Jasper.
January 29, 2010
This is what the package I mentioned previously contained. I am a published author and illustrator now.
Well not quite! For the last project of the semester in December, we were asked to create a visual narrative on an issue that effects designers in everyday working life. I chose to highlight the ethical and moral issues that designers meet everyday and the consequences of designers job choices. I chose to challenge myself and design something unexpected. I had already designed two posters that semester, I had previously created an animation, I wanted to create something different. Something in print that could be sent out to designers that would interest and intrigue them. So I settled on the idea of creating a 28 page, hand illustrated kids book that would visually illustrate the story, with little text, so it could be quickly read and digested.
I decided to name the book Jasper, I wanted to make a brand, a character that could last longer than one story book. A character that could present designers with different issues and stories that would affect and be appreciated by the design community. I wanted to create a character, that would be instantly recognisable that could beautifully transfer on to merch etc. I created this unique little guy, tall, with long, thin legs and arms, that only ever wore jeans with graphic t shirts. I wanted him to be approachable, someone a designer could relate to. Not some straight laced, well to do character whom dictated to the designer what they should and should not do. If you have not already gathered from my previous work I absolutely adore colour, and I wanted to make this book incredibly colourful just like any other kids picture book. Here are some pages from the book:
Throughout the book where possible I tried to experiment with typographic layout. Through my research of kids books, I found a disconnection between word and image, that words were just an after thought in their placement and they just looked awkward.
I also experimented with layout and framing. So pages were spilt into sections with differing illustrations, some were extreme close up illustrations with little detail, some were far away with much detail creating a scene.
I tried to keep the characters simple, not fussy in detail or colour. I wanted the characters to remain constant in style and shape throughout.
Below is the final page. I finished the book with a simple hand written statement by Jasper. I wanted the eye to be drawn to the statement so I used white space, rejecting the fussiness of any form of a background or creating any vision of a scene. The emphasis is on the message of the story, one last powerful hit.
I only had a week to write the story, illustrate all 28 pages, scan them in, typographically place the text, and send to the printers. It was an extremely intense process, but I was extremely excited to receive the finished product, a beautiful book in my hands that I had written and designed. This is definitely a venture I will return to very soon, I would love to create and illustrate actual kids books, but next time I will take more time to fully experiment with the process and outcome, maybe die cutting or pop up?
This is the back page to the book. I wanted the back cover to be hectic and the front cover to be simple. I have Jasper leaning over into the front cover, looking innocent and inviting, but you do not discover until the end or until you turn to the back that he is trying to hide his dirty secrets, the designs he has created that have bestowed awful consequences onto other living beings. I was so pleased with the cover.
Let me know what you think of my first book.
Publication.
January 29, 2010
In the last semester at university we as a class undertook the task of creating a publication, that would be sent out to local and international studios to showcase the talent within our year. This project was a group project, and the class was divided into groups of 3, and we were each given a studio or creative to interview. After the interview we had to design, and come up with a proposal for the publication, whether it be print as in a book, a collection of cards, or posters or be it media, in the form of a DVD or CD, or a website. My group received the amazing opportunity to interview Dublin Creative, Creative Director for Dynamo and Co Founder of The Small Print; Richard Seabrooke. It was an overwhelming task to undertake, interviewing a designer of such calibre and then designing some form of publication that he would then see, and would be tied to him. The pressure was at times overwhelming but I think that just added to the creative process, as a group we broke up designing and working on different parts of the proposal. One of us designed posters, another packaging and another quotes from printers etc.
These are some of the pieces that I created for this project. My main task was to create posters for the publication. We had decided to propose to the class that we create a package which inside housed 18 posters, each creatives interview on one separate poster. Double sided and full colour, one side holds an interview designed using a beautiful typographic layout which compliments folds and the otherside an illustrative poster that in some way represents the subject.
I created over twenty designs for the poster. I adore the colours and the modular typography used in the branding for Richard’s company The Small Print, and the idea of modular shapes and colours is what I ran with, when creating the posters. Some where photomontages, some purely typographic, so illustrative and some a mixture of all. The poster was thin long rectangle, made from two squares. The fold was two diamond folds on each of the squares. Each poster, is received as a square, and it unfolds beautifully, I think it is an extremely exciting fold.
I created this little cost effective envelope (as a cheaper alternative to the beautiful one that we had proposed that Rory Murphy designed). It is created out of a piece of tracing paper, with the name of the participants wrapping around it, and a beautiful bold sticker begging the recipient to open it. I wanted the envelope to be visually exciting and intriguing.
