The Journey of Beethoven's Hair (In Brief):

A picture of Beethoven on his Deathbed. Many people paid the composer a last honour, when he was laid out in state - they took a lock of his hair as a souvenir. Afterwards, Beethoven's head was completely bald!!!

During this time Ferdinand Hillier snipped a lock of Beethovens hair as a keepsake which was treasured as a Hillier relic in Vienna for more than a century. The lock was then given to Danish doctor Kay Alexander Fremming who kept it throughout the war. When Fremming died, his daughter sent the lock of hair to Sotherby's for auction in 1994. It was then sent to America for Forensic Testing. It was discovered that Beethoven quite possibly died of lead poisoning due to the high lead content that the hair contained although this hasn't officially been proven.

The original lock of hair sold at auction seen here before its refurbishment in 1971.

Only several other locks of hair remain in the world. There are two locks of hair
on display in the Beethoven-Haus together with a certificate of authentication from the Viennese art expert Anton Gräffer.

Forensic Testing: An Examination taken from sample's of Beethoven hair revealed he may have died from lead poisoning.

Here are link's to some of Beethoven's most famous work's:

"The Eroica" Symphony No 5
"The FurElise"

Beethoven as a Composer:

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) :

Beethoven in 1820
Painted by Karl Stieler.

Born: December 17th, 1770. Bonn, Germany.
Died: 1827. Vienna, Austria.Ludwig Van Beethoven is considered to be one of the greatest and most radical Classical composer's from the Classical and throughout the Romantic period's. Throughout his years as a unique and highly creative composer and teacher. Beethoven gained a reputation of being a tormented musical genius after the deteriation of his own hearing. The composer continued to write his own music producing his most famous work's at this time. Today, Most of Beethoven's works still continue to inspire audiences and composer's around the world.

Beethoven's Family Tree:


Beethoven's Childhood:

18th Century Bonn where Beethoven spent his childhood.

Beethoven was born into middle class Flemish family and was one of seven children. Beethoven's first music teacher was his own father, A tenor singer, who recognised his son's creative talent. The financial suppport of his parent's enabled Beethoven to attend Organist lessons at a young age. Beethoven was introduced and taught by many leading composer's of the time. After being inspired by his tutor's Beethoven started to compose and perform some of his own music.Some Facts about Beethoven's Childhood:

• By the age of seven, Beethoven was advanced enough to compose and perform his own music.
• Beethoven's first piece of music "The piano trio's of Opus 1" was published by the age of twelve.
• Beethoven's mother had died at the age of 17 and for several years he brought up his two brothers on his own. His only financial income was through his payment as a violinist.
  

Beethoven moves to Vienna:

Beethoven in 1880.
Painted by Carl Traugott Riedel in Vienna.

Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792 . It was here that Beethoven gained significant reputation for his unique approach to composing and teaching styles.

Beethoven's piano at his house in Vienna.
Here he composed some of his most famous composition's.
After the loss of hearing Beethoven played the piano less frequently.

In 1792, Beethoven moved to Vienna where he studied with renowned composer's such as Joseph Hydn. He quickly gained a reputation as a Piano Virtuoso, and more slowly as a composer. Beethoven continued to compose whilst working as a freelancer to generate income by selling many of his works. Beethoven earned his living partly from the sale and performance of his work, and partly from subsidies granted by various wealthy nobles who recognized his talent. The young composer wrote many of his works by emulating Mozart. However, He also explored new creative directions in his compositions. It was at this time he wrote many of his first and second symphonies, First of his six string quartet's, Piano concerto's and a dozen piano sonato's.

Beethoven and the Loss of Hearing:

Beethoven in 1801, Painted shortly after he started to lose his hearing. Beethoven became fustrated with his disability and attempted suicide.

Here is a sheet from one the Eroica , One of his most famous work's. Beethoven created some of his most famous works despite his disability.

