It's Cold Outside

This is just a quick design post about a coat I'm designing for myself. I will put up photos as I start making but I thought I'd start with my initial designs and fabric swatches. I bought this wool last year from the Cloth House on Berwick Street (my favourite fabric shop) and have been dying to make a winter coat from it and have FINALLY finished the design. It's silly its taken this long but I wanted to make it really nice!

This is the design. Because the file is so large, i had to scale it down a lot upload it, but it's fairly simple in design. It has a wide funnel neck with a hood, a fitted top half and slight flare from the wist seam. The bust darts have been put into princess seams and the side pockets are slightly baggy and away from the main fabric. There are some small bits of detail stitching too. I will try and convert the image to a better size so the detail can be seen a bit better.

This is one of the buttons as a vector. I doubt these buttons exist but I thought they were nice. They are old military buttons which I put my name onto, instead of initials.

I also put the fabric I bought, into vectors, to put onto the technical flat. I wanted to see how easy plaid was to create on illustrator, having never done it before. It was surprisingly easy, the hardest part is getting all the lines on the same level as the are all separate shapes.

I will update as I do more work.

All images subject to copyright.

Is It 5?

Three big constants in my life are films, books and music. I generally use films for direct influence, books for imagination and music as mood-setting inspiration. I'm quite flexible in my 'favourites' as I like always finding new things to outdate old ones, but I thought I'd construct a 'Top 5" list. This list will probably be out of date in the next few weeks but I'll try to keep it updated or add in anything I have found really amazing.

Film

(1)

As mentioned many many times, Amelie is my all time favourite film. I secretly aspire to be her, on a regular basis, and unrelentlessly wish my world was red and green. Luckily I can actually understand French reasonably well so am able to watch without subtitles, definitely an idea if you really want to appreciate the visuals. In general, you could watch and understand without the titles, however you would miss out on some of the subtle humour and quirky habitudes of some of the characters. My advice would be to watch the film so many times that you learn the script... 

(2)

Also mentioned a few times in Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle. Watch this for a unspoilt, idealistic view of 1950's France woven in with the physical genius that is Tati and an incredibly visually stimulating dig at the French government. The film does address real underlying issues from recent French history using its simple plot and endearing characters to make the viewer sympathize with the cause. My favourite scene involves Hulot, the main character, breaking the machinery at a pipe factory, producing misshapen piping resembling enormous strings of red sausages which get dragged around the town.

(3)

This film is a 'must see' for so many reasons. Lemmon and Curtis are absolutely fantastic, dressing up as women to escape being killed as being witnesses to a murder by gangsters.  It has a similar feel to it that 'The Ladykillers" does; simple and inoffensive despite its slightly sinister plot. Obviously the story gets more and more ridiculous as one of the men (acting as a woman) ends up falling for Marilyn Munroe, causing absolute chaos. A really inspired film for a cosy night in.

(4)

I do like my animation. I generally love most things by Dreamworks and Disney Pixar and Ice Age is definitely one of my favourites. I guess I love the real human element given to the characters within the film. This story is a real must for when you need cheering up. Scrat (pictured above) is everyone's favourite character, and he reminds of a pet rat I used to have, called Mabel, who had a similar nervous twitch. I also particularly love the Dodo's who, in this story, bring about their own demise through their own stupidity. I think Wall-e is worth a mention too. The real over-cute human elements in the film are fantastic, guaranteed to make you smile.

(5)

Continuing with the animation theme, Aardman are also right up in my list of classics. The obvious Wallace and Gromit, who everyone knows and loves, down to the lesser known Creature Comforts. I never thought that plastercine animals discussing their holiday disasters or doing impressions of Julia Roberts could be so unbelievably heart-warming. I also happen to think that being a model maker must be one of the most amazing jobs to have.

