On the 19^th of June, we went to Sheffield Hallam University to the Creative Spark exhibition, to view  the work of different designers. We went to the Sheaf Building, Arundel Gate Court and Cantor Building – where they showcase; D & T education, Engineering, Fashion, Furniture and product design, Graphic Design, Interior Design and Product Design, Animation, Computing, Digital Media Production, Film and Visual Effects, Games Design and Photography.

This was a good experience because it gives us an insight to all the different types of area of work. It has broaden my horizons in the design field and in university.

Here are a few designers whos work I particually liked:

Sophie Lauren Hill – Photographer

Sophie Lauren Hill is a photography student. I love the photography by this student because she really shows depth in her pieces and some are absolutely gorgeous. I would say her work is my favourite I’ve seen all day. She takes photographs of aspects of her life, surrounding her, creating an optical story through expressions, desires and fears. She edits these photographs digitally afterwards.

She looks for the shadow within the light, infusing her images with fantasy, romanticism and darkness. Her aim is to make the audience question reality, and slip into another using fashion to twist their mind and feelings.

This body of work is an exploriation of Victorian Supernaturalism, that life after death exists and we can contact those beyond the grave.

She has taken makeup, fashion, setting and images, and combined them together to create unique, individual and captivating images, which create characters and stories which the audience can delve into.

What drew me to her work was the presentation and position of her photographs. She has a variety of different sized canvas’, which displays her work, and used a mixture of monochrome and coloured images, either of full body photographs or close up photographs. Your focus immediately gets drawn to the coloured centre image of the three girls holding the black skull.

This is what I could take into consideration when presenting my own final outcomes, and consider how I would want to layout my pieces. I should catch people’s attention by using more eye-catching and colourful images. And like what this student has done, put the larger pieces in the centre and the smaller pieces on the outside around the edges. Finally, having all the images close together gives a bigger impact and makes it easier for the audience to absorb, and shows the contrast of all the pieces.

There was no sketchbook to go with this students work, so I could not see what her research and development work was like, for her to come up with her final outcomes.

What makes this piece stand out to me the most is the use of lighting and shadow, and the depth the photograph gives off to the audience. It’s a rather dark piece and she is relating this piece to death, maybe the fear of death. It gives me the opinion that she is trying to tell the audience that death could happen to anyone at any age.

The close-up and angle of this piece works really well, and gives it a dramatic feel. The use of monochrome colour gives it more character to work with this effect.

Also the angel of her head, and how her hair covers half her face, shows that she is cowering away, and is in fear.

This piece gives the same feel as the piece before, but more than the fear of death, this piece shows the sadness after a death. It makes me feel this because of the types of clothing the model is wearing and the composition and angle the image is taken in. It shows empty space besides the model, which could symbolise loneliness. 

What also gives’ the impression of loneliness is the half body shot, and the body language expressed by the model, using hand position and the tilt of her head. 

Overall, I think this student has achieved what she wanted the audience to see and explore, using image layout, composition, expression, fashion and makeup. I could take away some of these aspects in my own work, such as, lighting and composition and how it helps build a story/expression to the audience, letting them use their own thoughts and imagination. 

Carrie-Anne Owen – Photographer

What drew me to this students work is how she has combined both photography and textiles to create the butterflies. The body of the butterfly is made of materials sewn together and the wings are made up of photography.

 

The butterflies are displayed in the same way you would see them in a museum. She had created names for each one of her creations, like Metallia Petram, for the butterfly with the Metalica wings, and put there description and latin/English name uderneathe. She has also put a description of each butterfly group under the displays, informing the audience to what species they are and what group they belongto.  This is quite effective and has real meaning in it, and it’s clear that thought has gone into how this student wanted to present her work.

These pieces appeal to me because they are very different from things I have seen before, and it’s very clever how she has got a message over to her audience. It really makes the viewer think about what her pieces portray and gives an insight to realality in her own creative way.

It is clever how she has done this, and it works well, and it’s interesting and unique.She has done these to represents that the clothes we wear shows social groups and peoples personalities. To me the butterflies nailed and enclosed in a box shows that there is no freedom and the butterflies don’t mix with other types. For example, this image to me shows only butterfly designs to represent goths and people who listen to rock/metal music, then there is another box that to me would represent chavs, with sport wear brands. These social groups would not usually mix in reality and they have different personalities. I think this because butterflies symblise freedom.

The butterflies are displayed in the same way you would see them in a museum. She had created names for each one of her creations, like Metallia Petram, for the butterfly with the Metalica wings, and put there description and latin/English name uderneathe. She has also put a description of each butterfly group under the displays, informing the audience to what species they are and what group they belongto.  This is quite effective and has real meaning in it, and it’s clear that thought has gone into how this student wanted to present her work.

These pieces appeal to me because they are very different from things I have seen before, and it’s very clever how she has got a message over to her audience. It really makes the viewer think about what her pieces portray and gives an insight to realality in her own creative way.

I like this group of butterflies, and to me they seem to represent goths, with the lace, fishnet patterns and the corset. I find the corset wings really clever, interesting and unique because of how she has positioned them behind the butterfly body, combining the two medias together.

What makes this photography student different from the student I looked at before, is she has created something from a combination of photographs and expressed feeling and messages through objects instead of taking images of people’s emotions and body language. Her presentation for her final piece has been concidered a lot, to portray everything she wanted the audience to see. This is difficult to do, but she has done this successfully.

I would really like to incorpriate some of this students style into my own work, contrasting photography and textile together, to come up with a combination that works. This could be anything though, and not just used to make butterflies like this designer has done.