Beat Streuli

I came across this photographer while looking in a book about Installation art. Now I've gone back to them to post them I realise I love them even more! He basically takes pictures of everyday people on the street. There is nothing particularly special about the photography technically, but it's the idea of capturing ordinary people in an ordinary moment which is kind of pure and unposed. It feels like celebrity snaps the paparazzi take Then he takes them and displays them in areas usually reserved for advertising. I just like looking at these people and wondering what they were thinking and where they were going!

Andreas Uebel

So I have spent the last week doing research for about 7 projects. I thought it would help me narrow down which ones I wanted to work on and which ones I might drop, but it hasn't, it's just made me want to work on them all. Dammit! Still it's been a nice week and I've found lot's of inspiration, some directly related to my projects which has mainly gone in the old sketchbook, but i'm blogging some of the stuff I've found which I know I'll want to look at soon for my other project and some other stuff which I just Love. =) enjoy...

Andreas Uebele:

''art writes its own laws. familiar everyday things are removed from reality. in the wordmark for the gallery for contemporary art the letters are removed as well. abandoning themselves to the rhythm of a siren song, they have sailed away from their standard spacing. through the apparently random blacking of the counters – the white spaces in the letters – the wordmark with its irregular spacing seems somehow syncopated. plain information is transformed into contemporary art''

This guy's website is full of quite diverse work, although it all has a very typographical and distinct style to it.

(www.uebele.com)

''the agency is active in all areas of visual communications. projects are handled by small interdisciplinary teams comprising communications designers, media engineers and architects.''

I have become really interested in the way that design/advertising agencies work internally this year. Since we are getting so close to the big wide world, I kind of worried that the kind of place I wanted to work didn't really work and was just a ideal in my head. I'm feeling a little more confident now that my perfect job is out there somewhere, I just have to find it.

Valentines sale

I helped out on the second day of the Valentine's fundraiser in the Holdon Gallery and thankfully it was a lot more successful than the first day, we managed to raise over £200 all together! I made lots of chocolate hearts and wrapped them up in red netting and ribbon. I also ended up buying about 4 cakes myself during the day (it was pretty difficult to sit by them all day and not be tempted). By the end of the day all we had left was a few cards so it was a success all round!

mmm lovely

I LOVE Wieden and Kennedy's work. Particularly at the moment, the Cravendale adverts are great. Every time I see them it makes me smile, they are so crazy and abstract, I think that's great for such a boring and everyday product like Milk.

Then there is Lurpack... mm mm mmmmmmmmm Lurpack omg my mouth is watering just thinking about theses adverts and the lovely melting butter and hot toast and crispy bacon and fluffy jacket potatoes! It's not just the food but the beautiful shots and lighting, the seductive man narrator and the sizzling cooking sounds. Beats M&S for me any day!

I also came across these posters for Ford Pick-ups by Ogilvy - very authentic, and it's always nice to see something out of the ordinary for car ads, especially from a boring brand like Ford!

Absolute Rubbish

This is the governments solution to the alcohol awareness brief that YCN set and I worked on as my competition brief. It's crap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2TUZQ-waXU

Seriously government, give me a job and I will do it better. Give anyone below the age of 40 a job actually. Just stop stop stop churning out this crap.

Jumble Sale

We raised £102 in the end - a pity as we raised the first £85 on the first day alone. Friday was not busy at all, obviously a lot of people go home or don't have uni, but we've learned our lesson about Friday's now. There's some stuff left though so hopefully an opportunity to make some more cash, and every penny counts!

Sunday Outing

After spending the last week and a half doing a lot of nothing since the deadline, I decided to go to a few galleries to spark up a few new ideas and enthusiasm. There wasn't much worth seeing to be honest I was a bit disappointed, but here is the best of the day.

The Cornerhouse

A strange exhibition about Cairo, a town in America... or something. A lot of it was (in my opinion) bad collages and random bits of found stuff in cabinets. Didn't really capture my interest until I got to this film. It was captivating and atmospheric, very simply each clip was doubled on the screen, creating interesting symmetry's. The film ended with two men shooting at each other, even though it was two seperate clips, and a train crashing into itself and disappearing. Since I was inspired by La Jetee and made a film for my silence project I have been paying much more attention to films and especially noticing how simple it can be to make something very beautiful.

This animation by ... was made entirely by scribbly drawings, and covered some interesting points!

If you've got 5 mins I would pop in, it wont take much longer than that. If not you won't be missing much!

The Manchester Gallery

Again, there wasn't much to inspire here. Some more animations in the downstairs gallery by... Nothing special - just some animals moving. Animation is quite a simple thing to do I think, you have to be original and good at art direction to make something good. These animations could have been done by a novice and do not deserve to be in Manchester gallery!

I did find this beautiful piece of furniture though - I love furniture! I can't wait to get my own house and have enough money to furnish it!

Check out the Goya prints too - you can't take pictures of them but they are so intricate and a few famous ones in their too, definitely worth visiting.

The Waiting Room

I couldn't make the opening night to Dr.Me's exhibition so thought I would pop in and have a look. I only managed to make it to a few over the months as well, which was a shame, but still I think they have done a great job putting this together, so well done if you're reading!


This kind of work isn't really my thing or what I would usually pick out - the artists on display all work in a similar style and aesthetic which isn't really me. Still, it's good to keep my mind open to all visual styles!

Urbis has left the building

A summary of the last 6 years of amazing Urbis popular culture exhibitions. I didn't realise how sad it was that Urbis is closing until I got here, actually I think its a travesty. There is no other gallery in Manchester that offers the same calibre of exhibitions as Urbis, it has offered a vital connection with contemporary Art and Design and the North, bridging the gap of London galleries. I think this is a huge mistake for Manchester's creative community and status, we will probably begin to lose out too other northern cities now. And a football museum? I think it's about time Manchester tried to develop itself past the pigeon hole of football (and football hooligans, violence and mess) and thought seriously about what else it has to offer as a cultural city. This is obviously about money and not a lot else.

Nine

Went to see Nine... ooh la la yummy.

Packs the raunchy punch of Chicago.

The glitz and passion of Moulin Rouge.

A mix of European elegance, artistic direction and Hollywood blockbuster.

Throw in some sex and a tortured Italian director and you've got yourself a film!

This is the story of tortured but genius Italian Director Guido Contini and his women. His wife, his mistress, his muse, his seamstress, his mother...