LBM Research

Elizabeth Gadd

·         Mysterious, what’s behind that fog?

·         Feel like you are following her

·         There’s some sort of track but where does it lead?

·         Monotone grading- cold

·         Subtle green/red contrast

·         Small burst of red/warmth amongst cold, bland background

·         Empty expanse, going nowhere?

·         Been on a long walk?

·         Alone, quiet

·         Greeny brown tones make image look dull, cold, miserable

·         Cold- you can see breath

·         Backlight picks out figure and tree branches

Evan Walsh

·         Just discovered a magical place

·         Monotone green/blues- cool, chilled out

·         Rocks melt away in the water

·         Vibrant, contrasty image with plenty of crushed blacks- angry, stressed, upset?

·         Smoke may represent what he’s feeling

·         Surrounded, alone

·         What are you feeling?

·         Fun, friends, happiness, joy

·         You can smell the evening air

·         Light from car- not artificial

·         Mysterious

·         Unnatural blue glow

·         Silhouetted- who are these people?

·         Curves of neck/head play with each other- creates strong line of light

Heinz Maier

·         Look like mushrooms or trees

·         Could make an environment out of these

·         Magical moments happen for a split second but then are lost forever

·         There is another world within our world

·         Looks impossible

·         Smooth colour transitions

·         Interesting reflections

Noukka Signe

·         Double exposure photograph creates cool reflection/flare effect

·         Sun so bright that it engulfs some of the image

·         What is she thinking about?

·         Strong backlight clearly defines legs

·         Casts long shadows which lead to the camera

·         Colourful, fun

·         Curvature of pavement enhances ‘bouncy’ feel

·         Long shadow sells the jump

·         Dead-centre shoes, nice composition

·         Legs lead out of the frame making the jump look really high

·         Who are you?

·         Cool tone- perhaps sad?

·         ‘Eyes are the windows to the soul’ – maybe you can work out something about this girl?

·         Playing with lip- nervous?

·         Flare obscures face- slight mystery

·         Winter morning- edges of frame are cool- winter hat

·         Softly silhouetted- nice strong shapes

Peter Jamus

·         Leading lines draw you to bottom of image where figure is

·         Top of trees fade away into sky- make them seem taller

·         Cool atmosphere

·         Low angle makes person look tiny

·         Dynamic pose compliments dynamic water

·         Water interacts with body in interesting ways

·         Monotone saturated blue

·         In focus water droplets stand out amongst background bokeh

·         Strong pose

·         Sculpted by hard light

·         Stands out amongst pure black background

·         Strong diagonal direction

·         Yellow and blue contrast- pastely colours

·         Yellow reflections off water surround the blue girl

·         Strong centred composition

·         What is she doing there?

·         Movie-like aspect ratio

·         Complimentary colours- Blue/Orange

·         Extreme saturation to show warmth of fire in ice cold environment

·         Mountains blend with the water in the background

·         Where is she going? Adventure?

·         Flame can be easily picked out amongst low-key image

LBM Day 3

I found the Lens Based Media week quite interesting as I had never really focused on story-telling before so I managed to learn quite a few new things- all of which I am sure will become helpful soon. I found it quite hard to come up with my own story and apply that in my photographs, I’m not particularly happy with my final outcome for the week but hopefully I can learn something from my mistakes this time around. When I have some more time (this week was quite rushed) on projects in future I’ll be able to spend some more time coming up with more compelling and engaging stories.

LBM Final Story

LBM Initial Story

LBM Day 2

LBM Day 1

Today we started to learn about stories and what different elements you need to consider to create a compelling one.

We were given a task to go out and take photos which responded to certain themes, the themes being: ‘Fall’, ‘Jump’, ‘Crush’, ‘Echo’, ‘Sad’ and ‘Happy’. We had to use the subject and composition to help the photo suggest the theme.

My favourite picture out of the ones I took was probably my ‘Jump’ picture. I liked the simplicity and directionality of the shot and also liked how the curves of my hand contrasted with the strong, straight lines of the pillar.

When I showed Ophelia the photo though, she thought it was my picture for ‘Fall’. Perhaps next time I need to add a bit more context to the shot to clearly express whether I was reaching for the top or falling away from it.

LBM Prep

Graphics Research

OBEY

·         Linking band name to historical situation

·         Angry red/yellow contrasts with peaceful green – is it a celebration or not?

·         Very graphic, bold, strong, centre-based composition

·         Inspired by propaganda posters

·         Very powerful, bold, direct

·         Red colour suggests anger, violence, force

Prologue

·         Text follows movement of body

·         Angular lines cut by the body

·         Powerful metaphor used

·         Nice merge of photography/moving image and graphics

·         Contrast between two different fonts & colour grades

Sagmeister&Walsh

·         Just enough visual to appear as mountains

·         Only realise ‘money’ after staring at the image for a couple of seconds

·         Using face as a surface creates interesting distortions in the graphic

·         By putting it on a face it makes the message more personal

·         What’s the connection between the graphic and the girl?

