Category: Uncategorized

SELF ASSESSMENT STUDENT EVALUATION (SUBMITTED)

Strengths:

Critical evaluation of my own work is a strength of mine outlined within my blog consistently throughout the project. I analyse the techniques that are successful and justify the reasoning behind it while acknowledging that my work is not perfect and therefore highlight the areas that need to improve by setting myself goals, and using adaptation to create my next set of work influenced by the successes and failures of the previous set of work. I talk through composition, influences and how my work compares to my points of research, comparing my newer work to older work and highlighting what to bring forward to my next set of experimentations.
Experimentation is another strength of mine consistently shown throughout the project and evaluated on my blog. Using a variety of different techniques within my specialism such as tactile collages, digital collages, photo manipulation, digitally manipulating tactile collages to create mixed media collages using Adobe Create Cloud applications, incorporating illustrations within my collages, poetry and creative writing, as well as, taking photographs: printing them out, ripping them up and transforming them in innovative ways as opposed to just taking an image and digitally inserting that into a magazine etc. and using those to collage, taking my own collages apart and building them up again. I used all of these techniques to truly be free and create a large range of work within my digital sketchbook that shows thorough experimentation and investigation within my specialism.
Another strength of mine within this project is that I have sourced a lot of visual research, responded to non-visual research visually to build my work and style around while sticking solid to my own personal style which I have seen develop throughout my creative career. For example, I analysed a few sections from a book called ‘Manifestations of Venus’ by Jennifer Shaw, and took this by noting down the visual symbolism I could include to reference Venus, the goddess of love, within my work as it fits my theme perfectly, therefore not only did I create a create response in the form of several poems, I took pictures of water in an experimental way (contact sheets on sketchbook and blog), incorporated the use of shells within my collages as well as responding to my theme in other abstract ways to add symbolism and surrealism to not make the visuals of my work to become to immediately obvious to the eye, I prefer my work abstract and open to interpretation while incorporating symbolism and layered meanings.

Areas for Improvement:

An area to improve on could be my time management; this is due to me sometimes feeling lost, uninspired or heavily scrutinising my work, which after analysis, most likely comes from my not organizing my time to the best of my ability. I am glad that I have managed to create a lot of work for this module that I am actually proud of however if I were to have created a Gantt chart or some sort of timeline then I could have potentially avoided feeling uninspired or lost at moments, and could have referred to the timeline to make sure I was on track. I feel very lucky that there was never a moment where I fell completely lost or extremely behind which was due to my motivation and determination however I do feel as if I could have managed my time slightly better. However, after creating a Gantt chart for my FMP, I feel as if I am on the right track to being able to organise and prioritise my tasks to the best of my ability to achieve create work successfully.
Secondly, I fell as if I could improve on being able to thoroughly utilize my research in more creative ways that apply to my work, I was able to source a large variety of research in the form of looking at studies, forming a few of my own questionnaires, reading books, academic texts and journals, watching films, taking my own imagery, drawing from observation as well as online galleries and articles however I felt like I could have taken those points of research and directly implement them in my creative work further. I just found it difficult to be able to utilize a reading, for example, which is a piece of written work, and transform that into am influenced piece of experimentation, however I did try a lot but could have done it further to improve.
Another area for improvement could have been to refine my technical skills on Adobe Creative Cloud, as I feel like I experimented to the best of my ability within tactile collaging but could have furthered my illustration skills, for example, on Adobe Illustrator or used some features of Adobe Photoshop that I had not explored before, however I was limited with resources and was only able to acquire Adobe Create Cloud within my personal laptop a few weeks into the project but now that I have them easily accessible, for my FMP/ before my FMP starts, I will be watching tutorials online and potentially exploring different applications to Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign, which are the three I have currently used most.

WGSN with Hannah Borg

“how many products have you touched or interacted with today?”
coffee, phone, fridge, kitchen equipment, sitting on bed etc. thousands! “why did i purchase these products, why did i want to purchase these products, what made me not what to purchase these products
condiments, cutlery, bowls plates, computer – chair, the room you’re sitting in
we are all consumers, faced with these choices constantly
context behind each of these choices
purchasing decisions are being made more subconsciously than before; eg. a sandwich – bought because it’s healthy etc or now it could have been bought because it was a good vegetarian option; allows a lot to be said about someone as a consumer by something small such as a sandwich purchase
new challenges when developing products – starting to be challenged, consumers dictating products themselves; big MACRO shift
understanding consumer priorities is most important
forecasting starts with the consumer to anticipate consumer demands = getting under the skin of your customer
tracking macro trends across the world, turn these into consumer profiles, use these to predict consumer demand and these predicts inform product and experience design, track challenges responses and opportunities which continues to inform cycle
stepic model – society, technology, environment, politics, industry and creativity = informs what the future will look like and what the consumer is thinking, feeling and how they are behaving
= research, identify, challenge, verify, map, deliver
environment – wider environment in the world, culture, natural world – also looking micro – homes, people moving, how our homes influence us- people moving back to their family homes due to the pandemic – younger people especially, improving quality of life – closer with nature
politics – huge direct and indirect of popular opinion, people want their voices to be heard – shapes how people want to be seen and heard and present themselves
creativity – translates research into adthethics and fashion looks through experts in specific areas
source, expertise, delivery
digital consumer, retail landscape, sustainability = biggest challenges we are facing in industry, especially with coronavirus
covid has exaggerated the nerf for existing trends and highlighted already known weak spots as oppose to creating loads of new trends because of clever and affective prediction
digital consumer – speed, convenience, experimental : edutainment, 5g, trend aware
digital customer though a lense- mobile, voice, video = new livestream shopping – tiktok etc
speed and convenience = high expectations
transparency of retail – letting the customer know how the products and manufacturing works so they’re aware of the location of their products amongst arrival
fast paced industry especially now adapting to a global pandemic
retail geography – reccession, phygital channels, all been accelerated by covid not brand new
physical retail stores to reinvent shopping experience since before covid = resulted in record stores being shut down therefore fashion shops need to follow suit before things shut down and all turns online
phygital channels – physical and digital – providing a unique and practical experience for the customer, marc jacobs creasing digisl designs that were for sale on games like animal crossing
lots of opportunities for innovation and creativity
sustainability – “less but better, traceability, transparency
haul videos to anti haul videos
people thought covid = more worried about covid and not things like sustainability but this was proven to be not true as 85% of consumers see it the same if not more than pre pandemic
call out culture, cancel culture = sustainability credentials for brands to be a must because they could get backlash
less occasion wear purchasing – event, wedding, holiday, festival
less disposable income for buying non essentials because of covid = reinforce new values about purchasing in line with how current events affect consumer habits
INSIGHT – consumer insights, retail strategy, marketing
FASHION – creative direction, design, category buying
BEAUTY – New product development, category management, brand management
FOOD & DRINK – innovation/insights, new product development and packaging, marketing and communications, category management, retail buying
LIFESTYLE & INTERIORS – creative direction, experience design, packaging design, category buying
MINDSET
The fashion consumer: then and now; before people used to shop globally and opposed to locally now with the pandemic people are looking back to their community and supporting local business, maybe them or their families are starting small businesses
went from browsing everywhere and not having a specific intent of purchase but rather more exploration to going really specific with what you’re looking for maybe due to money issues or budgeting however now it’s reversing into a more experimental shopping experience especially with everything becoming online again
evolutions of intent, taking more time to enjoy the experience
social circles to having a wider network on social media and having a presence, but now people are going back to their own social circle for fashion and artistic inspiration and staying with people they know
people were price driven before and they’re price driven now – not likely to change any time soon
prediction of athleisure – real life example
mid 2000s women rejecting unrealistic body ideals, championed in the 90s= new age of health, global financial crisis which influenced a new global health crisis = highlights obvious issues with people accessing health care and resources
sport lux look = dated term but big in 2011
WGSN predicts mass adoption of wellness across industries and rise of restorative fitness in 2012
2014 athleisure becomes a mainstay, focus on “weathness” / wearables and mental health apps boom. leggings start to outsell jeans – this highlights the idea of lifestyle influencing fashion; mental health issues being raised which leads to health issues being raised which led to athleisure links together
2015 ath-beauty, forecast by WGSN
2016 restorative fitness gains traction, WGSN identifies Athleisure styles – including #AllDayActivities and #Fashleisure
2017- wellness eclipses hedonism with the emergence of sober clubbing, yoga raves and SoulCycle – youth focused, working to enforce more positive and social connotations and experiences with this
Meditation booms. WGSN forecasts “sloungewear” as an athleisure spin off. guns replace clubs as social hubs
2018 athleisure 2.0 WGSN forecasts the next functional evolution of athleisure and its legacy
2019 Bath-leisure called out as part of the Living Well trend. Mass adoption of Ath-Beauty
2020 and beyond, saturation point for trends, however new versions will start, more function athleisure / hybrid with loungewear- really functional, focuses on the specifics like underwear, swimwear etc
global outlook as much as possible !!!
consumer thinking
micro trends being linked and informed by macro trends

