I have learnt a lot about myself through the challenges that I have faced during this module (The Nature Disconnect).

When I’ve thought about nature within a project, its always been about taking inspiration, never making a product that includes things from nature. This is something that I struggled with because I couldn’t think of ideas. The three disciplines all having the same brief made it easier to see how they all cross over and their differences. Before this module I was considering if I wanted to change from Product Design to Digital Interaction Design. Once these boards were made, I could see that although both follow the same stages of work, the research for Product Design is more interesting to me. The part I found most interesting was seeing products that were made by natural wood.

Time management throughout this whole project has been a problem for me. I found that I couldn’t keep track of all the things I had to do. I spent most of my time working on this project in my flat instead of at the studio, this impacted my progress because when I came across a problem there wasn’t somebody for me to ask which left me stuck for long periods of time. From these struggles I’ve learnt that working for long blocks of time is not a good idea for me. I have come to realise that even though I worked for a long time I was getting drained and tired, so I wasn’t working as fast. In the future I’m going to change my work method. It might seem that I will be getting less work done but it will add up. I’ll stop working late into the night; getting proper sleep will allow me to get up and move into a better working environment.

This project gave me an insight into what working in the real world will be like. As a designer when you are given a job you must do it, you can’t slack and leave it all to the days before it must be done. I’m going to get more projects that I might not love but I will still have to put in 100%. From interacting with my peers, I know that even if I create a design and don’t like it, it doesn’t mean someone else won’t love it, it all depends on a person’s view on it.

When I do research, I usually only look for similar products to get an idea of what is already available. I used this style of research for the A2 boards but when I moved on, I decided to do more in-depth research. Researching designers really helped me because I got to see how they use natural resources and their design processes. This is something I will continue to do in the future as it helps me on how to approach the topic.

Charles and Ray Eames are a married couple behind the Eames Office company. I was influenced by their products made by curved plywood. Their designs look simplistic but when you really look, a lot of thought had to be put into the design. Sebastian Errazuriz is another designer I investigated. I was intrigued by his thought process and his use of natural form within his designs.

Nature was a big struggle from the very beginning. Nature isn’t something that I focus my designs on, it’s not something that would draw my attention. The use of found objects confused me even more, when out looking you can only pick up a couple of the same things. It’s hard to create a design when you don’t have enough material. I decided to just use sticks because you can find tonnes of them. Found objects also influenced what objects I would use because unlike plastic and metal that can be moulded; natural objects are hard to change the shape of without breaking. I now know that its easy to say something will be a material, but I must think further into what can be done to that material.

This project has helped me to understand that nature is underappreciated, and it is becoming harder to find. People who live in cities are missing out on the benefits that nature provides. Our world is being destroyed and it is our own fault, we are not looking after the land that gives us such beauty. Maybe not everyone wants to or can go out and spend time with nature. Having something nature themed which can be added to a home is a small step into reintroducing people to the nature that is around them.

If someone was to ask me what I have learned from this project I wouldn’t know what to say. This isn’t a type of project where I have learned specific skills that I could name. I feel like I’ve learnt hits and tip that I will use in future projects. I’m continuing to learn about myself and the best ways for me to work. Although, I am glad that I have learned the things that I have I am even more grateful that this project is finally finished.

Week four was the last week of this project and I still had so much to do. At that point I still had to finish the final model and create the instruction booklet. I got straight into making the final model at the start of the week; sticking on the branches and adding the hoops. When it came to the hanging items, they didn’t really have anything to attach the string to I had to use hot glue to make it secure.

Overall I was disappointed in the model because although it got across the idea I would have liked if it looked more professional.

If I was to continue with this design i would investigate and try to improve many attributes of the design:

• Material of the structure
• Try to get the hoops secured between the sheets of plastic
• Find a new way to attach the sticks so there wouldnt be glue marks
• Investigate making clips on the side so it can be joined to the cot

When I only had a couple of days left I was rushing to get the instruction booklet made. Although I was rushing I felt okay because I enjoy graphic design and I already had ideas ready. I chose to go with an A5 booklet because I felt that an A4 booklet would be to overpowering and un enjoyable. I also thought that any size smaller then A5 would to fiddly and frustrating to try and read.

