akemi kawano

i've been absent and the main reason for this is because im super lazy nowadays to produce anything good and decent ): so i decided to come here and share the outcomes of my fashion illustration mini-course (which i had so much fun and was able to discover a new passion wee wee). 

i worked on this beautiful project about the SS 20/21 collection of maison margiela and it's a shame i can't download again my research pdf because it was stunning, absolutely amazing. hope you enjoy the final editorials x 

dear lazy towners,

last term was like an ocean of roses but this term is driving me crazy - mostly because i have to manage my uni schedule with my work - so akemi is slowly forgetting how to properly live (((; plus my mental health is like a roller coaster, uhu! student life and uni experience non existent <333 

anyways... the video above is the first version of my animation for a uni project (we have to animate a song of our choice, and i picked murder song from aurora, the queen of dark folk pop fans). i was quite ambitious in the beginning and was aiming to create a full length animated video but, but, again.. busy schedule (((; - maybe im just blaming my schedule to not realizing that i just can't properly manage well my time he he. 

during the final review tutorial thingy, tutors pointed that the scene where the blue hand shoots the red head was too choppy and some frames were too literal (telling in a literal way the story of the song, basically just following the lyrics). not gonna lie, i couldn't deal well with the criticism cause id put a lot of effort for this buuuuut that's ok cause it helped me to create new - and better - scenes and improve others. 😗 

hello lazy towners, 

second year started and it feels amazing to be back in track with illustration - this year i am exploring way more my skills than last year, god's timing is always perfect - and i just submitted my first and maybe last project of the term and it feels so nice to know that this term i could balance myself and do both traditional and digital drawing, just feel very happy and proud of my work. 

so i just wanted to share a little bit what we did during this term - it's not done yet, still have fashion illustration and other stuffs coming uhu. 

first task to be shared is the little drawing exercise called Circular Potential we did, so relaxing and nice to explore my ideas about illustration around a singular shape. i thought it would be super easy to do this task but in the midway i just didn't know what else to draw hahaha but still had a lot of fun ( i think having fun and risking more is my motto for this year ) 

dear upper east siders,

here are more works I did during and after academic year 

drink water, don't eat too much salt and listen to BIBI - 비비

xoxo gg 

Collab with Mia Wignall: I can only say she's amazing and her work is amazing and you should go check her website and instagram now! 

Self-care: everybody needs this, no matter the gender and age. 

Dear Second Term, 

I thought you would be easy to deal with but girl, you nasty. 

So for the second term we had to do a drawing journal which I unfortunately don't have with me in the present moment cause our sketchbooks are still in the uni - thanks to covid19 🙃. I should not complain cause at least I made it, I could finish something I thought I wouldn't even be able to start. 

What you're seeing now is just my researches for a project based on The Velveteen Rabbit. We had other book options, but I thought making illustrations for a children's book would be way easier than the other options we had - and boy, I was so wrong. But with the help of God and Christina Aguilera, here it is. 

Book cover: I believe this is the part of the process I enjoyed the most. I didn't know I would have so much fun doing and experimenting different ways to create a book cover. The first one is very shitty (fanfiction covers are way way better than this), but the rest I can say I did a good job... I think. 

The chosen one: I consider this book cover the First of Its Name, the Unburnt - I still can't get over it and it was inspired by Janice Sung's palette. 

A little bit of the process: most of it was done digitally. 

Final result. 

It's now 12:21 am in Tokyo time and I am sitting on my bed while watching Kitchen's Nightmare and it just occured to me that I am not a first year student anymore. Time flyes and we can't disagree. 

So now I am here, remembering all of my good and bad memories and I just wanted to say that I am more than thankful for this first year. It wasn't a sea of roses but it was more than what I was expecting, I made incredible friendships, learned and explored so many things, and I can finally say: I, indeed, learned about myself a little bit more as an artist. 

I am writing this because I just wanna have the memory of the taste of being a first year student, and I also want to remember the three terms I had during the academic year. I shall then start with the first term...

Ok, first term. Hm. Not so great, not so bad. Average. Talked to many people, and made deeper connections with others. About work? what is that? It was like.. yeah. I felt like a baby learning how to walk again, learning the basic of everything and doing some crazy 5 seconds, 10 seconds drawings in our studio. Should I call our room a studio? I wish I could make it look like a real studio. By the way, Ravensbourne, you've got really nice facilities but please, you're an art university, you should have real studios, or at least give Illustration people a fixed room... you know? Just saying. 

Here is some of my works from First Term of Illustration for Communication: 

First works I made during the first weeks: life drawings (outside of uni and during studio sessions), collages and mixed media. 

Unkown London: maybe one of my favorite outcomes of a project so far! Posters inspired by a trip to Chislehurst I went on with two friends. 

Love / Hate London (sketchbook pages):  part of my research and a few ideas for the final project, had so much fun and stress for this. 

