Questioning Normality via Propaganda Banner Intervention!

After my experiments with my fly posting and billboard interventions (Billboards and Fly Posting) I was keen to take it to the next level and make a big statement using a banner. I had aspirations of something much larger, which may be something I go on to do, but this was the test piece to see how those ideas transferred to this presentation. 

Observational Photography around the city

For me the true essence of a place is in the details, in the things that make the place unique, that give it its true character. Manchester is a city I love and am proud to call it home, I love walking to and from University, wandering around the back streets and seeing what I might find. 

Assessment for MA D&AD!

So yesterday came the day I have been both waiting for a dreading for the past few months... my second major assessment point for my MA, having had my last one all the way back in May and smaller presentation assessment in October. 

Gruber Garratt Logos and Branding

Logo Experiments.

I have been keen to develop my professional outputs of late as well as working on my main practice and I had a unique opportunity to test out my new found skills, confidence and style by working with my current employers on their re-branding. 

InBetween Places. My Book!

Recently I have been working on my first book in which I aimed to bring together a lot of the work I have been doing over the last few months to create a document which represents those ideas in a concise and ambiguous fashion. 

Well, here it finally is!!

Mock Newspaper Implanted Into The City!

I have recently been interested in creating some publications and also doing some interventions in public spaces. I felt that both suited the way my work was going and so decided to combine the two and create a newspaper which mocks the fabric and messages of the city. 

Contexts Presentation & Lifestyle Discussion

I usually try and keep my posts down to a smaller word count but this post is centered around some quite important issues to me and also some revelations I came to whilst working on my recent presentation for University and I felt it was useful to discuss them here as they give some context to my work and blog. I hope you can take the time to have a read through! 

Hand Printed Tokyo Zine!

Since my last tutorial and my contexts presentation I have began to set myself some deadlines and really started to push my work and start making and doing all those things I have been thinking about. 
The first was to produce a zine which represented my trip to Tokyo and also the ideas about that relating to my contexts presentation. (my unaltered scans which I used for this piece are included with my presentation too.)

No Fly Posters - Printing On Found Objects

The work I did a little earlier on for a submission to the "No Fly Posters" project in Ancoats (http://www.nichilditch-short.co.uk/2014/06/no-fly-posters-project-in-ancoats.html) has over the time since then become an important part of my practice and ideas. I decided to take it a step further and to give it some additional context by printing this onto found objects such as glass and old paper. 

Censored Posters Exploring Ownership Of The City

After playing around with some posters ideas I wanted to look at pushing the ideas of ownership of the urban environment a little further. I decided to look at censorship and denial of information along with the cultural and social implications of doing so. 

Experimenting With Lost Narratives And Fragments Of The City

After creating some pieces for the publication NOUS earlier on in the year I had kind of moved on from there until my tutor suggested I take another look. I began to see past the original intentions for this piece and saw how I had created something which spoke about the ghost like broken narratives left behind in an abandoned buildings through remnants of signage. I decided to  develop this further. 

BURO 1.5 - Screenprints & Postcard Developments

Following on from the work I had done for my BURO 1.5 submission I began to realise as the year went and especially after my contexts presentation that these ideas were much more important for my practice. I decided to develop them further and take those smaller postcards and screenprint them up on to some found substrates from abandoned buildings. 

No Fly Posters project in Ancoats!

I have been on the look out for anything I can get involved in of late looking for both opportunities and inspiration and in this project being ran by Jon Bland in Ancoats I found both. Being in Manchester and relating to street signs it really caught my imagination. 

Photos Of Photos In Abandoned Factory!

I was back in Fothergills earlier on whilst putting the banner up and decided I would take the opportunity to do a few experiments with some photos I had taken on the previous visit. I wanted to continue from the idea of the glitch photos and an alternative reality and take some photos of photos back in the space to explore that further. 

Playing Around With Type & Lettering

Recently with the trip to New York and all the arrangement with the wedding going on I haven't had much time to really do anything creative, but after returning I wanted to work on my travel scrapbook and make some little mementos. I felt this would be a great way to get me back into the swing of things for the upcoming University semester and also do something a little different than my practice work. 

BURO 1.5 - MMU School Of Art Publication - Submission.

I have again been involved in the development of the publication Buro along with my fellow MA D&AD students. Seeing as it was over the summer period and so we were all quite busy we decided to produce 1.5 as a smaller mini issue based around the idea of "Holidays" which connects to a lot of my interests. 

Scrapbooking The City...Psychogeography Experiment!

I decided to take a walk around my city with no particular destination in mind and collect interesting objects and photographs to create a new kind of representation of the city. 

QS Gruber Garratt Letterhead.

Letterhead Designs.

This one is a little different to my usual practice but as I am trying to get together my portfolio and develop my professional practice I was grateful of the opportunity to have a go at this.

