Presentation document deadline

Today at 16:00 we have been told to submit our presentation documents. The details were provided by an email from Jonny Hannah, a few days ago:

presentation 

document hand-in

friday the 18th may 4pm

all paper documents must be handed in

at the hatch, ground floor, jm building

all blogs must be completed by then,

then the link emailed to

peter.lloyd@solent.ac.uk

& alexiantpc@yahoo.gr

Any Now I am Done! And what better way to celebrate than:

CV

Conclusion

I find it a bit strange to write a conclusion right now, as I have not technically finished the project. I am still missing two designs and I have only printed 4 of the designs, but only as tests.

 

Partialially completed FMP, click on the image to make it larger.

This is only a rough picture of what my FMP will look like, however imagine the line work being black or a dark grey. The background designs will only be one colour, and at the moment based on my experience with the tests I am leaning towards the pale blue/green of the science poster. It is a bit surreal and disappointing to be concluding the presentation document, without having a real FMP to show.

As far as this whole journey has gone so far I feel  that it has been really topsy turvey. The project started of with my attention being on the Bargate Exhibition (here) and our self promotion project (here). I was a bit slow on choosing my topic. But once I had chosen to create a series of posters all relating to human creations I felt positive and keen to get going. Late on I had to refine my plan of creating 10 A1 posters to 6 instead, due to time constraints. The fact that I lost about 4 weeks to sickness and family problems over Easter really put me in a tight spot. It frustrated me deeply that for this my final major project I was unable to devote my full attention. When I got sick just before Easter and was so lucid from all the medication I was on I swore to myself that I would work diligently over Easter to catch up. I had not planned on my family phoning my up to say that my grandmother was dying and that her psychotic oldest daughter was causing problems for everyone. Once I got back and got into work mode I have enjoyed myself. The act of creation and seeing the final outcomes (even if it only was the prints) has been incredibly satisfying, and in the process of me playing catch up I feel I have gained a better understanding of my limits and how to push time.

The many guest speakers we have had have been very informative (especially ones such as Fig Taylor from the Association of Illustrators) (here)  and helped me gain a better upstanding of where I could fit into the industry once I leave university. Others have proven to be less helpful such as John Hegely's (here), though very interesting and entertaining. Ultimately the talks aside from the tutors practical advise to do with the course and degree show have to me proven to be a bit of a distracting. That is to say that I would still go if I could do this all over, I just remember thing it was a bit strange we had so many in such a busy period of work.

To me the presentation document was always a trek uphill. Having first decided to do a blog, abandon it shortly afterwards, then create a book and finally going back to a blog I feel that it has been a very varied journey. While I was angry that I had to redo my book, I was happy that I could still incorporate elements of it into the blog. At the end of the day creating the blog was fun and once I got over my crippling fear of typing (joke) I thought it went rather well. The PD has helped me structure my thoughts more coherently, and give me a better overview of my goings on. The most helpful element it gave to me was the ability to look back and reflect on how much time it has taken me to do a certain body of work, which in turn has helped me plan my future work much more accurately.

and to keep you interested have some uplifting music :)

 

Tijuana Taxi

What I plan to do now in terms of FMP is to continue creating the two remaining posters, get a quick test print of each. Once this is done I can go in and get the finals made and then it is just a question of hanging up the work. I am confident that I can get this done on time if I really work at it, like I have in the past 4 weeks, but I cannot state with certainty that it will come out how I am hoping it will (ah the mystery that is print making). If I pass this course I hope to go on to do a masters in Illustration. If I am able to do that, it opens up a world of new job oppertunities in Denmark, but also gives me another year to hone my skills. I dont feel ready to leave education just yet, soon, but not just yet. I was hoping to continue with the course here at Southampton Solent University, but unfortunately I have been told that they will not be offering a masters of illustration next year.

All in all I have had some good times with this projcet, John Hegley and his guitar Steve, to watching Derek on the turntables and all the random fun that happens in the studios. I will be sad once all this is over, but at the same time I am quite happy to leave all the stress behind. Once the FMP is done I can see myself keeping the blog going, but more for my own amusement and to act as a sort of visual diary beyong the scopes of my FMP.

