Secret 7 Uploads

I uploaded 5 designs to the competition. I felt that as I had experimented with so many different designs I didn't want to just choose one design to upload.

Evaluation

This is the first brief that I have experienced a wave of ideas when being briefed. It is a design area that I have previously explored and continue to keep up to date with due to my passion for this area of design. This also made the idea process a lot stronger as I had alternative inspiration to complete the brief. 

I set myself a timescale for this brief, working on and completing one design each day. Although I did not complete a design for everyday that I was working on the brief I did only spend one day on each design. From this I feel confident that I explored a range of designs for the brief and stuck to the time limit when possible. Working through the idea process has been something that I have previously lacked in projects therefore wanted to work towards exploring more ideas rather than just sticking to one. I have achieved this by being more strict with my time management as is something that I hope to be able to transfer into other briefs. 

After completing a brief that I am passionate about I feel confident with the programme and in myself. It has highlighted areas that I am inspired by and enjoy producing work for, rather than feeling that I am just completing work to be marked. These areas include the actual designing of the vinyl sleeve as well as the paint and digital methods that I used to produce the designs. This is something that I will be able to fully reflect on in PPP as it is a contributing factor to me finding myself as a designer. 

Final Critique

As I had a number of sketches and designs to present, I set up a presentation of the designs in sets to that they could be easily viewed. As I was unsure of which designs had been the most successful and wanted to find out areas to improve/further experiment with, I wrote 3 focused questions to gather direct feedback. 

1. Are there any of the sketches that I have not yet experimented with but you think I should?

The general response was that I had experimented 'thoroughly' and 'consistently' with the designs that I had therefore experimenting with some of the other sketches is optional and a personal decision. From getting feedback to other peoples designs it has given me an insight to some of the trends that might be appearing in the competition. The marble ink effect was very popular and a number of people had experimented with it for their album cover design. This has highlighted to me that if in the small group that we are, there are a number of the same design ideas then this may be the same case for the competition. Therefore, the marble designs may not stand out in the competition if there are a number of other similar designs. This has shown that I need to go for a more unique and unusual design to submit that I have not seen before.


2. Which design stands out to you the most?

This questions gathered a range of responses, having an equal appreciation for each of the designs and for different reasons. This made organising the responses more difficult as the answers were a little here there and everywhere!

Orange design
- The orange designs are extremely effective, especially upon mirroring and adding geometric shape
- Aesthetically pleasing and the colours work really well
- When digital based media is overplayed on the print it enhances the design overall 

Marble Inks
- The orange marble ink pieces are visually very appealing but the colour also bakes a bright, high contrasting piece

Monoprint
- The combination of the marble inks and print have worked out really well and create a visually appealing piece. it is an unusual design
- I like have you have combined the some of the designs, shows you are really thinking about the composition of the design

Rose
- This is my favourite design as the image is absent yet an interesting shape is created through the design
- Choice of colour is appropriate and interesting, creates something unusual and unexpected
- The dark background really makes the design pop and almost gives a 3D effect

People
- N/A

Eyes
- Having the eyes open and closed would be intriguing to someone viewing the vinyl sleeve
- It would be interesting to experiment with adding more facial features
(note: a pattern of facial features, eyes, lips, nose, ears)
- The combination of pattern and geometric shapes is visually appealing and eye catching


3. Are there any directions you think I could take the design(s) in?
- More manipulation of the oranges, try layering more than one image, zooming in and experimenting with different compositions
- More combinations of the designs 
- Layering repeated patterns

After reading through and organising the feedback comments it has given me confidence with the designs. As I set myself a timescale of a day on each design idea I felt as though I had limited myself however it has been positive to get such a range of feedback on all of the ideas. Working in this way has meant that I haven't just got caught up on one idea and continued with that. However, after the comments, I am going to continue experimenting with the orange and eyes design. There have been some interesting comments that I would like to experiment with to make the designs even more intricate and individual. However, I am going to submit a number of designs to the competition as I feel that they are all worthy of the competition!

6. Eyes

The idea behind this design set is the lyric 'every open eye'. When I looked in depth at the song and the artist, this was something that stood out to me, without giving too much information away. 

5. People

Experiments

4. Rose

As I am focusing on a more ambitious design I have taken inspiration from what is around me. I have found that this is an interesting way to work as produces something that someone else may not have thought of, therefore standing out in the competition. 


Photographs

Experiments

Ideas

After experimenting with some of the ideas I had initially come up with, I felt I had limited my work and not produced anything that was out of the ordinary, therefore would not stand out in the competition. Before beginning the sketches I looked into Churches more and focused on the lyrics of the song. This lead me to sketch a number of different ideas that I would like to experiment further with.

Discussion Notes

3. Monoprint

To explore an alternative printing technique I am going to experiment with mono printing. To begin with the process I am going to start with a print that I have previously completed. From this I will be able to experiment with different colours and layouts and will give me inspiration towards future prints for this idea.

Scanned image of print

Experimentations:

After completing the above experiments, I felt limited with the design and wasn't enjoying the experimentation process. From this I decided to view some of the designs in the mock up form to evaluate whether it is successful and whether there is an alternative route to experiment with.

Mock up:

2. Marble Inks

The next idea that I have experimented with is inspired by Samuel Johnson and Leif Podhajsky. To create the 'marble' effect i used marble inks and a tray of water. Below are the three pieces that I produced as my first experiments. I found that the inks didn't mix in a way that I had wanted therefore next time round I am going to add less water to the tray so that the inks are thicker when in the water.

Photoshop:

Hue, Saturation, Lightness Adjustments

Reflecting:

Inverted

Inverted

Samuel Johnson inspired:

Mock Ups: