#module evaluation report

[viscomintro1-blog]

evaluation

I will conclude this project by explaining every aspect of this project. I will explain my ideas for this project and evaluate any unexpected issues. I will also talk about my planning process and how I worked in my group. I will explain how the final piece came together and finally I will analyse and explain what could of went better in this project.

Firstly as a group we had an idea of an installation piece about colmore business district. This idea came about when we were on our first location visit, we photographed these very attractive buildings in the colmore area. Once we finished the location visit we had an idea of creating an installation and using projection as well, this idea would be an installation of colmore business district and the projection would be about immigration. This idea never really a firm idea because of the form and target audience as a group we felt that this wouldn’t be very good to do.

Individually I struggled at the start of this project to get ideas and to document any ideas in my blog. My research skills lacked because there was no firm idea for this project. I had a talk with I one of my tutors about what and how should I document ideas fort this project and what he said was very clear and understandable.

As a group we met a couple of more times to discuss our project and to decide on a firm idea, we decided on doing origami pigeons in pigeon park. This idea consisted of making origami pigeons out of coloured paper, coloured paper would resemble cultures from around the world and it would be photographed in pigeon park. the use of coloured paper would also represent the immigration which was one of our words and it would represent our other word error would be shown as an error of judgement (misperception) towards the subject of immigration.

I researched on how origami pigeons are used in other artworks and artists, whilst doing some research I came to an art piece which interests me and is relevant to my project. This artwork was done by Banksy and it was about immigration the artwork contained pigeons and a bird, this interested me to look further into this art piece and use it or my research. This bit of researched helped with researching the idea we discussed, also I had been practising to make origami pigeons and I never found them hard to do and the tutorials were very straight forward. I also looked at some artist who tackled immigration by using their creative skills. I looked at artist JR and what he had done as a form of artwork, I found this particular piece where he created a very large human figure in New York city. This human figure was abed on a person who is originally foreign. The artist JR had another project which was about immigration and Ellis island, Ellis island was a place in America where all the immigrants went. I enjoyed His artwork in Ellis island and New York city because it showed a lot of emotion and included different types of mediums. The New York city project was a very interesting way to portray the subject of immigration. the last bit of research I did was about origami pigeons, the artist Sipho Mabona who is a master at making origami’s had an installation of giant origami birds which were hung from the ceiling, this exhibition was also relevant to my project because of the origami birds, I was inspired by how large then origami birds were and how they were place high above. Overall I felt my research is very relevant to my project, I felt that the artist and the artwork I chose to research about relates to my idea and project.

As a group we created 100 origami pigeon by allocating different colours to everyone, this meant that we had enough colours to place them around pigeon park and photograph them. I felt creating the origami pigeons was not difficult for me and I felt the step by step pictorial guide was very informative. We had 2 practice attempts before the final piece, the first attempt we used origami pigeons made from paper with different designs on them and I felt the photographs that were taken of the origami pigeons were surprisingly good, I liked the way the image blended with the background and the way we positioned them around pigeon park was another positive about how the photographs looked.

The second attempt we used the coloured origami pigeons and placed on the chapel wall, we used different colours to and placed the origami pigeons so that they expand outwards. I personally liked this design and the placement of the origami pigeons, we photographed the process and the final outcome of how it looked. We also experimented with the camera so we could get different effect in the photos, this was done by increasing the shutter speed so the shutter stays open for a bit longer and movement of the camera when taking the photo. Overall I felt that this was a good attempt but the weather was quite bad on the day with heavy winds and rain but I feel it was a good attempt.

We also tried different methods of placing the origami pigeons, we did this in our classroom and we placed them on the table and photographed them as evidence and developmental ideas. I thought his was a good idea, we came out with some interesting ways to place the origami pigeons such as spiral, 3 lines of different coloured origami pigeons and a start shape made form origami pigeons.

