OUIL503 - End of Module Evaluation

OUIL503 - Studio Brief 3 - Project Report

OUIL503 - Studio Brief 2 - Collaborative Practice - YCN - The Grown Up Chocolate Company

OUIL503 - Studio Brief 1 - Individual Practice - Substantial Brief

OUIL503 - Studio Brief 1 - Individual Practice - Additional Briefs

The Batsford Prize - I Forgot To Submit

Right, so basically, life got on top of me bit recently in terms of things going on inside and outside of uni. Due to this my head and my time management have been all over the place and I managed to forget to submit to Batsford. I am a little annoyed about this as I would have liked to submit my work but it's my own fault that I forgot the submission date. I'm still happy with my outcome and happy with my research and reasoning behind my outcome.

I think I do need to be bit more effective with my time management but at the same time, compared to last year I'm doing a lot better at juggling things so to have one minor slip up isn't that awful. Anyhow, I mocked up my final image just to put it into context and show how it could've been presented had I submitted it.

The Batsford Prize - Change of Plan

I originally stated that I was going to produce a screen print for this competition but after having the submission briefing for responsive, I really don't see the point. We don't actually hand anything physical in for marking, it's all digital and blog based so I think I'm just going to submit my work for this brief as a digital file rather than a photographed print.

It might seem a bit lazy or like a bit of a cop out but honestly I don't have the money to be buying fancy paper and binder and all that and I definitely don't have the time to be spending ages in the print room trying to get this right. I think my image will need a few tweaks if I submit it as a digital image, like a bit of texture adding too it maybe but that's okay! I'm still happy with my final design and my reasoning behind it!

Submission Boards and Proof of Submission

As part of our submission to YCN, we had to create a set of design boards to submit. My partner mostly worked on putting the design boards together as this was part of his responsibility within the group. His skills in type and layout are a lot stronger than mine and I feel that he best knows how to lay things out in order to maximise the impact of the imagery and also to make the work we've produced look more professional. We discussed design board content beforehand and he showed me what he'd produced afterwards and it was something we were both happy with. All that we had to do then was submit. Below is our proof of submission.

I am happy that this brief is over with now, I've enjoyed working collaboratively more than I thought I would and I can see how working across disciplines can improve my practice and also broaden my contacts. I didn't enjoy the brief as much as I thought I would and I think this is because towards the end I was just bored of it. I feel that if I enter a competition like YCN again I need to make sure i'm really engaged with the brief and I'm choosing it for reasons that are important to me. 

Quick Brief - Ohhdeer Go Card Or Go Home

 Because of my poor time planning and lack of organisation, I didn't have the time to enter the UK Greetings competition on YCN. HOWEVER, Ohhdeer are in the process of having their annual greetings card competition so I decided to try my luck with that. To be honest, I think the ohhdeer competition is bit more suited to me, UK Greetings seemed very serious and professional, which I am not. You can upload up to 4 entries but I've just done one for now and they can be either portrait, landscape or square. The brief also said that they were looking at valentines and mothers day cards for next year but were also open to any kind of greetings card.

I started off with a quick sketch that I refined and then scanned into Photoshop. I've recently started braving photoshop bit more and have purchased some of the Kyle Webster brush sets. I decided to create my image using these and also gave using a Wacom tablet a go for the first time! This is kind of a big thing for me considering how terrified I was of using anything digital at the start of the year. 

I've submitted my entry now, I'm pretty sure that the winner is just chosen by the people behind Ohhdeer but there's also an option for people to vote for different designs so I've posted the link around on Facebook/Instagram a bit so that people can vote if they want. I don't think this really influences who wins or anything but it's at least worth a shot! I've mocked up my card design as well, more for the sake of the presentation boards that we need to do for the end of this module but it looks kind of professional so maybe mock-ups are something I should be considering a bit more, especially for 505. 

Illustration Friday - Weapon

The word I chose for this week was 'Weapon'. I chose this because it's a subject matter that I'm not used to drawing around and I wanted to step out of my comfort zone a little bit. I usually work around nature and natural form so drawing something that was more rigid and had more of a definite structure was new to me. Saying that, I really enjoyed it and I'm really pleased with my outcome. Out of all of the Illustration Friday responses I've done, this is one that I'm most proud of. I think this is going to be the last Illustration Friday response that I do, it's getting towards the end of the year and I feel that I need to be focusing my efforts on completing other briefs and modules and feel that I've pushed Illustration Friday as far as I need to at this moment in time. 

