Enterprise: Flights of the imagination - Space Food

As a starting point for this project when I read and watched the JFK "We choose to go to the Moon" Speech one of the things that really interested me was when he mentioned "carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body" was the idea of space food, I started by looking up the menu's that would have been typical for an Apollo Mission and started drawing and playing around with that visually.
I then started to play around with ideas like "The great taste of Outer Space" and trying to fit all of their needed calories in one bar.
I used this as a starting point for the project and it really helped me get into the brief and try to be experimental not only with my drawings but with the ideas behind the drawings too.

Enterprise: Flights of the imagination - Tinder Profile

While creating a little fact sheet for the moon in my sketchbook I was reading about the "Moon's Profile" that actually made me think of an internet dating profile. So from that, I took this idea and made a tinder profile for the moon, using the same properties as the app and even creating a small bio.

Enterprise: Flights of the imagination - Netflix Research

Something wonderful about this module is all of the research that can be obtained so easily, there are hundreds of movies, documentaries, podcasts and blog posts to ingest because space is cool and everyone knows it. 

Because there is so much I decided I would start with Netflix and here are some of my notes from the things I have watched so far. 

 I started with this conspiracy theory video, things I took from the short documentary is even people that use to work for NASA thought the moon landing was fake they all have elaborate ideas about how it was all filmed in "Area 51". More than anything I just thought it was hilarious but good research to include.

One of the reasons I love the Martian is because of the strong connection with all of the people in it, its a really gripping story about getting back the member of the missing crew and all the trouble you would face in outer space.

The interesting factors from Cloverfield Paradox are the big plot twist of "parallel universe" and the side effects it has. This was very different from all of the other stuff I have watched and read so far and I think its a really interesting angle to take.

Enterprise: Flights of the imagination - National Space Centre

On Friday the 15th March our class took a trip to The National Space Centre in Leicester, I decided to document the trip by taking lots of photos but drawing as much as possible.

I tried to document as much as I could from the safe centre, having a strong starting point with lots of different visual images and notes will really benefit me later on in the module.

Enterprise: Flights of the imagination - Starting points (JFK Brief)

In workshop, we started with JFK's brief and used the four D's to split it appropriately. Something I wanted to look at more was the idea of "space food" which he mentions because they need food onboard for the survival of the crew.  

Here are some of the points I want to research and looking into more from the JFK Brief and a mind map of some ideas I had following the workshop.

Enterprise: Flights of the imagination - OUT THERE (A map of the Solar System for Tourists)

One of the things I was interested in while researching space is the idea of space travel itself, so when I saw the guided tour for space I had to buy it to help aid my project. Having as much contextual research at the start of the project is something I have found to be really important and I will continue to add to.

Enterprise: Flights of the imagination - Lumpy Space

Starting the new module means I'm starting my research process again and this time I am starting it right here with Lumpy Space from Adventure time. Since the main topic of the brief is the Apollo 11moon landing and flights of the imagination I figured this is an excellent place to start.
Lumpy Space is a cloud-like cityscape in space and is the home of the Lumpy Space People. One of the reasons I started my research here is actually because of the dreamlike colours used throughout the Lumpy Space world. Having a nice consistent colour theme throughout really makes these images so much stronger and its something I want to really consider in my own work moving forward.
Another reason I choose Lumpy Space to research is because of how wild it actually is, obviously because Adventure Time is comic and television show targeted it at children its actually all make believe and obviously not factually correct (they can all just float in space), working like this is very new to me and its something I plan on experimenting with in this module which will help towards the learning outcome of  "Employing imagination and risk in the production"

Narrative - (Text and Image) Final Zines and Critical Evaluation.

Here are the final zines, cut and folded.

The two learning outcomes for this module are 1. Create an experimental visual narrative in response to a given theme and 2. Explore and develop production skills to support effective communication. 

Responding to the task I started by exploring different ways other practitioners use narrative in their own work and started working on the heroes’ workshop and how picking my different heroes shows the values I find important. After this task, I decided to make my project personal and picked the theme Diversity. 