Throughout all four of the weeks i kept having printer problems so I wasn’t able to get my pictures printed. A day before the exhibition I was finally able to get them printed. I spend all of the night before and into the morning of the exhibition cutting and sticking all the pictures into my sketchbook.

When the exhibition started I was so happy for this project to finally be over. I felt that I could breathe a sign of relief and began to feel more relaxed. The nature reconnect project was full on and stressful. I felt that I was spending tones of time doing things that never seemed to get finished, there was always something that needed to be done after and it was never ending.

Week three was very hectic as I had planned to have everything done by the end of that week so week four could just be making sure everything was ready and presentable. It wasn’t until that week that I found out that my prototype was meant to be to scale and made from the materials I felt would be suitable if the model was to be actually made. This made me very nervous as I thought I could just make it from cardboard but I then i found out about the materials and realised that I would have to think and actually go out and collect the sticks.

 Investigating the materials took a little time as i decided to go with plastic as it was easy. I felt that I didn’t have time to fully investigate materials. Wanted the structure to be strong but due to time I decided to just buy and use brand new materials. If I was to continue this whole project I would look into how to create the structure from materials with the same properties but that would be recycled.

From my little prototype I liked how it looked but felt that it didn’t capture the whole story that I created at the start of this project.

I went back to my original ideas on the A2 boards and saw the second idea and decided to try including that in my final idea.

The next stage was for me to work out the sizes. I worried about this because when I thought about the product I imagined it quite big so I wondered how I would make it and if I would be able to transport it. Researching the sizes of cots helped me to see that it wouldn’t be as big as I thought it would be.

When I was making the final model I kept hitting bumps in the road. The first bump was that the green plastic sheet I bought wasn’t long enough to cover all of the foggy acetate. This meant I had to use two pieces of the green on top of the foggy piece. This made the balance of the structure fall more to one side. To correct this I had to put more stick on one side to even out the weight. If I was to remake this with the same sized materials I would cut the green plastic so the split would be right down the middle of the model instead of being of to the side.

 When I collected the sticks I was still imagining the model to be big so I collected long sticks. When I started laying them out I realised they were to long. I had to sit and cut the sticks so they would be shorter and sand the edges because I didn’t want the ends to be sharp or the chance of someone hurting themselves on it. These tasks were very time consuming and in the end I didn’t even use all the sticks that I  had cut and sanded.

 At the end of week three I didn’t have everything completed like I had hoped. I still had to complete the final model and design the instruction booklet.

Week two was meant to be the start of prototype making but I still had to write out my designer research.  As you might be able to tell the research took a long time to write out, probably more time than I should have gave to research. I decided that I shouldn’t have to make it look perfect, a sketchbook is my thoughts put on paper and my thoughts are not perfect.

After my designer research was complete I focused my time on finding new found objects. My found objects from the A2 board where things from nature eg, shells, leaf, bark. From trying to use those objects within the models I realised that they are hard to use. Only having a couple of each thing made it hard to make a complete model. Many of the found objects were a solid shape which couldn’t be changed. This influenced my choice of found objects this time because I focused more on man made objects that could be recycled. This meant that my product wouldn’t have a negative effect on the environment in the long run.

I decided that i would stick with one of my original ideas as I felt that creating a new idea would take to long. I chose to go with the third design because I felt that it had the best story.

Next thing I worked on was the personas; who would be using the product and the story of how they would interact with it.

After I had the story of my product I was able to start the prototyping. Due to already having a design idea I was more going straight into modelling ideas instead of drawing sketches. That week was very full on but very slow at the same time. I found it really hard to come up with any ideas because I liked the original idea and didn’t want to change it very much. I used biomimicry in some of my designs as I thought bringing a subtle influence of nature would be enough.

At the end of the second week I was able to get the overall shape and design figured out. Although the aesthetic hasn’t changed much from the original idea I felt like the design was more strong looking.

