Inspiration

A week ago I finished my last university assignment, and after three years it's all come to an end. But rather than resorting to burning my books, discarding my essays and drinking myself into an oblivion I decided to give some of my work a second life.

Taking the essays from which I had received the most positive feedback and marks (firsts), I decided to incorporate the copy of the essays into booklets. The benefit as I see are two fold; firstly it will allow me to gain a better understudying and appreciation of Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, and secondly it will provide me with a way of presenting my work in a more creative manner. 

What sparked my interest in developing these booklets came from examining the work graphics design students were showing at the UWE degree show. Many of these students had created simple yet stylish A5 sized booklets, which furthered my thinking in how I could create something similar as a way of transforming my favourite essays into something more conceptual.  

Whilst I would never profess to being an out and out creative - creativity has always been part of my DNA, with my brother being a graphic designer and my father working as a creative director in advertising. 

Taking the inspiration of creating a booklet from the UWE design students, I began to further research using various websites to find other inspirational material - in particular using Design Inspiration - that would help me in the creation of my own design work. 

Is Culture Really For Everyone?

In a recent keynote speech in Bristol, Culture Secretary Sajid Javid proclaimed that culture should be for everyone regardless of his or her class or racial background. While Javid may have commented on the “world-beating cultural scene” of Britain being key to the increase of billionaires living London, his message firmly concentrated on making culture accessible to everyone and shared throughout the country – opposed to fixating on London.

The debate about culture being inherently associated with a particular class has been well debated throughout media and cultural studies. For instance the British cultural critic F. R. Leavis (1895 – 1978) firmly believed that only the most intellectual held the cultural capital to truly understand ‘real’ valuable culture. 

Throughout his life Leavis focused on traditional English literature, commonly regarding the likes of Joesph Conrad and Jane Austin as key intellectual cultural critics. His views of popular media tended to be severely negative, viewing it as a way of pleasing the ignorance of the masses and allowing them to merely escape their mundane lives – a similar view to this is reflected in Audley Huxley’s novel Brave New World, as mentioned in a previous post.  

The views of F. R. Leavis are very much of its time, with many aspects of popular media now receiving higher accolades – think for instance how prestigious the Oscars are observed as being.  Moreover in many aspects of media within recent history, the idea of coming from a lower-class background has added value. An example of this can be found in many genres of music requiring the artist to have a working class heritage as way of substantializing their ‘realness’. This is particularly notable within the early punk scene as wells the Manchester indie scene.

While it is likely that Leavis would have overlooked the cultural value these types of music if he was alive to see them, later cultural theorists – particularly the likes of Richard Hoggart, Stuart Hall and others who became associated with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies – have noted how those from working class backgrounds have their own personal cultural capital.

In many ways this begins to cause issues with the Culture Secretary’s remark that culture should be for everyone, because to a degree one’s class (and in some cases ethnicity) does play a major role in shaping them as a cultural critique.

Bristol itself is quite notable for attempting to spread its culture throughout the city – this can be observed in the rise of Bansky, many of the art galleries having free entry and hosting events such as the giant waterslide running down Park Street.