Exam Evaluation Questions

IDEAS & CONCEPTS: 
How have your ideas changed over the course of the project? Explain your initial ideas and original intentions explaining how they have developed over time, making sure that you LINK THIS BACK TO THE EXAM THEME AND EXPLAIN HOW YOUR IDEAS REFLECT THE THEME OF INSIDE, OUTSIDE, IN-BETWEEN?

The exam brief was pretty simple 'Inside, Outside and Inbetween', from the three initial briefs we were given I chose book jacket brief. The main object to this brief was to create a series of book jacket covers for a series of books. My books were Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales. To begin with my first initial idea my ideas haven't really changed since the beginning only progressing and developing them forward to the final product. From the very start I always wanted to try and recreate a silhouette or double exposure image of a main part of the books I was going to make the book jacket for, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. Over time I have developed the understanding of how to refine a technique. I feel that the technique that I have used relates to the theme perfectly in the way that you're looking inside an object that has something that shouldn't be there. Also the design is very eye-catching that it makes you want to look inside to see what the story is about. 

PHOTOGRAPHER INSPIRATION: 

Discuss how your ideas have been influenced by key photographers or artists you have looked at. Did the exhibition trip inspire your ideas at all? Did you find any photographers that took your work on a totally different path? WHICH PHOTOGRAPHER INSPIRED YOUR FINAL PIECE THE MOST?

Throughout this project I have found that Rowan Stocks-Moore have been the biggest inspiration towards me in the way that his designs are so unique and eye-catching, I felt that he was a massive part to play on what technique to develop further into the actual exam. I found the exhibition trip really good, and help me create some experiments of how to make a collage, but I felt that what I wanted to create being inspired by Stocks-Moore didn't really fit within the collage theme. However, another designer that I looked into with in the last stages of the exam preparation was John Gall. He created a book cover for a well known book 'Sweet Bird of Youth', using an outline of a bird to display a young girl in the centre of it. This was my decision to use people as the characters of the stories, instead of to different objects in the book. Stocks-Moore and Gall were my main influences.

EXPERIMENTATION & DEVELOPMENT: 

How did the different experiments that you did throughout the project influence your ideas and final piece? 

I experimented with a lot of experiments without this project included mixed media designs, simple illustrations, collages and clipping masks/double exposure. I feel that they experiment with the different techniques worked well with the books but I believed that the clipping mask and the double exposure experiment combined together made the books seem different and unusual to look at, which made it more eye-catching.The development that I took during this process has been really good, making a lot of changes that I believe have worked really well. 

CONCLUSION: 

Comment on your overall thoughts about the project. Did you find the exam theme easy / difficult? Did you enjoy working on your prep work? Do you think you will be pleased with your final outcome when it is complete?

Overall I believe that the exam theme was really workable, in the sense that you could basically link any series of books, or illustrations or text to the theme and it would work well. I enjoyed some of the prep work that I did for the them because it meant that I could experiment with lots of different materials, techniques either digital or handmade. I think that I will be please with my final outcome because of the amount of preparation that I have put into taking the photographs, creating the text to finally get a end product that I feel really works with the exam theme of 'Inside, Outside and Inbetween'. 

Final Outcome

Here are my final designs for the Book Jacket brief of Inside, Outside & Inbetween.

Hopefully these chosen books and the technique I have used work well together to describe what the fairy tale is about in the book. Also the colours, the objects and photographs have really compensated well with the books, and will hopefully catch people's attention to look and read the books.

CINDERELLA

RAPUNZEL

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

SLEEPING BEAUTY

SNOW WHITE & THE SEVEN DWARFS

Process

Double Exposure/Clipping Mask

To start the final outcome for the exam theme, I firstly collected some photographs that I previously took, that related to my chosen books. As you can see all of the images are connected to each individual story in their own way. I took all of these photographs using a digital SLR camera, which is of high quality.    

Once I had the images that I wanted, I printed out all of the pictures that I need and I started to trace them. Once I had traced the images with a black pen I scanned them into Adobe Illustrator to them make them more adaptable to work with in Photoshop. The reason why I traced the images was because I wanted to create an outline of a particular object that suited the story. For example the bed represents Sleeping Beauty.            

