Theories of everything

When we were first given this brief I was a bit  confused as to what we were supposed to do, as in some instances it seemed as though we were expected to create our own theory and produce a series of illustrations based on that and at other times it seemed as though we were expected to pick an existing theory and explain that.
Despite the initial confusion, the project became clearer in the actual presentation briefing where we were shown an illustrative animation done by the company "Cognitive" explaining Stephen Hawking's theory "Do Black Holes Have No Hair?"

I particularly liked how they used pictures with limited text to explain the words that were being said and how they would sometimes draw "jokey" images associated with some of the words to help the listener understand the theory.

I started my project by researching a number of theories, some more scientific such as the "nature vs. nurture" argument and others more psychological such as those surrounding dreams and why we encounter certain types of dreams.

I then settled on "The Theory of Plate Tectonics" a topic that I was quite familiar with as I studied it for A-level Geography. When learning about this subject we were shown various diagrams and ways of remembering the different components to this theory and I wanted to share my methods of learning through my book as it could be used to help children or other students studying the subject for A-level have a deeper understanding of the topic.

I looked at the work of Marion Deuchars and Paula Scher for their innovative use of imagery and text layout and how the two can work together.

Marion Deuchars

Paula Scher 

These two illustrators/graphics designers merge both text and illustration, intertwining them to make one dynamic image.

Workshops

During these three weeks we also had a number of workshops, including type layout and book binding. I found the book binding workshop very relevant and useful as I am not good with producing animations and therefore chose to do a book for my final outcome for the theory project. In this workshop we explored the different ways books can be made and that you can tailor the size and shape of the book to suit what is inside.

During the workshop I produced a concertina book showing one of my type transformations and printing my crinkled foil scan onto florescent paper for the front cover which I thought was very effective.

The workshops were very informative for the current project and after participating I decided that I would produce a concertina book for my final outcome. During the workshop we also experimented with printing onto different types of paper and I also decided that I would print the final illustrated theory on tracing paper.

I then drew up a series of sketches planning out how the book would be set out and what order the different elements of the theory would appear in.

I then got to work on manually producing illustrations that could be scanned into the computer and printed onto tracing paper to then be made into the final book.

Setting out the illustrations and text on photoshop was a very lengthly process as I had to keep to certain measurements and tidy up some of the illustrations.

The last week of the project was very much dominated by the FMP and the difficult task of coming up with a suitable idea. So it was difficult juggling the two and this meant that I probably spent too long on this project however I thought it was worth it as I was very pleased with the final outcome. 

I planned to print the title on the front cover in white however for some reason this did not work when I printed the pages to then be folded into the concertina. Because of this issue I decided to print it in a dark shade of turquoise/blue and I thought it went well with notion of continents and the sea surrounding them.

3/3 projects in two weeks- Alphabetype

I wasn't really sure on the last project I wanted to do and chose the "make your own alphabet" one because I thought it might be quite fun.
However I didn't know where to start so I started by looking at letters made out of everyday objects such as food.

I then created a photographic alphabet of my own using things I found around the house and even using my own body to create some letters.

I then went on to trace some of the letters and this seemed to produce some interesting illustrative designs, for example the "D" made out of pasta.

I traced some letters is just black and white and added colour to others, but I thought that the ones done in just black and white were the most interesting as the viewer is allowed to concentrate on just the shape and form of the letter.

 



















Perhaps inspired by the recently popular adult colouring books I started to experiment with printing out different letters of the alphabet in different fonts, tracing the outline and filling them with decorative indian designs.

Although these too seemed ok in black and white I preferred them in colour as the boldness and brightness of the pro markers makes them more engaging for the viewer.

This was my favourite technique out of all my experimentations with creating letter forms and so I decided to go with this idea, creating the whole alphabet using the font and colour scheme from the first "A" pictured above.

2/3 projects in two weeks- Illustration covers

I was very excited about this project as it was more suited for the area I am going into after the foundation course. I enjoyed being able to pick the projects that we wanted to do out of a number of options as we had the choice of working with topics that were more suited to our style or doing a project that wasn't in our comfort zone but that would make our portfolios more versatile.

