Final Major Project Evaluation

Relaxation is a very wide topic. You can find something connected to it practically anywhere. In order to understand relaxation and engage myself completely in the project, I used a wide range of research methods .I handed out questionnaires, used the internet, visited exhibitions, parks and so on. I observed how people behaved while they relaxed, and also experienced relaxation techniques firsthand.

 I found photographers such as Gregory Crewdson and Annie Leibovitz as relevant contextual references. I took inspiration from their stage-like work and use of light in order to improve my photographs. In reference to my work, I looked at a number of ad campaigns as well, such as the HSBC adverts.  Not everything that I had researched proved to be directly useful in my final piece. However, I feel that this ‘extra research’ helped indirectly in giving me a wider view of the topic.

In the beginning, my intention was to find fun ways to relax on the go, taking a cue from Japanese chin rests. My research made me move a lot outdoors. This led to an idea of ‘relaxing on the go in crowded places’. I wanted to show ‘relaxation’ as a goal and make people want to relax by showing the contrast between happy, relaxed people and stressed people who don’t relax. This, however, wasn’t strong enough in communicating a message of relaxation. After a number of experiments taking photographs, looking at questionnaires and getting feedback, I came up with the concept of selling relaxation and making people want to do it because of its many benefits. In my development of ideas,I used a wide variety of materials and processes including type and photography. It finally culminated into the ‘Close Your Eyes’ campaign. It’s a simple, yet powerful idea showing that relaxation is as easy as just closing your eyes. You can do it anytime, anywhere.  I was keen to use photography in my final piece as I felt that it was the best way to communicate my message. The use of gray scale was strong; it was selling a simple idea and was classic. I used photomontage to see how my ads would look in real environments. I also combined my images with 3D objects such as bags and badges in order to make a full campaign. It was extremely difficult to find people who manufactured small quantities of printed bags; hence, I decided to make them myself; this also proved to be a cost and time effective solution!

I managed my time quite effectively, with to-do lists and reflections on my progress which helped me stay on track.  My action plan was fairly successful and I almost managed to stick to it. 

I learnt that I should find out the goals earlier in order to allow more time to plan out things that I need to do in advance. Furthermore, I need to learn to narrow down my research, not in terms of quantity, but with regard to importance and relevance towards the development of the final piece.

I learnt a lot from the final major project: how to organise resources, run a campaign, keep a budget and make pivotal decisions – this is of course in addition to all I learnt from the research material itself.

But the greatest lesson learnt was to be independent and self motivated. Having to initiate your own work is much harder than it seems. Motivation and determination turn out to be extremely helpful and important as these things can lead to a well developed final piece, and help you make the best of your time.

The Long Goodbye

The first impression we get from the ‘The Long Goodbye’ is perplexing. Things which are not central to the plot have been made important by director, Robert Altman. ‘Here he is just as fascinated with the hippy chicks next door or Marlowe’s relationship with his cat as he is with the identity of the murderer’. The heavy, complicated plot consisting of numerous connections, however, keeps you on the edge of your seats, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery together with the genius of a private investigator, Philip Marlowe.

 If we look at the entire story from a distance, we can see that it is truly marvellous. Slowly the plot unravels in ‘The Long Goodbye’ and intricate details connect everything from Lennox to the Wades and the mobsters. Robert Altman generally ‘unfolds his stories according to Hemingway’s iceberg theory, wherein you can only see the tip while the great mass of the thing remains beneath the surface’, but ‘‘The Long Goodbye’ is different in that respect’. It is easy to understand what is going on. Here, even though everything is given importance, we can gradually see a flow to the film. The ‘hippy chicks next door’ reflect the laidback behaviour of Marlowe himself, ‘who manages to keep his cool even when he’s taking a beating’. The cat wasn’t fooled by him and runs away. This is followed by others including his best friend, Lennox trying to fool him. This captivates the audience, raising question in our minds about what sinister thing is really simmering under the surface.

 It reminds us of films made by producer, Priyadarshan in Bollywood, where all the characters end up being connected and the mystery unravels at the end when they all coincidently end up meeting in the same place.  Towards the end of ‘The Long Goodbye’ we see that from just the sight of Marlowe, Eileen Wade immediately understands that something is not right. The ending had come as a shock to us all, but we can relate to it, and everything fits in place. After all, ‘Robert Altman’s cinema is a cinema of uncertainty and surprise’.

