Visual Skills: Studio Brief 1 (Developments)

In order to respond to the information gathered from the interview I attempted to condense the key points into words. We were instructed to use A2 sheets of paper to quickly outline and explore our initial visual ideas. Each sheet would contain 64 separate ideas... this involved folding the sheets to create an 8-by-8 grid. I worked by exploring a singular word for each row. I did not find this process particularly taxing. Perhaps others might have found issue with creating low quality imagery I found it quite relieving to roughly sketch a rapid succession of ideas. I managed to create 2 sheets in this vein.

For the first few sheets I stuck to tools which did not apply colour, as the brief outlined that the final design should be black and white. I decided that using colour during the development process would be useful to distinguish separate ideas. I also found that the broader felt-tip was quite comfortable at the small scale, whilst I experienced discomfort with the inconsistent pencil lines.

I managed to create another 3 of these development sheets. They involved reworking ideas to make them more coherent, as well as attempting to introduce the letter forms associated with my partners' initials. They were most informative as they clearly showed which words were poor at conjuring a visual response. I particularly found that 'shinning' was a difficult word to illustrate, and it didn't really reflect what I learnt of my partner during the interview. Luckily I had a grand range of words to replace it with.

 My final sheet explored the best imagery that I had created as I endeavoured to create variations and improvements. The final 5 images would be photocopied and expanded to A5, so I used bold lines and simplified the imagery to the bare bones. I chose to use red as I decided that the photocopier would produce a distinctive grayscale that could not be achieved had I used graphite. I used the binary colour scheme to highlight various details and to improve clarity.
                                                   

The final five images are highly simplified pictograms, which I felt reflected public information notices such as road signs or warning displays... except they all describe fairly abstract concepts.

For the sake of clarity I shall list them in order from the top left; Noise/Conspiracy, Freedom, Freedom, Intoxication and Unity.

To measure the success of the imagery we were grouped at random to discuss our work in a peer crits.

The crits or reviews were structured thusly:

1. Presentation and Notes

2. Q&A

3. Group discussion of common issues

Apparently our group was in the minority having placed the Q&A directly after the presentation. I however found that this order was quite natural as it... flowed better.

During my presentation I left it to the group to work out what I was communicating. The result was not entirely promising. Perhaps the one stand out design was the top right example of 'freedom' as it referenced the film "The Shawshank Redemption". Apparently this was the strongest visual design, while the others were perhaps to abstract. However my group was infallibly polite and said that they liked the abstract element and the openness to interpretation.

The questions that I asked were as follows:

1. Can you easily identify what each image communicates?

Not entirely, but they enjoyed the room for interpretation.

2. What design would you say is the strongest in terms of visuals?

The figure in the rain, apparently it's moving despite being so minimal.

3. What design do you think is the strongest in terms of concept?

The flower sprouting through the ground... it isn't an obvious response, which is perhaps why it's so interesting.

4. Should I attempt to use texture or tone in the final imagery?

The pictograms are successful in their use of bold colour and precision, perhaps explicit detail is not necessary.

5. What should I change when scaling up my design?

Try to keep the minimal smooth consistency of these drawings... 

As a group we discussed the various issues we had experienced during the project. We found that we were all worried about how we had come across during the interview. We desperately did not want to appear boring which may have influenced our answers and resulted in us looking insane.

It was also agreed that we were anxious about how our partner might react to our work, which had been drawn from their core characterises and traits, insulting the partner is probably the worst case scenario.