Month: December 2020

FMP WEEK 3 (WC: 14/12/2020)

To progress on what had previously been successful for my development of my FMP, I looked at what had worked for me in the past to fix a creative block. While on TikTok, I found a graphic design tutorial for Adobe Photoshop which envisioned how to create text that follows the formation of a stairs pattern. I found this visually interesting and therefore decided to give it a go as I wanted to expand on my skills in the Adobe Creative Suite by focusing on some individual tutorials and make some imagery that I could use for my sketchbook and blog as experimentation and development. I used some of my previous work to manipulate further and create some visually dynamic backgrounds to compliment the typography. This technique creates a sense of motion in the design, our eyes are following the ‘stairs’ going downwards which is an interesting detail to point out for future designs as it is essential to understand our designs from a viewers perspective.

The use of the background creates another dimension for the text to sit in. Glitched patterns and circular shapes symbolise a malfunctioning computer screen, could be from a different world, a virtual world or the future and therefore this design of the background compliments the text which say ‘distortion’. When attending a LinkedIn Learning class, they pointed out how it is essential for the text and the background interest or foreground subject to all be saying the same thing and exuding the same mood through their own formats. This creates a balance and shows the production process has been well thought out sand thoroughly designed.

The simplified colour palette allows the many textures created by the glitched background to be highlighted and not hidden in the shadow of too many elements contrasting with the design. The accent colour of the light green compliments the purple well especially when it interacts with the text and changes the colour of the section of the text to avoid the text sticking out on its own and not interacting with the design, which can be effective in some cases but for this poster, I aimed for it to be abstract and interactive.

I then created this collage as an experiment with my style to try to create some imagery that evokes a certain mood which I think was achieved with this poster. To elevate it further I feel as if some text or a main foreground image could add some more dimension and really tie the piece together, however this was a decent starting point. I made the background using the emboss tool on the filter section for images in Adobe Photoshop to create an outline to focus more on the forms that the lines create when placed together rather than the shadows and textures, which was successful for the main background interest as there were no details that got lost in the back.

The images shown above are some selected colourways of a series of different posters I made to embody some positvitty and creativity into my style of working for my FMP. Following on from my creative block last week, I decided that I wanted my magazine to embody different selections of my personality, all the things I am interested in which I can translate into a creatively directed platform, which led me to creating these designs as I had been focused on boosting productivity and mental health during this pandemic.

These designs had successful feedback from my friends which meant a lot to me as some of them saved it as their home screen. My intent was to simply make someone think for an extra second and smile but that reaction proves that I should implement his in my designs of the magazine and embed this into the ethos of the platform I will be creating.

This is a successful start however adapting these specifically to my brand could be more successful e.g. adding a border and logo in the bottom left corner to brand the work and almost watermark it in a way, make it more distinguishable from a distance from the presentation and layout of it which therefore makes it more scalable and adaptable.

As well as the images at the start of the post, these were also made with the help of a graphic design tutorial found on TikTok. This was aimed for Adobe Illustrator instead, and the aim of this was to warp the text together with a mesh warp which puts sections of the image into boxes which can be stretched out individually to create some new innovate shapes a group of text, helping the text become more abstract and psychedelic which suits the aesthetic of my FMP work perfectly and therefore was an appropriate method of gaining resources.

Transforming my skills from the previous designs, I used the same text mesh warp technique and applied this on top of a collage to create a poster print which juxtaposes some of my collages with some text to create a response to my research so far. As my concepts surrounds the idea of perceiving things a certain way, or changing the way you perceive things to suit your identity, I chose the texts “hiding from your vision” and “you looking at me?” as a way to embed my research into the way I produce my work to make everything I add relevant and consistent.

After looking at the collages from last week, I chose to take what worked in the inspirational images, which was a tactile collage by Broken Art Collage on Instagram which influenced me to create my work using that format as using what I found visually interesting in my own work keeps me interested and engaged with constantly transforming what I am working on to suit my current interests. This is highlighted in the last picture where you can see the tear marks and the texture which is created when ripping a piece of high quality magazine paper; I found this successful in adding a different appearance to my collages, especially as I further refined the quality of them on Adobe Photoshop.

FMP WEEK 2 (WC: 07/12/2020)

I started my week with a very positive feedback Microsoft Teams call from my tutor, explaining that the work I had submitted for task one of the previous module was interesting and engaging. This has motivated me to progress further with planning my work for my FMP. With my priority on my business project, I still wanted to do some more in-depth planning for my FMP, as well as gaining resources and inspiration top further my development. I felt as if my motivation had been lacking creatively, therefore putting my productivity into task planning and organisation felt more manageable and appropriate for me this week.

These images of inspiration were found while browsing through Instagram stories, most of these are promoted posts from artists who share their work on this platform. This has made me realise that I could put some more work into my own professional art account, and potentially promote some posts if I wish to as this increases engagement and would be a great way for likeminded people to discover my art. Also, I mentioned previously using TikTok for artistic inspiration and tutorials which I have found through Instagram as well now. I feel as if it is important for people to use social media to immerse themselves with art if they are a creative, as social media is what a large majority of generation z are spending their time doing, therefore engaging more with artistic based posts would increased the likelihood of these posts showing up further on your news feed or explore page. Another reason why this is useful is due to the fact that the Instagram algorithm adjusts and becomes catered to my individual interests in order to keep me engaged with the application, although a marketing tactic from Instagram, this enables me to find content that is personal to what I am engaging with and therefore relevant to me. This has worked for me and now the content I engage with will help me in my professional practice.

