RITUALS – finished work

On this blog I will be showing all my finished work and will be evaluating each of them.

I am happy with how my final pieces of work came out. There are many things which I liked about them but then there are also things in which I believe iI could of done differently in order to make the outcome more better. The final pieces of work include three posters, an Ident and an Indesign six page brochure. Throughout making these I have widely spread my skills as I have learnt so much new stuff.

The first piece of work that i finished first was my three posters.

I am pleased with how my photos look and i’m glad that i went with the photos I did. I decided to make the title look the same on all the posters to make them all look like they are linked to each other. I did them all in black and white as they are the two colours that go with all the posters and look nice on the photos. Another thing I did was made sure that I kept the channel 4 logo on one of the bottom corners. This was because I felt that was the best place for it and worked for all the posters. On the first poster which shows a person getting ready for plastic surgery, there is one word which I put in pink. This is different from all the other posters. The reasoning behind this is because I thought by making one piece of text the same colour as the eyeshadow on the model , it would look really affective and would create a nice link between the image and the text. I did not do this on the other posters because firstly, on the second poster there are multiple different colours and i thought by making some of the text a colour it would look to confusing and look too much. Then for the third poster I stuck to white and black writing because the photo is black and white. With it all being in black and white i hoped that the simplicity of it all it would turn out very appealing.

There are some things that I would of changed in order to make them better. The first poster is my least favourite as i think it looks to simple and a bit boring. I believe this is down to a big area of the background being white and then with how I placed the writing. What I could of possibly done was add different shapes in the background and rearranged the text. The text could of also maybe been more bigger and possibly different colours as the different coloured text could of worked well on this picture due to a majority of the background being white.

Secondly we made our brochure:

In my brochure I wanted to ensure that I had plenty of colour and shapes within to make it look more interesting. I also tried to be as creative as I could. I was confident on what photos I was going to use but found it tricky deciding where to place them. My front cover is the same picture that I used for one of my posters. I decided to use this photo as my cover because I love how it represents body modification. It shows tattoos and piercings which are both huge aspects of my ritual. I made the title look the same as the titles on all my posters. This was too keep this link between all my work.

On my first double page spread I decided to use two photos that show plastic surgery in a certain aspect. Instead of just placing the the photos onto the page I decided to place white lines between them in order to create a cut out effect. I believed this worked well with idea of plastic surgery and gave an overall nice look. Aswell as placing lines between the photos I also changed the shape of the photos and gave them a slight slant in a certain place. I then filled the space in with a triangle that was a light blue colour. I seen this idea on a magazine that I had earlier searched up and thought it looked really effective. I live how it looked on my magazine and thought it went well with everything.

On the second double page spread I kept the white cut out line theme going. I did this cause i wanted a clear theme throughout the magazine. On the right hand page I decided to do something different and placed a black and white photo in the middle of the page. The next thing i did was place the same picture on the page, enlarged it and then cut it out to fit behind the photo and go from one side to the other. The reason I did this was because I thought it would look really different and give off a look thats different but effective. On the right hand side I placed a quote in between two photos. This was a part of the magazine that i did not like so much. This is because i’m worried that it comes across as though I had no place to put a quote and just placed it anywhere without no thought. This is not what i did.

On the back cover i used the same photo which i used on the front cover but used the coloured version. I wanted to keep the triangle theme going and placed two together which i then layered over the photo. Also in relation the black and white themed page i placed black rectangles around the sides of the page which then met at blue triangles in the corners.

Next time i make something like this i want to be more creative and make my magazine look more interesting and creative.

Lastly i did my ident

For my Ident i was clear on which photo i wanted to use and what i was going to do with it. Once our ident was finished we had to upload them to youtube.

 

I decided to use the photo that shows plastic surgery. What i did was make it so the hand got closer towards the face. I did this because i thought it would look very believable and realistic. We then had to add all the information that we included in all our posters. I made it so the writing would come from different sides of the page and from behind the model. I also made one piece of the text pink, the same colour as her eyeshadow, just like i did with one of my posters. This again was to keep the link between them. Another thing that i did was make it so it looked like she was taking in breaths. This was again to make it looked more realistic. The next thing we had to do was add in sound effects. I put in the sound of a heart beat, this was to make it seem real. Secondly i added the beeping of a hospital machine to make it seem as though shes in a hospital having her heart checked. Lastly i added some music that set the tone for the whole thing. Its slow music that creeps up to be louder then goes quieter again. I chose this music because it reflects my opinion on plastic surgery which i personally dont think its that great.

Primary Research

Questionnaire 

For our projects we had to create a questionnaire in order to find primary information that would help with our project. The questionnaire would consist of 10 questions that relate to our chosen ritual.

