D Factor design concept

UK garage originated in the early 1990’s as a genre of electronic music; and was a music scene that existed during my childhood. As I was born during the peak of garage, in 1995, I decided to create a garage track using samples, as I wanted to create music inspired by sounds that I appreciate and that would be suitable to be transferred onto a vinyl record (anything that hints more towards pop-culture would have been too modern for it’s purpose). I particularly enjoy Urban music, and so I wanted to follow that, as I appreciate the multi-cultural influences.

In order to make my track recognisable as garage, I used distinctive percussive rhythm, hi-hats and snares - I did also include some beat-skipping kick drums. In order to be entirely truthful to my genre, I incorporated a commonly used feature within garage, pitch-shifted vocal samples that complement the rhythmic structure. 

In order to create this track, I wanted to use DJ style software, as though it was a track being constructed in an underground club in London, there and then. As the 90’s saw the emerge of technology I wanted to use software that exists due to this evolution; thus I decided that I wanted to use an app as opposed to other music production methods. My 2.5 year old brother actually showed me a music making app that he had on his iPad called, LaunchPad. I decided that I wanted to use this, as it was exactly what I was seeking; as you have a selection of samples that you must activate or deactivate while you record the whole track, live. 

I think it’s interesting that in contemporary cultures toddlers now have advanced technological knowledge in comparison to past generations. I wanted to incorporate this ideology within my work, by using the app that is on my toddler-brothers iPad, that he can utilise and actually taught to me. 

Issues that I would like to explore within my design of the record cover and music video include: multi-culturalism, children and technology. I may also like to include nostalgic links between the 90’s and present day, and the London underground scene. 

Link to my song: https://youtu.be/E8oSm1bkcIU

Update:

Hand cut stencil used to hand emboss 300gsm black card

Sending Out a Flare to Dr. Martens

Kayleigh and I began our line of communication with Damien Wilson (Creative Director) from Dr. Martens, as we wanted to attract his attention in order to encourage him or his creative team to give a talk at University of East London. 

Inspirations also included Allen Jones

We began by researching his background, in which we discovered that he was a teenager during the 1980’s, a time where Punk and other sub-cultures were thriving in England. This influences his work at Dr. Martens, as the heart of the brand and himself is music, rebellion and youth; thus he still reflects back on his 80’s youth. Dr. Martens market themselves at nonconformists, British subcultures, and focus on individuality, anti-establishment and vintage-heritage; while they began by supplying for working class members such as postmen who needed affordable, comfortable footwear. 

I wanted to harness all of these traits in order to create my final piece/flare. As the brand focusses on footwear, I didn’t want to supply Wilson with a foot, thus I wanted to supply him with the next best thing - a leg. Alexander McQueen (someone who I often turn to for punk inspiration) once said “I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists” and this was something that inspired me, as realistically, a single, unattached leg spikes thoughts of endless possibilities for why the leg has been severed from the body, often making the conclusions quite grotesque. However, by styling these legs, we have ‘beautified’ the grotesque with the use of embellished materials that are often linked with British subcultures. I myself focussed more on glam punk, while Kayleigh explored a more vibrant, flamboyant subculture. 

I had to source the materials most suitable for the subculture and music genre that I was responding too, and also keep my eye on the budget as the heart of the brand stemmed from the working class - not to mention, the punks kickstarted the DIY movement and so I wanted to create something quite thrifty and unique. 

Once the legs had been completed we failed to source a box that would accommodate the two legs for postage, so we had to think of an alternative. I photographed my leg in various positions, hanging from a chain lead, in an almost bondage style. I tried making the leg appear as though it was pushing through the wall in a weird psychedelic, warped world in order to give it a strange personality. The images that I found most aesthetically interesting were the abstracted images where I focused on close ups. These images make the spectator intrigued, and provokes thinking and problem solving, while also showcasing the variety of textures used throughout the leg styling. 

As I am taking inspiration from 1970/80’s British subcultures I wanted the photographs to reflect that period. I explored taking the photographs with and without flash, and soon discovered that the flash photography enhanced the reflective fibres within some of the materials, giving a grainier, grungier appearance. The white backgrounds also transformed to dark grey/black due to the camera focussing on the visual merchandise. These images didn’t require retouching. Once I imported them into photoshop the images looked just how I would have liked and I was thrilled about this, as back in to 70/80’s raw images were often used within the punk industry to expose the truth, as the movement had a political ideology that focussed on expression and being open. I did however, reduce the resolution slightly and add a grainy texture in order to remove the perfection from modern, 2017, technology. 

I printed these images on 4” x 6” photo paper, as once again I wanted to simulate the era through the nostalgia of photographic prints as traditional photographs. My printer has a slight collaboration issue, where the photos printed with a green tint. Even though this was unintentional, I decided to utilise this as a feature instead of reprinting, as I liked the vintage quality it gave to the image, as well as the imperfection and hint towards steam punk. 