Final Outcomes

These are the final outcomes we have produced for the brief. I'm personally quite happy with how it's turned out overall. I see the benefit of working with a Graphic Design student. I don't think I'd have been able to complete the brief to a good enough standard just using my own skill set, for example, I don't really understand how things should be layed out and what considerations you have to take to create a landing page so it's been good to have someone else to work with who fully understands that aspect of the brief.  Overall the design is cohesive with the image that The Grown Up Chocolate Company already have. We haven't strayed to far from their standard branding but have managed to create a unique and playful outcome that portrays our interpretation of the brief. 

Our next step is to create the design boards and then submit to YCN. 

Final Illustrations and Application of Pattern

This is the final set of motifs that I've created for the brief. I'm pleased with how they've turned out, although they're quite simple I feel that they can still communicate the fun, playful message behind The Grown Up Chocolate Company. My next task after editing these images was to apply them to the outer sleeve template provided in the Project Pack for this brief. This took quite a while to figure out as I had to make sure I was leaving space for the logo, ingredients and some other mandatory logo's that the brief specified had to be on the outer sleeve. 

I'm happy with how the application of my images has turned out. I feel that keeping the background white was a good decision so as not to make the image over-crowded or bit too busy. I found it hard to work to the size that was asked of me. I didn't realise how small the box was but I feel that I've used the space effectively to create something that fits the brief to a good standard. I've sent my partner the design over, he's really happy with how it's turned out but just wants to make a few tweaks to some of the logo placement and sizing. I'm happy that I'm working with someone that understands more about the design aspect to a brief like this, I feel like his input will definitely improve our submission. My next task is to send my illustrations and the box over to my partner. He will then start to finalise the work he's been doing on the landing page and we can then start to put together our design boards ready for submission. 

Imagery Development

After meeting with my partner again and going through my ideas, we've decided to go ahead with following the route of cut paper and looking at how we can use simple motifs of the different ingredients to create a fun, playful pattern that can be applied to both the box and the landing page.

I started out with some simple roughs in my sketchbook. I then sent these over to my collaborative partner and he seemed to like the direction I was heading in. I decided to use cut paper to create some shape-based motifs that were easy to move around and edit on photoshop. I'm really enjoying working with cut paper at the minute and I feel that it's the easiest way for me to work with shape. When I'm drawing things, I can only understand it in terms of the lines that are down on the page, but when I translate that into cut paper, it's easier for me to identify the different shapes that are used to create the overall image. 

These are the motifs that I've created as a base for the pattern that we will be creating. I don't think this will be a repeat pattern as such, but more just random placement to create an interesting composition on the small space that we have to work with. I will be scanning these into Photoshop and editing the colours and adding small amounts of texture. Me and my partner decided that it would be best for me to create the pattern that will be used on the outer-sleeve of the box and then I will send my files over to him so that he can apply them to the landing page that he is creating. 

Although we've separated the brief into different tasks for each person, we are still communicating, sharing ideas and giving each other feedback so that we can create an outcome that we are both happy with and that we both think fits the brief well. 

The Batsford Prize - More Mockups

I got some feedback from people around the studio and from ben, most of it was conflicting from my own views BUT I think I've settled on what I want to do with this image. I'm going to get rid of the big snake around the outside, I don't feel like it works with the rest of my paper cut pieces and feel like it takes over the whole image. I'm also going to step back from using so much colour. This isn't how I enjoy working and after speaking to Ben I'm starting to realise that a lack of colour doesn't necessarily mean that a lack of effort has gone into making the image. I've done a few more roughs and mock ups and feel that I'm in a strong position now to start creating my final prints. I'm a lot happier with the composition overall and feel that it works well alongside my choice of colour.