Here are the photographs that I used to create the character in story.

I chose to be the characher in all of the stories becasue I felt that it would be more effective and more personal if I were in the photographs myself. As you can see, each photo has the name of the character I was trying to portray, and even has some of the main objects in the image as well.   

Here you can see the final double exposure outcome with the correct object linking towards them. I have also added a colour background to make the picture stand out more. 

Silhouette

As an additional image to the book jacket, I wanted to put in another object but turn it into a silhouette so it was just a black image.  The images above are the originals that I took myself again with a digital SLR camera. 

How I created these images was by selecting the pen tool on photoshop and drawing around the existing pictures to create a black image. I feel this would sit really nicely at the back of the book with the summary of the tale. 
  

Text

Here is my own typeface that I created on the iPad using the app iFontmaker. I felt that using my own handmade digital text would really work well with the stories, because the writing almost looks childlike and the books are aimed for children.

Evaluation of Prep Work

Interpreting the theme
The exam theme was called 'Inside, Outside and Inbetween'. I interpreted by looking at three different briefs that I could possible chose from. Typography, Illustration or Book Jacket. Typography was about using the 3 topic words and their synonyms. Illustrations brief was looking drawing scenes from either Alice through the Looking-Glass or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Finally the book-jackets was to create a cover for a selection of books by the same author. After looking through the three briefs I finally chose the Book Jacket brief.  

My final piece will relate to the theme by showing on the book cover what is inside the book, and basically gives you a little inkling to what the story is about. The books I have chosen to design the cover for is Brother's Grimm fairy tales; Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty. 

Recording observations
The methods that that I used to record my observations using both primary and secondary sources has been on my blog for mostly my digital experiments and my sketch-book for my practical and hand made work.

Idea development
I had 3 ideas that I could possible use for my final outcome. Double exposure, Mixed media and illustrations. The double exposure would mean having to parts of the story combined together. Secondly the mixed media was to have an image of someone having one side being a photo and the other a drawing. And the illustration of an object on its own, making very minimalist.

After a lot of trail and error I finally decided to pursue with developing the double exposure more because I feel it would benefit the chosen books. I feel that looking at different examples of Rowan Stocks-Moore's work I found that his work was really inspiring and I feel that I can relate to his work the most. 



Here to the left is my interpretation of Rowan Stocks-Moore's work. How I created this image by making an outline of a photograph of shoes and made that into the top layer of the design to show an outline of what will be shown underneath. I also added a photo from the internet (for final outcome I will be using photographs taken by me) of person that kind of resembled on of the main characters in one of my chosen books; Cinderella. After arranging the clipping mask exposure onto the page, I made the background blue to resemble the colour that everyone recognises as that character. 

Materials, Techniques and Processes.
The materials that I have used in my sketchbook have been working with different handmade fonts with mediums such as pens, charcoal etc. Another technique that I have used in my sketchbook, has been observational drawings that I have develop my skills on using lots of objects to draw from. Also I have worked with many digital experiments that have help me with developing skills of how to approach the topic.  

The techniques that used throughout the process of this topic has been mainly improving on my observational drawings, by gradually improving on the skills to make them look more realistic. From looking at the artist, photographs and designers that I have improved on my digital skills hoping to be to design and create my work as good as them. 

I had a few problems with the quality of photographs that I took to start of with helping me draw the objects. And I also had a few problems with working with photoshop to get the possible outcome of experiments. 

Looking at the artists that had inspired me, I felt that I had to be more ambitious with my ideas, however I  wanted to keep the style that I already had in my head, which was minimalistic.

Influences

Rowan Stocks-Moore & John Gall

Rowan Stocks-Moore and John Gall have been really inspirational towards the way I have come to my final decision. Firstly my first inspiration was Stocks-Moore because of how minimalist his way of working was, it is clean and up to scratch with looking like an actual cover for the book. I then looked at John Gall work and this image of the book 'Sweet Bird of Youth', using a silhouette with a photograph into the outline of the bird. I feel that after looking at his work, I have been really inspired by his work as i believe it will work really well with my chosen books.   

