Here I wanted to explore screen printing. After doing it for the first time in the last project, it made me want to explore the process again. Especially as I feel prints are quite fitting for city life. I worked from my observational drawing of the bike and repeated the print multiple times to work into. I used collage, embroidery and a Japanese hole punch. I liked exploring type, especially layering over the bicycle as I feel it strays from stereotypically placing type above or in blank spacing. Looking back on this I would’ve liked to print a lot more copies to further my exploration. However I like the outcome of the prints, the process did prove challenging at times with even distribution of ink. Yet this was easily overcome with better pressure and reapplication.
For these pages I went to the National Railway museum in York. I wanted to look into other areas that could benefit my project besides solely the city. It was useful in exploring type and numbers as well as logos. I explored line work with different thickness of pens to vary results. This was beneficial for my line drawings and using my initiative to work quickly. I think within this project it’s showed me the importance of working observationally as you gain more accuracy and detail when it’s right in front of you. Especially as you can view it from different angles/ perspectives.
I looked into some artists here from the website itsnicethat.com. I felt like at this point in the project I had done a lot of visual research and needed to incorporate more secondary work. I looked into clement cases which was interesting to see the designs with type. I loved how they formed the type into an animation blending together the stages of designs. I like how abstracted the letter become yet still definable. What I took away from this artist was the importance of the gaps within letters and negative space. I tend to fixate on the exterior/ edges of how letters look rather than the middle of them. Alongside this I looked into the heatherwick design waging against dull buildings that effect society. I looked into the lettering and logo using my own primary photos to present the design. I then portrayed the logo differently, varying positioning too. When it comes to my further ideas/ final pieces I’d like to explore repeating the same word but varying the fonts. I like the contrast of subtle flowing letters to bold sharp ones.
Following on from this I did some more artist research into Tokyo Dome City, a large entertainment complex which was undergoing new designs. It was interesting to see the change in logos to attract a larger audience. I think this was achieved through boldness and colour palette which I liked. Instead of solely using pens I wanted to explore card in creating the designs. I often don’t resort to this media however really liked the outcome and simplicity of it. It allowed for clean shapes and block colour which contrasted nicely.
With these pages I looked into transport. I still didn’t know what my focus point of cities was. Up to this stage I wanted to look at a variety of aspects and media particularly as cities offer such a broad range of things. I recorded my journey on the bus taking in what things I had seen etc. These pages were definitely a dead end for me after committing to them. I simply came to a decision that transport wasn’t something that interested me as much. For me personally I also felt it wasn’t the best depiction for my project. However I do think exploring media and drawings as well as what various paths I could take my project down, led to more finalised decisions on what I wanted my outcomes to be instead.
