Tuesday 26th April 2011:

Today I was able to speak to my tutor about my work after the Easter break. When I spoke about wanting to create 3D type, she suggested looking at ‘Why Not Associates’ (and Wolfgang Weingart) who have, in the past, used 3D type which they would then take photos of and use this in their work. I found this interesting as I had not considered creating it and using the photos within the final poster idea, only actually having the 3D type on the poster (to make it unconventional and interesting). I will consider this when creating further ideas for the final piece. I also spoke about my idea of using one of the photos I had taken where the lighting had made my mouth ‘disappear’ and then to have ‘lost your voice?’. She thought that this was a powerful image and that this could work well, however, the eyes would need to look sadder in the image in order to create an even stronger message. I showed her my most recent piece with the stitching and sewing and how I wanted to relate this to the name tags which are sewn into children’s school clothes, etc. She suggested actually taking close up photos of these nametags or perhaps creating the message, which I am trying to give, digitally on the nametags. I quite like this idea and will try to pursue it if I am able to. I then spoke about my main idea for the bully poster (with the quote ‘calling my ugly won’t make you beautiful’), which although is a strong message, I had realised that this would mainly only appeal to girls. My tutor then suggested thinking of similar phrases that could appeal to boys too and then to choose one after doing this because as least then I would have explored alternatives. It was also suggested that I could have lots of reasons for why people bully and then to pick out a sentence from these sentences to stand out on the poster – I really like this idea and will try this to see if it works well. She also felt that my lino prints could be taken further into these ideas because the different use of digital fonts worked quite well.

I then used black card to start creating the 3D type letters for the word ‘ugly’. I wanted to pursue this from the piece I had done in my sketchbook where I had created the word ‘ugly’ using material and padding, etc. I have created similar 3D type letters twice before for others projects, however, these would have to look ‘perfect’ if I were to use them on my final poster. It was quite hard and time-consuming to make the 3D letters and I was only able to make the ‘U’ and the ‘G’ today. I found it quite hard to get them to stay in shape, etc, and so I will need to think of easier ways to create these 3D letters (or if I still want this effect on my poster), which I will explore further tomorrow.

I also begun creating the visual for the idea of showing toothpaste as an example of once something is out, you can’t take it back (like words). At William Ransom School, the Head teacher told me about how occasionally they have assemblies where one of the teachers squirts toothpaste all over the floor. All of the children are shocked by this, but he then goes on to relate it to bullying, saying about how once it’s out, you can’t take it back, ie: once you’ve said something, you can’t take it back. They seem to understand this well and so I thought it would be interesting to show this in my sketchbook. So far I have drawn out a toothpaste tube, which I will then add colour to and add the words ‘once it’s out, you can’t take it back’, next to this in my sketchbook in the style of toothpaste. I changed the words on the toothpaste tube to say ‘bullying’ and ‘stop’ to make it more relevant and unique, which I think works well so far. Perhaps I could further explore looking at everyday objects and see how they could relate and be manipulated to relate to bullying/ anti-bullying.

Target for today: Create 3D type for the word ‘ugly’ (mini version), to see what this could look like on my poster and create a visual for the idea of showing toothpaste as an example of once something is out, you can’t take it back (like words), which is a visual idea used at William Ransom primary school to prevent bullying.

Target for tomorrow: Continue with 3D type and toothpaste illustration, and sketch out lots of ideas for both the victim and the bully posters, in sketchbook.