Thursday 15 November 2012

Screen Printing

Today I had a screen printing workshop. It was held by Nick Saunders who is a graduate from NTU and now works as a freelance illustrator and screen printer. A few weeks ago we had him as a guest lecturer and it was so inspiring seeing all the work he has done since graduating from the same course which I am currently doing. He has worked for many different companies creating designs but the most impressive by far is working on the set of the Harry Potter film, 'The Half Blood Prince'.

In the workshop, we were making our screens as a practise and also to add to our portfolios of work. I chose to use a portrait of myself as this was easy to turn into a high contrast image which is necessary for a screen print. I had done screen printing previously at college however we did not make our own screen and were not shown how to do this. I found this process really interesting and it also means that the final outcome is more satisfying as you have worked harder for it. As it was only a practise, we did not change the colour of our ink however we did use different colour papers so we had a variety of images as the final outcome. 







Wednesday 14 November 2012

Typography again!!

We spent another week on a typography project which is my favourite part of graphic design as it is so important in any part of a design. We were set a brief to create a 'logo' for ourselves using our names/initials in any medium we wanted to use. I did some initials sketches before adding colour and then creating them in illustrator which gave a precise and crisp finish to my designs. 





I also began to use different processes to create a more creative finish but still using my original designs. 


We had to chose 3 final designs which we felt were the best so I decided to use three which were very different to show the variety of work.

 

Wednesday 7 November 2012

'People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges'

We were set a brief to complete based on typographic composition. After choosing a phrase from a list of potential choices, we had to represent this in any way we liked considering formation of text. I chose to use 'People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges'. I was stuck for an idea and had a 'designers block' which, as this was a quick brief, was not very convenient. After staring out my window however, I got a wave of inspiration from my view. Despite it being an ugly brick wall on the side of a car park, it proved to help me with this project. 


Once again I was indecisive on my final design as I like all the different photo effects for varying reasons. 






Typography

Our second project was based on 'The Alphabet and Logotype Design'. I was given the letter 'm' to investigate in detail using any method I chose. I looked my letter in varying typefaces and used different mediums to experiment and create potential outcomes. 







I also looked at the anatomy of type and the different features that were present within the 'm' which varied depending on the style of font I was using


Eventually, I came to a conclusion on a font of my own. I experimented further with this using colour and varying positioning of the lower case within the required 20cm x 20cm square. 


 

Bonfire Night

On Monday night, I went to the fireworks in Nottingham. Although they were not as impressive as the displays which I usually go to at home, I enjoyed being there with my new friends from uni. I took my camera and tested the different settings however I am still not completely sure of how to use it properly. Some of my photos came out well but many weren't so good. With many of the photos, I had to edit the brightness and contrast.






Saturday 3 November 2012

Book Binding

This week I took part in a book binding workshop. We were taught how to make varying styles of books and shown how to sew pages together. 


Below are examples of book spines which could have pages attached in each fold.


I added covers to some of the designs using 1mm board covered in paper. 




Above is a cleverly designed book which involves the concertina effect used in making a book spine however pieces of paper are alternately attached to each side of the folded paper to create this amazing effect when the book is opened.

A sense of place

On the first week of our course, we were set a group project to be completed with the other members of our tutorial group. Each group was allocated a different area or site in Nottingham and we were all given the brief, 'through observation, visual analysis and recording of information, investigate the specific location allocated to you.' My group had been given the mainline train station. Initially we chose to do some background research before visiting the site as we felt that being aware of the history and other aspects would be important groundings for the project. We then went on to visit the train station taking photos and observational drawings as well as collecting leaflets and anything else we felt may help us. 

 I started to collate my research in my sketchbook and added some of my previously taken photos. I did a brain storm of all the things that I felt were prominent aspects of the station. 




I began to look the the common theme of 'time' in more detail as I felt that this was the most important feature at the station. I experimented with clocks as well as looking at other aspects of time starting from 1848 when the station was originally built. 



I wrote out some of the announcements which are spoken over the intercom at the station. I played around with typefaces and composition of the statements as well as creating my own typefaces composing the letters out of various parts of the photos I had taken of the station. 

By this time I had several ideas so experimented with different compositions and came to a final piece which I felt best represented the station and fulfilled my brief. 




My ideas all used a similar style however after talking to members of my group, I felt that my final idea was the most appropriate and fit the brief fully.