Studio Brief 2: Individual Practice

For Studio Brief 2 I decided to do 'Secret 7' Live brief and create work based around that, using the brief as a starting point. As you could submit as many as you wanted I aimed to do 2 versions of 3 of the covers. I ended up doing about 2 for 4 of the covers, however I still don't think that was a big enough aim it didn't feel like a challenge to complete them all. I hoped that the covers themselves would be a starting point for more work (prints, moving image). Although I did a bit of moving image I don't think this happened us much as I would have liked and I think this is probably my biggest regret of the year.

My proposal didn't set out strict enough guidelines and I didn't stick to them as I should have done. I didn't have any big, challenging ideas for a project so it was almost like settling for Secret 7. As time went on I felt that the brief didn't really challenge me and that meant I found it hard to get motivated.

Most of the outcomes seemed to come together so quickly in the spur of the moment, which is probably why I feel like I should have made more. Between these flashes it felt very hard, I was thinking, doing and nothing worked. I usually think I work quickly but I'm beginning to wonder if its just it takes a long time to build up an idea I'm happy with and then the visuals almost force themselves out quickly. Trying harder and really pushing idea building is probably important in getting through periods with no motivation; but also getting burnt out is easy. Hopefully all this means I've learnt when to ask for help and asking for help rather than settling for being lost.

The brief felt like a bit of a step back compared to other work I've done this year. It is a bit of a mixed bag; because although I'm fairly happy with what I have done, I know it could have been more, with more applications.

I think the most successful was the 'I'm not down' fists outcome. This was an idea that I had and couldn't get it to work. Felt like I really pushed it and developed it to a stage where I was happy with it. The 'Lover, You Should of Come Over' cinema collage came together quickly but I think it looked like a real outcome, not just a loose idea. The classic fore-ground, mid-ground, background collage is used a lot but I think this one worked quite well. The 'Damaged' cover came together almost spontaneously. Went from idea to finished in about 40 mins. Made a collage, photocopied it, cut it up then photocopied in a single colour. I was quite happy with it. Following on from the long build up, I was listening to the song quite regularly for probably a few days before the collage came out. 'Lover, you should of come over' 2 I bought two postcards and liked how they worked next to each other (again, quick) and I thought they worked with the song. For 'Castles Made of Sand' I had the idea for the castle, developed it, liked the image but I'm not sure I fully developed it as far as I could have. Finally, the 'I'm not down' tower blocks came from an idea of putting the punk aesthetic of The Clash with building work/architecture I thought of when I listened to the song. I think its fairly successful, but I felt a bit weird about it as it was collaged entirely digitally.

Didn't work with hand processes as much, I moved toward putting things together on screen. Think this meant sketchbook work went out the window a bit. I think sketch booking is important for developing concepts even just through play. It was almost as if my sketch booking and actually making became two separate things.