the blurb for the about page

About



So, Bess Hills, how did this project come about?



“Do you mind if I ramble?



I am studying Graphic Design at Plymouth College of Art and was given a brief for the final project that was so wide open I went down all kinds of avenues (most of which long and winding, but ultimately dead). I had recently changed courses from illustration & Print (because I had managed to go an entire year obsessing about type and not once making a drawing), but was struggling with the concept of Graphic Design as a subject. What is a Graphic Designer? What do they do? Did this mean I would have to go into advertising? And the Bill Hicks quote came into my head; “If anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself... there's no fucking joke coming. You are Satan's spawn, filling the world with bile and garbage, you are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourselves - it's the only way to save your fucking soul.”

Funny. But I don't like the idea of filling the world with bile and garbage.

I was also writing an essay on “The Pursuit of Happiness in Design Practice”. In my previous life I was a metalsmith/enamellist/designer-maker, and I kind of burnt myself out. (Hence going back to school at the grand old age of thirty four) So I was interested in the ways creative people managed to stay creative. One thing that kept being mentioned was doing “good”. So I kind of had a charity as a basis of an idea. Not much, but it was a start.

I was thinking about a cancer charity, but then I got talking to my Dad who suggested Alzheimer's. Then Terry Pratchett did his speech on The Dimbleby Lectures, and I really started looking into the subject. Terry Pratchett entitled his announcement of the disease to the world as “an embuggerance”– a military term to describe a minor set back. I liked the light hearted approach he made to such a dreadful disease. Personally I find myself shying away from subjects that make me feel uncomfortable, it's not something I am proud of, but I don't think I am not alone in feeling a certain amount of 'charity fatigue'.

In my research for the various dementia charities I was confronted with an awful lot of grey and lilac graphics. I am not a fan of cliché colour application (for the record, I also have issues with breast cancer awareness being pink), and it occurred to me that there were a lack of strategies that would be able to grab the attention of people like me. If the Alzheimer's disease needs funding, then why is the marketing all colour coded for one demographic? Surely, the people who need to be made aware of this disease are the wage packeted majority? The people whose parents or grandparents are affected, and the people who could benefit in the future from research now.

So my idea was as vague as ‘something light that isn't going to scare people away’, and ‘something with proper colour’.

Not much. But it was something.

Then I heard a song by Maxence Cyrin, a remake of “Where is my Mind?” by the Pixies, on the piano, and I loved it. It got me thinking about all the phrases we say to explain our eejitness in different situations. I knew I wanted to use typography in some way, I like the effect in which words almost become images when set in the right font, how letters on a surface can engage the viewer purely by aesthetics. I played around with phrases but something was lacking. The human element.

In desperation I asked friends and strangers to draw me an elephant. I didn't really know why (apart from the adage that ‘an elephant never forgets’), but I felt I needed to do something. The elephants were essentially another dead end, but indirectly led me to a kind of pulling my hair out ‘oh, what am I to do’ kind of manic doodling, which culminated in the “Where is my Mind” stick man that I developed to illustrate and reiterate the message.

I wanted to make products that are not only useful, but that have some connection with Alzheimer's, The calendar was an obvious choice and I had a lot of fun with it. I agonised for a long time over what holidays and otherwise important days to include, were space not of a premium I would have included more, but to me, space to write my own dates was paramount.

There is something rather lovely about getting work back from the printers, it is a process I would like to repeat. The notebook, Christmas card and T-Shirt fed directly from the calendar, keeping a solid theme running. I initially didn't want to print T-Shirts, feeling they were an over–done merchandising tool; but the designs just shouted 'T-SHIRTS!' at me - and you can't argue with design doing what it wants to do.

I had initially had some ideas for strategies that were less predictable, arguably more creative, for instance some light projections inspired by Jenny Holzer. In the end, it did not seem appropriate. I wanted a non-gimmicky series of objects that people would desire and enjoy, light projections just didn't fit. I can, however, see how this project could be developed, for instance into motion graphics for advertising, the stick man could really become alive. There is a wealth of products that could be developed from this one idea.



ANYONE LIKE TO BACK ME?

Anyone? Anyone?





I have always been concerned that by making light of the disease I would appear insensitive. I am not trying to belittle the seriousness of dementia, merely trying to connect everyday situations with the disease, hopefully culminating with a more dementia–aware society, and a society that looks after their elderly is a better one.”







I'm sorry I asked