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‘Ones got a party to attend’
Here is a scan of the start of my Jubilee collection. It isn’t finalised as a digital image just yet however it is as a tactile handmade creation and is ready to be framed. I am doing a craft fair on the 16th June and hopefully one during the Jubilee weekend my theme is all things British to celebrate the up coming events. Just need to get a move on now!! -
The tutorials that were held before the final critique were of a big help to me. Originally I had my text behind my imagery which resulted in me having to lower the opacity of my illustrations for the text to come through, I was a bit wary of this as the vibrant colours were what made my illustrations so it was kind of a relief when I was told to never put text behind or in front of images and that the image could stand alone without the text. The session was very helpful for learning about layout, as well as listening to other students problems as it was helpful to my work too.
As I have said previously my problems only began once my document had been finished. I thought I had come to the end and all I needed to do was export my Indesign file to a pdf ready to send to the printers. However once I exported the file the main body of text I had used in the font InaiMathi came out as code and just would not format after everything I tried. I asked possibly everyone I thought may know and then I asked Google. It turns out a few people had the same problem with the font InaiMathi and my only choice was to change the font. I ended up selecting Kannada Sangam MN which is very similar so therefore it wasn’t a big of problem as it could have been.
My second problem came from the printers. I originally took my document into Staples to get printed as I had been told it was producing some great outcomes. However I had a different experience which looking back probably was my lack of knowledge. I chose for it to be printed on a 160 gsm Matt paper and to staple bind it. Both of these were the wrong choices which i later found out. The pages didn’t meet on the correct spreads and the quality was disappointing. Later I found out this was because my spreads didn’t run in forms of fours. Therefore it couldn’t be helped that it had been printed wrong and I needed to decide on another way to bind my magazine. Kindly Staples allowed me to keep the magazines that hadn’t gone to plan to show progression in my work.
After having these problems I decided to change the appearance of my final outcome and go for a perfect bound magazine with silk printed pages. I made these decisions as the print from Staples gave me an idea of how my piece would look and I felt it didn’t look clean cut or professional. I took these ideas to a new printers which told me they could do what I wanted for my magazine. However this was disappointing again and even with a prototype they could not create my magazine. I did begin to panic as I was running so tight with the deadline approaching. My last hope was to use the printers at University, I had originally avoided them due to them being extremely busy. Thank fully they were able to help me and produced my magazine in the way I had imagined.
I feel the inside margins could have been slightly bigger and also where I have overlapped my imagery on spreads it doesn’t quite meet due to the way it has been bound. However this is all a lesson learnt and will only teach me for the future. I am quite pleased with the final outcome as I feel it does have a professional finish which I was hoping for during the printing process.
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Type Radio introduced me to a list of designers personalities and ethics. Not sure of who to base my study on, I listened to the first five minutes of each artist. Some I found quite boring others I couldn’t hear so well and some actually excited me. I ended up selecting the only interview that had me listening un till the end. This was Marian Bantjes. I found the interview slightly annoying, she was very opinionated and confident in what she believed. I wasn’t sure I liked what she was saying nor did I agree. However something about Bantjes gripped me in to wanting to find out more and base my Type Radio Supplement on her.
I picked up whilst listening to her that she had very strong beliefs/opinions about a lot of areas. Firstly she was a ‘Diehard Atheist’ who stopped believing when she found out Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny didn’t exist! Secondly she disliked her fans that were interested in the girly nature of her work, she renamed these ‘The Unicorn Set’. Thirdly she had a statement on her website aimed at students telling them to ‘pretend she is dead’ as she simply does not have the time to answer them. Fourthly … and the list goes on.
I was originally going to base my imagery on the stories of the bible. I felt it would be slightly cheeky as she claimed to be a Diehard Atheist and I also felt it complimented the belief that she thinks ‘You can tell a student anything and the will believe you.’ Yet after our first critique I was advised to stay away from that area and focus on a range of beliefs.
I found a website, www.iusedtobelieve.com, which presented me with some fantastically
funny beliefs that ‘grown ups‘ had when they were younger. Using typography I illustrated a few of them however turned to collage as I felt that is were I excel. After this experiment I began thinking how are these images going to compliment the text. I came up with no good answer for myself so I therefore began illustrating what i had found out about Bantjes right from the start. I picked out many of her deep opinions and life changes she had made and collaged them to create cheeky imagery with a consistent style which would be important to run throughout the magazine.
The Indesign tutorial of setting up pages was of great help to me, however I felt I only started learning it well towards the end of the project, it could have possibly been more beneficial to have learnt it earlier to have created a variety of more layouts. I feel a lot more confident on Indesign since, which will certainly benefit me for future projects.
I felt my back up work went quite smoothly and the tutorials/critiques were beneficial to me, however I was disappointed to have missed the final critique due to work placement, however this was my own choice and couldn’t be helped. The problems only started to begin when my Type Radio Supplement was finished…
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A creation from a workshop introducing me to layout, columns, paragraph styles and margins. This was very beneficial to me as I didn’t have much previous knowledge of Indesign and making a professional looking document.
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Sigmar Polkes work is also of interest to me. I adore the use of materials in his work. He uses anything that will go and it just works brilliantly.
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I’ve blogged about him before right back at the start of the course, his work never stops amazing me whilst influencing me at the same time. I’ve always enjoyed collage and being slightly cheeky with my work and that is probably why I’m so at ore with the creations of David Mach.
His collages are stunning and so beautifully structured whilst the meaning behind them is deep and daring leaving his viewers asking questions. The exhibition I saw of his was ‘Precious Light’ which was based on the stories of the Bible. His ability to capture each story in one single image I find fascinating. He influences my work in the way that it is ok to be daring and make your audience shocked. His work has a serious side whereas mine is very tongue and cheek.
I’ve included his take on Adam and Eve too. -
Photoset reblogged from Stephen Flagg - Visual Communication
First Things First Manifesto - Day Brief
As groups, we were set a brief in which we were asked to design a poster that “highlights the celebrations surrounding the launch of the, (currently fictional), third ‘First Things First’ Manifesto”. The poster would be for the 2034 edition of the Manifesto and should consider the ethical concerns that have been raised about designers and the design industry.
During an initial 2 hour get-together, we discussed how each of us interpreted the current Manifesto(s), what the Manefesto will be in 2034, and in turns communicated our ideas of how to design our poster. We then needed to decide a strong punchline that would give a direct and catchy edge to the poster. Examples of punchlines that were thrown round were:
- More Money, Bad Design / Less Money, Better Design?
- Help Out don’t Sell Out,
- Out with the Old, in with the New,
- Design > Money,
- Fight for Tradition - Time for Change,
- Out with the New, in with the Old?
After brainstorming ideas we decided on the punchline ‘Skills Not Bills’. The concept we were aiming to portray was that designers should put their skills and capabilities within design to better use, towards more worthy causes and not become what some could refer to as ‘sell outs’.
This extract from the 2000 First Things First manifesto reinforces and backs up the concept behind this…
“Designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.”
Shown above is the final outcome for which we produced, considering hierachy, font choices and colours as part of the entire process too. The square shape took the concept away from the norm of simple A4 and A3 sizes, visual creating greater attraction. The orange on the dark grey, I feel, also works well.
After designing the poster, we decided to print out large-scale for an opportunity of other peers and designers to comment on our ‘piece’. The response/feedback was very positive, but a key area for which they recommended to improve the design at a later stage was to include a small paragraph relating the whole piece back to the Manifesto.
Text developed from Jazmine May’s Tumblr Blog.
