The live brief offered by Somerset House was an amazing opportunity that seemed silly to throw away. As a group we came up with several ideas which we then voted on to get our final concept of analysing CCTV footage, named Did You Know?

Something vital to the running of our team was delegating roles to everyone in the group, with Eliza as team leader. As an illustrator and designer, I ended up making my own infographic which went up in the exhibition. Without Eliza’s input I feel that our team definitely would have been less functional and efficient as we frequently found ourselves seeking her out when we needed guidance or help. 

It took many trips up to the gallery and into the space we were going to be presenting in order to get a feel of the room. A lot of atmosphere was already there in the room due to the coloured tape on the walls, dimmed lighting, eerie noises from the rest of the exhibition, as well as the flickering light from the projected image at the end of the room. The overall setup of the room suited our small installation well and along with the colours we chose, the finished exhibition was well co-ordinated and uniform.

The first week was mainly spent making plans of what we wanted to put in the room and where we wanted to put it on the walls. It was important to consider what the exhibition would look like from a viewers perspective, and lay it out suited to them, their direction of travel and entry into the space. Working within a group meant that the idea flow was constantly changing and evolving to improve the exhibition, which left me changing my ideas a lot in regards to what I wanted to create. I made several small illustrations which were rendered useless by the end of the project as the idea of having them dotted around the room was dropped. I also felt that the drawings would have benefited from a render on illustrator as my traditional, pencil style would not have fitted with the aesthetics of such a modern and technological feature.

In the end I decided to make an infographic questioning the effectiveness of CCTV by looking at crime rates and attitude held by the public. At first I found the bold colours and no-nonsense look of the other’s posters a challenge to recreate as it wasn't really my style, however I feel that the final graphic I made fit in well with everything. I enjoyed visually displaying the facts slightly differently, particularly the decrease in crime rates on the police ‘Crime Scene Do Not Enter’ tape, as this was a relevant and innovative way to display data. This task highlighted for me the importance of accurate and in-depth research that was being fed to the public. It was vital not to misrepresent any facts or statistics in a way that could twist the truth about what we wanted to say which helped me understand that weight of the task.

My final infographic

It took longer than expected to prepare the room for visitors, and ended up taking an entire day. The positioning of the posters had to be perfect, as well as the massive ‘Did You Know?’ typographic piece on the wall that was made up of 4 A0 sheets. The two biggest challenges we faced when setting up the exhibition were getting the GoPro to send a live feed of the room to the projector on the wall, and preparing all the booklets that were going to be handed to visitors. The problem surrounding the GoPro was solved after we called a technician in from Somerset House to have a look at the device. In the end we were able to project a fuzzy recording of the room onto the wall of the space. Despite the picture not being as clear, I feel that this distorted view of the people in there gave a more effective result. 

Folding hundreds of tiny booklets to hand out to the public was not ideal and in a perfect world we would have been able to get them published quickly and neatly. However we felt it was important to get our names out there and present ourselves to the visitors of the exhibition and that meant creating these tiny booklets and hand folding them to put on display. They did look impressive all lined up on the table within the exhibition, however upon individual inspection they looked a little rushed.

Images from the exhibition

I decided to create a cover for New Scientist rather than The Economist, because after doing some research into previous covers I felt that the New Scientist had a more consistent and well presented aesthetic that I could work with. 

Overall I was not happy whilst working on this brief because I feel that that topic of artificial intelligence that I chose presented too many cliche possibilities for a final outcome. The concept of a person with wires protruding from various body parts, data chips as part of the brain and pixelation all seemed like things that have been done before where artificial intelligence is concerned. 

The idea below is a scanned and edited version of a drawing I did based on my interpretation of artificial intelligence. I felt unsatisfied with this drawing after I was told rather bluntly that it looked as if the woman was pregnant and this spurred me to manipulate it digitally. The increased vibrancy of the colours is much more suited to the magazine, however I want to spend more time editing it so that the detail of the line-work can be appreciated. I also want to add various textures of text and other stories as part of the magazine that would make it look more realistic. 