The most important image that I really have been inspired by has been the one above of John Gall's work. I feel that his work has really benefited my final ideas for my outcome. With the different techniques that I have experimented with his work has been the most inspiring.  

Final Piece
For my final piece I will be designing five book jackets for Brothers Grimm fairy tales; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. I will be using a digital technique, which is a combination between double exposure and clipping masks. I will also be making my typeface using the iPad instead of using an already made font.     

The narrative to my final work is to combine characters and object together that are the main parts to stories being on the front cover, drawing you into the read the book. 

The technique i will be using will be inspired by John Gall and Rowan Stocks Moore, using clipping mask and double exposure techniques. I hope it works really well with my chosen books. 

Mock up of my final outcome.

After looking at many techniques and designers, I have finally come to the conclusion of my book cover is to have a double exposure / clipping mask effect. I feel this will benefit my chosen books as the stories are detailed enough to get straight to the point, which is what I want my cover to do. Get straight to the point by explaining what is happening in the book. I like this minimalist approach hope that it really works with the Brothers Grimm books.   

SKETCH

Here is a rough sketch of how I hope and plan my final five books will look like. With this particular sketch of the story Cinderella; I want to capture the main objects or characters that are in the story to try and make a clipping mask or a double exposure that involves two parts of the story that is very prominent. With a few annotations added and the things that I will do to the background, and where I will place the photos and the text. I also worked out the measurements that the jacket needs to be to fit all five books, making the calculation width wise more bigger making sure the design fits perfectly. I feel working within a minimalist way, they will work really well with the books as the stories are fairy tales and are aimed at children of a young age.  

DIGITAL

After the sketch that I drew for one of the books. I took it upon myself to design a digital version of how I vision my work to look like. I started off by opening Adobe Photoshop and opening a document that would be a similar size for the jackets to cover the book. After that I made the background blue and uploaded a bar code and the logo of the book company that published the edition of the Grimm Brothers books, Penguin. What I did next was uploaded my experiment of the Double Exposure technique, inspired by Rown Stocks-Moore, to be my prototype design. Placing the image in the correct position that I thought would work well on the font cover of the jacket. Next, I used a typeface that I made on iFontmaker, to use as the title on the cover, spine and for the blurb on the back on the jacket, which tells you a little bit about the book itself. Finally, I felt that the back of the jacket-cover looked a little bit bare, so I made a silhouette of another object that is a really important part of the story. By making the object of the clock black, it adds to the minimalist theme of the design and technique.     

Final Ideas

HERE IS A QUICK INDIVIDUAL PLAN OF WHAT IMAGES TO TAKE AND A SKETCH OF ONE OF THE OBJECTS.

Here is quick mind map of the photos that I might take for some clipping masks. 

Final in-depth analysis

Here is a a book cover design by designer John Gall. This particular design is for a book called 'Sweet Bird of Youth' by Tennessee Williams. The concept of the story is about a Chance Wayne who returns to his home town as the accompaniment of a faded movie star. I believe that the techniques that has been used is clipping masks. Gall has used incorporated photography, to make the clipping mask seem more real.   

I have selected this artists because of how effective the clipping mask technique. I felt that the clipping masks have worked really well with the story of the book, is a really unique concept that really captured my eye when I first saw it. I find this work really inspiring because of how Gall has introduce the shape of a bird into the design. A symbol of a bird represents youth and this fits perfectly with the title. I also like to think you can get two different views when looking at this. For example looking from a distance you can't really see the photograph of the girl that has been embedded in the birds wings, you just see a pattern and a show of the bird. However as you begin to look closer to the design you can see that the creatures pattern on the wings is actually a photograph of a young girl that look sweet and innocent, like as the name of the book suggests.  

This particular design by Gall links very well to one of my initial ideas. I feel that working with a clipping mask technique and pictures, it will create a really simple but an effective look that I think will suit the style I'm thinking of creating for my five Brothers Grimm books. What ideas have you got in response to this work? The ideas that I have got from this particular artist, John Gall, is the how something so simple of a 'silhouette' of a bird and the amount of shape and detail that has gone into making the outline of the bird. Also by having the addition of the photograph introduced into the bird has worked perfectly. And it has really inspired me to be more ambitious with the type of silhouettes that I may use for each of the books. Out of the designers that I have seen John Gall has really inspired me to create a really minimalistic idea that will compensate well with my five books, hopefully I will be able to make and design something as good as Gall's work.
  

