"I am a woman." | BrandNew part 2

Being a woman isn't considered a selling point within society. Being a woman myself, I often feel like I have to go the extra mile to prove myself beyond my aesthetics. I feel as though I am judged, and automatically presumed to be a tart or an air head, just for being a woman who expresses herself through her appearance. Of course, neither of these presumptions are true, and beyond my exterior I am so much more than what society labels me as. Yes I am a woman. And yes I am strong, independent, self-motivated, masculine and feminine; amongst other things.

I decided that my USP (unique selling point) is the fact that I do not conform to societies view of what a woman should be, and that being a woman shouldn't be a negative thing, as we are so much more.

Personally, I am fed up with having to explain myself and feeling guilty for enjoying feminine things. Why have I considered creating work hinting towards fashion a taboo? If that is my calling, then I should be allowed to explore that discipline without feeling guilty or being ashamed. Unfortunately, I have been told to feel just that.

As a personal response to this, I redesigned a Victoria Secret Pink bag. The original bag is a girly pink with white polkadots, that suggests that their consumers are girly, cute and fun. I chose this bag, as I wanted to show that women can be those things along with other characteristics that may not be considered appropriate for a female to have, and that there is more to us then our sexuality.

I chose to create a stencil to print the type onto the bag, as another one of my selling points is that I can create works by hand, and on the computer, as I often merge the division between Fine Art and Graphic Design. By stencilling the type with paint, the irregular print stimulates a stamp; I feel that this is appropriate as society 'stamps' and 'labels' women negatively.


I kept the exterior quite feminine but included masculine features such as the bold typography and the dominant use of black. However, inside it shows that I am internally more than just a 'woman', by clearly listing all of the reasons why through language.

Throughout this project I was highly inspired by the HeforShe campaign and the Guerrilla Girls - what they stand for as well as their branding/aesthetics. Both groups utilise a lot of text within their visuals to communicate facts and I feel like I wanted to take inspiration from that.

I used a lot of black, the HeforShe colour scheme and also the exposed pink from the VS bag, as I enjoyed having a shared masculine and feminine identity; while I also used bold, sans serif text.
I wanted the type to be quite masculine to juxtapose the femininity of the bag.

Overall I am quite happy with the final outcome.
It communicates that I am proud to be a woman and that it shouldn't been considered a negative as I can be both masculine and feminine, while exhibiting a variety of skills and unique selling points that I do not feel are specific to either gender. Unfortunately society likes to group and separate appropriate normalities for each sex, but I am proud to say that I do not conform to these stereotypes. This is my selling point.


Things that went wrong:
I didn't consider that the counters within the type would disappear when cutting out the stencil. 
The paint came out more red than blue-toned pink when it dried. 
The 'pink' paint left strong brush strokes and uneven coverage. 
I would like to recreate this by scanning in hand made elements and then finally creating the template digitally and printing professionally. 

Update: Since creating this bag, I have rendered a second version digitally and professionally printed the net in order to create a more 'professional' finish. I also embroidered feminine, lace knickers with the words inside of the bags to echo my concept. The embroidery machine would not stitch directly to the lace, thus I had to stitch the type onto another fabric, manual cut around each character and then hand stitch those onto the underwear. Almost all of these failed, expect for one: Woman.

Responding to the brief 'BrandNew'

"Is there such a thing as a new idea, to think independently and creatively? Is there really such a thing as originality?"


There is no such thing as a new idea but there is such thing as originality. If you recycle old materials, things that exist, to create a new product, then you are just recycling existing items. For example, you can not create new energy. Energy exists and is already 'there'. Yes, you can transfer energy from potential to kinetic energy, but you are not creating something new; just transferring it.


Items, materials, ideas etc. already exist; if they didn't then you wouldn't have anything to create something from - thus, you are only transferring or recycling existing items into something else but not something new.

On the other hand, originality does exist. As I mentioned, there is no such thing as a new idea; however there is such thing as originality. Originality exists in the form of moments. There are an infinite number of moments and possibilities but each one, are original. Not one single moment can ever be restored; if you were to recreate a moment, then that is all it is, a recreation - not the exact moment. Therefore moments, are in fact, original. 


At first I struggled with how to express this ideology. To create an 'original' final piece or product, as like I mentioned, would be impossible, as I would just psychologically be abstracting or merging images or things that I have encountered before, making it just a transferred idea. So I knew that the product itself couldn't be the focus of my ideology, the idea itself would need the be the outcome. After a lot of thought and research, I came across the idea of 'Conceptual Art', where the 'idea or concept is more important than the final product, if such exists'. 

I found everything that I needed in order to inform my knowledge of Conceptual Art within the Tate's glossary of art terms. Here I found out what the movement really meant, and examples of artists along with their works. I decided that I wanted to create an interactive piece, where I am actually creating unique moments, that could never be recreated. 

