Feedback 1

Reflections

Part 1 was thoroughly enjoyable. I particularly liked that the focus was on our relationship with books; there was certainly an emotive and nostalgic element to this assignment. I found that moving step by step through the creative process highlighted the areas I struggle with; my tutor definitely saw that I sometimes find it tricky to go back to my initial ideas and research or find new inspiration to move my ideas forward. However, overall, I was pleased with my first assignment. I tried to show the various elements of the process and be thorough in my development of the zine.

I was pleased with my tutor’s feedback on my submission for Part 1. As a starting point for the course, I think I showed my creative process and my keen interest in books and their design. There are a few areas to return to and develop further and some pointers to keep in mind when moving forward.

The main exercises to return to are Exercise 5: Research and development and Exercise 7: Visualising, critiquing and editing. I need to show that I can continue to find visual inspiration and refer back to research to push my ideas further. My tutor gave me some ideas around exploring book structures and more physical elements, such as peepholes, pop-outs and pull-out concertinas. I would like to see what interesting results I can come up with. This would then provide more material to critique and edit.

My tutor also suggested some possibilities for stamping and printing, some of which I have made use of in previous courses. The potato printing played a big part in my final assignment of Illustration Sketchbooks, so I am excited to try this again. There are lots of materials that can be cut and used as stamps, such as rubbers or the pulp board at the back of drawing pads. Another material I have enjoyed using before is sponge, to cut and print with. This works quite nicely to build layers of different colours. I am keen to spend some time trying these techniques, so I feel confident using them in future projects.

For the future, I need to consider other ways to generate ideas. My tutor recommended the use of spider diagrams and mood boards. Mood boards in particular are resources I enjoy creating, because they give clear visual, and sometimes textural, direction to a project.

My tutor also pointed out when discussing my first assignment (the zine) that I must ensure there is always “a visual link leading one page to the next throughout the whole publication”. She suggested that this can be achieved by considering the whole book as a grid. There needs to be this consistency and common colours, elements, and structure to aid readability. As this first assignment was very much a cut and paste style, I did notice that some of the transitions between pages were a little jarring. I would definitely say this is a target to work on when considering my next project.

The other focus moving forward will be to make explicit links between my research and my ideas generation and development. My tutor recognised my research but said I needed to give specific examples in my sketchbook to show what aspects of the research were informing my creative process. This is certainly something I shall do moving forward.  

Additionally, I have made a list of website links to research and books (that I have already eagerly ordered!) that my tutor recommended, to further inspire me and inform my practice.

Any returning to previous tasks I will make clear with a heading ‘Returning to…’ and by including the tag ‘Returning’ and ‘Feedback 1’. Hopefully this should make any additional work easy to find.