drawn by b

sleep out

2011-05-24T07:59:00.000-07:00

so last friday night was the Big Issue's Sleep Out event where along with over 100 other people I slept outside (although technically it was under a roof) at Spitalfields Market to try and raise money for the Big Issue charity.

i won’t go into the evening stuff because although hearing the vendors' stories was enlightening there’s similar things already on the internet for people to read and digest for themselves and anyway it was about the actual sleep out.

when i signed up for the event i knew it wasn’t going to be that physically challenging and although I expected it to be uncomfortable, being surrounded by other people in a cordoned off area of the market doesn’t exactly recreate the psychological reality of what it would feel like to sleep on the streets by yourself. of course even without this aspect it’s still really difficult to sleep. even inside a sleeping bag on cardboard all you feel is cold concrete and being in central London it never gets totally dark or quiet.

eventually i did get to sleep but i think the next morning was harder. waking up in the same clothes i wore and slept in the night before, not being able to have a shower, having to use grim public toilets and then rolling up all my stuff into a backpack was quite an eye opener. what do you do and where do you go now were my first thoughts and although i had the comfort of knowing i was going back home, imagining what it would be like to wake up like that every day made me appreciate how difficult it must be to start to turn your life around after living without any structure or support for a while.

hearing and seeing firsthand how people in that situation can go from selling a magazine for £2 each (which they have to buy from the big issue for £1 each) and saving up that money to get off the streets was an incredible thing. the Big Issue's ethos is 'a hand up not a hand out' and whilst i love what the magazine stands for, after hearing about the experiences of some of the vendors - how tough it is to sell in this current frugal economic climate and the fact that 1 in 3 vendors are mugged for all their earnings - left me with no illusions about just how much of a challenge it is for them to keep selling the magazine and get by solely off their earnings.

if you’re like me and wish you could do something but don’t know how to or if what you do will make any difference then i would really recommend buying a magazine and supporting a vendor directly. i can say i’ve seen that it really does make a huge difference.

come home to croydon

2011-05-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

small show by designers republic founder Ian Anderson at my old college, exploring notions of voluntary slavery/allegiance to geographical location and the influence of coming from this, one of many, transitional towns in england

the big issue

2011-05-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

next friday 2oth, i'm joining 240 other people in the big issue's big sleep out event in London.

it's an event to raise money to support the work the big issue charity does and everyone attending is aiming to raise £400 each by june 20th. i'm really looking forward to listening to the experiences of big issue vendors and even though one night outside is not comparable to real homelessness, i'm sure this will be an eye-opening experience.

if you have the means and would like to donate to my fundraising effort it would be really appreciated :) and you can do that on my fundraising page

or you can find out more about the event at The Big Sleep Out 2011 page

i'll make sure to post some pics after next friday!

2011-05-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

all organs are made from photographs i took of the real corresponding human tissues under the microscope - click the lungs below for a closer look

2011-05-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

just a few of the hundreds of photos i took of different organs for interdisciplinary art/science project - broadvision - on in gallery west until may 15th

2011-03-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

body map collages coming soon

2011-03-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

genius iii

2011-02-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

Sohei Nishino - man after my own heart. just saw an exhibition of his work and it's incredible, each of his huge dioramas are made up of thousands of small photos so you have to see them up close to properly appreciate them.

for anyone who likes architecture, cityscapes, maps, b&w photography, collages and highly detailed, meticulous artwork

2011-01-10T06:13:00.001-08:00

maybe i should be happy with this end result but all i see are flaws in it. either way i've learnt a lot from doing this project. all i know is i am sooo ready to do something light-hearted and fun now

storyboard

2010-12-27T10:11:00.000-08:00

doesn't really animate like this anymore

zine

2010-12-22T04:57:00.000-08:00

wanted to address the question of why someone not affected by low wages should care about the living wage campaign

the zine is meant to be filled out with the living expenses and working hours of the reader to see if they could afford to earn less than the living wage. the point being if they can't why should other people have to?

