Isolation/Solitude
Acrylic paint and pen.

From my home country, where people have to drink a six pack to be able to talk.

Experimenting with polaroids. Finland -6 C. The wether effects the processing/development of the polaroid images. It slows the process down and gives the images a bluish/purple tint.

My fingers became stiff, but I keep on pushing the button. The flash goes on every time. There is no other setting. That is the beauty, the simplicity of the polaroid camera. The technique of a disposable camera, an unique picture, that you will gte to your hands in a seconds time.

I was fighting the light. Becasue of the simplicity of the polaroid camera, light is even more important. I went to my favorite place in Mäntyharju, the tiny pier, in the middle of a forrest. I wanted to capture the beautiful shapes thats snow, nature, the lake, combined with structures humans have built make. It is like looking at the clouds on a summer day, letting your imagination run wild.

Nature is truly an inspiration for me. When I look at these images, that I took, I see characters that are just waiting to get alive.

Everything is so simple when it is right. People choose to make it difficult. You don`t need fancy words to back your work up if it is good. You don`t need catch frases or complicated words. The work will stand there for it self. Simplisity is often more effective and beautiful, and by beautiful I mean not necessary the esthetics of it, but the beauty in the idea, then using a lot of gimmicks. This is my philosophy in designing. And I think everyone should have one. More is less, make every line count, make them flawless and force the viewer to look at your details that you are offering to them. You have a message, what you have to offer has value. Don`t underestimate or disapoint your viewer. When you finally have got their attention, live up to the expectations and deliver. Philosophy, a story behind design is important. Without that your design, photograph, illustration, what ever it is, is just a flat image.

I have a constant, desperate need to develop myself. I have a huge need to feel fulfilled. I don`t think learning, growing or developing yourself is ever over. This is why I need, in order to grow better as a designer ( like Wayne Hemingway said in his talk, don`t labelise yourself as a graphik designer, fashion designer, but a creative person, who is open to see an opportunity, a possibility, where others don`t ), to pinpoint to myself, not to others, what I value and am about in the creative area of my life. This way, by putting it out there, it will also come more clear to myself.

Influences, reading, listening, watching movies, documentaries, drawing inspiration from others experiences is vital. I want to be even more focused this year. I am not doing this for grades, to show of to others, but to fulfill myself. To be the best I can be and even a little bit better! That is my goal.

Creations by JOOT.

Me and my alter ego JOOT, are creatively in a good place. We feel save to let our hands draw lines and images are coming to our heads naturally. Maybe it is the coldness and darkness of our beautiful country of Finland, that we secretly love and love to hate. A balance, chaos and order, we need in our lives to be content. Inspiration comes from that and a little bit of a french band called Birdy Nam Nam. Thank you!

Today I have been designing the look of my web page a little bit further. I am debating on the type. From the feed back I got from my tutorial, I am thinking of making it simple and straight forward, maybe using Charlemagne Std or Perpetua Titling MT. The colors I will use are black and white, because those are the common colours in my work. I will use a symbol, an illustration of mine to navigate through the pages, as a button. I am not yet sure how I will make my galleries to work. I am thnking of using light boxes. The key points aI want to have are simplicity, straight forwardness, easy to navigate and to let the illustrations speak for them selves.

New environment, new ideas!

A break for couple of weeks. My second day in Finland. I was expecting snow. To be honest we don`t really have it, but some coldness and darkness we do have. My mind is wandering still in England. In work, the people, the feelings I experienced during this first term. Happy times. I am happy to create in Bournemouth. I am happy to be surrounded by the inspirational, curraging people I know there. I love the opportunities I have had to venture into other areas in art that I also love. I have acted in a film, posed for photographs, collaborated with a fashion student in creating clothes, with my illustrations as a pattern ( a project still going on ) and I am starting a new project, helping a film student Harry Atkinson creating the visual look for his upcoming film as a set designer. Not to mention the D&AD project with Allison and Matt that took a really interesting turn after we got the idea of using glass and mosaik pattern as a part of our illustration on the wall. It will definately give our piece depth and make it more interesting, because of the change it will have on depending on how sun light will catch it.