As a group our final piece was a good final outcome, our final piece was to photograph the origami pigeons in pigeon park. we had some very nice designs along different parts of pigeon park, we used a spiral effect around tone one the lampposts in pigeon park we got some positive feedback from people walking past and generally the spiral effect worked well. We used the origami pigeons to create the word “error” this was also another design that looked really good. we had other ways to place the origami pigeons around pigeon park, I felt that this final piece and how we placed the origami pigeons was a good and effective way as it caught the attention of a lot of people walking past. The colour scheme of the origami pigeons was another positive way on how it looked. This final piece turned out very well and I felt the pictures we took as a group were very interesting and in general looked very good      

To conclude this evaluation, I would say that at the start of this project I was very confused about ideas and what include in my blog. I spent a lot of time researching artwork which was relevant to my project, also as a group our interaction improved throughout the project. I think if we had a firm idea earlier into the project we could have had more time to work more on our ideas however I am pleased on the outcome of this project and how we all contributed towards the project and communicated with each other, finally I am pleased with my groups effort in the whole project and the final piece.

[kellyrichards-viscom]

Personal Module Evaluation

In the beginning of the project I struggled with the brief and generating ideas, but after visiting the area a few times and discussing the project with the members of my group and hearing the routes they had decided to go down I was able to generate my own individual ideas that were specific to my style and other styles I was interested in, which is when I had the idea to create colour-cut boxes.

I was both producing work for myself and the tutors and leaders of my course that would evaluate the work in the end, I did this by using the ideas that I liked and thought would interesting pieces of work but also by using the feedback from the individual assessments with the tutors about certain aspects I could explore and ideas they offered me that they liked.

Out of the two words we were given I found it would be more conclusive to focus on the one as given the area we got it would have been difficult and ultimately unproductive to use the other, but the theory surrounding identity and its relevance to the people and places in my area underpinned my whole project. But I also looked into many artists who informed my work and helped me develop my own ideas, the artists who inspired the colour-cut boxes were Hari and Deepti and David Thorpe because he used a very interesting composition of shape and colour to create images of different landscapes.

The best ideas I came up with were the decisions to make a number of colour cut boxes rather than just one because it helped expand the range of work I could display and show at the end of the project, and they're also original and unique to myself because of the way I chose to design them. In relation to the collaborative aspect of the project and the development of the zine the best idea I had was to focus on the identities of the custard factory worker and their shops because I could then introduce some portraiture into my work and my project was no longer just building based. It also forced me to talk and interact with the shop keepers which is hard for me to do, by doing so I was forced out of my comfort zone and even if they said no to having their picture taken the reaction wasn't negative, it was just a personal preference.

Before starting the project and at regular intervals throughout I made sure to create plans and record any ideas that I had, and after they were written down I would do a short study on them and do a short practice of the idea. This is why my final product was different from the ideas I initially had, because in the beginning I had wanted to do some lino prints for the final design but after attending a workshop I found that I had difficulty with the techniques involved and shorty after I discovered light boxes which drew me in a different direction, but before fully deciding to take this route I created two prototypes that I believe were successful attempts.

Asides from Hari and Deepti and David Thorpe I also looked into a number of other practitioners, the main one being Kara Walker who inspired the addition of a character into the colour cut-out designs and Matisse paper cuts and Craig Atkinson who helped inspire and influence the work I did using the left over pieces of paper from the boxes to make two experimental pieces that afterwards I used as part of the design for the front and back pages of the zine.

I produced the ending solution by first going out and taking images of the area of I was given, and because of where our dart landed we got an interesting area with many unique styles of older looking buildings which were much different than the areas that come to mind when you picture Birmingham because typically you'd image the centre or the bullring. Afterwards I discussed in one of the sessions leaving my area to take pictures as a sort of extended research I could use to contrast against the pictures I took in my area because I came up with the idea to juxtapose the vibrant, art and culture of Digbeth and the calculated, symmetrical high-rise buildings of the city centre and surrounding area. I then thought of how to use these in both my individual work and collaborative work and came up with the idea for colour-boxes and a zine composed of images i'd taken.

Actually producing the design for the colour cut boxes involved buying a lot of card in lots of different colours and gradients and then figuring out a scale for the designs that I could stick to and then cutting them out in these dimensions and started drawing the designs over them in pencil, making sure to separate the shapes by colour so that when it came to spacing the sheets apart with foam core board and sticking them together, the designs would make sense and look visually appealing. For the zine it was just a case of opening up photoshop, choosing the dimensions of the pages and then to start arranging the pages in relation to the conceptual designs from earlier, although the final product is much longer and a lot of the pages have changed. And after i'd arranged the images and simple text I printed it off and began the process of using cut pieces of paper to layer over the images and spray painting titles and cutting and sticking them down.