isotype ii

2010-12-15T19:32:00.000-08:00

housing, food, bills, childcare

first basic attempts in illustrator, part of my animation

in the mood to reminisce

2010-11-16T05:51:00.000-08:00

self-destructive business rat gorging himself on the economy

cryogenically frozen business rats: please thaw out after the recession

inspiration

2010-11-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

Robert Massin's typographical interpretation of French play 'La Cantatrice Chauve'. I love these expressive compositions where the meanings of words are enhanced through their position on the page

delayed

2010-11-05T06:26:00.000-07:00

new project iv

2010-10-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

work is based on the nationwide campaign run by Citizens UK to promote the living wage.

in brief, the living wage is the minimum hourly rate someone needs to earn in order to afford a decent standard of living and is unsurprisingly a lot higher than the minimum wage, which is at £5.93p/h compared to the living wage which is at £7.60p/h for England and £7.85 for London. the living wage is based on someone working 40 hours per week whereas someone on the minimum wage in London would need to work 13 hours more to earn the equivalent living rate for the city.

i'm going to be creating content for Citizens UK's social media and other online presences to market the living wage campaign because currently it's not that visually appealing (imo) and of course that counts for a lot these days!

tweaked

2010-09-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

2010-09-18T01:10:00.000-07:00

all of these characters below (minus the bankers) represent only the lowest income decile of the overall sections of the population they are from. each character = 100,000 people and the numbers have been rounded to the nearest 100,000. although these are the poorest people in the country, the lowest five income deciles are all below average in terms of income

note: the pregnant woman is now a symbol for a single mum as i thought that they are probably worse off in general

demographics

2010-09-11T16:01:00.001-07:00

not to scale yet

number of workers in financial services in London = 333,162 = 0.005% of entire U.K. population

. number of adults of retirement age in U.K. = 20% = 12,358,400

. number of live births in U.K. (2009) = 698,323

. number of disabled people in U.K. (working/not working) = 19%/9.5% = 11,740,480/5,870,240

. number of under 16's in U.K. = 20% = 12,358,400

averages calculated from U.K. population for 2009 (61,792,000), percentages from Office for National Statistics website, Disabled Living Foundation website and the City of London website

isotype i

2010-09-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

isotype is the name of the picture language invented by otto neurath that aimed to transform complex statistics into self-explanatory pictographs made up of signs and symbols. one of his examples below + more info and pics here

here's my own take on that idea that i'm probably going to make into some kind of infographic.

the City banker...

the old age pensioner...

the pregnant woman...

the disabled person...

and the child

the winners and losers of the emergency budget and the forthcoming spending review

genius ii

2010-09-01T07:34:00.000-07:00

video - the crisis of credit visualized

this animation explaining the recession is a bit old now but the goal Jonathan Jarvis had when he made it - to make the complexity of the issue easier to understand for those unfamiliar with it - still has great potential for areas in media and design relating to political, social issues, etc. and it's what i'm hoping to do with my work

small spaces

2010-08-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

went to the V&A exhibition of small scale architecture today. all 7 of the final structures were great in their own way but these wooden ones below were definitely my favourites. each one of the pieces served a different purpose: study, play, performance, meeting place, work, relaxation and contemplation

information is beautiful

2010-08-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

since going to the new blood show back in june i've become really interested in infographics. this discussion on newsnight a few nights ago, on the pros and cons of infographics, the old style versus substance debate, got me thinking about what i'd like my final piece/s to look like.

attractive design can make complex information/statistics more accessible to a wider audience but the problem with a lot of infographics is although they look very sleek, they don't help their audience identify on a personal level with the facts they are representing, which is a shame i think. i'm hoping a more illustrative approach might improve this.

thoughts

2010-07-25T05:36:00.000-07:00

after a while spent researching the budget measures, responses and ifs analysis i have decided the aim of my project is to get across the message that it will be the poorest who will suffer most as a result of the actions taking place to cut the country's deficit.

