A
Conver s at io n
The Brief Project synopsis
Project requirements
Brief - A Conversation
This module enables you to develop the integrated design methodologies required to work in a dynamic, professional, creative and commercial environment.
The assignment will incorporate a range of stringent professional requirements, involving personal time management, detailed research, creativity and originality, as well as a high level of technical expertise.
Take time to develop ideas and experiment with different media, materials and technologies. Play with instructions, reinterpret, disrupt, reinvent. What’s the most important conversation for today? What’s the most important conversation for the future? Who will you speak to? What is the message?
what is a conversation? After receiving the brief ‘A Conversation’, I sat down, re-read the brief and started brainstorming ideas to give me an idea of a starting point. This brief requires me to research and develop an outcome that centres around the idea of a ‘conversation’. This then got me thinking, what actually is a conversation? So I
turned to the dictionary definition to get a better understanding.
conversation people have and what their purpose is.
“Conversation: A talk, especially an informal one, between two or more people, in which news and ideas are exchanged.”
Most people when they think of a conversation would jump to the conclusion that it is two or more people talking face to face. However conversations can also been seen in a more complex and visual way.
Once I had looked up the dictionary definition of a conversation, I then moved on to looking into the types of
There are multiple reasons as
to why we have conversations, for example to teach, discuss, translate, express, or to even catch up with friends and family.
to gain an proper understanding of how a conversation ‘works’, as well as understanding why they take place.
In many ways I feel that a conversation is to communicate with one another and portray feelings and ideas that potentially no one else will understand. In order for me to achieve the full potential for the brief, I need
I then went on to look at different obstacles that could affect or create conversations.
basic conversation The most basic form of conversation is via oral communication. There is no generally accepted definition of conversation other than the fact that a conversation needs to involve at least two people
talking together. As a baby growing into a toddler we go through stages of development where the native language is learnt. This usually happens around one year old
to two years old where simple demands have been learnt. Following on a few years to around the age of four, five and six, as a small child, sentences are being put together. As we
then grow even older we learn more complex things and expand our vocabulary. Once a language is learnt and mastered to its upmost potential, it can be used to
portray emotion, problem solve and even change how we see the world. Language can inspire people, separate people and change people, making it powerful.
Advanced conversation Braille
Sign Language Sign language is a form of visual communication that uses gestures, facial expressions and body languages. Sign language is mostly used by deaf people or those who have hearing impairments. In Britain in 2003, British Sign Language (BSL) was finally recognised as an official
minority language by the UK government. To typically sign something you would most commonly combine hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body along with facial expressions.
Braille is a more physical type of communication. It is a system of raised dots that can be read with fingers. It is typically used by people who are blind or have limited/low vision. People who are not visually impaired usually tend to read braille with their eyes.
Braille is not a language. It is more of a code used by many languages. It is used by thousands of people around the world in the native language. It is provided as a means of literacy for all people.
Artist interpretation Anthony Burrill Anthony Burrill is a graphic artist, printmaker and designer. His work is known for its persuasive and upbeat style
of conversation. In his pieces words and the language that he uses are an important part of the output as over the years,
he has developed a distinctive voice to portray what he says, as well as this he is well known for his typographic and text based
compositions.Whilst his work is grounded in a serious devotion to his art, there is also a lightness and a touch of humour
that is unique within graphic design and communication.
Artist interpretation Peter Crawley Crawley studied and continues to work in product design, however also took time out to produce stitched illustrations.
The first one took inspiration from a road trip across America, but he also continued to produce
waveforms of audio in the same stitched manner. In these pieces one wavelength represents one minute of audio.
This means that each of these pieces will be individual and unique to themselves, especially with conversations being different
each time. I really like this style of work as it is different to anything I have come across before.
Ideas and Concepts; One North South Divide Once I had gathered together a few ‘conversation contributing factors’, and looked at some artists, I went on to look at ideas for what I could centre my final outcome around and how it could be approached.
This first idea comes from my experience at university. My original hometown is a very small seaside town deep in the South West of Dorset, in comparison to Huddersfield, a bustling Northern university
town, I have definitely noticed differences in the way that people talk, whether it be accents or words and phrases that they say. This then gave me the
inspiration to think that I could produce something that could visually communicate this to an audience, either by comparing phrases and sentences side by side or by producing a conversation somehow,
potentially via animation, to put this idea across better than a poster might do.
Ideas and Concepts; Two News Headlines Another idea stemmed from watching the evening news. From this I felt that if I collected newspapers over a couple of
weeks or even just a week, I could select some of the major, as well as the not so major headlines.
