Summative Statement

This module has been a steady learning curve for me, I have had successes along the way and realisations about who I am as an illustrator and how this is going to affect my future practice.

One of my aims for this module was to improve my drawing skills and I think there has been a progression in how I draw. Honestly, I don’t see this as a ‘final’ point for me style-wise as I don’t think my drawings will ever stop evolving. I had conflicting feelings about dividing my practice this year and I am so glad I didn’t because I realise now that having different ways of working shows that I am a versatile illustrator. I feel like I am on my way to mastering a process, combining analogue media and my improved digital skills, that is adaptable to a wide range of commercial briefs. 

Although applying my work to products will inevitably be a part of my future practice, I didn’t want this to be the only thing I do and therefore I chose to respond to briefs in editorial, publishing, packaging and public art. Live briefs and competitions have dominated this module but I have somehow managed to tailor them to what I like to do, working with subject matter like natural forms and food. I don’t feel like I have missed out on having ‘passion projects’ along the way because I have genuinely become passionate about the work I am doing anyway. 

My final major project was my way of capitalising on the strengths I had identified within my work over the course of my degree and channelling this into professional and high quality outcomes that I am proud to show in my portfolio. 

Project Report

Final Resolutions for Studio Briefs

Updated Statement of Intent

End of Module Evaluation

FMP - Final Outcomes and Evaluation

Editorial Outcomes

1 Aromatics

+ Colours effectively show warmth.

+ The layout is structured and simple and there is a contrast created between this and the natural forms of the subject.

- Although the image appears warming, it could have been enhanced by contrasting it with some cooler colours. 

- The illustration doesn’t follow the order of the information. 

2 Smoothie Recipe

+ The layout has moved on from the original. 

+ The colours are refreshing and bright, perfect for the subject. 

- I want to try to use a palette with less colours in total. 

3 Happy Kitchen 

+ The image looks fresh and bright, fitting in with the theme of ‘happy’. 

+ I like the use of unrealistic colours and a more limited colour palette, the individual components feel more cohesive as a set when they share colour. 

+ I like how the layout is based on stripes but the images are the stripes, it keeps the focus where it should be.

- I didn’t include an illustration relevant to each point made in the article. 

4 Make More Of It

+ The colour scheme is bright and positive, it isn’t totally true to the content but close enough for the subject to be clear. 

- Radish and steak layouts are a bit too similar and the colours for these makes this even more obvious. Maybe one should have been a grid of four instead of nine. 

5 Amazing Base

+ Adapted my style well to fit new subject matter, no longer working with natural forms. 

+ Subtle and neutral colour scheme fits theme of article and Scandi style. 

+ The design is adaptable to fit difference spaces and purposes. 

- I’m not sure whether this level of detail would be visible in a printed magazine which isn’t super high quality.

- I don’t like the shine I added to the circles, this should have been done with dots like the rest of the design. It looks to smooth in comparison. 

- Overall I feel this is the least successful outcome so far and its relevance to the theme is questionable too. 

6 Earth Tones

+ Strong colour palette (without using Adobe Kuler).

+ Balanced composition.

- Too much variation in line weight due to re-sizing of my drawings. The differences are really noticeable between the chair and the cup beneath it. 

7 Tiny Houses 

+ The colour scheme was a good choice. I think it could be viewed as a warm or cold image, depending on the outlook of the viewer, which is perfect for the article. 

+ I think there is just the right amount of detail here and it reflects the simplicity of the lifestyle.

- The image could have filled the allocated space a little better, maybe a grid of 4 x 2 would have given better proportions. 

- Some of my lines are quite wonky, I see how this gives the drawing character and makes it feel handmade but my inner perfectionist feels like this could have been done better.  

8 Indoor Gardening

+ I think the colour scheme works really well and would appeal to the younger part of my audience, which is relevant as these are probably the people who don’t have a garden. 

+ The image itself is fresh looking and simple, I think it would catch someone’s attention. 

9 Aromatherapy 

+ I am getting more confident with colour now and I think this is a good example of me choosing the right colours for the purpose of the illustration. 