my work is going to be aimed at people with lower incomes, specifically those who defected from 'the left' at the last election or who don't see a difference between the values of the left and right. it's not a party political thing, more of an educational thing. it really annoys me to see the same people who enjoyed increased public investment, benefits, etc over the last 13 years switch to a completely new set of principles that don't even favour them. i feel people who are not politically aware enough can be too easily bought over by weak (and sometimes false) claims such as:

it's a progressive budget

it's a necessary budget

we're all in this together

if we don't cut the deficit hard and fast we'll end up like Greece

it's what the markets want/need (only economists should be allowed to say this)

we can cut public spending by up to a quarter AND still have quality services

i want to do something that really clarifies for people what this budget is going to mean for them

new project iii

2010-07-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

the emergency budget was announced over a week now but seeing as how the true effects won't be felt for a little while i've decided to illustrate (for the summer project) some of the measures that will be the most damaging

show

2010-06-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

box

2010-05-09T23:54:00.000-07:00

so here is the final piece which i worked slavishly over! although i wasn't able to completely finish the model to the standard i wanted with the communal garden in the centre

overall i have mixed feelings about this, whilst the brutalist features of the building definitely sum up for me what a lot of big estates feel like, i don't feel like i've really made a success of the interior walls or roof. unfortunately this only really became obvious once i'd finished the blocks

anonymity

2010-04-29T05:56:00.000-07:00

this is one of the worst things about brutalist architecture and high rises in general

2010-04-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

basic sketch of what the final brutalist/victorian building is going to look like. it's a cluster of four corner buildings centred around a communal garden which will be kept private by four large gates that join the blocks together. it will have a harsh concrete exterior with an unexpected redbrick internal façade with balconies overlooking the garden. from the outside the building resembles any other concrete block but at a closer glance through the gates the inner beauty of the building and its landscape can be glimpsed

i feel like perhaps i've crammed too many ideas (as usual) into one here but essentially the main aim is to create a private retreat from the restless inner city, just like a victorian terraced garden square and combine it with the positive social concepts behind many brutalist housing estates

brompton

2010-04-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

below photos of victorian redbrick terraces and their private garden squares. although most of the private gardens are close to very busy streets like this one which is a stone's throw from the v&a, most look like hidden gems with hedges and trees helping to maintain privacy in the busy urban environment. quite different from a lot of cheap housing estates where there is usually little privacy or upkeep of landscaping

2010-04-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

beginning of a new design for a hybrid brutalist tower block/victorian terraced house

taking the best principles of both architectural styles to find a new middle-ground architecture; a balance between form, function and affordability with the aim in mind to create an imaginary type of socialist housing that redistributes the best and worst of London's architectural heritage equally amongst its residents

+ awesome illustrations atwww.evoltaste.com

lumières

2010-04-17T23:57:00.000-07:00

2010-04-17T23:46:00.000-07:00

(source)

light, colour, performance and architecture combined in the annual festival of lights in Lyon

waste-less future

2010-04-16T03:12:00.000-07:00

welcome to lagos

a dramatic vision of a mega-city and the stories of people adapting to large scale urbanisation in extreme circumstances by learning to recycle existing products and finding new uses for the tons of waste that the city produces

soulless

2010-04-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

robin hood gardens

trellick tower

2010-04-14T12:49:00.000-07:00

another brutalist design, don't think this turned out as good as the first set of towers though

terraces

2010-04-12T02:38:00.000-07:00

map

2010-04-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

an idea for a final piece. it's a map of old (pre-industrial revolution) London, central and greater London, the outer metropolitan area, the south east and the greater south east. the idea is to show the expansion (past, present and future) of a city into a mega-city/region in the form of a pop-up map which also illustrates the architectural changes

mix

2010-04-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

some initial tests in photoshop, not sure what i think, kind of obvious but a start

barbican

2010-04-08T17:44:00.000-07:00

genius i

2010-04-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

ben and sebastian

i want to meet these guys!

gothic

2010-04-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

photo i took of the entrance to Holly Village in North London. one of the earliest examples of a gated community in the country and from what i could see of the houses inside they looked amazing with towers and turrets and ornate wooden detailing

