Charity Brief

Featured Charity: The Bren Project

The Bren Project is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee working in Cheshire and North Staffordshire.

It strives to offer adults with learning disabilities the opportunity to experience work in a supportive environment where they can develop a range of necessary skills at their own pace. This means that they enjoy the experience, become comfortable and accomplished and feel part of the workforce.
It was formed in the summer of 2005 and named in memory of Brenda Godwin, a leading light and inspiration to many in the world of supported employment. Sadly, Brenda passed away in 2004.

The charity was founded on a need identified by the founders’ contacts within the sector, particularly organizations such as Job Centre Plus, Social Services and Carr Gomm – the charity who supports adults with LD in the field of housing.
Currently the Bren Project has two part-time managerial employees and has just secured sufficient funding to run two initial projects commencing in January 2008. The ‘Your Turn’ project focuses on adults with LD while the ‘Moving On’ project aims to work with school-leavers.

I have been a member of the board of trustees since its inception – an invitation from a friend who happened to be one of the founders. The thinking behind such invitations was to secure a board with as broad a range of backgrounds and eclectic skills as possible.

Funding
The Bren Project is currently funded exclusively via successful bids to charitable trusts and companies. This is the most cost-effective method employed by the majority of charities who do not have large numbers of volunteers to drawn upon. Funding has been secured through the work of an initially volunteer but now part-time employed Funding Manager. It has taken two years to get to the verge of operational status but we feel that, for a charity that has no track record, this is no mean feat.

Image, Identity and Promotion
My greatest ‘hands-on’ role within the organization has been to attend to its design needs: essentially the logo and web site. This role emerged partly via default and partly via my willingness and interest in this area.
The logo attempts to embody the work of the charity through a sense of inclusion. It was chosen by the trustees, from a handful of ideas that I came up with. The colour-way was also selected by the trustees as a group.
When it came to designing the website, I worked from established information that the charity wished to communicate. I built on the blue colour scheme and augmented it with neutral grey. I feel that the overall effect is one of ‘cleanliness’ and ‘success’.
I applied images that complemented the colour scheme and were loosely related to the subject matter of each page. This is a problematic area in that the charity does not as yet have access to images of beneficiaries and their associated work environments. I am sure that as time goes by the site will develop considerably in terms of this element.
The site is relatively straight forward to navigate and feedback has been positive. Once again, I feel sure that its complexity will grow over time. As it stands, it fulfils the needs of the charity and as a first attempt at web design I was quite pleased with it. The project was double-edged; it produced a site for the organization and gave me a chance to learn Dreamweaver a little. The proportions of the various elements of each page are probably a little out, and some might say it’s a bit boxy but I think that the site will evolve as the charity gets into its stride and gains access to images directly related to its work. Some pages need conflating because they don’t carry sufficient information in their own right to make them viable. Others need editing to make them less wordy.
The Bren Project does not have an advertising/promotion budget as such. As a fledgling charity it has just secured sufficient funding to run projects for a year, so it is very much a ‘hand to mouth’ style existence at present. It is projected that ten beneficiaries will participate in each of the two schemes and that those participants have more or less been identified. The charity, therefore, needs to control its expansion; it is not in a position to be able to extend its service beyond the scope of the current projects unless further funding is secured. It also wishes to build up a cast iron track record of success, important to attract future funds, and the trustees believe that this is most likely to be achieved as a small-scale operation in the first instance, where quality of provision can be closely controlled.
Priorities for promotion in the first instance could therefore be:
· Prospective employers – to offer as wide a base of employment opportunities as possible
· Funding – materials to promote the charity, and support funding applications


Initial thoughts about the brief
My involvement with the charity appears to present an ideal opportunity to work on what is tantamount to a live brief. However, it is not without its complications. To pursue it with any sense of reality, it feels like I have to work within the constraints of the needs, resources and aspirations of a small local charity. At the same time I have to set this against the expectations of the course with its desire for students to reach out and innovate in a truly imaginative way, embracing all forms of new media. It feels like I am caught between a rock and a hard thing. Pursuing a dummy brief for a high street, high status charity would, it seems, release me from this quandary. I could truly explore the realms of fantasy.
I have discussed these issues with the charity manager and he accepts and supports this position. One way forward that we have identified is that I work on materials that the charity may not be in a position to use immediately but may be of some use in future.

Moving it on

Having talked to Pauline about these issues and initial ideas, I feel that I have a way forward although I'm still not absolutely convinced about it. I have decided to re-style the rather static logo and to try and incorporate it into a piece that communicates what the charity is about - diversity. At the moment this seems to be the most appropriate channel in that the alternative, a fund-raising campaign, is way off beam for the charity as it stands - it is not a 'cost-effective' method for a small charity. Raising awareness of the charity's message and core being would be closer to the mark. There's always the chance that a powerful campaign of this kind could bring in funding anyway.