As a designer, on a Graphic Design course, I knew that the pure concept in it's Fine Art form would not be enough. Whatever the 'product' was going to be, it needed to be clean, and minimal as this would not be the final outcome, the idea behind it would be. As I enjoy writing and consider it the perfect way to collate my thoughts, I wanted to incorporate language/typography into my piece and I particularly enjoyed Joseph Kosuth's 'Clock (One and Five), English/Latin Version 1965,1997.' and John Baldessari's 'The Pencil Story'.

I wanted to exaggerate the idea that ideas are not original and nor are products, so I chose a direct source of product inspiration: a sample pack of business cards from Moo. The idea of doing this was also inspired by Marcel Duchamp and his use of ready made objects. Using the dimensions of Moo's 'Original Minicard', I decided that I wanted to type 'This is a moment.' on one side, and ask the public to write the same on the back. I would then have a collection of captured moments, by creating original moments.

I chose to use a sans serif font, as I wanted something eligible and aesthetically simple to juxtapose the complex concept, and not stylised. Helvetica was the winning typeface, as the font emerged within the same era as Concept Art, thus I thought that it would be fitting.
I like the use of the full stop as it makes you pause, preserving the original moment for just a fraction of a second longer. It's small, quiet and subtle. 
If I had more time, I would like to have gone out to more public places, and asked a wider audience to interact while recording the process. Overall I am happy with my idea, as Conceptual Art is something that I had never indulged in, and I enjoyed challenging the excepted methods and practices of the traditional design process. 

Understanding the brief 'BrandNew'

"Is there such a thing as a new idea, to think independently and creatively? Is there really such a thing as originality?"

No. Personally I do not believe that originality exists. If you recycle old materials, things that exist, to create something new, is that really creating something new or just recycling existing items? For example, you can not create new energy. Energy exists and is already there, for example you can transfer energy from potential to kinetic energy, but you are not creating something original; just transferring energy.

I feel like that ideology can be applied anywhere. Items, materials, ideas etc. already exist; if they didn't then you wouldn't have anything to create something from - thus, you are only transferring or recycling existing items into something 'new' but not something original.

With this idea in mind, I am going to create a product that represents my conclusion.
Through research, I am interested to see if my belief changes, or if I still feel the same way at the close of the project. I currently have no idea how I am going to respond to this in terms of outcome, so I am excited to see what my mind comes up with! Through influences of existing things of course.

Jumble of my thoughts in my brain that possibly make zero sense to the outer world (welcome to the interior of my mind):

- Original elements that EVERYTHING is made up of.
   Metaphorical Representation: Earth, wind, fire, air.
   Metaphorical Representation: Earths structure: core, mantle, crust.
   Atoms.
-Maybe I could focus on the idea of everything being transferred from one existence (physical or otherwise) to another.
-Maybe if it came from another galaxy. It would be new and original to Earth, but not original in terms of the universe.
-Is this philosophy? looking at the outer world? Science, astronomy, psychology.
-Our minds subconsciously absorb everything, so all thoughts, ideas and images are just a reinvention or abstracted version of something that you have previously experienced. While to physically create something, you are just transferring or recycling existing atoms into a different form.
-Create something that displays all of the 'original' things things (that we know of).
-Periodic table.

Totemism in London

The ideology 

In response to the brief ‘Kiss Me Quick’, I responded by branding London through the ideology of consumerism and thus totemism within western society, and the natural/primitive instinct of wanting to belong to a group. I have decided to market London by depicting ten London locations and their variating habits through brands and inanimate objects.I wanted to focus on how locals view London as opposed to tourists, as I wanted my response to be truthful and not a false or typical depiction that a lot of souvenir shops thrive on. My ideology was heavily inspired by a Contextual Studies lecture by Roger Brown and through self-awareness, I was able to identify totemism during my London commute. I couldn’t help notice locals have a stereotypical aesthetic depending on their destination and travel route.

I want to expose that all humans show a readiness to be recruited by an ideology - a totem. London is packed with advertising which defines social groups through consumerism and our society allows objects to speak for ourselves and to define our groups and personalities.

My works subconsciously promote different locations within London, by exploiting the spectators instinctual anxiety of wanting to belong to a group, while providing them with a solution. “Do you want to belong to a group of Michael Kors lovers? Then head on down to Oxford Street”. Meanwhile, “if you would like to be in with a group of IT lovers and technology fanatics, then be sure to find your like-minded group in Old Street.’’