I continued to research different ways of storytelling and narrative, some of my research did not work out but was all documented and developed into a body of work in my sketchbook and then clearly annotated on my blog. Following the brief, I then started my visual journey by attending different workshops in class like the heroes’ workshop, collage workshop and protest banner workshop. I found these three workshops shaped my project

In this project, I followed my feedback from Principles and Practice of Illustration and created visual outcomes that engage a defined audience and took a risk by making it as personal as possible.

Narrative - (Text and Image) Final Screenprints

Here are the screenprints before I cut and folded them into zines, I used blue, grey, green and pink paper for my zines, I love the way they look on coloured paper and I really think it makes the story pop. This was only the second time I have screen printed so I think it was very successful.

Narrative - (Text and Image) Making my zine

After writing down my ideas for my narrative, creating my type and monoprinting my baby photos it was now time to start adding all the different elements together. Something I needed to consider was my audience and how I wanted to educate people that might be a bit ignorant to non-visible disabilities and that I'm creating this zine because it exposes people to new important ideas that they might not have ever heard of otherwise and because it can explain complicated ideas in the simplest way.

I started by creating a A3 canvas on photoshop and added grid guides so I knew where each page needed to be, having this guide was very helpful and made creating the narrative so much easier. 

The text layer 

I would go as far as saying this was the most important layer of the whole zine. This layer contains all the text for the entire narrative. Since I had scanned in my hand cut lettering I had to cut and place each individual letter and place it perfectly to create sentences. Since I was planning on screenprinting this and my letters are already inspired by Rob Ryan I thought it was appropriate to use this type over the letterpress I had made. 

Blue Layer

For this layer, I used the brushes I had made from the mark making pages in my sketchbook. Adding the pop of colour was inspired by my experimental pages in the sketchbook.

Grey Layer

Another layer where I used my make making brushes. I needed to separate the layers so I could have more than one colour while screenprinting. 

Mono Print Drawing Layer

This layer was created by all of the baby photos I had monoprinted and then placed in this certain way to create my narrative. Having the images and text two separate colours was something very important to me as I don't want either to get lost. My monoprinting was heavily inspired by the heroes workshop and the values I have because of the heroes I picked. 

Protest Banner

The protest banner is just the finishing touch I wanted to add to the zine. Zines normally have a poster of some sort on the back of them so inspired by the protest banner workshop I attended I decided to add my banner to the back of the zine. Its the final message from the zine and really brings everything together. It is made in the same way I created the story for the zine, using the mark making brushes and my hand cut text.

Narrative - (Text and Image) Who is my Audience?

Something I really thought about during the whole zine-making process was who my target audience is!
I wanted my work to go in a direction that would attract anyone but my main focus was for someone that might be a bit ignorant to non-visible disabilities. The idea behind this zine came from the TFL's Please offer me a seat campaign where you can wear a badge so someone can offer you a seat even if your disability isn't visible or obvious. I was thinking since zines are mostly made as a non-profit publication that is all about the message inside and is usually free in magazines this would be the perfect way to attract my audience.

My idea for the zine is that is would be inside a newsletter like the Metro so it would be seen by thousands of commuters every day, this would allow people to read my story and it would hopfully educate them about non-visible disabilities and why it's important to acknowledge them.

Narrative - (Text and Image) More mono-printing

Because I wanted the story to be so personal and I was starting to get an idea for the story itself I decided I was going to continue my monoprinting. I started monoprinting photos of me as a baby and my family. 

The quickness of monoprinting really helped me stay loose with my art and not get worked up about it being perfect. All of the texture that is created by monoprinting really does make them all so different and unique even when I printed from the same image.

I then started to work into some of my more successful prints by adding small splashes of colour, the contrast with the black and white made them very eye-catching. 

I feel like it was important to use these baby photos of me and my parents in my work because my narrative is based on how their love and support changed my life in a good way and how they gave me the opportunity to lead a normal life despite being born with a disability.

Narrative - (Text and Image) Experimenting with Lino

Re-creating the little eye graphic I have used a lot in my sketchbook. I wanted to see how it would look using lino, I then used the image to create a fun pattern. I don't think I will use this in my final piece but I am glad I tried out more ways of printing.