Summer Project - Pre-Uni

A – A Levels

Before starting college I thought that A Levels were going to be really dull and boring. Fortunately I was surprised for the better, my tutors were all really easy to get along with and I made some great friends there despite there being a large amount of people at college who I’d known from secondary school.

B – Bike

Cycling is something I enjoy doing either by myself or with friends. That said, I do particularly enjoy cycling on my own as it gives me time to myself where I can just think. It was hard to come by this sort of peace when I was living at home, and I think that’s the main reason I started enjoying going out on my bike so much.

C – Chocolate

Chocolate is amazing. I’ve always loved it, at one point in year 7 I used to eat three bars a day. I’m not all that addicted to it now, but I still love it. I remember watching the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in infant school, and ever since then I’ve had a love for chocolate.

D – Disney

I’m not really a big fan of films, because generally I like watching shorter shows like the Simpsons and Futurama that I know are going to be good, rather than sitting through a film for 2 hours only for me to possibly not enjoy it. That said, I’ve always enjoyed watching Disney films because generally they’re easy to watch. My particular favourites are Finding Nemo, Kung-Fu Panda, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

E – England

I’ve been abroad quite a lot for holidays, and as much as enjoy it for a change of scenery, I always find myself missing England. I think it’s particularly important to appreciate our country at the moment given how volatile other parts of the world are.

F – Formula 1

Formula 1 racing isn’t something a lot of people enjoy watching, people tend to find it boring and monotonous. I just think it’s great to have a sport where teams need to work so closely together in order to make things work properly for them, and at such high speeds they need to be sure that things are safe. If there’s even a slight miss-calculation by just one member of the team, things can go wrong very quickly. It’s this sort of unpredictability that’s the reason I enjoy F1.

G – Games

I’m a big fan of playing FIFA, I don’t really enjoy playing it by myself though. It’s the competitive side which I enjoy about it, so I’d much rather play it with someone else than on my own. I’ve always been quite a competitive person, so I take most games I play quite seriously. Over the summer I’ve developed a love for playing snooker and pool, but I’ve always enjoyed playing Monopoly and Chess as well.

H – Holidays

I know it sounds rather contradictory that I like going on holiday as well as saying I like England, but it’s difficult to not enjoy going on holiday. I can’t think of anything more relaxing than laying in the sun listening to my iPod, knowing that if I get too hot I can jump in the pool. The only thing I don’t like about going on holiday is flying, which is something I really hate doing, everything about it is uncomfortable. 

I – Internet

The fact that people across the world can talk to each other for free using the internet is pretty impressive. The internet is great, I can’t imagine our society being the same without it. I know it has its down sides, mainly people being able to find things they shouldn’t, and cyber-bullying. But generally, I think the internet is definitely a good thing, and I can’t imagine life without it.  

J – Jack Sparrow

Going back to my enjoying of Disney films, Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean is probably my favourite film character from any film that I’ve ever seen. I particularly enjoy him in the first film, where his characters sense of humour is at its best. I think the irony of him being the way he is rather than the stereotypical pirate is what makes him such a great character. 

K – The Killers

The Killers are my favourite band. I only really started listening to them when they released human in 2008. Since then I’ve bought all their albums, and heard all their songs. I saw them live in Sheffield last year, but I ended up over-paying on the tickets because I was on holiday when the tickets went on sale, but they were sold out when I got back. Despite paying over twice as much for tickets as they were originally on sale for and me and my mate being completely sober, it was easily the best night out I’ve ever had. 

L – Logic

I’ve always been mathematically minded, and because of this I’ve always thought and worked in a logical way. I can sometimes find it difficult to spontaneously come up with an idea. I have to have some sort of starting point, and then work my way to some sort of conclusion with one thought leading to another thought. It’s just something that’s a bit strange about me, as most art and design people tend to be a lot less rigid in their thought process in my experience. 

M – Manrique

I was on holiday in Lanzorote in the Canary Islands a couple of years back, and having already been to 3 other of the islands, I knew that the buildings were all the same. This was because of a man called Cesar Manrique. It was his idea that was adopted by the Canary Islands that all buildings should be no more than 3 stories high, and should be either white or cream. His influence was so strong, that when a massive dark-coloured hotel was built in the capital of the canaries (Santa Cruz, Tenerife), there were bomb threats even during the stages of construction. I think it’s amazing that design can have such a strong influence on people. Manrique lived in Lanzorote and I visited his house, which is now one of the main tourist attractions on the island. Manrique built the house himself and made use of the natural lava bubbles in the land to create rooms. It was possibly the most visually attractive building I’ve ever seen. 

