Bonjour! Cava?

Hello my fellow bloggers. It has been sometime since posting anything on this little creative space which can be recognised as very lazy.

But I assure you that I have been busy since my last post. Firstly was the final push for my degree, then degree show, New Blood in London, Graduation, and the hunt for a job. Exhausting stuff.

For my final degree project, I chose the subject of the South Korean Economic Miracle as my focus. To me, I find information fascinating. This inspires my work and feeds my imagination. Making seemingly boring subject matter into something quite extraordinary and wondrous is a passion. By making information accessible to anyone, it allows everyone to be educated and enlightened about different aspects of life, time and history that may have been previously overlooked.

A Map is not only a geographical document; it is a relic of time and history. Maps are an effective use of displaying information; a work of art, which reflect the culture, beliefs and the aesthetics of the time. To stay relevant, maps must adhere to contemporary culture to suit the modern day audience. The South Korean Economic Miracle is a pivotal point in Korean history that has shaped a generation. The representation of this event in history has lacked the vitality the narrative deserves. Thus, I have ‘mapped’ the story of the South Korean Economic Miracle in a format that suits its modern audience and shows the miracle in the true light it desires.

To see my work please follow this link:

http://www.elements2010.co.uk/Charlotte_Cooper.html

Photography and photographic tricks are becoming an increasing focus in my work, and I am definitely going to focus on this in the future, keep your eyes peeled!

But for now I will leave you live some pictures of my work.

All images and products are Copyright Charlotte Cooper 2010

10 words to describe yourself and work.

Yesterday I had my briefing for semester two of my final year at uni. Some tips that my tutor gave was to write down to words to best describe your qualities in your work.

I though this would be easy. As it turns out it really isn't. Ironic considering when its you that should know your work best, and as it was put to me earlier, you should be your biggest fan when it comes to work (but by no means arrogant or cavalier).

So far I have managed to come up with four words. They are:-

Sincere- I like to have grounding and meaning to most of my work. I am not a person that can make humorous work for the sake of it only being funny.

Clean- I prefer to like clean use of illustration that leans on a graphic style. I am not one for fussy fiddly bits when it comes to image making.

Crafted- Arguably slightly contradictory to the above word, craft has always played a huge part in my work. but when I say craft, I like things to look cleanly crafted and slick.

Subtle- When I have said this before to people, they revert in bemusement, questioning that my work is the very opposite of subtle and is brightly coloured. I agree, I love colour. However the message in my work often invites the viewer to engage and investigate. It is not being shouted from the top of a cliff for example.

The other six will follow soon- when I can think of them.

Fedrigoni

For part of this semesters work, I have taken part in the YCN brief for the paper company Fedrigoni. The brief was to deign something that encouraged designers and the design community to use the facilities at Fedrigoni's London Showroom.

I decided to make business cards and postcards that had images constructed out of the paper sold by Fedrigoni. The postcard would then be posted to designers, where on the reverse of the postcard , it listed details of the showroom.

Paper can be seen as something quite corporate, so I wanted to create something that would be beautiful to look at. I created the theme of 'Make something beautiful' for the postcard, making out of paper beautiful sculptures that aim to inspire designers to use the products of Fedrigoni and the venue of the London showroom. For the business cards, I took a more practical side to advertising the products of Fedrigoni. So I created paper sculptures that displayed the potential ways that paper could be used.

copyright Charlotte Cooper 2010.

Youth and human rights.

