Independent Practice Proposals – All students
FOR THOSE THAT HAVE NOT POSTED – THIS NEEDS TO BE DONE BY 4PM TODAY (FRIDAY 12TH NOV)
There are sign ups today sheet outside 201.
Remember this is a draft.
Write (500 words max) that scopes an area of work that you are interested
in/or have been exploring.
Think about the following…
CONTENT: What is the subject matter/themes/area/questions that you are interested in?
METHODS/PRACTICES: What are the methods that you are using that interest you?
How are other people working? – How are other peoples methods and practices
informing your own work?
CONTEXT: How is your/could your work be externalised? i.e. What are the different
range of contexts in which your work can be positioned?
Mapping the TERRAIN: Who is else has done or is doing what you are interested in?
Engage with it historically/contemporary. Who are the key players in your field?
What is being said/written about it?
Independent Practice
Content
For my independent practice I am looking at typography/marking making and photography, these are two things which I thoroughly enjoy and would like to incorporate them in an interesting way.
Methods and practise
I am current trying to be experimental with marks and shapes; I really enjoy creating different line/strokes and weights. I also want to incorporate portraiture into it and from the marks created find letterforms with them, which will develop into a typeface.
Context
Other than externalizing my work through my blog could see my work being public in a more hands on way. Having a book or magazine
Terrain
I will be looking into various typographer and graphics designers such as Rachel Yallop and also fine artist from like to play with marks and texture.
I will be looking at shape, structure and form. I like to represent work in an abstract way using perspective. Groups like Delta have inspired me a huge amount with their 3d canvases of shapes.
There are many different methods I will be persuing including analogue and digital work. People like Daniel Eatock too has influenced my independent practice this year and along side my abstract shape art i will also look at interesting photography in which the caption i will be using will change the idea of the image being shown.
Currently in my independent practice I have been making stop movies and learning the basics of flash to make short films that currently have no message or meaning. I am also gathering a few photography skills in the making as I am having to take hundreds of frame by frame shots.
Although I am still unsure of what area of graphic design I am most interested in, I am enjoying where my independent practice is taking me. I have been playing around with different methods of animation and examining some mainstream illustrators such as PES and Airside. Looking at the way their short films are both so different but attractive, and the different methods of animation available to me.
I have been doing a lot of investigating and mock up ideas but would like to take this a lot further, to create a more professional look on my work and to really learn the ins and outs of flash, and, if the courage hits me, to maybe tackle 3D studio programs.
Inside of this I would like to study about what it is in Internet virals and animated television adverts that really sell to consumers. What short clips get messages across better than others and why. Following this perhaps move on from my meaningless stop movies and I could attempt to create the ultimate viral?!
Ricky Byfield – Independent Practice
I am interested in furthering my knowledge in image manipulation/photography and look at how it is used in media. i did some manipulation at the end of last year and really enjoyed it. i would like to look at how images have ben manipulated in todays society and produce my own set of images.
my focus is going to be magazines/advertising companies that use image manipulation to sell products, for example, how many front cover magazines use manipulation to sell their magazines. Last year i started my investigation into image manipulation in the media and really enjoyed some of the things i learnt.
i look to further my independent practice by taking my own set of images and manipulating them too look so much better than they are using programs such as Photoshop. i will keep a blog on my progress and keep a log of how and what i have done to the images.
i will be looking at top UK selling magazines and newspapers to see how they use manipulation and how they use it to their advantage, i will look to follow in these footsteps in my independent practice.
My interest in developing a personal mark making style has continued from my previous year. Whilst maintaining an interest in the wider aspects of graphics such as typography, exhibits, and key practitioners that impact on the fields I am investigating. I am interested in connections between image and language, representational forms and satirical responses. I have developed in my practice an authentic illustrative style that I use to communicate or represent the subject. I find this journey rewarding as I feel my personality is in the work I am producing. In challenging this approach I have begun to combine greater use of medium and graphic styles. In questioning my place as graphic designer I am becoming aware of the constantly changing role of graphics in society through the development of technology and mass media consequently a greater need for clear communication in a confused world. The emergence of a creative playful style that are seen on advertising billboards or TV commercials that does not conform to rules and express a difference in their identity.
