Look Again/ Think Again Crit

I felt a bit nervous about this as it was our first one of the year and I wasn't really sure what to expect. There had also been rumours floating around that the course leaders were going to be really harsh and challenging. I don't mind this as I know we are going to have to talk about our work in the industry and in some case will have to fight our corner, but at the moment I'm not that confident, give me a piece of paper and I could write everything down perfectly but when in front of a lot of people put on the spot I tend to not be able to get out what I want to say in my head. This is some thing that I am going to have to overcome! I think that confidence is at quite a low in our group generally as everyone is quiet, and not very willing to have a debate or voice their opinions. Maybe this is some thing that we will be able to over come together this year?

Anyway.. the Crit!

When I printed out my poster I instantly thought it didn't look right, and that the type face I had used and the layout of the text really didn't work that well with the image. Also when it was up on the wall, the 13's were so tiny you couldn't see them unless you went up close, so this is a problem that needs to be amended straight away. 

Over all though when it to my turn I enjoyed explaining my idea, and afterwards everyone did have a discussion about superstition which was really nice. I got some feedback that I had a good strong and viable idea, but it just needed some tweaking, mainly with the text and sizing of the 13's which I already knew. Overall everyone seemed to like my idea and found it quite humorous, as I have completely contradicted and idea which is what I was aiming for. 

I know want to get this finished over the weekend and get my sketch book up to date, ready for the next brief which I am very excited about!

Greeting Cards

This brief sounds brilliant! It is defiantly going to be very good for me as I can produce my own illustrations using pretty much any media that I can. We have got a visiting lecturer who has set the brief and will be supporting us throughout the duration of it. I have got a few ideas of what I want to do already and I think that some good brainstorming and looking at the work of others will really define and develop my ideas.

Clare made the point that we will need to really pick and research out target market well, I will be aiming my cards at a young to middle aged female market. The other thing that we were advised to do was to really look about at what's out there and the trends, that are about at this time. Clare made the point that PATTERN is MASSIVE and this has really stuck in my head.

1 Day to deadline PM..

I have had a really good day today finally and I am pleased with the poster that I have produced. Along the way I have got another couple of designs which I was tempted to use but I am going to stick with my original Illustration.

I have cover the illustration of the lover in the number 13 all of different sizes following the depth of the illustration. I think it has worked really well and I have quite enjoyed doing it. I haven't ever been that confident on the computer and so I was a bit anxious that I had forgotten everything I learnt last year over the summer, but it all seems to have come back to ok!

I have used the slogan " If this isn't your lucky number.. then it should be"

I think I have defiantly met the brief as a lot of people have commented and praised my idea, and when I have asked them if they understand it they have said yes. The slogan confirms the illustrations, its direct and clear giving the viewer no chance to side track.

I have done a bit in my sketch book so far, but I do need to concentrate on getting that up to date as I DON'T want to get behind on that already. I seem to have been developing my ideas on lose pieces of paper and then all my research is mainly print offs and photocopies, so I have a million bits of paper to stick in an annotate as usual!

1 Day to Deadline AM..

Well there is now one day till the Critique and I feel that I am on target, I am pleased with the Illustrations I have produced and have a number of rough layout designs produced which I will be developing throughout the day.

I have gone for producing my illustration using a mixed media of paper and water colours, I will be then importing it into illustrator to add the type. I need to make sure the gradient of the images is light enough for the number 13's to stand out, and that all type is legible. 

Its going to be quite an experimental day as I know that as I go along more ideas will pop into my head and I will changing little things to my designs. 

Its all coming together now

The last two days have been very productive and I feel that I have moved forward alot. I have now got one solid and well researched idea, I also have an image of what I wan my poster to look like which is always a good thing.

After an initial panic because I had hit a slight mind block I am confident that I am onto a good idea which is going to meet the brief well. After producing some rough layouts I asked a handle full of class mates to give me feedback on my idea and thankfully everyone seemed to generally like it and gave me some good and helpful feedback. I was glad of this because I think you  need to test your idea to others because if they hadn't of understood it then it wouldn't have been successful. 

I have decided to focus on illustration this year as this is defiantly my strong point and to be honest what I have found that I enjoy producing the most. I produced two simple images of Lucky charms which I can then manipulate. 

The idea that making people think that 13 is actually a lucky number will be portrayed through a clover leaf/horse shoe made up with or covered in the number 13's, images that people will instantly relate to luck, but then when they notice the number 13 it will make them look twice and think about it from a different angle.

I now need to think of a catchy slogan or quote which will just perfect this idea to a T.

Researching and Brainstorming

I went into University today to begin researching into my strongest idea of producing a campaign on making the public believe that 13 is actually a lucky number. 

I looked at all the different superstitions surrounding the number 13, to get a clearer idea of what I'm up against. This not only gave me all the background knowledge I needed but got my brain ticking and thinking of how to progress forward and develop the original idea.

As always I went from webpage to webpage and found out some really good and some really random information regarding the number 13. I also came across this illustrators blog which i made note of as I loved her illustrations - Poppytalk.blogspot.com. 

I am very aware that we have only 2 days till the critique and I haven't produced any planning or visual ideas which is slightly worrying. I have began my sketchbook though so I'm hoping that this will get the imagination flowing. I have found this project as of yet very challenging as it is so broad and the guidance from tutors has been minimal, although I can understand this is only to get us to begin being more independent.