+ The layout is fresh and clean and the simplicity of it is relevant to the theme of the article. 

+ Similar to the previous article, there is a good contrast between natural form and geometry which relates back to the Scandi infleunce. 

- There is a bit of a gap in the levels of detail, the ylang ylang flower (3rd from right) looks much less detailed than the clary sage (far right).

Product Applications

I wanted to show that the illustrations I created for editorial purposes were transferable to other formats. I think the simplicity of the tea towel designs are ideal for a Scandi inspired kitchen, they are all based on healthy foods and despite the different layouts, they work well as a set. There is much more scope for applications here on other kitchen textiles like oven mitts and aprons, but also hard surfaces like food containers or placemats. 

The patterns were more difficult to get 'right' because having lots of things in a small space does make things feel cluttered and busy which goes against my aims. Working with the grid format in the plants print made this feel more ordered and controlled, and I carried this through to the second example too. The third pattern of the houses is the busiest of them all but I think the structured nature of the imagery itself helps to make this feel a little less crazy. I do prefer this design in the more pared down colour schemes but still decided to include the brighter one as I thought it showed the potential for broader application, like children's bedding/furnishings for example where colours tend to be brighter. 

I mocked up a couple of my designs onto various products around the home and I think they fit in rather well. I tried to get a range including bedding, cushions, tiles/accent wall, prints and towels. Realistically, these designs could form the basis of collections where patterns are applied to homewares, but also spot illustrations from the patterns could be applied too. 

Overall I feel like this project has been a success. I have definitely increased my confidence by producing work that has a place within the real world in a number of formats. I feel proud of the outcomes I have made in response to this brief and I am glad I decided to give myself some freedom with the articles I worked with because I feel like just working on articles related directly to Scandinavia would have produced some very different outcomes. The range I have produced shows the versatility of my drawing style and my ability to take inspiration from lifestyle and design to produce illustrations with a little more depth. I admit that the illustrations I have produced are not groundbreaking, they don't have deep concepts and strong opinions like typical editorial illustrations. I am primarily a drawer and image maker so the approach I took to this brief suited my practice much better than a concept driven approach would have. 

Final Revision of FMP Brief

Homewares Research

'Nordic House' and 'John Lewis - Scandi Collection'

I recently picked up these catalogues and wanted to use them as inspiration for the product range I am proposing. They are all about Scandi/Nordic inspired homewares so this is a good starting point. 

• The colours are very subtle with a few accents of brighter ones. 
• A lot of greys and blues, and white of course. 
• Take inspiration from the outdoors. 
• Think about the KIND of products that might reflect this lifestyle (candles, storage solutions, outdoor furniture) and things that I wouldn’t usually think of (fabric napkins, table runner, tiles, etc). 

Using these images from these magazines as inspiration will be particularly useful as they are for current product ranges, so they are on trend and are selling now. Obviously I will still be taking influence from all my previous research too. 

Finals Development (7-9/9)

For my final three illustrations, I chose online articles to show how my images could work on screen as well as in print. Because of this, I considered I may need to simplify the images so detail doesn’t get lost when viewed on a small device (on a phone for example).

7. Tiny Houses

• This relates to my research into Scandinavia because it is about living in a small space. 
• The first roughs I did were of interior spaces, thinking about how to get every element of the home featured within this small box. But the layout was not working and actually made the home look too spacious which wasn’t relevant to all of the article content. 
• Instead I chose to show the exterior of the houses as this didn’t give away an opinion about life inside them.  
• This article discusses opinions of people who have lived in tiny houses and there are some positive and negative responses. I felt like this should be reflected in my imagery through colour. 
• The combination of orange and blue kind of shows a warm and cold side of the houses to reflect this. 

