dirty art

car art

my inspirational thinking places

conway beach
snowdonia
sale water park 

ipod campaign

sand sculpture

Kazuhiko Kawahara photography

Cows on Parade

CowParade is an international public art exhibit that has been featured in major world cities. Fiberglass sculptures of cows are decorated by local artists, and distributed over the city centre, in public places such as train stations, important avenues, and parks. They often feature artwork and designs specific to local culture, as well as city life and other relevant themes. After the exhibition in the city, which lasts many months, the cows are auctioned off and the proceeds donated to charity.

There are a few variations of shape, but the three most common shapes of cow were created by Pascal Knapp, a Swiss-born sculptor who was commissioned to create the cows specifically for the CowParade series of events. Pascal Knapp owns the copyrights to the standing, lying and grazing cow shapes used in the CowParade events.

Grafik Magazine

http://www.grafikmag.com

Grafik is an independently published, monthly graphic design magazine serving the international design community.

Aiming to produce unbeatable coverage of groundbreaking new design, it showcases the cream of both cutting edge and commercial graphic design, providing a platform for photography, art, typography, illustration, new media, fashion, technology and advertising.

Google

Google is one of the most used search engines and most visited websites on the internet. i have noticed that google likes to theme its website which makes it more interesting i like how easy it is to change.

Ed Hardy

I really like the Ed Hardy designs, his work has become huge with the rich and famous and has now gone from tattoos to iphone cases, jumpers, shoes and many more

granada

http://www.itv.com/granada/your-snow-pictures61027/

Snow

After December and January's weather condition, which caused the country to come to a stand still i realised the amount of art and design that came from it.

When driving around the streets you could see peoples creations of snow men and women, igloos, robots and many more. Even the news programmes such as Granada Tonight showed peoples snow creations

http://www.itv.com/granada/your-snow-pictures61027/

I found it fascinating that suddenly over night the country has become full of art and design even from people that have never had a concern for it.

I also liked how even tho snow is cold and melts the designs that people created were fantastic made from water based substances.

Whitworth Gallery Manchester

On my visit to the Whitworth Gallery i came across a small exhibition called Attitude, which stood out and also reminded me of my childhood days when fly posting was legal, everywhere you looked there was fascinating posters advertising gigs and upcoming events or music bands it was things like this that gave me inspiration when i was younger.

The description board read "There is more to Manchester than shopping, bars and clubs. Manchester is the city of radical thinkers, mavericks and trendsetters. Its the people that give this city its edge. They have always fought for their rights: challenging, resisting, contesting, insisting peterloo did not crush this spirit and the suffragette struggles were fuelled by it.

Manchester attitude, the swagger on the street, colours the cultural landscape. It inspires the designers, artists, musicians, writers to harness and express the tangible pulse that surges through the city"

Museum Visits

On my visit to Urbis i came across an exhibition called State Of The Art: New York, i found some of the pieces fascinating. The exhibition was about exploring some of the most dynamic and creative cities in the world. The exhibition was put together by sixteen young artists from New York itself, its a celebration of the rich and diverse talent from the big apple.

This piece is called True Yank 2009, by Leon Reid and is exhibited in Urbis and Lincoln Square, Manchester. It is in response to the City Centre of Manchester and an invention on the statue of Abraham Lincoln.

The statue commemorates the thanks offered by Lincoln to the people of Manchester for their support during the Lancashire cotton famine that resulted from American Civil War support, which was born out of the desire to end slavery.

Reid worked with local designers to create a new, updated outfit for Lincoln- one that reflects contemporary Urban fashion and includes the hip hop accessories of baseball caps, medallions and rings.

This piece was by Gandalf Gavan, named untitled 2009. Gandalf creates sculptural installations that combine uniform modules associated with minimalism. In the last three years he has gradually taken his outdoor installations into indoor spaces and become increasingly invested in site specificity.

This piece is by Carolyn Salas and Adam Parker Smith called Holy ghost, 2008. Salas and Smith constructed the piece with everyday materials mined from hardware stores and inherited collections of fabrics.

Around the head of Jesus Christ swarm foam and fabric planks, felt skulls and bones and surgical tubing, all rising in an impossible tower towards the heavens.

