Ett smakprov!

Hittills har jag bara hunnit få upp lite illstrationer och en affisch, men det går framåt!!

Jag undrar varför jag inte har gjort det här tidigare? Nu blir allt så mycket tydligare, enklare och roligare! Följ mig där!

Följ länken för att se min portfolio:

http://www.behance.net/Monserrat/frame

Translation: Follow the link to get a taste of my portfolio, working on it now!

little girls...

My dissertation; an analysis of the picture book 'The rabbits'

I got a really good grade for my dissertation (!!!!!) so I'm superhappy and can finally just enjoy my work, so here I can share a snapshot from it and some of the images from the book...

An image has the power and ability to affect someone; it can tell a story and in the same time educate its readers about deeper subjects. The picture book The Rabbits, educates about issues like colonisation and environmental issues and is a book that can be read by both children and adults. In addition, they are vital to our culture, and a valuable contribution to social, and literary history. It is important to learn about and remember history, and this story is told in such a different and unusual way because it is done from the viewpoint of the colonise

d. The story of The Rabbits is ideal to telling this particular fable first of all by; using a relevant illustration style, and more significantly; having the rabbits as a metaphor for the Europeans. In my dissertation, a world of visually loaded images were explored and analysed, narrating a fascinating story of how rabbits went to Australia and colonised the country. Freelance artist and author Shaun Tan has created the illustrations in this book and is best known for

illustrated books that deal with social, political and historical subjects. He has adapted his illustrations to go with the story and text, which is written by John Marsden. He uses few and carefully selected words and phrases to portray this story, which together with the illustrations create a dazzlingly harmonized tale with deeper meani

ngs. With theorist Frantz Fanon’s ideas, I argued that colonisation correlates with violence and by doing that uses it to control and destroy indigenous people’s social forms. Michel Foucault, on the other hand, reasons that a powerful tool to control people is by surveillance and therefore I reason that by invading and colonizing people and places, they also spread their cities along with their ideologies and be

liefs. As a consequence, a disciplinary system through surveillance has spread and is currently in contemporary society progressing into citizens everyday life. The powerful images portray the way in which the story in the beginning seem to be a quite happy,

but then turn out to be a much darker. To understand how it’s revealing these complex themes, I used semiotics, the study of signs to investigate the illustrations. Roland Barthes explains that only by separating and analysing the signs in an image one by one is it possible to understand its deeper meanings. Only once the signs have been broken down is it possible to understand its deeper meanings. These images contain signs that have most likely been put there intentionally so that its signifiers are transmitted as clearly as possible. The signs are there to powerfully and directly convey this books messages and ideas. Thus to completely understand the illustrations in The Rabbits, I started by addressing the subject of the ‘Other’.

This is a relevant as the book teaches its reader of how the indigenous people might have experienced colonisation. In this section the sense of nationalism is relevant as it is a result of first establishing other people’s differences. As soon as this happens, the idea of the ‘Other’ often becomes violent and destructive. I argued this as I examined the differences between the rabbits and the numbats in the illustrations. In the second section, the environment was at focus and the effects that colonisation can have on it. After all, the environment is important to us all, as it is our responsibility to keep a healthy ecosystem. So, the illustrations in this book portray the environment and how it reacts to invasive species, such as the rabbits, which can

be very destructive when they enter a new landscape. The atmosphere of the illustrations change throughout the book and what is amazing is how the rabbits are used as a metaphor to represent the Europeans, as they have both been successful colonizers, at least if measured in how dominant they have soon after become in the colonized area. Finally, in the last section I studied the surrealistic and dream-like illustratio

ns and the way Tan has designed them to communicate how colonisation can, through control and surveillance become violent and destructive.

Happy Birthday Marcos Monserrat! 75 years!!

Feliz Cumpleaños papi! Te adoro!