I then had the idea that I could potentially twist or adapt the headlines and their stories to make them read completely
differently to how they were meant to and show them in a different light, possibly making this strike up a conversation
between the people reading them.
Ideas and Concepts; Three Military Messages This next I believe would be a really sentimental and nice idea to bring back to life as it were. The concept for it stems from
a time before I was born, but is very close to home. My dad was in the Royal Navy whilst he was dating and also before he married my mum. This meant
that throughout the time that he was at sea many letters and photos would have been exchanged between them both.
I feel that this would be a really nice thing to consider putting across to an audience as in many ways I would be bringing up a conversation from
the past, whilst also having a conversation with history.
Ideas and Concepts; Four Learning Going back to a time when I was young and still true to many today, most of the things
that we learn are started up by conversation with our parents. At first we may not understand
what is being said to us, but from hand gestures and symbols we can pick things up. We then
carry this knowledge on for the rest of our lives.
Final Concept For my final concept I have opted to go for the recreation of the letters that were sent to and from my parents whilst my dad was in the Navy.
I have chosen to carry forward this idea, as I feel that I can experiment, develop and play around with it and look at the composition depending on how I opt to visually communicate it
to an audience a lot better than I could the other three ideas that I came up with. The only issue that I feel will become a big problem with this
concept is that because these letters were sent over a period of twenty four years, and the last one sent thirteen years ago, it may be a struggle trying to find some of the replies,
occasionally making for a one sided conversation. In many ways I will be recreating the old.
Recreating the old Recently on social media a lot of posts have been appearing with people recreating their old childhood photos with parents, siblings and even pets. I find this such a good way to
recreate the old in the present time, as in many ways it will bring back memories of what the past used to be like and maybe even for some of the people in the photos that get to relive their youth again.
In many ways it is like a conversation with the past as you will be having to remind yourself what you were wearing and what you were doing at the time.
In many ways something similar to this is what I would like to recreate within my final outcome between the letters sent to and from my mum and dad, however it may be hard especially with some of the things my dad used
to do when he was at sea in the navy and sourcing some of the items for photos may be a bit harder than it would be others.
Recreating the old Something else that I have come across that represents the old is drawn imagery. A lot of the times an artist will have looked at old movies or historical places
and drawn what someone may have been doing there and then and replacing part of the actual photograph with the drawing that has then recreated the old
surrounding area, or in the case of a movie what the character(s) would have been wearing and doing.
In other cases the old photograph may have been kept and reprinted and then someone has gone to the area where the original piece was and
recreated the image that way. Similarly to the recreated family photos, I really like this way of representing the old within the new.
Recreating the old Not only did I come across the imagery of old photos being recreated, I also came across pieces of work by an American artist called Kathleen Taylor. Known as ”The Envelope
Project”, these pieces of work by Taylor include old envelopes, which have been recreated with drawings and illustrations. This project began when she found a basket full of vintage
items such as postage stamps and cancelled envelopes. These envelopes contained stories of connection between soldiers and their loved ones, relatives, distant family and best friends. Taylor began to draw images
and words on these envelopes, which incorporated the original stamps and markings. Taylor stated “creating art out of these ordinary papers gave me a way to preserve a dying form
of communication in this digital age. The letter writers, their stories, and words are given new life through the art. I wanted to bring attention to the power and beauty of words on paper”.
collage After looking at the work of Kathleen Taylor I felt that doing a collage for my piece would work and fit really well along with the theme of recreating the old.
With the use of collage I will be able to use old photos and the letters that were sent between my parents at the time when my dad was in the navy. In many ways I believe that collage can
tell its own story, even if there is a story within the collage and this is what I would like to recreate in my work. I want to tell the story of my
parents being apart, whilst bringing it back to life in a visual format. There are many forms of collage, which I want to research and
explore before jumping straight into my work.
artist research Joseph Cornell Despite many sources stating that Cornell was an artist and sculptor, he was neither. Nor was he a draughtsman. In fact he had never received any professional training.
In most ways he was a collector, scouring old bookshops and second hand stores for souvenirs, theatre memorabilia, old photography and prints, music scores and French literature.
The American was one of the pioneers and most celebrated pioneers of assemblage. His influences stemmed from the surrealists. Cornell was also an avant-garde experimental filmmaker.
