Initial Ideas

Initially I looked for a fresh artist to give me some inspiration and found some interesting collage images. The first three black and white ones are by a French artists Colette Saint Yves. These were some of my favourites, in composition and in their somewhat comical tone and female focus. The images are a mixture of vintage photographs or paintings and new-ish collage elements. Although her work is beautiful visually I couldn't come up with a solid enough concept for my interpretation of her style, but it is something i would like to pursue at a later date.

 

The next set of images are by a collective French graphic deisgn team known as Ma+Chr. Individually they are Mathilde Aubier and Christine Delaquaize. The main elements of their work are collage, text, comedy, shapes, colour. Their work had been used for decoration in restaurants, cafe's, published in magazines, and for advertising campaigns. I like the style of this work, how it brings together a photograph and a solid element which simultaneously joins people with animals to make quirky comical pieces. The other piece involves a vintage photograph and a caption added to give background to a possible senario. I like both these sets of the pairs work but again couldnt find a good enough concept to follow through my own interpretation.

 

My next idea came not from image inspiration but from mere thought. I proposd to work with common sayings/cliches, and give them a visual interpreation, with some elements of the above style used such as block colour layered over.  I did a trial piece for the phrase "Cursiosity killed the cat", but this idea seemed to lack photographic quality and essense of my own skills, along with lack of context an equally important part of what we are assessed on in this module.

 This was later developed into using 'adages' of which I would produce an image of that represented this whilst also depicting a big story from the news. I produced a list of ideas;

1.   Curiosity killed the cat

News of The World phone hacking scandal.

2.   No news is good news

Chilean miners trapped for 17 days without word before a note reached the surface saying they were all safe.

"Estamos bien un el refugio los 33."

-picture of the miners

floating banner above, vintage style, with note quote on it.

3.   Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Coalition government. Labour lose power after 13 years. First hung parliament for years. Coalition deal made between Torys and Lib Dems.

4.   He who hesitates is lost.

BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. CEO Tony Hayward’s botched handling of crisis.

-Man with puzzled expression.

Block colour question mark over head.

Holding paper with oil spill headline?

5.   The grass is always greener in the other side

Ashley Cole’s affair with hairdresser Aimee Walton which broke up marriage to Cheryl Cole. January 2008.

6.   Opposites attract.

Princess Diana and Emad 'Dodi' Fayed’s controversial relationship. Him the playboy, her the angelic princess, and there are many conspiracies surrounding their death together in the Paris tunnel crash, including involvement of the Royal family to stop any more embarrassment.

7.   Better late than never.

Royal wedding. Met at university. 2002. Split after five years of dating in 2007 to check if they were right for each other. 2010 they get engaged. After 8 years of dating and one brief breakup they are finally getting married.

8.   You are never too old to learn.

The former prime minister said he was "mortified" after being caught on microphone describing a pensioner he had just spoken to as "bigoted" on the election campaign trail in Rochdale.

9.   The best things in life are free.

The standard rate of VAT went up to 20% on the 4th January 2011. By Chancellor George Osborne.

10. Don't judge a book by its cover

Manchester City beat Manchester United 1-0 at Wembley stadium on Sat 16 Apr 2011, to go into the FA cup semi finals.

This idea proved very hard to phisically create when thought about properly and I decided it was something I wouldn't have enough time to complete because of how much of a challenge to reflect likeness and reality it was.