Process and Production - Self portrait poster-zine

In todays process and production with Nick, the task was to create another zine, however this time we would be using ourselves as the content, and experimenting with different processes as we worked through the activities. 

The zine was created using a A2 piece of card, and folded 3 times to create 5 separate work areas that we would utilise, with the work area becoming larger as you unfold it. I thought this was a good way to exhibit work as all of the space in the zine was utilised. 

For the front cover (A5) we were given an image of our student ID picture which we had to edit. I placed triangles over the eyes and added a strip at the top of the page. The back page was a line drawing of how we perceive ourselves. I added the rounded eyes, kind of like an emoticon, looking to the side in order to represent a bit of cheekiness and humour as this is how I am with friends. 

For the third page (A4) we were to put our faces into the scanner and press them down to create the look of pushing up against glass. This created a cool looking image and was strange to see yourself in that way.

The task for the next page (A3) was to use emoticons as a collage material to create yourself. I firstly drew with pencil an outline to use as a template and then cut out the emoticons with a craft knife and stock them down. I used the Poo emoticon for the hair, the thinking emoticon for the pupils and mouth, and the happy crying emoticon for the eyes. 

Finally for the last page of the zine (A2) we were given the task to create a pop art piece. We were provided with different weights of dots on a page to work with. I penciled out a template to work off and cut the pieces of dotted paper to the correct size and shape. Creating a checker board pattern as there background. I am happy with the way the pop art page turned out. It is my favourite of them all.

I enjoyed this workshop as it allowed me to experiment with different manual techniques, and incorporate them into an interesting format. The one that I enjoyed the most was the pop art piece. I think that I will use this type of graphic in one of my future pieces. 

CV and Intellectual Property Rights

In todays lecture with Peter we looked at CV's as well as intellectual property rights. This helped me to gain a better insight into what my work is worth and what I am worth as an designer.

Curriculum Vitae

Understand how it is read:

Name and contact 

Your name
Address
Telephone (Personal Mobile)
Email (Uni and personal)
Webpage (Online portfolio)

Age
DoB
Status (if single put this on, if not, don't)


Education 

Most recent first:

University of huddersfield Graphic Design and Animation BA Hons (Expected graduation date)

College etc. NO GRADES, Just say you have the qualifications. Been to University, that is enough. No list. GCSE's for example - GCSE's including maths and english etc.

Skills  - Computer literacy (Program Specific)
           - Driving licence (Get driving lessons)

Work experience 

Date - Organisation - Job
Doesnt matter what the work is.

(Revolution,
 Function room
 Park
 Whitehall Country Club)

Most recent first. Showing you have a work ethic.


Hobbies - interests 

Be very brief - This is to show you have a life. Keep aspects back for further discussion. If you ask questions, you want to eloborate and chat aboiut what you have done.

Aspect of head screwed on, banterous etc. 2 or 3 things i enjoy doing. Make sure its real.

Referees (Not reference - its people who could give you a reference)

Name
Company
Position
Address
Telephone
Email

Work Reference, Academic.

Be creative in how you approach people.


I.P. - Intellectual Property 
I.P.R. - Intellectual Property Rights

Patents: Theses must be NEW
               HOW things work
               HOW they are made
               TECHNICAL contribution

Copyright 
Automatic Production covering anything written or preformed.

Design right 

The way an object looks.
Similar to copyright, it is automatic, and similarity, the key issue is proved or originality.

Pre paten registration - £25
Design right registration - £50
Copyright registration -  £50


(1) Client ________________ You (Designer)
                                                  Potential commissioned work

(2)You assess if you can do it   ______ (Ability, Time, Scope/size, Resources, Cost)

(3) Client ____Agree Terms____ You (Designer)
                Cost, Payment, Deadlines, Brief details, Technical file, etc)

(4) Client ___Liaise with client____ You (Designer)
               Undertake work  -  Deadlines, Project management, Booking resources etc.

(5) Client _____ Deliver work ______Complete work.

(6) _________ Receive Receipt

(7) Send Invoice __________

(8) _________ Payment made

Liase with client - 

Keeping client engaged, the more the client thinks the ideas are theirs. Make milestones to show the client. make them sign off on work before you do too much and they go back on it. Recorded delivery and get receipt at that point.

