OUIL503 End of Module Evaluation

SB3 | Project Report

Design Boards | SB2 Collaborative Practice

YCN: BEAR Brief

Design Boards | SB1 Individual Practice

THE BATSFORD PRIZE

ILLUSTRATION 12"

YCN: UK GREETINGS

Responsive | Final Crit

Today we had our final responsive crit which was a chance for us to get feedback on how our design boards were shaping up at this point. I took on board some of the comments and made some edits to my boards; such as making it clearer which board corresponded with which brief (adding the title to the info bar at the bottom), and cutting back some sentences where possible.

Here is the feedback sheet...

505 | Peer Crit

The crit was good because people got to see the progress of my work for this module so far. I had a few questions that needed answering and was hoping the crit would help with this.

Although the feedback was encouraging, and comments were useful, I still feel a bit stuck with the project and how to go forward with creating my 6 images.

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Notes from feedback sheet:

• Concept is interesting and important

• Funny, sweet, playful, ambitious

• The cut shapes work really well especially when worked into. Play with layers of textures on photoshop.

• Mixed media would work well - maybe cut paper and monoprint? Experiment with colours

• Love the playfulness, and how relatable the characters are to children's drawing where we all started. Maybe a small use of text could help to put it into context

• Play with textures

• "Be inquisitive" slogan is good. Could also use "take risks", "be curious", "ask questions" etc. - could have a variation of phrases to accompany the poster designs.

• Try screenprinting the finals maybe and play around with that process

Help!! (and some quick tests)

Since I've started to collate a lot of different materials (papers, monotype drawings, etc) I want to start putting it all together to build my posters. I've done some quick tests on photoshop, seeing how I can layer up the different pieces. However I'm not so sure anymore.

I try not to have an idea of the finished image in my head, and let the process lead what the image's aesthetic will look like but I'm a bit worried that this is directionless?

I'm also unsure about colour at this point. I've purposefully done all of my drawings in black ink or pencil, which means it will be easy to change their colours. I might need a colour palette in mind to give myself some rules so I won't spend too much time selecting a colour palette.

There's a crit tomorrow that I'm hoping will give me some answers.

These examples are far from being finished, I'm just trying to play around with all of the different elements and see how they would work together. I'm starting to consider layout and type, as well as the balance of line and shape that I would like.

More Monotypes

Here is another batch of monotype prints from being in the print room on Friday. Although similar to my other monotype tests earlier in 505, these are more suited to the project as it is now (geared towards the museum idea...)

I really like being in the print room doing monotype, I can switch off and make silly drawings and just get in the print zone.

505 | Testing

I'm starting to put together separate materials (drawings, collages, paintings) which will hopefully form the basis of my 6 final poster designs. I also plan on going back into the print room and creating some monotypes which could also be layered up with all of the rest.

I've been trying to go about it in a playful way, and not worry too much about the outcome at this stage. I think that's what really worked well with the last module, it was intuitive and I had fun making loads of wonky drawings and prints. So I'm trying to harness some 504 magic.

There's still a way to go, but I have the roughs of my chosen 6 all mapped out. So it's just a matter of figuring out which process is best for creating the imagery, and smaller considerations like combinations of type, and maybe layout.

For the slogan of these 'campaign' posters, I was thinking of the main phrase as "BE INQUISITIVE", however I may even consider a smaller tagline which is a combination of digital type and handmade (something like these...)

505 | Final 6 Roughs

After figuring out which of the thumbnails would work best alongside each other, I came up with the final 6 below: magnifying man, masks, beetle boy, art gallery times, library, and I want to trade the kids on the school trip looking at the bear for the prehistoric man, so he is the main exhibit instead of the cave bear.

I chose them so that I would have a variation of compositions - from central/single objects, to busier arrangements (like the masks). I think there's a good balance there.

the final 6 | important workings out

Collaborative | Reflecting

Yesterday we submitted our outcomes for the YCN BEAR brief. Although there were no major hiccups during our time working together, this collaborative project has given me a lot to think about.