The charity already has a presence on the web and I want to heighten this by incorporating an idea that has emerged into a Flash banner that could appear on the charity's own site or any number of supportive sites. I want to strike at how diversity is welcomed and accepted as an enriching element of our lives in so many ways, and yet when it comes to people who are 'different' we do not appear so open. I want people to reflect on the idea and take stock of their own views and actions in this respect.

First attempts at the logo re-design were dismissed by Pauline as too clinical. I kind of agree with her but I am finding it difficult to find a route into using a more playful 'handcrafted' style that squares with the image of the charity. I like the more natural forms that have crept into mood boards but to my mind they seem to evoke environmental organisations. I was pleased that they enabled me to learn a little more about Illustrator in the process.

The Flash animation has progressed quite well and it is certainly something that I could not have achieved nor conceived a year ago. However, I can't help thinking that what I have achieved so far is reasonably comfortable. It seems a little bereft of true inspiration, imagination and the necessary knowledge base to achieve more. I still believe that when you understand how your tools and materials behave it fires your imagination - well it always has for me. It just makes me speculate onto another level - OK, so it does A, now what if I combine that with B. Another form of stimulus. I suppose it draws on our fundamental desire for 'play'.

The Flash banner has a serenity about it that I wanted to capture - largely due to the colour pallete and the timing involved. It has also allowed me to make a link with the natural world. The typography is a little clumsy and less than elegant in places and I still have to reconcile the issues surrounding the logo in order to incorporate it into the finished piece. The type is problematic because of the way in which I have constructed the effects in Flash. The fade-in effects have been set up as movie-clips which mean that they appear as transparent bounding boxes on the stage when placed on the time line. It is then difficult to position them against one another with any kind of finesse. I have realised that it is vitally important to perfect the typography - size, scale, font, position etc. - before beginning to construct the associated effects. Either that or construct all the effects on the time line itself - although this would le

ad to a very complex structure. Some might say that I should circumvent the time it has taken me to deal with such problems by concentrating purely on the design idea and then approaching someone with the appropriate expertise to help me realise it. However, I really enjoy the problem-solving nature of the process and it does lead to deeper personal learning. 'Play' again.

I am still working on the looser more naturalistic identity for the charity and have high hopes for some of the ivy flower heads that I have been working on. Their form seems to symbolise, quite adequately, linked similarities and yet differences - the concept behind the original, but quite formal, logo. If I can combine this idea with an appropriate colour that doesn't resonate too heavily an environmental tone, then it might work.

The project overall has involved a lot of research, and other work, to what seems quite a small end. I wonder to what extent all the research and preliminary activity has influenced the final design. Subconsciously it may have had a huge impact but if someone were to ask me to articulate its contribution and to describe it in terms of a logical sequential process, I would find it very difficult. This concerns me a little and makes me wonder whether I need to find a coherent method of working that is comfortable and more justifiable.

I need to evaluate more closely the reasons for pursuing different lines of enquiry within the design process. I feel that seeking guidance/feedback more regularly within the journey would also sharpen my critical skills.

Summer 2007 Experiments

Playing around with vector style graphics - brushes and masks - Illustrator and Photoshop.

Suffolk coastal images loosely based on reality. Created in Illustrator.

The Love of Books

Found myself really getting into this, probably to the detriment of the Charity and Typography briefs. I think it was the fact that I had a free reign to explore my own ideas. In this instance it meant that I could use my own life experiences to create images. Once I'd started, this appeared to provide quite a rich vein of ideas. I would like to continue but have to give time to the other briefs.

The images displayed here have been scanned into Photoshop and adjusted, mainly using the noise reduction facility. I think this gives them a smoother more 'integrated' appearance.
I found that trying to use spontaneous painting as a starting point didn't really work for me. The results tended to be too crude for my liking. My prefered way of working evolved as one where I would begin to collect component parts of an idea, say photographs, patterned wallpaper, coloured paper etc, and then play around with arrangements until a pleasing one emerged. I found this to be more flexible than a method that began with paint. I would sometimes build the composition around specific and pertinent words or phrases identified and isolated on the page. Some have a loose grid organisation to them.
Painting had its place later in the process.I also discovered the importance of persevering, and the role of layers in this process. Early in the process it was tempting to give up on some of the images but in persevering and applying further layers it became apparent that designs could be turned around and made more successful. They also became more sophisticated as a result of this process.
One particular process that gave pleasing results was the layering of tissue and handmade papers onto which images had been printed. To achieve this I had to find ways in which to pass tissue paper through a printer. Generally, I glued it to a standard piece of A4 paper around the edges and then separated it again after it had passed through the printer.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results here. They have a coherence and consistency of style about them that I like. I would like to develop this to include a wider range of devices and techniques and to create some images that have a greater simplicity to them.

