MODULE EVALUATION.

Module Evaluation: December 2008

This term has not been the easiest of terms for me due to circumstances outside of the course but I have tried to focus my mind as much as possible on the tasks in hand. Coming back after the summer, having completed a month of work experience in July, I new what I didn’t want to do and that was to be sat in front of a computer screen all day. I find myself wanting to be more hands on with projects and attempting to make things, and although I didn’t really make anything in particular, I did get away from the computer.

The time that I spent down at Vernon Street taking part in taught sessions including letterpress and bookbinding were really enjoyable. I thought that I would be able to incorporate these practices into my work but I haven’t done so. Maybe this is something that I consider, and think about how I could use these skills in future work that I produce.

Being in the third and final year of this course, I decided that it was about time that I made the most of the facilities available to me. Therefore, I thought it best that I would try out some screen-printing. I had a done a brief induction in the first year but never took it that one stage further to produce my own work. For this project I chose to focus upon buildings and architecture. I am currently attempting to write an essay on skyscrapers, albeit very unsuccessfully, and thought that it would be a good idea to try and create work that was based around the same kind of area.

My initial concepts and idea for one brief was to look at skylines around the world. This was obviously not going to make things easy, as I would be unable to travel further than anywhere in Europe really. I therefore changed my plans and chose to focus upon skylines solely in England. My first point of call was going to be the city of Leeds, as this was on my doorstep. With this in mind I went out and took a bunch of photos, from various angles and places to try and give myself the best possibility of producing some work with them. I have to say, that although I got some good photos, my time management and organisation of my projects let me down immensely and I don’t feel that I did myself justice in the final outcome of this module. This brief never really got finished, as I never took photos of any other skylines in England and there wasn’t a final resolution to be displayed. However, saying that, there is all the possibility of taking this as a starting point in to next terms work, and my final major project.

The main brief that I produced the bulk of my body of work, which sort of continued from the skyline brief, was entitled Illustrated Journey. This also gave me the opportunity to get away from the studio and be outside taking photographs, photography being another area that interests me, and document a journey visually through these photos. I decided to base my journey on a walk along the Southbank in London, taking in sights that included the London Eye and the Oxo Tower. The same principle could be applied to any city or place, as it just involves taking interesting photographs. I took the photos that I had obtained back to the studio to develop them further, which led me on to the main part of the brief. My objective was to produce and display a series of screen-printed images, five landscape and five portrait. I achieved half of my goal, as I produced a set of five portrait but I was unfortunately unable to print any landscape. I don’t feel that this was an entire let down, as I had set the brief more specifically to focus on the process of screen-printing but what I do feel I did not do enough of, was to experiment with different materials to print on. Printing on to various materials and objects would have added extra depth to the project on a whole and would have been extremely beneficial in terms of my research and development into the printing process. This is something that I will have to take into account if I am going to use this method in the future,

Another brief that I worked on was a competition brief by YCN. I decided to work on a competition brief as well because it meant that I didn’t need to worry about writing another brief myself. It also meant that I would be producing work that was going to be different to everything else. The brief that I chose was Ministry of Sound, which basically stated to come up with interesting and innovative ways to apply their logo. I thought that I could have some fun with this one, and had originally set myself this brief to be a quick turn around and not spend too much time on it. This was soon to change, as I hadn’t written myself up a timetable and started to lose track of my projects and the priority of what needed to be done and when. My main idea for this brief was to get the logo shaved into the back of people’s heads. I thought that this was a really good idea, and after my research of seeing what has previously been shaved into the hair on heads I went and spoke to a couple of barbers. I showed them the design and they said that although they might not be able to get it exact, it would be pretty close. I know that I didn’t get this done, but I aim to properly complete this brief for the competition deadline, which is on the 27th March 2009.

I have learnt many things this term and have taken a lot onboard. I know that there are still areas of my design practice that need attention, not the least being my time management and organisation. I feel that I have got a fairly good direction as to where to take my work in the final months of this course and I will come back after Christmas feeling recharged. I hope that the work that I produce in my final major project is some that I can be proud about knowing that I have given it my all.

YCN BRIEF

The main new application for the logo which i have yet to complete was to get it shaved into the back of someone's head. I am hopefully going to be able to achieve this as i have already been down to the barbers, but i am yet to find a willing participant. As you can see from this photo, another way of doing it without shaving the logo, could be to get it sprayed into the hair using paint (this was done using photoshop). This way could be quickly applied to many people and would obviously not be so permanent.

