OUGD402 STUDIO BRIEF 1 - LONDON DAY OUT: SOMERSET HOUSE AND THE SAATCHI GALLERY

I recently had a day out in London to visit a few galleries. I specifically visited Somerset House to see the Secret 7" exhibition I entered for an OUGD406 brief, but was not successful with unfortunately. I thought this would be helpful for me to see what kinds of designs did win a place in the exhibition, so that if I entered next year I would know more so the level of design work I have to produce to have a better chance.

Shaun in the City at Somerset House
This statue is part of the Shaun in the City public arts trails, which are occurring in London and Bristol this spring and summer, to raise money for Wallace and Grommit's Children's Charity and The Grand Appeal, which support children in hospitals across the UK. There are 120 sheep designed by artists, designers and celebrities spread across London and Bristol, all with their own unique pattern. During September all 120 sheep will be shown together in Bristol and London, giving people a chance to see them all together in "one giant flock", so you can see any you have missed. On October 8th these sheep will go for auction.

This Shaun the Sheep was outside one of the entrances to Somerset House, which I thought was really cool and interesting, the bright, bold colours that adorn it. This specific sheep is called Pinky Plum, created by Roksanda Ilincic, sponsored by Coutts. 

Secret 7" at Somerset House
All of the record sleeves have been printed off in correct size and arranged on tall wooden boards. Horizontal wooden strips have been nailed onto the board to hold up the sleeves on the boards, so that no adhesive is needed to put them up on the boards, making it a lot easier to put them up and down, and saves a lot of money in adhesive as well, and also allows the boards to be re-used for years to come. There was also a separate room at the end of the exhibition where instruments were set up for you to record your own tune that will be put onto vinyl. For these sessions you had to book a time slot though.

In the middle of of the of the exhibition spaces there were vinyl players connected to headphones where you could listen to the tracks.

Some of my favourites:

I really liked the child like drawing of the little girl in a field full of flowers, rainbow stars in the sky and a massive green moon. I like the childlike quality of it, how it actually looks like a child has drawn it, which they could well have done. 

I think the thing about this design that I like is that the woman looks a lot like me, so I feel I could relate to it a lot. I found the simplicity of her nakedness very calming against the quite complex background. I also really like how it only uses one colour, a really dark, rich purple-y blue shade, printed onto orange stock, which are contrasting colours, and create a very African/Asian appearance, desert like almost.

The design really stood out to me, mainly because of my love for Lego minifigures. I thought the fact that this designer had actually used Lego minifigures at all was really interesting, as the 3D approach was really relevant to the minifigures themselves.

This design has a really cutesy feel to it, with the ice cube and strawberry having little faces. I really like the pastel colours used in this design, which adds to it's feminine and delicate qualities.

These two vinyl sleeves were really captivating to me. The one on the left is so simple, either actually been produced using paper cut, or digitally created, using such simple colours. I really like the paper cut effect, as it gives it a slightly romantic effect. The design on the right is really different to the one on the left, using extremely bright colours, everything outlined in black, it has a very graffiti effect to it.

This is another extremely interesting design. I love the pin-up style hair created using a black fill with the detail in white lines, it's very classy and strong. This contrasts effectively with the flower pattern that fills the area where the face is supposed to fill. This flowery part looks as if it has been stuck onto the sleeve as well, and is glittery as well, creating a garden effect,something a little more magical and crafty, which contrasts effectively with the sleek hair.

I like the geometric aesthetics of this design, the fruit making up the face itself, and the fruit produced using vectors is appear like. The colours are also bright and vibrant, which produces a very lighthearted expression.

This is another interesting design. I think how the green of the rope and the light pink background look together is very complimentary, and the light pink highlights the dark intensity of the green very effectively as well, enriching each other. I also really like how the rope is created using vector lines, and the main part of the rope is black as well, the green only showing up where the light shines of the rope, creating the shape and texture which is so interesting.

This sleeve was interesting purely because of the plain simplicity and brutal honesty of the design. The fact that it's in uppercase, big blocky bold lettering creates a very strong point.

This was a really creative design, with the bricks from the wall stuck to the board below it, as if they are falling down the board onto the floor. This creates a destructive appearance, which contrasts with the bright colours used in the design, which may suggest how a seemingly cheerful, happy world is falling to peaces.

This design is really simple, with only a photograph of a simple daffodil in the centre, with a lovely blue background behind, which creates a very tranquil, peaceful picture, but a lonely one, as daffodils are rarely seen alone.

