sianlwhitfield-blog

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Is it October yet?

Not actually because of Halloween, but also, yes.

It feels like it has been about a year since I exhibited my work at New Designers 2018 in London. Last month I started my internship with the University of Cumbria Students’ Union. When I had been repeatedly warned before hand, ‘you will hit the ground running’, I had no idea that it actually meant ‘you will start the internship and work through about 6 weeks worth of work in 10 days, because you will have a list as long as your arm and deadlines only as far away as your elbow’ . The internship runs from August to May, so when you start you have all of the design work for Welcome (UCSU’s answer to freshers) to complete, and a very short turnaround time to complete it in. Thanks to my predecessor, they already had a logo which thankfully has informed a lot of the work that’s been done, but it has been very intense - and that’s just the work I’ve been doing. 

As a totally oblivious student enjoying Welcome, I can definitely say I had no idea all of the work that the UCSU staff put into it - from organising a million and one events to stuffing about just as many goody bags, as well as doing the work they do all year anyway? Students: appreciate your SU.  I have absolutely thoroughly enjoyed it though -  while not a single day has been the same (did I mention all of the goody bag stuffing?) I have been able to produce design work for a range of different projects already, including Welcome, different campaigns, and more welcome, editorial work, and welcome, and even screenprinting staff t-shirts - for welcome.

So, while I plan to not sleep until Welcome is over (is it October yet?), I am very excited for what the next few months will bring, for both my internship and for personal projects as well!

[sianlwhitfield-blog]

#ND18

This week we are at New Designers 2018!

So after being stuck travelling for over 10 hours, (the megabus rage is real guys) we finally got here, the Business Design Centre in London, exhibiting our work alongside the top picks of illustration and design from university's from across the country. 

(to anyone who has heard us all sporadically shouting ‘LONDON BABY’ across the studio in a terrible Friends parody, you now know why. No, I’m not sorry.)

After spending a day setting up (including helping Film & TV by sticking up nearly 1000 6x9 photos) we have spent the last two days meeting, greeting and generally throwing business cards in every direction, promoting ourselves as well as accidentally pitching the University of Cumbria to any defenceless Sixth Form student. 

I’m also giving away copies of my final project, ‘Short Run’, a printed copy of my dissertation in a newspaper. Drawing from typical zine aesthetic and processes, it’s resulted in an unorthodox piece of editorial design.

If you’re at all interested in Zines, Zine Culture, editorial design or you just want to come and laugh at the fact people from London can’t understand a word I say, come say hi. We’re at stand VC37 until 5PM Saturday!

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#ND18

First day at @newdesigners this morning! #newdesigners #graphicdesign #comingtond #nd18

A post shared by Sian L Whitfield (@sianlwhitfielddesign) on Jul 3, 2018 at 1:18am PDT

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AMSTERDAM

My Amsterdam zine is ready to sell! Inspired by my trip to the Netherlands, I decided to try and create a zine pack that emulates the typical tourist experiences of Amsterdam; the shock of the red light district, the open sexuality and the relaxed drug culture. I however also wanted to highlight that fact that it’s an area mobbed by tourists for only those reasons opposed to the more cultural options, and the fact the supposed regulated openness is a very top layer of what is actually quite a dark underground.  Currently trying to find a decent selling platform to stick my work on (any recommendations please send this wayyy) but until then if you’re interested DM me or send me an email at sianlwhitfield@hotmail.com

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New Designers 2018

Absolutely over the moon to say I’ll be exhibiting at New Designers 2018

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We’re currently fundraising for our end of year show! We have plenty of goodies and thank you’s for if you help us out, and no money will get taken until the end of the month. If you can’t give any money sharing the link is just as good!

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What the hell is My USP*?

*Unique Selling Point! This semester we have started our Professional Practice module, which is designed to set us up for the real world. In reality, it’s being (quite rightly) shouted at to get off your ass because you are ALREADY in the real world. 

Our first task was to identify our USP and present it on ‘one A4 Sheet of Paper’. If we were stuck, we were advised to ask people who knew us what they thought of when they thought of us (cue lots of insults from ‘friends’ and ‘loved ones’).

As I would love to go into editorial design, I decided to be cheeky clever and turn my A4 sheet of paper into a small booklet. 

The insides of the booklet elaborate on what I think are my USP’s and giving examples. 

If you unfold the booklet, you get a mini mind map/poster on what everybody else thinks my USP is.

