Olivia Farish: Project 1

Summary: Within this first project, I was tasked to manipulate lines, shapes, and letterforms to create visual concepts that allow the viewer to think critically about what is being observed. First, I completed a line workshop where I made the "light" and "heavy" relationship with only lines. After this, I completed a shape workshop where I focused on using circles to portray specific words that were given for students to use. Lastly, I completed a letterform workshop where I created visual meaning out of the definition of the word given. Once the letterform workshop was completed, I produced gifs out of my strongest ideas. 

Goals: My main goal for this project was to get out of my comfort zone during any aspect of the creation process regarding this project. I had never made anything remotely close to a gif before and the idea of it was nerve-wracking. In the end, by pushing myself through each step of the ideation, sketches, and creation, I am proud of the end result. 

Research and Ideation: When going into my research and ideation, I wanted to focus on creating visual concepts that were unique and different from anything that had been done before. This was a trial and error process and I definitely produced basic sketches in the beginning. Allowing myself to throw anything that I thought of onto paper, helped lead me closer to my final ideas. This process helped strengthen my final sketches and create a product that made sense with the given guidelines.

Showing Initial Sketches: Lines, Shapes, and Letterforms

Showing Final Vector Artwork of Lines, Shapes, and Letterforms 

Explanation: In the end, I chose these five sketches for my final production because I believe they are efficient at getting the visual concept to the reader while also being creative within the project's guidelines. For lines, Heavy and Light had a very clear message on what was being portrayed. For shapes, I felt as if my versions of Discourage and Inspect were clever yet different given the space used and purposeful awkward placement of the shapes. For letterform, I wanted to use manipulation on the tittle in my Hide as a way to create a message of the letters hiding.

Knowledge Gained: 

I have left this project with a deeper understanding of how to push past my limitations as an artist. From a technical standpoint, I learned many shortcuts and tools in both Illustrator and Photoshop that I was not aware of before. To name a few: creating outlines, making frames in Photoshop, and exporting files in a plethora of ways. I am very pleased with the outcome of my final works of art and hope to be able to push myself even further in future projects.