livelsbury

[livelsbury]

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[livelsbury]

Is it really the final day of comm design?

WEEK 13 - 7/6/19

Today well all came together to share our zines and appreciate everyone’s different design ideas. My main objective for this course, was to further all my design skills and step out of my comfort zone. During this course, one historical art and design movement I found rather interesting was the Bauhaus movement. It was quite interesting yet not surprising how women weren’t treated like everyone else. An individual who inspired me throughout this course was Kelly Maker, a digital artist and photographer, who I was lucky enough to interview for my zine. Her unique creative eye motivates me explore all my ideas, even if I do have doubts. A major skill I learnt throughout this course was zine-making. As simple as it can be, it has an unlimited amount of possibilities as to how you design it. The activity where we had to find letterforms around RMIT really opened my eyes, as I was shown that design truly is everywhere, even in the plainest form. I would like to explore zine making further and the many ways zines can be designed and created. I feel like this style of design could potentially be a future career path for me.

[livelsbury]

How did I get here?

WEEK 13 - 6/6/19

Today I finally printed out all my zines and I am so pleased with the outcome! I would never have pictured my zine to look this way in a million years but I am so proud of how far i’ve come in this project, its really been a lot of fun. Apart from printing a lot of copies, I had to manually cut out each section that I designed to be cut out. Although this was quite a long process, it was also therapeutic. I am very excited to see and read everyone else’s zines tomorrow!

[livelsbury]

last lecture?

WEEK 12 - 31/5/19

Our final lecture consisted of wrapping up what we’ve learnt throughout the semester. Summarising the historical movements we’ve looked into, the designers and their work and key design concepts, we were shown it all within a few slides. This is quite funny considering its been a 12 week semester and Andy and Karen have fit everything we’ve learnt within an hour. At this time of the semester we mainly reflect on what we’ve learnt and I think this is something we need to do in order to prepare ourselves for the next chapter.  Heres to semester 2!

All images taken by myself

[livelsbury]

Is it really the final class for semester 1?

WEEK 12 - 31/5/19

This final week was the most important for me for a number of reasons. After receiving a lot of feedback from Tuesday’s class I made quite a lot of changes since then and felt like I needed even more feedback to work from so I decided to go to the Friday comm design class. Going to this class really did help me with the feedback from Andy and Karen and led me to make some final changes that I was even happier with than the last.

This class also taught me an important skill. Karen showed me how to print out my A4 size zine the right way using the template the provided us with a few classes back. I was unaware that this template would work out for me so instead I YouTubed and googled away until I found out another way to print it out. Safe to say that this was a great solution to my problem.

I’ve had a lot of fun experimenting with this project and I’ve realised I could really see myself working in this design area in the future. I think the dream is to find a job you love doing and will never get bored of and I hope that I’ll find that job for me.

Definitely excited for some pizza and zine swapping on Friday!

Image: myself

[livelsbury]

Zine Attempt Take 2?

WEEK 12 - 28/5/19

First things first. I love when officeworks give you the multiple copies that didn’t print out right for FREE. Having these has allowed me to experiment with the zine in a hands on way and cut out parts of the zine I might not need, that may work well. I think these cut outs help bring the zine to life. probably more the 2nd and 3rd images rather than the last too but I’ll see how it works out in the end. I can feel my zine coming together at last. A lot of changes along the way but I think it’s more about the process than the final outcome. How and what we’ve done to get to this point. Find out our strengths and our weaknesses and what we need to work on. I know this has happened for me and helped me grow in many ways in terms of my personal self and my design career.

Images: taken by myself

[livelsbury]

WEEK 12 - 28/5/19

Little snippet of my zine in action. Definitely still a work in progress but I am getting there. I cannot wait to see it completely finished!!! This assignment has been the highlight of this first semester for me. Video: taken by myself

[livelsbury]

Zine Attempt Take 1?

WEEK 12 - 28/5/19

This workshop was all about working on our zines and receiving feedback from Andy and Karen. I was a little nervous about receiving feedback from both of them because I hate confrontation and criticism. I worked really hard on this first draft and after the comments I received I felt overwhelmed with how much I had to change. I do know that I definitely needed to hear those words but it gives me anxiety all the same. 

