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.