joshuamarler

[joshuamarler]

Today I was learning the process of screen printing. I am hoping to use it some how in my work and so getting an insight now will come as a bit of an advantage. Hopefully. Its quite a lengthy process but definitely one that I found interesting. I was amazed to find out it is UV light that causes the image to ‘adhere’ to the screen for printing and watching the image being revealed by the jet wash is quite a sight.Greg the technician who showed me how to use it gave a real insight into the print industry and had quite a lot of knowledge about printers and print processes. Something us designers should all know about apparently.

[joshuamarler]

This was my Idea/design for the pages in the degree brochure. I really liked the idea of having the number really bold and overlaying the imagery in some way, even overlaying in some places. We didn’t go for this idea though because it would interfere with peoples artwork which people were not too happy about. I like the imagery though. 

[joshuamarler]

Michael Chavez-Dawson

Michael Chavez-Dawson is an artist who seems to span a number of different disciplines within art and design. He focuses quite a lot on art being quite interactive and the combination of performance and design, with the audience and design having some sort of interaction. Michael also spoke quite a bit about working with other creatives and was greatly enthusiastic about meeting new people and I even saw him giving another guest lecturer his business card and so it is good to see that people practice what they preach and he definitely likes to seize opportunities. In all honesty I wasn’t overly interested in much of Michael’s work as quite a lot of it seemed a bit abstract and based around performance art, but what I did take away from him was to be a bit cheeky and try to make sure you speak to other creatives, be interested and seize opportunities as you never know where they may take you. 

[joshuamarler]

Henry Pulp

Henry Pulp is a musician/artist from Liverpool. His lecture or as he probably would prefer it being called group chat, was quite a relaxed one. He was actually really interesting to listen to, he focused quite largely on collaboration with other artists and I got the impression he didn’t like working under anyone else. He gave some insight on what its like to work as part of teams that merge talents from different areas, and to work on a freelance basis. He outlined what its like to hire spaces to work in, studio spaces, printing facilities, and exhibition areas. He himself even hired out work spaces and desks from the studio in which he has created where you can use his facilities when hiring the work space.

Henry was also quite motivational as he spoke about getting places by working hard, meeting people, and “swerving tv and xbox”. He spoke about getting up and actually doing things and getting stuff done to get your name out there and to get yourself noticed. I felt that the passion that he was speaking with was quite motivational defiantly spurred me on to work a bit harder.

[joshuamarler]

Introducing BUG! The new insect smoothie.

This is a brief set by Uni to invent a completely brand new drink. We had to research extensively into our product areas, mine was fairly thin on research as an insect smoothie drink is fairly unheard of, I mainly focused on looking at existing health drinks and smoothies such as innocent smoothies. 

I chose to do this for my drink for a number of reasons, firstly that it was a challenge, and secondly that I had heard about people eating insects as a possibility in the future and it really intrigued me. 

The way I branded my drink and presented it as a brand experience was meant to be a quick fun and quirky way. I didn’t think that you could be too serious with a subject like this, people tend to freak out. I created a look book which goes through what the brands voice and values are and how the brand would look if it was real. 

I also integrated social media and an app into the advertising for this brand so that it becomes a really current and interactive brand. Part of the brand experience is the insect plush, they come with a funny little story book that would hopefully show insects in a new way, with the humour of the brand taking the shock and edge off the fact the drink is made of bugs.

[joshuamarler]

This is the events guide I designed for a youth camp of summer 2014, where around 300-400 children attend. The age range of the children was between 10 and 15 and so would have to be appealing to a broad range. I went all out with the illustrations in the hope that the children would find them interesting to look at and not just want to throw them away. I worked closely with the manager of the event, Ste Greenow and he contributed to some of the design too. This was a fun little summer project and I hope I get to design the next one.

[joshuamarler]

The Foundry Church is a well-established Pentecostal church in Widnes. During its life it has had a number of different logos and brandings but the church felt it was time for a refresh and a revitalisation of their branding.

The church approached me and were quite flexible with their requirements, only really asking that it was contemporary and not cliché, so no crosses or steeples. They also wanted it to be something that they could easily use across a range of their media and so it has to be something that was symbolic and easily recognisable. 

This is the design that I created, using the ‘F’ of the foundry as the basis of the logo. I decided to split the ‘F’ into sections because that way it is far more eye catching and interesting. Also splitting it into 3 sections is actually really symbolic too as the number 3 is an extremely important to the Christian faith and is representative of the Godhead; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I placed the ‘F’ within a circle because it makes it really easy to work with, especially when it has to be flexible to work across multiple platforms. The circle also represents unity and community.

[joshuamarler]

This is how I've felt through my degree, like its just out of reach and its been quite tough. I honestly don’t know how I've done it sometimes. I sit there and just feel intimidated at the sheer amount and then I just tell myself to man up and do it. and it gets done. somehow. Coffee has probably helped somewhat. Thanks coffee.

