I thought I'd share with you this lovely lady I hung out with in my kitchen last monday!

I never realised how cute the shape of tortellini is until I met her!

As I said, I made another box! well I made two of them, but the other one is not quite done yet. This box was tailored for my portfolio. I wanted the projects to look organised, and tell a story, sort of. I decided to create something to represent each project, so with the holiday doors from Nightmare before Christmas in mind, I designed my portfolio.

I made the box out of grey board and card board, then I lined the black exterior using PVA and black cotton. I was looking for some kind of cotton with more texture, but I wasn't able to find it. 

Then I designed and lasercut a symbol for each project that I wanted to include in the portfolio.

Sometimes when I am falling asleep I get all these random pre-dream images in my head, and a couple of weeks ago I had the image of a small town (like the one where I spend the summer in Italy) surrounded by clouds, so I drew it.

I was thinking of making it the new logo somehow, but then I tried it and I changed my mind. I need a new logo. I liked this one because it made me think of something my elementary school teacher used to say about me, that I always have my head "among clouds". But that's how I get ideas for things. Among clouds.

This is the last project I did for uni. It's for the D&AD student award. The brief required to choose an issue and a Unilever brand, and make a design that would bring a positive impact to the audience. I chose Lipton and the issue of health and wellbeing. My solution was the Treahouse: an installation to be placed in Southbank for visitors to enjoy a tea on and bring home one of the pollutants-absorbing plants available. Below are some of the pictures I took of the structure.

The structure was all designed on illustrator and then lasercut by a very skilled laser cutter. The tricky bit was assembling it and bending the plywood different directions. To do so I had to steam each piece, using a very professional steamer (a water-filled pan with a cooling rack on top) and carefully bent them using a piece of styrofoam as a mould.

some pieces came off in the process, but overall I am quite happy with the result. Designing each piece flat made me realise just how important it is to get all the sizes right.

There are more elements relative to this project, but as I understand from the D&AD conditions I am not allowed to show anything that contains the lipton logo... and the rest of the images do! So much for that.

I had an awesome time working on this project, I loved using the laser cutter and I am looking forward to using it again for future projects.

Just for funzies. For Valentine's day, for my boyfriend. I was not sure what to do. So I made a box. And then I filled with little bags. And then I filled the little bags with little surprise, chocolaty ones. Here's the box.

It did turn out a little girly, which is something I was trying to avoid. But then again, it is for Valentine's day. I did enjoy making a box, but I dont want to use spray mount the next time I make one, it is so not sustainable. Can't wait to make another one!

Sorry for the cheesy/cliche' sunset theme. I just find it so overwhelming when I am there that I feel like I HAVE TO take a picture of it.

For my last university project, I had to design a chillax space for the MTV staff that works at the headquarters building in Camden Town, London. I begun with researching MTV. I also made a survey and then asked people who work in offices to fill in. I used the data I collected to design the space, to fit everybody's needs and to be a relaxing area to spend the break. 

The space (before) 

Outside of the headquarters building.

As I wanted the space to look alive, but not over coloured, I decided to go for a fun but organic feel, I chose soft colours and soft shapes inspired by things I saw at the borough market.

The nests on the right, inspired by ivy, were designed to provide a sense of privacy to the employees without making them claustrophobic. The seating area on the left can be used by the employees to have a cup of coffee or read a book. The bean bags sit on top of a felt rug that recalls grass.

The skylight on the roof allows enough light during daytime, and when it gets darker the bar glows along with the lamps by the wall and the lamp bulbs hanging on top of the nests. The customers can order something to eat or drink at the bar, behind which there is a living wall to makes the space look more lively.

Below are some pages from the specification document.

During foundation year I tried different printing techniques: solar plate, wood cut, lino cut and screen printing. I was really fascinated by all of them, but I never fully understood the real potential behind each of them. After more than a year since the last time I even got close to the printing studio, I decided to give screen printing another try. I wanted a logo with a hand made look to it, so I decided to try something different from photoshop. I also recently watched a very cool documentary about Helvetica (the title is Helvetica), so I thought of trying to make my own font. I wanted it to be a mix between "kind" and "design" so I mixed straight lines and organic lines. It turned out a little bit "arabic" like my friend said, but I am ok with it after all. I designed it with illustrator first, and then I tried different colour combinations.

