My name is Francisca Veloso and I’m a designer.
I’m interested in investigating how design can work with other subjects and vice-versa.
Social innovation, anthropology, maps and collaboration are themes I already worked with.

I graduated this summer from London College of Communication, BA Graphic Product Innovation,
Now I find myself  in Lisbon, where I’m from and working in Interbrand as a designer.

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My first post is going to be about one of my final major projects I did for university -  Collaboration Project.

It’s aim is to get people together and help them follow a process for a multi-disciplinary project, with people from different knowledge backgrounds.

The Collaboration Roll’s objective is to lead participants to rethink their brief, generate their own findings, get as many ideas as they can and other tasks which should follow the group until the very end of any project. It was designed to be shifted sideways to unravel in bits, it can be placed on the floor or a low table and it’s tone of voice is as friendly as a kid’s drawing table – inspired by Tim’s Brown TED Talk On Creativity and play. Why? So that you are encouraged to use lot’s of post-it’s, big markers pens, sketches and have no fear of experimenting, just like children. Finally, it promotes everyone’s involvement, by having the writing placed in four to six different directions, so that people feel that it’s their turn to read a part of it out-loud.

With this project I’ve learnt how tools and processes can be borrowed from one subject to the next, and reused in other contexts if adequate. After my research, which included interviewing people with different backgrounds about their tools and methods (a nurse, a copywriter, a fashion designer and a film maker + a few of my design colleges), my main question became:

How can the design process – out of the design context and language – help us work collaboratively?
This was how this project was born.

Francisca

I went down to the MA Publishing student’s exhibition at The Book Club in East London last Wednesday- ‘Publishing Challenge’ showcased new self-published books and magazines from the students at LCC.

The work on display was excellent and the night also coincided with the launch of the ABC Book Project.

There were some very interesting presentations, highlighting the highs and lows of making the work on display, including the painstakingly hand screen printed cover for each copy and this was followed by an auction of the final ABC book- the book, signed by the illustrators went for £75 and this will go towards the other great fundraising work ABC has been doing with the British Red Cross.

Keep up to date for more news on the ongoing project here, ABC Project.

Rich.

Here is a preview of some work I have been doing for the ABC book project.

26 Illustrators and Artists are each illustrating a letter of the alphabet and have been asked to write a piece of text to to accompany the image.

I was allocated the letter ‘O’.

Still a few tweaks to go and still undecided on final colourways but I’ll post more images and info on the whole project once it’s all finished but hope that’s enough to get you interested for now  :)

Check out www.abc-project.org for artists profiles and more information in the mean time.

Rich.

Opening night THIS Thursday 8th April 2010: 6-9pm at East Gallery, 214 Brick Lane, London.

Exhibition runs until 21st April 2010.

“16 INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS VERSUS FAMOUS SONG LYRICS”

It’s come around again all you music and type lovers! Welcome to LYRICS AND TYPE: VERSE 2 -
another international typographic screenprint exhibition from the creator of the award-winning
arts culture publication WOODEN TOY QUARTERLY (AUS) with support from the good folks
at VNA MAGAZINE (UK).

Following on from the success of the LYRICS AND TYPE: VERSE 1 zine project at Gorker Gallery
(Oct 2009), comes the exciting second instalment in the series of LYRICS AND TYPE projects at
London’s East Gallery. Combined with an all new formula and a ‘bass dropping’ array of artists,
LYRICS AND TYPE: VERSE 2 aims to feature interpretations of both famous, past and present song
lyrics by 16 leading international typographers, designers, artists and illustrators.

Each of the 16 selected artists have been carefully invited by Wooden Toy and VNA Magazine to
respond to a project brief and discuss with the public through its exhibition on the importance
of music ‘versus’ influence and personal inspiration.

FEATURING ARTWORKS BY & DISCUSSIONS WITH:

ALLAN SANDERS UK
DREW MILLWARD UK
EINE UK
I LOVE DUST UK
KEATON HENSON UK
MORNING BREATH USA
MR GAUKY UK
NATE HOLMES TRAPNELL AUS
NICK DEAKIN UK
NICOLAS TUAL FRA
NUMSKULL AUS
PUZLE AUS
STEPH SAYS HELLO UK
STEPHANE TARTELIN FRA
TIMBA SMITS AUS
WASTE UK

www.lyricsandtype.com

www.woodentoypublishingco.com
www.verynearlyalmost.com
www.eastgallery.tumblr.com

Rich.

