Black & White

Venus of the Velodrome

Concept idea for a short film, part I.

Vintage Vacuum

Three concept images to illustrate an experimental short film project involving vintage fashion and vintage vacuum cleaners in destitute surroundings.

Vintage Vacuum - Series of short films.

A perfectly made up woman in 1930s to 50s vintage fashion & styling uses a vacuum cleaner from the same period in derelict or unusual surroundings. The main theme is the startling contrast between the perfection of the vintage model and the run-down, chaotic surroundings. The use of the vacuum cleaner seems like a desperate attempt to create order in this chaos. The question if everything was simpler and better in the ‘Old Days’ springs to mind. This clean-up operation of the derelict surroundings can be seen as a symbolic act - but is it not ultimately futile? Why try and keep up appearances when the world around us is in turmoil and falling down? Stereotypes and established social roles are questioned: Whereas 1930s society saw a woman’s place mainly in the home and cleaning how out-of-place does this seem today? Yet aren’t women still the ones forced to clean up the mess men leave behind: Wars, the banking crisis, environmental disasters? 

A wide shot establishes the setting, the vacuum cleaning woman enters the scene from one side with the typical, slow, backwards-forwards motion of hoovering. It is an almost religious, meditative, ritualistic repetitive movement. The woman slowly hoovers through the shot and exits on the other side, the camera lingers on the empty scene. 

This routine is repeated a various different locations: On a run-down council estate, inside a derelict building, amongst the chaos of a busy train station, in a disused quarry, on a rubbish dump, on an oil-contaminated beach, on a scrapyard with burnt-out cars, etc.

(c) knuk 2011

Roadkill

Concept for a repeat fabric print

A recent study showed that insects, too, are prone to a very high risk of roadkill incidence. Research showed interesting patterns in insect/butterfly road kills in relation to the vehicle density. Although the insect community is equally at risk, much of the attention goes to bigger, more charismatic animals.

Concept for Art Car paint scheme

Virtual installations using QR codes

Concept for virtual artworks in areas where a real installation might be deemed too intrusive, this could be a nature reserve or any other sensitive area.

The virtual installation can be used as a means to visualise the project in its proposed location to gain backing for its future realisation.

Concept for large scale origami in Richmond Park

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Fanpage on Facebook & Crowd Funding

Navigate to the facebook fan page using the link on the right, click to 'like' our page and spread the word amongst your friends.

Knuk will soon be using social networking sites for crowd funding projects where users become micro-shareholders of art projects/events and will be able to vote online on design decisions as well as gain exclusive previews and receive VIP invites to openings.

Breakfast on the Beach

E-Card invitation for a business-breakfast event at real estate fair MIPIM 2011 in Cannes. The watersport activities seen from the beach all have the company's red double-triangle logo as a base.

knuk business cards

Short film explaining how to use the new knuk business cards with a QR Code matrix that can be scanned by a mobile phone with a camera.

The code contains contact information in a format that can be uploaded straight into the phone's address book (download a free QR Code scanner for Android).

Activity Centre

(c) knuk 2011

Concept for a large scale installation based on a learning toy for infants.

Alireza

 

Video Installation

(c) knuk 2011

Beyond The Valley

Leaving behind traditional and commercial shapes in favour of long sweeps, overlays with tailored panels.  Cocoon shapes are constructed of silk crepes, woven knits and appliquéd chiffon which tie across the body.  Tones of fresh whites and dusty greys add a delicate lightness to a winter collection.

Burns Night

Concept for promotional material (video trailer, flyer, invitations) for a charity evening celebrating the Scottish poet Robert Burns.

(c) knuk 2011

Gutted Building #01

Large scale installation on a working building site, January 2011.
Location: Neue Balan, Balanstrasse 73, D-81541 Munich, Germany.

(c) knuk 2011

Eerie

work in progress for a capsule collection and associated short film. 

(c) knuk 2011

Two Woodcutters (Homage to Hodler)

 

Dyptich, screen print on canvas using imagery from Ferdinand Hodler's The Woodcutter (1910).

Hodler's original painting was one of two design submissions for new Swiss Franc bank notes issued in 1911.

Hodler: The Woodcutter, 1910

Swiss 50 Franc note, 1911

Alive by Night

Swathing in metres of voluminous flowey silk chiffon fabric with a soft floral print/appliquéd pattern. Long, loose silhouettes with an understated eccentricity.

Untouchable

Personal armour or body armour describes all types of protective clothing designed to absorb and/or deflect slashing, bludgeoning, and penetrating attacks. It was historically employed to protect soldiers, whereas today, it is also used to protect feelings of the heart.

A collection of personal armour, which is made up of separate pieces and dresses.  Intricate black lace is mixed with black leather fabric on a support of tulle netting. 

Corseted and tailored jackets provide a structure which is complimented by lace trailing down arms and skirts bellowing at the waist.

Chocolate Box King Kong

The window-like squares of a box of chocolates - reminiscent of a New York sky scraper - prompted this 'objet-trouvé' artwork.

 

Muybridge in Kingston

Eadweard J. Muybridge (9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904) was an English photographer who spent much of his life in the United States. He is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion which used multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip.

Eadweard Muybridge returned to his native England in 1894, published two further, popular books of his work, and died on 8 May 1904 in Kingston upon Thames while living at the home of his cousin Catherine Smith, Park View, 2 Liverpool Road. The house has a British Film Institute commemorative plaque on the outside wall (from Wikipedia).

click on image for animation

The above Eadweard Muybridge returning to his home at no. 2 Liverpool Road, Kingston upon Thames shows four naked figures of Muybridge crossing Liverpool Road - Muybridge regularly used himself as a model for his photographic experiments. The scene is reminiscent of the famous Abbey Road album cover by the Beatles. A warning sign in the background shows animated images from Muybridge's famous photographic series 'The Horse in Motion'.

 

Dalmatrix

 Dalmatian with a quick release (QR) matrix code that can be scanned by any smartphone with in-built camera.  The QR code contains a link to a website which will be automatically opened by the smartphone (save image below as a jpeg and use this online QR code reader if no smartphone at hand).

Used in connection with a spoof 'missing pet' poster on trees, fences, message boards, etc. to create a hardlink beteen the physical and virtual worlds.

Snowflake Card

Season's Greetings card and animated e-card for an architects' office with a snowflake and fireworks design based on the company's double triangle logo.

click on image for animation

The Box

Concept design for a lightweight timber structure on top of a refurbished garage outbuilding as a first floor extension for a 1930s private house in Esher, Surrey, UK.

Insulated shutter panels fold and slide over the windows to give the appearance of a perfect box when closed.

A new timber pergola completes the courtyard.

shutters open

shutters closed

Medal Design for Scottish Rowing Championships

The silver coloured medal and wide white ribbon combine to form a Saltire or St. Andrew’s cross, a national symbol. Hanging around the medalist’s neck, the medal and its wearer combine to form a Scottish flag. The design is a break away from traditional round medal shapes. The assymmetrical form with its oar-shaped cutout makes the medal unique and instantly recognisable as a Scottish Rowing trophy.

Ribbon is threaded through oar-shaped cutout

+++ UPDATE +++

Remarkably similar: The 2010 European Athletics Championships Medals more than a year later.