GV BG Smiling Face

Friday, 26 April 2013

Panic, on the Blackboard

After the crit on monday;
 when it seemed few liked my idea as it is, I took on the advice to try and come up with a series of objects rather than singular set of 'note boards'.

I feel it is important to note at this point - the original boards were made without any prior planning. I have never used them on any project and I made them with no knowledge of this current project. In my opinion they are perfect for this brief, as they challenge the brief, and in the landscape of the pop-up shop I hope that they will show that all the work has thought and surprises in store.

I looked into making notebooks with blackboard covers to be sold side by side with the original boards. This seems complicated... I may have to abandon this direction.

tests I made for the blackboard notebooks

One of my main obstacles is that the degree shows are being built and planned now. This means that use of the CNC machine is prioritised for 3rd year students. I need to have all I need prepared for a swift execution.

sketchbook showing my plannes for board and list of needed materials

At the moment I am contemplating making a blackboard case for chalks alongside the boards. this is still in early planning stage and I hope to work the details out soon.

my in Illustrator based CNC cut plan as it is at the moment 


Sunday, 21 April 2013

New brief: Supply - Trying to figure out what to do in the coming week

The purpose of this brief is to raise money for our degree show next year. It requires us to produce and manufacture a sellable item and the theme we all share is 'notebook'.
Following the crit on monday, I am confident that the best thing for me to do is to build on my previous experience creating personalised blackboards.

I need to decide on the stages of this operation, Because this time I will make two sets of products:

  •  Generic, funny but general blackboards to (hopefully) sell for around £15-£10
  • Bespoke, personalised blackboards done for users by request which I hope to sell for £20 a piece.
Of course the bespoke items may not be sold on the popup shop's premise, so my biggest task, besides working out how much to spend on materials (paint, roller, sealer, etc.), is to come up with a way to approach people telling them that they can order the personalised boards.

Thursday, 18 April 2013

Font Aid VI: Aster Affects

Back in November, following hurricane Sandy, The Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) released it's 6th calls for contributions for a font that consists of one symbol, the profits from it's sales all going to the red cross.


My submission was of an outstretched palm, and following the font's release I was delighted to discover my design was chosen!


This is the text I added to my submission:

I chose the visual of an outstretched palm as it is what we humans physically use to draw the attention of others. We play most of our games with it and it is our tool for shaping the world. We say 'hi', call to a halt and call for help with it. 

The entire font


Tuesday, 16 April 2013

'blackboard' blackboards

After a considerable amount of work, a lot of it on the bureaucratic side, the blackboards inspired by Edward Johnston's hand drawn letterforms are finally up and I am pleased to see, used by those who pass by. I really hope people remember Johnston's name, and visit the museum collection and archive, but even if they just have some good fun that will be great. I have written a short explanation which accompanies the piece and I will copy it into this post (below).

an idea of the scale of the piece.




The chalk compartment and explanation


The sheet reads:

What is this ‘blackboard’ installation and why is it here, in Central St Martins?

The letters are based on letterforms drawn by Edward Johnston, one of the original staff members at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Photographs of these letterforms reside in Central Saint Martins' museum collection and archive, which is accessible to any student.

I had never heard of Johnston before coming to study at Central St Martins, however, I learned that he designed Transport for London’s `Underground' logo and is also responsible for the alphabet design on which their typeface (‘Johnston Sans’) is based.

These blackboards are an opportunity to engage with this college’s history and contribute to its future. Draw whatever you want on them.

And next time you talk to someone who has never heard of CSM, you may casually drop into conversation that 'one of our staff designed the tube logo' - you will not be making it up.

Friday, 5 April 2013

My work on showcase for the 'hidden treasures' brief

At the moment the work is displayed near the museum, soon I shall put up the full installation near the library.



Monday, 1 April 2013

Personalised debit card


How I created my blackboards (taken from reddit)


  1. I designed the boards in Illustrator  then exported them as *.dxf files
  2. The CNC router (at my university) cut it according to the dimensions I gave it.
  3. The next part was to sand off the sides, as the router leaves 'bridges' when it cuts so that the pieces don't go everywhere while cutting.
  4. The material I used for the boards is 9mm MDF and before I continued with painting I coated them with an MDF sealer. The sealer is very thin and water based so any brush will do for the coating and it leaves virtually no visible marks.
  5. before I continued with painting the board I used 'chalk board' pens to colour the inside of the letters white (I thought the colour would look better if sprayed on white - I no longer think this was necessary).
  6. the spray paints I used for the letters were water based liquitex. After spraying, on some of the boards there was a buildup of paint residue. I filed these down with medium sand paper and smoothed it with a fine sanding paper. here are the results
  7. I used simple 'blackboard' black paint for the boards - the only real tip I got was to use a roller so that no marks would be left on the surface and make sure it is the kind with micro fibres (usually they are pink).
  8. Finally, when it comes to painting the boards, I painted each side with 3 coats so that the board will not bend. However, because I used the sealer earlier (4) this may not have been necessary, but it looks a lot nicer - it also means you could use both sides to draw on.