Peer Feedback

My feedback is all very positive and I feel quite relived that people seem to think I'm on the right track and that I will do just fine. but I think I would've liked to hear some more constructive criticisms, maybe? to help me make my work stronger - though I have also noticed that I can be quite stubborn and sometimes I brush of suggestions - but I think most of the time I have taken other peoples opinions into consideration to make my work that tiny bit stronger.

But since I haven't been given any major thing to think about, I'm going to go ahead and continue with what I've been doing. Can't wait to start mocking up my pop-ups! hope it all goes well and according to plan! *fingers crossed*

Concept Drawings

To help make things a bit easier for me, I've decided to use the pop-ups I've seen and like as inspiration/references for my own pop-ups. These are initial designs - they might change when I actually mock them up. Main paper engineering technique here is the V fold technique, which I think is the easiest out of all the others. When it comes to mocking up the pop-ups, I think I'm going to start with the ones I feel I can do easily and then move on to the more complicated ones once I've got more of an understanding of how things work:

May Timetable!

Here is my timetable for May! Basically no sleep for me until module submission.

I CAN DO THIS! 

Contextual Ref: Matthew Reinhart

This is one of the pop-up books I found in Waterstones, which I really loved! (not because I'm disney biased, obviously) and is SO expensive, but I can understand why - I watched a video where Robert Sabuda (another paper engineer) explained his process + the manufacturing process of his books, which is where I learnt that pop up books are assembled all by hand - no machine is involved when it comes to this bit. 

Anyway, my most favourite thing about Reinhart's book is the incorporation of another pop-up within a pop up, which is something that I'm gonna try and do too with at least one of my pop-ups! I think this book is one that I'm going to be referencing back to a lot because I feel that some of the paper engineering here will work well for my book too (with a little bit of modification, of course).

Fonts

Not quite sure why I've gone into fonts already when I haven't even got the illustrations yet, oops. But I've done it now, so might as well explain my chosen type. I've tried most of the fonts that are readily available on photoshop (because I don't think its necessary to buy something fancy at this stage, though this is something that might be taken more into consideration if it were to be published/mass produced to sell) - I then shortlisted 3 that I felt was most appropriate for a children's book/most legible. Then decided that I will be using Avenir Book x my own hand written type as mentioned here.

Updated Story

The bold parts are the bits I want to handwrite, like how they've done it in The Lion Inside. The highlighted parts are the imagery I'm going to turn into pop-ups *fingers crossed*.

Author/Artist Ref

It's been a while since I've done anything for my FMP (which is so bad, I know I'm sorry) and I feel like I've lost a tiny bit of motivation with it. To try and resurrect my enthusiasm, I decided to look for some inspiration in some of the animal based children's books that I have in my possession. These two are my favourites right at this moment  in terms of their story and illustrations:

After turning to these books, I feel that I need to push the character design more the animals more because I don't feel like my sketches so far show as much of the playful vibe/as stylised as the actual human characters are. I actually want to have a chat with Jim Field because I actually adore this animal illustrations! so much life and character! I need to get my story sorted out real soon too! - I'm not going to be changing my story too much from the original that I've posted a while ago - just gonna keep it simple and only add a few bit and pieces in it (because I believe this is the wisest thing to do for the time I have left).

For the typography, I really love the mixture of readymade and handwritten type like how it is in The Lion Inside. I quite like how the handwritten type is used to emphasise some of the words, looks more fun too.

BAIL'16 Memory Game

31 pieces to match! wahoooo! I decided to keep the box design simple, to let the images do the most of the talking because I spent some time on those and I feel they deserve all the attention. The layout itself was inspired by an existing matching game I talked about in previous post, which I saw whilst I was away in Dubai.

This brief is officially completed! (for now anyway). As previously explained, I will not be submitting the actual physical product for the module deadline because I cannot afford to spend more time paper cutting - I need to start focusing on my final major project asap because I am so terribly behind and I'm scared.

will continue with this project after submission.

Product Packaging

Went to Waterstones on Tuesday to look at some of the packaging they have for their boxed gift/stationary products to give me some idea on the kind of material I should go for if my product were to be mass produced in factories. Also to give me some inspiration on the packaging design. Again, I think I'm going to keep everything simple and basically let the images do the talking. For this brief I will be producing presentation boards to explain the product etc. 

Tutorial

In sum, I'm now feeling a bit more confident about my FMP. The thing with me is that I tend to overcomplicate things and sometimes its just better to keep it simple! Initially I was going to create a 2 in 1 book and play mat, but now I am just creating a pop-up book as the main product. In my previous tutorial with Fred, he said that there is no reason why I can't keep my story simple. If the whole point of the project is to show my character design skill and that I can create amazingly crafted children's pop-book - then I should concentrate on the craft and the image making. So, I am going to use the really simple story I've written before and just go ahead with that! - But see what Teresa thinks of it first.

I'm glad that I didnt just talk about my FMP but also the concern I have with the time to complete my Brief 4 (papercut portraits). In the tutorial I was suggested to mock up the product instead of trying to complete it all (even though Fred said the opposite in my previous tutorial - but I don't feel this is possible really, sorry Fred, I need to go against you this time). The reason for this is to allow more time for me to solve my FMP project as this should be the thing that really wows everyone. Also, with the Brief 4 project I've already shown that I can make images with the papercutting process - it wouldn't be wise to spend the time I have left of this module basically repeating myself and not show the other skills I can do. I will complete the portraits after submission instead (incase I want them to go in the End of Year Show).

Contextual Ref: Under the Ocean

I remember seeing these pop-up books at Colours May Vary last year and thought they were absolutely gorgeous! The craftsmanship and illustration is beautiful - an excellent addition to any children's home library or adult collection too. What I thought made them quite special was the unusual format of these books - very tall and narrow. but because of the height, it allows the popup to come out really far towards the viewer, which gives a lot of depth to the scenes it portrays. The pop-ups themselves are very simple in technical terms but incredibly effective. The depth combined with the miniature scale of the scenes gives a really convincing impression of space. 

Under the Ocean and In the Forest by Anouck Boisrobert and Louis Rigaud 

Card Matching Game

Whilst I was in Dubai, I went to a shop called Gallery One, quite similar to Paperchase actually but they had more art prints and I think more of their products are Arabian inspired (so it was the perfect souvenir shop for visitors from outside of the middle east/arabic speaking countries!). I came across a matching game product that is more or less what I want to produce (as well as the 'yearbook') for my Paper Portrait brief. On their website, this comes under their gifts and stationary category, so I guess shops like Gallery One and Paperchase are where I could sell my own product. Their cards are printed on gray board - I wonder where I can go to produce mine... or maybe I can print on mount board in uni and cut accordingly, would probably be cheaper. yes. 

Laser Cut Induction

Back from Dubai this morning and made it just in time for laser cutting induction! I feel like superwoman, seriously no rest for this gal (though I must say I'm a bit knackered...zzzz). Bit late in the year/course to have this induction, but it's better late than never! Not sure if I'll end up laser cutting for any of my remaining briefs, but we shall see.. it might come in handy for cutting up the pieces for my pop up book?

My work in use!

I finally got to see the finished things in real life! I really like how the walls have turned out actually - it always feels so good seeing your work being used! I was afraid it might look messy, but once you're there it really doesn't feel like it. the only mistake they've done is getting the left and right panels the other way round so the comics got cut off when they should've continued all the way around! - wish I was there when the guys installed them. too late now, s'okay. 

During the three days of the con, I was told that people kept asking about who did the graphics for the walls which is really exciting because it means people actually like it! I really want to do more illustrative work for the fashion industry when I have the chance because it's TONS OF FUN!