Initial Ideas

Learning Outcomes:

Develop and make five initial responses to your self initiated project brief. Post your design developments to the Ideas Wall, to gain peer reflection, and elaborate further on your blog.
Design and make five visual mood boards to accompany your initial visual responses. Add all five mood boards to the Ideas Wall, in separate posts, and reference the inspiration in your blog.

Reflections of the Lecture: This weeks lecture focused on idea generation and models of practice, patterns had started to appear in the approach to this vital step in the design process. I do have a bad habit of trying to jump into something digital but as I have learned through this MA it is always best practice to put pen to paper. Ideas had already started to resinate in my head and once I was able to clearly articulate the concept I worked through some ideas with my partner. Often she will provide an outside perspective and give me an insight that sparks further ideas. This is with no exception with this project. I bounced ideas around at the start and we spoke about a journey and that gave me an idea. Like the treasure maps of pirates, the myths and the legends of the sea, the Cornish smugglers and sea men of this county I believed that maps or paths would begin to play a role in the project. As I wanted to take the reader on a journey, this link would provide key links between pages and places. Sketching out rough thumb nail sketches is always the way for me to get ideas out of my head. At this point I can start to visualise the outcome and even as rough as they are, it works for me. I need to scribble on paper to either discard something or develop it further. This was a theme that I had noticed during the Lecture. Working alone can be difficult for me, so I do rely on my partner for that outside view and even help with colour. Bouncing ideas around and sketching / scribbling is a process that I have learnt to use and implement in my practice.

Workshop Challenge

Reflection The mood boards have enabled me to select specific landmarks and points of interest for each location on this journey. I will use these to create simple illustrations, taking inspiration from existing children’s book and illustrators whom I admire. During this process I have enjoyed creating some very simple illustrations, I have tried not to over complicate things. The sketching of my initial ideas, as rough as they are they work for me and enabled me to refine some of the details, such as the story itself and the links between each page. I aim to spend the rest of this week developing more location illustrations, I still need to write and refine the story but have some ideas about its rhythm and links. This project seems to be flowing well and I am enjoying the process thus far.