Processing.

A week of work.

[reformedminimalist]

Merry Christmas

GDII was all in all a pretty good time. Structuring the class for our final deliverable to be a product of the work we put in throughout the class is something I definitely enjoyed. In the beginning the idea seemed a little overwhelming but it came together to be an enjoyable experience. You provided not only the knowledge to streamline the project but the materials to enhance its quality which isn’t something I would have expected going into the class. I will say my idea for the booklet up until a few weeks before turning it in was again a bit grander than it turned out to be. I honestly thought we were creating collection catalogs similar to the books you showed as examples; hardback covers and all. That obviously didn’t happen which I was a little disappointed by but I would like to polish the booklet as much as I can when we return from the break so it at least comes close the the idea that was in my head.

[reformedminimalist]

The Bitter End

Going into the course I was a bit apprehensive towards the idea of Material and Methods. I had a few misconceptions about it and honestly wasn’t too excited about taking the class. I was definitely proven wrong as the class went on and it honestly become a pretty relaxing experience with each project. The assignments became therapeutic, especially after spending so much time staring at computer screen in my other classes. I was a bit hardheaded in my approach to a few of the assignments which I regret, I didn’t immerse myself into doing the correct process which is something I would have liked to change. I had much grander plans for the last project but I wasn’t able to make them happen towards the end which is unfortunate but that’s life sometimes.

[reformedminimalist]

I’m changing the plan for the final project. Hopefully for the last time. I wasn’t able to get all the imagery I wanted over the break, super unfortunate. I think the idea I have instead is still pretty interesting though and speaks a bit more to my personal aesthetic.

The current plan stems from shows I’ve been watching and imagery I’ve been seeing a lot. Similar to some of the work in the videos you showed us where artists would create rules that their design would have to abide by I plan to do something similar. I wanted to try to create geometric designs sort of based on alchemical circles. My plan is to have the 8 entries to be a piece of the puzzle so to speak and have them form the full imagery. (I’ll probably do 9 so it’s symmetrical).

I think I’m a bit more interested in this idea so I’m excited to see how it goes. I’ve been drawing them in a smaller scale and I think it’s been going well.

[reformedminimalist]

I think after seeing more examples of what successful collection catalogs look like I have a pretty good idea of how I want the final project to represent. It changes a lot of the work I put in up until now but I should be able to get it done and it should hopefully work out a bit better than the ideas I had up until now.

Since my collection of cards is pretty flat (obviously) I think as opposed to taking pictures to give them some sort of depth they don’t have scanning the cards would work a lot better. A lot of the collections of magazines or books or things of that nature seemed to be high quality scans instead of photographs and I think overall it works better. For visual interest I think adding a few pages with photographs for full spreads could be cool and it’s something I’d like to try.

Besides that I’m pretty excited to see the project completed. One worry I had though was printing. Putting so much work into the collection to just end up printing it all on matte paper seems a little disappointing but I’m not sure where I’d even get more interesting material to try printing it on and if the printers in the photo lab support different paper types. One of the covers of the collections you brought in really interested me for whatever reason. If it comes down to it I’ll definitely get over whatever nonchalant feelings I have though.

[reformedminimalist]

I think after seeing more examples of what successful collection catalogs look like I have a pretty good idea of how I want the final project to represent. It changes a lot of the work I put in up until now but I should be able to get it done and it should hopefully work out a bit better than the ideas I had up until now.

Since my collection of cards is pretty flat (obviously) I think as opposed to taking pictures to give them some sort of depth they don’t have scanning the cards would work a lot better. A lot of the collections of magazines or books or things of that nature seemed to be high quality scans instead of photographs and I think overall it works better. For visual interest I think adding a few pages with photographs for full spreads could be cool and it’s something I’d like to try.

Besides that I’m pretty excited to see the project completed. One worry I had though was printing. Putting so much work into the collection to just end up printing it all on matte paper seems a little disappointing but I’m not sure where I’d even get more interesting material to try printing it on and if the printers in the photo lab support different paper types. One of the covers of the collections you brought in really interested me for whatever reason. If it comes down to it I’ll definitely get over whatever nonchalant feelings I have though.

[reformedminimalist]

The Final Change

I’m changing the plan for the final project. Hopefully for the last time. I wasn’t able to get all the imagery I wanted over the break, super unfortunate. I think the idea I have instead is still pretty interesting though and speaks a bit more to my personal aesthetic.

The current plan stems from shows I’ve been watching and imagery I’ve been seeing a lot. Similar to some of the work in the videos you showed us where artists would create rules that their design would have to abide by I plan to do something similar. I wanted to try to create geometric designs sort of based on alchemical circles. My plan is to have the 8 entries to be a piece of the puzzle so to speak and have them form the full imagery. (I’ll probably do 9 so it’s symmetrical).

I think I’m a bit more interested in this idea so I’m excited to see how it goes. I’ve been drawing them in a smaller scale and I think it’s been going well.

[reformedminimalist]

Filling out the pages of our collection is getting more interesting. I definitely need to take more pictures but I think I can see the potential of the overall project.

I’m running into a few problems with some compositions though. Since there’s a large number of cards in my collection overall I think some interesting page layouts would have multiple cards on them. giving each picture a title though becomes a bit of a hassle though and I’m not sure if it works well. Since the pictures would take up most of the composition there isn’t much space for text and I’m not sure if putting the text on the picture itself would work well or flow overall. I still plan to experiment though and I’m excited to see the project be completed.

