UNIT X

My recorded experience of unit x 2016

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Number Cards

Rin and I each decided to do a few number cards if we had a few more weeks we could create a whole set. I decided to do the numbers 2, 4 and 5

Number 2: I decided to use one of my early bird characters because adding two diamonds at the centre would make it look too simple and plain. Also, the number two symbolises contracts, meetings and partnerships. The character could be an individual looking for her better half or soul mate. 

Number 4: The heart symbol has the circle square pattern and so do the border line connecting to the numbers. The number 4 symbolises luck, but at the same time, it can symbolise laziness and boredom. I really like this card because it came out quite cute and feminine. 

Number 5: The number 5 symbolises change, fluctuations, travel and variety. I was not really sure how to bring out the meaning of this card therefore, I made it similar to the number 4 card, but I changed the colours to make it look a little more masculine.

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Main Cards

Both Rin and I designed our own separate main cards, the main cards being the king, queen, jack, joker, and ace.

Queen: I used a night owl character for the queen, I believe that women that work at night are quite strong no matter what type of job they do. 

King: I used the traffic cop early bird for this character if I drew a police early bird character or doctor early bird character I would have used them instead. Since the jobs they do are quite important. Also, the heart symbol has a repeat pattern of a circle and square to represent the circle square site. 

Jack: for this card I used about 3 textures, the character I chose did not have any colour apart from its head. I decided to make the rest of the card as colourful as possible to make up for the character. 

Ace: I used the jogger early bird character for this card, the character is strong and healthy. 

Joker: For this card I used the DJ night owl, I think it suits the joker card because DJs are creative and versatile which is similar to the traditional Jocker. Also, they bring others joy by working hard to make them happy, another Joker quality.

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Combined Back Cards

These cards are rather different as compared to the rest, since in the prototype pitch several of the comments made were the characters should not be separated. I decided to combine both the early bird back card design with the night owl back cards. 

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Cards Night Owl (Back)

These cards are pretty similar to the ones before, the only difference is the colour and the symbols. I used different moon symbols and this time I used a variety of textures to make the cards looks more unique.

Card Back 1: The symbols are the moon cycle, but I never added any detail to them because I wanted them to look like shadows. I used a starlight texture at the back to make the moon seem like it is in space and surrounded by stars. 

Card Back 2: I think I went a bit too overboard with this design, I used neon colours and a very simple pattern. The colours resemble the strobe lights in clubs and raves, and I think that relates to the night owl characters.

Card Back 3: This card is similar to the first one, however, this moon cycle is slightly different. And instead of making them look like shadows, they resemble the surface of planets. I gave it a galaxy texture to make it, even more, space-like. 

Card back 4: This card took a lot more time than the rest, first I drew the symbol on AI since photoshop isn’t that good with curves. Also, I didn’ t use a space theme texture for this card, instead, I used a fabric texture so that only the moon symbol stands out.

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Cards Early Bird (Back)

For these cards, I first drew out the original design on my sketchbook. I tried to draw simple patterns that relate to Early, like the sun and sun rays. I then scanned and redraw them on photoshop, I used bright colours that relate to the sun and warmth. Such as Yellow, Orange, Light Green and Red. These cards have less detail as compared to the night owl cards, this is because most playing cards have a very simple back design. Usually, a repeat pattern that seems to have a lot of detail, also most back of cards use about two colours so as not to take all the attention from the front of the card.

Card Back 1: For this card, I designed one of the suns then duplicated it, however, i made the rays different because symmetrical drawings look boring and not very unique, the asymmetry makes it look more interesting and less like a repeat pattern. I added a texture at the back to make it look like it is in the sky and a white border. The sun is meant to represent circle and the border and the general shape of the card is meant to represent the square. 

Card Back 2: I used lots of orange in this card, I tried to make the sun look more realistic and used an Iris texture to make the rays look like they are exploding from the centre of the sun. I used a black double border, so as to contrast with the orange. 

