Lines - Joseph Szymanski.

Joseph Szymanski does his drawings using lines. I particularly found this one interesting as he'd documented the stages so you can see how it progresses.

I quite like the idea of architecture and cityscapes too.

Lines in Light.

Lichtfaktor

Really love these. 

"Lichtfaktor integrate light in to their photos and videos in such a way that it's not just a backdrop, but apart of the work itself."

I have no idea how these sort of images could be produced. I would really like to experiment with light with a camera but unfortunately don't have the skills/knowledge to do so.

They use 3 different types of light to produce the images and videos:

- Xenon: Makes a warm golden light.

- LED: Makes a thin precise line.

- Cold Cathode: Thick line.

Lines in Architecture.

Lines in the Environment.

Ever since we were given this brief, I've been taking photos of lines that I see in the environment when I'm out and about. It wasn't until I looked that I realised that everything is made up of lines. I'm not really sure what I could do with these photos, but it's interesting to see what lines can form. 

Here's a few photos.  

What is a line? I

Define: Line

a formation of people or things one beside another

a mark that is long relative to its width

a length (straight or curved) without breadth or thickness; the trace of a moving point

text consisting of a row of words written across a page or computer screen

a single frequency (or very narrow band) of radiation in a spectrum

a fortified position (especially one marking the most forward position of troops)

argumentation: a course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating a truth or falsehood; the methodical process of logical reasoning

cable: a conductor for transmitting electrical or optical signals or electric power

course: a connected series of events or actions or developments

a spatial location defined by a real or imaginary unidimensional extent

wrinkle: a slight depression in the smoothness of a surface

pipeline: a pipe used to transport liquids or gases

the road consisting of railroad track and roadbed

telephone line: a telephone connection

acting in conformity

lineage: the descendants of one individual

something (as a cord or rope) that is long and thin and flexible

occupation: the principal activity in your life that you do to earn money

in games or sports; a mark indicating positions or bounds of the playing area

channel: (often plural) a means of communication or access

a particular kind of product or merchandise

a commercial organization serving as a common carrier

agate line: space for one line of print (one column wide and 1/14 inch deep) used to measure advertising

credit line: the maximum credit that a customer is allowed

tune: a succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence

trace: make a mark or lines on a surface

persuasive but insincere talk that is usually intended to deceive or impress

mark with lines

note: a short personal letter

fill plentifully

a conceptual separation or distinction

reinforce with fabric

Edible type.

My mini ginger bread letters.

Whey, I've finally made them, and I think they've turned out pretty damn good.

No, they're not burnt lol, i've just used treacle for some and maple syrup for others. The treacle sends them a darker colour.

I was going to put icing on the top of them, but i'm a bit unsure now. I might have a go at that tomorrow.

Book Binding.

I've got a thing about sketchbooks, I kind of collect them, not the most interesting of things to collect but I really like them.

So, I really enjoyed the book binding induction and I'm really impressed with the books, they look really professional. 

I think it's pretty good for my first attempt. I will definitely be making a lot more in the near future.

Self Evaluation.

Self evaluation for the 'What if" brief.

What problem did you identify?

The high burglary rates in student areas of Leeds.

What evidence did you find to support your decisions?

* 75% of students asked know others living in Leeds that have been burgled.

* 20% of students become a victim of crime each year because students own more expensive consumer goods per head than the rest of the population.

* 76% of surveyed students in accommodation have over £2000 worth of consumer goods in their own bedrooms.

What methods did you use to gather your evidence and what forms did it take?

(Categorise your research using the terms Primary, Secondary, Quantitative & Qualitative.)

What methods did you find useful and why?

How did these inform the response to your problem?

What methods did you find problematic?

When handing out questionnaires asking if the students had been burgled or knew of anyone that had, our results weren't very successful. Not one person had been burgled, however, quite a few knew someone who had. This made it very hard to get primary research as we would of liked to get an interview with a 'victim'.

I found working in a group quite problematic as it was really hard to just stop thinking about the situation and get on with solving it. It was also hard to make all our designs work as a set as we each have our own style.

How did you overcome this? How will you address these issues in future?

We went on to ask people who worked in student accommodation, such as the Plaza, for their opinions and facts. Unfortunately, they were reluctant to help and wouldn't give out any sort of information. We had to rely on the facts and figures we had collected in our secondary research. In the future I will visit more places to try and get the information I need. We could of also gave out the questionnaires to more people, and a more variety of ages.

As for the team work, I think I need to work on voicing my opinions more.

What research didn't you carry out that would would have proved useful?

I think just having conversations with people and finding out their opinions would of been quite useful as we were lacking on primary research.

What five things would you do differently next time?

1. Manage my time better. I really need to get out of this habit of convincing myself I still have plenty of time to get everything done the day before it needs to be presented.

