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UNIT 10
PERSONAL PROJECT
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CONTEXTUAL STATEMENT
REVISED I.P.S.
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Please note that Development file material is in these sketchbooks. This includes briefing Sheets // self + peer assessment records // lecture notes// reflection // developments // harvard standard bibliography The intention of this book is to make a more coherent version of the work in the sketchbooks and any digital pieces that had not previously been printed. Please still refer to the sketchbooks while looking through this book as not all developments will be printed. This book is completely self-published, design and written by Kraggy using 100% recycled or Re-used materials.
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UNIT 10
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AURORA BOREALIS Over summer I rediscovered my love for collage and analogue photographs. I used to study photography so it wasn’t a new medium for me to use, however it was the shapes and colours I was more interested in rather than the actual composition of the original photograph.
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I did find that the more I made, the more confident I became in creating the collages so started to try bigger versions and 3D pieces. I am aware the language could be seen as “trendy� but I just wanted to experiment.
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I found a lot of inspiration in John Stezaker’s work. His collages often have a very clover positioning behind them. I was not so impressed with his silk screens, as they seemed to just be screen prints of his old collage work, repeatedly. I found a few online artist that were exploring the same language and so linked them on Silver Pockets (silverpockets.tumblr. com). However most people seemed to be making the collages digitally, where as I had restrained my self to only my own photos and a scalpel. Some of the lens flares and waters were starting to create Aurora-like shapes in the photos. Especially the under water ones so I decided to explore them further.
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I didn’t actually know what the Aurora Borealis was or how it worked before I start this project, so my first line of research was trying to get a clear and simpler understanding of it. This also influences my target audience; I thought it could be a very wide range of people as not many people actually know how it works. I always found myself explaining the Northern lights going down from the Sun. I think this later influenced my composition for images. At this point I was still trying out different medias to use, see what would capture the glow of the lights well.
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From my normal media of Posca Pens I moved onto water colours and inks to try and get the glow look like it was flowing across the sky. I also thought I would bring in some of my pencil drawings to see if the worked well together. These were then photocopied and layered up in many different combination to see which looked most natural.
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I then decided to revisit the collage method I had been using and see if i could transfer it over to the water colours. This didn’t really work but it did get me thinking about using grids in composing my pieces. I then looked at Moholy Nagy and some traditional collage teaching books such as The Collage Handbook by Jogn and Joan Digby. These both helped me thing more about creating a piece rather than simply taking it apart and putting it back together in a different arrangement.
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After a few tests on using collages a different way i thought about how i could represent other areas of how the Norther lights work. So I tired finding textures to use as space, by using spray paint, and then bitmapping it. I also looked at the alternative ways atoms and electrodes could be viewed rather than the school textbook method that most of us are already used to.
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After briefly looking at design layouts I became fascinated by them, and tried discovering more I could use in my work rather than just he “golden ratio� that I already knew of. I recently became subscribed to Computer Arts magazine, and they have been a constant source of great information to me. From reading the magazine i felt i have furthered my design knowledge greatly and start to get a better under standing of the creative industry. It also has great tutorials that have helped be further my adobe indesign / photoshop / illustrator skills.
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In the run up to the Work In Progress show i really wasn’t sure what i was going to hang. So i thought i would make a large drawing of how the northern lights worked, using spray paints and Posca pens. However this turned out to be terrible, there was no control over it and the huge scale of it just drew attention as to how bad it was. I eventually late night decided to completely change my idea and got back to photoshop with my images. I bitmapped them so the looked like they could be risographed after, which i did eventually do.
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I was really happy with how these turned out and i feel it marked a new learning curve for me. I previously had never really used vectors in my work, and although i was using them in text form, it still seemed to work. I also managed to put a technique i have been working for a while into play with was screening each layer with a colour and then multiplying them to get the effect that is had put silk screened or risographed. I would then separate the colours and print each one separately for a high quality print.
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After the Work In Progress show I did then decide to Risograph my piece and I also turned the mountains into a design that I could screen print double sides on tote bags. I had original drawn out the design using paint pens as a present, but then decided it actually loved nice and so thought I would print them myself. I was surprised at how easy it was to print them once I got into the swing of it, since I was using my own it I didn’t have to worry about time restraints so printed as many as I could in a night. This has later inspired me to set up a shop purely based around limited edition tote bags screen print by myself.
