London Artwork

Ok so a little divergence from the Singapore Project, some artwork. Now that my exams are finished and it's getting to the end of term, I have been using my location to explore some parts of London I haven't really seen much of. On Tuesday, as it was so nice I decided to look around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

While there I did this watercolour of a small shelter in Kensington Gardens. A6, took about 1 hour.

After that I went to see Russel Howard's Good News being recorded and while I waited for some friends I did this quick ink sketch just outside Hammersmith Station.

Brunel Watercolours

Yesterday started as a very stressful day, after having to stay up till 5:30 to get a lab report done, I then had to get up at 8 to finish the report and get to the days lectures. So suffice to say at the end of the day I wanted a way to unwind so, see how it was a glorious day I decided to head out on a walk around campus with some equipment to see if I could find a spot for some watercolours. Sure enough I found a nice spot and, just as the sun was beginning to set, spent an hour doing these two paintings.

Two postcard size studies of part of Brunel University. I must say I really enjoyed doing both of these. I was able to fully relax for the first time in ages, sitting in an idyllic spot under a willow beside the trickling stream that runs through the campus as the sun slowly set, it was bliss. The only downside I guess is that I had to stop early as it got quite cold and I had to go to archery, but still it was very nice.

Outdoor Sketch

Today was a really nice day, so I decided to spend some time just sitting outside, doing a bit of reading (By Design, Ralph Caplan- very good design read) and doing this sketch. A nice ending to a quite intense week.

New Year Resolution Wallpaper

Yes I know it's a bit late for a proper new years resolutions, but for this I was so inspired by the the work featured here, that I had to emulate their work and make a new year resolution wallpaper of my own, for my laptop rather than the iPads they choose.

I decided to copy the almost art nouveu/deco style of most of the designs, using this cursive script, and the plain textured (oxymoron there) background. The resolution is my own, as is more some basic goals to live life to the full and all that jazz. The text is centred as this allows me to see all the text when it is up on my desktop, where I will leave it for the year, or until I get bored.

Finally I would just like to emphasise having a look at the other resolutions done, especially for designers and anyone interested in graphics, here's the link again: http://www.toresolveproject.com/. Thanks

Final Poster Design

Well I know you've all been waiting for it, (small chance) but here is the final poster design I chose to go with.

The poster uses a number of elements, some more subtle than others. The main elements are obviously the mixer and the splashes of liquid, taken off the Internet, cut out and recoloured. Somewhat more subtly there is a row of drinks in the background, the same as the drinks from the earlier ideas. Then there's finally the text at the bottom and the logo. The tag line was probably the single hardest part of creating this poster (other than the mixer). So anyway, it's all handed in now, so that's a huge load off my shoulders.

Finally, you may know this, or not, but I am now on Twitter @george_thorpe , I'll be using it to tweet anything I find interesting, be it design, science, art, quotes or whatever, so hopefully I'll be seeing you there.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! Yeah OK I know it is late but the days up to Christmas were filled with shops, wrapping and sellotape, and sorry but I'm not going to be doing this on Christmas Day and yesterday I was out so today then. I wanted to do a wintry scene so I settled on this view over some snowy mountains with the stag (or reindeer if you want) standing on this outcrop. It was fun, I got to use some different and more unusual brushes in photoshop, and it was interesting doing the deer. Oh and I may have been somewhat inspired by The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which I got on Christmas and I must say is brilliant!

 These below show different stages of the painting, which are also the total number of layers I used for this, the last layer being the deer.

So hope you all had a merry Christmas, and hopefully I will get another post before new years so so-long for now.

Hidden Heroes and a Giant Reindeer

 Today I had a trip into London, I went for a couple of reasons as I will show below, and I had a very interesting time. Visiting London will always be a fun experience, and as I am so close I intend to take advantage of that over the next few years. First I visited the Science Museum, where I had intended to see an exhibition on the integration of Robots into daily lives. But it was fully booked and today was the last day. However....

I did find another exhibition that was interesting and more relevant to my course. The exhibition is called Hidden Heroes, and tells of the invention and development of a number of overlooked items in today's society. Some example were: Rubber bands, Ballpoint pens, Teabags, Post-it Notes, Tissues, Safety Matches,  Paper Clips, Condoms, Clothes Hangers, Drinks Cartons, Bubble Wrap, Pencils, Sticky Tape, Wall Plugs, Lego and Bar codes. Photos were prohibited, so I made sketches and notes on each object.

