Monthly Archives: April 2017

20.04.17 — Design

A Goddess is Born

Okay so this post has a weird title, but I shall proceed to explain. About a week or so ago, whilst on my placement with Elmwood, I began to sketch some initial ideas for a new typeface which I’ve had as an idea at the back of my mind for a while now. The typeface’s working title is Goddess (hence the title of the blog post), and the current plan is that it will become the new typeface which I use for all my personal projects – including my website!

A little preview of where I am thus far

As you can see from the photo, I have been building the letters (which are all non-final at present) using simple shapes with a compass and pencil. This process was inspired by one of the greats of typography design, Eric Gill. The sketches below were used to build the typeface which bears his name, Gill Sans, and to me they are objects of exceptional beauty (which may be a little bit sad, but I can deal with that).

Gill's drawings for Gill Sans

For those unfamiliar with the design of typefaces I should explain from where comes the trouble I have been having with the rounded letters, which I can simplify down to two reasons. Firstly, they have to extend slightly above and below the line due to the way the human eye perceives the height of rounded shapes compared to straight-edges ones, and that’s been a nightmare to account for. Secondly, round letters like o should not ever be perfectly circular as they otherwise appear too wide – however if you just simply try to squash a circle a little it begins to look deformed, so I have spent quite some time working on how to make letters like c, d, o, and e look just right.

A more detailed look at the process

As you can see with my red pen I am making minor changes as I go, as typeface design takes a good while – just imagine you have 26 letters, double that for capitals, then add numbers, punctuation, an array of special characters (such as the Ñ for Spanish above) for other languages, and much more – all of which has to be designed carefully to flow properly. A right royal nightmare.

I’ll keep you up to date as I begin to make more progress on the typeface as the weeks go by, especially once I begin to start digitising copies – thus far all the work has been done on pen and paper. I love working like this as it makes me much less precious about finer details, and I can adjust and connect curves in a way which just isn’t possible on a screen.

Long live the paper, pencil and compass – even if I have stabbed myself inadvertently a few times with it. Blood, sweat, and tears will have indeed gone into creating this damn font.

17.04.17 — Travel

Granada

After hopping on a bus from Seville to Granada, I wound up landing in my third city mid-afternoon, whereupon I immediately set about finding my hostel. Once there my fifteen minute nap turned into three hours of shut-eye, and so I had to drag myself out of bed after dark and try and find someplace to eat in this new city!

My first proper look at the city by night

After wandering in a loop for a while (not that I was complaining, the city is beautiful), I found a little Venezuelan restaurant near my hostel and grabbed myself an arepa before heading back to bed to prepare for the next day, where my plan was to visit the unmissable (oh the irony) Alhambra.

Wandering the streets early in a morning
Wandering the streets early in a morning
The main street of Granada

With a bus back up to Madrid booked for 7pm that same day I knew I didn’t have time to faff around, and so made a beeline for the hill atop which sits the Alhambra palace complex. Anyone unfamiliar with it can begin to appreciate the beauty of the palace/fortress with a quick Google search.

Anyway, so I managed to find one of the few roads which lead up the ridiculously steep incline to the entrance, and began my trek hauling the entirety of my possessions for the trip in my backpack once again.

Cascading water by the Alhambra

The walk up to the entrance was much longer than expected and a lot more gruelling than I had predicted, but the views were lovely and the sun was out so I wasn’t for complaining. Once I arrived at the entrance though I had the shock of my life – there were no tickets left! Let this be a warning to anyone wanting to visit the Alhambra – book tickets online months in advance or risk being left out in the cold (well, extreme heat, but you know what I mean).

A view up to the Alhambra

Slightly deflated I sat down and ate some crisps for a bit, before deciding that for the rest of the day I fancied a spot of bar hopping, in order to see more of the city centre and enjoy some refreshing beers and snacks as I went. I began at a bar at the foot of the hill, and soon found myself in the city centre, full of cheese and chorizo and a few cañas for good measure.

Moorish architecture in the centre
The cathedral in the city

Around mid afternoon I sat down for a spot of lunch, ordering once again a menú del día, after which I just spent a few hours wandering the streets and visiting a few shops as I went. The city of Granada really is gorgeous, sitting in a valley and consisting of winding streets full of bars, restaurants, and shops, and I felt very relaxed just traversing the centre.

Floral decorations
Floral decorations
Colours of Granada

Sooner or later though it was time to head back to the bus interchange in order to catch my evening coach back up to Madrid, and in doing so leaving Andalusia and completing my tour of the south of Spain, which included Córdoba, Seville and Granada.

Looking back down the city
Farewell, Granada

As I said, I was disappointed not to be able to visit the Alhambra whilst down in Granada, but that didn’t detract from my time spent in the city. From its gorgeous surroundings to the bustle of its narrow streets and glorious architecture, I thoroughly enjoyed lazing around for the 24 hours I spent roaming around.

I will definitely have to revisit Granada in order to have a snoop around the Alhambra one day soon, and I think next time I’ll visit for a longer time – and not allow myself the luxury of a “quick nap”…

15.04.17 — Travel

Seville

Part two of four of my tour of Spain began as I got on the train from Córdoba to Seville, whereupon I met a guy called Paco who proceeded to get chatting to me, and as I alighted in Seville I had been given three tips on how to live my life:

  • Sé una buena persona (Be a good person)
  • Sé preparado (Be prepared)
  • Ama lo que haces (Love what you do)

After a lovely chat for the couple of hours it took to roll into Seville I alighted, said my goodbyes, and headed through the city late at night to find my hostel. After bedding down for the night I awoke hungry and in the hunt of some breakfast, and after stopping for some fresh orange juice, a lovely coffee and a napolitana (chocolate pastry), I grabbed my camera and headed out to get my first look at the infamous city of Seville.

Colours of the city

I began by wandering down one of the main streets from the north of the city towards the river, alongside which I found some lovely gardens which I dipped into to carry on towards the Plaza de España, a large square built in 1928 for a large exposition. It turns out that these gardens were actually used to film in the land of Dorne in Game of Thrones! Wild.

Entering the gardens
Strolling through the tiled gardens

I then crossed over the main road and soon discovered the Plaza de España in all it’s huge, colourful and intricate glory. The sheer scale of the huge semi-circular structure isn’t apparent in any of my photos after my panorama turned out to be a disaster, but a quick Google search will give you a bit of an idea.

Entering the plaza
The centre of the Plaza de España

A little bit of trivia for those Sci-Fi fans amongst you all who may recognise some of the architecture here – it turns out that the Plaza de España was actually used for some exterior shots of the fictional land of Naboo in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Seville is such a beautiful place that it is quite easy to see why location scouts for such big names in film and TV have come along and had a field day.

Detail on the tiling in the plaza
A gorgeous Seville scene

After mooching around to take plenty of photos (some of which will wind up on my travel section soon) and catching a spot of flamenco, I then headed towards the centre to grab a bite to eat and begin exploring some of the amazing sights in the heart of the city.

Heading into the city

I was pleasantly surprised by the pedestrianised streets and the amount of people cycling around the city as I began to head towards the centre, but I decided to first wander down to the river for half an hour relaxing in the sun and to grab a burger at The Good Burger, a Spanish chain which I became familiar with the first time I ever visited Madrid back in 2015!

Architecture in Seville

After this I once again headed towards the beating heart of Seville, where I’d been advised by my friend Kevin to visit La Giralda, a bell tower built on top of a Moorish minaret and now attached to the city’s huge cathedral.

It should be pretty obvious from all the photos I took, but the colours in Seville are stunning.

The pretty colours of Seville
Heading towards the cathedral

Once in the city centre I began to explore some more, stopping for lunch and coffee along the way, before heading back in the direction of the river to check out some of the architecture along its banks.

