stamps- finally finished!

          

Here's my final stamp designs for the stamp project.  They've been finished for ages now but not had a chance to update blog.  Thought I better get started before we hand in the journal and they (hopefully) start taking into account the ongoing work gone into this as part of that unit!

In the end, I decided not to go for the whole 16 stamps as it would have become a massive project for me and this is never how I intended it.  After discussing this with Liz in our tutorials I thought it was best to go for variety and sticking with just 4 designs would have the most impact.  I have really enjoyed this project, and although I was worried at first that I hadn't done as much as I could with some of the amazing images I took, I was careful not to create stuff just for the sake of it.

I've also made a little animation using the photos which is not quite finished yet so watch this space!

South Killingholme

I deliberated for the last week on what to do with my images that I took of my home village. I was going to make a book, but thought I'd just be doing that for the sake of it, so I decided to make this poster. There is no rhyme or reason behind this mini project, it's an extension of Britishness and directly inspired by the Caravan gallery. I personally like the use of the photos here, I think the shapes enhance them. I chose the type face because it looked industrial and the shapes reflected the shapes of the landscape.

Well I don't think i'm going to take this any further, but I do like the outcome. I might tweak the poster design a bit. I do think when you look at the photos they tell you a lot about the area and my village, and if you look closely the photos are interesting and well juxtaposed. Liz didn't have much to say about it - I think one of the other tutors might have appreciated it a bit more. Needless to say I have achieved what I set out to do!

South Killingholme

After going to the Caravan Gallery talk I got inspired to do a similar study of my home town over Easter. My parents live in a little village called South Killingholme which is about two hours from here, directly East and by the coast. There is not much in Lincolnshire other than flat country side and industrial areas, because it sits right on the river Humber. There are many sharp contrasts in the scenery - open countryside for miles, quaint little villages and old fashioned farms mixed with dirty power stations, shipping docks and machinery.

Unfortunately, the day I had to take the photos was a terrible day and I had a lot of problems with exposure. However, the aim of this study was to follow in the footsteps of the caravan gallery and really document the village, so it wasn't about the perfect picture, just about capturing the essence of the place. I was surprised how much I found to document once I started looking around, lots of interesting subjects and I enjoyed looking out for juxta positions and interesting shots. I'm getting more and more into the art direction side of things lately!

This mini project is part of my bigger stamp project - off on a bit of a tangent, but I've started to look a lot more widely at British culture and expand beyond the brief with different outcomes other than stamps!

Ireland, Scotland, Wales

Sneak peak

Just before Easter I did the photoshoot I planned for part of the RSA stamp brief. When I began this project it was supposed to be quite a quick brief but it turns out I've found a lot to do and got a little side tracked. Consequently this is going to form part of one of my bigger projects to hand in in June.

Below are a few of the images we took. I had the help of a photographer and two lovely actors from the drama department. This was a great idea of mine and I'm really glad I went to the trouble to find these people as I think it adds a completely different dimension to the shots which I wouldn't have been able to achieve without their brilliant acting/photography skills or someone from our course whose face we all recognised.

Anyway, the shoot was a real success. I really enjoyed art directing, working with such a professional team was a real experience for me. These photos still need a bit of editing, but the raw expressions and quality is in there. A lot of importance lies on the cropping, particularly for the stamps, but I'm also going to make some animations, postcards and posters with them. Watch this space for Scotland, Ireland and Wales pics to come!

The Caravan Gallery

On Thursday evening I went to the Caravan Gallery talk by photography team Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale. I thought this would be very useful for me as I've been working on the RSA stamp project - to design stamps that represent the contemporary cultures of each British country.

The name Caravan gallery comes from a little Caravan they adopted and painted yellow which travels round with them as an exhibiting space. What could be more British? The pair travel to different places in the country and spend some time photographing what they see, 'trying to capture the essence of a place' as they put it. They explained they often spent the day photographing and then after a visit to Asda or Boots 1 hour photo service they would exhibit the photos in the caravan for people to see.

Looking at many of the photos they've taken, you can see that photography is just a way to document for them, many of them are not great photos in terms of composition or quality, but what they have is a keen observational eye. They capture real moments of time, sometimes extraordinary moments which you could never have conjured up. I like the idea of documenting and exhibiting the photos so quickly, from what they said it seems that the caravan is a very accessible place that many of the locals feel comfortable visiting. Through doing this they can build relationships with the subjects of the photographs and this makes the photos even more special.

I'm glad I went to this talk after a long day at uni! They're work has inspired me to do a little project about my own village over Easter. I moved there when I was 13 and have never really liked it - it has never crossed my mind to photograph the place, and as my parents could be moving to France any day now, I'd like to document it in a similar way before I have no reason to go back their! It has also given me a new angle to think about what I could do with my stamp project and how I could maybe take it in a different direction once I've designed the stamps.

Dogs as stamps!

Dogs as stamps! Hilarious!!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1256994/Dogs-cats-abandoned-Battersea-home-photogenic-stars-new-Royal-Mail-stamps.html

Still the typical stamp style though, white background, clear photo!