OUGD504 EVALUATION

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

During the course of '504' I have learnt many different skills. To start with we looked at packaging, this is something that I have not had much experience in. We had to brand a series of different sized packages. From this brief I learnt about net design and how different nets slot together differently when built. There are different designs depending on the product. I learnt how to apply a brand across a series of different products.

The print book brief was a big learning curve for me, I experimented with several different printing processes in order to produce my book. First of all I looked at laser cutting, during this module have created several products on the laser cutter, experimenting with wood, acrylic and paper. I also went down to vernon street to do some embossing and de-bossing which I used in my book. I also used foiling and screen printing in the design book as I wanted to show a wide range of processes. To top it off I decided to bind my book myself, I ended up japanese stitching the book and used a hard back cover which I backed myself.

I think I have developed loads of skills this module and it has resulted in some really nicely finished products. I managed to double side screen print a truck load of products for the ISTD brief and am really happy with the professional finish.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?  

Research has helped me allot through this module, particularly the library. During the print book brief I took out a few books which really helped me along the way. The production manual was very useful teaching me all about the different printing methods used in commercial print. This book helped me with all the content I needed to finish my print manual.

Contacting paper and print companies helped to inform my decisions throughout the module. I learnt about different stock types and weights. This allowed me to test out printing and cutting different media. Trial and error screen printing helped to get my final products right. I learnt the hard way by exposing an image that was too big for the screen. This set me back some time but I won't do it again.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?  

Over the course of the module I feel I have found something I am good at. Screen printing has been a very fun part of the briefs. And I think all the hard work I put into the print studio has really shone through into the final products. I think the branding for the ISTD restaurant has been produced to a high quality. The products have a professional finish and have been laid out and presented in eye catching way.

I think another strength has been my willingness to experiment with different processes. I pretty much carried out everyone you could do at uni. I have tried to use these processes to the best of my ability. I am allot more comfortable at carrying these out on my own now and will be able to do them comfortably next time. 

I believe this module I have really pushed myself on every brief, covering a wide range of deliverables with each brief. I am getting used to the heavy workload now and feel better about pushing the boundaries.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?  

I think one of my weaknesses would be my amount of research, Although I think my products are well informed I think I could of looked at more peoples work for inspiration  It would of also helped with the final outcomes of my products as maybe I would of come up with something differently.

Although for this module my time management has been pretty good. I feel like It could be improved as these past few weeks have been a bit of a rush. I hope to designate days to specific briefs in future. That way I will be able to plan out my week and get hoepfully get more done.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?  

1. I will make sure I get the sizing right next time I expose my screens. This meant that the cutting mats I printed out weren't up to scratch. By getting the size right It will allow for finer prints.
2. I think I could of done more research for this module. I think thats whats letting me down If i had researched more I would have a more well informed direction.
3. Experiment more with different stock. Although I researched into it allot and used various ones I think I could of pushed it further.
4. Time plan - I think designation specific days to specific projects will help to stay on top of things.
5. More Design sheets - I feel like I did allot more designing on the mac than I did my hand. Drawing stuff out us a better way of getting out all your ideas.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas: 

Attendance = 5

Punctuality = 4

Motivation = 4

Commitment =4

Quantity of work produced = 4

Quality of work produced = 5

WEBSITE REGGAE

To create my reggae website I took a slightly different approach to what we learnt in class. Using the Illustrator I designed all the necessary pages. With alternate Rollover versions. Once I had created all the relevant parts I opened them up in Photoshop. It was then possible to split the image up into 9 Separate Jpegs

Sections of Web Page 

Sizes of Panels (pixels)

1 - 255px x 129px

2 - 517px x 129px

3 - 242px x 129px

4 - 255px x 511px

5 - 517px x 511px

6 - 252px x 511px

7 - 517px x128px

8 - 517px x 128px

9 - 252px x 128px

Here are the necessary Images needed to Create the site 

including the roll over images. I kept everything in the root folder.

In order to put the site together I coded in each pannel. I started with the Index page Obviously.

 I inserted all the correct values into the code so that all the jpegs sat in the 1024 x 768 container 

CSS File I made sure that all the rollover functions worked

For the other pages I just re-saved the index file into the necessary pages.


LEGENDS PAGE

The middle panels - as the middle pannel needed to change on all of the pages it wasn't too difficult to go into the pages and change the Image for each however for the Legends page it was a bit more difficult. To do this researched into adding extra buttons which would allow the middle image to change on just that page.

To do this I had to activate the J query Library, this allowed me to create 3 extra buttons, that allowed me to switch through the middle panels.

