my learning journal

A lot of things went well when working collaboratively within the Campaign group and the Protest group. The one main thing that went extremely well in both groups was communication, communication within a group is vital especially when discussing about idea generation, also giving feedback to one another  which helped improve everyone work for example the spacing of the typeface, weight etc. Another positive was that most of us stuck to the deadlines given to us which made is a lot more easier to move on to the next subject and not have a build up of work.

Throughout this collaboration unit, I have so many aspects about working collaboratively. when in a group setting, listening to everyone’s ideas, you need to take this into account to make sure no ones idea is left out and is in discussion with the rest of the group. I’ve also learnt that working with another artist from a different field is beneficial as we both taught each other different aspects from the 2 different fields.

What did not go well was the inconsistency of a few group members, be given deadlines were not always met and the group member did not come in which was unprofessional and also frustrating as there was no communication from the group member. I tried to make sure the group knew what our brief was about and I was checking up on them to see how they were doing and if there work met the brief given.

When contributing to the group, i used my skills to help my fellow group members and also create some striking pieces of work. I explained to the group (mainly Illustration) about having clear typefaces and adjusting the spacing and weight if this needed to be change, creating hierarchy of imagery ad type to create a more professional piece. My strong imagery also was a contribution as my fellow group members took inspiration from my imagery and carried through into there own idea generation and imagery.

From start to end, I have attended every group meeting we arranged to discuss our work. I engaged with my peers often, communicating through a group chat and also in person, presenting our ideas, imagery etc to get feedback. I was committed to this project and also my fellow group members to produce work for this project and focused on each deadline and task given,

Working collaboratively with other designers from different fields has helped me develop my communication skills and has made me so much more confident when showcasing my work and also talking about processes and what led up to it, also having feedback on what to improve upon and not taking offence to it. Working with other designers from different fields has given me an insight and also has prepared me for the future as I will have to work collaboratively with different designers again, and doing this project has made me a more confident to work with other designers in the near future.

 

To create my placards, I firstly chose what designs I wanted to create for the placards and started creating some stencils to use onto the card.

I used stencils as it was quick and easy to create a clean diamond shape, using paper to create these stencils, creating a diamond and the family silhouette.

This was a quick and easy way to create these images, using the clean edges to create a geometric design and the faces to create a staggered family effect. From the research I have found, I noticed that the colour scheme was always bold and contrasted against each other, so using the colours I used in the digital versions I carried this on throughout making these placards.

Layering the black and red to create a gradient effect which will work well against the background as this will merge with the diamond.

Used masking tape to create the lettering in the first placard, I found this was a good way to create the lettering as the stark white background of the lettering works well with the the colours. And for the 2nd design using the gradient effect has worked very well it shows a fade and blending into the diamond.

These will be used for the protest.

I transferred my hand drawn designs digitally using various different Adobe programmes, such as Illustrator, Indesign and Photoshop.

I found these made my placard designs pop out much more as I was able to get the different hues of red which created a more gradient effect which made the designs more cleanly finished and looked professionally done. I was able to create clean crisp designs, creating the effect and atmosphere I was aiming for. Creating a hierarchy for these placards is extremely crucial as the imagery and designs needs to guide the viewers on where to look. I played around with the spacing and the weight of the text, highlighting and extenuating specific words and playing on these by making the weight of the text heavier and the spacing which makes the wording more readable.

After I created these designs, I showed my group on our group chat which designs were the strongest and which showcased the message that was intended, and the feedback I received was all positive and it was hard to choose the strongest pieces, but they were torn between the 2nd, 3rd and 5th design, taking this feedback on board, I will have to choose between the 3 designs that they chose as the strongest. I will be creating stencils and use acrylic paint to create these placards which will be a fun challenge to do.

 

Firstly, I created few sketches on what I would like my placards to look like and I wanted to stick to the red and black colour theme as these colours work well as a contrast but also grab your attention as these colours suggest urgency, danger and even death.

I use some of my imagery that I created for the oxymoron as I thought they were wuite strong and striking, I took inspiration from Stanley Green’s text based placard and used that style as a background for one of my designs as I thought combing imagery and text works very well if it is done right can work very well. the stark whit text works very well with the black and red as it will create a hierarchy for the placard.

Using diamonds is an obvious type of imagery to use as the protest is about blood diamond and I was able to manipulate different diamond shapes to create clean cut and rough diamond which I find works very well to show what the raw form of a diamond.

Clean, cut, conflict, I almost went quite literal with the imagery as the rebels are cutting off children’s hands, feet etc so thinking strategically, I used this imagery from the oxymoron imagery and created something that relates to the slogan but also shows what the slogan is portraying as a message, clean cut relating to the mutilation of the children but also the clean cut version of the diamonds and conflict is also relating to the diamond as I have used clean cut and rough diamonds and this shows what the conflict is about.

I will be transferring my hand drawn designs and enhance them digitally to create clean and a more graphic outcomes.

Before I start to make my placards based on Blood Diamond, I firstly did some reseearch into different prostet that have happened. I researched into Occupy London and Stanley Green, “The Protein Man”.

These are protests against different things. The Protein Man, is a heavy text based protest, and the use of the text is very striking and quite modern for its time. Occupy London’s logo is also quite modern and contemporary with the use of text and colour and how certain lettering is linked to the London train epidemic and this works very well to relate to what the protest is about.

For our placards we all came up with slogans/catchy phrases to use for the placards. The criteria was that one placard must be in the style of Stanley Green’s, The Protein Man. Firstly as a group, we wrote down what slogans we could use for our placards and went from there, we ll agreed that everyone’s work needs to be cohesive and also relate to what slogan we chose to be on them.

Carrying on from my last post, I have transferred my sketches onto Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator.

I stuck to black and different hues of red because using these colours gives off the impression of danger and severity of the situation and these colours work very well together. From this I created a version of the family silhouette and created a stencil using acrylic paint creating different hues of red and showing the severity of the blood diamond problem and this I have shown through the family.

An Oxymoron is a figure of speech that containing words that contradict each other.

So we were set a task to create an oxymoron using different terms that contradicts each other. Some of these oxymoron’s were:

• Harmless Crime
• Quiet Storm
• Pretty Ugly

As a group, we had to pick from the list and create some oxymoron’s but using no forms of text. So we picked Harmless Crime.

Before we did any drawing/planning, we divided up Harmless Crime and put down words we associate with Harmless and Crime.

Combining these we each created imagery based on these words. So I thought of using a teddy bear which is classed as a harmless thing in jail as the crime. There is no text to show what this is, it is completely imagery based and shown as an oxymoron.

From this I have learnt that not every image needs text to explain what it is and what its trying to portray. You can use imagery to show 2 opposites combined together.

As I was researching into Manifestos and layouts, I found that they varied quite vastly as some are quite heavy type based and some are lacking in type but both of these work very well to convey what the manifesto is about. The two I have here are very simplistic in how they are laid out but the hierarchy of the heading text is set out to work quite well against the weight and height of the heading compared the the weight and height of the sub text and this guides your eye on where to look next. After doing some research, I will taking on board the feedback Theo gave us but also taking on what I have learnt from the research.

Experimenting with different layouts and hierarchy, I acme up with different layouts, which I have improved upon.

The layout and imagery is what I experimented with as Theo liked the imagery I produced so I will be adding that into these designs.

 

 

 

 

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References

http://www.designishistory.com/1960/first-things-first/

http://cargocollective.com/ollietigs/filter/design/Design-Manifesto