In the seminar, we were instructed to create our own type. These are a few of the fonts I created. Looking back at what I created, I think I could have produced something more interesting if i had taken into account the use of the post it note itself. If I were to do it again, I would experiment with 3D type, created out of the post it note.
This is a short clip of the classes post it note letterforms at the front of the room.
From this lecture, i took away that convergence can be explained in a number of ways. These could be things such as multi disciplinary, inter disciplinary, cross disciplinary, synergy, integrated and finally hybrid. However i took away from this session that different creative practices can come together and work on a project in order to create something spectacular, drawing upon other peoples strengths.
This is something that really interests me, as i have a number of design ideas that i would love to create, however may not hold the correct skills in order to complete the design to an adequate standard. This could be asking someone from fine art to draw something that i may want to animate, or to ask someone from photography to take some high resolution photos that i may wasnt for a magazine or look book etc.
Flew said in 2009 that convergence is interlinking of computing and IT, communications networks and social media, however others such as Grant,Wilkinson argue in 2011 that convergence is the relationship between media forms, not a transition from old media to new.
In my opinion, i agree with Grant, as i still believe that both new practices and old can be used together in order to create something, and therefore it is not a transition away from older methods of creatives, however bringing together different methods and techniques in order to create something unique.
For the second drawing workshop with John, we focused on the interior of the creative arts building.
I went on the different floors of the building in order to get different points of view. The main aim was to get the perspective right. I believe that I did this, however I did struggle and I had to spend extra time after the session to catch up on the work.
Urbanized is a documentary directed by Gary Hustwit, a director, photographer, editor, producer and book publisher. It looks into urban design of cities, revealing the concept of everything being designed in a certain way for a reason. Throughout the documentary; economic, social and environmental forces are taken into account when looking at how urban design is being used to address technological changes as well as innovation in transportation.
One thing that stood out to me whilst watching the documentary was the power of urban design and how the use of the environment can be a strong advertising alternative. An example of this is Tidystreets.org. This was a campaign in Brighton, England. Its purpose was to create a more energy efficient street, which was done through the use of using templates and spraying the streets energy usage on the road outside the residents houses. After interviewing the residents, it had defiantly had a positive impact on their thinking towards saving energy.
Urbanized also demonstrated how perspective has a large influence on how people interpret design. An example of this is Brasilia. It has been designed as a simple and rational city, and is easily accessible via transport. However the designer did not look at Brasilia in a number of viewpoints, and as a result, this has created a city that is a nightmare to navigate on foot. I could speculate that the designer did not take into account the people of the city, and did not look at it from their perspective, and instead, only focused on the aesthetic look of the place and not the usability.
Another example of this is Jane Jacobs opposition to Robert Moses, in his plans to overhaul her neighbourhood, Greenwich Village, in order to implement a new express way. Moses did not take the perspective of neighbourhood into account. He is perceived as one of the master builders of the era, however in this particular case, he was very insensitive in his plans, and did not take into account the consequences of building the express way on the residents of Greenwich Village. This specific story made me realise that design can be interpreted in many different ways, by many different people. This may be down to their personal feelings or even historic heritage of the place, however whatever the reason, urban design is perceived differently dependent on what perspective it is being viewed.
I also made a start on designing aspects of the short 10 second clip that we will be designing on Adobe After Effects . I created this vector of House Lannister's sigil on illustrator. This is on a wide screen display in order to fit to the big screen when added to After Effects.
I am pleased with the way the lion and the stag turned out. I think the different layers add depth to the vectors, which makes them stand out. I used the catch phrases/ mottos of the houses, along with the houses name.
With these vectors, I took screenshots of different areas of the animals, in order to create different camera angles for the promo animation as shown below.
I am happy with the way the animation turned out, as it is my first time using the program. however, i do believe that i could improve the animation with a bit more practice of how to use After Effects.
For our first process and production session with John, the task was to go out around Huddersfield and draw the things that we saw, mainly focusing on line drawings, and looking at perspective. This included looking at the gothic quarter, as well as Primark and the market.
I found this task difficult, as drawing is not my strongest skill. The drawing of the building below, as you can see is not to the correct perspective and this is where i struggled to begin with. By the end of the session this was the only drawing that i was happy to show, even though it is not entirely correct.
In my own time, i worked on this drawing technique and believe i have made a massive improvement. The perspectives in the next two line drawings are a lot better than the first. It took me a few tries to get these correct, however i finally got there.
In the final drawing which i drew outside Primark, it made the task harder to incorporate people into the piece. As they were moving, i tried to remember what they had looked like roughly as they were stood somewhere, and then created a general shape of the person. I think that the end result looks ok.
Overall, i think that i have improved greatly from when i first attempted the task. However i still feel that drawing is a very weak point in my skills and could use considerable work.
When we were first given the brief on 'sense of place', Richard set us a
task to place two post it notes onto a board with our ideas of sense of place
written on them. This got me thinking a lot about what sense of place actually
was and what it meant to me.
I personally chose 'Family' as one of the things that reminded me of sense
of place because when I am at home with my family, this is where I feel most
comfortable. I also chose greenery and nature. This also reminds me of home as
it is full of moors and fields, and is also a comfort to me.
It was surprising how many people said similar things, and as well
progressed through the task, we started to put similar ideas next to each other
in order to create small clusters of data. This gave me an idea! As I looked at
the board, I realised that we we're mainly focusing on what was most similar,
however there was also very unique responses that I stared to take into
account. I think that something I will look at in the future is both the
differences and similarities of sense of place, based on variables of the
people giving information. This could include, gender, working class, and
location etc.
Overall the task was very helpful and informative. It also gave me the idea
to take an infographic approach, which I may pursue after my research has
concluded. However one thing that I believe could have been improved is
if people had to write one thing which made a good sense of place and one thing which made a bad sense of place. I think that this would have given a larger scope of information if directed in this way.
This is a video of the class placing the post it notes on the board.
In this workshop, we learned how to use the basic tools of InDesign, and focused on the use of a grid in design. Josef Müller-Brockmann is known for his use of grids in design, therefore was an artist that we used to practice with the tools on Adobe InDesign.
Original
Recreation
Original
Mid Creation
Recreation
I had only used indesign briefly before, and was therefore not very confident in using the program. However as I began to create the poster above, I realised that it is very much like Illustrator, as there are similar tools. This made the process of recreating the posters a lot easier, and my confidence with the use of indesign has improved. I am happy with the way the first poster turned out as I think that it is similar to the original.
The second poster also went well, and I believe that it is similar to the original with my own twist. In order to create this piece, I used rectangles and lines, however the way in which I placed them on the page when originally creating the piece was vertical and horizontal. I added the angle to the design after the different aspects had been placed.
I enjoyed creating these pieces, as I am a fan of Josef Müller-Brockmann, and think that his work is interesting. I intend to research more into him as an artist and may use him in future for inspiration on projects. I believe that the session went well in terms of using InDesign, and how to create a piece with the use of a grid. However personally, I would rather design with my creative eye than to a grid, as in my opinion the grid can restrict where things are placed in a design resulting in the final product being ridged and not as aesthetically pleasing as it could have been if the grid had not been used. For this specific exercise however, the grids worked well.