Girls on Film: Gender and Performance – Pamela Church Gibson

Notes

pamela gibson – reader in cultural and historical studies at the London College of Fashion, University of the arts London
published extensively on gender, film, fashion, consumption – has books
second wave feminists at her first lecture with a different age group
“if it wasn’t dead you wouldn’t be here” to the people in her lecture; stating how the topic has relevances a people are here to listen to watch she has to say
dislikes the word “empowering” “the word empowering is always used by people who have power, it’s not used by people who are disempowered in any way
we need feminism due to social class, links to achievement
pre-raphelite women due to class and sexuality- lurks behind a lot of these images she will talk about it, prominent in pornography
“girly feminism” polarises people, seen by academics who aren’t 25
“good morning sunshine” about the younger girls – annoys her
slutwalk protest
“riots not diets”
lolita – nymphet – he’s writing about a younger girl than seen, 9-14 (14 might be pushing it, she’s not pretty, scabby knees, dirty hair etc, she read it in preparation for her lecture – links to social class; humbert mocks lolitas mother due to bad french pronunciation and reminds to reader of his class;
“polarised feminism” – girl gangs, innocence – links to twilight
the girls and what they want / what they don’t want / being desired vs what they actually what,
book vs film is different and takes away everything from the book and romanticises it – heart sunglasses, lollipops etc (suggestive imagery) which not exactly specified in the book and therefore created to romanticise?
Balthus- french artist, painted provocative images of young girls = controversy,
trashing of child brides, has a theory that there are certain young girls (4-9) which are in touch with the demonic and these are the nymphets- difference between demonic and looks nice
(casting of humbert) states he is good looking and not that old – casted james mason, quilty who steals lolita away from him also stated as good looking casted someone who wasn’t good looking,
loligoths- say they’re not like the manga girls, wear dresses and stockings, found loligoths in their 30s/40s who want to stay this way and keep adult sexuality at bay
problems around notions of autonomy and empowerment
type of innocence and rejection of sexuality
britney :
started as a disney mascot type of girl
press loved her, very typical american style and high school style – still used sexually; showing midriff etc suggestive dancing
press – said she didn’t know how to raise her children, began the downfall potentially of what’s happening with her
britney shaving her head – lowest point, media rushing to make money out of creating content from this
not looking at it with the correct narrative which was “a child performer groomed within studios” instead of a girl who went crazy “demonisation of britney resulted in her stripping herself of her own sexuality” – due to being a failed mother
head shaving “the most brutal thing you can do to them”, done to prisoners and people in the army but also done to women to rob them of their sexuality as joan of arc famously shaved her head, britney has done it herself after a big arc; her career
then went and used an umbrella to smash a car “a symbol of power”
slutwalk
Slut walk started by a remark from a High Court judge, When Pamela taught law, she found herself by mistake at the end of a rape trial- judge was saying things like “so you were wearing leopard print leggings” to the victim and asked for them to be presented to them.
slutwalk come from a remark saying people who get raped were asking for it
variety of ways it was taken, caroline coon there, younger women, multiplicity of dialogs of feminism
second wave feminists found some of it quite problematic- in terms of dressing less etc,
wrapping faces up but bodies semi naked, who has the power
in “good morning sunshine” are talking to the children and I suggested way which is interesting/disturbing/not touched upon, “hey pretty” her voice is absent usually and puts it out there in the video
hannah montana / miley cyrus, photographed by annie leibovitz “in nothing but a bed sheet”
young fans – didn’t want hannah montana sexualised, wanted a different more wholesome content from her
“Bring it On” – kirsten dunce – “puts the world to right through cheerleading” (Wizards of waverley place, v popular – about putting the world to right, “resisting adult sexuality and living in a girl heaven”)
high school musical – “puts things right” = “racial balance”
Said that they are made to look like preteens even though they are teenagers, bring sample one of the girls is quite curvy that her boobs are always covered up but she’s not allowed to look like a adult women and therefore sexualised
what girls want = twilight, written by an american christian fundamentalist, “badly written books and the cleverly done movies”
vampires are always the best looking, sarcasm about how they are always topless
bella is staged to be clumsy etc and “this was written out of the film to make her more Hollywood desirable”
queer elements is older representations of vampires
glow pretty in the sun in twilight (very played down from the actual stories of vampires and werewolves”
bella growing up in the film, wants to be a vampire to be frozen in time, robert patterson playing a 17 year old, been 17 for 100s of years
twilight sold make up in two separate ranges – makeup for young girls
Madame Tussaud’s Robert Patterson’s rights with again popularity of the Twilight, moved Brad Pitt to the side because young girls wanted to be photographed with him instead, why would they want to be photographed with him instead? Raises the question of youth in the media
innocence of high school music relating to innocence of britney starting out innocent and becoming a product of the media, manipulated and shaped into something to then be profitable when something good or especially when something bad or controversial happens

Questions

in good morning sunshine – she knows that at least one of those girls was not happy doing this, model consent for being desirable ? reaching achievement?
male vs female gaze
relevance behind why imagery like this is being used, for an advertisement ? for a mass media production ? tv? a personal design project: influences the context and reactions around producing this kind of content
“show us what you’ve got under her shirt” – creepy, girls not happy
suicide video where she’s mimes her suicide, music she sets it to was fabulously used in the french new wave in a film which is about suicide and the lead character kills himself with a gun at the end ; more “empowered” than the little girls in the suicide video
artistic motives, why audience responds in certain ways – different ways of understanding content in hollywood vs art
referring to people she works with as collaborators which changes the narrative of who has the power, relating back to empowerment and models not consenting which is strange considering she used young girls in a weird way
the film “Fat Girl” or in French “A Ma Souer!” The director claims to be a feminist director yet what happens to the largest girl in the film is very disturbing, question would be like to put a girl that young in that kind of role
collusion of a culture with soft porn provoking anxiety which could be intentional as part of the narrative to becoming more disturbed
the word collaboration shouldn’t be used according to someone in the audience as she is a director and making them do things and therefore isn’t an equal collaboration – using that word forcefully is an interesting way to potentially make what you’re doing seem more conventional/normalises it
interesting dynamic and concept between who has power when collaborating creativity
why is she saying collaboration according to another audience member
someone else says relating to age and power, she asks people to role play with her, she allows them to subvert what they’re doing to her- good morning sunshine is casting for a film / aware of placing herself in the view of a predator
as a woman you can be the bad one, to yourself to be a sexual predator, leaves us to make all of those judgements – self hate images
casting and visual culture : in the casting pamela asks, did they ask what they have to look like because young girls have been to go/sees (if they make it that far) thinking they’re going to be models and simply turned away due to how they look in a very quick process
audience member says twilight – second film but different from the others, sinister domestic violence symbolism with the werewolves- the werewolf couldn’t have big arguments with the girlfriend because he would lose control – less about innocence and maybe growing up too fast, she can’t cut herself because the vampires will sense the blood,