Seville Cathedral
A square in the city
A curved courtyard
Heading away from it all

Once back along the banks of the river I stumbled on the ridiculously named Plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla, which is the fancy Spanish name for the main bullring of Seville. To my dismay it turns out that it is still used for bullfighting, and not wanting to contribute to the industry, I instead opted to circle the building and take some photos of its vibrantly coloured exterior.

The facade
A funky door
A pretty street nearby

After this it was time to head back to my hostel, freshen up, and then head out for the evening to find something to eat. After a quick FaceTime call to my mum to show her the city in the evening, I wandered around until I found a lovely little restaurant near my hostel where I ordered a few tapas and una cerveza (naturally).

Leaving my hostel in the evening

Seville by night was beautifully lit and bustling with activity.

La Giralda by night
The illuminated cathedral

After my nighttime exploration I headed back to the hostel in order to prepare for the next day where I’d have to carry my full bag around the city before grabbing a bus to Granada in the afternoon. The next morning I realised my camera had somehow changed to a lower quality image mode which made me quite cross, but I calmed down with a coffee and pastry breakfast once more before meandering the city’s gorgeous streets once again.

Contrasting architecture
Contrasting architecture
Old and new
Textures of Seville

Once I’d stopped for yet another café con leche, I headed for the bus station where I boarded a nice comfy coach and began my journey eastwards to Granada, which will be the subject of the next blog post!

In the second city of my tour of Andalusia I was once again charmed by the people, the sights, and the atmosphere of Seville. I have to admit that it was my personal favourite of the three new cities I visited on my trip, even if the local accent stumped me and the clouds kept me on edge through the occasional bouts of heavy rainfall!

I would say that Seville is the perfect place to go and spend a good few days exploring, and I am glad that I managed to squeeze a visit in before Semana Santa (Spain’s Easter celebrations) and before the heat of summer made wandering around unbearable. Once again this will be added to my travel page pretty soon, and hang fire for my next blog post where we pick up the action as I arrive in Granada…

11.04.17 — Travel

Córdoba

With the relaunch of my website just last week, I’m not sure if I ever got around to detailing my most recent travel plans, which involved eight days in Spain, four of which were spent travelling around three cities in the southern region of Andalusia: Córdoba, Seville and Granada. After this whirlwind tour of the south, I then headed back to spend the latter half of my holiday lazying around Madrid and meeting up with friends, but for now here’s the first city I visited – Córdoba!

After spending a quick night sleeping in Madrid after landing late in Madrid Airport, I was up early and on a train from Madrid Atocha to Córdoba. Before I could even begin to figure out the storyline of the dodgy Spanish dub of a BBC film that was being shown on the train, I had landed in the city.

I then proceeded to head straight for the main attraction in this historic city, La Mezquita, a mosque which began construction in the year 784 and has since been expanded, conquered by the Catholics and built upon, and which is now affiliated with the Catholic Church – but more on that momentarily.

Something's not right here

On the way from the train station the thing which hit me the most was the sheer amount of orange trees lining the streets, and the resultant piles of oranges on the ground, and then the inquisitive pigeons which were picking amongst the fruit. To this end I managed to snap the following photo which captures the look of Córdoba quite succinctly…

A common sight

Ambling amongst the pigeons and citrus, I soon found myself at the gate of an old wall, which led into a charming little area of windy streets adorned with foliage. I had a good snoop around there for a while until a drop of rain hit my face, whereupon I noticed that the sky had gone from looking mildly threatening to downright menacing, and so I resolved to speed up progress on my journey towards La Mezquita and the promise of shelter.

A gate in the city
Onwards by the wall

Don’t be fooled by the streak of blue sky in the image above, by this point it really was beginning to look like my day in Córdoba was to be a washout! Walking along the side of the wall towards the city’s centre was a beautiful journey, however, and so curating photos for this blog post has been a nightmare challenge in self control – I did wind up returning from Spain with over 3000 photos…

I'm a sucker for pretty balconies

I do love a pretty balcony.