The idea then being that once the envelope was opened 18 mini squares would be awaiting inside, to be opened and the viewer would be faced with a informational interview, that they can read and then once finished they can stick up the posters of their choice, if not all of them, in their offices.
Below is the contents of the package that the recipient would receive. Unfortunately, this proposal was not chosen although we put up a good fight and I am extremely proud of this piece of work.
Welcome to my home.
January 20, 2010
I would like to announce that I am now the proud owner of karlaburns.com.
Now I shall attempt to teach myself CSS!
Light.
January 19, 2010
These are my series of six photographs that I submitted for my photography module on the series of light. Again I used lines to add perspective and captivate the eye. I used a shelter at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, due to the structure being made from metal as I thought that it would capture light beautifully. I also wanted to capture the sky, showing how light and cloud work against the harsh lines of the structure. Again this series had to be in black and white and taken at the same location.
Composition.
January 19, 2010
These series of six photographs were my submission for Composition for my photography module. We had to submit six black and white photographs that captured composition. For these photographs I took inspiration from the Russian Constructivist greats such as Rodchenko, to use line, perspective and light to capture a captivating series on composition. These steps instantly caught my eye and it took a few attempts of returning to the same location to get these photographs. I think the use of line portrays a bold statement and connects the series with ease, let me know what you think.
Displaying Word and Image.
January 19, 2010
I had previously shown some of my initial ideas for this project in an earlier post. We were given the chance for our designs to be chosen for a live project, unfortunately my design did not make the short list but I was quite pleased with the outcome of my piece, but in the end my design was too youthful and deemed not appropriate for the audience. We had to design generate a new brand for a conference happening at the University nest year. The conference is called ‘Displaying Word and Image’. Unfortunately with this project we were working blind, as we did not get the chance to talk to the client about what they wanted or most importantly what was appropriate. All we received were some powerpoint slides with work the client liked from the likes of Alan Fletcher and Si Scott, so to me the field was wide open with the possibilities of design for the branding of this conference. I took that attitude and ran with it.
This is the entire conference pack that I designed. I drew my inspiration from Tiffany Stain Glass, I have always been fascinated by it. It is so delicate and beautiful and the vibrancy is absolutely breath taking.
This is the conference poster that can also work as a flyer or a pdf email.
This was my proposed conference booklet cover, I wanted it to be vibrant and simple. I used a multi-coloured palette for this as I wanted colour to differentiate each piece of literature at the conference.
I felt that the colours together complimented each other beautifully.
Here are some further pieces that show how I tried to effectively use type, line and colour to compliment each
other and break up the format and show hierarchy.
Barbara Kruger.
January 9, 2010
As part of a photography module this semester we had to create photographs in the style of Barbara Kruger. It was a group project and I worked with Leah Batchelor to create this photograph series based around chairs. We had a lot of fun creating these, as it is quite difficult to create something that is so restrictive. Although her style is quite unique, harsh black and white photographs with high contrast, with red stripes, containing Futura Bold type. Let us know what you think of our work and check out Leah’s page, she has a lot of her own beautiful work on it.
Sketchbook 2.
January 8, 2010
After looking through the first sketchbook, I looked through my other sketchbook. In this one I experimented with collage and acrylic paints. I experimented with different techniques of creating stationary items. I had fun with these sketches. I am obsessed with colour and I showed that through this sketchbook as I experimented with colour throughout. Again let me know what you think. Mundane everyday stationary made beautiful.
Acrylic paint with ink lines. A light bulb experimenting with lines.
Acrylic paint and inks. I created this pen top using inks for an outline and acrylic paint background with collage to add texture.
Acrylic paint, inks and collage.
Acrylic paint, inks and collage.
Acrylic paint, inks and collage. Using more ink than previously.
Colouring pencil and ink.
Acrylic paint and inks. A comic style, simplified illustration with typography.
Sketchbook.
January 8, 2010
Since I can remember I have always been sketching and have attempted to keep sketchbooks but have never been able to restrict myself to them, but last year as part of our illustration module we were required to keep a sketchbook, and I was constantly experimenting in it, and managed to fill up two in a short few weeks. It is something that I hope to carry on. I love the freedom of a sketchbook, the only restriction is the paper size, other than that it is my way of expressing and relaxing. I adore illustration and it is definitely something that I want to be prominent in my career. I would love to get the chance to illustrate story books, a task that I have already began. Here are a few pages from my sketchbook, I experimented with pencil, paint, collage and print making. Let me know your thoughts.