Typography - Extended Practice

Dave certainly knows his stuff and the examples of motion graphics were often stunning and inspiring. But in asking us to play around with similar ideas it felt like the cart was being put before the horse. How could we possibly create anything approaching what we had been shown? We'd not been taught the necessary techniques. We might just as well have been asked to build an H-bomb. Well that's how it felt.
We had the option to fall back on static type but in taking this route it felt like we were falling short.
In creating a typeface I didn't want to just manipulate objects into letter forms - it seemed a little obvious. I wanted to find a more indirect creative solution.
I decided to play around with an old stencil that I had at home. Initially I took some photographs of sunlight passing through them to create letter forms on the window sill. They were quite interesting and fluid but lacked a little in consistency and definition. Passing a pin-art toy through the stencils gave rise to a typeface that I was quite pleased with in terms of the creative process but which appeared to be machine-like and somewhat devoid of emotion/expression. I think I'm more attracted to natural forms. I could of course, if I had time, make my own hand-made letter forms out of clay or some other material and pass them through the same process to achieve a more expressive and unique typeface.However, I believe that this type would work in the right place.
Unfortunately the next task didn't seem to offer it that place - we had to select a poem or quote to incorporate our typeface into. I found this hard. By Dave's own admission we were approaching this task in reverse: the natural order is perhaps to design/generate type that has some sympathy with a text.
While I was searching for a suitably mechanistic phrase that would suit my type, I stumbled upon the Grouch Marx quip about 'Time wounds all heels'. I thought it was quite an amusing play on words and one that generated an image of type being created out of plasters. So the plaster typeface was born out of sympathy with the phrase, as you would expect. I don't find it a particularly startling solution, but by this time I was beginning to lose interest in the task. I think I would have been more inspired by a hand-drawn approach to type creation, besides I wanted to spend more time on the 'Love of Books' brief; a far more satisfying activity for me.
I did manage to resurrect the pin-art typeface in the First Thurday poster task. I think it works quite well here in the context of quite a 'dark' autumnal design. I think that I might have used it more as an opportunity to play around with one of those ubiquitous vector-style silhouette designs. Still, I enjoy trying to figure out how others have achieved particular effects so it satisfied my curiosity in that respect. I'm still of the opinion that it would have been better to have set the brief and then to have developed a typeface on the back of it rather than trying to shoehorn an existing typeface into an incongruous brief. I suppose in the way we tackled it there is a chance that you might come up with a serendipitous solution that you would never have thought of otherwise.

£1 Purchase

When you start looking with intent around pound shops it's surprising how many branded lines they stock and also how many items you really wouldn't want to re-brand, but consign to oblivion instead.
It was more difficult to select a product than I first imagined - did I really want to spend several weeks thinking carefully about razor blades. I realise that in the real world you can't pick and choose clients but in this instance I could so I wanted to choose something that would be of interest and motivate.
I chose a bottle of Flemish Sparkling Red Grape Juice partly because I'm quite interested in food/drink packaging and partly because it's akin to wine and it strikes me that wine labels present a little art-form in themselves.
Receiving this brief over the summer break produced unusual time management considerations: How long should I spend on this work? What direction should I take the brief in?
I decided to set constraints and tighten the brief to make it manageable. Research, and through it identification of the USP, aided in this process. Red grape juice is a natural product which has cholestrol lowering properties. Consumption, therefore, has implications in terms of improved cardio-vascular health.
The brief condensed itself: to relaunch the product; for the branding to appear healthy, youthful and fresh; for the product to appeal to as wide a market as possible (I couldn't see any sense in narrowing the target audience for this product) but specifically the health-conscious; and, to promote its health-giving properties.
I wanted the brand to have a strong name that consumers could immediately indentify with the product. Research led me to 'Angel' and 'Grapevine': Angel for its pure, protective, guardian-like qualities, and Grapevine because of the way in which heart forms could be utilised as leaves on the vine.
I was influenced by looking at existing branding in this, and associated, fields. This had pros and cons. It certainly gave me a step-up and a feel for the type of brand that I wanted to create but it also created a situation where I felt that what I was doing was akin to plagiarism. I kept viewing my attempts as obvious pastiches of say the 'Innocent' brand. Maybe its not so obvious to the onlooker.
I learnt more about the software applications - especially mocking-up products in Photoshop. I'm still not sure that I'm using the most appropriate or efficient methods but I seem to find my way through.
I am understanding more about the requirements surrounding image size and resolution when working with multiple images, but, once again, it's all intuitive rather than technical savvy.
I am sure that greater knowledge here will offer improved imaginative use.
In future I need to consider:
- the impact that colour has on consumers and which colours are considered appropriate for certain products
- type hierarchy, its correct use and the power it has in directing our attention
- how the branding is attached to the product: in the instance of a bottle it could be thermally printed/embossed onto the surface
- the shape of the label and how it might be pierced to reveal the product beneath
- technical information that the branding might need to carry