When researching both the New Scientist and Economist magazine covers I found that some were more graphic or more illustrative than others. I liked how in most cases the designer seemed to pick at least two words from the given title to work with by merging sometimes obvious images associated with the words and putting a whole other spin on the concept being discussed. For example the illustration in the image below features the trail of a "butterfly" forming the shape of a cloud, an image obviously associated with "climate".

Some covers, like the one above I liked more for their conceptual purpose and use of word play but for others it was the intriguing visual qualities that really inspired me (see bellow).

Out of the 8 titles we had to chose from I thought that Artificial intelligence was the most interesting topic to work with. I started to experiment with imagery I personally associated with Artificial intelligence including mechanical cogs and code. I also liked the idea of using an image of an eye as this is one of the most common associations with a human's unique identity, an aspect of the human condition which is ultimately destroyed in the creation of AI. I feel that only time will tell wether AI is a good or bad thing for the human race, as it could provide us with so many advantages, for example it could be used to do many jobs that humans might find undesirable, however there is also the prospect that it could potentially be dangerous. I feel that the title "Artificial intelligence wins" could be indicative or either side of the argument, therefore I didn't wish to portray any bias surrounding the topic in my magazine cover but instead focus purely on the visual and what images came to mind when thinking of the subject.

One technique that particularly caught my interest when researching previous magazine covers for these companies was the use of negative spaces. One artist I know who repetitively uses this concept is John Stezaker. Within his work the contrast of images within the original and the negative space work to take the viewer into a different dimension. However I wanted to use this technique to explore the contrast between the very normal image of human life as we know it and the injection of AI which seems somewhat "unnatural" to us. This might suggest how in the future this technology could be hidden amongst us without our recognition.

I experimented with filling the negative portrait space with the image of machine cogs and then decided to illustrate this image.

I then went on to do colour and typography experiments for the outcome.

This lead me on to create my first final outcome pictured bellow. Although I thought it was quite successful, I wanted to develop this project further and spent more time than I perhaps should have doing a second outcome.

Another image that came to mind when thinking about the subject was the image of neurons particularly in the human brain.

I then started to experiment with ways of creating this image for example using watercolours, inks and a straw to blow the colours in different directions away from a centre point.

I also crinkled up foil and scaned this into the computer. I additionally used this piece of foil to take rubbings of the texture which also created an interesting image.

It was then suggested to me by one of the tutors that I could layer my previous illustrated image of the mechanical cogs and the scan of the crinkled foil on top of each other using the layer blending tool on photoshop, which worked well creating many different image options.

The outcome which I liked the most was the middle one in the picture above and I decided to use this to create a second outcome for the magazine cover.

I would have to say that I prefer the second outcome as it wasn't intentional, and I think that the spontaneous nature of it makes it increasingly successful.

1/3 projects in two weeks- Type Transformers

This project consisted of taking a letter and transforming it into a picture of something that began with the same letter. For instance the letter "n" has been turned into a picture of a nose in the picture bellow.

I chose this project as I found it very interesting to see how the letters morphed into something else, making the visual almost uncanny as you can see how the pictures have been created out of letters.

When doing my research it was also insightful to see how this process can be done in a varied amount of steps. In some cases I found that transformations done in the least amount of steps were the most engaging because you could clearly see the changes that the letter had undergone to get to the end product. However in many of the examples I found that the end picture didn't look anything like the original letter. So in my experiments and final outcomes I wanted to concentrate on still being able to see the original letter in someway within the final outcome.

I found it very hard to think of new and innovative ways this process could be done and, although it seems like it would be a relatively quick project to do, the time constraints added to the difficulty of thinking of other letters that could be transformed into pictures. If I had more time I would have liked to have done more experimentation and development to explore the topic further. However I was pleased with some of my outcomes as I felt that they still embodied the original letter.

Campaign project

When given the brief for this project I again found it difficult to come up with an idea to work with as it can sometimes be difficult to express your certain view point on a subject especially when it is a sensitive subject or you know a lot of people in the group may think differently. However after looking at a variety of previous campaigns I realised that it doesn't have to be on such a well known or publicised topic.

After looking at more serious campaigns to do with humans, such as gun laws in America, I started looking at a subject I am passionate about, animals. I thought about doing a campaign against animal abuse however I wanted to do something a bit more uplifting so I decided to look at animal rescue campaigns for shelter and in particular dog shelters.

I have two rescue dogs and so I feel strongly about the topic and feel that if a person is looking for a dog they should go to a rescue home instead of straight to a breeder.

