Evaluation of Unit X

At the beginning of Unit X we were given a brief to come up with a presentation representing a trend we had researched and developed. Alice, Sophie and I decided to look further into the problem of overpopulation in today's society. We came up with the name Multiple Division, thus looking into the growth and spreading of things, as a result of overpopulation. We were inspired by the opportunities and areas we could explore from the starting point of this issue. We decided that the most exciting area of all our research was science, we felt as though we could produce refreshing and inspirational images while working with this theme. 

Our aim from the very beginning was to create an inspirational high end resource for creative companies.  Our ambitions were to be innovative and continue to create visually exciting and intriguing imagery.  Continuous research, brainstorming and working together collectively led us to the final outcome. We soon realised our individual skills, from this we worked on separate areas of the book , whether this was illustration , layout or art direction. But continuously coming together to ensure our work flowed and worked as one. Our decisions were always considered, we briskly refined a consistency in our work. This enabled us to maintain a pace and standard of work which we were content with.
Working in a group can be one of the main challenges you face when collaborating, getting your ideas to sync and making sure the workload is evened out but forever maintaining the creativity of the project. Sophie, Alice and I quickly overcame this challenge, we get on extremely well but also have similar ideas and enthusiasm about how to approach a brief like this. We regularly conversed about ideas, supporting and strenthening  each others opinions and visual conception, thus I feel empowered us and was one of our strengths throughout Unit X.
The fundamental challenge we encountered during this project was adjusting to working within a new software, as a group we were determined to build on the skills we had learnt form the workshops. It was extremely exasperating feeling like a beginner. It was difficult to to be creatively productive, being so unsure of how to do this correctly. I enjoyed learning how to use InDesign , but with the short space of time we had to pull the trend book together, I didn't feel we could afford to waste time mastering it.
Before we were able to produce the content of the book, a lot of research was done to contextualise our work and for us to establish the standard of work we wanted to achieve. For me the exploration of the blog 'Federated Unity' was a turning point. The minimalism of the layout allows each image, a lot of which have a twisted nature to them, to speak for themselves. Most of the images in the blog tell a story making you want study them further. I wanted this to be accomplished with our own imagery, constructing a body of work which is innovative, original and contemporary. As talked about previously in the blog we wanted to achieve a book of inspirational imagery, a similar sense to the trend book 'Bloom'. We took inspiration from 'Bloom's' vision which focuses on visual concepts rather than text. Our trend book shadowed this incorporating suggestions of how this could be translated into a trend.
We picked up our trend book from reprographics today, I was extremely happy with it, the pages were of good quality and the images had been printed to a high standard, allowing the colours to be represented correctly. Unfortunately the pages had been printed the wrong way round , which wasn't the original plan. This means the pages don't match up and don't read as a book, due to being so close to deadline we haven't been able to correct this. For next time we have learnt to take the book to reprographics earlier so a test print can be done.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this project and I now feel extremely confident within my practice, I have developed invaluable skills which I can further in future projects. I want to further my knowledge of working with trend books but also involving my practice of digital print for fashion.

Book Binding Worries

After previously visiting reprographics, we went again this morning. We wanted our trend book to be landscape, bound at the side with a hard card cover. On arrival they told us that this would not be possible as they can't print a piece of card for the cover that big. So our original plan had to be changed, we decided to bind the book at the top so it opened like a flip book. We were all happy with this change of plan and thought it would work well. We were then told that the member of staff who did the book binding only works tuesday and thursdays! We managed to get the book in by 12.30 but were told that we would have to come wednesday morning to see if the book had been binded and dried how we wanted. The drying time is 24 hour so fingers crossed the book is ready in time!

New Layout

 

Things have been going a lot better this week, after reviewing our layout we decided to try and make it more inspiring using photoshop but also switching it to landscape. This enabled us to use a wider range of imagery but also enabled us to team them up with other images.  I think the mix of a more minimal page against a busier more stylised page works well. We have limited the amount of text allowing the imagery to stand out, we have added symbols, key words and colour palettes to suggest how this trend could be translated. There is a consistency running throughout the book, allowing the pages to flow from one to another. 

Module Removed

Previously we had talked about splitting our book into sections called modules, after working on our layout we realised this was no longer necessary. As we have decided to combine images of contamination and containment together, the idea of 'Modules' no longer makes sense. The contamination and containment imagery will now be distinguished by symbols. 

Magnifying Glass Imagery

We have been planning to do a shoot with the magnifying glass, trying to recreate an image of containment. During our test shoot for Rianna we saw the perfect opportunity to carry it out. Katie was also perfect for the role, in keeping with the minimal and clinical effect we had wanted. These images have been very successful I feel, they also bring something different to the trend book incorporating features but distorting these to add something contemporary and original.  