His most characteristic works were his boxed assemblages. These were created from the items and objects collected at the bookshops and second hand stores. Many of these boxes were made to be interactive and
handled. Cornell was interested in the beauty and preciousness of the found objects that he used in his work.
artist research Antigirl Tiphanie Brooke, known professionally as Antigirl is an American multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer. She is best known for her series of heart paintings, street art and collages.
Brooke adopted the name Antigirl in 1999 after a friend asked her "Why are you so anti, girl?� the name then became her project and brand name. brooke works a lot with hearts and first started incorporating
them into her work in 2009 with a print called A Dozen Hearts. The hearts collection has since grown into a large project containing private and public installations, exhibitions and artwork.
A lot of Brooke’s work is created in mixed media using paper, glue, inks and paints as well as digital alterations. Her work blends traditional materials with techniques that use modern technologies. This can include
things such as screen printing, photography, typography, print, illustration and painting.
artist research Kurt Schwitters Kurt Schwitters was a German painter, sculptor, typographer and writer. During 1918 he created his own form of Dada called Merz. This style of worked created collages and
constructions made from rubbish materials such as labels, bus tickets and bits of broken wood. He was a significant figure in
European Dadaism. The creation of Merz was influenced by expressionism and cubism.
Not only art, but abstract drama and poetry, cabaret, music, photography and architecture.
Merz soon became a phrase that described all creative outputs.
His abstract collages are what Schwitters is most famous for.
They were born from his postwar feeling. ‘Everything had broken down and new things had to be made out of the fragments; and this is Merz.’
artist research Katherine Streeter Katherine Streeter is a New York City based artists. She produces very unique and quirky collages, which are inspired by fashion, music, dream narrative, graffiti
and folklore. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and publications as well as being
displayed in galleries and on product design. Streeter creates rich visual imagery, which has the ability
to explain complex issues in simple, quiet tones. Her work is a mixture of photo collage, painting, and hand lettering. She uses a combination of traditional
and digital work to create her pieces.
collage style I really like the more modern style of collage by artists such as Katherine Streeter and Tiphanie Brooke as opposed
to that of the style of Kurt Schwitters and Joseph Cornell. For what I want to do with my work and how I want to portray it
to the audience I feel that photocollage will be more suited. With this in mind and looking at how other artists have done collage
work I can use these skills and combine multi media techniques, especially with paint, typography and digital media.
my imagery Once I had received the imagery and letters to work with I went on to sort out what I had. When I was sorting through the items I noticed that there were only the
letters sent to my mum from my dad, with no replies. This then proceeded slightly difficult for what o wanted to
do as originally I had planned to recreate both, the first letter with the following reply. Despite this, I still carried on to
experiment with what I had, to see what could come out of this situation. From what I had there was still an extensive range of letters and a couple of images
that I could potentially work with.
my imagery
my imagery
experiments
experiments
experiments Despite not having many experiments, I could already tell that this idea was really not working out and was becoming a struggle to come up with ideas that were new and fresh
to portray my work in a strong visual manner. I wanted to portray my work with a bright, vibrant outlook and really bring the old back to life.
I then went back to the drawing board, looked at the ideas and concepts that I had previously thought up, however nothing stood out to me. I had really come to like the idea of using
letters as my basis to portray a conversation. I then decided to then think up when and where you might use letters to strike up a
conversation so that I could still use this as the main focus point of my work.
a different concept Letters After careful consideration and moving on to a new concept, yet still involving letters as the main focus point I came to two potential new ideas. These two ideas are very personal to me, therefore I feel that it would be easier to get into the work in comparison to the previous idea. Firstly I came up with the idea
of writing letters to myself throughout the life I have lived, however in first person. This would be like a guide to my life, teaching my younger self things that I have already learnt, however acting as if I hadn’t been born yet. This would be in letter form so that as the years progress I could read them and in a sense know what would be
coming up, however I could react to those things differently to how I have done in my actual life. The second option was to write letters to the people who have had the most/biggest influence in my life, ranging from family to close and distant friends. This idea I feel will be a lot more personal and also help me
to reflect on things that have happened.
slightly conform to the brief a little bit more than the first.
Both of these ideas I like a lot, however I am still unsure as to which one would be the best to showcase my work and fulfil the needs of the brief. In many cases both options would be a very one-sided conversation, however I feel that the second one would
I drafted out rough ideas of how I could complete the letters and in these cases what I could write in them and whom I could write them to.
a different concept - idea one Letters To Myself To start off for this idea I listed what has happened throughout the twenty years that I have
been living, from the great and mighty achievements, to the lowest points of my life and
everything in between. If I then opted for this idea I
would follow on from the notes to a more detailed description of those aspects of my life that I
have lived.
a different concept - idea two Letters To Others For my second idea, instead of listing things I produced a mind map with things that I could
include in the letters. These were things such as feelings, and things that I feel have changed
over the time of knowing the person.