Invoicing - Be prompt. Ensure you put all data on the invoice.
Order Number
Client Contact (Name of person)
Date of Commission
Date of Delivery

Studio project 2 - Roald Dahl Literary Estate- Character selection

I looked into some fantastical creatures that I could Illustrate. These included the BFG, Oompa Lumpa’s and the insects out of James and the giant peach. Out of these, I decided that going for the BFG. This is because it is seen as such a classic, and has recently made a comeback to the big screen which was an absolutely amazing film in my opinion. I think it is better to continue with the BFG as the younger generation of today will more likely know about the story because of the new film.

Out of the children I decided to go with James Henry Trotter as it was one of my favourite books as a child and I think that a really nice illustration can be produced with the peach in the background. I originally thought that charlie bucket would have been a good choice, however after picking the BFG because it is so well known, i thought that introducing a character that may not be as well known to those who have never been introduced to the Roald Dahl series would be a good way to peek the interest of perspective readers. 

Finally for the villain i decided to go with Miss Trunchbull, the headmistress from Matilda. I think that the plump, terrifying character will work well with the style that I intend to go down. 

Process and Production - Working with hand-drawn images, textures, loops and boils

In todays Process and Production with Sara, we looked at another technique within after effect, however this time round, we were to incorporate some hand drawn aspects into the animation. The technique we would be learning is called boiling. It looks as if the image is boiling over like water. This effect is produced through the use of images that are slightly different added to After Effects in an image sequence.

I decided to draw there variations of the same tree. After doing this, took the images into photoshop, changing the levels and curves. This was to make the black blacker and the white whiter, thus making the lines I had drawn stand out more off the page. This also created a cleaner look to the image, which would come in handy when multiplying the finished result later on in after effects.

After the images had been edited in photoshop, I saved each as a JPEG named 001, 002 and 003. It is crucial that you name the files in this way, as this is how After Effects can pick up the order of the sequence. I then added these three files to after effects though importing them as multiple files, however changing the options to image sequence.

Once the image sequence has been added, I then right clicked the layer in the project window and selected interpret layer. I then changed the loop from 0 to 100 which was exactly 10 seconds which matched the composition.

I then created a mask over the tree and generated a stroke. I then made the stroke large enough to cover the moving lines and keyframes the end option to make the path move. I selected reveal original image. This made the image I had drawn appear as the mask moves over it.

I then added a background to the scene, making sure that the line drawings where on multiply. This is the final product.

Boiling from Jack Pomfret on Vimeo.

It was an interesting workshop, and a very useful technique to know how to do. I may incorporate something like this into one of my future projects. I believe that if a lot of time is put into this technique it could create some excellent results.

Studio Project 2 - Roald Dahl Literary Estate

Illustrations based on the original characters out of my favourite Roald Dahl books from childhood. The illustrations must look like they are part of a series.

After the recent rebrand of Roald Dahl literary estate, where his works which has created a common bond between many books, films, musicals and even digital apps, the way they want to be perceived is;

Masters - of invention

Makers - of mischief

Champions - of good

My challenge will be to illustrate a series of iconic scenes from Roald Dahl's incentives. None of the illustrations should be boring/safe. Any style is welcome.

The target audience is 5-11 year olds both boys and girls. Maybe they aren’t fans of Roald Dahl fans however they may become so after getting into the series because of the new rebrand and illustrations.

I have the option to illustrate between 1-3 scenes, however if i move forward with this brief, i will do three, each based on an individual character, however create them all in the same style, therefore you would know it’s part of the same series. I need to illustrate on child character, one villain and one fantastical creature.

I like the idea of illustrating characters and scenes in my own style as illustration is something that my work has been veering towards for a while. I would identify myself more as an illustrator more than anything else. I think that this brief could be a very exciting prospect.

Studio Project 2 - Orchard Pig Live Brief

I chose to look into the brief Orchard Pig, as the "craft beer" like cider is an interesting concept and a good USP to base a concept on.

The idea behind this brief is to use social media to deliver Orchard Pig as the only Craft Cider. (Becoming digitally notorious P.I.G.)

The fact that Orchard Pig is the only “craft beer” like cider on the market gives it a USP that needs to be amplified in order to make this fact known and admired by perspective drinkers.

