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PERSONAL VOICE PROJECT NIGERIA 70

Brief: Produce a body of work that is entirely of your own devising.

Statement of Intent

Titled Nigeria 70, my project focuses on the genres of music surrounding Afro Beat, Afro Funk, High Life, Afro Funk and World Music celebrating the influential artists and musicians at the centre of the movement. Through research, exploration and experimentation I aim to to emphasise Nigeria’s cultural change that took effect from the expressive music of the 1970s. Using a mixture of mediums my outcomes take form of two seven inch compilation record cover designs based on the album Nigeria 70, as well as four accompanying posters, the overall concept represents an imaginary special edition box vinyl set that I have been commissioned to produce the artwork and design for. This project is an exploration into a personal interest of mine, the music from Nigeria during the 1970s is filled with excitement, enjoyment and meaning; the stories behind some of the music inspires and provokes a message, whilst the accompanying culture is filled with igniting visual imagery through art and fashion; my work is a celebration of this and a reminder of a movement that changed a cultural movement not just in Africa but worldwide, that combines contemporary illustration to challenge the existing.

Research

With already a basic understanding of the music from Nigeria in the 1970s, I wanted to delve further into the culture and meaning behind the music and its artist, to gain a better sense of the subject that would in turn influence my outcome. I began by focusing on the broad genre of music that Nigeria has to offer, going back to the folk beginnings origins with JuJu and Sakara, then developing into Highlife and then later Afro Beat, Waka, Afro Funk and Afro Rock. An interesting aspect from the multiple genres of music I researched is there progression from one to another, and at there core are pickings of western and African stimulus such as jazz, pop, and rock; this approach to combining and mixing many different features was an aspect I wanted to include in my design process. 

Research Notes

Research Notes

Research Notes

Continuing I researched into the artist's and musicians behind the sounds of Nigeria, forming a list of many musical creatives I selected four to take forward to explore more and form the basis of my outcomes. Fela Kuti, William Onyeabor, King Sunny Ade and The Lijadu Sisters are the four that connected with me the most both through their music but also their stories behind the music. Extending my analyses of the four musicians, I started to gain an in depth narrative behind each individual, for example Kuti was a very influential activist as well as a progressive and highly skilled musician who used lyrics and sound to voice protest about Nigeria’s inequality and corrupt government and military. The intriguing knowledge that I gained from researching further into the four chosen musicians enabled a clearer story behind each character but also supplied essential subject matter to build visual imaginary upon. 

OneLoveRvR: The Music and Message of Fela Kuti

Noisey: 'Fantastic Man' (Full Length) - A Film About William Onyeabor

With a better insight into the music to Nigeria in the 1970s, and having established a basis to work from, I wanted to search more into the culture of the music and Africa in general. An outstanding pointer I came across was the Nigerian civil war that took place from 1967 and 1970, the end of the war saw an influx of fresh creativity both aural and and visually, the music industry exploded with fresh sounds and meaningful lyrics that spoke to the people and brought Nigeria into a new world; many of the influential musical artist rose to prominence as a result of the end of the war. Additionally I looked into the fashion, many African garments contain hidden meanings and provoke individual cultural and personal ideologies, for instants Adikra symbols are a west African representation of concepts, beliefs and aphorisms formed of delicate emblems. Colour also influenced emotion in African fashion, red is often used to highlight violence and anger, where as blue is an indication towards love and prosperity; this way of using medium to describe emotion was an asset I wanted to bring forward into my outcomes and experiment with.  Although immensely broad to research, my investigations into Nigerian music during the 1970s brought a new and fresh output of knowledge that in turn supplied an in depth structure of source that I could explore ideas, processes and techniques further.

Nowness: 1960 Lagos, Nigeria and its musicians in the years after independence

Inspiration

Before I began drafting ideas for my final outcomes I wanted to gain visual inspiration to aid my work process. I looked into four contemporary and historical designers, illustrators and artists:

Gaurab Thakali

Using the process of print, Thakali explores bright and contrasting colours to ignite an expressive, broad and highly textual image. Music heavily inspires Thakali, with influences of jazz exploding from the pages of his print. For me his eye for colour and light alongside creating depth through line and texture excites the eye and draws and fixes attraction and satisfaction.

Gaurab Thakali: Monks Dream

Lemi Ghariokwu

Nigerian artist Ghariokwu is most renowned for providing many of the original cover images for the recordings of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. Using a mixture of paint and ink, Ghariokwu turned Kuti’s powerful lyrics into visual interpretations, provoking immense meaning and questions to his album covers. His approach to creating a response through a mixed visual process was an aspect that I wanted to take forward with my explorations.

Lemi Ghariokwu: Fela Kuti “Confusion Break Bone”

Camila Perkins

The bold, risky and energetic imagery of Perkins instantly attracts the human senses into a frenzy. Using the African cultural as an influence Perkins paints and prints portraits highlighting the vibrant and exciting representation of everyday African society. An intriguing aspect to Perkins are her works on wood, inspired by barber shop signs, her very illustrative approach beams originality and her use of painting onto physical objects bows an unusual approach that I would like to experiment with.

Camila Perkins: Sapeurs

Mingering Mike

Mike is well known for surrounding himself in a fictitious funk and soul world, creating fake cardboard albums with accompanying album design cover and then placing them in record shops during the 1960s and 70s. Despite not officially creating music for a real record label, the artwork of Mike is something to admire, created using limited mediums such as crayons and colour pens, Mike produces very characterful and illustrative imagery. The imagination of Mike is child like, his approach to image making is humorous yet stylish and his character designs bode a for of inspiration for myself. 

Mingering Miker: Boogie Down

Record Cover Design

Having established enough research and inspiration to source from I began the production of my outcomes. To begin with I focused on the two seven inch album covers, I chose to not do a whole album because having two single albums enabled a avenue to express the four key musicians I selected to base my work upon, in a simple and not over shadowing context. The album Nigeria 70 is filled with an abundance of varied music that tells an important narrative to the music and culture of Nigeria during the 1970s, so in turn was a very good source to base my outcomes upon. 

Robert M: Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of the 1970’s Funky Lagos - Disc One

King Sunny Ade & His African Beats: Syncra Chapter 1 - Record Cover Design

The Lijadu Sisters: Double Trouble - Record Cover Design

Fela Kuti And His Africa 70 - Album Cover Design

William Onyeabor: Atomic Bomb - Album Cover Design

After reviewing and analysing a series of visually stimulating album covers that I found interesting from a design point of view I began to sketch out rough drafts for mine own. I had an initial idea to use collage, but I felt using photographic content on the album cover wasn't fresh enough as many of the design during the seventies contained this; so I opted for a more illustrative approach using inks and gouache. Using Africa’s rich content of meaning to colours, shapes and patterns  alongside Nigeria’s genre’s of music to mix mediums, I played with combining different imageries together as well as balancing line, tone and colour. The final design plan I settled for resembles a sun, represented via various instruments and text laid out within its rays, the reason behind this is on hearing the album and learning the meaning and stories behind the lyrics and musicians I felt many spoke of a new Nigeria, and the songs themselves shifted not only Africa but the world into a new awaking musically, politically and culturally. 

Record Cover Design Sketches

Record Cover Design Sketches

Record Cover Design Sketches

Record Cover Design Sketches

Record Cover Design Sketches

Record Cover Design Final

Record Cover Design Final

With a design drafted I finalised imagery needed, scanned all the assets into Ps and proceeded to composite both covers. Building the covers up from the background I applied the edited and stretched text elements then placed the illustrated and coloured instruments to the sides of the cover. Lastly I generated imagery for the vinyl sticker, then with all components completed I finessed them by assembling them all into a mock up display, to highlight the final outcome. On reflection of the two final covers I am very pleased with how they have evolved, I feel the subtle allude to a sun reinforces the provocative messages behind the music. A possible change I would make is playing more with the type, perhaps the end result is to squeezed and a flatter form might make it easy to reader, yet the styling of the text nodes to styling of the 1970s and the fashion of funk. I believe the experimentations into colour and pattern making, again suggest the culture of Nigeria and Africa but also supply an ascetically pleasing design. 

Nigeria 70 Record Design 1

Nigeria 70 Record Design 2

Nigeria 70 Record Design 1

Nigeria 70 Record Design 1

Nigeria 70 Record Design 1

Nigeria 70 Record Design 1

Posters

With the two record covers designed and finalised, I turned my attention to producing the four accompanying posters. The function of the posters are to act as celebrated portrait's of Kuti, Onyeabor, Ade, and the Lijadu Sisters, the four influential musicians that I chose to feature on the records and as subjects to the posters. Within the posters I planned to subtly indicate various signs meanings and messages that I previously researched to tell the narrative of the music but also the cultural issues surrounding Nigeria in the 1970s. Playing with layout, context and shape I began drafting design ideas until I settled on four which I was satisfied with, I kept the planning process quite minimal and my sketches quite vain because I didn't want to restrict myself and let the design flow more naturally as it evolved. 

I began constructing the posters by firstly drawing the portraits needed for the context of the posters, sourcing imagery of each of the four artists I then used coloured pencils for there textual use to creates final portraits. After then scanning them black and white into Ps I edited them all slightly to increase the depth and crop the composition, then printed them individually out A3, to later draw on the frames to each image. I decided to place each of the portraits within an illustrated frame because I felt it represented a hall of fame ambience, but also offered a space to experiment create the visual meaning through patterns, shapes and symbols. I completed the frames through the same process as the portraits, and with all the assets completed I went back into Ps and finalised the portraits and coloured them. 

Initial Poster Sketches

Final Portrait Sketch 1

Final Portrait Sketch 2

Final Portrait Sketch 3

Final Portrait Sketch 2

Frame Sketch 1

Frame Sketch 2

Frame Sketch 3

Frame Sketch 4

For the final stage I printed the posters out in black and white to then paint on with gouache, I chose to use paint to emphasise a more textual and tactile outcome but also to allude to the DIY way of creating that is notable within Africa and Nigeria. I am very happy with the resulting four posters, the portraits I feel are the strongest element , the depth created through expressive line and contrasting tone portrays a characterful and exciting image. The borders hold subtle meaning and narratives, for example within the Kuti poster the twenty seven circles and female emblem indicate the tent seven wives that Kuti married in one day, more subtle alludes to the cultural stories behind the music and its artists can be visible throughout the other three posters. I would like to develop the frames to be slightly more detailed just to add a more finer look and feel, additionally I want to further explore a different painting technique to increase texture. Saying that I still feel my four posters are strong and impactful illustrations that share context, narrative and meaning. 

Black And White Print Out 1

Black And White Print Out 2

Black And White Print Out 3

Black And White Print Out 4

Final Poster 1

Final Poster 2

Final Poster 3

Final Poster 4

Overall I feel Nigeria 70 has been a successful project. Based on a interest and passion of mine this project has enabled myself to develop my own illustration style and approach. Through extensive research and inspiration I have learnt more about the subject of music in Nigeria during the 1970s, that in turn I feel has produced a series of strong, interesting and provoking works. I feel my outcomes work well as a set, the colours, styling and design between the posters and record covers bolsters continuity and an even flow of visually pleasing and satisfying imagery. Going forward I want to explore the content of music during Nigeria in the 1970s, perhaps evolving the subject matter into fashion and producing a garment; in addition to progressing my illustration style into something of its own. However ultimately I believe this project has progressed my working aesthetics, through exploration, experimentation and development I have built a better understanding of the impact that illustration and design can have on communicating provocative signs, meanings and messages.

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RE-IMAGINING NARRATIVE

Brief; Create an animation narrative that references myths and legends, or future visions, challenging and presenting your outcome in a new and innovative way through only using images and no text.

Stories both of a fiction and non fiction context have, for thousand of years, been a medium to provoke a reaction and express varied signs, meanings and messages of expression from humans. From ancient legends, to fairy tales, to contemporary urban myths, the bizarre and shocking and the beautiful and extraordinary have woven there way into narratives that have been shared and communicated within our society. Modern creatives are given unique opportunities to express stories of all natures through multiple mediums in turn subverting a new and fresh outcome of exciting content.

Research

Beginning by researching into a brief history of story telling, I gained a better understanding of how language and importantly image within a narrative are used to inform, entertain, manipulate and document. Additionally through investigating the timeline of storytelling, from early cavemen paintings, the invention of the printing press and the mass spread of the Bible, Shakespeare’s famous theatre productions, through to the birth of Hollywood and modern cinema and the digital age with the modern narrative taking its form under the hand held digital device; I was able to interpret that stories are intrinsic of our society and culture in turn defining values of desires, dreams, prejudices and hatred. Through my research development I began to gain more of an interest in the mythologies of Ancient Greece and Roman, as well as future based narratives and classic fairy tales. Notable examples are The Odyssey, Metropolis, and Beauty and the Beast, all illustrating narratives that express through the visual form. Initial research allowed myself to gain introductory ideas and questions to take forward; my forefront intention was to explore a narrative that expressed a meaning to provoke and engage with an audience on a personal level in turn influencing a certain emotion in reference to an impactful story.