You have to load the jquery library before any scripts that need it so best practice is to always put it first

J query short code 

J quiry Library In Dreamweaver

References for J query

http://api.jquery.com/hide/
http://api.jquery.com/show/
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_display_visibility.asp

The buttons were made in illustrator then saved as 
.png files to allow for transparency

Here you can see the 3 center panels in the div class = images legend 5

this allows the buttons to call these different functions 

Links don't have to go to another page, if you use JavaScript: it just does that on click

JavaScript: aFunction();

And functions always have a () after, inside which you can send variables and parameters to the function but that's not needed here

Eg aFunction($aVariable);

 J query coding for extra buttons

CSS Buttons were placed in 40px x 40px squares

CSS leg buttons 

 When you click a button it links to "JavaScript: buttonOne();" which is a function defined in the script. When you execute a function you say you "called" that function

The script then hides the other 2 images if they are up and shows the one you clicked

CSS middle pannel code

Music

The music was quite difficult. Originally I was gonna have that page linking to a music player but this ended up going horribly wrong. So in order to get the music working I hooked up the button to a youtube video that  is inside a div that is 1px by 1px with overflow:hidden. Unfortunately it does not work as a play or pause button nd there is only one song. But this isnt bad to start with.

I edited the code I found online on jsfiddle and inserted onto every page.

References

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11651454/play-youtube-video-on-click-custom-button

http://jsfiddle.net/g6P5H/

REGGAE WEBSITE CONCEPT BOARDS

Here are the concept boards for my Roots Reggae Website.


I think I have successfully created a well designed and eye catching web site, that captures the essence of reggae. The problem I found with reggae websites, was that they were all poorly designed. They had probably been made my training web design fans just like me really but they had no sense of colour schemes or layout. i think I have communicated well covering a various avenues. If I had more time I would include allot more content but for the mean time the concept is down. The website is aimed at reggae fans, and people that might be interested in it. I have tried to capture the attention of the viewer by using a simple but colourful design, with easy to use navigation. Overall I think I have done a much better job designing a website than the existing ones I feel. It is simple yet eye catching and definitely captures that reggae roots feel. The natural colour scheme ties in with the song themes.

Improvements

If I were to improve the site I would sort out the buttons on the legends page as they seem a bit pixelate round the edges. I am unsure why this is so as I saved them as .png files which should support transparency.

Fonts used

Tiza - Rough and Natural, Similar to some Reggae Artists.
Chalkboard - kind of hand written more natural 

Colour Scheme

I used the obvious red 'gold' and green, and then decided to use browns to keep with the natural theme.

ESSAY PROGRESS

How do panoptic techniques in modern day society affect those who are subjected to them?

Panopticism is present everywhere in today’s society, where ever we go we are under constant watch of security cameras and other members of the public, this ‘scrutiny,’ causes people to change the way they act, feel and even look. Every move we make is being documented and assessed from a distance, and causes a form of self discipline and change that can be seen in the effects of Bentham’s ‘Panopticon.’

The Panopticon is an ‘annular building’ with individual cells all around the outside and a giant all seeing tower in the middle with venetian blinds on the inside and outside of the windows. This provides a one-way gaze, whereby the subjects in the cells know they are beeing constantly watched,  “hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power.” (Foucault 1977: 65) It was through this principle of isolation and constant surveillance that the Panopticon functioned. “The inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment,”(Foucault 1977: 65) its this ‘not knowing’ that causes the subjects to start correcting their behavior for fear of being watched, they are “caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers.” (Foucault 977: 65)

The Panopticon functions by using 3 separate techniques. Firstly “a strict spatial partitioning” (Foucault: 1977: 61) is needed, this prevents the ‘in mates’ from coming into contact with his fellow inhabitants, “He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject of communication” (Foucault: 1977:65). The second techniques he describes is ‘Surveillance’ which is a form of monitoring activity, this knowledge of being watched has a psychological affect which has the power to create self discipline within the subject. The third technique he talks about is registration, in that it allows us to identify the individual. Individuals are recorded and observed in society today, the information collected about us, are used to create a digital version of us. We can see this showing through in personalized online adverts, which are subjected to us on a regularly basis. “Computers become machines for producing retrievable identities.” (Lyon 2001: 115)

These concepts can be seen in todays CCTV surveillance, “it can be claimed that through surveillance cameras the panoptic technology of power has been electronically extended: our cities have become enormous Panopticons.” (Lyon, 1994; Fyfe and Banister, 1998; Tabor, 2001) Foucault describes the city as a series of “disciplinary mechanism[s].” (1977) CCTV has the ability to trap, control and individualize members of the general public. Maybe CCTV is actually a form of social control, which cause people to conform to what is deemed socially acceptable. In a way this is a restriction on our freedom, Todays society behaves in a manner, which we have been disciplined into, rather than acting freely and without restriction. We are forced to conform to society’s rules, which have an impact on the way the way we view the world, the way we behave, think and look.

