PLACE AND MATERIAL
✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴
WHERE ARE THE PLACES WE FEEL AT HOME?
the concept of “place” was not something that i was very enthusiastic about, if i am being honest.
i read through all of the briefs assigned and none of them really called out to me. there was no instant grab of attention, which i think is attributed to my lack of interest in both “places” and aread in general, as well as introspection into who i am as a person.
i have never felt tied down to one place. i was born in new zealand and lived in sri lanka for a few years before moving to slough and going to school in buckinghamshire. i’ve been living in nottingham for 4 years but feel no real attachment to it. there is no pull to my homeland, nothing to where my parents are from ( pakistani-kashmir and sri lanka ) and honestly, i’m entirely content in it. i’m more of a free spirit than someone who cares where they are situated. i can be anywhere as long as i have the things that make me happy nearby.
the only thing that was calling out to me was designing clothes, and how people felt regarding the things they wear. it filled the forefront of my mind. it seemed more interesting to me to explore the concept of “place” through the people that live there.
✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴
the people’s hall during “night light”
i decided to sign up to make an animation for “night light”, which is a festival held in nottingham. it’s a beautiful couple days where the city is illuminated with lights and projectors and stupid mini installations to amuse children.
for this project, i was one of two people who signed up. Retrospectively, i’m not sure if this was a good or bad thing at all.
the people’s hall is a building i had only been to once previously; for a “moon meditation” workshop led by viv and eve held there as part of their “out of practice” studio. i remembered it as being damp inside. it held up in a way that screamed its heritage at you.
during my second vist i met josh packham, who was in charge of leading the project.
the “brief” was to make an animation that was minimum 30 seconds, that related to the heritage of the building. it was to be projected onto the front of the building, for all the passers by to see on the day of the event.
josh gave me and jack (my partner in joining the project) a rundown of the building’s history, which is noted above, albeit messily.
the history of the building is pretty cool for what it is. i never would’ve thought that it had such a deep story behind it.
alongside this, we were sent a few documents:
> the heritage statment – a long document detailling the building’s history
> various statements and guidelines to follow regarding the buildings funding and the event itself
the heritage statement was interesting to read after receiving the brief historical outline from josh.
i’ve attached some pictures of the parts that stood out to me the most.
to start off, i drew out some thumbnails for ideas.
i am not experienced in animation, even in the slighest. i tried it out briefly last year, but it took an immense amount of time.
i took a lot of inspiration from the heritage statement and from the history Josh gave us. The People’s hall was famous for many things throughout its history, and i tried to touch on a good amount of them in the sequence that I laid out:
> I pulled the tiles from the history of the building
> The pot that appears is the pot from the heritage statement; one set of owners were known for potmaking
> although the family history in the building is deep, i decided to draw one girl to represent youth and family within that figure, rather than a whole set of people
> bricks
> known for producing lace
> was at some point, a billiards hall
this version of the template for the projection really put the scale of what i was projecting into perspective.
although i was aware that the windows would be covered up with white on the day of, it was important to factor in this into the design process, especially when i was laying things out.
for this reason, i kept the blank version of the template as the background for when i was animating.
i do not have the first initial sketch of the draft, but this gif shows the 40% progress point:
i decided to use a “chalk-like” brush to add a painterly-like feeling to the frames. i really liked the gritty texture, and it made the whole animation look a lot more fun and playful, which fit the whole theme of night light. i think i was subconsiously aiming this animation for children more than adults. my work can be fun and playful and bright sometimes, and this project was definitely taking that direction this time. i thought it’d also be nice for older people to view something in a more “childish” lens while still showing off key parts of the building’s history to those who were already aware of it.
i left the bottom strip empty so that the animation sat ontop of the cream strip that separates the floors visually from the outside.
i tried to use bright and simple colours for both the audience and for wanting the colours to stand out on the brick rather than seep in; if there are bright blocks of it, then it’s easier to distinguish
i blocked out the next sequence of frames so that i could slowly follow along and convert them step by step.
we had a test session where we brought our animations to the hall to see how they would look projected on the building.
to test out a hunch i had, i prepared another video with a version that had a black background; i wanted to see how the contrast would work on the building and see what was more effective
it was pretty clear that the black looked way better when it was projected than the white background.
at this point, the animation of the section with the girl and the pot was pretty “janky” but i fixed that after seeing it on the big “screen”.
