Photography Weaving

As well as my Stop Motion Idea I still want to experiment with image based outcomes. 

One of my first ideas was to create a photo weave using two of own photographs. 

Weaving them together to show the difference in my looks. I thought this would look good as a large A1 poster or perhaps a magazine with different weaved images. So either one large poster or smaller series of images. 

Using two A4 images, one of myself at four and another at seven I weaved them together. I think it would have looked better if I did it in black and white. 

Stop Motion Practice

As I have never created a Stop Motion video before I though I should have a practice and play around with a few of my ideas. The first is very basic, I really just want to get a feel for what a stop motion video is and play around with a title sequence.
I decided to keep both quite basic and keep the camera in the same place throughout with just a plain background.
Unfortunately while taking pictures for the second video attempt my camera ran out of battery so I had to rush the ending.

This is just a practice but it really helped me learn about Stop Motion first hand and if I was to develop this further what ideas I liked and what didn't really work. Also I'm not sure whether or not to have a title. I quite like the way I introduced my name but I didn't like the opening title sequence.

Also I want to show my age and I think just writing it on a scrap on paper is good enough. I defiantly need to discuss this with my tutors and get there advice.

If I am able to develop this idea then the next time I practice I want to play around with the surroundings and make the pictures really interactive. Although If I am not able to create the film I thought I could possibly make a flip book. I would rather it be a moving image but I want to try and think of different outcomes in case I can't.

Stop Motion

For the Passing Time brief our given medium is image. If I could choose I would prefer to make a video as my final outcome. I'm not sure whether I would be allowed to do this, but I've had an idea of creating a Stop Motion video.
Stop Motion videos are made up of 100s of images, so best of both worlds. Although I'm not sure whether I would be allowed to create a video for this brief I decided to start investigating Stop Motion Films anyway.

I decided to look at existing Stop Motion videos. If I was able to create a video I would want to use personal photographs throughout, so I wanted to find other videos that also use photographs for inspiration. I came across these two video on Vimeo. The first is a Stop Motion Reverse called Ballpoint Barber by Peter Simon. Multiple photographs are taken of the model, the pictures are then printed off and become interactive with the person behind the camera. I really like the idea of making the photographs interactive giving the video a more playful and fun feel.

The second video is called The Pen Story. Which involved shooting 60,000 pictures, developing 9,600 prints and shooting over 1,800 pictures again. The video shows the story of a man from his younger to his older days. The story is narrated by photographs, each changing slight showing the mans travels, experiences and growth. One of my favourite aspects of this 3.00 minute video is that the photographs interact with the their surrounding. The furniture, stairs, objects. I think this works really well and shows that the video doesn't have to be in just one place. 

Passing Time Ideas

I've been struggling a lot with the Passing Time brief. I've been able to think of quite a few ideas but I don't feel passionate enough to develop them. I want to do something personal.


Like my passing time, from when I was younger to now.
Maybe focusing on how my looks have changed over time. I want to use personal old and new photos within my work. I'm going to start experimenting with ideas and trying different things. Perhaps merging photos together as a college or weaving them together. I really like this piece of work I found on Pinterest.

I might try to recreate something similar using my own photos. I think rather then cutting two photos up then weaving together for this photo they weaved on top of the photo to get a different effect. I could try both ways to see how it looks. However I'm not sure how I would develop it. Perhaps make a poster.

Abram Games 1914 - 1996.

We attended a talk about Abram Games, a poster designer. The talk was given by Abram's daughter Niomi Games.

Very Simple. Everything must be so simple. Simple enough to work small and simple enough to understand. Games would ask his children what they saw in his work. He thought that if his work was simple enough for children to understand then a audience could too. 

 He worked freelance for most of his life. "I will be my own master and my own slave".

Games is most commonly known for his airbrushing and war posters. He was constantly told that his work was far too modern. He was far ahead of his own time. It makes me wonder where he got his inspiration from. He was often let down by clients and businesses as they weren't ready for such modern work. I feel that Games work would work perfectly now in the 21 century.

When Games was sent to work for the army he noticed that the other men didn't clean themselves correctly. He wanted to make a poster to illustrate to the men how to be clean.

 Games created over 100 different war posters while he worked for the army. Although he wanted to be on the front line and fight and he told his posters helped so much more then he could help by fighting.  

Although he was the son of a photographer he didn't like to use photographs within his work. He only ever used a photograph once to create lines. He did this by taking a picture of window blinds.