I am especially proud of the 4 colour-cut boxes that I created as the final product of the project because it was an approach that i'd never considered or explored before and it could have turned out terrible had I not been carful because if the sheets weren't cut to size properly the designs would fit on the boxes or would appear skewed but in the end I consider it a successful effort. As I mentioned earlier the ideas I had about creating lino prints failed and didn't managed to produce the results I wanted so I had to generate new ideas. I will change my approach in the future by starting the project off stronger than I did this time around, as I found in the beginning I didn't have any good ideas and this meant that I wasted time not doing anything productive, leaving me with less time for other work.

[bcuchloeismaily-blog]

Evaluation

The brief for this module was to produce creative responses inspired by two words: “Multi” and “Prejudice” and a place called “Camphill” in Birmingham.

We have agreed as a group at first, to make an exhibition about prejudice. However, the problem with approach is that: we did not have the budget to make such installations nor a big enough available space at the time. Therefore we decided to do a digital 3D version of the exhibition instead. This model consists of a roundabout (just like the one in Camphill), that branches off into four streets. At the end of each street, the audience will be presented with buildings and other relevant architecture found in the area. Those street ends will each represent one or more aspects of prejudice (Racism, genderism, classism, sexism etc.). We wanted to emphasize on the idea that different communities are connected: if one gets affected or disappears then the others feel the consequences.

After visiting the area a second time (observing architecture, people’s fashion and behavior, interviewing the locals etc.); I’ve suggested to do a campaign against prejudice instead (which was later named “Misjudged”). It would give us the freedom to create other things besides a 3D model for example: posters, merchandise, a website… Additionally, allowing us to develop a clearer and more solid message.

The research process consisted of visiting the area multiple times, taking pictures, observing buildings, people and their behavior, fashion etc. I have found something particularly interesting in the area: it seemed to be very culturally diverse since there were multiple small businesses selling foreign products and other services. Additionally, most edifices handling religious rituals were fenced and had barbed wire and surveillance cameras. I’ve theorized that this amount of security and vigilance could have been an indicator of possible violence and attacks in the past. However when researching about it on the internet, nothing was conclusive. The group agreed to conduct some interviews with the locals but they were not very keen on telling us about the area or themselves. Since the information about the area was too shallow to use it in the project, we have decided to research about prejudice at a bigger scale: England. I have been specifically looking into immigration in the country; searching for different opinions on the subject and how significant it is in England.

The goal for this campaign was to raise awareness for a young audience in England (teenagers and young adults) and show the causes and the consequences of prejudice on the victims. This led me to come up with the idea for one part of the exhibition: a box where people can enter and interact with inside. In addition to that, I have been responsible for the creation of some of the posters for the campaign and came up with the idea for the group’s GIF (which we later created together).

When it comes to developing ideas for this project, I started by gathering the information collected while visiting the area, researching people’s experiences, opinions on prejudice as well as its causes and consequences. Additionally, it was important to consider the chosen color palette and font for the campaign while creating these different pieces. Based on that, I come up with a range of different ideas to which I later present and discuss with other people about whether they are part of the project or not. Peer reviewing ideas is essential step since it will allow me to refine the work and research once more.

After deciding on the final ideas to produce, it was time to decide what mediums to use and how the different products would be presented to the audience. First, I sought for different artists’ works and observed what mediums they used and what for. Some of my posters were inspired by Barbara Kruger’s works for example.

Initially, we wanted to print the t-shirts and make physical copies of the designed merchandise however we quickly realized that we did not have the budget for it. Therefore we preferred to do them digitally and keep them as so. This allowed us to easily edit and change the files’ formats, send them to each other and edit them. Most of my works were done on Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Illustrator CC, since I wanted to get more familiar with the programs this module.

Overall, the project went as planned. What was most successful in the project would be the group work; we always managed to communicate well and clearly with each other. When it came to deciding to do a campaign, it was already relatively late to change our project however we managed to do it quickly and effectively. Even though we had different tasks, we managed to connect the final products together to make the campaign. We managed to connect our works mostly thanks to a common color palette and font.

However, there are some unsuccessful things to point out as well.  We have tried to conduct interviews but people were generally not willing to respond to our questions. Perhaps the way we approached them was not right and the questions were too direct. Next time we are conducting interviews we should try to make it more conversational and natural. Maybe then people won’t be so taken aback by us. Also, other people in the group should most likely stay out of sight from the interviewee and do something else during the interview instead of being part of it; so people won’t be as intimidated.

