I have finally got round to setting up my second year blog:
nicholatiffanybagd2.blogspot.com
...now to start posting!!
Monday 20 July 2009
Sunday 31 May 2009
Module Evaluation
Throughout this last module of my first year I have come to learn a lot about what way of working I'm comfortable with and feel I am learning from my mistakes and trying to work on where my strengths lie. I have certainly improved my skills on Illustration and InDesign, experimenting with layouts and appropriate designs using type. I seem to have really leaned on working with type without even realising it and am looking forward to improving my knowledge and continue to enjoy going down this path. I have worked hard to get straight on with a new brief as soon as I get it and through trial and error put any ideas down on paper, whether they come to be successful or not. I have also tried a lot harder to set out weekly plans for myself to balance briefs and my general workload in and out of college hours.
I have tried to broaden my research and not just use the Internet as my only source as I was at the beginning of the year. I have started to engage with my subscription to Creative Review more and set time aside to find existing examples that link closer to the work I am doing, and then display this in a way that is obvious to the viewer where my inspirations have come from. I think this mainly shows in the 'Speaking from experience' brief and not so much in the others within this module, but this is something I really want to work on going into the second year. My strengths (something which I have repeatedly noticed throughout the year) are definitely my organisation skills, as even though a lot of my final resolutions have perhaps not been as successful as I'd hoped, they have at least shown the process I went through to get there in an easy to understand way. The message itself may not have been communicated in the strongest way, but I like the way I work, whereby naturally I always try to show the path I took in a very structured way to simplify everything and explain what my intentions to solve the problem are.
However, my biggest improvement would be that my primary research is continuously getting stronger and more relevant, e.g. I am more confident now to ask more in-depth questionnaires and the results I get always help me to make decisions. However, my passion for photography has taken a back seat and I see this as a personal weakness as I would like to include it more in my researching for it to become one of my strengths.
Next year I want to focus on developing my research skills further as I know I can improve a lot more on this. I want to set time aside to gain more knowledge in the industry and develop more critical opinions on what I like and don't like and represent these in the ideas and designs I create. Then I will have stronger links between my ideas and research and I will hopefully be communicating stronger and getting the message across to the audience.
How I would rate myself at the end of this module:
(5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor)
Attendance - 4
Punctuality - 5
Motivation - 4
Commitment - 4
Quantity of work produced - 4
Quality of work produced - 4
Contribution to the group - 4
I have tried to broaden my research and not just use the Internet as my only source as I was at the beginning of the year. I have started to engage with my subscription to Creative Review more and set time aside to find existing examples that link closer to the work I am doing, and then display this in a way that is obvious to the viewer where my inspirations have come from. I think this mainly shows in the 'Speaking from experience' brief and not so much in the others within this module, but this is something I really want to work on going into the second year. My strengths (something which I have repeatedly noticed throughout the year) are definitely my organisation skills, as even though a lot of my final resolutions have perhaps not been as successful as I'd hoped, they have at least shown the process I went through to get there in an easy to understand way. The message itself may not have been communicated in the strongest way, but I like the way I work, whereby naturally I always try to show the path I took in a very structured way to simplify everything and explain what my intentions to solve the problem are.
However, my biggest improvement would be that my primary research is continuously getting stronger and more relevant, e.g. I am more confident now to ask more in-depth questionnaires and the results I get always help me to make decisions. However, my passion for photography has taken a back seat and I see this as a personal weakness as I would like to include it more in my researching for it to become one of my strengths.
Next year I want to focus on developing my research skills further as I know I can improve a lot more on this. I want to set time aside to gain more knowledge in the industry and develop more critical opinions on what I like and don't like and represent these in the ideas and designs I create. Then I will have stronger links between my ideas and research and I will hopefully be communicating stronger and getting the message across to the audience.
How I would rate myself at the end of this module:
(5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor)
Attendance - 4
Punctuality - 5
Motivation - 4
Commitment - 4
Quantity of work produced - 4
Quality of work produced - 4
Contribution to the group - 4
Wednesday 20 May 2009
Laundry mock ups!
Unfortunately I was testing ideas out using an image maker transfer method and the quality isn't good, but I wanted to at least show what I am hoping to produce when I take the designs to screen print next week.
Crit evaluation - 'speaking from experience'
Unfortunately due to being ill, I haven't had much input from others on my course or my tutors for a couple of weeks, so I was hoping this week's group crit would help me further my ideas - and it did! Luckily my idea overall sounded like a good one and I had many suggestions of how I could make it even better. It was suggested that I experiment with actual clothing to design the bags to really keep the link of laundry with the designs, and it would make it more visually interesting for my student audience. I really liked this idea and went out straight away to buy cheap bags to practise on, mini socks and t-shirts to play around with and sew up to make purses, and pillow cases to drawstring up for the bed linen bag, but unfortunately couldnt find pants big enough to act as the laundry bags themselves. I may keep looking! With less than 2 weeks to go from the crit, I came up with 5 actions to organise my time and work out what I need to do.
