My first inquiry presentation went okay I believe.
I went in a different direction for this project rather than continuing on the game idea, because Professor Khalili said that this class is meant to add to our portfolio things that we've always wanted to do. I decided that I wanted the things I present about in this class to be things I'm excited about. The toy I made, although I'm very happy with and could think of some great packaging design, it doesn't add much to bolster the illustration side of my portfolio. I watched a video that advised on not making your portfolio too broad, and focus on making it look cohesive to attract more jobs focused in one aspect you want to focus on.
This is why I went in the direction of album design and also why I ended up in the textile realm, as well. Textiles and embroidery have always fascinated me. It is very nice to have something tactile while working on artwork. I took a sculpture class and I loved the way the hands-on experience felt, and embroidery is a little more soft on the hand. I'm also currently in a costume creation class, so it would be interesting to see if that carries over into more future projects. I'm also actually really interested in costume design, but I don't know if that will be crazy out of left field in my portfolio and I don't necessarily know how I could fit it on the grid. Maybe I can think of a way to include it in a bigger project.
Something I did notice in my presentation compared to everyone else's, and something I want to do better in the future, is having a more realized over-arching concept. It's hard because my main idea is the album design, but I think it could be more effective if I thought of more elements that surround it, such as something cross-stitched that is included in the deluxe version of the album? Perhaps gardening tools, like watering cans, shovels, spades, etc.
The trouble with this is that I did not solidify this idea anyways until Sunday afternoon, and didn't solidify the album concept until Monday. This meant I only had two days to solidify the plans, and I definitely wouldn't be able to cross stitch the entire album, much less starting from scratch. I knew I wanted to make a plan for the entire cross-stitch first, because I knew things would change as I added plants and vines. So,
99 Percent invisible - Longbox Ep. 124
I had to look up what a CD long box was just to visualize what they were talking about. I have never seen packaging like this and it was very interesting to me. Scrolling down the podcast's web page and seeing R.E.M's long box was also intriguing to see the way they combined this political agenda to their packaging. Political design are extremely normal to me in today's society, but this seems like one of the earliest examples of politics and design mixing in such a straightforward and unashamed way. In illustration today, Professor Dedas talked about how when you stand for something, you are immediately standing against something else, which is something you always need to think about when putting out designs.
I feel like the idea of Rock the Vote Campaign is something that I could totally see myself doing/creating, but actually implementing ideas that support the campaign like Motor Voter is the aspect in which I feel like I might lack. The Motor Voter bill is such a great example of thinking about the consumer and how to create real change. These are the design muscles that I feel like I really need to stretch--thinking outside of the box and considering the user in it's entirety.
Jan 19, 2023