The technique

I decided to create ten pieces (instead of my deadline friendly idea of combining ten calling cards into one collage) as I wanted to challenge myself to meet the tight deadline and because I felt that a series of 10 individual, but linked, pieces would be more appropriate in reflecting our diverse London locations. To do this I clearly identified each location by using the nearest underground station in proximity; I selected my locations based on my knowledge of the area (the boroughs that I have most frequently visited) as I wanted to portray my view of the consumers within those areas as accurately as possible based on my visits, and for my research to be more reliable, as opposed to a biased investigation, judging a location and its inhabitants/regular commuters on an area that I had only visited once with changing variables that I would be oblivious to.

I roughly had the aesthetics in mind, as during this project, I was heavily inspired by artist, Vinz. I admired his technique of screen printing naked forms onto collaged newspaper, and then hand painting the final touches and wanted his composition to inspire my own. 

At first (as an alternative to sketching) I used secondary sources to depict my idea/initial draft so that, visually, it was more clear as to how I wanted my series to look, and so that I then knew exactly what I needed to collect or create by hand. Once I had a general idea in mind by drafting Westminster, Oxford Circus and Camden Town (three very juxtaposing examples of totemism - business, fashion, and alternative), I hand collaged a variety of backgrounds. I deliberately decided on a collage as to me, London is a place where lots of other cultures, ideologies, styles etc. have been ‘cut and pasted’ into our City.

I used newspapers that I had collected from London that were heavily packed with articles covering London politics, including the Brexit campaign and the monarchy and carefully planned the layout of these collected samples before committing and adhering. Alternatively, I hunted through fashion magazines and pulled out British brand names (and other recurring brands) that you often see around London, that can be easily identified. Before committing to the layout, I laid the pieces over the ‘political’ collage and photographed, before trying lots of different layout ideas and photographing each version so that commitment wasn’t particularly necessary and that I had a variety of collages. 

Itching to get messy, I pulled out my red and blue paints (effortlessly recognisable association with the London Underground) and painted some abstracted, minimalist pieces so that I had plenty of effects to work with later in Photoshop along with some other works. I was also interested to see how much development something needed before it could be identified as London.

Knowing that I wanted a figure in the centre to enhance the sociological/psychological focus within the series, I decided to hand draw these and I wanted my work to be entirely my own and to have a raw feel to compliment the hand created collage; this is also why I wanted to incorporate acrylic paint as I wanted to really focus on mixed mediums and to consider different textures and finishes to enhance that. I drew one male and one female as I feel that London (while not entirely there yet) is generally accepting of gender equality. I kept the figures neutral in graphite as I didn’t want to define a location based on race and get my ideas lost within my own work. 

Referring to my initial draft, photographic research and my own personal experience of London, I began to finally create my ten pieces within this series, using all of my materials. This process was more the concept of trial and error. Placing items, seeing what worked well visually through composition and balance.

I settled on creating these pieces for digital use, to further enhance the idea of advertising and consumerism, as digital advertising and marketing is becoming increasingly popular, particularly within London. My ten mixed media collages can be displayed on their own, based on location (possibly within the appropriate London Underground station) or can be collectively displayed as a repeating gif. They can also be used online, and thus viewed anywhere in the world on a variety of devices. By having flashes of changes, it also helps to grab your minds attention to notice. 

I feel that if I had chosen to print my final designs, then the audience reach is reduced, it wouldn’t be cost effective, and has more of a ‘dated’ aura, as opposed to modern digital technology which is understandably linked with London. As I am challenging marketing and consumerism, I feel that it’s only acceptable to reach a wider audience in awe of that.

Let's DO this!

Welcome to my updated blog! Wow it's been a while, eh? 

I used post regular content but for the last year or so since starting my BA Graphic Design course, I had been feeling deflated and like my creative work had lost it's... well, creativity, along with my spark. 

I can't quite identify the issue, however I am glad to say that creatively I am feeling a bit more like myself and to prove that, I have revived my blog and my Instagram - "The bitch is back!"

I think I lost my balance between creating 'art' for me, and creating content for clients. I misplaced my love for what I do, and as a result of that I feel like I haven't truly been myself. My tutors even called me quiet - ME?! QUIET?! (I would love for my past teachers/tutors to be reading this, they would have a right laugh at how incorrect that statement is!)

My issue is that I blur the line of Graphic Design. I don't create posters and commercial art just for the sake of it. I like my work to have depth and meaning; to branch out into other subjects to explore different studies: science, psychology, sociology, politics... You name it, and I will demonstrate an opinion through my fine art-ly inspired graphics. Unfortunately this isn't entirely how the real world of graphic design works, or what I felt I could indulge in during my first year of uni, so that part of me began to get buried under all of my requested projects. 

Thankfully, this academic year, briefs have been entirely open. I can go off independently and tackle the brief and topic in anyway that I see fit, and can expose issues and explore ideologies. 

Anyway, I hope you will forgive me, my little blog of brain-vomit, and I hope to post to you more regularly with love-filled work and updates.