I took the afternoon to step back and reflect on the how far I’ve come in this class and this course. It really helped me re-evaluate what I need to do within the next week and where I need my headspace to be in. 

I also drowned my sorrows in pinterest inspiration. There are so many cool ideas that I would like to explore but I just don’t have time or my brain gets stuck trying to rearrange everything and move away from my original design.

Here are some of my favourite pages out of my first draft zine. 

images: taken by myself

[livelsbury]

What’s next for design?

WEEK 11 - 24/5/19

Following on from asking “why design” this week we are asking “what’s next?” We then asked the person sitting next to us what we think will be next for design within the next 5 years. Most people said eco-friendly products or major technological advances.

After talking about street art and graffiti we watched a clip about a person known as Tempt1 who was diagnosed with ALS which left him completely paralysed except for his eyes. The groups that worked with this project, were Free Art and Technology (FAT), Open Frameworks and the Graffiti research Lab.

It is quite astounding how far our world has come in terms of designing programs and objects for those who’re disadvantaged in some way. A lot of people are going out of their way to help make the world a better place for all and I really hope it continues.

Moving on, we looked at an example by Jason Salavon who displayed Playboy centrefolds in the 1970s in four separate panels. They have been faded so much that you can only tell the difference between them all when you look at colour.

Looking at different types of design such as Parametric and Generative design. Firstly, Parametric design has really opened up to us. An example of this is the iconic Pepsi Logo. This logo displays enough elements in the logo to be recognisable if one would change the design.

Generative design on the other hand is using programs to generate a certain or uncertain number of outcomes. MIT used this design method by making a thousand logos with an algorithm.

Lastly, we looked at a website that generates images of people who do not exist in this world today. Created through the use of an algorithm an image is formed and painted in colours to the algorithms design. This website completely blew my mind. When we were shown images of people, they seemed totally real as if I’d just passed one of them on my way to uni. They looked way too familiar not to be real. For some reason this kind of scares me and makes me think of catfishing? This kind of stuff mixed with artificial intelligence could result in fake computer-generated people creating all kinds of havoc on the internet. 

Images: http://www.eyewriter.org/

[livelsbury]

How many different layouts is there?

WEEK 11 - 21/5/19

Todays lesson was very hands on and all about the HOW. HOW are we going to design our zine? HOW will we place our images? HOW will we place our text? 

We were given this lesson to create a prototype for our zines. My plan is to make a 16 page zine at an A4 size. I know it may be a lot harder in terms of determining the layout but I think I can do it. I have a lot of images to choose from so I am set in terms of that. I gave my creative - Kelly Maker around 7-10 questions altogether and am thinking of sticking to 5 so nows the time to decide which will be used and which won’t. When I do this I want to be able to relate the image to the text to enhance the text further. 

As I have only ever made a collage zine before I was quite overwhelmed when they said Indesign and new I obviously could make a hands on collage zine but I did want to enhance my skills and learn how to use indesign for future projects. This workshop helped me learn by creating a physical layout and comparing it to the layout template given to us on indesign. 

Overall this workshop helped me get a getter visual understanding of what I want my final zine to look like. Having a prototype allows me to make so many changes in terms of if I need to cut the paper, draw on the paper, test out colours etc. 

Images: taken by myself

[livelsbury]

Why design?

WEEK 10 - 17/5/19

We reflected on what we did last week when we looked at previous students zines and other examples that we had gone through. We were also given more information about the little party we are having on the Friday that the zine and tumblr is due.

Looking at previous artist such that changed the way we look at design such as Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” 1917. Looking at this image was a major throwback for me as I studied him and his works throughout high school.

Moving onto the peace symbol takes us all the way back to our first lecture of talking about body language making up the way we talk without words. Such a simple design yet has a great meaning behind it as it was designed for the campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. These designs give me hope and allow me to strive to create designs that’ll make this big of an impact and last for many years.

We discussed the “First things first” manifesto 2000, created around design and then were given a question on whether we would sign this?

One that stood out the most was the work by the group Guerrilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. They’re girls who make fun of advertising. They fought the patriarchy of female art being displayed rather than the female being the art. As they have tried to spread their message, unfortunately it hasn’t reached everywhere.

I was so surprised I’d never heard of them before but applaud them on what they’ve done so far for women around the world. I only hope it continues to spread and many women promote what they’re doing. This also takes me back to talking about the women of the Bauhaus School that were overlooked and how their work was amazing yet never got the recognition it truely deserved. 

