Tate Liverpool Young Perspective Exhibition- You Take My Breath Away @chris__nixon
I was asked to create a design for the TATE Liverpool young artist exhibition labelled Young Perspectives. The exhibition itself was a platform for young emerging artists to have their work shown at Tate alongside artists Wolfgang Tilsman, Sarah Lucas and Olafur Eliasson, with the brief to base your design around ‘a young perspective’
I based my design around drug abuse within society, which is somewhat of a passage of life for the majority of youths in our culture. To begin I wanted to create a passage which would highlight both perspectives of this drug abuse- highlighting why people do it, the somewhat controversial ‘positives’ about drug use; whilst also contrasting that with the obvious negatives.
I used the term “You Take My Breath Away” and paired it with paracetamol to juxtapose the meaning of the phrase- this allowed me to reference the double perspective approach which I wanted to tackle, this would allow the quote itself highlight the love people develop for the drug; romancing about the substance and why they use it. Whilst the use of pills in contrast to the quote would alert the user to the grave consequences which come with drug abuse; in a literal sense taking ones breath away.
For my full portfolio please visit: www.chris-nixon.com
Emerge Graduate Showcase Winner of the Pentagram & Indigo Mile award.
After being invited to the Emerge ‘Best of Graduate 2011′ exhibition in London I was asked to create a B&W Typographical poster based on the city. With this unique backdrop in mind, I was told to explore a piece of writing and typographically express it onto parts of the city itself.
To begin I wanted to find out what it is which makes London special- why is it that this city is held in such high regard world-wide? Why is it the capital of our country and the home to our Queen? I came to the conclusion that its the population of London itself which make the city so special. I felt very strongly that this project should revolve around this, but rather than simply basing the poster around the people of London I wanted to take this a step further- I wanted the people of London to have an input on the Design itself; their actions to manipulate how the Design would be formed,whilst also reaffirming this message that they are the heart of this city- they make it special.
I came up with the term “You are the heart and soul” with the idea of combining both intentions through the term ‘Soul’, whilst there was also a play on words with the term “Heart”- being that it was a piece of Art I was creating. I decided that I would use the people of Londons footprints to create the Design, there impressions would shape how the term would be displayed and how the message would read. I manipulated the term to “You are the ‘art and sole” which would conceptually reaffirm the message of how important they are to the city- whilst also play on how they are physically creating this piece of Art through the Sole of their shoes. This was then varnished onto a thick piece of A3 paper that would absorb the dirt and moisture from the sole of the shoes, whilst the varnish would resist it. The paper was then stuck to the ground in a high commute area and left for the day.
For my full portfolio please visit: www.chris-nixon.com
Art of Craft
Art of Craft is a brand which aims to change the bespoke-object market, which has become endangered due to growth of today’s ‘Flat-Pack Culture’. This project which was formed when I was set the challenge to reinvigorate a dying object/artifact/item. I decided on carpentry; initially I was going to be ‘the’ object to reinvigorate the craft, by learning the craft itself- but this evolved into the creating a platform to sell,trade and learn the items,tools and knowledge; because from the experience of learning the craft it was the obtaining the information and tools that I found most difficult.
This was done through the creation of a POS which consisted of a Manifesto + Video and Housing, each of which aim to highlight a new trading platform for bespoke objects- which is presented in the form of the Art of Craft Website.
Manifesto
Manifesto Detail
Video Housing (with lid)
Video Housing (minus lid)
Video Running
Website
Production Process
For my full portfolio please visit: www.chris-nixon.com
New(er) Testaments- Treat Others
A concept driven project which aimed to revitalise and revamp the ‘word of the lord’, in-turn trying to influence the way people act in todays society by reminding them of the wholehearted messages we used to abide by.
After finding a Holy Bible in the street I realised that the church itself has somewhat of a stigma attached to it in todays society, and the messages of love and peace which have helped our society develop and flourish throughout our evolution are being overlooked- I therefore chose 3 of my favourite and recreated them for a modern society, these were then presented in an exhibition format.
The Full set of the designs, and the rest of my portfolio is visible at: www.chris-nixon.com
Diana
Diana was a symbol of a generation, both a fashion icon and Queen. On the cusp of her childs marriage (William) I was asked to created a visual representation of her relationship to Charles.
I focused on the divide which had formed in the relationship, where she and her husband had to remain seemingly close in public, but in private they rarely interacted- which was portrayed by Diana herself in her famous interview with Martin Bashir.
This divide is what the publication is based around, Diana’s private and public life; taken the dialogue between Diana and Martin a reversible publication that can be interchanged was created, which took the form of a crown.
My full portfolio is visible at www.chris-nixon.com
Hugo Tracks
Hugo Tracks is a new initiative by Hugo Boss to highlight rising talent in the music sector; to do so Hugo have released an online music player which selects 5 songs and mixes them.
The brief was to replicate this in a single, A4 sided spread to be printed in I-D magazine. The poster was created from 5 cassettes and over 50m of coloured ribbon
My full portfolio is visible at www.chris-nixon.com
Faceless Fashion
Portfolio shots for a tailor-made, bespoke fashion designer- labeling the portfolio as “Faceless Fashion”; this was done to reaffirm the designers hands-on, local appeal in contrast to the conglomerate corporations which dwarf the market- this was then reaffirmed visually in the manipulation of the models faces.
My full portfolio is visible at www.chris-nixon.com
Never Could Stand That Dog
For my full portfolio please visit: www.chris-nixon.com
Create your own typeface which embodies both Tom Waits and Prince Philips characteristics- with this typeface create a typographical poster which reflects the story of Tom Waits’ Franks Wild Years. The poster itself has to feature the line “Never Could Stand That Dog” (a key line within the story).
First and foremost I created my typeface based around fusing the Royal credence expressed in a ligature based Serif display face and combining it with a bold, brash, harsh San-Serif display face. To put the typeface into context I decided that the Uppercase of the typeface should be more reflective of the Upperclass- ligature and serif based throughout the case; whilst the lowercase was reflective of the lowerclass by removing the ligatures and serifs.
This then led onto the creation of the poster- the story itself is about the breakdown of “Frank” and as the story evolves he exacts his revenge on his life by killing his wife and destroying his house. The poster is based around this unveiling of destruction- using wood as the medium, the further down the layers the more corrosive the message gets until it is entirely illegible and destroyed.
Day Dream Believer
Project for Liverpool John Moores
For other projects please visit: www.chris-nixon.com
Day Dream Believer
How do you work? How do you come up with your ideas? Come up with a concept that best rationalises your train of thought and prsent this in the most suitable manner.
Taking the phrase “Day Dream Believer” I created a 3-Dimensional poster to reflect my train of thought. Often letting my thoughts run wild and gaining inspiration from my surroundings I thought that a Dream-catcher style would best reflect my thought process.
 Testaments- Treat Others){kind=link}