the white background was just light pollution, simply put. the black allowed the subjects to stand out a whole lot more, and elevated my animation a whole lot more.
i also ended up cropping off the bottom portion of the canvas, as i was sure that i wasn’t going to use any of it
here are a selection of the frames, you may notice the bottom banner got added back in.
this is because, on the day of the test, jack’s animation had ended up utilising the bottom portion of the building too. so i added something to the bottom of my animation that would fill in that portion too, so that it wouldn’t have a jarring sort of dissonance when switching between animations.
to do this, i traced the gate that is at the side of the building. the gate is also pictured in the heritage statement (one of the screenshots from above). i warped the image to stretch and fit the entire “canvas” of the building. i quite liked the way the warped gate looked; it was visually interesting while also being a mini easter egg for anyone highly observant.
i also left a square of white that would be projected over the nameplate for the building so that it would be illuminated while my animation was playing.
because this project was involved with various charities and organisations, we were required to add a slide of thanks and acknowledgements to them, which i animated in a simple style that tied my animation to Jack’s (his was primarily black and white for a good portion of it).
below, is the full final animation in gif form
and here is the animation projected on the people’s hall itself!
i enjoyed doing this project; it was insanely rewarding on the night.
I definitely rushed through it. Despite that, i don’t know if i would’ve been able to really “elevate” my animation any further, though; i just don’t have enough experience animating, nor skill in the area to know what i could do to change it. i still like the finished animation, though.
Visually, the shifting frames with multiple versions of the same image are very reminiscent of children’s animations too, which i liked and fit the kind of audience that i was aiming for. It kind of clicks in a really beautiful way to me. Although fluid animation is nice, it’s also nice to see an image slowly shift into something else. Because of this, i think my animation goes from fluid to a lull to a bang! at the end.
Seeing people stop and watch and point at your animation was really meaningful to me. i stood around for a while watching people watch my animation. did people find a “home” in this sort of thing? in seeing the things around them be represented. I am sure that it was more important to Josh and the organisations he represents, especially because he is so passionate about the hall, but is that really enough on my end? Couldn’t I have pushed it further in the way of making the animation longer to really show appreciation to the labour of love that is the people’s hall? i’m honestly not sure.
visually, it was hard to come up with something that was fitting to show at light night while also representing the hall, during the early stages, i clung to the images i got from the heritage statement, and i transformed the objects associated with the hall like “tiles” into the modern day equivielent to modernise them more and make them more “fun” and “bright” to fit the theme of the event rather than to do justice to the hall.
is that me taking advantage of it? Is it okay to do that to a place? What kind of places do we take for granted and never really show care for in our day-to-day life? It’s interesting to think about.
special thanks to ellie and josh for the opportunity to do this project in the fist place, i really did love learning about the hall. it was illuminating *badum tss*.
✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴
WHAT MAKES A SHIRT SO PRECIOUS TO SOMEONE?
I REALLY WANTED TO DIG INTO THIS. i wanted to know what makes people pick out certain designs. the first place to start was obviously with myself though.
i am insanely picky when it comes to clothing, which may be down to my neurodivergence in part, but i only buy clothes that i really feel at “home” in. i like loose flowing clothing with designs that feel like “me”.
but what makes something “me” to someone else? what do other people seek out?
i asked around some of my friends and picked out the more “obscure” shops.
the shirts are very “out there”. i think that’s the only way to describe them on a surface level. theres a kind of distance between the graphics on the shirts and the wearer. they are both ironic and not. Text is a major centrepiece to them.
THIS A INDEPENDENT ARTIST WHO SCREEN PRINTS THEIR SHIRTS. IT’S VERY STYLISED, BUT THE PIECES THEMSELVES AREN’T TOO “LOUD” OR OVERWHELMING. THEY’RE SIMPLE AND SEEM LIKE THE KIND OF THINGS THAT CAN BE SLOTTED INTO A NORMAL OUTFIT, AT LEAST TO ME.
