Patrick Thomas
Beauty in the Everyday
July 29 — August 2, 2024
Elisava x Berlin
Enroll before April 15 for a 15% discount
sign up ↗
Venue
The workshops will take place at Patrick Thomas Studio in Neukölln, Berlin
Duration
20 hours, 5 days
4 hours per day, 2 — 6 pm
Language
English.
Patrick is fluent in English, Spanish, Catalan and German.
Discount
15% discount signing up before April 15
Special offer
Participants who wish to register for the MDV, MDE or MADD master programmes will have a discount equivalent to the workshop price.
Searching for visual joy in the urban jungle
Presentation
A five day workshop responding to, investigating and documenting the idea of “beauty in the everyday”. Participants will be expected to explore the “infra-ordinary”: mundane, everyday aspects of life that often go unnoticed that we take for granted.Each participant will be randomly allocated a 5-digit Postleitzahl (postal code) in central Berlin. They must identify a subject within their parcel of the city. Research and documentation will be output as a 12 page DIN A4 publication produced using a mix of specified printing/production processes.
The workshop will provide an incentive to take a closer, contemplative look at one’s immediate surroundings. It is a celebration of the simple yet profound beauty that may be encountered whilst commuting to work, popping out to the shops to buy a pint of milk or simply taking a walk around the block.
Objectives
The aim of the workshop is to develop participants’ observational, research, editing, writing, layout and publishing skills. They will develop a deeper appreciation for the aesthetics of the urban environment giving them new perspectives which will potentially inform ways that they approach their work.
Contents and Structure
The workshop will start with a 1 hour walkabout in the neighbourhood of Patrick Thomas Studio. Participants will be encouraged to collectively share their thoughts as they wander together through the unfamiliar urban environment.
Each daily session will start with a 20 minute input talk from Patrick Thomas, followed by a series of collective and individual feedback sessions.After two days of information gathering and documentation the design approach and visual language will be defined and. The final two days will be spent layouting and producing the editions of publications using a variety of print techniques.
Patrick Thomas
Patrick Thomas is a graphic artist, author and educator. He studied at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art in London before relocating to Barcelona in 1991. He currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. He has exhibited his limited-edition silkscreens across five continents, where many are now held in private and public collections. He has lectured and held many workshops worldwide, extensively in the UK, Spain and Germany.
In 2005 he published Black & White, a compilation of his work for the International Press. In 2011 his Protest Stencil Toolkit was published by Laurence King, UK. A revised edition was released in April 2019. He is currently working on Romance Scam, due to be released in Summer 2023.
In April 2018 he was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 Front Row about his twenty-four hour public installation Breaking News in Liverpool for RRU News an independent art organisation funded by the Arts Council of England and Liverpool City Council. The project was since developed and shown in London, Manchester, Seoul, Novi Saad and Rome.
In 2019 he created Open Collab a self-run workshop format to enable and encourage collaboration, dialogue and experimentation between participants. In March 2020 a free online platform was launched during Covid-19 lockdown to enable remote real-time collaboration. Since its launch thousands of students and professionals have participated worldwide.
Since October 2013 he is a professor at Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart. He is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and in Spring 2019 he was invited for a seven week residency at Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo, the German Academy in Rome. In January 2020 his artwork for The Berliner Philharmoniker was shortlisted for a Grammy. In 2022 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Birmingham City University, UK.
keywords
Infra-ordinary / Wabisabi / Vernacular / Mapping / Beauty
practical info
Workshop fee
700 €
Participants
Elisava x Berlin is limited to a maximum of 12 participants.
Who can apply?
Graphic design students and graphic designers
People with design skills
Mid/advanced text/image layout experience
Materials needed
Laptop with image/type editing software (eg: Adobe CS)
Smart phone / camera
Drawing materials
etc.