It's all about the narrative

This is the new animation that Pengiun have commissioned from director Woof Wan-Bau to celebrate the launch of their new series, the Penguin English Library.

I want to go here...

Design defrosit

Yesterday we had a interim crit in the studio -  a very long, painful day (numbed slightly by the delights of the Falconwood Harvester).  Cutting to the chase, I've sort of fallen out of love with my concept - The Haring totem perhaps needs to be felled(?).  Design freeze now feels like a distant proposition again. The totem idea seems a little a little limp - a bit like a defrosted ice pop.  Anyway, here's the work.

Rough pin-up...

 Sequentials...

 Section looking south down Portland Place

Quick model @ 1:200

Design freeze

I think I've arrived at a reasonable concept, so I'll stop mucking around in my sketch book and get real...

I'm sticking with the totem idea.

Thinking about materiality and in particular reflective surfaces to 'bend' reality.

I visited Portland Place again last Sunday to confirm my site location and plan the sequential drawings required for this Friday. I have moved the totem away for the center of the box junction to the intersection of Weymouth street and Portland Place, right next to RIBA.  I just feel this is less obvious, slightly awkward and creates more tension, therefore challenging the existing formality.

Hallelujah - a concept that's almost frozen! Actually I'm happy that this design covers all of the previous design developments. 

The totem also gives the bird to certain current residents of Portland Place...

Not quite frozen...

Concept 2 - Green Disco 

Developing the stencil metaphor, using the grid on the box junction as the stencil. The thinness of the grid markings acting as the interface layer between above and below ground.

Haring was doing his shizzle in the 80's NYC night club scene... this concept is well disco!

The boxes could be illuminated, containing planting, possibly changing dynamically as the shadow drops over the buildings..??  Inspired by TV, MTV and pixels - technology was both an inspiration and influence on Haring.

 In section - connecting the box junction with the boxes. Needs work! Bed.

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Time for design freeze...?

Since we are presenting our ideas on Friday, reckon I better get freezing some ideas - not something I do very well... Anyway, though I might summerise some directions on here by way of sorting my head out...

 

Concept 1 - The Haring Line

Following on from the Nick Walker inspired stuff, still thinking about causing visual anarchy of sorts in Portland Place, in homage to Keith Haring's style.

Using the analogy of bombing Portland place to create distortion. Quite like the metaphor of an impact causing a rippling disturbance, some kind of movement, a 3 dimensional wave - like Mr Banksy...

 

 From horizontal to vertical. 

Haring's line could move from horizontal to vertical and even from above to below ground, positive to negative. This positive/negative concept is something that I keep coming back to.  Initially it was about the traffic flow in Portland Place, but now it is more about what lies beneath? A question developed from looking at all the closed, official facades along PP.

Revealing what is beneath - scratching the surface.

 

What might be beyond... Courtesy of Banksy again. Ramallah checkpoint, Palestine. 

On a Banksy tip again - the positive and negative of stencil and aerosol. Literally stenciling the Haring line in the road...

Answering the question about what's beneath... Using the box junction as a stencil. Urban jungle beneath - contrasting the stuffy, sophistication above. Like the idea of taking the design concept into the subterranean, from above to underground

Understanding Haring's linear expression and looking at street art in the urban environment today, there is a commonality that is, for me, about spontaneity of mark making.  Making marks on the street is about high impact, bold message applied with speed and fluidity - weather it be Haring's free-flowing hand drawn lines or Banksy's stencils.

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Underground, where it all started for Haring with his subway chalk drawings.

Portland Place Materiality

I've been trying to process the materiality in Portland Place... this is a crude attempt to summerise my thoughts.  Reading the photo's from top to bottom this is about mega to macro - landscape to detail. I'm interested in the elements that make up the landscape, the layers that build the 3D scene.  Moreover, the macro elements that make the landscape 4 dimensional... surfaces you can touch, smell, hear and effect - just like the bottom image (the glass on the new BBC building) that captures my reflection.  Actually, I'm in the door knob shot too!  I like the unambiguous palette, the regimented symmetry and austere facades - perhaps this is why I'm exploring design concepts that go beyond the surfaces we can see, i.e. underground.

