zim zou in depth analysis

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 Lucie Thomas teamed up with Thibault Zimmermann to form Zim&Zou, a french studio based in Nancy that explores different fields including paper sculpture, installation, graphic design, illustration. Rather than composing images on a computer, they prefer creating real objects with paper and taking photos out of them. A number of intricate illustrations actually come from the three-dimensional installations made by Zim&Zou. Their choice of paper is due to the versatility and good quality of the material, especially when it is sculpted and photographed.

I chose to look at Zim Zou for inspiration as I wanted to include some paper origami in my window display and as they create paper sculptures I thought their work would be perfect to look at. Their work looks very delicate & complicated and at first glance looks impossible to be all made out of paper, their processes for these pieces must be very time consuming & must take a lot of thought & planning. 

The colours that have been used are very bright an include primary, secondary and tertiary colours which are incoperated in the repeat patterns in the design. The piece shows the use of paper cutting which is very precise as the layering from the paper allows the colour underneath to be seen through the paper cut, this makes the piece more visually appealing to look at rather than being just plain block colours to make up the pattern of the balloon. Balloons normally are quite bright so they can be seen from a distance but this balloon piece has been made more quirky and fun than usual, it reminds me of a drawing a child would draw of a hot air balloon. I think all the colours work well together and it is obvious that colour paper has been used rather than painting or even spray painting the pieces of paper, I think this works better as it is neat and tidy and the colours are all even. 

The overall size of the piece show how detailed and precise the balloon is and how much work it must have taken for them to do this, the weight of the piece cant be that much as it is been secured by to bits of clear wire, because of this I think paper was definitely the best material to use. The balloon shape its self must have been made in different stages and then secured together but the joins are seem to be impossible to see from a distance. The folds are accurate and even throughout the piece and have been used to make the balloon shape look more realistic and 3D. The shapes that have been used are simple rectangle, square and triangle with different sizes and colours piled on top of one another to create the pattern. The coloured paper that has been used show the thought of layout as there seems to be none that look out of place and these colours seem to be used quite often in there work, making their pieces recognisable. I think how they put these pieces together is quite extraordinary and very effective as it must have taken a lot of experimentation and practice to be able to get it right. 

I think the piece has been secured on either side to equal out the weight of the entire piece making it easier to hang and less likely to damage the piece itself, making sure the weight of the piece is equally distributed between the wire holding the piece up. 

I am going to use the inspiration from the way the pieces are made with paper to create my hanging pieces and i am also going to try and use the way they hang everything to secure any of my objects using clear wire so that the fact it is hanging isnt so obvious to the eye at first glance. If hanging with the clear wire doesnt work I will have to re-think the way im going to fasten my objects maybe using a thicker wire and even the way it is secured into the ceiling as the weight of the piece could determine whether I use nails or blue tack.

libertys in depth analysis

This is a picture of 1 of Liberty's window displays from Christmas 2008. At first glance the window display is predominantly red, I think this is because the theme of the window seems to be the circus. The manikin on display has a wig on that would represent that of a clowns, especially as its quite bushy and curly, the collar on the manikin is also a sign of an influence of a clown. The bunting that is hanging across the top length of the window display has been intertwined with circus lights which seem to be the only light source within the window display. Most of the background seems to have been painted with a rich red colour but 2 sections 1 either side of the window display have a zigzag pattern where there seems to be zigzags in the wall, these zigzags have been made white and red, again I think this is because of the circus theme. Also in the background of the window display there are 2 ladder looking objects which have been made into shelves onto which present ideas from the store have been placed for advertisements. I think the fact that this window display seems to be mostly advertising the sweets shows that it is quite fun and quirky, this has also been shown by the fact that the manikin seems to be trying to balance chairs on top of other objects creating a tilted and therefore more quirky composition.
The manikin itself is dressed in quite modern clothes, I think the window display might also be advertising party clothes that they sell in store as people have quite a few parties around Christmas and shops can make money from this. I think the red theme is very strong in this window display, this works well as it links both the window displays circus theme with a traditional Christmas colour.
The lighting comes from  the string of bulbs along the top of the window display which have been intertwined with red bunting, the lights only light up the top third really bright the rest of the window display is quite dark especially right at the bottom. I think maybe this window display would work well in the day time but during the night i think it would become hard to see some of the objects in the background due to the amount of light. Even if the shop wanted to keep the same effect they could add in a few low light spot lights on the objects that would make it easier in the dark to see, I think the spotlights would be easy to hide as well.
The overall composition of the window display is quite busy on either side with all the different objects on the side but it has been evened out by the sparse use of objects in the middle section so the audiences eyes are not drawn away from the manikin. The layout has been well thought about and even the positioning of the manikin at a slight angle means there are only few amounts of gaps in the background and the audience can see everything they need to see.

Accessorize Window Display Analysis

This window display has been made for accessorise, at first glance you can tell that the store have chosen to use a festive theme for their window, there is baubles placed all around the edge of the window and paper chains hanging on the far back. The colours of the baubles are co-ordinated with the colours on the paper chains, the baubles help make the window look more decorative around the sides as i think if they were not there the sides would look quite empty. The window is clearly being used to show clothes that are on sale inside the shop, but all the clothes that are on display keep to a winter theme, including things like fluffy slippers, scarce, wooly hats & gloves. The clothes have all been placed over the top of what looks like 2 unicorns, I think this is to show the magical side of christmas & winter as they are white, I think the items are chucked over the unicorns as though they are meant to be carrying them as presents. Along the floor of the window display there are 2 stars, 1 either side of the window which stand upright this helps to cover up slightly any space there would be from the floor to the bottom of where the unicorns are. Also along the floor are boxes which look like presents but its clear to people walking past what is in the present, I think this has been done to influence people to buy the products because they can be used as christmas presents. The lighting in the window is very bright but you can't actually see any of the lights, the lighting is very full it covers the whole window none of it is lit any different to the other. Because the background of the window is a shiny silver the lighting creates a reflection on the background so you can see the behind of the window of what you can't see from the front. Overall I like this window i think it is quite simple, but it keeps to the christmas theme and shows the magical side of christmas and winter. I think the have thought well about positioning of everything as there is not a lot of empty space but it is not too crowded.