Thursday Three Thirty

Communication Design Studies

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Reflection Statement

This class has been a really great experience for me personally. Every Thursday at 3.30 presented a new challenge for us and it was something I enjoyed every time. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of group work and maybe it’s my introverted personality, but this class pushed me to do some really creative work with people who I am not friends with. For this course I really wanted to take away the concepts of design that are more so out of the box and really actually push the boundaries of people’s expectations. I enjoyed learning heaps about typography which is a personal favourite of mine and getting the opportunity to see and learn about it evolution in a plethora of ways. My favourite assignment was ‘Ask Me Anything’ which I choose to take a more unconventional approach to my design (at least for my taste) because of the knowledge I gained from the classes and the lectures. Thank you Karen and Andy for the amazing work you put into all of the classes. Until next time.

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FINALLY DONE! Proud of myself? Yes. Took a lot of stress and persistence and some rejection as well, but I’m finito.

This is my solution to the ‘Ask Me Anything’ brief. I started with some creative professional in mind and narrowed it down to 5. Mostly Instagram photographers (my personal favourite) so I was determined to interview at least one of them.

In class the check-ins were a good way to stay on track and I had thought of a few questions that I wanted to ask... well any one of the creatives I was set to ask. Here they are:

- What sort of routine do you rely on in order to produce your work or to get inspired to shoot?

- How has social media influenced the development of your photo work and getting your brand to gain recognition?

- Do you have any favourites in terms of equipment to work with?

- Do you have a particular place/workspace you go to in order to work, edit, plan, etc? Or is this something you do while travelling?

- Who do you work with in order to produce work (i.e. a team, friends) and is there anyone in particular you would like to collaborate with in the future?

- What do you have planned for future projects? Do you have a long-term plan or goals for your career?

- Do you have a particular style of photography that you favour (e.g. nature, portaits, landscapes)?

- How has your education contributed to where you are today? Or was conventional school not a place where you picked up your skills?

- What is the benefit of travelling in relation to the development of your work?

- Who inspires you, as a creative, to work and produce in the style that you do?

Not too bad if I don’t say so myself. But I definitely ran into some issues. As the weeks started to narrow down and I had less time and not one of the 5 creatives I asked responded and I was still indecisive of my presentation format (it was between a zine or an Instagram page). But 2 weeks before I got a direct message through Instagram from an 18 year old photographer from the United States (Simon Timbers) who agreed to the task.

My design features a slightly more unconventional arrangement of elements on the page because I thought I should try something that I’m not use. The vibrant red colour really gives it that pop and creates a contrast against the white and black elements.

I eventually decided upon a display book of sorts that seemed like more of a unique idea than I had previously. However you can still view the original Instagram page at: www.instagram.com/thisisaninterview.

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WEEK 12

We’re coming close to the end!! Last touches to the ‘AMA’ projects are upon us with this checklist that is honestly what might be the saviour to me finishing this the way I need to. Last class with Karen as my teacher! :( Huge thanks to her and her positivity each and every week.

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Template underway for my ‘Ask Me Anything’ assessment. Just some work in progress - doing my best without the responses.

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WEEK 10

For the Image and Identity classes we were asked to create a collage out of old magazines that represented ourselves - and this is what I produced with limited resources (my class was last to get to the magazines and a lot of the good stuff had been cut-out).

So the main idea for my collage was to created something that was aesthetically pleasing more so than using subjects that appealed to me.

I remember Andy mentioning in the lecture something like how collage is still such a great art form in this digital age and looks just as good if not better on screen. And I totally agree. I was pretty pleased with how my collage looked in real life - but after scanning it and looking at it on my computer screen I loved it more. Because to achieve a replica of it digitally would be 1000x time more difficult and just wouldn’t have the same appeal.

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WEEK 10

This week we made some prototypes/mockups for potential outcomes with the ‘Ask Me Anything’ assignment. Being the ever sustainable school that we are, we used materials out of the recycling bin and other cardboard and paper scraps.

And damn, some people are really creative with their ideas and what can be done with so little - it’s quite inspiring. Lots of zine prototypes, 3d pop-up models and ideas for webpages were some of the ideas that people came up with.

I created my own version of a zine and what I think was a framed artwork with 3D elements that gave it some literal dimension. But this task really made you think beyond the basic ideas for presentation formats - and if I’m honest I don’t mind the scrappy, recycled look of some of the prototypes as bases for actual finals.

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Another update on the ‘Ask Me Anything’ assignment.

Good news. Simon Timbers, an American photographer or “uwo” on Instagram, agreed (assumably somewhat hesitantly judging but the “Sure I guess”) to answer my questions for the assignment. I’m glad that I was able to get a hold of someone...

Maybe Instagram dm’s are just too informal for me to get decent responses? I’ll know for next time.

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So this is an update on my ‘Ask Me Anything’ project.

Not going great so far. I finally got a response from an Italian photographer. The problem was that I couldn’t send through the questions over Instagram because the message was too long so I asked for an email I could send them to. I guess he interpreted that as I was trying to STEAL HIS ACCOUNT?! Sure to say I exchanged some words with him - I don’t think it’s gonna work out.

Next.

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WEEK 10

Enjoyable lecture today. I actually really like the examples that Andy was showing - I’m considering doing a future project in a similar style to this image. The imagery and the typography’s composition and kerning is quite unconventional and as someone who loves to follow the rules of convention might need to explore this style to broaden my creativity a bit.

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WEEK 10

This week featured some good ol’ fashioned collaging. We we’re challenged to create letter forms out of some photocopies of what I assume to be fashion magazines. This task really proved difficult for time when all I wanted to do was make perfect cuts around the models, nevertheless the end results were favourable - it’s like real life Photoshop. Pre-digital age sounds very time-consuming.

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I really shouldn’t relate to this but sadly I do. My post organisation skills are when my strengths lie.

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WEEK 7

All you need is a little perspective and BAM you’ve got typefaces surrounding your entire existence. The task this week was to use our imagination and capture as many letters of the alphabet from objects and buildings in campus. Some really great instances of design doubling its purpose - some letters appeared more obvious and other required a little more from your imagination.

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WEEK 6

This is my digital version of the shape-shifting task we did in class this week. 

To create this I used Illustrator to create 3 shapes - the red quadrant circle, the green semi-circle and the orange triangle. It was just a matter of rotation and repositioning the shapes to create each letter in the same form as the ones we made as a group. 

Also to add some dimension, I chucked it into Photoshop and gave some shadows and texture.

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WEEK 6

Surely the best activity we’ve done so far. This week in the lesson we created an alphabet set out of various paper shapes (semi-circles, quadrants, triangles, squares, ect.) My group started with red quadrant circles and some of the letters were easy to make, but some proved to be a challenge, unless we really relied on the stretch of out imaginations. Karens addition of some green semi-circles and orange triangles to incorporate in to the set, gave a bit of dimension.

I could definitely see myself creating my own typeface based on the arrangement of physical shaped in the future. Therapeutic.

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WEEK 6

Time for a grammar check guys. I was at Werribee Plaza and the Cotton Store was under renovation buy their signage is implies that they were coming back soon - but know they’re not? Try an apostrophe sometime.

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WEEK 5B

The other groups idea to put the posters in the elevator worked just as well. Elevators are awkward enough - why not fill them with art. I would certainly be more comfortable if the awkward energy was put into something more useful. 

And I hope Karen is enjoying the attention she getting from being featured in everyones tumblr posts so far.

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WEEK 5B

Exhibition time! This week we held mini exhibition spaces for the “Hello, My Question Is...” assessment posters. Louis had the weirdly great idea to do it in the gender neutral toilets and put each person in the groups’ posters on the backs on the toilet stall doors. That way art can be enjoyed while things are getting done. So after storming the toilets to blu-tack the posters up and probably really disturbing the occupants, voilà! An art exhibition. Not the worst idea in the world but not the most... comfortable when cramming 20 students in a once.