My Website

My website is now up and running, please take a look:

www.pippaholman.com
www.pippaholman.co.uk

There are still improvements to be made and work to be added, but it is a start!

Dulux Ecosense

A brief titled Fleurons, we were asked to explore the term in the broadest sense of the word. I looked at ways I could represent the flower and plant in a subtle way, merely hinting at the suggestion of an organic form. After numerous experiments using paint, drawing and photography, I decided the imagery I created using paint splodges was the most eye catching. The texture created, the veins running through, almost looked like a close-up of a leaf. Then to use the visuals for a purpose, I thought adverts and packaging for the Dulux Ecosense range would be appropriate, as the imagery features both paint and life.

On the Dulux website you have to search to find the eco-friendly range. Many people do all they can to not harm the environment, so I thought it would be relevant to bring more attention to this range. I also wanted to encourage everyone else to buy it by suggesting that this paint is better than the standard Dulux range. It would be sold as a higher quality paint. Through the packaging and adverts, I wanted to celebrate colour and life, while promoting how the paint can bring this colour and life to your home. I would hope that these adverts would make this ecosense range appeal to people more than any other.

The Dulux website would now feature a large section about the eco-friendly paint, and the page would show the colour chart I designed, where simply hovering over the colour in the flower shape would tell you which paint it was. The colour chart booklet would be printed small so as to not waste paper, and this plus the adverts would be printed on recycled paper.

3rd Year Uni Work So Far...

So been a while since I've updated this blog, but here's what I've been doing.

This is my completed work for the first term of 3rd year:

Engross film festival:






Posters and a leaflet to advertise my hypothetical film festival.

It is an all night event that would show 6 alternative horror films on an outdoor screen in the middle of a wood. My proposed location is Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire. I tried to reflect the horror aspect of the films in a subtle way by avoiding cliches, while at the same time suggesting the disturbing nature of the films that manage to create shocking scenes in a beautiful way. The type faces were chosen and created through the contrasting themes of elegance and bold chaos, and I created the imagery through the same thinking; the dead flower that almost looks like some kind of organ. As the contents is chaotic, I then gave a structure to the layout. The main theme of the posters is juxtaposition.

The design group Neasden Control Centre definitely inspired the visual elements. Their full busy pages of huge hand drawn type, surreal imagery and black and white scratchy drawings, shown in their book Lost Control, was the look I wanted for my posters. After experimenting however will filling the page I found it was just too much, the meaning I wanted to portray was hidden beneath the distracting mass of lines. Giving the elements room to breath meant that the opposing contradictory parts of the posters could be compared and contrasted. I hope that I have reflected the fantastically surreal, horrifying and highly considered nature of the films.

Static















The project was called Static and we had to explore this theme in anyway possible. I explored the theme of encasement, within the theme of static. Static is encasement because it is about something being trapped, restricted and unable to move. I encased numerous things in different substances and photographed them close-up to create slightly abstract images that would create an air of mystery and intrigue. The idea of a scientific experiment was exciting me, so I decided this is what I wanted this work to look like, and the work would be exhibited in a surreal exhibition.

For the exhibition, I created 2 posters to advertise the event, as well as some of the images that would be shown in the exhibition. The leaflet is the net of a cube printed on acetate: The 'customer' can then make the cube and encase something inside to be viewed through it. The invite is a test tube that would be given out to selected guests, and the whole exhibition would feature inside a glass cube.

I struggled with the label design but at the moment I am happy with them. I think I had a strong idea and I just hope this is portrayed well.

Paint Splodges

Experimenting with ways I could represent a plant. These don't mean anything, but I just like them because of the texture and colour, and I may incorporate them into further work.

Not Just Fleurons

A new project which asks us to explore plants in the broadest possible way.

These are my initial experiments and thoughts. I started thinking about how plants represent growth and expansion and thought this could be represented through a style of type. For my type experimentation I have used Helvetica Ultra light - to represent the multipurpose and delicate nature of flowers.

I then started to think about how flowers and plants can come from all kinds of people and represent numerous voices, so I played around with overlapping meaningful words that could represent this.

Another idea was to create flowers with the things that come with them, like tags, suggesting the theme of messages.

Further themes I want to explore are warmth and healing because flowers often create harmony. In the theme of healing, I thought as well as emotional harmony and healing, I could look at homeopathic medicine and other medicines that use flower and plant extracts to physically heal.

I have also created a logo for the flower. I have realised that this project is going to be a constant battle with cliches, as plants and flowers are used for so many things, but my thoughts are that if I create a symbol I could juxtapose it somehow, putting it into situations that question its cliche? I'm not sure if that makes sense, but what I mean is it might be interesting to play on its familiar and common nature, rather than trying to completely subvert it.

Hans Island You've Been Told Video

Full HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=246FkIg_mi8&feature=player_embedded

After shooting the band performance and final scenes on Sunday, we only had a few days to finish the rest of the filming and do the editing as their single was due for release less than 2 weeks later. With thanks to willing volunteers we finished the individual scenes - that showed a balloon holder in a mundane situation, 3 days later. We also filmed ourselves to use in the video to increase the number of characters. With limited access to the editing suite in university, we finished the editing and the video a week later.

The most challenging part of this project was getting the singing and instruments in sync to the song. We realized that on the day they had not been singing or playing exactly the same - in reflection we should have made sure that they were. This meant that there was a lot of footage that we had to cut because it didn't work, and we had no time to re-shoot. We tried to find the clips that worked the best, but they are not perfect.

We also didn't have as many volunteers as we would have liked - on the time scale we were given most could not make it for the individual scenes. It was a difficult video to produce as we were reliant on volunteers.

Editing and producing the video was a hard task, as we had to sift through 2 to 3 hours of footage to find the best bits, and only a few days to do it. We made it flow as best we could and quickened the pace of the footage towards the end of the video to create more energy and action as the song reaches its peak. It then calms down at the end to reach the conclusion of the balloon release and to signify the freedom and the letting go.

All in all, with practically a none existent budget and little time, I think we did a good job. It was a challenge but we heavily enjoyed this. There are things we would change on reflection, but for a week and a half's work I think it is a rather successful piece of work.

We hope to work on further projects like this, we enjoyed the variety of the designing, filming, directing and editing. It was a good learning process and we will only get better.

Hans Island You've Been Told Shoot

Me and 3 friends collaborated to work on a music video for Hans Island's debut single You've Been Told.

We pitched the idea of using balloons (green ones that would match their logo) that could be released to represent the running away in the narrative of the song. The band liked this idea and after further discussion the story of the balloons evolved. The video would feature a number of people in mundane situations who would be holding a balloon, and then, inspired by the song, everyone would gather at the end to where the band are playing, and release their balloons. We hoped this would evoke feelings of freedom and of letting go.

After settling on some barren wasteland in Salford to shoot the band performance and the balloon release, we advertised the event on facebook a week before, and on a sunday morning everyone gathered. We began by shooting just the band playing, using different angles and a mix of tripod distant shots and hand held closeups, and then filmed the scenes where everyone made their way to the band to release their balloons. Me and my group had to direct the band and the balloon holding volunteers, which was quite a challenge as we are all very shy! It was a stressful, nerve-racking, fun, exciting and unbelievable day all at the same time, and we loved it. We soon all got into the swing of being directors and camera people.

- My photos on the day, not the best but didn't have much time considering I was filming all day.