When experimenting with shining a light through the materials inserted in my box, in today’s ‘Theatre of Visual Effects’ workshop, I learnt a few things about the materials’ properties.

• Pink Bubble Wrap: This material was sampled from packaging from beauty brand ‘Glossier.’ What I noticed about this material was that it is slightly opaque and therefore diffuses the light, the pink colour doesn’t shine through onto the surface of the box, and most of the light is focussed through the circular shapes in the bubble wrap. All I can do to change how the light affects the material is to bend the piece of bubble wrap so that there are shadows in certain areas.
• Tracing paper: Tracing paper is also somewhat opaque causing diffusion, yet the light does shine through, it just spreads it more evenly across the box. When the tracing paper is crumpled, it spreads the light in lots of different directions and creates interesting pockets of shadow.
• Tissue paper: This material diffuses the light with much more opacity, causing the light to spread out fully, completely blurring the circle of light from the torch. This is such a strong blurring effect that the only thing I could do to change how the light affects the material would be to adjust the intensity of the torch.
• Coloured acetate: The colours that I tested were yellow, orange and blue, however, they all had the same effect and same properties when shone with light. These were the fact that the coloured acetate is translucent and somewhat reflective, shining back the image of the camera. The colours also spread onto the contents of the box, working as a filter. To get the coloured effect without the reflective property of the material, I could place a lower opacity material like tracing paper in front, to diffuse the light from the reflection.
• Clear, thicker acetate: This material has similar properties to the tissue paper, it is clear yet a bit opaquer than the coloured acetate. It diffuses the light, making images and light appear very soft. The further the object is placed from this material, the blurrier it is.
• Textured gauze paper: This material is hard to describe, it is essentially hair-like gauze material adhered together into a sheet of paper, with lots of gaps where the light shines through. This material doesn’t diffuse the light in any way, instead it projects shadows of its texture across the box and onto other materials.
• Lace: In the areas of this material without gaps left to create an image, the cotton doesn’t let any light through. However, the gaps in the material create a mask, and when layered with other pieces of lace, project interesting shadows across the box.

In terms of adjusting the construction of the box, I think that what I could do to improve my experiments would be to make sure all the sides were perfectly straight, with no gaps to allow light to enter. That way, the material could be cut to fit the box more accurately, and I could get a better understanding of the way the material affects the whole structure of the box and see the light more clearly. I will take this form of exploration forward in my work, to encourage myself to look at all the possibilities of different materials and how I can use them, before making a swift decision. Some materials may, in fact, be more suited for the purpose than others, and I can also look at the effect of layering materials and how that too can have a powerful effect, just like I’ve layered materials in my experiments.

What struck me about the works we saw in the presentation, in particular, Spectre, was that I thought it was Mark Zuckerberg at first! The realisation that these concepts have already had a very real effect was also very striking, especially after reading the accompanying article and learning about the influence of the dark web on the Leave campaign. Spectre was much more elevated and darker in comparison to ‘Nightwatching’ and ‘Caravaggio’ and the other examples, which we already know are fake because they exist in reality as fiction or as characters from an era without camera technology, whereas the examples used in Spectre are difficult to distinguish. Spectre played into using recognisable images of icons, to grasp the audience’s attention and gain their trust. In order to grab attention, the film didn’t open with a scream or dramatic tension, instead the big shock came at the end when we realised that Bill Poster’s narration was a ‘deep fake.’ At first, we don’t question the images, however, when we realise, it intrigues us and pulls us in further.

The works from the presentation have great communicative power, ultimately by use of manipulating iconography. Spectre, the Mona Lisa facial animation, the Rijksmuseum personification of ‘The Night Watch,’ Greenaway and Jarman’s characterisation of iconic paintings in film; all present audience communication using artistic and social, political icons, that are easily recognisable and trusted, but in a twisted, controversial, exploited or adapted way to fit the context of, an opening for an art gallery for a political statement about data for example.

