WET Magazine

WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing was one of the most 'seminal' publications of the 1970s and early 80s. Founded by Leonard Koren in 1976 it ran thirty-four issues before closing in 1981. The idea for the magazine grew out of the artwork Leonard Koren was doing at the time—what he termed ‘bath art’—and followed on the heels of a party he threw at the Pico-Burnside Baths. WET covered a range of cultural issues and was widely known for its use of graphic art. Started as a simple one-man operation that included artwork and text solicited from friends and acquaintances, the production, team, and circulation of the magazine would grow over the years. Its content also evolved to cover a wider expanse of stories that captured a smart and artsy Los Angeles attitude that was emerging at the same time as punk, but with its own distinct aesthetic. The magazine’s energetic creativity and flair for the absurd would remain a constant. As design problems arose, solutions were often improvised on the spot, creating a quirky editorial sensibility that remains one of WET's most enduring legacies. Its layout and design helped to catalyze the graphic styles later known as New Wave and Postmodern.

WET's covers always looked slightly weird, possibly due to the fragmented editorials. I think they look quite conflicted, as though several artists wanted to do several other things with it but were overruled. I feel that the mood of the artists influenced the front covers very much. I think the yellow cover is the most conflicted because there are so many warring elements. Also the woman's eyes go sideways and she looks angry. The birds flying around her look like aeroplanes, a powerful war symbol.

Retro Style

This piece was fairly simple to make and I feel it looks retro. I started with an image of a paper report on the Columbine shootings in 1999. Then I added an image of the london riots in 2011, contrasting between the old and new. I placed these so they looked like a double page spread in a magazine. Then I set about changing the colours so they looked retro. I used curves to up the contrast and colours and put them on a pin light filter. Then I messed around with the contrast on the alterations screen until they both looked authentic. Finally I upped the light contrast on the jumping woman to make her look faded and washed-out. I think this could be better but I have limited resources and I wasn't sure what to dp. Next time I would try putting the photo of the woman in black and white too.

David Foldvari - Big Active

David Foldvari was born in Budapest, Hungary, but has lived in the UK for the last 20 years. His work often tackles issues of alienation, identity and belonging, formed by a preoccupation with his eastern European roots, combined with his experience of growing up in the UK. David's work is bold, darkly humorous and often political in tone; his draftsmanship has led to a prolific output both personally and commercially. Some of his previous clients include the New York Times, Greenpeace, Random House, Penguin Books, Dazed & Confused and Island Records.

Foldvari has used Photoshop and draughtmanship with an ink pen to create this. The work is dark but still fun; the man with a rifle framed by bright colours and splashes. I think Foldvari is trying to say that war doesn't always need to be serious and that even the opposite side are human beings. It is nicely balanced with the block black man on the right and then the colours ballooning out of him across the page. The whole piece is focused on the gun. It pokes out unsurrounded by anything, black on a cream page, a focus point. For most of us guns, especially heavy-duty AKs like this man has, are accompanied by a host of negative connotations. However, Foldvari does nothing to take the focus away from the gun, as he has with the negative headscarf and Arabic features. These things also have negative conditioning in the mind of the public.

My Focus.

My piece is going to be about the riots across the world. Especially focusing on Egypt 2012/12 and London 2011.

First Magazine Layout Design

This is a first plan of a conflict magazine. I have decided to focus on the protests and riots which have rocked the world from Egypt to Libya to London to Dublin in the last two years. This double-page spread is focused on the London riots of August 2011. This piece was surprisingly simple to make. I found a picture which I knew on the internet of a Polish woman jumping out of her window; the building below was on fire and she leapt to safety. The shot is a wonderful one of her silhouetted against the fiery blaze as the emergency services reach up to save her. Once I had it the size I wanted (I didn't want to cut too much of the black off and lose the contrast between dark and light), I placed white writing in the blackness at the bottom left. I was following this magazine layout from Vogue.

The words read 'what do you think we wanted from this'. I chose these words because I believe the riots get a lot of bad press. In fact, they started out as a peaceful protest and the influence of negative outside factors (chavs) negated it into the looting and smashing that it turned into. I can't even blame those people very much. The world we live in today listens to the voice of the people, apparently, but the downtrodden and the given-up-on and the lost causes? No one listens to them. No one in government listens to people who want more jobs, who want more pay, who want better education, who want change which is impossible, because they are all power-greedy blind toads. There is no way to change this country because all politicians are corrupt. They care more about international relations than changing things in their own country. There is no way to change but we wish it was so, because everyone has a voice; but no one hears everyone's. No one agrees with me on the way I see this, but I don't care. I like to make art about it to try and force people to see how unfair it is. This was a very simple but very effective poster and I like it a lot. I wouldn't change anything, I think it has plenty of impact as it is.

Jasper Goodall

Jasper Goodall was born in 1973 in Birmingam, England. His Father was an architect and his mother a fine artist and photographer who was instrumental in the UK Feminist Arts Movement during the 1970’s/80’s. He Graduated from The University of Brighton in 1995. Goodall was at the forefront of the reinvention of illustration in the late nineties and helped pave the way for the resurgence of the medium that Britain has witnessed in the last ten years. His work for The Face magazine has influenced many image makers. In addition to his normal work he teaches on the illustration degree course at the University of Brighton.

Visual Language of Typography

I am looking at how typography gives off a certain mood. For this lesson I will choose five themes and then find typography I think most accurately reflects them.

This typography represents horror. We are used to seeing this type of typography on the face of films such as Saw and 28 Days Later. The blurry letters and the stripy blocks give the impression of the letters blinking in and out of existence... Just as the TV screens in horror films do.

Brush writing has long been associated with love. The effort in producing a long letter written by brush is a real labour of love, and the typeface recalls the characteristically romantic Heian period of Japan. In this period it was fashionable to write small stanzas of poetry to friends, lovers and family. The subtle Japanese could interpret all sorts of meanings in the metaphorical poetry, and elegant brushstrokes were the mark of a true noble.

This typography represents calmness to me. A steady hand is needed to draw the calligraphic letters and someone in the grip of a strong emotion would not manage it. The script reminds me of schoolteacher's hand; a calm, collected young woman who teaches toddlers their letters. Probably in the West and then falls in love with the village blacksmith and lives happily ever after, probably ignoring the advances of a rich young man. Or whatever.

This one is supposed to feel like a machine or a robot. This reminds me of machines because the display on clocks and less developed computers is like this. It is a quite mechanical feel to it; the rigid, formed letters and the segmented pieces don't look as though they are done by hand.

This reminds me of conflict because it looks like army writing, on the side of boxes. I think it would probably remind most people of war because they have seen it in films. The chunkiness of the words reminds me of solidity and impossibility to die. I think it reminds me a lot of the words on the side of tanks.