Inks on an acrylic paint background. Quite drawing on a rainbow blended background.
Acrylic paint, with ink outlines. Dream like city skyline.
Acrylic paint. Experimental backgrounds experimenting with texture.
Spray paint. Stencil cut design, typographic experiment.
Acrylic paint, collage. Typographic with image.
Ink with acrylics. Local scenes, created through quick sketches.
Pencil. An extremely quick sketch.
Ethical Responsibility.
January 3, 2010
My current project for university is on the category of ‘Issues’. Issues that effect a designer daily, that they do not necessarily consider. For me this is an extremely captivating subject as it is one that I have battled with since the age of thirteen when I decided that a future in design was for me. In second year at secondary school, I had my first taste of graphic design. We were given the task to brand a sweet wrapper, we could name it and design it however we liked. The overall designing for me was exciting but it was not as exciting as the copious amounts of research I had done for the project. It opened my eyes to the world of design. Everything I had taken for granted for thirteen years began to look different to me and had new life. I had never actually realised brands or design before. I had never actually realised that there were artists/designers out there creating these logos and packaging that I handled everyday in life. It was amazing, a total wake up call. From a young age I had wanted a career in art but that day I stood up and presented my design, I knew that this was my future, that I wanted to create art that would interact with people daily on a global scale. The power of design seduced me and instantly pulled me in, I was hooked.
Through the next five years as I honed my knowledge of graphic design, and became accustomed to the design community and history, I began to get disheartened. I worked in a graphic design agency for three summers and it actually made me rethink if design was definitely what I wanted to do. Milton Glaser has always been my design icon, he is someone who has done design on his own terms and his designs have had such power and have defied the test of time. His designs embody power and strength. He is respected for standing up for design issues such as ethics and digital design. His strength was incredibly inspiring to me, he is out there to make a difference to leave his mark on the world, and I feel that he wants his designs to in some way help the world. Milton Glaser was to me the model designer and I naively thought that every designer fed on this same desire, and strived to take advantage of the power of design to help change the world.
I was sorely disappointed with my first tastes of the industry. Greed and money seemed to feed the designer. Yes Men. Taking on any job they could to make money. The company was making horrible business cards for a woman who taught aerobics in her sitting room. They were making marketing leaflets for local chemists and were ripping images from stock websites to do so. They were also making flash films for a local casino. This was not what I had expected, it was so cold, so sterile. The designers were like machines, pumping out one stale generic design after another. Where was the creativity, where was the drive to be your best, to break moulds, to aspire to create ground breaking design for each client no matter how big or small? Where were the designers morals, did they ever think of the consequences of their design? At that point I thought my career was over before it ever began. I know that may sound a little over the top, but you have to remember I was naive, I was only seventeen, and I had big hopes and dreams. I am sure these designers had started out with the same passions as any student, but the industry may have hardened them.
These hopes and dreams still remain, I decided to carry on on the path I had started on at thirteen, with the deep need to change design, to create design I wanted to create, not for money, not for fame, not for power, but so that I can be proud with myself, that I can sleep at night knowing that I had done something good. I know that there are many inspirational designers out there leading the battle in using the power of design to change the world and to change the way of thinking for the best. But there are still designers and companies out there who are only out there for the money, whose passion in their hearts have been over run with greed. For me personally I have not chose a career in design to get rich or to gain fame within the design community, I am not here to sell my soul. I am here to do what I love to do for the rest of my life, despite what I may have or not have in my bank account, it will never be about money. I have been brought up with strong morals, my mum works for trade unions as a representative. As I kid I was never allowed to go to the Disney shop, or wear Nike, or Gap clothing, we were not allowed Coca Cola products in the house etc. I will never go against them so that I can put food on the table, for a company to sustain poor treatment of their staff. I would prefer to get a part time job than to sell myself out. I will never work for a client who is tied in anyway to arming or funding any war. I will never work for a company who have inhuman staff treatment policies, who employ child labour, or whom prevent their staff their basic rights such as trade unions. I will never work for a company whom use animal testing in any shape or form. I will never work for a client whose products are known to have harmful or deadly consequences on life. Design has power, if each designer stood up against these companies and said NO! united, we could make a difference. Companies would have to compromise, they would have to wake up to the effects of their daily business.
