portfolio
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Alex Dickson - Graphic Design & Illustration - PortfolioTRANSCRIPT
PORTFOLIO
SAVE OUR SERVICESThis project tackles to the perplexing issue of the UKTax Gap. Beginning with the figure of £25 billion, a booklet with a set of pull out posters gradually dissects the causes and activities of tax avoidance and their detrimental effects on the system of taxation. The two images to the right are placards that are intended for use at forthcoming protests against education and other public services cuts. The project ended up as a campaign, with stickers and flyers produced to promote the resonating message behind the work... Save Our Services!
THE BARBERThe barber came about during my first few months as a student, my task was to design 2 double page spreads of a magazine about barbershops. I drew the barber whilst brainstorming for the spreads. Around a year later I was looking for an old sketch to use at a screen printing workshop and found the barber with fresh eyes. There was something about the expression on this man’s face, that represented pride for his work,that urged me to use it. And so here he is on A3 card as a 4 colour silk screen print.
A PHOTOGRAPHIC CONGREGATIONThis project utilises analogue photographic techniques, such as multiple exposures, to explore the idea of experiencing different social events and characters all at once. To achieve this concept I used a 35mm Lomography Fisheye camera and photographed friends and bystanders in various loca-tions within the same roll of film. The multiple exposure allows each shot of a location to blend with another. In the long piece at the bottom you can see the paved streets of Oxford on the left, Snooper’s Paradise in Brighton in the centre and the corporate buildings surrounding The Bullring in Birmingham.
FACE IN THE CROWDFace in the crowd was a phrase that I picked from a list of concepts when I produced a sketchbook for Art House Co-op, an independent Brooklyn-based library, for their flagship event ‘The Sketchbook Project’. The brief was simple: pick a phrase and fill a sketchbook with your visual response. I used my skills in illustration throughout this project, spontaneously imagining a scenario and transfering that thought to paper. Some responsing are humorous, some depict famous moments in history, such as the abdecation of Napoleon in 1814, and some just depict people that I admire, such as musicians and actors. The sketchbook is now part of the Brooklyn Art Library and went on tour across the US in 2011, it can also be viewed online in it’s entirety at //www.arthousecoop.com/users/alid2490.
HYBRIDITYThis project consists of 3 silk screen prints that I created during the Elective stage of my second year as a Graphic Design student. The concept behind these prints is based around an idea that physical transformations to the human body could be made to ultimately make every person as environmentally efficient as they possibly could be. It’s a humorous repsonse to our generation’s growing anxiety with the environment and climate change. The print opposite depicts a hydro-electric turbine fitted to each side of the head that harnesses power from waste from the brain. The 2 prints below represent a seductive form of solar power and a commuter’s effort to harness power on his way to work.
THE AMALGAMATIONEvery month I contribute to a musical exchange known as ‘The Mixtape Project’. It’s fairly simple, every month I gather a CD’s worth of songs that have tingled my tastes and send them off in the post to someone I have never met before. The Amalgamation is a collection of my favourite songs from the genre ‘Math Rock’ (a rhythmically complex, guitar based form of experimental rock). The genre adopts jazz, rock, punk and many other forms of music. Therefore the deisgn for such a compilation should involve a wielding or merging or forms. The typography was the element for experimentation with this piece. Each character blends and transforms as the music does. Producing this insert really gave me a further understanding of the possibilities, and ultimately the tangibility of type.
THE GROWTH OF VINCE CABLEThis piece explores the frustrations that are often caused when listening to politicians, particularly when they are hopelessly trying to defend their policies. These five images are stills from an animation that I created around this concept. During an interview Vince Cable stutters and stammers through his responses and is gradually consumed by his own hair. The animation can be viewed in it’s entirety on my website.
