 ...

Once I received the brief which outline the expectation, aim and outcome. It was clear that the project was so broad that I had no idea where to even begin.I went on to undertaken my own independent research into possible ideas linking to the given theme. My initial ideas were; -Equal rights and discrimination -Violence and hostility due to disagreements -Economic depression and poverty -Right vs wrong -Capitalism -Law and punishment -Racism Evidently all these topics were too broad, therefore I decided to narrow it down to 'police hate crime' which related to racism.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"  Mahatma Gandhi This quote could relate to my theme 'dissent and resistance' as it is clearly about freedom and standing up for what you believe. It suggests that we shouldn’t root for violence in any circumstance as this doesn’t solve injustice ,instead creates it. This can be seen clearly in the idea of groups holding hatred towards another group. The hurt ethnic minorities in London felt for the killing of Mark Duggan in 2011 by police is the same hurt that the police feels for the riots and youth violence in the community. At some level, both groups are using violence for wrongs being done, but this causes more destruction ,hurt and misery.

The provoking and confronting movie from the 1950s brings forward significant debates and world issues. The movie itself follows the people of Algiers fighting for freedom and independence from the French government. As expected freedom is not an option without putting up a fight. Terrorism and torture are key elements throughout the film creating an emotional effect. The people of algiers are made to seem like the 'others' within the community, that are willing to push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. Watching this movie made me question the efficacy of torture as a means for combating terrorism but also made me realise that 'resistance' is a movement that has occurred for years in different countries by a variety of means.

I decided to visit the national gallery museum located in Trafalgar Square, which i found fascinating. I was able to see work that interested me that I could possibly gain inspiration from whilst being able to understand more about the history and culture of our local community. To specific paintings that captured me were at this museum were : The Execution of Maximillian  (Showing the emperor of Mexico,Maximilian being executed in 1867) - this linked to the given theme as it could suggest 'resistance' against the law and legal reinforcements. Kitchen maid with the supper at Emmales  (Depicts a black maid carrying out her daily chores) - this linked to the given theme as it shows segregation and the idea of having different beliefs due to race and ethnicity. I then visited the national portrait gallery, to see the best contemporary art and to boost my own personal creativity. Having entered the BP portrait award 2017 I was fascinated by; 'Another fine day on Elysian Fie...