Card Back 3: After studying some more card designs, I realised that the card outside of the border should be left white. Instead, I got a flower texture, similar to the repeat flower patterns on traditional cards and placed it on top of the gradient background colour. Out of all of the early birds back of the cards, this one has to be my favourite. I used more colours as compared to the last two and it can also be used as a tarot card or for divination using normal playing cards.

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Card History (Research)

The first example of cards can be traced back to India, Persia, and Egypt. However, some experts believe that playing cards originated in China, besides games such as Mahjong and Dominos. China  invented printing and paper, with cards from 800 years ago similar to today's cards and decks.
 Other historians and experts believe that cards originally came from Persia, where they then advanced to India and China. They also spread west to Egypt, and finally into Europe.

Above: Mamluk playing cards from the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt which ended in 1517.

The designs found on European deck cards seem to have been influenced from Egyptian cards from the 14th century, this was a result of the trade between the two. A few of the similarities are:

The old deck had 4 suits

Swords evolved into the Clubs of today
Sticks became Clubs

Suits of Cups and coins can still be found on decks made in Italy and Spain 


Several different countries were intent to put their own designs and cultures into their decks, i.e Suits of Acorns, Hawk Bells, Hearts and Leaves found on German decks.

Above: cards from a satirical pack designed by Peter Flöttner of Nuremberg, c.1545. The backs of the cards contain the vocal scores for German songs. Cards from the facsimile edition published by Ferd Piatnik & Söhne, Vienna, 1993

Meanings of Playing Cards

Spades correspond to the element fire and were once known as the sword, they symbolise willpower, courage, strength and other masculine qualities.

Hearts were once known as cups, it corresponds to the element water that stands for love, emotions, imagination and the subconscious. These can be said to be feminine qualities.

Clubs, also known as wands, correspond to the element air. Air represents the mind, speech and words. These are neutral qualities.

Diamonds, formerly known as pentacles correspond the element Earth. Earth stands for wealth and matter.

Number Meanings.

One or Ace - Beginning, new ideas

Two - Duality and love

Three - Fate, Karma, and the planet Saturn

Four - Completion, the material world, wisdom and Jupiter

Five - Man

Six - Divine and the Sun

Seven - Love and Venus

Eight - Intellect, positive and negative qualities of the four elements

Nine - Soul and the Moon

Ten - Whole world and Earth

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Third Idea (by Rin and Abi)

Memory Match/ Concentration Game

Before our group split up, Rin and I came up with an Idea that was not chosen. Our Idea was to create an interactive hoarding board using our early bird and night owl characters and playing cards. 
We were influenced by simple memory games, one such game is called the Concentration game. It is also known as Match Match or Memory, it is a card game where all the cards are laid face down on a surface and two cards are flipped face up during each turn. If the two cards happen to be paired, the cards are removed and the player gains one point. The game is played until all of the cards have been matched. The game helps develop the memory of young children and also stimulates the adult mind.

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Official Pitch

Using our second group Idea of Interactive screen and blocks, two of our group mates had another Idea and suggested that we combine it with Yara's idea. We decided to have two characters, one from the early bird and one from night owl interact with each other. Since in the previous pitch, one of the comments was to keep the characters together instead of separating them. We then had to create backgrounds that would support the characters and sort of give them a story to play out.

Our character combinations:

Policeman + Robber Morning student + night student Clubber + sweet cleaner Postman + Pizza delivery guy Barista + Security guard Businessman + Nurse

We then chose 3 pairs and used them for our pitch hoarding board design. 

The pitch wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, we were asked what we would do if our boards would be vandalized. I said that we can use a specific type of paint known as wipe-clean matt paints, where we can just wipe the graffiti off. Another way to prevent vandalism is to place a hard clear plastic material on top of the board, the material can be changed regularly. 

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Group Idea 2

Following our disastrous prototype pitch, our group decided to come up with a completely new idea. Each of us came up with a new idea, and at the next tutorial, we all settled on Yara’s Idea. Her idea was to make interactive blocks, the first block will have the head of the characters and symbols that relate to it. The second block will be the torso of the characters and the wings of either the owl or bird. And the third block will be the feet / legs of the characters. The blocks will have a pole that goes through them from the first block to the last block, the blocks are meant to be rotated by people that pass by it. The aim is to create new characters or to complete the characters that are already on the block.