The film may not have been properly adapted from the original novel by Raymond Chandler; the screenplay writer, Leigh Brackett, having added some of her own designs such as sending Marlowe to Mexico twice and including some ‘startling acts of violence’. As a result, ‘the plot is a labyrinth not easily negotiated’. The film, which is full of lies and deceptions, reminds us of Fiona Banner’s Harrier and Jaguar. It is all about appearance. The sight of these planes can take your ‘breath away’; they appear majestic, just like birds of prey such as hawks. However, they are killing machines, and sometimes we forget that their function is to kill. In the film, we learn that all people cannot be trusted. Terry Lennox, who is supposedly Marlowe’s best friend, turns out to deceive him. ‘Sometimes, the people who you thought were closest are the people who are really strangers in the end’.

Moving Towards the End of Part 2

Our last project in part 2 of our course was on facts. Everyone has a unique tongue print. I didn't know that, nor did I know that bubblegum has actual rubber. All the facts that people found were amazing; and even more than the facts itself, the outcomes of everyone were really good, considering that we had less than one week. My fact was the one about the tongue. I played around with the idea of replacing the finger print with the tongue print to the tongue being able to define a person's identity.

To come to think of it, I've enjoyed all the vis com projects so far. At times it was hard and challenging, but looking at the entire picture, there was never a time when I wanted to give up. I worked hard and always enjoyed the results. As Thomas Edison said, 'Genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration'.

Sheep, Sheep and more Sheep

Our animals project was a two week research project, and all I did then was go on about sheep.There is just so much about them, everywhere! They are in religion, brand names, cartoon shows, zodiac signs; the list just goes on and on... The thing that I learnt from this project (besides information on sheep) was experimenting on a variety of ideas, whether or not you think it will look good as a final piece. Also, using picture collages to help communicating an idea. At the end of these enriching two weeks, I felt that I could do even more work had I had the time. Nevertheless, I was happy with my final result which showed the following fact, ' When Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States of America, the First Lady kept sheep on the White House lawns to keep it neatly trimmed'.

Book arts to Building a Type Machine

The first thing that would have come to my mind when I thought of book arts would be designing a book cover or illustrating a few of its pages. I would have never imagined that I would actually create them from scratch; use different concepts and make 'out of the box' books which challenge the concept of a traditional book.
For my book arts project I made a ' slow book', a 'book that gets bigger' and an 'endless book'. I like all three of them , but I feel that the last one is the most interesting. It is a very delicate book. Its modeled on a credit card being like a magic wand. Its very tempting to use it, but if you overspend then you get broke. If the book isn't handled properly then it'll break

Moving on to, quite literally, building a type machine. I have to say, I was a bit nervous about this one,having never, well, built a proper machine before. But it turned out to be one of the most fun and interesting project.We collected a load of junk and then created the machine out of it. The most interesting part of it was figuring out how to make a working mechanism from a variety of things. Also, it was amazing to discover the inside of an old television by dismantling it.

Typography

I absolutely loved this project. I think it was because I enjoyed matching the typeface to the words...letting the typeface describe the words. I experimented with which typeface suited the words which I had and also the composition of the words within a frame. I think the fact that it was hand rendered and done on layout paper gave it far wider possibilities.
I also used this way of 'type matching' for a word that I had invented in the 30 things to do project. 

These are two lines from Robert Frost's poem 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'.

I have tried to 'express their sense using pure typography'

 

 

Lists

For this project we had to create a visual list that communicated our subject in an 'entertaining and informative way'. I chose to do mine on procrastination. Its actually kind of a problem, but my final piece was on a lighter note. I made an approximately twenty feet time line showing a day in the life of a procrastinator. It took a long time to complete, but the result was definitely worth it. This is one of my favourite works. I think it was largest thing I had ever made; and the size together with the usage of string (showing continuity) succeeded in giving the impact of procrastination being a thing that just goes on and on.

The day begins at 8:00 and goes on till 00:00. This is the first of about ten sections..