23 December 2011

HubWorks

I've been doing some work for the charity organisation Student Hubs in Oxford. Student Hubs is a network working to transform student social action; you can find out more about them and their other Hubs here.

They have recently launched HubWorks - Student Hub's exciting new program that offers training, support and funding to student projects that aim to bring about social change. Unfortunately the deadline for applications has been and gone, however you can find out more here.

This is a short animation I did to promote HubWorks. Voiceover credits and thanks go to the very talented Andy Ward!

Christmas Cheer

This is a little something I did in the festive spirit :)

Cascade Update

Apologies for the tardy blogging... (or lack of!) Thought I would update you all on my onedotzero_cascade antics. We presented our idea on the 24th November at the Southbank BFI, where... we won the £1000 grant!!!

Big thanks to my amazing team! The project will be underway in the new year when we're all less busy, so watch this space...

2 November 2011

Stylist 100th Issue Submission

The winner of Stylist's 100th issue cover has been announced, and alas I did not win - but the winner was well deserving! Yasmeen Ismail designed a beautiful and delicate front cover, which you can see here.

Here is the front cover that I submitted:

31 October 2011

onedotzero_cascade 2011

Last week I was chosen to participate in onedotzero's award winning education program onedotzero_cascade 2011.
Where to start... so much happened and I learnt so much in the space of 5 days, that by the end of it I was completely exhausted!

Day 1 was really nerve-wracking; I was standing in a room amongst 39 outstanding graduates from various disciplines - not gonna lie, quite intimidating to say the least! The morning started with an informal workshop by Andrew and Darius from The Spring Project to help us all become more familiar with one another. Afterwards, Kevin Palmer from Kin came in to give a fantastic and insightful presentation on the importance of collaboration. In the afternoon the co-founder of onedotzero Shane Walter came to give us our brief: Delve_Living in the Layered City.
We set off to form five groups of eight. My team consisted of: Kirsty Greig, Reuben Armstrong, Chris Shen, Amy Loa, Thomas Morris, Simon Sarginson and Dario Mazzanti. And thus, Team If was created!

Can't quite iterate the process of our thoughts, but hopefully the following pictures will give a glimpse of the mad brainstorming that followed shortly!
We all found that we had common ground in the fact that we were all drawn to the notion of sound. We also came to the conclusion that what we liked about London as a city is its transitory spaces, such as waiting at a train station, sitting on the tube or even waiting at a set of traffic lights.
After much deliberation, we managed to whittle down our choices of transitory spaces to one specific entity - bridges. So we went out to our surroundings and visited Tower Bridge. [I still can't believe that even after living in London for the past 4 years, this was the first time I had stood on Tower Bridge!] Tower Bridge is such a beautiful construction, however it seemed tacky and tainted by the horrible lighting and the cause of being a tourist hotspot. The fluidity of the traffic seemed to stop and start, and the bridge seemed to be more of a destination rather than something that takes you from A to B.

BUT we persevered and ventured along the river towards London Bridge. I think as soon as Team If stepped onto London Bridge, we knew this was what we wanted to base our project on. It was a commuter hotspot, the traffic seemed never ending and the people's footsteps sounded like a marching army!

I went out to London Bridge during Thursday afternoon to do some observational drawings. I loved the amount of people that seemed to gawk and oversee what I was up to, and the amount of people that gave me the thumbs up! Here is the end image - Reuben kindly coloured it in for me!
Our end concept was to uncover London's movements in a transitory space using an interactive sound experience. We would plant motion sensors and cameras all over London Bridge, and every time a movement occurred [be it pedestrian, cyclist, car, lorry or bus] a sound would be emitted. The pitch of the sound would change according to the type of movement. Ergo, meet project COMMUTER DISCO!

We also made plans to develop this concept for further branding, i.e. an online platform and game. Users would be able to create their own sounds, and manipulate live traffic feeds. We also discussed the possibility of Traffic Hero - inspired by the worldly popular games Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

On Friday, we were ready to go - we had to present our idea to a panel of industry professionals that included onedotzero co-founder Sophie Walter, AllofUs, LBi, D&AD, YCC, Ogilvy and Kin Design. The presentation went really well and we received some really good feedback :) Of course, there's always room for improvement, so I'm sure Team If will rejoin forces before the BFI!
On a final note the week ended with a press launch party held at the Red Gallery, where the booze was plenty and everyone let their hair down and mingled. An excellent way to end an excellent week. onedotzero_cascade was such a fantastic experience and I had such a good time. It was so refreshing to meet new people, and to bounce ideas off each other - needless to say that the energy was palpable!

HUGE thanks to the onedotzero team: Shane Walter, Sophie Walter, Nurjan Nevzat, Jo Shallow and Elizabeth Waite.

Craft Guerrilla Autumn Zine Issue 2011

I was requested by Craft Guerrilla to design the front cover for their Autumn zine issue 2011. It can now be purchased on their website as a hard copy or to be downloaded as a pdf. Do the right thing and buy it here...!

9 October 2011

Big Cartel

I thought I would branch out from the world of Etsy and launched a Big Cartel yesterday. Please excuse the rawness of it, I will definitely need to jazz it up in terms of its appearance! I have two products so far, but don't worry there should be more to come.

Please visit and take a look: http://sheetaliillustration.bigcartel.com/

Thanks!

Slow Tech: Designs for Digital Downtime

Apologies for the blogging absenteeism! I've been quite busy recently, but I've finally got round to blogging about this exhibition I went to a few weeks ago called Slow Tech: Designs for Digital Downtime [curated by Henrietta Thompson and produced by Protein.]
The exhibition was a "Digital Addiction Clinic" addressing our society's obsession with the digital world. This includes our compulsion to Facebook, Tweet, blog and various other activities that disconnect people from their physical surroundings.