My photography

Kayleigh was happy with these images, so she photographed some un-staged close ups of her more flamboyant leg, for me to edit and print in the same way in order to keep consistency. I like how her images were un-staged, and there is more truth and purity to her images, while mine were more referenced towards the DIY movement by setting up my own scene in a makeshift environment. Both are suitable to the brief and work well together.

Kayleigh's images, with my editing

Finally, we had to solve the issue of postage. What were we going to post the photographs in? Kayleigh suggested redesigning a sleek, and modern box that she obtained from designer store, Choice. I liked this idea at first, but upon further thought realised that it was appealing more to our own style, rather than towards Damien Wilson, Dr. Martens or the British subcultures. The design would be too perfected and neat for our intentions. I decided to take a risk. I thought of just throwing the photographs in an envelope and being entirely direct and completely ‘punk’, however Kayleigh opposed dramatically of this idea, so I had no choice but to convince her. 

I made a prototype using A4 paper to throw together my own ‘envelope’, sealing it on the back with thick, black gaffa tape, a hand made label and a touch of yellow thread as a response to Dr. Martens branding. I convinced Kayleigh by sending over the images along with the following passage: “Punk is all about the DIY (do it yourself) movement, and going against rules and what ‘should’ be done. So essentially, throwing everything that we SHOULD be as designers away, and doing what we shouldn’t be doing, or what goes against conventional design methods. The photos are professional quality, so he [Damien Wilson] will know we are not being lazy. And he understands the alternative movement so he should find this refreshing. A sleek modern box is great - totally our style, but is it his? We need to design for the movement, the theme and the brand; not our own personal aesthetic. Hence why I think this is stronger. The point is to be risky and do something out of our comfort zone. A hand made envelope does that. We can print the address label on the photo paper too so it still has that luxury quality to it and then the post office will add a stamp to it to give it even more character”

Kayleigh still needed further convincing, so I allowed her to experiment with the Choice box, while I compromised with my DIY-envelope by making it feel more durable and luxury. Just by increasing the paper weight, and printing the label on photo paper rather than ordinary copier paper made the design more crisp, while the slapped-together movement accompanied with the industrial gaffa tape grounds it back to my initial intentions. As a result, the box redesign didn’t work out too well, as so we posted the photographs in the designed un-designed DIY envelope. 

Overall, I am happy with the project as it helped me to rethink design, by unthinking it. I had to do what designers are told we shouldn’t do, such as using a mobile phone for photographs instead of a modern DSLR, packaging our raw photographs in a hand made, messy envelope and also throwing a load of materials on a single body part in a totally free, and unplanned process. Of course, this was all intentional in order to aid the aesthetic and aim, but it helped to open my mind from the rules and constraints of the design industry.

As an update: We decided to include an invitation within the envelope too invite Damien to give a lecture at our university, UEL. We hope to hear from him shortly! 

Rethink

As a solution to the current Refugee Crisis many have suggested that we provide the victims with their own country; this idea has been disapproved as critics say that it’s based on exclusivity. I would like to revisit this idea, as personally, I feel that exclusivity is less of an issue than discrimination that they face in other countries, and murder and suffering that they face in their own. 

My creative response, inspired by Jenny Holzer

I started by researching the least populated locations. Of course this predominantly included deserts; thus my first question was “how could we make the climate and drought in the Australian Outback and/or Namibia habitable for humans?”. 

Another possibility is Pitcairn Island, owned by the British, but in close proximity to New Zealand. Currently, to live on Pitcairn Island it’s calculated to cost and average of $9,464 annually, with an income of $6,000 a year, vs. the current costs now which is $12,874 a year per refugee. We can also improve homelessness by giving homeless people and unemployed people the opportunity to move here. They can build the environment to accommodate more stores, schools, homes etc.

New York is one of the most densely populated (if not the most) location with 8,550,405 (8.5million) people in 789 km². In order to calculate how people people live in 1km² of NYC (the population density) I divided the population by the size of the area, thus, there are 10,837 people per km² in NYC. If we were to house the refugees on Pitcairn Island and allow it to be as densely populated as NYC (knowing that this is possible) I calculated the possible population density of the Island. As there are there are 10,837 people per km² in NYC, we can times 10,837 people per km² for the Pitcairn island which equals 509339 (5 hundred and 9 thousand 3 hundred and 39) people; thus 509339 (5 hundred and 9 thousand 3 hundred and 39) people can inhabit the Pitcairn Island if populated like NYC. “Record 65 million people forced to flee homes, UN says” That leaves us with an outstanding four million four hundred ninety thousand six hundred sixty-one refugees to house, so this Island doesn’t completely solve the issue. 