N – Neville Brody

When doing A Level graphics, Neville Brody was one of the designers I researched. Normally I’m not a fan of using loads of colour in typography, hence why my work is all in black and white, but ever since I researched Neville Brody I’ve liked how he’s bold with his use of colour, and tends not to stick to a particular colour scheme. I think this is because I tend to be rather rigid in my use of colour, and so this is something about his work that I wish I would allow myself to do.

O – Ocean

For as long as I can remember I’ve always loved the sea. The idea that there are so many different animals living in the sea that humans will probably never discover them all amazes me. The sea itself has an oddly calming sort of influence about it, which is particularly strange given how powerful it has the potential to be. I’m not really the sort of person who is inspired very often, but I always feel a strange sort of sense of inspiration whenever I’m by the sea. 

P – Pool

At college I played a lot of pool with my friends who’d moved up with me from school, but it was a great way to start talking to people who I hadn’t met before. I enjoy playing pool because it has the competitive element to it without it being too serious, as well as it having an element of skill to it.  

Q – QI

I’ve always been a fairly inquisitive person and I tend to want to know how things work and why things are as they are. This was the main reason I took physics at A level. I tend to watch a lot of comedy quiz programmes on TV suck as Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week, but QI has always been a favourite because it’s more scientific and less topical. 

R – Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter is a German artist whose work I saw at an in the Tate Modern Gallery in London when I was about 10. A particular painting called Abstract Painting No. 439 which he painted in 1978 caught my eye, and is really the reason I started to like painting and art in general. When choosing my options for GCSE, art was the first one I picked despite not being great at it, and so it was suggested that I did graphics instead. I chose both, and I enjoyed graphics so much that since then I wanted to do a degree in it. 

S – The Simpsons

I’ve watched the Simpsons for ages, and it’s probably my favourite TV show. Despite being a cartoon comedy show, I’ve found that its comedy is rather relatable to graphic design. When I watch old episodes that I watched when I was younger, I find different parts funny to what I did when I watched them as a child. This shows that the writers have included something for everyone, which makes for good design. 

T – Traveling 

I hate traveling, I always have done and always will do. Being quite tall I don’t appreciate the lack of legroom available on most modes of transport, coaches and airplanes in particular. It is similar to when I go cycling that I tend to think a lot when travelling, the only difference being that when I go cycling I can choose how long I want to do it for, I’m out in the fresh air, and generally it’s a more pleasant experience than being cramped up. 

U – United

I’m a big follower of football, and I’ve had a season ticket at Sheffield United for the previous nine seasons. I was never really into football as a young child, and only started going as an excuse for my grandad to go. But since the 2005 Champions League Final between Liverpool and A.C Milan, where Liverpool came back to win the game after being 3-0 down, I’ve really enjoyed watching football. I haven’t played as part of a team since Y6, because I think it’s taken way too seriously at a non-professional level, and it wasn’t fun. 

V – Viva la Vida

Viva la Vida by Coldplay is my favourite song, I remember hearing it for the first time on the radio. It was around that time when I started listening to the Killers as well, and it was mainly these two bands that made me really start to enjoy listening to music, whereas before then it was just something I’d do to help pass time when I was on a long journey in a car or was walking to a friends house or something like that.  

W – Winter

I love everything about winter, although it does all centralize around the weather, if we get snow in the winter, I spend barely any time indoors. I love sledging, snowball fights etc, and of course it’s nice to have a break for Christmas. 

X – Xabi Alonso

Going back to my enjoyment of football, Xabi Alonso is a footballer who currently plays for Real Madrid and Spain. He scored the equalising goal for Liverpool in the 2005 Champions League final between Liverpool and A.C Milan, it made the game 3-3, ending with Liverpool winning the resulting penalty shootout. Had he not scored that goal and Liverpool lost, that game probably wouldn’t have had the same influence on me as it did, and I probably wouldn’t enjoy football as much as I do now. For all I know I might not ever have really gotten into football. At the time I had started seeing Sheffield United with my grandad, but really me going was just an excuse he used to go. I doubt that without Alonso’s goal in that game I’d love football as much as I do today. 

Y – Yo-Yo Loach

I keep tropical fish at home, and have kept about 40 species of them over the previous 5 or 6 years. Probably my favourite species that I’ve kept is the Yo-yo loach, as it was one of the very first fish I bought when I started up with my first fish tank. The particular one I bought is still alive today and has out-lived all of the other fish I’ve bought since. It’s called the yo-yo loach because the markings on its side look like the letters y and o.  

Z – Zoo Tycoon

Zoo Tycoon was a computer game I used to play in which you had to create and run your own zoo. I loved the game because I’ve always liked animals, always enjoyed creating things, and I enjoyed the strategic and business element behind the running of the zoo, and making enough money to buy more animals and create more enclosures etc. A friend who lived around the corner from me at the time also really enjoyed the game, and so we spent quite a lot of time on the game when we weren’t at school, which is probably why I remember it so well and enjoyed it so much.