“He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself. He inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection.” (Foucault 1977a: 203) What Foucault is referring to, is a form of self discipline that is caused by this “all seeing all knowing power,” which Foucault refers to as “omnipresence.” (Foucault 1977: 62) CCTV recording makes us as individuals accountable for our actions, the fact we are being watched and judged on a daily basis, which deters us from behaving in a way that society sees unacceptable. People essentially correct their behavior as a result of this gaze. It also has the power to change the way they feel about their surroundings. CCTV cameras have the ability to both scare the subject and also provide security. This is because the presence of the cameras indicates there is something that needs to be under surveillance, but there is also the comfort that there will be someone on the other side of the lens.

Surveillance can have a very different effect in some cases. In the 2009 documentary, “We live in public,” the idea of privacy is pushed to its limits. This documentary explores the story of Internet pioneer Josh Harris, who set up a big brother style project, in which he placed more than 100 artists in a human terrarium under New York City. He installed webcams, which followed and captured every move they made, eliminating all privacy. They were provided with as much food, drink and drugs as they like. But were unable to leave for over a month. This constant gaze on the ‘inmates’ resulted in some quite ‘abnormal’ behaviour.

This experiment was “a chance to display oneself under the gaze of the camera” (Ernst, 2002: 461) but this eventually was the destruction of the inhabitants.  At first the ‘inmates’ were in a state of ecstasy, there was a sense of love and compassion, there was also a constant need for attention and recognition, and the subjects were essentially seeking fame, acting differently to how they may usually. “Being under the constant watch of the world influences people to carry out actions they would not usually do. They may either play up to the camera which encourages the subject or they will be more reserved and up tight” (Koskela 2003:) Throughout the documentary you can see how the behavior of the subjects rapidly changes as they begin to get sick of the cameras. They face “the constant torture of the random but ever possible gaze,” (Ainley 1998: 90) this invasion of privacy had a very negative effect, turning these highly creative people into uncreative ‘docile bodies,’ when the experiment finally got closed down by the police, the subjects left in a zombie like state, this ‘strict partition’ from the outside world caused a ‘plague’ like effect, which changed the way they thought about the world and the way they behaved. This is an extreme case of what effect panoptisicm can have on individuals and shows how the techniques used cause radical changes in behavior and personality. The experiment shows that if we continue to increasingly publicize our lives eventually we will feel the wrath of these panoptic techniques.

In some ways the Panopticism, fails without a sophisticated cultural visual language for reminding citizens that they are being watched. We have all been programmed to police each other’s actions essentially. The ‘Panopticion’ makes all acts visible but it is unable to distinguish between acts that conform to the rules and acts that pretend to conform. If it cannot tell the difference between the two there is no threat of retribution, which means the machine fails. The majority of society will conform under the watch of CCTV but a select few will feign conformity, these people understand that even though they know their actions could be on camera there is no definite chance that the footage will be accessed. “[t]he sheer mass of the data would be impossible to handle’”(Lyon, 2001: 52)

There is no denying that these security measures contribute towards a “disciplinary” society, but for some of these methods, rather than being security measures, can be seen as tools which allows the individual to be controlled and therefore society as a whole. (Foucault, 1977)

Foucault describes the disciplinary mechanisms as “subtle coercion for a society to come” (Foucault 1977: 209) quite surprisingly Foucault’s beliefs have become a part of how our society functions today. Many of his ideas have been carried on through various different media. We now have a society, that functions through a number of different bodies, like Hospitals, the Police and Prisons. All of these bodies register, classify and record us. This has been happening for a long time now; Foucaults writings have become a part of the way our world works. We are no longer anonymous; we are known, and it is becoming increasingly easier to access information about us, everywhere we go, there are panoptic forces acting upon us. As Foucault states, “visibility is a trap.” We are unable to act and behave in a manner that apposes the constraints that have been placed upon us. The question is, whether in the modern society, there is any inclination to behave in this way, or whether we have now become a predominantly accepting society of “docile bodies”, (Foucault, 1977) quietly doing as we are told and conforming to the rules without even realizing that we have been conditioned to behave this way through using a series of disciplinary mechanisms that have rooted themselves into our urban fabric.

