How can materiality enhance the end user/audience experience?
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ba vs ma
Term is just about to finish and I would like to put a reflection on how BA course differs from MA course.
I obtained my BA degree in Graphic Design in June 2016 at The Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Poland. It was a long way to get there as it took me 5 years to really understand what I want to do in life, digest my past failures, and come back to the roots when I decided to be an artist at the age of fourteen. As a perfectionist, I take failures badly (altough the older I get, the more I fight it) and after my Painting application to Academy was rejected in 2009 I didn’t touch a pencil or paint for few following years. I did many other developing things though, going as far as studying archeology, languages, challenging myself as a teacher and tallship crew or working as a bosun. All those things shaped my character and knowledge and I couldn’t be happier that back in 2009 I was rejected.
Being a graphic designer needs this sense of searches and experiments to gain new skills and knowledge all the time. Graphic Design is a perfect combination of freedom of Art and discipline of Science.
BA course was a perfect start, as I never even touched Adobe programmes before, wasn’t ever a big fan of technology and had to gain all those technical skills that I still need to refine everyday. But what was the best about this course was learning the way of thinking in Graphic Design. In my opininon, this is a crucial skill that everyone starting in this field has to understand. Firstly, is just starting to see the world around you in different terms, pushing yourself to be always curious and perceptive in order to take something for yourself even from most oridinary things. Then, you have to learn to be creative (and I really believe you can learn this or at least train it) so that you can always come up with many different and new solutions for upcoming problems and tasks. After that, there is no way back and either you love it or hate it. It is very hard to switch from ‘graphic designer thinking mode’ to just normal, relaxed mode and many times I find myself getting up from bed, when I was more than ready to sleep, just because I can’t switch off thinking and some new, random or relevant, ideas are comming up even if I do not necesarily want them. So in that terms, I am very thankful to all the tutors and peers back in my hometown School, because I really feel like I was given the chance to a best start in Graphic Design learning process.
MA course at The University of Portsmouth was a big mistery to me. You always read in the folders and flyers things that you will learn and achieve at certain course, but it doesn’t really tell you how you will achieve all of that. So it’s hard to expect anything, especially comming from different environment or field. After few months that started with a bit of surprise (who am I to even conduct a research?), this course seems a perfect continuation of my Graphic Design journey and it was just what I needed after chasing deadlines of technical tasks and not having a quality time to think through what exactly am I doing. So this is MA for me: thinking, researching, looking for something, trying to understand and make sense of yourself and the world around you. And to my astonishment - I like it! Mostly, what I get from this course is developing a genuine love for Graphic Design at its core, and realising how broad and deep this field is. It’s very self developing, but also helps to add sense to my work and climb one step further from just doing nice or not so nice things, that some people will love and others will say ‘I drew like this in kindergarden’, to a new step of knowing exactly what am I doing, why am I doing this and even if someone doesn’t like it, having a confidence that it was a process that didn’t come from nowhere and it can be explained to others. So in that way, MA course gives me the knowledge of creative process and its importance, as well as confidence to stand by my designs. Last but not least, it is fun and entertaining to see myself talking about things that I didn’t even thought about few months ago.
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trace of the past
On Polaroid:
Instant cameras have found many uses throughout their history. The original purpose of instant cameras was motivated by Jennifer Land's question to her father (Edwin Land): "Why can't I see them now?" Many people have enjoyed seeing their photos shortly after taking them, allowing them to recompose or retake the photo if they didn't get it right. But instant cameras were found to be useful for other purposes such as ID cards, passport photos, ultrasound photos, and other uses which required an instant photo. They were also used by police officers and fire investigators because of their ability to create an unalterable instant photo. Medium and large format professional photographers have also used the higher end instant cameras to preview lighting before taking the more expensive medium and/or large format photo. Instant film also has been used in ways that are similar to folk art, including the transfer of the images/emulsion and image manipulation.
Script supervisors in film production used instant cameras as standard to aid visual continuity by photographing characters or sets, producing photographs that could be instantly referred to when a particular set or character's appearance needs to be reset and shot again, or recalled later due to the non linear shooting schedule of a film or television production (that is, a film is rarely shot in the order of chronology in the film, due to time, location or financial restraints). Script supervisors no longer use instant cameras due to digital technology.
With the advent of digital photography, much of the instant camera's consumer appeal has been transferred to digital cameras. Passport photo cameras have gone to digital, leaving instant cameras to a niche market.
On Instagram:
People use Instagram to capture those fleeting moments, but also to be part of an online community, or to connect with their Facebook community. Instagrams are like the Polaroid photo that, despite its physical death, is still alive as an aesthetic choice. Instagram has revived the Polaroid aesthetic.
Trace of the material past:
Instargram proves that people need traces of materiality in virtual world. Instagram filters will never substitute the character of polaroid photographs, but we want this sentiment in our present live. We like to take instant photographs with out phones and share them immediatly with others. Instagram filters applied to the photos can reflect and immitate atmosphere, our feelings, weather conditions. Polaroids do it naturally. You can’t manipulate with the outcome, but as in the examples below, they capture all of these things genuinely. I like to think about my polaroid camera as a tool that has it’s own brain and emotions, and seeing it revealed after taking a photo is pure magic.
https://readwrite.com/2012/03/22/why_instagrams_are_the_new_polaroids/
http://wikipedia.com
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creative play
‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’ -Pablo Picasso
Two artefacts below show how creative play can inform and enhance end product experience.
I have made this poster as a ‘wild card’ for my proposal unit to help myself to develop a major project idea. I was interested in the idea of creative, non-organised play with paper and crayons in order to trigger and idea for the project. Also I found that refreshing in terms of freedom I gave to myself by simply cutting pieces of papper and drawing on it efortlessly. This activity enaboled me to have an insight in what I like in terms of aesthetics, but also process of making. It allowed me to reflect on the question of why I do things in a certaing way and how the idea can be developed.
Fabric print shows how manual designing was translated into digital designing and then put back into the world in a form of appropriable object. The project was prepared in digital medium, but it clearly derives from the manual cut-outs, so in a way it is informed by it and enhanced by the experience of ‘Back to the Playground’ poster.
One of my points of interest is how to translate the material world into digital graphic design without losing their mutual correlations and enhancing their dependance.
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Petra Lange-Berndt ‘Materiality. Documents of Contemporary Art.’ 2015
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short story
Learning through storytelling refers to a process in which learning is structured around a narrative or story as a means of ‘sense making’. It involves the use of personal story and anecdotes to engage learners and share knowledge. Stories are everywhere in human life and can be termed narrative, case study, life history, myth, anecdote, legend, scenario, illustration or example, storytelling and/or critical incident. ‘Stories’ can be ‘told’ in many ways – spoken, written, filmed, mimed, acted, presented as cartoons and/or as new media formats (Moon 2010).
This short and simple animation is a record of my short story prepared for Question of Research classes. It shows the process of my research. I hope to build up to it at the end of the unit. This documentation should show the differences of how I thought my research looks like when I was starting it, and how it will look by the end of the journey with my question.
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/enhancement/starter-tools/learning-through-storytelling
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the process
Below, you will find two reproductions of my works that focus around the same theme (Southsea - part of the city I live in), but are executed in two different techniques. It is interesting to see, how the process of designing an image changes for me under different circumstances.
First image is an digital illustration made in Adobe Illustrator and represents a shell collected at Southsea beach signed with name of the place of its origin. General tonation is greens and blues with a support of black and white. While working on this project I was sitting in my office, in front of the computer, having shells on my desk and trying to redraw them with a help of graphic tablet.
Observations:
a. It took me around two to three hours to draw this image, as I was trying out different shades and compositions. Unfortunatelly, after some time, I am now able to see only the final version due to the style of working in digital programs. I was making my decisions on the spot, so the image was developing on the same ‘canvas’ without documenting the process of its creation.
b. That makes it very difficult to reflect on what I did, because simply, I do not remember what options I was trying out and cannot draw any conclusions considering the development of the illustration.
c. I have decided to use a ‘fancy’, popular now style of lettering, as I was thinking about the work in more commercial terms. It seems that it is very easy to pick up on the influences from the Internet while designing on computer, as you can always look up how other people did something or what is trendy. It’s good to know what is happening in the world, but you have to be able to differentiate between good and bad sources as well as it seems to block creativity and individuality.
Second image is a compilation of traditional letter press prints. These are typographic posters in black and pink. While working on this project, I have shut myself in University’s letter press room for about six hours.
Observations:
a. Time! it definitely takes much more time to print traditionally. The plus is that usually the outcomes are more versatile and always some unexpected and unplanned design comes out on the way.
b. I am usually playing with the letter press in a unorganised and unplanned way. I usually have a draft of what I want to achieve, but many times I just play with the letters and check the outcomes straight away. I test few different options and choose the best one in the end that I print in more copies. The design process of letter press is much more creativity stimulating. It’s based on thought-reaction correlation which allows more intuitive designing. It also stimulates reflection, as I cant undo my actions by pressing a key on the computer keyboard. That means that after doing a print I look at it and put much more time to evaluate what are its streghts and flaws and that drawing conclusions I print another one.
c. It’s me, letters and the machine. Traditional letter press printing process allows me to focus on myself and my own, sometimes intuitive, creative movements. Somehow, I don’t try to please anyone or fullfill any modern trends. I tend to treat it more as art and less commercially which allows more presonal and original outcomes.
d. Uniqueness. Eventough it is possible to control the machine in a way that the outcomes would be almost identical, what I try to embrace is the happy accidents that often occur on the way. Depending on the pressure, ink spread, letter form or paper type, each of the copies is slightly different, highlighting the human, material input.