Presumed Innocence – Jean Crutchfield, essays by Kathryn Hixson, Robert Hobbs Pages 11-12

Presumed Innocent: Amazon.co.uk: Crutchfield, Jean, Hixson, Kathryn, Hobbs, Robert: 9780295977188: Books

Presumed Innocence – Jean Crutchfield, essays by Kathryn Hixson, Robert Hobbs

This book hadn’t been on my list when searching for books in the library however the cover of it is what intrigued me. The concept of innocence in conjunction with what I was initially doing my research on; the increasing normalisation of sexualised imagery in contemporary editorials, linked in a way where I had not previously researched, and therefore thought it would be wise to look further into the book in the hopes of influencing my essay further. This book is mainly imagery to support a few pages at the beginning of a supportive statement which expands on the themes shown throughout the book visually but more critically in a written academic matter. This allows me to researching the imagery within the book with the context found in the book to enhance my own critical thinking of how I can use and process this source for my essay.

“As youth culture has completely permeated our notions of identity; a generation of artists has grown up on the cusp of its totalitarian grip. These artists are now wrangling with its power in provocative artworks that at first look fresh and innocent … but closer and second looks reveal a violent undercurrent running through the work which is clear evidence of “what it means to be young in a cult of youth.”.” Was a response to the question “What does it mean to be young in a society founded on a cult of youth?”
“Permeated: spread throughout (something); pervade.”
Totalitarian: relating to a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.
This was interesting for me to explore due to one of the readings I did previously on how older women perceived sexually provocative images shown in the media along with the affects to their mental health and self-image, which links nicely together. In the study, it was stated how these older women we slightly subconsciously desensitised to the imagery however were worried for their younger female family members as most of the imagery would be either directed towards them or featuring people of their age. This links to the above quote from “Presumed Innocence” discussing a large and arguably unnecessary focus on the younger demographic in regards to current media, trends and advertising. This focus is potentially damaging to the youth as they are at a vulnerable and easily influenced stage of their life before they mature which could highly influence the decisions they make, the way they perceive themselves and what they are inspired by in line with what the media is showing them. The use of the word ‘cult’ in relation to people’s views about the youth of today highlights the severity of the issue, that being that the world is too focused on ways we can manipulate young people into thinking a certain way as their minds are still developing. The thought of looking back and realising the lack of innocence as the quote suggests the idea of a “violent undercurrent” brings in a darker tone to the issue; seeing something in one way as you have not been told others, and made to feel like something is intentionally for the general wellbeing of someone or a situation to then seeing it through a different perspective with a more sinister undertone was interesting to link the two readings together.
“All of the old people want to be young, even as they are changing the definition of youth to encompass middle age, menopause, and new surgically uplifted faces.” Once again linking to the study that I previously researched, with the narrative of older women being referenced in line with wanted to stay young and how they’re affected by the media which is not discussed in enough length publicly. Older people altering their physical appearance to appear more youthful, such as injecting Botox to even out facial wrinkles and injections in their under eye area to remove bags and dark circles in order to seem more naturally younger and ‘fresh-faced’ just damages their perception of older women/ themselves even further as they feel as if the way their body naturally develops is something to be ashamed of as a large majority of older women portrayed in the media of a similar age to them have been shown with surgery. This quote also brings on the idea that we are altering the idea of youth to include older people as long as they fit into the realms of what is desirable, for example, if they look younger than they are, don’t show any aging on their face such as wrinkles etc., so that society would accept their appearance.
“this generation of artists, coming of age in the 1980s, are reacting with a confusing mixture of complicity and critique that leads to acts of hysteria and delirium, in a world devoid of clear moral directives or rote ethical systems” suggests that the youth are acting out as a result of protest and wanting change from the constant critique and analysis on their minds and bodies which leads them into the ‘hysteria’ mentioned. This results in protests, expression, new trends and people being able to truly be themselves without potential judgment to start a revolution.
“But media-driven pop youth culture still, at its base, broadcasts the assumption that children are innocent, and what they want, what they desire, reflections, not manipulation but freedom.” This quote relates back to the first one well which explains how looking back at experiences, situations, familiar emotions and feelings and realising things with a different type of connotation attached. Expanding on the idea that the media manipulates children, whose brain are still developing in order to utilize it for their own satisfaction, such as to inspire a child to buy a particular toy through marketing ploys that make themselves think that they need this product and it would be accessible to them, not something to aspire to that they might not potentially need. This links through to the idea of how women are perceived in the media and how children who consume media could have an altered sense of what is normal and what is simply being projected by the media for an ulterior motive.