I personally believe that an ethical position in communication is very important. Design ethics are key in raising the standard for visual work and representation. To degrade and disrespect someone’s culture, biology, identity and put their human rights at risk, although in some cases this may be largely considered acceptable (for example comic strips mocking Donald Trump’s wig and fake tan), in my opinion is lazy designing and is a major part in the ergonomics thought process when creating a graphic communication. Otherwise, you are accidentally closing yourself off to a target market of people, or a specific audience for your communication, which is generally a terrible idea in trying to create successful work.

In today's workshop, we were turning our visual communication pieces from last week, in my case my 3D slot machine sculpture, into a wood-cut printed image. At first, I decided to turn the visual elements of my slot machine into a 2D illustration and began drawing out the details. However, after further consideration, I thought that making a net of the actual slot machine, with the details printed with ink instead of cut out of card, would be more effective. I am yet to print the image of the net and fold it together, however, I am looking forward to seeing the finished result. Right now I am carving my printed plate with a scalpal; a technique I have never used before and I'm finding quite challenging to get clean results. 

In preparing for our Core Design and Typography workshop today, we were tasked with finding examples of poster design from a variety of different eras, however only from books in the library. The benefits of using a library to conduct research as opposed to online are firstly; that the internet isn’t a foolproof source of research information. Web pages can be created by anyone which means it can be difficult to determine if the source is reliable. Scholarly resources are available online, but it is much easier and much more affordable to find these primary and scholarly sources in a library, sources which are essential to any research project. Online resources can easily be changed or removed, and many sources are only available in print – relying solely on online research means that a significant number of good sources will be ignored. Another benefit is that if a library does not have its own copy of a source it can borrow from other libraries or purchase the source.

 In today’s workshop we were working on poster design. We came to the lesson prepared with some initial ideas for our poster designs, and then developed them further through drawing. Drawing enabled me to make and refine decisions about my layout as it allowed me to make quick and subtle changes and work out temporary ideas without necessarily creating or sampling the proposed finished product. It also allowed me to experiment more roughly with changes in depth, positioning my images and wording, the thickness of lines, curves and forms as well as colour. By working my ideas out using drawing, it was easier to more precisely communicate them on a digital platform.

In today’s workshop, in response to the words ‘lighting’ ‘composition’ and ‘storytelling,’ using the same visual aids from the Do Undo Redo task, we had to photograph a variety of still life objects within a space. In my opinion the photograph in response to the ‘storytelling’ theme, of the suspended tissue box with post-its written with fairy tale quotes falling out of it is the most successful, as it fills the frame of the image in a visually powerful way, with a positive diagonal line going from the bottom left of the image to the top right. I think that the bright pink contrasts nicely with the white background, whilst also creating a child-like softness that is in tune with the theme of ‘storytelling.’ In today’s lesson, I used a flash, that stood on a tripod and connected to my camera to take the images against the studio background. I have never used this equipment before, but I was incredibly impressed without it improved the quality lighting within my images. I also practised using fishing wire to suspend my objects which is also something I haven’t really done before, but I think creates a very interesting composition within an image and is a great example of an effective practical effect I can use without postproduction. Within my team, what I enjoyed most was my role as a photographer, as I like being in control of the framing and the angle, and how that can create a different atmosphere within the image. I also enjoy the problem-solving aspect of adjusting the settings to the different light conditions and how that can also be used as a creative tool within the image.

