Week 4; Competition briefing but also an Adobe Illustrator induction for beginners - like me!
Below is some screen stills of the PDF document supplied by Lydia, as a helpful 'to do' and guide, as we go through our workshop (3 hour duration) this morning: -
We were supplied with, what felt like endless amounts of live brief explorations to choose from - there was something for absolutely everybody to explore!
I was drawn the most towards the YCN briefs, from NEW NOW; My reasoning for this was due the their variety in branding - but they also included some huge brands, such as those of HMV, The Guardian & Wrap etc, but that all similarly had very refined briefs, which is one very prominent reasoning for appealing towards YCN. Refinement. They knew, and I knew - just from reading the brief exactly what they wanted from us - you didn't have to read between the lines - and I very much so, like that. Clean.
Image below, depicting; When you click the link within the PDF above - The main 'NEW NOW' YCN student award brief page comes up on an internet tab - as shown below: -
After swiftly reading through all of the 'competitions briefings', similarly to those shown below; I decided to narrow my choices and solely choose one brief - to work with and utilise for this task - or the rest of this term.
I had narrowed them down to two; one being the 'Camden Brewery Company' and the second being 'UK Greetings'.
My initial reasoning for the 'Camden Brewing Company' was; after reading the brief in more detail - in simple terms they want 'us' - begin artists - to produce some new and innovative/creative packaging for them. The reason I felt slightly drawn to this brief because it is very open, you could do absolutely anything with it. but also, when you read the background informations of the company itself, they originally started brewing beer under railway bridges in London - and being an architectural artist - i had immediate links with the railway bridges and knew i could do/create something very 'in my lane' and aesthetic with my practice.
HOWEVER
My reasoning for the 'UK Greetings' brief was; simply because it is something completely NEW for my practice within university - but also, an idea that has been surfacing within my own personal practice for sometime. I have always been very fond of card design - If you know me at all, outside of University you will have more than likely received one of my hand drawn cards. I find them far more pretty and thoughtful and made with love and care, in comparison to the £99p - £2 mass produced designs you can commonly find in any large UK supermarket chain. I just feel, that I have a very emotional bond with hands-on craft, as a whole. But I believe this brief gives me to opportunity to explore this further - and this is the brief I want to choose for this part of the course - and to push myself out of my comfort zone and away from my previous practice into a new direction! (I feel that this idea could easily drive me towards a brand new FMP direction too, I am very, very excited to start!)
Full UK Greetings brief screenshot below; Depiction everything they want from me/us for application - but also, the factual information such as dates, times and strict amounts for designs, etc.
Task two! Half way through the workshop we were then given the opportunity to carry out the tasks given to us on the PDF document supplied by Lydia.
Task one being; the opportunity of 20 minutes during the sessions to read through all the competition briefs, and select one and downloads the 'competition brief package PDF' to your computer.
The second task; was to begin breaking down the brief - noting down 16 specific key words that jump out at you from the whole bulk of text.
Below, is a 300dpi scan of my A5 notebook - depicting all 16 key words i decided to note down. being:
- Design
- Greetings
- Cards
- Gift - dressing
- Wrapping
- Challenge
- Style
- Graphic
- Painterly
- Fun
- Variety
- Range
- Illustrate
- Unique
- Talent
- Display
The next task was then to refine the chosen 16 key words down to just 8, being:
- Design
- Unique
- Greetings
- Cards
- Fun
- Variety
- Unique
- Illustrations
We were then given a second show group task; by swapping with a partner or to the person next to you - who also has the opportunity to read through your brief (As long as it is different to the one they are utilising) and similarly use the task of redaction - writing out 16 key words that also jump out to them from the brief - that you can then use to compare against your own.
Once, comparing both 16 key word lists against each other, refining down to solely 8 again -we were then given the opportunity to push ourselves even further - and refine our 8 key words, to solely TWO.
Below; is a scan of the A4 sheet containing both Brontë's 16 word list(left) and my own(right):
The TICKS resemble my 8 key word refinement.
Then finally, the TWO circled words below, both; Unique & Collection, are my final redaction 2 key word statement.
Process = Redaction
The image below, is a screenshot of the Mini Brief supplied by Lydia, depicting the tasks we need to complete for todays workshop, and helpful links to help improve your user experience of Adobe Softwares: -
Task Two, half way through the duration of todays workshop - the direction of the lesson swiftly changes, towards a more practical software based tutorial.
In more detail, below are a number of screenshot images of the PDF document, again supplied by Lydia - in order to direct us, as a helpful tutorial document for Adobe Illustrator: -
Clear depictions/analytical noted images on how to use the software below: -
Very user friendly and helpful - very thankful for this document, Thank you Lydia!
Now, is a thread of myself following the Adobe Illustrator document - and producing my own Illustrated Vector through software tools only! Also - i know the outcome and illustration is only simple - but for beginner, and never using this software before - I was quite proud of what i was able to produce from this workshop!
Furthermore, the document task sheet stated to utilise the 2 'redaction' key words, we were able to produce from the full 16 key word list gained from the brief. Mine being UNIQUE COLLECTION, to which i immediately decided to think - what could I class as a 'unique collection'. The first ideas i initially came up with was either; A classical book collection? A broach/jewellery collection? Or even a stamp collection? So i began to illustrate a few VERY SIMPLE line drawings, for me to take a clear picture of, email to myself and export it through into Adobe Illustrator.
Image below of my simple line drawing, exported through Adobe Illustrator and black and white 'Image Traced' to become a very simple image vector: -
Below, is a close up of the linear software illustration tool i have been using within Adobe Illustrator, I have scanned in and imported my own linear stamp illustration, and using the 'fountain pen' drawing tool - I have been tracing, looping and drawing round my original vector lines in order to produce a fully digital 'vector' linear traced image! Their was something very satisfying about carrying out this tracing tool - but also i feel the outcome is very contemporary and effective too!
Below, is a 'zoomed out' version of the previous image - depicting how far I have I have managed to trace as of thus far - and also, the cool effect i have been able to produce by simply tracing over my lines.
A further image depicting my original image underneath as a layer. While also showing my purple 'fountain' linear lines above, as a second layer. (Unfinished) But still a very cool development image to blog.
A final image, depicting my final & finished software Illustrated image of a stamp - using solely the 'fountain pen' tool. I am really happy with how it turned out! This process is quite time consuming - but also quite satisfying? A process i would definitely like to try again! Maybe one of my previous illustrations with far more detail - this could be a really cool effect! A very worth while workshop!
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