Tag Archives: Assignment

Assignment 1: reflections on tutor feedback

  By | |
Leave a comment
A large pipe painted on a cream background with the words Ceci n'est pas une Pipe in script underneath

Graphic Design 1 is both a new module and a new departure for me so getting my first tutor feedback felt like an important step. I was prepared for a degree of critique, I knew it was a fairly eclectic selection, but I hoped I had made it clear why I had chosen each approach. Even with that you can never be sure what others make of your work.

I have now read through the feedback several times and am really pleased that for the most part my intentions did come across as I had hoped.  My tutor made a number of interesting observations under each postcard and has provided some really useful signposting to help build my design work going forward.

Postcard 1

My first postcard focused on my interest in still life both in terms of its form and as a richly layered genre that includes politics, economics, social and cultural commentary. My tutor is right when he highlights:

One of your challenges ahead is how to imply these meanings within your designs, so your intentions become more embedded in the visual decisions you make.

I accept that not everyone will know the history of the still life genre or the symbolism of the tulip so this is something I will consider as I develop my ideas. In his feedback my tutor mentions Magritte’s Treachery of Images (1928-29), which I did not have in mind but the ‘Ceci n’est pas une Pipe’ image is one I have used in my work presentations so perhaps it was an unconscious influence. The reference to Patrick Caulfield is also helpful and not one I would have thought of so I will follow that up. I have also since come across this book on Graphic Design and Still Life, which I will also try and get hold of.

Postcard 2

This postcard is the most minimalist of the set and I was interested to see if someone else would understand it. I had asked my family which of the minimalist designs I had sketched they thought worked and it was the books they chose. My tutor suggests that it is not a problem if the meaning is not immediately obvious.

Your abstract book jacket design works very well in drawing the viewer into your love of books. It wasn’t immediately obvious that these were book jackets, but that’s not a bad thing. It invited engagement with the reverse of the card to decipher the motifs.

I am pleased to read my Tutor’s comment that ‘an active love of books goes hand-in-hand with many aspects of graphic design.’ I am conscious of starting to look at books with more of a design eye and it is probably no surprise that my favourite books (particularly those I use for my work) have a strong design concept.

Postcard 3

I was nervous about the Johari Window, I felt the idea was good but I wasn’t sure my execution worked. My tutor’s feedback suggests it did achieve what I wanted.

Another conceptually strong idea translated successfully into visual form.

He also suggests extending the idea to use four separate cards each representing a different viewpoint on myself, something I will explore further.

Postcard 4

I am really glad the sense of playfulness comes over in the collage. I had so much fun working on this set of ideas and I’m pleased that came across. It is important to me to have this playfulness as a counterpoint to the more serious work conceptually. Perhaps my next challenge is to see how I combine the two. It is good to know that this can be part of my work.

Playfulness is often overlooked as an essential element of creative thinking, so keep this approach going in future projects.

Postcard 5

I was delighted that my tutor found this ‘the strongest of the set.’ To be honest it was the one I wrestled most with myself about including. I really wasn’t sure that it sat within a graphic design brief. I decided I would include it because I thought it did say something important about me and because it took some time and effort to make!

Your human rights card is the strongest of the set. I really like how you have approached this card, especially in how you’ve kept your playfulness going by experimenting with cut paper.

My tutor highlights that the approach I took with this card ‘makes this a rich piece of communication.’ This is an important statement for me because although it is perhaps something that should be obvious this concern with communication is something I am starting to recognise marks out GD1 from my photography courses. That is not to say my photography isn’t trying to communicate something just that I am now recognising it has a different emphasis.

Sketchbooks

I am enjoying building my sketchbook and see the interlinking of my blog, notebook and sketchbook as an important part of my development. Developing my thumbnail sketching has been a key element of the process as it helps me think through my approach visually and has served to build my confidence with starting to draw again. I will indeed ‘keep this process going’ as suggested by my tutor.

Suggested viewing/reading

My thanks to my tutor for a wealth of interesting references which I will follow up:

I have joined various OCA fora as well as the OCA FB groups (photography, visual communications and history of art) to interact with other students and to get different perspectives and feedback.

I am very happy to have completed the first assignment and am keen to explore the different avenues I feel it has opened up for me in terms of my graphic design work.

Assignment One: Introducing Myself

  By | |
Leave a comment

Introducing myself – the final set

Introducing Myself – the process

Initially, on tackling this assignment I was thinking in terms of a coherent series but as I began developing different ideas I decided to use it as an opportunity to experiment with a range of techniques and approaches. I started with a mindmap and developed the ideas from there. After the minimalist sketches I worked on lots of little thumbnail sketches to develop more ideas.  I have created a set of five postcards that introduce different aspects of my personality, my interests and my life.

