Jasmine Bonnici

At the start of this course, I didn’t really know what to expect and therefore didn’t really have any objectives than of course to grow my creativity and explore. I would say that this course has opened up my creative mind to think outside of what I thought was ‘design’. It has truly been inspiring to see the fantastic work everyone has been doing and it pushes me to continue to do the best I can :) 

The most interesting things I have discovered throughout this course are probably the Artist’s books including the Melbourne Art Book Fair excursion and the Bauhaus and Memphis design movements. 

I’ve also really enjoyed the workshops, including the zine-making, collaging and of course the many group typography activities!! Every time we shared our work with each other I was blown away with the level of work and creativity and its been incredibly inspiring!! 

Week 11 - Lecture research

After the week 12 summary lecture I realised I forgot about the Public Face in Berlin!! When I first saw it in week 11 I was intrigued and somehow I forgot to have a look at it again... but here it is!! 

I find this so cool!!  The Public Face is a sculpture made of steel and neon tubes, which has been installed in Lindau, Berlin, and Vienna. Because of its size, the sculpture and its varying expressions can be seen from far away. For example, it may seem angry, happy, sad, or surprised.

“The emotions conveyed by the sculpture are based on the facial expressions of local passersby, who are filmed by surveillance cameras. Their facial expressions are then analyzed by software created by the artists that uses algorithms developed by the Fraunhofer Institute. The machine is thus able to read the emotions on a person’s face. The installation Public Face uses these algorithms to make the changing, average emotions of city inhabitants visible to everyone in public space.” 

Incredible !! :) 

Wow!! This project has been such a challenge.. I’ve had so many problems with printing, not only the misalignment of pages but I contacted multiple places and no one accepted to print my removable stickers because the job was too small - instead I managed to get a hold of a re-stickable glue stick which ended up not really working as well as I hoped. Also to make it worse, when I re-printed my booklet again to add in the sources, the illustration on the back page pixelated even though every other time I had printed it had been fine.

Process: I individually cut and trimmed all of the double sided pages (with the exception of the embroidered pages). After that I added stitching and sequins to some pages, plus cut the vellum ‘window’ insert as well. I added score lines to where the binding would be for the pages to be easier to open (which didn’t make a difference) and individually cut the puzzle pieces using a blade. 

The front cover was by far the hardest part, I ended up re-doing it about 3 times in the end, because being a perfectionist I couldn’t stand the letters not being the same thickness. In the process, I chose to change the colours of the felt and the spotted pattern underneath to better suit her style and the colours that are in the booklet itself. I think that this made a big difference because I was worried it looked too childish and crafty. I also figured out that to get the letters to be more consistent and aligned when I stuck them to the acetate, was to put the double sided tape on the acetate first then use tweezers to put the letters in place :)

Binding: I had never done Japanese binding before, and I probably should have practiced more before I attempted to do it on my final zine, but even though its a little wobbly I like the style it gives to the front cover of my booklet. 

Once I bound the booklet together I also realised that the pages are really hard to keep open with one hand, even though I had made score lines before binding. This is probably because of the binding method and the type of paper I used...

The very last process was testing the glue to make sure it didn’t remove the prints of the illustrations which would be underneath the stickers. It ended up working (phew) with the exception that they are a bit hard to peel off the page! 

Ask me anything project - Work in progress...

This weekend I decided to trial ideas for the front cover of the booklet, and I ended up ditching my other ideas because it was going to be too much with the fabric and all.

Instead I experimented with painting her name on acetate or making brush marks which is from how she explains her work to be inspired by the “messy brushstrokes” of oil paintings. 

However, I think my best trial was combining the acetate with the felt letters idea I had last week. I ended up deciding on a double layer, the first: an acetate sheet with her name made from felt letters and then the bottom layer: (which is the booklet itself) with a scattered spot pattern and some text. Hopefully when I put it all together it works ... although maybe its too childish? 

Week 11 - Workshop - Zine layouts in Indesign

In this weeks workshop we had a quick Indesign session where Andy and Karen showed us how to work with the Indesign - Zine templates, and also gave us some really handy tips. 

Usually when I hear someone say Indesign I start panicking because I have no clue how to use it but now I can at least import and place images and text in a layout...better than nothing hey ;) 

Ask me anything project - work in progress..

This week I worked on printing and putting what I’ve done so far into a booklet to get an idea of what’s working and what’s not. I still haven’t worked with the text much, but I did work on the puzzle pieces. The little characters underneath don’t really look right, so I’ll probably re-sketch ideas for characters or objects which are more relevant to Kimmy and her work. I also need to find a printer who can print on ‘removable’ stickers so that the sticker puzzle pieces can be removed and stuck down without the paper peeling. 

Some page spreads need lots of work, but now I have a base to improve the layout. Since I didn’t use a template for the layout it came out bulky (because I printed single sided sheets), which also meant I couldn’t machine stitch the binding - I eventually had to punch in the holes myself first then hand stitch it. 

Since Kimmy also has a passion for home interiors, I looked into materials and researched forms and finishes which are related to interior styling, which was what had sparked the idea of adding in stitching and fabric accents, or making her name from stitched felt cut outs. 