As expected the heavens soon opened and I dashed for the shelter of a nearby churro stand, where I saw out the worst of the downpour before deciding to make like a plucky Brit and wander unfazed through the rain. In my determination not to let the rain dampen my time in Córdoba I almost walked straight past La Mezquita! I soon joined the throngs of tourists hovering around the entrance, and squeezed my way into the courtyard of the grand Mosque-Cathedral as the rain began to pour once more.

Once inside I began to appreciate the beauty of the architecture, but with huge crowds of tour groups huddling around the entrances to escape the rain, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how I was to get inside. My plan at this point was to go in to escape the rain, but I soon realised I had to buy a ticket from one of the kiosks across the other side of the courtyard – at which point the quickest and most amazing change in weather I’ve ever seen occurred! One minute the sky was dark grey and we were being lashed with rain, the next there wasn’t a cloud to be seen and the strong Spanish sun came beating down on the pretty architecture of the city.

The bell tower suddenly looking resplendent

With this sudden break in the weather, I decided to keep hold of my ticket until a little later and headed out into the streets of the old city to do a bit more exploring. I began to take a few photos of the streets of the city before I made my way to the old Roman bridge, which offered some pretty cool views over the city and the river, including the waterwheel of this abandoned mill…

The water mill
Islamic decoration on La Mezquita
Up a Córdoba street

With the lovely weather showing no sign of giving up, I soon decided to head into the Mosque-Cathedral, whereupon I was in awe. Throughout the gorgeous interior can be seen very clearly the influence of the two different key influences on the building, Islamic and Catholic design. For those unaware, much of Spain was under Islamic rule roughly between the years 711 – 1492, during which La Mezquita (literally meaning “the mosque”) was built, and after which the Catholics repurposed the building as a cathedral by adding plenty of their own architectural features.

Into the Mosque-Cathedral

The most striking feature within must be the double-arch design, which I was told allowed for a higher roof than would have otherwise been possible at that time. With the building being expanded and modified by various Islamic and Catholic leaders, the style and condition of these arches varies as you traverse the vast interior – for example above you can see that the arches on the left are in much better condition than those on the right.

More decorative patterns

Above is an example of a much more intricate design for the arches, with the Catholic cross sitting within the clearly Islamic arch demonstrating a contrast that my designer eye just couldn’t ignore. As I headed to the back of La Mezquita, there were many original Islamic features which were breathtakingly beautiful, including archways gilded with gold and intricate geometric patterned roofs – as a lover of geometric design I found myself squinting at these for quite a while!

A domed roof
An impressive doorway

I then wound up finding my way into the storage area for the current day religious artefacts, as the Mosque-Cathedral is currently in active use as a Catholic church. This was very impressive, but not half as much as the Cathedral architecture which I stumbled upon afterwards.

Entering the artefact store
A white roof

It’s safe to say that this is the prettiest structure I’ve ever been inside.

I then stumbled into the central Catholic cathedral section which was built right over the original structure, and which has a look and feel very different to the surrounding arched spaces.

Catholic architecture right over Islamic arches
Catholic architecture right over Islamic arches
The cathedral section

After wandering around the space for an age, taking many photos and soaking in the atmosphere and breathtaking architecture, I eventually headed back out into the sunny city to have a spot of lunch.

A vaulted ceiling
A stained glass window

For lunch I had my usual menú del día and then began to explore the windy little streets of Córdoba some more. I ended up wandering down the famous little flowered street, found a very extra shrine to Mary on the back wall of the Mosque-Cathedral, and then wound up exploring its courtyard once more.

A Córdoba street scene
A Córdoba street scene
Colours down the street
The Mosque-Cathedral bell tower

Soon, however, it was getting late (well, about 5pm) and I had a train to catch at 7, so I began to slowly amble back towards the train station, passing much of what I’d visited earlier – but with nicer light and weather I snapped a good few more photos en route.

A door of La Mezquita
A more recent Islamic style window
Passing by the roman bridge
Cycling through the city

I eventually landed back at the train station and had a coffee before catching my train onward to my next destination, Seville, where I settled down for the night – but the tales from Seville are reserved for my next blog post which I’ll hopefully get up in the next few days!