8. Indoor Gardening

• This relates to my research into IKEA because a lot of the information about living in a small space suggests bringing plans inside. This could also be related to apartment living and not having outside space. 
• From my research I realised the contrast between the geometry and natural forms in Scandinavian homes and wanted to emphasise this in my drawings. 
• I took inspiration from terrariums which seem to be very on trend at the moment and used their angular shapes to contrast with the natural curves of the plants. 
• I used these angular shapes to also draw some plant pots (viewed from above), it plays with the perspective of the image and shows the components aren’t all being viewed from the same angle. 
• Seeing as this was an image of strong contrasts I thought I would experiment with a bolder colour scheme. This is overall a more modern approach to Scandi design. 

9. Essential Oils

• This article relates to the calming and relaxing atmosphere that has cropped up so many times in my research. It’s more about wellbeing and looking after yourself which the Scandinavians seem to be good at. 
• I wasn’t sure what all of these things actually looked like so I did some sketches from reference before moving on to layout ideas. 
• I kept things simple and tried to take the stripes approach like I did with my previous food illustration. 
• I created my own colour scheme this time, merging numerous images together and selecting the relevant colours from each. I am getting more confident with colour. 
• Stripes experiments - the first attempts were just too overwhelming. This was meant to be promoting stress relief and sleep and it wasn’t working. 
• I simplified things down to just one block of colour behind each image which was much more effective. The colours help determine what the content is and the low opacity makes this more subtle and gentle. 

Finals Development (4-6/9)

4. Make More Of It

• This relates to my research into Scandinavia as it is about reducing waste and being economical. 
• I wanted to keep the same page layout for this and just draw images to replace the square photographs. 
• I did want to change the colour scheme. I did some colour research and found a scheme that was bright and contained the relevant colours for the content. I planned to keep the imagery black and white but on a coloured background which filled the square space. 
• I am starting to figure out a basic process, especially with drawing, but it is in the last few stages of editing that I make things a bit different. 

5. Amazing Base

• Moving away from food and on to a new theme, I feel I have solidified a process now within which I can make adaptations to make things a bit different. I felt like this feature fits the Scandi theme because it’t about simple and natural makeup - although I do feel like this is a bit of a tenuous link. 
• I struggled adjusting to drawing these products a little bit as I had been drawing a lot of natural forms and now needed to draw straight lines and geometric shapes. 
• I laid out my drawings in the original photo composition but it looked unorganised and needed re-structuring. 
• I added some colour, sticking to flesh tones, but this wasn’t working, the page looked too plain. I tried adding colour behind the images which I liked more, but the layout didn’t perfectly fit a grid structure so it still felt disjointed. 
• I tried adding some more detail with some simple stripes and I think this gives the impression of the reflection of light off the products. 
• I shifted the colour like I did previously but this time it included the dot work I had done, so it meant there was now black and white dots. I thought this might make the image look too busy but I think it shows the shine and sparkle of some of the products. 
• I reorganised my drawings and tried it with a striped background which I also like as an alternative layout. This could also be used as a header for a web article is rotated. 

6. Earth Tones

• This is a double page spread and I am only fully illustrating one page as I feel it is important for the reader to be able to see real product photographs in this kind of feature. This type of furniture relate to Scandinavian design, everything is quite simple and elegant and the ‘earth tones’ show how the designs have been influenced by the outside world. The colours are very warming which is relevant to my research into Carl Larsson’s paintings of interiors. 
• I drew these products from the existing image and a few more from the links provided at the bottom of the right hand page. 
• Layout - I tried to make the drawings tesselate to make a balanced layout and I feel like I succeeded. There is a good variation of scale. 
• I used colours from the existing full age image to form my colour palette. 
• The white background looked too bright but the grey option made the whole image too heavy. 
• Adding blue to the colour palette brightened the image but still kept that warm feel. 
• The blue was also a better background colour as it reflected the blues on the opposite page. The lighter option made the whole spread appear fresher. 

Finals Development (1-3/9)

I have been working on these images one at a time, completing one and then moving on to the next. I am hoping to see some progress and development between my first and last illustrations. I have chosen to work in this way because it best mimics working to editorial briefs, you are working to a short deadline and you can’t go back and change things once they are complete. 