Panopticism works in many forms. A very different instance would be the use of women in advertising, in a ‘sex sells’ society, we are subjected to hundreds of images of beautiful women on a daily basis, we see huge billboards scattered with women gazing upon us. Here a pair of seductive eyes has replaced the gaze of the CCTV camera. Although the method of delivery has changed, the results do not. This replacement gaze works quite differently on both genders. Men mainly control the media, “In this culture, the look is largely controlled by men. Privileged in general in this society, men also control the visual media. The film and television industries are dominated by men, as is the advertising industry.” (Coward 2000: 33) The use of women in advertising is mainly targeted at males, as this is a very easy way to grab their, all these images of women we come across everyday, are thought of as the perfect women. But actually this is a false representation of what the models are really like, the majority of them have been airbrushed and photo shopped in order to enhance the bodies outlining today’s predominantly male run society’s beliefs about the perfect body, physique, face etc. These are just ideas of what men went, In a highly visual society where looks matter, this can have a negative affect on how men view women and can create a very shallow society. In this day and age there is a clear divide between what is beautiful and what is ugly. This puts pressure on women all over the world who are faced with these images on a daily basis.

“The command created by an image obsessed culture is ‘do some work! Transform Yourself! Look Better! Be more erotic!” (Coward 2000: 39) Women are affected in a very different way. These images Cause women to question their identity and the way they look, this results in a mass makeover essentially. Where women feel inclined to change the way they look. It also causes them to become uncomfortable with the bodies they have. “Women’s experience of sexuality rarely strays far from ideologies and feelings about self-image. There’s a preoccupation with the visual image – of self and others – and a concomitant anxiety about how these images measure up to a socially prescribed ideal” (Coward 2000: 33) This results in a constant race for the perfect body, forever chasing the dream of society’s representation of the perfect woman. This has eventually lead to this size 0 trend, causing girls all over the world to go to extreme measures to lose weight and get in shape, “women are compelled to make themselves attractive in certain ways, and those ways involve submitting to the cultures beliefs about appropriate sexual behavior, women’s appearances are laden down with cultural values, and women have to form their identities within these values, or with difficulty, against them.” (Coward 2000: 36).

Advertisers use this Panoptic Gaze to target consumer’s unconscious needs and sexual desires. It also has the power to influence what we buy, what clothes we where what’s in and what’s out. Everyday we a shown what we want, or what society thinks we want. These desires are targeted on a subliminal level, he are constantly bombarded with these types of adverts. “The camera in contemporary media has been put to use as an extension of the male gaze at women on the streets” (Coward 2000: 33) Coward is referring to voyeurism.

Bibliography

Ainley, R. (1998) Watching the detectors: control and the Panopticon. In R. Ainley (ed.) New Frontiers of Space, Bodies and Gender. London: Routledge, 88-100.

Coward, R. (2000) “The Look,” in Thomas, J. (ed.) Reading Images, Casingstoke: Palgrave, pages 33-39

Ernst, W. (2002) Beyond the rhetoric of panopticism: surveillance as cybernetics. In T.Y.Levin, U. Frohne and P. Weibel (eds.) CTRL[SPACE]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother. ZKM Centre for Art and Media: Karlsruhe, 460-463.

Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison. London: Penguin Books.

Lyon, D. (1994) The Electronic Eye: The Rise of Surveillance Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Lyon, D. (2001) Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Fyfe, N.R. and J. Bannister (1998) ‘the eyes upon the street“: closed-circuit television surveillance and the city. In N.R. Fyfe (ed.) Images of the Street: Representation, Experience and Control in Public Space. London: Routledge, 254-267.

Koeskela, H (2003) ‘Cam Era’  – the contemporary urban Panopticon, Surveillance & Society 1(3): 292-313

Tabor, P. (2001) I am a videocam. In I.Borden J.Kerr J.Rendell and A. Pivaro (eds.) The  Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 122-137.

ISTD FINAL BOARDS FOR PRESENTATION

Here are my final presentation boards for my ISTD brief.

In order to make the restaurant appeal to everyone I thought about how I could make the restaurant an exciting environment to be in. I thought about Anamorphic typography and how this could be used around the restaurant. I feel it would be nice to have the restaurant like a converted letterpress workshop, this would give the customers a feel of what it would be like to be in a design studio.

I thought it would be a nice touch to have typography furnishings to its extents. They are a nice touch I feel. Staying with the light hearted feel to the restaurant I thought it would be funny to have urinals with the most hated typefaces on so you can show your appreciation. For the web side of things I mocked up a website to show how it would work across different media. This allows the customers to look at the menu and the restaurant. It also has information on the where abouts and also the history of the restaurant.