Personally I have never been one to express my feelings on certain topics publicly so seeing the work this group has done was confronting yet made me realise we need people like this. I need to be more like this. Their purpose is truely inspiring and making a difference in the world no matter how big or small. 

Images from Guerilla Girls website - https://www.guerrillagirls.com/#now

[livelsbury]

Who is my Creative?

WEEK 10 - 14/5/19

When we were first asked to choose a creative to base our “Ask me anything!” assignment on, only one creative came to mind and my heart was set on asking her for an interview. Her name is Kelly Maker. 

I have been following Kelly on instagram for a number of years. She has truely inspired me to show my individualism with my designs as she does for hers. She makes simple changes to the images she takes and brings it to life. 

Kelly describes herself as a “Digital Artist and Photographer most known for her unique and captivating collage styles encompassing glitters, papers and florals and many more elements in order to create eye catching pieces of art.”

I felt so happy and excited that she responded to my email about interviewing her. As well as being happy for me to send her questions, she responded so fast, giving me a lot of time to work on the zine. She also related to how she once made a zine to present her work when she was just starting out and asked if I could send her a copy of the zine i’ve made with her images and answers. This only drives me further into creating the best zine possible. 

Quoted Kellys Website bio - https://www.kellymaker.com/about

Images/Gif - https://www.kellymaker.com/art

[livelsbury]

Can you make a zine on indesign?

WEEK 10 - 14/5/19

As we were shown how to make a zine out of paper using folding techniques and writing numbers on each page, this week we were moving onto the technological way of making a zine and were given 2x 8 page zine templates and 2x16 page zine templates. 

Shown step by step how to use the adobe app Indesign we used two zine layouts to place images from the past few workshops or lectures or whatever images we had taken ourselves and placed them on the layout of the zine. 

A few bumps along the way I definitely got confused and decided to watch those around me instead, to learn from seeing rather than doing. After watching a tutorial online later I think I have the gist of what to do down pat. 

I worked with Hannah on her design layout and after 10 minutes of trying to make the page into double sides so the zine would fold nicely together we finally got to printing a zine. It was quite an exciting and nervous process when waiting and hoping it will turn out okay but we got there. 

Using photos she had taken from previous classes/outings and adding some text to the images, her zine came out beautifully. The colours within each image made her zine stand  out as it contrasted with some of the other images she used. 

[livelsbury]

Can my zine be this good??

WEEK 9 - 10/5/19

To start off the lecture we discussed the Assignment 3, Ask me Anything project which will be displayed as a zine. Going through what we’ve done over the past few weeks to help organise ourselves to be ready for the due date. I am feeling very organised at the moment with my creative responding very fast to my first email and has already responded to my 6-7 questions that’ll i will be narrowing down to 5. 

We were then shown examples of a zine which was a great help because I always like seeing visual examples rather than someone just describing what it should look like. They were amazing and I only hope that my zine will be just as good. Seeing each one has also sparked ideas in my mind of how I can relate my zine specifically back to my creative. 

Moving on we began to talk about post modernism and if it really is the end of modernism?? As the world continues to grow and change modernest buildings like those in Pruitt Igoe, designed by Minoru Yakasaki in 1956 were demolished in 1972 on March 16th. Moving onto big events in the world of the twin towers falling and losing princess Diana. 

I had to leave early from this lecture but from what I’ve seen from the slides it looked very interesting to say the least. 

images: taken from the week 9 slides

[livelsbury]

Can you find type in magazines?

WEEK 9 - 7/5/19

Relating back to last weeks workshop where we went outside with a partner and found physical objects that resembled letterforms. We were now moving on to finding letterforms inside magazines. This allowed us as a cohort to really open up our minds about what we see when we look at books, magazines, posters etc.

Within each table group we were given photocopies of images and text taken out of numerous magazines and were told to choose a few we liked and cut them up finding letterforms within the text and images. I personally love collage and when I was younger I’d make zines using pictures and texts out of Dolly or Girlfriend magazine, so this exercise definitely took me back. Sitting at a table or on the ground, cutting up pieces of paper while listening to music is really therapeutic for me.  

