HOW HAVE I GOT HERE?
Coming out of National Service (Army)
after 2 years left me lost in the world of art. Haven't worked on a focused project for awhile. Felt like I forgot how to start and where to start. On how to research, to experiment and to take risks. To be honest, I felt like I forgot how to art. At that point, foundation felt like a really good place to pick everything up again. That's when I decided to enroll onto the Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at UAL, CCW.
The ball project was a great ice breaker. Getting to meet new people and also gaining the experience of working with people of different skills, interests and ideas.
Following that, Part 1, Diagnostic was rather interesting. Getting a taste of all the different art paths and the practices and thinking behind them. However, I felt having a new art pathway per week was a little rushed and forced, not allowing us to really get an in depth feel of the pathway, instead it just gave us a taster. Part 1 was intense. Focused, to the point, slightly rushed I feel, but effective in giving us a feel for the various pathways. By the end of Part 1, I found Communication, Graphics the most appealing. It was about being able to successfully communicate an idea/message visually to your target audience. I really liked the boundaries that graphics set and the discipline it demanded from the planning and creation of the works.
EPILOGUE
INDUCTION
DRAWING
Just grab a pen and start sketching.
Personally, I feel drawing is where
it begins. Your creative journey for a project starts with simple planning, illustrations and sketches that help shape your final outcome. Drawing helps create and develop your ideas visually.
3D
3D work helps put scale, depth and texture of your piece into perspective.
Photography
Photography puts your piece into perspective. If
you're doing an external piece, something 3d, a painting or a collage, photographing it helps present your work professionally. With photography, the light and the angle can change the dynamic of your work. It also helps provide a professional finish when presenting your work.
film
Print is a personal favourite
of mine. Personally, I love
exploring Lino Cut/ Relief prints. It allows you to explore different methods of carving which allows interesting print results. Print allows the exploration of negative space which I really like as it pushes you to carefully plan your layout and composition of work.
Film opens the door to an endless possibility to explore moving imagery. From animations to stop motion and even gifs. These allow you to present your work in a more story telling fashion.
TYPOGRPHY
A good graphic design work is nothing without a carefully thought out typeface. If your work requires text, the typography in that work can make or break your piece. With the right typeface and composition of text, it can help switch the entire mood and vibe of your work.
Word/ Language
Alongside the typography or your
text material, carefully chosen words
and the right choice of language can help determine the mood and motif of your work.
The language can help set the mood of your work and the choice of words can stress specific aspects of your work and draw attention to areas where needed.
The key to a good start is...
RESEARCH
Research is key. You'll be surprised but what you find out there and what inspires you for your next project. With good research you should have enough ideas to keep going and to explore new techniques and approaches to your project. Research is also necessary in building a strong foundation for your work. It helps to provide sufficient contextual background. With enough research, you will also stumblr across various processes and techniques. IT IS IMPORTANT to,
By doing so, you are allowing
yourself to explore new
processes. You'll not only gain a new skill, but also knowledge of new art styles and this can help plan and shape future projects.
TAKE RISKS
EXPLORING PROCESSES
DON'T BE AFRAID TO TAKE RISKS OR MAKE MISTAKES
ACKNOWLEDGE, REFLECT, GROW.
PRE FMP
#therosieproject has to be the highlight of my entire foundation course so far. The dress was a personal favourite as it was one of the more challenging projects for me. 2 extraordinary books was a project that pushed the boundaries for me. I'm traditionally used to creating works from scratch and building from the ground up with a unique idea in my head. However, for this project, it required me to repurpose a book. To redesign and reproduce a work with something solid. Looking around from inspiration, I stumbled upon an apple watch. A piece of wearable tech. What is, there was a wearable book? You might not be able to read off it but instead to give the book a second life. To transform your tradition book into a piece of wearable clothing. I wanted to create a dress that was made from purely one book, but towards the end, I ran out of pages and had to substitute with another book's pages. The dress itself many challenged with it's stability and durability and after several weeks, I had built enough layers making it strong and durable enough. After almost 2 months, the dress was finally complete. Able to hold its own and it looked AMAZING. Possible my proudest work in this entire foundation course so far as it made me work outside my comfort zone, required more attention to detail compared to my other works and it was overall a project I enjoyed working on.
