Manchester Print Fair

I went to a print fair today in 2022NQ in the Northern Quarter. There were graduates of textiles, illustration and graphic design selling their work . It was very inspiring as most of the works heavily included drawing. There was also a range of techniques, digital and hand drawn prints printed onto a range of backgrounds.

£1.75

Today we had a tutorial, we got to explain our idea to our tutors who seemed to like it. We were asked to show what we had done over easter. None of our group had done much as we had only recently got our concept and we had been putting off going to the Junk shop to buy our items, as our group hadn't been able to meet up all together. After speaking to Hannah we decided that we needed to get our project kickstarted, so half of our group went to Empire Exchange to see what we could get for £1.75/£17.50. Chelsey and I have decided to collaborate and so decided we would get a range of similar items to create our project from. We decided to get 4 items which came to £17.50. We bought a wind up rabbit, a vintage nursery rhyme book, a magic roundabout kaleidoscope and a china plate. We liked the fact that all of our items have a distinctive colour palette we can build on and all are related due to being children's toys. I am going to take my project further by drawing and using photography before I explore and experiment in the print room. I am a also going to research into Children's toys from the 60s and 70s.

Tamzin decided to buy a comic which she is going to research and build her project from. Jordan bought an old football programme, he has decided to research into rivalry in football and he is going to create a documentary on his findings. Hannah bough a figurine which she is going to further research into and photograph it in 175 different places.

Final Concept.

We were trying to come up with ideas for a concept that allows us to create a range of outcomes for an exhibition ie print, instillations, drawings, paintings or films. We wanted 175 to be our starting point, so we came up with the idea of going to a junk/vintage shop and buying a range of items for the price of £1.75. From these items we would then research them and create a series of works from them such as observational drawings and paintings which could then lead to a range of prints , we could photograph them and create instillations from them. We are also going to film our journey and experience of going to the shop and buying the items. We are hoping to have an exhibition as an outcome with a range of works either individually or collaboratively produced based on the items we bought with £1.75.

Unit X Concept Brainstorm.

After we all presented our posters and concepts we talked through them as a group, we brainstormed our favourite which was the idea of culture. We began to look at culture closer to home, Manchester is a very large city with numerous mini communities and religions.  There is also a lot of history in the city with a lot of business and industry. With a large city comes a lot of poverty, since moving from Cardiff to Manchester, a major thing I noticed was the amount of homeless people living rough on the streets. The idea of talking to the homeless and filming them and their story was thrown into the mix but after further discussion we decided that this idea was too closed and also very risky. We wanted an idea that was open and we could create numerous outcomes from. We were also finding it hard to relate the homeless idea back to the number 175.
We are going to go home tonight and think more thoroughly about ideas and come back to brainstorm them with the group tomorrow.

Poster

I decided to do my poster on the fact that the Flatiron building in New York is on 175th Avenue in Manhattan.  It is considered a groundbreaking skyscraper. I have a keen interest in architecture so I wanted to look at this further but also relate it to the local area. I decided to look at addresses around Manchester. I looked for a range of buildings that were number 175, I found a wide variety from tall, old hotels to small terraced houses.
We had to present our posters and give a small presentation on it.
                                                                           

Unit X. TEAM MEX.

So today I met my group for the first time today, our group is made up of textile and media/film students. Tamzin, Chelsey,  Jade, Jess and I from textiles and Gavin, Jordan, Michael and Hannah from Media and film. Everyone seems really nice and outgoing. I think this project is going to work very well. We all seem to mix well and everyone gets involved and contributes to ideas. The theme for this collaborative project is 175 as it's the 175th birthday of Manchester School of Art. Our task is to create a poster on a chosen fact on the number 175. I have an idea in mind but I need to research further to come up with a final concept.
There have been a few mixed messages on the whole poster thing as some people have been saying they're doing a poster each on completely different facts and some groups have already chosen a final theme and are doing separate posters but on the same theme. CONFUSING!  Our group who are now called Mex have decided to do separate posters on different concepts, we are then going to come together and took through each of our ideas before coming up with a final group theme.

Sampling Digital Print Collection.

Here are a few of my favourite digital prints from my sampling project final collection.