1. Aromatic Spices

• This page about winter dishes and warming spices relates to Scandi lifestyle because of the very cold weather and the warming tones they use in their homes to contrast this. This feels like the same but in food-form. 
• Drawing style - controlled, elements of detail but not too much, just enough to give an idea of shape and form. 
• Layout  - I arranged each component as if fitting them into a grid format. 
• Colour - I liked the original colour palette of the page so decided to carry this through to my illustrations. I used Adobe Kuler to get a colour palette. 
• I tried a shape based approach to adding colour but this didn’t turn out how I expected. It made the design look more cluttered which was counterproductive. 
• I chose to fill the shapes normally with some parts kept blank.
• I liked the textured background as it added to the warmth of the page and made it look like my drawings were done on brown paper. 

2. Berry Smoothie

• This recipe relates to Scandinavian lifestyle because it is simple, uses natural ingredients and is healthy. 
• I continued with the grid format as I had used before, using guides on Photoshop to make things accurate. 
• I used Adobe Kuler to get a colour palette from the original image because I didn’t think the content of the image would be recognisable without realistic colours (especially the berries where colour is their only distinguishing feature). 
• I experimented a bit in an attempt to bring in some textile influence but this made the colours too weak. 
• I like the shapes of colour without the texture, they look much neater than my attempt in the previous article. I am still not sure this is the best option though, I still think the normally coloured drawings look much cleaner and fresher which fits with my aims better. 
• While playing around I shifted my colour layer slightly and I like the highlight and shadow this creates. I feel like this adds another element of detail with very little effort, you could say it was ‘efficient design’. This is clearly relevant to Scandi design principles but is also good for editorial briefs as time is often limited. 

3. Happy Kitchen

• I wanted to simplify my structure even more and try to use stripes as my layout for this article. 
• Colour - I chose a picture from the IKEA website for a bright colour palette. I wanted to move away from representational colours to work with something more limited and see what I could do. 
• I tried applying the colours in striped but felt like my drawings were lost within a mass of colour. This was improved a lot by removing the background, there was more space for them to breathe. 
• I tried the reverse of this as well but having my drawings plain white made them look flat and uninteresting against the background. 
• Instead I continued with the process I had used before by adding colour and then shifting it out of place. 
• I understand that bright colours are uplifting but they can be overwhelming when used in excess. 
• So far this is the outcome I am most pleased with! 

Editorial Roughs

I have selected some articles from the many magazines I have acquired, I cut out the ones I felt could be relevant to my project and then filtered these down to these examples which I felt could work with my illustrations. I have considered layout, colour and content in these roughs. I understand that layout wouldn't be my job normally but for the purpose of adapting these articles to fit my work, it needed to be considered. 

Aromatics - Tesco Magazine

• This article fits in with the the Scandinavian theme as it is about adding warmth to the winter. This is evident in Scandinavian design when they use warm colours to contrast the indoors with the cold weather outside. I could bring this idea in through my illustrations and use of colour. It will all be about contrast. 
• Quite a 'homely' feel as the current article uses rustic imagery and is about home cooking. 

Tom Hunt - Foodism Magazine

• "It's really about re-learning to value our food, connecting with nature, and wasting nothing."
• This fits in with the Scandinavian concept of making the most of what you have, especially when related to the natural world. Reducing waste and being efficient with resources is also a relevant theme. 
• The illustrations I would do for this article would be the four steps of making the porridge. They would be kept quite simple as they are almost instructional - I will use the colour scheme from the existing article including the blue and the warm rusty orange of the apron (on another page of the same article). 

Amazing Base - You Magazine

• I am going to keep the colours in this article very neutral, focussing mainly on shape and line to make the impact. 
• I think this illustrations for this feature could be influenced related to Scandinavian lifestyle as the products are natural tones and give the impression of simple makeup. 

Make More Of It - Tesco Magazine

• This article is all about reducing waste and making something out of what you have - an ethos that Scandinavians are renowned for. They use what they have - an abundance of wood for example. 
• I am thinking about re-doing the colour scheme for this article and simplifying the compositions of each image. 

