Finals Backup (animations don't work - just a backup)

Evaluation and Presentation Boards

Evaluation:

Initially, I wanted to spend the module focusing on poster briefs. I enjoyed the first one but I didn't do any more because I wanted my portfolio to show diversity. I think I was successful in applying my work to different contexts and reaching different audiences. However, I am worried that it is too social issue based. I need some more branding work, especially if I am going to send it to advertising agencies. I also set myself the goals of using bright colours and only information essential to concept communication. Using limited colour was an initial limitation to help me apply colour but it ended up being how I liked to work. I also discovered that only using essential information to concept communication doesn't work in every context. Sometimes more information is required to add narrative or mood i.e. in my polar bear series.

My favourite pieces from this module were my animated images because I enjoyed making them the most. I think moving image works so well alongside my simple illustrations because it allows me to add mood just through the way things move and sound. I also like the element of surprise that it brings.

I had a few recurring struggles throughout this module but the biggest one was time management. A big turning point was in a tutorial with Ben in March, when I suddenly realized just how little work I had. I had spent too long prioritizing my t-shirt brand and tweaking images rather than moving on. It was after this point that I got fully engrossed in making images, creating my most successful and refined portfolio pieces. It was a good point to have this reflection because I was able to look back at my portfolio and see what was missing. In this case it was an ability to developed compositions, to work with narrative and to target a specific audience.

Another recurring struggle was that I kept thinking I had run out of ideas while creating series work (ie. fake news series), when I hadn't. I was getting too engrossed in the topics and not reflecting enough. This is also why I struggled with simplifying my ideas and kept finding that people didn't understand them. Discussing my ideas with people who had no knowledge of the topics I was illustrating was my most useful tool for refinement.

I have spent the last month thinking about how I can use illustration to educate young people about fast fashion and encourage them to change their consumer behaviours. I have thought a lot about how best to grab their attention on Instagram with colour/ bold imagery;  how I can draw them in and make it relatable through character and comedy and how I can keep their focus with moving image. But people still aren't listening. We have made every effort to make our t-shirts ethical/ sustainable but people still aren't buying them for this reason. I want to create an illustration that transcends image making and uses a real space to capture people's attention. Through my explorations of the Value Action Gap I’ve found that the only way to get people to act is by giving them a personal incentive. At the moment when people share our brand it feels like they are doing us a favour.  I want people to empower themselves and others through involving them rather than telling them things through image (this is why Extinction Rebellion worked so well). One ridiculous idea that we had was to just roll out a red carpet on Briggate and host a fashions show.

For the final show I would like to present my t-shirts from COP alongside a video of this event (if I've done it before then). I am also going to create two posters:1. will describe the current state of the fast fashion industry (with visual metaphor) and 2. what we are doing about it (like an info-graphic). I think having the two together will help people to understand what we are doing through comparison.

Last year the thought of leaving Uni terrified me but I finally feel ready. I am excited to start applying for jobs and focusing on my brand. I am feeling inspired by our brand launch and all of the amazing artists I've worked with through it. My only concern is that when I am no longer in this hub, my inspiration might fade. I think the key is to not take time off but to put all my energy into my work.

Reflection/ 7x7 4

Fast Fashion Arcade:

To me, my biggest success this year was my fast fashion arcade because it represents me as a creative so well. It is the brief I most enjoyed and it is exactly the sort of work I want to be creating in the future. I've been doing it for 2 months and it has always been my refuge from other briefs I've been struggling with. I enjoyed having a brief that was aesthetically open but very targeted - I had to explain our brand mission to 16-25 year olds in a way that they would enjoy and understand. I think that I was successful in doing this, creating something that is interactive, quirky and fun - this is exactly how we want to communicate our brand opinion. However, the animation part was very, very time consuming. 

Red/ Blue Fast Fashion Images:

Initially, I thought I had exhausted fast fashion as a topic. However, when I came back to it I had so many ideas. Generally, throughout the briefs I've found that the third in a series is always the weakest because I’ve been looking at it for too long and feel like I've run out of ideas. However, I've seen that when I leave things and come back to them, that’s when the ideas come. I work well juggling different briefs rather than focusing to much on one (it helps me to reflect). Looking back through my sketchbook, my projects are very jumbled at the times where I was creating my best work.

However, something I struggled with was knowing what concepts an average person would and wouldn't understand. I've done so much research into fast fashion that I forget that most people don't know what it is. I kept coming up with ideas that I thought were amazing then showing friends and they wouldn't get it – I almost wanted to convince them that they did. This is something I need to think more about. One thing that was really useful was sitting with a house mate who had no knowledge of fast fashion and working out together how I could simplify them.

Overall I am happy with these images. I feel like I have finally found a way of working that works for me. I was finally able to think of an idea and quickly construct it. I had an image in my head of exactly what they were going to look like before I created them, which I haven't up until this point. However, although I like how it looks aesthetically I can't go on using the dots professionally - it takes too long !! I've been creating dot effects, then image tracing them. However, to do this effectively I have to make them massive so it takes a long time to load - some of them took 4-5 hours to turn into dots then buffered for 20 s every time I tried to change something. When I have time I am going to research if there is a plug in alternative.

Reflection/ 7 X 7 3

I really struggled with this entire brief (polar bear series) as I didn't like the set of rules that I set myself in the first image. I decided to hand draw all the elements of each composition, scan them in, image trace them and construct digitally. I wanted the images to have a wobbly, hand drawn quality to create more of a mood and charm so that the viewer empathies more with the polar bear. I found this a tedious process to do over and over again, particularly when all the elements were the same. I think I just got bored of the process and the subject matter and the images got progressively worse as a result. I wanted to be exhaustive but I think that it would have worked better if I had kept the same topic and set of rules but instead used different articles, so I wan’t drawing the same thing. I like thinking of new ideas around a topic and feeding them into my illustration as they come, which is why I struggled so much here (I would go nuts doing children’s book illustration).