In 1801, Beethoven's started to lose his hearing making it difficult for him to appretiate and compose his own music. It is believed Beethoven suffered from Tinnitus. Symptom's included a continuous tone that gradually got louder. The cause of Beethoven's deafness is unknown, but it has variously been attributed to syphilis and lead poisoning. Despite his disability he continued to develop his unique style of composing his work's. Although he didn't compose as much music than in his younger years, It was around this time that Beethoven's popularity with the contemporary public reached its peak. Beethoven's composition's were a success such as the Erioca Symphony in E Flat. He was soon universally regarded as the greatest of living creative composers.

Beethoven's hearing aids. The composer became ioncreasingly dependant on these whilst writing some of his most famous works.

The Eroica Symphony in E Flat:

The Eroica Symphony in E Flat was one of Beethoven's finest works even though he wrote it at a time when his hearing was fading quickly. Dedicated to Napolean, The Eroica was one of the first works of Beethoven's so-called "Middle period", or "Heroic Period", a time when Beethoven composed highly ambitious works, often heroic in tone. It was also one of Beethoven's longest pieces of music. This period of his career, Also known as "The Middle period" included work, the Eighth Symphonies, the string quartets 7-11, the Waldstien and Appassionata piano sonatas, the oper Fidelio, the violin concerto and many other compositions. During this time Beethoven earned his living partly from the sale and performance of his work, and partly from subsidies granted by various wealthy nobles who recognized his talent.

The Eroica Symphoney in E Flat, One of Beethoven's most famous works. It was also one of his longest lasting approx one hour in length.

Beethoven's Funeral:

Beethoven's funeral as depicted by Franz Stober. 20,ooo Viennese Citezans attended the funeral. There are memorials dedicated to Beethoven's life and work in Vienna and Bonn .

Beethoven died in 1827 after becoming bed ridden. It believed Beethoven's death was the result of many illnesses such as Syphilius and lead poisoning. Beethoven's funeral took place on March 29th, 1827. The funeral took place in Vienna where 20,000 Viennese citizens lined the streets to watch the procession. After Beethoven's funeral, A number of memorials were erected in Bonn and Vienna (below) in memory of Beethoven dedicated to his life and work's.

My Research Approach :
I visited the library to read up on his biography which provided useful as a starting piont to my research. I also searched the net to find some info relating to Beethoven's biography. After typing his name into google. The sheer number of sites dedicated to his life didn't suprise me. I already knew that Beethoven's popularity as a classical composer was immense. It would seem that all this info would inevitably make it easier for gathering research although I found that each site took a different approach to dealing with representing so much info. Some site's were more deatiled than others which seemed to provide almost "too much" detail into his life so I needed to edit down what I had researched and use the most appropriate info. The internet also provided a number of audio file's and picture's which helped place the research into a context. I have also found out that some of Beethoven's original manuscripts and composed work's are in the British Museum So I will prob's check these out aswell.

Hanna Werning: Animals and Flowers Wallpaper
















Just came across Hannah Werning's work and had to post it on my blog. I am inspired by the way in which she has built an illustration made from layers of intricate patterns and shapes found naturally in the forms of flowers and wildlife.

The Dover Bookshop, 18 Earlham Street, Covent Garden.


I visited the Dover Bookshop today as apart of my research. The store stocked a wide variety of illustration and pattern books which I browsed through for inspiration-Definately worth the visit.

Contemporary Clip- Art brief:

Just a note about Contemporary Clip-Art brief. The new project requires us to work on generating about 10 clip-art illustrations based on a variety of theme's so I decided to choose "Nature" as the theme of my choice. I think it's great that the appoach to this project is really broad where we can generate the images using a variety of media at any scale to produce the final outcome.

Part 3 Printed:

There were a few problems getting it printed as one of the colour printers wasn't working and could only produce non digital copies so I had to wait until it was fixed!. Anyway, Here are some pics of the A3 print out's of both the front cover and article. Dissapointed with the quality of the pics even though they were scanned in at 450 dpi. I feel the quality could have been better. Im pleased with the layout as I think the compositionworks well with the content.