Prophets and Poets

Drawing and Media

Positive/Negative and Silhouettes

For this activity decided to revisit the references drawn on in the Spike Milligan inspired screen prints: birds and bird cages. Decided to introduce a third element of keys to add a further layer of symbolism.

I like the different silhouetted qualities of each element: the way the filigree of the cage contrasts with the solidity of the bird shapes. I had never consciously considered the impact of scale and format on compositions before this exercise and therefore learnt much from it. Must include considration of these elements in future work. I like the mystery created by cropped elements but I realise from speaking to others that this may not be to everyone's taste.

Decided to use some of the images created as a means to explore printing a little further. On the face of it the designs would seem to lend themselves to lino print but I was keen to explore drypoint - a new experience. I was pleased with the more moody outcomes achieved through leaving greater amounts of ink on the plate. However, these are still crude attempts and I need to explore more thoroughly the application of ink and colour. Used sandpaper to produce some texture, but how to produce greater variety of textured effects is another area to develop.

Prophets and Poets

Drawing and Media

Communicating Creatively

Chose to pursue the observational drawings of trainers in this context. I find the larger composite image more satisfying. It is less clumsy and fussy in execution than the smaller piece and I feel that it also benefits from the direction that I injected into it by making it a commentary piece. It has more interest. Essentially it is a work constructed from a number of mini experiments, some more successful than others.

Rather like the digitally collaged pieces attempted earlier, I discovered just how difficult it is to produce a delicately layered and coherent composition. One strategy that I might adopt to develop this skill is to follow processes outlined by books such as the 'Collage Sourcebook' - artists outline the processes they go through in order to achieve particular effects. Certainly my attempts seem to lack sophistication.

Exploration has offered up the potential of some effects e.g. sgraffito and masking fluid, but exploration in itself doesn't always signpost ways to effective and coherent usage. I don't feel that understanding the media has in this instance indicated the possibilities sufficiently enough - certainly not for sophisticated usage. Perhaps this a situation where learning is further enhanced via demonstration.

In terms of abstracting the key elements of an object whilst still retaining overall recognition, I feel that I am able to achieve this but it doesn't necessarily lead to a creative illustrative image - well, certainly not one of the type that I evisaged at the outset. Once again I think this comes back to developing a deeper understanding of techniques and how they can be orchestrated to achieve a desired effect. I think that emulation might need to come before creation here.

Prophets and Poets

Drawing and Media

Observational Drawing

This was quite a demanding unit in that it required a sizeable quota of drawings within a fairly condensed period. The objects, due to their complexity, exerted time constraints, as did the fact that other projects ran concurrently. The unit as a whole suffered a little from its disparate nature; it was not connected to a wider purpose but rested as a discrete exercise in its own right. Why were we drawing typewriters, sewing machines, bicycles etc? Obviously to hone our observational skills, but I can't help feeling that we would have been more motivated if the context had offered greater purpose.

However, there was learning to be had: considering different angles when recording an object and the kind of visual information that a particular view offers. Dealing with the problems of 2D representation of a 3D object - proportion, perspective, texture, line and shape. Working with different media also made me explore and reflect upon the most appropriate style/technique to employ e.g. the amount of detail that can be undertaken with a pencil is very different to that which can be obtained using a brush and ink. Reflecting on the necessary adjustments between media was a valuable learning experience.

These tasks, and the drawing using wire, offered insights into the structure and form of objects. I was forced to focus on key elements in an effort to simplify the representations. And once again it made me face up to that key question - What is my own personal preferred style of representation?

The pursuit continues.

Prophets and Poets

Drawing and Media

Collage Technique - One day Workshop

Enjoyed playing around with layers and 'paste into' function in Photoshop. Learnt a lot about the effect of different layer formats and use of scanned textures.

Found that creating a cohesive image incorporating digital, hand-drawn and scanned elements, together with text, is much more difficult than it appears. It is easily possible to overdo it and end up with a disjointed 'mess'. This could be one of those instances where less is more. At least the computer allows you to play around with layout and colour with some ease.

I referenced David Hughes for some of the hand-drawn animals and once again ended up with a child oriented piece. Is there a message emerging here?

The image was resued somewhat via heavy cropping and through harmonising the colour scheme until it is almost monochromatic. I know that this is a matter of taste but I feel that it gives the image more mystery and unity.

I am concerned that I don't use Photoshop enough to internalise all the processes that I encounter. I need to set time aside for further use, to consolidate this and also to fine tune the balance of elements mentioned before; at the moment they make for fairly crude viewing.

Concerned that some effects are achieved through accident rather than intentional design - need more understanding of the scope of features and technical aspects such as file types, image size and resolution settings.

Prophets and Poets

Drawing and Media

Dry Media and Painting Techniques

A useful exercise in trying out techniques and processes that could then be applied in production pieces. However, as I found out, the small scale explorations do not always lend themselves directly to whole pieces in the way you would expect. So the experimentation and learning goes on even when you try to apply them. In fact I feel that this exercise is only truly valuable if you make time for it to be an ongoing part of the creative process - not something that I have always been patient enough to do.

I particularly liked some of the broken colour effects created through the scumbling of acrylic paint and the sgraffito possible through built up layers of pastel or acrylic. Some of the results of dropping powders and the like onto watercolours also produced interesting qualities. You really see the importance of annotating the experiments too.

The challenge now is to continue the experimentation, to look at the work of other artists and try to unpick how they might have achieved certain finishes, and, of course, to be able to wield these effects in subtle and visually satisfying ways myself.

Prophets and Poets

Print and Photgraphy

I was really looking forward to this block. The techniques on offer are intriguing but the structure of the three weeks has been a little frustrating. Essentially we have three thursdays worth of facilities available to us. Trying to take advantage of these outside of the allocated times has proved to be nigh on impossile. I understand the reasoning behind, for example, restricting access to the print room to supervised sessions only, but I wish that there were some open sessions that I could access around my own commitments. I could make better use of my time this way and my learning would benefit - I need time to explore techniques that I cannot access at home.

We have also had a number of relatively passive demonstration sessions. These add to the feeling of inactivity and a sense of lack of achievement.

Developed Flash images in monoprinting. Found out that newsprint paper offers really interesting line quality - feathers in a way that other papers don't. Painting over the oil based inks using water colour and acrylic creates strong illustrative effects.

Would like to experiment with dry point in future because the scratchy etched quality is an interesting feature that I would like to incorporate into my work.

I think my screen printing sub-consciously referenced Picasso and Matisse - bird motif. As part of the whole process found out how to make photographic stencils and how to use different registration techniques. Using dark coloured papers and card make this process more difficult because of their opaqueness. This is an important consideration particularly if you are applying other components to print over e.g. pieces of cut and torn paper. Found it interesting how printing colour over a similarly coloured ground darkens it substantially and gives it a subtle textural difference.

In future I need to consider maintaining a margin around the printable area and the appropriate application of the process over others e.g. digital printing. Screen printing comes into its own where large areas of flat colour are required or for printing directly onto 'unusual' surfaces e.g. glass, clay, wood, plastic etc.

In the photography studio I learnt the difference between low-key, high-key and contra jour lighting and how to set up lights accordingly. Made to feel very welcome by Colin. Enjoyed the protraiture work.

Colour assignment was tricky because it feels difficult to walk straight onto good photographs on demand. Tried to resist the temptation to use macro close ups to fulfil the whole brief. It would have been a bit too easy and wanted the collection to have variety.

Referenced Henri Cartier-Bresson and Bill Brandt when considering the monochromatic shots.

Learning how to look for rhythm and structure in compositions. This includes judicious use of cropping.

Used my own compact digital to take all shots. Would like to learn more about setting up still life studio shots and make use of digital SLR to gain greater control over images.

Prophets and Poets

Motion & Interaction

Learning about Flash and its applications contained some metally challenging moments. Just when you thought that you had worked out the logic behind it, it would defy your understanding by acting in a completely unexpected way. It was great to be breaking into new areas of learning though.

The block was really well organised to support novices like myself. It was successful because tightly focussed 'hands on' practical tasks, where we learnt, for example, how to make movie clips and buttons, prepared us with the skills and understanding necessary to complete the ultimate part of the brief. We were actively engaged in discrete practise of the skills beforehand that we were then required to apply in a creative way. Brilliant - a bit like the format for QCA D&T units for schools.

The other nice element of this block was that it was fairly portable - you could work on it at home or indeed anywhere. Seamless.

I decided that I wanted to give the project a handcrafted quality which wasn't without its problems: all those separate drawings of body parts, lots of scanning and toggling between Illustrator and Photoshop to colour the pieces, and having to overcome layout issues presented as the individual pieces (and typography) made their way into the composition.

Looking back over Heroes and Heroines I was drawn to the work of David Hughes and felt that a style of that ilk lent itself to the look that I wanted to achieve. I liked his quirky character drawings and use of subdued colour.

I selected the final idea from a short list of three or four that I had story-boarded. I felt that, although it may be simpler in concept than some of the others, it told a story in its own right. It had a narrative that was clear even without the supporting text. Mind-mapping key words from the poem certainly aided the generation of more unusual or novel ideas, e.g. 'lift' - What kinds of things can lift objects up?

Breaking the idea down into fine sequential steps was difficult at the outset because I didn't know the demands and conventions of the program sufficiently well enough. However, the more I worked at it the more easily I found that I could plan strategically in detail. I'm not a great lists person but I found that breaking sequences down into a list of tasks really helped me to work efficiently towards the end.

As a first attempt, I was quite pleased with the end result. However, if I were to work on another project of this type I would try to find a way of planning the position and scale of the typography against the other elements in adavance of taking it to screen.

Adam learnt some of our names too, which was nice.

I just hope that I don't forget some of the technical steps before I come to use it again. A little practice here and there wouldn't go amiss.

Heroes & Heroines

Ian Beck

Ian Beck is one of the UK's most popular illustrators of children's books and his work appears frequently in magazines and advertisements. This must be his 5 millionth visit to NCBF and we couldn't imagine him not appearing..he's a big fave!
Ian Beck was born in Hove on the Sussex coast in 1947. At the age of thirteen, after seeing an exhibition of drawings for the Radio Times, he was fired with enthusiasm about illustration and began attending Saturday painting classes at the nearby Brighton College of Art. Ian left school at fifteen and went immediately to Brighton to study art full-time. There he was taught by both Raymond Briggs and John Vernon Lord.
Ian has worked in many fields of illustration. He's been involved in the record industry, and painted the cover of one of the most popular records of all time: Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. He has had many commissions from the Conran Design Group, including packaging, greeting cards, calendars, interior design panels - even murals for a restaurant at Gatwick Airport!
Ian is probably best known for his many bestselling picture books, four of which have been shortlisted for the Best Books for Babies Award: The Teddy Robber (Transworld), Round and Round the Garden, Ride a Cock-Horse, and Little Miss Muffett. Ian has had many exhibitions of his work, and regularly gives talks and lectures on the creation and development of his books.
His beautiful collection of night-time poetry, Stories and Songs for Bedtime, publishes in October 2004, and will make the perfect Christmas gift.
He lives in South-West London with his wife, Emma Stone, and their three children.

Heroes & Heroines

Ross Collins

Born in Glasgow 1972 with a natural sense of rhythm. Ate an apple and core at age of three when left alone. Ran through a plate glass door at age of eight. Holidayed each year in St Ives, Cornwall where Ross glued a fifty pence piece to the pavement and watched people struggle greedily. Used to have trouble pronouncing rs. Cured.
At art school forced to draw with twigs and find inner self. Rejected this and made a lot of friends. In his last year at college, Ross won the Macmillan children’s book prize, using treachery and witchcraft.
Lived in London for two years touting his wares. Decided his wares were touted and returned to Glasgow to draw Children's books and eat deep fried foodstuffs.
Exciting news! Wendy Cope, from The Telegraph has chosen The Three Grumpies by Tamra Wight, illustrated by Ross Collins as one of the childrens picture books of the year!
She writes: ' "I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," she begins. "Grumpy, Grumpier and Grumpiest were waiting for me." In Ross Collins's pictures, the Grumpies are subversive looking blobs with bulging eyes and protruding teeth. They are funny rather than sinister, and that is the whole point. The central character spends all day trying to get rid of them, but only succeeds when she begins to laugh at them. This is suitable for children of three and over, and might just help when they have the Grumpies.' — Wendy Cope, The Telegraph.