2. Concentrate more on primary research. Also, try to get a wider variety of research.

3. Experiment more. I need to stop fixating on a specific outcome and open my mind to other possibilities.

4. Involve myself more when working in teams.

5. Not to rely on technology. It will go wrong.

List five things that you feel you have learned about the design process over the past 2 weeks?

1. Research plays a vital part in the design process.

2. Make sure I am there for the start of the project as it's really hard to catch up, and also wasn't fair to my team members. Actually, just make sure i'm there all the time.

3.

4.

5.

Our resolutions in the public domain;

What if.

Research project.

Unfortunately I missed the first lesson for this, so I joined my group late when the subject had already been decided. The brief said to solve a problem within leeds, so, starting with negativity/disturbia, my group went on to look at crime, or more specifically student burglaries.

After doing loads of questionnaires, and basically just gathering loads of research, we wanted to find a way which we could present the research more graphically. So, we decided to make them into posters, which were to be a4 square format.

We assigned each other a pacific area of research to present and together decided on the font and colours to use, then went away to produce them. We also made a facebook group so we could upload photos of our progress, which gave us all the oppertunity to discuss any problems and get advice where needed.

The colours we originally chose where light pink and blue, but when I started to create the poster I couldn't seem to make it fit well with the images. Also, our subject is quite negative so having light, happy colours didn't seem to make sense. So I suggested to my team that we kept the blue but replaced the pink with yellow, to me these colours are quite like warning colours and are also associated with the police.

Basically, I tried to take the stripe idea from the posters and include this in the design itself. I was really just playing with shapes but when I stepped back and looked at it I realised it created a diagonal stripe through the whole poster, which I was quite happy with.

We aimed to make all the posters as a set by using the same fonts, colours etc, which we did. However, mine ended up looking significantly different to the others. I think this was because mine were the only ones that included images, and I felt I needed something darker to bring these images out. I also used black which I possibly should of avoided.

Our resolution was flyers and stickers to inform the public of the high rate burglaries in Leeds, including statistics we found from our research. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to hand these out and interact with the public. However, we gave out our stickers in class which we recorded. I'll post some pictures soon.

Links:

Facebook group

Group blogs: Ian, Kate, Leigh, Mitch

Typogateaux.

The Annual BAGD edible type contest.

I'm really really looking forward to this. I'm a really naff cook though, so might be a good idea for me to work in a team, or buy a cake... Are we allowed to do that?

Helvetica font made out of cake..

Thats amazing! I'm not entirely sure if its even possible to cut all that out so neatly by hand, though.

More typogateaux ideas...

It will definately be fun and messy, however, i'm not looking forward to the state my kitchen is going to be in.

Photography Sessions - Using an SLR.

We went over the basic settings of a SLR camera, and if I'm honest, I've been over them a few times before, and yet I still can't get my head round it. It's completely different when you've actually got a camera in your hand, I just don't know where to start. These pictures aren't brilliant, it really is just me playing around with a camera, but hey, thats how you learn right?

I've tried to use as much settings as I knew how, but I'm still struggling. 

Macro Shot

Using the Landscape setting

Macro Shot (focussing on the foreground)

Macro shot (focussing on the background)

In focus and using about 30 sec shutter speed 

(note all traffic light colours are showing)

Out of Focus (and also using a long shutter speed)

I really want to be able to take a great picture. Luckily my elective is digital photography, so hopefully that will expand my knowledge a bit. But until then I've been looking through websites, and have bought the book 'how to photography absolutely everything' which hopefully will also help me.

Here's a website I've found useful:

http://www.picturecorrect.com/photographytips/207/improve_digital_slr_camera_photos.htm

Christmas Menu.

As I said earlier, I'm designing all the advertisements for my local pub. Well, this weekend he asked if I could have the Christmas menu done for Sunday so that he could start taking bookings. This was about 2am Sunday morning when he mentioned it, so I've literally had a couple of hours to throw something together and get it printed A3 scale. Here it is.

Given the time I had, I feel i've done O.K. Obviously it would of been a lot better if I'd of had more time. The pub is really traditional, so it was really hard adapting my style to suite the pub. He said he wanted it really 'Christmasy' and eye catching, I think i've done well on that part.

Close-ups.

In film, television and still photography a close-up tightly frames a person or an object. Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene.

There are 3 types of close-ups:

Medium Close-up: Usually covers the subjects head and shoulders.

Close-up: A certain feature, such as someone's head, takes up the whole frame.

Extreme Close-up: The shot is so tight that only a fraction of the focus of attention, such as someone's eyes, can be seen.

I've been looking at a photographer, David Bailey, who i've liked for some time now. He mainly concentrates on portraits but also looks at landscapes and still life.

