Calligraphy Outcome

Fig. 1 Wine bottle (author's own)

This was the outcome of my wine brand. I also considered switching the black and white around, making the writing black and the rest of the label white, this could have been more effective. But I sort of liked the idea of the writing remaining black because the writing says 'Black' therefore it seemed suitable for it to represent what it says. Overall, I am quite proud of my final label as it is the first time I have ever even attempted to create one, although the label itself may need some adjustment, the writing and how the letter 'a' is shared by the two words, and the name of the brand is quite powerful.

Calligraphy Scamps

Fig. 1 Calligraphy scamps (author's own)

Using ink, I attempted to do some calligraphy, after playing around with different styles of writing, the aim was to create a wine brand using a similar style of writing. At the end of this one day workshop I was left with the ideas in figure 1. I decided to name my wine 'Black Magic' because, although this may sound unusual, but as much as I see wine to be a classy drink, I also see it to be quite Gothic, maybe because of the 'bloody' red colour it has. Because of this, I decided to use the word 'black' in its name. The full name 'Black Magic' is meant to hint that the drink should be shared during the magical moments in life. It is an effective, deep, romantic drink which only suits special occasions. I really enjoyed this task because it was a breath of fresh air to be doing something more hands on rather than digital, it was an old fashioned approach to writing as well. A laid back but productive day.

Book Cover Outcome

Fig. 1 Book cover (author's own)

Figure 1 shows my final outcome for my book cover, I chose to use this particular font I downloaded because it fits the digital theme, it is quite modern, unlike my original idea in Times New Roman. I also changed the book's name to 'The rise of the eyebrows' rather than just 'Advertising' because this way it gives the buyer more of an idea of the book, it could also show that one of my case studies is about the Cadbury brand and its advertisements, and this one in particular. So, I used a catchy title that fits in with the image on the cover.

Book Cover Scamps

Fig. 2 Book cover scamps (author's own)

Using library resources and the internet, I have collected some bits of information about the art of advertising. I have researched the timeline of advertising and have found that it dates all the way back to 2000 BC, when the Egyptians carved public notes in steel. I wanted my "book" to be based on advertising and what it has become, so digital advertising was my focus point. I chose to use an image from the very well known Cadbury TV advertisement, they are usually referred to as the "Cadbury eyebrows advert". I thought to use this image not only because it was so popular and immediately recognisable, but because when I am asked to think of an advertisement, this advert is the first one to pop into my head, so you could say, that I chose to use this image because it feels quite personal. Above are scamps for my book cover from my sketchbook.

Loss 33 (Using Software)

Fig. 1 Los 33 (author's own)

I took an image that represents the pain and worry the relatives of the Chilean miners felt. The aim was to create a poster for the film 'The 33' using Photoshop and InDesign, this was a workshop based on the use of software, so we aimed to produce an outcome within a few hours. I decided to use the colours of the Chilean flag, figure 1 shows my final outcome. I enhanced the tear drop (diamond effect) after tinting the image red. The poster is simple, and I like the way it divides into grids, I could imagine how the writing would be set on the poster, fitting in with the grid layout. I do however think that it looks more like a campaign poster than a film poster.

Album Cover Outcome

Fig. 1 Album cover (author's own)

This is my final album cover, the colours used on the type are the exact same colours of the flowers that are wrapped around the artist. I found the photo off the internet, but the placement of the image on the cover and the layout of the writing was done by me. I made the artist name white, but added the same tone of yellow to the second letters of both her first and last name just so it fits with the colourful type, 'LAST FRIDAY NIGHT'. The words seem like they are playing which was my aim to start with, to give the album cover a playful feel, but somehow sensible at the same time. I think the calm image combined with the energetic writing successfully portrayed that.

Album Cover Scamps

Fig. 1 Album cover scamps (author's own)

I experimented with three different styles of type; Helvetica Neue, Gill Sans and Palatino. I played around with the layout of the letters and their placement on the page, I wanted the words to not only read what they mean but show what they mean visually. In Figure 1 you can clearly see the playful nature of the words I have used.

For example, I replaced the letter 'A' with ':)' in 'HAPPY', it is clear to understand what the word is although the A is missing and the symbol looks nothing like an A. It is placed in the middle of the page because happiness is a strong feeling that comes from within, it comes from the core of you and felt right in the centre. Happiness is an emotion that deserves to be the centre of attention. I used pink just because it is a bright and exciting colour which fits the meaning of the word.

