First, I found the definition for street art.
Street art is any art developed in public spaces. The term can include traditional graffiti art work, as well as, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster art, video projection, art intervention, guerrilla art, flash mobbing and street installations. Whereas traditional graffiti artists have primarily used free-hand aerosol paints to produce their works with ‘tagging’ and text-based subject, street art encompasses many other media, techniques and subject matter including: LED art, mosaic tiling (e.g. Space Invader), murals, stencil art (e.g. Hutch and Blek Le Rat), sticker art, street installations (e.g K-GUY), wheatpasting (e.g. Faile and Prefab77), woodblocking, video projection, and yarn bombing.
Street artists will often work in studios, hold gallery exhibitions or work in other creative areas: they are not anti-art, they simply enjoy the freedom of working in public without having to worry about what other people think. Many well-known artists started their careers working in a way that we would now consider to be Street Art, for example, Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger.
Next, I collected a body of secondary research into the basic concept of street art and graffiti, this will help me define specific points within the subject that interest me, and in turn could form the content of my publication.
I collected my initial research from a book called 'Street Art Uncut' by Mathew Lunn.
- The books introduction makes a good point about how the reader must make a conscious decision to step back and look at graffiti to really fully appreciate it.
- Street art is a form of self expression for artists.
- Artists driven by different motives, what are these?
- Street art is created as a way of communicating opinions and messages.
- Street art can be created so artists can associate themselfs with their peers, to rebel, speak their mind without censorship.
- The message may be cryptic and aimed at a specific audience.
- The tone of voice can be humerus, threatening, serious or sarcastic.
- One of the few forms of self expression that is uncensored.
- Many people walk past it blindly!
- It is the voice of the streets.
- The definition of street art remains undefined. (art developed in public spaces)
- Some people don't consider it as art because its illegal.
Graffiti Terminology
- Tagging - The most basic form of graffiti, like an artists signature.
- Throw-ups - Rapidly filled letters surrounded by an outline. (both tagging and throw-ups are used to vandalize property quickly)
- Pieces - Covers a large area, often uses multiple colours and are higher quality than throw-ups & tags.
- Sculpture & Plaques - street art sculptures are often 3d street art installations. Plaques are usually per-prepared boards with an image on, that are then stuck up using an adhesive
- Paste-ups & Stickers - Paste-ups are usually pre-prepared posters that are placed on walls using wall paper paste. This allows for mass production as artworks can be created on the computer. Stickers are usually personalized sticker designs which are then distributed around the city.
- Stuckistry (stencil art) - Stencils are cut by hand out of a material such as cardboard. The artist then sprays the paint over the stencil to leave the image. Creating work this way means it can be produced a lot quicker than other forms of graffiti and can be reproduced many times.
- Some artists don't see legal graffiti as graffiti, as there is no risk or rebellion involved in creating the piece.
- The public consider legal graffiti as clever are and illegal graffiti as vandalism.
- Illegal graffiti can provide a pathway into legal graffiti.
- The quality of legal graffiti is often higher as the artists can spend longer on the piece.
- Councils have started designating legal walls for graffiti. (will this make a difference when an essence of graffiti is breaking the law?)
- Stencil art is growing in popularity (even more so now after the fame of artists such as Banksy)
- A lot of graffiti artists messages are politically motivated.
- Artists created pieces that communicate the raw view of the individual writer.
- It is created out of dissatisfaction with society, the government and world problems.
- While the details of the graffiti vary with changes in government and different issues, the general thrust of political graffiti remains constant. Tacking issues related to war and the mistreatment of human life.
- The main way of communicating political issues in modern street art is with using stencils., for example Banksy's politically influenced pieces.
- Political graffiti is unedited and uncensored.
- It is created to be confrontational and bring to light issues people try not to think about.
- Quote - "Some people are looking for fame, some people want to make a difference and see this as a way of getting a message across, some people think that public property is truly 'public property' and thus they can do what they want to it, some people just like causing chaos" - Sam, banker.
