PPP1 Reading Week Tasks -VISIT AN EXHIBITION

Exhibition Visit to Nottingham Contemporary:

JOHN NEWLING 
ECOLOGICAL VALUES 
26TH JAN- 07 APRIL 2013

During reading week I decided to visit the "Nottingham contemporary' situated in the centre of Nottingham by the train station. Not only was this visit convenient in distance, the Gallery itself is one of my most favoured galleries in the Midlands area of the United kingdom, I have visited this particular gallery a fair few times. 

During my visit I particularly found the exhibition 'Ecological Values' by John Newling fairly intriguing and interesting. John Newling is a 'pioneer of public art' who now retired as a Professor of Installation Sculpture at The Nottingham Trent University.

His work at this particular exhibition reflected and explored the natural world and its ecological system (which is stated in the title of the exhibition. Although Newling had two exhibitions on at the Nottingham Contemporary; one them focusing on the subject area of money and religion I felt as though this Ecological Values exhibition was much more touching as it was not something I would normally be drawn too, its organic route and concept in terms of the way that the exhibit was depicted showed the lifespan in the form of nature age'ing in a obscure yet artistic form. 

One of his pieces consisted of a sculpture of over 80 Walking stick cabbages over the lifespan of the exhibition this sculpture was shown to erode and have some what of a physical change in state. I found this fairly interesting to look at and although I do not have photographs of this piece within the exhibition the placement of an outdoor substance showing to be almost declining in an artificial environment was interesting to think about, this   juxtaposed the way it would flourish in the outdoor environment. The connotation that has been created here and the amount of reflection that has been created through responding to this piece is a clear reflection of the power of the pieces exhibited. 

PPP1 Reading Week Tasks- READ A BOOK

TASK 1 

1. Get a book out of the library relating to your subject specialism. (If you are keen on lots of different media, choose one – this is also an option to double-up with your research for SDP). Read the book and list the top 3 things you learnt from it and how this will help your work progress. 
   
   
   The 35mm photographers handbook
   Julian Calder, John Garrett
   ISBN: 0 330 26035 9
   
   
   
   The book I have chosen to read from the library that will assist and influence my working in progress for my self directed project (SDP) is the one shown above called: The 35mm photographers handbook. As my SDP subject area focuses on film photography I feel that this book went hand-in-hand with the basic technical elements that I needed to cover in order to gain detailed knowledge on the equipment used within film photography. 
   
   Not only did the book cover heavily on technical aspects it also touched on the ideas of having to experiment and be patient with your experimentation in order to perfect and learn the photographic skills to prosper within the discipline. 
   
   
   
   
   I feel that I was immediately drawn to this book after reading the first line of the introduction which stated 'The first million pictures were the hardest to take. But we have taken them, and lessons we learned along the way are distilled in this book'. As soon as I read this line I felt as if this book was infused with knowledge, experience, wisdom, logic and most importantly creativity- the five upmost important attributes to have in photography as taught by my father.
   
   3 THINGS LEARNT FROM THE BOOK:
   
   1. The brand of equipment does not matter greatly, photography is about using the right tools for the right job.
   
   2. Preparation in photography is equally as important as taking the photograph itself. Maintenance of equipment is influential on the clarity and outcome of the photograph, the craftsmanship of the photo is therefore dependent on the care and respect given to the equipment.
   
   3. Photojournalism moulds and shapes our opinions on subject areas raised within society, what is captured in these photos therefore has great importance as these images are depicted and discussed on old (news papers, tv) and new (blogs, forums, social networking) media platforms.
   

LISTENING CRIT - STUDIO BRIEF: RESEARCH, COLLECT, COMMUNICATE: PRODUCT

After producing out product in response to the research, collect and prepare brief we were then asked to bring our product to the studio in order to a final crit to be carried out on our work. However this crit was a completely different crit in comparison to the ones we have had before, this crit was a 'listening  crit'.

We were asked to lay our work down on the table along with a name tag, leave the work here for 4o minutes whilst the work was critiqued by our tutors then come back after 40 minutes to take part in the listening crit.

The basic process of this crit was to listen to the feedback of the two tutors and take on board what they  said in response to the product you had produced, one by one each person received there responses. In comparison to a normal crit there were no questions asked to us about our product we were literally given feedback on the product at its face value. almost as if our tutor were the users of the product with no background knowledge upon how it was formed or where the idea had been derived from.

MY FINAL PRODUCT:

LISTENING CRIT FEEDBACK:

• The product is engaging and interactive, you can tell what it is however if you were to have put a dvd disc inside this would have been beneficial and represent the product fully.
• The folds and finish could be improved some of the edges were there are folds are torn.
• It's very interactive and there is enough infographics relating to the theme.
• Kept the idea simple and gone with the theme - This is good as you have focused on the content and followed the theme through from the beginning to the end with development in the middle.

