semester one
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tonoy sarma graphic design m.design 2017 S1701114
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1INTRODUCTIONtoDESIGN 2SCIENCEand LIBERALarts 3DRAWING 4COLOUR 5COMPOSITION 6TYPOGRAPHY 7IMAGEMAKING 8DESIGNPROCESS 9PRODUCTIONPROCESS
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The first semester at NID passed by in a snap and I am still in the process of absorbing all that had been showered upon us during the course of this period. I am very grateful to all the faculty who were extraordinarily patient and skilful in acquainting us with what design is. They were very integral in helping us with our baby steps towards becoming better designers throughout the semester, all the while laying a strong foundation for us. I’m very grateful to Tridha Gajjar for her guidance and unwavering support . I’m also in awe of the amount of knowledge Tarundeep Girdher holds, and his witty and fun ways of imparting that to his students. Lastly, this entire semester would not have meant anything without the happiness and laughter that I shared with all the new friends I made here, each of whom are exceptionally talented in their own ways and have always inspired me each day.
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Introduction to Design was a way to acquaint us to and challenge our existing notion of what design is. We had the opportunity of listening to a series of notable speakers, each of whom navigated us through their life, experiences and work and how it shaped the meaning of what design is to them.
Mr. Amit Gulati, Mr. Tarun Deep Girdher, Mrs. Lakshmi Murthy, Mr. Sudhir Sharma, Mr. Sekhar Mukherjee, Mr. Suresh Eriyat, Dr. Mihir Bhole, Mr. Pravinsinh Solanki, Ms. Swagata Naidu, Mr. Praveen Nahar, Mr. Arun Gupta, Mr. Tuhin Paul & Ms. Aditi Gupta (L - R)
You can’t solve problems with the same thoughts you used to create them in the first place.
With the help of these speakers, we were guided through the definition of design and how it is an ever changing constant. Each of these noteworthy people had their own experiences to share about where they are in life, what they see design as and how they got there. It was an extremely important step in orienting ourselves, absorbing the possibilities and getting motivated to finding the niche that resonates with our ideas. Exercise 1: We were asked to identify a product, system or designer that we really respect and justify in the form of a 500 word essay. Exercise 2: This was towards the end of the course where we had to design a poster on what design means to us and explain about it in a video.
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what • about the struggle and dedication required to work towards your passion to succeed.
• no problem is insignificant enough to address. • about being driven by passion and selflessness from Lakshmi Murthy, clubbed with the skilful way an academic design project can be nurtured into a meaningful business model serving the society, by Aditi and Tuhin(Menstrupedia) and Sudhir Sharma. • Tarundeep Girdher was key in highlighting how much thought goes behind even the tiniest of entities you create and how it affects you in unseen ways. • that I am still unsure of what i want, and that i need to be aware of opportunities and ideas that come by and not underestimate them in any way.
i learnt
02 Science and Liberal Arts was a course where we engaged in the various ways art has been perceived over the ages. Various philosophies of both Western and Indian aesthetes were taught in detail. It was also aimed at understanding the various intricacies and details which are hidden away in a work of art and how they can be interpreted.
Nature is chaotic . Art is a corrective of nature .
It was aimed at teaching us the various ways how many Aesthetes, western and Indian, tried to dissect art in order to understand, appreciate and critique its nuances in an organised fashion. We were also taught about the multitude of art movements which has shaped art over the course of time. Assignment 1: We were to pick from a range of on the likes of art and technology, art and emotion etc. and present facts and our views on the subject. The topic I selected was ‘Art and War’ where I tried to highlight how art was transformed and used in many ways with the onset of ‘WW I’ till ‘WW II’.
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what • It sparked a temporary interest in philosophy. • I learnt to look closer into works of art and find more meaning into it than what was superficially offered. It made me realise that the body language and objects in an artwork were not just whimsical additions, but are guides to how the piece of art is to be enjoyed. • The assignment helped me delve deeper into the subject of World War which I had developed a keen interest and had been reading about of late. It helped me add another layer of understanding the role of art in that period and helped me add another piece to the puzzle.
i learnt
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Drawing was a module which was a part of the course Fundamentals of Visual Design. It was aimed at polishing our basic drawing skills and to observe and communicate visually in a more effective manner.
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Exercise 1: We started out with very basic line exercises which involved making endless sheets of straight lines, angled lines, curves and circles. Once we had warmed up, fellow students were asked to pose for us and we had to sketch them within a stipulated time frame. It started out with 5 seconds, then 10 seconds, 15, 20, 1 minute, 5 minutes. This made me very observant about what kind of detail to capture to grab the essence of the subject depending on what kind of time you have.
Exercise 2: After human firgures, we went about studying nature. We had to study leaves and capture its many subtleties. We had to study plants and their details. We also had to observe trees and capture their massing on paper.
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Exercise 3: We were taken to the old city and assigned streets. Our task was to observe and sketch. Eventually we were asked to stick to a shop and develop a narrative through a series of sketches.
INTER STATE
USA
3 Dead 7 Injured !
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C2 and C3 were North bound and parked close behind C1 to help the women passengers from C1.
C1 C4
Isuzu Trooper ( C1 ) with 2 women loses control, crosses median and rolls over to a halt in the Northbound fast lane.
C1 C3
C2
Jesse Crissa
Terry
C4 was southbound and the owner parked it on the right to go help the passengers in C1.
Joshua
C5
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5, lost control and rammed into C2, killing 3 of the four helping passengers and leaving the rest injured.
C5 KILLED INJURED
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Exercise 4: The final assignment was for us to understand and adapt a news report into a graphic within a stipulated time. We were asked to effectively communicate a car crash report by means of an infographic for a daily newspaper. It was challenging to illustrate all the facts and was a good exercise in filtering information.
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what • It helped me a great deal with understanding and breaking down basic human anatomy to get proportions of figure sketches right. • I learnt to look observe more carefully and simplify according to the time i had while sketching. • It made me realise how constant practice helps sharpen your skills, as I saw my drawing skills improve after an intense 2 weeks of constant sketching.
i learnt
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Colour was a part of the course Fundamentals of Visual Design. The objective of this course was to acquaint us to what colour is and the many ways it can be used to add depth to the meaning of our work. It also exposed us to a plethora of colour combinations and palettes possible and how to achieve them.
what is the colour of
your soul
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?
Exercises 1 to 5: Colour Wheel, Saturation Scale, Shades, Tints and Value scale. We had to execute all these scales without the minimal margin of error. A lot of time went into making endless swatches and getting the correct colour with the right paint application.
Exercise 6: Colour Interaction was a complete revelation as we had not analysed colour to that degree prior to this. So a lot of explorations were done with different colours till we could get an understanding of how colour interaction works and by means of which colours can the effects be exaggerated.
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Assignment 7: We were made to analyse and write about the effects of having a little strip of any colour, against a bigger patch of White, ‘Middle’ Grey and Black adjacent to one another. I chose a strip of lemon yellow, which stood out most in the black. Was slightly muted in the grey and lacked clarity in the white due to both white and yellow being too bright to offer any contrast to one ano
Exercise 7: This assignment was divided into 5 coloumns. Tone, Value, Hue, Complementary, Saturation (L-R). You started with picking a hue at the centre, finding it’s value to the left of it and mixing both to get a tone. To the right of the Hue, you pick its complementary colour and mix both of them to achieve it’s saturation.
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what • not be hesitant about using liberal amounts of colour to achieve the right result.
• to be patient and to keep at it till i got the correct colour. • learning about colour schemes made me more aware of colours that go together and to look out for the relationship between the colours paired in an object. • to be more experimentative with my palette. • which colours to mix to arrive at the desired colour. • It taught me how different moods can be expressed with colour and how it adds another layer of meaning to an artwork.
i learnt
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Composition was a part of the course Fundamentals of VIsual Design. The aim of this course was to help develop an eye for effective composition. Composition is a key element in effective communication and understanding how basic design works would help us compose complex elements in the future.
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Exercise 1. Before we could juggle with complex shapes, we had to start with the most simple element. The dot. We had to look for ways to imbibe a sense of motion into the frame with only dots of the same size, with the frequency being the only variable.
After a lot of explorations and rejections, I developed a decent understanding of how to add dynamism to a composition simply using dots. I also relaised that it does not necessarily need to be a complex arrangement and a very minimal way can also be adapted to convey a sense of motion.
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But even to use a simple composition to execute your idea, I realised you need to try and fail with other ideas. This gives you a lot of options to choose from and also trains your mind to recognise ways to execute the composition more effectively. Hence, a lot of explorations were tried out in the future assignments.
Exercise 2: Lines. This was a step up from a dot. A line is one dimensional, and it already conveyed a sense of direction. As it turned out, using lines to create a compositional motion was more difficult than it seemed after the very basic and more obvious permutations.
