Thursday 30th march: Year one finale.

The wicked witch. from Anna Loveland on Vimeo.


For this workshop we were asked to create a right to left animation themed on the night sky. I wanted to make a more complex illustration using my newly learnt illustrator skills so that i could create a slightly simpler animation to fit in the collaboration.

These are the separate layers i had to create to make the animation.

I used this tutorial to get the effect of the wings flapping on my bats, this is something i had to investigate after the workshop using a youtube tutorial. And the video below is our final collaboration of the videos. I want to improve my animation further and getting more complex movement in the bat wings , witches clothes and broom stick , as if its floating through the wind. I would also like to add sound effects and music.


Group B Finale - 16:40 from Motion-go on Vimeo.


   
         

Tuesday 21st March: Kinetic typography 2, 3D space

Supermarket_flowers from Anna Loveland on Vimeo.

For this workshop we were asked to explore 3D space, using the z-axis and kinetic typography. We were asked to create a piece of work inspired by a song, piece of poetry or literature that inspired us. The task was to first create illustrations telling the story of the words chosen.

I wanted to create illustrations that were quite simple so that i could play around with more complicated effects in After effects, without the overall composition becoming too complicated. I chose a song called Supermarket flowers by Ed Sheeran. I chose this because it is one of my favourite songs at this moment in time and i love the style of illustrations and the theme behind his current album. I wanted to use this to inspire my own style, so that it links to Ed Sheeran and the song.

Ed Sheerans album style, which i used as inspiration.

 I had already designed that i wanted to use the colour scheme in my work, and i loved the contrast of the black against the white illustrations. I used a mixture of pro markers and post pens to create my illustrations, to create a rough and sketchy style to my work.

My initial sketches.

I then created a background for my work in photoshop. I used the album cover as a swatch for the colour, lowering the opacity and layering it over a chalk texture.

Background breakdown.

 In the end i had to spend a lot of time outside the workshop after learning the techniques using z-axis, to finish the video as i wanted to create a 30 second clip instead of the suggested 10 seconds. Overall i am really proud of my outcome, it took a lot of work but i think it reflects a variety of the skills i have learnt in after effects over the past few months. In the future i would love to carry on this motion graphics and create a narration for the whole song.

Monday 20th march: Appropriation part 2, memes.

Appeopriation is taking something that exists and transforming it. Salvador Dali said that ' this ewho try to be original fail to create anything at all". He inspired the idea of recycling designs and ideas that are already out there to create. In this next section on post production and appropriation we looked at examples of parody, pastiche, satire in visual design as a way of achieving:

• Humour
• Political commentary
• Critique
• Layered understanding/engagement
• Nostalgia 

Pop art began to use existing media and the style suddenly became very popular. Andy Warhol based his work solely around using existing media, creating many thought provoking pieces that conveyed a controversial message. For example the electric chair, which was a very controversial subject at the time. Many people say that the way he repeated the image suggests that the subject is loosing its meaning as more and more people are being executed, others say the emptiness of the chair is a sarcastic way of saying it is waiting for its next victim.

Banksy is a modern day example of an artist that uses appropriation in his work. He does this in a different way, instead of taking imagery thats already out there and transforming it he takes political problems in society and transforms them instead twisting them in a visual way. Taking problems in society and politically commenting on them , critiquing them in a humorous but thought provoking style.

This modern day concept has developed into a new breed of appropriation. Memes. A meme is a an image ,video or piece of design , typically humorous in nature, that tackles controversial matters going on in the world. It is something that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, taking whats already out there and twisting it and putting a new point of view on it.

We were given a task of creating our own visual memes out of popular news stories of the moment. I tried to use the style of Banksys work to influence my memes giving it that graffiti style as if someone is totally disrespecting the subject matter and making a joke of it by drawing all over it. These were the three meme pieces me and a partner created.

The story behind this image is Donald trump wanting to build a wall to separate Mexico from America. We used the idea of painting a fake tunnel onto the wall, to humourise such a controversial political subject from this moment in time. This idea is very often depicted in cartoons, in which characters are trying to trick there arch enemy. Below is an example of this concept.