In reflecting on my methods of work and others I maintain the use of the blog where I can keep a dialogue of my progress and respond to the work of my peers. In applying a method to the production of my work such as photography I find it helps to have a mechanism or idea of whom I want to influence or target. I am interested in the way you can take influence from the past and reinvent a new idea. In visiting the magnificent maps exhibition at the British library I came across two maps that altered the subject creating a new interpretation. Stephen Walker The Island 2008 gave a satirical response to London, exaggerating areas from the mundane to interesting using just symbolism and type. I felt this map became more relevant to everyday life as some areas are more significant than others. In comparison great medieval maps influence Grayson Perry Map Of Nowhere. The artist is portrayed as Christ who is not religious, which creates a conflict and miscommunication.
In view of the present landscape I feel to position my work would be premature. As I don’t have a clear idea of my speciality. I would like to pursue my continuation of developing a unique graphic style that illustrates my ideas. When given a brief I find I don’t always conform. I try to Invent, challenge and contradict the brief to create more responses that are new. Many practitioners I admire do not follow the conventional route but I also see with a prescribed brief the need to adapt to a set of rules. Practitioners that are involved in playful advertising, illustration, type etc. in my field are Dominic McGill, Edward Gorey, Stefan sagmeister, Jonathan Barnbrook . In reading an issue of Baseline magazine I discovered how at present type in advertising is using representation form to convey meaning i.e. type made of seatbelts. This reflected in my practice as I researched representational forms such as barbed wire, bones, and dead braches to convey meaning with a social context.
Independent Practice:
My interest in developing a personal mark making style has continued from my previous year. Whilst maintaining an interest in the wider aspects of graphics such as typography, exhibits, and key practitioners that impact on the fields I am investigating. I am interested in connections between image and language, representational forms and satirical responses. I have developed in my practice an authentic illustrative style that I use to communicate or represent the subject. I find this journey rewarding as I feel my personality is in the work I am producing. In challenging this approach I have begun to combine greater use of medium and graphic styles. In questioning my place as graphic designer I am becoming aware of the constantly changing role of graphics in society through the development of technology and mass media consequently a greater need for clear communication in a confused world. The emergence of a creative playful style that are seen on advertising billboards or TV commercials that does not conform to rules and express a difference in their identity.
In reflecting on my methods of work and others I maintain the use of the blog where I can keep a dialogue of my progress and respond to the work of my peers. In applying a method to the production of my work such as photography I find it helps to have a mechanism or idea of whom I want to influence or target. I am interested in the way you can take influence from the past and reinvent a new idea. In visiting the magnificent maps exhibition at the British library I came across two maps that altered the subject creating a new interpretation. Stephen Walker The Island 2008 gave a satirical response to London, exaggerating areas from the mundane to interesting using just symbolism and type. I felt this map became more relevant to everyday life as some areas are more significant than others. In comparison great medieval maps influence Grayson Perry Map Of Nowhere. The artist is portrayed as Christ who is not religious, which creates a conflict and miscommunication.
In view of the present landscape I feel to position my work would be premature. As I don’t have a clear idea of my speciality. I would like to pursue my continuation of developing a unique graphic style that illustrates my ideas. When given a brief I find I don’t always conform. I try to Invent, challenge and contradict the brief to create more responses that are new. Many practitioners I admire do not follow the conventional route but I also see with a prescribed brief the need to adapt to a set of rules. Practitioners that are involved in playful advertising, illustration, type etc. in my field are Dominic McGill, Edward Gorey, Stefan sagmeister, Jonathan Barnbrook . In reading an issue of Baseline magazine I discovered how at present type in advertising is using representation form to convey meaning i.e. type made of seatbelts. This reflected in my practice as I researched representational forms such as barbed wire, bones, and dead braches to convey meaning with a social context.
