#personalmoduleevaluation

I am evaluating the two books I have created within this project of seven weeks. The first book is a re-creation of the classic book, ‘Of Mice and Men’ and the second book is a hand-made design of a book that describes myself, I call it my personal book. I was also asked to research two case studies and write about their work and research into an area of practice that interests me and that helps me gain an insight into what I would like to pursue as a career.

The idea behind this project is to communicate messages and meanings to articulate my ideas using creative visual narratives. It has helped me to explore the vast range of visual communication techniques by focusing on hand-drawn, hand-created outcomes and using my imagination to play with all media, whilst producing professional standard and potentially sellable outcomes.

Throughout the beginning of the project, ‘Exploring meaning through narrative’, I started creating unusual designs in my sketchbooks showing all different types of mixed media and different techniques such as, multi-coloured finger printing, and textured acrylic, acetate prints. The visual solutions that I have produced have helped my mind to explore the world of craft.

I had great enthusiasm when choosing a book to read over the Easter break to reference my book on. As I love to read, some of the books I already knew and read. I chose ‘Of Mice and Men’, as I love the story line and has a lot of context behind it, which helped to inspire a lot of visual responses. Once reading and analyzing the meanings and narratives within this book again, I had to think of ways to design and create a new book to tell a part of the story, using imaginative techniques of book-making, hand-generated image making and visual story-telling. After some time of generating ideas, I focused more on linking together quotes and how to create illustrations for them. Also I thought about using actual pages of the book and either draw on them, cut them up, etc. Animals featured a lot in the book so this is what I went with when choosing my quotes as I thought of many visual responses. There were many design inspirations along the way, such as Phil’s sketchbook exhibition, which helped with my sketchbook skills a lot. Pinterest was very helpful in book designs and book creations. I started to struggle a lot with the creation of this book and focused more onto my personal book. After having a tutorial with Martin he showed me the book, ‘The Fox and The Star,’ which was a big inspiration to me as it follows a consistent flow of illustrations, layout and its overall style. It doesn’t feature too much type and when it does it is kept consistent and small. I kept this in mind and started to work hard on my book. I chose a colour scheme of deep green, dull red, beige and brown, and kept to it throughout in every image I drew, which was animals mentioned throughout the book. I drew them out then scanned them in onto Photoshop and drew them digitally using my graphics tablet. After a tutorial with Colette she mentioned to me what my plans were with the book, which was to just get it printed out. She helped me think about using it in a different way like cutting them up and sticking down instead of having it as just a print. This was when the idea of the illustrations on acetate sparked. I printed it out and laid it on top of the book passage, which really worked out. It wasn’t until I printed out everything and binded the book until I realized how much the design really fitted well with what I wanted to achieve. I felt as though it had a children’s book appeal to it, which contrasted with the context of the book, as it experienced a lot of deaths in the storyline.

Overall, I love the final look of the book and think it would work well as a helpful guide to a small understanding of the quotes in ‘Of Mice and Men’, which would be helpful to GCSE students who would be studying this book.

Throughout the works of this I was also creating a second book, my personal book. Within this task I need to find a story of my own to tell and that is close to my heart and create a book in a creative and surprising way. After generating my ideas, I wrote down loads of crafty ideas that I will be experimenting with in my sketchbook. My favourite being a scrapbook style and documenting things I have done in that day on one page. However, this was not the path I went down. A very big inspiration to me was Deborah Wigglesworth, paper passionate and independent consultant, who came to talk to us about paper and all its different styles and forms. I really enjoyed this talk, as I am very passionate about paper, colour and texture. She gave us loads of A6 paper styles, which I put to advantage and used in my final book. I also had a lot of inspiration in this talk by looking at some of the book design styles of different sized paper in random order and bond together. I also loved the style of a blind emboss, which I had never done before and helped me to use my creative abilities. Also to tell a story close to my heart I decided to involve my friends and family and ask them to describe me in a few words, which these words would then be embossed onto specific designed paper and binded together.

Overall, I think this design looks really good as a hand-made, simplistic design. However, I do have to fault the design in a way, as it is quite hard to open because some of the paper used is so thick. Although, my initial idea was to specifically use this paper to show meaning through the words.

The final module of my first year of studying graphic communication has been one that has allowed me to be free with the creative outcomes I produce - but it has also presented many challenges that I have had to overcome.