At the start of week one I was glad to have finished the first half of this project; the nature boards. Nature wasn’t something I found easy to work with and I was excited to move onto a new project. When I was given the brief for this four week project I felt deflated, I couldn’t believe I was going to have to continue with nature.

Due to not liking the idea of nature it took me a while to find the motivation to get started. For the product design A2 board I didn’t really look into actual designers, I just found objects that I found interesting. I thought it would be best to include designer research in this portion of the project. I started by trying to find the designers of the objects I found interesting.

From the found objects I found:

Sebastian Errazuriz –

Duncan Meerding –

Frank Lefebvre –

I felt that these designers all created similar styled products. I decided to look into designers that were still influenced by nature but made different style products.

Colin O’Dowd –

Jean Paul Gaultier –

Isla Middleton –

Towards the end of the week I had researched all the designers but the information was all typed up on a word document so I still had to write it all out.

The thought of an exhibition made me want my sketchbook to be very organised and look nice for people to look through. Usually my sketchbooks aren’t very colourful, I normally draw and write with pencil. However this one I wanted to be full of colour to draw a person’s attention to it.

Inspiration Mood Board

Digital interaction Mood Board

Interior and Environmental Mood Board

Product Design Mood Board

For the product design board I used a variety of different inspirations. I started by looking at companies that use recycled materials to get an idea of how someone could use waste to create a whole new product. I was surprised with how new the products looked, it didn’t look like it came from rubbish. I also investigated nature inspired products; focused on products mainly for in the home.

While doing my research I found a company called Bleu Nature. They had many different collections of products but I was inspired by the collections that were made from drift wood. I liked how the original shape and texture of the wood was kept; things were added to the wood to create the product not the wood being changed to fit the product idea. From pictures I took at Tentsmuir I was able to make something that followed that idea.

If I was to continue developing this idea the next stage would be to consider the materials; types of wood available. I would also be thinking of safety (manufacturing, joining, finishes) as the product is used around a baby. Scale would also be a large factor as I would need enough wood to create the product. What would be better – lots of small overlapping pieces or less larger pieces? What would be easier to obtain?

Why we use Contextual Interviews?

Research is one of the very first steps during a project. It is something that can be the thing that shows the designer the direction they should take the project in. Research can help the designer know what they could try, be influenced by and what is already available. A designer should use a variety of research methods but the right research methods for the style of project they are doing.

Contextual interviews are a form of primary research; it allows the designer to gather information straight from the user. The information gathered using this method is more beneficial to the designer as it is reliable, up to date and honest. The purpose of this type of interview is to observe and see how the user reacts to the questions. Interviews allow for the designer to watch and listen to how the user delivers their answers; what they say, how they say it and their body language. All of these things allow for the designer to read into what the user is trying to portray within their answers.

This type of interview is different from other types as it allows the user to lead the direction of the questioning. The designer may have a list of questions to start with but during the interview they may have to change their style of questions depending on how the user answers previous questions. The theme of the interview may also change and the designer could be surprised with the information they then get. This is beneficial for the designer as the user will lead the interview in a direction where they will have more to say. The style of questions during this style of interview are very open, they are also not meant to be leading. This allows for the user to answer the questions fully without any influence from the designer. With the questions not being narrowed into a specific topic it means the user will have a bigger opportunity to talk about their true opinions or experiences.

Contextual interviews have an informal setting. This allows for the interview to take place somewhere that is comfortable for the user. If the user is comfortable, they will be more relaxed and that allows for them to want to spend more time answering questions. Contextual interviews also require communication between the designer and user before, during and after the interview. Having continuous communication will make the user more involved with the process. Designers are taking something from the users so the users should be kept informed about what is happening with what they gave the designers.

Contextual interviews consist of paying attention to the user and what they are trying to say without verbally saying it. This style of interview allows for the designer to gather more in-depth information that can have a strong impact on what they are doing. The in formal set up allows for a more calm and enjoyable experience for both the designer and user.