- Stickers and paste-ups are graffiti even though they don't fall under the definition of the word.
- Sentences are less harsh if you get caught because they can easily be removed.
- Quick to put up.
- Can be mass produced.
- There are specific sights where artists will all stick their work.
- 'Permission is what differentiates vandalism from art in many cases.'
- The political views of the streets are sprawled in type on walls, shutters, trains and bridges voicing the opinions that often go unnoticed.
- Advertisements are targeted by vandals and either destroyed or changed to communicate their own message.
Moreover, I also collected research into the history of graffiti. Graffiti dates back thousands of years to the times of Pompeii, where forms of graffiti were found on columns within the ancient city. However, I want to focus on the modern graffiti movement that started in New York in the 1960's, and how it has progressed to the present day.
1960's - 70's
The phenomenon, which we can observe all over the world, in colloquial speech, is called GRAFFITI. The beginning of this occurrence was taken place in New York on the turn of 60's and 70's. Since people from whole world have seen the first water resistant markers (called flow-masters), young people have been starting to write their own names or nicknames on the walls of buildings, postboxes, phone boxes, underground passages, and in the end on the subway. First of all it was called single hitting then tagging.
It was the time when some young people start to rival with the others through the writing own signatures. Probably the biggest collection of signatures had got guy named TAKI 183, who gave a interview to The New York Times newspaper in 1971.The real name of TAKI 183 was Demetrius. He was a young Greek who worked in NY as a boy for everything. Moreover he traveled a lot by a subway and during this time he was writing his tag's almost everywhere. Another well known writers from that period of time were: JOE 136, BARBARA 62, EEL 159, YANK 135, EVA 62.
In turn of 60's and 70's The MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authorities) had to spend over 300 000 dollars to remove subway. This amount was the equivalent of 80 000 working hours necessary to remove graffiti. However the writers not only were young kids. Also gangs to designate their territory and to become a famous used these forms of communication. Probably that was one of the most important facts, because after publishing an interview with TAKI 183, hundreds of kids start to write their names everywhere.
Throughout this time tags have become some kinds forms of artistic expression, new forms of graphics and logs that were characteristic for some writers. The letters has become more and more huge, with added of outline and connected with 'throw out'. That was the born of new form of graffiti called 'Piece'. It is the short version of word Masterpiece. In that time the most popular medium for graffiti was a subway. In 1973 The New York Magazine Newspaper throw open to competition for the best graffiti in the subway and admitted Tags award.
Styles were huger and added of third dimension, and 'throw out' in many new ways. So in the 1976 person called "Caine 1" painted first Whole Train, furthermore famous group named Fabulous Five painted the second one. In the same time young people worked very hard to create their own diverse styles. For the close the composition of letters added full stops, commas, inconvenient ways of union letters or deformation's letters. At that time were made o the most gorgeous and cults elements in graffiti. One of them was arrow, invented by Phase 2(he was also the inventor the bubble style).
The graphics' compositions that were made with letters weren't intelligible any longer. So this new technique created an innovative style called 'Wild Style'. Subsequently the background elements of graffiti were made and the new artists quiet fast adopted to develop them to their own styles. However almost everybody remembered about people who have experimented with sprays paints on the subway. This people were created the real manner of graffiti. For example Hondo created first top to bottom, Dead Leg-first top with clouds, Phase 2 -arrows, bubble style etc.
During this whole time the creations of thousands writers cost MTA hundreds millions of dollars. Generally speaking, between 1970-1980 The MTA had to spend about 100-150 millions of dollars to remove graffiti or to build securities systems etc. These amounts of money were spent, most of times, for unsuccessful tests of removing graffiti's. For example approximately cost of removing one quadrate meter is about 750 dollars, one whole car is about 78 000 dollars.
In the end of 1978 new system of removing whole cars were finally invented. It was water with specific chemises under huge pressure (it was called 'buff'). Only Blade lost in those days hundreds of his whole cars. However for the oldest cars called 'coffins' (that were built in the 50's) the buffing system didn't work perfectly. The system removed only parts of graffiti's. It seemed like coffins were dirtier than before. Painting on the new painted or buffed whole cars were for most of the writers the new challenge. Beyond this, the system worked more effective than any times before. By the way, MTA invested huge quantity of money to built securities systems in whole NY subway, for example MTA built five-meter high security fence with barbed wire.
The fact is, that security of NY subway have become more aggressive and violence and few writers were caught in and thrashing on dead. In case of that in 1978 writer Lee Quinones well known as Lee started to change their neighborhood. He changed the grimy place near Brooklyn Bridge into spectacular and incredible famous gallery of graffiti. He painted almost every night the walls next to a baseball fields, some people thought that it was an immense and very essential split in graffiti. The writers started to paint the walls not a subway.
Fab 5 Freddy was one of the people who were really interested in this occurrence. He wrote an article to Village Voice newspaper about this innovative transform in graffiti. In the same time Claudio Bruni, the owner of Medusa Gallery in Roma, arrived to New York He came on to find out the people who painted graffiti. Nevertheless Lee and Fred became first writers who have presented their artworks in Europe.
In 1983 Yaki Kornblit the tradesman of artwork from Amsterdam, came to New York and looked for the most talented writers. He wanted to present that kind of arts on the European market of artworks. He thought that it would like 20 years before when the Pop -Art were successful promoted in Europe. Yaki created group of experienced writers (who panted whole cars and take part in extremely important exhibitions in NY for example" Fashion Moda", The Mudd Club", "
The NY New Wave Show At P.S.I", " The Fun Gallery" and many others. In this Group were incredibly famous people such as Dondi, Crash, Ramellzee, Zephyr, Futura 2000, Quik, Lady Pink, Seen, Blade, and Bil Blast. The exhibitions of theirs artworks in Museum Boymans van Beuningen were an unbelievable success. The critics and collectors of art talked in positively way about their artworks. However it was not the end, this occurrence had deep meaning for development and promotion graffiti in Europe.
The young people from Holland were (and perhaps still are) very insubordinate and in that time on the street there were first signs of graffiti. In the similar time there was legendary meeting writers from NY with talented kids from Amsterdam of course in NY. It was the beginning of graffiti stage in Holland and also in the other parts of Europe.
In a consequence the writers started to divide for two different groups. The first one started to develop in a way to real art, to a new motives and inspirations. Their arts started to be more multiple, subtle and also well selling. Those writers, most of time, losing a contact with their previous publicity and the spray paint started to become one of many their painter's tools. The second groups were the writers connected with traditional paintings on the walls. This group focused more and more young people also connected with culture, which joined writers, breakers, rappers and DJ's. It was the graffiti culture of street.
On the beginning of 80's the Hip-Hop Culture had become more popular in USA and started developing in Europe. The most important thing is, that media promoted this culture. Thanks to them, and esp. legendaries films, and video clips or books whose described and promoted Hip-Hop many of young artists from New York become a stars. Such as Africa Bambata, The Rock Steady Crew, Phase 2, Futura 2000, Blade, Seen, Skeme, Dondi, or Lee. The style of Kase 2 (Computer Rock- who take part in film" Style Wars" or described in book "Subway Art") has become lately a pattern for young writers from Los Angeles or San Francisco.
In Spain B-boys are dreamed that they will have become the members of famous crew Africa Bambata-Zulu Nations in future. In Great Britain writers were painted the sign of Zulu almost everywhere. In many cities in Europe and in the USA graffiti become developing after the concert of Rock Steady Crew, because one of the members DOZE was the famous writer from NY. But the most significant for development graffiti art was the "Beat Street" film. Frankly speaking this film was huge Hollywood production, and has nothing common with real graffiti culture, moreover the 'throws out 'were painted by Hollywood scenographers whose have nothing ordinary with real writers. Nevertheless this film was an inspiration for many young people from whole over the world to painting, dancing and Dj-ing.
The first trains were painted in Wien, Dusseldorf, Munich, Copenhagen, Paris, London and Sydney but very seldom this kind of arts is well seen by some conservative people. This is connected with a specific situation in these cities. There were only few writers and their works were removed very quickly. Nevertheless European writers are focused on painting walls. Besides European people and writers from USA continue the NY style of artworks and trying to build up them in their own ways.
http://www.hiphop-network.com/articles/graffitiarticles/historyofgraff-arpone.asp
- Modern graffiti started in the 1960's, initially used by gangs to mark their territory and then by young people tagging their nicknames everywhere.
- It became a competition to see who could write their name the most, essentially gaining most fame.
- Graffiti developed with the introduction spray-paint.
- Throw-ups and other forms of graffiti started becoming popular.
- Writers started tagging trains, and moved on to paint the whole side of the carriage.
- This cost the authority's millions to remove, graffiti was becoming a serious problem in their eyes.
- The MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authorities) spent millions improving the security of the train yards where a lot of the vandalism was happening.
- Around the 1980's graffiti started having a large influence in Europe after being introduced in Amsterdam.
- The 80's hip-hop culture was popular in America had started becoming popular in Europe also. The hip-hop culture promoted graffiti so it inevitably started becoming more popular.
POINTS OF FOCUS
- Street art and its benefits to society.
- Street art as a form of communication.
- Street art and the city aesthetic.
- Politics and street art.
DEFINING A TARGET AUDIENCE - PRIMARY RESEARCH
SURVEY
I also created an online survey to distribute to a wide range of people. I want to collect data to see what peoples general view of street art is, and if this is affected by age..
QUESTIONS
Are you Male or Female?
- Male
- Female.
How old are you?
- 18-24
- 25-34
- 35-44
- 45-54
- 66-74
- Like it.
- Dislike it.
- Neither.
What word would you associate with street art?
- Vandalism
- Public art
Do you think street art has political importance?
- Yes
- No
DISTRIBUTION
I wanted to distribute the survey to a wide audience as I want to collect the views and opinions of people from a variety of ages. I first distributed the survey on facebook.
I also asked older family members to distribute the survey so I could get a variety of responses.
DATA ANALYSIS
Below are the results from my survey, it received 55 responses in total.
The survey was completed by people of various ages, this will enable me to see if a dislike for graffiti can be linked to age, if this appears to be true I can define my target audience.
These results show that the majority of people who completed the survey like street art, and see it as an art-form rather than vandalism. This is proof that in modern society there is a greater acceptance of street art that there was just over two decades ago.
I find the results to this question very interesting. When I was first introduced to street art I immediately associated it with politics, so it is a surprise to see that the results are pretty divided, when I expected the majority of votes to be yes.
Additionally, I also analysed individual peoples results so I could find if a dislike for street art is related to age.
SUMMARY
I discovered that the majority of people who dislike street art also see it as vandalism. Furthermore, most of the participants who dislike street art fall into the older age groups, such as 35 - 44. This is evidence that there is a link between a dislike for street art and age, as none of the participants who disliked the art-form fell into the first age group of 18-24. Therefore, I will aim my publication at middle aged adults, as the results from the survey show that this is the age group who dont understand the importance of the art-form.
STREET ART & ITS BENEFIT TO SOCIETY
As my primary research shows, there is clearly a divided opinion about street art. It is either seen as an act of mindless vandalism or an unrefined, free art form. Below I have collected a body of research into the positive benefits street art can have on society. I want to focus on the positive aspects it can have as highlighting these will help the audience appreciate its importance. Furthermore, I think that linking the art-form to something that they can relate too will help them understand and aid the communication of my outcome.
First, I found this online news article on 'The Guardian' website. The article covers a story where the Hackney Council have requested the owners of a record store to remove a 12FT spray painted hare that they commissioned. The piece was done by renowned Belgian street artist ROA and is signature to his style.
