Okay, so we were asked to come to the session with statements about 5 things you want to get out of the year/modue and 5 things you don't, stating why on each:
5 WANTS
Publishing and bookmaking-
I did a bit of work with this over usmmer for a personal project. I found the feeling of completeing such a solid body of work really gratifying. Especially if it allows me to work with type in lots of ways.
High End Print Production-
It's something I always want to do, but never give myself enough time, so I'm going to try really hard to ensure that I write briefs that give me enough time to experiment with paper stocks and unusual print finishes.
Branding-
It's again something I haven't done and I'm not sure why, really. I love the idea of giving something an identity and applying it across a series of printed medias. I think my experience of creating something uniform but with changes in colourways and such stands me in good stead for this. I don't want it to be big company branding, but more unique, high end and bespoke branding.
Typography-
Having decided to stop using illustration because I get far too precious and unwilling to bend with it, I want to do a lot with typography to try and really understand it. I feel I've got the basics down, so I need to just develop my skills and try and become a master at it.
Fashion-
I've already started collaborating with a fashion student called Daisy over the summer on some garment designs which I enjoyed thoroughly. I'd like to do some more garment design as well as piecing together things like look books and even perhaps their end of year show book.
5 DON'T WANTS
Design for web-
Having designed a template for my website over summer using dreamweaver, which is WYSIWYG, I've realised that there is nothing more difficult and strenuous to me and my practice...
Animation-
...Except for animation, which I find horrendous, I can't think sequentially and I hate having to work with the software. It just isn't within my skill set.
Font Design-
I tried this a little bit with my 10 bands publication. I absolutely hated this and scrapped it almost immediately. If I need fonts this year, I'll brief someone who enjoys font making and collaborate with them.
Mass Production printing-
I definitely don't mind cheaper production values, as long as they're well crafted and still feel of a high quality, but I don't want to produce things that are for mass print production or feel like they are. It's imperative that I avoid briefs where the required audience is huge!
Illustration-
I used ot love illustration. I realised towards the end of last year that this was a skill I have but I don't want to use because it's really really holding me back. It;s not an effective use of time for me and it also made me unable to produce work for a brief without a required stylistic agenda.
From this I was asked to make an umbrella statement for my design practice this year and pin it on the wall for everyone to see. I put:
'Concept driven publication and printed promotional materials produced with a high end finish.' Now, I think the high end finish bit is the least important, but it is something that I want at least 2 or 3 of my briefs from this module to reflect. Within the printed promotional materials I can do branding with stationary etc. and in fact both the briefs I've already begun work on will cover these categories. I need to ensure that the next few I decide to look at also reflect these interests or I need to start tweaking them to effectively communicate my design practice. Anyway, I was then asked questions about these statements, which I've written down, these are also something to refer back to when looking at my briefs:
-Does my preference lie in layout and editorial or the art of making books it's self?
-Does type as image facter into it? (answer:not really, will outsource that if I need it)
-Do I still want to use image making?
-What area of fashion collaboration is feasable for this year?
-What puts me off mass prroduct briefs?
-You want to avoid web, but if a brief requires it, where can/will you draw a boundary?
Some of these questions are important, some of them are easily dismissed, anyway, I then had to go through all the briefs I'd written making notes. I've done this but still want to go thorugh them all a few times to get to where I want to be with them and to ensure I pick and tweak another two worth pursuing. I'll probably put that in the next post I do sometime tomorrow evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment