Anna Garforth In-depth Analysis

This is a piece of typography called Grow (green graffiti) made in May 2012, by Anna Garforth. She is a London based artist who is currently working and living in East London at The Plant, which is a design and branding in Old Street. It has been said that she 'has diverse skills to uniquely capture the aesthetics of nature and transform the world around us'. Anna Garforth has worked across the world working with large, well known brands, agencies aswell as independant clients in places such as: Hong Kong, Holland and the UK.

I believe that the themes for this piece of typography would be obscurity, 'green graffiti' and nature. I realised this by analysing the material used (which is a part of nature) and researching on a website to find a title for the picture. I also recognised the theme of obscurity within this art work when I noticed that the material of the typography was growing out of a brick wall.

She has used materials such as; grass for the actual word which has been presented in a way to make it look like it is 'growing' out of a brickwall. I like the way she has done this because the word clearly stands out as the colour of the typography is much brighter in comparison to the wall and the texture of each material are completely different. This is important as the main aspect of the art piece is the word. Also the texture of the grass is highly important as it brings across the concept of the typography created as it relates to the actual word. If the texture wasn't shown the concept wouldnt be as clear. Therefore Anna has clearly realised her intentions and presented it well. I think that Anna Garforth thought carefully about the font that she used as she chose an italic font which I think allows the letters to flow into each other like the process of 'growing'

I chose this piture to analyse because I am very fond of the way that she has presented nature, using a word aswell as materials such as: grass and a brick wall. I also found the way the typography is presented very interesting as it is unusual to see grass growing out from a wall. This composition relates to a part of the exam theme: 'obscure' which gives the art piece more meaning. (I will also use this to help me think of an idea for my final exam piece). 

I believe that this piece of typography and the word itself could be a symbolic meaning that Anna Garforth is trying to portray. This could be the fact that we should allow our thoughts to 'grow'/expand and think outside the box (the ordinary) using an unusual conept; grass growing out of a wall. 


 Other examples of Anna Garforths typography, using the same materials and techniques:

http://www.todayandtomorrow.net/2008/08/28/mossenger/

http://www.thesource.com/articles/211802/Moss-Graffiti-by-Anna-Garforth/40/Art?thesource-prod=

Exam Project; Typography

Final Evaluation

1. Write an explanation of your brief: What did you have to do? How did you come up with the ideas for this project?
Throughout this project I had to research (in-depth) some artists/designers to give me ideas to experiment with. For example: Henrik Bonnevier who's work I researched and observed as his art inspired me to think about the composition of the objects I used for my Photoshoot. I did each experiment to then develop them for my final outcome; the magazine. The different sections in my magazine are: the front cover, back cover, illustration page, feature page and lastly the photography page. I used artists/designers that I had researched to feature on a specific page that their work related to. E.g: my illustration page which includes information and pictures by Georgina Luck as she was an illustrator. 

2. Write about the creative 'journey' of the project: How did you project and ideas evolve from start to finish through experimentation and research? 
Throughout my creative journey I researched different artists and designers who inspired me for certain experiments. Also, whilst I was on this 'journey' I had to think of the composition of each page, I did this by looking at other magazines with different layout designs.  Here are some examples:

 3. Who inspired your final outcomes?
My illustration page was inspired by Georgina Luck as I added my research on her on the page spread. My photography page was inspired by Henrick Bonnevier as well as Andrea Bricco as I included their pictures, and the photos I did as group work after being inspired by   the two artists, and research on both of them. Lastly, Vladimir Konca inspired my to create a handmade advert for the back cover. 


4. What do you think you have done well? What has worked? Are you happy with your final outcomes?  
I think that my feature page spread is the best aspect to my magazine. This is because I thought carefully about the colours, font, pictures and text to include, allowing them all to relate to each other. Due to the fact that Brighton (the topic of my feature page) is usually associated with summer, I used a picture of the sky as the background for the double page, as well as placing bright yellow text boxes behind each picture which symbolises the colour of the sun against the sky. 

5. What do you think you could have improved in your final outcome?
I could have improved my final outcome by developing my photography page as I used quite a simplistic composition for the photos and text. I could have used the text wrapping technique to place the text around the pictures. I also could have placed the photos somewhere else on the page, for example: across the bottom of the double page spread.

 6. Conclusion - overall how did you find the project? What techniques would you like to develop further in the future?
 Overall, I found the project challenging, in the sense of thinking of a variety of page layouts. A techique that I will develop further is using Adobe Photoshop to put a handmade image/text onto a photo on the computer. This is a technique that I used for my front cover using the layer option and then the 'similar' option on the text to then drag onto the background image.