The idea of having to produce two books to a professional standard, do two research case studies and a report on what I want to do in the creative industry after University at first seemed very overwhelming.

Over the Easter break I had read the book ‘The Secret Garden”, so for at least one of the books I knew what I was basing the narrative on, for my second book which was to be based on a personal story I found this to be the most difficult. I initially had the idea of producing a parent advice book with the advice coming from the child’s perspective. My idea for this came to me, as I knew as a child I didn’t start speaking until I was almost 4 years old. My parents were very worried and took me to all sorts of specialists to see what could be done. I eventually started to talk and look at me now; you wouldn’t have thought I lead a silent childhood! I soon came to realise that producing a book on this would be difficult, especially with the time constraints and the fact I had another book to make. This idea was soon shelved and I further brainstormed ideas on what I could base this second book on. I eventually settled on the idea of producing a little guidebook to one of my favourite places I have been to. I love to travel and explore, having spent spent 6 weeks travelling all around America last summer. Initially I was going to produce a book based on this trip but I was advised this was too broad and to instead focus it on a specific place. For me this was Los Angeles. After researching guidebooks and books in general, from the offset I knew I wanted the book to be quite small. I produced many mock-ups where I soon realised I needed to experiment with both small and medium sized books. Once the size was determined it was how I filled the book that scared me! I knew I wanted this book to be digitally produced and with the context of Los Angeles I consciously developed a graphic style I had used in the previous project and brought it forward into this book. I feel it has worked well and my digital skills have really improved as I have produced this book.

It has actually been the first task, to produce a book based on a classic story I have read, which took up the majority of my time in the module. Their were many avenues I could have explored with this book but choosing the theme of abandonment set in stone for me to produce a book that was very delicate. I really wanted to make this book entirely from hand with no digital intervention. I also wanted to learn a new skill and for me that was paper cutting. I invested in new cutting equipment and from the first week I was practising and developing my skills in this art form. My first attempts were terrible but I persevered and began to produce outcomes that I was actually proud of. I have learnt a lot about paper in the making of this book, learning and experimenting with various types to see which works well with the paper cutting technique. I eventually settled on a lovely 350gsm watercolour paper and my entire book is produced from this as it proved to be very versatile. I wouldn’t exactly say this task went without any glitches or any fails. My initial paper cut work was cut out well but I soon realised that I needed to cut out my designs in reverse. Even though I had rubbed out the markings from my sketch, the finish was a lot cleaner on the underside. My second challenge and struggle was thinking about how on earth was I going to bind this book together both beautifully and secondly without damaging the pages. My initial practise binding on scraps of material were terrible, the bind was either too loose or too tight and when I did bind the sheets, as I was doing it the pages kept moving and spreading apart. After a bit of practise and sourcing the binding string I eventually bound my book. It took longer than I had planned but I feel the outcome is well worth it. This book has also not only been produced using watercolour paper but also paper sourced from G.F.Smith. After having a speaker from the Paper Library talk to us and give us samples I soon got in contact with the speaker and she helped me to source the material I wanted and even better – it was all free! The production of this book has also made me come out of my comfort zone; I even decided to use metal and wooden letterpress even though I hadn’t done it before. After 9 hours in the print room I came away learning a new skill and two pages of my book made!

The other two tasks were researched based, with task three involving me to research two key designers in the graphic’s world and to apply their work to the core graphic principles. Was their work following the rules or was it breaking them. This was a really interesting task to do and I learnt a lot from both the lectures I was given throughout the module and applying this new theory to my research, which was presented in front of my tutor group. Presenting is something I really want to get better at and this task has helped me to do this.

The final task was a short report on what area of practise I want to pursue after my first year of university and after university. I will not go into detail about this but it was interesting to see the vast amount of areas that by studying graphic design can open up to me.

Overall this module has been exciting, stressful and rewarding in the sense that my time management skills have improved and it has encouraged me to come out of my comfort zone and experiment more – I shouldn’t be so precious with my work.

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Aims

Enterprise.

With this module marking the end of the first year I have started to think about how I can make money from my skills. I have already had freelance work to produce wedding stationary for two clients. I currently have a third lined up for me to work on over the summer as well as a potential job to do some branding for a small, independent business.

I will also be setting up my online portfolio using Behance over the summer ready for me to begin to look for work experience or internships during my second year.

Adobe Accreditation.

I have an exam booked before the summer where I hope to be achieving my second accreditation. My aim over the summer is to then become more experienced using Photoshop as this is my only weak point in the Adobe Software Suite.