- Despite the council wanting to remove the piece there is clearly a huge public following who want to preserve the piece. This is evidence that it has had a profound affect on the community living in the surrounding area.
- Councils have started to use graffiti artists to help advertise campaigns, this is evidence that street-art is becoming an excepted form of communication in modern society.
- Moreover, the creation of the campaign apparently acted as a deterrent for future taggers due to their respect for the artist.
This article was taken from Street Renegades by Francesca Gavin.
- "I love the way that street art can surprise people. It catches people where they least expect it and jolts them out of their every day lives."
- "Since street artis an urban phenomenon, people who live outside large cities seldom have a chance to see it and when they do, they usually dismiss it as vandalism"
- My book could also act as an introduction to street art for people who haven't encountered it before.
- This project was secretly set up by redbull, overnight a whole town was transformed by 22 of the worlds best graffiti artists. In the morning residents woke up to a flyer claiming responsibility, with a map to each piece.
- There was a big public interation 'Soon curios people were walking up and down the streets'.
- Undoubtably this will have casued social interaction, and afterwards would have helped tourism, benifiting the community.
- This set of images shows a series created by an artist called 'Constantin Demner'
- The series uses street art to bring local history to life by presenting historical information and facts to passers by.
- The piece is informative, and shows how street art could be used to help scoiety.
- Opens peoples eyes to their surrounding enviroment.
- Lloyd Ellis is a London based illustrator and artist.
- He leaves small pieces of cardboard with his drawings on them around the city.
- The idea behind this is that people will find them and smile.
- The artists aims is to uplift peoples feelings.
- Work produced is biodegradable, or can be taken home.
- Asbestos is a street artist from Ireland.
- His work pulls people from their monotonus daily routenes.
- Politically motivated, recently started a series that reminds society about homeless people and the problems they face. Something which is often ignored.
- Piece created by street artist ROA.
- Any piece of work that is really aesthetically engaging is benificial to society, in the same way that a renowned piece of artwork is benificial to a community when placed in a local gallery.
STREET ART AS A FORM OF COMMUNICATION
Furthermore, I also want to focus on street-art as a form of communication. Its always been used a as form of communication, both political and personal messages. Important, voice of the streets, free un-restrained opinions. It has importance and can influence people.
- "We want to draw attention to the psychological environment that we all inhabit and how the controlled visual elements of the city can directly affect how people feel and think". Here the artist mentions how visual elements such as street art have the power to affect how people think and feel.
- Manipulate existing advertisements.
- Cities are brimming with imagery however they are mostly 'commodified placards of consumption and advertising.'
- Artist pastes up large scale versions of his own photographs.
- The large scale of his pieces make them more influential.
- Uses his pieces to communicate messages about politics and issues around protection and repression.
- "Hand-lettering is attractive to me because of its subtlety and its aim to communicate a message not only through words but through line and form."
- Installed gallery pieces in public after exhibitions to connect to the public outside of the art world.
STREET ART & THE CITY AESTHETIC
- Here the artist talks about how he creates work as a response to his feelings about the city aesthetic.
- Forces the audience to become aware of objects that would usually be ignored due to the massive amount of them within the city.
- Created a documentary called 'Public Disclosure' a clip of which can be seen below.
- Francois wanted to move away beyond graffiti as he found writing a name limiting.
- He often produces his work in empty rural or semi-industrialized areas, which injects vibrant colours into the landscape.
- New form of graffiti that is created with technology.
- Uses projectors and LED lights to create pieces.
- "I think just having uncurated fun in a privately stolen city like New York is a Political statement" - A lot of the artists that I have looked at so far involve an aspect politics in their work.
- "The materials that I use (tiles and cement) are made to be permanent, , but at the same time I know that nothing is eternal especially things you do in the street" - I think the fact that a lot of street art will get destroyed adds value to it.
- Started creating graffiti as a way to rebel against the constraints of art.