For the word 'HUG' I used capitals for the first and last letters and reversed the last letter so it is facing inwards making it seem like the 'u' is being hugged by the two letters surrounding it. Such a short word, yet it sounds so humble and cute, filled with warmth. I used a warm yellowy orange tone which gets darker on each letter just so it suits the warmth of the word.

The word 'topple' is pretty explanatory in itself, the letters are spread and rotated to create the illusion of a fall, this is one of my favourite ones just because the definition of the word is seen instantly, even by someone who is unable to read the word.

I had a similar approach to the word 'SAD' as I did to 'HAPPY', I again replaced the letter 'A' with a symbol, but this time the bracket is facing the other way, ':(' making it look like a sad face. I placed the word in the corner of the page to give it a sense of loneliness and hopelessness, as they are feelings that could tag along with the emotion itself.

'LOVE' is also one of my favourite outcomes from this workshop, I turned the 'V' to its side and replaced the 'E' with a '3' making the end of the word look like a heart '<3'. After all, we for some reason believe that we feel love with our hearts, and maybe, to a some extent it is true, since our heart rate depends on how we feel at the time.

For 'LOST' I separated the last letter 'T' from the rest of the word so it looks like it was left behind. I placed the sections of the word into the two far corners in order to make them look distant from each other. I call this "the lonely T".

'GREED', with this one, I made the 'G' of the word eat the rest of itself, so greed is consuming itself by being greedy. This could symbolise society today, we have become so greedy and are always asking for more rather than being grateful for what we have. We are unaware that we are in fact eating ourselves alive.

With the word 'PLAY' I played around with colours and rotated the letters giving it a funky, lively style. I scattered the letters around the page, but in a way that makes the word easy to pick out. This is the style I later went on to use for my album cover for Katy Perry 'Last Friday Night' because it is a lively, playful song, full of energy and spark, and this way of expressing the words fits quite well.

I repeated the word 'List' just like a list, a sort of visual definition of the word itself. Also, for my name, I kept it simple, and just turned the 'U' upside down because I enjoy playing around with ideas, so the upside down letter is to show that playful element. I chose to used green because it is one of my favourite colours. Simple really.

I then went on to experimenting with colour and layout for the album cover very roughly, without even using the font while trying to figure out the final design. I decided to use Helvetica Neue because of its simple, no curves or flicks nature, just strong bold letters that are easy to read because I was going to play around with them anyway.

  

Manifesto

A manifesto is a public declaration of policy and aims, we come across them on a daily basis without even realising. They tend to be inspirational and teach us lessons, a lot of the time they are easily related to. They relate to our feelings and views. You see a part of yourself in the text, words and images. A lot of the manifestos we see are more type based, so a change of colour could be used to highlight a word, or the size of text could also be changed. What I found was, in order to make a manifesto effective, its got to make the reader think, maybe even think twice about a situation/belief/issue that they felt so sure about before. Humour is also another effective way of delivering a manifesto, making it more memorable.


Fig. 1 My manifesto poster (author's own)

I decided to go with my passions, these include freedom, trying the new, creating, and most importantly my dream- travelling. I have not yet had the chance to travel much, but one of my biggest goals in life is to be able to travel, I am filled with wanderlust.

I figured that worn out shoes would be a good imagery to use in order to represent travelling, and so I found this image of worn out shoes on google and played around with it on Photoshop filters.The long ripped strip of brown paper is a representation of a pathway, both life choices and literal path- journeys.I placed the shoes on the bottom of the poster because our eyes are used to seeing feet on the floor, I am considering spacing and placement here. The shoes are in a comfortable spot for the viewers' eyes. My words are short and simple, yet effective. It is a play on words and 'wearing' has two means, the first means to literally, physically wear something, the second means to use that item so much that it's nowhere as good as new anymore. I wanted the two meanings to stick to the image, because after all, unharmed shoes have had no fun at all, have they?

AMBIDEXTROUS

We were put into small groups, and each group was given a word to work with, and create a 2 minute film using type. Our group was given the word 'ambidextrous', (definition- the ability to use both right and left hand with equal capability). I have come to find that this project involved more practical work than sketchbook work, it was more of a 'get up and go' project, you had to be quick with your ideas, and any tweaking of ideas happened while in the process of creating our film and poster.

Fig. 1 Brainstorm (author's own)

 

We decided to make a film that was educational but in a not so serious way. We included just a few questions and a fact or two, after all, the film was only around 2 minutes long. Wanting to stay true to the definition of the word, we wanted to create a film using hands, but what did we want the hands to do? That was the question. The initial idea was to get someone to use both of their hands and play around with play dough, but other than the fact that that would be too limited and boring, it also wasn't going to teach the viewer anything new, and that was our aim, to somehow engage the viewer and make them learn, (even if it is just one fact).

