SB2: Another Email Response from Collaborator & Aesthetic Research

Today, upon coming in the studio, Jocel informed me that another person from Level 4 Illustration, replied to our email and wanted to collaborate with us, which was great as I feel like with more people in the team, we could get a lot more variety in ideas, as well as we have an extra pair of hand that can help us with creating the publication as well.

reply from Level 4 Illustration

After knowing that we have two people we could work with now, we decided that as were doing single editions of each signs and launching them in correspondence to their date alignments e.g. Aries March - April, in order to show a more realistic run of the publication, we thought it would be best to work separately with each other them in order to create to runs of the publication, whilst also coming together as a four for meeting in order to ensure that both publications are uniformed and don't deviate too much from the initial intention. Furthermore, we also thought of creating editions for the signs Aquarius (Jocel and Nusheen L5) and Pisces (Me and Olivia L4).

After getting the reply, we immediately asked them if we could meet together tomorrow (11th Jan) on lunchtime to discuss about the concept and what they think and show our previous work as well as check out theirs. They agreed and tomorrow we are going to meet with them officially and see. Furthermore, in order to give more depth from our side about the publication, me and Jocel decided to research about the kind of aesthetic and designs we would like the publication to have in reference to the sign.

For reference, I interpreted this brainstorming and design research session, as researching for overall aesthetic, style and mood that we would want to create for the publication referencing the actual signs as opposed to the content as I feel like this would come in later in the design process once we have talked with the Illustrator student we're working with. For inspiration I've looked at how Eye on Design Magazine, has create issues on their magazines, which also focuses on different themes each issue and how they are illustrated and given a definitive style whilst still knowing each edition is an Eye on Design magazine edition.

Upon researching on Pisces, I found that it is related to the water element, however because Aquarius would be more appropriate to refer that back to, I decided to focus on a different aspect of the sign instead. I found that it's ruling planet is Neptune, the planet of fantasy. I found this quite interesting and on top of research about Pisces sign's characteristics and personalities, such as being assertive, highly imaginative and creative and weakness such as being a victim of martyr and having a desire to escape reality, I though of putting all these under the category of surrealism, which I'm aiming to e the main theme of the publication. Following this I researched more on the design and elements which would fit with this category.

I thought in order to present the surrealistic idea that I'm intending, having a strong visual kind of literal approach to it would work and a process which I thought would work is collaging. Collaging is a great process which allows you to illustrate something quite literally or in a more obscure or abstract way, using elements of materials in various interesting ways. It's also a great process which can illustrate composition and layout effectively, whether it may be creating clean geometric almost 'measure collages' or collages in a rougher style which gives a completely different mood. *In addition, from doing research on a collage artist for my PPP project (Rich Cho) I have gathered a better understanding of how collage can give it's audiences various viewpoints and how they can interpret a design) Furthermore, looking at the Illustrator I'm collaborating with's work, she also does a lot of collaging, therefore this may be a common ground we can share within designing this publication.

"rules the subconscious and governs our dreams and imaginations"

Following this, I thought of other avenues which this can be taken forward, perhaps looking at it from a more graphic design side. I've tapped into graphic design which I have been seeing very often these days and something that is kind of a trend within design. Although. it has a very different style from collaging what I'm trying to come across is the way both styles evoke a very 'out of this world' 'out of bod experience' mood, which we can also take into account with creating the aesthetic of the publication.

 For more technical aspects of the publication, i've found the visible latitude of the publication relevant enough and thought maybe this could be the basis of the publication size? e.g. with Pisces its +90 degrees to -65 degrees. As well as how the constellation can be at specific times- as in it's better seen when it's dark, maybe the publication could fade from a light to dark each page and having the intensity of the colour or design increase as you go through the pages.

Thoughts & Reflection: 

So far these are the ideas that I have for the publication, I'm quite satisfied with them I think they add a unique aspect to the publication as opposed to following a basic grid system and layout. I think this adds a bit more depth to the publication and an element with will entice people to read it in the first place, also reinforcing the content that we will have in the publication. I will discuss these ideas with my partner tomorrow and also ask what they think of the overall concept of the publication itself and things that they can contribute to as well. I would like them to know about what my perspective and interpretation of this brief is in order for them to also show and talk about their own; doing this I think would help us to figure out what we can do together and balance what we both like and dislike and aspects of the publication making which we could contribute to more than the other in order to create a successful collaborative publication. Me and Jocel are planning to also meet up with them on Monday to start properly working on this brief, we thought meeting tomorrow talking to them about the basis of the brief was the best as it would give them time in the weekend to think and create concepts and ideas that they would also like, along doing it with things in their own personal modules.