A few weeks ago I went along to a graphic design workshop with Anthony Burrill at Outline Editions. Anthony had provided lots of his designs copied onto brightly coloured paper. The idea was to take his designs, cut them up and make them your own.
It felt a little sacrilegious taking scissors to Anthony Burrill’s designs and starting to arrange them in any way other than the way he had done, so I was slow in getting started. However, I was surrounded by confident children diving right in, so I steeled myself for the first snip and was soon cutting away.
I tentatively tried a few different combinations of images and words…
What interested me was how you could change the meaning of something, but just taking a part of it, and putting it next to a part of something else. Eventually, I settled on something I was happy with and started sticking.
Et voila… my very own Anthony Burrill.
Now, you could argue that simply re-arranging Anthony Burrill designs doesn’t really qualify as creating original artwork, and you’d be right. But it did get me thinking about what you could do with other things; newspapers, magazines, packaging… any printed materials could be cut, rearranged and have their meanings changed in this way. Food for thought.
There is another Anthony Burrill graphic design workshop at Outline Editions on Saturday 16th July, 10.30am to 5pm. Email info@outline-editions.co.uk to book a free place.
You may also be interested in:
- interview :: anthony burrill
- here’s one I made earlier :: yellow owl workshop
- here’s one I made earlier :: screenprinting
- here’s one I made earlier :: cyanotype
- https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.199755033406571.43514.181947435187331 (more photos)
- http://www.outline-editions.co.uk/clear-your-head-every-day-new-workshop-date-announced (More info re the graphic design workshop)
- http://www.anthonyburrill.com/
- http://www.etsy.com/listing/73260609/human-muscle-skeleton-vintage-dictionary?ref=cat2_gallery_17 (Mixed media on etsy)
- http://www.etsy.com/listing/69568521/acrobat-5-original-abstract-collage?ref=cat2_gallery_40 (More mixed media on etsy)
Hands on… love it!
It may not be original work, but it’s a remix of sorts.
Thanks Robert. A ‘remix’ is a great way of putting it – I like that!