Furthermore, I have personally started to understand what and how to research for visual communication a little too late into the module. Which consequently, made the research look rushed and superficial.

To conclude, in the future I am going to read more about different research methodologies in the field of graphic design. Also, when it comes to mediums, I’ll try to avoid relying too much on digital drawing (although it was the best method to work for this project considering the circumstances) and focus on other methods to get the outcome wanted out of my works. Some of those methods include printing, working with fabric and other materials...

[bcukatieeccles-blog]

Personal Module Evaluation

‘People and Places’ have been the topic of my first project at university. When I was told about this task, I was very excited to learn more about the area of Birmingham and also to work with a group of people as I have never done so previously. This did make me a bit nervous at first by not having experience in a creative team, but that soon turned into excitement after talking to people in my allocated group, who had different sets of skills to me.

Our chosen area of Birmingham was near a village called Moseley on the outer edge of Birmingham. I had never heard of this area and it was great location for me as I commute from the opposite direction into the city, so by being given this section it gave me the opportunity to explore.  Then we went on to choose our words which were ‘Mono’ and ‘Truth’.

With our task given to us, our chosen words and location we began our project. Firstly, we started by looking on Google maps and street view to give us an idea of what the area looked like and familiarise ourselves with directions. Then we started to look into the words and write down definitions and ideas linking to them. Ideas such a taking ‘Mono’ as monochrome to create a black and white theme to the project, then by truth linking in by the white, showing the good and the black showing the bad of our location. We all really liked this idea but when we got to our location our ideas changed and grew even more.

Our area of Moseley that was chosen was on the edge of the main town so we couldn’t use any research or photographs in our work from our first initial idea, our actual area was mainly residential with two primary schools. So we developed our idea and audience to children of a primary school age of 5-11 year olds. This became the base of our project as we had direction in which it was going. We then changed our idea of using mono and truth in order to link with the children. When visiting another time with Callum and Victoria, we picked upon the bright colours of the autumnal leaves all over the roads and paths due to the time of year. This inspired us to use rich autumnal colours to link to the mono, so we had our audience and direction of the project figured out. We then decided to link truth into the project, by creating the poster of a health and safety campaign to teach the children about the dangers and hazards in autumn time.

My part of the project was to create the type on the poster, but I also helped in the design layout of the poster. I got my inspiration from location visits, as I got the feel that Moseley is a traditional, old English town that has beautiful architecture, but is slowly updating itself by looking at the modern street signs around. I knew for my design I had to do something simple but also have an old twist to reflect Moseley. I took inspiration from the original road signs and based my further research on that style. I looked at typographers such as Laurie Stoddart who is actually an ex-student of BCU and Milton Glazer at the start of my research off. We decided to place Victoria’s photographs inside my type so I knew I had to design the text in a bold manner. Once I had most of my research, I began sketching the fonts in my sketchbook so I could break down how each letter was created. Once I had recreated the type in my sketchbook I began to digitalise my favourite fonts. The software I used for this was Adobe Illustrator as I was able to bring in my previous skills of the programme involving creating vector lines into the project, and also new techniques which I have picked up from doing the Adobe Accreditation scheme. By combining my new and old skills it meant I was able to use the software more efficiently and edit vector lines that I didn’t think I was able to do previously.

Having my type digitalised, I asked my group which two fonts were the best and we all came to an agreement and the font that was chosen was inspired by a designer called Patricia, who produces type similar to the work that I wanted for the project. After choosing these fonts I played around with their composition and layout, to experiment with the design a little more to see if I preferred a different effect on the font. After comparing the various experimentations, I decided to stick to the original design due to the fact that the letters look more in proportion with one another.

I really enjoyed being able to focus on just the typography in the project, as I have never really been able to explore the type in my work to the detail I hoped. However, I did feel a little limited to the style of type because of the audience and having to fit photographs inside my text. I had to make the type fairly clear and simple so it’s easy to read because of the age range of the children that is chosen, as they are developing their reading and writing skills. I did find it hard to find fonts research that incorporated all the requirements I needed to cover, but I’m glad it wasn’t easy and I am very happy with work I produced.

If I was to do this project again, I would maybe take on the layout element of the poster or banner and explore the composition side. This is because I could bring my knowledge of poster designers such a Joseph Müller Brockman that I have researched before to influence the layout. Also I would change it so the photographs weren’t situated in the type but were combines with the illustrations in some way.

