(Un)common Objects
For this project, we had to think creatively to take a random mark we created and turn it into a word that represented and/or manipulated that mark. The purpose was to learn how think conceptually and learn how to use photoshop for manipulating the mark, especially in regards to masking.
Mark Making:
Prior to starting the project, I went around and found objects that I thought would make unique marks. I ended up having a luffa, bouncy ball, tissue paper, feathers, and a natural sponge. Using these different objects, I used black ink on white paper to make the marks. I tried different techniques, moving the objects in different ways to create a variety of marks. I found that some objects were easier than others to create intriguing marks or marks that I liked. After I made a bunch of different marks, I then looked at everything I made to get ideas on what marks I wanted to use.
Design Process:
After choosing a range of possible marks I wanted to use, I researched different words for each mark, looking up synonyms and definitions to find the word that depicted my marks the best. Once I had a list compiled, through critique I was able to narrow down my list choosing two marks: mark 2, 6, 9 and 10.
I then did sketches of ways I would utilize the mark, trying some of the words I liked best. Through this process I realized that some marks were easier to utilize than others and made better compositions.
I ended up choosing marks 2 and 6. I made mark 2 with a natural sponge. I liked this one because I thought the lines and thickness of it created an interesting mark and showed lots of movement. The other mark I chose was made using a feather. I liked how it reminded me of a king.
Outcome:
For the first mark, I chose the word gyration which means for something to be rapidly moving in a spiral or circling motion. I felt that this word was a good representation of the mark because the mark possesses lots of movement and reminds me of something like a tornado. The letters of the word appear to get swallowed up by the mark, getting smaller the more they move down the mark. Since I wanted to make it like I removed parts of the mark to create the letters, I made a brush in photoshop that when drawing the letters resembled the original mark itself. The overall piece does a good job of leading your eye down and through the piece, creating an interesting and compelling composition.
The second mark I chose involved the word imposing. I chose this word because the initial mark reminded me of a king and the word imposing means for something to be grand and impressive in appearance. To represent this idea, I included the original mark as the "o" in the word. It is the biggest of all the letters and centrally located to make it seem the most important. The letters also recede and get smaller the further away from the center they get. I chose to use all bolded uppercase letters to further convey the idea of being grand. To make the final composition, I used a lot of masking, manipulating through warping and distorting as well as cutting and pasting from the original mark.
