Graphics

At the end of the previous rotation week, we were given the task of visiting upper Waterloo Station in order to take photographs. While the brief was fairly vague, we were told to "capture movement" in the images that we take, and also to make sure  one of the pictures is of a piece of graphic design.

Below you can see the images that I took on this visit. They are both relevant to the topic of movement as one shows a physical crowd of people moving through the platforms, and another references it in the text: "beat the crowds". I was not completely sure of what was meant by "capture movement in the graphics" which was written in the brief, which is why I took photos of both a graphic image and a moving subject.

On September 21st we started the graphics rotation week with the theme of "Poetic Migration", which I can see was relevant to our previous task of capturing "movement". Our first lesson as a class involved an activity where we collectively constructed a poem. 

We each mentally pictured a scene in our minds that was related to the topic of "movement", and described it using short sentences. In smaller groups, we cut each of the sentences and pasted them on a separate page to create an entirely new poem made up of our individual descriptions. The resulting poem is pictured right.

I was personally unsure of what relevance the poem had to graphic design in particular, but found the end result interesting.

Our next task was to experiment with different ways of drawing portraits of our peers. Among these methods were four ways of drawing that were suggested to us by a teacher:

1. Continuous line drawing
2. Drawing with the pen in the mouth
3. Drawing using your weak hand - in my case left
4. Drawing with your eyes closed

Pictured below are the results of these experiments.

This task helped me feel more comfortable drawing in a less detailed and pedantic manner because we were forced to work with our weaknesses. In my case, my weakness is drawing loosely; the second picture, where we had to draw using our weaker hand, was particularly challenging because I had never had the experience of drawing with it before.

Our next task involved experimenting with typography. We were given a piece of paper on which several fonts were printed in black, and we were to trace individual letters of the font in order to create words.

The image below shows the result of this project. We were given templates from which to create the frames, and experimented with creating words within the given space - the words had to be taken either from the poem that was created in the first task, or a poem found by the individual.

Once we had completed enough thumbnails, we were to choose our favourite and enlarge it to A5 size, additionally trying to improve the composition and the design of the image. My chosen design is pictured on the right.

Despite the fact that we were supposed to implement design improvements into the enlarged copy, I feel that the quality of the design has actually declined in this instance due to a number of factors. As we were tracing the fonts while doing the thumbnails, the letters were guaranteed to be of equal size; in the enlargement, the A and the V of the image are clearly both smaller and thinner than the E and the R, which is also misshapen.

We were told to bring certain objects to class so that we could create a scan from them - the criteria was that it could not be a phone, and that we should also bring a piece of black material (such as a T-shirt) so that we could cover it.

As people were scanning body parts - such as hands and faces - I decided to do a scan of both my hands and the object that I brought with me, a coin purse I bought in Morocco. I chose the wallet because of its intricate design along with its shape, which was convenient for scanning. It is not the kind of design commonly produced in England, which I thought could serve as a point of interest.

For our next task we were told to experiment with unique methods of mark-making using more than one medium. The following images are of the work that I did during this project. For the first image, I initially practised mark-making using a permanent marker that was out of ink; this created a pale and dry effect. I then covered it with masking tape and drew over it; once I removed the masking tape it had left an interesting mark. 

To create the effect pictured in the second image, I inked a series of dots that formed the shape of letters. I smudged these using tissue in order to connect them, which formed letters and words.

The following image shows a culmination of the previous exercises I have described. The overall image is not aesthetically pleasing to me as I was not paying particular attention to the way I composed it. I enjoyed creating the effects and experimenting with mark-making techniques, but the resulting product is not something I would consider to be good.

Once we moved on to our next class, Adobe Workshop, we were taught how to use certain tools within Photoshop to merge images together. The image on the left demonstrates the product of what we were taught during that lesson.

We were told to find a photo of animals and a space-related background picture, and to place the animals in the space. I achieved this using two techniques; the first of which is the Magic Wand tool. The tool was used to cut around the dogs within the image and create a Layer Mask - this was then set to 100% density and an appropriate level of feathering so that the central figure of the dogs was appropriately blended into the background.

I then applied layer effects called Inner Glow and Outer Glow, in order to smoothen some of the jagged edges created by the Magic Wand tool.

While I already knew about and made use of some of the techniques presented to us in class, the Layer Mask feature was new to me and is now a valuable addition to my existing Photoshop skills.

Also during the Adobe Workshop class, we were taught how to use Adobe Illustrator, being set the task of creating a logo out of our name.

I created the following image by drawing out several standard shapes and writing my name among them. We were taught how to use the Transform tool, which I experimented with in order to create the desired effect. I used primary colours and a comical font as I was aiming for a bold and childlike design. 

The green cuboid underneath the logo was not deliberate; once I had learned how to create 3D shapes I experimented with the tool, but ran out of time when I tried to implement it into my logo, which is why it resulted in an unused element to the design. 

Following the classes on Adobe programs we took during the week, we were set a piece of work that involved using Photoshop at home.

In accordance to the week's theme of "poetic migration", we were to research poetry in our own time and produce something that was relevant to that theme. I came across the poem We Refugees by Benjamin Zephaniah; I found it to be particularly relevant due to the central topic of refugees.

I decided to employ the use of a simplistic design for the poem's backdrop, using dark, unsaturated colours in order to make sure nothing is detracted from the poem. The forest depicts the rich landscapes described in the text, but is given a sinister quality through the use of colour. The central silhouette amplifies this effect. I wanted to portray the author's intentions of bringing to light the struggle of the refugees.

This concludes the work I produced over the course of the Graphics rotation week.