Reflection of your Learning, Insights and your own use of Photography and Social Media

Reflection of learning:

This project was a struggle as I had to do many things that I wasn’t comfortable with and I hit problem after problem. The first hurdle I had to over come was working with a stranger; I don’t like correcting people so the prospect of correcting a stranger was worse. However, the person I was interviewing was very cooperative and answered all the questions really well, without any correcting. This made the process of interviewing more positive. I struggled with the technology that was used because during the interview I couldn’t get the microphones to work which got me starting to panic as I really wanted everything to go okay. The video editing software was another problem as I had never used it before. Multiple times the software would stop working; it was worse when I tried to open it on another day. I was eventually able to get the video to work however I had to create the full video on one day to make sure that it would successfully work. This project has helped me to understand how to correctly ask people questions so that I get the most amount of information from them. If I was to do a project like this again, I would try and learn how to use the software before going straight in and trying to use it.

Insights from the interview:

This interview has been interesting as I got to see what another person thought of photography and I was able to compare it to what I think about it.

My interviewee said she takes photos as “a way of capturing a moment”, she understands the usefulness of photography. She sometimes takes photos of random things but they will have a meaning for her; beauty, friends. I relate to her as I also take photos as a way to save a memory, I enjoy having something to look back on.

My interviewee is great full of the device that she has; iPhone 7, she doesn’t feel that she needs a professional camera to get a good photo. If she was given the opportunity to get a meaningful photo taken by a professional camera, I think that she would agree. I also have an iPhone 7 and I am also happy with my phone but get annoyed as the quality decreases as you zoom. However, that isn’t a big enough reason for me to want to get a professional camera.

The process of taking photos does not appeal to her but that doesn’t mean she won’t be in photos so other people can take them. She enjoys seeing other people having fun so although she isn’t taking part in the photo taking, she is still being part of the whole experience.

When asked, my interviewee said that the majority of her photos are of her and her friends. She confirmed that she posts those pictures on Instagram. A lot of people including myself post picture on social media to show what is going on in our lives. People always worry about what they post on social media because they usually want to show the positive aspects of their life. Another thing people worry about is the amount of likes they will get. I will admit I am guilty of worrying about if a picture is good enough, I second guess my decision about posting it.

Another thing that she likes is physical photos that you can hold. I gathered that she likes the experience of holding the photos as it is a way of holding onto that memory, it is more personal. Not a lot of people now actually have physical photos, they are mostly kept digitally now. I like physical photos as they can be put in frames and displayed which will be seen more and you get reminded about the memory more. Whereas digital photos are stored then hardly looked at.

My interviewee and myself are very similar in our thought about photography. We enjoy the simplicity of phones and having printed photos. Photos are fun to look back on as they are like a frozen memory, they can remind you of the emotion that you had during that moment.

Brief 1: Record cover

For this project I was tasked with redesigning a record cover. I was excited as it was a graphic design task. When I actually got to see the brief, I was wary as there was already a list of songs that I had to choose from. The songs I thought I could get the most inspiration from was ‘Do the reggay’ by Toots and the Maytals (reggae) and ‘Rapper’s Delight’ by Sugarhill Gang (hip hop).

I started a quick research into both songs and I chose ‘Rapper’s Delight’.

Research:

For my research i looking into may different things.

The history of Sugarhill Gang and hip hop. hip hop, band research-25vpdij

Hip hop record covers from the 80’s and album covers from today. ALBUM COVERS MOOD BOARD-2lm978w

I also researched standard things surrounding hip hop. HIP HOP MOOD BOARD-20bduym

I was unsure of how I wanted to make my record cover look and how I was going to make it so I started researching different graphic designers.DESIGNERS MOOD BOARD-1nisu2o

Initial Idea:

I really struggled to come up with idea for this project. It took awhile for me to really start getting an understanding of the types of things I wanted to try. 

