DESIGN PRACTICE 3/FMP: December 2008

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.