ALL TUTORIAL NOTES ARE WRITTEN IN RED IN THE SKETCHBOOK AND PROCESS BOOK.
‘The Evolution of the Written Message’ from famous handwritten letters to emoji was a very interesting concept to explore and I had a lot of fun playing around with language and visuals to show the progression or degradation of the English Language from then to now.
The blog is the main base of my research, where I have posted important links often referred back to, as well as some insightful projects that have inspired me along the way. Visiting the ‘Making Your Mark’ exhibition at the British Library really helped push my ideas forward and allowed me to finalize my concept. I think that I responded well to feedback throughout the project and widely experimented with visuals.
The final printing stages of FMP were very difficult and ultimately affected my outcomes. If I had more time, I would have made sure that the printer I used was of much higher quality; the studio printer unfortunately did not work as well as some mock-up test prints. For example, my white Helvetica Regular on blue is a bit hard to see and the colour has almost bled into the words. Some lower opacity text is also not visible, differing to the final PDF file. However, pushed for time I had to use these in my final outcome as it was the only way possible in such a short frame of time. If my time management was better this may have been avoided. I was working on the final outcomes for longer than expected and I felt rushed at times, and it got to a point where I had to trim it down myself, however I fully enjoyed my concept and had a lot of fun with my ideas.
The most enjoyable part of the project was sketchbook work and exploring a wide range of ideas through sketches, plans and mock ups which built up my body of work. Although I am indecisive and regret not reaching a final idea a lot earlier on in the project, it was great to think about alternative directions. I was able to experiment with a range of visuals which finally led me to my idea.
Trying to do FMP at the same time as ISTD was a challenge. If I had more time, I would have liked to think of a more functional supporting outcome to the letters instead of an introduction booklet. Indeed, I am glad that I made this as it functions as a visual key to the reader, however I would have liked to consider its form even further. I slightly preferred some previous experiments with the glossary sheets, perhaps due to better use of hierarchy, but in response to feedback, the book form became more fitting in the end.
The process book suffered slightly due to poor time management however I think that I recorded the main turning points of the project and highlighted key development and experimentation. With more time I would have played with a bit more hierarchy in the design of it and I would have liked to show the final outcomes and further research at the end. I did however love the front cover design with the emojis!
I am fairly happy with the final outcome and enjoyed making the envelopes by hand. I felt that the font choices of Meta Serif and Helvetica played with the opposition between the handwritten and social media message and I was pleased with how they looked on the envelope front/back. As mentioned above, I would have been a lot happier with it if I printed the letter sheets on a different printer, which is what I can do beyond the deadline. To be critical, the supporting introduction book could have been improved in the glossary section; the Helvetica Bold was a lot stronger than on test prints. With more time this would have been more successful but it was a fairly last minute edition to tie the concept together for the audience.
Overall, the project was enjoyable and a great concept to play with, but also challenging, and I have learnt that not everything goes to plan towards the end!
Please find bibliography in the next blog post.
discoholicmusic
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
dededos
vaporwave
origamiaround
romaincrisis