• Mic to resemble the music/rap
• 2 areas of colour to represent a rap battle and spray paint
• Curved writing for the shape of the record

• The song repeatedly mentions a woman
• Looking at a woman from a far
• Silhouettes
  • no need for detail
  • can still tell what it is

• Similar design to the original
• Modernised/Simplified it
• Removed the bricks
• Turned the spotlight into a record

• Graffiti writing
• Brick wall
• Silhouette

Development: IDEA 1

Added colour so I could see how they would go together.

My concern for idea 1 was the spray areas. The size of the piece meant that using spray paint wasn’t an option. I tried multiple different way to get the spray effect however none were successful.

Development: IDEA 2

Added colour to this idea I realised that it would look quite plain. I added the scene of the room as a house is the type of place you would find this type of music being played.

I decided not to use this idea because if you took away the writing then the design could be used for any song.

Development: IDEA 3

I kept the majority of the colours, however I changed the background to navy blue as black would be to harsh.

I liked this design however I couldn’t see how to develop it more.

Development: IDEA 4

Started by thinking of ways to make the silhouette shape.

• Water colour on tracing paper
• Desired effect was successfully created
• BAD
  • paper curled
  • paint comes away as dust

• Cut out silhouette
• GOOD
  • bold
  • solid colour
• Can’t be on its own, people may not be able to tell what it is

• Water colour on paper
• BAD
  • solid areas of colour
  • colours are strongeI don’t like this

The idea that I thought I was gonna use was the water colour on tracing paper however this did not work successfully.

The black silhouette was the best but it seemed to plain. I then thought about adding extra detail to it. Tried adding the detail with a normal pencil and paint. I originally thought the paint would be better as it would be stronger than the pencil, however it turned out to be the other way around. The pencil also adds a metallic/shiny effect.

When listening to the song I noticed the beat/rhythm (4 long, 8 short)  I wanted to somehow include that in the design. I decided to change the layout of the bricks to match beat.

Tested different colours for the background.

Development: WRITING

Investigated multiple different graffiti writing.

Idea 1 – to square

Idea 2+4 – to plain

Idea 3 – could be confusing to read

idea 5 – favourite (fun, easy to read)

idea 6 – nice writing however I don’t think it would suit the music

Next i moved onto how i would create the writing.

ACRYLIC – didn’t like as the paint was hard to apply within the lines

WATER COLOUR – paint could create successful drips

CUT PAPER – favourite (bold, strong colour, sharp edges) My worry with this method is that if the letters have to be smaller will they look as nice. Will I be able to cut them out successfully?

I decided to test the cut paper and water colour at a smaller scale to see what one would look better.

Next stage was to work out how i wanted to create the writing for ‘Rapper’s Delight’.

Final Design

Evaluation:
I am slightly disappointed with how my record cover turned out. My major let down was not anticipating that the paint would change colour on the different coloured papers. If I had the chance I would go back and make a physical record cover of idea 3 to compare them.

Brief 2: Sign

For this project we were tasked to work in groups to make a new signage that would be placed somewhere around DJCAD. The aim of the sign was to see how people would interact with it, would it change how they act within that area?

Research:

The first thing we did was walk around DJCAD to have a look at the signs that already exist.

We discovered that a lot of the signs are safety procedures or signs you don’t necessarily read as you can subconsciously understand what it is saying. The direction signs are okay but we realised that that aren’t totally helpful. Although they point you in the general direction, you could walk through the corridor and miss the place you want as there are limited signs in between. We watched a lot of people struggle to open the doors as they are so heavy and we don’t think they realise there is a button to open them.  There was a lack of signs showing the directions to toilets and bridges.

Ideas:

We were unclear if we wanted out signage to be beneficial to the people that are in the building or a signage that would allow us to see how the people would interact with it.

Although we could expand on the ideas of the path and drawing attention to the button the one we decided to go with was ‘Wave at the camera’. We chose this one as we thought we would get a bigger reaction from something that you wouldn’t normally find in the building.

Chosen Idea Development:

After talking we decided that having a fake camera could be beneficial to this experiment, if people actually saw the camera, would they be more willing to wave. Or would their reaction be the opposite, see the camera then move away not wanting to actually be on camera. We then thought about where the camera could be placed and what it would look like.

Camera from the computer/TV screen on the wall

Put sign next to the screen

Modern CCTV camera

Blend in with the new design of the corridor

Old style CCTV camera

Same shape as lights – could blend in

We first thought that we would go with the old style CCTV camera as it would be easy to make it will not draw a lot of attention to it. From the distance it would look like a real camera.

Initial talk about placement we thought the best place to put it would be outside the studio, that way we could sit in the studio but still be able to observe the people and stay hidden.

Another thought was for us to stand on the floor above as we could look down on the floor that the sign would be on. This way people would be less likely to see us. Camera being above would also make it be more realistic.

After another walk through of the building we realised that there was a proper CCTV camera at the reception/main doors. We then thought that there would be a good place to put the sign as lots of people walk through that area. Now we no longer needed the fake camera.

Then we were onto making the actual sign. We knew we wanted our sign to catch people’s attention so we went with the colours yellow and black, these are usually associated with warning and danger. We thought that these colours will make the person pay more attention to the sign as they pass.

We then thought about the words on the sign, did we want to change them slightly? we thought of a couple of ways of saying the same thing.

• Wave @ the camera
• Smile, your on camera
• Smile for the camera

The one we went for was ‘Wave @ at camera’ we chose this one because when the person waves it will be easier to see than a smile. We changed the ‘at’ to ‘@’ to make it less formal, we hoped to make it more fun and casual against the warning colours.

We wanted the writing to be bold, strong and easy to read. We center aligned it so the message would come across as strong. We thought about having it in all capital but realised that would make it to hard to read as it would all be the same shape.

Throughout the time we had the sign up we had it in two positions, hanging from the ceiling and on the door. 

While it was on the ceiling people kept missing it as they would be looking for their student card to scan. However once we moved it onto the door more people were noticing it, even people that were leaving(walking out the building).

We were a little disappointed with the lack of reaction that the sign got. There were a couple that voice that they had seen it and a few that looked around but there was hardly anybody that actually waved.

Evaluation:

I believe that our placement of the sign (on the door) was successful but our timing was not. If we were to do it again I would say that we should have it up earlier up in the day when people are first arriving instead of after lunch when most people are back in there studios. I had fun completing this project and it was fun seeing what other groups came up with.

Brief 3:Article

For this project we were tasked the create a magazine layout and web page for an article that The Short Attention Reader would be publishing. We were given the choice of four articles about different subjects; fashion and retail, design and sustainability, politics, crisps. I decided to go with the politics article as politics will have to have a more formal look and it will be a serious topic. https://bit.ly/2LpsPpj

Research:

I don’t usually read political articles which meant i didn’t really know what they look like. This meant my first stage was to look into already existing articles. From this I found out that they usually have large images of the person it is talking about.

After researching a now had an understanding of a typical news article about politics. Now it was my turn to draw thumbnail sketches of different layouts that I thought would be good.

From these sketches I couldn’t tell which idea was better so I made the designs digitally to help see.

My favourite design was idea 6. I liked the division of only having writing on one side, this means that it will come across as a less heavy article. The large image will catch the reader as they flick through the magazine.

Development:

The first thing I wanted to focus on was the text.

Now I could move onto actually making the designs.

My first thought would be to use a large image of Donald Trump but when I tried it it came across as being positive and promoting him however that was not the purpose of the article. I had to think of a picture that could show the negativity that he bring.

I decided to use pictures of people at protests, luckily I was able to find images of of people with signs that show the topics that are mentioned within the article. I chose to draw the outline of Donald Trump to show the thing that all they people in the images are protesting against. I made it the colour red as that colour is associated with danger.

When I had everything on the page I thought it looked to crowded and cramped. I felt that the writing takes up a lot of space on the page and it might put a person of reading the article. I decided to rethink the layout.

I thought that having columns would help break up the writing and make it appear that there is less. I chose to remove the image as when I asked others they did not understand what it meant. This left a large area of white space however it didn’t look strategic it just looked like something was missing. I added colour to the pull quote to draw the reader’s attention to it. This just looked odd and out of place.

