Where might you find giant white cats, embroidered sailors, typographic woolly scarves, loads of skulls, skate boards, decorated wooden spoons, printing presses and over-priced “my toddler could do that” collage? Yes, of course, it is Somerset House’s yearly display of the graphic arts, Pick Me Up. As always this year was fun […]
Apologies, dear followers, about the several month’s break in blogging. We have been busy creating new projects, including a few apps, the long awaited On Stage (scenography with a way to explore a book of your choice) and our brand new Arts & Issues series, which looks at…erm…the arts and issues! […]
The disruptive dust around MOOCs has settled a bit now and their uses and rewards are becoming clearer. Why might you undertake one and how can you make your MOOC behave? Be advised that if you do start one you will learn not just the topic itself but much about […]
This week up in London, while helicopters buzzed overhead to guard the christening of George, I went to a couple of letter arts and calligraphy shows to get inspiration. One was at St Bride Library, showing the work of the South London Lettering Association, and the other was at Foyles […]
Above: The Music Room stand at the London Acoustic Guitar Show 2013 Where do you get your creative inspiration from? One of the things I always tell my graphic design learners is: “don’t just explore other graphic design for inspiration!” That blinkered view can make you narrow and unoriginal. Instead, […]
Above: The Birds of America, Plate 311, American White Pelican, 1824–38 Running until next Spring at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is a show of the most famous bird illustrations of all time, the work of John James Audubon (1785-1851). We might know of him today in our overly-commercial world as […]
About to start a Dissertation? Anxious? Why is embarking on a dissertation or large essay such a daunting and anxiety-making task? It needn’t be if you follow some simple advice. But be warned, nothing can make the completion of a large writing task easy without hard work! You may be worried […]
Asking About Design: The Activity Introduction: The activity that I have created is generic, not based around any one item or set. Of course, as a graphics tutor, my main aim here is to provide a set of questions to help open up graphic design or perhaps photography or illustration […]
I was recently asked, within a MOOC from MoMA, to create an activity that helped learners undertake inquiry learning, especially around art or design artefacts. So I thought I’d share it with the GDP community too. The purpose of inquiry learning is to enable the learners (of any age) to engage […]
the graphic design project 