Games used hands a lot within his work. He could show emotion and direction through a hand.
He never did more than one design. He only ever would bring one design to a client or business and they didn't like it then he wouldn't do anymore. 

You don't have to like his posters. You have to notice them. He designed posters that would be noticed and get a message across.

As well as poster design Games also created a coffee machine in 1950. He also created the first BBC indent with the help of his students at the Royal Collage of Arts.

His daughter felt he could be summed up in one of this posters. The Anti Smoking poster because it's simple, uses few colours and gets a message across. 

I really like Games idea that your work should always be simple and easy to understand. 

Smile in the Mind?

Introduction: What is Smile in the mind?

Smile in the mind focuses on Graphics which give pleasure. The ideas that make you smile through bring witty.

I agree with the concept of Smile in the mind. Humor is one of the most fundamental aspects of graphics, good advertising and design. It helps to engage your audience. Relate to the concept and enjoy the idea. Thus remember the designer.
Smile in the mind focuses on the idea, and the idea alone. The difference between aesthetics and an idea.

One of the main critiques of Smile in the mind is that you should never take your work too seriously. A simple idea is all you need. I do believe this is true, graphics should be simple and easy to understand. But where do you draw the line. When does the design stop being witty and become obvious. 

I really like this typography. Its simple, witty and clever. I think the fact that it is so simple and presented so simply makes it so much more effective. 

Howard Sooley

Our first guest lecturer was Howard Sooley, a Professional Photographer, gardener and film maker. He spoke to us about his work, his life growing up and how he believed photographs should be taken. 

He began by showing us extremely close up photographs of leaves. Take pictures of the things that are usually overlooked. Close of photographs to capture even the smallest details that are often unnoticed and overlooked. Each leaf was completely different. Different colour, shades and veins. Some had been ripped and some looked perfect. The photographs almost told a narrative. They could show what that single leaf that been through.

Photographs tell stories. There should always be a memory or meaning behind everyone of your photos. Lighting, shadow all creates moods. By slightly changing a photograph you can dramatically change its mood and meaning.

Think about what's interesting in the photo. Always show emotion through your pictures.

Imaging Workshop - Photography

For our first workshop of the year we were challenged to take photographs which captured a certain element. We had to think about shape, form, tone, lighting and composition and embed meaning and a message into each image. We also had to think about what the photo signified, what does it stand for.

We were told to take three different photographs which all that to represent something different. All the photographs are unedited.

A Found Object.       

      

I wanted each photograph to connect and work together but all have different meanings. We decided to focus our photos around a camera. It's a found object. Although rather than just taking a standard photography of the camera as a still life we decided to play around with shadows and lighting. 

We began to notice that the shadows created by the camera and lens looked slightly like an eye. We explored this further trying to create shadows against a white background. Holding the light at different angels to show less or more definition.
Out of all the photos we took this is my favourite. It looks slightly like the camera lens is projecting the shadows onto the wall.

Physical.

Centring around the idea of eyes we decided to take photographs of my own eye as something physical. Again we wanted to play around with the lighting to create emotion and depth. We wanted the eye to dominate the photograph and really pull you in. Using lighting we created shadow on half of my eye. This is the end result. I think the picture not only is physical but shows a lot of emotion and could be part of a narrative.

Emotion.

I feel like we captured emotion really well within the last photo. Again we wanted to focus of the idea of an eye. Your eyes show your emotions more than any of part of your body so we thought it was quite fitting. Although we didn't want to take more pictures of a physical eye, we wanted to use the camera. The cameras lens is almost like its eye. Every time it takes a photo it captures many memories and emotions. We wanted to photograph the eye of the camera. This was the end result. 

My week so far...

My first week as a Graphic Communication student has been both insightful and challenging. On the first day we were given all three of our briefs for the term. Coming from Graphic Design we were always given one project at a time so being given all three was very intense. However, I do prefer knowing exactly what I need to do for the whole term, rather than being rushed into a one week project.

Each project was very different and required separate outcomes. Create an image based on Passing Time, produce typography within a certain setting and create a motion image focusing on the narrative of soundscape. I decided to focus on generating ideas for each project  before develop each one. I found myself coming up with lots of ideas but struggled to find unique ways of expressing them.

I found 'Passing Time' the most difficult when it came to developing my ideas. Although I could think of lots of ideas I never felt passionate enough to want to develop them.
I am still struggling with this brief but am happy with my ideas for 'From point to Pixel' and 'Organic Kingdom' and am looking forward to developing them further.