Bibliography

Bibliography in choronological order:

John Hegley - http://www.dialogue.firstdirect.com/images/presenters/john_hegley_large.jpg. Image accessed on May 4th 2012.

Bruce Ingman - http://www.walker.co.uk/walkerdam/getimage.aspx?class=person&id=2448&size=powerpoint. Image accessed on May 4th 2012

The Pencil - http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=ivy&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=s&biw=1212&bih=898&tbm=isch&tbnid=94WdPInZ1Pk2mM:&imgrefurl=http://www.philnel.com/2010/09/04/more-metafiction/&docid=3b0aXsr_KPwk4M&imgurl=http://www.philnel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/pencil.jpeg&w=400&h=400&ei=2bCoT8SiHsfi4QSwrdm8CQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=137&vpy=147&dur=1266&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=99&ty=111&sig=114379483659796957402&page=1&tbnh=160&tbnw=160&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:72. Image accessed on May 4th 2012

The Pencil Sketch - https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wFx5CROtMcIU5FYiXP5CsGPo1NVqG9iLdrWT2xlSFHCs4cOpGJYTk1kl2D_mpz3ddsQ33EnbmFHBHT1JOI6DVMKnDT-W5cV0evslf6yPUfzxq6HlC8Be6gSmR5AlxKMAmRZ4XpEDvbB8/s640/Ingman.jpg.  Image accessed on May 4th 2012

Bill Bailey - Das Hokey cokey - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tD5P7RsC9TI. video accessed on February 19th 2012 

Paul Osborne pilgrimage - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/0540012009/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_0?ie=UTF8&index=0.  Image accessed on February 15th 2012

Ten largest wars -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War#Ten_largest_wars_.28by_death_toll.29. Image accessed on February 28th 2012

Kitchener Poster - http://www.iwmshop.org.uk/images/prod_12784.jpg. Image accessed on February 28th 2012

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima -  http://buffalopost.net/wp-content/uploads/IwoJima1.jpg. Image accessed on February 27th 2012

Charles Shearer - http://displayhca.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/master-print-maker-charles-shearer.html. Image accessed on March 9th 2012

Charles Shearer Bird Box Blue -  http://www.emmamason.co.uk/item.php?id=949&m=#view. Image accessed on March 9th 2012

Battleship Bismarck - http://www.wrecksite.eu/img/wrecks/zz_bismarck_escorted.jpg. Image accessed on March 5th 2012

Titan class ICBM - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Tucson05_TitanICBM.jpg.  Image accessed on March 5th 2012

Spitfire - http://www.pieway.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Supermarine-Spitfire.jpg.  Image accessed on March 7th 2012

Hublle Space Telescope - http://blogs.voanews.com/science-world/files/2011/09/hubble1.jpg. Image accessed on March 9th 2012

Souble Helix DNA - http://lejeuneusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/dna-double-helix.jpg. Image accessed on March 9th 2012

"Paperwork: the potential of paper in graphic design". By Nancy Williams. 1993 

"The packaging and design templates sourcebook". By Luke Herriot. 2007


Johann Chan's Twitter account - http://twitter.com/#!/johannchan. Image accessed on March 23rd 2012

Fig Taylor -  http://www.theaoi.com/news/personnel/fig01.jpg. Image accessed on March 20th 2012

Joe Brand -  http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/resources/images/1521848/?type=display. Image accessed on March 20th 2012

Takashi Murakami "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow, Blue and Death" -  https://gagosian.vaesite.com/__data/5a2ef9ec5e7867c39d5b006f717f50a2.jpg. Image accessed on March 18th 2012

Takashi Murakami "Reversal DNA" -  http://www.artnet.com/artwork/426200368/424612322/takashi-murakami-reversal-dna.html. Image accessed on March 18th 2012