Initial Ideas

From delving into past, present, and future inspired mythical narratives, I gained initial thoughts to base a story for my outcome. Ancient Greek mythology was the outstanding subject researched and in turn I wanted to take forward and explore further. With this in mind I further analysed famous Greek myths and narratives, that alluded to a poignant cultural message or issue to be challenged and questioned. I listed three potential stories to base my animation upon, Hercules, Medusa, and The Odyssey, I chose The Odyssey for that on reflection of the epic storyline I had a sudden recollection that the famous greek myth held similarities to the refugee crisis. Told by the famous Greek literature Homer, The Odyssey follows the story of soldier Odysseus as he attempts to return home from ten years away at war; however his journey home is riddled with epic challenges and obstacles from a flesh eating Cyclops to a seductive beautiful singing voices luring innocents to their death, yet despite these challenges Odysseus with the aid from Greek gods returned home safely to rejoice with his family. The mythical struggles that Odysseus encounters bare similarities to the factual challenges of a refugee escaping Syria, for instants Odysseus travelled by boat same as the refugees and the monsters experienced within the narrative could correlate to the horrifying imagery of soldiers and war that a refugee bares witness to. In addition the epic scale of the Odyssey and its journey influenced from war affiliates with the journey taken on by a refugee to get to safety both physically and mentally.

Development Notes

Development Notes

Development Notes

Magna Carta: REFUGE, Human stories from the refugee crisis

Narrative Structure

After delving into extensive research about the Syrian refugee crisis I began to draft an adapted fictional story based on factual events of the emergency and inspired both by the parallels of The Odyssey to form the context of the animation. Through story workshops and explorations I generated a character named Ammar Dwek aged 13, who is escaping war torn Syria on is own as all close family members have been killed in the conflict. Making his way across the Aegean sea Ameer encounters various troubles and challenges, but with the guidance from his mother and an angel Ammer makes it safely to the shores of Greece to begin his new life safe in refugee. I converted my notes for the story visually into a rough storyboard, that I later finalised with adaptations, the storyboard supplied a helpful and crucial visual aid for a preliminary look at the animation.

Rough Story Board

Rough Story Board

Rough Story Board

Rough Story Board

Rough Story Board

Sound

From building the storyboard up I began to gain a sense of time to the narrative, this sequentially led to introducing sound and music to the sequence. I decided to feature a song instead of just sound effects or no sound at all, on account of I felt it would supply more attraction and attention for the viewers. After exploring many genres, artists and songs I settled with Strange Fruit by Nina Simone, that I mixed with Kanye West’s sample that he adapted into Blood On The Leaves. The lyrics to Strange Fruit I felt held similar connections with the signs, meanings and messages of a refugee, adding the boldness and brutal sounds of Blood On The Leaves provided an aural entertainment that reinforces allure to the audience and ultimately supports the narrative meaning to the animation.

Imagery

With an established storyline created and an initial plan for sound, I turned my attention to the styling and imagery for the animation. At first I explored existing examples of interesting animation, David Foldvari, Ruffmercy and Blink my Brain all supplied inspiration. Foldvari’s use of bold, tonal and contrasting illustrations ignited meaning and provoked a reaction that engrossed my eye, alternatively the works of Ruffmercy and Blink my Brain offered engaging examples of how to use sound and imagery to influence an effective and intriguing narrative and animation. 

David Foldvari: Gerges, a refugee from Egypt

Ruff Mercy: J DILLA ‘THE SICKNESS’ Feat. NAS prod by MADLIB

Blink My Brain: Green Day - BangBang

I decided to create my animation using black and white elements only because I felt the addition of colour would take away the dramatic ambience that I wanted to forge to the sequence. Using my storyboard as a guide, I had a minimal selection of sourced images, I mainly used my imagination to create the imagery; I chose this approach to create looser and more expressive visuals that in turn would bolster the fanciful, mysterious and dreamlike symbolism of the animation sequence. Following sketching out initial ideas, I finalised all the pictorial elements and scanned them into the computer to edited and adapt ready to composite into the production of the animation.

Final Animation Drawing 1

Final Animation Drawing 2

Final Animation Drawing 3

Final Animation Drawing 4

Final Animation Drawing 5

Final Animation Drawing 6

Final Animation Drawing 7

Final Animation Drawing 8

Final Animation Drawing 9

Process

With all the assets completed I compiled them all together to begin making the final animation. To start I used Ae to compose, animate and apply effects to my illustrations, creating individual compositions for each illustration I used Ae puppet tool to transform the still images into subtle moving animations. Following I would apply a combination of effects placing keyframes in certain locations along the timeline for each asset, to get the visual response I wanted and reinforce movement to the stills. With all the pictorial components completed I focused on sourcing footage to complement the animation, collecting a mixture of miscellaneous footage I again used Ae to convert them in order to fit with the styling of the animation. Saving all the composite’s I then took them into Pr to assemble them all into a final sequence, and incorporate the song mixed I created with Garage Band. Syncing the footage with the sound and then tidying up the overall sequence I created a final render and titled it, The Odyssey.

Final

The Odyssey: Final Animation

Overall the final animation supplies the meaningful and impactful ambience I set out to achieve. Through reaching the history of narratives and storytelling, I have gained a fresh understanding of the importance to narrative and supplying meaning through language and visual imagery, which I want to take forward expand and have a the base for future works. Delving into the mythical world of Greek Mythology ignited my imagination, and finding a connection to the Syrian Refugee Crisis brought about the significance caused when experimenting with the old and new to create a new outlook that provokes an emotional response. I believe my final outcome accomplishes this, the dark, contrasting and tonal pictorial elements describe tension and an emotive atmosphere, that in turn portrays challenging and questionable ideologies thus attracting the audience. The addition of mixing Simone and West together creates a compelling soundtrack to the piece, supporting the visuals and guiding the viewers attention through mixed emotions. On reflection I might adjust the timings of some of the animation elements, and slightly change the movements of the visuals to be more smoother and flowing. Going forward I want to build upon the skills I have learnt with Ae and Pr to aid my intentions to explore meaning within narrative., similar to my final outcome which supplies the signs, meanings and message I wanted to create initially by adapting existing material into something thats fresh, original but ultimately thought provoking.

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SOCIAL MEDIA APP DESIGN

Brief: Design a new social media app brand, focussing on the app idea and function, the content and the icon.

Today near enough everybody benefits from the functions of an app, the end of everyones figure tip can open up virtual world’s from games, social media, blogs , news, utilities, music, arts and film to name a few, connecting socially via a digital device these worlds are accessible through an app. The release of the original apple iPhone reinvented the function of a phone, for the first time the  hand held device supplied more than just taking calls, it opened an opportunity for endless entertainment, social and cultural possibilities, and the functions of an app provided that.