This summer I went to Krakow in Poland. Whilst over there, I went to the concentration camp Auschwitz. I was prepared for the scale of it, but not the reality. Seeing the camp in brightness of day and all its gruesome details really brought home to me the horror that the victims of the holocaust suffered. It really sparked a response inside of me. I had learned about the holocaust in school, but somehow it had seemed to have skimmed over the human element and the remorse I had felt visiting the place. I then began to question why this was. In Britain, we live in a very liberal society, and my generation has suffered no great hardship or ordeal in recent times. This has left my generation disconnected from attrocities that are happening elsewhere in the world, and have no way to relate. We live in a rather selfish and self absorbed culture, where we would rather sit on Facebook than pick up a newspaper and read about the conflict in the Middle East. It is easier to ignore the problem than to deal with it. Moreover this lack of involvement is only perpetuated more by government's (home and overseas) attempts to often misconstrue the truth and paint a veil over the reality of events, which only adds to the confusion.

For this semesters work, I have done a 12 week project on this idea. I have produced a campaign aimed at young people to think more about what is happening outside of our shores, to relate and be more aware of it. I considered possible vehicles to convey my ideas to my target market of 16-24 year olds. We have a society that is so absorbed in visual culture, that something has to really stand out to be effective. Being interested in motion based work, and realising that print doesn't always 'cut it' as a mouth piece to convey ideas on its own, I created a light show/moving graphics that 'spell out' the truth and the conflict in other places.

Whilst researching the project, I looked at how when something blue is put in a red light, it appears very dark. I then came across whilst researching another project illustrator Sophie Henson image's she had created by layering the colours blue and red. This then led me to create machetes for slides which I would use in my light show. One layer, red the other blue. On the red layer, I wrote a lie such as about the conditions of child soldiers in Burma and then on the blue layer the truth. When placed together the blue layer appears darker, making the truth therefore in escapable and unavoidable to accept the blanked of lies that attempt to skim over it (the red slide).

I designed a typeface that broke down shapes of letters which made the message more ambiguous which represents the breakdown in communication through the multiple messages told. I had my slides laser cut into acrylic and then projected through them to create a light show, that would be displayed in areas where my target market are likely to visit and use.

To support this, I had created a film downloadable to the Iphone (and other devices), where the viewer controls the speed of the film. Thus a swift movement over the screen would flick trough to images of the slides. However, when the user slows down the speed of the film, the slides are read, and the truth revealed. I also produced a book and posters to support the campaign, so that it was available in any format.

This is a film montage of the semesters work, including decision making, testing and filming of my work. I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I enjoyed getting stuck into it.

Also in this post, are the posters I produced to support the campaign.

Copyright Charlotte Cooper 2010.

Christmas cards

Whilst in the studio today, we were discussing whether or not it was appropriate to upload Christmas card designs to blogs, when its no way near Christmas yet.

I am going to anyways. Not sure which one I prefer more, however I don't think they are too hot. Ah well, you live and you learn.

Enjoy.

Copyright Charlotte Cooper 2009

Anorak

As one of my briefs for this semesters work, I have done the Anorak Children's Magazine Cover Competition. Seeing as this competition is open to all art students, all over the world, I strongly doubt I would win.

However, it was nice to do a more jovial project compared to my rather serious and political brief that was inspired from a visit to Auschwitz. Sometimes I struggle to make "beautiful" images for the sake of being beautiful. I'm motivated by concept and meaning in my work, so if work doesn't have that, the bottom generally falls out.

So for me, this has been a bit of a change from how I create my work. I wanted to create an image that talked about all things that are winter. Some things aren't as obvious as others. I would like to have more typographic illustrations on the image, however, I didn't want the image to be overwhelmed or too busy.

But enjoy.

Copyright Charlotte Cooper 2009

The Zenit

In the summer, I cracked open my very old SLR the Zenit.

Just a few snaps from my life.

They make me rather nostalgic.

Another day, another dollar.

So tomorrow the first day or term and the first day of third year begins. I am both excited and nervous for what this next year brings.

I am currently sat in my new room in my new house/ flat at Loughborough. I came last sunday with the intention to nail loads of my dissertation reading. I would like to say I have done the previous however, the arrival of my fellow cohorts has somewhat delayed this process. Note to self, heels and a wet floor is not a good mix when on the dance floor. (Trust me, i have the bruises the prove it- idiot). However, I am positive once in the swing of everything, I shall conquer the mountain that is the dissertation.

