23-1-18 (Hear Make Heard)
I made all the changes that Clare advised me on and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. I first shared my digital layout with my tutor, Will, and got some feedback and the headed down to make final mock-up
of what my publication would be like once printed and bound. After showing that to will he gave me his suggestions where he said that it would be nice if I took the back of the cover into consideration as well mostly because when someone picks it up they might turn it around and just have a feel of the publication first before diving into it. So taking his suggestion I decided to make it a gradient from white to black which is also symbolic of an explosion- there's a light and then everything is dark.
After making the changes I headed to ABC imaging and got my publication printed and bound. I'm very happy with the outcome and I'm looking forward to the crit on Thursday.
22-1-18 (Hear Make Heard)
Today we started off the day by getting an introduction to how we could lay out or work for our portfolio. This was so important and useful, especially for the upcoming university interviews.
Over the weekend I had already finished editing all my photographs and laying them out along with the text digitally as best as I could although I did take some help from my tutor, Clare and David as I'm not as comfortable with InDesign as I am with the other software. After the basic layout was done, i did some test prints and made a mock-up of my publication in a smaller size and in grayscale.
Again, after showing it to my tutor, Clare, She first of all advised me to keep the text as minimal and concise as possible, almost to keep it invisible. She also advised me to keep the text centred on the page and playing around with that layout was making it look almost as if it was a "mistake" which was true because when I showed it to a few peers they were concerned about that as well. Also, I had justified the text but Clare advised me to not do so as the spacing between the letters was not uniform and didn't look visually appealing. All of these points were duly noted and I worked on these today.
18-1-18 (Hear Make Heard)
Today we started off the day by learning some ways to bind a book and then we tried to experiment with ways of binding a book and would sit well with our publication. Really, the rest of the day was spent prototyping and making mini versions of my publication and deciding which image would go where and how the text could be placed on to the publication.
Because I am taking a photography approach and there would be a lot to take in any way by the viewers, I wanted to keep the overall look as simple as possible but still have an impact so I decided to make the pages shorter and shorter as we move forward which would be symbolic of how the war is eating away the world. After experimenting I realised this idea would work best if the publication was horizontal, or in a landscape format, as the transition would be much more prominent that way. After that, I tried to figure out the size of my final publication and decided to keep the ratios similar to that of a standard sized photograph.
16-1-18 (Hear Make Heard)
Today we had group tutorials we a tutor to discuss how we could proceed with making our publications. During my tutorial, I told my tutor and peers about my photographic approach and how I wanted to continue doing that for my publication. I just thought that just imagining the scene is so disturbing, I can't think what the person must have gone through. After the bombing, the sights must have been devastating and the effects of it can be seen to date but still today countries are continuing to develop more powerful nuclear warfare. I just want the viewers of my publication to be able to think about what it's going to be like if they were the actual viewers and maybe even think about bringing peace to the world in the coming future.
15-1-18 (Hear Make heard)
I spent my weekend trying to find three sound recordings that I could potentially develop for my project. First one was the story of Sudama and Krishna's friendship which is mentioned in the Hindu book of Bhagavata Purana. The second one was a conversation where the speakers were talking about how their father was a prisoner of war in Japan and how he had survived the Nagasaki Bombing. The third one was a conversation between two people who were a part of the Norwich Pride Parade and how Pride had changed their lives.
We were asked to discuss our recordings and choose one to work on for the rest of the project. I decided to work with the second one because of the fact that not only is World War II an interesting topic for me but also a phrase that was mentioned in the clip really stuck to me and disturbed me and also made me think about current affairs. We also did an exercise where we had to listen to our recordings and as the recordings played, draw whatever we visualised on a paper we stuck on the wall.
Another exercise that we did today was photographic one where we had to represent the clip using a photograph. At first, i wasn't sure how I would tackle this but when I did, I was very happy with the outcome. I used the phrase that stuck with me for the photograph and it was definitely a successful outcome of the exercise.
The phrase was "We had to burn bodies. We put wood to fire, then bodies and more wood. Their heads kept rolling off so we had to kick them back in" I represented this photographically by showing a lit matchstick very close to the skin of a person. This was done to make the viewer feel uncomfortable just by looking at it.
