Week 2 - Calligraphy

Reflecting:

With calligraphy, I got on with the task very well after learning the 3/4 different ways to use the brush and ink to create the particular letter forms and arrangements. I feel that at the end of the day I achieved a lot in terms of experimentation and playing around with what I wrote down with the brush. Peer feedback was also very positive in the sense that when our text was placed upon the boards I overheard many comments about mine saying that the letters had almost looked printed on a computer or made on photoshop, which made me feel a sense of accomplishment that I grasped the style of writing fairly quickly and easily. From the overall tasks I learn that a paintbrush and paint or ink can be used in a very neat way to created stylized writing, and not in a messy way as I had always presumed.

Analysing:
I think what was successful about my work on the day was how I managed to experiment with brand names such as Bacardi and Jack Daniels, making them look very old and gritty as if they had been around since the 1800's. I was not happy however about the way I was writing the letters down as I could not fit whole words on one part of the page, as they always got cut off due to my size of writing. In future calligraphy experimentation I will reduce the size of my writing to make it much more easier to work with and at the same time allow for full words and sentences to fit on one page. I found it difficult using the brush for the first time as I had never experimented with bigger brushes, only smaller ones used for water colours and minor paintings.

Time management:
With the calligraphy workshop I had no problem with time on the day as everything was very evenly paced, and enough time was given to us to experiment with many different things to write down, which allowed for me to thin about even more brands which would look good if they were branded in a very ancient style of writing. However my main concern with time was that I had hoped to have more time in researching various brands that could be created in a calligraphy style ink drawing.

Week 2 - Prototyping

For the second day of the second week of workshops my group had been asked to experiment with various materials and such in the prototyping lab on level 9. I found this a fairly easy worshop as I had come from a graphic product design background in A-level months ago, meaning that it was extremely easy to cut my images or engrave them into the materials I had. The only complaint I had however was the use of using illustrator to cut or engrave into objects which was very difficult. At my sixth-form we had been using the 2D design software which was extremely easier to use and also made it extremely easier to position how far the laser cutter would go. Especially in the case of manipulating images I found that 2D design could create the outline of an image with the click of a mouse where as illustrator was extremely troublesome to get an outline on the image I wanted to cut and the engraving sections inside of it. Other than That If could use the 2D design software to create my images I think it would be a much faster and efficient process for when using the laser cutter, in which the extra time could have gone into the planning of the material or pattern that would be cut out.

week 2 - book cover

reflecting:

With this task I got on fairly well, and felt that I could take my photoshop skills to the next level by having a friend who is an expert at it give me follow through tutorials before I did the task. I feel that I achieved a high amount and standard of work, whilst at the same time gaining many new skills on how to manipulate the text and image on photoshop. Also I found it easier to use photoshop rather than InDesign to play with the type, as it simplified the process and made it much more easier without having to have many other soft-wares open that I would have to keep switching to. As of yet I have not recieved any feedback on this particular work.  Overall from creating this image I learned several more ways to use photoshop to create very professional looking illustrations and especially in the case of the book cover which was about illustration. In addition to learning photoshop I was also able to grasp basic techniques of design on illustrator, which when used in combination with photoshop helped me to create much more powerful pieces of art, and giving a much more professional feel to a book rather than my preffered old drawing method of creating artwork. In addition to the use of photoshop and illustrator, I found it very useful to scan an object into the software and then computerise it so that I could compare my initial draft drawing to the final professional piece.

Analysing:

I think the most successful part about my work was how I managed to embed several different types of illustration within the book cover, and also how I managed to show how powerful illustration could be in influencing people's lives as can be seen within the work. With this work there was not anything that I was not happy with as I had further developed my photoshopping skills and at the same time created a very professional looking book cover. If there was anything I was uinhappy with it would be how I did not make it an A3 sized print as I though we were restricted to the dimensions of the cover that we had received on the brief. I found it challenging creating the triangular multiple image on the front of the book cover as I did not know how to cut images on photoshop or crop them. However after several tutorials I found this quite easy and learned a multitude of ways that this could be achieved. In addition to the sizing however I found that once I saved my work i could not change the size of it at all or make any changes as I did not know how to save photoshop files as editable at first. This meant that I was not able to

Time management:
looking at my time management and planning of this project, I found no problem in creating the image within the space of a few hours. However my only problem was placing this and saving it as a PDF document, which was problematic due to one of my computers not having the adobe PDF reader. This resulted in the piece becoming a late submission however the work was completed the a very high standard, and the computer that did not have the PDF saving format was due to my own human error.

