By Sharn Leachman

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The BriefInitial PhotoshootExploring LondonGrid LayoutsFramedInspirationStreet PhotographyJuxtapositionThree DimensionalTrial + ErrorFinal StagesEvaluation

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The Brief

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It’s an ideal way to get myself out there and create a magazine to advertise myself within the magazine industry, the design industry and illustration. I decided to use material that I had put together from past shoots in London and recapture it in a different light.I want to experiment and create something new, something structural and effective to communicate the idea of a built up city and open it up, create tranquil landscapes and a peaceful atmosphere. Isolation is a subject that interests me most in my work, I like scenes which appear empty which is a clear juxtaposition to the typical city reputation of today. Behind the hustle and bustle there is a beautiful city underneath no matter how broken or ugly it may seem on the surface. Every piece of rubbish, brick or corner is a repesentation of London life, its history and future I plan to make a collection that will communicate this effectively.

Street photography is becoming one of the most popular topics within photography, with more accessible travel and technology more and more people from around the world come to the built up cities or towns to photograph their landscapes. My project is to do just that but I want to concentrate on the importance of colour within the city of London and pull out parts of a photo in order to depict certain areas or shapes. Photography is a great interest of mine and I enjoy editing and making artwork with the prints. Once the image is created I would typically keep it as a digital file on my computer so making designs by hand with the images and creating something more unique is so much more rewardingI want to create a collection of photographic designs and be able to exhibit them them within small stores or galleries in the future in order to promote myself and even sell. To support this collection I will put together a small A5 publication so people can take away with them and keep.

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From the first stages I knew that I was determined to use my photography as a strong point in this project and finding the inspiration and concept was not of great difficulty when wondering the Streets of Camden one afternoon doing a shoot with friends.From then on I realised that I was doing what I loved best and from then on, planned to base my project on London photography but within which concept I had yet to find out. throught the day I took photos of the landscape, the people and surround textures, this way I could acknowledge every aspect in which I could emphasise on and found that landscapes was something I felt more passionately about and enjoyed capturing.

Further research and experimentation with my images I had taken that day later lead me onto the importance of colour itself. Both in the image and what colour can be applied digitally I experimented by hand and on computer what possibilities were open to me and how I could improve troughout the project.

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I made many trips to London from that day to really experiment and explore the place. To get to know what places were most interesting and when streets were at their busiest. I travelled Camden, Leicester Square, Brick Lane, St Pauls and many of the back streets. Undeniably there were spots there were less safe than others but they were all so interesting in their own way. I took as many photographs as I could. Concentrating on objects, landmarks and textures.

My favourite trip was at Camden mid-week when it was at its most tranquil and I was able to take some great shots which I wasn’t able to the weekend before. I found beautiful areas which would go unnoticed in the most busiest of times. The image on the right is the Photoshop exploration that really helped me immensely. It was my most favoured method of colour depiction I had found so fa and I ran with it but tried to pull it out of the computer as often as I could in order to experiment fully by hand.

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By hand I was able to divide some of my chosen photographs into individual blocks and really exploring how colour is brought to life this way. I found that by splitting the photograph to a point where the image itself became less important and the colour as well as textures were the focus I could ask myself how else could I use this grid-like method to emphasize colour and make effective designs. In the image shown I had used one photograph but mixed a colour version with a desaturated version into one composition. This way the areas that were in full colour became more prominent and abstract. It was a successful experiment and decided that building more from various images would form a unique collection. By using thick card to hold the grids together with foam board or corrugated plastic, the design was able to stand out from the canvas it was laid on creating a three dimensional piece. The grid method is something that I found very interesting as naturally I am a person who likes order and function, working with white space and grids I find is a running theme throughout all of my work and developing this technique could be useful for me in the future.

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Creating these grids was a very interesting task. Having to look over each photograph with such depth and concentration, I was able to find pieces in an image I had not noticed before which was amazing as I was being outsmarted and learning from the concept in which the project envisaged.

I made various grids using different themes; one being the texture of bricks found on the walls and grounds of London, another concentrating on the colour orange, grafitti art and more. Cutting and putting these together proved very time consuming but rewarding when completed and I loved using different sizes and layouts between each design. I got to find the less effective ideas and what worked better. My favourite design being the grafitti art found in different areas on the City, I split each piece depending on it’s colour and shade and made them as small as I could without loosing the detail. In the end I worked out that assorting each block also became an important stage and trial and error played a huge part. Working with shades from dark to light, making sure each block opposes its neighbour. I found in the end that every experimentation I had made was crucial and beautiful in it’s own way whether it be successful or not and wanted to exhibit them in some way.

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Still exploring the grid layout, I edited the style and shape of the blocks while concentrating on the position of colour in the image. In this particular design I wanted to split the image to clearly depict the colour left in it. The central block being the central focal point of the piece, the panels create a sense of height as well as keeping the image itself legible to the viewer. It’s a very magical and soft approach to the London theme I had originally planned to communicate nevertheless tranquility is still apparent.