Research

I began with questioning the form, function and social aspect of an app; how does an app work? what are its social benefits? what makes a good app? Initially I spent some time exploring the endless supply of apps available through the Apple’s iTunes market place; scrolling through the continual pages I established an initial understanding of the look and feel of a stylish and functional app. Flat and simplistic graphics accompanied by a slick typeface and soft colours appeared to be the appealing aesthetics for a contemporary app icon and interface; very few apps challenged this and avoided a more traditional illustrative or artistic visual style, this was a facet I wanted to take forward to challenge and experiment with. To gain a sense of the structure to a successful app I researched into existing popular apps, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger. The main component that featured at the centre of the three apps was the opportunity to connect with an online audience, through sharing, discussing and publishing via a digital format. Form and function over styling and design is implied through Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger; a slick and highly graphic design flows between the three major social, enabling an ease for use but supplies minimal visual excitement and interest. Initial research allowed myself to gain introductory ideas and questions to take forward; my forefront intention was to focus on challenging the normal overused graphical visual output with experimenting a highly illustrative approach whilst still establishing a functional app with user friendly mechanics.

Development

Taking forward the research and intentions I gained, I started to brainstorm an objective for my social media app. With iTunes market place already overcrowded with apps, I focused on coming up with an idea based on my personal hobbies and interest’s, instead of sighting a gap in the market to plug with an original idea that hasn't been done before. Preliminary thoughts circulated around basing the subject matter of the app on socialising graffiti, playing with art and collage, and illustrating news for children. However I decided to advance with an idea to create a social platform for houseplant lovers; after recently gaining an interest in houseplants I found myself in need of more knowledge, an app that granted a basis for users to learn from and share context surrounding houseplants would be beneficial, useful and enjoyable. In addition the subject matter of houseplants offers a diverse and stimulating visual imagery that can be explored in a varied artistic outlook, that in turn compliments my first motive to produce a profoundly illustrative app.

With my social media app concept bounded, I turned my attention to forming the mechanics and context of the app. Basing its audience on houseplant lovers both female and male of all ages, I had intentions to produce the functions of the app through a simplistic and flowing template that enabled user ease ability. Having social interaction and connectivity at its core, I generated and invented five features that branch out to reveal different levels of social communication and form the essence of the app. The Profile tab houses the account that each user will have, and can be made personal for each user. Contained within each Profile is a template for users to customise with their personal plants, and a data page where individual statistics are determined for each of the users plants, such as watering alerts, plant growth and sunlight intake. The Journal is in essence an encyclopaedia for houseplants, its function to supply users with information, facts and tips about every houseplant.  The Questions tab enables individuals to post and answer questions concerning any outstanding quarrels or wonders they might have, this is formatted through a discussion and chat format, inspired by Facebook Messenger and in turn permits social interaction within the app. The Shop function allows users to buy and sell houseplants, tools and accessories, while the World tab encompass’s the user into a feed of posts, photos and articles that are featured from accounts followed by the user; in turn both reinforce the social value to the app.

App Development 

App Development

App Development

App Development

App Development

App Development

App Development

App Development

Following completing rough sketches of the layout of the app, and establishing what its mechanics, forms and functions would be, I turned my attention to developing an illustrative and stand out style and design. I looked at a series of creatives that use plants and vegetation as a visual medium within their work to aid with initial ideas, notably Henri Matisse, Henri Rousseau and Liam Buckley. The energetic and engaging colours of Matisse and Buckley was a point that attracted my eye to begin with, as well as their their approaches to line and shape in turn creating integrated patterns within their works; additional Rousseau’s means of capturing  and exploring expressive painterly textures was another aspect of inspiration.

Henri Matisse: "The Parakeet and the Mermaid" 1952

Henri Rousseau: “Apes in the Orange Grove” 1910

Liam Buckley: “Gin For Tea”  2015

I experimented with different mediums and processes to achieve the ambience I wanted, preliminary practices focused on playing with oil pastels and pencils but I wasn't satisfied with the roughness that were generated; so I turned and settled with gouache paint used as a colouring and to build texture alongside using black water based ink to draw on detail, the more smoother, bolder and illustrative look spawned a more finalised and simple look that in turn I thought would work well on a digital screen, but ultimately fulfil and attract the users eye and senses. Going back to my layout plans and drafts, I created final assets and imagery, based on the established illustrative style, for each form, function and page to my app.

App Illustration Developments

App Illustration Developments

App Illustration Developments

App Illustration Developments

App Illustration Developments

App Illustration Developments

App Illustration Developments

App Illustration Developments

App Illustration Developments

With all the pictorial elements to the app completed, I experimented with imagery to create the icon. Sticking with the bold, colourful and graphic style I had previously established I played with different texts and imagery, until I settled with a design that highlighted a swiss cheese plant’s leaf on a subtle red background. I chose to not include the title of the app in the icon because I felt it would be to cluttered, instead the sole illustration stands out and says enough that draws the users attention whilst still remain clean, professional and simplistic. With all the assets to the app completed and finalised I scanned them all into Photoshop and began mocking up the multiple pages and features. Using a sourced template of an iPhone and my  layout blueprints as a basis, I simply built up each different section of the app by combining all my illustrated imagery onto a blank iPhone screen sized canvas and then dragging it into the template. Saving each finalised screen out as a .jpeg I transferred them all into InDesign to produce my app presentation. The concluding stage to the project was to come up with a name for my app, after deliberating over quirky but complicated names, I eventually decided on House Gardn.

House Gardn

House Gardn: App Icon

House Gardn: Home Screen

House Gardn: Journal Screen

House Gardn: Shop Screen

House Gardn: Profile Screen

House Gardn: Tip Screen

House Gardn: World Screen

House Gardn

Overall I am very happy with my final social media app design outcome. On reading the brief for the first time I feared I would struggle to inject an element of illustration in an expressive way, however through exploration, development and experimentation I was able to achieve this. From viewing the existing apps available on iTunes market place I was adamant to put design over function and create a purely illustrative design to the app, based on my personal interests. Through inspiration from Matisse, Rousseau and Buckley among others, I generated a styling that entices the eye, is aesthetically pleasing and supports the functions of the app. At its core House Gardn connects its user socially through a virtual houseplant world. I believe its five standout features create a broad and diverse experience for the user, that informs, entertains, educates and socially interacts. Going forward, I am excited to develop my ideas behind House Gardn and potentially if possible expand it into an existing app that challenges current social media apps. However as it stands House Gardn features an expressive illustrated outcome that challenges the boundaries of digital design but ultimately encompasses a fresh, original and exciting social media app.

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MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE

Brief: Construct a narrative that will be revealed by interaction with the environment through a smartphone or other networked media device.

Within this modern age of technology, data and network coverage is more accessible than ever; our daily lives increasingly becoming more augmented with digital content through mobile devices. Be it through QR codes, GPS and augmented reality content is both locative and pervasive attached to everywhere we are. This project is concerned with the construction and communication of a sequential narrative by turning the invisible content that surrounds us into an augmented experience. A narrative is built within and communicated through a medium, in this case the smartphone.