One of my other themes I had was christmas, so i've decided to try and keep to this theme. I've been experimenting with baubles, tinsel, mince pies, christmas trees, candles, wine etc but i'm a little unsure about it at the moment. It's really hard when you don't really know where your meant to be going with it. Also, really unsure about what we need to have done for tomorrow, really don't think i've been doing this right, but i've been doing it so hopefully i'll be O.K.

Here's a few photos for my primary research, which I took with a digital SLR camera I rented from college which was a lot of fun..

I am actually really impressed with the photos seeing as I hadn't used a digital SLR camera before, other than in our photography induction of course. I got really frustrated though, as no matter how hard I try I really can't seem to get my head around all the different settings, and basically don't really know how to take a good picture. It just ended up on automatic. It was good to play around though, and it's just made me more determined to learn how to take a great picture. I have digital photography as my elective so I'm really looking forward to that.

The start of OUGD102.

We were firstly put into groups and had to put our 100 photos into the categories we were given; Places, People, Objects, Textures & Words. The photos below are from my objects category.

We then swapped with another group and had to re-organise their photos. We were given five ways to organise information; Category, Time, Location, Alphabet and Continuum.  We organised ours alphabetically but soon regret it after. It was really hard trying to find a word for the photo that would be obvious to others, and trying to fit all the photos in somewhere. We wanted at least one photo for each letter.

I really liked how Becca and Ollie organised theres...

Simple yet effective. Plus, it got them out of sticking them all up on the wall, which I think is what they were aiming for lol.

Here's how my photo's were organised. I'm not entirely sure how, but I think it's alphabetical, or possibly a story/journey of some kind...

100 photos.

I absolutely love photography, so when I found out we had to take 100 photos for the next brief I was really happy and eager to get on with it. As I got going though, I began to forget about the categories and started taking pictures of everything I liked or found interesting in some way, not entirely sure whether this is a good thing or not but I've covered each category to some extent.

I've had my camera with me everywhere i've been this week, and i've took more than 200 photos. So, I thought the next part was easy, but I obviously thought wrong. Out of the 234 photos I took, i've chose 64. I'm probably just being picky but I've looked over and over the rest and there are no more that I like, so i'm really annoyed. I've printed and cut out 45 already, so hopefully it wont be hard to get another 30 odd photos before tomorrow.

Anyway, heres 36 on a contact sheet..

I do really like the ones i've got and i'm really exited to find out what we're going to be doing with them.

Also, I got a job this week which i'm really happy about. I'm designing all the posters, christmas menus, offers etc for my local pub, which will earn me a bit of money as well as giving me more experience. I shall post my designs regulary to keep you updated.

The Black Panther.

The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas exhibition at Urbis.

A few of us took a trip to Manchester this week to see the Black Panther exhibition. I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition, it really made me think. I absolutely loved the work, I wanted to buy a print but unfortunately couldn't afford to.

To be honest, I didn't really know much about it before I went. Also, I had never really looked at Emory Douglas' work and had no idea what high impact these had on the Black Panther movement. I was really impressed and learnt quite a lot.

Documenting an object within a space.

Unfortunately, I missed this lesson. But from what I understand, everyone was given a shape or object, and they had to document that object within the classroom. I've had a go myself, choosing the shape, circle, and documenting it within my flat.

Not entirely sure whether it's right, but I had a go.

Illustrator.

My A1 poster of Jonny's font.

I was really looking forward to putting my letters into illustrator, but over the weeks I seem to have lost my enthusiasm. Probably because I found the recycling brief more exiting, but anyway, here it is.

I still need to add a bit of colour, however i'm a bit unsure about that at the moment. I prefer it in grey.

I'm not entirely happy with the outcome. I'm not really sure why either. Maybe it's just not me. Anyway, going to play around a bit more and see what I can do.

Ok, so after spending hours experimenting with different colours, gradients and textures, I just couldn't find one that I liked. So, i've ditched the 'paint brush' idea and done for a clean, crisp outline.

I really don't know which one I like best.

Message & Delivery - Mail Shot.

I've struggled with this brief, mainly because i'm still a little unsure of what a mail shot should consist of, but i've enjoyed it none the less. Especially designing my envelope, which I think I may have spent just a little bit too much time on.

I've gone for a newspaper theme, basically trying to get the message across that newspaper has other uses, and that we can recycle it ourselves. My envelopes are made out of newspaper and are also reusable as i've included a button to close it and a clear plastic wallet on the front for you to slip the address in. I really like the idea but it's a bit fragile and I have doubts it will survive in the post.

So, when I was thinking of other uses newspaper can have, the only one that kind of stood out was that it could be used as wrapping paper. So I wrapped one of my books up and took some photos.

At first I thought it was a good idea, but now I think its a bit naff. Maybe I should of found a different use for it. Anyway, it gets my idea across so it'll do.

Ok, so here's some of my final ideas.

I'm a little unsure about it at the moment, it looks a bit empty. But i'm still playing around with it anyway so hopefully i'll come up with something better.