Experiments inspired by Initial Designers

Initial Idea 1

Here is my double exposure type experiment inspired by Rowan Stocks-Moore. How I created this image was by using my own photograph of a pair of shoes, tracing the image with a black pen, then scanning it into the computer. After that I then used an image from the internet of 'Cinderella', and used that as the background for the double exposure. Then using the magnetic also tool, I drew around the image of the girl in the shape of the shoes which underneath the tracing of the shoes. I added a blue background to make the exposure seem more dominate on the page. I like this technique a lot because it might seem quite technical to achieve but it is actually really simple to do.  

Initial Idea 2

Above is my next idea, inspired by Lynn Buckley. Her concept of design is combining drawings and photography together. I firstly started off with a photograph of my self that I made slightly bigger to fill an A4 piece of paper. My next step was too trace lightly around half of the face, exploring all of the detail in the picture. After I scanned the traced imaged into the computer, I then used Photoshop to create two layers; the bottom with the original photograph and the top layer with the drawing. I made sure that I placed the drawing directly on top of where the original image was. On the drawing layer I used the paint brush and fill bucket tools to add the right colours to the image. I liked the process of this experiment because it was a step by step guide which was pretty easy to follow. If I had to change anything about this experiment it would be to use different mediums, like paints, pencils, chalk. The reason why this is to get different textures and feels of the image, instead of relying on the digital effect.          

Initial Idea 3

My final experiment that I created in photoshop was inspired by Christian Jackson's minimalist illustrations. Again I used an picture of a pair of shoes that I photographed, and traced around them. I scanned the drawing into Adobe Illustrator, and expanded the image so that the lines would be more neater and cleaner in appearance. For each section of the shoes I added different colours into the area making the image more illustrational like. I added a blue gradient colour into the bows, a grey/silver into the side of the shoes and then a darker grey into the shoes itself. I like this type of experiment because it is really simple and can transform any image you want to create into a great illustrational image.

  

iFontmaker Experiment

Above is my experiments with the iPad and the iFontmaker app. This app is useful to creating your own handmade type. How I achieved this font was by using my finger to create the letters of the alphabet (upper and lower case) on the iPad. I created my font by scratch so that meant not copying a typeface on the app. I really like this technique because you have created it yourself and you don't have to rely on a processed fonts. Also creating your own font can gain you more marks and it can be more personal. 

Initial Designers

Rowan Stocks-Moore 

Double Exposures

Rowan Stocks-Moore is an UK-based graphic designer that has really captured my eye with technique he has achieved by incorporating a double exposure as such into the poster/cover. He has create two scenes within one, as you look at this image you can see a silhouette of  a young boy, swinging on a tree branch. However as you look closer at the image you begin to see that the trees and the boy are apart of the tiger that is beginning to appear within the foreground. This creates the illusion of the double exposure effect. I really like this idea because of how effective it is to see two crucial characters of the story representing the whole story in just one image. Also the colours are quite simple and reflect the story of it being in the wild. I really like Stock-Moores work because of something so simple as creating a background that then becomes the foreground picture is really imaginative and different.     

Lynn Buckley 

Mixed Media

The next artist that I think would work well with my chosen books would be Lynn Buckley, who works with photographs and drawings in one image. American born Buckley works on creating book jackets for different covers working with different styles. I like how she has incorporated the mixture of art and photography into one. I also like the way that the title of the book is dividing the picture and the drawing apart so you can definitely define the two mediums apart. I like the typeface that has been used, because of the style that the font has been display. For example the edges of the letters are almost like they have been painted on, it gives the words a texture look. Another reason why I like this design is the contrast between the black and white photo and the boldness of the pop-up painting. You can see the definition in the painting, with the brush strokes giving the image more texture and more reason for you to be attracted towards it. The photograph is very much in focus with the models eyes and you are more drawn to them as you begin to take the whole image into account.        