[reformedminimalist]

Project #5

I’m still pretty much brainstorming for the last project. I think I have a good idea but I’m not sure if it’s being pushed far enough.

I enjoy listening to music a lot so my idea was to collect quotes from 8 different songs over time, ones that I thought were especially compelling. So far my plan was to create 8 different posters out of each. I’d create the poster based on the specific song quote and would try to make the process more experimental but still aesthetically pleasing I guess.

[reformedminimalist]

I’m enjoying getting to the end of our collection and seeing what the final product will look like. I plan on changing the way I’m setting up my sectional pages to reflect the catalog a bit better and to enhance the project as a whole. I think I need to buy one more deck of cards to accomplish my idea but I’m excited at the new plan. I’m going to try to create contrast between the title pages and cover pages (which I’m thinking is like the cover of the entire book) by using pictures. For this, I need to take a few better quality images and think of interesting compositions and locations for them.

I am a bit confused at the what the size of the book will end up being. Do we gradually incorporate more sectional pages? Or do we fill the majority of the book with information that we haven’t gotten to yet?

My plan so far is instead of the categories I planned to used in the previous assignment, I was going to simplify them to each card suit which would also be a separate and visually different deck of cards. After that I’d introduce card games with varying difficulty starting for easier games to more complex ones. I thought it’d be an interesting idea and would help fill out the project if I ended up running out of ideas.

[reformedminimalist]

This is the last version of the Macbeth poster. i think it’s come a long way since we first started the assignment and I’m pretty happy with it overall. I made the changes that I was given during critique and think it definitely improved it. I still feel a bit of discontent with the open space for whatever reason but I think Dante had a really good idea by printing it on that sort of textured paper. Overall I really enjoyed this assignment.

[reformedminimalist]

These are the poster designs I’ve come up with so far. Structuring the information in an interesting way’s proving to be a bit difficult so I plan on experimenting until the composition looks interesting.

[reformedminimalist]

I’ve taken a few more photos for my collection but they aren’t as good as the ones that I took with your camera so I’m hoping to be able to take more the week to flesh out the collection. The ideas I had for grouping were pretty simple for the most part but if done well I think it’d be pretty aesthetically pleasing at least.

I planned on grouping them based on aspects like suits, color, card back designs and then maybe the best hands you could play in games like poker, blackjack and other card games. I think playing cards have a really interesting aesthetic quality to them so I’m hoping to find ways to convey that through taking pictures. I’m also thinking about buying a few more decks that I think look cool.

[reformedminimalist]

These were the two posters I decided on with the one on the right being the design I’ll keep pushing for the final iteration. Seeing everyone’s designs during critique and the advice I was given should definitely be helpful in creating a better poster; I do wish there was a bit more of it though. It didn’t seem like their was much advice but to attempt some minor changes. Whether that’s a good thing or not I’m not sure but I’ll attempt different ideas until the design doesn’t work. Trying a horizontal design is something I didn’t think of though so that seems interesting.

[reformedminimalist]

The idea of making this project somewhat collaborative is interesting and I’m excited to take the next step in the process. Everyone having different styles and approaches towards how they create things would definitely push the creation process in a direction I might not have explored otherwise. After the critique on Thursday I have ideas that I’m excited to try out.

Seeing a few people take a watercolor approach that idea seems interesting. The sort of flowy and organic nature of the medium could work well to push a narrative through color changes to make it more ominous. I think that would contrast really well with some minimalistic aspects as well.

Another idea I was excited to try was I think Kaitlin’s more decorative logotype. The one that gave that game of throne house sigil vibes. Her’s was probably one of my favorites and seems like it would create the foundation of a great poster if done well.

[reformedminimalist]

I’m pretty excited at the idea of creating a poster for the theater department and them actually being impressed enough to use it. There’s some definite heat in our class so I’m confident at least one of our designs would blow them out of the water.

I feel like the bloody type of design for Macbeth has been done so I’m not all that interested  in that approach  but I always seem to fall back on minimalism so we’re at a bit of an impasse. I plan on giving both a try though or maybe finding a way to combine them could work well.

[reformedminimalist]

Incorporating the images into my poster designs has been a bit of trouble. Resolution size has been the biggest issue I think, all my images are horizontal and pretty wide so it’s hard for the designs to work around that. I don’t have any problems starting from scratch but I did enjoy some of the original designs so it’s a bit unfortunate.

So far, I think the two white ones have been my most successful attempts at doing so but they aren’t great in my opinion. I do like how the logotype cuts through the picture in the second one though.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had much luck with designs on the black background which were the ones I preferred but obviously I’ll keep trying. I think trying to fit  images inside the individual suit logos could be cool but I’m not sure how to accomplish that.

[reformedminimalist]

I’m pretty excited at creating exhibition posters for our collections. It’s a little hard straying away from the minimalism but I’ll try my best. Since we’re creating a fake exhibition is it cool if we include potential sponsors for the event? I think it’d enhance the overall poster if I do it right.

Also I really enjoyed the recreation assignment; no idea why. Trying to get the posters as close to the original as possible was really fun to me. I also figured out how to get type of images, I’m not sure if I used to most efficient method but at least I learned something.