In today’s presentation, the first designer that we looked at was Milton Glaser. What struck me about Glaser’s work was that although I was unfamiliar with his name, I immediately recognised the iconography of his work, with the creation of the Baby Teeth logo and his combination of detailed illustration with negative space. What I find interesting is that Glaser often used a typeface in a design, and then later drew up the letters as a proper stand-alone typeface alphabet. This ties into the words of Noma Bar, who wrote: “Picasso replied: ‘I don’t have a clue. Ideas are simply starting points… to know what you’re going to draw; you have to begin drawing.’”
Another designer whose work struck me was Jean Jullien and Gerald Holtham, and their designs for symbols of peace in a time of conflict. With these symbols for peace, though they are incredibly recognisable, I had never really paused to think about the thought that went into designing them, and the power and symbolism that has come from these designers’ work. Oftentimes we just see symbols, such as Milton Glaser’s ‘I Love New York’ sign and just accept that they exist in our consciousness, without actually considering the design process and practise that went into them.
Noma Bar was another designer that really struck me. His use of negative space is just as simple as it is powerful. It’s incredibly clever the way that he transforms block colour shapes to communicate multiple meanings, such as having a face in a cat in a moon, in his book cover for Murakami’s ‘Kafka on the Shore.’
After seeing this presentation, image-making to me is finding a way to use principally line, shape and colour in an as simple or elaborate way as possible, to communicate multiple messages at once, to tell a story or to, in the case of Jullien, Ungerer and Holtham, start a political or social movement. Icons can become the symbol for peace, for violence, for love, to sell something or to associate an idea – icons are something that we see in our day-to-day lives and are what ultimately shapes and directs our perceptions.

In today’s workshop, we took our image from the Lost Letters project as our starting point, either visually or thematically, and had to create a narrative/communication using either a series of images, a 3D object, or an intervention in a space. I decided to respond to my Lost Letters project visually with a 3D object. My Lost Letters print showed a devil-like cat with slot machine eyes and the text ‘Winner’ above its head. I responded to this by personifying my illustration into a physical slot machine that I made out of cardboard. At first, this was daunting as I knew I wanted the slot machine to work practically someway but was also limited by lack of mechanics skills and the material of cardboard. I decided to position smaller pieces of cardboard within a box structure so that when you inserted money, it fell perfectly to position itself on the ‘tongue’ of the slot machine, which you manually pull out to claim your prize. The prize is the exact same as what you put in, however that’s the reality of gambling and the message behind my 3D design. The cardboard mechanics within the structure involved a lot of trial and error, and isn’t perfectly how I want it, however with more adjusting and maybe using a selection of different materials I think that I could get it to work.

For today’s task, we had to identify 10 sections of text from anywhere, and then select one to develop into a visual communication. My chosen text is from an area of subtitles from the film Batman Returns: “Honey I’m home! Oh I forgot. I’m not married.” I pitched a variety of different ideas, including having the text as the branding for a dating site, decoration on a 60s housewife style apron, and on a bottle of makeup remover. My group responded well to my pitch and agreed that my most effective idea was to have the first section of my text “Honey I’m home” printed on a mug and the second section “Oh I forgot. I’m not married,” printed on a wine glass, as a sculptural pair. What prompted this was the feedback that my text sample worked best in two sections, in order to break up the juxtaposing sarcasm within the words, therefore I separated each section into a physically separate object. Today’s workshop has open my eyes to the way in which language can be emphasised in visual communication, and how by use of scale, space, material and form you can change the meaning of a word or phrase and control how it is interpreted by the audience.

Today we were tasked with creating a series of looks out of recycled garments and scraps of fabric, responding to works such as ‘black’ and ‘white’ and then combining them to create a hybrid look. In this task we were working in groups of three. What I enjoyed about working in a group of three is that we could easily bounce ideas off of each other, making constructing the look in such a short space of time much more manageable. However, the challenging thing about working as a team is that everyone has different attitudes towards the task, and you have to focus on working around each person’s attitude in order to be productive as a whole group. For example, one member may be less willing to push the boat out creatively whereas others may want to go too far to the point that time is wasted, and the message is lost. A set-back of working as a team is that one of our members had to leave half-way through the day, so me and the remaining team member had to readjust our methods and take on multiple roles in a short space of time.

 In combining our ideas for ‘black’ or ‘white’ for example, we looked at ways in which we could fuse the looks in order to create a contrast that would send a message and tell a story. For example, in our hybrid black and white look, the model is wearing a dark black coat, with light bright fabrics spilling out from a piece of black cotton with a hole cut inside. She then wore just a pair of embroidered white tights on her legs. These soft, embroidered and somewhat child-like fabrics created a contrast against the oversized black leather coat, making the height of the model appear shorter, and making her look like a child playing dress up in their parents’ closet. Using photography, we were able to transform our images into potential narratives by shooting this model sitting down with her legs out, looking up at the camera like a doll. We also used wide angle shots that featured the grungy background of the street to create further contrast against the light fabrics spilling out. This further enhances the idea that the model is simply a child, against the darkness, sophistication and depth of the adult world.

