OUGD504 // Studio Brief 01: Study task 01

The Design Process

During this week you will design and produce a folded leaflet entitled "My Design Process" that describes your understanding of the design process and specifically how you apply this process to your own work. This assignment will allow you to explore the nature of design at an increasingly commercial level while also exploring creative approaches to leaflet design and folding. This brief is only one week long and therefore will be very intensive. You will be given support by your tutors in the form of crits and tutorials while studio tasks will focus on aspects related to constructing and designing leaflets. You will be expected to explore and experiment with paper and card stock: folding techniques and styles; and graphic concepts and communication. Your progress, developments and creative decisions should be documented in your studio blog. At the end of the week you will present your final leaflet design and plan for print to the rest of the group. You will receive feedback and points to consider during this final crit.

As a starter task, in small groups we brainstormed exactly which processes we go through to reach our final outcome when tackling a brief.

Almost everything we each wanted to jot down was around the same lines: research, concepts, thoughts/ideas. Every person pins a different amount of importance on each area, however. 

Next we put the stages into order as individuals. I picked the key aspects of the brainstorm, and left out things like 'taking a step back', because I don't understand how to do that when you have a short amount of time to work on something and you can't clear your mind of it.

I think that research is a key aspect that should crop up throughout the entire process, so on the diagram the arrows keep visiting it, but as 'broad' or 'specific'.  When I first get a brief, I do some general research to get a clear idea of whats already out there. I then jot down initial ideas before doing more research to expand these thoughts. 

I make sure to narrow down my ideas at each stage, until I have a few with a good amount of potential. This is the point where feedback from my peers is very helpful.

Next, we practiced some folding by trying to be imaginative with leaflet folds. I tried my best to stay away from folds like the concertina, as I've been using them for years. 

This is a leaflet I made which is quite adventurous, but I found that the orientation of the pages would be hard to navigate as each fold turns everything upside down.

 Above is another fold I made, which I then put my design process onto. I found too late that I was making the process stages too cramped, when there is a lot of space near the end of folding it out.
This fold doesn't inspire me; it seems too ordinary... which I do not want to reflect me and my way of working.

Summer Brief // Art movements: Abstract expressionism

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-abstract-expressionism.htm

SUMMARY:
Abstract expressionism acted as a label for colourful and abstract forms, as well as vigorous gestural expressionism. The movement started in the 1940s and 1950s in New York, where Americans stole the modern art limelight from Parisians. Profound emotion and universal themes were clear in the artwork, which mostly stemmed from surrealism.
The work of abstract expressionists was 'American in spirit'; enormously sized, romantic, and reflecting strong individual freedom. Surrealist painters came over from Europe in the 1930s, bringing over their ideas of painting as struggling between expressing themselves and their chaotic unconscious.



Early influences

Henri Matisse

Pablo Picasso

Robert Motherwell

Willem De Kooning

Modern day artists

Kostas Gogas

https://www.behance.net/kostasgogas

Ryan Dix

https://www.behance.net/ryseye

Dispute

http://dispute.tumblr.com

Mark Posey

 http://www.markposeyart.com

Pablo Picasso

http://www.pablopicasso.org/
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-picasso-pablo.htm

SUMMARY:
Pablo Picasso has been labeled as the most influential artist of our time. He is known for his eccentric style, nonconforming attitude and his ability to not care about others' opinions on his creativity.
Starting with painting and etched works, as his career moved on he focused on comical and fantasy creations, using graphic arts, ceramics and sculpture work to capture his ideas.
His interest in Cubism led him to experiment with collage, as he thought of artwork as more of an arrangement of signs, sometimes metaphorical, rather than a window into real life objects.
"I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them." - Pablo Picasso



Henri Matisse

http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/matisse.html

SUMMARY:
Matisse was very influential by the late 1940s, when his techniques were seen in the work of young painters in America.
His way of varying thinnesses of paint with his strokes made the white ground breath and show through. The paint surface would maintain its liveliness no matter what.
Corners and margins of artwork would take care of themselves as paintings expanded in size and design: they didn't have to be filled in any longer. This is something Matisse influenced.
The work of Matisse speaks for itself through it's form and mechanics, transcending the illustrated subject.
"Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence."
"I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me."

Jackson Pollock
Modern Art by Michael Kerrigan

SUMMARY:
"New arts need new techniques. The modern artist cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any other past culture."
Pollock created 'Action Painting' which placed its emphasis on gestures by which the paint was applied and the picture created. He would put his work flat on the floor so he could approach it freely from any angle without giving it a definite orientation, and dribble paint from the can or a stick. Such paintings have lots of passion, tension and energy.
"Abstract painting is abstract. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was."


Robert Motherwell
Modern Art by Michael Kerrigan
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-motherwell-robert.htm 


SUMMARY:
Simple shapes, bold colour contrasts and contrasting brushstrokes are what made up his work. Art history, philosophy and comtemporary art were referenced quite often in his work, aswell as life, death, revolution and oppression.
Motherwell has described himself as 'unwedded to the universe', so his work was an attempt to join himself with the wider scheme of things.
He would tend to reference works of literature or historical events in his abstract work to 'belong', which made some think that he took himself and artistic tradition too seriously.
"Without ethical consciousness, a painter is only a decorator."

Summer Brief: Figure drawing

After contemplating ideas for a long while, I've chosen to collect research around figure drawing.
Drawing and art in general has always been a big part of my life, and I am always looking to improve my skills. I have a big past of drawing faces and facial features, and some experience with figure drawing. However, I've never really known how to easily draw people's bodies in the way that I want to.
This is now more important to me as I want to learn more about illustration in relation to graphic design.


Sources of research:

• interview illustrators/artists who have an expert talent in figure drawing/people who run life drawing classes/videos
• record my drawing knowledge/drawings/trying 'techniques'
• look into books on drawing expertise
• collect my drawings/art postcards
• visit and photograph art galleries

Another option is to research pianos.

Sources of research:

• hand movements/placements
• piano types/keyboards/electric
• music reading
• techniques
• interview people who play... people I know/music shops/online
• piano books/shops