One week project: Image

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The first years have recently finished their one week image brief, and some of the better solutions are shown below. Overall this has been the least well received of the three briefs. As the projects come thick and fast, and each new one requires slightly more input than the last, the intervening days between the briefing and the workshop offer a chance for students to get ahead.

Each student was given a pair of words which they explored through the process of juxtaposing interesting and pertinent images. Not all students managed three pairs, or even two or one of a good standard. The above is a good example though. Note the balance of crops, the interplay between contrasting images where appropriate, and simply the choice of good quality photography.

This is not an easy brief, and tutors were agreed that a large proportion of the cohort had not cracked it, yet. Most of the ideas were valid, but unfortunately image selection (and cropping) was not supporting the idea…thus leaving the viewer unmoved.

It was noticeable that a lot of solutions were the direct result of Google images and consequently suffered.

Some of the images presented were not shown as three pairs, but rather six individual crops which made any idea even harder to decipher.

As ever, staff look forward to seeing how these juxtapositions develop for final assessment.

Economy of Image and Maximum Means

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Here we feature a few images and ads from an old one week presentation we came across while trawling The Disciples’ hard drive. We also thought it a timely post as the new year one students will soon tackle their third one week project, which is primarily based around image.

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Above are some great examples of both observation and cropping which can be learnt from and hopefully inspire. They look so effortless and simple but have only been achieved by designers who have really looked, observed and made lateral visual connections.

One week project: Image

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In tribute to the old crit room - 217 - we bring you some of the more choice cuts from our most recent first year crit. The project was one of juxtaposition, taking a theme - war & peace for example - and bringing the two opposing ideas together in one composition. The brief is straightforward, but this is a project which requires depth of thought, research and craft. It certainly caught some people out. It is not a case of simply choosing images, but rather curating them before finally putting them together.

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GIVE & TAKE

WAR & PEACE

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SOFT & HARD

URBAN & RURAL

URBAN & RURAL

Andrea Ucini

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Another recommendation from illustration's Steve Wilkin is Andrea Ucini. A regular in the Guardian, Andrea's illustrations convey a strong sense of idea.

 

I´m a freelance conceptual illustrator living and working in Denmark.

I was born in Italy and graduated in classical piano and composition at the Music Academy of Florence. Music was my first source in a new form of expression. Drawing has been a deeper research in order to discover the different ways a concept or an emotion can be decoded in.

 

Christoph Niemann

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Illustration Course Leader, Steve Wilkin, has recently switched us on to the incredible ideas and work of Christoph Niemann. Slightly perturbed as to how we missed him, the one lesson we can draw from this particular experience is that you must always keep your eyes (and ears) open as even talents like Christoph could somehow pass you by.

Here's the copy (text) from his website, and a few taster images. You could spend many hours on his website and Instagram.

 

Christoph Niemann is an illustrator, artist, and author. His work has appeared on the covers of  The New Yorker, WIRED and The New York Times Magazine and has won awards from AIGA, the Art Directors Club and The Lead Awards. His corporate clients include Google, St. Moritz, LAMY, and The Museum of Modern Art. He is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale. In 2010, he was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall Of Fame.

He has drawn live from the Venice Art Biennale, the Olympic Games in London, and he has sketched the New York City Marathon — while actually running it. He created The New Yorker’s first Augmented Reality Cover as well as a hand drawn 360 degree VR animation for the magazine’s US Open issue.

Niemann is the author of many books, including the monograph  “Sunday Sketching” (2016), “WORDS” (2016) and “Souvenir” (2017). With Nicholas Blechman he published the book “Conversations“. With Jon Huang he created the kids’ apps PETTING ZOO and CHOMP. His work is subject of an episode of Abstract, a new original NETFLIX series.