I liked the look of the columns so I used that in this idea. I moved the pull quote so it would look like it is just there. The extra space at the top allowed me to have the heading and sub-heading in longer lines. It also allowed for me to make the heading bigger which makes it more appealing. There is a consistent margin around all areas of the text. I chose this as my final design for the magazine. fd-232dj4o

Web Page:

The web page was easier to make as it had to be similar to the magazine layout. I made two designs. 

I decided that the web page layout would be the first idea because it is clear, sectioned out so the person can focus on one piece of writing at a time. The text styles and pictures connect the magazine and web page together. The second idea was to crowded and there is a lot on the screen with the pictures in the background. Final Web Page-1qpa9vl

Join me as I talk through the journey that was the Ways of Seeing module. This module was introduced to me as being about drawing. I first thought that it would be about working drawings or learning to draw with different perspectives. Oh, how wrong I was. It was more about how can drawing be used to show information. To understand that there are different ways of drawing.

Click the link to see SketchBook Tour: https://vimeo.com/298911567

One-Line Blind Drawings

When told about this task I was apprehensive as it was something that I had done before and I didn’t like it. While doing the drawings I was slightly uncomfortable because I was having to stare at these people. As an artist I usually like the things I draw to be as perfect as possible and I knew that with this task they weren’t going to be perfect. I decided that I would also do portraits of the people I drew as I wanted to see what the difference was between not being able to see the paper and being able to watch what I was actually drawing. Once I completed them, I could see the humour in the drawing, being not perfect seemed to be the point. Other people’s comments made me realise that it all depends on the person and their perspective on things, although I may have not liked them, they did.

Quick Interview Portraits

The interview was the simple part as I was able to ask standard questions that would give me general information about Isla. When I moved onto the portrait part I once again withheld slightly as I didn’t want to draw another portrait. This time I could spend more time on the drawing but this meant that I was putting more pressure on myself to get it perfect. I decided to go straight in and do the drawing in pen. This made me try and make as few mistakes as I could because I didn’t want random lines through her face. When the drawing was done, I knew it wasn’t perfect and didn’t resemble Isla 100% but you can still tell that it is her. This tasked helped me to realise that drawing doesn’t always have to be perfect, it just has to be good enough that you get the idea across.

Conductive Ink/Circuit Drawings

When I first heard about this task, I was confused how it could be classed as drawing. Once I was shown examples I understood why. Drawing the circuit allows for less equipment to be used and the circuit get to be kept. The conductive ink was a bit of a hassle to use as it went everywhere and took a while to dry. I had to make sure that there were no gaps in the ink or it wouldn’t work. During this task we hit a hurdle as one single battery wasn’t enough to light the LED’s. We tried using up to four batteries but the light was still faint. To test that the LED was actually working we used a wire from the battery straight to the LED, it lit up so bright compared to just the conductive ink.

Visual Personality Profiles-Layered Portrait-Interview

This time I partnered up with Alistair.

Trying to think of interview questions this time was harder as we were tasked to ask more open questions that the interviewee can expand on more. We also had to think about how we asked the question. The way we word a question can change the way a person will answer it. Next was the portrait, I remembered that it was okay if it wasn’t perfect so I started straight away. When I finished the portrait, I was happy enough with it as you could tell that it was him. Trying to think of drawings to correctly represent the interview questions was a slight struggle and some of the answers were easier than others. Layering allowed for me to change how different parts are seen on the page.

Reading Week, Observation Drawings and Mapping Task

For reading week, I went home. When I was first told about this, I worried what I would draw as I thought that the week would consist of me watching tv and never leaving the house. I decided to draw for Friday 12^th, Saturday 13^th, Monday 15^th, Tuesday 16^th and Wednesday 17^th October as each of these days had something different that I could focus my observation drawing on. Since I knew what I wanted to draw I knew the quality I wanted it to be, this was an issue as I spent a lot longer on them than I maybe should have. The mapping task is where I struggled as I didn’t know how to represent each place correctly without it looking a mess. Each time I tried something different, the one I liked the most was Tuesday 16^th as the pictures represented each part of my day, the shape created a flow that that easy to follow. Using layering from the task before allowed me to put writing on another sheet but still be seen when overlapped. This meant that a person would be able to understand my steps of that day by the pictures but the writing gave extra information to help the person understand the day better.

