OUIL406 End of Module Evaluation

1. What have you learned about visual communication during this module and how effectively do you think you have applied these ideas?

• I have learned that simplifying and reducing an image down to the bare minimum of what can be understood by an audience is a very effective way of communicating an idea. I started to do this more towards the end of the module, particularly with my postcard and stamp designs, which I think worked well for the mood I wanted to portray. This also links to semiotics, the use of universal symbols to communicate to a wider audience. Understanding this from lectures and workshops has made me think more about the effectiveness of my work in general.

2. What approaches to/methods of image making have you developed and how have they informed your concept development process?

• I feel like I have learned a lot about new ways of working in this module including print methods, Adobe Illustrator, paper crafting and moving image, due to the nature of the briefs all being so different in required processes. Learning how to use vectors was interesting for me, I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with them. However, they did come in handy for my final Person's of Note poster as I couldn't get a smooth shape in Photoshop. I also really enjoyed learning how to make gifs and want to explore this more, maybe in my own time.

• The technique I am really enjoying and will continue to develop and integrate into my practice is paper crafting. I felt like I could really let loose in the Persons of Note brief and experiment with both shape and drawing. I find that this process works well for me because I find it fairly difficult to create shape in my drawings, using paper gave me the opportunity to move things around, experiment with composition and just have a play!

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

• This module I feel like I have been more open to new ways of working and exploring lots of materials which I have also enjoyed, it has kept me really interested in what I am doing. Working more freely has helped me to create a sense of possibility for the final ideas and outcomes.

• Provoking a feeling or demonstrating an atmosphere within my work is something I think I am getting better at as the course goes on. I am excited by this as it was one of the main reasons I wanted to do the course in the first place, to learn how to use my work to effectively communicate an idea to an audience.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

• Especially within my vectors project I found the challenge of using colour difficult. I am making a conscious effort to not just fall into the trap of using black and white as a safe option. I stepped away from this in the last brief and I think starting off using colour helped with this.

• I do think that sometimes I get carried away with an idea and find it hard to change direction, in the I see faces brief I definitely didn't leave enough time for the last gif. I am also sometimes too cautious about the way I approach a brief and choose the safe option, I have to remind myself to take risks. Next time I have to make multiples for a brief, I will organise my time a bit better and be more experimental even with processes I don't necessarily enjoy (Vector brief).

• Using representational imagery is something I am trying to step away from but again I sometimes find myself concentrating too much on what something actually looks like rather than my own interpretation. Although I think I have improved on this since the start of the year.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Give every process a chance, for example I feel that I may have dismissed vectors too early on and when I actually started using them properly I quite enjoyed it. From doing this I aim to learn new processes which will expand my options when working on a brief.
2. Considering composition straight away is something I felt like I did more during the Greetings from brief, which aligned with Visual Language. Although I did consider it during the last brief it was much more of an after thought. Next time I will make sure I am thinking about this in my initial roughs to make myself more aware of the final outcome becoming more balanced.
3. Set out with an intent for the work from the initial research, I think sometimes I forget what it is I want an audience to take away from my work. I will keep this in mind when tackling future projects, especially those with more ambiguous meaning.
4. Go straight in with using colour and not be afraid of it. I found that not letting myself use black and white has helped me to get over this a little bit. I am proud of myself for sticking to this in the last brief and as a result I think the final designs were more successful.
5. Step out of my comfort zone and explore things I have not tried before, this really benefited me in the last project and kept me engaged in the work. As I move forward I want to explore every opportunity when it comes to media testing, I could find more ways of working that I really engage with.

Printed Designs

I was happy with the printed versions of my designs, however I must admit that I prefer the actual paper cut versions - just because you can really see the different layers more clearly and the work that went into cutting out all the little pieces. It did still work well but I might try using the Photography facilities next time I make work like this.

Love Letter - Final Poster Design

Idea behind the Final Design

I found the poem 'Love Letter' incredibly interesting and moving. I thought the imagery depicted within it could act as visual symbols for other elements of Sylvia Plath's life.

Feminism

As I found so many feminist ideology and frustrations in 'The Bell Jar' I wanted to include some element of how the inequality faced by women can make them feel trapped in one part of life - aren't free to choose for themselves and feel that they have to follow more of a path that has been set out by society. The entanglement of the vines is a suggestion of this feeling, unfortunately although times have changed and there are many more opportunities for women than in the past, there are still a lot of expectations placed on women in society - how to be all the things we want to be when we are so frequently put in boxes and made to choose one path.

