Month: April 2021
FMP WEEK 20 (WC: 12/04/2021)
As emphasised in my last blog post, my focus was on gaining photographic content. After researching some philosophical theories and ideas, I became inspired on my walk around Brighton one day when I had no intention of finding content. I also stated in his last blog post that my most effective work has been produced when I stop overthinking which is why it made sense that when I was on a walk I was able to clear my head and create some more content for my magazine. I took a walk to Shoram and documented the journey along the way and once I got there, there were a variety of images mainly around the seafront and a different streets. I found the experience very interesting because I was exploring a place that I didn’t know that well, forcing me to think outside the box in terms of what pictures I was taking as I didn’t know what to look for. The overall experience was very positive as I always have enjoyed taking photographs but within the realms of fashion, i don’t find myself as passionate about photography. However, this could be seen as a good thing as this would allow me to create photographic images which are more experimental in terms of style and editing because being able to take a picture and collage / edit in photoshop is more suited to my style of working than to carefully construct an editorial shoot. Which led me to my decision previously to not include any typical editorials within my magazine. my style is more ‘zine’ like; very experimental, visual based, graphic- I’ve made something similar as my final project for my foundation course but Sentient Magazine would be a massive step up, showing my improvement in graphic design, which is what I aim to pursue post university.
Overall I am pleased with the quality of the content I produced. I decided to go on some more walks and take pictures in different areas of Brighton. The main theme regarding these images was to document a place that holds a lot of character which is usually known for being hectic and chaotic but shown in a way which provokes questions and changes the way the place is perceived. In this case, I was documenting various places in Brighton and exploring how they made me feel through the images I was producing. By capturing frequent close ups, shots of patterns, details, unusual designs, obscure and random words or phrases as well as seemingly abandon areas, I was evoking a certain atmosphere through the bleak and desolate landscape. I wanted to show the parts of Brighton and Sussex which completely changed the usual perspective, to show an individual’s view on certain areas of Brighton, and how the peaceful parts of the city can become the most hidden or unacknowledged.
As I found the whole experience extremely positive, I wanted to take some more images, resulting in me modelling for a spontaneous shoot involving in mainly capturing a human face, as my intentions were to take these images and distort them into something completely different. I found the actual contact sheet of images quite strong as they feature me in several different interesting poses, emphasising the complexity of the human form and the different ways we can manually distort our bodies to produce unique outcomes. I used a fish eye lens on Instagram as this further distorted the features but in a subtle way which would allow me the freedom to still play around with them on Photoshop.
FMP WEEK 19 (WC: 05/04/2021)
These past two weeks I have been running behind my schedule of wanting to finish the magazine by the end of March. This was because prior to that commitment, I had not created the flat plan for my magazine which was influenced my illogical choice, this has resulted in me falling slightly behind however, I do feel as if because I have never made a magazine before, the time management will be incredibly difficult to master but the fact that I am attempting it is enough to be proud of. Being overly ambitious is a trait I tend to have however since the deadline is 10th May, it would be more appropriate for me to have the magazine done for May as the end of March would have been quite unnecessary and would make the magazine become deprived of more work done in those later months. This will adapt to my working style and I would be able to continue making content with no pressure to produce things for the magazine, but to make work that I enjoy and see what suits the flow of the magazine and what does not. I have realised that this would be a learning curve for me, to stop being too precious with the work that I am creating, meaning that I just need to create work without overthinking each step of the way, as I have previously discovered in other modules that the work that I produce which is of the highest quality is when I have made content quickly with ideas that spring to my mind instantly rather than over thinking. I make many minds maps quite frequently due to this reason; it creates authentic and organic content.
I’ve now made a media pack for my magazine which is something I should have done prior to creating the content for it, which may mean that the content I make from this pint would be easier for me, as I have something to refer to that ties up the magazine all in one, to ensure I don’t stray too far away from the style. I have found that as the magazine would realistically be over 100 pages, it would be hard to guarantee the pages all suit the overall style of the magazine if a media pack had not been made as this ties up the style, inspiration, and content in one document. I have used the font ‘Haike’ again to reflect the diversity of the type face and the way the variations compliment each other very well. This also ensures the style of the media pack shares qualities of the flat plans I have created about the twelve laws of the universe. I should have done this in the opposite order, however I am glad the flat plans really improved my design skills because it has made me develop a consistent style for the actual visuals of the magazines and articles featured within.
Although I am pleased with the flat plans of the articles, the visual content such as collages, poster designs and graphics are lacking. I could include the Instagram graphics to my magazine however, my intentions were to separate the Instagram content to the magazine content for diversity and for the danger of producing repetitive content which could deter viewers sway from buying the magazine themselves.