” The focus of subjectivity is a distorted mirror.”
Hans-Georg Gadamer

Decoded is a 60-page book with at it’s centre the notions of semiotics– naturally distorted meaning through interpretation, and the way we, as humans, learn. The introduction covers theories by Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco, Stuart Hall and Hans-Georg Gadamer.

We, Aidan Connolly, Joseph Warin and myself, explored the idea of language being a construction through one specific word: beauty. Although beauty is a universal concept, it relies on interpretation to give it meaning, thus being exemplary for our study. We asked a varied audience to express what they believed beauty to be, and compiled into a book.

I think I may have just finished this project a week early. This is an A0 double sided type specimen poster for FF Meta, which folds down to an A3 booklet. 

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Things that keep me up at night.
(work in progress - A0 double sided type specimen poster, FF Meta.)

[Flash 10 is required to watch video]

I had to create a little 20-30 second video for one of my classes in which an audience had to be able to ‘read into it’. Pretty vague, so I made something vague and slightly creepy with jellyfish.

Now that uni is back I can expect to post more regularly again. Although I feel like I could have done more creative work in the holidays, I did work on the Liber Amicorum (last post), and finished my portfolio.

I’m 99% ready to send off my application to study abroad at HKU (Utrecht School of the Arts) in my second semester, so fingers crossed I get accepted (and manage to get a scholarship). 

I was asked by the University of Melbourne’s LH Martin Institute to design a Liber Amicorum for its retiring director. The idea was to ask his colleagues around the world to suggest a restaurant anywhere where they would invite him and his wife for lunch/dinner and name a couple of topics for conversation, and compile it into a book. 

Typeface Sampler - folded. 

(The aim of this project was to create a flyer to promote a chosen typeface. The brief allowed to use black plus one spot colour, and required the item to have multiple folds from a single piece of stock.)

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I nearly forgot about actually taking a photo of my ‘card’, which really was the plan all along. This is the final! Oh mind, where have you been?

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“It is a curious truth that grasshoppers have their hearing-organs in the sides of the abdomen. Your daughter Vanessa, judging by what she’s learnt this term, has no hearing-organs at all.” 

- Roald Dahl

Project 3 (Subculture Identity - Bohemianism)
Part E (Packaging), included: Part B: Pictogram Design

This is the front of my packaging, which I shaped like a luggage-tag. It’s probably my favourite out of all the components in the project, because it works well thematically and after all the effort I put into it, actually turned out nice. I really hope that it doesn’t get too small when it’s printed, it would be a pity to lose some of that detail there. 

Although Bohemians can come from any walk of life, gender, or ethnicity, what often comes to mind is, as Robert Wringham puts it, “the archetypal Bohemian of history: the Nineteenth-Century starving artist, living in a drafty Parisian garret, prone to flights of Romantic fancy and fits of over-indulgence.“ Rather than ignoring this fairly clicheed view, I decided to take it as my starting point for this pictogram. 

Through a lot of brainstorming and research, I ultimately decided that the most important aspect of Bohemianism is choice. The choice of being possibly ostracised from a community, rather than adhere to it’s strict moral codes, with it’s attached etiquette and judgemental attitudes, Choosing (creative) freedom and happiness over money, property and status, Questioning, rather than obliging. This is where the shape of the pictogram design stems from - the question mark stands for choice and questioning all. 

Project 3 (Subculture Identity - Bohemianism)
Part C (Photoimage Design)

I really wish I had time to refine this (I would probably re-do the whole thing), but I think I’m going to have to leave this as it is. 

I don’t really think this small image does the amount of detail justice, but there you go. It’s supposed to represent the importance of choice in Bohemianism - choosing literature, art and freedom over status, money and property. 

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Typography - I’m finally getting somewhere. The brief was to create a typeface sampler, I chose to represent the font Melbourne by Marco Mueller. We were only allowed Black and a spot colour (pantone #131C in my case), and had to display certain information about the font, the designer, some sample text (both in active and passive settings), and it had to include folding one piece of paper.  It’s still a work in process, but I’m finally happy with where this is going.

So much to do
So little time

No inspiration 

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Finished infographics page about my holiday to Europe last year. Inspired (ao) by Nicholas Feltron. We were supposed to make a set of infographics about our daily lives (transport, what did I spend my time on, where did I go, etc) but I figured that trip to Europe was more fun. I’m sure I created these in a really roundabout way, but it’s probably my favourite spread of the mag. 

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This is the advertisement page of my ‘mini magazine’ I had to create. It was surprisingly difficult to make that skull, but mainly because I kept on eating the candy…