My challenge would be to inspire and engage customers with the Orchard Pig brand, behaviours and what it stands for, digitally.

The idea would have to work across multiple channels, however i can focus on social media outputs that are used at the moment by Orchard Pig, or introduce new social media outputs running alongside what is alreading being used if i wish.

Principles -

• “Stay rooted”
• Simplicity
• Fun
• All about cider

Values -

• Bold (be different)
• Cider (All about cider)
• Rooted in summerset (proud of where they are from)
• Mischievous (catalyst for fun)
• Simple (brand and product)
• Inclusive (for anyone and everyone)

Studio Project 2 - RSA Live brief 12 "More than a pill"

Brief

I would be taking part in a competition based on a series of videos and animations that allows the exploration of new ideas and content from the RSA “think and do tank” that combines practical experimentation with rigorous research to find new solutions to social challenges.

Out of the two audio files that were provided, i prefered the first one “more than a pill”. This was down to the voice having a softer feel than the “ageism” audio file, and the transcript in my opinion worked better with my ideas. The audio file has been taken from RSA Action Research Centre’s “Health and social movement” program of work with NHS England.

In order to do well with this brief, I will need to meet the entry requirements. Entries will be judged according to the innovative ways the audio file is interpreted, as well as technical skill which will be taken into consideration. Its is the originality and creativity of the concept however, that will be taken into account the most.

The live brief is exciting, as my work will have the chance to be viewed by thousands of intelligent, engaged and passionate RSA followers worldwide alongside the RSA Animates, RSA shorts and RSA Insights.

Process and Production - Physical type posters

In this process and production workshop with Nick, the task was to use typefaces that were provided to us (Courier New, Times new roman and Gill sans) and cut them out to create posters. This was a lot like aides previous workshop, however this would be taking a more physical method of creating the final piece . 

"Lets go dip it low then you bring it up slow"

This was one of the sentences provided. I wanted to try to merge together some of the words with lines moving down the page in the typeface Gill Sans. I attempted this as an experiment and if being honest, was not entirely happy with the final outcome. In my opinion this particular piece looks crowded near the bottom and the negative space has not been used very well. 

After the first poster did not turn out as well as I had hoped, I moved onto a second poster using the typeface Courier New and have better luck. I chose to use the sentence "I'm missing more than just your body". As the concept was about missing something, I wanted to create a representation of this through the placement of the type on the page. I thought the best way to conceptually incorporate this into the piece would be to miss out some letters from the words with it still being readable, therefore I wrote the sentence without using any of the vowels. I am happier with this poster design than the previous, and like the idea of now vowels.

Overall this workshop was okay. I am a bit disappointed with the first final piece, however am happier with the second I have created. It was interesting to create these typographic posters physically after creating some digitally in a previous workshop.

Business Lecture - Economics

We begun the lecture speaking the simple theory of sales and demand. We talked about the fluctuation of the demand line which can be described as elastic or inelastic. When it comes to supply, the higher the price the less people want to supply it and the cheaper the price the more people want to. This is opposite of the demand line in normal circumstances.

HOWEVER

- Distortion of markets occur
- Taxes/ levies
- Interest rates
- Nature of product
- nature of markets
- Global / International markets

All if these things can effect / distort demand.


Government use taxes / suty to raise money to spend on what is needed;

- Police
- NHS
- Armed forces
- School System etc.


Tax up (Insert diagram from powerpoint)

Interest rates are also important to the management of an economy. The interest rate is the cost of borrowing money. Government also have to borrow money therefore have interest rates.

Interest rate increase - Cost of money up. - return on investment - better savings return.

Corporate - cost of running rises - Productivity increases?

Personal - increase in cost of borrowing reduce expenditure - pay increase demand? Reduced demand - reduction in inflation.

US Issues Economics (Diagram) 

Money - a medium for smoothing trade in all things. A measurement method of value.

Money has several different definitions -
1. Cash you have
2. The cash you have + the cash you can get (e.g. from savings)
3. The cash you have + the cash you can get + loan credit
4. Loan credit (short term) Long term

Some basics -

Cost - what you have to give, to get something you want now normally described in a monetary value.

Price - What an item is actually sold for

If you'e buying, cost = price

Profit - The positive difference between cost and price

Loss -  the negative difference cost and price

Income -  Money coming in, may be cash or credit.