11-1-18 (Building Blocks and Hear Make Heard)
After spending most of yesterday making another version of my specimen digitally, and just fixing up my posters a bit, I was ready for today's crit. I am not happy with my second typeface because of how simple and predictable it was, but its okay. I struggled and I tried to find a way out of it in whatever way I could.
I was very happy with today's crit because I received some good feedback on my work and also some constructive criticism on how I could improve my work (which I really appreciate). I was also very surprised to see that most people in the class liked my first specimen better than the digitally made one. I guess it is because people can see the amount of effort that was put in to weave the paper and to make the stop motion.
while viewing other people's work, there are a few that I really loved. Ginji's work was very well done. His specimen was well illustrated and very witty and humorous. Loved the pop of colour. I even loved the way he played around with the layout of the poster for his first typeface. And that was something I wish I had thought of.
Moving on, we were introduced to our next project- Hear make heard which seems like a really interesting project. To get the feel of what the project is going to be and to help us think of ways we could tackle this project, we were put into groups and each group was given a sound recording that we had to listen to and make notes on. After that e had to as a group discuss the various things in the recording and try to research and depict it visually.
This is what each of us have to individually for the project. Over the weekend we have to find three oral recordings that we somehow connect to and make notes on it and try to visual visual ways of representing it.
9-1-18 (Building Blocks)
For today we were asked to think about the possible ways we could develop our specimen. We were given an hour at the beginning of the day to make something that could be developed for the final specimen. After talking to my tutors yesterday I had decided to do a stop motion animation to show the weave aspect of my typeface. In this one hour I made a stop motion animation showing the paper bits weave into the letter. While doing this task I realised using acetate for the coloured bit would be better as the black would show through it and give the look I was going for. After viewing others’ specimen I would say Ginji’s specimen was really playful. Even Sunita’s especially because I was talking to her about how she plans on developing it and I”m really excited to see what her turns out to be like.
Sunita gave me suggestions for my specimen as well. I decided to weave white paper and draw out the letter A on it and make a stop animation showing it de-weaving. For the final specimen I would play it in reverse.
Doing this was quite a task and personally I am not very happy with the outcome but I think I’ll try making another stop motion animation tomorrow but this time digitally and play with colours as well.
8-1-18 (Building Blocks)
Today’s class was based on developing another typeface from objects. We were asked to get in ten objects and then make line drawings of them. We were too really examine them and make like drawings of them from different angles. After that we were asked to find the letter A in these objects and draw that out. Personally, I feel my selection of objects for this task wasn’t great and that I could have done better with other objects. However, I made do with whatever I had. For my final typeface I decided to use paperclips. I happened to have only 4 at the moment and I challenged my self to develop the typeface using only four paperclips. No more, no less. I decided to call it Tertaclips because the word “tetra” is a synonym for four and it communicates the fact the the letters are made from four clips.
4-1-18 (Building Blocks)
Today was our first day back in class after the holidays and I was really looking forward to our new project as since the past few months I have been really interested in hand lettering and typography and this project is all about typography and making our own typeface.
We started off the day by viewing each others’ holiday tasks and giving feedback on a few of them. While many of them were illustrative, a few had consistencies which definitely made them stand out a bit more. Seeing James’ work was interesting because it was so abstract and it really made you think about each of the images. Although it didn’t convey effectively what it had to, I feel it really had potential and could be developed and I appreciated the fact he decided to take such an abstract approach to the task. I also enjoyed looking at Alisson’s work because it had this element of humour in it with her chickens being use the medium to explain the terms and it made me laugh instantly.
Moving on, we were asked to make the letter ‘A’s using insulation tape in however many ways we could without using organic shapes and then develop the alphabet for whichever ‘A’ we thought had most potential in becoming an interesting typeface.
I chose to work with the one which included weaving of tape to for the letter. I thought this letterform had potential especially because I could really play with the colours to show that the letter was “weaved”.
7-12-17 (App Store)
In the first half of the day, we had the presentation and crit. We first had to present our work to our client and then we moved around the class looking at and giving feedback on other people's work.
My client, Freya, liked the app I designed for her. She liked the concept and design however she wasn't very pleased with the colours as the colours I chose for my app weren't really her favourite. She said that it was probably because of her personal colour preferences but she would've like the colours to be different.
