Reflection 26/3/18
On the last weekend I have finished my project brief for these two weeks and I named it The Textures of Nature. My central topic for Unit 7 was about human beings and environment. In the Project 1and Project 2 I explored about humans creations and habit growths so in the Project 3 and 4 I will do the work about the connection between human beings and their living environment.
I think first of all, if we want to know the environment where we live, we have to be good at observing it at least. So in this project I just want to explore the shape, color and texture of the nature. Anything can show the beauty of the nature will be the object I designed for in these two weeks.
I decided to make a publication for the nature environment for this project. But according to my rules in thew manifesto I couldn't use any text in the work of Unit 7. So I have to think about how to present the beauty of nature to the audience without words. If I only used photography it will be quite boring and normal. As a student in graphic communication design pathway, I would like to try more different types of design. I will go out to collect some digital materials of the environment tomorrow and sum up my ideas after that.
Reflection 27/3/18
I went out for a tour today in order to collect some pictures of nature. I was thinking about what aspect I can design for in this project because the nature included lots of things such as creatures, plants and environment as well. I have to choose one aspect because they have their own features so if I use all of them it must be very messy and complex. Finally I decided to collect the materials for plants. The reason why I decided to choose this one is that there is a few book particularly about plant so I thought it could be quite special and novel.
I chose some flowers and leaves because all of them have different shapes and colours. Sakura is pink and round but lilac is deep purple and fringy. Some plants I didn't even know the name but I just photoed them. I observed very carefully so I even found the barks have some amazing patterns. I was vibrated by the amazing from the nature and I believed that the work for this project will be interesting as well.
The Picture I Took Today
Reflection 29/3/18
I looked through the pictures I have taken on Tuesday and tried to create a publication for them. I was sure that it couldn't be an album because we are the student in Graphic Design Pathway so we have to know how to design something that could make the pictures looked more interesting and creative.
The first idea that came up to my mind was a specimen book which will collect many different real plants and flowers in it. I wanted to cut a square space in each page and put a really plant specimen in the middle and cover the acetate piece in each side in order to bee looked through clearly. And on the other space in each page will be some related illustration about this plant. I wanna to let the audience can touch the textures of the plants so it will be better if the illustrations can be printed vividly. This idea is aim to let the audience could see the real textures of nature via the publication. it will break the traditional understanding of the normal nature science publication because people could see the specimen clearly and they will got a chance to touch and feel the amazing power by the nature.
Another idea was a little bit abstract. I want to combine the papercuts with the photography together to let the viewer feel the textures and beauty of nature. Paper cutting is a traditional art work inn our country. Normally we will stick the paper cuts on the window to represent luck during the Spring Festival every year. But traditional paper cuts just use red paper and the image was quite single and old. Nowadays some designers from western countries started to explore how to develop the paper cutting skills and let it go to more different fields of arts. they do the paper cutting on different colours of paper and some times even on the other materials. And the patterns have been expanded to different directions such as human and buildings or wild animals and their living environment. This time I would like to use the paper cuts to show the shapes of plants and blur the images I have taken as the background of the paper cuts. So people can see the coloured pieces of the pictures through the paper cuts. It is a way to separate the textures and colours of the view in the nature. Later I will do the experiments for each idea and look the visual effects.
Reflection 1/4/18
From last Friday I began to do the experiment for the ideas I summarized on last Thursday. It's quite important to do the experiment because it decides which one I will choose for the further exploration. For theorist idea I plucked some plants as the specimen for the publication. But the problem is the flowers will droop quickly without a good antiseptic treatment. If the flowers are withered it will influence the visual effect of each page. And also there was nothing suitable for the patterns around the specimen and the drawing will cost me lots of time.
So Finally I chose the second idea because I think using paper cutting on publication is a interesting and ambitious idea. Through the patterns the viewer can guess what they have looked and the breaking colour pieces can let them enjoy the beauty of the shapes from the environment. Blurry background brings hazy and mysterious feeling to the audience so that it represent the nature is sacred and inviolable.
Reflection 3/4/18
I started to develop my experiment for the second idea since yesterday. At first I blurred my pictures of plants. But I found that the picture would show different effect when I adjusted the degrees of this technique in the Photoshop. The picture of comparison was shown under this text box. I didn't want to let the audience recognize what it is in the picture because I just wanted show the colur of this particular plant via them.
Then I began to test the shapes I can curve on the paper for each plant. I observed each type of them and abstracted the image to some simple but understandable shape. After a little while the problems appeared. some plants like pine needles is too thin to curve so it would bring more challenges for me. another problem is some small pieces of paper will disappear because there is no connection between them and the page. That has made me really confused. I tried to make she patterns more bigger in order to guarantee the integrity of the image. Also I tried to avoid folding the patterns so that the connection will be more stable.
Reflection 5/4/18
On Tuesday I did some experiments on the dummy in case there would be some problems during the making process. So I thought the preparation was really important for the final work. After checking the patterns in each page of the publication I thought I could make a high quality one as the final outcome for this project. So from Yesterday I started to curve the pattern on the formal format publication.
It went through quite successfully. The pages have shown the visual effect that I wanted to present. The pictures of making process have been shown under this text box.
I was still thinking about what kind of book cover is suitable for this publication. Because the content is about paper cutting so I wanted to use this effect on the cover as well. Additionally I wanted it to be very simple and clean so I decided to curve the name of the book on the cover and print the name on the first page as well. So the viewer could see the name through the holes on the cover. About the type I have tried some different of them but most of them looked complex. It's unnecessary to have many decorations on the typeface so I just chose Helvatica in the end.
Reflection 6/4/18
It is time to evaluate the project 3 now. Because this publication will be a part of the work for public exhibition so it is quite important for me to make it a good work.
The idea of using paper cutting on the publication is quite new and interesting. It showed the strong connection between pages. It changed the concept of the book that the page could be hollow and the patterns on it could be transparent. In the angle of the specific title of the project, this publication has shown the different aspects of the beauty of nature. And also it let the audience feel the shapes of nature more straightly.
But at the same time some problems have occurred after I finished this publication. For example, the papers have became very soft and fragile after curving because some connections were very thin. It has brought some troubles to the audience when they turned over the pages because they were too easy to be torn. Another problem was that there were too many empty pages in this publication and the paper cuts were white too so the audience might feel barren while they read this book.
According to the problems fit had I thought it have to be improved in the future if I have enough time. First I can choose some thicker paper for the book. I know it will bring more challenges when I curve the patterns but I can use machine to cut because if the book will be printed in a large amount the hand made things must be replaced. And also I need to consider about how to make it more colourful. For example I can create more patterns for it maybe.