Contextual Studies Project

The contextual Studies Project fulfils the written requirement piece of the course; we were asked to write a 1000+ word essay on a designer/practitioner/artist (or a group/design company) or a current exhibition which inspires us. I based my essay on the late Graphic Designer Alan Fletcher because I find his work visually brilliant and inspiring. I am also fond of his book, "The Art of Looking Sideways" and so thought there was no other practitioner better suited to write about. He revolutionised the way in which 'design' is perceived and pioneered and transformed design as we know it today, rejecting conventionalism and conformity, Fletcher's work breaks away from traditional and mainstream work and in doing so he paved the way for a newer, more approachable graphic design.

The Booklet

I designed and made the book on both paper and then acetate in the hope that I could layer the two and create a three dimensional effect. unfortunately this would have meant that the text and typography would largely become illegible and so I decided to make them both separately. The acetate version is my final version and I intend to create a lightbox for this to be placed in.

the paper version

the acetate version

Friday Project- 'Where Am I?'

Where Am I?
As a self-directed Friday project we were asked to make a set of
10 notifiers/cards, items, objects that could be placed in our studio spaces to notify the tutors of our whereabouts when we are not present at our desks- I decided to link this project to my subject matters project, and wanted them to run on side by side.

I also wanted my notifiers to be practical so that tutors would know when I have gone to use the mac suites or the library or the sewing/batik room for example.

Method

Firstly, I dyed white cotton fabric using a range of different hues- both in ink and powder dyes; once the the fabric had dried I drew 6 headscarf head characters, (which represent me) and outlined these in
black gutta outliner. The next stage was to then cut the headscarf characters out, but I made sure to leave enough fabric on the back so that I could stitch the two pieces together and make them look slightly 3D by stuffing it with excess fabric. The final stage was to draw the little icons and images in the space where the face is- this acts as a symbol and signal as to my whereabouts.

To diversify the project a bit more, I decided to make the remaining 4 notifiers in the shape of tags (rectangular-ish luggage tags), I covered these in different silk papers and then illustrated them with the same headscarf character but in a slightly smaller size and added silver, alphabet stickers to form the typography.

The Finished Piece