I know some would say that if you go into the design industry so headstrong, you will never design for anyone, as every company is immoral in some way. Call me naive, call me sheltered, but these morals are so important to me. I would prefer to have to fight for my beliefs and create work that I am proud of, that allow me to affect the world and make people stop and think. I would prefer for me to have to scrimp and save for ten years, taking on only the jobs I would be happy and proud to do, to one day gain respect not only from the design community but from those outside it. I would love for some future design student to stand up and give a presentation on me and say I admire Karla Burns because she always stood up for her beliefs, just as I believe Milton Glaser has.
Drawing Unlimited Workshop.
November 24, 2009
Last friday I attended the Drawing Unlimited Workshop in University, it was a workshop that started at 10am and continued until 1pm. It was organised by the Vis Com Illustration tutor Christine Blaney. It was open to 1st, 2nd and 3rd year Vis Com students along with some foundation students. Only two of us 2nd years showed up, but it was a great experience to get to interact with fellow students and get some advice and inspiration from other students. The workshop consisted of many illustrative exercises ranging from image to typography. Many of the exercises consisted of using black ink, a thick paint brush and using the opposite hand to which you write with to give a more quirky image, there were also time constraints of a couple of minutes for each too. Each of the class created one of the letters above using these methods. Below is the first exercise we were given.
We were each given a post-it note and with a thick paint brush and black ink, using our opposite hand to writing we had to draw a self portrait, the outcome was actually quite beautiful and very free, this exercise loosened us up for the following exercises.
Again we had to use a thick paint brush and black ink, using our opposite hand to writing and draw a self portrait. This time we also had to add text that explained our likes. I decided to go more abstract and drew half of my face and focused on the typography coming out of my head in the form of a speech bubble to give a connection between the type and image. It was incredibly difficult to do with a large paint brush and my left hand, but never the less interesting.
We then were given a bit longer and were asked to create a self portrait using any hand, using any materials and I came up with this collage of news print, ink, and crayon, again I stuck with a thick paintbrush as I loved the freedom of it, the 20 mins flew in I thought it was too long at the start, but I really needed more time. It was however a really nice outcome.
and finally we had to create a typographic piece that would present advice to students whom wish to apply for the Vis Com course. This was my typographic poster I created. My advice were the 3 R’s: Remember (all you see and are told), Risk (take risks with your work sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t), Read (with this course you can never read too many design books, you constantly have to feed yourself inspiration).
This was a collection of all the advice from the class! It was an extremely fun workshop and a welcomed break from the chaotic few weeks at university trying to get the publication project finalised.
Inspiration.
November 18, 2009
At the entrance to our floor in university from the lift there is a huge chalkboard wall. Last year the third years branded the wall but over the past few months the chalk had been vandalised and crude graffiti added on to the surrounding chalkboard. It was an eyesore as soon as the lift doors opened onto our floor. It annoyed me and a girl from my class Winnie so much that we cleaned and repainted the entire wall with the intention of writing a quote in chalk that would be changed and altered every two weeks. Due to deadlines and workload, it has taken us a week to get around to adding the quote. We were in late tonight and decided to put a couple of hours aside to add a quote. To make it appropriate and inspirational we used a quote that had significance to our present work, which is a publication. We took a quote from my publication on designer Richard Seabrooke, he said ‘I live for what I do’. We used Futura Condensed Extra Bold as the typeface and drew the type on using masking take and chalk. Three of us in all drew on the design, me, Coleen and Winnie.
It was a long laborious task of cutting out the stencils to help aid us with layout and scale. Thankfully Allister and Sean where on hand to help with the more tricky cut outs, to help the work carry on at a steady pace. We then outlined the text with chalk and then coloured in the interior, to make it bold and really jump out, size was definitely not an issue.
Three of us working together meant that we got through the design pretty quickly in only two hours which made it very efficient and enjoyable.
We all worked well as a team, working on different parts, although in the end it looked completely uniform and it looked like it was created by one hand.
As seen by my intense stare above, it took a lot of concentration to create this piece, large, bulky pieces of chalk were used to colour in tiny, delicate, lines.
After two hours we were finally finished up, and we were extremely pleased with the entire design. It was exactly what we had invisioned. It makes quite a bold statement when you walk out of the lift, or once those lift doors open, peoples eyes will be caught by the type, and their curiosity will want them to investigate further.