But going back a little bit. We got our unit evaluations, from our previous work. The good thing about this evaluation form was, that it has some more in depth feedback. It is so very useful and good to get some specific feedback from your work.

Was I happy with my marks? It is hard to say. Obviously, like Neil said, this year the grading gets tougher, and the same mark from last year does not mean the same grade actually. It is also hard to judge how I did, because the mark consisted of four projects that we did on the previous unit.

What was said about my work.

Lo1
You have utilised some interesting illustrations for your poster, but this does not communicate your message effectively to the audience. You have some clear rationales but you need to consider whether a member of public would understand this without prompting. There is very little work that needs doing to this to make it work, you just need to find a way to draw the viewer and you can do this by using language they will understand and relate to.

When creating this poster I did a lot of research into the area of drug use. It was something I felt really strongly about. To show how destructive drugs can be. I wanted to create images that catch the attention, that shock and are accurate. Of course illustration being my medium of expressing myself, I was very very specific on creating original images and something that is in my style. I think I did do good on that part. I am happy with the images I created and I think the look of the poster is eye catching. Still while creating the images I was aware of the fact that they might be too abstract and not open up to people. In the images I tried to use I signifiers, such as balls and chain, needles, pills and juxtapose slaves with a good, the drug. And after our last crit, in which I was told it didn`t open up enough, I put the word obey in the poster to make it more streight forward.

This project gave me the lowest mark of them all. I can see why I got the feedback I got, but I do think the critique was a little too hard and I only partly agree with it.

Lo2
You have produced six innovative greeting cards which fit particularly well within a certain genre. The illustrations are good and you have utilised some interesting source material. These are not a set of obvious cards, you could have looked into primary subject more to ensure you address your personal agenda and that of the brief.

I don`t really understand the last sentence of the feedback. These are not a set of obvious cards. I designed the cards for a horror film festival, because of the dark subject matter of the novel, written by E.A.Poe, which was my inspiration. But as mentioned in the critiques, these could be sold in any art shop or a place, that supports original and innovative illustrations. I think I did do what the brief said. It was a very open brief. It could be any cards, to any occation. The only thing was to consider and specify your target audience. This I did.

I am really happy with the images I generated. Poe`s short story, The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather was a big inspiration for me and all the images came to my head, by visualising the story while reading.

Lo3
You`ve successfully concluded the packaging project and have definitely combined your interests with that of the brief. The packaging is interesting and appropriate and it would clearly suit the intended market, but is not too similar to any existing pieces. You have utilised your research well here.

This was the project I least enjoyed. I struggled to get into it and felt, that it was not really, my area and didn`t know how I could make it mine. I was also rehearsing and filming a short film at the same time and felt rushed and pressured to find the time to do everything.

In the end I do think I work the best under pressure. Two days before my filming, which knew where time away from doing my actual work I sat in front of my desk, thinking, sketching and panicking. It all started with me photographing a jewerly case for reference and shape. Then the rest was easier then thought it would be. Even though it is not my favorite piece of work I think it still works well and I didn`t compromise my style. You can still see it has the look I am known for to have.

Traveling home to the land of snow.

Herbert Baglione designed for Adidas.

Art by Herbert Baglione.

I CAN NOT CREATE IN COMPANY!

Today I have been painting. That is something I love. It is a source of passion, frustration and agonising pain, looking at every line you create and thinking how to make them even better. I am never satisfied with the texture my brush and acrylic paint give to the images on the canvas. I have locked myself in my room. Isolation is needed and that is actually the theme of my images as well. It seems to be hard for some people to understand this. My housemates have not respected my quest for privacy and have been nocking on my door constantly. Sometimes a lonely island would be the best place to create. No by watchers and no one to hassle you with minor questions.