Books

(1)

This trilogy is my all-time favourite story. I originally read these books in school, probably when I was about 14, and re read them a few months ago. I got so involved in my re reading, that I finished all three books in under two weeks. I love to believe that the story is real while I am reading it, something I don't often do when absorbing stories. It would be a truly bizarre occurrence if anything much was true about Daemons, parallel universes and The Authority, however it inspires such vivid images that you cant help wishing it was. 

(2)

There is something so unbelievably honest and normal about these books. They allow uninterrupted access into the mind of a teenage boy whose daily issues revolve around Pandora (the love of his life), writing letters to Tony Blair and measuring his 'thing' every day to check how much it's grown. It may be slightly more fascinating from the perspective of a girl, however, I remain unconvinced that there is someone out there who is completely resistant to it's charm.

(3)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a fantastic and eye-opening book. The story revolves around a boy with autism who has various habits and reasonings in his daily life. For example, he hates the colour brown but loves the colour red. If he sees a lot of red cars in the morning, it means he will have a good day, whereas, if he sees brown or yellow cars (yellow is also a bad colour) he will have a bad day. Although dominated by these small habits and routines, the story is actually about his discovery that his mother, who he believed was dead, was actually alive and well, having run off with the man next door. To ordinary children this is a shocking discovery but to a boy with autism, who relies on an exact daily routine, it is truly catastrophic. Although, most of his worries revolve around whether his mother knows how to cook his curry properly or not.

(4)

Haruki Murakami's books are not generally recommended for their stories. This sounds like an odd thing to say about a book but once you have read one it makes more sense. The stories are good but their main purpose is the carry the language he uses. He talks at great length about insignificant things, such as making toast in the morning, but makes it sound like making toast is all you have ever wanted to do. Norwegian Wood is known as his 'normal' book as it is, essentially, a love story (though the main character sleeps with virtually every woman in the book). I am gradually working my way through all of Murakami's books and Kafka on the Shore is next in line. I would thoroughly recommend trying one of his books, however, people tend to have a love hate relationship with them.

(5)

Perfume is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. It is the story of a serial killer, who kills young women so he can make their smell into perfume. The main character is portrayed as sinister and an outcast from the very beginning. In a very strange way, you end up feeling sorry for him when he is eventually caught and tried for his crimes. The main reason I would give for reading this book is it's unlevelled descriptions of smells and scents in the novel. It is so well written that you know EXACTLY what something smells like as he sniffs it. This is definitely a good book for someone who likes an unusual story.

Music

I was originally going to do top five for music as well but this is proving a lot more difficult than I thought. I have realised I like far too much music to construct a top 5, so I have decided to write a list of bands that everyone should have at least listened to, in my opinion. 

"So do as I say and listen to these bands!"

The Album Leaf

Ambulance Ltd

The American Analogue Set

The Appleseed Cast

The Arcade Fire

Architecture in Helsinki

The Beach Boys

Bloc Party

Blonde Redhead

Blur

Boards of Canada

Booka Shade

Camera Obscura

Caribou

Cherry Ghost

The Cinematic Orchestra

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Coco Rosie

Counting Crows

The Cure

Daft Punk

David Bowie

Death Cab for Cutie

The Decemberists

Feist

Fourtet

Fridge

Hot Chip

Husky Rescue

Jeff Buckley

Kent

The Knife

Maps

Massive Attack

Mew

Minus the Bear

Moby 

Modest Mouse

Mum

Of Montreal

Owen

Pixies

Portishead

Radiohead

Regina Spektor

The Sea and Cake

The Shins

Smashing Pumpkins

Snow Patrol

Stars

The Strokes

Tom Waits

Trellis

We Are Scientists

Zero 7

"So off you go and do your homework!"

The Owl and the Pusseycat Went to Sea...

We all know the fantastic poem "The Owl and the Pusseycat" by Edward Lear, but for those that don't here it is:

The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea

In a beautiful pea-green boat,

Print design using "Pea Green Boat"

They took some honey, and plenty of money,

Wrapped up in a five pound note.