RESEARCH PLANS

I believe that my create work provides experimentation yet lack of character due to my lack of research regarding my theme and how it could possibly influence my creativity. My creative work has been going well for me as I am able to work from home to progress and experiment freely. However, I feel as if I am experimenting with a lack of research behind me to progress my creative process and contextualise my work to a more sophisticated degree. I believe this from the fact that my work could be seen as too experimental, I post a lot of developments of collages from one image instead of refining them and working really hard on one particular image at a time. As I’m working digitally mainly, I would need to research into more digital artists, and as I hope to do a zine, I therefore need to look at my work from a more graphic design perspective and research typography, layouts, shapes, forms, title text ve body text as well as this from a branding perspective. To do this I would need to research into zines, both contemporary and new, as well as any magazine that meets the desire of my consumer.

Gaining a good mixture of both primary and secondary research that directly relates to my theme or enhances in a topic I have researched will allow me to progress my work further and have a clearer aim of what I want to make and why; the idea of why I want to make this is unclear to me now, as I am just experimenting currently but this should be clearer to me at this stage. I will list the different types of research with examples and lay them out so I am able to go through them all and ensure that I have got as much different types of research as I can, due to the fact that gaining research from 10 books for example would influence my work in a less diverse and developed way than if I gained my research from 2 journal articles, 2 films, 2 poems, 2 interviews… etc. etc. This creates a more well rounded, diverse, less bias and highly developed breadth of research than the former.

Primary Research

Interviews, surveys, drawing from observation, own photographs, observations,

Interviews

Write a list of questions to ask artists about their practice, their influences and their opinions on topics relating to my concept.

Surveys

Write a list of questions to ask on an Instagram survey (Yes/No = more likely for a response than answering questions)
Create a survey on surveymonkey Share to Facebook timeline, Share to Facebook groups; Brighton Girl or Gals Who Graduate (if allowed), Instagram, Twitter
Create a second list of survey questions for another Instagram poll influenced by response from the first one.

Drawing

Draw my body
Draw objects around you that could be used for symbolism etc.
Draw my face

Photography

Photograph bodies
Photograph faces
Photograph anything that comes to mind relating to these themes

Found objects

Collect ANYTHING that could relate!

Secondary Research

Books, films, tv shows, editorials, advertisements, archives, magazines, articles, journals, online galleries, poems, literature, interviews, Instagram pages,

At least x3 of each- relevant to topic; analyse in blog

^ Analyse all of these: what I found out, how it’s helped/not helped research, how I did it, my personal response, what I wish I found out, what I wanted to find out more about, usefulness in general, question the bias.

ILLUSTRATIONS AND EDITS – WEEK 7

As the previous collages contained slight elements of drawing which incorporated a more illustrative effect within the visuals and therefore some more substance to my work, I decided to create some light-hearted doodles and add these as part of my new experimentation with my work. The doodle shown below were observational hand drawings of my face in motion, I did continuous line drawings while not taking my eye off the page, I believe this creates a more interesting image, lines are not perfect and the visuals do not look entirely accurate, but this technique allows me to focus further on the shapes in the face which I am identifying through line, this is done as my eyes are focusing on my face and the details while drawing, rather than how it looks on the page creating a more dynamic result. I have done these type of quick drawings for a while as I feel as if they always have exciting outcomes, I would love to use one of them as a starting point to a more fully thought out illustration, one that has had more time to consider the details or what this could potentially transform into further, or one that has been created digitally. This is reminiscent of the exercises we would have to do on my Art Foundation in Fashion Promotion, and would always make me create something more unique than if I were to start off with a super realistic drawing. We would have to use different pen thickness, two pens at one, focus on drawing the person in front of you, drawing only a small section but enlarged on the page etc. As classes have been online mainly, I haven’t been been into the studio once yet, I feel as if I am missing all of these types of warm up activities that we would do at university to get our creative minds working. As a result this makes me want to incorporate these far more into my everyday creative practice, I may start a smaller sketchbook for drawing/collage activities using prompts from artists online or start challenges like 30 days of font or 30 days of drawing as this would eventually increase my skill and ability to get used to the idea of making content daily.

The second illustration shows another observational drawing, which I have found to be good ways of collecting primary research and will therefore need to elaborate on this in the future of this project and do more observational drawings of different things around me, of my face or of mine and other people’s bodies. This is a slightly higher realistic quality of the first one, while still have the surreal element by layering the images together with the same amount of tone so they make one singular image composed of two different drawings. I found that sketching and shading made my imagery look slightly more realistic, if I wanted to aim for that style again then I will know that I will need to incorporate some type of shading in there otherwise it could be left too flat and one dimensional.