Blissful Berry Smoothie - You Magazine

• Healthy eating and natural ingredients. The documentary I watched about Sweden mentioned that 'if your house is your home then your body is your temple'. 
• I aim to draw the ingredients for this smoothies in a structured format. It will contrast natural forms with a grid arrangement showing how natural things can be used to make 'organised' beauty. 

Happy Kitchen - You Magazine

• Similar to above, I intend to show the relevant drawings in a structured format alongside the text. 
• I thought this article was relevant as its all about being happy in the home and it promotes eating natural ingredients. 

Nordic Fare - Boundless Magazine by CSMA

• This short feature is about Nordic food so obviously it has a certain relevance to my project. Despite this I am not sure whether I want to include this article in my final set because it is directly about my theme rather than just having a similar theme. 

Help Birds This Winter - Boundless by CSMA

• Some ideas to help birds in the winter, this has relations to Scandinavian lifestyle as they care a lot for the natural world around them and have to deal with very harsh weather conditions in the winter. 
• Again, I could use the concept of contrasting warmth/cold or homeliness/hostility to influence my illustrations. 

Scandinavian Beauty Brands - Refinery29 (online)

• I found this article online about Scandinavian beauty brands. Although this is directly related to Scandinavia, I think I could learn from the aesthetics of these products and how to translate this into drawings. I also want to include the focus on natural ingredients into my image. 

Tiny Homes - The Guardian (online)

• This connects to the idea of simplified living, the connection to the state housing that was very small (often just one or two rooms for a family), making the most of your space and also feeling closer to nature. It also fits in with the 'flatpack' aesthetic of Scandinavia. 
• I intend to use a structured layout for this illustration to represent the 'built' element but contrast this with the natural forms the houses sit within. 

Earth Tones - You Magazine

• I thought about drawing the content of the page with individual pieces of homeware, but I realised that people would want to see the real item instead of a representation of it. So I have decided to illustrate the opposite page - instead of a photographed scene, I will draw the items in a grid-like format, hopefully tessellating to form a balanced layout. 
• I will use the existing colour scheme  because it works with the colouring of the actual products on display. 

IKEA Research

I looked through the IKEA website for some more visual research into style and colour. 

Structure and Organisation 

• Efficiency and making the most of space. 
• Shapes tesselate and often work on a grid format. 
• The photo wall is an example of the structure being a little looser but still shows a grid-like layout. 
• I can use this information when considering the layout of my illustrations. This should help with formatting the articles for presentation too because layout isn’t really my strong point. 
• The photos taken from above made me think about the angles I should draw my subjects from. My drawings don’t need to look like they are a part of a real life scene, they can just be a collection of objects. The jug, for example, would not normally be viewed from the side in a photo taken from above as it would usually be stood up. 

Colour

• Some images caught my eye so I have saved them to put through Adobe Kuler and extract some colour palettes from them. 
• A lot of them are a contrast between neutrals and bright accents, this is something to consider. 

Themes 

• Outdoors Indoors - bringing plants indoors seems like a common theme on the IKEA blog. It is part of the relaxed living environment and relates back to my Applied Illustration module last year. I think the natural forms contrast well with the structured furniture that IKEA sells. Scandinavian style seems to feature a lot of contrasts like natural/man-made and warm/cool. 
• Quiet Time - There are strong themes of relaxation, wellbeing and time for yourself, especially in the bedroom features. Everything looks clean, simple and fresh. 
• Small Space Living - Again, this connects back to an organised space and being efficient. Thinking of ways to make things compact. 
• Lagom - Linking back to where the idea for this project all began, lifestyle principles of different countries. Lagom means ‘just the right amount’ which is something to consider with details, I don’t want to go overboard but don’t want to keep things too simple. 

Carl Larsson - Artist Research

As an extension of my findings from the BBC documentary series I watched about Scandinavian art, I have decided to analyse a few of the paintings of Carl Larsson, one of the key inspirations for the 'IKEA aesthetic' and what we distinctively recognise as Scandi design.