The third module of my first year studying Visual Communication was called Sound and Vision. I was given 7 weeks to complete three aspects of the brief all for which I have combined within a single document as part of the submission. My task was to create ideas and final design outcomes for a new, small, independent festival of music. This is something I have never done before and was excited about embracing this new challenge. Along side this main brief I was asked to research 10 current and inspiring graphic designers to produce 2 case studies; one international and one UK based. Finally I completed work and created a CD cover design as part of the Secret 7 live competition for which I submitted my designs at the start of the month (march 2016).

At first the brief overwhelmed me but after going over it on the evening of the project launch I was clear of the task ahead. I was placed into a small group of people who had similar music taste and we began to brainstorm names, locations, acts and the type of audience we wanted to target for the event we were creating. From this point onwards I began to produce my own individual outcomes for the project. I first decided on the name ‘Coast’ after analysing existing events whose names have a form of connection with the location they are set within. I wanted to further challenge myself and set the event in a location I would not be able to get to – mimicking situations that in my future career I will not always be able to visit the site.

My next task was to define the target audience. This was one of the most important requirements of my learning outcomes as without a clearly defined audience my visual outcomes would not attract the right people to come to the event. My festival as outlined in my brand design guide and business plan is aimed towards the free spirited who want to enjoy life to the full, the modern 21st century hippy.

This project has been heavily digital based and my research and inspiration behind my design outcomes has been based on designers such as Kate Moross and Yoni Alter whose visual work suited well to the illustrated approach of style I have applied to this project. Early 20th century graphic posters have also inspired me especially the American National Park Service who commissioned a series of advertisements to get people to come and visit the parks. These examples have all been recorded on my blog. I have not directly recreated these designs but applied the technique to create my own unique style to suite my target audience and event ethos.

I began the project by defining my logotype and colour palette, which over the course of the project developed and become more refined. After the last project I was inspired and determined to produce the typography for my logotype, which was a challenge at the start. Repeating each letterform before combining them and digitally editing the overall design. The colour palette has been an important aspect to consider throughout the project for which I refined and reduced towards the completion of the collateral elements, using a mixture of yellow, blue and purple which worked together well to give the audience the summer vibes I was hoping for.

My ideas developed through a series of sketches I completed in my sketchbook. Once I was happy with the ideas I then moved my work to digital using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create the final outcome, which helped tutors and peers along the way to visualise and critique my work. I would create a visual using the relevant software, and I would then show my peers who I would consider to be my target audience. Constant feedback from my peers and tutors throughout the project has really helped me to refine my outcomes to produce work of a high standard. As stated before my main editing process was that of the Adobe Creative suites as my work was illustrative based.

I went about producing my outcomes again using the adobe software suites but I was also asked to create a series of ten images and a short 10-second promotional teaser video. The images could be produced using any medium but I specifically chose to use photography. My reasons behind this were to add a sense of realism to my work seeing as my main collateral was created using digital illustrations. Luckily over the course of the module the weather has been particularly pleasant thus I have been able to create some summery visuals. My ten images vary from images taken below of people and the sky, textures of sand and scenic photographs of coastal settings, which I sourced from my stock images I have been collating. These images I have then used as part of my social media promotions for my festival where I created accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. These four platforms are the most popular and my audience will most likely be using at least one of them – hence a good method of promoting and informing my audience. My ten-second promotional teaser video was produced using film rather than animation and this was again to add a sense of realism. My video works well and can be used as part of a series to tell the story of a person’s journey as they embark upon the festival.

I have had many elements of my project that have worked really well and others that haven’t. The use of colour and my legibility was my biggest issue. In my feedback I was advised to source a secondary typeface, as the one I was using, although suited well to the project I had created, couldn’t be used for all aspects, hence a second typeface needed to be introduced. My colour palette also needed to be revised a few times, which meant big changes along the way. However with these changes made my work has become both more legible and more professional in its appearance. The one thing I would change in my approach in the future would be to not do all my research at the beginning but to do it continuously throughout the project especially as I began to create the different collateral elements – however I feel I was able to adapt my work in accordance to any new sources of inspiration I found.

