Final Major Improvement Project

For this project we have to improve or develop a pre-existing idea. Initially I had a idea I was really excited about, I was going to photograph each stop on the District Line through one window, seeing what would be framed. I went on the District Line at 6am to test out my idea, however the train was busier than expected and I realised it was a harder task than expected, so I've decided to work on it as a personal project.

I started thinking about what my interests are, and was drawn to the idea of hand-drawn typography.

I really enjoyed the Typography brief and the using screen printing in the Print project so I started to think how I could combine the two. Initially I wanted to work with opposites and changing the meaning of a piece of text. I started looking at negative newspaper headlines and presenting them in a hand-draw positive format, challenging the reader. Do the headlines still have an impact? Is the seriousness of the headline removed? Does the reader even read the text or view the typography as an image? Theses are two examples of tests I have created on this idea. One is digitally drawn and the other watercolour.

Although I enjoyed creating these, I don't feel the idea is strong enough to lead me though this project. However it is refreshing to work on a project where I'm not worrying too much about the final outcome and having fun experimenting. In my first tutorial Hannah was excited by the idea of playing with type and mentioned looking at the news paper as a whole rather than just headlines.

This lead me to think about the layout and design of a newspaper. As time has gone one newspapers have got more and more dull looking and subsequently, in my opinion, make the stories look equally dull. The stories don't have much substance and neither do the design. I don't really read newspapers, I'm not interested in reading about all the negative happening in the world, as important as they are.

I began to think about what it would be like to create an entirely positive newspaper, full of articles from around the world. The design would reflect the stories, it would be colourful and ornamental.

I am in the process now of playing around with this idea and another.

The other idea is similar but inspired by the storytelling workshop. For the workshop in my pair, we created a dystopia that at first appeared to be a utopia, where the leader had created a set of rules that would ensure happiness. The citizens would have to follow the rules or face the consequences. I thought it would be interesting to develop this idea and create an news paper of this town with entirely positive and mundane stories.

I am yet to decide what direction I wish to go in, I am struggling with being more excited about the design rather than the content, I wish to resolve this in my next tutorial.