Week 10 - Workshop Activity

In this weeks workshop we looked at making quick prototypes of our ideas for the Ask me anything project, using any materials we could find such as paper, string, cardboard... 

This was the first time I was actually putting something together as a hard copy rather than sketches and I found it really hard to figure out what to make in the first place, but it did help me to see my ideas come to life. It’s so different to sketching because your idea becomes a 3D object which got me thinking about considering materials, textures and form.

It was also great to walk around and see how others are presenting their interview and the ways they made their prototypes. 

‘Ask me anything’ Interview presentation - work in progress update

After seeing some really great work from past students in the lecture, I realised hold on - Its all about my creative’s work and I need to present her creative world. With that, I changed course with my project and decided to go back to the interview itself. I found some imagery which matched with my content and started brainstorming again. This time working with the imagery and generating ideas based on them. 

This worked relatively well, and I started experimenting with gold foiling with my laminator onto semi-transparent vellum paper overlays. In the meantime, I also looked at sequins, which are much more effective as they don’t take away from the image, but rather enhance it. 

Recently I also sparked an idea on how I could combine my ‘puzzle’ idea into the zine/ book layout. Why not use stickers? The idea is that throughout the zine there will be hidden puzzle pieces embedded in the layouts, and then when the reader gets to the last page they will find that its empty... so they have to collect the stickers from previous pages to assemble the last page of the interview. 

The whole idea is based on the way my interview questions and answers progress from the start of her practice to where she is now. So the idea is that the puzzle pieces from the start come together to form the last question (or a quote), showing how she has established her successful creative practice (in progression). Also, the puzzle pieces concept relates to her style - as she creates her pieces by drawing layer of shapes until an image starts to appear...sort of like the pieces of a puzzle coming together!

I also looked back at my research and looked at adding embroidery or brush marks (using pearl medium) as a way to relate back to her inspiration and creative style and the attention to detail she puts into her work. (She describes her work as being inspired by oil paintings and says that as she works she tries to leave her digital illustrations as organic and close to hand-drawn as possible.) 

Plus I also want to add small elements to relate to her having to juggle her business as well as being a “full-time mother of 3″ by adding small hidden toy drawings in parts of my layouts, I could even put these underneath the puzzle stickers for a hidden ‘surprise’. 

Week 9 - Lecture

During this week’s lecture we covered the introduction of computers and their significance in shifting the design world. We also looked at the transition into the highly influential Memphis group, which was originally founded by Ettore Sottsass. 

Following our case study into Memphis, I decided to research ways that Memphis has influenced designers in the ‘modern’ design world. My favourite so far was finding this design called - “My socks table” by Swedish Ninja. Isn’t it awesome? :P

Week 9 - Workshop activity

Ask me anything - Interview project progress

This is some of my research into pop-up books, slide-outs and other paper related work. In the first few images I like the way the pop-up designs get progressively larger and more detailed, which could work with the idea of building her creative world.. from when she first changed from the graphic design industry into digital arts and how her business flourished.

I also researched materials including vellum paper which is semi-transparent and thought that its see-through quality could show a progressive journey building from when she started to her current creative practice. 

Sources:

http://165-166.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/

https://www.behance.net/gallery/38907791/Cube-Pop-Up-Book

Mengyu Chen - Pop-Ups 03 - https://laughingsquid.com/pop-up-illustrations-by-mengyu-chen/

Ask me anything - Interview project progress...

Last week I was meant to skype interview Adriana Picker and even though she asked me to email her the questions she hasn’t replied... 

BUT I’m super excited because this week I got a lovely reply from Kimmy Hogan!!! 

I started brainstorming and looking at some potential presentation ideas... So far my favourite two ideas have been making a puzzle which turns out to be a poster or an interactive 3D pop up book with slide-outs, cut-out windows and other mixed media. 

The main thing I want to focus on in the presentation format is the fact it is interactive and the person reading the interview actually has to interact with the media to be able to read the questions and answers.

My thoughts behind the puzzle poster is that because the person reading the interview would have to actually sit there and put the poster together piece by piece, I feel like they would be able to see different aspects of her creative world and then see it all connect and come together, more than if it was a pop-up book?

Week 8 workshop - 

In last week’s workshop we went through some approaches at making a mini paper zine from one A3 or A4 page, by folding, cutting and binding. Since I hadn’t made one before (as far as I can recall) it was a little confusing during all the folding and numbering of the pages... The second approach where we folded the page in half length-ways and created a diamond shape with the paper before ending up with a mini zine, actually seemed simpler and is the one that I actually still remember how to do. 

Creative Interviews - progress.. or not?

This morning was meant to be the day I got to interview the amazing Adriana Picker, but for some reason it didn't end up happening... after waiting for a while I realised she probably either forgot or got caught up in her work...So after some time feeling quite disappointed I decided to email her to remind her and check if the interview was still happening. Hopefully I get a reply from her sometime this week.... fingers crossed...?

On the other hand, I finished and sent my questions off to Kimmy Hogan :)