We were so inspired by the the chalk board we wanted to carry the idea further and we looked into the marrying of visuals and type in a playful way, We carried the quote into the middle of the vis com floor, placing it high, onto the side of the roof to add perspective and angle.
Word and Image.
November 15, 2009
Our first university projects this year was a live project to create branding for a conference that is set to be held in the university later next year. The conference is called Displaying Word and Image, it is targeted to an audience of intellectuals probably late 20′s plus. This was the main obstacle in finding a solution for the branding and one that I had great difficulty with, I love colour and I love excitement but I had to control my urges to splash colour and experiment with type. I had to go back to basics. My first attempts at the logo did not go down well at my first crit, I had gone art nouveau, with a slight Si Scott influence, creating a big, bold beautiful ornate logo of the W&I brought together. It was like being led blind throughout this project, we never had any contact with the client so we had no idea what she had in mind, what she wanted, what colours she wanted. We had no idea what treatments the design would be used on, so we were creating something for someone we had no idea about, and that melted my brain and caused me to over think everything I did, and so I totally lost my way with it, and so I am still having to work on it to create something I am happy with.
I then had to take it right back to basics at that point, and this is what I came up with. Our tutor did not think the client would like the name of the conference made into an acronym so I found it quite hard to create branding with so much type. I tried to simplify it right down, from the type choice and the colour. I knew the branding was to be used on promotional literature, posters and conference stationary, so I knew that I could get away with big. This was a good starting point to help play with layout, but it just was too samey as a lot of design out there.
I then took the art nouveau idea and explored it further, I looked into stain glass and especially the Tiffany Stained Glass. I loved the use of colours and pieces which fit together to make this beautiful image. I loved the idea of everything to be connecting, and the conference will be fitting different ideas, opinions and techniques together. ‘Displaying’ is in the title of the conference and I wanted the logo to be representative, a stain glass style would show word in an image. I created a few different designs, and I experimented with colour but I was pretty sedate, I started with differing shades of blue staying safe, and then I started to add 3 colours together like the piece above. This piece is showing how the branding can be used on the conference literature.
I took the stained glass theme and experimented with it even further and I started to be a bit more creative with the colours, I came up with the idea of 4 different coloured logos, that could be used on different items, just to add interest and to visually separate the different pieces of information. The client did not choose my design and to be honest I was not surprised I knew that it would be too fresh and youthful for what she was looking for, but the experience was still worth it.
An idea that the client has picked and is being short listed is that of a very talented classmate Winnie Shek, check out her design here.
I am obsessed.
November 15, 2009
Oops I had almost forgot about this one. This is another pinhole photograph that I took outside my studio at university. I exposed the paper for one minute as I thought the light coming from the glass ceiling was far too bright to leave it exposed for any longer. It took a bit to develop, and to my horror, the photograph turned black extremely quick once it started to develop, I thought it was ruined and completely over exposed until I took it outside and found that it had captured the details beautifully, with quite attractive contrast. I was actually quite shocked by the details it managed to capture as I had taken it with my poker tin camera. As a group the photographs we had previously taken were extremely abstract and I loved that quality about them, they no longer looked like mundane parts of the building. When I brought this print into Photoshop and inverted it, I was shocked by the detail before my eyes, it looked like an actual black and white photograph, it did not look like it had been created using pinhole. The two different extremes you can get from using pinhole has only made me adore the process even more. I am looking for any excuse to use my camera now!
Dot Project.
November 15, 2009
A few weeks ago, I along with 5 or 6 fellow classmates took part in an illustration workshop for the ‘Dot Project’. We were each given large pieces of paper and were asked to paint, doodle, draw dots in inks, markers, crayons, colouring pencils, in a multitude of colours using our opposite hands to writing. It was an extremely fun workshop, and it couldn’t have came at a better time, at the end of a stressful first two weeks of college. Some of the final products were exhibited at the Dot Exhibition in the University of Ulster, one of my pieces I created was exhibited and also the above piece which was a collaboration by the 6 or 7 of us who took part. We were extremely pleased with the final outcome, I think all of our styles complimented each other well and we created a beautifully successful outcome that is both vibrant and daring. The orgainisers of the Dot Project really liked this piece and are planning on using it further, it may even be sent to Thailand to be printed further, maybe even onto fabrics. I hope to take part in future workshops, I love to experiment and I love to reach into other fields of Art and Design.
Thank you to Allisterfor the picture!