Firstly I started off with simple questions like your sex, age and ethnicity. I then went into questions that would help me progress with my project. After the questionnaire was made, which we made on ‘ Survey Nuts ‘, we published it in which our classmates then went on and answered it. It was also available for other people to answer it. Here are the results to my questionnaire:

Gathering the answers from my questionnaire did help me in some aspects. I did not get to ask all the questions I wanted as we were limited to only 10. The findings show that out of the people who answered my survey had body modification due to the idea that they wanted too and that being the only reason. One of the answers suggested that someone had a form of body modification down to religious reasoning and then none replied saying it was due to cultural reasoning. As it was only people under 18 and who lived in cornwall answered, the results were as expected. If they were asked in a city somewhere the results would of been completely different. Only half of the people who answered have had a form of body modification. As most of my questions were relating to people who have had their body modified, my results were very limited.

A majority of the respondents were female which generalise my results to mainly females. The results, however, did help influence my project. They helped me to decide that I was going to focus my project on modern society and their impression on plastic surgery as opposed to the past.

Radio Drama

In groups of three we went off and made radio dramas. In our group we decided to base it on a mystery involving 3 characters. Two were inspectors and one was a character that was being questioned about a murder involving her husband. Instead of using a script we decided to improvise most of it. Next we put our recordings into adobe audition and placed them in the right order. Lastly we went and found some sound effects that fit our story then layered them over the top. We then uploaded them to soundcloud.com.

 

Production Log

Week 1 – 2 October

This week we created a ‘ Dance off ‘ poster. This was ur first poster that we had made so within this week we learnt many new skills. The aim was to create a poster that would interest members of the public into attending a dance off night at a club. To make the poser look appealing we turned a basic plain photo into something thats full of colours and appears very eye catching. After making this poster we then moved onto making another poster called ‘ The Division Of Space ‘. This was to again prove our editing skills but also to advance our skills in using certain colours to make a post more appealing.

 

Week 2 – 9 October

During this week we explored 3 different graphic designers. These were David Carson, 8vo and Vaughan Oliver. After looking at their work we had to collect 3 pieces of their work each that we liked. We then had to chose one in which we wanted to recreate. I chose to recreate a poster made my David Carson. I chose to duplicate David Carsons work because it stood out to me the most. I love the way he places his lettering in his work as he makes the words and the photos really relate to each other. I chose to copy a picture that involves a wave with lettering that is flowing with the waves. Here is my work ( left ) compared to David Carsons work ( right ).

Week 3 – 16 October

In this week we created a variety of posters. By now We were all starting to feel confident in making posters. This week we also looked at font types and which fonts represent certain topics. Firstly what we did was create a poster that was advertising an event at a nightclub called ‘ The Dog Shed ‘. We had been given all the information that was needed on the poster and we also got given the photo that we would use. After we had put the poster in place we were then able to put the text wherever we wanted, we also got to decide on the font, the size of the font and the colour of the font. After this we then went onto making a new poster which again was advertising an event at a nightclub. This was a totally different poster as it had a completely different feel to it as opposed to the first poster we did that week. Lastly, after all the posters were finished we had to then create to posters advertising something, one of them using the correct font for that event then the other being made with a font thats totally irrelevant to the subject. This was to help improve our knowledge of fonts.

 

 

Week 4 – 30th October

This week was the introduction to indesign. We all made a very similar brochure that consisted of the same photos and text. The idea of this was to help with our understanding of how Indesign works and what thing we are able to do with it. I learnt many things by doing this and it appeared very helpful as it made me feel more confident and comfortable for when its time for everyone to make their final brochure. I can imagine using multiple of the skills we learnt in my brochure.

Week 5 – 6th November

This week we began to create posters using our own images. I have taken multiple pictures showing different areas of my ritual. The photo i chose to use for my poster was of one that is showing the plastic surgery side of body modification. I decided to use this as the photo itself has turned out well with great lighting and the details within the image being very clear. The aim was to make to the poster look like its advertising a new channel 4 documentary. We had to include the channel 4 logo and font types that we thought best suited channel 4 and what best advertised a documentary. I used the font PT Mono. I decided to use this font because i believed it was best suited for advertising a documentary. It is not too formal, its clear and is easy to read. All the writing within the page is either black or a dark pink. I did some in black as the background is white which allows the text to stand out. I then took the pink colour from the models eye makeup using the eye dropper tool, which gave me the exact colour on her eyes. I then used this colour for other parts of the text. I think this made a nice connection between the image and the text and also broke up the black text making it more appealing. Another thing i did was line all the writing up except for the first word of the title. I did this because i thought it allowed their to be connection between the writing but then also allowing the title to stand out over the rest of the text. As we had to also include the channel 4 logo,I placed this at the bottom right of the page and also made this line of with the text, there was then a clear space between the edge of the poster and the text. This however was just a trial poster,

Week 6 – 

This week we had to create a mock brochure. This involved us finding pictures which represented our chosen ritual. The idea of this was too help us come up with ideas that we could possibly use for our final brochure that we will make. It was also to get more comfortable and confident working in indesign. It allowed me to experiment with different shapes and colours. It then helped me to see what works best with what and what looks more appealing. Below are the images of my trial brochure.