On another note, while I was on the break my Mum asked me to do some "re-branding" for her beauty salon. I am not a Graphic designer so it probably is not as slick as some could produce. Plus I believe the typography isn't the best, however my Mum selected and liked the choice, and afterall its her salon she is promoting.

The illustration is my handy work however.

Please note that the blank space at the bottom is where our telephone number normally is.

I am not that stupid to leave that there for the whole internet to then rape me of it.

All Products and Images Copyright Charlotte Cooper 2009

Hello silence my old friend.

As of recent, I haven't had much to talk or post on here. I have been neglecting my creative needs. Its shameful.

I'm not going to spend another blog space whining about my lack of inspiration. i think I have done enough of that recently.

I have two things to show you, both little things to keep my mind ticking over while I'm home for the summer (although not long before third year begins).

Firstly, because I'm slightly obsessed with butterflies, I decided to make one to decorate my new room at uni with. I made it form old bits of haberdashery and wire. Please excuse the ridiculousness of the photo.

Secondly, I have started to make my own range of handmade Birthday cards, and this is one I made for my friend Emma (on the left). I have started doing mock up templates on photoshop, t the hopefully get printed to create my own line of bespoke cards.

Also, I am beginning side project work to my studies to create a small children's book of faries.

I know that in theory this sounds rather lame, however years ago I used to write and illustrate books about faries when I was in my teens. (Slightly sad I am aware) It was good practice, and it is paying off dividends to this day. Not to say the least when I was clearing through some draws I found these stories. I still believe that these can provide me with brilliant material for my book and I intend honour these with the same vigor as I originally wrote them.

For the time being here are some photos of my butterfly and card.

Strawberry Swing

I went to the cinema today. I love the cinema. But something, almost magical happened when this appeared on the screen, everyone was lulled into a serene fascination, no ones eyes moved from the screen. Mesmerising.

Its the new Coldplay Video for Strawberry Swing. The full version is on all Odeon Cinemas and Babelgum.com.

Here is a snippet from Coldplay's Youtube account.

http://www.youtube.com/user/coldplaytv?blend=1&ob=4#play/all/uploads-all/0/iEQpZcqxNDs

Watch and be amazed.

Back to the Future.

Yesterday, I got a little despondent about work.

It was suggested that maybe I should collaborate, both my love for illustration and craft together to make illustrations.

This is what I did at the end of my foundation, and the work I produced I was proud of, it oozed my personality and I was passionate about it.

Maybe it's time to return to this methodology.

Who says red cake isn't appetising?

Its been a while since I baked. So I decided to make a cake. 

In my minds eye, I envisaged a cake that was so intoxicating and full of chocolate it would tempt even the most savory of types.

The finishing touch would be pink icing.

I may have used a little too much food colouring.

Don't laugh.

It's special. 

I'm still going to devour it.

I think I can scratch cake decorator off possible careers.

Getting Crafty.

So, as the summer progresses on, I still find that I am without a job and without inspiration. It's not that I haven't tried for a job, just where I live there aren't any. Unless I fancy driving and hour away, which isn't feasible as I am minus a car.

So in an effort to try and solve my brain turning into sludge, I've been occupying my time with getting crafty. So far the results have been fruitful, and oddly enough, not very "illustration" based.

Sometimes  I reckon that I might be doing the wrong degree. Although I love illustration, I love to draw and animate, I get more satisfaction from producing textile based work. Whether this is because it is a hobby and so a source of escapism, therefore it brings me more pleasure could be why I find it more stimulating.

Who knows. At current, my illustration work is beginning to suffer. My sketchbook sits aimlessly beside me the majority of the time. It is filled with ideas and thumbnails of drawings of things I want to complete and do. None of which I have begun to even embark upon. I can't find the motivation nor the inclination to sit and work.

