An exciting day out of the centre of Leeds to Pressision in Pudsey. 

Some examples of work they've printed: 

Conclusions From Visit

This was the first time i've ever visited a professional printers, and it was really good fun. Pressision was set up by an ex-graphic designer, and they specialise in creative printer. It was inspiring to see work they've printed, and made me feel really hopefully that when I'm funded with bigger clients in the future, I can get worked printed really interestingly. 

The most impressive printed for me was the litho press, which prints an incredible amount of pages a minute. I would love to design something that gets printed at mass. 

Another interesting fact - Pressision have a digital printer that can print white, something i've never known can be done. This also means white can be used as an 'underpinned' colour, so in general, lighter colours than the stock can be printed. 

Pressision also had some charming foil block machines, that are still in use after 50 years. 

Roxanne suggested going to this Sign Painting exhibition in Shoreditch with her. It's not normally something I take much interest in, but I was excited to see something new anyway. 

Conclusion

Unfortunately, the exhibition itself had finished. The space that was originally gallery space had been turned into a bar / cafe, making it awkward to look at the work. Nevertheless, it was still really great to see, especially in person. Being able to see the brushstrokes used, and the vivid choices of colour really inspired me.

Being from a Fine Art background, I really do miss getting my hands dirty. When I have the tim after graduation, I think it would be great to give sign painting a go. My knowledge of typefaces should give me a slight head start, but I think it would be a fun skill set to have, and also something unique nowadays! 

The Rijkmusuem is comparable to the Tate Britain, but much bigger. It is such a big museum, that Roxxie and I decided to focus on the big enough collection of Rembrandt they have on exhibition. 

Being from a Fine Art background at A Level, I'm a fan of the classically taught painting style, and Rembrandt is the absolute master of it. 

The Rijksmusuem in all it's glory: 

Inside:

A beautiful Self Portrait of Rembrandt in his early life:

Portrait Of A Women (1639) - Rembrandt

Johannes Vermeer - The Milk Maid

Johannes Vermeer - Woman In Blue Reading A Letter

I couldn't resist seeing some Monet, here's La Corniche. 

A classic Van Gogh piece - Self Portrait, 1887. 

Banquet at the Crossbowmen's Guild in Celebration of the Treaty of Münster by Bartholomeus van der Helst (1648)

Night watch by Rembrandt

The library in the Rijksmuseum was also truly spectacular: 

Conclusions

Absolutely amazing work, true masterpieces. 

All of these artists spent a lifetime perfecting their skill. It made me think that i'm still young, but if I keep at whatever i'm good at, one day i'll have my masterpiece.

It won't be a Rembrandt, or a Vermeer, but hopefully the design equivalent! 

Many of the painting exhibited would take years and years to complete. This made me think why can't this be the same with one of my projects? I would love to spend years creating something that would make a mark and be seen as my masterpiece. 

The Stedelijk Musuem is an art gallery, that is like the combination of the Saatchi, The Design Museum & The Tate. There is contemporary art, graphic design, product design and some classic painting. 

Whilst I was at the Stedelijk, there was an exhibition on of Matisse's work:

Personally I prefer his drawings to his paintings: 

A section on The De Stijl Movement:

De Stijl is Dutch for "The Style" and, was a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917 in Amsterdam. The De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. De Stijl considers pure abstraction andreduction to the essentials of form and colour; they simplified visual compositions to the vertical and horizontal directions, and used only primary colors along with black and white. 

Some more Matisse drawings:

The navigation at the Stedelijk is really nice, I'm a huge fan of the Grotesk typeface used:

 Some beautiful art deco posters:

Some Russian Constructivism: 

Some wood block printing: 

A house designed in the style of De Stijl: 

A famous Wim Crouwel (Mr Gridnik) poster: 

Love the vibrant colours below: 

Not really sure why this was exhibited..

Really nice screen printed covers: 

Great colours in these cups:

Some work exhibited by a Jewellery design that Design Poilitie have branded: 

 

Great use of illustration: 

Ed Atkins

Ed Atkins works primarily with High Definition video and text, exploiting and subverting the conventions of moving image and literature.

The below exhibition was really strange. I've never come across Atkin's work before, and it was quite shocking. He was given a vast space to exhibit his animations, which were the highest quality CGI I have ever seen, let alone as a Fine Art piece. The videos themselves were non sensical, the only thing I could figure out was an outlook on modern technologies affect on us. 

As you can see, it was hard to photograph:

Back To Matisse:

Really nice calligraphic handwriting: 

A famous print:

Matisse's cut outs are really inspiring. He uses primary colours well with such a basic form. 

I would really like to create this sense of play in my work somehow. 

Beautiful vibrance in the pop art section: 

Some nice Pop art letters by Robert Indiana:

Some signage before leaving:

Conclusions

This has been one of my favourite museum visits, simply due to the diversity. I was able to see classic and contemporary art, as well as design all in the same place. 

De Stijl - De Stijl's simple colour palette and basic form has inspired the minimalist inside. 

Matisse - Again, his colour palettes have inspired me, but to be more playful and maybe more hands on with my work.