Tick tock

Feeling a little bit behind schedule this week. The clock is a ticking therefore I must endeavor to increase my working pace. I have been researching my target audience (which hasn't just been an excuse to watch children's t.v shows and read children's magazines..although it has been a part the process.) To create a product which is appealing to a child, I must think like a child (according to some of my friends, this shouldn't be difficult for me.)

Drawing Unlimited

Today I spent a whole afternoon drawing plastic animals using toothpicks and scraps of card, long armed paintbrushes and charcoal. There was a very good reason for this separation from my beloved macbook and wacom pen, I was participating at the wonderful drawing unlimited workshop. I found this event to be very useful, as not only did it allow me to experiment with different illustrative styles and techniques but I also gained inspiration from the examples of illustrative work which rebecca and Christine displayed. It afforded me the opportunity to interact with my peers from 1st to 3rd year, which was a nice change as I have found that viscom can become quite insular between the year groups. 

Project Two : an overview

The second project has officially begun. For this project I have decided to develop a brief of my own division. I intend to create a 'device' or 'learning aid' which will help a young child suffering with dyslexia develop reading skills which will enable them to become competent readers as adults. This brief has been prompted by my own experiences of growing up with two dyslexic siblings and a dyslexic best friend through primary to secondary school so I have witnessed first hand many of the problems dyslexic people encounter within education and with reading in general. This brief will have an illustrative focus as not only is this appropriate for my portfolio but dyslexic people are primarily visual learners and are very influenced by colour and form rather than written text. I intend to create an outcome which is functional and also appropriate in aiding the development of reading and comprehension skills. I have spent the last week researching information on dyslexic learning styles, dyslexia strategies within education and have also begun research into learning aids currently available. A lot of information to sift through and analyse! 

Finishing Touches

Publish Post

After a weekend of recovery from the sleeplessness that was the D&AD deadline, I have spent the last week developing additional promotional material such as my wristband and badge designs as well as creating a mini model of what the pop-up venue could look like. For my promotional material I have been developing vector based graphics to recreate the boldness of the way finding illustrations. 

One down.

D&Ad project finally submitted wooohoo! I am happy with my submission, however unfortunately I did not get the mini model of the event venue finished as I had planned, so I submitted a technical sketch of what the venue could look like instead. I intend to spend the next week finishing up this project for my May submission, creating wristbands and badges for the event. Upon reflection I feel that this project has allowed me to develop my illustrative technique and has enabled me to be quite experimental with media and style. I have also gained some further photoshop and illustrator knowledge through practise which will no doubt come in handy for future illustrative projects. But for the moment I believe it is time for sleep.