Overall, I made about fifteen of these designs whether successful or not but I plan to exhibit and sell all of them as each piece is a vital stage of my experimentation. Making these framed pieces was a great journey for me and I have learnt what works within photography and what ultimately fails. By sanding and repainting the frames I will be able to present and promote myself as a photographer and illustrator in galleries and shops having a small magazine to help support and bring together the City+Colour collection.

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Ian Carr is an artist who I find so inspiring and influences much of my work and when I see his designs, it motivates me to do more and work to my potential. He has given me great ideas in past projects and to look at his recent photography work to find that he has had the same mind as me is amazing. He works within, print, photography and various other disciplines which is very close to my interests and he works alongside the same/similar ideas, I really feel I can connect with his work.

With what I have created so far in my project and looking at grids so closely, I decided to use Ian Carr’s inspirational ideas and become more free with the grid; explore the layouts, the content and colour as he has done here. Focusing on a particular objact works so well and it rings the colour together. Looking at texture is a good element as you can see he has photogrpahed posts and desaturated every image so the texture is the focal point in the composition. I want to see how I can use his work in order to narrow down my objectives within these grids that I’m making, Compare the differences and similarities from my designs to his and work with the pro’s rather than the con’s.

Eugene Atget was the first of his kind and these old photo’s from the 1800’s are what I really love. His work is all about perpective and tranquility which is my main focus for this project. He photographed his City (Paris) when it was at it’s most sparse, there was a minimum amount of people about therefore uncovering the layer that cannot be been at the busiest moments. It’s interesting to see how he photographed Paris because nothing much has changed within the world of photogrpahy or the City that is being shown here. Nothing changes, just altered and it’s really sentimental and insiring to follow in someones footsteps who once had the same creative aspirations. I plan to relive, revive and use his outlook to City life with a twist, using both monotone and colour photography to really embed the colour around me which is something Atget and photographers at his time was unable to achieve.

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Hockney is another designer who I feel strongly inspired by just because he is a perfectionist as I am. Mostly known for his Cubist and Pop Art approach to his work. I am not a great fan of the Cubist movement myself but I love the modernist apprach Hockney has towards his work. The spereation of the image in perfect blocks but within them lie impressions of the same object but from a different percpective or time. The main aspect of Hockneys work that I mostly like is the element of time it entails. How you can move through the composition of blocks and see a different moment in time in which the photoggrpah was taken. This is something I could have carried into my project; the element of time as well as colour but I’m not sure it would have worked so well, I was using the idea of colour in my project as a main focus.

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Carson is a photographer and illustrator I can closely relate myself to. He has the same obsession with white space and composition as I do and we both like to work with botth image and typography together. I have one of his books which I love to look through for inspiration when needed but as I browsed the net I came across alot of work he had made for magazines, one being this surf magazine which I instantly loved. The layouts work so well and the image plays the biggest part within the publication. Very visual and easy to understand. The playful effect he has put together goes well against the sport he is promoting.

Working with layout in a magazine is difficult when you find that creating an atmosphere is a key element to have and here I have learnt that it can be easily achieved all by working out how the type and image sit together and rely on eachother

My idea is to create a structural atmosphere and play around with the type and image to bring throught Londons built up environment and architecture.

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S&M Bikes is formally known as a successful BMX brand and here is what I found in a magazine promoting the sport. This small A5 insert is an amzing little piece based on the nrand and life of the sponsored riders. Touring around on their bikes we follow them on thier journey and it seems so personal to the guys in the magazine itself. I love the layouts and images provided. It creates such an open and spiritual space between the environment and the rider. Connecting with his surround-ings and it is well communicated throughout the book. I’ve kept this little booklet purely because it’s great to look at and the photography used it fantastic. It’s a great insight on the lifestyle and not the brand itself.

A very personal piece which I can take to my own work and also use the compositions to my advantage as they have also concentrated on white space as I like to in my own work.

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This trip to London was the favourite of all trips I had had wthin and outside of this project. I went to an amazing exhibition called ‘London Street Photography’ at the Museum of London and took many photographs afterwards. I took down many names and techniques that I had spotted during the exhibition. The photographs ranged from the 1800’s up tuntil now and to see how civilisation had changed was unreal but what I had noticed was that the surroundings were exactly the same and that fascinated me hugely. I wanted to see some photos of the City itself rather than the community but there was none. It seemed that the focus/theme throughout this collection was the people of London. A great exhibition to have visited and it really motivated me to travel London afterwards and capture the streets today. I had done so, photographing everything in my sight but editing out the people out as much as I could I was able to get some great shots in St Pauls, Camden and Covent Garden that day.