The least densely populated location in the world is Greenland; thus if we apply to above calculations we come to the conclusion that Greenland can house: 21674000000 refugees. Thus 21 billion 6hundred and 74million people can inhabit Greenland alone if populated like NYC. Greenland can accommodate the 65million refugees easily. They can set up their own community there and people who are unemployed/homeless can also go to Greenland and help build the community: housing, schools etc. Young people can volunteer to help, which builds their CV, and employability, including cheap housing. 

Greenland is the worlds largest non-continental Island but 3/4 is covered by permanent ice sheet. So if we calculate the 1/4 that isn’t covered with ice (500000 x 10,837 = 5418500000) 5 billion 4hundred and 18million 5 hundred-thousand can inhabit Greenland (avoiding the ice) if populated like NYC.

There is no issue in Greenland for agriculture, as Southern Greenland thrives with farms and luxuriant vegetables. “The sea is rich in fish and invertebrates, especially in the milder West Greenland Current” as “Approximately 225 species of fish are known from the waters surrounding Greenland, and the fishing industry is a major part of Greenland's economy, accounting for approximately the majority of the country's total exports.” Greenland also provides more jobs as the Island is abundant in minerals and ruby deposits began in 2007. Other minerals that can be extracted from Greenland include iron, uranium, aluminium, nickel, platinum, tungsten, titanium, and copper.”

On average, each Middle Eastern refugee resettled in the United States costs an estimated $12,874 per year per refugee, therefore It currently costs $836810000,000 (8hundred 36billion 8hundred and 10 million) a year on all the refugees. Thus, that money can be put into Greenland to cover the costs of building, wages etc. Every country can chip in to this fee, so that it’s a worldly effort in order to assist those in need. It will encourage the refugees to work and will also give them a safe place to inhabit. By giving the refugees a choice we are not subjecting them to exclusivity, and by Greenland being able to actually house more than the whole population of humans on Earth, anyone could be welcome to live there; so exclusivity is a minimal issue. 

Update:

Inspired by Richard Mosse's Exhibition at Barbican 

Everyday Objects

As a starting point, we acknowledged that communication is key for a sucessful collaboration. Kayleigh and I discussed our strengths and weaknesses, and found a common theme: our illustrative style. We felt that we wanted to abstract the products, by stripping them back to their minimalist form and exhibiting the elements that speaks for the product itself. 

We began by collecting the following information from each product: it’s shape, typeface, atmospheric aura and it’s colour scheme; as we felt that when these elements were combined for each product, we could communicate the items through their iconic signs, rather than indexical imagery. Sticking to the abstracted, minimalist ideology, we extracted only one letter from each product’s title to be the foreground of our designs. The characters that we chose were thoughtfully selected: for example, the K from Pukka has a decorative design blooming from the character, making it identifiable even when removed from its context. Some were not as straightforward as this, and we selected them due to composition: did we we want the y-axis of the ‘t’ or the x-axis of an ‘M’? Would an uppercase or lowercase letter work best within this space? And did we have a good variety of letters? 

Using our combined illustrative skills and styles as an advantage, Kayleigh and I wanted to capture the mood, texture and/or function of the product by producing hand rendered backgrounds. Here we focussed on pattern making, colour schemes, composition as well as diversity. Each product has its own unique design that reflects itself in an abstracted, reduced form. 

As we have a diverse illustrative skill set, no two pieces are the same. To create our designs we focussed on pencil drawings, pen illustrations, digital art, paintings and lenses based imagery; thus we were able to experiment with a variety of techniques, each being applicable to the product.

Due to our separate styles, our designs have a nice juxtaposition while complimenting each other. For example, Kayleigh’s designs are busier with more bold colours, while my own are more reductive and minimalist. Aesthetically these work well together and there is a great balance of the two. 

Taking inspiration from the product ‘EMILY CRISPS’ we used didot as the header for our essay designs. Originally we used this type for the body too, but felt it’s wasn’t legible enough once we printed a test. We definitely wanted a didone style typeface with the medium contrast between thick and thin, thus we selected Baskerville for the body. Once printed there was no issue with the legibility.

As a printed catalogue felt too mundane for our ‘abstracted’ pieces, we decided the we would like to suspend our designs from the ceiling. We sourced a long, sleek corridor to help enhance our designs and opted to hang the pieces in the centre, one design behind the other. This way, we are still providing the spectators with the mystery of turning a page, but by making them walk past each design. 

By suspending the pieces in the centre of the corridor we are being shouty, a nuisance and unavoidable: the elements of advertising in this consumerist environment. 

As there are layers to our designs, we wanted to play on this rather than creating flat 2D designs. We printed the characters on a sheet of acetate (as a more budget-friendly alternative to glass) and hung these just before the backgrounds, making the distance between the foreground and background provide a 3D illusion. 

Update:
We decided to develop our idea further and create a complimenting catalogue also.