During the class feedback, I received positive feedback from everyone :
Q1. Do I understand the concept? If not, why?
"Concept is clear and the name is clever. I like the idea since it can actually be counter-intuitive because of the time you use your phone to not get lost"
"concept successfully explained. Understood the app straight away without even looking at the sketchbook"
Q2. Does the visual language and identity of the app communicate effectively? In not, why?
"The purple is vibrant and created a vivid contrast"
"Colour is bold and playful"
"I really like the use of purple and orange. The juxtaposition makes the whole display strong visually."
I feel this was helpful because my client didn't like the colour palette but all other people who gave me feedback loved the colour palette
Q3. Does the app suggest that the designer has responded empathically to the needs of their client?
"There are notes in the sketchbook linking her client which show that the app has been designed according to their needs"
"yes fits client and everyone who loves to travel."
"Yes I fell outcome is especially considerate of the client's potential 'needs' "
In the latter half of the day we had a guest, Mathieu Triay. He told us about six "lessons" an interactive designer should know:
-Know your audience
-Know your content
-Know your patterns
-Do it to see it
-Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
-Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
I feel the talk was helpful and inspirational as even though these 'lessons' are pretty obvious for a designer, we often tend to forget and overlook these things and it is always a good option to be reminded of these very basic key elements of being a designer- not just a UI designer.
6-12-17 (App Store)
I spent my day today designing and finishing the icon and 6 fire frames showing the main user journey pages of the app. It took me some time to come up with a solution for the problems I was having yesterday but I did finish it and I like it. I kept the colour theme of my app purple and sunset-y orange because I feel they are colours that really express the theme of "exploring" well.
5-12-17 (App Store)
Today we developed our ideas even further. We tried to visualise it more and think about how it's going to look like. We were asked to draw wireframes for our app and map out the user journey. During the day I did have some trouble with certain aspects of the apps like how I was going to visually communicate the idea of the app not using the internet and the app encouraging the user to keep an open mind while exploring and trying out new places.
4-12-17 (App Store)
Today we started a new project called App Store. I was paired up with Freya. Luckily we stay in the same accommodation so we were able to meet easily even though both of us were travelling over the weekend. We spoke to each other while we did laundry together. It was a fun experience and also very different because I was opening up to a person I hadn't had a conversation with before.
As the day began we discussed in small groups the importance of apps and how it impacts our lives both positively and negatively. And also discussed the user journey of certain apps that we use. After this activity, we were asked to think about and develop three ideas for apps for our client. We even discussed a few of these ideas with our tutor. Towards the end of the day, we paired up with our clients again and told each other our ideas and asked them for feedback and which idea they liked best. Freya liked my idea for the travel app which not only encourages the user to "get lost" in an area but also promotes local businesses of a place.
2-12-17 (Made To Persuade)
Today we had the 'Made To Persuade' exhibition at the open day where we had to display (and sell, in my case) our project work to the people coming in for the open day. It was a really good day as the people really appreciated and understood the concept of my project and I sold 8 out of 12 of the kits that I made for sale. Someone also told me that I made a very good 'salesperson' which was funny. I also liked the way I presented my work for the exhibition.
30-11-17 (Made To Persuade)
During the first half of the day, we were divided into two groups. While one group was the 'seller', other was the 'visitor'. And then we switched places after some time. After this experience of being both buyer and a seller, I realised that on the day of the event it will be really important to be confident and really engage with the customer to be able to persuade them to buy my product. I noticed people who were very soft spoken and weren't communicating their ideas effectively, didn't have as much impact as the ones who did. After this session. I also got a boost of confidence and motivation because everyone who visited my stall really liked my idea, especially because of how "relatable" it was. They also appreciated how nicely I had done the packaging and supported digital reference to showcase my work which made it a strong project. Someone also told me that I could actually sell it on a large scale in art stores which really made me happy!
I also attended a seminar today where we were asked questions and were asked to give feedback on the course and how it could be improved.
In the latter half, we were introduced to our next project, App Store, and were partnered with our 'client'. I have freya as my client and I am really looking forward to our next project as well.