 I liked these campaigns as they used humour and played around with text and image to portray different aspects of having a pet that the public can relate to.

I wanted to use this same kind of humour in my campaign.

I started by thinking of the humorous qualities I see in my dogs and how I might apply these to my campaign poster to make them affective. One of my dogs has a very regal quality about him as he always sits in a way that makes him look as though he is a posh aristocrat. Therefore I experimented with witty captions I could put with a picture of him sitting in this way and settled on the one in the final poster pictured bellow.

Data project

When I was given this title I was a bit unsure of how to tackle the task as it could be said that the outcome for this project required a more digital approach, an area that I am not too comfortable with. What made it increasingly difficult to justify working by hand instead of on a computer was that often when working with data one has to be very precise as it involves exact figures. However researching the topic, I started to think of ways around this problem and how relative representation of figures can be just as effective as exact and calculated forms.

They above image documents my initial idea exploration. I thought about working with genetics and how the DNA of someone might be represented through and image that compliments the subject, such as righting a person's physical characteristics along the lines in an image of a fingerprint.

I also liked the idea of working with a map and different countries, experimenting ideas such as the different countries an airline would fly to or the demographics of a curtain country.

The second day of this week was a self directed study day so I took the opportunity to go and see the recommend "Big Bang Data" exhibition and Somerset House.

There were a few pieces that particularly caught my attention and sparked ideas for the data project. For example "World Processor" by Ingo Gunther consists of a series of globes that graphically describe information from the time they were created. There are over 1,000 pieces in the series produced between 1989 and 2015, each using the world map to represent data on a political, economic, geographical, social, historical, environmental and technological issues.

Bellow are some other pieces from the exhibition that I liked. The first uses photographs to document a certain place or memory and then underneath is written certain details of when and where the photo was taken and the significance of it. I like this way of representing data as it combined both image and words to help with the understanding of what was being communicated.

For the image bellow I like how embroidery thread has been used here to connect different aspects of the display. It helps the viewer to visualise the connection between the different elements, helping them to understand the data that is being presented to them.

On the wednesday we did a quick 1 hour exercise where we had to come up with a question and go around the room asking 15 people to answer it. We then had think of a way to represent this data and complete it in about 45 minutes. The speed of this task was quite stressful and almost forced you to go with the first idea you had without giving it much thought. After having changed my question a few times, I went with asking people what their favourite month was. Combining the image of the world and the sun, to communicate the notion of time and seasons, with a slightly abstracted bar chart the viewer is able to see those months that are most popular with my sample of people.

Below is more examples of my design process and idea exploration and development.

My final piece consisted of a world map showing the different places in the world that I have been to by means of showing the trail that I would have taken to get there. This therefore represents the places that I may have left aspects of my personal data, as in today's society the simple action of taking a photo with a smart phone can reveal where in the world a person has been.

Bowie Boxes

In memory of David Bowie who died on the Monday of this week, on the Friday we had to do a one day project which consisted of making a box however we wanted that was inspired by Bowie and/or one of his songs.

I chose the Song "Starman", although I don't listen to many Bowie songs, it is one that has stuck in my mind and I quite like. I intended to make the box in the shape of a pyramid for no particular reason but it seemed that it would turn out too small to put anything in so I experimented with placing the cardboard in different positions and the box resulted in an abstract shape that seemed to compliment the "star" aspect of the name of my chosen song.

I then decided to use my preferred medium of watercolour on the outside of the box to create the image of a deeply colourful but misty galaxy to again compliment the notion of a "star". To enhance this image I draw silver stars on top of the colour which I thought worked well.

I then proceeded to add the lyrics on the inside of the box, first by painting the inside black and then by writing the lyrics on the cardboard with gold pen. Again I thought that these colours worked well together, helping the lyrics to stand out.

It was suggested to me by one of the tutors that I could hang my box up in some way and I liked this idea as I thought it complimented the shape of the box and added to the image of it being a "star". I did this discretely with thin white thread.

Overall I like my outcome as I thought that the different aspects of the box from the form to the colours and the song complimented each other well. Sometime I feel that I work well in these one day long workshops/projects and produce better outcomes than the one week long ones as I feel I am pressured to come up with an idea quickly and find it easier to complete something in this given time frame.