Hector Serrano - Screen Time
At the beginning of the day, the watch face is completely white. As the day progresses, the watch accumulates data through wi-fi or 3G to determine how many hours and minutes are spent on social networking sites. This manifests in the form of a watch pie chart. It raises the questions such as: do we realise quite how much of our day is consumed by sites like Facebook and Twitter, and are we embarrassed/shocked with how we spend the majority of our day?


Biome is a flora terrarium whose climate, water and nutrients levels are controlled and monitored using a smartphone. The Biome is designed to encourage digital downtime and lessen interaction between a smartphone and its user. It is simple and easy to use, it is perfect for people who don't have the time to look after a plant and/or nature amateurs.

Pendola is a wall mounted pendulum clock, it is not motorised but seems to magically swing as it passes over a small tab fixed underneath. The steady motion of the clock is designed to have a calming effect.

Kiwi & Pom - Flip

Flip is an allusion to the mechanics of traditional airport and railway information boards, which are being replaced with modern alternatives such as digital screens. Flip syncs with mobile devices to display notifications and messages, including texts, emails and social media updates.

Kiwi & Pom - Radio

The K&P radio uses wifi to pick up music directly and can be tuned according to genre or mood. These channels are operated using a dial. Favourite songs can also be recorded, the radio assesses these and determines the user's listening habits - therefore customising a widely available and used object.

The following three exhibition items are a part of Hugo Eccles' Design Office, all are aimed at social networking...

Hugo Eccles - Social Bomb

The purpose of the social bomb is to disable technologies without consent and without being detected.

Hugo Eccles - Social Thermostat
The social thermostat can be used to control the 'social temperature' of a space. A socially warm environment would turn on various communication technologies and a socially cold environment would switch them all off again.

Hugo Eccles - Social Timer
These social timers disable a particular social media for a short period of time when the timer is up. This is perfect for use at a desk or at the family dinner table.

Nicolas Roope - Cute Electric
This iPhone accessory helps technology addicts to manage their compulsion. The device administers small electric shocks that increase the longer the smartphone is used. The user will then learn to kick their habit, resulting in shorter durations of interaction between the user and the phone. This is the perfect solution for the anti-social individual amongst a friend or family gathering scenario.

Protein - In-Flight Chromo

This one was one of my favourites; it is a colour clock that enables your body to understand what time it is. It is a simple indicator for time and is a possible solution for jet lag, Seasonal Affective Disorder and other light/time related diseases.

I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition. It was an insightful social commentary on society's need to let everyone in the world know their every thought and move, albeit how inane those thoughts or actions may be. It puts into perspective how forefront sites like Facebook and Twitter are in our day-to-day lives. I doubt anyone can recollect the days before online social networking, nor want to. It's also very ironic that I am blogging in order to tell you about this exhibition...!

11 September 2011

Museum of Broken Relationships

Recommended by my sister, I went to see the Museum of Broken Relationships in Covent Garden. I was told it would make me laugh and cry, and was advised to bring a box of tissues!

The Museum exhibition was broken up into two halves, one resided in the Tristan Bates Theatre and the other in a small shop just down the road past Chicago. Stepping into the exhibition, the soft and dim lighting combined with the precious belongings from lost loves created an intimate space.

The Museum was adorned with paper - including the work of Alice Bray who created Rob Ryan-esque large-scale cut-outs.

My favourite part of the exhibition was the work of the very talented George Triggs, whose sculpture "Broken" was beautiful and thought provoking.


The belongings from love lost were donated to the Museum by the public, and had small descriptions to accompany. I was particularly amused by the painting below that was given to a girlfriend as a gift. The girlfriend, not knowing the meaning behind the painting, thought that it was a metaphor for the power and endurance of their love. I wonder if she knew that her boyfriend was simply a fan of the anime series Naruto?


Some stories were sad, some silly and others funny. The champagne cork was a favourite of mine - a mark of celebration and relief.


Someone had even donated their wedding album...



On leaving the space, you were greeted with a black brick wall covered in messages written by visitors in white pen. Some messages were about the exhibition itself, and others were written donations of their own stories of love lost. I made my own written donation.

For more information on the possessions on show, some are on the Broken Relationships website. Be sure to check out the "I Love You" Teddy Bear...!

Unfortunately the Museum of Broken Relationships has been and gone, but don't worry I have a feeling this successful exhibition will return to London again soon.

28 August 2011

Moniessss

Just received fantastic news that two of my framed cutouts sold over the weekend at Craft Guerrilla's Little Shop of Crafty Splendours :)

Huge thanks go out to Craft Guerrilla - Debbie in particular :)

Craft Guerrilla's Little Shop of Splendours

Over the weekend Craft Guerrilla curated Finamore [Walthamstow] to present: Little Shop of Crafty Splendours. I was asked by Debbie to design a Craft Guerrilla Weekend cutout for their window display.



I popped into the Little Shop of Crafty Splendours on Saturday morning. The shop, which is normally an antiques store, was beautifully arrayed with handmade goods from various artists. Albeit a small shop, the space had been used well without being cluttered or cramped. It was a cute shop with a lovely twee and vintage atmosphere.





If you missed this event, do not fret - Craft Guerrilla's next event will be the Craft Trail/Thames Festival in September; for more information, please click here.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Craft Guerrilla, it is an independent collective set up to work with crafts artists, designers and makers of high quality handmade goods. They also organise DIY Craft Nights, Crafternoons, Craft Workshops and Craft Markets. You can find out more about them via their website or Facebook.