Final Products

SELF INITIATED SCREEN PRINT PROJECT

As a personal project I wanted to experiment with screen printing as this is something that I have been enjoying over the past few years, but I have not had the chance or time to do ay personal projects. With this in mind I set out to produce some prints. I decided to take my inspiration from festivals and nights out I go to which are decorated heavily with psychedelic UV wall hangings and trippy art-work, this has been something which has always interested me from a young age...bright garish colours that glow in the dark! I wrote myself a brief to give me some sort of guidelines to follow, but the main thing I aimed to get out of the project was to improve my screen printing skills.

The Brief - The Mushroom Forest

Create a UV reactive screen print, taking inspiration from psychedelic artwork, with the theme being directed towards woodland critters. The illustration style must be hand rendered rather than digital lines this fits better with the psychedelic free flowing ethos behind this style of artwork. 

Mandatory Requirements

A2 format

UV Reactive

Screen Prints

Inspiration

I have taken inspiration from many different aspects. But mainly from festival art and stage set ups and various events, these kind of night time raves use lots of UV light and UV reactive paint to create magical environments which throws so many different things at you. I wanted to create a trippy mushroom forest, inspired by the magical festival atmosphere and my love for animals.

Tomorrow Land

Secret Garden Party

This is a perfect example of the kind of imagery and experiences

that has inspired me. This looks magical.

Rainbow City

Lisa Kelleher

UV ART

Trippy Forest

Shiva

Mushroom Land

Neon Style Mushroom Land

Design Process

Initial Sketch

In order to stick with the psychedelic theme I wanted to create a trippy mushroom forest, I started to think about all the creatures that could be affected by eating these wild hallucinogenic mushrooms in nature. Its said that loads of sheep trip balls from eating Magic Mushrooms. I wanted to create an illustration showing other woodland critters off there nut. I took inspiration from festivals set ups, where they have giant mushrooms and creepy animals etc. I decided to go with spiders, lizards, frogs, hedgehogs and mice. 

I drew this using 2 different weight pens, a marker for the thicker edges and a berol for the finer detail. After several hours of drawing I had finally finished. It was a relief to complete it as it was on to the fun bit.

Digital Colour Experiments

In order to get an idea of how the image would look with some colour I scanned in my illustration onto my mac then Live traced the Image in Illustrator and then used the bucket tool to add colour to the design. I tried out many variations to see what worked best. Sampling the drawing with different amounts of colour.

 I was not a fan of the background colour

 This was something a little bit different, Quite like the

purple orange combo, looks dated.

 I came up with this version which I quite like,

It almost looks like an X-Ray and slightly 3D

 The Pink was a little bit too dark here and the purple wasn't quite right

Quite an interesting combination but the yellow didn't do it for me. 

 All wrong

 One of my favourite designs. The right balance between the colours.

 Nice combo

Reggae Inspired

 This definitly worked the best I feel. The black gives a nice contrast against the others. I will not be able to recreate these colours exactly when mixing the paints but will work on a similar colour scheme. It was quite a fun process digitalising my drawing but also time consuming, there would definitely be a quicker option for next time. As changing the colours for each image took forever. I have since then been shown a way to Change the entire colour palette at once which is a big help.

Screen Prints

Black Outline Print

I decided to run a couple of outline versions as well as 

the colour ones to get a bit of variation in the prints

Gradient Print

I messed about using different paint at once, this came out with some

pretty random out comes, I like how it isn't perfect, Reminds me of skittles.

5 Colour UV Print

 The 5 colour screen prints worked really well eventually. Overall the screen printing took me around 3 days. I did a run of 25 5 colour prints, 4 black and, 4 gradients. I think this was a ambitious effort and I really did not expect it to take aslong as it did, but there were many errors along the way. The first lot of paint was too thick so it set in the screen pretty much straight away. Then I managed to mix the wrong colour which set me back some more. But once I had finally got to grips with everything the process became smoother, and after the first couple of layers were down I had gotten into the swing of things and managed to get them all done by the third day. I am really happy with how they have turned out, I think 5 colours was fairly ambitious as it was tough to get the registration right ascross all 5 layers, but I managed to pull it off. The layers dont match up exactly but thats the good thing about screen printing, everyone is different. The patches where they don't meet up has resulted in white showing through which gives the drawing an extra layer essentially and also gives the image a minor 3D quality.

Here is the print under UV light, the photo is not the best as my camera is not up to scratch but you can see how the colours glow brightly, It definitely comes to life under this light, I feel I have created a psychedelic piece  which matches up to current designs, I have applied my own style but stuck with the conventional methods. The one problem was that the blue paint is not UV reactant which lets the image down slightly. But we learn from our mistakes. I will take on board all my errors and improve for next time.

FINAL BOARDS