Print design using "Honey and Money"

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

And sang to a small guitar,

"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,

What a beautiful Pussy you are, you are, you are,

What a beautiful Pussy you are."

Pussy said to the Owl "You elegant fowl, 

How charmingly sweet you sing.

O let us be married, too long we have tarried;

But what shall we do for a ring?"

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

To the land where the Bong-tree grows,

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood

With a ring at the end of his nose, his nose, his nose,

With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling your ring?"

 Said the Piggy, "I will"

So they took it away, and were married next day

By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,

Print design using "slices of quince"

Which they ate with a runcible spoon.

Print design using "Quince and runcible spoon"

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand.

They danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

Basically, I wanted to illustrate this poem through print. I have used imagery referred to within the poem such as the quince, runcible spoon, pea green boat, and obviously the owl and the pusseycat. This is still a work in progress so there will be many more prints when everything is done, but I thought I should put up my current work. I have learnt a couple of things while illustrating this poem. I learnt what a Quince looked like, that a Bong tree does actually exist and that a Runcible Spoon is, essentially, a Spork. I will add more images as I complete prints.

What It Is To See Inside

"Now then now then"

I felt it was probably about time to introduce a few of my inspirations. Normally, my ideas just come to me in a strange vision but there are a few constants which I always look to for inspiration and general well being. I have had it said to me that these inspirations are fairly evident throughout my work, making it what it is. I like to think they give it all a touch of true quirkiness within the boundaries of my own imagination.

Image of film director Jean-Pierre Jeunet

I am one of these people who love a good cultural film. I have a bit of a 'penchent' for French cinema in particular and Jeunet is definitely one of my favourites. Amelie is the most well known, and my most influential film, that he has directed. I occasionally treat the film as a bit of a bible, to be honest. I love the way of life she leads and the sepia tinted views that rule everyday. The fact that it is all completely unrealistic seems to pass me (wearing rose-tinted glasses) by. Delicatessen is another Jeunet film I absolutely love. It is much more sinister than Amelie in plot but still holds a similar charm. A particular scene with the main character and the shop owners wife checking the squeaky bed springs is particularly memorable, and incredibly well choreographed.

Image of Jacques Tati in character as Monsieur Hulot in Mon Oncle

Much as I love Jeunet, my favourite of all favourites is Jacques Tati. Mon Oncle, in particular, never fails to make me smile and is the one film (along with episodes of Spongebob Squarepants, oddly enough) that I watch when I need cheering up. It brings out my 'old fashioned' side and reminds me that the simple pleasures in life are often the best, removing any unnecessary complications made by new technology. And yes, I do struggle with technology! I think the main things that truly inspire me about Tati's films are his simplified way of showing you that some things don't need to change. Hulot himself hardly speaks in the films, he is virtually a mute (similar to Mr Bean in that respect) leaving most of his simple humour down to odd facial expressions and strange physical bumblings. Watching the other characters around him get infuriated with his simplistic ways just adds to the humour. Hulot's films make me long to live in 50s and 60s France.

Yes, that's right, this is me. Image of my first birthday and a damn fine cake made by my mum!

"Alright alright, this is here for a reason y'know..."

This hilarious image from all those years ago (I was born in '87 so this must be '88) represents my childhood. I feel I had a truly fantastic childhood and have so many bizarre and hilarious memories, which I quite frequently draw upon to use in my work. Luckily, my Dad fancies himself as a bit of a photographer so I have a lot of photos of things we did when we were younger, which makes for great research images. I count myself as being very lucky to have such a solid family, and my Mum is a living legend. My memories of my childhood revolve around really small things like the smell of the tin I used to keep my spelling words in at school and the plastic cups we used to have (visible on the table in the picture above) with pink hippos on. These are the kind of invaluable memories that a lot of people lose but, for some reason, I seem to have an incredibly good memory for really small and insignificant things and am quite grateful for it. One other memory I must mention is me and my sister dressing up as rabbits using 3 pairs of knitted white tights; one for legs, one for arms and one on the head for long, dangling tubular ears. 