As displayed above, this is what everyone came up with along with two of my own creations. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be and I feel like this activity really brought out the younger more creative side of me which I haven’t seen in a while. Most of the time I tend to stress myself out when thinking about how much time I have to do an assignment and when will it be due, is it good enough, what will it look like compared to everyone else, etc, and I rarely get to enjoy doing fun assignments like this without thinking all of those things. 

It was actually incredible seeing everyones works together on the wall and makes you truely realise that we are surrounded by type wherever we go as well as everyone sees type differently and interprets type in their own way. 

I hope that we continue to do exercises like this in the future.

Images: taken by myself

[livelsbury]

Where are the women of the Bauhaus?

WEEK 8 - 3/5/19

To start off the lecture, Andy had problems with the lectures slides so instead we reflected on our past workshop classes through another slideshow. With each activity we took part in came a few different images of peoples outcomes. 

Looking back on this work makes me feel like it was such a long time ago however it was only a matter of weeks ago?? It also makes me realise how much I have grown as a designer in this short amount of time. Each activity I took part in taught me something that i’ll continue to use throughout my practice now and in the future. 

Moving onto the Bauhaus or “House of Construction” built from 1925-26 in Dessau, Germany. The Bauhaus was a creative school that helped designers make, interpret and create.  The Bauhaus style later became one of the most influential styles in modern design, architecture, art and design. 

The design Ludwig Mies van de Rohe create a chair by using tubes that were commonly used as an industrial product for houses, plumbing, systems, etc, and used it for a completely different reason  --> to give a design quality.

Seeing designs like this make me think of recycling materials and generating objects in an unconventional way and how people created ideas out of no where that were simple yet intricate at the same time. They weren’t getting inspiration from numerous artists before them, or what they’ve seen online or on tv, they’re just making from scratch. I really think this is a beautiful thing because we definitely don’t see this happening in todays society of appropriation and mimicking. 

Throughout the Bauhaus, the staff were formed out of white males. These men felt as though women “could not think in in a 3D space” - quote by Karen, and they were not allowed to do classes like architecture. Instead women were allowed to do classes like creating tapestries, weaves and painting. They were also at the Bauhaus in some ways to make it look pretty and appealing to others. 

I was not very surprised when I heard that this happened to the women back then as its been happening for years now and will continue to happen to in the future. Maybe if women hadn’t been so overlooked our world might look a little different today. 

To end the lecture we watched a very weird yet intriguing video of the Triadic Ballet. You definitely don’t see things like that today ..

Bauhaus image: https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-history/the-bauhaus-effect/

Armchair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1980.351/

[livelsbury]

Can you find letterforms in natural objects within our environment?

WEEK 8 - 30/4/19

To start off this workshop, Karen and Andy went through in further detail the second project, “Ask me anything..” and gave us worksheets on how we should be constructing our questions. I found this sheet as a really helpful guide when creating my 5 questions for my creative. 

We then shared our made up questions around with the people sitting next to us. I thought that this was a really good exercise as we were receiving feedback and giving it at the same time. 

The next activity we were taking part in was getting into pairs and creating an alphabet and the numbers from 0-9 in type form created naturally throughout the environment around us. Essentially we had to create 26 letters and 10 numbers within the time limits on around 20 minutes. 

After we left the class it was almost overwhelming as my partner and looked around at whatever we could find which made us not find anything. We decided to go outside and thats where things got interesting. Looking at the pavement, the building walls, the seats, the lighting, stairs, there were all kinds of letters and numbers out there to find. It was a matter of looking closely or from a different angle. 

As shown in the images about, our favourite type letterforms that we found were the letter 7 made out of the tap, the letter O created out of the fire hydrant handle, the letter W formed by the shape and build of the stairs and finally the letter I created out of a post. My favourite out of the four was the letter I as it was so simple yet made a huge contrast in its vibrant colour form and its backdrop feeling the complete opposite. 

Coming back together as a class, each pair sent through their letter and number forms to a group folder where Karen sorted them out and showed us a few of the different letter and number forms people had found and created the word RMIT. 

This class allowed us to really use our creative thinking in a way we wouldn’t normally use it for. After this class I had to go through the city in order to get home and throughout my journey I couldn’t help notice other letter and number forms around me, varying in size, colour and texture.  

Images: taken by myself and my partner Nisso