The first collage stuck out to me due to the tactile production which is something I am always drawn to. This is due to the textures created from the paper textures, the cutting out of shapes and layering them creating shadows and other imperfections which add interest and style to the work. Using the magazine text was really successful as they transformed the meaning of the text into something relevant that compliments the imagery chosen from the magazines into a new context created by the collage artist. This is a technique I enjoy using as it juxtaposes images and texts together to diversify the connotations of an image when placed with something else. The colour palette used harmonises well together as it consists of mainly dark red, black and white which are all implemented in the high contrasted and threshold imagery shown creating a style reminiscent of the 1970s feminist punk era, reminding me on Linder, Riot Grrrl magazine amongst others. Moving forward, I could embed these techniques into my FMP work by creating tactile collages from relevant contemporary fashion magazines, create more analogue graphic design as opposed to constant digital work, a balance would be effective for my magazine. In addition to this I could also experiment further with textures on my collages, which I had done in the past and were successful to me; paper textures, noise and grain are examples that worked for me in the past.

The second image was a screenshot from an Instagram story someone shared of artist Blake Armstrong’s illustrations. I saved this due to the fact that I had previously been producing some illustrations online through software Krita using a graphics tablet yet had not created any paintings or used inks and approached this from a hands-on point of view. This has inspired me to create some more paintings to add to my magazine; some fashion illustrations or portraits would be a good start for me. I could then further my skills and create some hand drawn typography and experiment with this as this could possibly suit the magazine, although if it doesn’t, this would teach me to stick to downloading fonts online for more refined designed typography. The AI style animated character that the artist has created suits my style of work for my magazine and would be something that I would be interested in experimenting with in the future. The ink bleeds on the page create a texture that is hard to replicate digitally, however it would be worth me exploring different brush sets for different software to enhance my illustrations potentially.

The third image stuck out to me as the innovative typography which combined shadows and line text with a glowing background made from the colours used and digital sparkles made using he shape tool which all harmonise together to embody a dynamic atmosphere of a futuristic world in which the art sits in. Consistency is a skill which helps my professionalism, if all designs are coherent and flow together on different platforms then the work becomes more distinguishable and scalable which makes designs easier to read, transport and recognise.

In terms of planning for my FMP I aim to break it down into several manageable sections as creating a magazine is a daunting task due to all the technicalities which we learned as a group in our magazine project. Interviews, illustrations, digital media and promotional material just to name a few.

 

FMP WEEK 1 (WC: 30/11/2020)

Following handing in all my work for task one I am feeling positive moving forward for my FMP as I managed to solidify my concepts further towards the end of the task and produced more coherent experimental work with a large file of research on my blog. Now my aim is to remain consistent with creating work while slowly learning new skills, techniques, and computer programs to push my level of work further into different mediums while adapting with a new way of working in this pandemic. I am to create work most weeks potentially a short break around Christmas where I will be at work most days too.

Using a graphic tablet, I have been progressing my illustration skills using software for Microsoft Windows called Krita, similar to Procreate for iPads as this is one of the skills, I would love to implement further into my FMP work. These doodles shown below were inspired by artist Savanna Lore after discovering her videos on TikTok, which has become a great help for me in finding graphic design, marketing, and fashion resources as well as tutorials to improve my knowledge and technical abilities in my practice. These are successful for me as I have little experience in illustration, yet these fit the style of my magazine so far. These drawings are just trials that I could potentially experiment further with in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. To progress these further I could add some text or make some illustrations using a background first for more dimensions in my work.

Savanna Lore’s work for example:

 

Using Adobe Photoshop, I experimented further with these illustrations, into something that could fit in with the style of my FMP, Sentient. These are some fairly quick examples yet I believe they are a great start, as they combine my new skills in illustrations with my general style of photomanipulation on Adobe Photoshop and therefore creates a hybrid where I can create work that aligns with my current style for the magazine. However, I know these have so much room for improvement. It would be interesting if I could somehow animate them or turn them into GIFs; this is something I would like to learn for my FMP as they enhance the viewing experience for a consumer on their smartphones.

The use of background colours and background interest create an atmosphere for the illustrations, as demonstrated by the example with the black background. It exudes a mystery and a dark story which relates directly with the concepts of Sentient. If I were to explore this even further, I could create some interesting work.

Expanding on this background interest idea, I decided to create some designs that evoke the mood of these drawings using textures, shapes, lines and colours in different ways to complement and contrast with each other. A few of these examples are listen below with everything collated together in the sketchbook.

I am extremely happy with these images I have produced, however I don’t feel as though they have purpose for my FMP, although my aim right now is to experiment further and develop more technical skills, I can apply to my FMP to improve my abilities and enhance my skill set. I started using the 3D tool for fonts on Adobe Photoshop where that, and several texts in general, were used to create different textures and graphics. Using fonts is ideal as I simply typed a few words and expanded the image and created art using the lines and form of different typography to transform it.