After working on the layout I could finally start on the front cover. Many High Fashion Magazines often rely on one dominant image that graces the front cover of the magazine. Taking inspiration from this provided to be a problem. The image used for the front cove of Gun Mart wasn't the most stylish of images. After working on photoshop to increase its canvas size I then started to clone stamp the background to increse it before layering the text on top. I started to highlight the typefaces using white and orange in Baskerville Bold as the background was very dark. I also wanted to establish a visual link between the text and the background image.

I decided to work on the double page article by setting up and designing the intended layout before importing any content from Gun Mart magazine. After making various changes to the size of text and image boxes, I started to study various typefaces that would be visually effective in communicating the essence of sophistication and style. After researching various High Fashion magazines it was evident that less is most definately more, Many of which adopted a minimal approach. As a result from my research, I decided to use typefaces such as Baskerville and Minion Pro for many of the headings. I then started editing the Gun Mart content. I chose to use the subheading's "Quality assured" and Shooting Impressions" using Old Baskerville as the typeface. I decided to use this as the header for the main feature of the article as it seemed the most likely to be used in a high fashion publication. I then started to import the article and images. High Fashion magazines usually layout large articles of text over several pages. Therefore, After editing the article down to fit the text box I decided to continue the article across both pages to balance the composition and lead the eye across both pages. Working with the images proved to be the most difficult of tasks as many of them were of low quality. I decided to use the best quality ones and started to form a composition for each. I also added subtitles in red to form descriptions, add colour and visually link it with the article. Finally, I cropped the word "Shotguns" to link the article with the images. I am pleased with the result of the layout.

I found today really useful in the development of my ideas as I was able to show some of my research I had collected such as visuals etc. After having the oppurtunity to discuss and get some feedback about my current research I have decided to use the content of Gun Mart magazine as opposed to the Sun. Although High Fashion magazines rely heavily on images, After using many of the images fropm the Sun for part 2 of the project I noticed that using image sof such low res proved a problem. The highest quality images would have to be used in association with my ideas and therefore the Gun Mart content would be the best solution even though they arent the best quality either.

A Trip To My Local Newsagent.


Ive started to search for some inspiration by researching and making comparisons between the front cover and article layout's of current fashion magazines such as Vogue and I.D. So I went to my local newsagents and started to take some pics of various Fashion magazines so that I can use them for future reference.

I.D

Part 3: Initial Ideas

Although I have enjoyed working within a group I think part three is going to be interesting as it requires ius to work individually so Ive started to think about some ideas for part 3 of the project. After working with two low quality publications that both have a limited shelflife and are creatred on a budget I have started to think of ways in which I could estabish a contrast between them both by taking inspiration from high quality magazines such as high fashion and lifestyle magazines. I thought of developing this idea further and by taking content from eithar/or the publications which are primarily newsprint and place it within a sophistciated design inspired by the layout from glossy magazine's such as Vogue and Countrylife. I have started to take inspiration from the layout of these magazines and start to develop my ideas. I think this would evoke a new meaning to the publiations Image and text which I have previously been working on for part one and two of the project.

Here's the Sun Vs The Gun Front Cover :

Here is a pic of the finished front cover before it went to print. By using the Sun as the content for the front cover using the layout of Gun Mart the result is very convincing. After working with content and layout I have begun to appretiate how a successfully designed layout is an important factor in relation to the message being communicated effectively. I think the final result is a successful one mainly because we had put into practise what we had learnt from problems throughout part one. Although we came up agianst some problems througtout this part of the project we managed to solve them. Most of them were mainly relating to image quality and fonts as you can see from some of the images and text. Some of the images were of such low res (Probs beacuse of the newsprint they were printed on) we decided to edit them out and replace them with higher res ones. An example of this is when we used the original picture (10 Downing Street Door) from the Sun. It became so pixelated when enlarged that we had to find and use a higher res one from the internet. After I worked on it in photoshop the image was ready to be used. I think that this image works well considering the circumstances although it's a shame we couldn't find another pic in higher res so we could have stretched it to fit the whole cover without it pixellating. However, Despite a few setbacks I think the end result is a successful one.