Fragility of Life

The withering wild flowers, leaves, heart and angels are all symbols for life and death. I took the angels from a particular part of the poem, and interpreted them as stone angels. This imagery for me symbolises the end of a life, afterlife and graveyards. In the poem the angels are 'weeping over dull nature' so a lot of this posters imagery stems from that one line. I thought using the analogy of angels and nature would be an effective way of combining these ideas.

Crit with Matt & co.

The crit today was very encouraging and helpful - not just for this project but where I can develop my practice in the future. The fact that is was a silent crit was great too, it meant that I could get an idea of how my work communicates without explaining everything first.

Issues Discussed

Sad. Nature. Cold. Falling apart. Trapped. Biblical (Heart/snake/angel). Depth

These were all things that my peers picked up on when looking at my work. I was pleased that they noticed the tone and the emotion I wanted to evoke, especially within my Poster designs. 

Crafting is Impressive

I spent a lot of time cutting out the different shapes and ensuring that I took care when doing so. I think crafting is usually one of my strengths as it is what I enjoy and value when looking at an image - adds to impact.

Intricate Vs. Flat bold shape Vs. Composition - Tension, struggle, fragment

When planning my designs most of the different composition ideas happened on the actual page. I found that cutting out shapes and moving them around before committing to a plan was helpful in developing my exploration during the project. The tension and struggle evident in the work is something I was conscious of achieving at this stage and I am happy that this seems to translate well.

Reduction of content/ppp/detail in Postcards

I will definitely remember that to produce a complete set it is easier to start with the most complicated design first and work off of that. It was kind of by chance that I did this, as i thought as the poster takes the most time I should start with that. This made the rest a lot easier because I already had a process to work with.

Action

How will it scan? How to capture 3D? Tried Photography perhaps?

I had already scanned in my work by this point and thankfully it captured the shadows and depth really well. However, in the future I want to start using the photography studios more - especially when using paper craft.

Where next? Don't let finishing suffocate your risk taking experimentation

This is something I will definitely take on board. I don't want to fall into the trap of being 'finished', so sacrificing time I could be using to try out new ideas. I have realised that all the things I learn are in the development stages - trial and error.

Final Postcards

I really tried not to make my postcard designs too complicated. I wanted them to highlight the main elements of the poems/writings I chose to focus on. Using paper cuts has helped me with this, as they are shaped based it is easier to condense down imagery and turn them into more of a symbol than a super complicated drawing. The colours I picked out from the poster design I had started, I am very conscious of all the designs working together as a set - so this was a contributing factor.

Postcard 1

Poem - Winter Trees

Postcard 2

'The Bell Jar' Novel - The Fig Tree analogy

Postcard 3

Poem - Mirror

Final Stamp Designs

Motifs

I have been really trying to condense down the imagery I have produced in my sketchbook and mock up posters for the stamp designs. I was very concious of the size and what would be effective within such a small frame. I think thinking about the poster and postcards first has helped me with this process, I was able to look at the imagery I had produced and pick out certain areas that could be used as motifs.

The Bell Jar - Novel

As part of my research I took out 'The Bell Jar' from the library. I was expecting it to be a bit depressing and morbid in relation to the fact that it is a semi-autobiographical novel and Sylvia wasn't in a good place when she wrote it - being a year before her death. However, I am finding that there is a lot of humour and undertones of hope, wonder and happiness within the book. 

Inequality - Things I noticed

A lot of the frustration comes from the way Esther ,the protagonist, is treated as a woman in the 1950's/60's. I could relate to this and I really felt for the character when reading certain chapters. The men in the book are shown to be completely free to make their decisions and live their lives how they want - women however are held to a very different standard. What is acceptable for a man is not for a woman and this is something the character (and Sylvia) struggled with - understandably.

Themes/Moments of Note

Page 72 'The trouble was, I hated the idea of serving men in any way. I wanted to dictate my own thrilling letters'.
Page 77 'I couldn't stand the idea of a woman having to live a single pure life and a man being able to have a double life, one pure and one not'.

http://beijing20.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/comic-competition/winners

Resolving the Final Poster

I am happy with the colours and method I have used to create the overall poster. I have had a chat with both Jamie and Matt about the composition, Matt suggested adding very subtle shape to the bottom section just to balance it out a bit.

Shape

I decided to create the block shapes in InDesign using vectors - creates a more fluid shape than just drawing them in Photoshop. I think changing the opacity of the shapes may create an interesting way of describing a land behind the main image.

Malin Koort

http://www.brwnpaperbag.com

I came across Malin Koort's work when browsing blogs online. Working with both drawn and paper cut elements is something I am looking into and definitely want to explore more of. The way shadows are cast within the images she creates make very interesting characterisation and an overall aesthetic. I was also drawn to the patterns and shape driven imagery which accentuate the vibrant colours within the composition.