 

Week 7 – 

This week we started to create our final posters. I had very clear images in my head on what i wanted mine to look like. By now i had enough photos to chose from and play around with. I had chosen my three photos that I wanted to use. The next thing to do was to create our posters. Below are my 3 final poster…

I am pleased with how they turned out and hope they all do look relatable to one another. I would of liked them all to be portrait but I could not find another portrait photo that I thought would be good enough to make into a poster. There will be more written about them on a separate blog.

Week 8 –

This week we had to create our final brochure. I wanted my brochure to look very appealing and interesting at the same time. I knew that i wanted to involve multiple shapes and colours in order for it to grab more attention. Too help with inspiration we got the chance to look up different magazine designs that we thought could help give us ideas that we could use in our brochures. In the end i did come up with a certain style that I believed worked well with my photos. Below are the images of my finished brochure.

We had to make a 6 page spread that consisted of a front and back page along with two double page spreads. There will be more information on this n a separate post.

Week 9 – 

We spent this week making our Ident. I firstly had to chose which photo I was going to use. The photo had to be landscape in order for it to work. Making an Ident seems hard but it is actually fairly simple once you get the hang of it. Along with choosing a picture, I also had to decide which sounds iI was going to layer over the top. These had to be sounds that related to the picture and helped to bring it too life. We also had to add all the information which we out on our posters. This was to help link them all together and prove that its all promoting the same documentary.

 

Overview Of My Project

Where am I with my project?

There are three weeks left of our project and there is still quite a lot that I need to get done. All my written work is complete which allows me to fully focus on all the practical work there is to do. I have to make three posters, a brochure and an Iden. We recently just learnt how to make an Iden and i now feel confident that I could happily go and make one for my project. I have already taken some photos for my project. I am quite happy with the way they have turned out. However I do want to take more as I believe that the ones I already have only show a one area from my ritual. As my ritual is body modification there are three most common areas that we associate with it, these includes plastic surgery, piercings and tattoos. The photos that I have taken only cover the plastic surgery aspect of body modification. Overall I am quite happy with where i am within my project but do understand that over the next couple of weeks i need to work really hard in order to get ensure I get all the work done in time.

What photos are still needed?

I still need to take photos showing tattoos and piercings. I have burrowed a camera from college which will allow my photos to look more professional. I have some ideas in my head in which I would like to achieve. With the photos based on piercings I know many people with piercings that i can take photos of. I would like to take some close up photos of the piercings and all also mid close ups of people who have multiple piercings. For the photos of tattoos, again, I have ideas in mind. I know many people with tattoos that I know i would like to take photos of. I know someone who has the equipment that is used when tattooing so I would like to take some photos involving that, whether thats just the equipment by its self or someone holding it in a certain way. I would also like to get ahold of some actual tattoo designs and do something with them.

LOCATION

For my photos, location is not overly important. For a majority of my photos I just want a plain background. By having plain background I believe it will allow the main focus of the image to be on the person or object. Another reason why I would like a plain background is because throughout my research most of the posters and magazine covers just had a plain background then an image thats full of colour.

Exploring Graphic Design

” DANCE OFF ” Flyer 

Today we experimented with making posters. The aim was to create an eye catching poster that would draw audiences attention.

While doing this we learnt a variety of new skills which allowed us to produce a visually attractive piece of work. All of us created a flyer that was promoting a dance off. Firstly we saved to pictures that included a the same girl, with the same background, but posing slightly different. We opened them both in photoshop on their own separate layers, Which allowed us to edit them individually. One of these layers we rasterised. We then added the effect to one of the photos that created another two versions of the photo but showed them in different colours. After this we had to put in all the information about the night. We could do this however we wanted. I decided to put the title ‘ Dance off ‘ in the top right of the page with a blue background.

 

Division Of Space 

The Division Of Space poster only consists of the colours of black and white. The original photo is a black white and white photo which is perfectly split down the middle. The contents within the photo defiantly take advantage of the black and white theme. The photographer has beautifully placed the objects in a great way, on the pure white side there is a man that is dressed all in black which makes this man stand out. Then on the black side there are white swans which stand out amazingly. The contrast in the colours makes the picture very appealing. Our task was simply to add on the text that we had been given. We were able to place the text wherever we wished. I decided to keep the theme going. On the black side I placed text that was white then on the white side I placed text that was black. This then gave the information significance as it would stand out and show to any viewers that its important. I also placed the date across the middle of the page, making half of it white and the other half black. I did this because I thought it made a lovely connection between the two different sides. The photo comes across as two separate photos due to the split in the middle, Therefore I think by connecting the two different colours with the text brings it all nicely together.

