the design workshop (week two)

{18/11/13 - 22/11/13}

DAY 1 - LASER CUTTER

The morning portion of the laser cut workshop I was taken a tour about the prototype room and had a brief tutorial on each equipment, today we will be using the laser cutter onto our chosen material (mine is plywood) and create a design onto it. This task was easy because I prepared before hand on what design I wanted to engrave.

For my chosen design I chose a dragon that I created onto photoshop in the past, I really like this design because it's simplistic and thought it would work on the laser cutter easily and quickly. I chosen the two elements of type and image to show a contrast and assuming it will work well together. I altered the design by removing the unnecessary text and background and also changing the colours so the laser cutter will read it.

Using image trace to remove the colour and only put the black outline to engrave the plywood, I chosen to engrave it because there's not much shading and I wanted to keep it simple.

Since my engraving was taking over 20 minutes, the computer automatically logged off due to no movement on the screen, meaning it turnt off the laser cutter too. I was disappointment that I didn't complete all of the engraving because there was so little to be done, however I do like the smokey effect it gives as it adds shadow and a 3d aspect into the plywood, I am happy with my outcome and I am comfortable using the lase cutter.

DAY 2 - COLOUR AND ILLUSTRATION

For the colour and illustration workshop we looked at colour by starting from the beginning where we learnt colours in an early age, the primary and secondary. From this we created a colour wheel and for me it was basic knowledge and I didn't think I'll find it interesting but painting from a long time, it was enjoyable to use acrylic paint as a medium. So the colour wheel is divided into 12 colours (yellow - three shades of orange - red - three shades of purple - blue - three shades of green) This exercise was really easy to complete but I think I did spent too much time trying to perfect and maintain the shape of each colour but I am happy of the outcome.

 

I didn't know about tertiary colours. It was interesting to learn how to paint the three scales of colour (burnt siennas, ochers and umber tone) There was a particular way of achieving the right colour and so it was difficult for me to do because I am used to the concept of mixing colours and dealing with it throughout a piece. It was also interesting because I didn't expect bright colours like red or green to produce a brown tone. I think it's helpful to now identify different browns with the two opposite colours.

After the colour wheel and the tertiary colours, it was time to do some illustration with the colours from the three colour scales. My approach was very experimental and not putting much thinking into my work but to see the colours work together and using different techniques to achieve an effect.

(Top left) I used the Umber scale and using stripes as a way to compare the shades easily, this comparsion is interesting because it it doesn't look like it is in the same colour range from the dark blue to the soft brown. The image reminds me of a dark night in the forest (brown being the trunk of trees and sky being the darkness)

(Top right) I used the Orches scale and I chosen the opposite colours, yellow and purple. Instead of taking my time and perfecting it, I drawn on dry, rough brush strokes with the yellow peeking through. It is very mysterious and and strokes had an effect of movement to the image which I personally like.

(Bottom) Lastly I used the Burnt Sienna's and honestly it was a random outcome, thinking about it, red is always associated with love and hearts and so it's partly why I chose it. with the red heart in the middle against the brown, I can easily tell the undertone of the brown is red.

DAY 3 - PHYSICAL TYPE LAYOUT

 My task for the physical type layout was to explore three fonts (Helvetica, Gill sans and Palatino) by playing with actual type to represent adjectives and words. There was much inspiration from the book Watching Words Move' by Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar. It was very interesting how they approached some words to reflect it visually, it also was enagaging to the viewer as it makes them think how it's done and it's a fresh idea that we don't see everyday. The book took advantage of the page space to had effective to the word and also using upper and lower case. Being exposure to this, it was easily to come up with ideas, to further expand our vocabulary, we borrowed a dictonary to help us come up with new words to play with.

Using the template of the three fonts that was given to us, I was ready to create as much as possible. I wanted to think quick and so I wrote down a handful possible words in a corner and create them when I have a certain amount. This technique allowed me to work very quickly compared to others and it can possible help me in the future for problem solving. I wanted to inject colour and so I used coloured felt tip to do this, just like the book I took advantage of the space I had and try to break the aligned form.

Now that I collected a decent amount of type, I selectively chose six to use for my outcome (which was to choose six to eight types that can be featured in the book)

 Here is my chosen six outcomes (done on 12cm squares)

1. STITCH - being stitched showing the thread through the edges of the word
2. CRISS CROSS - both words sharing the 'r' to create the criss cross formation
3. BEST - using the 'st' of 'best' to create first place (1st) it's partly filled in to be less confusing
4. LIGHT - using the dot from the 'i' as a source of light
5. SMILE - replacing the 'i' into a semi colon and 'l' into a closed bracket
6. BANANA - using maths reference to na squared hence creating 'na na'