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After some time away from the course project research and mainly just adding artists and pieces to Silver Pockets I decided to refresh my knowledge around the subject as so got a few books out of the library. I also visited the Museum Of Everything, which was a very different experience to the first one but still a very unique show. I gave me ideas about how m y work should be displayed but it wasn’t soon after I decided that I wanted it to be interactive since I was spending so much time making the Mixed Special website and learning coding. I gathered a few physical examples of interaction design to help me gauge my audience for the website I had now decided I was going to build. It is intended for people from around 10 upwards, it is meant to be educational but not in a “GCSE Bitesize” kind of way. It must still be something very aesthetically nice to appreciate.
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More experiments with visual language. Before planning the website in drafts.
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Now vist http://kraggywip.tumblr.com/ auroraborealis
It is still a work in progress and will be updating as I learn more. However the draft is there now and there are interactive elements to play with. More drafts at http://kraggywip.tumblr.com 48
PERSONAL PROJECT
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CUT ME UP ZINE Title: The Room Deadline: 10/2/12 At the start of the personal project I had originally intended for a project around the cult movie The Room to be a yearlong exploration. However this has not been the
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case but we did make a The Room themed zine for our issue #2 ready in time for the special screenings at the Prince Charles Cinema. The second issues will be handed out at the cinema for fans to take and use as a zine, or just use the poster on the inside.
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Cut Me up has since had many more developments, including, being stocked in Ohh Deer online store, offers form NGNG design to stock, a new website in the making and a commission to create a run of hand made recycled sketchbooks for the London Fabric and Textile Museum. We have also been touring the zine round self-publishing festivals and creative fairs with a good response each time. I enjoy doing this, as it’s a great way to meet fellow illustrators or designers too. In the past I have made some brilliant contacts through such events.
Over the next spread are the #2 layouts.
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ALBUM ART WORK Title: Narrow Plains Deadline: 29/2/12 I have recently been asked to help the band Narrow Plains (previously Orpheus) with their album art work and possibly do all the branding for them, ie website too. This is a project that has really captured my interest as it’s a chance for me to try out typography and the new design skills I have been practicing.
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TOTE SHOP Title: Online Tote Bag Shop Deadline: N/A After making my own tote prints over xmas i had an idea for a shop. The idea is simple: 10 ed. of each bag, all hand made, designs by selected designers, they get a cut of profit.
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FLYER ART WORK Title: Flyer Deadline: 10/3/12 A new club night (currently un-named) in Nottingham contacted me about doing the artwork for their launch flyers. I have agreed as I rarely do commercial work like this.
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TECHNIQUE TESTS A collection of screen shots taken as I experiment in photoshop with layer settings // type // new colour palettes // or compositions. Often I do not record these changes, but recently I have made the effort to keep the all at the http://kraggywip.tumblr.com blog for later reference.
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A colouring collaboration with illustrator Dave Bain.
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ONLINE SHOP Over the Christmas holidays, as a way of self promotion and some spare earnings, I decided to finally set up an online shop. To to this I coded around the bigcartel template so that I would not have to upgrade and pay for the site. The items sold were mainly aimed at the Xmas market however any left are still taken with me to zine fairs. http://kraggy.co.uk/shop
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SHOW WEBSITE Title: Mixed Special Deadline: 8/3/12 I have been working closely with the rest of the design team in coding the end of year show website. So far the holding page is up.
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TEST SCRIPTS Visit http://kraggywip.tumblr.com for links to each of these test coding sites of interactive pieces.
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CONTEXTUAL STATEMENT
Since joining the BA I feel that my work have developed quite rapidly, whilst also retaining my core interests. I started the course with very personal sketchbook orientated work that may not have suited commercial success outside of my previously recognised “zinester” audience. However after a summer of rediscovering my interest in photography collage, I started to experiment with design grids, and introduced vector elements into my hand drawn work. After conducting several test pieces, and experiments in colour palettes, I feel that a personal visual language is beginning to form. Prior to this year my coding skills were at a basic level, but after undertaking the job of creating the End of Year Show site, working from tutorials online and magazines, I have learnt far more about web design than I expected. I am continuing to improve my JavaScript knowledge and expect my Jquery abilities to improve
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with my personal projects. This has brought a new level of interaction to my work and although I would prefer it not to be my primary career, having the coding knowledge has already opened up more opportunities for myself. I still have a strong interest in self-publishing and this was amplified as I carried out my research for the context unit work. I take pride in creating handmade books and prints with a professional finish. Since I have acquired my own screen-printing equipment and had access to the Risograph, the idea of setting up a printing press or shop, such as Ditto press and Lazy Oaf, has greatly appealed to me. In the future I would consider sharing a studio with others as I enjoy working in a collective, such as I do for ‘Cut Me Up’ or did in the Mixed Special design team. Although currently my work is still in development I feel it is taking a more commercial route, which could mean possibly joining a studio or freelancing. Through recent commissions I have found myself taking a more professional approach to briefs and enjoyed practicing commercial skills, such as layout, editorials and branding, that could lead to a marketable audience later and will later benefit me as working illustrator.