A last look at Córdoba

Needless to say after all my gushing that I found Córdoba to be a gorgeous and amazing city, full of things to do and see and plenty of friendly people and little restaurants to eat at. I was happy to have just spent a day there as my main focus was getting myself around La Mezquita, but I found that I actually managed to do quite a lot – the city is quite compact so there’s always something to look at as you wander from one sight to the next.

I’ll be sure to get Córdoba on my travel page with recommendations of what to do and eat just as soon as I’ve published all four blog posts covering my whistle-stop exploration of Spain’s southern cities!

05.04.17 — Journal

Surprise Site Launch

Hello everybody and welcome to my new look website! As I’ve mentioned in posts in the past, it’s a design I’ve been working on for a while, and I’ve finally managed to launch it tonight – as a bit of a surprise as I haven’t really given any warning. The new site incorporates a tonne of new and improved features – check a couple of my favourites out below:

  • Projects — A much improved look at the design and other projects I’ve been up to recently.
  • Travel Diary — A new-look overview of my travels which includes photos, recommendations of what to do, and of course what to eat.

If you notice any problems or bugs in the site, please feel free to grab a screenshot or write and get in touch via my new contact page! I’ll be adding plenty more pages, blog posts, and features to the new design as I go on, so stay tuned!

Journal

Filming Autokara

My first project for my final year of university was set by Elmwood’s Leeds studio and was to reimagine a local radio station for a world in which all cars are now automatic. My outcome ended up being a connected in-car karaoke service, which you can find in it’s entirety within my projects section or via this direct link.

One of the main pieces I created for the project was a light-hearted advertisement which shows how the service can be a lot of fun, which can be viewed on the Autokara project page. For this post though, we’ll be looking at just how we managed to create the Karaoke Car…

Setting up in the car

As you can see above, the video was filmed in our family car, which was stationary for the duration of the shoot despite the illusion that the car was moving down a street. This illusion was created by a set of four orange floodlights which faded in sequence to create the look of streetlights passing by as the car was in motion, coupled with the sound of a car engine running which was added in during editing. These lights are mounted on the bar to the right of the car in the image below.

A wide shot of the car

In front of the car we see two colour-changing LED floodlights, each one trained on one of our faces through the windscreen. These remain white until the song in the advert begins, when they begin to flash different colours, coupled with an elongated LED bar light which was mounted on the back seats of the car, which lit up the roof of the interior in different colours.

Rehearsals in the car

As can be seen above, I also set up a pair of white spotlights on the dashboard to better illuminate the faces during the dialogue at the start of the video, which faded out once the coloured lighting kicked in and the music began. Between them was mounted the camera, which was simply my iPhone 6 with a clip-on wide angle lens, which was then mounted on a small tripod.

Another view from outside the car

All the lighting was wired to a console which I sat on my lap in the passenger seat during the filming of the video – in fact, if you watch closely you will notice that I only ever have one hand in shot, the other one is always controlling the lighting desk. It was quite a challenge to sing on video and control the lighting at the same time!

The lighting desk in situ

The above unflattering image shows the lighting desk in situ on my knee, and was taken as I was programming the lighting desk with the necessary sequences and lighting states to create the video. And yes, I was playing music and dancing along to get into the mood in the video from which this photo is taken. Don’t judge.

A solo for the Spanish version of the video

As a bonus the above image is taken from one of the two as-yet unreleased Spanish versions of the video, in which I can be found singing both a medley of classics from old Spanish one-hit wonders, and a super cheesy classic called Una Estrella en Mi Jardín. I’d like to once again thank both my mum for starring in the video, and my dad for helping with the process of installing all the lighting, and I’ll leave you with another bonus photo – this time a GIF of me and my mum warming up for our performance by dancing along to Oops Upside Your Head. You’re welcome.

Oops upside your head, say oops upside your head...