I will now finally talk about the other two smaller tasks I was given. During the third week of the module we were asked to independently complete these two tasks, however I was in New York during this period taking part in the annual Viscom field trip. Therefore my time management for this project has had to be on top form. I researched ten designers who inspired me the most before settling on two. The first being Tony Brook of SPIN studio in London who has created a series of promotional and branding campaigns for large corporations. The second was American designer David Gibson, a way finding expert who has built the two-twelve studio into a world-renowned establishment. Researching and learning more about not only the various industries and pathways graphic design can lead into but also the various key figures has been really interesting. Following on from this task I was asked to produce a vinyl cover for an artist of my choice (from a selection of 7). I chose to design a cover for Tame Impala’s ‘The less I know the better’ song. I first went along the path of incorporating my digital illustrative style to the cover but felt I needed to push myself further. Using inspiration from the 60’s and listening closely to the meaning behind the songs lyrics I produced a tie-dye, kaleidoscope design that incorporated repeating patterns and images. I was really pleased with the outcome and my tutorial with Tracy Allanson-Smith stated how it was good to see me experimenting with a different stylistic approach.

Overall this module has been really interesting and exciting. I have enjoyed working my way through and producing a range of collateral outcomes that has forced me to move out of my comfort zone thus allowing my work to develop and become more professional in appearance. This has also been helped by me achieving my first accreditation in Adobe Illustrator, which has pushed me to work towards achieving accreditation in the other software’s. This project has been very digital based and has been really beneficial in developing my skills in this area. I feel a lot more confident in my technical skills development and I am beginning to develop my own graphic style.

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Adobe Accreditation Progress:

Graphic Design and Illustration using Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 – MAC

Accreditation Achieved - 25th February 2016

I have also booked my exam for accreditation in Adobe InDesign. I plan to work on my accreditation in Photoshop over the Easter break.

Final Outcome:

For my submission I have combined the brand design guide, my two case studies, my final design for the Secret 7 live task, the business plan and this personal module evaluation within a single PDF document.

My 10-second promotional teaser can be accessed through a web link created within my brand design guide.

The second module of the year was actually my first one as part of my chosen specialism of Graphic Communication. The module, titled ‘Defining Practice’ involves two separate briefs, the first being titled ‘Ways of Seeing’ with the second called ‘Typography and Isms’. 

This personal evaluation will be written in two parts to summarise the two separate briefs in accordance with the learning outcomes required for each one. Both of the briefs had set guidelines of what the outcome should be in relation to the space I had to work with, however they were both very open in terms of what I could base my work on. 

The first brief - ‘Ways of Seeing’ required me to produce an inspiring three-dimensional display that communicated an engaging message linked to ‘vision’ and ‘seeing’. I had a space of 2.2 meters [height] x 1.6 meters [width] x 0.5 meters [depth] to play, explore and create a display within. The project from the offset showed me the importance of having to work within a defined space, however this was my only boundary that I had to bare in mind. The rest of the project was fairly broad in terms of what I would fill the space with. My initial research looked at the two words ‘vision’ and ‘seeing’ and with this I completed a task set by my tutor where I was able to experience what it was like to see the world with a visual impairment. My initial work in terms of designs and research into appropriate practitioners was based on Dyslexia and Colour Blindness in children. However after further research and a crucial interview with a family member my take on the project changed. After talking to my tutor and fellow students I soon began to follow a new direction with my project now focussing on the cultural and social differences between the Western and Middle Eastern world. This concept allowed me to explore a multitude of pathways from proposing displays that would show the audience what it is like to see through a Burqa, to looking at what life is like for a woman who wears a Burqa or any kind of religious garment. 

The research on appropriate practitioners often sparked my imagination for a possible display. Looking back over the vast collection of designers and artists whose work I was inspired by at one point or another during the project, three played huge roles during the final stages. William Podlich who captured what life was like in Afghanistan before the Taliban was my starting point when my project took a new direction. Through photography he has been able to keep alive the image of a country that was developing and with this I began to experiment with designs that were similar in style to Taha Zaker who uses distorted images. My project was developing well at this point until I found my most inspiring artist – Marie Rim. Rims work was very controversial but it was her ‘Burqa fittings across America’ project that captured my eyes. Further research into this project soon produced what I found to be one of my best ideas ‘Burqa Vs The West’ - with a display showing a silhouette of a woman in a Burqa, which had written words and phrases to create the image. The writing consisted of how a woman [who wears a Burqa] felt emotionally knowing what people around her thought of her.  

After further talks with my tutor and peers, as well as the continual development through thumbnail sketches, drawings and sketch models I was soon lead to my final concept named ‘Labels’. I wanted to take a different approach to the briefs requirement of basing the display on ‘vision’ and ‘seeing’. My final concept looks at perception and how we perceive one another. My design portrays at how we as a society subconsciously place labels on one another based upon cultural and social differences. Using the quote “The labelling must stop” communicates this element of the display. This is presented using a series of typographic labels hanging above the main feature of the space. Underneath this the audience see two women who live very different lifestyles holding two boards that read the quote “we live our lives differently yet we are all the same”. Therefore giving an overall message that the labeling must stop - we should open our minds to a world that is culturally diverse. Using women as an example of this diversity the presented quote within the display puts forward the true reality that we are all equal, just because a woman has chosen to lead her life based on religious or cultural beliefs does not give the right to judge others. The overall display suits a wide target audience, from young children to senior citizens – this is due to the fact that we live in a extremely culturally diverse society. 

I am really pleased with the final outcome for the ‘Ways of Seeing’ brief. Not only has my knowledge on designers become richer but also my skills in terms of hand drawing and technical abilities has improved immensely. I have delved into the various Adobe software programs’, which has enhanced my work and allowed me to visualize my designs much better.  

The second brief for the module required me to create my own 21st century ‘ism’. This little project was typographic based and allowed me to develop my knowledge and understanding of this area within Graphic Communication. I began by exploring past existing ‘isms’ of the 20th century which lead me to brainstorming potential pathways to produce an A2 Typographic poster. My chosen ‘ism’ was based on the popular alcohol beverage of Gin. Gin is a drink that I myself and many of my peers and relatives enjoy so it was something I had good knowledge of and even from the offset I was visualizing possible ways of presenting my new ‘ism’. This project, although being significantly smaller is scale compared to the other brief I was working along side with, has taught me a lot and has allowed me to experiment with new techniques I have not worked with before. Early on in the project I learned new skills such as print making where I produced a series of experimental outcomes, which gave me a starting point within the project. The project has also taught me a lot about the importance of composition and the impact kerning, leading and tracking have in the graphic design world. Once I had researched letterforms that I felt related to my ‘ism’ I began tracing and drawing over existing designs to produce my final overall typography. I further edited and manipulated letterforms by using appropriate software such as Adobe Illustrator. My final design is quite regal in its appearance, a somewhat appropriate word to associate with gin. Gin is also quite a fun drink and is one that has stood the test of time. I created a series of thumbnail sketches to plan how I would compose my poster. Once a suitable composition was selected I began to experiment with textures not only for a background for the poster but also for my type. I soon settled on diluted splashes of colour. Limes and yellows were my key colours of choice. My background was created using gin infused with limes, lemons and mint leaves (enhanced with a bit of food colouring). The texture for the typography was produced by ‘dot work’. The gradient of ‘dots’ resembles the fizzing of tonic water in the signature classic – Gin and tonic. This also adds an element of transparency to the type allowing for the background of colour to interact with the type – much like how a gin cocktail mixes together to produce a beautiful flavor. My final A2 poster was produced using Adobe InDesign were I was able to play around with the composition until I was happy with the layout. 

Overall, Defining Practice has been a truly rewarding module to undertake. I have developed my theoretical skills on the history of visual communication through the lecture series where I have then feed this new knowledge back into my practical work. My technical skills have also come a long way. I have completed the training towards my accreditation in Adobe Illustrator and have made arrangements for me to take my exam before the end of the month. After which I will swiftly begin my work towards accreditation for InDesign. The project has not only developed my technical skills but it has also broadened my knowledge of artists and designers who I can make reference to again for future projects during my time in university and my future career. My understanding of typography and its principles has also heightened my interest into this field of work. Overall, I’m really pleased with the progress I have made in this module.

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Adobe Accreditation Progress//

I will be undertaking my exam for Adobe Illustrator within the next two weeks, where after completion I will be swiftly working towards accreditation in InDesign. 

Final Outcome//

I have printed my A2 Typography Poster which has been displayed along side a 1:10 scale model and an overview ‘client’ poster for the Ways Of Seeing project.  Sketchbook work and developmental progress throughout this module has been documented in detail on my blog, which has been linked on the cover page of this evaluation document. I have also linked the separate blog address where I have written short essays based on the lectures given every Monday.

