Graphic Art: Leeds

Graphic Art: Leeds was a banner design proposal put forward for North Street in Leeds city centre.

A graphic art piece which will excite and reflect the modern, dynamic, newly cosmopolitan city of Leeds.

The backing tones and the image of greenery reflect the cities status as the unofficial capital of Yorkshire. An image of the Yorkshire Dales, flourishing green fields and neatly crisscrossing hedgerows. Green pod-like representations are added, floating across the parameters of the banner surface. The pods vary in the tone of green to aid the visibility of textual format present. The lower section projects darker tones, the upper lighter shades. Thus, presenting the concept of a natural landscape where the horizon of the land reduces to the blues, or more often, grey’s of the sky.

‘Leeds’ as a heading uses a hand styled script, but is equally rather bold, Artlis font in principle location. A tonal use of yellow draws on the artistic nature of North Street.

The 5 headings feature elements of Leeds’ to be expanded upon, cosmopolitan status. They reflect the nature of the business’ present in the major artery of city centre streets. Non-alignment of the titles are to suggest a dynamic motion. The concept of them being flashed before your eyes in the ever-changing city.

‘Culture’ identifies with Leeds’ strong involvement with the arts. The home of Henry Moore and the birthplace of Damien Hirst, both leading names in British art. The Henry Moore Institue and the Leeds City Art Gallery both highly prestigious within the creative spectrum. A vibrant music scene, an unrivalled club-culture and the major Leeds Festival which partners with its Southern counterpart: Reading. Introducing some performance from the Playhouse, Leeds is a cultural haven.

Equally, a city steeped in ‘History’ presenting an industrial heritage. The former mills of the textiles traditions that expanded rapidly during the Industrial revolution.

‘Shopping’ ‘Food’ and ‘Drink’ represent the business’ present in North St. The clothing retailers, the restaurants and cafe’s, the bars and pubs which align the major city-centre thoroughfare.

Consultation with the business present would allow for modifications to be conducted. The use of yellow could be adapted if a tone of greater significance was proposed. The titles could be added to or reduced, the descriptive word re-applied.

A artists approach which can strengthen and more than meet the needs of the city in which it is intended to compliment.

Rubbish Cards

Rubbish Cards are the latest greeting card range from Alison Little. The card range literally utilises ‘Rubbish’ for the purposes of celebration. Throw away wooden forks are used in full splendour for the collection. Birthdays are marked using butterfly’s, flowers and flags, the message of eating cake added. A traditional Graduation gown marks leaving home for Uni, the fork for eating pot noodle. It’s counterpart, graduation features a gold leaf variety for use when eating caviar. Rat packs are the suggested food choice for the camouflage leaving for the Army option. The delightfully painted Cat Fork is suggested for feeding the feline traditional tuna. Finishing off with a double fork card marking an engagement.

A delight and a pleasure.

£2.50 each, available from Arts Hub from early April.

Arts Hub

 

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Leslie shows us the Money

Last week, Liverpool based artist Nigel Leslie talked us through how he had been selected as 1 of 100 important artists to decorate an old £5 note for a charity auction. Names already signed up include the Chapman Brothers, Gilbert and George, Gavin Turk, Liverpool’s iconic Peter Blake in addition to Cyrano Denn aka Danny Crone also based in the region. ‘Fivers for Artistic’ is a bright new charity set up to help mentor new young artists to overcome barriers and become self-sustaining within the art world.

Finally, we get to see the original creation: The artwork by me is called ‘Feline – Male’ (2016). Mixed media. The original painting was reduced from a photograph and transferred onto the old £5 note.

All that’s left to do is sign the new creation and wait and see how much it raises at Auction.

Nigel Leslie

Artistic

 

Ariana Grande Bee

Ariana Grande Bee is the design submitted for Bee in the city, the mass public art trail to take place in the summer of 2018 in Manchester. This design is one of two submitted by Artist Alison Little.

Ariana Grande Bea is a tribute to the star Ariana Grande who took to the people Manchester and the nations hearts after the devastating terror attack in May of last year. The representation plays tribute to the costumes she wears to performs many of her gigs, with the full swag of a singing and dancing sensation. In the base of the form, we make reference to ‘One Love Manchester’ the slogan presented on the famous white hoodie she wore for the charity concert held only two weeks after the carnage of the explosion.

Triangulation

Triangulation was a mural concept put forward to Cains Brewery Development in Liverpool:

Alison Little is a visual artist and writer based in Liverpool, she looks to combine her visual arts and creative writing practice. As an artist, she has worked on numerous commissions from Go Superlambanana’s to Kirby Town Centre Renewal. Her creative endeavours are to include the project management of Rags Boutique: a project to open a disused retail unit as an exhibition space and workshop venue. Working on numerous public art commissions in the North West, the UK and Western Europe. For the Capital of Culture celebrations in Liverpool, she gained two commissions for Super Lambanana to be sited in the colossal Public Arts Trail which was to overtake Liverpool for the celebrations. Her more recent public art commissions are to include work for Kirby Town centre regeneration where she brought the Vikings back to the North West, strong graphical techniques were used for her most recent mural for East Street Arts new location in Garston. In spring of this year, she completed her 6th Super Lambanana commission for the Lip Doctors in Maghull in which she adorned the creature in an array of lips to create: Super Lambanana Lips, her finest to date. In addition to her arts practice, she writes about the Liverpool creative scene, published in Hidden Gems, Art in Liverpool website and her well-read blog.

Through Triangulation she would like to propose a large scale hand painted mural to be sited on the old brewery works. The concept of a triangle to reflect the Northern facing panels of the roof, the triangle supports used within the mezzanine level and the Baltic Triangle where the former brewery is located. The monotone black and white backing surface uses a hand drawn series of triangles to suggest a three-dimensional form. This looks to give an indication of the white space purposed for gallery presentation, the modules which form office and studio space. Individual triangle sections are then rendered with designs which reflect the past and present purpose of the building. The Yellow-backed red ‘C’ comes from the original ‘Cains’  which form office and studio space. Individual triangle sections are then rendered with designs which reflect the past and present purpose of the building. The Yellow-backed red ‘C’ comes from the original ‘Cains’ logo, a well-known symbol of the city. The designers housed within the hub are symbolised by the used of colour charts, the notion of Pantone references being selected is suggested. A free-flowing modernist, sculpted for draws our attention to the Sculptors working for this exciting new arts space. Writers make their presence know by a mass of letters jumbled together to reflect upon the creative approach to creative passage. An old fashioned film real show us the movie makes are in motion, the tattoo artist presents a lizard crawling across its triangular space. A martial artist strikes a pose and the musician make themselves heard with a mass of notes rising to the peak of the three sided form. Finally, the producers give us strategic direction and remind us that creatives need to network through the use of arrows. The mural to be based with white masonry paint, detail to be painted in artists acrylics to be finished with hard wearing, UV proof yacht varnish. The used of cut vinyl as a stencilling medium to be undertaken.

Alison Little

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