Trigger warning : mental health conditions

This project is an illustrative zine for my Illustration for Communication course, third term of first year, final assessment. The purpose of this campaign is to talk about mental health and raise awareness in an artistic and illustrated way. For this, I have talked to several people so i could understand how they are affected by their mental health conditions, and how they would describe their feelings through colors. One way to treat mental health conditions is by using music as therapy, so I asked them what songs bring them happiness, nostalgia and good vibrations during stressful moments and hard days, promoting as well different music genres.

                                            *           *           *

Interesting information I found during the survey about mental health:

- In the survey, there was a question about if people think whether mental health 'labels' cause more harm than good. Most of the people that answered this question said that labeling a mental health disorder helped them to understand their conditions. Diagnosing a condition also helped some of them with loneliness issues, connecting them to other people who also suffer from the same disorder. However, a few people thought that it could cause harm because of the constant worry or feeling trapped in a stigma.

                                           *           *           *

I just realised I should have done the same when we had workshop with Matilda, Esther and Peter *sorry for any misspelling*

I get easily distracted or bored when I am not having a face-to-face class so in order to prevent this from happening, I started making quick doodles with important things mentioned during the zoom sessions which I will be sharing here. 

For this workshop, we had 3 different tasks to be made. 

Task BEFORE the session: 

Before the session, we had to try out the platform DrawChat (super cool but can be a bit difficult to draw and organise things with 5 people joining the same chat) and review our individual projects ( illustrated campaign ). and prepare a list of key words. 

This is the drawing I did just to test DrawChat

Task 1: 

This time, we had to use DrawChat in groups of 4-5 people. Mine had Eb, Ronnie and Phoe. For this task, we had to make Venn Diagrams with our keywords ( the common thing in our diagram was how the new virus has been affecting our lives ). 

We also made a few - loads - of drawings around the diagrams after finishing the task *ops, I did it again*

Task 2: 

For the last task, we had created an illustration for inclusion. We had to illustrate our common ground from our own perspective of inclusivity. To make the illustration, we considered the group discussion about our projects during the Venn Diagram task. Considered as well: what was common amongst our group out of these areas of inclusivity? 

We should choose a platform to illustrate within out of the following three: 

- Pamphlet/leaflet format

- Poster and their placement

- Social Media post

My subject was anxiety ( during the lockdown, our common ground ). I wanted to make it simple and direct, easy to be understood with a short message. I also chose social media post as a platform thinking about how I could engage with my audience and see their responses. 

Task introduction: 

For this workshop, we had to create a series of three illustrations especially produced to be published as an instagram story. They should be inspired by a personal experience during the lockdown period that captures one or more of:

- something that made me laugh;

- an oserved injusticed;

- a moment of significance ( object or something i want to remember);

- things i miss

The series might be a collection of images, a comic panel or an animated GIF. 

Task 1: 

I started by brainstorming my ideas. I chose to create a series of illustration about things and people I miss the most. 

- my boyfriend, who is currently in South Korea; 

- socialising, going out with friends and breathing pure air;

- and the amazing banoffee waffle from Kaspa's ( I used to go to gym only to be able to buy this precious and don't feel guilty for eating it ). 

However, it felt too vague the second illustration so I chose illustrating my two closest friends since it is the definition of socialising. 

Opening of the animation - Waffles

Frames for the animation - Friends, miss them so much 

End of the animation - My partner in crime

Process: Frames animated (High Resolution) 

After making the animations, I realised I made a mistake with the second illustration. I should have changed the colour of the left girl's jacket since it is not that visible because it blends with the background ( I should have used a stronger tone of the same colour ), but I was pretty satisfied with the outcome.

Magnificent Obsessions - Independent Zine Project

Task introduction: 

For this project, we had to make an illustrated zine inspired by a collection of our own choice. The collection could be anything that we recognise to be in a grouping or commonality.  

We should consider: 

Audio, digital, physical collection, grouping of things, people, ephemera, archives, and online collections. It could be either mine or someone else's collection. 

- The relationship between the collector and collection;

- What makes these things become a collection, where is commonality?;

 - Does their context make them a collection? 

Task 1: 

My first idea for the illustrated zine was to talk about diversity inside of the fashion industry. I though about using real textures and photographs to build the project. 

Research: 

Inspiration: Fast Fashion Zine by Elle McGreevy 

However, because of Covid-19, I wasn't able to leave my accommodation to use the printer and find good quality materials so I had to think about a second plan. 

When the UK went into lockdown, the level of my self-steem dropped drastically. I was feeling so anxious because no one was able to properly leave their houses and socialise, I was feeling awful, unsafe, and deeply sad with the whole situation and also with the fact that, with the quarantine, I was eating 24/7. I was unhappy with my own body. After a few weeks, I started gaining courage to finally move and do somethings, watch something that would hype me up. Although I had friends in my accommodation, it still felt like I was alone so I thought about making this illustrative zine a place of refuge for all of my insecurities and sadness. A way for me to remember that I should try to love myself the way that I am and if I ever want, I can make my body look good by exercising and treating myself well. 

