WEEK 5

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WEEK 5:

This week was very different from the others. It felt like a new beginning, like turning the page of a book. We finally had some feedbacks on our logos, the project was now officially over. To be honest, even if I liked my logo, I wasn’t proud of myself because it was very simple, which is the point, yes, but I feel like I was missing the sort of visual excitement and originality. Nevertheless, it was my first logo experience and I now learnt a lot about the whole process and will surely make the next one better.

Nigel started to brief us on Unit 2 which is called “Hybrid”. It consists of mixing two elements that have no correlation whatsoever, which is very exciting to me because I really like going out of my comfort zone, working with other people and sharing different interests and bringing them together. The final work has to be a picture, meaning I’ll get to experiment more with photography, which is a field that interests me a lot.

This week was also a breath of fresh air in a sense that our Red Rooms sessions with Sakis and Eva weren’t like they usually are. This Tuesday we talked about the environment and discussed how we could make Chelsea College of Arts more sustainable. It was a “Green Day”, literally because the only paper we use was recycled. For our weekly activity we had to create a poster stating facts about UAL and its relationship with ecology. Mine said “UAL only recycles 47.8% of its waste”. I chose that one because it was very shocking to me. I understand that it can be hard, especially in a big city like London, but less than 50%?? Come on!! After we pinned them up, we did a contest where we all voted for our favourites posters, and the winners were going to be posted on Instagram and showed to David Barnett, the BA Graphic course leader.

Then in the late afternoon, the conference was “This Ain’t Rock and Roll” and their work with “Extinction Rebellion”. They basically said that all design is political because the purpose of your work is important and has an impact. They explained that imagination is more important than knowledge and that our uncertainty equals freedom, because that way, we are free to create what we want, how we want it to look like and how we globally convey our message.

On Thursday we did something quite exciting: we went outside of college with two big orange sheets of paper. The goal was to create as many interactions with strangers as possible, and capturing these moments in order to present them a couple hours later. Because it was Halloween, we decided to go in Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square and give out free candy in exchange of a spooky drawing. It was a very challenging experience because we have to put ourselves out there, in one of the crowdest places of London, engaging conversion with people that we don’t know. It turned out to very funny because most of our drawings were made by children but also their family members! At some point I even exchanged a free hug for a free candy and drawing with a girl that was also documenting her experience! Making someone’s day is as simple as that, and that taught me to be more open and to overcome my fear of talking to strangers. Literally 40 minutes in I was screaming “FREE CANDY” every 30 seconds to catch people’s attention. In total we had more than 80 interactions and 30 drawings, which is pretty good because we stayed there for maybe an hour and a half. It was a enriching experience because I learned that it only demand a ounce of courage to put yourself out in the open if you get anxious in very crowded places, and then everything’s fine and you actually enjoy being open to others.

On Friday, following the Hybrid project introduction made earlier this week, we had to complete a list of “10 things we are nuts about”. We had to be very specific about each thing, it was not supposed to be “food” for instance, but more like “ avocados on toast”. Little did we know these top 10 things had to do something about the Hybrid project… to be continued…