Journey Map/Visual CV

When I was first given the brief and told about this task I got confused, things on the brief eg, struggles, wouldn’t be something you would find on a CV. Understanding what was totally being asked of me took a while. Using my CV and personal statement helped me to have things to put on this.

The next hurdle I came across was thinking of the visuals for each aspect that would be going on it. For the skills parts I used google images to find common images that represent them hoping that if this CV was to be sent away that the employer would easily recognise what it meant. This task took me a lot longer than I thought it would. I drew all the images to make sure I had them all ready.

I then had to think about how I wanted it to be laid out, I always like the idea of a swirl/spiral as it shows all these individual things coming together to this one point in the centre. I was worried about spacing, how much would have to be left between each row?

I though having the images ready would shorten the amount of time needed to draw them on the final piece. I liked the original drawings so much I decided I would just trace them, this was not a good idea as it meant I was drawing them a further four times; to trace, put lead on other side, press through onto the paper and to darken the actual drawing. Although it took longer, I was happy that I used the original images as I don’t think I would have got them as good a second time.

I then thought about the medium I would use to apply the colour. The first time I used pencil, I liked this as it allowed me to shade the drawings and overlap colour. I also tried pen, I didn’t like this because the colours were to blocked and harsh.

Since deciding to use pencil to colour I was just copying the original drawings. This decreased the time it would have taken to think up colours there and then. I included arrows as they help to lead the viewers eye in the right direction.

Paper Character and Arduino Board

When presented this task I was excited as I enjoy making things out of paper. By making the example at the start I started thinking of shapes/ characters that I could make that would be of a similar build.

When I was told that light(s) had to be introduced I also had to think about how that would change the character. My initial thought was a rabbit, I first drew it as it would look made from the rectangular boxes, this showed that it didn’t totally resemble a rabbit.

Sticking with the rabbit I tried two origami techniques but both were unsuccessful.

I realised that I had to change my idea, taking into consideration the need for a light I decided to try making a firefly, this way the reason for the light was already there. I had no idea how I was going to create a firefly so I got the help of a trusty friend; google images.

Here I found multiple ways to make one but they were mostly all flat, until I found one.

The shape was perfect as I could visualise how to make it.

I made a small prototype to make sure it would work. Due to being a prototype I put lots of tape on it to hold it together. This meant if I was to put it in my sketch book then it would be flattened and ruined.

The next thing I worried about was getting it to be flatpack. Making it flatpack was surprisingly easy all I had to do was make it fold out the way, when you want to remake it you just fold sides back under and the top will curve back up. The sides cannot be joined permanently or it will not be able to fold flat that it why a clip has to be used when it is made to be 3D.

For this task we had to attend an Arduino Board Workshop. This taught us the basics we would need to use the Arduino Boards. Arduino allows a person to code what happens in an electric circuit. I was able to control what my LED does. Getting this to work was a struggle as I knew what I wanted the code to do just not how to actually type it. I wanted my LED to flash and every time it did it would get brighter until it reached the highest brightness then it would just stay at that. We were using RGB LED’s but I wanted to have my LED be the colour yellow, I had to find the corresponding colour values that would make yellow.

When attaching the LED to the firefly I stuck it to the bottom on the inside and the colour spread evenly through the character.

The last part of this task was to create the storyboard. I decided that the whole storyboard would be the narrative of the firefly. Drawing in the small boxes was hard as I could hardly add any real detail.

Through this module I have learned that drawing can be used to record quick ideas that comes to a person’s mind. It does not always have to be done by a pen or pencil, there are many different ways and types of drawing. I have come to understand that some drawing does not always need to be perfect as long as you can understand what it is and it shows the information you are trying to show.