It's my father's birthday today and I think I should write something about him as a little celebration of him. I couldn't be with him today so this is my tribute to him on his day when he turns 75 years old. I feel it's the least I can do for him today... He is a remarkable and truly unique person and has a certain aura that is impossible to describe unless you meet him, only then can you live the magic that he radiates. At least for me, he has always been one of the most important persons in my life. He was born the 6th of April, 1936 in Venezuela, Caracas, and left at a very young age and started touring the world with his trademark instrument which is the congas. He has played in many countries, but was predominantly touring in Europe, in countries such as Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, etc. Throughout his life and music career he has been called names such as Rey Marcos and Sancudo.... I'm truly proud to be his oldest daughter and I'm glad to have him in my life, and most importantly I always want to see him happy! There's so much more to say about him, but I will simply let the pictures tell you... as well as som of his own fun memorabilia from some of his gigs.... Enjoy!

Restaurant & pub Edelweiss in Stockholm, Solna, where he frequently appeared.

I love this bit of advert, it must have been ages ago in Sweden, it says the entry fee is 4 Swedish crowns, which is nothing today but most have been a small fortune back in the day!

This must have been from the times when he was in Paris playing. Here is also where he was approached by a Swedish agent that invited him to play in Grona Lund. At those times the conga was unique and was considered really exotic in Scandinavia.

Here with 'Los 5 amigos'.

And finally, I did this illustration for him, as I couldn't be with him today. So I've posted this to him as my present to him. It is a Veneuelana Macaw, which I absolutely love and they remind me of him and his wonderful stories about his adventures in Venezuela when he was a boy. I also wrote down parts of the lyrics from Venezuelan artist Oscar d'Leon and his song A el. It is a great song with great lyrics, and I dedicate it to my father!

RSA competition

I one of our modules, Design Application, we got given a real brief for a competition. There was a few to choose from and I chose one called 'Make something disappear'. The task was to take something away that damages the environment. I chose to focus on getting rid of all the paper receipts we receive but not necessarily want (or need). So, I thought it would be great if they could, by paying by card, be sent to an online banking service which most people have nowadays. In that way you could just go back anytime and print out your receipt if needed. No unnecessary waste. Just say no to paper receipts! Anyways, so after handing in the coursework, our teacher chose a few people in my class that was given the opportunity to actually enter the competition.

Now, I sent my RSA boards and sketchbook with the post, and here I post you the final boards proposing the brilliant idea. I'm pleased with my boards, I know there are some things I could have improved much more, like how the actual campaign would have looked like, but in lack of time and trying to focus on my current modules, this is the result.

Board 1

Board 2

Board 3

Board 4

And btw, thank you to Hanna and Simona for helping me with their opinion (and picture hehe).

Self portrait

some time ago...

An illustration I did some time ago, when I had more free time...

NSS Poster Competition

My poster was shortlisted and one of the 7 I think to be considered to front the NSS 2009 marketing campaign. I didn't win, but I'm happy I was one of the few that was shortlisted and I am really happy with my design. And thank you to everyone who voted for me!!!

Here is the link: http://www.nus.org.uk/Student-Life/Course-Reps/NSS-Poster-Competition-Vote-online-now-for-your-favourite-poster-design/

1971 REISS T-Shirt Design Contest

The contest organized by Dazed and Digital was about creating a design that conveyed the year 1971. The winning design was £500 in vouchers and their t-shirt designs produced as part of a limited edition collection to be launched during that year’s London Fashion Week. The finalists got chosen by votes. My submission made it to the final I think in 2008 (?) and I got to choose any pair of jeans from the 1971 Reiss collection. So I was very happy!

Uppsala Press 2010

This is Uppsala Press ready to go out for distribution. I designed it for the Left Party in Uppsala, Sweden and it got massproduced, i think it ended up being 20.000 copies.
I designed a few other things for them, for their elections campaign which I will show at some other point, together with some of the contents of the newspaper 'Uppsala Press'.

And this is me in the Left Party's (Vänsterpartiets) lunch room!

Photographer: Miro Anter