SCREEN PRINIT EXPERIMENTS

These were the first screen prints that i did. Having never used this print process before, i was excited to try out new things but i feel that i didn't experiment enough. I really like the effect that screen prints give and they make such a nice change from digital prints. I am most definitely going to use this process in the future.

YCN COMPETITION BRIEF

This was for the YCN competition brief that i chose to do. Ministry of Sound had asked to come up with interesting and innovative new ways of applying their logo and although i know this is really neither interesting or particularly innovative thought that it still looks rather good.

Design your tech.

laser engraved powerbook from engrave on Vimeo.

"Our world is full of mass produced identical products. Our mission is to help you express yourself through the customization of your personal electronics. Laser engraving can transform your standardized device into a unique piece of art, or promotional piece."


New to the Artist series: RAZAUNO! from engrave on Vimeo.

This engraved book is by artist Max Vogel. This engraving is something that i would really like to try out, but i need to draw some designs first.
http://www.razauno.com/

Richard Sarson

Richard Sarson completed an MA Communication Art and Design at Royal College of Art in 2006. His works show some masterful craftsmanship and some of the drawings would be hard to believe that they were actually hand drawn. This work doesn't really relate to my practice at the minute, but i am intrigued by the process to produce such fascinating drawings.

essence design

Essence design specializes in brand asset management. They are an identity agency that provides a comprehensive range of services for brand creation and portfolio optimisation.
I found these images again whilst searching through graphic-exchange.com. I thought that they were similar to some of my work where i had been looking up at buildings using the sky as the backdrop, but these are a lot different in that they are photography. The colour of the sky is amazing and you're not obviously going to get that everyday, but i may look to take some of my own photographs in similar settings.

Super Steady

Paolo Lim is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Adelaide, Australia. His illustrations are really interesting and he has a great way of working with inks. If i were to move away from producing work in only two colour, then maybe would incorporate inks into my projects.

http://www.supersteady.org

RAku GAki

This is the work of Koji Nishida
Art Director / Graphic Designer / Flash Developer.
I found this work whilst looking through the graphic-exchange website and found it really quite interesting. The way that he has used the reflection of the buildings is something that i may take and experiment further.

SKYLINE DESIGN

Using a couple of the photos that i had taken of the Leeds skyline, i cut out the silhouette and just played around with them.
Having looked at the work of Christopher Remy, instead of just having the silhouette i tried bringing into the frame the negative of the cut out and the original photo to add something different.
I feel that they are definitely work in progress.

Never Effect.

This is the work of Christopher Remy, a freelance graphic designer and illustrator based in Brussels, Belgium.
Some of my work at present has been looking a t silhouetted buildings and skylines, and although these are not totally silhouetted, the composition of the work appeals to me. At first glance they look like a set of office block, but as you look closer you can see they are in fact the same building resized. I also like the simplicity of only having two colours.

LEEDS SKYLINE

These are two photos taken of the Leeds skyline which are going to make the starting point for one of my briefs, entitled Skyline Design. I intend to use the skylines to produce various images based upon the shapes that they make.

SKYLINES

These two images were taken from the Leeds skyline. The simplicity of the silhouetted buildings really appeals to me as they create a totally different feel to the situation. Although you cannot see the details of the buildings, such as the brick work and windows, the silhouettes mean that you see more of the shapes that make them up.

Andrew Prokos

Andrew Prokos is a New York City based photographer specializing in architectural, location, and fine art photography. Andrew has worked on assignments and commissions for clients in advertising, publishing, design, real estate, government, and corporate art. Andrew's photos have been widely published in magazines and corporate annuals, and are featured in printed product lines sold in the United States and Europe.



http://andrewprokos.com/

watercolours

Although these two images do not really have anything to do with the subject of buildings and architecture, the composition and the colours ones that attract my attention. Before i chose to focus on looking at architecture, i was considering looking at nature and its surroundings and that is why i decided to post them.

Stephen Wiltshire

Stephen Wiltshire is an incredible artist, who draws and paints, most noticeably for his drawings of buildings and cityscapes. I am fascinated by his drawings and the fact that he can produce perfect drawings of cities from memory.
Being interested in architecture and buildings myself, the work by Wiltshire has definitely made me want to start drawing them more.

EMBOSS

I have always wanted to try and incorporate embossing into my work but so far have been unsuccessful as it hasn't really been right. The effect that embossing gives is something that i really like and not only is it visual but it also has a totally different feel to then end result. I may look to see how my work develops and then decide if embossing would be the correct process to use.