This zine has a huge emotional value to me, I created it thinking about how others could relate to what I feel and how we can, together, fight against these insecurities. When I create an illustration, most of the times I talk about mental health and self-care because it is something really important to me and to my audience and I feel like it has to be reminded. 

I wanted to keep the zine simple, direct but still full of important messages. I usually spent time thinking about how an illustration will look, which colours to use but this time I just wanted to focus on its messages using a limited palette.

Task 1: 

For this workshop, we had to work as a group and spend some time looking at three texts about The Freemasons helping with the production of sanitised alcohol ( Covid-19 related ), the polemic videos of aliens released by the Pentagon and Women in prisons during the 1910's. Next, we had to brainstorm and discuss about the texts. 

Task 2:

Using our discussions as a starting point, we worked to build a research pack for all three texts to help support understand the articles. The following research packs were created individually using Photoshop and articles from various sources from the internet for a better understanding of the contents. 

Article 1: https://www.economist.com/britain/2020/04/25/the-freemasons-want-to-be-known-for-hand-wash-not-handshakes

Article 2  : https://www.indy100.com/article/scientist-theory-why-havent-met-aliens-yet-berezin-pantagon-ufo-videos-8382286

Task 3: 

For the last task, we had to choose one of the articles to illustrate. So I chose to illustrate the second article about aliens. 

For this project, we had to share something from the place that we are/were based, that we think will be of interest or use to someone else. 

Our message could be: 

- something to entertain, distract

- practical / helpful advice

- sharing some kind of information or knowldge 

The methods of communication should be non-internet based. 

We also had to consider:

- what can fit through a letter box;

- how far can we throw something from a window or a door;

- what can we display / exhibit from our windows;

- sound / film screening / public perfomance / demonstration, etc. 

Task 1: 

For the first task, we had to work as a group and brainstorm the following questions: 

- where are you / who can you reach?

- what would you like to say?

- what are the different ways this could be done - considering both form and content.

My group had Phoe and Laya and we basically just talked about our thoughts and how we, as individuals, would do our message in a bottle. We also gave to each other feedbacks and more ideas. 

Task 2:

Since I was living in student accommodation during the project process and I was about to leave to go back to Japan, I had the idea of writing a nice and encouraging message (because of the lockdown, many international students were trapped inside of the accommodation) to the room next to mine and give to the neighbour (a french girl) some essential supplies such as toilet-paper, detergent, pasta, etc. I also decided to record the process in a 'Vine' or 'Tik-Tok' style instead of just taking picture of the message. 

Task: 

Collect 3 examples of images, illustrations, artworks, photographs, etc., that challenge some of the misconceptions discussed during the previous workshop ( Image / Representation / Empathy ) 

Task 1: 

In groups ( Ella, Eb, Akemi, Sarah and James ), we had to brainstorms what are the most common misconceptions or prejudices about the communities we belong to and who makes these judments or where do we see evidence of these judgements? 

These illustrations above were part of our brainstorm ( my collaboration ). 

When I was a little girl, I used to hear so many sexist conversations coming from either men and women and as I grew up, I became more and more in feminism. The first illustration contains phrases I often heard when being a child. 

The second illustration is a misconception people often have about Brazil. The country, where I was born, is seen as a country of political corruption. Although Brazil's politics is corrupted, we can't associated the country that has so many beautiful and touristic places and exotic food with only negative things. 

My third illustration for our brainstorm is a gesture considered racist and a prejudice towards East and South asians. The slanted-eye offends South/East asians and western people need to understand this. 

Task 2: 

As individuals, we had to choose a theme inspired by our discussions. It doesn't have to be informed by our personal experience. Then, we had to make one illustration that challenges these misconceptions. I chose to make a little gif about feminism and the most popular misconceptions about it. 

For this workshop, students had to work in group. My group had Hanif, Charlotte, Shaun and I. 

The first step was to brainstorm together our experiences during the UK lockdown following these questions:

1.What have been the most unexpected or surprising experiences, emotions and/or realisations? These might be serious concerns or light-hearted observations, and related to any aspect of your life or environment. 

  2.How has your life changed: life hacks and amendments to everyday living, working and leisure time? Increased / decreased responsibilities? new things that now make you worried or happy? 3.Considering ways of communicating and connecting with people and groups during social isolation, what have been the most: Inventive, practical and/or successful? 

What technologies - audio, screen based, physical - have been used? 

Who have you needed to connect to and for what reasons, could be individuals, groups, for work, worship, study, socialising etc.? 

We all participated in the brainstorm and I was the one responsible for putting all of our thoughts together. 

The last step was to present visually how we, as a group, would communicate our experiences. We had to decide together if there was any particular themes, similarities, differences we wanted to represent and how we could edit accordingly. Plus, think about ways of working we have used before such as gids, drawings, posters, collage, etc. 

The group members sent images and pictures related to our experiences to Hanif who was the one responsible to put all of our images together.