This workshop was one I found very valuable as it introduced a completely new medium to me in the form of calligraphy inks.  They were very viscose but dried with a glossy finish which I found pleasing. Difficult to control, I found them easy to guide around the page with the smaller calligraphy brushes. I also added multiple layers of the ink as I found that one was often not enough to create a colour deep enough for my liking. 

I decided to take the 'Hello, how are you?' calligraphic piece further and manipulate it further on PhotoShop. At first I decided to simply move the elements of the piece around, however I quickly got caught up in the development of this piece. 

These were the first completed manipulations. I wanted to make the design more compact and readable by improving the aesthetics. I then went on to only manipulating the text and turning the focus to that by deleting the phone illustration or making it smaller in some instances. Colour is also an important aspect of design, so I tried to vary the different tones used in these. I like the softer tones, particularly the pink at the end with the rough edges because it is the imperfection of the piece that makes it stand out. 

The final shape and colours of this calligraphy workshop are shown below. I wanted to use rich, vibrant colours because I felt that they brought out the strokes of the calligraphy brush well. The tones that I picked work well together and look as part of a set which makes this print more commercial. If I had the materials, I would have liked to screen print these variations onto t-shirts and hessian bags to explore this image more. 

  

I layered up the images used for this experiment and tried to add more depth to the whole concept, however I feel that this drew away from the simplicity of the idea. I like the varying tones of colour with the orange, and the deeper maroon which I was able to create by changing the properties of the image, however I chose to stick with the previous ideas.

 

Below are some experiments with the designs on a series of mugs to give the concept some real life application. 

The aim for this project was to visualise data in a different way over a subject of choice. I immediately latched onto the idea of trains and train timetables and tried to visualise a way to make them easier to read. I figured out quickly that I was going to be difficult working with so many numbers and organising them into relevant groups which posed a problem. The numbers held no actual comparative value that could be compared and put into a visual format. With this I then went on to look at the things that commuters or visitors to London really want to know when they look at train information. I came up with elements such as how full each carriage is and trains with the most number of stops but ultimately decided to research the excuses for trains being late and the actual reasons why rather than the vague justifications heard on the platform. 

I was finding it difficult to visualise these excuses, using the news article on train drivers in Lewisham as inspiration to create a quick typographic piece. I was happy with the results but I wasn't sure how this could be applied to the real world by aiding customers of the London train network. 

I began to think of an idea that could translate these excuses 

After trying to create these small banners that could be put in the tube carriages I carefully considered the reasoning behind doing so and I struggled to come up with a concept or real life application. This was when I decided to develop an application that could deliver the information that I had just tried to present. The app would be completely tailored to the person using it whilst retaining a truthful approach to reasonings behind delays and cancellations. Depending on the person using the app and how much information they wanted to give, it would be able to tell them numerous different things that is simply not available from mainstream providers. These things would include when they would have time to get tea/coffee, which carriages of the trains are most likely to be full, where to board the trains, quicker routes and shortcuts through the maze of tunnels. Originally I wanted the facts presented on the previous banners to demonstrate how much users of the underground don't know about it, but to market this app I feel that something simpler is needed. 

These images show

The mapping project was perhaps the one I found most challenging. I don't think I was ever satisfied with my idea and despite moving on through the planning process, I wasn’t completely pleased with the results.

As usual I began the process by creating a mind map of ideas to get the ball rolling. I thought the fact that I live on a farm was something unique and personal that I could base this map on so I decided to take a walk. I observed everything on the walk around the farm from the wildlife to the landscape, taking pictures along the way that I was able to include later on in the design process. Whilst considering the varying types of wildlife, I thought that the concept of rabbits and burrows was an interesting path to take.

I considered mapping the paths of the burrows underground as I thought that this would have created interesting patterns and textures that could be represented through different mediums. Whilst considering this idea however, I came across the problem of knowing where the rabbits dug underground. 

    

     

                               


The images above were the ones taken on the farm when I went for a walk to gain inspiration. They are a series of images that could be used for the backgrounds and textures of the image I had drawn of the burrow. I wanted to add another dimension to my drawing that I wasn't very happy with, and I thought that the addition of the photo texture would make the image look slightly more modern. It had the potential to be too much if I added it to every element in the image so I tried to vary the opacity of the different elements to create a dynamic and not-too-overpowering graphic.