We also had an alternative idea if the blocks would be inconvenient, instead of using blocks we can use several screens on the hoarding board. The passerby would then swipe the screens and create their own characters. 

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Prototype Pitch 19th April

For our first official practice pitch (prototype pitch) we decided to collage all our drawings, symbols and logos together. We also recycled or re-used our previous board design from the tutorial right after easter break. For the characters we decided to cut them up and put only a few sections of their body, we also combined a few of them to further bring out the exquisite corpse idea. Since the illustrators drew in different styles, we got very strange looking characters. We found it very difficult to combine and line up the characters body parts so we didn’t really use the exquisite corpse. We also used some text that the graphic designers in the group print out, we intended to use words that relate to circle square and our word pair. However, due to our group's lack of attendance we were not able to use the words we really meant to use.

Above: First hoarding design 

Above: Second hoarding design

After the presentation, we did not achieve the results we thought we would. The tutors pointed out how we have not expanded our idea, also that our group may have a problem with communication. Our group was handed our informal peer feedback, some of the comments were very useful and helped us expand on our idea once more. Most of the comments were about how we should play around more with the text, work more on the background and stop being so literal.

Overall this was a good experience, it was a lot more like a wake-up call. With all the feedback, I believe our group will work harder and communicate more. Also, we now know  our weak points, and where exactly to improve. Therefore, I believe the official pitch will be 100 times better.

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Group Idea

The pair of words we picked is ‘Early Bird & Night Owl’. Using the people around Oxford Road and the circle square site, our group decided to create characters to represent the early bird, such as jogger or a businessman. And for our night owl, we will be creating characters such as security guards or dog walkers. All the characters will have either bird and owl features.

First, we expanded on what we think Early and Night connote:

Early:

Radio

Alarm Clock

Jogger

Workers

Breakfast

Safe / Calm / Quiet

Sunrise 

Children

Night:

Music

Crime

Security Guard

Dog Walker

Street Food

Fast food

Police

Sunset 

Parties / Clubs / Pub

Street lights

Taxi

What we’re going to do:

We will attempt to create as many characters as possible using different methods, such as collage and exquisite corpse. During our tutorial, Ian suggested that we take pictures of the people that walk around the circle square site and oxford road. Using the photos, we could just paint on or edit the bird/owl heads directly onto them.

We split up the work so that the graphic designers can create symbols and logos that represent early bird and night owl. The illustrators will create the characters in their own style. My style will be a bit more realistic, especially the bird heads will have a lot of detail.

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Mark Hearld Lecture

Mark Hearld studied illustration at Glasgow School of Art and then completed an MA in Natural History Illustration at the Royal College of Art, London. His work is based on his observations of the natural world, he draws his inspiration from the flora and fauna of the British countryside. Mark works with different mediums, creating limited edition lithographic and lancet prints, collages, hand-painted ceramics and unique paintings.

He uses collage to create illustrations, he believes that it is a combination of observation and memory. Which is very important for artists, so that they don't need to use reference images to create their own work. However, he does use reference but he encourages artists to not copy straight from a book or image but instead to use their memory to create unique illustrations.He also combines his collages with other creative ideas, such as shadow boxes similar to the intricate works of Joseph Cornell.

Since he uses collage, he further discussed how artists use each other's papers for collage which made a sort of communication channel and competition among the artists.

Mark additionally discussed how plotting our inspirations of different artists and styles like a mood board can help as find our own style and can it can also be used as a reference. He believes that ideas can freeze you up, instead an artists should play with paper, paint, objects etc because making a mark is the source of creativity.

Mark brought up how one can be influenced by many things, even unconsciously. Therefore, one should take note of other things that do not relate to them because they can be used later to inspire the artist.

I really like Mark’s work, the animals look very realistic and colourful. It’s amazing how much detail he can create using lithography and paper cutting. His work is unique since he doesn’t really draw to make his illustrations.

