FINAL MAJOR PROJECT FORMATIVE FEEDBACK UNIT EGRD 3015 KAT SULLIVAN
“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.� - Don Williams, Jr. (Novelist and Poet, b.1968)
My work from semester one enabled me to reflect on the recurring themes within my work so I could narrow down my ideas for my Final Major Project. The prominent themes were journeys and documentation. This reflection also helped me sift through the areas I definitely did not want to focus on such as designing a website or creating an animation. For my Final Major Project I have chosen to focus on these themes and create work using my strengths in the processes of illustration, critical and reflective writing, print making, photography and digital editing. I will use these processes to give meaning to the work and not just use them as an exploration of process. For example I am interested in how the individuality of wooden letter press gives character to text. I will start by creating a manifesto to outline my ethos and underlying principles that will help shape my Final Major Project. I will be exploring the concept of a journey through storytelling. I will be making conscious decisions as I work to determine how narrative is affected and reiterated through the physicality of a book. Exploring how book design can be utilised as a form of communication. My intention is to create a series of books that explore a journey through different interpretations and processes. I want to look at how a journey is both physical and mental, in particular how we can create narrative and meaning through the medium of books and the use of layouts. As well as looking at an individual personal journey I also want to explore the concept of a journey on a larger scale by raising questions such as how we reveal and discover ourselves through journeys. Although my focus will be one creating a physical book, I also want to create an e-book version as well as story boarding an app (digital application) version. The intention of this is to see the capabilities in how a narrative can transfer to digital and the changes to a layout/format I would make. I will be researching into designers and artists such as Dettmer Otto, Alan Kitching, Noma Barr, Hamish Faulton, as well as conceptual book designers such as Adele Outteridge.
PROPOSAL
TIMETABLE
For my Final Major Project I have created a gant chart that shows my timetable. By creating a timetable I was able to see what equipment I would need and when. This enabled me to reserve equipment beforehand as well as signing up for relevant inductions (laser cutter and the new print room). Being able to plan my time more efficiently has enabled me to have a more disciplined and thought out approach in regard to my Final Major Project instead of creating a body of work and ending abruptly.
MANIFESTO
As well as creating a timetable I wanted to write and design a manifesto that reflected core aspects of my intentions and approaches to my Final Major Project. I was inspired by previous briefs where I had benefited from writing up a manifesto prior to starting the project. My manifesto for my project on Journeys reflects the ethos that I want my project to embody.
MANIFESTO LASER CUTTER
I realised early on in my planning that there was a possibility that I would want to use the new laser cutter now available to students. I decided to sign up for induction and use my manifesto as a test piece. This enabled me to gauge the time and cost it would take to laser cut a piece of work. During the induction we were shown that the laser cutter could both cut, score and engrave. My manifesto was cut out in 7 minutes and cost an estimated ÂŁ5. It would take considerably longer if I was to score or engrave so I have noted that I should not create a piece that requires a large amount of these techniques.
Using the left over laser cut letter I designed an image that reflected the theme of revealing and discovering.
LETTER PRESSING
After creating my manifesto I wanted to communicate it through letter pressing. Having reflected on the first semester I now feel that I sometimes focused on the technique rather than the message itself. The intention of letter pressing my manifesto was to further communicate the individuality and humanity within its message. I feel that the worn wooded type best reflects this as it is a process where you reveal and discover the marks you are able to make.
I will go back to printing later on (as shown in my time table), however I first want to plan and create a meaningful body of work that I can then depict through printing if appropriate however I do not want to be restricted to the process of print.
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Current news events continue to influence my work. I have enjoyed previous briefs both taught and self directed where I have engaged and reacted to a news story (examples above). Whilst researching into different types of journeys I realised the impact the news has on each of us, in particular myself. I wanted to create a drawing exercise that would enable me to both improve my idea generation and reaction skills to current affairs as well as exploring how I respond to them. I edited one of the prominent news stories in January into a more finished piece. I will continue to do so with my other sketches, with the aim of creating a book that reflects my interpretations of current affairs.
This drawing exercise also enabled me to see how my designs and illustrations could be externatlised, ie: accompanying articles both print and online, supporting campaigns, advertising, etc... Due to my interest in reflective writing I have attended external lectures on areas of personal interest. Remaking Citizenship (Kings College), The Problem With Rape Culture (Kingston University) and The War Within (Kingston University). I plan on incorporating my illustrations into an extended piece of writing that I will publish.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS...
