Personal Investigation Focus

Now that you have researched into many areas connected with your project, you must now come up with a well-constructed title, hypothesis or question to focus your writing.

Task: In your notebook, write your title and bullet point 6 varied and interesting pieces within your focus that you could begin to write about.

Examples of titles:
Learning through looking - How pictures, illustrations and colour help develop a child’s visual vocabulary

From paper to pixel and back - The changing face of illustration within children's books
Photos, ham, cardboard and stitching
How to Look At Bad Pictures - A Trawl Through The Underbelly of Independent Comic Art
Bad news in books - Exploring difficult situations in children’s books
The Nature of Imagery - How visual language within Illustration is used to bring text to life

The Unearthing of underground comics - Digging deep into the changing times of illustration within small press
Woof! Woof! An exploration into the typography (and habits) of Eric Gill and other notable British Typographers"
Good Vibrations! - Charting the birth, rise and influence of the Psychedelic gig poster"
Primitive parts - An exploration of the naive and untutored within Comics, Illustration and graphic design"

Deadline (together with 10 research pages) start of lesson, Friday 17th of June.

Analysis

Examples

Personal Investigation Research Pages

Objective
To begin Comp 1.2
To choose a focus of your personal investigation.

Task
Create 10 research pages.
The pages will be linked to something that you have looked at or attempted during comp 1.1. Thi n of it as a continuation of 1.1 into just a big comp 1 portfolio.

Before you attempt these pages you must read articles about your subject to gain an understanding. You should be able to discuss the wider context of your page. Your pages should be full, brimming with interest communicate your fascination with the subject.

E.G. if your page is about Photomontage, you should be able to discuss:

• the main practitioners, 
• key pieces,
• contemporary practitioners, 
• historical elements 
• attempt an example or two. 

Please, please utilise some of the notes that you have completed during the beginning part of the course. You read them for this task.

Deadline
Monday 19th of June 


The pages in the presentation above are great for the following reasons:

• they relate to the first project as the student came across the elements during case studies and analysis
• Beth discusses Beatrice Alemagna's work process rather than just historical events
• there is a mixture of drawn, printed examples and written note taking
• layout is busy and shows a 'working out' thought process
• the consecutive pages have a flow to them. e.g Beth's Beatrice Alemagna page discusses mixed media. She then goes on to do a page on mixed media and photomontage. This could then lead in many directions - Dadaism, album cover design, Hockney joiners etc.

Anatomy of an illustrated book

Case study 2 and 3

Michael's fine example


Antonia's fine example



Heather's fine example...

Objectives
To further your understanding of graphic communication practitioners

Task
Using the web, research and present a case study about a designer/illustrator/photographer of your choice. 
Choose somebody who you could possibly be influenced by when you come to create your own illustrations.
There is a good list next to my door. Or look on THIS pinboard I lovingly created.

The contents of the case study could include the following. 
n.b. Tasks get harder as you go down the list. If you are after an A*, get to the end.

1. Biography  
Include a few images from the designer's back catalogue and some interesting historical information. (Read, digest and then write your findings. Do not copy and paste information from the web.)
2. Characteristics
Take a number of typical examples and bullet point why they are characteristic of the designer.
3. Context
Consider the context. What other designers are working at the same time? Include a range of illustrator's work
4. Influences
Research to find out who the designer has been influenced by. To do this you may need to read an interview wit the illustrator. 
Just Google "Interview with [illustrator's name]"
5. Working in their style
Using photos or drawings that you created yourself or images from the web, copy or emulate the style of the designer that you are researching and create a version or your own.

Checklist for assessment
Relevant images, in-depth research your own words (no copy and paste), accurate emulation.

Time needed

5 hours each

Deadline

First lesson back after Easter.

End of Comp 1.1 Dates