Thanks guys.

So what’s a USP?

A Unique Selling Point is something that makes you different to the other 50 people applying for the same job. Something you have that your competitors don’t. Something that, in a sea of monotonous CV’s, portfolio’s and applications, is going to stick out, stand up and shout ‘you’ve got to hire me’.

There’s ways and means of going about it. As I’ve said, we were advised to ask friends what they thought of us (caution: friends are mean).

They can be something practical, like you’re an excellent photographer, or you’re a passionate crafter. These are often easier to spot I guess. The flip side is something entirely different; do you wear bow ties every day? Do you have bright coloured hair? Do you have something that will stick out, and make people remember you?

The latter can sometimes be a bit naff, but if done properly, then they work well!

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Fill up ya tank: My favourite design blogs of 2017

If your tank is empty, you’re not going to get far. If your ingredients are lacking… your food is going to suck?

What I’m trying to say is you have to put something in to get something out (you think of a better analogy on four hours sleep while your other half is happily snoring away next to you). This is a concept that has been drilled into me since my very first day of uni – fill your head with stuff. Know things, learn things, be aware of your surroundings in every sense – politically, culturally – physically is obviously fairly helpful too. You can’t do good work without knowing about stuff. You couldn’t design the brochure for a submarine without having some idea of what it did or how it worked. You can’t do design without knowing what’s been done or what’s being done (not good design work, anyway). So don’t be ignorant. You only get out of it what you put in.

Over the past year I have found some truly amazing blogs and websites that help to fill your head with really good stuff. I thought I’d write about them a little bit, in the hopes that if some other student decides to have a bit of a stalk (don’t lie – we all do it. I did it. I still do – how do you think I found most of these?) they’ll find them and love them and think they are just as useful as I do.

1)      Women of Graphic Design – this is probably my favourite find of this last year. It aims to showcase the work of the lesser spotted female graphic designer. That is, lesser spotted as in often totally bloody ignored, not that they don’t exist. I can vouch.

Graphic designers are about 70-30 split in favour of women during their education; however, in industry, it’s a 70-30 split the other way. Studies suggest that this is because women are more likely to take ‘behind the scenes’ roles in industry, and are less likely to step into the limelight.

Well, bollocks to that (sorry mam). Have a deeks at this blog, and you’ll be getting your ‘grrrl power’ pants on with me (which, fyi, are all my pants. And this made much more sense in my head and also seemed a lot less weird. Ill stop talking about my pants now.).

2)      Print.pm – this is maybe my most recent find. Tagged ‘daily inspiration for print lovers’, it features regular – you guessed it – printed content. Essentially anything and everything that could and is printed, be that business cards, books, posters, is featured. It showcases some truly beautiful work, and proves for definite that print is not dead. 

3)      @ashworthchris – okay, so this might not be classed as a blog necessarily, but it’s still definitely worth mentioning. Former art director of Ray Gun, he features pieces of design work almost daily, including some backstory, on his Instagram. For anyone with any interest in editorial or experimental graphic design (or just good taste) go give him a follow.

4)      The book design blog – anyone who knows me knows I love books. I love reading, I love design, I’m gonna love just about any well-designed book or book about design. This blog showcases beautiful printed books, (emphasis on the printed – they very very rarely accept digital mock ups of books) zines, brochures, comics, portfolios, magazines, maybe even pamphlet I guess? Basically anything remotely book-ish and printed. This is definitely going to interest you if you like book cover design and/or editorial.

5)      The Shillington Design Blog – This is kind of a cover all blog; it posts work as well as articles, tips and advice as well lists of more blogs, who to follow and how to submit your work to them.

These have definitely influenced me and have been my first points of call when I’ve been stuck on a project. They’re all absolute gems! I’d love to know of any you think I’ve missed, so please message me if you think theres any more I should be looking at!

[sianlwhitfield-blog]

Using this to remind everyone that the deadline for the second strange things? Zine is this fridayyyyyy 

Make some good things I can mess up in the name of editorial ✌ 

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strange things? Collective ISSUE TWO - CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

https://www.facebook.com/strangethingscollective/ strange things? Collective are now looking for submissions for their second issue. The theme this time is CLOSURE, and the deadline is 5th January; get working!

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Carlisle born and bred street artist talks tiles, truths and tatty spraycan cats.