The Batsford Prize - Mock Ups

Once I'd scanned my paper cut motifs into photoshop I started to bring together the composition and look at colour. I wanted to keep the colours quite natural and rustic in a way. I feel like the green one connects more to the idea of nature and the natural world whilst the peachy one is bit more rustic and tribal in a sense. I'm quite happy with how they're turning out but I'm really not sure about the colour choice and about wether the snake works well or not. I mocked another composition up and to me this seems stronger. I think I need to get some feed back from peers/tutors so I'm going to try and get some different opinions on everything before moving any further forward with this. 

The Batsford Prize - Paper Cut Animals

From my roughs and development sketches, I moved onto using paper cut methods to recreate my drawings. I usually really struggle to work with shape and have a tendency to lean towards using line as a way of making images. Through the paper cut process I feel that I've found a more effective way for me to work with shape and I'm really enjoying the aesthetic that comes along with paper cut techniques. I'm going to use these to start mocking up ideas for my final screen print and then I'll be able to print the positives out and get making my prints! 

The Batsford Prize - Roughs and Development

Ive started on some roughs for my idea and feel that they're coming along really well! I quite like the idea of having a snake circling my main image and think this is something that I'm going to take forward. I feel like it could be circling the wolves and having the snake around the whole image would help convey the idea of healing and re-birth. The only thing that worries me about this is that maybe the snake would take over from the rest of the image. I feel like once I've mocked it all up on photoshop I'll have a better idea of whats working and what isn't.

The Batsford Prize - Rationale

I intend to produce a 40 x 40cm won colour screen print based around the research I have done for this brief. I am going to incorporate the fable of The Two Wolves and the symbolism of the snake to produce an image which i think best reflects the relationship with our environment.

The fable of The Two Wolves teaches us to make a personal and a global choice about our relationship with and our attitude towards our environment. Our choices are to either continue to exploit and destroy our planet for our own personal gain and greed or to step back and become more respectful and understanding towards our environment and start to change and adapt our lifestyles to a way which is more environmentally friendly and give our environment a chance to heal. We are already well into the process of destroying our environment and this is something that we need to stop. To represent the idea of healing I will incorporate an image of a snake, which represents healing and rebirth. This is something that we need to allow our planet to do in order to preserve natural habitats and start to rebuild the environment we have already destroyed.

I'm really looking forward to producing prints for this. I feel like my concept is strong and well developed and am hoping that everything turns out well when I start printing my final image.

The Batsford Prize - Zuni Fetish

While I was looking at animal symbolism I stumbled about these little stone carvings called Zuni Fetishes. Fetishes are small stone carvings/objects that are believed to have magic powers. They are carried by an individual in the shape of different animals in order to bring to them to 'luck' or 'powers' that they believe that specific animal to have. I'm not really sure if this is something that I want to focus on too much but still found it really interesting that the connection to certain animals is so strong that people readily carry them about their person in order to bring them the luck and power of that specific animal.

The Batsford Prize - Legends and Fables

I've spent a bit of time looking at Native American folklore and fables and have found some really interesting stuff! Initially I was looking for stories that related to the environment and our approach towards it but I found one that was a lot more interesting.
I've spent some time looking at a cherokee legend about Two Wolves

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

This fable teaches us about the power of choice, and how we can all make a personal decision to redirect negative thoughts and actions into positive ones if only we can recognise that we have the power to make that decision. 

I feel like this is a really great metaphor for our attitude towards the environment, we all have a personal choice and a global choice as to whether we continue to destroy and exploit our environment for our own personal greed or wether we take a step back and become more respectful and compassionate towards our environment in order to allow it to heal. I would really like to bring an element of this fable into my final image, I believe that in terms of our relationship with the environment we are now at a point where it is imperative that we make this choice for the benefit of our planet and in the long-term, ourselves. I also think i could start to bring some of the animal symbolism into this and I'd be really interested in incorporating an image of a snake into the print, as snakes typically represent healing and re-birth, something that our planet needs to do. 

My next steps will be to write up my rationale and then start to develop roughs and initial sketches. I'm feeling like this idea has a lot more context and more of a backstory behind it than my initial idea did. I also think it relates a lot more to the theme of 'interpreting nature' and 'our relationship with the environment' than just looking at endangered animals does, I feel like this way, I'm asking people to take a step back and look at their own choices and how they can make better decisions to better the condition of our environment and how we can make global choices that will benefit us all and also benefit the planet.