[zoegregorybrough-blog]

People and Places Evaluation

After being given the project brief to ‘People and Places’ along with the words Prejudice and Stagnation, development process of our collaborative group soon began. Shortly into this project it soon became apparent that as a whole our collaborative unit were not really working well together as from two members of our group there was virtually no input or development ideas being produced therefore it was decided that the collaborative aspect of this project from now on would consist of myself and Christopher Harris.

Throughout the initial first week of the project various factors towards the projects progression were decided such as the location, and the two supporting words. From these factors I was able to generate ideas for potential outcomes. Supported by location visits and ideas of how to incorporate the working style of Chris, we decided as a whole to create a Zine. I created a variety of thumbnail sketches alongside mind maps in order to fully document the ideas of which I had generated, these enabling me to begin exploring with experimental development work.

Initially I went to visit the location of which primarily is made up of Corporation Street, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Aston Student Village. Whilst at the location i took photographs of the places I felt caught my attention the most, these mainly being the Victorian Architecture of the Central Methodist Hall along with the Magistrates Court on Corporation Street as well as the minimal and modern approach to the Teenage Cancer Ward of the Children’s Hospital. From these photographs I began to experiment with my initial drawing process initially creating a series of quick continuous line drawings. From these drawings I began to experiment with the use of colour as well as forcing myself out of my comfort zone by attempting to create a more fluid selection of imagery inspired by the work of George Butler and Lucinda Rodgers, however I feel that despite my best efforts and endless experimentation I felt that nothing I had produced was aesthetically pleasing to myself. Therefore I decided to look at potentially applying colour first and then layering linear elements over the top much like the work of Sunga Parks and for me this worked a lot better, this process allowed me to incorporate the fluid style I desired whist also being visually appealing.

After creating these images myself and Chris began to plan out the content of our zine using my chosen style it was discussed that together my work and Chris’ graphics would contrast well against each other as well as working together. We both created a series of thumbnail sketches planning out our pages and the way of which they would support each other.

Within our creative team Chris and I used our chosen words as the starting point for our development looking at the buildings of which had being there the longest as well as the people of which are interacting with the area, we felt that the best way to incorporate these factors as well as our contrasting working styles would be a zine. The next factor of which we decided on was the target audience for the zine, we felt that for the area the most suitable audience would be both male and females of 18-35 as they are the majority of people of whom interact with pour area, I also feel that this target audience will fully understand and interact with the zine in the way that myself and Chris desired.

When initially starting this project I became intrigued with the reportage illustrative style by the likes of George Butler and Lucinda Rodgers, therefore my initial development work shows this as there are various different pieces of which I created using this style however I wished to develop my style further by adding colour and more fluid elements after being inspired greatly by the work of Sunga Parks and this is where my working process fully began. I created numerous watercolour and ink pieces of which I then worked back into using dip pen and ink allowing me to add more detail and character to my illustrations much like the work of Parks ad Rodgers. There has being very little editing done to my illustrations digitally as I personally didn’t want them to look to polished or pristine as I feel that if they were to be perfect they would not contrast as well with Chris’s clean graphics.

After completing all of my illustrations I scanned them in so that Chris could develop the layout of our Zine looking at page orders in particular and the best ways of which his work would begin to interact with mine. When completed we printed my illustrations on to cartridge paper and Chris’s graphical elements onto tracing paper so that when in the form of a zine both interact visually with each other. I hand illustrated the front and back cover using fine liner and white ink in order to once again create a contrast between the cover and the rest of the zine, this was then all hand stitched together giving it an individual aesthetic of which we both felt it deserved. We decided to hand stitch the zine due to wanting to use the different papers to print upon as well as the number of pages of which we wanted to include a traditional folded zine would not of being functional.

Overall I feel that I stuck to my initial planning sketches well, allowing me to have a rigid idea of which to work from, I also think that as a whole myself and Chris worked really well together in order to get the project done on time, as we both knew what we were expecting of each other and I think that both of us delivered. I feel that the most unsuccessful element of this project was the initial issue with collaboration between the rest of the initial group however I feel that myself and Chris worked really well together in order to complete a finished zine within the time frame of which we were presented with. The only modifications to this project of which I would make in future would be to add more pages of our chosen area in order to explore it further and make more of a comment about the people of whom interact with it.