'Flowers On The Windowsill'

• An interest in nature is expressed with the young girl tending to the indoor plants. 
• There is a large window in the room making the most of the light and the view probably. 
• The house looks lived in, it isn't a show home, it is functional.  
• The layout of the painting and the room is structured and shape based, built up predominantly from rectangles but broken up by the curve of the table and the natural forms of the plants.
• The colours appear warm, probably as a contrast to the bleak weather outside. There is a sense of cosiness and warmth even though the decor is minimal. 

'Cosy Corner'

• The colours here are cooler than the first painting. There are still subtle orange tones complimenting the blues though. 
• Again, the space is lived in. The scene is homely and the dog sleeping gives a sense of calm and relaxation. 
• It seems to be a light and airy space and you can see the shadows cast by the sunshine probably coming in from a large window out of view. 
• There are geometric patterns, mainly stripes, and also the natural forms of the plants - these were both themes I picked up on in my fashion and textiles research. 

'Model Writing Postcards'

• The human form in this setting emphasises the geometry of the scene. the structure of the furniture and room itself is based on rectangles. Even the placing of the easel and painting fits to this grid structure. 
• The colour of the table stands out. It is a pop of colour in an otherwise 'bland' room. 
• The green, blue and orange/red are all bright in comparison to the wood panelling of the rest of the room. I am unsure whether the green is a wall or a view of the nature outside, but either way this is very eye-catching and fits in with the idea of Scandinavians really appreciating their natural surroundings. 

Summary
I can see how these paintings have influenced IKEA. Some of it is very plain and some quite loud but when put together they balance and form a distinctive aesthetic. I am thinking for my illustrations, maybe I should stick to mainly monochrome/neutral drawings but then select a few spot colours to tie them all together and accentuate points of specific interest. I could use Adobe Kuler to extract colour palettes from images like these. Thinking ahead to my final show, my work needs to work together as a whole so this might be a way of bringing everything together. 

The Art of Scandinavia - Sweden

Notes from BBC documentary 'The Art of Scandinavia - Part 3/3 Sweden' by Andrew Graham-Dixon.

• The Vasa is a Swedish warship representative of ambitions to build an empire. 
• It was ornate and an early 17th century symbol of royal military power, grand and autocratic. 
• It represents everything that Sweden no longer stands for. 
• The ship sank and is realistically an object of failure, but it was salvaged in 1961 and is placed in a museum at the centre of their national history. 
• The art of Sweden in the early 20th century was based on the dread and anxiety about the modern age. 
• Designers and architects chose to embrace the modern during the remainder of the century. 
• Sweden showed how a perfect world could be build. 

• The Swedish prince invited artists and academics to his inauguration at his palace which was different to a typical 'royal' occasion. 
• He was a prince but he was a bohemian. He painted and collected paintings.
• His collections included paintings of women naked in nature - a return to the ideal life of 'eden'. 
• His own paintings were based on the natural landscape. 
• 'Silence cannot conceal anything.'
• Modernism in Sweden was about the shock of the new but without the trauma. 
• Scandinavian modernism has less energy than elsewhere. 
• Scandinavians were leaders in architecture and design which led to social revolution in Sweden. 
• Craftsmanship - some furniture was too rich and magnificent and new generations did not like the idea of belongings as status symbols. This began a new chapter of Swedish design. 
• Functionalism - streamlining everyday objects could change the view of the world. 
• Striving for pure functionality and cutting out any description could lead to a new idea of beauty. 
• The beginning of a new value system. 
• 'Intellectual hygiene' was to purge your mins of desire and think of only object you actually need. 
• If people were to only buy things they consider simple, necessary and functional then then world would be a better place. 
• 'You don't sit on the sofa. The simplicity of the sofa sits within you.'
• The designs were affordable, it was modernism for the common man. 
• Social housing was small so making the most of space was important. 
• New social democrat government in (1932) was revolutionary for society. Classes will merge, everyone's basic needs will be met, building a society of collaboration and helpfulness. 