Maybe I have burned out? Never.

I think Living at home stifles my creativity. I find it impossible to work here. For starters my desk is of such a shallow dimension, it impossible to fit anything but the Macbook on it. Besides from that, where I live is far from the land of visual enquiry I wish it to be. Although Loughborough isn't much better, somehow I'm more inspired. Maybe its the people I mix with they are a constant resource where I can discuss refine my work with.

At home there is nothing like this. In between running my parents to the shops and back again, I look out the window and the creativity as blank as the piece of paper infront of me. Nothing is coming out.

When I get into blocks like this, I find it overwhelmingly infuriating as well as terrifying. My work means too much to me, so when it starts to suffer it begins to really get me down, and no one here seems to understand that.

I am a very driven individual and highly efficient. Its a well known fact. So being out of routine and inspiration is extremely counter productive.

Maybe the Ear infection i am currently enduring isn't benefiting or helping me either.

ANYWAYS.

Back to the craft. Check out the dresses I made plus other paraphernalia. 

Next time I blog I promise not to winge. AND sorry for bad photo quality. i think it is about time I invest in one that actually performs better than this excuse for one.

From Russia, With Love

The last project I completed before assessment was "An Illustrated Map". I did Russia.

Because I'm a geek, and I like history most of my work is motivated by this. So when I decided to make the map, I naturally took a historical route to my research. 

My map indicates a historical timeline of Russia, how the country first became and how it has evolved to this day.

It seemed an only natural transition to move this  piece into an animation. Further more, all these components have shaped and changed Russia to the country it is today.

от России с влюбленностью

Celebrate Good Times.

Heres some picture of this semesters work for my end of year show.

Please excuse the Poor choice of mannerism, and bad photo quality.

Third year is not so far away!

Projection

Further to mine and my partner Jonny Ray's project, "The Beginning of Civilisation" we have the projected our image and made a short film to display it.

I have done another version of this film with a different soundtrack, however, this one seems to work the best. 

Enjoy....

Jonny, et viola! 

So this was my response to a brief called  "Destination Conversations" from when I went to Chicago.

Basically I felt when I went to the City that it had its own voice that is unlike any other. So many components of the city interacted and conversed to make up the bigger voice which is Chicago. Although not always spoken word, the conversation that might be happening might be a game of chess, a hockey match, the interaction of the seagulls with the subway...

In the animation I wanted a real continuity flowing from each frame to another to demonstrated how all this conversations join together to make up Chicago.

Considering I never do animation much, I'm pretty happy with this outcome and inspired to do more.

Civilisation

So the last brief I completed was called "The beginning of..." from this there was a list of words we could chose from such as space travel, life, death, fear, hope etc. For this project I was working in pairs. Myself and my partner Jonny Ray, decided upon the word "Civilisation". 

What we deduced from the research we had established, our image would stem from the idea that our whole civilisation we have grows from the ground. The ground provides us with food, raw materials, essentially life. So we decided that we would create an image that would show this underground world of potential that the ground has. Its happening all the time and its beneath our feet all the time something we are never fully aware of. Thus the image we have created will be projected onto the floor for the public to interact with. we will create a film from this, probably sped up also. 

Chicago

So, last week I was in Chicago with Uni. 

Chicago, is cool. Damn cool. When everyone tells you that everything is big in America, its a given and you generally nod along in belief thinking thats that 7th time you have been told this fact.

Truth is, words cannot being to justify HOW big everything is. The sheer enormity of the buildings gives you cramp in your neck, and to cross a road brings new meaning to "getting to the other side safely". 

Food portions are astronomical. I still can't understand how people can eat such large portions for meals and not feel ill or sick afterwards or suffer from heartburn. Which could explain America's Current obesity problem. Although saying this, we didn't see any obesity- except maybe when we went to the Pizza Resturant.