If I had to choose a way to die I would die in the sea. Says Herbert Baglione in a short documentary called The Run Up. He is someone who I draw inspiration from. He says he has too aims when he works: " To prevent conflict on one hand, but also seeking to create new ones. I need chaos in order to see the harmony. "

He says his work usually critiques on the obese and the anorexic. " I see it as a way to provoke the public. If someone shows the interest in this type of art and they themselves happen to be targets of my critiques, I `ve created a ironic situation. "

He talks about chaos and how in creek mythology it represented emptiness. That makes sense, a room with millions of things, you end up not seeing anything. Chaos is like that.

He finishes by saying: " I need to keep learning, searching, seeing things that will different me from others because, it is not what you show people, but how it makes you feel inside.

In one bit of the documentary, his work is shown drawing itself. That would be a interesting feature on my web site. I admire the man, the images the words. But like Tove Jansson wrote; If you admire someone too much you can never be completely free.

I have been sitting in front of my table the whole day and trying to create. Sometimes it is hard. Sometimes, even though the surrounding are perfect and the mind clear, it just doesn't go like you planned. I have been listening to Henri Mancini's music and playing my flute to get inspired, but today have been tough. My mind feels numb. That is probably the best way I can describe it.

On Friday we had a meeting with our D&Ad tutor, about our ideas. The meeting was really fruitful. We told about our ideas so far. We talked about how we wanted to humanize the large space with something involved with nature. We were talking about how to combine our individual styles and how to make it work as a complete piece. We were also looking at the how to handle the big space and what effect light has got on it. After some brainstorming, we got the idea of using mosaik and creating the illustrations of tiny pieces, consisting of glass. This way the piece would be more live and would change during the day, depending on how the daylight hits it. We got to a good start and after our meeting went to the library to look at loads of images, do some more targeting research and get inspiration.

I am trying to catch a light, in the middle of shadows. Creating is sometimes difficult and you end up drifting.

Winter in Finland.

The photos below are of my sister Riitta and our cat that has unfortunately past away. I shot them back in 2006, on our drive way, in Finland with Canon 350D. I found them today from my computer.

Why I found them interesting again, after forgetting them, was because of an artist I am drawing inspiration from at the moment. I get inspiration from a soviet writer, poet, and filmmaker, Andrei Tarkovsky. I have been looking at his polaroids, in which he portrays his everyday life and his surroundings. They posses a sadness, roughness, that comes from the reality that they are portraying and his use of colour, a blueish tint he gives to his images, due to the the time of the day he shoots his images.

From the shadows of Finland- This cat doesn't live anymore

CREATING MAKES ME HAPPY!

I have spent my day looking at my own work from the past. Arranging, and organising it in the way, it would be best presented on my wed site. It has actually been really interesting and refreshing to do research on my own work and draw inspiration from what I do and what my art is about. I think this should create the look for my website and be the main point on what I want to do. The work should speak for itself, creating the colours, type and the identity for my web page. I am also going back and thinking what inspired me in each project and why I chose to do it that particular way. More then judging what I did I want to find my identity and my way of working and display it to the world. It is also very interesting to look back and see my development as an artist. Today was a good day and it was accompanied by Debussy's Clair De Luna and Jean Sibelius Spruce, both beautiful pieces!

My sister in the darkness. I hope she finds her way out. Created in 2007.

On Saturday I ventured out with Krister Selin to help out taking some photographs, which we are converting to HRD images for a third year we are helping to make. Here are some photos of that shoot on that cloudy day.

A new brief, a new project. At first I wasn't that interested in creating a web page. All I could think was, that it is all screen based, and that for me is the least inspiring part of creating. Then I stepped back and after thinking about it and looking more carefully at the brief, I realized all the possibilities. We are given complete freedom to create our site, to create our own identity, through images. That is a great opportunity, not just to get your work open to the world but to actually examine what makes your design unique and yours. What makes my line when I draw mine and what it is I really want to say with my art.

I watched an animation by www.Tokyoplastic.com called Music Box.In that animation tiny creatures go to a box with hands and the box conducts the creatures, which all make differant sounds. It made me think how much effect sound has. Combining moving images with sound is definately something I am interested in.
I ma thinking of creating an animation in the front of my web page. I could even create the sounds my self, playing my flute. This is an intersting idea I will give some thought.