Both of the projects will be send to the Southsea Gallery and hopefully put on sale. It will be intereseting to see them clashing with the real world and audience and compare the sales figures in order to see how real customers react to these two different mediums.
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iterative process - practice in practice
‘The iterative design process is a simple concept. Once, through user research, you have identified a user need and have generated ideas to meet that need, you develop a prototype. Then you test the prototype to see whether it meets the need in the best possible way. Then you take what you learned from testing and amend the design. Following that, you create a new prototype and begin the process all over again until you are satisfied that you’ve reached the best possible product for release to the market.’
I applied this definition of iterative process to my own practice.
I have always wanted to learn traditional caligraphy and brush lettering. So in this experiment I define myself as a user - graphic designer. Graphic designer’s need was to learn how to perform traditional caligraphy and brush lettering. Through my research on how to learn these techniques I got the knowledge that I should first try to practice basic strokes with a brush. I started doing that, which could be called testing the idea, and realised that it doesn’t meet my expectations as I have no basic knowledge of caligraphy. I have searched for resources that would inform me how caligraphy works in theory (up stroke, down stroke, pressure, tools) and tried again. When outcomes with brush started looking a bit better than before, I tried a more advanced tool - a dip pen. In some way, it was a step back, as many new problems occured that I didn’t experience with a brush pen. First of all, I have realised that it is not advisable to drink tea while practicing caligraphy and that it spills far easier that anyone would thought. Cat walking on your practice sheets also doesn’t work very well as the ink dries for quite a while and an innocent paw can ruin hours of efforts. More seriously, reflecting on my practice, I have also realised things that have to be taken into consideration while writing: quality of ink, kind of paper, kind of nib, pressure used to write, amount of ink, pace of the stroke and the angle in which nib touches the paper.
Gaining this knowledge, I made few more attempts and after focusing on just mentioned key issues my caligraphy and brush lettering started looking far better (at least no stains and sokes through too thin paper).
It is still far away from being any good, but it shows how practicing can inform further practice and how important process of repeating and reflecting is.
http://interaction-design.org
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materiality in the context of graphic design
‘German architect Gottfriend Semper maintains that machines have dramatically transformed the cultural understanding of man-made objects once they become the product of an autonomous hand (Semper 1998, 331-336).
‘Incorporating play into graphic design can be broken down with an analysis of the design process, and how various ways of working with materials can trigger a sense of physical engagement. By working with tangible materials, designers directly encounter their physicality, rather than working solely with content that is represented on a computer screen. This may produce discoveries through experimentation, such as ‘happy accidents’ or natural irregularities and the designer may capture the material’s innate qualities and incorporate them into the design process. Through manipulation of materials, the designer can reflect and think about the ideas that emerge, thereby allowing the playfulness to inform the creative activity. This becomes a dialectical and dialogical process at the core of the act of creative play.’
Nicole Beno ‘Exploring Materiality in Graphic Design Through Creative Play’
Gottfried Semper ‘Science Industry, and Art’
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materiality in the context of craft
‘It is important to understand that craftsmanship is not limited to the making of one-of-a-kind artifacts. Instead, craftsmanship includes a type of knowledge that is gained through the experience of working with materials. Graphic designer and educator Lorraine Wild, describes her experience at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, which involved her search to understand craft’s critical effect. She encountered the book, The Art of The Maker, by late British design theorist Peter Dormer, in which he discusses craft in terms of two types of knowledge. The first is theoretical knowledge, the concepts behind things, and the second is tacit knowledge, which is knowledge gained through experience. Dormer notes:
The tacit knowledge required to make something work is not the same as a theoretical understanding of the principles behind it. Theory might help you understand how to make something better, but craft knowledge (sometimes also called “local” knowledge) has to be experienced on another level. For Dormer, these two types of knowledge are completely intertwined (Dormer 1994, 8).’
‘Elaborating on the dialogical potential of materiality, Howard Risatti states, “materials have a social life, a social existence, if you will, in the sense that they help shape how we see and understand the world, the things in it, and our relationship to these things” (Risatti 2007, 185).’
Howard Risatti, A Theory of Craft: Function and Aesthetic Expression
Nicole Beno, Exploring Materiality in Graphic Design Through Creative Play
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materiality in digital era
Emotion, subjective interpretation, and hand gestures are what humans can contribute and computers’ expert systems cannot. Highly technological societies will likely put a premium on subjective human values. This suggests the possibility of a renewed appreciation and new applications of our earlier, intuitive, image-oriented, handgenerated design approaches. Design as a cultural activity, including aesthetic and personal expression, may be the essential source of values, emotions and play that we all need in the digital domain.’
McCoy suggests that the advance of technology reveals a greater need for human connection, values, and physicality, which is not often prioritized in a mass produced process in graphic design.
Katherine McCoy ‘Education in a Adolescent Profession’
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