Thursday 18 December 2008

New environment, new ideas!

A break for couple of weeks. My second day in Finland. I was expecting snow. To be honest we don`t really have it, but some coldness and darkness we do have. My mind is wandering still in England. In work, the people, the feelings I experienced during this first term. Happy times. I am happy to create in Bournemouth. I am happy to be surrounded by the inspirational, curraging people I know there. I love the opportunities I have had to venture into other areas in art that I also love. I have acted in a film, posed for photographs, collaborated with a fashion student in creating clothes, with my illustrations as a pattern ( a project still going on ) and I am starting a new project, helping a film student Harry Atkinson creating the visual look for his upcoming film as a set designer. Not to mention the D&AD project with Allison and Matt that took a really interesting turn after we got the idea of using glass and mosaik pattern as a part of our illustration on the wall. It will definately give our piece depth and make it more interesting, because of the change it will have on depending on how sun light will catch it.

But going back a little bit. We got our unit evaluations, from our previous work. The good thing about this evaluation form was, that it has some more in depth feedback. It is so very useful and good to get some specific feedback from your work.

Was I happy with my marks? It is hard to say. Obviously, like Neil said, this year the grading gets tougher, and the same mark from last year does not mean the same grade actually. It is also hard to judge how I did, because the mark consisted of four projects that we did on the previous unit.

What was said about my work.

Lo1
You have utilised some interesting illustrations for your poster, but this does not communicate your message effectively to the audience. You have some clear rationales but you need to consider whether a member of public would understand this without prompting. There is very little work that needs doing to this to make it work, you just need to find a way to draw the viewer and you can do this by using language they will understand and relate to.

When creating this poster I did a lot of research into the area of drug use. It was something I felt really strongly about. To show how destructive drugs can be. I wanted to create images that catch the attention, that shock and are accurate. Of course illustration being my medium of expressing myself, I was very very specific on creating original images and something that is in my style. I think I did do good on that part. I am happy with the images I created and I think the look of the poster is eye catching. Still while creating the images I was aware of the fact that they might be too abstract and not open up to people. In the images I tried to use I signifiers, such as balls and chain, needles, pills and juxtapose slaves with a good, the drug. And after our last crit, in which I was told it didn`t open up enough, I put the word obey in the poster to make it more streight forward.

This project gave me the lowest mark of them all. I can see why I got the feedback I got, but I do think the critique was a little too hard and I only partly agree with it.

Lo2
You have produced six innovative greeting cards which fit particularly well within a certain genre. The illustrations are good and you have utilised some interesting source material. These are not a set of obvious cards, you could have looked into primary subject more to ensure you address your personal agenda and that of the brief.

I don`t really understand the last sentence of the feedback. These are not a set of obvious cards. I designed the cards for a horror film festival, because of the dark subject matter of the novel, written by E.A.Poe, which was my inspiration. But as mentioned in the critiques, these could be sold in any art shop or a place, that supports original and innovative illustrations. I think I did do what the brief said. It was a very open brief. It could be any cards, to any occation. The only thing was to consider and specify your target audience. This I did.

I am really happy with the images I generated. Poe`s short story, The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather was a big inspiration for me and all the images came to my head, by visualising the story while reading.

Lo3
You`ve successfully concluded the packaging project and have definitely combined your interests with that of the brief. The packaging is interesting and appropriate and it would clearly suit the intended market, but is not too similar to any existing pieces. You have utilised your research well here.

This was the project I least enjoyed. I struggled to get into it and felt, that it was not really, my area and didn`t know how I could make it mine. I was also rehearsing and filming a short film at the same time and felt rushed and pressured to find the time to do everything.

In the end I do think I work the best under pressure. Two days before my filming, which knew where time away from doing my actual work I sat in front of my desk, thinking, sketching and panicking. It all started with me photographing a jewerly case for reference and shape. Then the rest was easier then thought it would be. Even though it is not my favorite piece of work I think it still works well and I didn`t compromise my style. You can still see it has the look I am known for to have.

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