Yesterday we gathered our first stage of Research for the first of a series collaborative projects.

This first one with BeyondPAR entitled ‘Togetherness’ is essentially to get together, lock heads, share ideas and see what happens.

After a couple of meetings we’ve decided to look more into Kaleidoscopes and the abstract shapes and patterns they create.

We asked people to select any number of coloured shapes they feel drawn to, associate a feel with, an emotional attachment or that may represent them in one way or another.

We hope to take each individual case and then ‘splice’ them and experiment by taking different people and mix them together.

With our homemade Kaleidoscope we’ll then begin to record the outcome… and eventually create digital and mixed-media visuals from what we find.

You can follow our progress on the tumblr and twitter.

Rich.

Skrilla is a Midlands-based Graphic Designer from the UK. He is well known for his atmospheric and striking album artwork as used on the ‘Adulthood’ Soundtrack and he has attracted the attention of many important Producers, Rappers and Emcee’s (Papoose, Million Dan, 10Shott, Joe Budden…his list of clients is endless) over recent years.

A big inspiration of mine, SICKMANSICK were fortunate to catch up with the man himself…

SICKMANSICK: Hi Skrilla, thanks very much for taking the time out for a chat, what have you been up to recently?

No problem and I appreciate the opportunity. It’s busy as ever over here working on various projects, one of which is the new Sean P mixtape, Kimbo Price which is pretty exciting!

SICKMANSICK: What is your background as a Designer and what have been the major influences on your work?

I did the usual route and began at college before going on to university studying design which gave me a pretty good understanding of the subject. It wasn’t until near the end of my time at university I began getting a few clients which made me consider starting up as a freelance designer. I Think my first design job was the P-Cutta Street Wars 12 cover.

As for my influences, I’ve always loved looking at the artwork that came along with a CD while bumping the music so it’s always something I wanted to be involved in. Then when I discovered mixtapes I saw all these exciting new designs such as those early dipset mixtapes, that were creating these crazy scenes that really appealed to me. I knew I had to have a go myself.

SICKMANSICK: Your aesthetic has become popular for Album Artwork and Mixtape Covers, how did you get into specializing in this market?

I love music, hip hop in particular so I always wanted to be involved in it somehow, so I just gravitated towards that particular field. It’s just something I wanted to do so I went for it, I’m a firm believer that you can become anything you want to if you have the talent and drive.

SICKMANSICK: I noticed you have connections with a lot of American rappers as well as much of the UK underground and hip-hop scene, how did this come about?

The Internet is really the key to that, making the world a much smaller place it’s now possible to contact just about anyone around the world. In fact, thinking about how different it would have been 10 years ago I don’t think any of what I have achieved would have been possible back then.

My first major client was probably my boy Tricksta from Wolftown who really put me on in the UK scene and also gave me a few good connections overseas to get started with. From there it’s just been a gradual case of acquiring new clients from word of mouth and putting my work out there. Being consistent and trustworthy to your customers goes a long way in business.

SICKMANSICK: I feel you have an unmistakable design style and I notice you are very clever with both photo manipulation and type; how do you usually approach the design process for a new Album or Mixtape Cover?

I would say the main factor is the title or concept of the mixtape or album. Once I have that I can let my imagination do the work and start to think about a scenario or scene I can paint to put across this idea. It’s a very fulfilling experience to go from the idea in your head to the finished product on the screen. It’s also key to have a good imagination rather than everything looking the same time after time.

Of course a nice library of stock images helps and if your in the mixtape game you should really have a good collection of magazines at your disposal because you never know if your gonna be able to find a particular image online. It’s also good to start looking at EVERYTHING in terms of “can I use that in my work?” and building a collection of things you can look at for inspiration.

I don’t really use any gimmicks or special plug’ins although I always get asked what effect I’m using to get a particular look on my covers. The only thing I can say is it’s a combination of lighting, the right blending of colours and experience.