The digitally altered collages above are both visually pleasing and visually displeasing in my eyes, as I like some of them but feel as if others are weak. This is due to potentially the colours in conjunction with using illustration on top of a blurred filter, allowing the two elements to become more separated and seen as two different parts of the picture rather than as a whole collaborative composition. The layout and composition of the next two are effective as there is space around the page for breathing, white space, and this is organised in a way where it’s easy to dissect what is going on in the image separately, while also have the whole thing compliment each other and look like one whole piece, which the second image lacks.

COLLAGE EDITS – PART 2 – WEEK 7

These next series of collages were made digitally, using Adobe Photoshop to alter these images shown afterwards, of me and my face using a kaleidoscope style Instagram filter, aiming for a hybrid between an older and futuristic style, reminiscent of the very successful collages I made inspired by Spare Rib when I used imagery from that magazine. As that was successful I wanted to create a something with a similar starting point but I am still at my experimentation stage of the project and did not want to think too deeply into what I made, which can on one hand make my work more successful if I’m not overthinking things and making my work too refined and therefore lacking in character, but also I need more references within my work and be able to truly bring elements of Task 1, the practical side and Task 2. the historical and contextual side of my work to inform and balance each other’s visuals and concepts out. I chose to use imagery of myself due to the fact that I wanted to incorporate more photography, as I had done digital collages, tactile collages, and digital manipulations but none of just my own imagery and putting more of a focus on the imagery of a face, to add a narrative to the collages that could be influenced by the subject of the perceive, in this example me.

I chose myself as the subject because while I do not want to organise large elaborate shoots for my project, as that is personally not the preferred media that I work in, I still wanted to quickly trial my own images and how these can interact with each other or be developed using Adobe Creative Cloud software to either enhance the image or make them look worse potentially, as that’s what trialing work is all about. Ideas of using these Instagram filters came to my mind a while ago when I was playing around with the filters on Instagram, seeing what ones were interesting and trying to discover ones that I had not seen much of before, this led me to using the kaleidoscope filter which reminded me of a softer, feminine Petra Collins or Chloe Shepphard type of imagery, who are two of my favourite photographers, and therefore led me to seeing if this were to work well or not. I was aware that these images would not be the highest quality due to taking them on Instagram, which decreases quality, as well as using a filter, which also decreases the quality to some degree. The actual pictures that I ended up using were fairly successful to me; I wanted to keep the imagery of a face, eyes, lips, mouths and other feminine qualities if I am focusing more of femininity with the narratives and concepts surrounding that general broad theme, which has been translated into the reason why I took these images.

The last collage looks reminiscent of a surrealist painting which makes me really enjoy what I have created, as surrealist paintings have always been the root of my inspiration when creating my work, which is why I always opt for a more abstract outcome. I would love to use this as inspiration to start painting again, or even to recreate this in the form of a digital illustration! The eyes seemly being a part of both the foreground and the background with a heavy focus as them as the main part of the image really makes it more successful. The two above it are really effective in my eyes, I used an image of me looking away from the camera, as so to hide my facial expression and therefore blur the potential narrative of the image, this in combination with the almost tv static like glitched affect, as well as a mirroring affect led to a beautiful, dreamlike and surreal composition. The glitched effect works much better here than in the images inspired by hate zine, this was potentially as I spent more time refining these, utilising colour palettes and seeing what worked well in a composition, the glitch here was more reminiscent of something you would see on an old TV screen, yet the glitch in the Hate Zine images were more reminiscent of something you could make easily on an app, which once again there is nothing wrong with if it is done well but mine had looked quite rushed. Therefore, I will keep this in mind when making collages or digitally manipulating images for the future.

XXXXXXXXXXX

COLLAGE EDITS – PART 1 – WEEK 7

These digital collages were created using my tactile collages which were then transformed using Adobe Photoshop. Experimenting with filters such as, colour halftone, twirl, shear, lens blurs, colour burning, layering more imagery in different layer, and playing around with how the layers interact with each other; how the pictures interact and what the positioning/order is like. The first image is successful for me as the simple colour palette featuring only three colours, made my creating a trio tone document, was effective and something I will be incorporating into my work further. This is because the original image has a lot of elements going on, a lot of distorted and hidden imagery which could be seen as quite chaotic, is leveled out and brought together effectively by reducing the colour palette used so the lines, tones and shapes complement each other and have some sort of cohesive element to them while the actual details stay disordered and jumbled. Using neon was actually inspired by my previous successful collages of the imagery found in Spare Rib Magazine, which itself uses quite a lot of highly saturated colours within designs however would only feature one or two bright colours at a time, which is how I chose to organise my colours in this image, for balance. The image underneath takes the imagery of the head and doubles it, making it more prominent and therefore defining it more than it had possibly been seen previously. Filling in the background with the content aware button allowed the empty space white background, which looked quite boring, and as if I had just used a lasso tool to cut and paste a shape, it blends the foreground edges nicely into the background; creating a background that is slightly blurry and more aware that it is used to compliment something that is the focus, and not be the focus itself.

