Studio Brief 3: The Exhibition Space

After the room in Leeds Central Library was confirmed that the exhibition would be held there, I went to take some photographs so that we had an idea of the space inside and how we would arrange the print because there will be around 130 that will need to be hung within the space. It also gave us primary images to add our wayfinding to the library space.

Studio Brief 3- Individual group crit

From this group crit between just our group and Ben, we again made a lot of changes to our exhibition again. It was soon made clear to us that none of our ideas actually flow and link together because we chose the name stamped but then our ideas for the flyer and invitation did not match up with the same idea of stamped. We still really wanted to keep the receipt idea because that was our strongest idea that was carried through from the beginning. The idea of disposability and public spaces was starting to look like the main focus for the exhibition, from this it was suggested to change the name to fit more with the receipt idea instead of just stamped which only related to the idea of print. 

We started to discuss names that had some relation to 'free', again linking with the exhibition itself and disposability. We didn't want to call the exhibition 'free' because it didn't link the idea of print and public spaces at all and was more tacky sounding. Georgia then found a receipt in her purse that had 'thank you call again' at the top of it, although it could be seen as quite cringey, it does add humour to it and directly links to the receipt idea. It also relates to the fact the exhibition isn't there for a long time so you will have to be quick.

Studio Brief 02 - Leeds - Public Spaces- Evaluation

Overall, I have enjoyed the process from start to finish of this brief because the outcome had to use a traditional print method therefore it meant computer and digital work was at a minimum. Although the screen printing process as a whole took me a long time to complete I have learnt a lot from it, in terms of how to complete each step effectively with no mistakes. In the rationale, I set out to create a print that celebrates Carnival Against The Nazis through a visual and typographic way, the print needed to be celebratory and positive because it will be placed among an exhibition of Leeds Public Spaces. The final print effectively communicates what I set out to do, although the design is very simple I thought this created an interesting piece of work and something quite different to what I usually create therefore allowing me to work in a different way that I am used to, but still be something that I am happy with. The colours I have used within the print work well and relate to the event because they have been used within existing posters and designs but also the blue directly relates to blue beat found in ska, a genre commonly performed at the events and festivals. With the brief asking for the print to use a traditional method, allowed me to explore screen printing as I have been keen to create work using various print methods because I think they suit my style of work well.  This brief has inspired me to use various print methods in the future because it allows my work to stand out amongst lots of digitally produced work. If I were to improve any aspects of this brief, it would be to carefully consider my decisions when it came to choosing an event, due to the fact I changed my mind it did put me slightly out of time and I didn’t have a lot of time to do in depth research. However, because I then chose a stronger event, it meant the final print was successful and for my first time screen printing it went better than expected.  

Leeds Print Festival at Colours May Vary

After being unable to attend Leeds Print Festival, during the week after it I visited Colours May Vary where they had a small exhibition on various screen prints, including lots of music related ones. I really liked the majority of these prints as they were much more than just two colours, which can be  a lot more interesting to look at in terms of colour.

This print was created by Ryan Doyle of DR.ME, it is a screen print with a vinyl layer over the top. I think this print has got a lot more depth to it, if it were just a screen print it would of been quite boring but the almost glittery vinyl lettering on top creates something more appealing to look at.

This other screen print caught my eye mostly due to the colours, it is by artist Rob Bailey who I further researched after seeing this print as I had never heard of him before. 

Bailey is a Manchester based illustrator who uses only vector images within his work, he developed his own style using a mix of colour combination and geometric elements to depict an array of animated characters. 

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Final Screen Prints

These are all of the various prints I produced during screen printing, I decided to go with pink and green as the colours because pink is repeated within posters that have most recently been advertising these events so I thought that would be appropriate. Within figure 2 you can see that I originally used a light green colour but when I started to print it became almost neon like and was impossible to be legible, so I added a dark blue to create this blue colour because blue is known as the colour of ska which ultimately relates to the event being 'rock against racism/nazi'- it's 'blue beat'. Ultimately working better than the green colour, also looking at it from aesthetic point of view these two colours work well along side each other. I decided to print some of them on yellow paper as this is another colour that gets repeatedly used like the pink, however the yellow paper was making the paint on the screens smudge every time it was printed. Overall, even though this whole process took me 3 days and it wasn't easy and very stressful, I am really pleased with how my actual prints have turned out and I think they definitely do show a celebration of Leeds and the event.

Final Design and Screen Printing

FINAL PRINT 

I have chosen this as my final print design, out of the other two hand illustrations I think this works best in terms of relating to the brief and showing a celebration as the hands act as a coming together of all to fight racism- thus relating to the actual event as well. The images have been split into two layers to prepare for the two colour screen prints, as of yet I am not 100% sure what colours to use for my prints I think this may be decided on the day but green would be an appropriate colour to use as it relates to ska and it is a very neutral and earthy colour.

Each layer of my design printed in black and white ready for it to be exposed on to my screen. I decided to fill in some of the hands black to see if that would give me more of an interesting print instead of just the outlined hands- as of yet I am unsure if this will work but I think it will be more effective than just the outlines of each hand.

This is my prepared screen after it had been washed using B-side and B-strip to remove the previous images from the screen in order for mine to print on. This was a long process as it took a while to remove all the previous remaining print from the screen so on the first day of screen printing I didn't get chance to actually expose my images ready for print.

After applying the emulsion and letting that dry I then exposed the image on the screen using the vacuum. So it could then be washed off to remove the stencil.

Final stencil designs after the emulsion had been washed off and removed.