THE PROBLEM WITH ANALYSEING THINGS LIKE THIS IS THAT I AM UNDOUBTABLY BIASED. I AM SURE THAT TO ANOTHER PERSON, THESE ARE OUTLANDISH AND “WEIRD”, BUT THE PROBLEM WITH CLOTHING IS THAT, FOR MOST OF THE TIME, IT IS ALL SUBJECTIVE. WHEN IT COMES TO PLAINER CLOTHES, IT’S HARDER TO DISCRIMINATE FROM PERSON TO PERSON WITHOUT COMPLETELY OFFENDING THEIR TASTE. DOES SOMEONE HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO THAT WHEN THE PERSON WHO WEARS IT IS HAPPY IN THEMSELVES AND WHAT THEY’RE WEARING? WHAT IF IT’S SOMETHING THAT THEY CONSIDER THEIR “HOME”? How rude would it be to insult something with so much meaning like that?
I WILL POINT OUT THAT I PARTICULARLY LIKE THIS “cd shirt”, if i am going to show my bias.
the last thing it that, previously, my friend sent me this particular shop, saying that “i would like the shirts”.
and i do. does that mean that they know what i feel at “home” in?
GLYVEES IS AN ARTIST I HAVE LIKED FOR A GOOD AMOUNT OF TIME NOW, SO WHEN I WAS SENT THIS LINK, I WAS PLEASANTLY SURPRISED.
GLYVEES’ ART IS SOME OF MY FAVORITE EVER. HIS SHOP IS CLOSED AT THE MOMENT, BUT THEY TEND TO DO COLLABS WITH LESSER KNOWN FASHION BRANDS TO CREATE QUALITY PIECES THAT FIT THEIR ILLUSTRATION STYLE.
IN PARTICULAR, I LIKE THE TEXTURE AND IDEA OF THIS KNITTED SWEATER
IT’S PRETTY WELL EXECUTED, DESIGN WISE.
IS THAT WHAT MAKES PEOPLE ATTRACTED TO CERTAIN PIECES MORE THAN OTHERS?
THERE IS A WHOLE SUBSECTION OF PEOPLE THAT PRIORITISE BRANDS AND LUXURY OVER STYLE. IS THAT WHERE THEY FEEL AT HOME? IS SOMEONE VIEWED AS “LOWER” OR “HIGHER” BECAUSE OF THIS, EVEN IF THEY FEEL COMFORTABLE IN THE CLOTHES THAT THEY CHOOSE TO WEAR?
✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴
DESIGNING COMMERCIALLY
I RECIEVED A REQUEST BY A CLIENT TO DESIGN TWO SHIRTS FOR THEM.
ONE OF THEM WAS CENTERED AROUND A “FRUIT BOWL” CONCEPT, AND THE OTHER WAS A “GAG SHIRT” FOR CHARITY.
STARTING OFF WITH THE “FRUIT BOWL” IDEA, I WAS IMMEDIATELY THROWN OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE. MY “NICHE”, IF YOU CAN EVEN CALL IT THAT, IS GIRLS AND ANGELS AND FEELING AND NATURE. Something so surface-level was immediately hard to tackle.
I STARTED OFF BY DRAWING FRUIT SIMPLY, TO SEE IF I COULD GET ANY IDEAS FROM IT.
I DIDN’T GET ANY
SO INSTEAD I TRIED TO THINK OF WAYS TO “TRANSFORM” THE CONCEPT.
IT CANNOT BE UNDERSTATED HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO COME UP WITH THE IDEA OF “FRUIT STAMPS”. IT WAS HARD.
I DID A SMALL THUMBNAIL AND THEN EXPANDED ON IT. ON THE RIGHT, THERE IS A FRUIT BOWL THAT COMES TOGETHER THROUGH MULTIPLE STAMPS PLACED IN THE RIGHT PLACE, AND THEN OTHER VARIOUS FRUIT STAMPS DOTTED OVER THE TOP TO BRING IT TOGETHER.
AND THEN, I ENDED UP PIVOTING. WHEN I LAID OUT ALL THE STAMPS, THE IDEA OF HAVING THIS “OVERLAPPING STAMP IMAGE” SEEMED WEAK. SO INSTEAD, I MOVED TO MAKE SEVERAL “LONGER” STAMPS WITH MOTIFS RELATING TO MY CLIENT TO KEEP EVERYTHING SEPARATE.
I THEN STARTED SLOWLY RENDERING THE STAMPS
THE PROBLEM, I REALISED, WAS THAT I WAS GOING INTO FAR TOO MUCH DETAIL IN THESE STAMPS. A PRINTER WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO PICK UP ON ALL THESE TEXTURES AND HALFTONES THAT I WAS ADDING INTO THE STAMPS, AND COULD EVEN SERVE TO MESS UP THE PRINTING IF A CERTAIN LIGHTER SHADE GOT PICKED UP OVER ANOTHER.