InDesign Meltdown

And everything was going so well..... We have had a very stressful day today, every possible thing that could've gone wrong has. As a group we are new to indesign and it was very hard to get our head around, we felt the layout wasn't working very well, it was almost too minimal and boring. As we weren't extremely confident with using indesign ,  our abilities were limited thus meaning we weren't able to let our creative skills loose. We felt this was holding our trend book back. Little things were also becoming very frustrating and problematic such as pages not printing out and matching up correctly. Too much time was spent on the logistics of the book rather than the layout and making it look refreshing and exciting. As a group we have decided to go back to photoshop, a software we all feel we can explore fully to create a layout which we feel best represents our trend. 

Learning InDesign has been very fruitful and inspiring, I feel I have a good knowledge of the basics which I can go on to further in third year.

Context

In our tutorial Alex talked about context. After creating a series of abstract, art direction focused and stylised imagery, our body of work seems to be directed towards a high end market. A large established creative company could use the book as initial research, before expanding and brainstorming further to create their own innovative and exciting project. 

Layout Inspiration

Today we went to the book binding work room and spoke to the tutor, talking through what type of book binding we could use. After looking through these examples we came across the book above. The simplicity of it really inspired us, I liked how it was all about the images and their placement. How images were put together, usually these were contrasting , ie colour and composition. The book also used symbols as a key for certain key words that the images were associated with. We don't want a lot of text in our trend book so I think we could use symbols to make our trend clear to readers.

Glitch Images

In our tutorial Alex had said all of our illustrations and collages had to come from our original images. From this I did a photoshoot concentrating on head shots from different angle. This allowed us as a group to create a surge of interesting and abstract artworks we hoped to inspire creatives. We looked into glitching which worked with the idea of distorting the human figure. After working on our illustrations  we wanted to create something as effective but still in keeping the idea of deconstruction and contamination. At the same time also creating something that wasn't as overpowering.

Jil Sander 2011 Campaign

Collage Illustrations

Over the past few days I have been playing around with photoshop, as a group we collectively like the style of collage illustration. I like the cut and paste effect I have created with these two images. I wanted them to be very abstract and not too obvious like my previous attempts. I tried to use contrasting methods such as block shapes against soft, textured backgrounds and darker colours working over lighter soft pastels.

Alice's Illustrations

Alice has created some illustrations from her own drawings and our group imagery. I think the business of the illustrations and the contrast works well. After reviewing these and teaming these with our other work , we agreed that the top image is the most in keeping with our concept and style. Alice has also produced a series of colourful foils and seer sucker prints, the colours of the fabrics and their textures work well with the top image.  

Time Stop.

Containment of Contamination

This images is of milk being dropped into water. It is a very simple idea but very effective. We wanted to show the process of some of our experimentation and so we put the into a sequence. Documenting the change of shape and form of the heavier liquid over time enabled us to see the step by step transition of the experiment.

Bloom

After looking at bloom in the library ,  I have a clearer idea on which direction we want to take the book. Bloom focuses on visual concepts rather than text. Imagery takes over full pages and double spreads, text is only used when necessary and when it is used it has been extremely considered. Bloom uses suggestions such as colour palettes or key words to suggest how it could be translated into a trend.

Containment - Jars

After the test shoot went well Sophie and I photographed the jars in a space where they could be seen to their full potential. This space was perfect, I liked the contrast of the textured concrete wall with hints of black and linear lines adding to the final images. The strip lighting behind the jars created a vibrancy of colour and the contents of the jars seemed to jump out at you . The light enabled us to see the forms and shapes within the jars.

Containment- test shoot

    

Sophie and I created a series of compositions within jars, trying to cross over the idea of Contamination | Containment. We filled them with 3D manmade and natural objects such as plants , rope and tubing. we then dropped inks and paints into them, the contrast of colour against the 3D objects created something very inspiring and different. The visual of containing the contaminated has worked especially well and I feel this installation illustrates our idea and concept fully.

Contamination | Containment

 After more research and group discussion we wanted to bring a contrast into our work. We had been concentrating heavily on the idea of contamination , the multiplying and the spreading of things. Creating our own imagery from experiments. These have been working well but we have decided to further this idea and bring out its best by flipping it on its head and involving  a new aspect. Containment. The idea of containing things. Keeping things in a clinical ordered way and teaming this with the messy irrational contamination images. 

Furthering on from the idea of having sections in our book called modules. The theme for these modules will now be seperated by the titles of contamination and containment.

MODULE

After further discussion and looking at the work we already had we wanted to move forward with the idea of making our trend book similar to that of a text book. We have many images that we felt needed to be catogerized and so we have decided to create sections within our books that will be called 'Modules'. Each module will have its own title and theme.