It was a very interesting display and showed the remarkable amount of effort that had gone into developing some of the objects. So a day redeemed. I also had a look round at the museums other exhibits, before doing some shopping at the London Graphic Centre and Magma shops.

I must say however the most surprising thing of the day was this found at Covent Garden:

It was also the most disappointing as it was fake, oh well.

Little Book of Life

For Christmas last year, one of the things I received was a small sketching Moleskine. Now for me I consider this Moleskine something to be filled with ideas and notes that can be used and referred to long after it's pages are full. As such I have delayed using it as I have been unsure of what to fill it with. Until now. (sorry)

My plan now for this is that it shall be a little compendium or encyclopedia of all the interesting things I learn while at University (and beyond) that are not directly a part of my course. This came about while watching an episode of James May's Man Lab, when I realised that all this information I was being fed would most likely be forgotten by the next day so I resolved to document it in this which I can carry with me wherever. It will be my little book of Thoughts, Theories, Facts, Folklore and Funnies(?). Below are a few spreads from it so far.

So far I have quotes from:

• Ian Flemming
• Sir George Mallory (1st to climb Everest)
• George R.R. Martin
• Dieter Rams
• Rowan Atkinson
• Leonardo Da Vinci
• Winston Churchill
• Dr Seuss
• Stephen Fry
• David Attenborough

And I hope to gain many more and record them, not to be forgotten.

Product Description 2- Partner's Product; & Remembrance

So after a day full of lectures yesterday, the only change being a switch in Mechanics from Statics to Dynamics, today I got on with the second part of the Design Process assignment, making a model of a product, purely from a description by my partner. The description, given to me earlier goes like this:

The product which I am describing centres around a flat disk which has teeth around the outside set at a distance apart of about 5mm. The disk rotates and has a diameter of the 80mm. Beneath the disk is a moulded plastic component which is designed to support the disk and form a handle to the product. The handle has a very basic ergonomic shape which fits the hand in a pistol type grip with a big trigger component designed for all four fingers. Where the palm rests there’s a section which opens up allowing the product to be reloaded.

Above the rotating ring there is a 25mm width raised 5mm section which acts to stop the ring coming off from the top. It runs in the same direction as the pistol grip directly above it and at the end there is a rectangular hole (4mm x 11mm) where the product produces its completed product.

Surrounding the ring there are a series of letters and symbols all with different processes. Beneath the rotating ring  there is also a small button which sticks out 5mm with a diameter of 4mm.

The product is entirely plastic external components in very basic primary colours.

From this description I was able to create this rough sketch of how it may look. This is only rough as it gives me a starting point for the actual construction of the model out of the pink foam.

 At this stage I am unsure of exactly what it's function is, I have a guess that it is an old tool for making raised labels, but I could not say for certain.

From this sketch, and with the description close to hand, I was able to start work on the model in the foam workshop today.

As I hope you can see, I got the major shapes blocked out and roughly sanded into shape using both the hot wire cutter and some 60 grade sandpaper. During the next week I will focus on the details of the model, and sand down the surface to a high quality finish, the same as needs to be done with the other part of this assignment, the mug. Some more photos of the work are below.

Of course I cannot finish this post today without a reference to the fact that it is Remembrance Day. As a person I believe it is my obligation to improve the world, and as a designer I am well placed to do that. But we cannot do that without remembering the tragedy of the sacrifices of those who have fought and fallen to enable everyone to have an equal opportunity to improve the world, no matter how small that improvement may be. So I will remember and reflect on all those who have fought, and their families, who must live with their worries, concerns and losses, today and everyday, and I hope you will too. Thank you.

A Taster, Zebra and No. 80,676,055,781

Ok so before some more serious stuff, I just wanted to show this little gem I found while walking into Uxbridge. Sprayed onto a traffic bollard, a small zebra. It must have been done with a stencil, but it is just a small example of how graffiti can be fun and just add that extra little bit of cheer in what could have been a gloomy day, luckily it wasn't, but it just shows what graffiti should and could be like, small, unobtrusive and fun.

Anyway, I've been doing more work this weekend, working on my project for Graphic Communication, and although I don't want to spoil too much, here is a little taster of the direction I have decided to take for this assignment.

And finally, an interesting little piece of information I learnt is that statistically, I am the 

80,676,055,781th 

person to be born....ever. The 5,592,912,904 person alive at the time.I learnt this from a UN website called 7 billion and me, which is counting down the number of births until the total reaches 7 billion, which is going to be very soon, because as of writing this it is already on 6,999,887,011. You can type some basic demographic information into this website and find out a load of statistically based fact, such as that for me 2,539,378,636 people have been born since me, 1,032,405,962 have died and that I share a birthday with 366,682 other people worldwide, grrrr. So that's quite neat. Oh and just to let you know, since typing the current total, it has gone up by over 700 more people!