My plan orgianlly was to document a physical journey such as a bus ride. However I realised there was little meaning to this than the exploring the process of getting from a to b. Whilst trying to research and plan my Final Major Project one of my friends passed away and I attended a funeral in Glasgow. I used the journey time to reflect, write and draw my experiences and create work that had more personal meaning. From the original sketches and notes I created a series of reflective written pieces and started to edit them to create a more concise narrative.
DEVELOPMENTS TRACING
I edited the original sketches and writing to create a more concise story, I then printed these onto tracing paper. The intention of the tracing paper was to representing the different layers of the journey, the overlapping emotion and the change in the physical scenery.
DEVELOPMENTS RETRACE
I created my second book, Retrace/Remember by scanning and editing the previous tracing paper pages of my first attempt. I wanted to convey the same sense of a layered journey and the process of revealing/discovering. Although I feel the illusion of transparency and layering worked within this book, the clarity of the writing was lost. Due to this I wanted to create a more cleaner approach where the writing was the main focus.
DEVELOPMENTS RETRACE
DEVELOPMENTS ACETATE
I also experimented with printing onto separate sheets of acetate to create a more transparent feel to the work. The concept of this development was to enable to viewer to create their own narrative using the separate sheets of illustrations. The looseness of the pages gave more freedom when placing and photographing the work. I will be creating a handmade box to store the A6 sheets in and accompanying it with a separate sheet of paper that describes the journey through text.
CREATING PACE
I edited the narrative and layout again to create a clear sense of pace. I replaced my original hand writing for text that would communicate better to others. I decided to keep all the text the same size as the text is equal in worth, however when I commence the next stage I will alter the text sizes depending on each sense. I printed copies by myself and then reformatted it for a print on demand format. The photographs above are taken from the print on demand book I ordered from Lulu.
The next stage is to create a series of narratives displayed simultaneously on each page, with four narratives running through the book. Focusing upon what I felt at the time, what I saw, what I could smell/taste and then a reflection afterwards.
PROGRESSION
A photograph of all the books together, showing the stages of conscious developments. These books will be housed together in a box that incudes a description for the concept and decisions made during each version.
LONDON TO GLASGOW & BACK
I designed this skyline from having looked at photographs of London and Glasgow and then choosing landmarks and scenery, to create an artificial blending of the skylines. Afterwards I laser cut the outline of the skyline onto card and photographed it in different environments, merging the artificial with the natural.
LONDON TO GLASGOW & BACK
Afterwards I laser cut the outline of the skyline onto card and photographed it in different environments, merging the artificial with the natural. The flexibility of the card meant I could create different depths with perspective such as bending it into a circle or creating a concertina effect.
DESIGN THE SKYLINE
After creating a body of work exploring one particular journey and designing an artificial skyline, I started looking at personal photographs to see the natural skyline within. I used a photographic manipulation technique to create circular skylines. I liked how these were both aesthetically pleasing and also conveyed a sense of contained environment. However after creating several I found the technique to be very limiting, producing a repetitive outcome. This exercise did however generate further questions that pushed my work onwards.
FULL CIRCLE
Moving on from the photographic skylines and creating a simplistic outline of a skyline that I feel works better in depicting the concept of a journey. I used this image as the cove for my print on demand book about a personal journey.
At the start of my Final Major Project I set myself the theme of a journey, since creating work I have narrowed down the type of journeys I am focusing on. I found the process of writing a proposal and redrafting it continuously very helpful. I found it difficult in semester one to narrow down my ideas as there was a number of things I wanted to explore. However since the start of the second semester I now feel more focused and driven in the direction of my Final Major Project. Originally I had reservations about exploring and creating a body of work that incorporated a personal journey but I soon realised that this was crucial in getting to the essence of an emotive narrative. I have focused on one particular personal journey and I chose to reticulate that journey using different methods, exploring how each one effects the meaning of the narrative. I will be continuing to create a more finished design for the books I have already made, focusing on presenting them together in a box that provides additional information for the reader. I want to continue researching into artists and designers who I feel have an affliation towards journeys and whose concepts revolve around communicating that journey to others, such as the ‘walking artist’ Hamish Faulton. I wish to incorporate his method of edited observations alongside a striking graphic piece. I will create another print on demand book as well as a screen printed narrative book on the theme of journeys and my observations I have found.
THE STORY SO FAR EVALUATION WHAT NEXT?