Graphic Design at UCK

Michelle had to choose a designer or artist who has been a personal influence for this assignment. She chose to work with Charles Rennie Mackintosh, famous for his architecture and interior design work.

This settled, Michelle had to gather firsthand research on Machintosh and his work and write a 2,000 word illustrated critique. This includes reference to the creative, cultural, social, political and economic context in which he worked.
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Below is Michelle’s final submission, designed in the style of a mini-magazine.
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Like Rosie, whose assignment for this unit I posted a few days ago, Michelle had a good experience when it came to gathering firsthand research. She was able to score a phone interview with Pamela Robertson from the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. She is a professor of Machintosh Studies. Perfect. (There are other interesting emails as well that Michelle could write a quick entry about if she has the time! )
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Here’s Michelle’s interview with Pamela and a bit more research which is just a small part of the massive binder she submitted.
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For assignment 1 of this critical study unit, Michelle had to choose four very different pieces of art or design that influenced her personally. She then had to research the artist/designer and discover, firsthand if possible, how these objects evolved, how they relate to other arts and culture movements of the time, etc.
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The end result was four illustrated 500-word reports detailing Michelle’s findings on each. She chose to work with the following four pieces:
Concorde. Designed by Sir George Edwards and Sir Morian Morgan. Researched at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford. 
Cheval Mirror. Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Researched at The Huntarian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow.
Kameez/Shalwar Outfit. Designed by Rizwan Beyg. Researched at the Dianna Celebration, Althorp.
Juan Munoz Sculpture. Designed by Juan Munoz. Researched at Tate Gallery, London.
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Below are Michelle’s final submissions and bibliography. She also submitted a large folder of internet research (not pictured).
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(not sure why that came out grey, but it did!)

Rosie had quite a unique experience with this assignment and I hope that maybe she will write a blog entry sharing her story and maybe some of the emails that were exchanged between her and book cover designer David Pearson.
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This assignment was quite straightforward asking Rosie for 2000 words on a designer that influenced her personally. Besides the fact that she needed to conduct some firsthand research, the content was more or less open to what she found interesting.
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She was able to interview David Pearson, who worked for Penguin and now works for a number of companies. Rosie’s final essay follows along with a transcript of her interview and a mindmap of her thought process. The information, research and emails she included filled an entire binder so I can’t show you all of it!
You may have to save and enlarge in order to read.
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The main idea of this first assignment for unit 5 was to learn to collect first hand research. Rosie’s task was to choose four very different ’objects’ (pieces of art or design) that she found interesting and then research, research, research. This involved finding out about the artist/designer, how the object may have evolved and how it related to art movements and cultures of the time. From this information, Rosie had to write 500 word illustrated critiques on each. Each object’s critique was neatly presented along with the accompanying research.
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The first object Rosie chose was the Hanging Trees Sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy. For this research, she visited Yorkshire Sculpture Park to conduct her primary research. Rather than copying her booklet of research, I will post her bibliography.
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The second object Rosie investigated was The Mini, a design icon by BMW. To see this, Rosie visited Coventry Transport Museum.
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Next, we have the Boxed Sardines mixed media sculpture by an artist called Rosamonde Ingram. This was found at an exhibition in Coventry called Made in the Middle at the Herbert Museum & Art Gallery.
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And, last but not least, Rosie went to see Lady Diana’s wedding dress at the Althorp House in Northamptonshire. The exhibition was called Diana: A Celebration.
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