Making the Sony Ad

This is the making of the video posted the other day.... love it!

Smashing the symmetry

Colour Bombing

The easiest way to break the symmetry in Portland Place is the create asymmetry... two things came to mind, firstly:

This was a real, derelict Scottish Housing estate - nicely improved. A Sony TV ad from a few years ago - probably why they are in financial woe right now!

By Nick Walker - a Bristol boy just like Banksy.  The middle image is called 'That's Better' - good title! Oh, and the brick and building is all stencil work... imagine cutting that out!

Colour bombing Portland Place. Buildings and street as canvases - distorting the geometry.
  

Haring Revistited - the antithesis of Portland Place.

I returned to Haring's work for a touch of guidance. Key things that I want to integrate into my scheme are, 1) Haring's Line (flowing, rhythmical, spontaneous, instinctive, organic), 2) Cultural influences (technology, pop, fun, community), 3) Haring Symbolism (succinct, poignant, human, anthropomorphic, narrative) and 4) Colour (day glow, 80's, hopeful, of the moment, energy, disco).

The symbolism in Haring's work interests me - his work often depicting zoomorphic figures and humanoid forms, in simple, understandable narratives. The sketch above is very schematic, not really a design proposal as such, but a response to the stuffy, closed environment that is P.Place.

Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic symbols arranged in a typically Haring fashion, clearly influenced by hieroglyphics, Mayan pictograms etc. Not stuffy, easily understood and accessible - the antithesis of Portland Place.

Haring Totem - a landmark that on the surface sympathizes with the symmetry found on PP. But, beneath the surface the planting continues with viewing portal dotted around the site, revealing what lies beneath. Above ground and below ground  positive/negative. Positioned in the center of the box junction to allow more opportunity for shadow play. Response to the elitist RIBA facade that is adjacent - communal gardens, or a 'vertical park' or allotments... creating community and humanity in Portland Place. 

Site Survey - pressure, energy and symmetry

Had a closer look at Portland Place the other day and conducted a more comprehensive site survey. Decided that the specific location for my project would be the box junction at the intersection between Weymouth Street and Portland Place.

I'm interested in exploring the pressure created at the intersection, especially the 'framed' space above the junction (framed by the symmetry).  Even the grid marking the box junction itself has possibilities. How can the energy from the junction be diverted, can the space become useful or experiential?

An overriding though was the repeated symmetry across the site at a macro and mega scale serving to reinforce feelings of austerity, restricted access, formality and conservatism - how can Haring distort the symmetry...?

Symmetry from macro to mega.... the opportunity is to bend, distort and transform the landscape with a touch of Haring influenced anarchy.

Haring and fun in Portland Place

It dawned on me that Haring's work was cheerfully positive even when depicting serious subject matter - perhaps one approach to breaking conservatism along Portland Place is to have some fun Haring stylee...

Using Haring's icons as 'shadow makers'... (above)

 Just like Pink Floyd..

 Animals - Pink Floyd 1976

Studio action from last Friday.  We pinned up a SOC analysis of our chosen site for the final part of this terms project.  Previously I'd selected Portland Place over Argyll St, after discussion Elise who suggested it offered more potential for anarchy (with reference to my mentor for this project, Keith Haring).

This SOC is pretty subjective... Jamie rightly highlighted that we need to get to grips with the site and produce a objective survey including materiality and proper measurements.

  

I seem to be focusing on RIBA at the moment, perhaps because during the first walk along The Line a few of us went up on the roof - quite like the contrast from ground level to panorama.

 From the roof of RIBA (above)

Thinking about Portland Place and it's junctions as arteries - traffic and people rhythmically controlled like a heart beat... arty!

 

Exploring view point - using the BT Tower as a marker

1:1000 model knock up in the studio by Team Portland (Me, Paddy, Karolina, Alex). Shadow replicating the light at 08:00hrs, 21st June.

 

Plan view - after a bit of mucking around with glue gun, the buildings were finally fixed in position!

All Souls and the BBC

Bit of a happy accident - late in the afternoon a ray of light cut straight through the model. Perhaps thinking about the channels and negative spaces might prove to be an interesting line of investigation.