‘Error’ and ‘Obesity’ were the two words my group had to produce a full final outcome on, including a place we chose which is the Jewellery Quarter. Our project was based around Vyse Street in the Jewellery Quarter. As a group we found many things which linked to the two words perfectly together. At first when we got given our two words, we done a quick brainstorm on what the two words link to. By doing this we then linked the two words together on how they both represent the Jewellery Quarter. It was important to find a link between the words because without the link, the project wouldn’t have been successful.

By having discussed about the two words with each other we came up with a conclusion. But before we came up with a conclusion, we had other ideas on what we could link the words to. At first by visiting the area we had an insight on what we could base the project theme on. By visiting the Jewellery Quarter I knew it was a very wealthy area as Vyse street is full of Jewellery stores which specialises silver, gold and diamonds. Breaking each words down, error means mistake and obesity means overweight in simple terms. Whenever we hear the word ‘obesity’, the first thing that comes to our head is an over weight person and the word ‘Error’ means a mistake but there’s a deeper meaning to those words. Obesity and depression links together and by being depressed you want to search for something that gives you pleasure. This could be eating, drinking high level of fatty and sugary foods and drinks that make you pleased linking to the pleasure centre of your brain. This pleasure which people search for can damage your body but it’s an addiction which people suffer from. Then there comes the word ‘Error’ which links to people wanting to search for pleasure which slowly ruins their lifestyle and could lead to death. At first this is the theme what we wanted our group project on. Later on during the week we spoke to our tutor who gave us some idea and helped us break the words down even more. After that we came up with the conclusion which was to base it on marriage as both words link to marriage. The reason for this is people rarely get married out of love but for the status from which started off as the groom giving his bride an expensive ring which she can then show to others that she’s married and possesses an expensive ring. This represents the word obesity as it links to greed. After a divorce then that money has been wasted and if there was love then the love is gone, this then links to the word error. Error symbolises mistake, which by making that mistake leads to depression and death.

The group module was to explore the place together and understand different visual communications we could produce as a group. As a group we chose to make a film as it was something different and would gain some experience by producing it.

Our animated film is aimed towards existing couples, not just the people who live in the area but everyone else who’s going to be watching this film to inform them that marriage is something special and valuable and shouldn't be thrown away easily over something petty. Also to make people aware that status does not make a marriage last but love does. By having a happy marriage leads to having a happy life. This is the reason why we are targeting existing couples.

The task itself was pretty easy to understand, the only problem was gathering all the ideas together. In order to keep up to date with each other we set up a skype group where we shared each others ideas and any changes we want to the project. A lot of group meetings took place inside and outside of university. Also one of our group member who is going to be studying Film and Animation took some inspiration off other artists and directors and put it into our project.

The best ideas we came up were taking inspirations from other directors and artists, mixing them up and making something of our own. Artist which inspired us were Ben Heine and BLU. The reason why Ben inspired is by the way he draws images and hold it up against a scenery or building, changing it. We used this by drawing on acetates to create an animation. BLU inspired is by the way we used stop motion animation for the introduction of the film.

One thing we as a group found difficult in my opinion was before we were given the idea of story board we all created our own thing and tried putting it all together which didn’t work out. After we were advised to have a storyboard our project ran smoothly and more ideas came in. After gathering all the ideas together, Emily put the video together. After watching the video, we as a group gave her feedback on what to add and what to take out.

All illustrations were drawn on paper before they got transferred over to acetate. After having done the illustrations we used Adobe Photoshop to get rid of the backgrounds on the illustrations so that we can use it in the video. The tools which were used in Photoshop were the rectangular marquee tool, lasso tool and the magic want tool. After editing all the illustrations, we used Final Cut Pro to edit the film clips and merge them together.

In the whole process of thinking up the idea and putting things together, we came across some successful and some unsuccessful things. In some cases, we added some extra illustrations to the film which didn’t work out as it didn’t flow with the story line. I think the illustrations were done perfectly as before when the scenes used to switch, it used to be jumpy. In order to fix this, we had black title scene to split it up the clips, this would helpful towards the viewer as they will be able to follow it and know what’s going to happen. This was inspired through films in the Charlie Chaplin era.

School of Visual Communication | BA (Hons) Visual Communication

Personal Module Evaluation

‘Stagnation’ and ‘Love’ were the two words my group and I had to produce a full final outcome from; these two words and a location which happened to be a local canal, Birmingham Eastside. As a group we felt that these two words linked perfectly together and we began to brainstorm ideas connecting the words to the location.