As I would not actually be sending these letters I also felt that I could put things in there
that I perhaps would not want to say to their face.
a different concept - chosen idea For this new letters based concept, I have opted to go for the second idea. I feel that with this concept I can connect to it a lot more than just writing to myself the life that I have lived.
In the case of writing letters to other people I believe that I will be able to emotionally connect to the work and really put all of my effort into the project and really create a conversation.
Although it may be a very one sided conversation, I feel that it will also be a conversation with myself to express how I feel about the person I am writing to and the emotions that I have
towards them. With this concept I think that I will be able to put more content into the work, not only within the letters to fulfil the brief,
but also visually so that it is a conversation of images, not just words.
letters to others Who Could You Write To? As I was unsure who I could write my letters to, I decided to
produce a mind map about who people may write letters to, in
the hope that it may help me with ideas of who I could write
to.
letters to others Who I Will Write To? I have decided to write ten letters for my piece. I have thought carefully about who they are going to be to, especially as the words that I will be writing will be all very honest and truthful and in many ways I don’t want to write the wrong things to the wrong people and I don’t
want to write too many letters that the objective of my work disappears by overdoing it. For the ten people I have chosen, five people are from my family and five people are from my friends. This way I felt that it was fair on both sides and it
wasn’t too over powering with one side. From my family I have selected my mum, dad, both sets of grandparents and my great grandma. For my friends I have chosen to do my three best friends from home, someone
who I have lost as a friend due to various circumstances, everyone of my friends past and present that I have met, my boyfriend and myself. These specific people I have chosen are because of the fact that I believe I have a lot of
things to say to them, however would rather do it as a written letter as opposed to a face-toface conversation, therefore also making content to fulfil the needs of the brief.
the letters
assesment My Views
Feedback
Up until the point of assessment I feel that I have started this brief well and really got into it, however I have also found the assessment and the feedback for this project really useful and a lot of good things came out of it. The idea of taking it from a personal approach was received well and my ideas came across nicely. The feedback I received was all very positive and has definitely led me onto a good path for completion of the brief.
The use of personal material and a personal approach is a good way into the project brief. The idea of letter writing in particular has the potential for lots of in depth conceptual and visual exploration. A good documentation of the start of the project is shown, the ideas are documented clearly. Work on developing the visual side of the project, and your own responses to the subject matter. It feels as though this all needs to be ‘bigger’, physically, in scale, and also in terms of how much time is devoted to it. Include visual research, especially look at artists who explore personal stories and letter writing in their work.
artist research - personal stories and letters Following on from my feedback, I did decide to research and look at artists and designers who use
personal themes or letter writing, or similar, in their work.
I feel that it would really help my work progress and maybe even influence the style that I choose
to go in with my own work.
artist research - personal stories and letters Louise Bougeis Louise Bougeis was a FrenchAmerican artist who produced work that was heavily influenced by traumatic psychological events from her childhood. In particular, her fathers cheating. Bougeis’ work spanned the
majority of the twentieth century. Because of the theme of her work which was often brooding and sexually explicit subjects as well as the fact that she worked in a three dimensional form was very rare
for women at the time. Her artwork was renowned for its highly personal themes which did involve the unconscious sexual desire and the form of the body.
Bougeis transformed her experiences into highly personal visual language. She did this by using mythological and characteristic imagery. Her work adopted
objects such as spirals, spiders, cages, medical tools and more to symbolize the feminine being, beauty and psychological pain.
artist research - personal stories and letters Liza Kirwin Liza Kirwin is an American illustrator and artist. In 2015 she released a book titles “More Than Words�, which is a collection of artist made illustrated letters, taken from the
Smithsonian Archives. Within the book there are over ninety pieces of mailable artwork, these are in the forms of thank you notes, love letters, descriptions and many more.
All of the personal details of the letters are accented with images filling in the blanks to express what sometimes words cannot express.
Despite the letters not being her own, I think that this is a really inventive idea to bring the letters of well known artists to life. Unlike the works that were made
to hang on a gallery wall, these creations were never intended to leave the grasp of their recipient.
artist research - personal stories and letters Lawrence Weiner Lawrence Weiner is considered as one of the most central figures in the formation of conceptual art within the 1960s. Most of his work takes the form of typographic text.
