Really chuffed with the way this brief has gone.
Apart from a bit of lethargy in the beginning, and quite a lot of trouble getting into the print room, I made it. Thanks to the previous brief, I found myself with quite a good stock of ideas. Okay - some of them did need a lot more refining, but still, it was nice to be able to develop a concept meticulously (and over a length of time) in the print room.
Over the last few years - since starting at LAU - I've been a massive sucker for screen printing. And I didn't think that this project was going to be any different... which it wasn't. Although screen printing was my chosen process for my final outcomes, I found myself quite stunned by lino printing and the many directions it could take you. I hadn't really given it a go properly and so sitting down to carve out a big square of lino was a super rewarding process. I loved the textures and tonal values that printing with it created, and definitely want to get more involved with it in future briefs.
(Lino-Print overlaid with another on tracing paper)
However, for this particular project I felt screen would work better as I wanted to strive for a really bold, graphic style that was capable of snatching someones attention.
Once this brief had begun, I think I began to slack a bit when it came to addressing my ideas on paper. I definitely didn't stop generating ideas, however, I did change the way through which I was doing so. I find working digitally to be a much easier process for me as it keeps me fixated and excited with what I am doing. I love being able to mock up a large range of drawings quickly on illustrator and enjoy the variety in terms of shape/colour/texture/etc that it provides. I think that developing ideas on paper, physically, is definitely a vital stage in the process. I need to ensure with my future briefs that I allow my self to get into this more as I understand that it may help lead me to more refined solutions.
Another thing that I feel I could have improved upon is experimenting more with processes. I wasn't able to make it to the monoprint workshop which meant I didn't end up with many good monoprints at all. It would have been good to have allotted myself a day or so to just really get into monoprinting. As similarly to lino, I have done it before but never really sunk my teeth in. And who knows, maybe mono was my knight in shining armour.
The final prints that I produced have retained elements from my original motifs. I developed them using mainly illustrator and photoshop, by playing around with geometric shapes and patterns and then using that as a means of constraining myself. Constantly having to fit things into boxes is a lot more fun that it sounds.
(Snippets from my sketchbook at the point that I began to arrive at my final set of ideas)
Print seems to be quite an integral part of my past and current practice, I think over the course of this brief I've become way more confident in my execution of ideas and feel much better for it. This has allowed me to enjoy the work I've been producing a lot more and I've noticed that that correlates with the amount and quality of my work.
