VINYL CUTTING WORKSHOP WITH MATT WINGFIELD |
15/03/16
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Matt Wingfield is a graduate from the Royal College of Art in 1996 who spent 2 years as head of graphic design
at Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge. His works are vibrant and colourful and often adopt the use of a variety of printmaking techniques such as silkscreens. He now runs a studio - Matt Wingfield Studio - who have worked across retail, events, pr and in store branding.
During his visit Matt showed us how to use a vinyl cutter and vinyl itself to create stickers and other works. He demonstrated how to cut, weed and apply the vinyl to a variety of mediums such as acetate, paper etc. This transferred the sticker to a hard surface in turn creating a piece of artwork and giving us a sense of how the stickers could display in a shop window for instance. Following this, he showed us how to transfer digital designs from Adobe Illustrator in EPS format to the vinyl cutter which cuts the shapes and patterns from the file. This is obviously a quicker way of creating the stickers with a less hands-on approach.
Matt and the uni supplied a great deal of colourful vinyl which we could use as we liked to create anything to stick around the room on any surface. The beauty of the vinyl is that it can be removed and easily reapplied allowing us to experiment with shapes and combinations.
at Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge. His works are vibrant and colourful and often adopt the use of a variety of printmaking techniques such as silkscreens. He now runs a studio - Matt Wingfield Studio - who have worked across retail, events, pr and in store branding.
During his visit Matt showed us how to use a vinyl cutter and vinyl itself to create stickers and other works. He demonstrated how to cut, weed and apply the vinyl to a variety of mediums such as acetate, paper etc. This transferred the sticker to a hard surface in turn creating a piece of artwork and giving us a sense of how the stickers could display in a shop window for instance. Following this, he showed us how to transfer digital designs from Adobe Illustrator in EPS format to the vinyl cutter which cuts the shapes and patterns from the file. This is obviously a quicker way of creating the stickers with a less hands-on approach.
Matt and the uni supplied a great deal of colourful vinyl which we could use as we liked to create anything to stick around the room on any surface. The beauty of the vinyl is that it can be removed and easily reapplied allowing us to experiment with shapes and combinations.
I had a little nose through Matt's work while we were cutting away and found an A3 book made entirely from stickers on acetate (see right image above). Besides its obvious vibrancy, the book was really interesting to look at and unlike anything I'd seen before. Matt had created spreads of patterns constructed from stickers among other pictorial designs. Each page layered one on the other allowing them to interact and form further works in combination. I really liked this idea of interaction and could explore this myself in one way or another.
Above displays what I created during the session. I aimed to be as spontaneous as possible, cutting random shapes and assembling them together until some sort of image formed. Some of the shapes were from Matt's spares box which he'd bought along from previous jobs. Again, like the Martin O'neill workshop, I was intrigued by the use of someone else's work to create my own.
I feel my image looks similar to a splash of water, just more graphic and styled and I like the movement and energy it seems to convey.
During the workshop, Matt discussed the types of vinyl you can get from metallic to transparent etc. He continued on to mention how a company in Japan have utilised a vinyl in their shop window which is only visible from a certain angle. This got me thinking about my collections project and how I'd been attempting to hide the truthful messages about my sweets. I therefore began researching the vinyl Matt mentioned but couldn't find any images of information of the sort. I therefore adapted ideas and began playing around with how the vinyl we used in the session could be used to hide messages.
I began by considering the surface the vinyl was stuck to. I thought it was sensible to assume that white vinyl would appear hidden on a white background which of course it did, but only from a certain angle. The vinyl we had was reflective and when the light hit, the message became revealed. I wasn't too concerned with the message itself, more the process of the hiding so I experimented with the word 'hidden'.
White on white was, to the naked eye (not the camera) more visible than the navy on navy (ideally I'd have looked at black on black however I didn't have any black card). The white vinyl had a slightly cream tinge to it meaning it was less similar to the paper colour and therefore more visible. The navy on navy however appeared to vanish when the light wasn't reflecting on the vinyl. This therefore became a really interesting way to hide and reveal messages which I could explore further into the Materials, Processes and Art of the Accident project.
I feel my image looks similar to a splash of water, just more graphic and styled and I like the movement and energy it seems to convey.
During the workshop, Matt discussed the types of vinyl you can get from metallic to transparent etc. He continued on to mention how a company in Japan have utilised a vinyl in their shop window which is only visible from a certain angle. This got me thinking about my collections project and how I'd been attempting to hide the truthful messages about my sweets. I therefore began researching the vinyl Matt mentioned but couldn't find any images of information of the sort. I therefore adapted ideas and began playing around with how the vinyl we used in the session could be used to hide messages.
I began by considering the surface the vinyl was stuck to. I thought it was sensible to assume that white vinyl would appear hidden on a white background which of course it did, but only from a certain angle. The vinyl we had was reflective and when the light hit, the message became revealed. I wasn't too concerned with the message itself, more the process of the hiding so I experimented with the word 'hidden'.
White on white was, to the naked eye (not the camera) more visible than the navy on navy (ideally I'd have looked at black on black however I didn't have any black card). The white vinyl had a slightly cream tinge to it meaning it was less similar to the paper colour and therefore more visible. The navy on navy however appeared to vanish when the light wasn't reflecting on the vinyl. This therefore became a really interesting way to hide and reveal messages which I could explore further into the Materials, Processes and Art of the Accident project.