This meme had a slightly simple and more light hearted meaning behind it. It is showing someone graffitiing on the Berlin wall. A silly face which is so light hearted drawn on a subject that is very serious, trying to make light of the situation.

This next meme was inspired buy the pop art style of appropriation. You can clearly see we were depicting the highly controversial idea that there is a strong correlation between Adolf Hitler and Donald trump. Therefore here we are politically commenting on this subject through visual design.

  

Wednesday 15th march: Out and about.

These are a collection of photographs that i have taken over the past few months whilst out and about in huddersfield. They weren't taken for this project, but just for my own personal archive of photos in my spare time, i like to take photos when i see something interesting and sketch them later creating my own interpretation. But i thought i could add these to my primary research for this project.

Wednesday 15th march: Beginning to look for research materials.

Today i started to look for secondary research materials that weren't on the internet. I came across these books in the library that i thought would be great for inspiration. Three books, one on typography another on print & finish and another on colour. I think these will help me to achieve technically impressive and professional designs throughout my publication.

Tuesday 14th march: Exploring Huddersfield photographing found/hidden typography.

Today me and a fellow student explored Huddersfield to collect primary research finding and photographing hidden typography. These are a selection of photos i took, this is going to be one of many primary research collections i make. I took so many photos i had to refine them into the ones i wanted to use and the ones i didn't. Although i was thinking that i might use the all of my poorer and blurry photos and create something with them in a part of my publication.

Monday 13th March: Post production , development, theory lecture inspiration.

The following monday i was in a theory lecture about Post Production, in which i had a moment of inspiration. Post production is about how artists and designers recreate work from things that are already out there in the world. So i decided that as well as documenting found typography as photographs in my publication, i am going to create work out of the photos i take of found typography, and recreate them into new pieces of work. I will then document these creations alongside the photographs in my publication, bringing a reasoned and personal response to my work.

I found a book called 'steal like an artist' that developed my thoughts further about how my work links to post production. It gave me a few thoughts to consider whilst creating my designs and researching:

1. "Write the book you want to read" - i am designing a publication/magazine of found and hidden typography, something that i really love and that i think is under appreciated and is something that i would love to see as a piece of design work.

2. "Don't wait until you know who you are to get started"- i just jumped straight into to my brainstorming, instead of mulling over thinking of an idea thats personal to me, i let my ideas develop in order to figure out what i wanted to do.

3. "Side projects and hobbies are important"- i am basing my project on something that interests me outside of university and work, i love to collect lost and found things and objects and collate them together as a whole.

4."The Secret: Do work and share it with people"- after i have created my designs i am going to share my ideas, thoughts and work with people to see if they can appreciate the concept behind my designs. I want people to start noticing these beautiful pieces of typography that they just work past everyday and think nothing of.

"Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use - do the work you want to see done."


Development of my own work to this theory

Original image.

My original edit. 

My final creation. 

I think this demonstrates post production really well. I took an image of typography from the streets, something that people don't really look at as a modern piece of design, and made it into something aesthetically pleasing. This is now featuring as a spread in my final design for self negotiated brief. "The Secret: Do work and share it with people"- after i have created my designs i am going to share my ideas, thoughts and work with people through my magazine. I want to see if they can appreciate the concept behind my designs. I want people to start noticing these beautiful pieces of typography that they just work past everyday and think nothing of, linking to post production through recreation and transformation of the imagery.

Sunday 12th march: Previous photoshoot of typography.

I did this photoshoot during the Sense of place project. This is part of what inspired me to develop the idea further, using photos i had already taken as a spring board to inspire my next photoshoots. These are not edited , they are just the raw files that i thought were the best photographs.

Saturday 11th March: Brainstorm of ideas.

The springboard for my thought process was branding. A topic branched from my essay question Brands vs Anit-brands. I knew I didn't want to rebrand an existing product , i wanted to do something personal and original. So i started to think about maybe branding my self and thinking about things that i enjoy,  that are a part of me , that i could incorporate into a project. This project can be about absolutely anything, therefore, i wanted it to be about something that i enjoy and am passionate about, a design to solve a problem of my own. Something that stood out from this was my love for lost and found items , and collecting odd and hidden things and making something beautiful out of them. So i decided this was going to be the theme for my project.