- The illegal aspect of his work is important as there has been an increased police presence since he started painting.
- Street art has a global outreach.
- Some cities and towns support the locat street art scene.
- Raised public aweaeness of street art has beung about a common acceptance and comercialisation of the art-form.
- Often created in places where it will be seen by passers by.
- Street art is shown in the streets, and now it is more popular in galleries as well.
- Artists look for private places to produce their work, where it will also be exposed to the public.
- When produncing work a main factor an artist must consider is getting caught/seen.
- Often images are placed forthe purpose of pleasing a passer by.
- Tags are unpopular with the general population.
- An unofficial hierarchyhas developed where tags are regarded as vandalism, whereas street art is not.
- Empty shows are when artists take over an abandopned building and create installations inside it. Meaning the artists can create work in a relaxed enviroment.
- The above piece was created by Derrick Hodgson a street artist from Canada.
- He creates work becasue he likes to play with the urban environment that he lives in.
- Street artist 'D-face' creates stickers, posters and artwork which is pasted around the world.
- He is always on the look out for new spots, and sees walls as exhibition spaces.
- The higher/better quality the wall, the better the exhibition space.
- He wants his pieces to evoke people to explore and see their surroundings.
STREET ART & POLITICS
- Yok's characters act as medieval gargoyles, warding offevil corperate spirits.
- His characters are created with a political message behind them.
- General public could misenterprate this message.
- Street artist Blu creates huge mural pieces, work like this is really skillfully produced and engages passers by.
- Blu's work is often politically motivated.
- Develops ordinary and decaying places; showing how creativity may redevelop from urban degradation.
- KLUB7 is a collection of street artists from Germany.
- Their only rule is that there is no rule, they aim to create a relationship between themselves and the city.
- Their work is politically motivated and is created in a simply way so that the message is clearly communicated and easily understood.
- Dr. D is a street artist from London.
- Shes directly attacks corperate advertisements, cleverly adapting them and changing their message.
- Artist Escif creates huge mural pieces that directly address political issues, their size only strengthens their visual quality and ability to communicate a message.
- Street artist Ron Englist produces adaptations of advertisements that directly attack the advertising industry.
- They are somewhat shocking and aim to help people see the advertising industry for what it really is.
- Another street artist that attacks advertisements is Princess Hijab.
- Princess Hijab ingeniously adapts advertisemnts with pen and ink.
- The artits aims to remove the 'perfect image' of a human that is always used in advertising.
- Street artist Shepard Fairey has been creating politically motivated pieces for years.
- His work often adresses problems with the U.S government, and advertising.
- Fairey creates largescale, layered paste-up pieces to engage passers by and communicate his message.
- Bush posters created by Robbie Conal
- Conal plays with corperate looking images of bush, making him look like an out-of-control kid who loves bombs and power.
- A lot of political street art comments on the same topics, showing that there are common problems which span the globe.
- Street art pieces can inform the public of what is really going on, or just voice a personal opinion. Either way, the pieces are created to provoke people to think.
- Another engaging Obey piece created by Shepard Fairey.
- Even if the message is miscommunicated to the public, the piece is still an aesthetically engaging art piece.
- Infantilization is a standard way of highlighting the idiocy of war.
- Although these pieces art not aesthetically engaging, their puropse for existing is to comment on political problems.
- Another simple paste up shows bush as a puppet.
- Finally, places such as Iran have been using street art as a means of spreading propaganda.
- This is evidence that street art has the power to reach the masses.
- Official government artists are employed to create pieces like the one above.
STREET ART & GRAFFITI PHOTOGRAPHY
This selection of artist was found on a website which listed a selection of the best urban art photographers. A lot of their images focus on the artists themselves, and also try to capture the atmosphere experienced when out painting.
Pictures featuring street artists would be beneficial to my project, as they are interesting and could help my target audience see that they are not vandalising criminals that need arresting, but artists who choose to do their work in the street.