Sitting in a gem of a Carlisle café, I wait for the mysterious ‘PAZ’. It dawns on me that, as I found him and got in touch online, I have no idea what he looks like, nor him me. By the time he comes through the door, I have awkwardly smiled at about three different people before they sit down with their coffees – quite a few tables away – leaving me looking like a melon. When he does comes in (and thank god its him this time), wearing a talking heads t-shirt (so at least he’s good taste in music), he comes across a little shy, but once we get talking, that all dissipates. Talking about his work, his wife, his life in general he becomes ever more animated, giving away how passionate he is about all of it, including his tiles.

In my first year of university, exploring a new city, trying to ‘adult’ and figure out exactly why anyone ever moves away from the comforts of home, I came across one of these tiles stuck to a bridge on my walk home. A small, black and white image of a building, with the letters P. A. Z. hand written underneath.  I hadn’t noticed it before on any of my many trudges through the rain from tescos back to my home-from-home of the student halls I was staying in. I snapped a quick photo, and posted it to Instagram; Found this today, anybody know anything about it?. Evidently, nobody did, as my question went unanswered (and to this day, that insta only has 2 likes. 2.).  However, wandering around the city, I started to notice them elsewhere; corners of windows, stuck to street signs, hidden in back lanes. It drove me mad. How was it possible that they were everywhere, yet nobody seemed to know anything about them? I asked people who’d lived in Carlisle all their lives (what tiles?) and looked incessantly online. Eventually it was through Instagram and by happy accident I found the account @paz1971, and met PAZ. I’d already decided I wanted to do a project on the tiles, and messaged the account to ask about it.

Part time street artist and full time chef, ‘PAZ’ is just an alias. “As far as ‘PAZ’ goes, I like to keep it anon.” I ask about the local radio station, who recently launched a small scale hunt to find the man behind the tiles. Why say no to them but be happy to meet with me? “I didn’t want to be part of all that  - the ‘carlisle gossip mill’ – nothings going to come from that. It’ll have the neighbours talking, a bit of slagging off, nothing else. What would it do? This project, it could lead to something. It sounded interesting.”

I ask him about how, or maybe why he started his tiles. He laughs. “Well, that depends! Er, I guess, how in depth do you want me to go?” They started with a love of photography; “Landscape photography. That’s my area, that’s what I love. In another life, that’s what I’d do.” But by losing his camera and equipment in the floods that devastated Carlisle in 2015, landscape photography, or at least to the quality he aspired, was suddenly out of reach. “it took me about three years to get anything back. It started again with the launch of the iphone, believe it or not!”.  It also stemmed from the need for a distraction, or an escape; “I was an alcoholic. It came with the trade I’m afraid. It happens a lot in my line of work. I could have had half a bottle of vodka, right now, and you wouldn’t even tell. Over the past ten years, it’s been a lot about finding myself again. I have found I have a very addictive personality, so decided I just had to find something else to replace the alcohol.” Talking about the secrecy of his alcoholism, I draw a similarity between that and the need to keep PAZ so secret. “Er, maybe. I don’t know. It’s a lot of things really. There’s a lot of reasons for why I do it. I’ve got to do something – I can’t still be doing this [working as a chef] in ten years time – I’ll be knackered!”

Curious as to how he makes his tiles, his process, I ask him and he turns bashful – “I’m going to have to tell you, or my Mrs will kill me. She made these coasters as a present for my sister for her birthday; we got these pictures off of facebook and she turned them into coasters by sticking them to tiles and glazing them. I thought, actually that’s really clever, and kind of stole it! I have her to thank!” speaking of family, of his work and how he does it, he has found an eclectic method to fund it. Mortgages have to be paid, and bills can’t be ignored, so funding for his work can’t affect his family life financially in any way. “I started collecting 20 pence pieces. Just saving them up – you don’t notice saving 20p away. I have about £150 saved so far, for the next lot  of tiles – hopefully they’ll be up soon!”  But up where? “When I first started doing them, I was kind of stupid. I was putting them up in in really obvious places. Right in your face. They would either get taken down straight away, or someone would come along and nick them – I only used to use a little dot of glue to fix them up, so they would be easy to just pop off. I used to take pictures of a place and stick them smack bang in the middle of the same place. I’ve learned; I’ve gotten more subtle since then.” How subtle can you really be though, sticking tiles up in very public places? “I’ve not been caught – yet. There was one outside of café nero – its gone now, I stuck it right on the doorway – I’d managed to get the resin on the back and got it on the wall, and was leaning against it, having a fag trying to get it to stick. Theres this group of kids hanging about, and I just knew they were going to bloody ask me for one. I’m trying to act all nonchalant, but every time I move, the tile moves a little bit. It’s a strong resin, but it takes a while to set, and every time it moves I think ‘I’m going to end up stuck to this wall. The resins going to stick to my jacket,! But no, I got away with that. Somehow! There was one down on The Pools [leisure centre] too, I’d just done that one, and had wandered back up the road. I could hear sirens in the distance, and started panicking a bit. They were getting closer and closer, I was trying to act casual, but this bloody police car came screeching right round the corner! I just thought, bloody hell, I didn’t think they were that mad about it! They jumped out the car – and walked straight past me. Some kids were messing around in an abandoned building, that was what they were after. I was shaking.”  