Fig. 2 Storyboard (author's own)

So a great way to engage an audience is by getting them to read, but how to do this using hands? We came up with various ways, and included these in our short film. Fig. 2 is an image of my very roughly drawn storyboard. The film was recorded from a high perspective giving the camera a birds eye view and record only the hands, hands were the stars of this film. We wrote facts and answers on our hands, used our hands to play around with text and made shapes of letters using our hands. We edited our recordings by eliminating some scenes, taking sound out and adding a jazz track in, making some scenes faster and some slow-motion.

 Fig. 3 The filming of the film (author's own)

Fig. 4 The editing of the film (author's own)

Working in a team is more fun and inventive than it is challenging. The ability to bounce off ideas from each other, improve on your own as well as sharing your own is very useful and pushes you to think differently and opens your perspective. Here is the URL to our video post on YouTube called, 'Ambidextrous- A Visual Documentary'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyaqck5qBFE&feature=em-upload_owner

Ambidextrous Poster

Fig.1 is an image of my initial poster for the film. In the group crits I was given a lot of feedback that helped me improve on it. The first criticism was that there was a lot going on on one poster, it was not easy to understand. The left hand represented the right-brain function (creativity, intuition, artistic, etc.) and the right hand represented the left-brain function (logic, language, science, maths, etc.). I tried to show this by adding paint strokes on the left hand and words representing the left side of the brain on the right hand, my approach made the poster very busy and uneasy to get your head around without a long analysis, but posters should be more straight forward, straight to the point and easy to understand, this is where I went wrong, you could say I got a bit carried away with my ideas. Also the slogan on the bottom right which reads, 'Are we all capable of being?', of course I know what I meant but no one else would understand because of the loneliness of the sentence, that sentence could mean anything depending on what context it is put in, right now, it stands "contextless". The question was referring to whether or not we all capable of being ambidextrous through practice, but I set it out in a way that seems too open to interpretations and too philosophical. One other criticism of the poster is the fact that I used an image off the internet rather than taking my own. 

 

Fig. 1 Initial poster (author's own)  

Fig. 2 is an image of my improved (completely transformed) poster. I gave it a clear white background this time and used a photograph of my own hands that I somehow managed to take myself. With my slowly developing skills at Photoshop, I eliminated the background but kept the shadows and used different filters. I used this particular font because it has a handwritten feel to it, representing the use of the alternative hand. I changed the question to, 'Do we all have the ability to use both hands with the same capability?' it is straight forward, easy to understand therefore making the viewer think (but not too philosophically). 

 

Fig. 2 Final poster (author's own)

Review of the 6 week rotation

Creating timelines was the first task given, we looked at our past for inspiration and used it when working on our final outcomes. The following weeks however, were filled with hopes for the future and looking ahead of time. Creating the new, thinking about our future careers/life and our aspirations. On the lens based media week, we were taught about storyboards, I learnt that the raw ingredients of a film were the following:

• Beginning- Intro of character/s and their world, a problem (question of some sort)
• Middle- Journey/struggle (must increase, constantly rack up the tension)
• End- Resolution

Stories are about change, death and resurrection (not always physical) and characters' lives being made into hell (if problem is resolved easily then it is not a great story). Using these prompts, we created storylines.

 

The next week was fashion week, I found myself constantly creating structures out of paper, card, newspapers and magazines then using them as garments. I learnt that there are no rules in fashion, any material goes, as long as it holds and looks good.

 

On academic writing week I attempted to use Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, still today, I struggle to use them, but I believe with practice, I can overcome the difficulty.

 

One of the most fun weeks was 3DD. Most of my work there was improvised, I enjoyed all 3 days of it. Creating 3D structures out of spaghetti, cardboard and bamboo gave me a chance to explore the different uses of different materials, and test their limits in strength and stability.

 

My final week was graphics week. This week was filled with hard work and quick thinking. Graphics is based around speed and play, the only way to get to a good final outcome is by allowing yourself to explore ideas through play. So during this week I learnt the importance of freedom and thinking outside the box. No idea is a silly one, take them all on board, and write them all down.

 

Overall, I enjoyed exploring all the different pathways, but the one I enjoyed the most (along with 3DD) and that I think is more suitable for what I plan to go onto doing in the future is graphics. I have now picked the graphics pathway and hope to obtain more knowledge and skills that I can then carry out through my life and future career.