·         Is she saying this?

·         Gun made out of punctuation/symbols

·         Orange colour suggests fire, action

·         Words can be powerful? Watch what you say?

·         Physical typography

·         Using photographic techniques to change the appearance

·         Light bleeds through making some areas softer

·         A story needs colour?

·         Font chosen to make ‘O’ look like ‘[]’ – other letters compliment this style

·         Once again- physical typography, using photo techniques to change appearance

Sergey Semenov

·         Logo/font compliments the type of company they are- construction

·         Not full ‘S’ but empty space suggests it

·         Logo parts used in other graphical applications- enhanced brand identity

Studio Dumbar

·         Nice contrast between crisp lines and smooth gradients

·         Simple single-colour themes compliment the basic shapes

·         Quality of the shapes and lines illustrate what the music will be like

·         Smooth/jagged contrast

 

·         Graphics look like micro-biological creatures, bacteria, cells etc

·         Simple black or white background draws attention to the colour in the creatures

·         Slick, professional looking

Graphics Day 3

We were given the task of creating a piece of graphic communication to tell people about an exhibition we would be holding 30 years from now. I had done some preparation before the day- I sketched some ideas of layouts and made a test poster in Photoshop using one of my photos. I chose the name Halcyon (meaning a time of peace, tranquillity etc) to represent my exhibition as I love photography that expresses a sense of peace and would love my future photography to convey that too. My favourite photographers do wonderful environmental portraits taken in vast, open expanses with lovely calm atmospheres- I always hope I’ll be like them some day.

To create a poster that would grab people’s attention and successfully communicate the message we had to play with the type, layout, colour etc.

I decided to use complimentary colours for my poster- I tested these colours in my sketchbook before settling on a Yellow/Purple colour scheme. Using complimentary colours would give me the optimum contrast to make the graphics stand out.

Once we had all finished our graphics we put them up on the wall and had a discussion about them. I particularly liked Jordy’s poster for ‘My revolution’, he had put all the information in exactly the right places and had used simple colour to create a striking image. 

Graphics Day 2

Today was all about typography, a very powerful means of communication which enables text to say something in the actual English but also to say something by the way it looks.

We started off by carrying out various experiments to create letterforms, such as crumpling paper, drawing squiggly lines on paper, cutting things out etc

We then had to choose one technique we had come up with to produce the entire alphabet with. I used photographs to inspire my own alphabet, of which I gave the name ‘Inspibet’ (Inspiration Alphabet). I took pictures of the things around me, brought them in to Illustrator and then traced some of the shapes and lines to create letterforms. I then interpreted each of the letterforms as letters in the alphabet. It was interesting to see the different qualities of line that I got from different objects and people.

If I carried out more typography experiments in future I think I would concentrate on the readability of the font as well as keeping it interesting and original, the ‘Inspibet’ was far from readable!

Graphics Day 1

3DD Research

Mark Newson

• Simple- no unnecessary parts

• Soft light glow compliments the smooth, curved shape

• Single unibody design

• Abnormal shape- not what you expect

• Consistent design

• Appears glasses ‘grow’ into tall ones

• Inspired by natural world- looks similar to a beehive or a termite mound

• Functional things don’t have to be formal, straight and planned

• Complex structure but simple pure white design

Norman Foster

• Looks like some sort of insect

• Natural shape blends in nicely with surrounding greenery

• Lots of angles and intersections

• Suggests lively, things going on

• Playing with repetition

• Almost looks crystallized

• Simple geometric shapes can fit together to produce something unusual

• Only formed out of one shape

Santiago Calatrava

• Gentle curve makes it look like a snake leaping across the water

• Architecture can work with the other architecture around it

• Curved lines contrast with bold straight lines

• Framed by the building

• Asymmetrical- breaks the common perception of a bridge

• Curved shape of support lines smoothly transitions from the two intersecting angles

• Enclosed by surrounding area- almost looks like an egg in a womb

• Water, greenery and architecture play nicely off eachother

• Doesn’t look out of place in natural environment

• Rises above rest of city- iconic

• Cuts through the mountains in the background

Zaha Hadid

• Defying what looks physically stable

• Smooth lines effortlessly transition between levels- ‘wrap’ the building

• Very abstract- can’t tell what it is exactly

• Lots of very ‘loud’ straight lines which run at many angles and cut into each other

• Very bubbly, curvy

• Platforms at angles- run in to each other rather than being defined levels

• Sea outside compliments the colour scheme nicely

• Outer ‘webbing’ looks very sea-like

• Water splashes frozen in time- turned upside down- look like whirlpools

• Table appears to be being sucked downwards

• Smooth ripples add nice texture

• Area around table appears to be body of water- but it isn’t

• Why do taps have to be boring?

• Almost looks like typography for letter C

• Angular but smooth at the same time