OUGD602 PPP Refresher Task & Presentation

I completed the chalkboard design that I planned to do for this day brief. After each of us had presented our designs we were asked to write a 12 word sentence explaining our piece:

The beautiful ordinary is something I strive to see in my everyday life.

There are lots of things that I am unhappy about with this design because I set out to try and leave any mistakes that happen. This was to make the imperfections noticeable and almost celebrate them as the poem does.

OUGD602 PPP Refresher Brief: Deciding upon a Medium

Now I know that I want to find a way of presenting one of my favourite poems I need to think about how I shal do so.

Looking back to the mind ma that I produced in the last post some words stood out and have helped to define a direction in terms of medium. 'Old fashioned', 'content' and 'nature' in particular suggest a medium that has a sense of tradition to it as well as something more natural than digital print.

In my personal practice I have had an interesting chalkboard design and hand rendered type for some while. So, these are creative skills I can easily tap into. 

For reference while designing  I also have an extensive collection of chalkboard designs in the form of a Pinterest board that will be easy to call on for inspiration.

I want to draw on the established aesthetic of chalkboards, because I want to communicate the idea of tradition. This is intended to reflect the way I am a bit of a old dogie really despite being  20. 

When it comes to the typographic design decisions I find it helpful to have two key words to come back to when in doubt, to ensure I an communicating what I should be. This time these words are imperfect and natural. 

From these words I have decided to approach the type with a focus on calligraphic and cursive firms to keep the message strong. However I might add some soft serif type at points to underline the theme of tradition and age. I am going to be working straight onto the board. This is for two reasons: I want to embrace the mistakes that I make and it is in my experience the best way to get a natural finish.

For practicality's sake I am going to render the second stanza only, I have chosen this because it expresses the ideas I am trying to convey most effectively and concisely.

OUGD602 PPP refresher brief: Briefing, First Thoughts and IdeaGeneration

Brief:

Explain who you are, your values, your identity, your purpose...in terms of who you are as you, a person, not who you are in terms of graphic design.

This is telling not selling:

Task one: know who you are

Task two: communicate it

You should use this opportunity to showcase you. Once you know what you want to say, impress us with how you say, show and present it. Use your creative skills to communicate what you want to say; from poetry to a poster any medium is appropriate.

You story is of course a work in progress, it's still being written. Focus on you journey to date, a suggestion perhaps of what's to come.

I started this project by simply thinking and created the mind map you can see below to record these thoughts.

The main ideas that stood out to me were that of the beautiful ordinary and the imperfect perfect. These things define what makes me happy and the people that are important to me, so I want to try and communicate these things.

Thinking more on this general theme I remembered one of my favourite poems by Edward Thomas called the tall nettles.

TALL nettles cover up, as they have done
These many springs, the rusty harrow, the plough
Long worn out, and the roller made of stone:
Only the elm butt tops the nettles now.
This corner of the farmyard I like most:	5
As well as any bloom upon a flower
I like the dust on the nettles, never lost
Except to prove the sweetness of a shower.

This peon exemplifies this appriciation of the mundane and especially in the form of plants, which are also a huge interest of mine. 

I think what a want to do is to find a way to present part or all of this poem and then talk about it. I don't want to create a piece that involves no conversation because that is not really me. I enjoy and seek out people and social environments so I want this presentation to reflect me in that.