[victoriagracedrury-blog]

Personal Module Evaluation

For this project- ‘People and Places’ we began by discussing our words we picked out of a hat; Mono and Truth, secondly we were given the area of Moseley in Birmingham.. We arranged when we was going to visit our area ‘Moseley’ and how we was going to get there as it wasn't walking distance. Myself and my group got more of feel for the area of Moseley every time we visited. I created a mind map of the things that related to Moseley which was a good as it helped me remember aspects of Moseley and generate ideas for the photographs I intended to take.. I would take test shots and Callum would draw illustrations of the area. As a group we had discussed many different ideas in the class. We all agreed that a Health and Safety campaign poster for school children between the age of 4-11 would be the best,idea.Our rationale was that the area Moseley has two schools and is a very communal area. During one our trips back to Moseley to gather market research myself and my group visited the local Catholic school and asked the receptionist  questions regarding our Health and Safety campaign poster. One question we asked was ‘Do you as a school celebrate Halloween? As we understand you are a Catholic school’ We decided it was best to ask this question as we was getting different answers whilst researching online whether Catholics celebrate Halloween so we asked to make sure. The answer was; Catholic schools don't celebrate Halloween, which meant as a group we was going to make a health and safety campaign poster about the dangers that come with the month of Autumn instead of our original idea of a Health and Safety campaign about Halloween. Another question we asked was ‘Is there anything specific you would like us to add onto our Health and Safety campaign?’ The school receptionist told us they get a lot of trouble with the cars around the school and not that long ago a young child got knocked down by a car and broke their leg. So as a group we decided this would take priority, we had to make a statement somewhere on our poster that stuck out to young children and reinforced the dangers of cars and staying safe when crossing roads.

Once we gathered all our research we all allocated ourselves jobs for example I was the photographer so I had to take the photographs to go in the title Moseley. Callum was the illustrator so he provided the drawing that linked with the Health and Safety issue, Kate was in-charge of the typography. Georgie was in-charge of the layout and putting the poster all together and Stanley didn’t come into university enough days to contribute to the poster.

Through the process of making the Health and Safety campaign poster I undertook research that includes; Researching into the Google definitions of the words we was given (Mono and Truth). I also looked into background research about Moseley village. I discussed and created different ideas with my group. I visited Moseley many times to get a feel for the area. I went to Moseley to take test shots of the buildings. I also took test shots in Moseley that linked with Autumn. I created a mood board of photographs that I liked which had been shot in Autumn time. I wrote a lot about my photography induction which helped me remind myself of the shutter speeds, apertures etc before shooting my final shots. As a group we looked into how my photographs would fit into the typography of Moseley.I discussed how the font would have to be thicker and my photographs would have to be shot close up and  detailed so you can see clearly what each photograph is in the lettering. I kept a spider diagram of different landscape photographers work I looked at each photographers work in depth, these photographers included; Charlie Waite, Ansel Adams and Elliot Porter. Of all the photographers I looked more in-depth into I would say my final images are in the style of Elliot Porter's work as his work is extremely detailed. I decided that this is the style I wanted to do it would stand out and be dramatic in the typography. The graphic designer in my group Georgie made a mock up of the poster and we decided all together what we liked and didn’t like also what needed improving for our final piece.

Over all for this assessment I enjoyed working with Graphic Designers and illustrators.  This association allowed me  to learn new things about graphic design and illustration for example I learnt all about typography from Kate, I found illustration interesting and how you can tell a story through drawings like we did on our poster. Each one of us brought  our specialist skills together to create a poster which was great. We all worked well as a team of different visual communicators. I would definitely collaborate with Graphic Designers, Illustrators and other Visual Communicators again in the future. Something I found challenging during this assessment was taking Landscape photographs as I am so used to photographing people, Landscape photography isn’t one of my strengths. The brief with the area and words we were given didn’t give me much choice to experiment with what I like to photograph. As the group we were focused on doing a Health and Safety poster and the only place to put my photographs was inside the lettering of Moseley as the illustration was around the title. Secondly I struggled with photographing the area of Moseley as there wasn't a lot going on compared to places like Digbeth or the Bullring. Nevertheless I understand as a photographer I am never going to have the perfect brief to work to and I will have to photographs subjects I don't necessarily find interesting or feel like I am good at.  I enjoyed working as a group however it was hard at times when one member of the group constantly never turned up.

