finished my glyphs project today. worried I haven't done enough?? it seemed to simple. I was really confused about the brief as it seemed so easy? now i'm not sure if i've done it right?!

yesterday we did book binding! love a bit o book binding, I did it on foundation too. It's handy to know how to do because you can make your own sketchbooks etc and I like making novelty things for example my flipbook I made in college I may re-print and bind it properly. My favourite was the Japanese style bind. I really want to bind all my small letterpress' but we're not allowed to do anything with them for the assessment...

Had my second letterpress workshop. Did a few rough sketches first off to try work out what messages I wanted to convey. Really pleased with my work. I wouldn't mind maybe going into something to do with letterpress in the future. I never really favoured typography. I mean, I always make sure I use an interesting typeface, or hand render my own. I can't stand it when designers just whack in a random typeface that doesn't have any relevance to the image! But, yeah, I never imagined I'd enjoy working just with type so much. Might look into doing something with it for my placement??

Here's some of my finals...

Visual Equation Finals: 'old/new' My rationale for this outcome was making something 'new' ie a young person, into something old, so I photographed my friend dressed as an old person.
'Life/death'. I used colours associated with death in order to juxtapose the word 'life'.
'Hot/cold' I altered the text in Illustrator by adding icicles which are associated with the opposite meaning to 'hot'. The light icy blue also contradicts colours associated with hotness.

'Love/hate' I manipulated my image of a heart in order to spell out the text. I then added nails as a metaphor for pain, hate etc.
'Natural/man-made' I made a natural organism from man-made materials that I found around the house.

Kit gave us our 5th brief today. This project seems quite interesting, I enjoy doing magazine layouts etc. We started learning about grids and layouts. I know its essential to have these underlying structures, but sometimes it makes me feel like I'm restricted in what I can do which shouldn't happen with art. However, I am still looking forward to getting stuck in with this project. Found a cool layout idea in Vice magazine. Might be a bit too complex for my booklet though as its quite small dimensions. Still, pretty inspiring layout...

I know its important to learn about art history and culture and I do enjoy it, but the lectures always feel like such a chore. And it doesn't help that they are in the dark. Even when I'm not tired I seem to start drifting off...

Learnt how to use letterpress today! I really enjoyed it, it makes a change to relying on computers to achieve interesting text. The effect looks really textural but still really neat at the same time.

We had to research Alan Kitching prior to the workshop. I really like the layout of this piece as the letters are all in different directions and sizes, its really busy. Letterpress makes you realise letters are just characters and you can use them not just to spell words but to create interesting images too.

I am looking forward to actually starting the brief next week because I didn't get round to it today as I was just playing around with layout and colours. This was one of my peices. I think the layout works really well as it creates movement, and I like the use of red. (Mines the blue and red one)

Also had my introduction to Illustrator this arvo. A lot of it I knew already as I've been using it since college, but there were a few things that I hadn't come across before. Recieved my brief on making glyphs and icons from our pictures that we took in Poole. Should be quite fun/easy.

Today was so fun. We got put in groups and told to make a typeface purely out of tape only. it was good to work and talk to people who I hadn't get spoken to in our group. We really experimented and had fun with the brief and I think our final outcome was pretty good. When we had to present them to the class it was interesting to see how each group had taken a completely different approach to the brief and some of the typefaces were really original.

had pal this morning which is proving to be quite helpful. its good to have people to talk to who know exactly what situation you're in and can advise you.

Finally managed to finish my project last night. After my initial idea of having buildings being pulled through a door (which was supposed to be a metaphor for the 21st century), I decided to change it as I wasn't happy with it. My final piece now has a timeline instead to represent the years as this was simpler and I found more effective.

I was really nervous about the crit as I HATE showing my work in front of people, and when I got there in the morning everyone elses seemed so much better. Luckily the crit was really laid back and everyone was really positive about everyone elses work and in the end I was quite happy with my final piece as everyone seemed to understand my message clearly.

Also had an introduction to type with Kit which was good but I already knew most of it, but was helpful to go over again!

Today we had our first PAL session which was quite good. The leaders were all really nice and helpful and its good to have someone to talk to who was in the same situation not so long ago.

The hand in date for my illustration is for tomorrow and I'm really worried as I'm nowhere near finished! It's going to be a late one.

Decided to return to Poole today as I was really stuck with my project. Now I think I know what I am going to do for my project, it was a lot easier and I managed to get some good photos.

Today we had tutorials with (cant remember her name!). Tutorial was quite helpful as I wasn't really sure which angle I wanted to approach the illustration from. I decided the illustration would be based on an article about bringing Poole into the 21st century. I'm still really unsure what or how I am going to illustrate this, as we didn't have the brief before we went to Poole, I don't have very many relevant photos so may have to go back.

We got our first brief today: To design an editorial illustration for an article about the regeneration of Poole. Should be quite fun as I enjoy illustration. Kit showed us a good website http://agoodson.com/ which was quite helpful to give an understanding of what exactly editorial illustration is.

Today was quite fun. We learnt about how to use paper only as a medium, without using pens or paints etc. We had to make images using a scalpel. I used my photo of the tower thing by Poole key. I really like this style of working, it looks quite contemporary and it is really clever.

Went to Poole today. Had to take photos and drawings of the environment. Was ok but wasn't really sure what exactly we should be looking at. Don't think I did enough drawings and the ones that I did do weren't that great.