[joshuamarler]

Another aspect of digital and non digital art that I really love is portraits. There is something amazing about being able to capture someones likeness on paper or screen, and people think you’re amazing if you can do it too. I love watching someones face form in these kinds of videos and its actually emotive and awe inspiring too. Yeah I get quite excited about it. I do like to draw portraits and try to draw people from real life, normally quite quick sketches, although I haven’t done any in a while thanks to Uni. 

On another note, the person in this video is using Wacom Cintiq which I have wanted for sooo long but they are really expensive, the cheapest one is about £700, urrrgh. I’ve just been using my trusty little Wacom Bamboo tablet for years now and it has served me well but I think once Uni is over it may be time to invest in a new one.

I specifically chose this video because, well, who doesn't love Robin Williams?

[joshuamarler]

I've been interested in digital art for quite some time, probably about 6 years now. I found and still find Photoshop painting fascinating to watch, this is what has inspired me to create my own, you can see my first proper digital painting on my blog (it’s the one that looks a bit like a Stormtrooper). Scot Drake was one of the first people I started watching, he does these futuristic landscape paintings which are really beautiful to look at.

At one point I really wanted to be a concept artist, this is still something that really interests me and I would love to do but it takes a LOT of practice and time. I didn’t realise how much time went into learning about painting and although yes it is digital, all the rules of traditional painting still apply. Colour, composition, focal point, lighting, contrast, texture and perspective are just some of the factors that need to be considered when digital painting. These are just some of the things I spent hours looking at videos on YouTube learning about. 

[joshuamarler]

We had a guest lecturer in Uni called Mr Bingo. He was actually a pretty decent guest. We have had a few in that if i’m being totally honest were painfully boring. Mr Bingo was not one of those. He was fairly random at times, I think his first slide was a picture of loads of pumpkins in a field, he found them scary, “like a decapitated army” or something like that, and then carried on with the talk never mentioning them again. He was quite engaging with us and kept us all interested, even had us clicking along to him singing at one point, and he talked about all his interests and random things such as poorly made signs. He came across as the sort of guy that couldn't care less about what people thought of him and he just played things by his rules, fair play to him, he’s made a career out of it. 

He is an illustrator and I think quite a good one, not everyone thinks that, he told us that some critic absolutely detests his work and it has turned into a bit of a long standing joke with Mr Bingo. I think it’s his ‘i couldn't care less’ attitude that made him quite fun to listen to and how he has actually been quite successful because of it. One of his projects is the one in the pictures above, the post cards. He sends people offensive postcards and they love them. People like being insulted apparently because he can’t keep up with the demand of people wanting these postcards. I can see why, there is something quite comical about it and I think it says something about the hardy, dry and cold British sense of humour. So yeah overall, a pretty good visit. Probably the best one this year. Cheers Mr Bingo

Check his website out at www.mr-bingo.org.uk

[joshuamarler]

Hooton Park is a historical site near Ellesmere Port, in the UK, consisting primarily of the 3 hangers that were erected during the First World War. The site is rich in history, even being visited by British royalty and is looking to re-establish itself as a brand and business. Currently they are unsure as what to do with all the space but they needed branding in a way that is flexible to future plans and in keeping with the heritage. This was my proposal to the clients in the presentation that I gave and based the brand on the idea of combining traditional and contemporary values.

[joshuamarler]

This was my Foundation degree final major project. A self-initiated brief in which I chose to re-style the Bible. Being the most sold book of all time, and a very old one it felt appropriate to give it a contemporary twist and feel. The Bible is a collection of books brought together into one book, I decided to split these books and create four separate sections, 2 from the Old Testament and 2 from the new. I found a common element, the hands, which ran throughout each of the books and stories and used that as the defining factor for each.

[joshuamarler]

This is a freelance project for a Pentecostal Church in Monaco. They were in need of a re-brand that wasn’t cliche (crosses and steeples) and reflected Monaco itself. Their previous branding was blue and they wanted to keep this which I thought would work quite well. The logo depicts both the surrounding mountains of Monaco and the waters of the harbor too, both of which are iconic to Monico. The circle is to symbolise unity, community and fellowship, all elements that are really important to the church.

[joshuamarler]

So the past week or so I've been playing around with the letter press and having an intense education by one of the technicians who is seriously in love with printing processes. 

It's extremely frustrating at times, especially when you have just painstakingly set the letters in the composing stick and then they all fall out and you start to re-evaluate your life (oh and just the fear of lead poisoning too). Other than that its been really interesting to learn about how it all started, how we got to where we are and also how grateful I am that computers do all the hard work for me. Although, when you use the Adana (the thing that presses the type on the paper) you get a feeling that you just can't get from a conventional inkjet printer, and it's so much more satisfying to produce something that you have paid so much time and attention to.

[joshuamarler]

Just saw this painted on side of a van in Manchester, quite impressive I thought. I think that this sort of street art is under valued at times and people don't quite understand the skill involved and considering this is done with a spray can. Reminds me of the skate park on south-bank in London where there is some truly skilled art work.

[joshuamarler]

This was an illustration that I did back in college for a brief where you had to illustrate a song of your choice. I chose Woodkid's "Iron". We had to include a number of different elements; a photo, a made image, and a found image.