Emulation ( David Carson, Vaughan Oliver, 8VO ) 

We have been exploring different graphic designers this week to help show us what graphic design really is and that there is such a wide variety of things you can create with it.

The three graphic designers we looked at were David Carson, 8vo and Vaughan Oliver. All of their work is very different but all is very good.David Carson is an American graphic designer, art director and surfer. He is best known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography . 8vo was a London based graphic design firm formed in 1985 by Simon Johnston, Mark Holt and Hamish Muir. It closed in July 2001.Vaughan Oliver is a British graphic designer based in Epsom, south of London. Oliver is most noted for his work with graphic design studios 23 Envelope and v23. After looking into the 3 graphic designers we then had to collect three pieces of work that they had created that we particularly liked. Once we had all our nine photos we then had to chose one that we wanted to copy and make our own version of. I decided to chose one of David Carson’s work. I decided to chose one of his pieces of work to duplicate because his work, to me, stands out the most. I particularly like his work because its highly original and comes across really thought through. Its very apparent in his work that he takes pride in his work and that every detail is well thought through.

Below is my version of one of David Carson’s posters. My version is on the left which i have compared to David Carson’s one on the right. I chose to duplicate this one as i love the simplicity of the poster and like that the simplicity has a great overall effect. The way the letters are placed makes the poster very appealing and makes it look more interesting.

Exploring fonts and What We Associate Them With 

When designing a poster, choosing the right font is one of the most important decisions within the process. 

Within this weeks sessions we practised identifying text and explaining what topics they are associated with. This is key within our learning to ensure that when making our own posters we make the right decisions with our fonts to make sure that it relates to the idea of our poster. The aim of the lessons was to make two posters using the same picture, the same information. However, on one we had to use a font type that relates to the topic of our photo then on the other use text that is completely unrelated and looks out of place. I chose to use an image of the circus. I chose to do the poster on the circus because i think people all associate the same time of font with the circus so it will allow me to easily show what font is correct and what font is not. On the poster which involved the font that is completely irrelevant i decided to use the chalk board font. The chalk board font is generally associated with schools and work places. The font defiantly looked out of place and it allowed me to fully show that only certain texts can work for certain genres.

Lowdown and Subzero 

The next task was to create two more posters that are advertising an event at a nightclub. The two nights in which are very different to each other based on the type of music that was to be played on the night. Creating these posters we had to ensure that the posters clearly show what to expect from the night and give the audience a real feel for the night ahead.

The first one we made was advertising a night that involved music types such as funk, groove and disco. We then had to make a poster that related to these. We all used to the same picture and involved the same information, but was able place it where we wished. The name of the night was ‘ Lowdown ‘. As this was the title for the poster this was the information that we made the biggest and stand out from the rest. While making this poster we learnt two new skills. The first being how to put a shadow on to something, the second being how to crop a certain object out in order to help with the placing of text and the shadow. Another thing which i personally learnt was how to put a group of diagonal lines onto the page. Overall I think the poster came out rather good. The next time i make a poster similar to this I will make sure that the cropping out is done more accurately and make sure that the shadow effect looks more realistic.

The next poster we had to do was advertising a night revolved around drum and bass and grunge. It had to involve the same information as the Lowdown. As the posters are advertising nights with different music they have to look very different. I got a picture of a dirty wall to use as the background. I thought this would look great with information and other things that we were going to add. What we did was place an image of a stereo onto the page. We then copied this 6 times and put them into an arrangement that looked really effective. On top of this we then added shapes of spray paint. The colours I used was for the spray paint were turquoise and a hot pink. I thought these colours worked really well together and appeared very eye catching. The title of the poster was ‘ Subzero ‘. Like before i made this the biggest bit of information. The font I used for this was a graffiti type. I thought this worked well with the whole grunge idea.

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MY RITUAL

Definition Of Ritual

A religious or formal ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order. Rituals are a feature of all known human societies. A ritual is a way of behaving or a series of actions which people regularly carry out in a particular situation, because it is their custom to do so. Along with religious rituals there are many many others, including cultural rituals, daily rituals and occasion rituals, for example christmas, easter and halloween.

Key words associated with rituals:

• Rights of passage
• traditions
• community
• coronations/ weddings
• halloween/ christmas
• hand shaking
• OCD

What is my ritual?

I have chosen to do the rituals of body modification. body modification is a topic that applies to many people all other the world. The three main types of body modification are piercings, tattoos and plastic surgery. Many people have these types of body modification due to different reasons. Some people modify there body due to cultural reasoning, for example in certain tribes around the world they are expected to modify there bodies in certain ways in order to show their commitment and loyalty to the tribe.