Final CV- whoop!

Layout Designs

Have a look at what I did today... designed my first layout. The image IS NOT MINE! It's just a stock image I swiped off the internet. But it looks pretty class and it's made me want to do typography portraits a little more...

(Without grids)

(With grids)

And Paula Scher portraits I'm gunna draw from:

CV Final Photos

In Franklin Gothic Book.

Headbutting your laptop is not advisable

Henry's harddrive is now malfunctioning...good times (!)

And the work load I believe has just doubled. Time for one of my 'Get-Your-Ass-In-Gear Lists'.

Typeradio

- Get ready for crit on Wednesday:

- Write short presentation- Tues

- Draw initial ideas on layout paper- Tues

- Research illustrators/photographers (drawing with type?)- tonight

- Write up expressive type brief in sketchbook- tonight

- Decipher transcript- Tues

CV/Placement

- Tonight- Create final photos and words to fit new CV plan

- Blog photos- tonight

- Create final CV (show Kit/Sally)- Tues

PPRD

- Find all previous self-evaluations (new file)- tonight

- Check spelling/grammer- Wed

- Make notes for each unit to bulk it out (pictures/initial ideas/idea development/self development)- Wed

- Find notes on book-making- Wed

I want this all completed before the Easter holidays...so...Thursday. All this must be completed by Wednesday night...

When completed, object will be coloured BLUE.

New Contender

I like this one too. This was done as an experiment and now I can't choose...

CV Finalisation Goodness

So I finally have two photos to choose from for my final CV. Out of a first batch of seven, three were ignored due to my own mistakes (my reflection, the undeniable mark of a flash against a window- school boy errors) and two were removed due to failed composition. The final two I chose are now saturated slightly and levels played with in Photoshop. The photos overall didn't have a lot of colour or light, so had to shop them.

The one above was chosen for its simple design- it's face on and slightly aggressive. Not necessarily a good thing.

This one was chosen for its angles and the background- the movement of the lines. Less aggressive too...

I guess its that time to make a choice...

Cracking On and Moving Up

On my travels this weekend I bought some high-market, stupidly-expensive magazines to do layout research. These were; Bizzare Issue 161, artsprojects Issue 134, Dazed and Confused Issue 83, Volume 2 and Creative Review March 2010 (30th anniversary). I wanted to explore their use of magazine layouts when dealing with numerous subjects. So, trusty Post-its at the ready- let's get cracking.

On another note, I've just had a tutorial with Sally where she told me not to get too bogged down with it and, again, to crack on with it. It's a beaut of a day so I'm holding out for a sunset. I'm using Bookman Old Style to create my name with tape (Natasha? Tasha? Tash? Nat?- explore) onto my window, then cropping it into a square and writing my CV, like a border, around the image on A4 using InDesign and Photoshop (using PS to alter and crop the image and InDesign for layout). I want it to come across that I'm experimental, aware of myself and the space around me, that I can use software with confidence and that my work should speak for itself (where the emphasis is on the image rather then the CV border). I've thought a lot about this.

As for Henry? As long as I don't need to use a CD/DVD anytime soon, during the easter break he will be more then likely used for scrap but for now I can work on him. Just. As an extra precaution I've backed up everything on a separate hard drive.

What A Genius

My laptop is a magician. Watch as he makes my CD/DVD drive disappear...

A Tad Slow On The Uptake

On Tuesday we were given our new brief. I know what you're thinking. It's now Friday- what have I been doing if not updating this thing? But, hold the pregnant pause. I've been opening my mind a little.

Layouts and grids excite the hell out of me (as we discovered with Quark in Unit 1) and we've been learning Adobe InDesign, meeting a number of guest speakers and transcribing parts of two Paula Scher interviews...

Today, I've been doing some research into my designer (chosen with the that old scientific trick- pulling a name out of a hat) and those of you with keen eye sight would know that Paula Scher is the designer I and my class went to see in London all those months ago at D&AD. I admired her in that lecture and what she spoke about (her design work and refusal to be pigeon-holed as either a designer or a fine artist and the concepts behind her work) but after transcribing for a good five hours, having to listen over and over again for 'ums' and 'ahs' I'm...can I say it?...a little sick of it- those interviews I mean, not Scher herself of course.

So, instead, to rest my ears (oh yes, and today I had to buy new headphones as mine broke which I completely blame this project for...) I decided to check out some of her work today. AUCB didn't have her book 'Make It Bigger' so I've ordered (for a pound charge!!) for the library to have a nose around to see if anyone else has it and had to lean on the internet and a book which she's mentioned in for my research today. I'm uploading the Youtube videos here and chucking the pictures in the ol' sketchbook.

I Highly Doubt My Landlord Will Be As Excited As Me If He Saw My Floor Right Now...

What a stunner of a day...which I spent brainstorming my CV and staring at my floor. A little housekeeping first though- a change of look for the old blog. New top image (still with the sunflower though- fighting to keep that little beauty in) and a little changes around. Play a game, see if you can spot them..if you're really that bored. Although, I do like them. It needed a spruce up.

So, to the news of the day- the CV. Armed with some masking tape, Gogol Bordello and Toots and the Maytals, I set about experimenting for my CV. Note- Experimenting. None of these will be the final product...

Finishing Unit 3

So, it's been a bit rushy, but I've managed to do what I need to do. As I type this, my final animation is rendering. Since the last blog I've written things have been getting better. We had a final crit last Tuesday, with Wednesday as the hand-in (except I had the before-mentioned five days extension) and it really showed me how fast my animation was going. So I've slowed it all down (with excrutiatingly slow movement of camera angle keyframes and masking keyframes), created a trial run with low quality and it looks pretty sweet. Not as amazing as most in the class but I've learnt a lot. So, for time management purposes, now all I've got to do is sort out my rationale and self-evaluation, burn it onto a disk, sort out sketchbook...etc!!

Oh yes, and there has been a few song changes. The first song I had chosen (see previous posts) wasn't really anything to do with education so Justin mentioned about changing it. To the Grange Hill theme tune. So I phoned the owners, the BBC, and they told me I had to pay £500 to use it. The conversation went like this:

Me- "You do realise I'm a student? And it won't be used to earn any money-"

BBC LadyFiend- "You do realise we're a company?"

I had to hang up pretty sharply...I know what happens when my temper starts to flare.

So I had another look at archive.org and found Use to Abuse's song 'I Wanna Go'. Get going to uni, get it? And it's upbeat, positive etc so fills out the crit that I put upon myself.

I've slowed my animation down, added a motion blur and made the blur more prominent today. Good times I do believe. Tonight- sketchbook, self-evaluation and rationale/revise SOI.

On other work news- CV! Sally and Kit sat down with me and we had a longggg chat about how it was a good idea, but it needs refining and work. So thats my weekend plans. That and laundry...

Have a good one guys