Clare Cronin

"Works of art equip us for action. And the range of actions for which they equip us is very nearly as..."

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 17:30:58 +0000

“Works of art equip us for action. And the range of actions for which they equip us is very nearly as broad as the range of human action itself. The purposes of art are the purposes of life. To envisage human existence without art is not to envisage human existence. Art - so often thought of as a way of getting out of the work - is man’s way of acting in the world.”

- Nicholas Wolterstorff

"The message of responsible social transformation is the artistic concept. Wherever there is this..."

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 17:26:07 +0000

“The message of responsible social transformation is the artistic concept. Wherever there is this concept, there is art.”

- Michelangelo Pistoletto

My degree show space complete with two A0 posters and my set of...

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:54:37 +0100

My degree show space complete with two A0 posters and my set of six leaflets.

This is one of my series of six posters. All my posters followed...

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:04:18 +0100

This is one of my series of six posters. All my posters followed the same layout with the project identity and colour scheme being the only variables.

This is the complete set of project identities.

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:56:00 +0100

Agriculture Matters

Education Matters

Faith Matters

Food Matters

Health Matters

Water Matters

This is the complete set of project identities.

The leaflets on display as part of the Winchester School of Art...

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 19:02:05 +0100

The leaflets on display as part of the Winchester School of Art Degree Show.

60 hexagonal leaflets all cut and folded.

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 18:59:28 +0100

60 hexagonal leaflets all cut and folded.

An example of how my leaflets work. Starting with the project...

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:55:00 +0100

Health Leaflet

Health Leaflet - Unfolding

Health Leaflet - Open

Health Leaflet - Back

An example of how my leaflets work. Starting with the project triangle and unfolding to a hexagon.

This is my updated version of the Moldova Matters hexagon. I...

Thu, 10 May 2012 21:06:00 +0100

This is my updated version of the Moldova Matters hexagon. I have simplified a few of the triangles and tried to turn the ones that were possibly too simple into something recognisable. Can you tell what the triangles represent?

My final major project is to rebrand a UK based charity...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:08:00 +0100

My final major project is to rebrand a UK based charity supporting Moldova which I’ve renamed ‘Moldova Matters’. Moldova Matters has six different project areas and I have created an identity for each of these in the shape of a triangle. As shown above, united these triangles become a hexagon. I’m currently working on how to transform both of these shapes into leaflets for the projects.

These are the designs from my most recent project. The brief was...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:56:00 +0000

How it works

i app - Loading, News, Views, TV

i app - iQ, Business, Sport, Information

Coffee Cup Sleeves

These are the designs from my most recent project. The brief was to ‘create a campaign to make i (the essential daily briefing from the Independent) the most read newspaper among students.’

Drawing from personal experience about why I read the news, I came up with a concept that was to make students feel they had missed something through a statement that would intrigue them enough to read the news. This idea would be executed through a set of coffee cup sleeves that would be delivered with the paper to the university canteen. To find out more about the statement on the coffee cup, students could scan the QR code which would go through to the appropriate category of the newspaper providing the relevant news story and access to the feature of that category. The brief states that ‘once people trial the product they love it’, so with this in mind, the student might go in search of more news. To access the other categories they could buy another coffee - six coffees would gain you access to all six categories, or the student could simply buy the i paper - access to all the news for 20p (cheaper than the price of the original coffee).

I had the chance to redesign my Hampshire Alcohol Strategy...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:31:00 +0000

Al-co-hol

What are you drinking?

Don't wait up

I had the chance to redesign my Hampshire Alcohol Strategy posters and these images were the final result. I brought the colour plum (specified in the brief) back into use. I made the decision that the adult character I previously placed at the top of the poster wouldn’t mean anything without me stood next to the poster explaining it, so I took it out. This allowed me to change the way I presented my central branded message ‘under the influence of YOU’. This transformed into a logo that gave me a brand to work with, connecting all the posters and the concepts I presented with them. I found the downward-arrow-shape to be a more effective way of portraying the force of the influence of the main character than the gradient that can be seen in my earlier designs.

