F LO R A L FA R TS By Annushka Hardikar
OBSESSION The concept/theme given in the brief was ‘Obsession’. Step 1 was to make a list of what it meant to me. The first thought that came to my mind when the topic was announced was my own obsessions. So I decided to stick with that for this project. The handwriting is not very legible, so reproducing it. This is what my list looked like.
1 Lists
3 Flowers
(The first thought I had after getting the topic. Definitely number 1. I make lists about everything, everywhere, all the time. It gives me this deep satisfaction to see things go as planned, step-by-step and according to my lists.)
(This was both in real life as well as in my work. 90% of the doodles I make have some floral element in them. Its true love. When in doubt, draw flowers. That’s my motto.)
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2 Smell .
(Delicious smell, stinky smell, flowery smell, pungent smell. I obsess over them ALL. I cannot get a particular smell out of my mind until it leaves my nose. And my nose is very sensitive. I could have been a dog that’s how bad it is.
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4 Detail .
(With reference to work. I enjoy an intricate style of working. Even though I’m so organized otherwise, in my work I often have trouble keeping free negative space. I like to fill everything up with the most minute patterns/objects.)
The next few obsessions were Bollywood, Fitness, Zodiacs and Long hair. These were eventually eliminated either because they had been done and overdone or because they did not seem that fun and interesting.
I wanted to make the 4 postcards a set, but not with just one kind of obsession. So i decided to combine 3 of my obsessions. I chose Smell, Flowers and Detail. I also decided I wanted the postcards to be used for what they are actually meant to; to send to someone who is away from you. This was because I observed that postcards today have just become decorative pieces of paper people use as wall art. Me included. And I didn’t like that very much. I imagined how happy I would be to receive one of these beautiful pieces of art knowing someone somewhere is thinking of me. (so senti oh god) The next challenge was combining my obsessions. I decided to use flowers and detail for the illustration to be screenprinted and smell for the typography that would be letterpressed. Flowers and good smell go together, but it didn’t seem exciting enough. I wanted the postcard to make the receiver happy and laugh. That’s why I decided I should use a contrasting element to the illustration in the typography. That element would be bad smell.
I quickly mind-mapped what reminded me of good and bad smells. You can see it on the right.
I listed down the good and bad smells I could think of and in the end, I had the smell that would work perfectly with my concept.
a fart!
Next I had to question myself how I was going to pull this o. Since owers and farts were so contrasting, I decided to use a decpetive illustration which would have type that was based on the fart. I began researching on other terms for farts, how the word is used without being vulgar/oensive or too disgusting.
Since the message with an element of fart in it was going to be a deception, I also tried manipulating a few existing philosophical quotes and sayings that when read in this context would seem funny.
HOW
would I express could I depict should I illustrate can I incorporate
I began constructing the messages I could have on the postcards. I wanted to keep them short and precise.
A one-liner that would be directly or indirectly talking about farts in the context of the postcard. I started thinking of messages people send to each other.
Butt sneeze
Back blast
Cheek squeak Honker
Poof
Hisser
A FART Hot wind Tootsie
Whopper
Stale wind
My ďŹ nal messages to letterpress were 1. Sending you balloons full of farts 2. Wherever you may be, let your wind pass free 3. Live . Fart . Laugh 4. Miss you like a nose misses a fart
I was not too sure I wanted to letterpress all 4 of them, and decided to keep the 4th one as an option in case I changed my mind.
Text to letterpress
Text to letterpress
I kept the postcard size standard, i.e. 4�x6� for two of them, and the other two a little bigger. The message would be printed in the centre or towards the bottom (centre-aligned) depending on the illustrations.
Flower forms inspiration
The illustrations were divided into 2 categories, ones with less detail and blocks of colour and ones with more detail and line work. I decided to categorize them to make it easier to layer them during screenprinting.
I tried to keep them simple to make it easier to scale the to larger or smaller sizes.
Layer 1 with less detail
Layer 2 with more detail
Layer 1 with less detail
Layer 2 with more detail
Final design 1 with overlapping layers. I decided to make it similar to a Victorian template of postcards and signage.
Final design 2 with overlapping layers.
Screen printing process and a few initial prints
CHALLENGES Since screenprinting was something completely new for me, I did face a few challenges. These are a few: 1. Not enough ink 2. Too much ink 3. Not enough pressure 4. Too much pressure (SO FRUSTRATING IT WASTED ONE WHOLE PAPER) 5. Leftover paint/thinner 6. Screen drying way too fast 7. Shortage of time and printing tables
Even though I did get a few good prints, I knew I could do a lot more with my design. The feedback I got in the class crit was very useful. I was told to experiment more and try mixing more colours since I now knew the consistency required. Learning from my mistakes and shortcomings, I decided to be more careful, clean, precise and experimentative (Is that a word?) in the next two prints. I also decided to make the next two a little different as the first two were pretty similar in style and layout. For one, I used just one of the floral motifs I had made and arranged it in a manner similar to the first two (with the text in the centre, for continuity in the set). The second one I decided to go a little crazy and break out of this proper and delicate template. I chose to do a bolder piece with the motifs all spread out on the entire sheet of paper.
Bigger, Bolder. With the next two prints my process was I realized, a lot more fun. I experimented to my hearts content with mixing and spraying paint, different techniques to pull the squeezee onto the screen as well as masking sections to produce different results. It was so much fun and I got done much earlier than the last time I screenprinted! YAY.
Layer 1
Layer 2 (optional, based on look)
Experimentation with painting techniques
Experimentation with painting techniques
Final design 3 with the second layer being an option based on how the print looked just with layer 1
Final design 1 with overlapping layers. I decided to make it similar to a Victorian template of postcards and signage.
Stages of letterpress printing
CHALLENGES Letterpress printing was fascinating. To be able to use such an ancient printing technique that was dead in most places felt thrilling. The process however was really longdrawn and tedious. I actually felt like screen printing was 100 times easier than this! A few issues were: 1. Finding multiple letters in the tray 2. Arranging the letters in the composition plate and then framing them 3. Making sure none of the spacers and pieces fall from the frame 4. Placing paper in the correct place for printing 5. Cleaning hands and face after printing (I scrubbed so much I thought my skin was going to come o!)
Each of us technically got just one day to do letterpress printing. I realized that wasn’t much only after it took 2 hours to actually locate all the alphabets I needed. It requires a HUGE amount of patience, attention and energy. The funny part I felt was the actual printing takes about 3 minutes in total. But the frame making prior to and drying post printing is what takes ages. I chose a 12 point sized decorative typeface as I felt it would go nicely with my postcards. I had to letterpress on the 2 kinds of postcards I had completed the earlier day and on blank sheets on which I would screenprint the following day. So that was quite an interesting situation because for the ďŹ rst batch I had to make sure the print was in the centre whereas in the second batch I could do pretty much whatever I wanted and print anywhere on the paper. A few problems I faced was availability of the frames. There were just 2 for an entire class and for a process that takes hours, it was NOT fun waiting around for a frame to get free. Secondly, some prints went in too deep and the inked seeped onto the back too. Otherwise, all in all it was an awesome experience and I deďŹ nitely learnt tons from this technique of printing.
FINAL FA R T WO R K
Postcard 1 “sending you balloons full of farts”
Postcard 2 “Wherever you may be, let your wind pass free”
Postcard 3 “Live . Fart . Laugh”
Postcard 4
Final 4 postcards