Emma

This semester was definitely not what I had in mind when I first started. Despite all the obvious challenges, I feel as though I have had a pretty successful semester. I’ve learnt a great deal about design history through the weekly lectures and tutorials and have improved my skills in adobe software.

When first transitioning to online learning it was a pretty steep learning curve. I found myself not very motivated and was getting agitated from staying inside most of the time. However, after two weeks or so, I began to get motivated again and from then on it wasn’t so bad. I stuck to a routine and found I was doing more work than what I had been doing at uni.

I think the most valuable lesson I’ll take away from this semester is to never start a project in adobe software. More often than not I would get an assignment and open up either illustrator or indesign straight away and try and create something. This caused me to have creative blocks. Moving forward, I want to be able to think outside the programs, the way I did prior to university.

I’m going to do a series of re-blogs of posts I have found interesting and helpful throughout the semester from students in my class and also artists and designers. 

When designing my layout I wanted to somehow replicate the Bauhaus style. The reasoning for this is the Bauhaus played a big role in Anni Albers career and if it weren’t for the Bauhaus she may have never taken up weaving. A lot of my questions are centred around the Bauhaus so I thought that that was also a valid reason to replicate the style. In terms of my colour scheme, I have used colours that Alber’s has used in her work. I used the eyedropper tool to try and get as close to the colours she used. 

Seeing as for project 3 the task was to ask 5 questions to our choice of subject and provide 5 answers and nothing else, I thought it would be a good idea to post on here how I came up with my answers for Anni Albers. 

For my cover page of my magazine I wanted it to be full of colour similar to some of Anni Albers work. Following on from my experimentation with paint and trying the replicate Albers style, I progressed by trying this in illustrator. I figured this would be a much more affective method as there would be no paint smudges or paper rips. Below was my first attempt. After creating this, I discussed with my teacher wether this would be a good idea for my title page. Both of our concerns were that it wasn’t Albers work and it may not sit right if the magazine is about Anni Albers with a piece by me at the front. I agree with this, it wouldn’t feel right going about it this way. Instead I chose one of my favourite pieces by Albers and have made that my title page. I think this piece works well as a cover as there is kind of a grid like system to it where the title can fit well. The colours also get the readers attention straight away. 

edit*** I have later come to the realisation that the piece below is actually not Albers work, it is the designs of Gunta Stolzl. The piece was in an article about Anni Albers so I just assumed it was hers. My bad. This obviously means I will not be using this as my cover page. 

Throughout this lecture we looked at how we have now moved into a hybrid state between a material world and a digitalised world. Towards the end of the lecture the question was asked when using adobe software how much of the design is authored by you the designer? and how much is authored by something else? e.i. the program. I don’t think I could answer this question properly as I haven’t spent enough time on the adobe programs. However, it is an interesting idea when you think programs such as adobe supply you with all the tools and equipment you need and most of the time can do all the hard work. I feel the idea comes from the person and then is executed by the program. 

Early on we looked at this movie barcode from Kung Fu Panda 3. Before seeing this I didn’t know movie barcodes existed. I found this segment really interesting, especially how you can predict the storyline just from the barcode and how you can often tell what the character is going through by the use of colours, e.g. purple means turbulent. After the lecture I looked up other movie barcodes and found them all rather beautiful and kind of mesmerising to look at.

Reference: Moviebarcode.tumblr.com. 2020. Moviebarcode. [online] Available at: <https://moviebarcode.tumblr.com> [Accessed 20 May 2020].

We also looked at Parametric and Generative design and how they have been used. We looked at how you can generate different patterns by using the same grid, similar to the way Pepsi has. There is an overlap with grid work from the early 20th century that parallels to what is happening in the 21st century. Can also relate to the Bauhaus and how some artists were heavily influenced by using a grid system in their work. 

Reference: Davis, D., 2020. Parametric Typography. [online] Daniel Davis. Available at: <https://www.danieldavis.com/parametric-typography/> [Accessed 20 May 2020].

Work by Jason Salavon.  He has manipulated preexisting media to create works of art ‘by overlaying images (such as multiple photographs) and averaging the result to create visual amalgamations and, second, by distributing processed media (such as individual frames of a movie) side by side or in other configurations.’ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Salavon 

I wasn’t fully sure on what Parametric and Generative design meant, so I looked into them a bit more and used these definitions as a reference. 

Parametric design is a process based on algorithmic thinking that enables the expression of parameters and rules that, together, define, encode and clarify the relationship between design intent and design response. 

Generative design is a design exploration process. Designers or engineers input design goals into the generative design software, along with parameters such as performance or spatial requirements, materials, manufacturing methods, and cost constraints. The software explores all the possible permutations of a solution, quickly generating design alternatives. It tests and learns from each iteration what works and what doesn’t.

After watching the week 11 lecture, I decided to have a play around with making different fonts on Metaflop. I was fairly pleased with this first one, I still think it might need some more work as I probably wouldn't use that exact font in my work. I find it a little bit to vertical and thin, I’d probably try make the stroke a little bit shorter. 

For the second attempt I deliberately tried to make it not that aesthetically pleasing and a bit of a headache to read. For me, having the letters slanted to the left instead of the right really annoys me, which is why I chose to do it that way. I wanted this font to not feel very good. This was just a bit of fun inspired by lecture 11. I’ll continue to play around making fonts and hopefully come up with something that I will potentially use. 

During my tutorial on Monday we briefly discussed the effects that social media platforms such as instagram have on us creatively. I wanted to look into it a bit more and discuss the effects it has had on me. In the last couple of days the images below have popped up on my instagram feed by various artists. I think all these works are great and really beautiful but I can’t help but think how will I ever get to this standard. I find it quite daunting when I scroll through feeds of artists and designers work on instagram and I make sure I’m not doing it all the time otherwise it may become a bit too overwhelming. Even though I am appreciating and admiring their work, I can’t help but compare it to my abilities. I’ve only just gotten into design, I’ve been out of high school for over two years now and have spent the last couple of years working. I wasn't familiar with the adobe programs before starting this course and would say I still struggle using them properly. So especially seeing these types of works, which some have been done on programs such as illustrator can be disheartening and make me feel not that competent. I often do look at design pages for inspiration and they have been very helpful in that sense. 

I think it’s particularly hard for young designers now, as I feel everything is at such a high standard and easily accessible that it makes it hard to find your identity - or create something that hasn’t already been made. However, in saying that the world is forever changing and new ideas are always being thought of - for me I’m only at the beginning and it’s important that I don’t worry too much about what I can and can’t do, I’m still very much in the learning phase. 

Instagram: @pavlovvisuals 

Instagram: @nicholasmoegly

Instagram: @mikeperrystudio