Nura's Blog: 2013

Graphics (Collaboration Week 2)

During the second and final week of the collaboration project we started to design our initial ideas of what we wanted our final piece for the Metamorphosis project to look like.

For my project, I decided to design a new book cover for "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka and so my initial ideas were all different designs of what I was thinking of making the book cover look like.

While making initial ideas for my book cover, I came to the conclusion that a book cover was slightly dull for a project such as metamorphosis which had endless design possibilities and therefore I continued with the idea of a book cover however changed it into a 3D one, with a cockroach at the front that pops out in a 3 dimensional way.

I experimented with different layouts of my book cover design and then realised that if it were to be placed in an actual book shelf the 3D picture on the cover will either get damaged or squashed and so I again had to change and develop the idea. Finally I changed my idea into a reversed 3D cover, with a 3D cockroach inside the book rather than outside.

However I still designed a cover for the book that I created.

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Graphics (Collaboration Week 1)

For my collaboration project I decided to do metamorphosis as although I don't like insects, I actually liked the idea of transformation and thought that the book "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka was interesting in its own weird but wonderful way.

During the first week of the collaboration project we went to the city of Brighton and visited an exhibition at Brighton University Arts centre.

The exhibition featured many skeletons of animals however not in their typical form, they were transformed into weird and unnatural creatures by adding other skeletal remains onto the original skeletons of the animals. This was also done to the illustrations that were displayed on the walls of the exhibition.

I enjoyed drawing my observational drawings for this exhibition as although I found it to be challenging to draw in such detail, it was a fun process.

During this week I also started to visually research the topic of metamorphosis and trying to find different artists and designers in which I can find inspiration from, such as Carol Cavalaris.

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Graphics - Week 3 and 4

Workshops

During the third and forth week of the graphics pathway we took part in a two week design workshop which included laser cutting, colour and illustration, page layout, calligraphy, using indesign and photoshop to create a film poster as well as creating a book cover.

Out of these different workshops I enjoyed laser cutting the most as not only was I able to learn how to use illustrator, I was also fascinated by the actual laser cutter and thought it was very enjoyable to use. For my laser cutting I also used a quote that I really liked and played around with the layout of it as well as the fonts and weight of the words.

I also enjoyed the page layout workshop as I found it interesting to play with different words, and to show their meanings through they way I positioned them on the page.

I was also able to try calligraphy which I personally loved also as it was very enjoyable, although messy. I really liked how what ever I wrote came out looking very elegant and clean because of the ink.

After playing around calligraphy I then went on to design a wine bottle which I initially did on paper using ink from the calligraphy class, however I then transferred it to photoshop. On photoshop I then played around with the background of my wine bottle label. Because I wanted my product to be a "Red Rose", I tried to go for a subtly elegant background for the label and so I played around with colours, shapes and tools on photoshop, and I finally ended up with this silky type of cloth like picture which I really like and stuck to.

We were also able to have a workshop on photoshop and indesign which I found extremely helpful, as at this stage I was still considered somewhat of a rookie when using these two programs. We were able to design a film poster for an upcoming film about trapped miners called "The 33" which I also found enjoyable, as I liked playing around with the colours, layout and design of my poster digitally.

In another workshop, we were able to create a book cover for any topic that we wished and so I did mine on good ol' typography and so naturally I played around with the fonts of the book cover, the alignment of text as well as the weight.

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Graphics - Week 2

During the second week of the graphics pathway our brief was to create a manifesto. Personally, I struggled with this project a lot because it required us to dig deep within ourselves slightly and be a little personal, also that fact that manifestos are usually used by political parties and we were required to make one confused me a bit.

Nevertheless I researched the topic quite a bit and also did some research on my self in the form of a mind map to find out a bit about what I wanted my manifesto to be about.

On the second day of the manifesto project I was able to see the different ideas that my peers had, this definitely gave me confidence and inspiration with my own manifesto.

After researching many of the things that I liked and looking at other people's manifestos for inspiration, I decided to base my manifesto around a single quote that I agreed with or thought was inspiring, as I was a big fan of quotes. And so I picked the quote "be the change that you wish to see in the world" by Mahatama Gandhi and started playing with my ideas.

Within my idea, I wanted to show how I interpreted the quote so I tried to show initially the chaos and the disorder in the world through the quote being written over each other again and again in the background, while a single line of the quote "be the change in the world" to be shown clearly at the top.

I then developed this idea by using the same concept of "messiness" however making the chaos faded in the background while making the quote clear and bold in the midst of the chaos in the corner.

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Graphics - Week 1

Film Project

On the first week of our chosen graphics pathway we were put into groups of six or seven people and given a single word that we had to make a one to two minute film about.

My groups word was "contrary".

We struggled to think of an idea for our film as we were all still unfamiliar with each other and therefore our ideas clashed, however we over came this by all pitching different ideas and combining them all together.

Because our word was "contrary" we came up with many ideas that had two different sides to them, some ideas were humours, such as showing a scenario that was a dream as though it was a reality, however revealing it was a dream at the end. While others were a little more serious such as the idea of show depressing scenes however then disguising the situation with happy music in the background, which is the idea that we decided to go with and which can be seen in the below link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2D62WTWKXM

I then went on to design the poster for the film, which I wanted to be very clean, plain and simple and straight to the point. Therefore that is why I decided to go with the contrasting colours of black and white to show the word "contrary" further.

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Graphics

Personal Poster

During our assessment week we were asked to make a personal poster which shows what we are most interested in. I therefore decided to base mine on illustration and so I decided to draw the illustration that I wanted on my poster by hand.

However I believed that the picture alone was slightly plain and dull therefore I tried to add some simple graphics skills and play around with how the picture looked.

I was then left with choosing between my two final design, and I ended up choosing the latter.

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Reflective Summary

During these six weeks of exploratory working, which includes the two weeks of museum research, creating posters, reviewing and Harvard referencing our reviews as well as the four weeks that we spent trying the four different pathways, I believe that I have truly expanded my knowledge of the world of Art and Design and I have gained knowledge about the world of Media.

I really enjoy trying new things therefore I loved trying out the four different pathways, especially graphics and fashion as the activities we took part in were different and new however it still incooperated what I truly loved which is drawing.

I was not surprised that I found the fast paced working environment during this exploratory working stage quite difficult as I found myself having to come up with ideas a lot quicker than when I did during A-levels and ended up doing work nearly every night, however it gave me a sense of how it is to work in the real world of Design and Media, with all the fast paced and quick projects that artists and designers need to complete in order to please their clients. Therefore I am glad that I was able to experience this fast paced environment.

However, overall I am quite proud of the quantity and quality of work that I have produced during these six weeks, as I believe all of my projects were successful.

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Fashion - Day 3

On the final day of the fashion and textiles pathway we were asked to make our garment which we designed during the second day.

I decided to make a neck piece therefore the first thing that I needed to make was the strap that would go around the neck that held the whole piece in place.

I then had to make the petals and leaves that would be attached to the neck strap. My piece was influenced by nature therefore the colours that I chose for the petals and leaves were also influenced by the idea of nature as I chose the not-so-typical brown colour for the leaves as it still had the idea of nature surrounding it and I painted the leaves pink with a gradient effect as I didn't want the strong brown colour to clash with another strong colour such as a solid pink, so I believe the gradient effect on the pink softened the overall look of the neck piece.

We were then asked to pair up with someone who was willing to model our garment and go around the building taking pictures of our model modelling our work.