• Factories can be seen as oppressive to labouring/working classes but Swedes thought that factories could be run harmoniously. Mass production could be good for everyone. 
• Wood - an abundance in Sweden. Mass production did not have to be heavy and concrete, basing it around this sympathetic material made it more human and homely. 
• This was the birth of the 'flat pack' aesthetic.
• IKEA - Scandinavian modernism for the masses. 
• A respect for the simple Scandi design traditions.  
• Carl Larsson (watercolour painter) used bright colours in his paintings of house interiors with simple furniture. 
• Instead of being purely appreciated as art, people looked to these paintings for interior design inspiration, especially IKEA.

• If your house is your home then your body is your temple. 
• Good diet, exercise and sunshine. 

• Nordic Noir Grafitti - not like graffiti art seen in other cities. 
• This has no joy and is about modern society being seen as a 'hopeless labyrinth.' 
• It shows anguish at the modern age, similar to Munch's 'Scream'. 
• It is a battle against the failings of Swedish society, although it is hard to find these, even in the suburbs of the city.
• It is not a utopia but the equality and harmony that exists in Swedish society magnifies anyone who sits slightly above or below the average line, but these differences are little in comparison to other European countries and cities. 
• Sweden promises everyone a some beauty and some happiness.  

Summary 

I really admire how much Sweden values simplicity and functionality in design. This ethos definitely feeds in to their way of life too. The idea of 'modernism for the common man' is what has led to Sweden's equal society, and the idea that some furniture was considered too ornate and dividing is really intriguing. They wanted design to be accessible and useful to normal people, not as a status symbol to split society into those who could afford it and those who couldn't. The one thing that seems different about Sweden in comparison to the other two Scandinavian countries is the sense of rebellion that exists right now. It drives home the point that a 'perfect' society is unattainable, but I think the Scandinavian countries are a lot closer than most. 

The Art of Scandinavia - Denmark

Notes from BBC documentary 'The Art of Scandinavia - Part 2/3 Denmark' by Andrew Graham-Dixon.

• Denmark was a small kingdom with an ambitious king. 
• A history of broken dreams, precarious survival and catastrophic adventures. 
• Art was powerful and haunting. 
• Denmark was the ugly duckling that longed to be a swan. 
• The vast majority of danes were farmers. The king had nobody to build his castle. 
• He imported builders and an architect who were Dutch. A dutchman painted the king's portraits too.

• Denmark supposedly 'went to sleep' for a very long time, to be woken up by Hans Christian Anderson who was the son of a shoemaker. 
• Anderson was from a very low class but still played with the future king. Low and high classed were not separated. 
• This probably led to his social satire and sharp eye for social inequality. 
• Paper cut of golden swan is representative of what Denmark wants to become. 
• His paper cuts are his stories reduced to 'ultimate simplicity'. 

• Grecian sculpture was brought into the realm of Scandinavian art. 
• Christoffer Eckersberg painted nudes but not related to religion or myth. 
• Female nudes were more risqué than male because it was illegal for some time for a woman to pose nude for a male painter. 
• Scandinavians are open about sexual matters. 
• Non-erotic, straight forward paintings of most likely working women. 
• Eckersberg aimed to find the core of what a danish person is. 
• 'We are who we are' - there's no need for material goods or an expression of status to show their identity as a nation. 

• Mother Denmark was a nordic heroine, a symbol of patriotism, war and military victories. 
• Until 1864 when Denmark's history as war heroes was shattered in a bloody war where they suffered huge loss. 
• This was a big turning point. They became a non-assertive country. 
• More thought was put into how to develop a small country. They had to consider who Denmark was as a nation. 
• Anxious reflection. 
• Vilhelm Hammershøi painted drained, empty, bleak interior scenes. 
• He envisioned what the world would look like in silence, an urban alienation. A whisper. 
• His paintings were a reflection of the Danish mentality through interiors - fearful and introverted.
• Danish nostalgia - a museum in the form of a village set in the past is an ideal of a model Denmark. 
• Symbol of the modern danish mindset, ordinary, peaceful, domestic life, the beauty of small. 
• LEGO represents the opposite of modern play, it brings people together and is the most famous global export of Scandinavia. 
• The ethos is to play well and play together. The small and the safe. 