Expenditure - Often refered ro as spending, money going out.

Debt - How much money is owed TO you.
                                       or
           How much money you owe. Often regarded as negative element.

Credit - How much money beyond that which you have. you may use.



Variable costs - A cost that varies with output.

Fixed Costs - a cost that does not vary with output.

Example - The more t-shirts you have to buy - varies directly with production.
Business rates are fairly static - You pay them irrespective of sales.

A: Costs of running the business.
General costs the can not directly appointed to the client. E.g. heating, lighting, building repairs, management costs etc.

B: Costs of undertaking particular projects.
Specific costs that can be allocated directly to a client.
E.g. Product cost, design cost, etc.

Taxation issues -

Income tax bands:
£10,600 - £31,785               20%
£31,786 - £150,00               40%
£150,000 +                          45%


                               

           

Process and Production - Geometric Shape Animation

The first thing that i experimented with was shape morphing. I had never done this before on after effects, so i was excited to learn some new skills. I did this by changing the shapes into bezier paths, which enabled me to take keyframes from different shapes and add them after another shapes path in the timeline. This resulted in the shape morphing from one shape into another.

I decided to have my initials in the middle of one of the frames as this allowed me to have a nice centre point for the boxes to explode out of. 

I then looked into covering type with a shape in order to create the effect that the line made the text appear. I liked this effect and think it fits well with the animation. I used an "alpha TrkMat" on the shape in order to create this mask like effect on the rectangle that covers the type. 

Geometric Animation from Jack Pomfret on Vimeo.

This is the final piece I created using the different experimental methods. I added a soundtrack from freemusicarchive.org. 

Overall i am happy with the way this piece turned out. I learnt some new techniques in adobe after effects and am keen to get a more in depth knowledge of this powerful program and improve my motion skills more.

Business Lecture - Buyer behaviour and Business issues

We started the lecture by looking at buyer behaviour and the steps that are taken before a purchase. This starts buy the customer recognising they need something and then searching for something that meets the criteria of what they are looking for. They will then carry out a pre-purchase evaluation which is when they compare a product to another product that they already have experience with. The next stage is the purchase. You would think that after the purchase, this would be the end of the process, however the next step is consumption where they will have either a good or bad experience. Finally a post-purchase evaluation can be carried out where they will decide if the product was good, okay, try and justify the purchase and would buy again, or in bad instances, bad or vile.  

Understanding communication and promotion:

If you have a good understanding of who you are talking to, you can design based on what they would like. 

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs:

5. Self-Actualisation - Inflict personal values on others... 
4. Esteem and Status - A form of respect, power and worth
3. Beloningness - Trying to get a relationship, friends, a 'home', sex...
2. Safety - Gain shelter and defence.
1. Physiological - Need food and water.

It is important to think where people are situated on this hierarchy in order to design. You would always need stages 1 and 2 if you wanted to achieve stage 3 and 3 to achieve 4 etc. 

Pareto principle:

This is a principle that olds am 80:20 rule. This means that only 20% of people want the stress of making decisions. This results in 20% of people owning 80% of wealth and 80% of people owning 20% of wealth.

This is shown through the diagram. A small number of businesses all own multiple smaller ones. Even though this is not plain to see usually, it is happening. And the 80:20 principle is evidenced.

Communication Issues.

Sender > Message > Encode > Transmit > Decode > Receive

We spoke about messages being encoded and how this can effect how someone interprets the message we are sending. When sending a message there is often some disruption half way through which is referred to as noise or interference. In order to make sure the message is perceived clearly, a good thing to do is send it in multiple different forms therefore if one encryption does not make it past the interference, then another might and the message will be understood. If the message is received and understood, it will be accepted or rejected. 

Growing up - mental and physical alterations:

We looked at how as we grow up, the way we think changes. And this is down to society and how we get used to the social norms and conventions of the world we live in. As a baby through to 14, we learn through experimentation. However as we get older, 14-30, our social independence increases. This social independence increases the most we we become old as the physical decay that we suffer makes us rely on society in order for us to have the first 2 stages of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and in good cases, stage 3. 