I have also never worked properly with light before so this is something I struggled with. I couldn't get the angle right and work out where the light source was in 3 dimensions. I also had to base the dot size off the strength of the light, which was tricky because whenever I got it slightly wrong I had to redo them. I also had to also keep checking they were big enough to not form a a fuzzy grid pattern on a smaller screen. However, I got the hang of it in the end.

One thing that I didn’t struggle at all with was colour. Using two colours along with their halftones is working well for me aesthetically and I am getting better and faster at it. I really like that the dots are both functional (because my deigns have the potential to be screen printed) and give my illustrations some depth and texture. I also like the process that my screen-printed image has gone through; from wobbly drawings, to a constructed/ digitalized image then back to something wobbly and analogue again. This way of working was definitely born from the limitations of designing my screen-printed t-shirts but it works as well for digital print.

Although creating a narrative scene was a big challenge for me, I am happy with what I have produced. The work is still cohesive with my portfolio but demonstrates a different skill set. It reflects my compositions skills and shows that I can create a refined yet detailed image. However, it was a shame to have had to suffer through one of my last briefs and because they took so long I haven’t churned out as many pieces as I would have liked to. I now have just a week and a half left which I need to cram at least 2-3 finals into.

Articles to accompany Newspaper Editorials

 

Reflection/ 7x7 2

I have just completed my 3 Fake News posters and my 3 newspaper editorials. 

Successes:
The t shirt toilet paper works because it is clear, simplistic and a metaphor anyone can understand without a knowledge of fast fashion. My bus poster is also strong, it works well that the buses drive in, drawing your attention to the statistics one at a time (unexpected). The sound also works well to add a more comical edge to the image (what can we do but laugh at the Brexit bus). However, the fact that the graph paper is unaligned takes away a level of professionalism. 

Struggles:
I really struggled with the Government Trust poster. I felt uninspired because I needed a third poster but couldn't think of a strong concept. This lack of inspiration is clear in the outcome and it is visually weaker than the others. I also found the newspaper editorials frustrating because I was trying to create them quickly but deciding on the articles and developing the concepts took a long time. I struggled diving in and out of different themes and I would like to do a more sustained project next. I am also unsure about setting myself the constraints of creating 3 black vignettes. I thought it would be a good challenge but now I am questioning whether they are strong as portfolio pieces.  Would they be stronger if I put in a spot colour or should I just more on? 

My personal favorite outcome was my Trump poster. I think that the concept is strong and I have applied illustration in an interesting way to make something as boring as a bar graph/ statistic visually engaging. However, in terms of the context that I created it for I don't think that it is so strong (poster competition). Based on past winners I don't think that the judges will like that it has so much type and isn't hugely aesthetic. However, I think that it represents me and my interests better than a more minimal, clear metaphor. I like that it is layered and voices my opinion through an objective fact. 

In terms of timings, at this point I am very stressed. I have a month and a half left and not nearly enough to show for it. I have been working constantly on my brand but I've just realized I can't hand it in because even though it is new work it all contains elements of the designs that I submitted for COP. I need to make a serious action plan and cancel going home for Easter. I had planned a series of narrative posters about the Polar Bears in Russia, which I was going to drop and design more t-shirts. However, at this point I need to escape the t-shirts and think about what will elevate my portfolio. I already have too many vignettes and I need to demonstrate that I can craft a whole composition and work with narrative, a push out of my comfort zone. 

Reflection/ 7x7 1

I’ve started the year with some client commissions/ logo briefs. Generally, I have really enjoyed making the work but I have hated dealing with clients.

Client 1:

With the Yum Grub brief I had no idea how much to charge so I ended up charging an hourly rate. Reflecting on this, it was a bad decision because negotiating my hours was difficult I wasn't payed enough. In future I am going to have a set price. I also didn't pre-negotiate the number of alterations and ended up creating 32 variations because she kept getting the translation wrong and wanted so many type variations. I felt pressured into doing it because she couldn't change it herself. Next time I am going to include two minor alterations and have a set rate for more.

Client 2:

I received a brief to do 10 illustrations for a brochure for Living Nutrition. I had plans but was set a tight deadline of a week so canceled them. However, she then didn't send me the final confirmation for a month before proceeding to try and do the same thing again, so I told her it wans't possible. In future I am going to be more stern with my hours and fit the work around my plans rather than changing my timetable to suit the client.

Competition brief: I was sent a logo brief by someone who is part of a page called Radio HP (an elitist marketplace you can only join if you went to private school/ are recommended). The prize was £1000 and a feature in their mail-out - where they write about your upbringing. I ended up entering but had a dilemma if it was worth doing for the money because it is not something I want my name anywhere near. This is the first time I have had difficulty taking on work because of personal values. I think that this dilemma is going to come up a lot in the future because my work is so centered around ethics. I need to remember that they are the most important thing to my practice so I need to stand by them. But how far do I take this: ethical fashion is so important to me but if H&M asked me to do their campaign would I say no?

Strengths/ future:

Aside from these struggles, it was nice to not get so bogged down in concept, to craft something focused on identity and aesthetics. Making illustrated logos is something that works well for me because my illustrator skills are strong and I like creating shape based work. Trying to communicate a message with as little information as possible is also something that I really enjoy doing. It will work well in my advertising portfolio alongside my more concept rich stuff - it shows I can start to create a brand aesthetic. I would definitely like to try doing more branding beyond creating just the logo but for now I am excited to get stuck into some more research driven briefs.