SO THEN I PIVOTED AGAIN.
I WENT TO HOPKINSONS IN NOTTINGHAM, TO DIG THROUGH REAL VINTAGE STAMPS FOR INSPIRATION.
STAMP DESIGNS ARE INTICRATE, BUT ONLY TO A DEGREE. Additionally, the graphic design that goes on stamps is “CLEAN” AND NOT OVERPOWERING COLOUR-WISE, WHICH I THINK WAS WHERE I WAS HAVING TROUBLE.
IT WASN’T SO MUCH PICKING COLOURS, OR HAVING A UNIFIED PALETTE. IT WAS MORE TRYING TO STICK TO A SET RESTRICTIVE COLOUR SET FOR EACH STAMP, WITHOUT DEVIATING.
I ENDED UP PICKING A SELECTION WITH A WIDE RANGE OF GRAPHIC DESIGN, BUT ALSO THOSE THAT I COULD EASILY PIVOT TO “FRUIT” CONCEPTS, IN LINE WITH THE “FRUIT BOWL” CONCEPT.
above are the scanned in original stamps.
i then rearranged them and started changing them to “fruits”
THE NEW PROBLEM WAS THAT THIS WAS IMMENSELY TIME CONSUMING. I ONLY MANAGED TO GET THROUGH TWO FRUITS (THE WATERMELON AND PINEAPPLE ON THE FAR LEFT HAND SIDE) BEFORE I GOT COMPLETELY BURNT OUT FROM THIS PROJECT.
INSTEAD OF CONTINUALLY DIGGING THIS HOLE, I DECIDE TO START WORK ON THE OTHER CONCEPT.
✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴✴
gag shirts
i think that this concept goes against everything that i was looking into in this project, which is why i think i found it so interesting
“gag shirts” a whole other realm where, for the most part, people aren’t wearing them because they feel “at home” or “safe” in them. instead they exist to get a rise out of someone; to evoke emotion, whether it be positive or negative.
this particular shirt was a little bit better than most, because it was going to be sold as part of a fundraiser for charity.
i was given this ridiculous line “I bought this shirt off a homeless man” and was tasked with doing all the rest of the design work.
the initial concept that the client wanted was something that i found both funny and weak visually: adding the “abandoned house” emoji to the shirt.
i ran the emoji through various bitmap functions until i was happy with it.
the problem with this design is that, even though it’s a “gag” shirt, it wasn’t visually that strong in my opinion. as well as this, the emoji didn’t really fit the theme of homelessness, as ridiculous as it sounds.
i then came back with this idea, where i replaced the emoji with a sleeping bag i got from adobe stock images and ran it through the bitmappers again.
however, the placement was off. the bag seemed to make the design lopsided.
i pivoted instead to a tent, which is inherently more even and stable.
it’s hard to focus on it while you’re actively working on it, but after coming back to it, this iteration definitely had more of that “gag” feel to it, especially compared to the others.
in an attempt to push it a little bit further, i changed the bitmapping on the tent to be lighter, and added a sleeping bag.
this final concept was accepted by my client, and they requested an inverted version.
the final shirt is so immensely stupid in my eyes, that i was confident that it would reach the audience that it needed to.
here are some pictures of the shirt after it was printed:
this whole thing project took a weird swerve into territory that i really wasn’t prepared for, but i think that was the interesting part about it.
i was made to put myself in a more commercial mindset, rather than the initial route of “safety” that i was headed down.
do commercialised clothes mean any less than something that is made with so-called “passion”. maybe it is more of the sentiment of the wearer that makes something their “home”. or i guess in this specific case, homeless.
the material of the shirt and the quality was chosen specifically to be durable, fashionable and long-lasting, which completely contrasted the design and it’s message. it’s dissonance is quite big in my mind. it shows that the creator cares about the person who is going to wear it, and their comfort.it’s a gag shirt, so why bother.
thinking now, i think it is simple. because the person who buys it is showing solidarity with the creator. it would be remiss to overlook that little showing of strength, even when it doesn’t immediately affect the creator.
i’m almost sure that big corporations do not care about things like these, most consumers are just numbers in a spreadsheet to them. is that what leads to the loss of “home” in these sorts of products? because the person “giving” it does not care about the one “recieving” it.