Surrealist Collage.

Final Four book Designs for a series called 'Futureshock'For this cover I wanted to create the feeling of being 'watched' but more than that the idea of being able to watch a persons thoughts. I wanted to get across the drone-like existence reflecting the way the novel strips humans of their right to emotion, rendering them practically robotic. I took influence from the 'caste' system described in the novel and tried to visualise what each would look like as well as refernces to Malthusian drills , the use of 'T' as a crucifix substitute and the sterile nature of the Brave New World. For this cover it was obvious I was going to have to reference the idea of burning books as the central theme of the novel. I wanted to try to do this in a non-obvious way by making the book a part of Montag the protagonist fireman. I wanted to show Montag's mental torment about the burning of books and his concealment of them within his memory. Here the book literally becomes his mind. The front cover displays the mechanical police dog from the novel.

I wanted to take these classic titles and create something intriguing an contemporary. Using predominantly collage I have amalgamated imagery to create surreal visuals to reflect the story inside.

1940s Comic.

I found these on a CD of 3000 images that i bout for £1. There is some gold on here.

Journal Map So Far...

Alan Fletcher On the Apple Macintosh

Alan Fletcher

The Apple Macintosh

There's no doubt that the Mac is a marvellous machine and an invaluable tool for designers today. I have one in the studio and it's used on a daily basis. Admittedly, I art direct while someone else pushes the buttons. However what's really sinister is that every time you upgrade one bit of software - or hardware - you have to buy another bit to make the bit you just bought work. And so it goes on. It's as if some frightful robot's got you by the throat with one hand whilst his other is rifling through your pockets.

The Colour Photocopier

Before the Euro came into existence and we all had Pesetas and Lire and different European currencies, I was putting together a book, The Art Of Looking Sideways, and I wanted a page of the Dutch bank notes designed by Ooitje Oxenaar. So I went down to the photocopier place to get copies of the notes I'd borrowed from a friend. They came out beautifully - fantastic! I duly returned the bank notes only to find later that I'd left one of the bills out. So I headed down to a local Notting Hill place to do it again with the missing note. The guy seemed a bit dubious about copying money but I assured him it was OK. The copy came out of the machine with all the notes in bright blue. I thought it must be a fault with the machine as the one in Westbourne Grove had done a marvellous job. Turns out the latest machines have technology installed to prevent the photocopying of money. Technology can sometimes seem to conspire against the pursuit of simple (and in this case entirely honest) endeavour!

Wim Crouwel

The Apple Macintosh

Around 1980, at Total Design, we already worked with a design-computer; we got hold of the first Aesthedes, a large Dutch machine with three separate keyboards for type, colour and drawing. We were the first in Holland and how proud we were. In no time we had three of these expensive installations; we almost got broke.

So it was a shock when in 1984 the first Mac came on to the market. A small wondertool, straight from heaven into the hands of graphic designers. It overtook our Aesthedes-robots from the left and right-hand side and made them completely obsolete.

The Apple Macintosh created a revolution in design studios all over the world. Not only because of its possibilities, it opened a whole new horizon in graphic design. It was in fact, after all these centuries, the end of our beloved pencil!

Aesthedes

First Apple-Mac

The journal begins....

New Walls.

Wallpaper can often stay on a wall for a very long time, say 50 years, and within this time ,so much of the space the wallpaper occupies will change. I wanted to try and portray this change.

I wanted to find a way to amalgamate the old with the new. I decided to explore sexuality and try to combine the sexually rigid attitudes of the 40s and 50s, and juxtapose this with the sexually liberal attitudes of today. Asking the question, Has sexual libration gone too far?

I looked in mens magazines of now and returned to women's magazines of the 40s and 50s.

Although there are drastic differences in the way that women are portrayed now and the sexual attitudes and behavior of women is very different. I felt that looking through mens magazines, that some themes hadn't changed in the fact that women were still being objectified and still portrayed as empty-headed but pretty. This may perhaps be the fault of the women themselves, to volunteer themselves to be portrayed in this way, purely to please their predominantly male audience. Either way it seems that dispite a huge shift in society's attitudes about men and women, that some things may never change.

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