Business Identity

I've fallen behind on posting my latest work on here, so time for a catch up blogging session!

For the second section of the brief we were presented with an envelope with which to pick our client out of (written on paper, not really small clients!) I was furious with my selection of Jane Austen at first, I tried in vain to swap with people but neil and sally were having none of it. So i put aside my existing opinions of her literature and began to study the woman herself. I found an incredible amount of information in a book i borrowed from the Uni library. Most interestingly of which was the section on her family.

The brief itself was to produce a business card, letter head and compliment slip for Jane Austen, as if she were a real client. I decided to research into several avenues of her life, which could personify her, even if it was an obscure characteristic or trait. I decided to look at the much ignored fact that the Austen family outcasted one of their children due to his mental health. On the face of it, the Austen family was a well regarded respectable family, with a Reverend for a Father, two Admiral sons, an Oxford graduate, and of course Jane herself. Whilst there was this hushed up side which was given very little mention in the book I researched from which praised Jane's every action.

To illustrate this theme, I decided to use the obvious 2 sided aspect of the business card to suggest the 2 sided life of the Austen family. One side bright and elegant whilst the other dark, perhaps decayed.

'Projections' - copy

Jenny Holzer - Abuse of Power - Truisms

American installation and conceptual artist. Her studies included general art courses at Duke University, Durham, NC (1968–70), and then painting, printmaking and drawing at the University of Chicago before completing her BFA at Ohio University, Athens (1972). In 1974 she took summer courses at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, entering its MFA programme in 1975 and beginning her first work with language, installation and public art. Holzer moved to New York in 1977. Her first public works, Truisms (1977–9), appeared in the form of anonymous broadsheets pasted on buildings, walls and fences in and around Manhattan. Commercially printed in cool, bold italics, numerous one-line statements such as ‘Abuse of power comes as no surprise’ and ‘There is a fine line between information and propaganda’, were meant to be provocative and elicit public debate. Thereafter Holzer used language and the mechanics of late 20th-century communications as an assault on established notions of where art should be shown, with what intention and for whom. Her texts took the forms of posters, monumental and electronic signs, billboards, television and her signature medium, the LED (light emitting diode) sign. Other works appeared on T-shirts, tractor hats, stickers, metal plaques, park benches and sarcophagi. The LED signs have been placed in high-impact public spaces such as Times Square, New York, as well as in art galleries and museums.

www.moma.org

Billboard

This is more of the development process behind the 'Thank You' aspect to the unit. This form of delivery was my initial idea when the brief was explained on Monday. I like the idea that the mode of delivery could be on such a large scale, but only appeal or be comprehended by a minority or individual person. That is why the copy is so vital to conveying the message of thanks.

Danke Schön Holzer

Initial idea- 'Thank you' in the style of Jenny Holzer's Projections.

Text photoshopped onto wall of a building in Gallipolis, Ohio. Birthplace of Jenny Holzer.

'Danke Schön' translation of 'Thank You' in German - The origin of the Holzer family name.

'You Are My Own' - Jenny Holzer 1996

YEAR 2 BEGINS

First official day at Uni today. We were given our first Unit which consists of several briefs over the course of the month. 

'THANK YOU!'

'Business Identity'

'New From Old'

and 

'Communicating Ideas'

making a start on the 'THANK YOU!' brief now. have some good ideas, just need to convey and justify them!! So far within the design pipeline is the idea of producing a piece inspired and dedicated to the artist Jenny Holzer. My design and development of this initial idea will follow over the next few days. Ciao for now