In 1968 Weiner created his first book “Statements�. It is a small 64-page paper back with text that describes projects. The book is considered one of the most influential conceptual
artist’s books of that era. His works may not be letters as such, however they describe process, structure and material. Because it is all language based
I feel that it is still a conversation with the audience, and he is putting across information to the readers. He regards all of his practice
as sculpture. Despite it being language based, Weiner cites the elements described in the texts as his main materials.
presenting my letters Ideas Whilst I was writing the letters for my new idea, I was thinking of ways that they could be presented as well as what the piece(s) could be titled. In some of the letters I wrote some things that I felt would
be too hard, or a struggle to say to a person face-to-face. In many ways I felt that the words I were writing were things that I could never say out loud, this was when I had a thought about calling the piece “things I could never say�. I really liked this idea
as it was something different, and I believe that it would engage the audience to see the letters. Once I had a title/name for the piece, I needed to think of a way to present it. I still wanted to go
along with the collage, as I feel that this new concept will be a nice way for it to be used, it was just a case of how I could collage this new idea. I still really like the idea of using photos as a basis for collage,
so I went on to think about and experiment with different ways that I can show this idea.
presenting my letters Ideas I came up with four ideas that I felt would work with the theme
of my work. All of these ideas include photographs/images of
myself with the person who I am writing the letter to.
1. Indivudual collages with letters above the imagery.
3. A full A4 collage for each individual letter, with the letters on tracing paper over the imagery.
2. Two long collages with imagery connected. One for family and one for friends. The letters would then be placed above or around the imagery.
4. Have envelopes with the collages on and then simply have the letters in the envelopes.
chosen idea For my final outcome I have chosen to go with idea two, which is the long piece. I feel that this will be a suitable option as I can make one continuous flow of collage for each of the pieces (family and friends).
the idea of having the letters all in one place as opposed to having ten different pieces of paper to look at. With this option I can also make the collages visually appealing, with a good composition.
I also chose this option as I like
There were also some factors
that did prevent me from selecting some of the other options as for some of the people I wanted to write the letters to I had very little or no photos at all, therefore it would not look right against the other collaged pieces, where as with the long option, I could easily
collage images together making it look seamless. I gathered together images that I felt would be suitable for my work. These are a range of fairly old images from when I was younger, moving on to the present day, dependant on who I
was writing the letter to. From this selection, I then further chose the images that went best together on the collage piece.
outcome imagery
outcome imagery
outcome imagery
outcome imagery
outcome imagery
final collages - family Instead of doing the collages physically, I opted to do them digitally. That way I could add some extra little details to the
pieces if I felt that they needed it. Also with digital collage I feel
that it is a lot easier to “edit� the piece. By this I mean that if you do not like where something is placed then it can be easily
moved without disturbing any of the other pieces of the collage if they are laid down to see what the composition looks like.
final collages - family
final collages - friends
final collages - friends
collage development - family The next step was to add in the letters to the collages. Whilst doing this, I also added
some little extra digital details to the collages, such as shapes and lines, just to give the composition something a little
extra as well as break up the images. I really like how they have turned
out, however I felt that there was still something missing from the work.
collage development - family
collage development - friends
collage development - friends
further collage development I then remembered that I had thought up a title for this piece of work, which was “things I could never say�.
As I felt that there was something missing from the pieces, I decided to draft up a kind of title page to put at the
start of the family collages, as well as a summary or blurb style piece of information to go at the end of the friend pieces.
Before rushing into anything, I drew up a few ideas, to make sure that it would all fit in with the collages.
further collage development Title Page
further collage development Back Page
further collage development Despite not having many options to choose from, I could already see which were my favourite of them all for the title page and the front page.
For the front I chose the second option. I really liked that the text was not too thick, like the first one, however it stood out nicely, whereas the last three options I felt were too busy and
overcrowded and really would not go with the collage. As for the end piece, again the second option stood out to me the most. I feel that it was
mostly because it was a square as opposed to the other two being long and thin. I feel that the two choices I have made will fit really nicely with
the collages and not distract from the main visual aspect that I am putting across to the audience.
further collage development - family
further collage development - family
further collage development - friends
further collage development - friends
final outcomes I feel that these two pieces have come out really well and I am pleased with the outcome, especially as my first idea did
not go to plan. I feel that the imagery used, along with the hand written
letters really puts across the personal aspect that I wanted it to.
On the right hand side are the two final outcomes, and how I would show them if they were to be put up in a gallery
or somewhere similar as an example.
katy robinson university of huddersfield katylouiserobinson.blogspot.co.uk