One Week Project | Hot dog books pt. 2

Thursday | The final prints were cut to scale and folded.

When we received the project brief at the beginning of the week, I was looking forward to the possibilities of both the narrative aspect of the task, as well as screen printing.

Although the finished book fits the brief and I'm glad we have a completed piece to present, I suppose I feel disappointed that the fun and excitement of collaboration wasn't really there?

I understand that compromises must be made, and that getting 5 different people to mash their ideas, ways of working, and visual tastes together is difficult, I just thought it would have been easier and that the group would have been more enthused and raring to make some really neat illustration together.

Final note:

One Week Project | Hot dog books pt. 1

Visual Narrative kicked off with a week-long group project in which we had to research, develop, and construct a screen printed hot dog book. It was a hectic, mixed week, and so *~thoughts and feelings~* are going to make a rare appearance on the blog!

Monday | At the start of the week, we were put into groups and sent out into Leeds to explore and collect findings (photographs, notes, recordings, drawings..) that evidenced our own little field trips. Here are a few examples of what we found..

Chinese supermarket, checking out the wares, cryptic cookie proverbs..

I got really fixated on scouting out cool bits of graffiti. I liked it because it was something that people don't go out of their way to find or look at

Lock bridge, the canal, and eating bread rolls in the cold

These are just extracts from the course of the day. Overall, the outing was nice and went at a relaxed pace. It was lovely to talk to members of the class that I hadn't previously chatted too all that much.

Tuesday | So the next day, we had to compile what we found on the day before and sort of make sense of it all. We all began brainstorming and listing what we did chronologically, and we found there were so many approaches to this task.

Do we present a place-by-place retelling of our day? Do we introduce our own made-up narrative? Do we each take a page? Do we collaborate?

Over time, the group seemed to become disengaged with the ideas completely. It didn't help that our idea generation was broken up when people had to attend inductions.

When I returned from my own induction, the group had talked to Matt and seemed to veer towards a certain approach. And yet, there was still a feeling that no one was completely satisfied with a single concept or method.

I'm not sure why this was, and I felt that this 'mood' impacted on our ability to talk and put across thoughts to each other, and it's very hard to solve a problem when there's silence. Each new idea seemed to throw up 20 more questions and hurdles to tackle. Time was also a contributing factor, as our print slot was the next day.

It's very tough because you want to create work that you're 100% invested in, and that the group feels happy with, but deliberating and pondering too much all cut into your time..

Development hell

After much development, we (silently) went with the lock bridge idea. I think considering the situation, and our very limited time it was wise to just pick an idea. It was minimal in style, which would save time during production, and involved a narrative which was part of the task's criteria.

Wednesday | There were a few technical difficulties when putting together the kodatrace sheets, but they were made in time. Having never screen printed before, I didn't knew there were so many steps to it! I like the one-of-a-kind nature of printing, how every copy is different. I would definitely like to try it out again, would be interesting on a larger scale piece too.

Mark Making & Tone | Deep Sea Diving

The next part of our visual language task was to explore how tone could be made. I don't really like realistic/heavily representational drawings myself, so it was more about how tone could be created in different ways - for example through mark making.

In a lot of my drawings, tone isn't central to the overall image. Maybe I focused on line a bit too much? I will try to consider other elements in future.

A pen drawing of a school of sharks. With this drawing, I used tone to differentiate the separate forms of each shark especially where they swam above one another and overlapped. On the page opposite, I absent-mindedly started pasting down bits of ripped up paper.

It's funny how the pages relate to each other so much. The collage almost translates the image on the left into colours and shapes, as it lacks those things.

The detailed, close up drawings of objects on the right is one of my favourites. I really took my time drawing out the small marks, pores and thought about which types of line I was going to make. I like how they focus on a part of an animal or plant, rather than the whole thing.

Drawings that are much quicker, focusing on colour and mark making

Chunky pencil drawing of a pufferfish. Pencil is great for creating a vast range of line types, offering a lot of control. You can make areas of soft shading, or harsh lines. This example of collage could technically count as using pre-made mark making? I guess collage is a way of using textures and various clippings to create marks/patterns that you wouldn't normally get.

Tone indicated using cross-hatching. The more dense the hatching is, the darker the 'shading' becomes.

OUIL403 Visual Skills | End of Module Self-Evaluation

1. Which practical skills and methodologies have you developed within this module and how effectively do you think you are employing them within your own practice?

• Rough sketches have been an important part of the projects within visual skills. I think that I have used them to not only put down any initial ideas, but have used them to think about how I could develop an idea further. It has also been useful for me to see that a rough sketch doesn't have to look like a finished piece of work, and that it doesn't dictate the quality of your finished piece.
 
2. Which principles/theories of image making have you found most valuable during this module and how effectively do you think you are employing these within your own practice?

• A principle that has been mentioned during this module that I agree with strongly is that good 'image making' isn't enough - design is equally as important. This mainly came through in the final book jacket brief. I believe that bad design (composition, colour choices, typeface..) can drag an originally good piece of illustration down. It was good to hear that successful illustration comes from more than making a nice picture - and that concept, communication, and design are huge factors too!

• I'm interested in design, however this module has made me want to continue bringing design into my work. I would love to create intelligent illustration that can make an audience think and feel, design can even make an image interactive in some ways. 

