XLA 04/12/07

The following is currently where my written work is at and is perhaps not in the correct order. Currently for the final presentation of my XLA I am considering a magazine style piece of writing with different aspects of my work split into several smaller articles rather than one large piece. I hope that makes sense.

"I like to be thorough when producing my work. Whilst coming up with an idea is a vital part of my method I also find that not producing a quality outcome can leave me unfulfilled. However I seem to come up with ideas to resolve briefs at a higher rate than I can design the outcome. Since the start of this term I have begun to understand that professionally this is not a problem and that keeping busy on multiple things is a healthy way of working. Generally I try and work on three or four things at once so that should I become stuck on one brief then I can unstick myself from another.

Another part of my design practice I have begun to develop is not only a visual language of my own but also an approach to working from idea to conclusion which whilst not reliant on using digital techniques allows them to be applied when necessary.

From the start of this year I haven't done anything like what I set out to do. Originally I had planned to produce a larger percentage of self initiated work; however I have ended up working on more briefs and as a result they have created a different kind of self initiated work than I had anticipated.

My work feels healthy; in my approach and the quality of the outcomes. It will be important to continue with this in the future. Something I do not want to do is limit my work by forcing it to sit in a specific genre or style. But at the same time I want to develop my own visual language as well as quality control. I want to use what is a appropriate to the design rather than what I want to do.

Within my practice I want to question the conventions, which are currently set in place, and basically ignore them; unless by using them I also ignore them. For example in advertising tits and smiles cover a nice creamy strap-line of lies. But I don't want to design this so I don't. I'm sure that commercially this is suicide but I'm fed up of it.

I have attempted to do this when working on the lastminute.com brief. By moving away from the product and supposed target audience, I instead have looked at the concept of tempting people in with more of a situation-based piece. Looking at visualising THE last minute and intriguing people into finding out more through a well designed piece, rather than the promise of sex.

Influencing my work is a lot of what I deem to be "classic" and "quality" design. By this I mean work, which has stood the test of time as still looks fresh and timeless today as much as it did twenty, fifty, or more years ago. Examples of designers I am interested and work well as an example are Jan Tsichold, Ernst Keller and Paul Rand. Whilst these are obvious influences you can't deny their quality and this is something I want to convey in my work. A quality piece of design is timeless, its simple.

If I were to describe my work in a short simple way I would say bold, dynamic and meaningful. Boldness very much influences the visualisation of my work; using thick-cut lines and large areas of colour or lack-thereof (white space). Dynamic due to the perhaps utilitarian nature of multi-cultural visual message and the development allowing pieces to work in different situations such as colour or b/w; or in other languages. Meaningful links in with the iconic or logo nature of my work where more than purely the visual message is shown but also the unseen but communicated information; for example the cache that a brand would convey on any product in any place no matter what: A Disney branded gun would be more fun to a child than a US Army branded one.

Something which I want to avoid in my work relating to branding and advertising is being hypocritical as whilst yes in an "ideal" world brands wouldn't play a role in which goods you and me would buy, in this world they do and I am guilty as charged when buying certain brands over others for what they represent. So whilst having a critical and anti-consumerism edge at some points, I also don't want to suppose that I don’t succumb to brand identities."