I began by researching into existing methods and applications that explore locative and pervasive narrative within the environment, from AR, GPS and QR codes. The QR code is a link that connects one element to another, born in the Japanese automotive industry a QR code consists of black squares arranged in a grid on a white background; information is linked when the black squares are scanned and processed by a camera. Artist Scott Blake, makes interactive portraits built up of a series of QR codes and barcodes that when scanned reveal a hidden narrative within the artwork. Blake’s portraits illustrate how using the physical design of a QR code can highlight visual imagery, in turn emphasising a narrative; this is an aspect I found interesting and wanted to explore further.

Following QR codes GPS is another technological form that offers opportunities to express a story through, particularly locative narrative telling. Global Positions System provides positioning and location capabilities, operating independently of any telephonic internet reception. Stephen Lund uses GPS to create map illustrations, through the medium of Google maps Lund plots his image, then cycles the planned rout, tracking his GPS thus creating the imagery. The concept of using a map interested me, a journey and adventure can be created and experienced through locative technology such as GPS.

Augmented Reality is a direct or indirect view of a real world environment, where elements are augmented though computer generated sensory inputs, such as graphics, sound and GPS data. AR brings components of the digital world into the real world, changing a persons perception upon reality.  Pokemon Go is a phenomenon brought to life through AR, formatted as a game Pokemon Go places Pokemon within the real world, allowing users to catch and own a variety of different Pokemon. The success of Pokemon Go, brings to notice the opportunities that AR can offer to enhancing a narrative experience, the balance of the real world and the augmented world is an aspect I wanted to experiment and play with, to further explore the journey that is manipulated through AR.

Another mobile digital application that explores AR is the Aurasma app. Aurasma uses AR to create an immersive and interactive platform, in which users can upload their own content within an environment, in turn producing a personalised AR experience. My research gathered enabled me to gain a better understanding of the technological formats that can be used within our environment to tell a sequential narrative, offering myself initial inspiration and aspects to take forward, such as the perception of illusion, manipulating a journey and revealing hidden secrets through interaction.

After gaining research, I went out into the environment and made a list of all the things that interested me, but potentially held an invisible narrative that could be brought to life through digital content. From this, I then began to draft initial ideas exploring themes of invisible history, invisible architecture and invisible community. First concepts ranged from playing with pot holes to generate a game of sort, to visualising the invisible conversations and communications that phone boxes hold and using road names and signs to compose a narrative or journey.  However after much reflection I decided to go with another idea I explored; using AR and QR codes to bring statues to life, presenting them as living history and memories in turn highlighting the invisible past and architecture of the statues. I thought using statues as a subject would be interesting because, states are built as a static form, yet held within is abundance of meaning, thoughts but ultimately stories to bring to life.

With my chosen concept defined, I gave my project a name Statue Spot, and then started to plan my outcomes and consider how I would bring it to life through AR and QR codes. I decided to explore statues within Hastings, primarily for connivence but also Hastings offers a variety of statues and monuments highlighting different narratives within. I picked five statues to delve into, Continuum, Boer War Memorial, Spirit of Cricket, Lion and Unicorn and Statue of Queen Victoria. After much speculation I concluded that I wanted to highlight the narratives of the statues through animation, which were to be presented using the Aurasma app; accompanying the short animations was going to be a map indicating the locations of the five statues, this in turn generates a journey guiding the user on a continuing narrative. I went with Aurasma because I felt it was the best tool to bring the invisible content within the environment to life, placing the user in the scenario in turn generating a fulfilled AR experience. The platform of QR codes I felt was a little static and linear in the way it presented a narrative; Aurasma was a lot more interactive, playful and experimental.  

With a plan for my outcomes established, I started work on the map. I wanted to make the map very illustrative, so that it enhanced the visual experience of Statue Spot in turn engaging better with the user. I firstly constructed a format for the map, then drafted up initial sketches to familiarise myself with the look and feel of each statue. Following I developed my rough samples into a flowing style along with founding a colour scheme, this in turn outlined a balance in visual imagery building consistency through the design of the map. After scanning my finalised illustrations and assets for the map, I composted all the elements within Ps ready for print.

A challenging wall occurred during the development of the animations for each statue. Initially I really struggled with formatting the logistics of producing an animation that could be used within the Aurasma app, normally my process for making an animation would be to create it and them upload it to an online platform like Vimeo. Unfortunately Aurasma only accepts files contained within a mobile device, of a certain size and format; so I had to learn and adapt a new working process and style. With the logistics arranged I created a rough story board and began drawing the animatic elements. My initial animation focused around the Statue of Queen Victoria and combined illustrative moving images with dialogue informing the invisible history and narrative to the statue. However I felt it wasn't right, and upon the presentation critique my doubts were confirmed, in turn the animation was viewed as to formatted and more of a history lesson than a engaging narrative, with the music being to dreamy and mystery thus creating a visual sequence that felt unattached and separate; feedback suggested to be more more playful and experiment with how to present the information. With this in mind I pondered for a while over how to adjust my animation to be more intriguing, captivating and appealing. In the end I found myself being purely experimental, exploring new animation processes and techniques, and creating ones of my own; through this purely playful approach I generated animations that I felt were a lot more enjoyable, lively and entertaining, in turn fulfilling a better sequential narrative. In addition using garage band, I changed the music from the quite dreary and slow synth sounds, to a much more up beat, purely drum and precision soundtrack; this in turn generates more movement and rush to the animation, keeping the viewer excited for longer thus enhancing the visual excitement and narrative told. Overall I am very happy with my two outcomes, the map is bright, colourful and illustrative, it engages with the audiences eye, in sequence reinforcing the an elated narrative journey that the user explores. My adapted accompanying animations are equally visually exciting and intriguing. With the adapted versions, the information and narrative is told through a purely illustrative and visual context, this in turn flips the animation from being linear and quite boring, to entertaining, enjoyable and inviting. The styling of both the map and the animations work in tandem together, creating a balance and continuity in design.

In conclusion this project has been one of the most challenging, yet rewarding. My struggles began with the brief, how do you turn something invisible, visible? Then generating the animation that both told the narrative but engage successfully with interaction with digital content such as AR. It was only when I began to have fun experimenting with the animation, that I made sense of it all. Taking this project forward I want to generate the final two animations, and slightly change the colour scheme on the map so it flows a little better with the moving image. Yet through my two outcomes I feel an intriguing and engaging narrative is told, that brings the user and the environment together, to reveal signs, meanings and messages that are invisible.

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HI FEST

Brief: Produce an animation, zine or placemat to be featured as part of Hi Fest, along side getting involved with variable opportunities offered.