3. What strengths can you identify within your submission and how have you capitalised on these?

• I think that one of my strengths during this module has been my research and idea generation. Whether it is researching a topic more broadly, gathering bits of information, looking at relevant illustrator's/artist's work, or brainstorming multiple concepts, to me it all helps to create an idea that is stronger, well-informed, and more considered.

• Another strength I feel I have shown throughout visual skills is how I experiment and develop my ideas by trying different approaches. Whether this is in terms of the materials I use, layouts, or how I consider more than one idea, I try and see how multiple things could work instead of just settling on the easiest, or the first outcome.

4. What areas for further development can you identify within your submission and how will you address these in the future?

• During visual skills I have always felt that my final pieces of work have fallen short somehow. This could be due to difficulties faced during final production, technical errors (e.g. measurements, mistakes with a material, etc..). I can address these issues by allowing slightly more time for the production stage of a project, and by taking my time (especially with work that is heavily practical - like the book jacket brief).

• Another way in which I can solve this in future projects is by being more forward in asking for peer feedback and opinions. I sometimes fail to stop and ask for help from those around me, but by asking they could pick up on something I have missed. Getting pointers from others is really valuable as you can get a range of views different from your own, and so I will have to feel more comfortable in doing this.

5. In what way has this module introduced you to the Ba (Hons) Illustration programme?

• This module has definitely introduced me to the pace of the work and the quick turn-around of brief-led projects. Having produced work for 3 structured briefs, I have got into the swing of how I approach a brief and respond to it. In some ways it has helped me develop a 'process' for this type of work and how much time I allocate to different stages; researching, initial ideas, development, and so on.

• Visual skills has also allowed me to get used to blogging and documenting my work. With the 'work process' I mentioned above, I feel that blogging these steps helps me to order my work and reflect on what I have done and consequentially, what needs to be done next. I think I have found blogging to be surprisingly straight forward and something that I do on time which is a positive as it is a requirement throughout the illustration programme.

Do Judge a Book by its Cover | Final Outcome

Here is my final book jacket design for 'The Everyday Life Reader'…

Overall I'm fairly happy with the design, I feel it is minimal yet eye catching. I did encounter some issues while producing the final which I think affected the quality of the finished product. For instance after printing the final, I realised I had put the covers on the wrong way (how tragic). So to solve this, I had to carefully cut each panel and glue them on to a piece of paper.

I also realised after cutting each piece out and assembling them, that the total height of the jacket was 0.5cm short!!

I was really annoyed at this, as I had wanted a book jacket that was a single piece of paper to smoothly wrap around the existing book. I guess in future I will ask a peer to check a final design to see if anything is amiss, as it's difficult to spot these things after staring at a piece of work for so long.

Although these things don't completely ruin the design, as a perfectionist they stand out really badly and make the piece of work worse. I understand that when working with dimensions in future projects I need to really take my time and stay calm! (Dimensions and precise measurements really stress me out..)

Do Judge a Book by its Cover | Final Testing

Once I had tried out different arrangements for the jacket, I went on to the final stages of testing. I looked at colour, type, and other digital processes before creating my end design.

I did some quick swatches on a blank document to see which combinations worked well together. I seemed to pick a mix of earthy colours and muted tones - staying away from shades that I thought as being more contemporary (neons, etc.)

I thought that these subdued colours had a 'classic' feeling to them, and were perhaps more evocative of mid-century design.

 Here are some of the colours I tried. For the sake of testing I just lay the colour down quickly without thinking of neatness, however this led me to think about how I wanted the colour and line to be - should they overlap? Be out of line? Should the colour be controlled?

To get more of a sense of the completed product I placed type and tested out a few different layouts for the title. The vertical title was subtle, yet interesting. It also echoed the standing position of the figure.

Further colour trials. Blue and grey - cool, muted, but maybe a little dull? Red and green - punchy colours, but maybe too jarring. Capitalised type is also severe. Red and blue - a nice combination of bright and calm. However the hot and cool tones don't mix too well. Yellow and blue - I like this scheme, colours don't fight against one another, both are slightly 'off' variations of the original colours.

Once the front cover had been sorted, it was a matter of applying the theme across all panels of the book jacket.

Do Judge a Book by its Cover | Compositions

Having completed the media experiments I need to consider the layout and design of the book jacket before moving on to producing the final.

Here are some of the arrangements I tried, changing placement of the illustration and type each time.

I do like the layouts with the repeated imagery, as it sort of suggests a process, or movement (a walk cycle?). It also reminds me of a crowd of people. Although I think the example with the solitary figure has impact it conjures up feelings of loneliness, which the book isn't about. I think the 'crowd' layout with multiple figures works best.

Vertical titles are an interesting way of displaying the type, its a nice variation from the typical layout (top, center) and the type can be displayed without interfering with the images.

I have also began looking at various typefaces..

A sans serif font makes the overall design look more contemporary (and reflects the era that cropped up in my research (mid-century); Saul Leiter and other photographers I looked at, Pelican books..)

Also the lack of serifs on the letters make the words easier to turn, transform, and fit at atypical angles if necessary. Sans serif is much less ornate and delicate, which is important if I want to go for a minimalist appearance.