Heroes & Heroines
Chris Ware

Franklin Christenson Ware (born December 28, 1967) is an American comic book artist and cartoonist, best-known for a series of comics called the Acme Novelty Library, and a graphic novel, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he resides in Oak Park, Illinois as of 2006.
Ware's art is eclectic in its influences, and largely reflects his love of early-20th century American aesthetics in both cartooning and graphic design, transitioning through dozens of artistic styles from traditional comic panels to advertisements to cut-out toys. Although his precise, geometrical layouts may appear to some to be computer-generated, in fact Ware works almost exclusively with "old-fashioned" drawing tools such as paper and pencil, rulers and T-squares. He does, however, sometimes use photocopies and transparencies, and employs a computer to color strips.
His work shows tangible influence from early cartoonists, like Winsor McCay and Frank King (creator of Gasoline Alley); especially in its layout and flow. Outside the comics genre, Ware has found inspiration and a kindred soul in artist and sculptor Joseph Cornell, both men sharing a need to capture items of nostalgia, grace, and beauty within "boxes." He has been called "the Emily Dickinson of comics." [1]
Ware has said of his own style: [2]
I arrived at my way of "working" as a way of visually approximating what I feel the tone of fiction to be in prose versus the tone one might use to write biography; I would never do a biographical story using the deliberately synthetic way of cartooning I use to write fiction. I try to use the rules of typography to govern the way that I "draw," which keeps me at a sensible distance from the story as well as being a visual analog to the way we remember and conceptualize the world. I figured out this way of working by learning from and looking at artists I admired and whom I thought came closest to getting at what seemed to me to be the "essence" of comics, which is fundamentally the weird process of reading pictures, not just looking at them. I see the black outlines of cartoons as visual approximations of the way we remember general ideas, and I try to use naturalistic color underneath them to simultaneously suggest a perceptual experience, which I think is more or less the way we actually experience the world as adults; we don't really "see" anymore after a certain age, we spend our time naming and categorizing and identifying and figuring how everything all fits together. Unfortunately, as a result, I guess sometimes readers get a chilled or antiseptic sensation from it, which is certainly not intentional, and is something I admit as a failure, but is also something I can't completely change at the moment.

Recurring characters and stories
Quimby the Mouse was an early character for Ware and something of a breakthrough. Rendered in the style of an early animation character like Felix the Cat, Quimby the Mouse is perhaps Ware's most autobiographical character. Quimby's relationship with a cat head named Sparky is by turns conflict-ridden and loving, and thus intended to reflect all human relationships. While Quimby exhibits mobility, Sparky remains immobile and helpless, subject to all the indignities Quimby visits upon him. Quimby also acts as a narrator for Ware's reminiscences of his youth, in particular his relationship with his grandmother. Quimby was presented in a series of smaller panels than most comics, almost providing the illusion of motion ala a zoetrope. In fact, Ware once designed a zoetrope to be cut out and constructed by the reader in order to watch a Quimby "silent movie". Ware's ingenuity is neatly shown in this willingness to break from the confines of the page.
Ware is currently at work on Rusty Brown, a series ostensibly about an action figure collecting manchild and his somewhat troubled childhood, but which, in Ware's fashion, diverges into multiple storylines about Brown's father's early life in the 1950s as a science fiction writer and his best friend Chalky White's adult home life.
Ware recently finished work on "Building Stories," which first appeared as a monthly strip in Nest Magazine. Installments have since appeared in a number of publications, including The New Yorker, Kramer's Ergot, and most notably, the Sunday New York Times Magazine. Building Stories appeared weekly in the NYT Magazine from September 18th, 2005 until April 2006.
Another recurring Ware character is the Super-man (not to be confused with Superman). In interviews, Ware has expressed the thought that were Superman real, he would probably indulge his every desire, growing fat and selfishly taking advantage of the world around him. Ware's Super-man resembles the way Ware drew God during the early part of his career, even wearing the same caped costume and domino mask and possessing the same slightly sadistic personality; it is unclear whether God can be distinguished from the Super-man in Ware's work. The Super-man also turns up in Jimmy Corrigan as an ambiguous and somewhat abusive mentor.

Heroes & Heroines

Lars Von Trier

Lars von Trier (born Lars Trier, April 30, 1956) is a Danish film director closely associated with the Dogme95 collective, calling for a return to plausible stories in filmmaking and a move away from artifice and towards technical minimalism.

Phobias
Von Trier suffers from multiple phobias, including an intense fear of flying. As the director once put it, "Basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except filmmaking." His fear of air travel frequently places severely limiting constraints on him and his crew, necessitating that virtually all of his films be shot in either Denmark or Sweden, even those set in the United States or other foreign countries. Von Trier has had a number of his films featured at the Cannes Film Festival over the course of his career, and each time has insisted on driving from Denmark to France for the festival and back.

Trivia
He has described himself in Interview magazine (June 1989) as "a melancholy Dane dancing in the dark to images on the silver screen."
He is heavily influenced by the work of Carl Theodor Dreyer and the film The Night Porter.
Like many auteurs, he uses the same regular group of actors in many of his films. Some of his frequently used actors are Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier and Stellan Skarsgård.
While accepting an award for his film The Idiots, Von Trier called fellow filmmaker Roman Polanski a "midget". Trier later apologized and said he was referring to Polanski's character in Chinatown and not the director personally.
In a 2003 interview with The Age[5], von Trier claimed not to watch films anymore, saying his hard-drive was full. Instead, he prefers video games. He also enthusiastically endorsed Prozac and pornography.

