LECTURE REFLECTION & RESEARCH
Guest lecture: Martin Hosken – ‘the self’
The fact that everyone is wired to think, create & grow differently is always something that has fascinated me. Being a big fan of psychology, I have always spent time reading about studies & researchers, whether on the cognitive, biological or sociocultural level. Understanding all of this has led me to respect, acknowledge & hear the people around me who share different ideas, beliefs & values. I believe that biological & environmental factors share a 50/50 impact on the way humans behave & develop their values. The way we think, the things we believe & the values we chose to follow, are a mix of multiple environmental factors (early development, economy, political state, religion, weather conditions) as well as biological (genetics & nutrition).
I have found that growing up in various countries has led me to think or act similar to natives of that country in some cases. Also, from experience, I find it way more difficult to interact with someone my age who is from the same country as me, rather than someone my age who is from the UK or the USA, & this is because the environment we grew up in was extremely different, while I pretty much grew up with English & American kids while being in international schools.
Being actively aware of how we behave & how various things make us think/feel is in my opinion another trait that can deeply influence our beliefs & actions. I found it really interesting when Martin mentioned that “we seem to hold very different relationships between our actual, social & professional self” as it is something I have thought about in the past. This links in with the whole technological boom we have been going through this past decade, & I had become very aware that the way I am when alone, with friends, & when working on videos/graphics differed immensely. I decided to ignore those boundaries & started to work on being my true self when facing each situation.
Overall, one quote really stood out to me whilst listening to the lecture: “This lack of attention to ourselves in the physical environment is the price we pay for investing in ourselves in the digital one.” This really highlights consumer behaviourism & puts emphasis on the fact that technology is taking over our daily lives. Do you agree with this though? Because I believe that the overall beliefs & values of pre-technological generations were more likely to be affected by propaganda than today, as technology gives us the opportunity to look elsewhere & be more aware of our surroundings.
WORKSHOP CHALLENGE
My values as a designer
One of the biggest differences I have noticed between how I work as a designer and how others work, is that others tend to follow step by step what a client wants. For me, I ask the client to give me some sort of overall feel they want the work to convey, & usually work better when they trust me and give me full creative control.
Creating, for me, comes very much from the help of others in the sense of developing ideas & getting feedback. Whether I’m making a piece of graphic design, a video, or editing pictures, I always feel the need to ask for feedback from my closest friends & family, this then helps me build onto what I have made & make something more detailed & inspiring. This is why to make my 20 word list, I had to have a few conversations with my closest friends. In the end, we came up with the following: Harmonious, Experimental, Dynamic, Orderly, Awareness, Uniqueness, Balance, Meticulous, Versatile, Meaningful, Organised, Creative, Minimalism, Clean, Sophisticated, Calculated, Composition, Innovation, Detailed, Ambiguous, Eclectic.
Expanding on the big 5
As of now, I am not sure whether I want to do something completely new, or make something based on the foundations of what I’ve created in the past. I decided to just make a mood board of works I have done as examples for each word, & then make a big mood board that include artworks I find inspiring.
Composition – I very often find myself using various composition tools such as rule of thirds, centred composition, symmetry, depth, foreground interest, leaving negative space & colour combination. This is absolutely essential in my work & is one of the, if not the, most important aspect of my work.
Balance – Having my artwork be 100% balanced throughout is very important. I hate having an area of the work completely throw off balance the other side of it. I work with design & type to create harmony & complete balance within my work.
Minimalism – Minimalism has always soothed me. I am an overall minimalistic person & having a lot of things around me all @ one time often makes me very uneasy & anxious. This is why I often use negative space in my pictures while only focusing on one main subject.
Awareness – Art to me is a tool to showcase awareness. My main awareness point is the environment, how people and animals live and are treated, & documenting what is usually going on. For example, people who go to he island of Boracay, will document the beach, or how pretty the sunsets look, but not what is really going on on the island. My main point of awareness is sharks. I have developed such an investment in sharks, & how humans affect their lives, that it has pretty much become the entire identity of my brand “waterpup.” Having the opportunity to scuba dive with them & be able to capture better videos & images of them once I get better equipment is very exciting to me. I have never worked on an official project involving sharks, but will take any opportunity to do so.
Experimental – My whole journey of finding myself as a designer has involved me experimenting a lot. When looking @ my first artworks, not one of them will only include 1 medium, or 1 style. I always find interest & inspiration in new ideas & doubt I will ever be able to stick to 1 style or 1 type of design. I also like to create art in various ways: graphics, drawing, videography, music, photography, editing, gaming & sports.
General moodboard
I’ve been struggling a lot with coming up with just 1 piece of work that defines all my values as a designer, all I know is that I wanted to challenge myself & make something that is beyond digital. I then came across some Joker cards I had collected from various classic card packs & it gave me an idea. My entire life I have been drawn to playings card, probably because of their balanced & minimalistic look. They are timeless, have infinite uses, & have a layout I found very __ I used to always have a deck on me when I was younger, & learnt a multitude of magic tricks & card games. I would build card castles out of them, spend hours randomly sorting out the decks (yeah, I was a weird kid) & would collect many variations. 1 card always stood out to me the most, though.
The first ever “Joker” card was designed & printed by Samuel Hart in 1863, to serve as a “best bower” or “imperial bower” for the German card game ‘Euchre’. In the late 1860’s, the iconic depiction of the card being interpreted as a clown or a jokester begun. Later, the joker card was introduced in poker as the iconic wild card.
What I’ve always loved about the Joker card, is the freedom involved in creating it, I’ve always loved having freedom in what I create, to do exactly what I want. Companies for centuries have manufactured their very own interpretation of the card, & still continue to do so today. They also all have their very own “pattern” created on the back of the cards. & so, I thought to myself: what better way to distill my graphic values & portray my interest in composition, balance, minimalism, awareness & experimentation than with creating my very own Joker card, with my own design, & my own unique pattern.
Rough sketches (back & front)
Final elements
Digitalised elements
Final design (back & front)
Presentation
I wanted this project to @ the end be a physical piece, & so got the playing card printed. I took pictures of each side using my signature photography shot (examples bellow).
FINAL OUTCOME & REFLECTION
I was able to create something that combines all 5 of my core values. The composition in my card is very linear, & keeps the balance and minimalism of a standard playing card. It shows awareness of not only my brand by most importantly sharks, which is put forward on the front of the card, & is experimental due to me trying out something completely new.
Mandy Galli 