Artist statement

My name is Saagar Parmar and I’m a Graphic designer/Artist studying at the University of East London. All my life I have lived in London and grew up in a Town called Harrow, born in July 1990. Whilst I was in high school the only subject I enjoyed going to was Art, Design and graphics. Apart from this I didn’t enjoy any other subjects. I went on to studying Art and Design at college which I’ve been studying now for the past four years to make up my GCSE grades via doing a BTEC national diploma. I have always been creative in many ways from not only Art and Graphics I also enjoy decorating and getting my own designs printed on clothes. During my time at college I really enjoyed all aspects of design, but most of all had enjoyed the communication and creativity aspects of Graphic Design so I decided to go on further and study BA (Hons) In Graphic design which I’m currently studying at the University of East London.

One of my main achievements in life is the fact that after leaving high school with no grades and no aim in life I turned my life around and was able to start from scratch and built his way up to this day where I am now studying graphic design at university. One of my greatest achievements until now was an assignment on my Level 2 course in Art and Design where I designed a sculpture of a DNA cell with red blood cells falling off it. This sculpture was selected to be on show at a local museum in Watford and was also in the local newspaper. This was a very proud moment and showed me that I was very capable of furthering a career in design.

The Medias and Techniques I enjoy using mostly on my work are all sorts of different Pens, pencils, paints, spray paints and paint pens. I also enjoy working on designs digitally by using different Adobe programs as this helps me to test and experiment to see what works best. Further from this I love to go out now and again with my camera and do a bit of photography to improve my skills.  Since I was young I have really enjoyed using spray paints and paint pens as it was a hobby now I have the resources and skills to hopefully pursue a career in graphic design.

I have various interests and hobbies outside of university. I am extremely keen on visiting new countries to understand their cultures and languages. I have visited India, Dubai, America, Africa and Various places within Europe. I also enjoy sightseeing as this inspires me to make designs of my own. I visit’s Museums in London and enjoy viewing work produced by artists, and designers, as this helps me to understand how design has grown over the years. One of my favourite museums is the design museum because I feel that it shows design in a much more modernised way.

Examples of my work

1 . Name : University interview poster

Media:Photoshop

Date:14/01/11

Height:42

Width:30

2 . Name : Re-designed the pound coin

Media: Photoshop

Date:14/10/11

Width:42

Height:60

3 . Name: Wallpaper Design

Media : Photoshop

Date:25/10/11

Width:21

Height:30

4. Name :Self Portrait

Media: Stencil and Spray paint

Date:23/03/10

Width:55

Height:54

5 . Chocolate wrapper design

Media: Drawing then Photoshop.

Date:28/12/11

Width:21

Height:30

Creative Review

Creative review is another monthly magazine that’s really interested me. Creative review is a magazine based on Art and design culture. The main aim of this magazine is to attract and advertise to design agencies, illustrators, photographers, students, digital designers and many more. This magazine showcase’s some of the best Typography, photography, design and illustration. I think Creative review is an excellent magazine which was founded in 1980 by Centaur media and now is subscribers in over eighty countries. This magazine was first pointed out to me from a lecturer and ever since I have always recommended it as a good source of knowledge and everyday use. Creative review also points out some of the most interesting designers and also some great work. I personally feel that this magazine is a powerful research source and has lead me to researching on some great designers and illustrators, not only that but has also kept me updated on what’s going on currently in the graphic design industry. Creative review also does award schemes which is the Annual and the photography annual which points out the best pieces of work and designers throughout the year. Creative review can also be found on YouTube and face book which I thought was brilliant just in case you can’t get hold of your monthly copy.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/current-issue

William Morris

William Morris is a great artist well known for his typefaces and his unique designs, he was also known for his textile designing, architect work, writing ability, libertarian socialist and wallpaper designer. William Morris created great wallpaper designs which are really natural and were very specific with his fine patterns. I feel that his wallpapers have a mixture of historic and modern patterns mixed together which really gives it a fine finish. He repeated his patterns and used different color's which made his work a lot more attractive. Design is something that interests me and his work has influenced me into creating my own designs. One day i hope to be as successful as William Morris. William Morris also specializes in poetry writing and fiction translation of ancient and medieval texts which differed him from other artist's. This idea inspires me and makes me want to design wallpaper with poetry mixed with modern patterns which i think would be something different. Another designer who impresses me is Vivienne West wood, her designs were simple however were not as eye-catching as William Morris's designs. Vivienne West wood tends to use more dull colors and patterns hence why i was attracted to his designs.

www.william-morris.co.uk

Illustration Web

Illustration web has been representing Artists and Designers since 1929 which is a great research source as it involves detailed information about a great range of Artists, illustrators, Animators, Designers and their styles of work. This website has influenced me in many ways hence I have started to experiment more within design. I tend to visit this website during every project that I work on to see if I can find a new Artist/illustrator that will influence me towards a great piece of work. This web page also has a News page which has various articles about recent work that has been done by artists and illustrators.

Katherine Asher is an illustrator whose work has really inspired me, she specialises in figurative work. I really like her work because of the use of simple colours, lines and shades that she uses to show everyday objects and also movement. She produces a variety of work starting from food and drink, medical, nature, conceptual, character design, portraits, storyboard, line work and fashion & beauty. I thought this was really interesting as she produces work on many different things by just using Plain simple media’s mostly using inks and water colours. Below is one of her amazing pieces of work which she produced for the Olympics 2012 Gymnastics.

http://www.illustrationweb.com/

Eye magazine

Eye magazine is an amazing Magazine which is based on the review of Graphic design and visual culture. The reason I chose Eye magazine is because it’s something I was introduced to this year by my module teacher Stephen Barrette who had asked my class to pair up and deeply research into the Eye Magazine. We were asked to re-design the front cover and three spreads of a magazine, all based on someone that studies art at the University of East London. I found this project really interesting as I got to meet a new artist and got to research a magazine about Interesting design which I thought was a really helpful source of inspiration. I also really enjoyed looking at the pages which were covered in new and old designs I thought these were beautifully laid out and designed. Overall I think the eye magazine was a brilliant magazine and would definitely like to subscribe to this magazine. I feel that it was definitely add value to my studies as I would be kept up to date on designs and reviews. I would also suggest this magazine to people of all ages as a research source and something to look at regularly if studying Art or Design.

http://www.eyemagazine.com/magazine/issue-83

Salvador Dali

One of the latest museums I visited was Tate Britain, which I tend to visit at least once a year due to set projects. Whilst walking through the gallery I saw many beautiful pieces of work done by different artists and designers but a specific piece caught my eye. It was a piece of work done by Salvador Dali called the “Metamorphosis of Narcissus 1937”. Salvador Dali specializes in Painting, drawing, photography, sculpture writing and film. I really found his paintings unusual and eye catching so I went and researched his work. I also really liked one of his best pieces of work called “The persistence of memory” painted in 1931. I really found this piece interesting because it got me thinking about what the picture was actually about. After researching what the picture was about I found that the melting watches represents Salvador Dali’s Theory of “softness” and “Hardness”. This piece left me thinking and got me motivated so I started putting more thought and feeling into my work to produce unusual pieces, as I want people to think about what my painting are saying too. I also feel that Salvador’s paintings are complete as even the background tells a story.

http://thedali.org/home.php

"Metamorphosis of Narcissus 1937".