Week 1: Where Are You and Why Design?

Design is not just about aesthetics; it’s a powerful tool for communication and problem-solving. As I navigate my journey in the world of design, I’ve come to appreciate the nuances that shape my understanding and approach. This blog will share insights from my weekly experiences, highlighting key lessons learned, challenges faced, and the evolution of my design philosophy. With the first week underway, I want to welcome you to my blog and first post.

Design at the end of the day is influenced by what is around you. For me, obviously that was soccer growing up. Hence, the reason why I'm so dedicated to its craft to this very day. It gives me motivation to wake up in the morning and ponder what I'm doing with purpose. Something I hadn't seen until graduating with my bachelor's in a completely different field in 2020. Since then, it's been all gas and no breaks in the pursuit of this new 'field' (soccer pun intended.)

Lecture

As for the lecture this week, it gave me an extreme insight into who my higher design fellows are and their accolades. And truthfully, I was taken back by how talented and knowledgeable they were.

From album cover design to typography and more... it shows the quality on display to come in my future endeavors at Falmouth University. Julian Hosts and Adrian Tolbert seem to have a unique take on both of their ways of design. Julian strikes me as a more punk designer, whilst Adrian is more structured. Both years and years within their departments at Falmouth.. wow.

Julian's Piece of Typography, Print Design

One piece that stuck out to me significantly was this piece from Julian. This extends into a further 'visual language' as he puts it. The stylization reminds me something of Cold War Propoganda meets Rock Band. I can't get enough of it!

With Julian stating they produced a video, that was it went from print in the style of the artwork that went to 'a visual language' that could be used throughout in the future. This stood out to me significantly, as it shows how much further one can dive with a form of media and expand upon it across multiple platforms.

Research

As for research goes, this made me want to dive further into mixed media examples. Specifically that of collage, given the task at hand this week. Where it originated from, and how it's used today within art.

It began around the early 20th century. With its adopting fathers being Pablo Picasso and Georges Basque. According to popular belief, many believe that Georges Basque created the first-ever artistic collage as seen here..

A collage or “papier collé” by Georges Braque

His artistic form was inspired by a wallpaper shop, where he saw a type of wood-grain paper. Using a combination of charcoal sketches, mixing, and gluing produced this piece as shown above.

This was significant, as it was a breakthrough with figurative art. This inspired his friend Pablo Picasso to begin experimenting with this newfound style, and the rest really is history.

From that point on, the style of collage became more popular with surrealist artists such as Hannah Höch. She used this technique as a form of political provocation, as you can see in pieces such as these:

Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, 1919

It just goes to show that this style lives on today within our media. Covering a variety of themes from cultural identity, fashion, politics, and more.

Looking through Hoch's work, I love the attention to detail within the cutouts. Each image having an almost easter egg effect and political phrases, faces, and more. Really gives you something to peel off layer by layer even just by looking at it.

Task

This week's task at hand asked me to..

Choose one piece of design work that you think is extraordinary with a short description about why it is so important to you.

This piece has stuck out to me for the better half of a year..it features one of the greatest players of our generation and maybe all time, Lionel Messi. Almost like a Renaissance painting-type aesthetic. In terms of sports design, unique works such as these are a blessing in a sea of unoriginality.

 Ligue 1 English, X Post, 2025

The piece inspired me so much that at the time I had an upcoming interview at Rangers FC..so I created my own rendition. Using elements of layering, shape and picture mirroring, selection adaptation, and more. Using the likes of Photoshop and Lightroom, it just shows the volumes that one piece can have on an individual. Like a flame to a match.

References

Ligue 1 English [@Ligue1_ENG]. (2025, June 23). Happy birthday, Lionel Andrés Messi [Post]. X. https://x.com/Ligue1_ENG/status/1937271318837067939 [1, 2]

(2023). A brief history of collage | Pixartprinting. The Pixartprinting Blog. https://www.pixartprinting.co.uk/blog/brief-history-collage/?srsltid=AfmBOoqLi6nQQ64HI9vPF6SPjJkX6ij5xcbYUAHCcURFVeHwvC6cCCdQ