Moreover, I also wanted to focus on photographs that did not focus on the artist and the journey undertaken when producing work. The majority of my pictures will focus on the piece of work rather than the artist.
I found that the best images could be found on artist portfolio websites. If for some reason I cant collect enough of my own photos I could use a selection of artist photos and reference them in the back of the book.
It was also mentioned in the group critique that I should email some street artists, I want to find out what motivates street artists to do what they do, and what they think about the importance of street art. I messaged three artists who all currently create pieces of work in modern society.
The first artist I messaged was BLU a street artist from Bologna. I have been following BLU's work since seeing it in a book purchased in my first year at college. Since then I have been fascinated and inspired by his large scale, politically motivated mural pieces.
Moreover, I also emailed French street artist invader. Invader uses mosaic styled tiles to create his imagery, which is then fixed to walls with an adhesive in a semi-permanent fashion. I collected imagery of one of his pieces in Manchester, so also asked if he would be interested in sharing his opinion on the importance of street art in modern society.
EDITORIAL & PUBLICATION DESIGN
ROOM13
Designed by Work In Progress.
- The white type on black stock is really engaging, the contrast makes the type stand out from the page and the black stock screams quality.
- I could use hand rendered type similar to this in my publication for quotes or pieces of text as it is relevant to graffiti and the content of the publication.
- The layout of the page leaves lots of negative space which creates balance.
- Additionally, the line at the top of the page helps guide the audiences eye across the page to the body copy.
- A clear typeface hierarchy helps guide the audiences eye around the page.
- Images have been printed onto the black stock, this has affected the brightness of the image but caused a really engaging subtle effect.
- I need to research into printing methods to see if printing onto black stock is an option.
- This double page image spread focus the audiences attention on the image alone, a technique I should consider using to help the audience see the beauty and importance of street art.
http://www.workinprogress.no/rom-13/
- A spray paint effect has been placed over this image, this inspired me to think about using similar techniques in my publication.
TERROIR MAGAZINE
Designed by Pepper & Cinnamon
- This book has a second wrap-around cover to protect the hand bound spine.
- Negative space is used to direct the audiences focus on important elements of the page.
http://pepper-cinnamon.net/TERROIR-Magazine-No-3
http://pinterest.com/pin/93238654756559427/
After reviewing some existing covers I started thinking about the message I want my cover to communicate, as I want to create an illustration that represents street art and the books content. The illustration will be made into a stencil and then spray painted onto the front of each outcome.
Messages;
- I want my outcome to have fold out pages similar to this, that possibly fold towards the viewer literally making them take a step back to appreciate the image. Using this technique is directly relevant to my proposal where I started I want to get readers to 'take a step back and reconsider their views'.
http://pinterest.com/pin/93238654756559427/
- Moreover, I also want to experiment with printing images over pages, similar to what has been done on the spread above.
COVER RESEARCH - SECONDARY
When participating in the critique it was suggested that I could personalize each cover slightly, possibly by creating the cover by hand using pens and spray paint. I though that this was a really useful idea, as it fits the concept of my book perfectly.
In one of my books called 'Street Sketchbook' by Tristian Manco there is a page of images dedicated to the front of artists sketchbooks. The image inspired me to consider creating a cover that resembles an artists sketchbook.
In one of my books called 'Street Sketchbook' by Tristian Manco there is a page of images dedicated to the front of artists sketchbooks. The image inspired me to consider creating a cover that resembles an artists sketchbook.
I then started thinking about what my cover needs to achieve;
- Must engage target audience and make them want to pick the book up.
- It needs to be eye catching.
- The cover must be relevant to the books content and theme.
- This cover uses photography to capture the audiences attention.
- Typography is then overlayed to complete the cover.
- Creating a cover similar to this is relevant to my publication as I could use one of the images collected for the brief as a cover image.
- This cover utilizes simplicity and contrast to create an aesthetically engaging cover.
- I could create something similar, and stencil the type onto the cover of each outcome.
