A casual day in the studios...
performative drawing week, Day 1 October 2011

Displayed work

A little late, but last Christmas, some Foundation work was displayed in the Link Gallery in the Grosvenor building (next to the Chatham building) and my work was present there too! Below there are a few photographs of the gallery space. The 3 consecutive, glossy, A1 sized images on the left and the central glossy poster images are mine.

Friday Project- 17 Things to do on a Friday

The next Friday Project asked us to complete 17 individual tasks on a Friday, and to record these either through illustrations, photographs or collage- I decided to photograph myself completing these tasks as I wanted to create a visual diary entry styled poster.  The 17 tasks were as follows

1. buy a design magazine
2.loan a book from the library
3.look up a design agency website
4.buy a quality newspaper and read it
5.find out what exhibitions are on
6.finish a sheet of work
7.add to journal
8.add to notebook
9.describe your specialist area in 18 words
10.tidy your studio space
11.display your latest work
12.try a new technique
13.make a visual comment on one of today's news stories
14.organise art equipment
15.summarise a feature article from a design magazine
16.plan out the next 7 weeks
17.design a sheet of all the above

The finished piece

Remix Love Project

As a short, one day project for Valentines Day I created an eighteenth century inspired Valentines day Poster, the idea emerged when I was researching the history of Valentines Day on the Internet, I came across some beautifully hand-crafted cards and was inspired by the intricate detailing in them to create my own contemporary version of these cards.

Below you can see a photograph of the poster

The Poster

Contextual Studies Project

The contextual Studies Project fulfils the written requirement piece of the course; we were asked to write a 1000+ word essay on a designer/practitioner/artist (or a group/design company) or a current exhibition which inspires us. I based my essay on the late Graphic Designer Alan Fletcher because I find his work visually brilliant and inspiring. I am also fond of his book, "The Art of Looking Sideways" and so thought there was no other practitioner better suited to write about. He revolutionised the way in which 'design' is perceived and pioneered and transformed design as we know it today, rejecting conventionalism and conformity, Fletcher's work breaks away from traditional and mainstream work and in doing so he paved the way for a newer, more approachable graphic design.

The Booklet

I designed and made the book on both paper and then acetate in the hope that I could layer the two and create a three dimensional effect. unfortunately this would have meant that the text and typography would largely become illegible and so I decided to make them both separately. The acetate version is my final version and I intend to create a lightbox for this to be placed in.

the paper version

the acetate version

Friday Project- 'Where Am I?'

Where Am I?
As a self-directed Friday project we were asked to make a set of
10 notifiers/cards, items, objects that could be placed in our studio spaces to notify the tutors of our whereabouts when we are not present at our desks- I decided to link this project to my subject matters project, and wanted them to run on side by side.

I also wanted my notifiers to be practical so that tutors would know when I have gone to use the mac suites or the library or the sewing/batik room for example.

Method

Firstly, I dyed white cotton fabric using a range of different hues- both in ink and powder dyes; once the the fabric had dried I drew 6 headscarf head characters, (which represent me) and outlined these in
black gutta outliner. The next stage was to then cut the headscarf characters out, but I made sure to leave enough fabric on the back so that I could stitch the two pieces together and make them look slightly 3D by stuffing it with excess fabric. The final stage was to draw the little icons and images in the space where the face is- this acts as a symbol and signal as to my whereabouts.

To diversify the project a bit more, I decided to make the remaining 4 notifiers in the shape of tags (rectangular-ish luggage tags), I covered these in different silk papers and then illustrated them with the same headscarf character but in a slightly smaller size and added silver, alphabet stickers to form the typography.

The Finished Piece

Subject Matters- unveiling the veil

For my Subject Matters Project I decided to chose the subject of the headscarf and Hijab Culture, hence my project is appropriately titled 'unveiling the veil'. I wanted this project to be personal to me and about a subject that I felt passionate about. I started to wear a headscarf when I was nine years old and I have adapted myself to become comfortable and confident in wearing one ever since, I wanted my project to be a personal memoir of my experiences since I started wearing a headscarf, and things that go alongside it such as the social Hijab and how I represent myself as a Muslim woman in the west today.

Mind map
I wanted to create a three-dimensional mind map that could perhaps be made wearable. I created individual words using illustrator and photoshop and then placed around 60 of these words on a silk headscarf using image maker and PVA glue.

All the words on the headscarf are words/names/numbers associated with the Hijab

50 Facts about Hijab

Studio Shots

This is what my studio space looked like on the first day back after Christmas, all the work displayed in the area was completed over the 3 week break. Over Christmas I also organised two photo shoots, the aim was to to reach 75 different styles of tying a headscarf- I managed to photograph 45 different styles on my model.

A4 quote