Screenprinting.

Francesca and I went to screen print our designs yesterday and today ...we had a little fun! 

This was my screen ready to print once it had been cleaned, coated and exposed to the UV lighting. 

Magenta, cyan and grey mixed with medium 60:40

I tested my colour on a piece of newsprint to see the opacity levels as I wanted my colour to be fairly opaque so that when layered upon one another both colours are still visible.

I printed my designs on both cream and grey stock; I m either going to use both stocks or just one depending on the outcome and how well they fold. I printed the grid first.

I then printed a magenta head onto this.

.....my printing bed!!!

My magenta prints ready for the cyan layer.

Printing the cyan.

I am pleased with the outcome of my printing session ...now to finalise the design and get folding!!!

Bookwork Designs to Screenprint.

I want to screen print my book design as it is a crafting process which requires skill and produces amazing results.

I began thinking of possible designs which I could screen print that incorporates a square.

I had come across the image of Pythagoras; taking a twist on my theme of a square ...soo the experimenting began!

I liked the layering of the cyan and magenta create this double vision illusion.

I wanted to incorporate a grid into the image to signify the relation between my work and the theme.

However, when it came to printing off the image ready to screen print I found it was highly pixellated. I wanted to print my image scaled A3, so I had to reduce the image size to prevent this pixellation.

Reducing the image to prevent the pixellation resulted in a lot of empty space surrounding the image ...something I needed to consider.

I wanted to incorporate some text into my imagery so I had a little play! I want to stick to handmade conventions and either screen print or woodblock letterpress the text.

End of Module Self-Evaluation.

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Time management has been my biggest and most obvious realisation from this project. In comparison to the short briefs we have previous been tackling, having 5 weeks to complete the ‘Collection 100’ project has truly made me realise the importance of time management. I tried to think of it as five 1 weeks briefs; considering the amount of work I was able produce in a week gave me an idea as to how much work I should be producing in the time available to us. I feel I coped reasonably well managing my time, although I did find it difficult in the first few weeks to grasp what I should be doing in realtion to the full amount of time we had available to us; still researching or initiating designs. Trying and testing as many ideas as possible was an aspect of the design process which I tried to embrace. However, I soon found that i’d be in the midst of executing one idea when I then wanted to begin another. I also realised that giving my work a purpose in order for it to meet the brief was vital with in this project; this was an aspect of my design that I had to address at the end.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I have learnt to research all/any area of the topic in hand; no matter how irrelevant it may seem initially, it could lead you to something of great interest and relevance. I have also learnt that it is important to have a broard range of research; primary/secondary and quantiative/qualitative to allow for idea generation. All of this will aid the development of informed designs which adhere to the brief in hand

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

Our group worked extremely well on the ‘What if’ brief; we distributed the responsibilities equally within the group. This allowed our project to be fully informed and successfully tackle the brief on a live basis. Taking into consideration the amount of work we had to tackle in this project, I feel I coped quite well in distributing my time between workshops, elective work, studio briefs, contextual theoretcial studies and visual language. 

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

I need to ensure I fully adhere to the brief and my work has a purpose; not just looking good. To do this I will revisit the brief regualrily in relation to the work I am producing. 

Make effective use of the time available to me during a brief. To do this I will draft a plan of how my time will be distibuted throughout the duration of the brief

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1. Refer back to the brief throughout the duration of the brief to ensure the work I am producing is on brief.
2. Fully utilise the time available to me to the best of my ability by producing a timeplan; this will ensure I do not waste time, especially in the studio.
3. Make use of the workshops available to me (video, printmaking, bookbinding) this will give my work more bredth. 
4. Identify the target audience for my designs well in advance, again to ensure it is on brief. 
5. Explore alternative medias for my outcome rather than simply producing 2D work as this will give my work more depth and scope for idea generation.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: 

Attendance -5

Punctuality -5

Motivation -4

Commitment -4

Quantity of Work Produced -3

Quality of Work Produced -3

Contribution to the group -3

Binding my Book.

This is my book after I had bound it together and trimmed it down....

I used white thread to minimise the possibility of it being visible when turning the pages; I think this has had the desired outcome.

I then had to trim down the acetate sheet to fit....

Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome of my book from the printing, to the binding, to the realisation of the purpose it will serve. Result.

Draft Binding of my Book.

Firstly, I tried to bind my book with tear resistant transparent sewing yarn as I thought it may look aesthetically pleasing. However, I found it was too flimsy and did not hold the book together well at all.

I liked the size of this exhibition catalogue so I cut my book down to the same size to see the effect it had. I am yet to be convinced!

When I printed my first draft, one of my concerns was whether or not I should incorporate somewhere to house my acetate overlay. I attempted to make a sleeve which would be positioned to the rear of the book but found the acetate sheet would simply be too large to fit into it. As a result, I think I am going to leave the acetate sheet loose at the front of the book; that way it is easily accessible and more obvious as to it's use.

I then attempted to bind my book with orange cotton, as I thought it may be more visually appealing. This held the book together well, nevertheless, I bound it too far to one side so it was visible throughout the book.

Some things here which I need to take into consideration when binding my book for real.

Promotional Posters??

As I was deliberating the purpose of my posters, I decided to experiment with incorporating promotional information into my designs......

Despite doing this, I do not think these designs convey enough information to be classed as promotional material. Therefore I am going to disregard these as a final outcome for this project.

Ponderland.....

With regards to the feedback I received from our ‘Show and Tell’ crit, I have begun to consider whether my product is the book I produced with the posters being the promotional material, or whether Cadbury chocolate is the product with my book being the promotional material. Something I need to consider.