In its third year running Hastings Illustration Festival gathers together an array of creatives for a weekend of workshops, talks, exhibits and selling of work; this year offered a chance to get involved with Hi Fest through a variety of avenues. Possible opportunities to engage with, ranged from submitting or producing a new piece of work, creating a window mural, working as a volunteer and manning a stall space. I was very interested in helping run the stall space, as it would offer interaction with the public and other creatives, in turn allowing opportunities to build contacts and gain an insight into the professional world.

In preparation for Hi Fest I was keen to produce some new work to exhibit and possibly sell. To start with I thought about creating a new short animation, however time didn't prevail; so I focused on making a zine alongside a series of illustrative prints. Initial concepts for the zine and prints circulated around ideas I had come up with in my spare time, and Hi Fest was a great chance to explore and develop them further.

One of those ideas was called Trump Travels, a zine based upon Donald Trump going on holiday, this thought evolved from Trumps controversial election campaign and even more questionable presidency victory. The narrative focuses on Trump taking a rest from his campaign and going on holiday to his favourite destinations, yet the zine plays with the political and personal ideologies that Trump provokes; for example each different location has relevance to Trump and a subtle allude, wether it is Trump soaking up the culture at the Great Wall in China or partying with a mariachi band in Mexico. After exploring and establishing a narrative, I drafted a storyboard and began playing with the design, layout and style. From my rough character and story sketches, I was going to produce finalised illustrations; however I really liked the initial abrasive and D.I.Y feel that my rough samples depicted, so I scanned them straight into Ps. After cropping and converting my illustrations with a black fill, I went into Id to produce the zine ready for print.

I wanted to accompany the Trump Travels zine with a set of illustrative prints. To begin with I speculated to create a series of prints related to the zine, perhaps capturing certain scenes from the narrative, and converting them into singular pieces. Alternatively I thought about generating prints unrelated to the zine, instead exploring another idea; I decided to go with the latter and produce a run of ten prints taken from a series of illustrations capturing ten different musicians and rappers. Likewise with Trump Travels this idea formed from spare time drawing, I took the ten different rapper illustrations from pages out of my sketchbook and scanned them into Ps. I scanned them in black and white with the intention of playing with colour on the computer at a later stage, however within the scanner settings I notice I could experiment with the threshold levels, resulting in a scan that resembles a screen or linocut print. After scaling each drawing to A3 size, I simply printed them out; I decided to leave the image alone from the scan file because I felt the darkness of the black alongside the threshold textures fools the eye into seeing a screen or linocut print, resulting in a powerful and depth full final image.

In company with my zine and prints, Hi Fest offered a great opportunity to launch Club Creative. CC is a student led creative group housing our two courses, Illustration for Screen Arts and Graphic Design for Digital media, dedicated to producing new and exciting works, exhibitions, shows, and workshops. We set up the stall space available at Hi Fest under CC, showcasing a variety of outcomes from our two courses and also personal works.

The opportunities offered from Hi Fest 2016, I grasped and believe were successful. I thoroughly enjoyed manning the CC stall, I gained and learnt a better understanding of the creative world both professionally and independently, through talking to fellow professional artist and designers but ultimately through engaging with the public; talking about works and ideas. Through including my own works, I developed my visual experimental and exploration skills, but overall realised the potential opportunities you can make for yourself. My involvement in Hi Fest opened my eyes to a glimpse of what becoming a professional, artist, designer, illustrator or filmmaker is about, from producing the work to engaging with the public and allowing your work to communicate to a real audience.

Hi Fest 2016

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BRIGHT FRIDAY

Brief: Produce a creative antidote towards Black Friday, that will be featured within Bright Friday festival.

The University of Brighton joined forces with environmental charities Hubbub and WRAP to launch Bright Friday. Acting as an antidote to Black Friday; an American tradition where retailers offer high discounts in an attempt to persuade customers to spend more money. Opposed to the ethics of Black Friday, Bright Friday brings together a variety of creative channels such as exhibitions, comedy, film, performance and workshops held in Brighton with an aim to emphasise positive messages towards consumerism and fashion; unlike its counter part Black Friday which has been seen abusing fashion and retail industries.

Possible creative outcomes for the project could surrounded avenues of illustration, film, photography, creative writing, art and fashion; with potential themes highlighting the silly side of fashion, how to value clothing, making clothes last longer and seeing value in waste. My project began by researching into consumerism, and how artists have reacted to it. Consumerism spanned from a society wanting to buy and sell with the ultimate aim to own, it is a social and economic order. For Black Friday is all about consumerism, taking advantage and polluting the consumer with buying and owning opportunities, this ideology of consumerism was an aspect I was keen to explore further. Through my research I discovered pop art emphasise consumerism through lots of its works, artists such as Warhol and Kuri constantly experiment and delve into the world of consumerism. Warhol’s rather contradicting “Brillow Boxes” raises everyday consumerism to the status of fine art, bringing consumerism itself to a level of importance and prestigiousness, opposing the symbolism of throw away culture that tends to follow Black Friday and replacing it with the everyday beautiful; in turn this contradiction of imagery towards consumerism was a fresh exploration which I found interesting. Similar for Kuri, consumption and consumerism acts as his material, taking inspiration from receipts Kuri re-imagines them into huge exquisite wall tapestries; in turn reflecting similar connotations to Warhol's “Brillow Boxes.” Transforming an everyday throw away item such as a receipt into an item of immense scale and beauty, strongly identified with me  an element of value in waste and turning something ugly into something beloved. This balance and mixing of beauty within waste, consumption and consumerism that Warhol and Kuri produce, was an aspect I wanted to explore further and experiment with.    

Andy Warhol: Brillo Boxes

Gabriel Kuri: Trinity

Following on from my initial research, I began drafting ideas and potential themes to work with; preliminary concepts ranged from creating a form of garment describing consumerism and the flaws of Black Friday, to a toilet roll of receipts highlighting value in waste and an animation piece focusing on the funny side of fashion and consumption. Undecided on choosing one idea, I ended up exploring two of my initial concepts the garment and toilet roll of receipts.