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Similarly the type project was another one I really enjoyed. Personally, I used the typography project to experiment and explore the various typefaces, how to use them, and also learnt a thing or two about the importance of composition. Similarly, project alchemy was a game changer for me. Project Alchemy was when I worked outside my comfort zone. I took on the challenge to create a stop motion and to create an animation for my final outcome without having any prior animation knowledge. It was a great opportunity to learn a new skill. At the start of the project, I also created sketches for a little info card idea I had to visually communicate the effects of radiation. After initial planning, I scrapped the idea as I didn't have the knowledge, software or skill to create graphics on a computer. After several months, I had gained some knowledge on creating graphics and decided to revisit this dropped idea. I purchased a new software and decided to go for it. Thought myself a new software and managed to begin working on my info card. And after a couple sleepless nights and burned retina staring at the computer screen, I completed the infographic. It turned out much than expected. It was informative, slightly childish and fun but had a professional finish to it. Thanks to my tutor's advice on pushing myself to explore new ideas, I would have never revisited this dropped project. So glad I went back.
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Project Selfie and Blind Date have to be one of my more loathed projects. These 2 projects felt very rush and vague. Project selfie was a cool way to start communication graphics but for project blind date, I feel the final outcome demanded too much for the short time frame we were given. We were told to use photography without photoshop to best describe our blind date. However, due to the small time frame given, the project felt very rushed as there was enough time given to understand or to get to know our blind dates. And for many of us, the course had just started, hence the project felt a little awkward but in a way a creative approach in getting new people to meet within the class. Project Campaign was a project that I have mixed feelings about. It is a super cool concept to come up with a campaign for the little things, but actually building upon and developing the campaign proved much harder than expected. My Campaign, was called "I'm Here". The campaign is brought about to raise awareness and break the sigma behind mental health disorder. I developed stickers, leaflets and posters for the campaign and it proved very successful within the class. However, even tho I was pleased with the outcome, I knew I was playing it safe. I went with something that was personal but dealt with the outcomes in a way I felt comfortable with. Hence, for the final major project, I will be taking on a much different approach.
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To me, if you're going to embark on a new project, it needs to be something you enjoy doing. A project u can add your own personal touch to while still sticking within the set boundaries for the specific work. Personally I think its important that the work you do is something you enjoy doing, if you enjoy what you're doing I believe the outcome will be that much better and satisfying. At the beginning, I was working with topics I didn't feel comfortable with or rather I did not know how I could approach them. Over time on the foundation course, I started to see things from a different perspective. Instead of trying to change my working style for the project, I began to adapt the project into my personal style making the outcome unique to me and less generic. During Part 1, when I'm handed a brief I would immediately start thinking of an outcome for the project. But Part 2 has helped me realise that the brief and project is not just about the final outcome. Now, I spend some time, dissecting the brief for information and details to begin my preliminary research on. Before, once I had an idea for my final outcome, I would work towards it. Which I came to realise, was a huge mistake. Now, I focus on exploring multiple outcomes, ideas and styles to deal with what the brief requires. With this research, i've have a variety of options and a list of ideas which allows me to explore multiple outcomes which I can choose from that best suits my project. This also stops me from being tied down to just one route.
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Sketches. Sketch everything. Note it down. Make a voice memo. Doodle it on your arms, napkin... whatever helps, always note down even the smallest or most random ideas about a project. It might sound ridiculous to not everything down, but you'll be surprised by what you can forget about an idea or where a cool idea can come from. Even one of your tiny random sketches could develop and turn out to be your chosen final outcome. Once you have the initial sketches down, research. Research for more ways you can further develop your initial sketches. Best thing to do is to keep a visual bibliography of all the research you do and of anything that inspires or gets your mind working. Positive or negative reaction to the research material, note it down as it helps you reflect and come up with better decisions for your final outcome.