Tadashi Ueda

Wow!! Woww!! I was tootling about the web, when I saw a poster by Tadashi Ueda and I was nicely surprised by the beautiful colours and the bold arrangement of things!

this was the poster..

So I went on a search for more work by this person, and I found that they have a blog and It's Nice That also did a short feature about them. They seem very interesting and strange, I'd love to know what influences and inspires them because I get the feeling it's a hodgepodge of weird and wonderful things.

To me it has this quality of old Japanese folk art, paired with the slick aesthetic and daring approach of contemporary design. Strange little motifs of people and things with eyes, floating shapes and misaligned patterns. It really appeals to me and makes me want to go for it and be bolder.

Read | Fish by Bianca Bagnarelli

I'm going to try and document things that I see and read, just as reference, and to see what I've enjoyed and taken away from them.

A short comic by Bianca Bagnarelli, published by Nobrow. 

What I liked:

• Good storytelling. Emotive, introspective, reader has to fill in some of the gaps. The themes and emotions of the narrative had a quiet intensity that I enjoyed.
• Aesthetically lovely, really nice colour scheme throughout.
• In terms of comics/storyboarding, good use of space, compositions and varied frames. Some pretty neat doublepage spreads too.

One of my favourite parts. The pages beforehand were emotional and heavy, so that moment of intense silence in that wide open space had impact. The end half made me cry in my mind...

Personal, Professional, Aspirational | Pt. 2

Using the ideas and sketches I had created, I made some refined pencil drawings, scanned them, and added colour and type digitally.

They took a disgustingly long time to finish (though it doesn't show) so I'm just glad I got them done. Again, I think I looked into it too much.

I like the simplicity of the images and how they contrast with the vibrant colour choices. I think the consistency of aesthetics helps to draw the three together. I'm not totally pleased with them, and I'm not entirely sure that they convey the meanings effectively, but they are okay for now.

ASPIRATIONAL

PERSONAL

PROFESSIONAL

Personal, Professional, Aspirational | Pt. 1

Following a workshop in class where we had to think of traits and terms to 'advertise' ourselves from personal, professional, and aspirational standpoints, we had to create 3 posters that conveyed these three aspects of ourselves.

Despite it being a straightforward task, I found it difficult to come up with ideas for each of the categories. I find talking about my qualities and putting myself out there really weird and uncomfortable.

Personal | This one was the most agonising to do, I made a bunch of other lists before this one and they didn't work. I decided to highlight my enjoyment of learning and discovering new things, and maybe it's fair to say I'm an inquisitive person?

So the final design will most likely feature the small caricatures of me, the magnifying glass, and maybe an array of objects.

Professional | When coming up with ideas for the professional subject, I really wanted to stay clear of things immediately associated with professionalism, CVs, or employment ads. They make me uneasy. "I work well by myself, and as part of a team..." aaaaagh..

Points I eventually thought of: My ability to gather research and influence from a wide range of sources and topics. I believe that strong ideas and concepts drive a project/brief forward. I could say I am a hardworking person (with a strong tendency to be a total stress head, put too much pressure on a situation/myself...) But I do try my best (see pic above).

Aspirational | Even though I realise the importance and value of thinking about aspirations, the future, all of that...I find it so weird and surreal!! I interpreted aspirations as something less concrete, and more about what I'd like to achieve through my work.

This includes telling and sharing a story or narrative, making a person/audience feel, learn, or discover something. I feel that image-makers can potentially have the power to share an experience and make people respond in a certain way through their work. (That's pretty amazing)