Ricardas Blazukas » coloured edge

Portfolio Catalogues

Ricardas — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 16:06:41 +0000

Here’s the design for my portfolio catalogues for the midyear review submission at Westminster University Architecture School in London.

Ceramic Forms and Colour

Ricardas — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 14:58:10 +0000

These ceramic models are the outcome of my colour compositions of chance exercise. Each colour was selected by I Ching, assigning values of colour to each of the 64 hexagrams.

The square model is hollow with a tiny ball inside making a beautiful sound when wobbled.

All models were fired twice – initially underglazed and bisque fired to cone 04, and then glazed and fired to cone 04 as earthenware.

Installation / Time Lapse Video

Ricardas — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 19:03:53 +0000

I have done a number of projects on various scales during the last month. This one here is the biggest one of them – an installation.

Or watch in better quality on VIMEO

This might seem like just a graffiti / painting on a set of plinths, but there is more behind it. The idea I am fascinated about the most is – the provocation of students. This installation was done at university, on all plinths of our MArch Architecture studio a week before our interim crits.

Taking all the plinths might seem rude at first, but architecture is about behaviour change and interaction between a space and its users, which is what this installation did. The painting on the plinths gave them a sense of untouchability (or at least I hoped it will). I was curious what will happen with a crit day approaching. Will students start to take the plinths one by one? They belong to them as much as they belong to me.

I wanted to see a progressive defragmentation of this painting, but what I’ve discovered instead, not even 24hours after the installation was made – plinths composed randomly, looking somewhat similar to Picasso’s paintings. Brilliant – a number of coursemates decided to re-organize them.

I loved the idea of chance in this installation – stacking the plinths randomly and then painting a symbol on them left me wondering how will each plinth look like. The random sizes of plinths stacked together was also a way of escaping a typical grid. It also has an effective three-dimensional quality, due to lengths of plinths they can be spaced in a random way, again creating something completely different and completely by chance.

The crits went great too, as my tutor Sean Griffiths, Co-Founter of FAT said: “Ricardas, you have had the best presense during the crits today”, meaning that all students were presenting their models on plinths with a piece of my painted symbol.

I was hoping that after the crits I will collect them and stack them in a random way, but there was no need for that, as like I mentioned previously, it happened sooner than I expected thanks to my coursemates.

The painted symbol is from my own created alphabet, which you can check out here and download as a font here.

I have also made a small model of this installation, which will appear on the blog soon.

Above you will find a time-lapse video of the installation making process, and at the bottom a photo gallery of the installation, as well as a photo gallery of plinths being used in the studio by other students to display their work.

My I Ching T Shirt

Ricardas — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 11:39:06 +0000

I made myself an I Ching t-shirt for an interim crit that I had yesterday.

This year I’ve been working on a lot of stuff involving chance together with guys at DS15. I Ching is our core material that we base our studies on. Since the beginning of the year I loved the idea of assigning colour to hexagrams of I Ching. The hexagrams have a very strong graphic aesthetic and look brilliant on a tee. Making this for my crit was a great way to level up the presentation.

BUY?

I had some requests from people wanting to buy one like this, so I might get to it and make more soon. If you would love to invest in one, then give me a shout through a contact form below (inc. tee size) and I’ll keep you updated!

Alphabet – Models / Part 1

Ricardas — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 18:10:45 +0000

Two symbols of previously posted alphabet were translated into simple models. The process and the outcome are captured in the gallery below.

The materials I used are heavy casting plaster with blue and black pigments. A layer of clay at the bottom of a mould did a simple trick in casting an uneven surface, which later helped to better connect an another plaster cast.

It is always good to use the already mixed plaster left-overs… I just poured it on top of a bucket cover and got an interesting blue ‘plate’.

See the full 2D notational system in my previous post by clicking here.

Notational System / Alphabet

Ricardas — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 12:38:16 +0000

Here’s an attempt to create a notational system / symbolic alphabet. I used four geometrical shapes to create a variety of combinations. Then explored how these would change by adding colour to the background, which revealed more geometry in the compositions.

I Ching – Chance Compositions

Ricardas — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 15:11:25 +0000

Here’s a set of chance compositions made consulting the I Ching.

Using the I Ching as an oracle I devised a series of questions that allowed me to make a series of chance compositions.

I assigned values to 64 hexagrams (shown in four graphs) and asked four questions:

1. How many shapes to use in the composition No. X?

2. What is the shape No. X?

3. What is the colour of the shape No. X?

4. What is the scale of the shape No. X?

I have drawn a square and have fitted the shapes into it proportionally to the small square in the graph 2, then assigned colour according to the graph 3, and have scaled up shapes according to the value from graph 4.

If the hexagram turned out to have some changing lines – I would then use a value of the transformed hexagram, with exception to the colour graph – where I would use an initial hexagram for the fill of shapes, an a transformed hexagram value for a colour of outlines.

The shapes were layered on top of each other.

In order to complete a final composition – a number of compositions were recorded during the process.

Self Made Business Cards

Ricardas — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 13:43:36 +0000

Everyone who ever needed business cards done know how expensive they can be. I decided to make some at home and see whether they can meet the premium quality of a professional studio.

Extras, like coloured edges, always mean a double price for your cards, unless you know how to hande a spray can!

If anyone interested in business cards designed or made give me a shout, I am sure we can agree on a price better than in most places.