Museum Visits

On my visit to Manchester Urbis i viewed an exhibition by Andrew Brooks called Hidden Manchester. Andrew Brooks is a photographer, digital artist and film maker. His work is based on analogue reality and contemporary urban surroundings, he builds his work by taking hundreds of images and carefully copy and pasteing them to mould a completely new scene. I was really impressed with his work i found it very imaginative and extraordinary i could sit and try to analyze his work all day.

Andrew Brooks stated "walking around any city it is not uncommon to catch glimpses of the world that exists beneath the polished surfaces of glass and steal, snatched glances into an open grate, through a broken hoarding, behind a door ajar, reveal, if only for a moment, a hidden world that serves to support our contemporary imaginings of our urban environments". When i first read this statement it made me think about the things we take for granted and the things we could use as inspiration that we by pass and don't even acknowledge in our everyday busy lives.

These are some of my favourite pieces unfortunately you cant take photos of this exhibition but i picked up information, which had Andrew Brooks website details on it http://www.andrewbrooksphotography.com/

This pieces is called Great Abel, named after Abel Heywood, Manchester's radical mayor who championed the building of the Town Hall, Great Abel rings out the Town Hall clocks hour chimes.

This was inside the Refuge Assurance Building and supports the main grand chandelier. I liked this photo because he took a simple boring looking scene and turned it into something interesting especially with the curves and angles in the photo itself.

This piece is called Quiet Refuge and was taken from behind the Palace Theatre sign i was drawn to this piece because it was so difficult to see what it was about and doesn't give anything away it initially caught my eye in the museum because of the colour been so mysterious and vibrant.

This piece is Angelic View, which i feel lives up to its name i think Andrew Brooks has captured the detail and really done the piece justice and has managed to show people just how fantastic it is.

Adverts

One of my biggest inspirations is adverts that you see in magazines or papers or even billboards. Without adverts how would we know what the latest fashions are or the newest perfumes. Adverts are used to promote a company and product, there designed to be dreamy and tasteful or eyecatching an inspiring.

i collected this advert promoting Secret Obsession perfume, which is cleverly done it is designed to catch both men an women target audience. The women are inspired by the fact that they could too feel like that woman alive an vibrant and the men are attracted by the fact that there girlfriends could too look like that woman confident and alive. I like the advert because of the contrast in colour, they have used a soft black and white photo against a strong brown colour but in my opinion works well and makes the promotional product stand out how it should.

This is a simular advert, which is also promoting perfume the difference this time is that this company has used a famous star to help in there promotions. The bonus in using stars in promotions is that audiences that are big fans of Liv Tyler will automatically go out and buy the product just because Liv Tyler featured using it they feel that if the star uses the product then it must be good and maybe they too can be like her.

This advert is promoting Warburtons bread. Warburtons has been a well known company for years and there logo is easiely recognised so the company has felt like they dont have to show a huge loaf of bread to get there point across instead they have focused on promoting how the bread is made and the processes. In this advert they have concentrated on Photosynthesis and have tried to show how natural there bread is made. Warburtons have been very clever about this promotion because recently in the media there has been alot reported on weight issues in the UK and how we need to be more aware of what were eating and whats in are food.

I like this advert because it can be very sensitive as the company is Macmillan Cancer Support. In my opinion this advert asks a really strong question "Tired of putting on a brave face?" which can be a big weight off peoples shoulders that someone has acknoledged their feelings. I like the fact that some adverts can really effect peoples feelings and isnt just used to advertise.

This advert caught my eye because of the layout, i especially like the fact that the whole advert is on an angle and hasnt been created to a pacific neat and tidy brief. I also like the layout of the text its different and probably brakes alot of rules but i think it works well.

This advert is really clever i love how they have taken a model photograph and placed it on a illustration, the contrast looks amazing its like a whole new world.

This is the littlewoods advert. Its a women modelling a outfit with a stream of beautiful colours around her, this caught my eye simply because of the colours and the detail. The colourful stream behind her has nothing to do with the advert but makes it eyecatching which will help to sell the outfit it gives you a sense of fun in your life.