Jon Clark's 2010 illustration catalogue cover - http://jonclarkdesign.blogspot.co.uk/. Image accessed on April 17th 2012


Tozzy Bridger - http://aa2a.biz/mod/profile/icondirect.php?lastcache=1321973080&username=tozzy&size=large. Image accessed on April 26th 2012

Chemical Structure of Penicillin - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Penicillin_core.svg. Image accessed on April 30th 2012

Gears and Cogs - https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFq4BTNUOZsISCS1PZNFCXosCU3ELIcS9-J4vTaI08aX4VNOh1P-SdyJnCv2-ki6cxMztZt-hXxbBzU6Mog2LaJ0QHxQM-K7kZtIz6pPEbGgHCL3rfHAiPZNh1Orchio_KfqITwy4gDrQ/s1600/gears.png. Image accessed on May 5th 2012

Tower Crane - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/26/Tower_crane.jpg/640px-Tower_crane.jpg. Image accessed on May 5th 2012

The book of mormon "Hasa Diga Eebowai" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IjBi1eEaAA&feature=player_embedded. Video accessed on May 13th 2012

Tijuana Taxi - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owq1adHHXoQ&feature=player_embedded.  Video accessed on May 18th 2012

Celebrate good times - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UWLIgjB9gGw. Video accessed on May 18th 2012

Printing - entertainment poster

Today I went into the print room to test my Entertainment poster design prints. I was surprised to see the print room more or less empty at 10:00 in this the last week before our hand in (keeping in mind that we still have 2 weeks hanging time). I was happy that the print room was empty as I had 4 A1 screens to make (because I want to try printing my Industry poster as well) which essentially fills up the drying cupboard. However the screens were prepared and coated swiftly. Remembering Charles Shearer's comments of trying different colours and inks I wanted to try this poster using some of luminous ink we have in the print room. Below are the results:

my entertainment poster

I do enjoy the look of this ink, as it gives the print a retro/neon feel, something that happily coincided with the poster being about entertainment. I dont think I will use it as a base for the final prints I will hopefully do next week, because

A. the light colour of the foreground prints ink does not cover up the background effectively, meaning that some of the rougher elements of the yellow image bleeds through. 

B. From a distance a lot of the detail is lost due to the bright nature of the yellow

I also printed the industry poster again, in the same colours as that above, to see whether the lines work well with a properly cleaned screen.

My redone industry poster 

 This print came out much more successfully than the first version did (here). I am pleased now that I have 4/6 posters done. I am still missing a little bit of research for my Peace and Theology posters, but my presentation document is coming along nicely and I have the majority of the posters. I still have a lot of work to do, but I fell that I can get it done, as long as I keep pacing myself.

FMP IX

Today I finished my entertainment poster. Finishing it at about 5 in the evening. Not too much to say as I felt when drawing this my body was working on autopilot. I was worried a few times that this might have caused the quality to drop, but I have looked upon it again and again and I am satisfied.

my final design for entertainment poster

I asked my flat mates, Jenny, Jenny (also known as Number 2), Chanie (yes I have three flat mates that basically have the same name and are clones of each other) as well as a neighbor Sam to look at my posters and asked them what themes they were about. Their response was positive all guessing the subject of the posters and quite a few of the elements. They were quite impressed and it made me quite happy that the posters seem to be working so far. Sam commented that he enjoyed that the many elements of each individual poster and their different positions wanted him to keep engaging with the image and look at it from many different angles. Their comments made me happy as I wanted to create posters where you could view them from almost any angle and still get the message, and they seemed to prove that I had achieved this. I look forward to printing this, though I am concerned that it will come out well (especially the small lines) as the pens must be drying out now.

Emergency tutorial

Today I had an emergency tutorial with Alexandra at 11:30. This being my last chance for her to see my presentation document and give comments on what to change/redo. I hope it goes well as I wont be able to deal with another negative comment from her. We are 3 days from its deadline, whatever is here now will have to do. Alexandra had a few cosmetic comments:

scans from my sketchbook

She made the comment to change the title of my blog, as it didnt really seem appropriate (see below)

my old blog title 

And I replaced it with this, which because its part of my more recent work and in the same colours as my blogs background makes it much more appealing. That and Alexandra wanted me to add some practical information, just to make it very clear what exactly this blog is all about.