POSITIVES OF COLLABORATIVE

• It was a chance to gain experience working with others across other creative disciplines, which was completely new to me

• We also had experience of submitting to a competition brief as a group

• You also may come to realise what your strengths are during group projects. I found that I'm good at idea generation and keeping myself organised, however being assertive and forward is where I fell short

CHALLENGES OF COLLABORATIVE

• A big challenge for me was relinquishing control of various aspects of a project. Within my own practice, as well as illustration in general, we have to assume many different roles, dealing with the creation of images and artwork, as well as design, layout, type, colour, and even motion at times.
Because of the versatile nature of illustration, I found it difficult to work only with drawing, and rely on others to deal with layout, etc. It involves a level of trust I guess, and you have to accept that those other jobs are out of your hands.

• I found that being assertive was a challenge for me. There were times where I would have done things differently, however because a certain job didn't belong to me I felt it wasn't my place to say anything. There's a fine line between assertion and being too headstrong, which is difficult as you want to get along with the group, but also be honest and point the work in the right direction.

• I found it difficult to make images in my usual way (with a naive, childish aesthetic) and because of this I think my tone of voice in the images I put forward was completely diluted. I think I was too worried about pleasing people and making images that would be liked by a wider audience/suitable for a commercial brief.

MY THOUGHTS

• Although this project brought a lot of new situations and I do feel I learned a fair bit, comparing our concepts at the beginning, as well the artist research I presented (Anorak Mag, Rob Hodgson, etc), I feel that our outcomes are completely different from these references.

I also didn't think I was that much of a control freak, but I really struggled with not having a hand in every part of a project in comparison to projects I do on my own. I don't think what I contributed was the strongest work I made, so I'm disappointed in that respect. But I suppose a positive is that we managed to submit on time and complete what we planned to do.

Collaborative Meeting

Although progress has been going okay so far and communication hasn't been a significant problem, this collaborative project has presented a few different challenges that I think just come with the territory of working with other people.

Having previously discussed our roles in the group with each other, we wanted to make them a bit clearer for ourselves. This is obviously important because you need to understand what you're doing, but also means you have to let other things go and trust that another member of the group can do them.

The task I had was to create the drawings/linework for all of the outcomes, but does that mean I have no input into the final design/layout? Roles are confusing when it comes to group work as they can change and become blurred.

We have been working together well, and are managing to create the work that is required, but I'm aware that the final outcome is very different from the work that I usually create within my own practice, and coming to terms with this has been strange for me.

Obviously the YCN and D&AD briefs are targeted for more commercial purposes, so that is another area in which I feel I have had to relinquish control in order to meet the expectations of a brief/client/brand.

505 | Roughs & Peer Tutorial

Here are some thumbnail sketches I've been doing when thinking about poster designs for the 'campaign' I want to create. I would like them to have a playful tone, and use a mixture of media to create quite an experimental aesthetic (collage, monoprint, drawings, all layered together...).

The concept behind them is to encourage the public to visit these institutional collections available to them, and go and appreciate these objects for their historical, educational, cultural, and emotional value. I'm thinking of the tagline as "Be Inquisitive"

The peer tutorial was really helpful and made me feel a bit more settled with my idea. The direction my project is going in made sense to Meg, which is important.

Here are some things I could do/think about next:

• Campaign for who? - museums, or galleries and libraries too? (general institutional collections)

• Consider a colour palette as a way of tying all of the designs together as a set

• Target audience - children or everyone of all ages?

• What's the client profile for existing campaigns you like?

• Merchandising - stay away from keyrings, totes, tshirt. Think more postcard books, and maybe some sort of publication

• Mediums - traditional processes made more refined with assembling the elements in digital software

• Do you need to revise your proposal?

UK Greetings | Submitting to YCN

There it goes!!

UK Greetings | Final Outcomes

These are all of my finished outcomes for the UK Greetings brief.  Although this is something I wouldn't ordinarily gravitate to, I thought I'd give it a try. It took a lot of reworking before I came up with something I thought was okay.

Creating a set of products/items is difficult because you want them to consistently work as a set, but not be boring. I found getting that balance right to be difficult. I don't think this is my best work, but I suppose it fits what the brief was asking for.

All I need to do now is check that everything matches the criteria, and I might submit to the competition seeing as I've made all of the work for it.

505 | Refining the Context

I still feel that although my idea has been made clearer, it stills needs more of a purpose to hold it up. 

Although the word campaign isn't something I'd initially gravitate to, I think if it's done right, and in my own way, it could be quite interesting.