This sleeve is another unusual one, which has been sewn together creating a puffy effect, which is relevant to the design because it has little googley eyes and a cute small nose. It also does look a bit like a superhero as well, which is unusual but interesting, matched with the gold and black colour scheme that this design has.

The Saatchi Gallery
I had never been to the Saatchi Gallery, and didn't really know what to expect beforehand, but I was really really pleasantly surprised by the sheer size of the gallery, and how creative and inspiring the exhibitions were. Hermes Wanderland was a really creative exhibition which was a series of different set rooms each showing a different story, some being interactive, and each showcasing a different aspect of the Hermes brand. Every room was completely different to the next, so you never knew what you were about to walk into next. it was a magical experience.

PANGEA II: New Art from Africa and Latin America
The artists:
Jean-Francois Bocle

This installation consisted of 97,000 plastic bags all arranged into the rectangular mound, which created a cloud like appearance which looked appealing and fluffy. However it has a deeper meaning of all the plastic bags, and waste in general we throw away, how this all mounts up.

Pia Camil

These are ceramic glazed bowls of sorts, made into all shapes and sizes, which look a bit to me like parts of letterforms. I like the bright colours they are glazed in, and the stripes that they are painted in, they look like layers, stages perhaps.

Federico Herrero
Herrero's paintings were one of the first things in the gallery which really excited me. The bright splodges of colour look like a mass of fields, or trees in some imaginary land. In some of the paintings there are also little illustrations of cute creatures which come out from behind the paint splodges, which makes me think that Herrero could of covered the canvas' in all of these small creatures and then just painted over them, which is an interesting concept, as the illustrations are different in appearance to the paint splodges, they are a lot more complicated and linear, rather than block colours.

Eduardo Berliner
These paintings are bizarre in many ways, mainly due to the content of the paintings themselves, especially the woman about the saw the turtles shell in half, which is very cruel, however the way the paintings are painted is really interesting. They're detailed, but look like they use rough blocks of colour to create the paintings, rather than concentrating loads on the accuracy of the content itself.

Alida Cervantes
These are another stange set of paintings, some of which the people appear to look plastic dolls, others with very short bodies and normal sized heads, often doing unusual things. However again these paintings are produced in a similar way to Berliner's above, lines of paint to construct the paintings, that aren't particularly accurate or detailed, but show the shape of the objects and characters. The only one that is particularly detailed in the first painting shown below, as you can see the shone on the plastic on the dolls in the picture, making them look realistic against the me splodged, dull background.

Diego Mendoza Imbachi 
These paintings were massive on cloth, and the perspective was so accurate it looks like you're actually looking up at the tree tops. I like the simplicity of the colours as well

Jorge Maret
These tree sculptures were really interesting as they were very delicate and and intricate but extremely accurate. I liked the beads attached to the roots on the second tree, as this reminded me of a project I did for my final A Level Art project.

Rafael Gomezbarros
These spider like sculptures took over the whole room, swarmed across the ceiling and walls, in a very realistic display. The sculptures themselves weren't particularly detailed or accurate, but they didn't need to be as the sheer size and amount of them created the effect.

Alejandro Ospina
I really like the chaotic style of this piece, the combination of line drawings and splodges and lines of colour interjecting.

Armand Boua

Aboudia
These portraits of sorts were very aesthetically appealing to me, with the characters eyes very rounded and bulging, their whole faces in fact are rounded, which makes them look unusual and interesting. I also like the combination of dark colours and bright colours as it creates a very dark appearance, but with a brighter undertone.

Virginia Chihota

Hermes Wonderland
This exhibition shines a light on Hermès, the iconic French house. Inspired by ‘flanerie’, the art of urban wandering, each room presents a series of installations in various media, created by a diverse selection of artists. From the Parisian square, to the covered passage, or a cafe of forgotten objects this veritable extended cabinet of curiosities will delight and intrigue visitors, inviting them to be enveloped by the colour, sounds and images that surround them.
This was the most amazing exhibition I have been to, with each room being a different theme, designed like a set. One room you even have to walk through a wardrobe to get into the next room, which was amazing and I stood there for a while getting in the way not knowing quite what it was. There were rooms filled with graffiti, a Parisian cafe set, intricate street lights handing from the ceiling, umbrellas as light shades, and even an interactive floor space as well.

These are a selection of my photographs:

The Shop:

This day out in London has proved to be an extremely good day out as I got to see the chosen designs for Secret 7" and visit the Saatchi Gallery which I hadn't been to before which proved to be very memorable.