To summarise I have enjoyed my first assessment at University and feel like I have learnt a lot about different subjects, areas and I can now use this information l have learnt in the future.

[sabbakassim]

Personal Module Evaluation

People and places.

Firstly we were set the task of randomly choosing a location which then our project would be based on, so for this to happen we had to visit our location and obtain a good idea of what this area was like by the people and the artefacts around. In my group we visited the area individually and all obtained images before coming back together and producing our work in front of each other and what we found out, this way would have a better idea of what everyone saw and found out independently rather than going as a group and influencing views on each other. We decided that the final outcome would be for students as our location was based around the universities and colleges and creating a zine that would connect well with students.  We then started off by researching example zines, a good artists we found for this was Sarah Silverwood who created a people and places zine and newspaper design. This way by creating a zine we could all be assigned a double page spread and show off our work and skills individually. Another idea we had which we was then going to follow was creating a timeline of our location and looking into the history. Firstly we decided to go to Birmingham library, unfortunately none of this happened due to the lack of communication in the group and team members not attending to group meetings, this then caused for the group to fall apart and everyone going off doing their own work.

I then focused on doing the project alone and as I have previously made an animation I thought about doing that again for this project and experiment more. I was inspired to do this after doing the graphics workshop and using Photoshop animation and also film and animation workshop. I did some research into artists who made animations similar to mine so that I could expand my knowledge on creating this. I looked into Lotte Reiniger as well as Kara Walker who created puppetry and silhouette figures in a style of a creepy fantasy look. As I ran out of time because of all the planning with the group and ideas not being developed, I didn’t have much time to create my animation and was left with 4 days to plan the animation, create the animation and also sort out my blog I also didn’t have the resources that I needed ready, because of this I chose to make my characters and make the stop motion animation on a white background so that these would be easier to cut out digitally and I could then superimpose them onto the backgrounds, which would be made up of my own work that was originally going to be used in the zine and my photographs which I had first taken.

After I had my characters cut out and took my pictures of the movements for my animation, It was a struggle obtaining these images as it was a dull day outside and I needed a steady lighting so that the images didn’t show a huge difference between each one, because this was an issue I had to play around with my camera settings and use the skills that I learnt from the photography workshop. I then transferred these onto Photoshop and made my animation that way. However during this I came through a lot of struggles as an error occurred about the scratch disks and the animation becoming a large file. To avoid this I had to separately place each image onto the backgrounds and save these as JPEG’s which I wanted to avoid but this was the only option left. I then transferred these images into adobe premiere and created my movie that way. I chose to use Adobe Premiere because I have experimented with this before and wanted to learn more and teach myself more on this software. This turned out to be a success and simpler than I thought, however I did come into trouble trying to find the right quality and video style to save my animation in as I wanted this to be clear but not too large of a file.

In this whole processes I came across a lot of downfalls and struggles to make this happen, so considering I am pleased with my outcome. I found this to be successful in the resources I had to use at home and without having any help and support through this. Nevertheless, now that I have my final outcome I do believe that I can improve this a lot more from the knowledge and experience that I gained throughout these past few weeks. I am disappointed in the time management because of all the stumbles we came across in the beginning as a group and the lack of communication that was shared, I feel that if as a team we pulled together I could’ve still made my animation but with a lot more time and with better resources from the university making this a better outcome overall. Yet for the time that I had I am pleased with what I produced bearing in mind that it was all done in a day with cutting out the characters, taking pictures and editing each individual image before putting them together in Adobe Premiere as well as teaching myself how to use Premiere. I also think I could’ve improved the sound by going back to my location and recording sounds from there rather than using the music that I did with the sounds that I had. After this experience I would like to try and work collaboratively again and hope to work more on my time management.

[dianapamakste-blog]

# Module Evaluation Report

Thinking...

First of all, our project was about communication between us, between our audience and people in general.  As we all know, visual communication includes listening, speaking, writing, sketching and the ability to mix different media in which people from our groups specialize. Personally, I think the problem to solve could be described as the ability to cope with these tasks gradually, the ability to see and hear something that people usually do not pay attention to, and the ability to choose and sift necessary and unnecessary information. For example, the lectures the most important point was the ability to highlight what is interesting to me and not just a retelling of what we have already told by lecturer. Our project "People and Places" is mainly about us, that is the main thing in this project was not only to provide the final outcome but also the development of our project (design circle). Despite the fact that we had a place on the map and a few words to the group, each of us interpreted the task in its own way, as we have a different approach to the tasks and the different temps of doing. Personally, I had a visual research as starting, so first of all I needed to visit a place. I think research is more relevant to me to solve a problem, especially visual research which allows me to look from different angles with my camera or just with my eyes. Even when I am planning my actions, my plan looks roughly but after a visit to place I appear first ideas, form a common vision of the theme and its interpretation.