My new and current blog title

I incorporated the elements I enjoyed from my last title into the new one, changed the colour to match, and added some of the practical information.

Alexandra's other main point was that the posts needed to be fleshed out a bit, as well as making them a bit more personal. She said at the moment there is a slight feeling of the PD being an objective 3rd person diary, instead of a recording of my thoughts and actions. When she pointed out these things to me I felt she had a good point, so I will go home and spend the next few days implementing these changes.

I left the meeting feeling very relieved, as I had been fearing Alexandra telling me similar things to the last time I brought her a new PD (here) where I had to redo almost everything. If she had told me that, I would have been forced to stick with this anyway, as this is not a time where I have the time to make great changes.

When I got home, I cooked dinner and began trying to implement these changes, the most obvious one being the changing of the title.

Life drawing

Today our life drawing instructor Paul Osborne (here) held his last drawing session of the year, and in my case the last session I will ever have with him and the regular model Kiara. Though I do not really have the time I endeavored to go, just to experience it once again and to say thanks for the years of putting up with me. I felt a bit sad knowing that this was the last session I would be having with them, and that due to my stress concerning the presentation document and final major project I could not really enjoy it as much as I normally would have. This did affect my drawings, as they were not quite up to the level I have reached in the past. Never the less it was a nice exercise using pen and brush work to create a flowing model in quick succession, something I have not done since early January.

Photos of my some of my drawings done that day

The day went well and was a nice change of pace. When we ended at around 4 o-clock I spent the rest of the day cleaning my room, shopping and cooking a nice dinner. I felt that this drawing session was a nice return to stability after all this hectic activity that has arisen with then upcoming deadlines and me still lacking a sizable portion of my work. What worries me is that I will not have finished my project by the time my PD is to be handed in. However if anything I consider myself strong when faced with large workloads, something I developed while doing the International Baccalaureate, so I will square my shoulders (yet again) and continue pressing forward.

FMP VIII - entertainment

Today I began working on my entertainment poster. I had a full day to myself, as my flat mates are away to London celebrating the end of their courses (something I am deeply jealous of), so I set up shop at around 12 and worked late into the night. While working I managed to watch Toy Story 3, Planet 51 and the two first star wars films. I feel very geeky watching those sort of things while working... but then again it is more because I enjoy having background noise while working.

 photographs of my entertainment poster

I started of at either end of the poster, moving towards its center, all the while making sure that the edges line up with the Industry poster, as this one will be located immediately below the industry one.

The first layer of the entertainment poster

After completing this quite late in the evening, being interrupted by my flat mates coming back drunk in the night around 10ish and occupying the kitchen. Without being able to continue my work on the poster and finding myself too tired to do any research, I decided to get a good nights sleep, something I have not had recently due to stress.

On a random note I did find something to cheer me up a bit: A song from the US musical the book of Mormon, which was randomly sent to me by an old friend studying in the states.

warning: swearing

Derek tutorial - industry print

Today I had my final group tutorial ever. My original one was scheduled for Thursday, but since it would have been with Peter Lloyd who saw my work last week I persuaded him to change it to Derek Rodgers one on Friday, something Pete thought was a good idea as Derek has not seen my work in a long time. I spent my morning in the print room printing my Industry poster, which did not go too well. Not only was the print room so crowded that my work was slowed down significantly, so much so that I missed a talk Derek was giving about his experiences after graduating, but the print came out badly as well. I suspect it was because whom ever had used the screen before me had left quite a bit of ink to dry without cleaning it properly. Unfortunately good silk screens are hard to come by these days as many Illustration and Graphics students have claimed them for themselves. The only good point was that I was able to get 3 posters ready for Derek at 14:00.

