OUIL501 - end of module evaluation

I found this module quite difficult, as my essay wasn’t an easy one to try and illustrate, but I feel my visual work has developed a lot since the start of the project. Before I knew my essay topic I began by visually exploring the city in different ways, depicting it in various states of change; I was drawn to do this after researching into the photography of Eugene Atget. This then left me a bit confused as to go next but after a lecture on ‘Cities and Film’ I was inspired to look more at the effects the city has on the individual, to explore the relationship between people and the built environment; this then lead me onto psychology which surrounds architecture and environmental design. I was pleased with my essay, I think I touched on a lot of interesting areas and points but I don’t feel I was analytical enough when exploring those ideas. I didn’t have a proper conclusion, which should have rounded up all my different concepts and applied them all to one particular environment; this would have made it a lot stronger. I am happy with the rest of the essay as I used a broad range of sources and have created a starting point for further interesting investigation.

I feel my practical work went really well, I intertwined my aesthetic processes from other modules into this project and made a book I am happy with. My visual work changed a lot from just pen and ink drawings to handmade textures mixed with digital, which I think looks much more exciting. I managed to create quite atmospheric pieces with the sharp, protruding illustrations of environment, which come across quite oppressive, especially the front and back cover. I think my process of photo-shopping previously used mono-print textures into shapes worked really well to create a rather bleak city landscape; one which communicates it’s control over its inhabitants. The use of puppetry was, I feel, an interesting concept and contrast to the sterile and flat environments. I wanted to convey the city’s people as flimsy and easily manipulated by their surroundings, which I think they do, the handmade, loose watercolour on the figures against the harsh background was necessary to convey this. However, I feel like I could have executed it better, I liked how the figures sat on the environments, with the slight shadow and use of thread worked well, but I think the actual figures needed more development – they looked a little too messy and out of place. I liked the use of textures for their clothes but the face and body drawings were quite weak and not very defined; they needed a bit more character in the face. 

I think my strengths during this module have been my execution of research for both theory and practical. I made sure to gather my research from a wide range of sources which included going out and doing observational drawing and photography to then work from, this definitely helped to inspire ideas. I also feel my synergy between my essay and practical work has been strong; my essay looked into how the environment manipulates our behaviour and then my practical illustrated the different ways we can be manipulated but also focused more on the social constraints placed on us to change how we act, which is a focused development on my essay. My weaknesses were that my essay wasn’t very focused towards the end and definitely needed a better conclusion; also the visual development in terms of my final figures needed more attention. I also feel I could have thought more about interesting ways to format my book, maybe finding a way in which the layout of the book could help convey my points, also with the font as I didn’t put much consideration into that either which I think shows. I feel that context is lacking slightly as well, although the book is in context with my essay, I haven’t thought about where my book exists in the real world, or who the audience is, which are really important considerations I need to focus more on next time.

Overall, I am happy with my outcomes for this project and the direction it took, I feel I have definitely opened up an interesting topic to explore. I’m unsure about whether I want to look into architecture again as I think I have had that as my CoP essay/project topic two years in a row now, but I do like the idea of exploring social constraints that are placed on us and the various ways we are controlled in society, I think that could possibly be an subject to start looking into for CoP 3.

final publication

I'm happy with this outcome, I think the beginning intro of text was definitely necessary in explaining my concept and making sure the illustrations made sense. I think the image quality turned out well, I chose to print on an off-white paper which compliments the images well. I feel I should have done the green watercolour marks on watercolour paper because the warping has shown quite clearly which is annoying, but other than that I am pleased with it. I think the format of the book works really well with the images, because of their shape they have been framed nicely and sit very comfortably on the page. 

my final essay

final crit

We had a final crit looking at our final products and development work while also displaying our essay question to see how well the practical and theory merge. 

Comment on visual qualities of images produced, including details such as communication, crafting, concept, content, presentation:

- really professional finish, collage effect works really well

- nice, playful images, sit on the page well

- framed the illustrations within the book well

- really atmospheric, expresses essay theme well

- vast investigation of material and aesthetic is evident

- good image format and textures

- well crafted

Comment on evidence of critical understanding, thematic context, evidence of exploration in relation the themes:

- interesting concept

- it is very clear what you are trying to communicate

- images communicate well but the type could be improved

- very well researched, this is evident throughout the studio brief and book

What aspects of this work could be extended?

- there is potential for mono-printing

- some of the illustrations could be made into larger, stand alone prints

- next time when doing the watercolour washes, make sure to do them on watercolour paper so to decrease chance of paper warping

text

I need some text to go with the book to explain my concept, I was thinking to have a bit of text on each page to communicate whats happening in each scene but Eleanor thought it might be better to just have a page at the beginning to explain everything and leave the rest of the book to focus on the imagery which I agree with. I had a bit of difficulty coming up with a concise bit of writing which covers everything, because all the illustrations are showing such differing kinds of design, but this is what I have come up with:

"This picture book explores the relationship between people and the designed environment around them, and how they can be manipulated by it. 

We are all very much affected by our surroundings, they influence our actions and often our emotions. We can be drawn to certain places without realising due to the alluring colours or aesthetic layout. Some spaces can affect our psychological responses making us feel calm while in others we feel trapped or anxious. 