We came to the conclusion that the location of the canal, linked to the word stagnation as it is a ‘stagnated’ area. We then thought of how we were going to interpret the word ‘love’ into the idea. We all thought up several different possible outcomes which we could do and all agreed on the idea of combining the two media’s of photography and illustration; photography representing stagnation and illustration representing love.

The module brief tells us to use these two words and the location and create a product of our choosing from them. We, as a group, at first decided we were going to do a magazine but then felt that that idea wasn’t going to reach our target audience as much as we would’ve wanted. So we then changed the idea and decided to do posters which would be put up around the city for everyone to see.

Our target audience is people aged 18-35 as these are the people who will benefit the most from the regeneration of Birmingham. These are people who are growing with the city, people who are here to whiteness something old and stagnated becoming beautiful. We are also targeting it at people looking to relocate to Birmingham in the future. Our aim was to create a series of advertisements to promote, and raise awareness of Birmingham’s ‘brighter and prosperous future’. Instead of focusing on the current area of regeneration, we are choosing to draw attention to Birmingham’s next area of regeneration, the Eastside Canal System.

The task was easy to understand it was just getting the idea together which proved a challenge. A lot of group meetings and brainstorming went on before we were all able to settle on the final idea. A lot of inspiration from online resources helped us figure out different ways we were going to put the final outcome together. I added several different artists to my blog and researched some of the work they had produced which linked to our idea and that allowed me to expand my idea further.

The best idea we came up with was representing the word ‘love’ with iconic romantic moments such as famous scenes from films, like ‘The Note Book’ or from plays, like ‘Romeo and Juliet’. We took photographs of the location and felt that the location represented the word ‘stagnation’. So combining the ‘stagnated’ photographs with the ‘love’ illustrations, we came up with the final idea of a combined media poster of the location, showing the target audience that something old and stagnated can become beautiful.  

Each of us came up with several different ideas, for example the magazine idea where I was going to paint certain images representing love and we were all going to do a two page spread for the magazine. After thinking about this idea more deeply we decided it wasn’t going to link all of our skills collaboratively as a team so decided to try something different and that’s how we came up with the idea of combining our skills within one final outcome, in a poster containing photography, illustration and graphics. We all felt that this final idea would express all of our skills within the work evenly.

I found that Dave McKean, an illustrator born in 1963, was a great inspiration for the module as his works strongly related to the outcome my group and I were trying to achieve. He produces such a unique style of outcomes and I feel that he is a great person to look to when doing this project because I feel that one of the main purposes for this module as a whole is to show off my own unique skills and show how I stand out from others. I particularly feel that he is a great inspiration for our particular chosen outcome due to McKean combining mixed media’s within some of his works.

To combine the illustration and the photographs we used Adobe Photoshop. The illustrations were outlined and any unwanted parts of the piece was removed and then placed on the photography it fit too. At first we were going to print out our final outcomes but then felt that they would suit better as digital images and would look perfect on all the digital posters throughout the city, such as in train stations along the side of the escalator. We chose to use Photoshop to put the two images together as it is very accurate software and is very easy to measure out everything and put it in a place where it looks fit to proportion.

 In the whole process of thinking up the idea and putting it all together as a final product a few things were successful and serval, unsuccessful. The illustrations, in my opinion, were perfectly done. Two out of five, including myself, were responsible for the illustrations and although we both have completely different styles, the idea of combining the illustration and the photographs worked out perfectly because we didn’t want all the outcomes to look the same we wanted them to look like the photographs had obvious illustrations on and for each illustration style to be different looked great at the end.

 We had several faults when putting the idea together. Some of the illustrations didn’t completely match up to the photographs and look like they belonged there, they looked out of place, so a lot of editing and image shaping had to go into the illustrations to make them fit on top of the photograph and look somewhat decent. Several of the outcomes turned out better than others but as a whole we got where we wanted too in the project and created exactly what we envisioned.

 As a whole I felt like my group fitted together perfectly, combining all of our skills extremely well within the final product. However in the future I feel that my approach could be far more thought through and if we, as a group, were quicker to figure out our final idea, would’ve had more time to create several more outcomes and had more of a choice of what to put forward at the end. I feel that at some points our communication skills weren’t perfect and as the module went on we improved with that and now we know for next time to completely focus on the idea as a starting point and making it clear as to what exactly our final product is going to be.