Well, this is a bit 'meta'!
When starting the course I was worried about keeping a learning log. My last creative education was GCSE Art & Design. I got a B, which I was pretty please about. I think some of my pieces could have scraped an A, but the main thing that let me down was that the examiners couldn't see my process and journey enough.
I tend to keep stuff in my head - I can mentally doodle away for ages, and put pen to paper reasonably successfully. Well, relatively anyway. But I think that's also my achilles heel - I think it could be easy to get fixated on a narrow set of options when exploring an idea. Also, my actual physical skills wont increase rapidly enough if I don't 'make'.
I had completed "An Introduction to Studying in HE" starter course, just to get myself back into the HE head space a little. In the learning logs section (part 3) was a handy list of prompts that can help a student remember good (if not essential) times to update the log. I'd like to update the log more than those prompts.
However, given my track record, having big visual cues in front of me are a great tool to remember things that need to get done. It's something I learned as a business coach - information 'radiators' work to push out information and hold people accountable.
So I thought it might be a good idea to give myself a nice big visual reminder when to update the Learning Log.
Stage 1 - Initial Poster
I started using A4, but quickly realised that it wouldn't give me the space I need to make the text large enough to see from across my studio (aka the commandeered conservatory). Time to go bigger!
Stage 1A - Bigger Initial Poster
Taking a sheet of A3, I started to sketch out the poster. I started with the text, making sure I could get everything in.
I was not precious about this being perfect, but I think if I were to do it again I would take more time to space out the elements, and thing about how I could help the target audience (me!) track across the entries more easily. When doing a sketchnote-style poster, I like to use metaphors where possible. These were the next elements to be added.
Lastly, I added borders to the sections, this made it obvious that I could have spaced the elements out better, especially when you note the increased space on the right side of the page.
Stage 2 - A Splash of Colour
As you can probably see from the first photo, the whole image feels a bit flat. The best solution to this when I have done sketchnotes in the past is to add colour. I chose a reasonably limited palette, and tried to keep to pastel variations of the markers -strong colours can obfuscate text, which not only detracts from the experience and enjoyment of the work, but is stops being a vehicle for information. It loses it's reason for being. That's sad! A happy sketchnote is one that can pass on its stories.
I added a stronger red to the palette when I hit the road sign. These are pre-existing metaphors that we encounter every day, so they lose their power if they are changed to be unfamiliar. I went for simple shades, outlines and overlays - enough to separate each component into its own identity. If I were to do this as a finished poster for someone else, I would take the time to shade consistently. As it is , it's a bit messy.
Finished Work
I've added the work to the door of the studio, where I can see it easily, and have to pass it every time I leave the room.
If this was a real piece, this would be an acceptable rough, but would need to be refined a lot more. I would spend more time experimenting with each of the metaphor illustrations, and really things about how to lay them out to tie things together more effectively.
What I was surprised about was how comfortable I was being a bit messy - I was the only audience, so I didn't obsess about it being perfect. This really freed up my head, which was a great feeling. I'd really like to explore being more free and loose with my work, so this is something I will try an experiment with before I next catch up with my tutor, to see what ideas they have to push me more in that direction
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