Speaker Light 2 and New Printer

Today was back to Graphic Communication and after a lecture on colour theory, it was up to the computer labs to do more work in Photoshop. Still being somewhat unsure as to what I should do for my final artifact I returned to my idea of the speaker light.

 The two images above were made by manipulating the layers of the original image below, and by adding some more images in the form of the speakers. This creates more views which should better explain the function and workings of the speaker light.

The other bit of excitement today was the arrival of my new printer. By arrival I mean a small pink slip saying to go to the distribution centre and carry it back to my flat, about a ten minute walk away. But anyway, its a Canon Pixma iX6550 so I am now able to print both A4 and more importantly A3 sheets. Also it looks awesome. I honestly thought when I got it out of the box it was something from a science-fiction set.

So I'm now able to print off all the various timetables and rotas that I have been given, which is a lot. But anyway a free day tomorrow so I can get more work done.

Hole Punch Surprise Presentation

OK so I'm not 100% sure why I'm uploading this but oh well. This is the video from a surprise (for me) presentation I had to give on the Not Hole Punch Hole Punches I designed earlier for this module (Mechanics for Design). Also the reason for getting a friend to film this for me is not just for this, but also so I can evaluate my own perfomance so I can improve for next time( tip from the Core77 website).

The full story is that we were told this morning by email that we had to give an under 3 minute presentation on the best of our designs to the whole group. I got to the lecture slightly early and ended up talking to the lecturer (he had interviewed me for my place). Whether it was from this or not, I ended up being the first one to give the presentation. In the presentation we had to explain these points on our design:

• The overall function
• Processes-Input and Output
• How it works
• The strengths and weaknesses of the design

As I was first I didn't have any questions to answer and I felt it went okay considering the circumstances. Of course I then had to sit through the following 3 hours of presentations and the lecture that followed (following the 4 hours of lectures this morning). But not too bad all the same. Anyway lots of sketches due for tomorrow so I better get on with them.

1 Hour Design Competition - Winter is Coming

So this is one of a series of challenges created by Core77 called 1 Hour Design Competitions (1HDC), and it's the first I have attempted. The brief of the challenge can be found here, with more details here. Basically it is to create an item of armour or a weapon, based upon the characteristics/nickname of a character from/based upon George R.R. Martin's fantasy series A Song of Fire and Ice; part one: Game of Thrones is now an excellent TV series. For the 1HDC you are allowed to submit 1 sheet of sketches and 1 final rendering, all done within an hour. My design is based upon a position from Game of Thrones called the Hand (advisor) of the King. From this I have created a sword that would be suitable for this role.

Carrying the Olympic Torch

Today I carried the Olympic Torch.

Ok so what happened  was that the Olympic Bus came to Brunel, and with it the Olympic Torch. The bus, sponsored by Coca-Cola, was giving out free cans of coke and, allowing people to have their photo taken, in front of a green screen, holding the Olympic torch, not lit, with gloves. But still it was definitely the closest I will get to carrying the torch and it was quite fun. The pictures, with the different backgrounds, could then be downloaded off the Internet and are below.

 

 

 

Birthday Lecture and Sketches

So yeah its my Birthday today. It got off to a good start as my flat mates sang happy birthday at 12am exactly last night, then bed for lectures today. So today started, after a fire alarm at 8:20, with a lecture on Design in general by a very passionate designer called Rob Phillips, who gave an excellent lecture. Rob has worked in design for 15 years, notably for the bike company DMR and for Puma, and gave a lecture on how we all as individuals need to develop our own specific opinions and views on design by immersing our selves in not just design but a huge range of culture from the Science and Natural History Museums, to Genghis Khan's arrows, to Superglue developed for the Vietnam War, to his own photo collection of toilets. He summed up the lecture with the quote from George Mallory who said, when asked 'Why climb Everest?', "Because it's there." That is the attitude we should have to learning. After that a shorter lecture on styles of drawing and then after a lunch break a tutorial run by Rob on Sketching.

 In the tutorial, we first compared the sketches we had done over the last week in groups (sorted by first name so I was with two other Georges), then we did exercises on drawing quick accurate boxes, before moving onto drawing actual objects and then marker rendering. It was very enjoyable and I look forward to the next lecture next Friday.

Above and below are the sheets from the drawing tutorial.

So anyway a new year in my life starts now....lets make it a good'un.