Light and dark colour perception:

Peter went on to talk bout light and dark colour perception. This made me think about the way in which i design, and how i should always think about what environment the design will be situated and when people will see it. For example, if the design is going to be seen at night, it is important to think about the lighting, as the colours can be lost to the naked eye when no light is reflecting off them. The digram is an excellent indicator of this. 

Process and Production - Zine

In this session of process and production with Nick, our task was to create an single paper 8 page zine. A zine is a cheaply made, cheaply priced publication, often in black and white, which is mass-produced via a photocopier They are commonly known to be used for people making small publications based on a tv show or game as a fanzine.

We were given 8 words to illustrate in a zine. These where:
- Emoticon
- Off
- Share
- Live
- Dream
- Minimise
- Like
- Update

Out if all of the pages that I created, I have to say that my favourites are the emoticon page as well as the share page. I enjoyed creating the zine as it was nice to get off the computer and do something hand made. 

Process and Production - Typesetting

For the first Process and Production with Aiden Nolan,we looked at type setting.

This began by looking at the basic layout of typography. We have been taught this before, looking at the tails, defenders and ascenders etc. However it was a nice recap, and got me thinking about typography as an actual design and not just text.


Kerning

We then moved onto kerning. Kerning is the process of altering the space between each individual characters within a word. As you can see below er experimented with the words Windows and Claws. I found that kerning with the word "claws" was harder as the "A" and the "W" can make it hard to do by eye.

Tracking

After kerning we moved onto tracking which is the process of a;tiring the spacing of a whole word, or a line of text. 

We were asked to experiment on the words Jupiter and Jawwal. This was my experiments shown above. It is a lot easier using tracking as it is done automatically to look even. However kerning is essential in some instances where the letter forms do not look right on the eye, even if they are numerically correct. 

Leading 

We the experimented with leading which allows the user to create different densities in the text. This can be a good way to help fill a block of text, or make the words easier to read. 

This was my experimentation with leading. As you can see, there are different densities throughout the block of paragraphs. This is easy tool to use, and can make all the difference when designing a publication. 

Cropping

We then looked at cropping. Type does not always have to be concerned with legibility and communication, you can use it for decoration, pattern, texture and many creative opportunities. I experimented with this concept and this is what the result was:

Choosing suitable typefaces

Choosing the correct typeface for a word can mean all the difference between good and bad design. I experimented with this in the session. These are some examples:

Dynamic Type 

The next task we had was to make the word represent itself. These are some of the things i came up with: 

Overall I enjoyed the session. My favourite part was the last task as this let me get more creative. However I believe that the start of the workshop was the most important. Type setting and presentation is very important in design and looking at kerning, tracking, leading and cropping is an essential in order to improve as a designer and is something i will be thinking about in my projects. 

Cybernetics: Research 6 (Typeface)

Typeface: 

Memphis:

I saw this font through a an email promoting Revolution Bars Plc, and liked what I saw. I used the website "Whatthefont.com" in order to find out what the font was. It turned out to be Memphis. I am going to use this font for headers. I chose this particular typeface because of the block printed style that i am going with. I think the sharp corners and the blocky style will work very well with this visual. 

Cybernetics: Research 5 (Fold MockUp)

I decided to create a small mockup of the folded booklet in order to get a sense of where each page will be situated when it is folded, as well as how i needed to set out the design work in order for the booklet to be printed correctly. 

The inside of the booklet

The inside will just be designed as one long piece of art. I added the letters in order to see where the other panels would be when folded.

This is how it will be folded

After folding the mockup, i realised that the D panel on the back would be situated next to the C panel on the front. This made me think about what design I would put on this panel. 

The main reason for the mockup was to see where the panels where situated on the back. It became clear that i would have to design the back from right to left instead of left to right. 

I am glad that i created the mock up as it has helped to get a clearer idea of how to layout the design. 

Cybernetics: Research 4 (Feedback 2)

New process idea:

When looking into the facts about technology and the effects on children, it came to the conclusion that instead of creating the the net based print that would have shown the decisions made by a person and how technology effects those decisions, i have now decided to go down another route.

I am now going to create a type of timeline that will outline the pros/cons and looking at a neural aspect of how technology is effecting people. This will be presented on a roll fold booklet, as i think this will give me a nice area to work on, allowing me to utilise the full work area and create some nice layout solutions.

Roll Fold Dimensions

Design idea:

In order to make the visual look more aesthetically pleasing to the eye, my intention is to create a digital version of wood block printing. This, with a vintage texture and a selected colour pallet in my opinion will allow me to create a beautiful visual, which will help me outline my concept in a visual way. 

Wood Block Effect

Texture

Jonny's Feedback:

— Got a few good starting points, you need to really think about your pro/against/neutral stance on social medias effect on our idea of social reality vs digital social network. You've talked today about the scary prospect of digital/social taking over more and more of our lives, the next thing you need to consider is whether this is good or bad and whether this affects people differently. Does living in a virtual social network—that may appear fake to outsiders—outweigh a more conventional network like family meals etc. Should we encourage children to embrace an even faster social network and communication network, or discourage them (either way they will probably opt in). Should we be attempting to speed up ahead of the curve or continue to exist in an outdate mode.

Network Ego
Your ego, disseminated through a network – virtual and real. What is being said and what is being hidden as we endlessly curate and control the media perimeters of our lives. How has the acceleration and integration of social media affected the perception of ourselves and our egos? 

The question the piece will make the person ask themselves:

How does the network ego effect the self? 

Looking at the positives/negatives/neutral
positive - escapism.
negative - lost in virtual world - loosing grip of reality.

Cybernetics: Research 3 (Feedback 1)

Process Idea Generation 

From what we talked about in the lecture “WTF is the internet”; watching the video by Paul Pangaro made me think of the design process of humans. 

Cybernetics is basically steering in a way to get to a goal. All intelligent systems have this problem. Loop of acting, sensing, comparing. These properties make a system intelligent. Tech system have this property of self correct as do people! Cybernetics is the most powerful language of describing systems that have goals. 

Once seen the world through cybernetic lens, all things are cybernetic, looking at factors such as physical, technological, biological and social systems. All systems become part of this set of languages of action, sensing, comparing and understanding. This is part of intelligence as if you know what you want and you act in a way to achieve what you want thats the best definition of intelligence and what drives us as humans.

Proposal

A way in which to visualise a thought process to get to an end goal. Taking different paths with barriers. A folded document that can be folded in different ways in order to reach your goal, however the correct decisions need to be made to get there. If you take the wrong course, you go back and try something new in order to get to it. 

Would it be possible to bring in emotional responses Vs responses based on fact and statistics? A way of bringing in the difference between human and machine. Even though both have a design process, humans are fueled by emotion and hormones, where as machines are fueled by data. 

Feedback

I spoke to Jay about my idea and he said that the idea of the process of making the book is a good idea. However i needed to find something that it will be about. At the moment i only have a process and not a topic to actually base the book on. After this discussion, i decided that i wanted to look at how the development of technology has effected social change, and how people are different now in this generation compared to previous generations before us who did not grow up with technology. 

Cybernetics: Research 2 (Impacts)

Social medias impact on children careers:

Children are now on social media at a very young age, and the new generation do not know what it is like to grow up without technology. This could cause problems for them when looking for a job, as the things that they post on social media as they are growing up could be something that ruins their chance of getting the job. Something that children don't understand is that actions have consequences, and something they post may have a ripple effect. 

Social media impacts the way teens see themselves:

Teens are now sending snapchats instead of written notes, and now selfie is a well known term in our vocabulary. 20% of students say that social media makes them more confident compared to the negative effects that only 4% of students feel. However, this can still be a problem as teens don't realise that their identity is not based on what they post on Facebook/twitter. 

The evolution of the mobile device:

An example of how mobile devices have become integrated into family life is the new baby bouncy seat that fisher price released that has a holder for an ipad. This is so baby's can watch cartoons on the tablet, however this begs the question; will it come to the point where as these children grow up, they need technology in order to entertain themselves? A recent study has shown that mobile consumption has increased by 133% in the last year. 

Cybernetics: Research 1 (Starting Point)

Cybernetic Self 

I thought that the key words that we were given in the brief would be a good place to start in order to come up with a strong concept that i want to take forward to create an output. A loose term for cybernetics would be "control of any system using technology". 

Autopoiesis -  

Definition: This is the self-maintenance of an organised entity through its own internal processes. Consider your Autopoiesis your ‘self making’ — ‘self poetry’, your identity and its subsequent interactions with others. What defines you? And how does interaction with others affect that? Redefine the self portrait, the selfie.

