Daniel Samson

Today we took part in Darrens workshop on image making, we all took some photos and then combined them in a simple 3 colour digital collage. The point being to generate new ideas or to develop further into a final piece. This is so we can use all of the research images we collect.

The grass greener is from a letterpress poster done earlier in the year, the arrows were from darrens stuff, the elephant from the small elephant toy I own and took a photo of and the white shapes at the bottom are from an illustrator thing I was working on. Darren made a comparison to the ‘North by Northwest’ Saul Bass title sequence, looking now I can see the connection.

Here is some of the information I gathered by going around a variety of shops and asking questions, taking photos etc. Most places were okay with photos, but not all of them. I shall post that stuff later. 

American Apparel

15-20 Year Olds: 70%

Gender: Mainly Female

What sells: Bright colours, short, tight

Youth grouping: Mixed, but trendy

Size?

 

15-20 Year Olds: 40%

Gender: Mainly Male

What sells: High top Nikes mainly, bold colours

Youth grouping: Mixed, but people who are style conscious

Vans

15-20 Year Olds: 50%

Gender: Mainly Male

What sells: Authentic/Eras shoes and Illustrated T-Shirts sell well (Robert Crumb tshirt is expected to sell out quick)

Youth grouping: Skaters, College kids, Urban also

Puma

15-20 Year Olds: 35%

Gender: Mainly Male

What sells: High top shoes, not so much sports shoes

Urban and dance culture mainly

Volcom

15-20 Year Olds: 33%

Gender: Mixed

What sells: People bought a real mix of stuff, as the store manager explained it, they are the only shop in Europe, so people come from around the UK to get stuff there. The beany hats sold well.

Youth grouping: People who skate, snowboard, surf etc. Or people who want to buy into the lifestyle.

Record Shop

15-20 Year Olds: 10%

Gender: Mainly Male

What sells: Mainly sold Dubstep and Grime stuff to that age group

Youth grouping: Urban

Carrhartt

15-20 Year Olds: 25%

Gender: Mainly Male

What sells: Sold some jeans and some hats.

Youth grouping: Not sure

Kid Robot

15-20 Year Olds: 75%

Gender: Mixed

What sells: Figured sell very well, clothes not so much.

Youth grouping: Mainly skaters and creative people

King Apparel

15-20 Year Olds: 50%

Gender: All Male

What sells: Tshirts sold well, hats not so much

Youth grouping: People who like Urban culture and music

WESC

15-20 Year Olds: 60%

Gender: Mainly Male

What sells: Hoodies, Headphones and Bobble hats

Youth grouping: All over the place, but dance and urban stuff for sure.

Here is a list of DVD’s and Books I have been consuming, all of them interesting in some way.

Beautiful Losers

I have already posted a video to this below, but just wanted to re-iterate how good this documentary is. Very inspiring.

Meta-Graffiti

This is basically the next steps in graffiti, perhaps… Basically its a bunch of short films about graffiti in a whole load of different styles, qualities etc. It has kids Clean Bombing trains, people creating animation from graffiti and short narratives. Its pretty much about everything except normal graffiti.

Rash

This is an Australian graffiti documentary, about the scene in Melbourne. There is some very interesting work and also an interesting attitude taken by some of the councils. What I like here is that they cover stencils, stickers, tagging and graffiti, aswell people doing wilder stuff.

Piece By Piece

This is about the history of the San Francisco graffiti culture, very interesting stuff. It starts in about 1982 and goes up to 2004.

Graffiti Instincts

This is a straight up visuals thing, just sit back and enjoy while these guys create. This is a section taken from the DVD, not the full thing.

Brasil Inspired

This is a book on Brazilian art, some of it is street art, some of it graphic design. All quite fresh and interesting though.

New Skateboard Graphics

A book devoted to skateboard deck graphics, some interesting things in here. Perhaps a little light on text though.

Concrete to Canvas: Skateboarders Art

This is about the art that skateboarders create, some of it graffiti some of gallery pieces. All sorts of styles and influences here. This book is really quite relevant to what I am doing.

Sticker City

Although the title is sticker city, its mainly about large scale stickers or pasteups. It has smaller stuff, it has 3D stuff. This is an interesting look at a variety of artists spanning the world.