• Hygge is intimacy, cosiness and comfort. 
• Danes redesigned objects for the ordinary home so the become works of art. 
• They adopted modernism in a way that didn't express misery or tragedy like other nations. 
• Furniture was comfortable, affordable and useful. 
• Using fine materials, they made sculptural yet practical objects that were beautiful and distinctive. 
• Danish modernism made the most of ordinary life. 
• It was inclusive, it was affordable and it was for the people. 
• A system of modular construction, a principle which exists in LEGO as well. 

Summary 

It sounds like Denmark had this great desire to be strong, powerful and heroic. However, their massive defeat in 1864 changed the direction of their focus dramatically. After going through a period of depression where the art was quite melancholy, the Danes seemed to have make something beautiful from this bleakness. Making the most of the ordinary day to day life they lead is what I find inspiring about Denmark. I like the idea that living can be an art form - this is truly represented in Danish design for the home. I also like that this design was classless, this was not design just for the elite, its purpose was to serve and suit everybody, therefore leading to a more equal and harmonious society. 

The Art of Scandinavia - Norway

Notes from BBC documentary 'The Art of Scandinavia - Part 1/3 Norway' by Andrew Graham-Dixon.

Denmark Sweden and Norway are connected by language, their Viking history and their landscape and weather. 

Their nature is their enemy but also the inspiration for their arts.

The Scandinavian ‘mind’ has been shaped by its nature. 

Landscape and mindset are shaped by hardness, sharpness, clarity, pride, living at the margins, loneliness and the determination to endure. 

Norway

• The most remote and sparsely populated of the three. 
• Ancient Scandinavians have a darkly apocalyptic view of the world. 
• They thought nothing would last because of the weather. 
• The viking ship is a symbol of strength and terror. 
• It has structural beauty, naked engineering and is formed to the natural curve of the waves. 
• It is designed around nature to work with the landscape functionally. 

• A small population of people leading simple lives, predominantly in farming and fishing. 
• There was no time for art. 
• Norwegians are patriotic people, but proud Norwegian art is not based on the successes of the city, their pride lies in their natural surroundings. 
• The Romantic Nationalists had pride in the uniqueness of Norway. 
• They explored to the furthest and unreachable parts of Norway to capture the landscapes and record the life and culture of Norwegians. 
• Where the mountains meet the ocean there are extreme contrasts. 
• The conventions that artists learn about landscape paintings did not apply anymore. 
• Everything was brought back to ‘ultimate simplicities’ of a black and white palette to capture the ‘elemental nature’. 
• There is a contrast also present between the bleak landscape and the existence of humans within it. 
• Their landscape is their art. 
• Permanent forms, the landscape is translated into design. White reflects the ice, glass reflects the water. 

• In order to be Scandinavian you need to exist on your own. Can you build a real society on solitude?
• To be rich and to flaunt it was frowned upon - Norway was a classless place. 
• The landscape of the city can defeat the landscape of the mind. 
• The supposed life of a Scandinavian is loneliness, misery, despair and anxiety. Why is this so different to the lifestyle we are seeing today?
• Hardship breeds a collective responsibility which probably lead to the generosity of Norway’s welfare state. 

Summary 

This documentary has been really useful to me. I have been doing a lot of research into modern day Scandinavian lifestyle but not enough into the history of it. The information here has made me start to realise why these countries are the way they are. The hardship of battling against nature has caused Norwegians to appreciate and work with the weather and landscape of their country instead of against it. Their simple lives, dismissal of class differences and their generous welfare system causes minimal conflict in their society. I feel like Norwegians have an admirable lifestyle as they appreciate and use what they have to their advantage. The commonality between citizens creates a society even if it is quite a solitary lifestyle.