Monthly Archives: January 2021

Zine Moodboard

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I have zeroed in on the visual aesthetics I would like to have for my zine and decided to focus just on the book “Frankenstein” so that it is a better flowing piece and connects throughout better. I’m going to experiment with illustration for this, mainly bold simplistic black and white designs with clear line art and pops of colour most likely shades of blue and purple. I will still use collage and typography as well, and start to map out more ideas.

These are two of my own images, I have experimented with the collage and ink which I really like but I will use sentences from newspaper rather than a word search as I think it looks too neat almost like binary. On the right I tried to do the simple line illustration but I don’t think I will do it in colour it looks too childish, ill try in more darker colours possibly just black and white. I think I will experiment more in illustrations for this zine.

Sustainability

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“Unhappily Ever After”- (Hong, 2014,digital illustration)

Hong is an animator and illustrator who worked on production for the film “Mulan”, he started to create these jarring images to bring attention to the issues being faced around the world everyday due to our treatment of the environment with disregard to sustainability. The series pulls beloved and recognisable characters from the world of fiction and places them in the harsh reality many face (Rob Wilkes, para 2, 2014). In the above digital image Hong illustrated Mulan placing her among the streets of china with mask on to protect herself against the harmful air due to heavy pollution from manufacturing and travel. The series creates a definitive juxtaposition, the characters clearly stand out and don’t fit in these dismal scenarios making the dire reality of our situation more apparent. By mixing found images of real life environmental disasters and illustration, Hong bursts the bubble and provides no escapism in fairy tales, by reimagining these characters facing the issues we find so easy to ignore. Hong emphasises these issues that require proper societal and economic change to move towards more sustainable and less harmful methods instead of harmful fossil fuels which pollute the air.

Paul Rand

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“Ultimately, the only mandate in the design of logos, it seems, is that they be distinctive, memorable, and clear.” – Paul Rand

Rand is most known for his curation of the visual identity in 1956 for the International Business Machines known as IBM. He did a complete overhaul of their design and created brochures, posters etc to be used for their advertisement to create a cohesive visual presence within the business world. The above logo was created and used by the corporation in 1972 a revised version of the previous 13 band logo, this one only has 8 bands which was done to combat poor printing quality. The logo has been used for 48 years, Rand truly created a lasting brand image that continues to read as modern and sleek which is exactly the right image for a corporation. The logo itself is straight to the point, with stripes that give it a less intimidating and more innovative feel as IBM being the promising tech company at the forefront of innovation at the time. Rand believes the content of a logo isn’t the important feature, rather that it be memorable and unique to the company so that the association can be made easier by the viewer.  Truly known as the greatest graphic designer, he paved the way for graphic designers to be seen more as artists with ownership over their work, unusually at the time he signed his work to give himself publicity. The logos he has created for UPS and ABC have also remained virtually unchanged since he designed them in 1961 and 1962 respectfully. The logos he creates are simple and most importantly memorable showing true to his designs confidence and strong sense of self.

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Choices

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Printmaking

My first choice (major) for continuation of this course is Fine art Printmaking. The workshop although shorter than other was really liberating and enjoyable for me as it changed how I thought of printmaking. Previously I had only been able to do lino printmaking but did not experiment much I was basically transferring a piece of my art into a template to print with to repeat the images. I am very glad I did opt for the printmaking workshop as I was encouraged to experiment with colour, texture and intensity of the inks in the interest of seeing how they worked together and the affect It had on the piece. We used plates which I had never used before, they were see through, so I was able to see what the image looked like if I rubbed some ink off and added more to enhance areas.

The ability to experiment so easily with options in creating a piece to print repeatedly was really intriguing and showing the process physically would be very satisfying in a collection of work like Andy Warhol which I would be interested in doing. As I added and took away ink and materials for texture from the plate, each small change created a different piece, and each change was documented. By adding pieces of wallpaper for example and adding ink on top it printed the texture then by removing that wallpaper and taking the same print the texture is now missing and is a different piece.

I would like to continue this exploration and learn more about printmaking and different ways I can convey the piece whether its abstract or representative. I would like to learn and grow as an individual artist towards creating artwork I want to see and create. I want to challenge myself in terms of what I create and be confident in my stylistic decisions, to convey my art and ideas well. I struggle with diluting my thoughts with others input and not trusting my own judgement, but I want to create the artwork that I like and find enjoyable.

In terms of career, I want to create pieces and then organise collections based on my ideas and experimentation. I do not want to stay static I want to explore and change with the freedom I think this will give me. I want to create for myself and use my art as an extension of my own thought process and expression of myself.

Graphic/Illustration

My second(minor) choice is the combined Graphic illustration course, I am most interested in the illustration aspect as I like the idea of translating thoughts into a visual piece that it both visually pleasing and easy to understand. There is also the freedom to experiment as well, the ability to create my own version of reality using whatever colours or proportions I want as opposed to trying to replicate something perfectly. I really want to explore my own instincts and stylistic tendencies, I have been inspired by the OFFSET talk by Victo Ngai I watched it, really resonated with me. She talked about not knowing what to do as everyone did not like what she was doing so she decided to go back to her roots in drawing and drew what she liked how she liked and challenged herself refining her style and vision. I relate as I can sometimes struggle with myself and the idea of individualism and making my art uniquely my own.

I prefer the illustrative element to the course as I am not confident in digital art though after the workshops, I found using the programs quite easy to translate the words into images, so I am open to experiment. I really love sketchy styles and working with markers and colour pencils combining them block colours and defined lines for characteristic simple designs. I’ve always taken inspiration from illustrative work, I really like to use bold clean likes and bright colours that create simple but easy to read pieces. I like to use highlighters, markers, pastels and colour pencils just to add different textures and colours to an illustration. I will be continuing to work with what I enjoy and taking Ngai’s advice as previously I would have thought these materials and drawings, I created were trivial or not serious work but that is simply a mindset of which I want to break free from, as the work I try to create when being “serious” then feels performative or not myself.

Within illustration I like the idea of translating words and creating imagery that is easily understood to people like in story book illustrations or book covers. Illustrators can also work freelance creating their own artwork and selling prints or to be commissioned to create a piece being given a vague idea and then interpreting it in your own way for a client. This gives room for growth and exploration as an artist as I can be challenged to think or create in different ways depending on the project which I like the idea of as I don’t like to stay static.