- This cover mixes typography and illustration to create an engaging book cover.
- The hand rendered feel of the cover is relevant to the hands on nature of street art.
- I could create an illustration that would then be drawn or spray painted onto each cover.
- Imperfections would make each cover individual.
- Finally, i looked at this cover, it utilizes a a cover which looks like a collage of different street art related media, the type is then set over this.
- I could create something similar to this with paint and papers to create a textured cover, similar to the walls worked on by street artists. I could then stencil the title of the book onto this.
Messages;
- Street art is aesthetically engaging.
- It has the power to communicate messages to the masses.
- Street art is unregulated, secret. More to it than meets the eye.
PRODUCTION METHODS - SECONDARY
BINDING METHODS
Before I started designing book I also wanted to look at different binding techniques that could be used to bind the book.
At this stage in the project I am unsure as to how many pages the final outcome will use, therefore I have looked at a range of different techniques ranging from simple to complicated.
All binding research was taken from a book called 'Making Handmade Books' by Alisa Golden.
- Simple method used for books that only have one signature.
- Leaves thread exposed at the spine of the book.
- Simple production method means that it would be quick and easy to bind my outcome like this.
- More complex method used for books with multiple signatures, this could be more suited for my outcome as it will use multiple signatures.
- This method uses more thread to fix the pages together that the first technique features, this means that the outcome will be more durable.
- As the method is more complex it means that mistakes could be made when binding the outcome.
- The stitch used for this method is much more complex than the previous techniques, it involves looping and crossing threads into the next signature.
- This technique leaves the spine binding exposed, I think this is beneficial as it reminds me of the sketchbooks used by street artists to generate and record ideas.
- The 'casebound book has been used throughout history and is described by some as 'The Ideal Sketchbook'
- The book uses a complex method of production that creates a high quality outcome.
- Spine is protected making the book durable and extending its life.
- The complexity of the design means that problems could occur during the binding process.
Finally, the book also gave a list of tools that should be used when binding books.
To help me bind my book I invested in a bone folder, this will help me get a clean precise line when folding pages of my outcome. I also invested in a binder clip, to help keep pages together during the binding process.
MY IMAGES - PRIMARY
Below are the photographs of street art that I have taken for my book, they were collected from a range of places such as Manchester, Lancashire and Leeds. I wanted to collect images from a variety of different locations so that I had a variation of artists and different styles of work.
The images taken for the outcome are vital to its success, they need to capture the beauty of street art, to help the audience understand its importance as an art-form. I achieved this by taking high quality images of the work that also encapsulate an aspect of the atmosphere from where the photos were taken. The locations, often dirty dilapidated where aesthetically improved by the presence of the colourful artwork. Moreover, the abandoned buildings, hidden from the majority of modern society are transformed into street art galleries, exhibiting work from various artists.
All my images were taken in RAW. format so that no quality was lost. This also means that I will not lose image quality when re-sizing to place them in my book.
IMAGES
I am happy with the quality of my images, however the focus of my book is on street art, not graffiti. Unfortunately only a handful of images are relevant to street art. Therefore, I decided to collect more images, this time from London, the home of UK street art.
Upon arranging the trip I started researching into the locations of street art in London.
I discovered a map plotting the locations of 'ROA' pieces. I looked at artist ROA in my research, he is a key player in the modern street art scene so having images of his work would be very beneficial to my project.
All of the locations are conveniently in the Shoreditch area which is where I am traveling to.
Furthermore, as I extensively reference banksy in my article I also researched into the locations of his pieces.
Again, conveniently there is a collection of his pieces around the area that I am visiting.
Finally, i discovered that there was an app that plotted the locations of famous street art pieces, alongside a description of the piece and its location. Furthermore, it uses GPS to find your location and directs you to locations near by.
After I had collected all my images I was in a position to start digitally producing my outcome. The progression of this development can be found on my 'Design Practice' blog;
http://j-harrisonreader1215-dp.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/from-theory-into-practice.html
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