Filming Techniques
Lars von Trier has said that “a film should be like a rock in the shoe”. In order to create original art he feels that filmmakers must distinguish themselves stylistically from other films, often by placing restrictions on the filmmaking process. The most famous restriction is the cinematic "vow of chastity" of the Dogme95 movement with which he is associated, though only one of his films, The Idiots, is an actual Dogme95 film. In Dancer in the Dark, dramatically-different color palettes and camera techniques were used for the "real world" and musical portions of the film, and in Dogville everything was filmed on a sound stage with no set where the walls of the buildings in the fictional town were marked as a line on the floor.
Von Trier often shoots his scenes for longer periods than most directors to encourage actors to stay in character. In Dogville he let actors stay in character for hours, in the style of method acting. The rules and restrictions are a break from the traditional Hollywood production, though directors such as Robert Altman have long been using such techniques of working with actors. These techniques often put great strain on actors, most famously with Björk during the filming of Dancer in the Dark.

Heroes & Heroines

Peter Fowler

B. 1969 - Pete Fowler is a Welsh artist and illustrator best known for his artwork for the Welsh band Super Furry Animals. He is a freelance illustrator and "monster creator" inspired by Japanese art. Fowler's adorable and colourful imagery created a visual signage for SFA. He has also done a number of other projects in the UK and Japan, such as television advertisements as well as having art exhibitions all over the world. He is also now well known for a collection of designer vinyl toys called Monsterism. Pete Fowler has since produced Ken's Mysterious World, very similar to the original monsterism figures.

Heroes & Heroines

Jonathan Barnbrook

Information about the font designer Jonathan Barnbrook and his typefaces.
Jonathan Barnbrook and his studio have been active since 1990, working across a broad range of disciplines including graphic design, industrial design, typeface design and film. Barnbrook Design is based in Soho, London and consists of three designersÊand a coordinator, originating from England, Japan and Brazil. They are Jonathan Barnbrook, Elle Kawano, Pedro Inoue and Marcus McCallion.The studio divides its time between commercial work on an international basis for museums and cultural institutions and non-commercial projects. One of Barnbrook Design's most visible forms of activity is in the world of typeface design where they have extended a socio-political view to this often quietly traditional world. Producing typefaces based on historical forms but with a very contemporary subversive influence and titled in an appropriately confrontational manner. Typefaces with names such as 'Manson' (American serial-killer), Exocet (French missile) and Bastard (English swear word) have garnered both praise and criticism for the highlighting of the relationship of words to the letterforms that represent them.Non-commercial collaborations include art directing and producing work with 'Adbusters' the leading activist magazine. The studio also puts great effort into developing and producing work which highlights political and social injustices that are offered for free and without copyright restrictions on the studio's website (www.barnbrook.net, www.virusfonts.com). Recently the studio has increasingly taken part in exhibitions of specially commissioned artworks.ÊCommercial collaborations include major corporate identities for Roppongi Hills, the largest post was development in Tokyo, and Mori Art Museum, a new internationally-based contemporary art museum also located in Tokyo. In Britain, Barnbrook Design had become very well known as a result of collaboration with major figures in the British art scene such as the Saatchi Gallery and Damien Hirst, for whom he designed his book 'I Want To Spend The Rest of My Life, Everywhere with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now. Barnbrook Design has also designed the past two David Bowie album covers.
[DJD, March 2006]
Fonts designed by Jonathan Barnbrook:
Apocalypso CrossesApocalypso PictogramsBastard Even FatterBastard FatBourgeoisBourgeois AlternateBourgeois CondensedBourgeois Condensed AlternateBourgeois LightBourgeois Light AlternateBourgeois Light CondensedBourgeois Light Condensed AlternateBourgeois UltraBourgeois Ultra AlternateBourgeois Ultra CondensedBourgeois Ultra Condensed AlternateComaComa BlackDeluxDoublethinkDoublethink Bold InlineDraylonDrone No 666Drone No 90210EchelonEchelon AlternateExocet HeavyExocet LightExpletive ScriptExpletive Script AlternateExpletive Script Light
Expletive Script Light AlternateFalse IdolFalse Idol ScriptInfidel AInfidel BInfidel CInfidel DMasonMason AlternateMason SansMason Sans AlternateMelancholiaMoronNewspeak HeavyNewspeak LightNixon ScriptNylonPatriot HeavyPatriot LightPriori SansPriori Sans AlternatePriori SerifPriori Serif AlternatePrototypeProzak LiteProzak MaxShock & Awe Enola GayShock & Awe TomahawkTouretteTourette Extreme