29-11-17 (Made To Persuade)
Today was a very productive day as I was able to fix all my templates, print them out and assemble my product with proper packaging. I also made a faux Instagram account to showcase my work which in my opinion looks pretty cool!
I also worked out my costs and the price at which I'm going to sell my product on Saturday.
28-11-17 (Made To Persuade)
Today was more of a self-work day. Although we did have Umberto guiding us, today was more to develop the product and its branding.
27-11-17 (Made To Persuade)
Today we were asked to go around and look at other people's sketchbooks and their developments on their individual projects. The idea behind this activity was to see how others use their sketchbooks the annotate and develop ideas so that it could help us with our individual sketchbooks.
After this, we were put in pairs and each pair was given three objects. We were asked to analyse each product and talk about the branding and if it was effective enough. After this, we were to share with the class the product we had most to talk about. We did this activity t make us think about our own product and how we're going to brand them so as to effectively communicate our ideas and get 'customers' to buy our product.
26-11-17 (Made To Persuade)
After trying out first iterations of my idea yesterday, I used good quality coloured papers to make the products today. I also printed out a few pictures for sketchbook development.
25-11-17 (Made to Persuade)
I spent most of the day today making and testing the templates for the different foods and thinking of logo ideas and about the packaging of my product. This alone took me about 6 hours.
23-11-17 (Made to Persuade)
When we started with the day today, we were first asked to tell to the group what the 'problem' was that we were thinking about when we came up with the idea we were about to pitch. After this, we were given a few questions which we had to answer in relation to our ideas and sort of interview other people and give them feedback on their ideas and help them find out if their ideas were relevant for the project. I think this 'interview' was useful as I got good feedback on my ideas and how I can develop it. After this we developed our ideas a bit more- about the materials, making etc and discussed it with the tutor. This too was useful as I was confused between two ideas but after talking to Lucy I'm now doing the "paper foods" project. We also discussed the idea with a few more people to get feedback on our project to develop and refine it even more.
22-11-17 (Made to Persuade)
Today I developed a few ideas that I have to pitch in class tomorrow. I did a few sketchbook pages to show what my thought processes were.
21-11-17 (Graphic Score & Made to Persuade)
Today, in the first half of the day, we had presentation and crit for the graphics score project. I got good feedback on my final outcome, although, someone did tell me that I should add my research on workflow as well which I duly noted. Overall, even Umberto (my tutor) appreciated my work and it wasn't only me but everyone in my orchestra who's final outcomes was shown to the class which made me really happy.
In the latter half, we were introduced to the second project "made to persuade". After the image presentation, we were asked to come up with a few ideas for the project. Umberto also made us do an interesting activity wherein he asked everyone to give a random object, action and place. After this he called a few people and gave them a random word from each of the lists and asked them to make up a random story. It was hilarious but perhaps he did it to encourage us to think in different ways.
20-11-17 (Graphic Score)
Today we were supposed to work on our final outcomes. We started off with visualising the whole composition first and then coming up with ideas to depict it graphically. When I heard our piece, I instantly saw it in a circular form because of how it started with a faint sound and ended with a faint sound as well. I thought I'd show my graphic score in the form of a timer and let the symbols reveal themselves as the music moves forward.
17-11-17 (Graphic Score)
Today I spent some time doing a little research for my project and thinking of ways I could do my final outcome. I also did a few pages of visualising my group's instruments individually. I really enjoyed visualising Emma's instruments because i used actual bubbles to create the piece. It was a fun experience.
16-11-17 (Graphic Score)
Today was the first day of my specialisation in Graphic Design. We started with a project called Graphic Score. The first activity of the day was a lot of fun. We were asked to layout our materials in front of us and then the tutors played a music track which we had to hear for a few seconds and visualise it and show it on paper by mark making. After this, we experimented with the items we were asked to get from home to make our own music instruments. I made a rainstick. I also made another instrument that made use of balloons. However, the construction of its base was unsuccessful and it didn't sound the way I wanted it to. Although, I did eventually figure out the problem and I have drawn the solution in my sketchbook.
After everyone was done with their instruments, We formed small "orchestras" in groups of four. I was with Emma, Sunita and Diandra. All three of them had really interesting instruments and our final compositions sounded amazing, which we were able to record today itself.