“To be yourself, look wide. Drawing realistic is not really for everyone. Art is Artificial”

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Rob Kesseler Lecture

Rob Kessler is a British photographer and professor of Ceramic Art and Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. But his work is far from being the typical potter, instead, he often works with photography and digital images rather than clay. One of the main themes that link Kesseler's vast body of work is his outstanding fascination with plant material and the natural world. With photography he captures the exotic microscopic detailing of various flora using original samples, he covers them with a fine coating of gold and photographs them on a scanning electron microscope. The images he captures are then re-mastered using subtle washes and layers of colour to enhance their forms and reveal intricate and fragile structural characteristics with amazing clarity.

He was initially inspired by medieval stylistic illustrations and dutch flower paintings that slowly evolved to show the ornate and mesmeric structures of the various plan materials he examined.

I like quite a few of his images, they are beautiful and striking. The colours are very vibrant and some look like they’ve come from another world.

Above: Larch Pollen

Above: Acacia Pollen

In his lecture, he talked about how he got through “artists block” where an individual isn't able to draw out their ideas or vision in a way they see fit. At one point in his life he had lost the feeling to draw objectively, this led him to use ink on material to create drawings quicker and more efficiently. This really captured my interest, and maybe i could use this method in future projects me to create different and less objective drawings.

One of my favourite lines from the lecture was “Art is at its best when it transcends functionality, when it becomes useless”

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Lord Whitney WorkShop

The lord Whitney workshop was a very hands-on activity, the task was to create something using an object and two words as stimuli. My groups item was a small clay duck ornament, we also got the words ‘sleep’ and ‘sunshine’. 

First, broke the words down:


Sleep —> dreams, nightmares, still

Sunshine —> warm, shadows, flowers

With those words we came up with 4 situations: 
Dereck the ducks adventure - we wanted to come up with a story where the duck has a pleasant adventure during the day like sunbathing and at night he has terrible nightmares of his feathers being plucked out or getting stuck together. We used this as a base for the other 3 ducks. 


Darren the duck - he is meant to be a balding duck, his nightmare is that his feathers are used to make a bed and eventually he turns into an actual bed.
 Donald the duck - during the day the duck goes camping, at night he has a nightmare where he is being cooked alive and turns into a chicken.

Daniel the duck - this duck is a little different, he wants to be a rooster so he can wake everyone up at sunrise. 


Out of those ideas it was pretty obvious that our group would make a duck costume, however, we also had an idea of making a set so we combined both of the ideas together, and ended up making a background to support the duck costume.

I had the task of making the duck feet, i honestly had never made duck feet before.I decided to make it out of cardboard, cloth, string and the leftovers of a cardboard crab.

First, I made the basic shape by sticking cardboard pieces together with double sided tape, I left it open on both sides. I then cut the crab claws into smaller pieces to use as the ducks toes.  I cut a medium sized rectangle from a piece of fabric, I then stuck the piece of fabric from the inside out on one of the openings and made a hole in the centre of it. I cut a hole on both sides of the cardboard and put in the crab claw pieces. At this point it still did not look like duck feet:

I decided to add some material to make the toes look webbed, i found a net like fabric that i stuck underneath the toes with a glue gun. I then painted the whole thing with orange acrylic paint.

The finished costume:

The wings:

The dress:

The night background and the sun wheel:

This workshop was quite fun, it forced me to start making stuff without overthinking or coming up with a plan. 

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Lord Whitney (Lecture)

A company developed by two young women. They create make believe worlds that have never been made before. They work in creative design, set design and art direction. 

I enjoyed this lecture, Amy Lord really got my attention because she struggled to find what she really wanted to so as a University student.

She talked about various ways of finding your own style or field of art, one of the ways is by exploring the world around us since ideas come from the real world. Also by taking part in activities and self initiated projects which can be used later as experience and as an idea generating method.

Lord described how her years after university is when she really had the chance to play and experiment with art. And through random briefs and self initiated projects, they were able to get commercial work. 

Towards the end of the lecture, the presentation displayed a quote that I like.

“If you're enjoying it even when you're not making any money at it, then it’s for you” - Guy Garvey