....and here's a screen grab of the double page article.

Here is the final double page layout of Gun Mart with the Sun's content. This is now ready for printing. I think this has turned out really well and we are pleased with the result. We spent some time making decisions about where to place the headings, images and text within the layout whilst editing some of the Sun's content. I think we have represented the content in the Gun Mart's layout really well.

Now that we made the improvements for part one, We've now started on part two. We swapped the digital files for part one with group 3 and we got thier files. Group three were working on The Sun newspaper so we had to take thier content and place it within the layout for Gun mart mag although it was possible to edit images and text as much as we liked. We experienced a few problems in doing so such The Sun's low res quality pictures as they had been printed on newspaper. After importing them into the layout of Gun Mart we worked together to make some adjustments to form a realistic composition for both the article and front cover. Creating the front cover was a challenge as it realied heavily on image. Anastasia and I had to scout around on the net to find some better quality pictures such as 10 Downing street door (The best image to use for the front) which were then adjusted in photoshop. I think the layout for both the article and the front cover has worked really well, All that is left now is to get the versions printed for the crit on Tuesday.

Just a little Tweaking.

Today, We started to make improvements to our version of the copy even though we should have started work on the second part of the project. We had to work quickly and efficiently as we were delaying another group from working aswell as limiting our own time to work on ours. The first thing we started to work on was the images as this we thought this would yake the longest. New cans were made of the original version using 450 dpi and then imported into photoshop toi work on them. The new versions of the high res scans turned out o be the best to work from as it provided a detailed image from which to work from. As we working from a new scan we had to make new selections for the images to se in the layout.We used the eyedropper tool again but made sure that we chose the right colour this time , Comparing it with the original before using it in the layout. Next up....The fonts, We decided theat the only way would be to trace the logo in Illustrator and then apply the correct attributes to it. We knew this wasn't exactly live text but knew it would provide us with the best results.

Crit Results!

The crit didn't go aswell as we thought it may have done. To start with we had a few issues with getting the work printed although we did manage to get it done just in time for presentation. After the crit we spoke to Pete and Luke about the changes we would need to make in order to make our version of the copy more resolved. Most of the comments made we agreed with. It seemed the layout didn't turn out to be the main problem, Instead it was the fonts and image quality that needed more work. It was clear that our copy of the layout seemed to be the most accurate even though It was mostly the Fonts we used that let it down. We would have to reconsider how we are going to make work on this as the text has to be live, Maybe downloading off the wenb will be the oly possible solution. Image quality was another important factor that could be improved. The scan res hindered the quality of the final print out making the images slightly pixelated. We used these low quaility scans with the eyedropper tool to replace some of the colours which evidently proved to be wrong idea so we will need to work on that more. We decided to take a step back and to re-do the copy which would delay the second part of the project. We knew this was important as it enabled us to consider and work on what had been discussed and make improvements.

Just a quick note to show the final double page spread layout for the across pages 91 and 92 after it was printed. I think the layout in the double page spread has worked more successfully than the front cover as there weren't so many typefaces and images to copy. Most of the article's fonts were Franklin Gothic and the header's were Helvetica (Some of which were stretched). Although each of the changes were easy to make we had to think about making changes to the appropriate ones. I think the hardest task of the copying the layout was working with the justification, alignment and spacing of the typefaces which were most commonly found in the headers of the article. I think that working seperately on individual tasks isn't always the best method of getting the work done more efficiently as it was easy to forget who was allocated each task. Overall, I think we worked well as a group for this part of the project with good communication between us.

Copying the Double Page Spread in Indesign.