Influenced by Warhol’s reaction to consumerism I wanted to explore and experiment with the ideologies of wasteful fashion and and the absurdity of buying, selling and ownership. I felt using a garment as a canvas offered opportunities to express questions of value in clothing, making clothes last longer and recycling; concepts that Black Friday abuse. A considerable amount of incentive and inspiration for this idea extended from my Bowie project, where by I re-used an old coat that I then stitched, painted and collaged memories of David Bowie onto the garment. I felt I could use and experiment further with this creative process, adapting the theme to concepts surrounding consumerism. Before I began making the garment, I researched into the imagery I could use to express the meanings, emotions and questions surrounding my chosen subject matter. From my investigations I noticed sale signs and advisement promotions provoke and aid the pollution of Black Friday, they attract the buyer to “cant say no” deals benefiting the seller, but ultimately they are a visual symbol and a graphic icon for consumerism design. In particular vintage hand painted signs and eighties supermarket signs hold an element of attraction and visual interest, that I wanted to experiment and work with. Sourcing first hand and second hand imagery of a variety of different sale and promotion content, I began to sketch and paint details of the  imagery that I found visually interesting but ultimately relayed the questions I wanted to provoke on my garment. The roughness and sketchiness of my initial drawings generated a variety of textures and mark making, but also highlighted movements of rush and panic, which in turn I felt relayed messages of the manic rush and carnage that is generated around Black Friday; so instead of finessing the sketches I scanned them straight into Ps adjusting the details with a black fill so they became bolder, stronger and easier to visualise, and created separate layers for each image. From this I constructed a series of patterns using my observational drawings of sale signs, which I then printed onto cotton, a technique I discovered making my Bowie piece, ready to be stitched and sewn onto the garment. However before I could begin this, I had to have a garment. I decided on a coat because I felt comfortable with the creative process, as I used a coat for the Bowie project, but ultimately a coat offers a large canvas to work on, in turn enabling myself to experiment with more content. Having bought the coat from a charity shop, and with my cotton signage patterns printed, I forged a rough coat design template to work from, but I wanted to leave it quite open and unrestricted. Using techniques I discovered with my Bowie coat and devising new processes, I began to stitch, paint, draw, and collage onto the garment. Starting on the back I sewed all my cotton patterned pieces, overlaying and mix matching different parts; eventually ending up with an almost patchwork of signs, promotions and advertisement all alluding to the show of Black Friday. I then finished on the front using a mixing of inks, acrylics and highlighters, I began to paint further imagery surrounding consumerism and consumption.

Similar to the Bowie coat, I wanted to express the final garment further through a look book and fashion film. My initial thoughts for the shoot was to use a projector and model the coat while overlaying projections of shops, advertisement and other consumerism imagery to create a distorted and experimental photo and film. However the majority of my time was spent making the physical garment, so I didn't have enough manageable time to produce my intended shoot and film; adapting I ended up devising a make shift shoot in my living room. Yet this improvised shoot worked really well, using light and a zoom technique on my camera which I found by accident;  I composed a series of purely experimental photos and footage, that described notions of distortion, exaggeration and blurriness. The obscurity to the photos and film was something I was keen to portray, because I felt the blurriness represents the panic and frenzy surrounding Black Friday, but ultimately alludes the delicate questions surrounding money, poverty, and human wealth fair which in essence get mystified within the blur of the fashion world.

Overall I am happy with the final money coat and accompanying fashion film and look book. I enjoyed re-visiting the process of producing a garment that I had previously explored with the Bowie project. I feel the coat along with the film and photos depicts the farcical surrounding Black Friday and consumerism but also brings to light the fragile opinions and questions surrounding the fashion world. After completing the money coat began work on my toilet roll of receipts idea.

Inspired by Kuri’s receipt tapestries, I further wanted to investigate and experiment values of consumerism, waste, ownership and recycling but with a positive twist. Receipts are a symbol of consumerism, yet society tends to throw away receipts, discarding them as worthless pieces of paper. Yet a receipt holds values of money, its a personal recording of spending and owning, an unconscious valuable object, that is just dismissed, in turn highlighting value in waste and consumerism, but ultimately the absurdity to buy, sell and own. These ideologies and concepts formed the bases of my second outcome.

Sketching out different ways I could use receipts as a medium, I soon came to the conclusion that I wanted to create a toilet roll out them, but the of it practicality was a challenge. I experimented with several different avenues of processes and techniques, firstly printing on paper strips and then glueing them together to create a roll, but then the final outcome didn't really represent a toilet roll, the texture and form was all wrong but the printing of the receipts was precise and clear. For my second attempt I drew onto a toilet roll, this generated the right texture and feel but now the receipts where unreadable due to ink spreading on the tissue. To overcome this problem I took inspiration from my money coat, using the same technique of printing onto the cotton I adapted the cotton for strips of toilet roll, ran it thorough the printer and then stuck all the strips back together to form a toilet roll of receipts. 

With the technical and practical side of producing the roll covered, I turned to playing with the receipt design. Instead of using real receipt designs and printing them onto the roll, I wanted to exaggerate and find humour within the meaning and format of a receipt. My experimentation’s led me to creating four different designs that at first glance look like a standard receipt but on closer inspection I have changed subtle details. Using four different major retailers, such as Tesco, I adapted each of their respected name into an innuendo, for instance Wastesco. Furthermore where the list of bought products and pricing are normally laid out, I have placed the truths to shopping; the things we buy sub-consciously, for example we buy to show our wealth, to gain popularity and to get friends. These adapted designs of receipts allude to the truth of spending, money and consumerism as well reinforcing elements of humour.

In conclusion the final toilet roll of receipt is a humorous, challenging and entertaining piece. It describes the absurdity to consumerism, the waste that is thrown away due to over spending owning what we don't need; the symbol of a receipt on a toilet roll alludes meanings and questions around wasting money and materials, essentially “throwing money down the toilet.” On reflection both pieces work in tandem, together they both provoke and raise the questions I had about consumerism, Black Friday and the fashion world, is it all necessary? is it abused? can we find value in waste? why do we need it? This project has enabled me to develop, adapt and learn new skills, processes and techniques, but ultimately my explorations and experimentation's into these subjects have left me with a new approach to viewing the world of consumerism.

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PROJECTION MAPPING

Brief: create a short animation, exploring the theme of autumn, that will be part of a live projection light show featured on Eastbourne town hall tower.

In collaboration with Eastbourne Borough Council and West End Studios, this project focuses on projection mapping, a technique unfamiliar to myself. Agreed by the client and Council the theme issued was “Eastbourne through the Seasons”, Spring, Summer and Winter elements were to be covered by W.E.S, leaving Autumn to be explored. The final outcome would be included in the Eastbourne christmas light show which will be projected onto the town hall tower, along with opportunities to work with W.E.S on a placement.

My initial research took me into investigating the basics of projection mapping, as a completely new visual technique to me, I wanted to understand and grasp the workings and effects that projection mapping offers. Also known as video mapping and augmented reality, this visual tool uses projected light to turn objects into a display surface for video projection. These objects range from buildings to theatrical stages, using software such as Ae and Autodesk Maya a 2D or 3D object is mapped on the virtual program which mimics the real environment it is to be projected on. Combined with audio input, projection mapping is used by creatives to describe a narrative explorations in image, type, colour, light and sound.  

