In his Career he published several books on creative thinking. He published a book in 1942 named How to Think Up and this is where he came up with the idea of brainstorming. In 1954 he created the Creative Education Foundation, which were sustained by the royalties which were earned from his books. Along with Sidney Parnes, he developed the "Osborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Process". He co-founded the Creative Education Foundation's Creative Problem Solving Institute, the world's longest-running international creativity conference.

Sidney Parnes/Alex Obsorn

Creative Thinking

Sidney Parnes was born on the 5^th of January 1922 and died August 22^nd 2013. He was renowned as an expert on creativity and the founder of the creative studies program at the SUNY Buffalo state.

Sid Parnes had partnered with his advertising executive Alex Osborn in the 1950s which then they went to create the Osborn-Parnes creative problem solving process which were based on Osborn’s brainstorming techniques and began to organise a method for teaching it. Parnes, an Army Veteran from World War 2, he had earned his master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1953 and then completed his Doctorate in the following year. He first met Osborn at the Creative Problem solving institute conference and he then used that as a creative retailing conference at the University of Pittsburgh where Osborn then recruited him to help develop his ideas.

In 1956, Parnes joined the faculty at the University of Buffalo, which offered a course in creativity, as a professor of retailing. In 1967, he went to Buffalo State to start a pilot program in creativity and became the founding director of the International Centre for Studies in Creativity. He became president of the Creative Education Foundation in 1967 after the death of Osborn and served until 1984, then was chairman of its board of trustees. He continued to serve as a lifetime trustee. He also became director of the Creative Problem Solving Institute, which was held annually at Buffalo State from 1966 to 1984. He published more than a dozen books on creativity, notably the influential “Creative Behaviour Guidebook” in 1967, and hundreds of articles. He spoke at conferences, workshops and seminars around the world and received numerous awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Innovation Network.

Alex Osborn

Osborn was born on May 24^th 1888 and died May 5^th in 1966. He was an advertising executive and the author of the creativity technique known to us all as Brainstorming. He was born in Bronx and spent his childhood in New York; He was a graduate of Hamilton College, where he had worked for the school newspaper.

Green Patriot Posters

 

Green Patriot Posters is a website which subscribers can create posters to the site and upload them for the public to view. The posters that are designed are campaigning against fossil fuels and against deforestation and ways in which we are destroying our planet and atmosphere.

 

I used this site for inspiration for a previous project which I have just completed which was visual communication in art and graphic design where I had to create a poster about protesting. I chose the subject to promote green energy which is wind energy, solar power, hydro power etc. n the end I made a poster of wind turbines with the slogan "BUILD OUR FUTURE" to leave it up to us as society to fix our planet and mistakes.

Shepard Fairey

 

Shepard Fairey is an Artist, street artist, graphic designer and illustrator and lives and works in the USA. He was born on February 15th 1970 and is known for his "Andre the Giant" sticker campaign in the 1990s where he emerged form the skateboarding scene and became an artist and political artist. Now he is most commonly known for a piece he created during the 2008 US election of Barack Obama called "HOPE", he created this piece by just using three different colours: red, blue and cream. He used these colours to create Obama because he believed that they sent the message of Patrionism to the public. He didn't want Obama to look like a black man but to make him a man to nationalise hence the colours.

 

In the past he has created rebellious pieces and with his second child on the way at the time he had the thought that he wanted the best future he could possibly get for his children so therefore he created a piece with Obama on for his political status and to advertise him and his party to win the election which he di, Fairey just wanted what's best for his children as they are the future of America.

Eye Magazine Article

Drive In Cinemas

For my professional practice magazine I chose to do the Eye Magazine, this is because it contains a majority of graphic design and typography which I am very interested in.

 

I came across an article about drive-in cinemas in the US from the 1930s in their prime to now where they are run down and even housing built upon the car parks where they were situated. I read the article and it described how they went from being extremely popular in the early 20th century where all the young adults would come and meet and have a great time out to how they got less and less people visiting the cinemas. What was interesting about the signs were the typography and how they used pop culture to advertise the cinemas by giant signage with high text close to the font Britannic bold. They used nylon background with flashing light bulbs and bright colours to welcome visitors into the cinemas.

 

Now all that remains of these signs are run-down rusted left overs from what once was a great era of American pop culture are these giant signs which is the little that is left of the great drive-in cinemas.

Drive-in cinemas have always looked spectacular to me from living in the UK as we don't have the weather for it over here and it would be a great experience to go to a drive-in cinema.



Chesterfield College Art and Design Exhibition

When I went to the Chesterfield College Art exhibition I found these three images which I particularly eyecatching and they just appealed to me. They were three prints which had few colours on: a shade of pale blue mixed in tih black and white. One consisted of a tank which one side was in the shade and the colour of the ground was white with blue sky, another was a man looking up like he was looking at you when looking at the piece like he was waving and the other was a metal fence which looked like it was in the moonlight. All these pieces had letters which were cut out of newspapers and magazines which were stuck onto the piece when printed then taken off after so that it gave a stencil look off which worked exceptionally well. 

V&A

Alan Fletcher

Alan Fletcher is one of the World's best known Graphic designers and typographers and he designed the V&A Logo in 1990. There had been many different symbols and shapes to the V&A logo in the past but trustees commisioned a new logo to be made to replace the others. The letters which were used for the logo were designed by Gianbattista Bodoni around almost 200 years ago. What Fletcher did was take the stem of the A (leg) and removed it and tucked the ampersand into the A and also removed the crossbar of the A. However this did not disrupt the logo, in fact it was so unique and that people can still read it and know what it is that it is still used now for the logo of the Victoria and Albert museum now. This is a very simple design which is very effective and is known World wide. 

Joseph Penell 

Joseph Penell was born on the 4th of July in 1857 and died on the 23rd of April in 1923 and he was well known for being an artist and an author.

He first studied in Pilidelphia but soon went on as many did in those days and moved over to Europe where he made his home in London. He was an Author throughout his days but also a keen etcher and lithographer and also as an illustrator. He also taught at Slade School of Art but what I think is great about his works is the details in which it goes to to create shadows especially in his mono tone prints and drawings as he uses different shading techniques such as cross hatching, hatching and smudging and many more. The industrial scenes are very good as if he's sending a message through the drawing of manual labour and people working with machines. He really expresses feelings and hard work through these drawings and uses shading to complete the image as a whole to bring it all together.