Initially, I did not know for whom will be my art work created, but after the first visit, I realized that everything can be very specific and direct or backwards, very abstract, it all depends on how I present it. I chose an abstract way, there can be any audience, open to all (to different ages and occupations), and the understanding and attitude to my photos and videos can be very different. For example, the child will see the colourful picture of autumn, and an adult noticed that on the picture is a big city but there no people and it seems sad. I believe that even the printed words in letterpress workshop will be read in different ways.

Finally, I came up with two main ideas of outcomes: a series of melancholic photos with text and a short video of our place with double exposure, which I would describe as a touch of autumn, feeling cold and lonely. Initially, I had the idea to make a series of photos with double exposure of our place and people who would be around. However, despite the fact that sometimes there were crowds of people, I had a loneliness feeling and melancholic atmosphere was always around. However, before the place seemed empty and boring but I'm glad that we got exactly this place and this time of year-autumn. By coming and researching new streets and areas I came more sure about what I am doing and why. So for me was vital to come to this place again and again to develop ideas and build up my plan of doing. At first, I expected to see crowds and big companies on the streets because of "Barclaycard arena" but in the daytime it looks absolutely opposite, different and calm. I believe that my final photos and video are the best I have done in this project, because they convey my vision of the place and the words «surprisingly melancholic".

Doing…

When I'm working in a group, for me to adjust to other people's ideas is challenge, because I have to alter their works to create something common. To select something concrete for the project, I experimented but always keep in mind the theme of "People and Places" and our two words. Some of the ideas went beyond, for example, I shot a few videos through the window of my train, when I went to Hereford to see parents. But this confuses me. I often wanted to go out of our place, but I restrain. So I tried to use a different media, print photos on matte paper, then press letters on it and scan results. It looked differently so I always compared the similar things but with different media. For this project, I signed up for a print workshop where I learned linocut process and letters. Both processes were interesting to me, but I stopped on the letters to use it for my project. On Wednesdays I visited the introductions to Illustrator and InDesign to learn the basics of these programs. I also learned how to layout videos in the Photoshop and edit it in the Movie maker, sometimes my ideas did not work, but I tried again and looked for a new ways to solve it. To choose the preferred solution for my final outcome, I used Photoshop a lot, for both of my outcomes, because I think that the Photoshop do not have limits for your imagination, so it is always about learning and trying. 

Making…

In my first visit to place I just took about 30 photos, but it was my starting point. With new visits I have got more clear ideas about that exactly I am going to produce, as a result of my last visit I took some atmospheric photos and shoot a few videos of the place. I was a bit confused about project, although for me photography-as a base of my project was obvious fact, so it was not a problem to choose which media to use. If you expand the reasons for choosing the answer, personally for me Photography is the best tool to transfer my vision. I cannot give my eyes to other people but I can take photos that tell about the place and the people. 

In the whole process…

I believe that the most successful about our project was exploration and inspiration; through it I had new thoughts in my mind, brain storming and outcomes.  I quite happy with time management, I believe it was successful and not more time required for this project, despite the fact that I have to finish one week earlier. In general, as collaborative our project was successful as well, each of group members worked hard and every week we had a talk about our progress so far. I am happy with my team, they are unique artists with own vision and own understanding of everything. The ability to see and produce differently was vital and we strongly managed with it.

However, I had some unsuccessful experience as well. During a few weeks I hardly tried to be literal and literally show our words “flabbergasted” and “melancholy”; and if with melancholy it was easy to come with some ideas, then with flabbergasted it was almost impossible, so I wasted a lot of time doing literal description. But finally, I changed my mind to abstract form of words. One more unsuccessful point was team work and literal understanding of task again hindered our work.

In conclusion, I would say that I need be more confident and not be afraid of making mistakes. In future projects I would pay less attention to literal meaning of words or anything that is about creative because it is art, so in everything is own context and for everybody it can be something different. Also I would like to take more risks, but the time frames restrains.