On the least successful side, the 4th collage with the slightly more intense and brighter purple with the yellow/green shade as a secondary colour was not as effective for me personally. I found that this one had too many different layers which were not as complimentary as the others. The colours don’t blend well and complement each other, they’re more of a separate focus than tying in with the image, the original collage imagery is lost to the background and bold colours placed on top, as well as the fact that the layout means that there isn’t one main focus point or journey that our eyes can go through on the screen, everything seems to be placed with little thought. However, one thing that I do like about this image is that I s=feel as if the shapes of the persons face are highlighted, and also seems like if you were to look closely, that they’re emitting some type of aura, but this is only one interpretation that I have found personally, other people might not be able to see that as clearly. Meaning that in my work in the future I need to be clear not only who my audience are, but also what they want to see and how I would like them to see it as a creator.

Researching on topics such as body image in the media, certain women’s attitudes towards their own self-image, or the representation of other women as a consumer or observer had led me to start reading texts about different concepts in the surrounding themes so I could gain some different perspectives. My main idea for these tactile collages shown below, which I then digitally altered in Adobe Photoshop was to gain imagery from magazines of people’s faces or bodes and using techniques inspired by Nigel Henderson, who visually is very influential within my current work, I took the pictures and ripped them up, used the scrap pieces of tracing paper that I had from a different section of my sketchbook and placed them down so that they were distorted. Tracing paper was used as I enjoy finding scrap pieces of material or paper to use as backgrounds for my collage; I beeline that they add an interesting textural element to my work, as well as enforcing my ideas of being sustainable and wasting less material from previous art projects/sketchbook pages/failed works. Using techniques inspired by Nigel Henderson was a decision made by me as I found his work visually intriguing; taking something that already exists or has been made and altering it slightly by ripping it and transforming it into a new composition complimented my ideas of researching into the body and self image, as I feel this technique makes the image reflect the slightly darker undertone of the concept the use of distortion; as well as visualising the abstract narrative I am trying to present.

This next collage looks far more effective once scanned in rather than having the original copy due to the messiness of the glue and lines on the paper resulting in the original looking less professional, the image is less clear to see and the paper is a bit worn but not in a way which ties the piece together, it makes it look like it has not been looked after, although once scanned in, I have used levels on Adobe Photoshop to improve the line quality and add more whiteness to the image as opposed to the off-white yellow tone of a sketchbook which normally looks nice with a scanned in sketchbook page, but instead made mine look more like a scarp piece of paper. I was using the illustration over the top that I didn’t like to create a new type of composition similar to the first one, with inspirations from Nigel Henderson, as I believe that the first collage was really successful.

The images shown below are taken from using these collages I have just made and scanning them in a way which manipulates them even further, adds a movement and character to the piece as the lines are all being pulled in a certain direction or spread across the page, using the background in a clever way as everything not part of the piece is left black from the scanner.

I have used this technique before, and also wanted to incorporate more of Nigel Henderson’s technique within my work by utilising my scanner to create more imagery from one original starting point. This also further my skills of experimentation as I set out to make these collages but wanted to go back on them and rework into them using media like scanners, Adobe Photoshop and editing software to see what works well and what does not work well to change and alter these images and keep all of my research and experimentation active and constantly developing.

MOODBOARDS / COLLAGE – HATE ZINE

HATE ZINE

As I created some collages / mood boards inspired by the concepts surrounding Spare Rib magazine, I thought it would be wise to produce some imagery relating to Haze Zine. These three digital manipulation collages all contain imagery featured in Hate, I used Adobe Photoshop for all of these, playing around with filters, effects, image layering with other filters, colour burning etc. The imagery made within Hate is very simple photography, close up images, out of context imagery, provocative, slightly surreal and dynamic which I wanted to bring though and compliment my own style of creating work in line with what Hate produces. I felt as if I had done this effectively through the collages through the use of contrast colours, such as the inverted filter in the first image, highlighting one key image which is emphasised in my second collage which features a repeat of the mouth which is the focal point of the original imagery, as well as utilising the whole page without leaving white space which is especially shown in the third image with the image being distorted and placed all of the image; there isn’t one immediate focal point, you have no choice but to initially look at the image as a whole.

I don’t love these images but I don’t hate them either, this is potentially due to the fact that I feel as if they look quite amateur, something that looks like it has been done on a phone app (which there is nothing wrong with if it’s the style that i am looking for, although it’s not). Which could be a fault with the overuse of the inverted filter, which is commonly used on glitch style photo editing apps as well as this in conjunction with the repetition of the images as if I was using a glitch app. Also the lack of typography in the first two make the collage lack substance yet the typography in the last image felt unneeded, under appreciated as well as blending in with the background which proves that I need to enhance my technical knowledge on graphic design elements such as typography, layouts, shapes and fonts as all of these collages lack some type of substance and character. This is even highlighted in the colour palette used, all of these colours are quite dull and dont compliment each other, highlight key colours and good complimentary colours like they should do due to the lack of thought regarding the colours I ended up using. I feel as if they don’t work together as a set due to the fact that nothing stands out individually in these images to set them apart from each other slightly, they could blur into one which is not what i am after.