The editing being the best part of the photography experience I had the idea that I wanted to play around with the colour and edit parts out leaving small bits that stood out the most. Being a great outcome I continued to make these images and put them into a magazine layout to see how they worked. I loved using this technique as I could blot out the parts of the scene that were uninteresting or maybe even parts that were less noticable. I learnt alot about compositional photography during this experiment.

more images available at www.splphotography.wordpress.com

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An experiment based on the environment and placing an image within an image. The idea I had here was to use the countryside surroundings as a juxtaposition to the London streets so I made swatches of the typical shapes and textures and made grids on bark, bricks, dirt and stone. It was something else to think about but I wasn’t entirely happy with the outcomes and it was veering away from what I intended to create. Including the countryside environment wasn’t something I was comfortable with including and would give the wrong impression.It was good to use my photography in another context and an experiment well enjoyed. I feel that this will come in handy for future projects.

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Experimentation is the key feature in this project as the collection is made out of the experiements I have made and I won’t stop there.

Here I made a more 3D grid with the blocks I had for the outside shoot prior. I wnated to try using different levels by using various layers of foamboard. By using the foamboard I can attach the image and it will sit outside of the canvas so it looks completely seperate or floating. Not a great outcome as the composition became very weak and the uneven layout as I used from Ian Carr’s inspiration didn’t work conceptually for my project. The design didn;t work as a scultural piece and the panels were too large to have any effect. Small panelse I find worked the best by looking back at the graffitti piece.

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The trial and error period for the magazine was a hard obstacle as I wasn’t entirely sure what it was I wanted to create and of which effect. I knew I wanted something that would support my hand rendered pieces, something to bring the collection together in unison but how?

With this I tried a few different ideas continuing to work with colour and focusing on the hand rendered pieces themselves. However I had grown tired of focusing on the illustrative designs I had created by hand so decided to make this something different, a little more technical and clean but I wanted to link it by bringing through the grid work and white space. Playing around with front covers and double page spreads I could see how I could play around with colour digitally and moving from the analogue tecniques.Many sheets were made and many notes were written and I had finally made a mock up which I would then use as a plan to print my final piece.

Working with different colours was essential as I originally thoughtusing one colour would be too formal. This magazine would hold compositions and layouts that would provide all colours and techniques I had accumulated throughout the project so far.

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A small thumnail mock up of the final magazine. I made it so small as to see how I would set up the pages for the final magazine and see how the layouts looked. For a magazine printout I worked out that each page had to be back to front an split into two in order to match them up in the end. I found many things that were able to be changed by printing this miniature book and saved much material and cost alongside!

It’s a little thing for me to keep and seems to be popular with most people. To me this was my little map to plan the future presentaion and I was able to add pages in and take parts out to fit the appropraite plan. This small mock up consisted of 50 pages which would become the final amount for the final execution.

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A collective piece involving the tranquil sights of London commu-nicated by the scenes and effects of colour, to bring to attention one the senses we lack to appreciate and otherwise take for granted.

View on ISSUU.COM

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Evaluation

This project as a whole has been great eye-opener for me. I’ve had the opportunity to overcome weaknesses and improve on my strengths, with this I have created a collection of very explosive photography, compositions, artwork and layouts. Working with photography and type both togther was a challenge and I learnt many things just by learning from my mistakes and constantly researching. I used a fascinating book called the “Colour Design Workbook’ by Terry Stone where I found most of my quotes on the theory of colour. I found out so much useful and interesting statistics by flicking through this book and learnt that colour is so much more significant than we percieve it to be. Colour is an element in our lives that we clearly take for granted so producing this publication and artworks was an honour just to bring to attention how in our day and age we are so ignorant and swallowed up by the mass media and huge corporations, everything is spoon-fed to us therefore we don’t learn what is most important. The blind for example could never witness the wonders that colour brings us but use another sense to benefit in other ways. It just shows that todays generation should learn from these such creative pieces and open up to all opportunities.

Having the experience and chance to put this magazine together, I am confident enough to say that I could work within the magazine/photogrpahic industry with great enthusiasm and say that I have gained alot of inspiration and knowledge to take with me. The purpose of this project was to promote myself as a photographer, an illustrator and designer and succeed in all disciplines if so be it. This gives me a platform in which I can stand upon and say “I have done it”. I plan to print a number of these copies off and be available at the final show and place into my portfolio, The illustration work on the other hand I would love to continue to make on the side and make small amounts of money from in the future.

The problem is to make pieces to peoples taste. These pieces featured are for the creative type, the interior designer who takes pride in presentaion and space or an individual who loves to collect unique pieces and keep for generations. The experimental stage is always my favourite within a project and there has been a number of times where I have placed them as a final part in a project. I love all the outcomes that you cannot garuntee will be successful and the messiness of it all. Trial and error.

What I was mostly frightened of was using the Adobe package to put my magazine together. Digitally, I am competent but I know that I have not yet mastered all the tools and I used this project in order to overcome those barriers. For example, learning how to insert links in InDesign and cutting letters out within a shape to create negative space. The smallest of methods can be learnt everyday when needed and I’m happy that I had done that although I am aware there is still much to learn. I always know there is room for improvement in anything. I believe that you can never be satisfied with any creation including your portfolio. I believe that in order to succees I must understand that nothing will ever be perfect and I will follow this throughout my career. I want to take all these techniques to help me in my design career and hope one day I will fully understand Adobe! If that’s possible.

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