I know I could have probably achieved something really close to the final design if I made it with just photoshop and illustrator, but I really wanted to try something different. So I brought the design to the printing studio and printed it on different kinds of paper.

I always get something wrong, so that's why there is some noise on top of it, but I left it there because I kind of like it. Then I scanned it and played with it a little on photoshop.

didn't like this one

and this was the final! Im ok with it, but I would like to screen print again and figure out how to do it right. Next thing I would like to try again is woodcut.

Since I started the course, I have been trying figure out what direction to take once the course ends. One of my big passions, along with design, is film, so I thought that set design might be a good option. As I did not know much about this discipline, I decided to learn about it over the summer. This is why I decided to take a short course that would give me an introduction and help me make a decision.

I researched on the internet and found a one-week course at CSM called Set Design for Film and Television that sounded interesting. I gathered more information, and decided to go for it. The course was run by Clara Zita, who has a lot of experience in designing for both film and television productions.

The days were split in mornings and afternoons, three hours each. The first day Clara gave us a general introduction of set design and the hierarchical structure of a film art department. This was really helpful as I was always confused about who did what, when it comes to designing in a film. She also told us how the course was scheduled: the first part would focus on production design for television, and during the second part we would concentrate on set design for film. We were told we would do model making and drawing, as well as looking at the technical side of the design.

On the second lesson, she told us more about designing for television shows, her experience in this sector, an introduction about the health and safety side and the technical side. Then we were given the brief: designing a new stage for the Jonathan Ross show, inspired by a nightclub. We had to produce a model and explain our choices. In the afternoon we started researching and thinking of ideas to show her the day after. I did some research and as many of Jonathan Ross' guests are from the film industry, I decided of having a curtain-like wall at the back of the stage. I made a few sketches to show Clara.

On the third day she explained us a few things about how a stage should be structured and what we had to focus on when designing it. Then she looked at each of our designs and gave us suggestions on what we should change. When I arrived in the morning and we were told to design the plan, I had no idea what I was doing, but it was reassuring to find out that most of my classmates did not either. In the afternoon she gave us an introduction on model making. This was not necessarily helpful to me as I have already some experience in model making. At the end of the lesson we were given the script of a TV series to read to prepare for the second part of the course.

The beginning...

Unfortunately on the fourth day Clara did not feel well, so we only had the morning session. In the morning she explained us how to read a script from a set design point of view and what we should be looking at when designing. We did not have lesson in the afternoon so I worked some more on the model as I wanted to have it done for the day after. This model gave me the chance to experiment with materials I had never used before, like clay. As I mentioned in some of my previous posts, I have been interested in ceramics for the past few months, so even though I did not get to use real clay (I used DAS), this was still a good experience.

First version of the model

I made a first version of the model, but I was not happy with it. I had to rush since I wanted to present something on the last day, but I was already planning on changing it completely. I picked it up a couple of days later and changed the colour of the back wall to a dark magenta/red. Then I decided to add something to create a contrast with the curtain wall on the back, so I covered the left wall with layers of wooden tiles. I have not finished the model yet as I want to keep it to experiment different things whenever I come up with new ideas. On the last day we all presented our models, but there was another teacher replacing Clara, so we missed out quite a bit.

These is the latest version of the model. I am still working on it, the plan is to add lighting from the bottom of the curtain wall and the wood dices wall.

At first I was a bit skeptical knowing that the course would have been about television design as well, because that was not an area I was necessarily interested in. But at the end of the course, I liked that part the most. Although probably one of the reasons is that we did not go very much in depth when it came to the set design for film part. After the course I do have clearer ideas on what set design is, but I have not yet made a decision on whether that is what I want to do. Clara suggested us some courses and some books to read. She also gave us her email and told us to email her if we have any questions.

It was also really interesting to see the new CSM location, I do think it is really beautiful and lively. There is a very good food market nearby and one day I got to see a dance performance right in front of the entrance. King's Cross seems like a great location for an art university as it is constantly growing.