Bad print of my Industry poster

Derek's meeting was moved to 15:00 due to his previous lecture running late. His meeting consisted of myself, Lucy and Claudia. A low turnout for the very last group WIP, it was weird as many of the previous WIPs in the week were badly attended and I figured that many would show up for this the last one. It did mean Derek could give us more attention and that we did not have to spend too much time waiting for other peoples talks. I showed Derek the 3 posters I had so far, lined up as they would be for the final hanging, see below:

My science, war and industry poster

Derek was very enthusiastic about the work, his only negative comments being the seemingly lack of background in the industry poster (due to bad print) and the dark colours of the war poster. He said he enjoyed the evidence of development since my last posters (this - Fig. 3 and this - 1st poster on the left). I was surprised to note that he like the few quirky little jokes and figures I have added, the only times where I deviate from the researched material. I was pleased that while presenting it all 3 people present were able to quickly identify the themes of each poster, yet find it interesting enough that they will give it more than just a quick glance. Derek did not ask me why I only had 3 so far, something I was grateful for because tutors have asked me this a lot, and I don't like telling them about my messed up Easter (here) again and again and again. I left feeling rather pleased with myself as things seem to be going on track so far. I had that slight glimmer of hope and pride of achievement. Despite all the set backs I feel that I have reached almost the same level of work as a few of my peers (those few whose whole body of work I have seen). I went for a celebratory coffee with my two mates Lucy and Claudia and we spent a pleasant evening imagining what we would do once this was all over... sleep and video games were mentioned quite a few times.

I am glad that my final WIP of my year went well.

Degree Catalogue and Lennons

Today we had a meeting with Jonny Hannah concerning our degree catalogue. He showed us the final cover, and the images we would have displayed. I was quite happy with the image listed as mine (here 4th image from the top) however I was not pleased with many other things. For one our names list had been made in a custom font, the G of which looks almost exactly like a C, hence my last name going from Gregersen to Crecersen (this was fairly minor though). The group photograph only shows my face partially making it look like I am growing out of our tutor Louise's head, something that can not be changed at this point since apparently it was the best photograph of the bunch. There is the cover which looks like earth seen from space, but in my opinion is poorly painted with poor colour balance. It was however voted to be fine so therefore I will say no more about it. I will say this that most of the submitted images and the print of the books look very professional, so I am interested to see it when it is done.

scan from my sketchbook

After finishing up the meeting I went home and began getting ready for Lennons, the club in which we are going to have a fundraiser. We are going to charge 3 pounds for entry and all the money made at the door goes to the London degree show. I went over to a friend Lucys house due to her living close to it and the fact that she knew the way there. Once we had eaten a quick chippy meal we left and got there about 10ish. We were disappointed to see that the only one there was Derek and 2 second years. Derek looked so miserable and we understood why. We were all reflecting that this would be the end of our fundraiser as we need one good earner, and the fact that so few had shown up made us angry at our fellows. For people who kept going on about the need for participation in events and for such a bad turnout made us quite bitter. Luckily our dark thoughts only lasted a 20 minutes or so as a large group appeared. Though not as many as we had hoped all the regulars appeared, and later in the night we had quite a good crowd. Slightly drunk and reflecting on my bad sleeping habits recently I left at around 12 in the night, happy that at least for tonight I could forget my problems.

Promotional leaflet for Lennons made by fellow coursemate

FMP VII

I was able to get some drafting film today FINALLY! I spent the remainder of the day completing my industry poster. I am a bit skeptical if this poster will print properly as I can sense that some of the opaque pens are running low on ink. I am anxious to see how the print will come out and what is to be done if I can no longer use the opaque pens.

My completed industry poster

Though I have now completed my third poster I am still panicking about whether I will be able to complete this project on time as well as the presentation document. I find myself sometimes wanting to give up, but only the thought of having to repeat the year and all the money which it will cost me keeps me going. I am incredibly frustrated that I no matter how much I work I will not be able to complete the project as well as I want to. That no matter how many sleepless nights I do I will not recieve a good mark. I promised myself that after the fiasco with my last project Negotiated Study (here) that this would not happen again. Yet here I find myself again... The only consolation is that now that my grandmother is dead and my grandfather is dead to me there should be no more strange goings on from my family. If one more strange event happens, one more unexpected event that causes me to have a breakdown I will give up on this project entirely. I cannot handle any more weird crap...