Friday workshop - After Effects

Reflecting:

With the after effects workshop, similar to photoshop I had difficulty at the start of the day due to the fast pacing of the software and how it functioned, similar to photoshop, but towards the end of the day I found it quite an enjoyable project to work on. At the end of the day I feel that I achieved quite a lot as I mastered the basic functions of how to animate an image, and also with the spinning earth image which I found was quite interesting on how we made a flat image spherical and then start spinning. As my group were all doing the same video at the start, feedback was very minimal as we had all achieved the same video. However when we got to customize our own images onto the video, I decided to a christmas themed video, and It received very good feedback by peers in addition to comments that it would be sent as an E-Christmas card to a family member or friend.  From the workshop I learnt the very basics of using After effects however still have very much difficulty in using it. As I was considering motion graphics at one point this showed me some of the possibilities that I could utilize in my own work, however deterred me due to the fact that getting use to the software could take an extensive amount of time.

Analysing:
I think the most successful part of the after effects work that I did was my own customization at the end of the day and how it was themed to a Christmas style E-Card. This shows that I was able to show basic manipulation of the software and made it successful as I walked away thinking o many other things that I could potentially create using the software. There was not anything that I did not like about my work as my video came out very well in particular with my customization. I found it very difficult adapting to using photoshop in the context of another software, as I always thought that the 2 soft-wares were completely different.

Time management:
As this was a one day workshop time management was not an issue as my entire group were all following our tutor on screen how to do certain animations and insert our own images. This made it very easy to follow along.

Movie poster - the 33

reflecting:

Wit this photoshop task of creating a movie poster for the 33 potential movie about the chilean miners, I went from a very slow start to a very fast paced design creation. Due to the workshop involving us working with photoshop which I was very inexperienced in, I found difficult in using the software at the start but then toward the end of the day became quite confident with the basics and fundamentals of how to use it. I feel that I achieved a lot in the one day we had to complete this as I did not have photoshop at home at the time, therefore time was vital to me throughout the whole day. I received feedback from the Photoshop tutor that my colours were very dark and gloomy but in a good way as this reflected the situation of the miners who were obviously at the heart of the film. From my peers I received postive feedback also on how everything had been composed, and this further went to more positive feedback after I had told them that it was my very first time properly using photoshop. From the overall day as task I learnt the basic ways on how to manipulate images on photoshop, and also adding text on InDesign after we had created our image.

Analysing:
I think the most successful part about my Photoshop work on the day was how I managed to make it look like a very realistic film poster, especially with the different sized actor fonts at the bottom as how they would be displayed on a real film poster. This is because if I had left all the type in a very unorganised manor or randomly thrown about on the screen it would look no different to an image that could have been made on microsoft word, therefore professionalism was a key factor of influence on the day. What I was not happy about was how there was not enough time to plan anything in our sketchbooks on the day, however at home this is not a problem as my planning stages had been noted down with each particular image and I could do this at another time during the week. What I found challenging was working with editing some layers however this problem was easily solved by right clicking and allowing my images to be editable. Overall after grasping the main concepts and tool functions using the software became a case of playing around and experimentation to see what would work best.

Time management:
Concerning my time management and planning of the work, I found that it was quite difficult to edit my artwork so fast without getting to plan a lot of it an advance. However as the workshop was designed to only show us the basics and let us work by ourselves at a fast pace I felt that this made it much more interesting as a challenge. In addition to this to ensure I could finish the entire artwork before I got home (due to not having photoshop at the time) I stayed at the university for a couple of extra hours to complete everything, and this had an added benefit of giving me more time do spend on the illustration project and also the Friday project.

Illustration and imagination

For the first Monday on the first week of workshops our task was illustration. For this task we were asked to brainstorm many ideas about what we believe imagination should be represented as to do with ourselves.

reflecting:
At first with this task I felt slightly confused, due to the vagueness of what we were asked to do. Eventually I managed to find a solution to this after discussing the topic with my Tutor Angie, and this in turn allowed me to gain some initial ideas into the topic. After brainstorming and creating a flow chart of different aspects of my imagination I managed to find the most commonly popped up words and topics and therefore took those forward to illustrate. I feel that I had achieved quite a lot, especially seeing as my final piece was a 3D model instead of a flat graphics piece, which I felt added to the depth and dimension of the imagination topic in a very successful way. Feedback wise the few people who did see the model commented that it was clever using the idea of  a TARDIS and it being bigger on this inside which allowed me to show how an imagination can be so huge in the same way. and this encouraged development of my work by letting me think about more 3D aspects I could add to future objects.

Analysing:
I think the most successful part of my work was how the 3D aspect of it made it stand out more than a flat image which everyone else had chosen to do. Because of this, it also gave a great connotation of the idea of the TARDIS representing an imagination, where both can be considered so giant and almost endless within. If I had to pick something wrong with this project that did not work it would be how the cardboard 3 exterior failed to be fully coloured in blue on all sides. However this was due to human error of my marker running out and could therefore be fixed at any time. I found it challenging making the actual imagination illustration because I felt that it looked almost rushed, due to the black pen effect and how simple the images looked. However even though it may have this appearance it did take a very long time to make, and therefore if questioned I would talk about how this was very tedious and time consuming to make.