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NSS Poster competition

As part of my professional and portfolio development I have been looking out for competitions and briefs as well as working on my main practice. I came across this call up to design the National Student Survey poster and felt it was a great opportunity. 


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Creating Logos As A Graphic Explorer!

I have been focused recently on developing my skills and portfolio and as part of that I wanted to really show off my new found confidence and identity as a "Graphic Explorer". I wanted to almost brand myself and experiment with this definition in a logo format. 

Alternative Logos Inspired By The City.

Along with the other logo experiments I have been doing (http://www.nichilditch-short.co.uk/2014/06/creating-logos-as-graphic-explorer.html) I have been looking at some which instead of being more about personal branding are now about creating icon for the city using found features of the city and reflecting it' exploration. 

Wedding Gift Commission Design.

I was approached recently to design an emblem to be etched into glass for a wedding gift. This was great for me as I am always looking at new ways to express myself and my style and also gaining more experience as I go. 

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Disconnection and Re-Connection via Exploration.

I had come across a project being run by a classmate and decided I would produce something for submission. After playing around with some ideas and designs I came up with something that in fact began to mean a lot more to my practice itself and helped me kick start this semester. 

BURO Launch!

Finally after much planning, deliberation and discussion we had the launch for our joint publication at Odder Bar in Manchester. It was great to have something in motion for the start of practice two and also have some work published. 

Propaganda Exploration Poster

I decided to bring together some of the logo work with the photography I had been doing and my wider ideas to create a poster which I felt represented the stage of development my practice was at. I experimented with both screenprinting and the Risograph to get a sense of how this may effect the image. 

Exploration Logo & Found Objects

I have been interesting in the idea of creating a logo to represent the idea of exploration which brings together the atmosphere, remnants and texture of the urban environment it is inspired by. I decided to take this a little further by then screenprinting that logo onto objects found in the city. 

Alternative Tagging around Manchester

After playing around in the Letterpress studio for the last few weeks I thought it might make an interesting experiment to look at an alternative form of "Tagging" using luggage tags to connect to the idea of interaction, history and craft as opposed to vandalism. 

Pink Adventures Logo

I have been working on Freelance designs and logos recently and have been on the look our for new opportunities or thinks I can re-design. The climbing gym I go to has been taken over by a company called "Pink Adventures" and although I quite like their name and concept I hated their logo. I just did something quite to get an idea of what was possible but I feel that there is much more that could be done here 

Screen Printed Train Ticket Interventions

After playing around with logos and printing onto found objects I wanted to experiment further with creating interventions using everyday objects and transforming them into pieces communicating the opportunities the city has to offer which we often walk past without even realising. 

Fear Is The Thief Of Dreams Poster

These posters are something I did whilst playing around with some other ideas and just wanted to express this idea that for many it is a fear of something, whether that be failure, disappointment, disapproval or even injury. It is that fear that ultimately keeps us in the safety of normality and makes us settle for less than our dreams. I have learnt recently that feeling fearful is not wrong, but how you deal with it. 

T-Shirt Intervention & High Street Infiltration. Break The Rules!

Interventions have become increasingly important in the development of my work as I feel they allow me to really communicate with the city itself, create a narrative between my work and the environment and also directly communicate with the general public. I decided to take that further with some infiltration art in the Arndale Shopping centre (Mall). 

DRIP DRIP Till Roll Experiment!

I've been quite busy recently getting a lot of my ideas going and wanted to play with a till roll and the idea that this "Drip Drip Drip" was the never ending beat of the forgotten city below us.

Using The City To Represent Itself

I got the idea a little while back that in representing a place it is the earth, the dirt and the make up of that place where the reality of it exists. It represents the fabric and physicality of that location. So to explore this a little further I created a piece using Manchester as both my subject matter and my media.

UMBRELLA Logo Ideas for Joint Publication.

Over the last few weeks we have been talking about producing a joint publication for the MA Design and Art Direction students at MMU. One of the things we are still in the process of disguising is the name and so I did a few logo experiments with my suggestion of "Umbrella".

Rules Only Exist As Far As Our Consent To Be Ruled.

I have recently created a series of posters which challenge the idea of rules and our complicitness in accepting those rules without questioning the motives behind them, especially when it comes to our navigation of environment.

Imagery, Lettering and Missing information Experimentation.

To start of my MA project I wanted to do some simple experiments playing with imagery, lettering and missing information. 

Letterpress Obsession!!

I have been playing around with the Letterpress for the last few weeks, playing with lots of ideas and making a lot of progress. The letterpress is great in how it adds a level of tradition and value to text it's computer generated relation just doesn't have. 

BURO Publication Logo Creation.

We have been working on ideas for the joint publication for the MA Design and Art Direction students and after some deliberation we finally came up with a name and I was chosen to work on the logo.