Basically I'm thinking of creating a campaign encouraging people to visit their local institutional collections (galleries, museums, libraries, etc) and continue being inquisitive/investigative.

I really enjoy seeing creative poster designs for exhibitions and events, and I think posters allow for lots of different outcomes and can convey an event or idea, or simply be works of art in their own right. Here are some examples I've found...

Museum posters for a dinosaur exhibition using children's drawings. Vibrant, charming, and playful. Suggests the educational value of museums and their exhibitions.

Mix of posters for the V&A, the Horniman Museum, and the Museum of Mankind. Lots of different approaches, no limits on materials or media. Type isn't always the main part of the designs.

These are by Polish poster artist Henryk Tomaszewski. I really love these, they are quite bold and ambitious visually, and use the imagery as their main communicator. I think there's something really powerful about these designs, as they are memorable and far from boring. (See also: Roman Cieslewicz)

Outcomes I'm thinking of are:

- Posters
- Ads
- Publication
- Social media (done in a certain way. This won't be the central part)

505 | Refining Idea

Although I like my idea for this project I was starting to think that it wasn't really that good and that it was too all over the place. I talked to Neneh and she helped me make sense of what I was going for with my ideas.

Here are some notes I made...

COLLECTIONS

• Recording
• Archiving
• Organising
• Visual data
• Accumulation

• Drawing together lots of seemingly disparate things. Which is what collecting/curating is, and in a sense what I've done with my research.

• This is what you're doing with the articles and contextual references - drawing together lots of things that have a theme. Curated research. Is it a thought process?

• NY Times 'What You Collect' - "Why do we amass certain objects?" "How do these collections affect us and those around us?"

• Curation - logic - putting things together
                 - heart - gathering objects that you're interested in

• Comparing and contrasting the 'high culture' collections (museums, institutions...) with the 'low culture' collections (personal collections, hobbyists, hoards...)

• What makes a collection gallery-worthy or worth exhibiting?

VISUAL INVESTIGATION / VISUAL RESEARCH

• You've curated in a sense those inspirations and points of reference for 505, creating links and connections between material.

• Maybe it's not about a location or place? - e.g. a museum
  -> Meaning. Personal accumulations are just as meaningful and valid as a sacred historical object/artifact. Still have stories, histories, etc.

VALUE OF OBJECTS

• Look at museum and exhibition branding. Posters, publications...

• A publication? - aimed at people that go to public institutions, encouraging them to continue being interested and inquisitive

• Campaign? - posters, ads. "be inquisitive" "be investigative"

UK Greetings | Restarting

I've been working on outcomes for this brief for the last couple of weeks, and I've been dissatisfied with all of the designs I've created so far.

I started off in photoshop creating something that is purely digital/shape based, which is unlike the work I usually do. I wanted to try a different approach, however I think it is just over complicating things, as photoshop has too many options.

Here are the first attempts at greetings cards. They're too digital, and I got frustrated with making them because they overall look was really far away from what I usually do, and what I like doing...

Collaborative Meeting

Meeting again today to work on putting together the poster and cards as the deadline is pretty soon. We've split the tasks in half, with Sophie working on layout and applying the chosen type, and Brogan and myself colouring in the individual photoshop assets.

Examples of colour being applied to the originally blank line work assets.

Here is an example of card layout that Sophie came up with using a grid system. The blue area is where the illustration will be, pink is the title/name of creature, and green is where the text will be describing the facts we have chosen.

This will be used so that the layout of each of our proposed cards follows a similar format, making them more cohesive.

Monotype Tests 2

The second batch of monotype roughs I made the other day. I think I would like to involve monotype into my illustrations in some way, whether this is as the entire image, or just a small part of it.

Editorial Dimensions

Looking at existing examples of editorial illustrations within magazines/publications, considering what dimensions I could use for my final illustrations.

Examples from the New Statesman...

w x h (122mm x 98mm | 187mm x 246mm | 187mm x 176mm)

505 | Group Tutorials

• Work could be a visual investigation

• Assemblages of drawings of objects, etc

• Publications - people and their stuff. Field guide to collections.

• Collections - theme of collections, from museums and galleries, to personal collections and hoarding. City - collections within the city (a gallery set beside trash, etc etc), locations...