Continuing my research I visited Eastbourne and the town hall, where the final projections would be held. I gathered a series of drawings and photographs of the tower and building, helping myself grasp the scale and physicality of the building which in turn gave me a better understand of the practicality and visual sides of what the animation could become. In addition seeing the tower in reality puts into perspective the elements and textures of the building; for example the majority of the brick was a burnt red colour, so anything thats red projected onto the building would not be visible. Also there was a lot more curves and bumps to the tower that I hadn't noticed previous, I felt this was something to engage with and not to dismiss, experimenting with the buildings layout and architectural features might offer a more visually exciting and impactful projection.

After visiting the tower and grasping the process and techniques of projection mapping, in turn  learning the visual effects that can be created using the process, I began to brainstorm initial ideas and themes surrounding the brief and the season of Autumn. First draft ideas ranged from exploring the patterns and visual playfulness of fireworks, to the spooky atmospheres of halloween and describing the ever changing and preparation of wildlife in Autumn. Along with drafting first stage concepts and themes, I also started thinking about the animation technique, wether to create a vastly digital narrative, or go with a more traditional and hand drawn approach. My decision was made to go with a hand drawn animation technique, when during the briefing and research I found a lot of existing projection mapping consists mainly of digital and 3D animation; I wanted to explore and challenge mixing a traditional technique with the modern process of video mapping. With the animation process established, I looked over my initial ideas and decided to choose Autumn wildlife, I felt out of the three the wildlife theme offered a stronger narrative to play with, with opportunities to experiment with subjects such as change, preparation and evolution.  

The next stage of the project was researching into the range of wildlife in and surrounding Eastbourne, whilst exploring the process of change and preparation that wildlife goes through during Autumn. From this I gathered a series of initial sketches and drawings highlighting a range of wildlife, from owls, foxes and badgers to mushrooms, meadows and trees; these basic samples established the framework to build my animation upon. After a storyboard was settled I created a rough animatic using my initial sketches which I converted into .gif files, this offered the first visual perspective of what my animation would look like on the tower.

From then I began creating the final animation drawings, using the technique of rotoscoping I mixed mediums working  from pencil to ink, in turn generating  variable textures, patterns and visual emotions. Once I had finished all the single framed rotoscoped drawings I scanned each of them into the computer, then editing them in Ps along with generating single .mp4 files for each scene, which I then took into Ae to composite each single animation into a narrative. Furthermore using Ae I was able to digitally map my wildlife animations onto the Eastbourne Tower, using a template supplied by W.E.S.

With the single animation .mp4 files composited and mapped onto the digital template of the tower, I focused on introducing elements of colour. I initially experimented with a variety of different layouts and process’s to generating colour, ranging from converting my black and white animations to different autumn colours to overlaying whole sections of colour onto the tower. In the end I found myself blocking and masking certain architectural features of the tower out with changing colour, the final outcome being a colour generated template of the tower that I could then overlay my animations, adjusting the opacity so that the animations blend with the autumn themed colours and shades.

With the animation and compositing elements of my projection completed, it was time to input aspects of audio to bring the silent animatics to life. Initially I thought about featuring a song with an natural/wilderness atmosphere to it, artists such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young. However once overplayed with the animation sequence the audio and visual didn't work together, I felt it was the input of vocals that wasn't quite right. So I decided to make my own soundtrack for the narrative, using garage band I mixed a sequence of sound that is fairly muted in order for the animation to speak for itself.

With the soundtrack to the animation completed, I finalised some touches to the order of structure to make the narrative a little clearer, then exported the final animation projection sequence to a .mp4 file. On exporting I created three versions of the same piece, a black and white, coloured inverted overlay, and coloured overlay version, with in mind that the black and white version would work better with the projection setup, but I still wanted to explore the coloured elements.

Overall I am very happy with my final outcomes, looking back I feel my black and white version works the best for the reason that the wildlife animatics are much more visible, in turn making it easier for the audience to understand and read the narrative. However the coloured versions emphasise the change in elements and wildlife but ultimately highlight the architecture to the tower, yet I feel the single animations get lost within the changes in colour making for a visually exciting and interesting piece but with a misunderstood narrative structure. The music is subtle and peaceful, allowing the moving images to speak for themselves and relax within the sequence. On reflection the final scene is engaging, playful and stimulating but ultimately challenges the concept of projection mapping. The next stage of the project was to await a decision from W.E.S and the Council to see if my projection animation would make it into the light show.

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WEST END STUDIO

Fortunately my animation sequence did get selected for the light show, from this I was invited to a week long work placement at W.E.S, this enabled opportunities to grasp working within industry but ultimately experience new creative offerings and challenges.

W.E.S are a privately owned international experience creation company with a 40-strong team and a total in-house production capability based on the latest technologies across all media. From their purpose-built facility in Eastbourne, W.E.S have produced thousands of successful immersive experiences worldwide that inform, excite and inspire. Below is a journal I kept, recalling my accounts and experiences whilst working for my week placement:

Day 1: Intro to team David talks about project so far Briefed on work to do Start work on Halloween segment Complete wolf drawings, bat sketches, alongside rough storyboard

Day 2: Continue working on halloween scene. Work split into two Begin working on zombie, spider, and skeleton sequence Rendered out initial scene

Day 3: Two sets of Halloween work composited then rendered Moved onto seaside scene Cut out scene imagery Sourced sound effects for Halloween scene Begin work on christmas flyer scene Prepared the Illustrator flyer files, to build into the tower

Day 4: Finalised and rendered christmas flyer advertisement scene Looked back on my Autumn scene Transferred and organised files Updated my autumn scene to work better with rest of the animation projection sequence

Day 5:

Issued with creating Elf on a Shelf scene Transferred and adjusted files in Illustrator Built and composted scene Rendered out and viewed final projection

Overall my time spent at W.E.S was fulfilled with enjoyment, challenge and learning. Initially my first impressions working there were testing , because I was faced with overcoming new softwares, environments and work scenarios, but after the first day I grew comfortable with the situation. To my surprise I covered and created a lot more work than I first anticipated, after finalising my own autumn piece, I worked on the halloween and summer scenes of the animation projection, but also covered a couple of advertisement sequences which in turn I enjoyed the most; turning something which is quite bland and boring into something creative and visually exciting I found rewarding. Through these multiple projects I adapted and learnt the software Ae, initially I had a basic understanding of the programme, but as the week went on I increased with confidence and technical skill. Ultimately though the work placement opened me up to the opportunities and work ethic that industry brings; working within a team, collaborating, sharing ideas and time management. The opportunities that I grasped and experienced at W.E.S I will take forward with me, expand and learn more from; my work placement concluded a project that I learnt new technical skills from, expanded my creative explorations and experimentations and touched on the insight to opportunities within industry work. Below is the final light show on the Eastbourne town hall tower.