 Minimalist Books

As a starting point for the set I knew I wanted to try something very stripped back and quite minimalist. It is not a style I am very familiar with so I thought this would help me start to think in graphic design terms. I did some research online and started a Pinterest board for my postcard inspiration. During the research I found the work of Genis Carreras and that really helped me think about how I might communicate the essence of something important to me (particularly his Values and Philographics series).

Using a mindmap as a starting point I made four small sketches based on a notional ‘work, rest & play theme,’ these then developed into four postcard size ideas, of these it was Work and Books that I preferred. It wasn’t until I had worked on some of the other postcards that I then came back to this set and decided to go with books. I also felt it was something I might be able to try in Illustrator.

Johari Window

The brief made me think a lot about how best to introduce myself. Whether I should represent my work, my home life, my personality traits or preferences and so on. This led me to question how much it is ever possible to share anything that might go beyond the superficial. How can I introduce what I might not even know about myself?

I do a lot of personal development work and use a variety of models and was reminded of the ‘Johari Window’. I decided I wanted to include this as one of the postcards and quickly sketched the two by two matrix.  I did an internet search and found that almost all the diagrams used for the model are four boxes with text in each but I wanted something more visual and very simple.

I did an initial sketch using circles (like ‘minimalist books’ it was in part inspired by the work of Genis Carreras) and decided to go with that approach, I didn’t do any alternative versions as this felt right very quickly. I then decided that the simplicity leant itself to my first tentative steps to learning Illustrator.  I used the full circle for those aspects of me known to myself and to others, half circles for those elements known only to me or only to others and then a black rectangle for those hidden aspects. Where I did try alternative versions was with the colours but given the infinite variety available this felt a bit like falling down the rabbit hole! I’m not sure I got the colours quite right but I was really pleased to get as far as I did in Illustrator!

Smile

Two postcard size collages with people laughing, cats, cupcakes, pencils and a beach

Alternative Smile Collages

Smile was prompted by my enthusiasm to do something playful and built on some earlier collage work I had done for a previous module. I could have made it a Photoshop composite but I wanted to keep it as tactile as possible and preserve the cut edges. I simply thought of things that made me smile, collected some images from my archives and royalty free sites and played on the page. I created three collages and chose the bicycle version for the final selection.

I really enjoyed making these and was surprised how quickly they came together. It was a good reminder to play and not be too caught up with ideas of ‘perfection.’ The sunflower was printed just as my printer was playing up but I decided to keep it because I quite liked the effect. I’m not sure whether ‘Smile’ fits a graphic design label but it certainly says something about me!

 

 

Still life

An early idea in the formstorming was based on some of my recent still life work. I have spent some time researching the history of still life and particularly the Vanitas tradition. The Tulip for me has now become loaded with meaning – connoting beauty, wealth, capitalism, economics, life and death. I experimented with framing the the tulip in different ways and decided on the less cropped version. I wanted to show an almost ethereal tulip and to include the text ‘still life’. The words are arranged for the reader to read them in different ways – stillness, life, still life the genre, and still living!

 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This was the last of the ideas to emerge and came out of a desire to create something different in format. As the others were evolving I was trying to think of something that might have a more sculptural or ‘off the page’ feel to it. This was in part influenced by some recent photographic work on still life where I was trying to break the conventional frame of the image.  As I was continuing with collecting for my Pinterest Board I came across the book cover by Nina Jua Klein.

This was just the inspiration I needed and it got me thinking about what text I would use by way of introducing myself. I went through favourite books, articles and so on but nothing quite landed. A lot was happening around current affairs at the time in terms of Brexit, migration, horrendous atrocities and complex national conflicts and so on. It was also the time of the Olympics and Paralympics. I was reminded of the 2012 Paralympic opening ceremony (I have a connection to one of the two Artistic Directors) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) presented itself. I felt it was a perfect text to use in terms of my concerns for social justice, equality and human rights in general.

The UDHR also felt right because Article 27 enshrines the right to participate in the cultural life of the community and I know how privileged I am to be able to do so.

Article 27.

 (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

I experimented with a range of layouts, and after many hours of cutting up and re-positioning the strips I produced a sculptural version, I then photographed the final result.

All the postcard backs were produced using Publisher, I didn’t feel I was ready to tackle InDesign but that is next on the list. With hindsight it was probably a mistake to do it this way as I then needed to make some convoluted format changes to get them to a suitable state to upload. I should have been brave and done them all in Illustrator, which I think I would do in future.