Pattern

Once I started looking at things that represent the fragility and the circle of life, I realised that my initial idea to look at natural forms might be a good way to illustrate this as a symbol without focusing too much on the death and despair of the individual person. I was very aware even right at the beginning of my research that Sylvia Plath is widely remembered for tragedy - I want my work to represent her writings and the hope/life/confusion found within a lot of it.

Jack Hughes

https://www.kuvva.com/artists/jackhughes

Jack Hughes' work stood out to me as it had a similar way of producing a figure, the way the faces contain detail while the rest of the image is predominantly shape based. I also thought that the way the clothing and backgrounds are the same colour interesting, it adds a kind of negative space effect which I like. It is a nice alternative to looking at a figure without having to use all the detail that comes with that, even though the imagery in itself is quite representational.

Lucy Vigrass

http://thebeatthatmyheartskipped.co.uk/index.php/2010/03/09/illustration-tuesday-lucy-vigrass/

I had a look at Lucy Vigrass' work for some graphic inspiration. Something that interested me  was the compositions she used to highlight certain areas. Shape based imagery is something I am starting to look at more and more, I think this is helping me with the balance of detail and shape within the designs I am making. The vibrant colours highlight certain parts of the design and this is also balanced nicely within the frame.

Postcard Tests

I tried creating some mock ups for potential postcard designs, I began with 4 different ideas and will condense it down to three once I have experimented a bit more. Keeping them simple is something I want to work towards, at the moment I don't think I want to include drawn elements - although there is evidence of this in my poster design, I have far more room to play around with composition. I may take away the face in the mirror idea and make it more ambiguous.

Tutorial with Jamie

The tutorial I had today with Jamie really motivated me and helped me to figure out what it was I had to do next. I am really enjoying this project so far and I want to savour the time I have left to work on it as it's the last studio brief this year.

Issues Discussed

Sylvia Plath
Beautiful experiments and processing
A2 Poster is sorted TICK
Postcards - Further trialling/roughing to resolve
Focus on 3 different poems
Stamps - Motifs. Individual components of collages.
COP - Contact Print room for mono printing
Lovely Stuff
Gestalt Theory - look into

More Paper Crafting/Pattern

Sketchbook into Paper Crafting

I have started to look at more natural forms and patterns found within the actual leaves of the plants and the repetition of these to create different symbols. I am really enjoying just the process of drawing and figuring out what will work for the overall imagery to describe the essence of Sylvia Plath - I want to include more ambiguous imagery to reflect her life and poetry. Focusing on these elements found within many of her poems/writing is really helping me to hone in on where I want to take the project and what I want to say.

I am taking my initial drawings and using them as a guideline to cut shapes out of coloured paper - layering them up is also an effective way of creating depth with too much fuss or detail. Really enjoying this way of working!

What to focus on?

Death and sadness?

Work and achievement

Fragility of life

Learning more and more about Sylvia Plath's life, it is hard to focus on something other than tragedy. I think a running theme found within her own personal story and also reflected in her work is this idea of the fragility of life. I think this is an area I want to explore, to come up with symbols for that rather than misfortune or sadness. She left behind such a legacy that I think it would be a shame and almost an injustice to the person I feel like I know an awful lot about to solely focus on her death.

Abigail Halpin

https://uk.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=abigail%20halpin&rs=typed&0=abigail%7Ctyped&1=halpin%7Ctyped

Abigail Halpin's work influenced my decisions when I started to focus on nature and plants. I liked the arrangement of the patterns and the vibrant colours used. I came across her work on Pinterest and more recently when scrolling through Instagram. The technique of vibrant colours mixed with detail create a kind of whimsical effect which I enjoy. This image in particular made me think of home, Nottingham, and Sherwood Forest - whether it is supposed to be Robin Hood or not I have no idea!

Poster Design Tests

The Bell Jar

I continued to experiment with pattern, cut paper and figure. Starting with the simple shapes of the face, hand and legs I added gradually, moving different bits and pieces around the page - sticking them with rolled up pieces of masking tape.

I really enjoy the process of being able to move different parts around. I really feel like I am getting some where with this project now and have found a technique I can really experiment with.

Melissa Castrillion

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/490399846902514263/

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/AZaoj6Ykt5O4N20azXvNzmg-wUEk0aZa4Vj5oDHUOajY69EdMNy2QIM/

As most of the imagery I have found myself looking at has been natural forms so far, I was instantly drawn to the patterns and compositions found in Melissa Castrillion's work. I want to start using more of a variety of pattern within my own work - continuing to use paper cuts.

I also have started to use figure and incorporate this alongside pattern which is also evident here.