Our subconscious can play a part in how we respond to places, when we are continuously shepherded into spaces to queue, when we are presented with something as unauthoritative as a bus stop we cannot help but organise ourselves into a queue, we are so used to constraints being placed on us. 

Although some of these constraints have more of a negative on some of the society, such as 'anti-skate' or 'anti-homeless' design which sets out to prevent these people from using certain areas.

Environmental design can be very clever in how it get people to act in certain ways without members of society realising, like puppets."

I think it illustrates all my points relatively clearly, I made sure it went through each point in line with the order of illustrations in the book so its quite easy to refer back to if necessary. I did this because I want the illustrations to be able to speak for themselves and communicate a certain atmosphere. 

final illustrations

Here are all my final illustrations that are going to go into my book:

I'm happy with them, I think the textures work really nicely to create this urban environment. I like the flatness of the scenes and sharp, angular shapes which contrasts a lot with the flimsy figures, their slight shadow add a depth of field to the illustrations. 

indesign

It was my first time on inDesign since last year so I was worried I would forget everything but I think I managed to get the hang of it. These are my layouts for the book:

Even though I've been working on these images all together, I wasn't sure they would all work when placed next to each other, but seeing them all lined up like this is encouraging as they do look quite good as a group and, I think, make sense. 

finalising

I wasn't happy with some of the watercolour backgrounds I had made, so I made some more using quink which I think works a lot better, I also did them on watercolour paper this time so there was less warping:

I made some more figures for the remaining sets:

I tried placing them onto the 3 seats environment but I didn't like how it looked:

The figures looked too out of place and don't fit on the seats properly. I think I should only be using the figures if it's necessary, which it isn't really in this case. It actually makes more sense to not have them as both this and the anti-homeless bench prevent proper social situations, they keep people away from each other which isn't very appealing. 

finalising

I talked to Eleanor about my images and she thought my front page could do with some changes, at the moment its this:

She thought that with what I'm trying to show (the city as something quite oppressive which manipulates our behaviour, a bleak scene) it would be better to enlarge the buildings and get rid of the white space to make it seem more overwhelming and oppressive. 

So I went back and made it into this:

I was thinking about getting rid of all the white space, but I think the small gaps make it seem more claustrophobic, as if you're looking for a way out. 

book layout

This is my proposed layout for my book, I think I want to have it in a square size as that is the format I have made most of my images to fit to:

publication

Although I know what imagery I am creating, and the thought behind it, I've been a bit stuck with how it will actually be presented. I was originally thinking of using 'the newspaper club' but it seems a bit unnecessary for this and I don't think my illustrations are very editorial for a newspaper format. I'm thinking of making a small book which will have a few lines of text by each image. It could be a brief illustrated introduction to the ways architectural design can affect behaviour - it wouldn't be very text driven, just give a little information. Although I'm not sure of the audience, as the illustrations could be aimed at quite a young group but the actual information is a bit more intellectual, so I will have to put a bit more thought into how I will actually finish this project. 

developing images

I felt some of the environments I designed were a bit a empty, so I added a ground to them using watercolour, I think this helps merge the contrast between the sharp environments with the handmade figures.

I've also tried adding some of the figures into the imagery:

I was worried the figures might look too out of place for it too work, but I actually quite like the look of it, they do stand out well. I'm trying to show the bold, heavy structures as something more dominant, and the handmade, flimsy figures as something which can be manipulated, and I think I am managing to put that across. I was planning to put figures in all the images, but I don't think that will be necessary, I want some focus to just be on the environmental design. 

different rooms

I made two examples of interior design which could cause two different responses due to the colours, furniture, lighting etc. 

In my essay I looked at how the inside of spaces can make you feel and what I found out was that we respond positively to spaces filled with natural light, or with access to seeing nature. Also the colour green is meant to encourage calm feelings whereas darker rooms with synthetic light can lead to more depressive responses. This is what I am trying to communicate in these illustrations. 

buildings

I want the front cover of this publication I'm making to be of the collection of buildings with puppet strings coming out of it. I initially made the composition using cut out paper which I liked, the layers to the paper added a nice depth to it. I've now tried it using the process I've used for the other environments I've been making:

This is them collected together:

I think the textures have worked really well for these buildings, it gives the cityscape quite a bleak feel, lifeless almost, which is what I want because I am communicating how much we can be manipulated by the design around us, which can be quite a bleak thought depending on how you look at it.

thread

I made a figure using thread for the puppet strings, and I think it works really well in making the figure stand out more as a puppet. 

The shadow from the figure and strings helps add a slight 3D effect which I think will work well against the quite flat and structural settings I have made. 

more development

I started making the 'sets' for each image, I'm trying to show the different types of environmental design which controls us in some way, or forces us to act a little differently than normal.

I want to look at the different kind of constraints design can put on people or how it can subconsciously manipulate our behaviour. For example, when a crowd of people are in an enclosed space they are constantly shepherded around into various queues but the design of a space, but when faced with just a bus stop people automatically/subconsciously start to form a queue as that now seems the natural way to organise a group of people. 

I like how I have made all the environments, they look quite harsh and structural from the sharp corners in the shapes, which will contrast nicely with the handmade figures I have. I want the figures to stand out as if they are puppets on a set.