//Pretext// My original proposal for the Unit 11 assignment was based upon a self-publishing personal project called; ‘Cut Me Up’, which celebrated the obnoxious celebrity culture through an illustrated zine. Through this collective zine with illustrator Erd Yakingun, I have became fascinated by the cult movie The Room, often described as “the worst movie ever made”. I immersed myself in this cult trend; embracing the terribleness of the movie and intended to create a celebration pack or pastiche of this “meme generating” film for new or existing fans. This publication is now ready, and is available from various online shops and at our own website or zine stalls. It will also be distributed on the 10th February at a Prince Charles Cinema special screening of The Room featuring a Live Q&A session with director Tommy Wiseau. Although it started with the initial aim of being a “Viewers Guide To… The Room”, it quickly developed into a pastiche, which appealed to fans with a preexisting knowledge of the movie. However we also found that many people appreciated the zine and illustration on an aesthetic level, and would then research its content subject if they hadn’t already seen the movie or heard of the cult like following. Normally the response was similar to ours and they would join in on ‘the joke’, which made for an interesting case about how the humor and psyche of the “its so bad its good” psychology works. However my intentions for this work have changed.
REVISED I.P.S.
I have recently found that I am less interested in solely continuing ‘The Room’ project for the duration of the year. I feel that ‘Cut Me Up’ as a brand has developed passed being just a platform for my alternative working language, and after my Unit 9 research, I believe it has the potential to contribute to the self-publishing community in different ways. Already a new website is in development, with plans of a ‘featuring and reviewing’ section to help give others exposure and embrace the zine community. We have also recently been contracted to create a line of recycled sketchbooks, like our own, for the London Fashion & Textile Museum. In addition to this I have also been undertaking smaller personal commissions and creating selfpromotional work. These include album art works, flyers, entering competitions and self-set tasks; such as setting up a shop. Through working on these in conjunction with the Unit 10 project and Unit
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9 research, I have found that I am developing my personal visual language and gathering a better understanding of the illustration as a profession. This is why I have come to the conclusion that continuing my work and research around commercial illustration briefs would be far more beneficial to my practice as an illustrator. Currently I have seven definite projects to be continuing with; album art work and branding for the band Narrow Plains, creating the Mixed Special show website, a Talent House and Mastadon competition, creating the flyer art for a Nottingham club night, creating and running the new ‘Cut Me Up’ website, producing the LFT sketchbooks and setting up a completely new online shop revolving around selling limited edition screen printed tote bags. On top of this I would like to start practicing my editorial designs since they were an interest of mine in the FdA second year and I have chosen the Guardian external project. For these I could work from old, though I would prefer to work on live projects, possibly online journals that need constant editorials made, such as Computer Arts Magazine or Creative Boom. For most of these works I expect to mainly use my hand rendered drawing then use Photoshop and illustrator to add colour and vector elements to them. Through the Unit 10 project I have started to discover colour palettes and working method I think can develop into a strong language for my practice. My project work has also been influenced by 84
the web designing assignments I have been working on, and my expanding knowledge in web coding. As part of the online tote shop I will not only be utilizing my coding techniques, but also using fabric screen printing methods; a skill I have practicing recently through my own shop products. A great source of inspiration for this came great from ‘The Tote Bag’ by Jitesh Patel, which features an impressive collection of reviewed tote designs and an insight into the product market. Other successful shops such as the No Brow store, Super Super Facial and Lazy Oaf will provide an insight into the workings of a creative shop. Business and promotion skills will also have to be researched for this store, Alex Mathers from Red Lemon Club provides free knowledge for creatives and in particular freelancers on such subjects. Through these projects I hope to develop my work and get a better understanding for possible freelance work or studio work after university.
Kraggy.co.uk