Find PAZ’s tiles all over Carlisle, and on Instagram at @paz1971

[sianlwhitfield-blog]

-*~’NEW WEBSITE’~*-

I now have a new and shiny shiny website!

However do not be surprised if, in true to my style, some of it may not work just yet...

www.sianlwhitfield.com

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Shy Bairns Get Nowt #1

In late august/early september an old friend sent me a screenshot of PlankPeriodical ‘s instagram page. They were taking on submissions from creatives based in the north (maybe more specifically the north east) for a risograph zine. The ‘brief’ so to speak was very open, just to be aimed around the idea of being from/of/in the North of England. I loved the idea of it, and really wanted to send in something but it was only a few days before the deadline, I was at the time working on other projects and trying to sort a house out ready for my housemates to move in (excuses excuses). However I gave them a follow on instagram and when I saw a post saying you could pre-order the zine, I decided to do just that. It wasnt a lot of money including postage (I don’t even remember exactly how much it was) and from then on I kind of forgot all about it.

This morning, I woke up (i’d like to say got up but even now writing this, a good 4 hours after waking up I’m still sitting in bed and have not moved. I’m a mess don’t judge me-) and after the other half shot out to get me some painkillers for a migraine that kind of limits me to using just one eye, (thank you squish x) I tried to crack on with my portfolio - which I know I have left til the very last minute and like all of my life choices right now, I am regretting. After lots of angry muttering, huffing and what feels like an age of trying to tug my brains out through my fingers and into something that reflects ‘my identity and showcases my work at its greatest’ I was not in the greatest of moods. Thankfully, a postman bearing gifts decided to drop something through my door, and post always cheers me up.

Post of this kind will always cheer me up more. The self-described ‘DIY risography arts periodical’ Shy Bairns Get Nowt is truly something. This little beaut is so well designed I will only let people view it from behind glass now. 

The concept was great and it has been pulled off amazingly well. The idea of highlighting the North of England - which in terms such as these is so easily forgotten about or generally regarded as something that should be ‘left to rot’ (see p.43 - delightful) is brilliant. It is a very personal look into how young creative people of the North East feel; reading through it you can almost hear them scream we’re home, bitches - they want people to sit up and take note of the North East, but not in a way that would make you pity them - they’re strong, independent people, who in one part of the zine discuss  how they have made opportunities for themselves - to the extent of actual DIY, basically because some resources just aren’t available. They quite literally do not give a shit - they’re gonna do it anyway and that is what I love. This zine was not set up by some kind of corporate initiative, and they have received no funding to do it either, just raising funds from pre-orders. Seeing all of this is incredibly empowering.

The work in it is top level, seriously, I could read it over and over. The pieces of writing in it are excellent, thought provoking and really make you sit up and pay attention. The structure of parts of it are a little unorthodox but it fits so well you wouldn’t want it any other way. It flows beautifully; there isn’t a single thing that I would criticise or want to change about it, other than I wish I’d gotten my finger out and submitted to it as well.

The amazing people who worked on this should be incredibly proud.

[sianlwhitfield-blog]

Quite enjoying this project, basing it on one of my favourite places @balticgateshead 👌🏻 #graphicdesign #graphicdesignstudent #universityofcumbria #BALTIC #balticcentreforcontemporaryart

A photo posted by Sian Whitfield (@sianlwhitfield) on Nov 3, 2016 at 9:26am PDT

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LICAF 2016

Last year, I was lucky enough to visit the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival for the first time. It was something that in truth I had never heard of, but as a bit of a comic-geek I thought it would be a good day out.  I loved every single second. And thankfully, this year I got to go back!