Action Plan
1. Work out a chosen humorous message for each bag.
2. Find/ design a fun style type, appropriate to subject and audience.
3. Sew clothing and practise with mock up designs - get feedback to see if they're successful.
4. Screen print if print rooms available. If not, transfer designs onto chosen bags using fabric pens and paint to create the same effect.
5. Do final prints and sewing and document on blog.
Action Plan
1. Work out a chosen humorous message for each bag.
2. Find/ design a fun style type, appropriate to subject and audience.
3. Sew clothing and practise with mock up designs - get feedback to see if they're successful.
4. Screen print if print rooms available. If not, transfer designs onto chosen bags using fabric pens and paint to create the same effect.
5. Do final prints and sewing and document on blog.
Printmaking Elective Evaluation
The most interesting research I came across was work by Mark Andrew Webber who designed Lino Prints. He designed typographic maps that were about A1 in size and each took upto 50 hours just to carve out the lino.
Amsterdam:
London:
New York:
Guardian newspaper type design:
A finished print:
My Evaluation
Overall, throughout this elective module I have learned a lot about basic printmaking and the skills needed to go into it, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Some processes were more difficult or more enjoyable than others (as I have mentioned in more detail in my ongoing report) but I think I progressed well each week.
Drypoint in the first week was the least interesting of the techniques, but after re-visiting it at the end of the course, I feel I got a bit more out of it and saw how useful the simple process could be.
The Monoprint process is one that I think I got the most out of in terms of achievement. I have used this technique before and it is a quick and easy way to test and experiment with designs and I think it will be the most useful and relate the closest to the work that I do in my main course of study. I could do endless prints in this way, I enjoy it so much, and think I improved the more I experimented and learned from my mistakes as I went along. I wish I had I chosen a more typography based theme at the beginning of this elective, however, as I would have liked to have pushed myself further, certainly with monoprint, and worked with lettering and designing them in reverse.
The Lino print was something I had never done before and even though I followed the process well, carving into the lino and preparing it for print, I found it difficult to then line it up when re-printing onto the same print. I think I could probably achieve better results in this if I carved out a neater and simpler design.
I feel I did not achieve as much as I had hoped out of the Aquatint process, due to my first session not being a great success when it came to the actual printing, as the original plate had not been fixed enough for the ink to hold onto the areas that had been exposed. This meant the ink just filled in the outlines, not the rest of the image. The second attempt I spent too much time focusing on being accurate and careful with each stage the copper plate goes through in preparation, that I only had time at the end for a few prints. I thought beforehand this would have been my favourite technique, but actually I really enjoyed the simplicity and 'craftyness' of Collograph. I had never done this before and even though I had to wait a bit for the varnish to set on my board at the beginning, I had plenty of time to experiment and found I had more freedom with colours and textures and more time to use different materials and see how effectively they turned out when printed.
As well as the actual printmaking side, I also achieved more for myself in terms of time management - keeping up-to-date with sketchbooks, research and the report, attending all the sessions I could and generally being organised over the ten week course.
Here are some of my boards from collograph, drypoint, aquatint and lino that I actually liked just as much as the prints themselves!
Amsterdam:
London:
New York:
Guardian newspaper type design:
A finished print:
My Evaluation
Overall, throughout this elective module I have learned a lot about basic printmaking and the skills needed to go into it, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Some processes were more difficult or more enjoyable than others (as I have mentioned in more detail in my ongoing report) but I think I progressed well each week.
Drypoint in the first week was the least interesting of the techniques, but after re-visiting it at the end of the course, I feel I got a bit more out of it and saw how useful the simple process could be.
The Monoprint process is one that I think I got the most out of in terms of achievement. I have used this technique before and it is a quick and easy way to test and experiment with designs and I think it will be the most useful and relate the closest to the work that I do in my main course of study. I could do endless prints in this way, I enjoy it so much, and think I improved the more I experimented and learned from my mistakes as I went along. I wish I had I chosen a more typography based theme at the beginning of this elective, however, as I would have liked to have pushed myself further, certainly with monoprint, and worked with lettering and designing them in reverse.
The Lino print was something I had never done before and even though I followed the process well, carving into the lino and preparing it for print, I found it difficult to then line it up when re-printing onto the same print. I think I could probably achieve better results in this if I carved out a neater and simpler design.
I feel I did not achieve as much as I had hoped out of the Aquatint process, due to my first session not being a great success when it came to the actual printing, as the original plate had not been fixed enough for the ink to hold onto the areas that had been exposed. This meant the ink just filled in the outlines, not the rest of the image. The second attempt I spent too much time focusing on being accurate and careful with each stage the copper plate goes through in preparation, that I only had time at the end for a few prints. I thought beforehand this would have been my favourite technique, but actually I really enjoyed the simplicity and 'craftyness' of Collograph. I had never done this before and even though I had to wait a bit for the varnish to set on my board at the beginning, I had plenty of time to experiment and found I had more freedom with colours and textures and more time to use different materials and see how effectively they turned out when printed.
As well as the actual printmaking side, I also achieved more for myself in terms of time management - keeping up-to-date with sketchbooks, research and the report, attending all the sessions I could and generally being organised over the ten week course.
Here are some of my boards from collograph, drypoint, aquatint and lino that I actually liked just as much as the prints themselves!
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