• Think about mood and what you're trying to communicate. Maybe add visual clues to make the message clearer where necessary.

• Editorial feature - tells a story. Could involve a full-page illustration, half page, etc.

• Messy cityscape vs. messy insides of homes

• Collage, layered up images, shapes as well as line

• Vignettes in some sort of structure

• Illustrations to accompany a piece of text. New Statesman, New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly

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What do I need to do?

• Decide. Focus down idea. (However, one idea can encompass many)

• Could be based around a central illustration, and 5 smaller illustrations that coincide with the main image/idea.

• Get some dimensions for my illustrations from existing magazines.

• Continue media experiments to try and identify the aesthetic and tone I want.

Monotype Tests 1

As I'm unsure about the type of feeling I want my final illustrations to have, that means I'm also unsure about materials/processes at this point too. I decided to try some monotype as I enjoy creating these type of prints, and they are quick and allow me not to think about the finished product too much.

Although this may change, I kind of like the childish/wonky quality of these images. They are far from being finished, they are just rough sketches using the monoprint process instead of pencil.

I also tried monoprinting on paper that I had collaged on to but they're on the drying rack.

This is the first batch...

Rough Sketches

Here are some rough sketches I've drawn in response to my research material; based on the general themes, to specific lines from articles. I'm struggling to come up with a cohesive 'feel' or tone, which I want my final illustrations to have.

Although I like how varied my research is, I think maybe it's too disparate. I have a tutorial coming up so I'm hoping I can have these questions answered, and maybe see if I can think of more of a focus for my project.

Rings of Saturn - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Another response to an illustration 12" track. This is another attempt at not immediately reaching for the pencil. My last response also involved 3D elements, so I tried to continue doing something along those lines. I tried scanning a load of stuff I had at hand - wool, string, beads, just bits and pieces. 

Distorting the look of the scan makes it not look like it's original form, instead creating this interesting textural pattern. I think this cover is a mix of organic materials, and flat, digital shapes and colour. Nothing special, but it adds to my overall set of illustrated tracks.

And applying the design to the sleeve mock-up makes it look more put together, too.

Collaborative | Peer Review

On Thursday we had a peer review with other collaborative groups. It was helpful for us to pitch our project so far to other people, as well as getting feedback from fresh eyes.

I put together a powerpoint to show at the crit, so our progress made more sense to the other groups. Then when our collaborative group met beforehand, they could add their own images (type, colour tests, etc)

Notes from the crit:

• Title that includes 'adventure' - alludes to a narrative, exciting

• Handmade materials and processes reflect the target audience

• Be careful that too much handmade (e.g. backgrounds, type, etc) don't all become too busy and get lost. Maybe use lighter colours to contrast

• Play with narrative a bit more. Incorporate this 'adventure' element a bit more

• Do we stylise the characters? Do we go for more caricature?

• What is the theme? What are you trying to say to the audience?

Discussion after crit:

• We decided that we need to delegate more. Although we have been getting along as a group and making progress, we thought that our roles needed to be defined more.

Me: Linework + drawing
Brogan: Colour palettes + textures
Sophie: Type + Layout

• Thinking of changing the title to 'Deep Sea Discovery', sounds better, discovery suggests it is more about the learning/factual content.

• Brogan suggested involving the latin name of the animals on the cards. Again, tying in with our biological/learning theme.

• One of the other - textured objects or background, not both as it's too busy. A balance between textural and flat so the images aren't too overwhelming. Also think about legibility for the back of cards, so children can read them

• We plan to meet again this Monday and present our developed work begin assembling.

Progress Tutorial

Issues discussed:

• Responsive - get everything finished so you're ready - Talk to Patrick about hand-in

• COP - Think about COP 3 proposal. Make this to be about you and your practice (emotive drawing, immediate, automatic drawing). Unica Zern, outsider art, primitive art, folk art

• 505 - Collections editorial. Format? Could be exhibition posters (for a series of exhibits, talks, workshops, etc) Such as Matthew Richardson's posters for the V&A.
So your final context could be exhibition posters, or a supplement (publication) for a magazine...

Matthew Richardson

Things to consider/look at:

• Context for 505 project (how to make broad ideas work as a set)

• David Hughes

• Saul Steinberg (sophisticated, but still has elements of humour)

• Unica Zurn