Henry Astley Darbishire who designed this hamlet also designed houses specifically for working-class Londoners as part of a trust whose aim was to improve the lives of the poor by building better housing for them

future perfect

2010-04-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

the perfect home

maybe a little over intellectualising and analogising of architecture, nonetheless a really interesting programme that explores the effects that architectural styles have on people's happiness and problems with the appearance and design of many housing developments in the country today

for this project i'm sort of focusing on the evolution of architecture in expanding cities and how shifts in priorities affect the change in style of buildings. as well as illustrating the growth of a mega-city i want to design a fantasy building that looks at some of the problems faced by large scale urbanisation

eyesore

2010-03-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

my photos of brutalist design robin hood gardens in East London, it really is as ugly as it sounds

fancy

2010-03-28T13:36:00.000-07:00

a couple of photos i took today of the mansions off of High Street Kensington, all of which are comprised of lots of smaller apartments. this yellow brick one was my favourite

example of compact housing Kensington style

clearer

2010-03-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

for the moment i'm looking at contrasts in architectural styles, like the Victorian redbrick houses of Hampstead and Maida Vale versus the brutalist (social housing) estates of Robin Hood Gardens, Trellick Tower and the soon to be demolished Elephant & Castle Heygate Estate

i hope to capture some of what it might feel like to live in these very different types of buildings and using elements of the two (which are generally either loved or loathed) combine them to create a more balanced type of housing for everybody

wow

2010-03-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

zulmiradesign and D.I.Y. architecture

i think we'd get along

new project ii

2010-03-21T04:13:00.001-07:00

new work for the self-defined project. i'm working around the idea of buildings for densely populated cities

it's been a while

2010-03-18T02:06:00.000-07:00

final finals

2010-03-10T10:38:00.000-08:00

finished pieces i'm entering into the d&ad competition

not wishing to repeat myself too much...

2010-03-07T17:15:00.000-08:00

...here are a few alternatives/touch-ups to previous posts

subtle

2010-03-07T14:31:00.000-08:00

or maybe not. israel minus west bank and gaza strip...

...and with

recycled

2010-03-06T09:58:00.000-08:00

another perspective and new use for the text, it's meant to look like a razor mesh security fence

texture/colour

2010-03-05T17:18:00.001-08:00

i think this figure adds just enough to the understanding of what the image represents and also compliments the abstractness of the wall

a different perspective of the wall

below are two variations of the text wall with texture applied in different colours

type

2010-03-04T04:08:00.000-08:00

just a quick mock up of another idea, this time using text to clarify the theme

perception

2010-03-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

needs colour or something, still very much a work in progress

peace

2010-03-01T14:25:00.001-08:00

not sure what i think of this... the rather long-winded idea behind this was the olive trees as a metaphor for peace (the Bible) being destroyed by the wall. basically this wall is a symbol of resistance in this case against peace in the middle east

abstract

2010-02-28T17:52:00.000-08:00

the wall

2010-02-14T20:57:00.000-08:00

decided i'll probably look at more modern day examples of resistance and oppression... this is meant to be the israeli west bank barrier, it needs work on it to clarify that though

violence

2010-02-11T17:06:00.000-08:00

if peaceful resistance doesn't work

one idea to take well known peaceful protesters and depict them in a way that suggests even the most calm of protesters have their limits when they are being attacked or oppressed. maybe a little too dramatic

armour

2010-02-09T15:18:00.000-08:00

sketch of an idea to make a lace/chiffon/organza gauntlet plus other ideas to make pieces of armour weak and defenseless

photos and sketch from wallace collection of armour from around the world

also a drypoint on different handmade papers, the idea was to combine something that symbolises robustness with something weak (the papers). it's a start

new project i

2010-02-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

current uni project i am working on is for a D&AD competition to design a poster that communicates resistance... so i thought i'd write my own brief within the brief to summarise my ideas and hopefully help me get started...

i want to contrast violent and non-violent resistance together in one image by using objects that symbolise the strength and resilience of violent resistance alongside materials that convey the fragility and vulnerability of peaceful resistance. i hope to communicate the idea that even the most oppressive forces can be overcome through resistance