Contextual Portfolio - LOVE magazine

Today I went to look at magazine mastheads and layouts to get inspiration for my current brief New Visual Language and whilst I was there I bought a couple which were 'LOVE' and 'Wallpaper*.  I like the front cover for 'LOVE', especially the typeface the have used; the 3D element as depth to the cover which is mainly flat colour. The other technique I like is that they have made the cover greyscale apart from the splash of colour for the title; I think that this is effective as the stripped back look helps the text to work with the imagery in harmony rather than them both fighting each other. This is what I need to take forward in my own design practice, 'Less is More'. 

Contextual Portfolio - Wallpaper* Magazine

I wanted to get a design magazine as i'm looking to be inspired and so i've decided that i'm going to start regularly reading design magazines which I hope will inspire me and develop me as an individual; this time I chose to buy 'Wallpaper' magazine. Wallpaper is a media magazine that champions the best in architecture, interiors, fashion, art and design. 

Inside the May edition I came across a section on Daniel Buren's Geometric installations in the Tottenham Court Road station in London.  I love the designs he has come up with due to the shapes he has created and his awareness of space when creating these patterns. The colour palette he has used is also interesting as tube stations can usually be quite dull and bland, but with these vibrant colours he has used it is sure to inject more live in to the station. Buren also made interesting comments on stations in general about speed and motion which I found interesting and could relate well to my essay topic. 

Throughout  the article/conversation they go through the design and the history of design in the station; I urge you to read the section yourself which can be viewed in the May issue of Wallpaper*. It is only £4.99 which is a decent price for a well laid out magazine with some interesting information on the design world. 

Process and Production - Photoshop - Rotoscoping

During this workshop I learnt how to do rotoscoping in photoshop; this was achieved through the use of an existing video, timeline and frames. It involved drawing over a video whilst in adobe photoshop. 

I begun by opening a new document at the size of 1280 x 720px, then selecting a video layer from file I added a new blank layer which would be used to draw on top of the video. Once I had set up the video in photoshop I began to draw over the video; to do this I used the paint brush tool and drew over each frame. I made the paint brush thick enough to create a full person as I felt that a thin stick figure wouldn't do the video justice. 

I found this technique interesting and I feel all the skills I have used to produce these animations will help me for any future design ideas. 

Process and Production - Photoshop - Photoshop timeline

In this last workshop working in Adobe photoshop we were shown how to use photoshop to create small animations; this was done by utilising the timeline feature in photoshop. When this workshop took place I was ill and therefore had to catch up in my own time; to do this I used the instructions that had been posted on unilearn. This was a useful skill to learn and one which I didn't know that you could create in photoshop. 

01) First I begun by drawing out five images on five separate layers; I used a cat silhouette but I didn't change the colour of the different sized cat like most people did as I wanted it to look as if the same cat was moving around on the screen.  Then I selected all five layers, selected create frame animation and then make frame from layers. I changed the frame times to 0.1 second by clicking the arrow key on the frame. Also I changed the loop option to forever and then saved the file by clicking save for web, then changing it to 'gif' and kept loop setting as forever. 

The skills will be useful to me in the future and I will be able to create more animations in adobe Photoshop in the future. 

02) Then I repeated the same process, only this time I used an existing file that had been created for me which was called 'jump'. I opened the file in photoshop and changed its loop settings and timing. I then exported the file with the appropriate file settings, this was then rendered to quicktime player which allows you to preview and watch the animation back. 

03) Next we learnt created a video using the timeline on photoshop; I set the document up with the size of 960 x 540px.  On the timeline settings I changed it to 'create video timeline', then I added a 'new blank video layer. Usually you would have the frames per second set to 24 but for mine I decided to used 12 frames per second. I set the frames to repeat by putting them on loop. On each frame I drew something different so in the end I would end up with a full video animation; then I exported the video and rendered it to achieve the final outcome. 

These new skills will be useful to me in the future as a designer; it will help develop me as a designer as I have more knowledge of the program. 

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Contextual Portfolio - Britain From The Air

In Leeds at the moment there is a display; it is a street gallery which is available to the general public to view. The gallery is made up of photographs from around the UK to show how diverse the country is that we live in. 

It would have been useful to have seen this whilst doing my city in flux brief which is a shame as the imagery would have been inspiring and interesting to see how cities can change going to different areas of the country. The images were breathtakingly beautiful and it made me realise how beautiful the country I live in is. 

It was also interesting that the exhibition was outside; which makes the gallery more accessible in my opinion. This has made me think about my own work and where it can be displayed in order for it to be easily accessible to the public.