No drafting film!

Today I continued on the industry poster hoping that with a good bit of effort I would be able to finish it. Unbelievably I ran out of drafting film, of the 3 sheets I had lying around, 2 were too small because they had not been cut properly and the other was so badly folded that it had left horrible marks through the whole sheet. I did managed to finish the first sheet after some hours work:

1/2 completed sheets for my industry poster

I did try to go  into the studios on the off chance that one of the tutors might have been in, unfortunately I was not so lucky. I wandered around Southampton for a bit trying Perrys and some of the craft shops, but none of them had drafting film in A1 size. This left me frustrated enough that I felt like screaming in the street. I spent a good few hours working on my presentation document, adding a new background based on my science poster instead of my old one, and cleaning up my pages from the old PD book.

this blogs old background when it was first set up 2 years ago

 Blogs new and current background

I feel that the new look is a lot better, because it not only relates to the project, but also because it is a more complex image and fits the style better. After doing this I spent the remainder of my day cleaning my room which has in recent days begun looking like a tip.

My room looking like a tip

FMP VI industry

Today I began working on my 3rd poster. Which will be on the concept of work and industry. I find it quite funny how that I seem to be spending most of my time in the kitchen drawing instead of in the studios. Then again I work more efficiently by myself, but it is still a shame that I am not in the studios: getting seen by the tutors and getting a constant stream of feedback. Still I know that if I work in the studios I will only be able to work until 21:00 when they close, meaning I have to pack up, take all my stuff back home, set it all up again and to be honest I don't want to deal with that. Besides I know that if I work in the studios I will spend half the time talking to my peers and eating lunch with them. Moving swiftly on instead of hearing me ramble. I set everything up and began drawing around 16:00 and ended

my poster about 4-5 hours in

About 9 hours in.

Again today was a very long night... he he yeah coffee helps. I swear I am going to die from caffeine overdose when all this is done.  Funny note, it is very difficult to get a opaque pen fitted onto a compass in order to draw a straight line.

Research

Today I spent some time compiling research for my Industry Poster as well as my entertainment one.

For the industry one I started off as I have done in the past by finding things that immediately sprung to mind. For example:

Gears and cogs, a symbol of the industrial revolution and something that embodies the idea of industry.

blogspot.com

A tower crane

wikimedia.org - crane

There were some more but I find myself too tired to add more right now (which might also explain the short nature of this post) I will have to return to it at a later date.

Science print

Today I spent the day in the print room, luckily not hung over from the Guitar Hero event last night, which to be honest was something I sort of had expected. Then again due to so low turnout it didn't last that long, and getting drunk would not have been a good idea. Anyway the print room was quite crowded today making it hard to work efficiently, always having to wait for the drying cabinet or for a screen press.

 My completed Science poster

I finished printing at around 15:00 and having brought my war poster I was able to compare the two side by side. Keep in mind that these prints are the tests, and due to the untrimmed nature of the drafting film have not been aligned properly. However it did show the basic idea of my FMP where all 6 posters will align into one large image.

My science and war poster

The posters were deliberately done with different background colours, as this helps me choose the final colour when it all comes together, when I do the test prints in the future I will carry on with different colours.

