06.09.16

The many personalities of London, a city with continuous movement. I chose this photograph as my image of the day out of a fairly large collection as the subjects within the image portray different stories as apposed to just the one story. The obliviousness towards the Houses of Parliament, a highly popular tourist spot adds a sense of London’s reality.

To be critical, I’m unhappy with the sky, it looks overexposed and holds a large amount of negative space. However, it does bring the focus in to the subjects.

Below are a couple of images I also considered to be my chosen image of the day.

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Information Design

I was set the task to design a poster for Woody Allen’s romantic comedy Annie Hall in the style of Cranbrook, and so I immediately researched into the style of cranbrook and created some rough designs, the problem I faced with this brief was fitting the Cranbrook style into a romantic comedy genre, which means it must be kept lighthearted.

Below is my final design for the romantic comedy, the bitmap eggs refer to a quote taken from the film.

Personal Project

In order to explore my individual style and portray my passion in regards to graphic design I was set the task to create a project which highlighted these facts. Immediately I knew what I wanted to base my brief on, animal rights, more specifically, cosmetic testing.  It’s a subject I am passionate about and would like to be more actively involved in, in the near future.

After exploring various ideas I made the decision to create an app for a smart device, the app would feature products that are not tested on animals, cruelty-free products. This idea expanded and I intended to create a cruelty-free cosmetic line under the same name and design style as the app in order for viewers/customers to easily recognize.

The final name for the app and cosmetic line, Chubby Bunny, is a fun play on words it’s related to the animal theme and is easily recognizable and catchy.

Portrait Photography

Film Photography

“The aims of this project are two-fold: firstly it will introduce you to using a manual film camera and establish your skills in developing and printing in the darkroom.  Secondly it provides an opportunity for you to reveal your own personal observations of people, places and things by taking a series of photographs using the medium of black and white film.” – Assignment Brief.

This project took place between September-November.

THOUGHTS

Almost immediately I had chosen the theme “A Special Collection” out of several themes we were to choose from. I wanted to photograph people close to me, such as family and friends and their environment. Essentially, a small and vague documentary project.

PRACTICAL

As a newcomer to film photography I was both excited to indulge in the project and frustrated at the time consuming process as I found it fairly difficult to perfect my skills which I have documented throughout my journal. However, film photography introduced me to new techniques which are extremely important in order to produce successful images.

LOADING FILM

Step One – Pull up the lever on the top left of the camera and the back of the camera will open up.

Step Two – Insert film into the spool securely (excess film will secure this process.) and push down the lever to secure film into place.

Step Three – Use the lever to take in any slack in the film, use the film advance lever to wind the film. Take three test pictures, if the lever turns every time the advance lever is cranked it is loaded correctly.

UNLOADING FILM

Step One – locate small button on the base of camera, and push. Lift the lever up slightly so the back does not open up. Then wind the lever clockwise until slack or hear a small click.

Step Two – Lift lever up to open the back of the camera and remove film, place in its original canister and store in a cool place until you wish to process the film.

PROCESSING FILM

Step One – Pop open the film canister, remove film and load film onto the film reel. Then place film inside the lightproof developing tank. This process must be in complete darkness. Once the film is inside the lightproof tank, take the tank into processing room/area. Check the temperature of the developer. For Example if the developer is 20 Degrees Celsius you will need to add 300 ml (per film) into the tank for 22 minutes, making sure to agitate every 30 seconds.

Step Two – After pouring the developer away, add the stop into the tank for 1 minute and agitate every 10 seconds, pour the stop back into the stop tank. Then pour the fix into the tank for 5 minutes, again, pour back into its original container. Now it is safe to take the film out of the lightproof tank, keep film on its reel and place into wash for 15 minutes. The film must be hung to dry in heater for 15 minutes.

 

FINAL PRINTS

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Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this project as it allowed me to expand my knowledge and skills.

Animal Rights Campaign

As part of a small group of four, we were set the task by our university lecturers to produce a campaign on a subject we are passionate about. Natasha Coyne, Jasmine Jones, Alice Richardson and I are all animal lovers, and passionate about animal welfare therefore we decided to create a campaign on animal rights, more specifically, cosmetic testing.

Research

Firstly, in order to start the creative process it is vital to research into the subject matter of choice, without thorough knowledge the creative process will immediately be slowed down. During our research we were able to confirm our general knowledge that MAC cosmetics test their products on animals and so, we decided to aim our protest against this brand as MAC torture animals forcing them to inhale highly toxic fumes and insert toxic liquids into the eyes of the animals as well as starving them.

Listed below are the campaigns we researched.

https://uk.lush.com/article/fighting-animal-testing-campaign

The BODY shop

Petition to Stop Beagle Puppy Farm

Idea’s

Individually, we sketched a variety of thumbnail designs for posters and a 3D model, then as a group we discussed each of our designs and combined them which helped create our initial final design idea. Having decided on aiming our protest at MAC cosmetics, a largely popular cosmetic brand, I rooted around an old makeup bag of mine where I found an old MAC compact. (Fortunately I stopped purchasing MAC cosmetics a couple years ago due to their products being tested on animals!) The group discussed the idea of using this compact as part of a 3D model, using  a Disney Dalmatian that Natasha had drawn to replace the mirror, in order to show the audience the torture animals endure. Another part of our final idea was to cover and photograph a pair of hands in red paint which metaphorically represents the blood of the animals and create a poster. Jasmine and Alice covered my hands in the “blood” whilst Natasha photographed.

Our aim was to capture the audiences attention and make them think twice about purchasing cosmetics that are tested on animals as this could in fact help save an animals life!

Images shown below are by Natasha Coyne.