"We were obviously very imaginative as children"

One of my research photo from my Final Collection

I feel this interest I have in my childhood greatly affects the choices I make within my work. For example I generally choose things such as toys (above) or baking (below) to use as some form of inspiration. I love the innocence and naivety of my work and ideas as it really allows me to explore my themes much more as they hold such personal reference. A lot of people describe me as being quite young and naive. I don't necessarily think this is the case but I can understand why they might think that, and to be honest I don't feel it's a particularly bad thing. 

Oh yea, I must point out I make damn good cakes.

Photo of some gingerbread men me and my friend made.

(It was her idea to put boobs on them)

"I gave myself tummy ache cos I ate too many of them..."

I use a lot of my own photography in my work as it lets me see things in a different way than just ripping things off of google and such. Plus it's also quite satisfying looking through a load of photos you've taken that day, sitting down to edit them and print them out. Plus, as I mentioned before, I love memories, and there is no better way to preserve memories than in a photo.

My photo of a small fishing boat on Deal beach

My photo of a baby running around the boats on Deal beach

The images above were for a research project I did in the summer, 2007. I took a few good photos that day and got some really high contrast images of clouds. The two above are a couple of my favourites from that day. Deal beach holds a lot of memories for me as my Nana lives there. As children we used to go and stay with her once or twice a year and, other than Christmas and my Birthday, it was the one thing in the year I really looked forward to. I guess I wanted to preserve these memories in a more idealistic manner which is what inspired me to take these images in this way.

 

One of my photos of a Crab Spider

"So... what's this White Balance business again?"

I tend to call this 'the sneaky crab spider' as originally I was just taking photos of the flowers and didn't even realise the spider as there. He was probably watching me intently with all eight eyes. This one was taken after I found he was there. It is mush more focused on the spider, rather than in the initial images, where I was oblivious. And I hate spiders.

I suppose the only other thing left for me to mention right now is my absolute obsession with reading. I personally feel it should be compulsory to read books. It's such a personal thing to do and really allows you to be imaginative within someone else's story. I don't really have many favourite authors as such, I just appreciate a good story. I love Philip Pullman's Dark Materials, I like a good Steinbeck book and I have recently discovered Iain Banks and Haruki Murakami. Some of the best books I have read are the Adrian Mole series by Sue Townsend, they are truly hilarious. I think the best way to get into book is through recommendations, although I do occasionally buy a book if it has a nice cover. Whoops.

All images subject to copyright

Mon Oncle

This is the industry project my course did in conjunction with the co-designer of Peter Jensen. Basically we had to choose a muse to base our designs around that would give us unusual ideas and shapes. I used Jacques Tati as my muse and chose to focus on mass production and how it shaped 1950s France.

France is a country filled with exciting tradition and whimsical ideals, that the French people, and indeed the rest of the world, idealise and love. Tati's films all have very simple humour, largely based on physical acting from Tati himself who plays a happy and old fashioned character called Monsieur Hulot. The films revolve around Hulot's way of thinking, battling with the new technologies that invaded France in the 50s and 60s. I wanted to capture this contrast of 'old vs new'.

The above are three of my illustrations

These illustrations are markerpen and fineliner. My designs encorporate the 'too-short' trousers that Hulot wore in most of his films, accessorized with stripe socks, pipe and umbrella, also synonomous with Tati. The contrast of old and new fits in with the use of crisp suit jacket shapes mixed with the hand done screen prints of robots which I designed.

Photograph of my final screen-print

This image is a scan of a potato print I did as a trial for my screen print. In some respects I think this is more successful in that it looks much more unique and rustic. It was also very fun to do! I have since encorporated a lot of potato printing into my prints as I have found they make good background textures when used in Illustrator.

"Umm... long live the potato.... ?"

All images subject to copyright