SICKMANSICK: Do you see yourself pushing your design work in new directions in the future?

I’m hoping too. I kinda just take things one day at a time right now and it’s going pretty well so far.

SICKMANSICK: Nowadays it seems your typical Graphic Designer isn’t just a designer in its traditional namesake; many are also involved in Illustration, Fine Art or other creative practices, is this something you also share?

Not really. I find a lot of designers who do that never really master any field in particular so at the moment I’m just trying to be great at what I do. I look at it similar to the music game where you have emcess and producers. You rarely find an artist who excells at both lyrics and production and so you have great producers like Dre and  Timbaland who have ghostwriters when they need to rap because they are not lyricists, they specialize in making music. And similarly you have emcees who try to produce but never really create anything incredible beat wise. Sometimes it’s best to stick to one thing and master that.

SICKMANSICK: When not working on a design project what do you enjoy doing?

I’m a big fan of movies which can be very inspirational for ideas. I also enjoy reading/researching about this crazy world we live in but it’s very hard to switch off from this job. You can be out having a drink and then a good piece of design catches your eye and your thinking about work again!

SICKMANSICK: If you could have a dream design project to work on or a dream client who/what would it be?

I’d love to work for one of the big record companies or even get into the movie poster industry. That would be exciting.

SICKMANSICK: I will leave these final words to you…

Shout out to all my customers of course! And go to www.skrilla.co.uk to check out my work. Thanks to sickmansick for the interview.

Rich.

I went to Cancun, Mexico earlier this year to celebrate a mates birthday. It was during Spring Break and just before all the Swine Flu madness hit the news.

The week consisted of eating and drinking so much until my poo turned green. Here are a couple of sketches and images from the week.

The last 4 images are quick sketches from a while back for an illustrated short-story I have been working on this past year. It’s called, ‘Jagun Se wa Moonuh’.

The feel and look of the illustrations have changed several times over the year and resemble nothing of what these early ideas show; it’s been a struggle!

I have been working hard with invaluable help along the way from Rob Gallagher and Ohtaek Kwon to get this project up and running and I can’t wait to unveil some more details about the project soon.

Thanks to Paul Crump for the images of Chichen Itza.

Rich.

I was asked by George Collins and Tom McLeod from University College London to produce a medical information poster to spread the awareness of how to stop the unpleasant and painful effects of the “Jigger Flea“; a skin parasite found in tropical climates (also known as the ‘Chigoe Flea’ or ‘Sand Flea’).

‘The aim of the project is to bring to the attention of rural communities in north-west Cameroon four simple interventions that will help to reduce the impact of the Jigger Flea.’

The Jigger Flea is a ground dwelling parasite that plagues the rural people of Cameroon. The female flea embeds under the skin of the villagers, generally of the feet and hands, and grows to the size of a pea. As it does so it leaves the skin open to infection, and can lead to bacterial disease and tetanus. In addition, the affected individual will experience severe pain and itching leading to insomnia, difficulty in walking, and reduced quality of life. For the poverty stricken inhabitants of Cameroon, this is an unnecessary burden; an obstacle that is so easily removed.

George and Tom researched into the prevalence of Tungiasis, an infestation of the “Jigger Flea”, in the Ndu region of North-West Cameroon, with a view to publish a journal article. You can read up on their story at their Blogspot here.

The prints will initially consist of 500 A3 posters and 1500 A4 posters with the likelihood of future reprints.

We are now moving forward to the challenge of distribution through churches, schools and medical centres in Northern Cameroon.

The region is English speaking and with the literacy rate in the study area to be 64%, the illiterate are the worst affected so it was vital to ensure the simple illustrations were clear and easy to understand.

Here are some existing examples of information posters used in the region.

Many thanks to Mark Collins, the Commonwealth Foundation, Royal Geographic Society, Yaounde Initiative Foundation and the Cameroon Association of Young Scientists for their backing and support with the poster. I will update in future posts with the progress of the campaign.

The project article “Fons, Feasts and Fleas” will be published in the September issue of Geographical Magazine.

Rich.