Personal Understanding: When reading up on the meaning of autopoiesis, the thing that sticks out to me is the phrase "self making". From a human aspect, we could think of ourselves as a system that can reproduce with our offspring. This is the deepest interaction you can have, when making another life.

However, a baby is a clean slate. It is innocent to the world and the difficult issues that it faces. It is when the child is growing up that these ideologies are engrained into their mind. This could be about who they want to aspire to. Who they don't want to be like. If they choose a good path, or steer down a darker, alternate route. This is through interaction with others and in a way, what in the long term, defines you as a person. 

Socio-material -

Definition: Technologies are socio-material assemblages, an ensemble of people, materials, equipment, components, and institutions. The idea being that the technical is not reducible to the social, nor is the sociable reducible to the technical. How does the self — yourself — circulate in the socio-material world? Is it circulatory, or rhizomic?

Network Ego -

Definition: Your ego, disseminated through a network – virtual and real. What is being said and what is being hidden as we endlessly curate and control the media perimeters of our lives. How has the acceleration and integration of social media affected the perception of ourselves and our egos?

Foundational principles of cybernetics

Foundational principles of cybernetics from paul pangaro on Vimeo.

This video helped me a great deal to get an understanding of what cybernetics are. The main things that i took from Paul Pangaro's speech was that humans live in emotion (hormones and nerves) where as technology is different. It is a system that is not controlled by emotion, but by facts and statistics.

He stated "We must be social to identify with our identity through language"... "Being human is to be a autopoetic system engaged in interaction which gives us a degree of autonomy, a degree of dependence at the same time to which we have our own responsibilities".

Autonomy: Freedom from external control.

Seminar - Introduction

We were introduced to the new seminars with Polina by discussing the plan for this year in theory, and what everything will be worth. 

Here is some key information:

Theory blog (50%)

Essay/visual appendix (2500 words)(50%) This will be expected in November.

There will be a summative assessment in April which will be in the form of a 10 minute presentation. 

Polina asked us what we thought theory as practice was. My answer was "looking at different art in order to develop a deeper understanding of multi disciplinary work in the industry." This year of theory is about finding myself as an artist. I am not sure who i am, or what i want to do and why yet. This is something i hope to know throughout this year. 

Research

What do I want to research/investigate? The things that we should be asking our selves are as follows:

Why: Context/background and literature review - why do you want to investigate that topic?

How: This is looking at the approach/methodology. It is important to ask yourself how will you proceed with a critical investigation when looking into the subject.

What: This is the outcome/ results and conclusions. This is the point where I should ask myself what i have achieved, and if there is anything in relation to future plans.

Research leads to originality, therefore when carrying out research this year we should be trying to improve our skills. Last year was at foundation level. This was to get us used to research on a basic level. However this year, as a second year student, i am expected to improve as this is classed as the transformation stage. Year three is where professionalism should be achieved. This fits as i want to partake in a placement. For the final year of my studies we are expected to be at the point of independence and originality.

"I had a story to tell. There is a gap between what is possible and where vision is, and i've had to fill that gap. You don't invent technology to figure out what to do with it. You come up with an artistic problem, and then you invent the technology in order to accomplish it. So it's the opposite of what most people think it is, and any artist will tell you that. And art, at all levels, is just technology." - George Lucas 

From sticking to asking these questions as a designer when trying to understand a brief, it should help to develop some starting ideas that can be developed further after some intensive research. Research is an important tool. The more a designer understands what is required out of the brief, the better the outcome will be fore both the designer as well as the client.

Task

We were handed a sheet in the seminar with a case study on. I chose the case study "Whitney museum of american art."

What?
The museums graphic identity allowing the communication to the audience providing the important point of continuity for members, visitors, and the public during the transition of a new space. It should appeal to the present audience as well as a new one.

Why?
Embrace  the spirit of the museum whilst serving as a visual ambassador for the new building, presenting old to new.

How?
Talking to staff who have been there for years. This would allow the designer to get an inside opinion on what the new brand should be like. This could be done through distinctive and inventive graphic systems that literally respond to the art. The brand need to be something that represents the museums ever changing nature.

This task allowed me to put what we had learnt into practice.