https://lucymoirgraphicdesign.tumblr.com

 

(SEMESTER TWO)

KULI – KALA : A typography brief which focuses on the hierarchy and composition of type in 4 different format sizes. The concept of this brief was to design a poster for an event, given specific information which had to be included and formatted into the 4 sizes. The challenge was to keep the same design which could be communicated throughout.

Below are some of my experiments for the ‘main design’.

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Final design (for crit)

 

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I found my crit for this brief very helpful, the general feedback was that I had been treating the design like ‘pages’ rather than a composition/hierachy. I think that the two main reasons for this mistake was that I had been designing the ‘main design’ on an A4 size on indesign. The other main mistake was that I had not been regularly printing out my design so that I could actually see it down on the page.

Some more good feedback was that along with regularly printing as you are designing, you should look at the piece with squinted eyes, in order to see the composition more as shapes  and therefore it would be a lot easier to recognise the weights of the typeface and also the hierarchy. Furthermore, it was said that the serif typeface did not work well, I needed to find a typeface that offered many different weights, as for now most of the type was on the same level, making it difficult to differentiate what was the primary, secondary and tertiary layers.

Final designs (post crit)

In my post crit amendments I tried to go for a much more simplistic design, with one graphic device going throughout all 4 sizes. I still think I am finding it hard to break away from treating the designs like ‘pages’ as most of the type reaches the edges, it could be much more dynamic and perhaps post assessment I will work on it further, in order to create a stronger outcome.

‘The Art of Cropping’ was the part 2 of project 4 (along with the ‘Spatial Awareness’ brief). I wish that I had taken the opportunity to work in a pair for this project as I found it quite difficult to fully understand and create the amount of work I felt I should have been creating.

I chose to g0 with the theme of pointless, but interesting facts, things you could have gone through life without ever needing to know. I did not want to dive too deep into conceptual ideas as I felt this project was quite heavily based on the aesthetic outcome of composition sets and cropping.

I think that I should have worked a lot more with the cropping tools and photography, in order to really work personally with compositions, being able to tweak the sets in a much more physical way.

(unwell for crit)

 

 

 

 

 

This project brief is about using symbols (square, circle and triangle) in order to convey an emotion, by using the process of layering, scale, cropping, negative and positive space (etc;).

Below are some of the preliminary work in which I used the cropping tools to position the symbols in ways which convey emotions. I found the task quite difficult even at this stage. I found it hard to move away from the obvious or overly simple. I tried to convey emotions such as (left to right) confinement, attack, detachment, authority, divided, power, confusion, protection. I think one of the aspects I found the hardest was pin pointing emotion rather than a state or action.

 

I was also unwell at the time of the crit for this project and as I did not feel comfortable or happy with my outcomes I felt deflated by the project, excited to move on to the next brief. Reflecting on this I can see that this was a huge mistake, as I did not know what was needed to give me confidence in the project.

Some of my final prints;

I was not happy with my outcomes for this project brief, I felt as though I couldn’t fully get a grasp on my own development and concept. I should have set out very clear emotions before I jumped into making the compositions, as I became quite confused myself with the project itself.

 

 

Let There Be Light, is a project brief which focuses on the use of light in photography. This project was both individual and group work, which I believe worked very well. It encouraged me to think and work with others, whilst also using the group dynamic to aid my own individual photographs.

Being asked to bring in one object to photograph was a task within itself. It was interesting to try and find an object that would be intriguing to photograph and also an object which would work well with giving different light sources justice and dominance. Finally, I chose a lid of a trinket box style candle.

I did want to try and avoid choosing an object which was made of glass, because I believed it was quite an obvious response to the brief, as light can pass through, deflect and disperse. However, I think that the unusual shape and curves of this object did bring something more unique to the process.

(Objects brought in by the rest of the group; Disco Ball, Small Bottle, Mason Jar, Folded Origami Object, Small Glass, Jelly and Wool.)

We experimented and started working as a group from day one. We very quickly decided to go outside and experiment with the available light sources within the studio. Our first experiment was with the light box.

We also took the opportunity to go outside and take photographs with natural light. On reflection, I can see that these photographs are not very strong as it is clear what the object is, if we were able to get a macro lens and really pick out the shadows and light of the piece it would be much stronger. The disco ball photograph is the strongest of the three that I have shown here as it is much more cropped, also the metallic paper creates a reflection, therefore making the shape warped and less obvious.

Our final contact sheet (group)

 

Our final contact sheet (individual)

 

For our second brief we have been asked to ‘express ourselves typographically through emotive type forms and lettering’  and ‘to develop an appreciation of the diversity of typography and hand crafted lettering’

As I have been starting to think about this brief I have been finding it very difficult to pin point a certain phrase, wording or context to put my work to. Initially I had been thinking about a piece of work I had seen online of Briar Mark’s embroidered piece which read ‘I could have done this on my mac’.

This piece inspired me into looking in to time consuming processes like embroidery and paper cutting, but mixing it with sarcastic or ‘lazy’ comments such as ‘I can’t be bothered’ or ‘I’d rather not’ contrasting the process which would have clearly taken a long time to complete.

I began my process with paper cutting as I knew I would be able to get some intricate and delicate outcomes. However as I worked further on these pieces I grew to understand how time consuming and skill based this process was. I didn’t feel very inspired by the idea anymore and so therefore tried to think a bit more deeply about concepts and what may drive my project a bit further than just a surface idea.

I tried to think about what matters to me and how I could use an interest or passion to fuel the typographic work. This was important as I could not pin point a phrase or quote that I would want to work on, without it being very cliché. I finally came to the decision to create works on facts about animal testing and animal cruelty.

I wanted to stick with the idea of contrast of the process and the subject matter. I wanted to push myself to create a delicate, calligraphy style piece with a considerable amount of technical detail. I aimed to make delicate calligraphy in order to contrast the serious and sensitive subject matter of the truth about the cruelty within animal testing.

(final outcome & crit feedback to follow)

In preparation for the BA Graphic Design course I was asked to complete a summer project of a ‘life- sized’ self portrait. After quite a few months out of creative education I found this task quite daunting and I feared how I would approach such project. The ‘life-sized’ aspect made the task even more challenging for me. I find proportions and life drawing quite difficult, especially when it is required to be full sized.

After deciding to take quite a literal approach, by drawing an outline of my body and drawing over it with fine liner, I could see many flaws in my piece. My portrait was not exactly proportionate to my own body and the approach I had taken was not suiting my initial vision of a very simple outline, rather than detailing. I had tried to draw small pieces which I felt represented me and my personality but after experimenting with some illustrations I quickly realised that they did not fit with my simplistic and single line portrait. Following this realisation, I decided to cut the full outline of my figure out. I was pleased with my decision to do this as it created a more ‘cardboard cut out’ feel to my piece. The only issue was that my self portrait was then very painfully obviously not life sized!

I wanted to make my portrait minimal and just made up of line, however the piece appeared unfinished. I tried to think more in depth about how my self portrait could portray me beyond the surface. I thought about how much I would like to reveal about myself to a group of people I had never met before. I finally decided on experimenting with pastels, focusing in on my hair. My hair has always been something people comment on and is perhaps one of the first aspects of my exterior appearance that people would first notice about me, I decided to only put colour through my hair as this would make it the focus point in my piece, highlighting how it is a focus point in my appearance.

During my crit for my summer project I received a lot of helpful feedback. It seemed as if the colourful aspect of my hair was unclear for some people and did indeed make it look unfinished. Also, some of the crit group felt that the hair was like a separate part of the portrait and was hard to realise why I had decided to only colour the hair.

I could see how the hair could be a confusing part of the self portrait, however in ways I do feel as if I have achieved my goal of creating an overbearing aspect of my exterior image.