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It was very different from laying dots out as an exercise because here it became difficult to ignore the dimension of the line. We were also allowed to play with 3 different weights of lines so it enabled us to give the composition a layer of rhythm.
Exercise 3: This was an exercise on composing two dimensional elements. After lines, we had to make 3 compositions using 1 shape, 2 shapes and 3 shapes respectively, choosing between circle, sqaure and triangle. The objective was to create emohasis in the composition.
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After making multiple iterations of each, I understood the trick to doing this was to understand the shape you choose first. A triangle seems to point with its vertices, a square ‘points’ with its edges and circles adapt the movement the rest of the composition pushes on it.
Exercise 4: After basic elements it was time to increase the level of complexity. We were given a set of alphabets to choose from with serif and sand serif variants. I took up a serif ‘T’ because I thought it would be interesting to compose with an element which already has some character. It took a little while to study the element and find its visual weight and how it balances with repetitions of itself. Once that was understood the composition was achieved after a few iterations.
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Exercise 5: Before this exercise we were taught about Getalt’s Laws Even though we were sub consciously aware of certain principles prior to this, learning about how our perception works gave us a control on how to use these principles to our advantage to navigate the user in the way we wanted. Before using that in design though, we had to learn how to identify these principles and were asked to find photographs pertaining to the various laws of Gestalt.
Exercise 6: In this assignment we had to convey a sense of time or change within seven panels. The challenge was in devising a concept that could be portrayed in 7 frames. After a few explorations I decided to go with the evolution of music.
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what • It helped me understand that there could be a multitude of ways to make a composition. We need to make as many explorations as possible to arrive at the best one.
• I realised that studying the individual characteristics of the element and finding its balance was key to a good composition. • I learnt that the composition as a whole may not work out even if the individual elements are in place. Cropping right is integral. • Gestalt princinples was a huge revelation when it came to getting an understanding of how human perception works. I realised that we need to be constantly aware of how we place things so it is not misinterpreted.
i learnt
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Typography was intended to teach us the importance of the medium that connects someone who has information to convey and the person receiving the information. It is pivotal to know how more effective communication is possible by means of understanding how it is affected by Type. It was also the first course that ushered us into the subject of Graphic Design.
Exercise 1: We were asked to compose our names in a square frame in any frame we wanted using any languages that we could write in.
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Exercise 2: We were taken to the print lab to understand movable type and letterpress printing.
Exercise 3: This exercise was aimed to help us understand type hierarchy, type-art and layout. We were asked to analyse an existing poster design/magazine layout from any source, see in what order we read the poster and how effective is the heirarchy in place.
;f]0f] ;f]]0f]]
patole lakkhan patole
P]
YEAH!
takdiyaan rehndiyaan aankhaan takdiyaan rehndiyaan
YO! WASSUP! You soniyo, she put up a show Unless I’m impressed, baby I gotta go I won’t mind tellin you, that I take it slow But tonight no bites Cause the wife will know!
cf] BABY DOLL d} ;f]0f]] bL O BABY DOLL MAIN SONE DI O BABY DOLL MAIN SONE DI O BABY DOLL MAIN SONE DI
YEAH!
;f]0f] ;f]]0f]]
patole lakkhan patole
P]
YEAH!
takdiyaan rehndiyaan aankhaan takdiyaan rehndiyaan
Main ki dassaan apni ve Ae chan karda hai tareefa Ho mere husn de kone, Ho kone kone di, kone kone di
yeh duniya yeh duniya
lkQn bL Exercise 4: Drawing understanding from the previous exercise, we had to design a lyric poster for the song ‘Baby Doll’ with only Typoraphy. We were given freedom to pick our own typefaces which I aligned with the mood of the song. The design of the poster is also based on the rhythm of the song and the enunciations.
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yeh duniya pittal di, yeh duniya pittal di
Exercise 5: We were to design a poster for an event the contents of which were provided in the form of print outs from which we could cut out pieces and create the poster. The text was provided in multiple weights and in both black and white backgrounds. We were split into groups based on the content we had to emphasise on, in the poster. I had to emphasise on the ‘Location’ of the event based on which my folding poster was created.
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Exercise 5: This assignment entailed a lot of work. We were asked to get from the Institute to the old city of Ahmedabad and asked to talk to people and record our conversations with them. After we returned we were asked to transcribe the conversations and weave a story out of them. This story was then to be organised and put into a 3 spread book where we had to design the layout, make illustrations supporting the story and the Cover designs.
Exercise 6: We were asked to find little objects around campus with the objective of designing a typeface using unconventional tools. Among the objects I found (a twig, a fork, a sponge, an electric connector) I chose to go ahead with the electric connector. After getting the basic alphabets on paper, they were digitally refined later.
Exercise 7: As an ongoing exercise throughout the course of the module, we were to practice basic calligraphy strokes and alphabets from the Devnagari script.
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what • how to use heirarchy to navigate the viewer into the composition.
• how to arrange text neatly in a document. To not ‘justify’, and avoid ‘widows’, ‘orphans’, hyphenations and ‘rivers’. • the anatomy of text. It helped me develop an interest in looking into the characteristics of typefaces and identifying the right context to use them in. • it helped me dabble a little bit into brush calligraphy, which i intend to pursue again soon. • to combine different typefaces.
i learnt
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Image Making was a way to acquaint us with how to tastefully integrate multiple entities together by means of simplication of their attributes or just understanding their identity to see what holds the form together.
Exercise 1: Letter integration was introduced as an exercise in integrating two letters together. The objective was to start out with the initials of our names in typefaces that would resonate with our own characteristics and explore inventive ways to merge them.
TS Walbaum Bold
The typeface chosen was ‘Walbaum Bold’ which corresponded well with the characteristics of my identity. It reflected kindness, happiness and being a well designed serif, a sense of the ability to stand out on its own.
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A variety of permutations were explored using the typeface mentioned, in both upper and lower case. It was eventually realised that the tail of the ‘S’ appeared very angular and out of place and was replaced with a mild complementing curve in the final form.
eye
dorsal fin
beak
Exercise 1: This exercise started out with identifying what object - living or non living, we associate with ourselves with. It had to be a refelection of our characteristic identity. After that had been identified the object had to be simplified and integrated with the initial of our name.
The traits I recognised in myself resonated very well with that of a dolphin’s. They are happy and friendly beings, which surface to make contact with people. While they are inevitably fun-loving, they are known
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flukes
flippers
to be quite mischievious sometimes and unarguably very intelligent. Picking an underwater being also has to do with symbolising swimming around in the depths of my own thoughts which I love doing.
The ‘T’ was altered with the basic tweaking of the stem - bar junction, as it was rounded off to complement the curve of the dolphin. It had to be done manually as a pleasing typeface was not found which had a rounded stem-bar junction in the ‘T’. Minor alterations had to be made to get the anatomy of the dolphin right with respect to the ‘T’ it had to be integrated with.
Exercise 3: Object simplification required us to find and take up an existing social issue and associate it with an object that would create an appropriate metaphor. Once that was decided, it was an exercise in effectively simplifying the object as much as possible without losing out on its identity. The result was thereafter to be used in a poster with an apt message and a pictogram for the same object.
I took up a syringe as the metaphor I wanted to work with, which symbolised religion. My initial idea was to make a statement regarding how religion is adversely used to create wrongful notions and biases amongst ourselves and how we need to imuunize ourselves against those. But before that, understanding the parts of a syringe was integral to its simplification process.
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Now, for me to effectively get the idea across and show a diabolical side of religion, a modern plastic syringe was not fitting. So I decided to look up old fashioned injections that would resonate with the idea of antiquated ideas being pushed into people. After trying out various options in that regard, I found a model which would be apt for the cause. Then, there were iterations to be tried out under various instances of light and shadow after which the form was finalised and taken ahead for digitization and refinement.
The final digitised form of the syringe. Certain aspects which had to be taken care of during simplifying this, were the delicate details of the sheen of the metal and glass, which had to make the viewer aware of the materials and that it was a vintage make.
Exercise 4: Making a pictogram. The purposefulness of the pictogram is validated when it is able to convey the form and idea of an object by way of the simplest visual possible. The application of the pictogram can be varied. One example would be as a sign for free medical drives which are organised by various institutions like the Church.
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My initial idea was to make a statement regarding how religion is adversely used to create wrongful notions and biases amongst ourselves and how we need to imuunize ourselves against them. But while designing the poster I realised that this poster was turning out too be too dark for my liking. So I decided to take the opportunity to get back to the drawing board and flip the concept towards a more positive approach instead.
what • how to merge two completely dissimilar objects and retain a balance between both forms.
• to analyse formal subtleties of objects and multiple ways of simplifying them just enough to retain their recognizable identity. • how to use an object as a metaphor and practically apply gestalt principles, subtle symbols and type hierarchy in the poster design. • I also learnt which animal i identify myself with.
i learnt
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Design Process was an extensive exercise in getting to know how to organise our thoughts and ideate. When approaching a problem, it is always crucial to have a methodology to go about solving the issue and it is often found that one may lose themselves in a maze of inormation. Hence, concepts like brainstorming and mind-mapping come to the rescue of ideating. Also, it was aimed to teach us how to get out of thinking in a linear fashion and allow our thoughts and ideas to wander onto lateral ideas. We were also graced by the presence of Dr. Amar Gargesh who shared a great many insights into these methods in a very fun manner.
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Exercise 1: We were split into groups and asked to select a simple activity from everyday life e.g. combing your hair, changing a car tyre, brushing your teeth, nail cutting, etc. Observe, study and explore the objects or services involved in detail and analyse the interaction and significance of various steps involved.(Finding a solution was not part of this exercise) We selected the activity of ‘Using denim pockets’. It started by looking at how denim pockets were made and their evolution over time. Looking at pockets in different kinds of denims. Then we mapped out the various ways they were used and could be used. This led the way to the many existing challenges with using the problem. This was also accompanied by conducting surveys on people who wear denims frequently within the insitute. After this, we had to identify areas where there is an opportunity to design to make it better. This entire effort was condensed into a fun informative video, the link to which can be found below. Or scan the QR CODE to the top-left of the page.
https://goo.gl/ej6D1t Exercise 2: For the second assignment, we were asked to work in the same group as the previous one. We had to identify an existing public utility system that caters to a group of people or a community and study its features, attributes and utility in sociocultural and economic contexts. Thereafter, come up with insights through analysis and synthesis, and define needs, opportunities and challenges. We had to offer three solutions to the issue which were a) Easy to implement, b) Innovative, and c) Futuristic. We took up the LPG distribution system in a nearby locality and studied the existing system in place. The study and solutions we came up with was condensed into a fun informative video, the link to which can be found below. Or scan the QR CODE to the bottom-right of the page.
https://goo.gl/tivHwZ 70
what
• my main take away was understanding the importance of documenting every part of the process, as we came very close to losing our work. • how to work efficiently in a large group. • the importance of mind mapping/ brainstorming to organise and laying out your thoughts and ideas. • that following through with a rigorous process was key to efficient tackling of a problem and finding the answer to it.
i learnt
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Production Process was a theory dominant course which mostly dealt with the how a design needs to be executed for mass print. The aim was for us to understand and choose the right printing technique keeping in mind the result we need to achieve, the time we have in hand and the budget decided. We were taught about printing processes over the ages, the existing ways of production and its finer details in all stages of the process :pre-press, press and post press. For first hand experience, we were also taken for a field visit to a major Print Production company which catered to massive jobs for major brands. Furthermore, we got to learn and use the facilities of the very well equipped Print Lab in the institute.
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Exercise 1: In this assignment we had to design a 2 colour poster which had some social relevance and had to be printed using two printing techniques: Offset and Screen printing. We designed a poster addressing the pollution scene in Delhi. The artwork was made to experiment with a diagonal hatch and gradient would translate into halftone on paper. We split the artwork into two parts. The tones of black would be printed using offset and the colour highlights were separated into another layer which would be printed by screenprinting. Orange was unanimously chosen as our highlight colour. The separated layers were sent to make the plate for Offset and the positive for screenprinting respectively, and printed in the NID Print Labs thereafter.
Exercise 2: This assignment required us to design a poster based on a topic we were assigned pertaining to what we learnt during the Production Process course. Each one dealt with a topic related to printing which would holistically make a series of posters summing up Print Production. It was to be digitally printed experimenting with how different printers might have different results and for us to understand how colours translated from the computer screen onto paper when printed.
Exercise 3: This assignment was aimed at acquainting us with post press operations and different kinds of paper. We were taught multiple ways of binding, and each of us had to make a perfect bound book, a quarter hardbound book and a letterpad.
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what
• about the many types of printing techniques I had been ignorant about so far. It was an experience in being on the other side of the ‘Print’ command. • how to choose the correct type of print technique depending on the constraints. • how colour translates from the computer screen onto paper. Why a change in colour happens and how to control it to a certain degree. • about many post press operations which add more value to a print job and how they have the potential to create magnificent results upon experimentation. • of binding techniques and types of paper, that i had been curious about for a while. It sparked an interest in me to make my own sketchbooks. • it took away a certain hesitation I had about experimenting with print, which stemmed from not knowing enough about printing.
i learnt
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