I thought I should feature my past projects from my Foundation Art Course that I did for a year in 2009-2010 at Stourbridge- Longlands College. I was very proud of them. Even then I think being a communicator was my strong point. Before my FMP project I decided to do a campaign against the fast food industry. I felt quite strongly against KFC at the time because I watched this horrific video including chickens and well whether it was KFC orientated or not. Ew. I ended up getting really into designing stencils which I later illustated on a Happy Meal Box, juxtaposing it to an "Unhappy Meal". Here are some of the paper stencils, they are quite brutal but I wanted to make the audience think. I found out the mass murder of animals was done in horrific ways, even though these can be seen as a joke, my answer was "they may aswell of been!".
Below are actual words used on the KFC website,
I just replaced some of the words. Example: pick to "kick".
My Unhappy Meal Box- Well..one of the many designs for it...
My FMP Project
I decided to be satirical with my next project, I looked at the British Abroad. I used stereotypes and humour to develop post cards, using old photographs from past holidays and ridiculing them. For example, the British are stereotyped to go on holiday and not soak up any culture. Therefore, using a pool scene old photograph I created a beans pool equipted with all the ingredients to make a "Full English Breakfast". Here's a few of the better designs...
SO-ME is a Paris-born graphic designer. Incorporating vibrant colours and tongue-in-cheek references define the artist and give him a trademark design. He is most recognised as the Art Director for the Ed Banger Record Label where his work is more refined for. His work is "relevant and worthwhile" by the way he intergrates song lyrics into the design or motion. A good example of this would be the music video he created for Justice- D.A.N.C.E (shown below). He also made inspiring music videos for the likes of Kanye West and DJ Mehdi. AND it's not just album art and music videos he covers, he has also created merchandise of prints, jewellery and limited addition T-shirts. An inspiring clothing range would be the Japanese Label for Revolver.
SO-ME'S influences vary from iconic pop art of the 1960's to French comic books, Graffiti and contemporary iconography.
Talky P
These portraits of Busy P are great examples of SO-ME's works. The text around "Talky P" is a sort of dialogue or narrative of SO-ME's voice explaining why he decided to call the "show" Portraits, which is what SO-ME does on music videos but using the song lyrics to show a conversation between the music and the design. There is humour shown through these portraits too, like Skully P. These portraits also show how SO-ME vandalises his own work.
SO-ME also makes reference to the past. An example of this would be the Disney font which is used a few times. SO-ME reflects his own success by the "As seen on TV" logo visible on some of his designs.
SO-ME has influenced alot of people, Stars have bought into his style. Celebrities like Kanye West, who lost an award to SO-ME at the MTV Awards, who indeed lost his temper on stage. Then later had SO-ME create a video for him. The video being; "Good Life- Kanye West" (shown below).
Skully P
The company Rapier also borrowed SO-ME's current style and created a UK TV campaign for Virgin Media, featuring the great Samuel Jackson. The advert has bright colours and motion graphics, and also uses text from "Pulp Fiction" in which Samuel Jackson starred in.
A task set yesterday (at Uni) was to "Help an independant coffee shop chain go digital", having any budget and using any Birmingham based coffee shop was easy peasy. I came up with this wicked idea of creating a iPhone/Smartphone app where a viewer can create their own sprinkle pattern. (sprinkle being the pattern found on the froth of a cappachino coffee). I got so carried away with it, it was genius! I created a strategy and the criteria of how it could be made, did a few flow charts and mock ups. I am very proud. Is there an app like this out there I wonder? The greatness of this app was that the viewer could send off their sprinkle pattern via email to the coffee shop. And the best sprinkle would be used in the store that same month/ couple of months. Therefore, the attraction being the competition.
So this is what I came up with. Considering I was only using presets and internet images I thought it looked professionally and showed the basis of my idea well. Digitally, I would say I was on the money! Now which coffee shop would like to use this I wonder :)?