It's a shame that we couldn't spend more time in Chicago, the city is so vast you can't possibly cover it all in the time frame we were given. 

An aspect I loved of the City was Wicker Park area. It oozed charm and had an arts scene that permeated sophistication and chicness that was somewhat elitest. Despite this, there was some cool record shops, galleries, vintage clothes shops, street art and potentially the best cafe.... EVER.

EARWAX CAFE.

No joke, best burger and fries I have ever eaten in my life ever...

Long live the messy Burger. Comprising of  black bean burger, cheese, caramelised onions, mustard dressing and peppercorn dressing and spicy fries.

Oh my days, I never wanted the meal to end...ever. My friend had a steak sandwich with fries. I don't convey a word of a lie when I say there was the best of half a cow between the bread.

Something that continues to shock me and baffle me about America is that amount of poverty that is around. Away from the slick sky scrapers and haute cuisine of the resturants, there is the streets of the poor, where they struggle to make ends meet and gang culture is the norm. We walked streets and streets of some of the poorer neighborhoods and soon realised that America is not always the land of dreams it always wants to portray itself as.

On every street corner, musicians cling to the dream of the Jazz music following which gave some meaning to black working community in bygone eras. The jazz scene, although still existant, is now somewhat jaded and only exists for the tourist population. There is a sadness to it when you see a drummer drumming to try and recreate the magic of what once was, but the spell is broken, and no matter how long you drum, its will never come back.

However, the America dream and ceremony exists still is some parts of the city. One of the best places I saw this was the United Centre when we saw the Blackhawks Hockey Team play a match. 

Everyone stands to sing the National Anthem and pomp and pride that most Americans have in this country is something to marvel at and admire. I doubt I would see the same amount of Patriotic fervor in this country.

All in all I really enjoyed myself and saw a multi-faseted view of Chicago that deviates from what the Guidebook suggests.

Nuclear Power.

So this is my life drawing project for this week. Needless to say my feet have barely touched the ground this week. After being ill last week, everything seemed to get rather manic all at once. 

But I'll start with this. This weeks brief was Climate Change. I decided upon the idea of nuclear power. Despite the fact that we are investing money into more renewable sources of energy, the amount of power they will provide will not quench our lust for energy and technology. So it has to be soured elsewhere. Sadly, it seems Nuclear power is the only answer.

The very idea of Nuclear Power fills me with dread. In the Sellafield area, child leukaemia is more prevalent then any other part of the UK, on the Dounraey plant in the Scottish Highlands, radioactive particles were released accidentally that were later sourced further along the coast line. To me Nuclear power is ticking time bomb that will have catasrophic effect on our environment and ourselves. But the power that Nuclear plants provide is somewhat insatiable. which brings me to my next point.

What is the point of all of us doing "our bit" for the environment, when in reality we are only going to sell out to nuclear power, and no matter how many plastic bags we save, it will not save the earth if something was to go wrong.

Moreover, it seems very in vogue at current for people to appear green and carry their "Bags for life" around, except that the reality is that soon as may return home from their shopping trips, their homes are fed by Nuclear power.

I don't pretend to be a martyr. I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to energy consumption, Hence why i felt this was such a sticking point.

What is the point in being "green" when we are only going to sacrifice everything for our love of technology?

And this is what my image is about. I wanted to make the image in two halves and but it on a "bag for life". the idea is that from one angle, the bag portrays a wistful image that echoes affinity with being green and almost "at one with the earth".

However, by flipping the bag over, you can see the reality. The subject is being seduced by nuclear power and the very idea of recycling pales into insignificance. This is further emphasised by the use of radioactive signs that slowly transform into flowers, suggesting that idea of Nuclear power is so seductive when it comes to feeding our technology needs.

Th image consists f photographs, my own drawings and textures. I screen printed the image onto canvas and made the bag to confront the idea of how faceless this big "green" push really is.

All products and images Copyright Charlotte Cooper 2009.