After a lot more work I finally decided on this set of manifesto...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:04:00 +0000

Declare Responsibility

Manifesto Points

Change

Communicate and Educate

Responsible

Accountable

After a lot more work I finally decided on this set of manifesto cards. These images display the front of each of my six cards. I tried quite a few more designs using hands for the card that contains my manifesto but I struggled to find a way to make it work. As a result, I decided to use a speech bubble almost as a logo for my manifesto. Although it doesn’t include a hand, it is an instantly recognisable shape, it is appropriate for the information it displays and matches the visual style of the rest of my cards.

My idea is that each card will display the relevant point from...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:31:42 +0000

My idea is that each card will display the relevant point from my manifesto on the back, possibly like a postcard. To accompany these four cards I want to design a summary card that contains my full manifesto (like my first set of cards). This card should still appear as part of the set. The title of my manifesto is ‘Declare Responsibility’ - to announce to the world that you are taking responsibility for what you design. So, I drew a hand gesture that you might use if you were shouting to make sure everyone could hear you. The circle occupies the place of a mouth and my title becomes the spoken/shouted words. However, this is still very much a work in progress!

After many more attempts to get the hands and the type to work...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:16:13 +0000

After many more attempts to get the hands and the type to work together, I realised that perhaps the type is unnecessary. The hands quite literally speak for themselves. Two are even sign language. Having the hand sign with type would be like writing the same thing twice. As a result, these images reveal a more minimal version of my cards that let the hands do the talking.

Here I tried to enforce some order on the cards. I made all the...

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:08:00 +0000

Change 2

Communicate 2

Responsible 2

Accountable 2

Here I tried to enforce some order on the cards. I made all the type the same size and arranged it in the same position on each card. Then I adjusted the placement of the hands. I edited the ‘Communicate and Educate’ sign to make it more interactive both with the type and in its meaning - the more open gesture implies it is speaking/teaching where as the original hand looked closed.

I think I have made progress but am not yet satisfied with these designs. The hands have become arms which weakens the impact of each sign.

Over the Christmas period I went back to work on my Manifesto...

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:54:03 +0000

Change

Communicate

Responsible

Accountable

Over the Christmas period I went back to work on my Manifesto cards. I stripped my original cards down to just the colour and the signing hand. Then with inspiration from Tom Eckersley and James Joyce I began to redesign them. Currently, I think the ‘Change’ card is the most successful, it kind of fell together with the ‘C’ sign lending itself to the type. I have tried to design the other cards in a similar way but, as the other signs aren’t letters, it wasn’t as easy! Maybe I need to swap the cut out letters for type simply laid on the hands? I’ve spent too long staring at them now to know, I’ll come back to them later.

thedsgnblog: Michelle Gray | http://themichellegray.com/ the...

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:55:11 +0000

thedsgnblog:

Michelle Gray | http://themichellegray.com/

the design blog: facebook | twitter

I just need to swap ‘Helvetica’ to ‘Hold back from using Futura’.

During the crit for my manifesto project, the book Underground...

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:24:00 +0000

Victoria Line

London Transport Museum

London

London Transport Collection

During the crit for my manifesto project, the book Underground Art, Oliver Green was recommended to me. It was suggested that some of the posters shared a similar style to the work I had produced. I’ve recently borrowed this book from the library and flicking through the first few pages I struggled to understand the connection between this work and mine. However, towards the end of the book I came across the work of Tom Eckersley - the visual link couldn’t be more clear. Writing about Eckersley’s posters Green notes his ‘extensive use of coloured paper cut-outs for his artworks.’ I will keep this work in mind when I return to improve my manifesto.

A set of three posters I designed to demonstrate how my...

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 15:23:00 +0000

DRINKPROFILES 'Al-co-hol'

DRINKPROFILES 'What are you drinking?'

DRINK PROFILES 'Don't wait up!'

A set of three posters I designed to demonstrate how my ‘under the influence of you’ message could be communicated. My aim was to let the characters do the communicating but I really struggled to find the right composition to display a conversation between characters and a clear visual representation of my message. I hope to come back to these posters some time soon and find a solution. I think, if I keep it, that I probably should flip the gradient so that the child is more clearly ‘under the influence’ of it.