At Chelsea!! Project One and Two: Glasses, Mapping Chelsea

Sorry it's taken me so long to get these posts up, it's been a crazy term with starting my BA and moving into a proper house etc. etc. But I finally have time to put up and document all the projects I've been doing. So let's get started.

The very first project we had was to take a piece of black card, design and create a pair of glasses in under ten minutes, and wear them during and induction into the library that we had to go to... So we did it.

A simple project but the first "project" nonetheless. Basically something to get us started, show us how to think and produce quickly.

After this we had to somehow map the area around our college and then create a map on the floor of the banquet hall. So first we researched by being assinged certain sections of the area and looking around it, and then later on we all got together and using paper, created a massive map of the whole area. This culminated into a stop motion film that you can see below!

GDC1 MAP OF CHELSEA from safwaan motara on Vimeo.

So yes those were the first two projects. Many more to come!!

-Liam

Projects Six and Seven: Photo related projects

Two projects I've had to do deal with photography but in two different ways. The first project was to learn how to use photoshop. Although I already knew how to use photoshop, we had some good tutorials on little things I wasn't really sure about and how to do something like a double page spread. So, we got into pairs of two and had to figure out a way to create a dynamic two page spread. My friend Richard and I had the idea of getting matching floral shirts and creating a wallpaper out of it, and seemingly blend into the background. The initial idea grew and changed a bit, but I'm happy with the outcome.

And the next project was to recreate an iconic photo in the photo workshop. This was to show us how to use the studio as well as get ourselves acclimated with the cameras etc. We were all given different decades, I was in the group that got fifties and sixties. (WOO!) So I was trying to choose between these ones...

But ultimately chose this one, from the film Blow Up. The image is simple, effective, and very much representative of the sixties. 

So here's my interpretation, I wanted to do it slightly different so I could call it my own. Very happy with the outcome:

Thanks for reading!!

-Liam x

Summer Projektz

Did a couple fun little projects over the summer. First was experimenting with film cameras with my best friend at home using a Holga and an old film camera from the seventies. The outcomes were mostly blurry and grainy, but there were some outcomes that I'm extremely happy with. Enjoy...

I also did a film poster for a blog a bunch of my friends are doing. I'm going to do a whole series of them (eventually), but first I did one for Punch Drunk Love because its visual style lended itself so well to an idea I wanted to carry out. So here's that! I made the background using milk, coloured dye and dish soap. WHODATHUNK?!

Love yall.

-Liam

Final Major Project - Iceberg

Portfolio work, getting into university

Almost done catching up! This is so exciting!! On to the next thing!

So before I started my final project, I had to get a portfolio together of all the work I had done on my course so I could apply for the BA courses I wanted to get on for next year.

At first I was going to do what is expected, a big black portfolio filled with pictures and images of all my work. However after a talk with my tutor, we decided that since I have so much 3D work and a lot of it is very physical, we'd go about it a different way. So below is how it turned out:

I fit everything inside. From my Medium is the Message project to my Reg Perfect and the Squeegees newspaper to a DVD of my film and onwards. All my prints were mounted on foam board beneath all of the 3D stuff. Below is all of it laid out.

And then underneath all of the prints were all of my sketchbooks. It was pretty cool to see everything I had accomplished in the course all in one box, twas a proud moment.

Here's all of my sketchbooks over the year stacked on top of each other. Lots of time right there.

I had to photograph some of my projects to mount them, so here are a couple of those cause I think they came out quite nicely.

My Cabinet of Curiosities project

And here is a project I actually haven't talked about on here yet. Over Christmas we had a project called Pocket Monet, where we were given a famous figure and told to make something that could somehow fit in our pocket that represented that person. So this is a little box I made that was inspired by the illustrator Quentin Blake, who is most famous for his illustrations in the Roald Dahl books.

Each of the letters has string sewn through them that attach to the top of the lid. I was inspired by his scribbly ink drawings along with his use of watercolor. The quote is his and is "I don't wait for inspiration." I was really drawn to the quote and though it evoked him without saying his name.

A project I revisited was one of my first projects, the Metro Remix project which involved connecting two newspaper headlines and creating a narrative. I decided to project my original images and photograph them to put in my portfolio, and came out with some interesting results.

Overall the portfolio took a lot of work but was worth it. I got into all the programs I wanted to at the three colleges I applied to.

My room after hours and hours of working on my portfolio.

After much deliberation, I've decided that for the next three years I will be studying Graphic Design Communication at Chelsea College of Art and Design. I cannot wait to start. I chose this course rather than the others because it is a Graphic Design course with more of a fine art focus than the other ones. And seeing as my work kind of goes between graphic and fine art most of the time, I felt it would be a good fit. The interview I had there was also the most personal and encouraging of all the ones I went to, and if you look at the photos below I'm sure you'll see why I feel at home there.

The courtyard at Chelsea, just to the left of this is the amazing museum Tate Britain, which students get free admission to.

My home for the next few years. :)

And that's all for today folks! Thanks for reading!! :)

-Liam xx