After feedback from others I decided to ditch the colours added from the photos and go with the simplicity of the drawing to make the image into the page of a children's book. With time I will render a front page with various typography and a title. 

Following the news that David Bowie had passed we were set a day’s brief that asked us to take the lyrics from one of his songs and translate them into a graphical piece. Bowie was an incredibly complex character which is why only choosing one song was a relief to me who prefers a specific brief rather than a broad one. 

My initial reaction to the brief wasn't good because personally I had never really listened to any of Bowie’s music and didn't know anything about the man. I begun to look at his music videos and soon found out that he had an incredibly artistic sense which piqued my curiosity. I came to terms with the fact that I was clueless about his character and actually began to use this to my advantage.

As someone who was looking at his music videos with fresh eyes, I took the lyrics and meanings of  the words quite literally. I decided to choose ‘Life on Mars?’ as the video of choice because the aesthetics of it were incredibly pleasing and I knew at once that I wanted to translate it into a graphical piece. 

This brief was rather rushed and if I had the time then I would have added watercolour to my drawing. Nevertheless, I feel that my illustrated interpretation of the lyrics is unique and looks effective placed on the outside of the cube. In fact, one of the biggest challenges of this brief was drawing the net of the square correctly and accurately. In the end it took several attempts and lots of rubbing out but I got there eventually. 

I feel that the final product stood out amongst the rest of the Bowie boxes and I saw several people pick up the box and look at the illustrations covering it. The box would have benefitted from a splash of colour as I did feel that from a distance it was lacking anything vibrant.

Beginning the illustration

The box amongst others

The complete net

Our project over the christmas holidays was to create a manifesto of self; almost a story of our history, our beliefs - represented through graphics. I initially found it difficult to grab ahold of a single concept for this brief as it was very broad and i like to work to something more specific. 

Mind-mapping was what I did to begin this project and get ideas flowing. Anecdotes and tips came to mind when planning for this piece of work at first and I soon realised that being happy and happiness in general was hugely important in my life. I tried to play with the shape and layout of my manifesto in the hopes that this would also inspire me on what to put in it. One of my goals is to put more thought into the layout of my work too, which prompted me to explore more interactive methods rather than just reading a piece of paper. I eventually decided on making a booklet; this also meant that I could create a series of graphics that could almost tell a story. 

I began by sending messages to all my family members asking them ‘What makes you happy?’ and received a set of interesting responses from those young and old. I liked the variation between the simplistic ones such as ‘Being in a warm house on a cold day’ and more sentimental thoughts surrounding family. Although I initially intended to write down the responses word-for-word, I found that there were a lot of repetitions within long-winded responses which were unsuitable to meet the image of the project I had in my head. 

I proceeded to cut the responses down into shorter, more readable and understandable snippets of information that could be seen as humorous too. I eventually chose to present the manifesto in a book format which would mean that pages had to correspond with one another to create a suitable flow between elements. I wanted the colours and themes to be easy on the eye and almost calming, so I decided to go with a light and colourful palette. To ensure that each page corresponded with its predecessor I sampled a colour from each one and applied that to the background of the following page which had very pleasing results. 

Small effects such a adding noise and changing the properties of each layer made small differences that helped bring the aesthetic of the piece together through colours and patterns. Initially I wanted to make the booklet smaller, perhaps the size of a business card which meant it could be carried around in the pockets of my family members for use at any time. 

The final outcome was something I was pleased with as it looked well thought out and dynamic. The colours could have been seen as too washed for some, but making things look pretty is something I always hold important when designing.  I put a lot of thought into how the book would be bound as it was this that would determine the quality of the finished piece. This was of little importance to me until I had the chance to speak to a tutor who suggested the idea to me. This prompt to focus more on the presentation of a piece was the kick that I needed to look at a graphic piece as a whole more often, rather than just the message I am conveying. It all adds up. 

Final booklet - not in order