 My ideas of fashion communication were challenged by the task purely for the lack of time and planning that went into our shoots. Usually I am used to spending a couple weeks sourcing garments and then spending hours in a location, with preparation going into makeup and lighting. In this task I didn’t even have my own camera with me, so the images I shot were taken on an iPhone. This in fact helped me to develop my ideas of fashion communication, by training me to think on the spot, make powerful use of limited resources and to extend my creativity through the simple lens of a mobile phone.

 Some successful strategies that others used were pre-planning all their looks and narratives before they shot them, so that they could spend as much time as possible shooting a successful image and playing around in the space surrounding Archway. This was a successful strategy as it allowed them to think more deeply into the photographic techniques that went into the image, such as pose, composition, framing etc, that was going to highlight the narrative of the look.

 In today’s contextual practise lesson, we were tasked with visualising abstract quotations from graphic designers about concepts surrounding the context and creation of art and design. We did this through the medium of collage on a poster, using a series of images that individual members of the class had brought in. What I found easy about this task was picking up key phrases and transforming them into a visual concept. We focussed on the phrase “a lot of stuff” by Sagmeister as well as “looking behind” by Gurst, and in doing so placed a chaos of imagery behind one key image. What I found challenging in this task, however, and what I think was lost in our group's final concept, was the idea of conveying a key message inspired by those quotes, through images and typography. Although we had sections of the quotations spelt out across the collage, the overall message wasn’t clear enough through the visuals and a story was not being told. Ultimately it turned out to be more of an art piece than a graphic communication, which was not the task at hand. In future, which is something that I have also noticed in my other projects so far on the course, I need to not focus so much on creating the visuals and presenting my sketchbook research rather than thinking about the message I need to convey and how that can be done in a precise, unique and focussed way.

Illustration is a medium that I feel a lot more confident in, over designing a physical structure or installation for example. Therefore, I felt comfortable in adapting my ideas and visual language into and around the given letter, and then bringing it to life using the screen print process, as it was still a very 2D format. My given letters were two thin ‘O’ shapes, which is has quite an illustrative and universal form, making coming up with ideas to translate the letters into a visual language quite straightforward. The biggest challenges that I faced however, was using the blade to cut out the intricate details of my illustration, which was something that I foolishly didn’t consider when doing my initial sketches. This became particularly challenging in creating the black dollar signs within the ‘eyes’ of my illustration, as I wanted the white of the paper to show through the details in the black ink. This caused some restrictions in the accuracy of my print in comparison to my reference sketch, however I think that the final effect creates a sense of fragmentation, which is fitting to the overall dark yet cartoonish tone of the image.

During my text conversation with an anonymous member of the class, in discussion about the subject of fear, we began to discuss in particular our fears of the future. We brushed on the idea of how our cultural symbols and universal icons differ from that of our parents’ and grandparents’ generation, and how the next generation to come will experience the world in a totally unique way from us. This lead my text partner to say: “If you think about how different life was for our parents or grandparents growing up versus us… Like what’s next?” Them saying the phrase “what’s next” had a powerful simplicity to me – that fear of the future and fear of the unknown. This is a question that crosses our minds all day, every day: what do I need to do next today? What do I need to do next to prepare for the future, or the work towards our goals in the future? If I make this particular decision, then what will come next? I decided to translate this into a communication by having the letters making up the phrase floating around a person’s head in a downwards motion, through use of stop-motion animation. When the ‘A’ reached the person’s head it turned into an ‘@’ sign, in order to symbolise a username as the new form of identity in a digital age, once again tying into the theme of fearing the future. I chose a simple black Helvetica font, to emulate the font used commonly in social media platforms, and to stand out cleanly against the white background. A mix of changing capitalised and lower lettering adds to the feelings of confusion about what the future holds. I edited the animation using an application called ‘Gliche’ in order to create psychedelic waves of colour across the stop-motion, in order to add a psychological, confusion element that would further enhance the theme of fearing ‘What’s next?’ I think what would have made my communication more successful however was to use larger scale lettering, as it would have had more of an impact, perhaps even a mixture of large and small scale within the animation. I also think that throughout this project I didn’t balance my time very well. I spent too much time practising the lettering and playing around with placement in my sketchbook that I didn’t have a lot of time to create a large number of frames for the animation. Had I done this, I think that the animation would flow more successfully and better fulfil the function of communicating the fear of the future.