Independent Practice
My project is going to be about the hyper-real and the psychology behind it.
Why is it we spend our lives working to create this illusion of a universe using films, video games and TV shows?
Is real life really that boring that we need to be immersed in a completely new world?
My focus is going to be on fear as most of the media is based on fear.
A fear of invasion, of world-wide destruction, of getting too fat, of being alone, of not fitting in.
I’m particularly interested in video games and how people escape into them despite everything being completely hyper-real.
In a created world, you still hear first person talk. People treat this man-made computer sprite as if it is part of them.
I wish to re-create the same illusions of hyper-real in my work,
and make people see that nothing they are experiencing actually exists.
I want to provoke the same emotions using my work that will actually cause people to disregard the truth. I want to make something fake become “real”.
I want to use moving image to re-create this, and change how people perceive the information I am giving them. It would be interesting to create an environment in which people can become completely submerged in this piece. I would like to test my work on a large amount of people, be it personally face to face or via media such as you-tube. I’d like for people to really feel my work is not really my work but something of fact and in order to do this, I need to ensure my work is shown to the people.
I’ll be looking at the works of Frictional Games, who created the brilliant games “Penumbra”
and “Amnesia: The dark decent” as well as EA Redwood Shores Dead Space, Monolith Productions F.E.A.R. and Capcom’s early Resident evil games.
They all use paranoia and hyper-realism to evoke fear using completely human-created representations of life.
I’m also looking at Chris Morris’ Brass eye TV show, which excellently conveys fake events as actually happening. Another interesting piece includes War of the Worlds.
Kat Sullivan – Independent Practice
For my independent practice I wish to draw upon the areas in which I’m interested in developing especially screen printing, writing and illustration. I was particularly interested in the ‘Message and Meaning’ unit of the first year, which has furthered my interest in the connection between image and type and how each assists communication to differing affects. One of my favourite designers Rob Dobi rarely uses text in his work as his illustrations are so strong and simplistic yet portray a strong narrative and message from which you can instantly relate to. I have a passion for writing and have for the past year been writing my own poetry, which I have begun to collate and illustrate, to form into hand made books.
My independent practice has largely been shaped by months of intense writing and the need to write and produce work in order to make sense of myself and the world around me, not just because I have been told to create work. I have used imagery and writing to carve my own journey and I feel these experiences have ultimately helped me appreciate the need for design and communication within society as a whole.
The book binding workshops of the first and second years have inspired me to start creating my own books and zines. I have been to several zine fairs and have begun trading with people from around the country. I hope to continue to design and share these, particularly through selling my own work and gaining feedback through my website.
I sometime feel that my work is too internal and is only seen by myself and other designers. As well as externalizing my work onto my blog, website and the odd show I wish to look further into guerilla art and positioning my work in the public more – looking closely at how and why my work is contextualized. I am inspired by many of the politically charged artists and revolutionaries such as the Guerrilla Girls as well as more illustrative designers such as Buff Monster.
Content //
For my independent practice I am looking at photography, as this is an area of work I am very interested in. I will be looking at Music and Portraiture photography due to this being something I have been exploring for the past year, it is also something I have wanted to be involved with for a long time.
Methods & Practice’s //
I currently photograph and write for an online publication, and also most recently one of the UK’s most popular music magazines. I plan to continue with my usual method of just going to as many concerts as I can to review and photograph. I also want to play around with portraiture looking at emotion.
Context //
I am currently in an ongoing process of my work getting seen online, with my website and flickr account getting a lot of attention. My work is also seen online for the sites I contribute too, and I’ve also entered into competitions as an attempt to get out there more. I currently like the idea of producing a hardback book of my music photography, looking at the stages of progression in a short space of time but also technical details. I also like the idea of producing a music magazine with my photography, and maybe look at including my written reviews.
Terrain //
I will be looking at contemporary music photographers who are big names in the industry, some of whom I have followed for quite a few years, others who are pretty new to me but who I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting.