YCN; Ink in water video.

This was just another example of ink experimentation I found online. This is probably one of the most obvious ways of experimenting with it but always gives different results. The patterns and shape created in this video are something to focus on and bear in mind when it comes to our own ideas as we could really use this to our advantage. Although I really like this technique, it has been done so many times before so we are taking a different approach to try and be original. 

YCN; Fedrigoni sample booklet.

This is an example of one of Fedrigoni's actual sample booklets that showcases one of their ranges of paper I borrowed. Looking at this was a good opportunity because it gave us inspiration when it came to creating our own sample booklet, we could understand the type of style and layout Fedrigoni go for. The sample booklet has an overall high quality finish which is what the company would expect from anything we create too so this is something to bear in mind. There are a few different techniques used in creating this too so how could we create something that showcased a range of techniques also? Each page has a little bit of information about that stock its written on which is really useful because the client will be able to find out everything they need to know. 

Image; Existing 'The best of British' design.

http://www.behance.net

http://www.behance.net

http://www.behance.net

http://www.behance.net

Image; The United Kingdom.

Geography

The United Kingdom, consisting of Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland ) and Northern Ireland , is twice the size of New York State. England, in the southeast part of the British Isles, is separated from Scotland on the north by the granite Cheviot Hills; from them the Pennine chain of uplands extends south through the center of England, reaching its highest point in the Lake District in the northwest. To the west along the border of Wales—a land of steep hills and valleys—are the Cambrian Mountains, while the Cotswolds, a range of hills in Gloucestershire, extend into the surrounding shires.

Important rivers flowing into the North Sea are the Thames, Humber, Tees, and Tyne. In the west are the Severn and Wye, which empty into the Bristol Channel and are navigable, as are the Mersey and Ribble.

Government

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a queen and a parliament that has two houses: the House of Lords, with 574 life peers, 92 hereditary peers, and 26 bishops; and the House of Commons, which has 651 popularly elected members. Supreme legislative power is vested in parliament, which sits for five years unless dissolved sooner. The House of Lords was stripped of most of its power in 1911, and now its main function is to revise legislation. In Nov. 1999, hundreds of hereditary peers were expelled in an effort to make the body more democratic. The executive power of the Crown is exercised by the cabinet, headed by the prime minister.

England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century; the union between England and Wales, begun in 1284 with the Statute of Rhuddlan, was not formalized until 1536 with an Act of Union; in another Act of Union in 1707, England and Scotland agreed to permanently join as Great Britain ; the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927.

History

Stonehenge and other examples of prehistoric culture are all that remain of the earliest inhabitants of Britain. Celtic peoples followed. Roman invasions of the 1st century B.C. brought Britain into contact with continental Europe. When the Roman legions withdrew in the 5th century A.D. , Britain fell easy prey to the invading hordes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes from Scandinavia and the Low Countries. The invasions had little effect on the Celtic peoples of Wales and Scotland. Seven large Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were established, and the original Britons were forced into Wales and Scotland. It was not until the 10th century that the country finally became united under the kings of Wessex. Following the death of Edward the Confessor (1066), a dispute about the succession arose, and William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England, defeating the Saxon king, Harold II, at the Battle of Hastings (1066). The Norman conquest introduced Norman French law and feudalism.

Image; The best of British relating images.

Image; The best of British survey results.

 

Top six: 

Tea

Red phone box

British flag

Fish and chips

The Queen

Full english breakfast

Image; The best of British youtube references.

YCN; Ink and water experimentation.

http://www.behance.net
This is further research I did into experimentation with ink in water based on ink art. This is probably one of the best examples i've seen so far because the images are so detailed and framed perfectly. I really like the way the images look as though they have texture to them because of how the ink is flowing. the mixture of two colours and hint of colour in the background has also worked really well because the work looks considered. Although I really like this technique and appreciate how great the images can be, we are steering clear of it because it has been done so many times before so wouldn't be anything original if we presented it as part of our brief. 

YCN; Library research.

Books: 'Exhibition design' & 'Fantastic folders and exceptional envelopes'
We took a few books out from the library to get inspiration for exhibitions and also our invitations that we are going to design. The book on exhibitions was pretty useful because there was one in particular that was promoting carpets and it was set out in a way with which customers could interact with it because like the stock we are promoting, it has a tactile feel to it. It also showcased the way in which you could make your exhibition space seem really unique with examples of things hanging from the ceiling so this was something to think about. The book on invitations was also really useful because there was a wide range of ideas showcased throughout so it gave us a lot of inspiration for our own ideas. There were a few that really stood out for us automatically. These ideas would be a good starting point so we could add our own unique edge. 