When discussing in our group about the definition of what Graphic Communication Design really is, we came up with a number of ideas. We thought about the range of mediums within graphic communication design; whether that be typography, graphic design, photography, moving image, sound, fashion or textile. We discussion how what separated these mediums from being considered ‘Fine Art’ and ‘Graphic Communication Design’ is that fine art is subjective, although the artist may aim to convey a message, it is ultimately up to how the viewer interprets it, and that there isn’t a tangible aim or goal that the work must achieve. Graphic communication design on the other hand is objective, it uses mediums to communicate a message or idea in order to achieve a specific effect, goal or design brief. For example, using graphic design to advertise a product in a magazine, or moving image to tell a story. Ultimately, the definition that our group came up with was: “Using creative medium to fulfil a specific objective and purpose.” After further discussion with the class, we came to the conclusion that a key aspect of graphic communication design is context. Our designs cannot be objective, universal forms of visual and sensory communication without the right context, through a target market and a certain audience.

 When faced with the task of creating a new alphabet, a task based of the work of Carlos Amorales) to explore the idea of context in communication design, our group were inspired by the quote: “One person’s car is another person’s scenery,” said by Jonathan Ive in The New Yorker (Feb 16, 2015). We interpreted this through the medium of illustration. One person would start a drawing, of anything they wanted, however they would only have 15 seconds at a time to do it. Then the paper on which the drawing was started was passed around the group, and each person would have 15 seconds to continue it, interpreting the previous illustration however they wanted. This communicates the idea that we all interpret concepts in our own way, focussing on certain areas that others may not. To create this into an alphabet, we cut the final illustration into 26 pieces, with each piece representing an individual letter. To form words, we digitally put the letters together, which would then create a whole new image in itself – further delivering the message of Jonathan Ive. This project highlights the importance of context, and how without targeting a design at a certain group of people (in this instance, us, the creators of this illustrated alphabet) then the message that the design is trying to deliver, is lost.

Although the 1m squared plot is limiting in both the overall scale and the impact of physical mass that my communication could have, it is also somewhat comforting. It means that I can focus on aspects such as height and depth which I may not have payed as much attention to previously. It also encourages me to consider what impact the space surrounding my communication could have and how it could support and enhance the overall effect on the audience.

When navigating the process of developing ideas in a group of 3, I realise how important it is to listen and encourage other members of the group to share their ideas, as my group members would bring up ideas that hadn’t even crossed my mind and which I am taking forward in my proposal (such as the concept of fear and suspense making your hair stick up). It was challenging in moments when the other members were maybe a bit quieter with sharing ideas, in which case on of us would have to start a new perspective or point of discussion to stir the conversation once more. The benefits of working in a group of 3 are that it is quite a limited number, so it’s less likely for the train of thought to get too carried away and allows us as a group to take an idea and develop it through: for example taking the metaphor of being suspended by your hair, into a visual setting and discussing what materials and methods would be use and what purpose this could have in a futuristic and hypothetical setting.

So far in my proposal I have been looking at the concept of how hair reacts to fear by sticking on end, and if other emotions could have that same effect, as well as a way to then harness these emotions on demand in some kind of suspended portal. This idea however is a little confusing to explain, therefore it is clear to me that I need to give further thought into the purpose and the aim of this proposal; whether it is purely for entertainment or whether it has a deeper purpose of connecting with one’s emotions. I will work to develop and resolve these areas through expanded visual work using sketches and primary and secondary imagery, as well as through research into the science behind emotions, to explore whether that may effect the rendering, form and aesthetic of my design.