Time management:
concerning my time management with this part of the project I feel I was slightly pressured as I found it the most difficult project of the week due to my slow start. However once I got the idea and concept grasped about what I could illustrate I felt it was quite straight forward, with my only time problem being how long it look to colour and draw out the internal image.

Film Project week 1 - The film and Poster

Reflecting:

With the film Project my group had decided to show a message of deforestation and effects that humans have on wildlife and the environment. Through this we used drawings and stop motion to illustrate a film that showed a bird who lost its home knocking down the home of a human. this made it much more comical and showed seriousness yet comedy at the same time.

With this task my team got on quite well, apart from issues at the beginning where we couldn't agree on how to show our story. Considering the poster I got on well with this considering it was hand drawn, as I am still not 100 percent confident with the use of Adobe Photoshop. the  We eventually came to the decision of using stop motion as creating the bird with a chainsaw was a difficult task especially considering the one week deadline that we had. At the end I feel that we achieved quite well considering the limitations we had and our indecisiveness at the start. The feedback I received from my peers about my poster were quite positive, and I received many compliments on how I managed to develop the tree branches into a new typeface that followed the theme of our movie.  From the overall task I learnt how to function stop motion equipment on a very basic level, however in the future I do not know how I will be able to apply this skill to my own graphic work unless doing stop motion work.

Analysing:
I think the most successful part of our movie was how we made the sriousness of our issue (deforestation) very subtle yet obvious at the same time, seen by the anger of our main bird character. This is because if we made it very serious it would invoke too much of a negative tone in the audience and although an important issue we felt that comical elements added would make it much more interesting to watch whilst still spreading an important message. If there was anything I was not happy with it was how our film was extremely short, which made the audiences want to see more. I found it challenging developing a type font for my film poster as I did not want something too common. Eventually after playing around I came up with the idea of using trees and their branches in order to morph into the letters of our movie which we decided to call habitat. One more thing I was not happy with was how the water colored pencil blue that I used was quite difficult to work with and how my marker blue did not have much effect when going over it. In the future I think it would be much more suitable to use blue paper perhaps and cut around any foreground images. This way it would look like one solid colour and all the pencil and marker pen marks would not be visible, which I feel reduced the quality of my work. Overall I found the A3 poster the easiest part of this film challenge as I am still learning on how I could improve my own drawing techniques, and furthermore have the use of Photoshop to enhance this.

Time management:
When looking at my time management for this project I had the trouble of taking a design forward in my sketchbook, as I couldn't decided on a text to use. Furthermore when I did get the idea on how I would place my text, I had trouble finding the time to do so due to a busy schedule of other projects that I had outside of college. In the future however I think that I could improve my time planning skills by finishing the task the day I receive it for college, which will also give me more time to look back over and perhaps develop several variations and see any improvements that could be made to the artwork.

Manifesto project

The first week after assessment we created a manifesto based upon our own views of the world whether design related or not.

Reflecting:

With this task at first I did not get in very well, due to the fact that I did not know what a manifesto was and what to include in it. Eventually I found the task more easier as I noted down ideas and phrases to my own views, and this made it much easier to illustrate what each line on my page. I feel I achieved a lot in the sense I know what a manifesto should contain. Also although not a big fan of type I got to look into many different styles and how the tone of each of my messages could be written in a certain type that followed a particular theme, in a successful way which showed both positive and negative tones. From my student peers I reviewed feedback that  my use of different bright colours made it a more appealing piece, making superhero them want to go towards it rather than black white or grey writing on a plain background. From staff I received average feedback receiving a 6/10, due to my sketchbook work not being enough however this was good for me as a first trial which will encourage me to attempt this project again. Overall I learnt that sketchbook work is the key in the design process, and that also there should be some form of attempt on a computer software as well. 

Analysing:

I think the most successful piece about my work was how after each of my beliefs I included a silhouette image of something that showed such. Eg the superhero near the bottom and dog getting a helping hand at the top. Also what I really wanted to stand out but didn't show was how each coloured strip that a phrase was written on had a connotation of the colour related to the phrase. For example yellow connotes sunny and kindness which was used in the first and 5th part. Red ofcourse connoted evil or blood which related to the bad thoughts phrase. I was not happy with the bad thoughts and backfires phrase as I had done this by mistake completely, where the phrase was meant to be written in an infinity symbol illustrating the fact that what goes around comes around. As I was doing this late in the night this may have caused my mistake so at another time I will do this particular part of the work again to show what it was really meant to look like. I found it challenging slightly working with my marker colours as when I put fine liner or sharpie marks on top of them for the type it expanded and looked fuzzy in some places. However this is due to the nature of the ink and if using this colouring method again I will create my type first and then add the colour detail. 

Time management:

With this project I did not have any problems  with my time management, or my sketchbook designs. However as I did not really know too much about a design process that I was meant to go through I went through this quite quickly. After the project had completed I went back in my spare time to re do the entire project as a computer version seeing as I had improved my software rendering skills. In addition to this I was able to explore my own thoughts and views on the phrases I had chosen to put into my manifesto.