While in the Printroom I was able to have an unofficial feedback session with Peter and Charles Shearer. They both enjoyed the concept behind the poster and the designs on them. Charles did mention that when designing the peace poster to make it very orderly, to emphasize the contrast between it and the war one (I will keep this in mind, but it will depend on how well it allows intigration with its surrounding posters). He also stated that the red on the war poster was much to dark and when combined with the black overshadowed the white, leaving the image unbalanced. He advised me to try a lighter colour, perhaps using a different colour than black and finally to experiment on different paper. Next time I will try printing the next poster on many different typers of paper to test the effect. Peter Lloyd made the same comments as Charles in terms of the War poster to do with the colour. He did inspire me to have the opposite of the science one being theology instead of a the more vauge beliefs one I had planned. I did however express my concern that I would not touch religion just to make sure it did not offend anyone. An angry external examier/public is not something I want to deal with come degree show time. I did feel that both tutors comments were fair and it left me feeling satisfied that I was able to get some positive and helpful, something I feel I have not had in a long time.

Today was a productive day, I took the evening off, playing video games enjoying the satisfaction of being almost halfway done. I cannot let myself get too comfortable though as I still have a long way to go.

Magnets and Research

Today I recieved the magnets from amazon.co.uk which I ordered to hang up my final major project. I ordered them shortly after our talk with Peter Lloyd on how to hang our degree show (here). They are a lot smaller than I imagined, and I am worried whether they will be strong enough to support my A1 posters. However having tested them upon my fridge I confirmed that 2 can support a single A1 poster, and that 4 can quite easily keep it suspended and stretched.

To put in perspective how small the magnets are I have taken some pictures:

photographs of the magnets

Small buggers arent they? I was genuinely impressed about how powerful they are, I also have to keep them far away from any electronics, as 1 of them almost wiped the memory off my camera. I got 60 of them as they were sold in units of 20, and with my 6 posters I will need a total of 48 to hang them (4 in each corner x 2 for the back x 6 for the posters).The magnets are know as neodymium magnets, and these particular ones were manufactured by Magnet Expert Ltd.

I was happy to recieve them as amazon quited up to 2 weeks for delivery, but they were very speedy about it.

FMP V

I woke up late today as my alarm clock was not loud enough to wake me, 1 cup of coffee later I sat down in the kitchen and continued drawing my Science Poster.
While drawing like this what I tend to do is have the radio running or some sort of film, but only if it is something I have already seen before. That way I can have it running in the background and I am able to follow the plot without having to pay too much attention. For example this day/night I watched Men In Black 1 and 2, as well as Valkyrie.

Beginning the second layer of the poster, after some allignement work with the War Poster.

My completed design for science

What I enjoyed about this one, a bit more so than I did with war, was the satisfaction of knowing the importance behind each scientific discovery and feeling that you know all the subtle elements in the image. I am very tired now, coming up at 03:00 in the morning. But satisfied that I am another step closer to the end.

Catalogue Photograph

Today we had a group photograph taken, which would be used for the degree show catalogue. This did not take very long, and consisted of us standing in lines in the studio with the picture being taken by Rosi, one of the photography tutors.

After that we all (the 3rd year illustration students) met for a fundraiser meeting, mainly to talk about how we were going to run Lenons on wednesday. Our tutor Derek managed to hire out the club so that me may use it to try and raise some money for our degree show. We assigned some people to make posters/fliers and a few others to hand them out. I was given the job of passing out a few in all the student dorms in the south end of Southampton.

After lunch we had a meeting with all the Illustration students about something called the Unsinkable Press, an independent small press created by the tutors.

 scan from my notebook

After introducing the press to us, they asked us if any of us had anything we would like to print there. This talk, although slightly relevant for the 3rd years, was more intended for the first two years, as they will have time to plan and create projects for the press.

Afterwards the 3rd years held a vote to decide on our identity for our degree show (as mentioned here). We were all asked to write down 3 suggestions, which would then be put into a pile, which we would all vote for later. 

scan from my sketchbook

After 2 hours of almost pointless bickering we somehow got to the word "boyant" or "boyancy". Though boyant was the one with the greatest number of votes, it was not exactly popular. The tutors will return to us when they have the print files of the catalogue, where we have one final chance to make changes. Though I am not really a fan of boyant, I was glad that we didnt settle for "unsinkable" which I feel would just be a pale copy of the tutors unsinkable press. This catalogue is ours and it should stay that way.