Guest Critique

YAY! Its been 3 days since our show has opened! :D

I was the first of the design students to get crit today. Our guest was Yoonjai Choi.
Sadly, I think mine was the shortest; approx. 5 min.

I felt like there was more questions than responses, which I understand since she doesn't read comics but I thought there would be more...reaction.

Here is the gist of our discussion:

• The placement of the comics should be lower, more eye-level for people to approach. // I have been having printing problems so the second row of comics is not up yet, but I think they are still too high up.
  
• The poster does not seem as cohesive to the comics as intended, "it doesn't have the same spirit of the comics" // I agreed to that as well, while I do like my poster and designed the text according to each word, it does not feel similar to the rest of my project.
• She wanted the comics the same length as the poster, but I think that would stretch them too much, so I might adjust the poster instead.
• Its kind of bold to make a comic project for a design thesis
  
• She recommended a couple of design artists who also make comics: Chris Ware and Daniel Clause

Side note: I want to change the tacks!! I need to find slimmer ones. Should I put foam core behind the comics as well?

2012 Crit #3 & 4

Its been a while! :)

I forgot to update from my third critique (last week), so I'm putting it together with today's.

Last week I updated Gerry and my classmates what I wanted to do for my thesis:
I'm going to have an installation with a poster, 10 colored comics, and sampler booklets to give away.

• The Poster: acts as a title of my project. It was originally designed as a book cover when I thought I was going to make 30 comics--which became 10 and didn't seem viable in a book format. The look of the poster will have my title, "A Graphic Memoir of a Young Artist", embedded in panels.

• 10 Color comics: they are the main focus of my project. These comics are based off memories of my life that I think reflect a lot of myself as a person and am willing to share with other people. In graphic design, I do not get to make myself the subject or create what I want. I have to appeal to the content/information I receive and appeal to the client. I wanted to use thesis as a chance to make something about myself for myself. I've really come to love the comic genre and how it communicates to everyone through the story and the art. I will be drawing them by hand, scanning, and digitally compiling them. They'll be on letter size paper and mounted on foam core so that they come off the wall.
  

• Sampler Booklets: there's gotta be freebies! These will be comprised of 4 out of the 10 comics in my project and will be printed in black and white. I am hoping to have 50 copies at the opening and will add more at the reception if the shelf is empty by then. I want people to keep a piece of my project, if they'd like, to remember the show and my work.

• Installation: Since the 10 comics are about letter size, the poster would be about 16 x 22. They will be mounted on the wall with pins. A shelf of about 2ft long will be underneath holding the sampler books for people to take. I would probably take up about 6 ft wide by 2 ft tall of wall space.

Today, we went over our places in the gallery are. At least I'm not in the far back rooms... Although I was happy with the space I was planned with, a classmate has space complications within our room and needs everyone to shift around so she can fit her large installations. Now I have to find out next week where I'll officially set up shop.

In critique, I wanted some feedback on the arrangement of my wall mounted installations and the design of the poster. Everyone pitched in and gave me decisive answers (for once).
The poster will be flush left and the 10 comics will hang next in two rows of 5, making it easy to read and breathing room for the comics.

For the poster design, everyone liked the one where there was just enough panels for the title. It was suggested to have some sort of color, in which case I'll be having my color comics in the background of the panels. They also suggested to play with the positioning of the type for dynamics.

Right now: I'm working on my comics and hope to start printing next week before installation and the opening of our show!!

Until next week...

Thesis 2 Crit 2

Today we had critique with a guest professor Benjamin Critton since Gerry was taking care of the MFA students.

Main comment from Prof. Critton was to think of presenting my comics outside the form of a comic book. How can it exist?, possibly large vinyl prints on the wall... Also maybe instead of making a series of 3 books, try focusing on 1 book-- quality vs. quantity.

• draft out your drawings, might take multiple versions to get the right look
  
• work on a title
• make the cover interesting, not a generic cover with drawings, maybe use typography
  
• a sitting area ==> lots of copies to hand out
• match up the line art & color: either both by hand or both rendered in the computer
• use special moments for stories that leave something with the reader
• smaller size product
• look at Julia Born "Title of Show" (?)

Typography didn't come up since the text in the drafts I showed were handwritten. I will do some explorations with made type and my own hand writing.

I thought of making a series so that there is a diversity of stories and the reader can have a better understanding of my character, but if 1 book speaks better than 3, than I would go with the single book route.

As for the content, I'm not sure how much or what to share with people. I'm pretty private to begin with so this is a challenge for myself already. I guess I can share people's opinion of me and my outlook in turn?

For now: I will draft stories with potential, work on the type, make a title, & start a cover design.

2012 Crit #1

I have been placed in the second show. Currently, my thesis is a series of short comics. The stories are from my life that I want to share in comic format, since I am not a vocal kind of person. I wanted to present the comics as a few booklets and some singles mounted on the wall. I think this will be a great project to put myself out there in my artwork. I was a little worried if I could get my idea passed since most professors don't read comics and its not a typical format a design student would use in a fine arts exhibition show but its been received alright.

Crit from Design:

• flesh out the style by adding shading and tone to the characters
• try a variety of panel and word bubble styles
• make the text handwritten instead of typed - more personal
• either have tight fixed spacing or go all random between panels
• work on the title
  

Crit from Thesis:

• i have a lot of work to do...
• make sure to establish style, avoid anime style (I don't think it looks like it so much... simplified but I guess its associated to asian styles)
  
• it shows a intimate & personal side
  
• the stories are relatable
  
• in the gallery: make a reading space for people with chairs and such, make a large print of my character on the wall (possibly)
  
• Make sure books are fixed in some way, possibility of stealing ( how do you tie it down but still allow viewers to read from them? chains? fish line? "place here"?)
  

It seems a lot of the design students are having some sort of electronic medium versus on paper. There is also a lot of interactive aspects as well. Everyone's projects sound great and challenging. I think we will have a great exhibition show!

Graphic Design 3-B

Back to school again!

Started this week with design and Jackie got us brainstorming for thesis! I thought I was pretty solid on my idea I came up with last semester, but after talking with Jackie, its pretty flawed... It would be more interesting to make a comic than to read about comics... So I'd like to make comics in a way that show's why I like them.

In our brainstorm sessions; we had to come up with three various project ideas that would pertain to what we wanted to do for thesis as well as reflect three maxims we discussed in class; Repetition can tell a story, Point to it Don't tell it (metaphoric approach), and Small idea + Big exploration.

Here's what I thought of:

1. Art vs. Text: creating a variety of comics where the art and text are shown separately within the same book. It forces the viewer to interpret the story through art compared to understanding the story in text. I want to show that these two elements are what make comics interesting and entertaining. Although they can survive without each other, they would obtain different names: drawings and scripts.
2. Indefinites: taking a theme/idea and creating comics in different styles/interpretations per book. I think of this as a challenge to myself by having a theme a week and making as many comics based on that theme. I think this project reflects on the diversity of comics.
3. PSA Posters: taking various character archetypes and addressing the public if they are like them. I think I could use this as a propaganda angle, "are you that guy?" It could possibly be combined with a comic book project.

I'm kind of leaning towards the Art vs. Text, as it addresses what I like about comics and has a design aspect as well. But I also like the PSA posters.

I feel like I'm making myself more unsure of what I want to do instead of starting....