Confessions Plan for PPP tasks

Group confessions & plan


We were group 4 in our group there is - Jasper , Bethany , Danielle & Vicky
The 3 tasks we had to look at were as follows-

• STUDY TASK 2 WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN - 
PART 1

• STUDY TASK 3 WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN - 
PART 2

• STUDY TASK 4 WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN - 
PART 1 (WEBSITE)

Everyone in the group admitted to of finishing everything but could probably go into more depth with more research and analysis.

• STUDY TASK 2 WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN - 
PART 1

Everyone in the group has completed this properly , so just to check the labels are correct and read through it.

• STUDY TASK 3 WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN - 
PART 2  -

Making sure we've got a large variety of images of different graphic design and analyse it thoroughly adding images frequently because this task is on going. (Making sure every things labelled properly)

• PLAN FOR 
STUDY TASK 4 WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN - PART 1 (WEBSITE) - 

Making sure we don't just analyse with a sentence and - Write a brief statement defining your understanding of each of the design areas Identify 10 examples of each discipline and 'categories' them by genre, audience, content, sector, budget and/or any appropriate method as discussed in your groups.Comment on the effectiveness of the examples with regards to content, format, function and media.  (Making sure every things labelled properly)

CRITIQUE FOR STUDIO BRIEF: RESEARCH, COLLECT, COMMUNICATE: PRODUCT

CRIT

After collating this research we then had a peer-to-peer crit on Monday morning (14/01/13), too discuss our ideas and show each other the direction we have decided to take with the given brief. Within the crit I had taken with me all of the research above along with x1 a2 sheet showing initial packaging designs. After discussing with my group my ideas and the direction I want to take with the given brief they feed back how and where I could take my idea from this current point onwards.

3 main pointers after group crit on 14/01/13:

1. Look at different types of packaging in terms of dvd packaging, this could be current packaging and also innovative new packaging designs that get the audience engaged and interacting with your product.

2. Pinpoint the info-graphic - Gather the actual information that you will present to the user/target audience within your product and make sure your confident with the information and how you could work with it. 

3. Maybe carry out further research into the time/period of which your theme existed within, in terms of the kind of design during the 50's-80's and try to include elements of this period of design into your product. 

Personal response:

I think that this feedback is useful as the next step that I thought I should take prior to this was to look at packaging and consider the actual template I can use in accordance with the resources I have. In terms of the information itself I feel that pinpointing the information would be useful at this stage therefore once carrying out some research on the packaging layout/format I shall collect this information and start to work this with the design sheets created through further research of packaging. Along with researching into the period 0f 50-80's I think I should also try to make the information itself fairly comic and tone down the seriousness of the information in order for it to fit in with the characteristics and humour which the tone of comedy takes.

How to brief: Self Evaluation

Critique feedback: Message & delivery - Mailshot

After producing our mail shots we gathered for an entire group critique, in this critique we were asked to pair up with a partner and sit on a table were two pieces of other peoples work was presented. There were 4 mail shot editions along with a mailing list (these were the deliverables which were required) some of the work also came with key rings, labels and other small things you could find in a mail shot that they had designed.

As a pair we had to critique these two individuals pieces of work, the same procedure was carried out on my work by two pairs of two people during this process. The feedback I got from these two pairs of two people were documented on the critique sheet which is shown below.

 

Summary based on feedback given:

• Audience are not sure what the EU budget is, maybe clarify this further. 
• Mailshot is about British finance , theres a formality associated. 
• All deliverable requirements are met along with colour ad stock requirements.
• Purpose is to INFORM

Self Evaluation based on this feedback:

I feel that I defiantly could improve of clarifying what the EU budget is to the audience, some may not be aware of what the budget s firstly and how it is effecting them, I could make this section of the mailshot a lot more explanatory and highlight how it is effecting the society and taxpayers money. Although I have used the same typefaces that I used within my poster my critique sheet feedback states that I should possibly experiment with the typeface, I do not completely agree with this however i do feel that I should defiantly change the script typeface used as I have had numerous feedback on its illegibility.

 

Summary based on critique feedback:

• Use a different display font. 
• British flag represents the subject area well.
• Mailing list has far to many fonts, maybe think about reducing number of fonts.
• Purpose = Inform
• Place address panel inside the 'O' 

Self Evaluation based on feedback:

I do agree with this pair when they say that the display font should be different, after our learning in our workshop on 'The anatomy of type' I have learnt that script typefaces should NOT be used as display fonts, the reason behind this is because when they are in a larger point size they become illegible as it has been stated from feedback numerous times. If i could improve this factor then I would replace this font with a Block typeface which when in a larger point size it is more legible. From this feedback form they have also highlighted that the image could be of a higher quality on the front of the mail shot, I also agree with this, the reason behind it being a lower resolution is due to the fact that i mistakenly put the DPI at 72 rather than its intended value of 300.