On a second inspection, the last image, which was my least favourite, has at least given me some type of inspiration for the future. I found that looking at this image reminded me of projection mapping and therefore now I either want to get a cheap projector and experiment with something like projection mapping, DIY a method my own way using tutorials online, as I am sure this is a technique which people have trailed out manually themselves, or use this app which I had seen advertised previously which makes an image look like it has had a projection of anything you can customise over the top, which could be a useful tool in creating some abstract imagery for this task.

Creating some more digital imagery manipulations could help me improve my skills as I feel as if I have a long way to go in terms of refining my practice to my own style. However I am enjoying using Adobe Photoshop to freely create endless outcomes and be able to alter them slightly with all the different buttons and affects, as playing around with these is improving my technique.

MOODBOARDS / COLLAGE – SPARE RIB MAGAZINE

SPARE RIB

In a contrast to my previous collages, I felt that in order to experiment properly when doing collages, I needed to utilise different types of media to trial out what elements work for me, especially as I enjoy working both tactile and digitally, using one to influence the other, scanning in handmade collages and digitally altering them etc. therefore felt it was appropriate to make some digital collages.

These collages contain imagery found from Spare Rib magazine, a point of research I discovered quite early that influenced my decision to research further into the different types of complex representations and attitudes towards feminism. My aim for these collages was to create imagery from a visually older source, and contrast more current digital designs and imagery to not only juxtapose them together, but allow them to compliment each other to create a cohesive design. This approach also slightly reminds me of the beginnings of my sketchbook; using Pinterest as a source to collect visually stimulating imagery, and discovering that a big key influence for me was the third moodboard I made, a cross between vintage aesthetics and ideas of nostalgia contrasted with bold prints and colour blocking to create a hybrid of the two styles, as it’s quite unique it almost creates a futuristic aesthetic. I felt it was wise to gain imagery from a source that is relevant to my research and create appropriate visuals from the pictures.

For the first image I used Canva to create the simple photograph collage in the background with the four images in film filters. The use of the film filters was to bring back the old aesthetic to show the magazine’s age and therefore influence, as it is still being referenced today, while having a more contemporary overall graphic style. The illustration was found from one of the magazines, expanded in size and placed in a corner to highlight some white space so the images had space to be perceived correctly while also interacting with the other elements on the pages as well. The text comes from the magazine as was repeated to distort the image in a more subtle way. Overall, I feel like the image works cohesively with all the a variety of elements; text, filters, imagery and illustrations, everything is balanced our fairly. In terms of improvement, each image is the same size (the block of text is the size size as the illustration which is not much smaller than the images put together) and therefore I could have played around with sizing more, a smaller more repetitive text could have emphasised the distorted nature i wanted to bring into the image and larger pictures could have allowed someone to have viewed this image and place extra focus on the pictures, which are quite detailed in themselves and could be enhanced slightly as they could be lost to the image as a whole.

This second image is my favourite one, due to the fact that the images are all boarded together and therefore interact with each other more, it feels like they’re showing different clips in a movie as all the images are candid as well, this has taught me to focus more on the actual images I select to collage with and how they can interact with each other and influence each other’s narratives once placed within a collage. I enjoy using the filters on Photoshop to create effects like the swirl in the bottom right image; the fact that the swirl is only in that place and not the whole image allows the other people to not become distorted or lost in the background but creates a surreal and sinister tone to the picture as a whole. The text was placed to the side, so that the viewer see’s it first as the yellow would stand out against the white background but also interacts with the image as it’s placed on top and the filter adds a sense of motion, especially where the bottom right image mirrors the distortion of the bottom right part of the text. The very contemporary graphic style paired with the vintage effect of using a colour halftone enhances my original goals to tie the two styles together.

The last image is my last favourite image, this is because i feel as if the combination between the images used and the text makes it seem like either something for a pre teen magazine or a series advert that would be shown in a doctors room. I believe this because the text is reminiscent of advertising texts; similar to helvetica which is one of the most used fonts currently), when paired as a quote, could seem like its referencing something that relates to advert or review. Also due to the fact that the older style text was the most effective part of the second collage and this text used here is very modern and doesn’t work with the imagery. The pictures used were all close up of women which I thought would look nice stylistically however once all paired together looks overly serious and dark when it was meant to be more lighthearted, reminiscent of the first two styles. However, I do feel like the typography in the background is a successful design overall, but perhaps not in relation to the overall image. Also the layout in this collage is quite static compared to the other two, as the focus is more narrowed into straighter lines horizontally at the top and bottom which makes the imagery focused more into one block rather than using white space around the page. The movement of the typography on its own is effective since I used the shear tool, which allows the image to bend and leave the page and carry on as if it’s a large cut ouff repeat pattern that could be distorted.