Following this i was taking a look in Waterstones that day and i discovered a book full of famous typographers sketchbook work. John Baeders work reminded me of a theme i explored in my previous sense of place project, in which i discovered a publication that inspired me to explore found and hidden typography on the streets around Huddersfield. 

 

This is the book i found in Waterstones and the page that inspired me.

The publication was a beautiful selection of photographs taken by a collection of designers representing found typography in cities around the world. Previously in the sense of place project I began to explore hidden typography in my own town Huddersfield, although it was only a small part of my project , but possibly the part i enjoyed the most. Therefore i decided that in this project i wanted to explore this theme further and bring the everyday things people walk past without a glance, something of beauty.

This is the publication that inspired me in sense of place.

During a mad midnight moment i suddenly thought of some ideas and scribbled them all down into a mind map. I had two ideas, one was to create a publication/magazine full of hidden/found

typography and textures around huddersfield, and the other was to make a publication full of my own personal hidden/found typography that i have discovered on the go in different cities. In this publication i will experiment with different ways of  representing and laying out the typography , maybe things like collages and typologys of letters, or signs ect, making something so everyday into a modern piece of design.

Friday 10th March: Brief analysis for self directed brief.

The first stage of my thought process for this project was to thoroughly understand the brief in question. I went through it and selected key words and phrases i thought were essential .

Some of the things i have drawn extra attention to on the page, are the things i feel are the most important elements to this project. It is important that the my contextual research under pins my ideas and designs, preferably linking together my theory and practice. It is also vital that i gather inspiration, from other practitioners who have done similar things to what i am planning to do, and also to look at general creative influences to inspire my techniques, aesthetics and concepts. A broad affluence of research is also vital to the project and that i refine of multiple solutions at the end of the project.

Monday 6th march: Jay Payne lecture, sketchbook notes.

This lecture is one of the talks that i felt has mostly inspired my developing practice. It was  about using our sketchbooks during the talk to make visual notes, using our imaginations to make the words into a visual form . It wasn't a perfect drawing exercise but one for us to practice doodling without censoring our imaginations, which i think is a really important fundamental of being a designer and something that isn't made priority of these days. It highlighted the importance of sketchbooks for us as designers and the importance of exploration and not censoring your initial ideas and thoughts. It was an exercise to remove solid thinking of am i allowed to express that or draw that, and help us to just do it. 

I found this concept really useful, helping me to visual the notes helped me to gain a deeper understanding of what was being spoken about. I used doodling in a way that linked all the ideas and concepts being spoken about together in a chronological way using arrows and exaggerated lines. It helped me to picture the links between subjects and ideas. These are my visual notes from the lecture.

The task following the lecture. 

"This week we want you to use your sketched notes from the lecture (these will inevitably be less direct and more open to interpretation than written notes) as a starting point think about ways of creatively generating or recording ideas. Choose an element(s) of your sketches and begin to develop this into something visually interesting and conceptually meaningful. Try to be relaxed and not to censor this process." 

Key words and phrases: Creativley generating and recording ideas 

                                       Developing your sketches

                                       Visually interesting 

                                       Conceptually meaningful

                                       Do not censor the process

I began by thinking of the concept behind my original sketches. It was to help me visualise the ideas i was talking about in a way that flowed and linked all my ideas and thoughts together. I wanted to try and develop this as a visual style. I started to begin to look at if this style was already something that existed in the design world. Turns out many designers use it as a way of visually organising there thoughts. This is a designer i follow on Instagram i love her style of creating visual flow charts , and the original hand drawn typography.

This is my initial experiment of visual flow charting. Its quite rough and i think the style needs refining , but its something i really want to go on and develop in my own time especially the style of the typography i use, i want to create my own.

This workshop began to make me think about the importance of a designers sketchbook, and how i would love to see how other people create and develop there initial thoughts and ideas through doodling and sketching. I came across a book in waterstones called "Typographix sketchbooks" in which more than one hundred of the worlds leading typographers and graphic designers open up their private sketchbooks. It was so interesting to see how other people work compared to myself and all the different styles. Over the summer i would love to develop a collection of my own sketchbooks just documenting every day events ,conversations i have with people , thoughts i make. I think this will help me develop my initial thinking process in my practice a lot more.