Christian Jackson 

Illustrational Minimalist Objects

Christian Jackson is a designer who creates posters for different childhood stories with very minimalistic images. These images are very simple by grab your attention straight away, and you can tell what the story is about by the images. The one above is of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, even though it does not show a girl or three bears, the illustrations show one part of the story that everyone knows. The three bowls of porridge; too hot, too cold and just right, is one of the main parts of the book and by having this as the front cover, even with out the title of the novel on the cover, people would still be able to tell what the story is about. The text that has been used is very simple and bold, so it is readable for everyone to see. I like the use of colours that have been used, because they are suited to the story. Also there are only three colours so you are not really going to get distracted when you look at the cover. All in all I really like Jackson's work because it is very noticeable in the way that it catches your attention for being simple and not over the top, like other book jackets might be, for children's books.

Three Initial Ideas

Digital Collage

Above is my digital collage that I made on Photoshop, with images that I scanned in myself and ones that I found on the internet. This collage was inspired by Ciara Phelan. I have tried to keep my collage within in the theme of my collection of books. As you can see I used vintage drawings and digital photographs. I have also included a black oval shape, as the background. I used lots of layering techniques, such as screen and overlay. This collage can relate to all of my chosen books: the mirror - Show White, the owl - Little Red Riding Hood, the flowers - Rapunzel and the red lips - Sleeping Beauty. I do like the creative that collage can bring to a piece of design you are trying to show for a book cover or a poster. I feel that it is very creative and different.    

Ciara Phelan is a freelance artist that works different collage techniques. From using textured materials and photos all in one collage is very different. I think her work is very inspiring, in the way that you can you use materials as well as photos, to create a textured collage that is quite captivating. This example of here work, is very vibrant and full of colour that you a drawn into, first of all. Also the texture of clothes that the models are wearing make the collage seem more realistic and stunning. 

Photographers Gallery Review

The Photographers Gallery is in London on Oxford Street, where there is a lot of different exhibitions that all relate to a similar theme. The theme for this particular exhibition was different ranges of collages. 

There were different photographers in the exhibition and the ones that caught my eye were Laura Letinsky and Clunie Reid. Laura Letinsky creates pieces of work by playing with representations of space and time. She uses still life as well as pictures so it focuses on the relation between having 2D and 3D forms in either a little amount of space or a huge space. Clunie Reid showcases pixelated internet icons collaged alongside loose marker pen drawings, stickers and text. 

We were split up into different group to answer one question and then feed it back to the rest of the class. The questions were: What are the effects of the exhibition's design? What does it look like? What does the work show? How does it make you feel?

For all the three different exhibitions we went into, we answered this as much as possible. For some of the artists/photographers work there was quite a difference in layout/design and technique. So the photos we chose we had judged them individually and write about them honestly. 

Here is one my favourite pieces of work by Laura Letinsky. This is because of of the layout and the different elements using flat images and objects to create a set dinner table. There is a lot of contrast within the different cutlery styles which i really like. I also like the amount of space she was left so you automatically drawn into the collage.   

Another piece of work that I really liked was by Anna Parkina. I like the concept of this because of the main element of this sort of architecture taking up most of the image, you you notice a body showing through. I like this because it also most gives the collage a sense of deception because they is a woman with no head 'buired' amongst lost of frame work. It works really well together.    

One image that I didn't really like was by Geraldo de Barros. I feel that it didn't really contain alot of collage elements. To me this just looks like a lot of poles or lines overlapping each other. This didn't really appeal to me as much as his over work did. 

Even though I liked her work, this collage by Clunie Reid, didn't really appeal to me as much as the over works of art she created in the gallery. I feel this because it look a bit messy and the over lapping of the black marker pen is a little over the top for me personally. However I did enjoy looking at the rest of her work. 

In my personal opinion I feel that the trip did benefit me in someway to help me create more experiments for the books I've chosen. I did enjoy looking at the different photographers and the way something so simple of cutting up negatives or using marker pens in their work is really unique and inspiring. It has given me some inspiration for further progress in the future because I have now found out there is more than one type of collage type. However I think that I has help me more in my Photographer progress slight more but I still want to develop ideas and experiments for my project. Maybe incorporating natural things or text into the collage.

http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/