YCN; exhibition spaces to hire.

Once we had an idea of how exhibition spaces worked I began looking into actual spaces for rent online. I searched for spaces in London because this is where Fedrigoni are based and its the capital city so a lot of the target audience may be based here too. It also makes more sense in the fact they may have a larger variety of spaces to choose from. I found a couple of really good websites that have a range of different spaces on them from large to small and located in different areas of London. When I was looking on these websites I was taking note of the mixture of classical looking buildings and then the typical modern looking gallery space because this is something we need to consider, do we want quite a sophisticated event or a more relaxed modernised one? The ones that caught my eye most were those that had quite a large central space so that you had to option of having things there or not. We want quite a large venue because we want the option to be able to invite as many professionals as possible. The websites contained information on the size in some cases but it is likely we'd have to get in touch with someone for further information. We picked the East London Arches as our favourite venue (see pictures at end of issuu document) because this has a really classical sophisticated look to it and this reflects Fedrigoni as a company. The venue is also really large which is exactly what we are looking for. We'll get in touch with someone for further information on this venue. 

YCN; Exhibition spaces.

http://www.maxwigram.com

http://www.messiejessieblog.co.uk

I looked at some exhibition spaces on google images so we could get an idea of how the space should be laid out. We wanted to know whether the minimalistic approach was better or whether the space needed to be more crowded to showcase everything possible. From the photos I've found it seems that colour in terms of the walls of the space is kept to a minimum and this is so the artworks have the maximum impact. The central space of an exhibition is usually quite empty or sometimes has these free standing walls. On a personal level i'm not sure about the big open spaces because I feel that all the empty space in the middle may drown the work. The difference between all these spaces i've researched into and our own is that we want our guests to be able to interact with the work, where as this is not the norm within galleries etc. This could mean that we could bring about a whole new idea for exhibition spaces because its already out of the ordinary, we could be qutie experimental. 

YCN; Rob Ryan.

http://www.misterrob.co.uk/

One way in which we could showcase the tactile nature of the Fedrigoni stock is by using paper cutting techiques to either create imagery or showcase text in a creative way. I looked into Rob Ryan because all the work he creates consists of paper cuts and they are very intricate designs so he shows the best possible examples of what can be produced. Usually the work he produces tells a story so it makes it quite unique. This technique can be achieved via the laser cutter or by hand so this is something we can consider for our own outcomes so not everything is just printed media. 

YCN; Existing paper exhibitions.

I looked at exsisting paper exhibitions from all over the world and found some really interesting things. This part of the research will contribute toward our understanding of the sort of things people could contribute to the exhibition in terms of the competition we are proposing and also the sort of deliverables we can create for Fedrigoni and our campaign. We need to understand what people may submit to the exhibition so that the plans we draw up for it cover all aspects of work the exhibition may end up with. 

YCN; Making ink.

I look into how you can make your own ink as this could be something we could experiment with depending on which direction the design work for our project goes. 

How to Make Recycled Ink From Fruits

http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com

Step 1: Purchase or harvest your fruits. Ideal ink candidates include blackberries, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, pokeberries, cherries, black currants, elderberries or sumac berries. Small, hard wild fruits such as rosehips, winterberries or juniper berries will likely not yield enough juice or will be too light to make effective ink.

Step 2: Mash fruit in a bowl or whirl them in a blender or food processor. If using cherries, you'll need to remove the pits first.

Step 3: Put a fine-mesh strainer inside a bowl or balance a smaller strainer on the rim of a bowl. Fill the strainer with fruit and any juice left from the mashing or chopping.

Step 4: Press the fruit pulp against the sides of the strainer with a spoon. If you use a wooden spoon, it may become stained permanently. Don't try to drain the fruit of all its juice. Forcing the juice from the skins of the fruits results in cloudiness, affecting the final product.

Step 5: Remove strainer and discard fruit pulp or set aside the pulp for another use.

Step 6:

Mix the vinegar and salt into the fruit juice. Vinegar and salt clarify and deepen the color of natural dye and ink products, as well as preserve the juice from spoilage.

Step 7: Pour the fruit ink into a small, wide-mouthed jar. Recycled and cleaned 2 oz. baby food jars or specialty jam jars are ideal.

http://www.howtodothings.com

1. Black Ink: There are several ways to make black ink; an easy one is: take one egg yolk, ½ teaspoon lamp black, ½ cup honey and one teaspoon gum arabic. Lamp black is available commercially or you can make it yourself by holding a plate or any receptacle over a lit candle, it will take some time to collect half a teaspoon though. Mix all the ingredients to make a thick paste, add enough water to this paste to dilute it for use such that it flows easily as a fluid.

1. Gall-Iron Ink: This method was the most frequently used method before synthetic chemicals came into use for ink manufacture. The one drawback of gall-iron ink is that it is very corrosive to steel and you should ensure that the implements you use while making or using this ink are not made of steel. You will require tannic acid, distilled water (wine or vinegar can be substituted), galls, solid gum arabic, and iron sulfate.
   The quantities required are 35 grams of tannic acid, 0.5 oz of gum arabic, 21 oz of iron sulfate, 8 oz of distilled water and galls. These can be gathered from woody areas where they can be found as circular growths on twigs or leaves typically around insect larvae on the tree or plant; tannic acid can be squeezed out of tea bags steeped in boiling water.
   Crush and grind the galls to a fine powder, add water and let the solution ferment for about three days. Strain the solution after three days, add the iron sulfate and let the solution stand again for four days. At the end of this period, mix in the gum arabic and ensure it is fully dissolved. The ink is now ready for use and can be stored, but not in anything made of steel.

YCN; Exhibition floor plans.

http://www.siaa.asn.au

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk

We'd need to come up with an exhibiton space layout so Fedrigoni would be able to understand what our ideas are for this part of the brief. I researched a few exsisting exhibition layouts so we knew what the best way to communicate the space layout would be in terms of using numbers and/or colouring coding. This actually proved quite a difficult thing to research because not many had been posted online, usually this sort of thing is quite confidential so doesn't need to be seen by anyone but the organiser. The main thing that stood out when looking at layouts was the use of numbers, this is a good way to communicate the layout because each person in our exhibition could have a number so we'd know exactly where everyone was going. At this stage though we don't know who would be part of our exhibition so I feel that the best way to communicate just a general layout would be to use colour and a key. 

YCN; Previous work for Fedrigoni.

http://www.behance.net, http://www.behance.net, http://www.behance.net, http://www.behance.net, http://www.behance.net, http://www.behance.net, http://www.behance.net

I thought it would be a good idea to research into previous works that have been created for Fedrigoni so we'd do something original that has not been done before, or at least try to. Behance proved a very good source for this because other students have posted work that they have created for previous YCN Fedrigoni briefs. I selected a few of the ones that really stood out to me and that I felt were pretty strong bodies of work. Although a lot of these ideas were really good there was automatically a gap within the fact that we noticed noboy had ever done anything like the idea we are proposing, this was very good news for us. In terms of the physical elements that we create, all the work for this brief will tend to have something in common, stock. A lot of the work above involves origami or papercut, this is because these are some of the best ways to showcase stock and it's tactile nature. Although it wouldn't be a bad thing if we were to use similar techniques, how can design so that it looks completely different to any of this work and more desirable? The idea of this particular piece of research overall is to make sure our concept hadn't been done before at all so we'd be presenting Fedrigoni with something completely different to attract their attention. 

YCN; G F Smith.

We found G F Smith to be our main competitor within the UK because they are also a high end paper company producing paper for the UK design industry. We looked into G F Smith and their history so we could get an idea of the things we could do to make Fedrigoni come out on top. We wanted to come up with something where we could say that Fedrigoni has the advantage because unlike G F Smith they have done 'this'. G F Smith are a high contender because they collaborate with artists quite a lot and everything they create is quite conceptual and relates back to the tactile nature of stock. We feel it has become more so competative when G F Smith managed to get the front cover of eye magazine with a range of artworks that were produced, it was a way of getting more attention for the company and showing what fresh innovative things they are coming up with. G F Smith are obviously moving foward and creating an overall fresh look for themselves because within a couple of weeks of visting their website it had then changed to have quite a minimalistic look, so they are really doing their best to put themselves out there at the moment. 

YCN; Ink manufacturers.

http://www.dddispersions.co.uk

http://www.cranfield-colours.co.uk/

http://www.nazdar.com

http://www.apollocolours.co.uk
Due to the fact we decided that for our brief we would collaborate with an ink manufacturer I decided to research into them because we'd have to select one for proposal for our exhibition. I chose only a few because it was quite hard to find ones that made themselves come across as THE ink company. The ones that I did choose was based on their website and what they had to offer in terms of types of ink, whether they worked across a range of media and where they were located. I think the best one i've found out of all of these is the Apollo one because one thing that really stood out about this company was the fact they have a range of inks for a range of media. This works really well with our idea because this company needs to get something out of the collaboration too and because Fedrigoni's target audience is the UK design industry this ink company may be able to work with some of these clients for example, the fashion industry if they have inks that print onto material. This company would also provide the ink for the exhibition we are proposing. Based on this, this will be the company we choose to collaborate with or at least propose to. 

YCN; About ink.

Ink is a liquid or paste that contains pigments and/or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing and/or writing with a pen, brush, or quill. Thicker inks, in paste form, are used extensively in letterpress and lithographic printing.

Ink can be a complex medium, composed of solvents, pigments, dyes, resins, lubricants, solubilizers, surfactants, particulate matter, fluorescers, and other materials. The components of inks serve many purposes; the ink’s carrier, colorants, and other additives control flow and thickness of the ink and its appearance when dry.

Ink drawing of Ganesha under an umbrella (early 19th century). Ink, called masi, an admixture of several chemical components, has been used in India since at least the 4th century BC. The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common in early South India. Several Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink.

Many ancient cultures around the world have independently discovered and formulated inks for the purposes of writing and drawing. The knowledge of the inks, their recipes and the techniques for their production comes from archaeological analysis or from written text itself.

The history of Chinese inks can be traced back to the 18th century BC, with the utilization of natural plant (plant dyes), animal, and mineral inks based on such materials as graphite that were ground with water and applied with ink brushes. Evidence for the earliest Chinese inks, similar to modern inksticks, is around 256 BC in the end of the Warring States Period and produced from soot and animal glue.

The India ink used in ancient India since at least the 4th century BC was called masi, and was made of burnt bones, tar, pitch, and other substances. Indian documents written in Kharosthi with ink have been unearthed in Chinese Turkestan. The practice of writing with ink and a sharp pointed needle was common in early South India. Several Jain sutras in India were compiled in ink.

In ancient Rome, atramentum was used. In an article for the Christian Science Monitor, Sharon J. Huntington describes these other historical inks:

About 1,600 years ago, a popular ink recipe was created. The recipe was used for centuries. Iron salts, such as ferrous sulfate (made by treating iron with sulfuric acid), were mixed with tannin from gallnuts (they grow on trees) and a thickener. When first put to paper, this ink is bluish-black. Over time it fades to a dull brown.

Scribes in medieval Europe (about AD 800 to 1500) wrote principally on parchment or vellum. One 12th century ink recipe called for hawthorn branches to be cut in the spring and left to dry. Then the bark was pounded from the branches and soaked in water for eight days. The water was boiled until it thickened and turned black. Wine was added during boiling. The ink was poured into special bags and hung in the sun. Once dried, the mixture was mixed with wine and iron salt over a fire to make the final ink.

The reservoir pen, which may have been the first fountain pen, dates back to 953, when Ma'ād al-Mu'izz, the caliph of Egypt, demanded a pen that would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen that held ink in a reservoir.

In the 15th century, a new type of ink had to be developed in Europe for the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. Two types of ink were prevalent at the time: the Greek and Roman writing ink (soot, glue, and water) and the 12th century variety composed of ferrous sulfate, gall, gum, and water. Neither of these handwriting inks could adhere to printing surfaces without creating blurs. Eventually an oily, varnish-like ink made of soot, turpentine, and walnut oil was created specifically for the printing press.

There is a misconception that ink is non-toxic even if swallowed. Once ingested, ink can be hazardous to one's health. Certain inks, such as those used in printers, and even those found in a common pen can be harmful. Though ink does not easily cause death, inappropriate contact can cause effects such as severe headaches, skin irritation, or nervous system damage. These effects can be caused by solvents, or by pigment ingredients such as p-Anisidine, which helps create some inks' color and shine.

Three main environmental issues with ink are:

Volatile organic compounds

Heavy metals

Non-renewable oils

Some regulatory bodies have set standards for the amount of heavy metals in ink. There is a trend toward vegetable oils rather than petroleum oils in recent years in response to a demand for better environmental sustainability.

YCN; Ink in art.

http://surfwithberserk.com

http://aggiepuff.deviantart.com

http://aggiepuff.deviantart.com

Image; D&AD rain relating imagery.

www.google.co.uk