Once again, I had an amazing day of meeting artists and creatives, discussing comics and generally nerding out.

 This year we had the sense to book tickets for some of the events that were held, in particular the live draw event Drawing on Japan: Miyazaki Master of Ghlibi.  After a delayed coach, a mad dash to the venue and lots of typical british tutting and judging, we got to watch  Toronto Comic Art Festival Director Chris Butcher talking to 4 artists (Jonathan Edwards, Ken Niimura, Bryan Lee O’Malley and Emma Vieceli) about the magic that is Studio Ghibli, whilst the four artists each created a beautiful piece of artwork inspired by Ghibli. I loved hearing about their influences and what they thought of Studio Ghibli, and it was amazing watching them draw their Ghibli-inspired pieces.

We also had the opportunity to screen print our own merchandise, and I got to try Bubble Tea from Manhua Cha (it was nice to hear a Geordie accent). I also very nearly bought the Star Wars Episodes V-VII video box set, which I am still regretting not doing now. 

However no LICAF trip is complete without spending a ludicrous amount of money:

Worth every penny.

The highlight of my day however was meeting Mike Medaglia, an artist I discovered from the LICAF Facebook page just after last years festival. His work centres mainly on mindfulness and mental wellbeing as well as social issues. He was really really lovely, and doodled me a little message in his beautiful book ‘One Year Wiser’. 

It is an amazing festival that gives people the opportunity to go and share their work, meet amazing people and celebrate the Art of Comics. There is so much to do and it is an amazing experience, its something that I would definitely recommend.

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Ahh yes, about the Cranes...

Just before finishing our first year of university, I was having a think about the different things that I wanted to do with ‘all of my free time’. I had briefly looked at origami (I actually think it was Pornogami, a book I found at the Library. Lets be honest, you all want to learn how to fold a penis out of a £10 note, amiright??) and had read something about Senbazuru - a Japanese custom of gifting one thousand origami cranes to newlywed couples or often babies. It stems from an old Japanese legend that promised one wish to a person if they had folded one thousand origami cranes. It was also thought to bring you good fortune if you were to have them hanging in your home, hence the popular wedding gift.

In Japanese folklore, the crane is known as one of its holy creatures, and is said to live for a thousand years - hence the thousand cranes - and is an associated symbol of happiness, good luck and peace.

I have always admired the art of origami, and even envied the patience it takes to learn it. After researching it, I decided that over the summer, I would make one thousand origami cranes - but without origami. As I had a lot of processes and techniques I wanted to try or revisit, a crane seemed like a good starting point. I was going to have to practice each process a lot, so in all likelihood I would end up with a lot of them, and who would say no to a bit of extra happiness and peace in their life? So my aim was to make one thousand cranes.

Also, if you know me at all you have probably twigged that I’m a fairly superstitious person, I am daft enough to do something because I ‘see a sign’ or something similar. So when a local tattoo artist had a flash design of an origami crane, my arm was under her needle faster than my Gran could say have you really thought about this?

I didn’t quite get to my one thousand cranes - in truth I was probably about nine hundred and ninety-six cranes short - but it is still something that I love the idea of, I think the symbolism and folklore behind it is beautiful, so fingers crossed one day I might get to the one thousand mark.

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Printing (of many kinds apparently)

One thing I had decided to try my hand at this summer was more printing work. After having a go at screen printing and finding it far too enjoyable I decided to go back and have a crack at some more ideas, including my now favourite T-Shirt (go on, have a guess - answers on a postcard).

I also decided to try and have a go at various types of printing - I have done lino cutting in the past so decided to have a play with that again (as you can see by the many chunks now out of my cutting mat) and made some prints that I really quite liked. As with all projects, I did have eventual plans for them, but they are currently residing in a box.  Anyway. After picking up a book from everybody's favourite overpriced craft shop, I started to think about alternate things I could use for printing - and even went back to potato printing, which I don’t know if I should be ashamed in saying was my most successful printing endeavour - but also, as I wanted to look at typography more this summer, as well as being more hands on opposed to digital with my work, I started to design a very simple typeface and carve the letter forms out of cheap pencil rubbers. I was actually very happy with this, until the shop I was buying them from decided to discontinue their cheap and cheerful rubbers. Back to the drawing board with that then.