Including Single Project

I believe it is very important even for a portfolio that concentrates on advertising mainly, to include personal projects. It make the artist more interesting and versatile.

My project is a self-portrait. For various reasons, most artists produce a self-portrait of themselves at some point of their career. Some artists may only make a self-portrait because of promotional reasons, others may do so because they seek to express their feelings.

To be honest, when I decided to create a self-portrait of myself, I had rather practical reasons in mind. I do not have to ask somebody else to pose and can change my mind as often as it suits me. The planned morphing will also look more realistic, than if I took pictures from various people, for example. However, the more I thought about actually doing it, the more questions and issues came up. So far, I have only tried to find out what the artists tries to express. I believed that I needed to observe the feelings of the audience when looking at the portrait. What about the artist? What does he feel when looking at his self-portrait? What does he feel when seeing an audience of strangers looking at the portrait? Does it not feel intimidating or even embarrassing to reveal such an inevitably intimate piece?

 

Special Features

There are a few elements I would like to include to make the site look more original.

First of all, there is a butterfly formed out of the two 'e' letters from easelly, which flies after the cursor. It can also be seen as favicon next to the URL. It kind of became like a logo.

All pictures and even the menu is on snippets of paper. That gives a more distinctive look as well. It is also less sleek and rather more traditional.

Thumbnails are placed at most scenes in different layouts. They do not display the images fully, but only reveal a little bit. That makes the user probably more interested, so  you get encouraged to click on the thumb.

Because the look is not at all sleep and "tidy", I wanted to use a more alternative font. Which font could be more personal than my own handwriting? Exactly, so I wrote everything I wanted to be displayed at the page down, scanned it and traced it in Illustrator. The result really pleased me.

Flash - Actionscript3

Even though I have done a couple of home pages in Flash, I am not an expert in it at all. I need to do a lot of research and testing to get where I want to.

The first tutorial I found to do the basic sites and navigation was a actionscript 3 tutorial. Till now everything looks still quite easy. However, I very much regret to have used AS3. For all further functions, it just made it so much more difficult. I will never ever use AS3 again. I did not expect it to be so much different from AS2 and AS2 never seemed to make that many problems. Once I started using AS3, there was no way back.

Pages I found useful in terms of tutorials are the following:

http://www.kirupa.com/

http://www.designyourway.net/blog/

http://www.tutorialized.com/

http://www.flash-game-design.com/

Inspiration

There are many portfolios of graphic designers, photographers and digital artists online and it is probably a good thing to see what the competition does. I found some very interesting concepts. The ones I liked most were original, but still very simple.

The web site "http://www.coredesign.co.uk" is one of my favorites.

Another site I really like, which probably looks more like me is the following: www.katsky.de

Lecture and workshop on Presentations

Although in the third and las year of our studies we should really know how to do a presentation, it is always good to summarize and repeat the necessary steps. During the lecture we went through many slides describing everything that needs to be considered when having a presentation. We covered key points such as gesture, clothing, speech as well as preparation.

During the workshop time, we were given the opportunity to prepare a random presentation. The four of us decided to discuss our degree show's theme, which is "Digital Piracy". Any more discussion with possibly constructive feedback could only be beneficial for our show. Each of us had one slide to present. Considering that we did not have much time, it went quite well.

The other group also made a good effort. There style was quite different, because they were introducing a product, which they intended to sell. It was well made and quite amusing.

Design Layout of Online Portfolio

As a web designer it is always a big challenge to meet the client's expectations. Creating a web site to present yourself is even more difficult! I am finding it very difficult to come up with something that keeps me satisfies for longer than a couple of hours. Because the site needs to represent myself, I have to be very personal. Being that personal or intimate seems to be very difficult.

I like the site to have a white background. White looks clean and I like having a background that looks like a blank sheet of paper. Although the background is quite simple, there should still be some room for playfulness, maybe even a bit of a feminine touch.

I also would like to connect it somehow to the way I work. Especially in advertising I put up brainstorming schemes, ideas and pictures all up at my wall. That helps me a lot to find ideas. The writing is colorful. The page should represent that.

Artist Statement II

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly." This quotation by Henri Bergson expresses exactly the way I feel about my artistic development. The determent desire to constantly improve and develop my own style is the process that fulfills me with great excitement. My ambition is to create work that is appreciated, provokes positive emotions and delight. Once a project is finished successfully I feel great satisfaction and pride.

I am fascinated by a wide range of areas, which inevitably all enhance my work. Inspiration may come from a visit to one of London’s colourful vibrant markets, a relaxing walk in the local park or a visit to the charming country side. These are places where ideas of shapes and colours come from. Those places are very personal, which is why my work becomes very individual, too.

As mentioned above I have always had the desire to use different tools and techniques to express creativity. As soon as I feel constrained with one technique or method, I move to the next. When I became aware of the never-ending possibilities computers provide, I tried to integrate them with traditional techniques. I am using Photoshop, Flash, Arduino, but also some less known applications such as ContextFree and MorphX.

My studies introduced a lot of artists and gave an overview of relevant software. Employing the computer to achieve exactly what I want gets my adrenalin going. It feels like playing a computer game or taking part in a competition. For me work goes well when I have not only achieved what I was aiming at, but also learned a lot on the way, that I can use in future projects. Hence, I become increasingly more independent. As an extremely critical perfectionist, I can be fussy about every little detail of my work. This perfectionism undeniably improves my results.

From time to time, I get frustrated if I cannot exactly determine whether I have acquired enough knowledge during a certain period. It seems like I have reached a plateau from which it is difficult to raise from. However, looking back to where I was one or two years ago usually makes me feel better.

Since there is still a lot to discover, it is difficult to categorize my work. Whether it is physical computing, digital interface design or algorithmic practices, I am not afraid to employ parts of any of them. Regardless of the medium I am working with, I generally like my work to be pretty, sleek, but still including an element of playfulness. A successful piece will make people move emotionally.

My showcase includes pieces of web design, animations, advertising campaigns and photography. Currently, I am looking at ways of implementing Flash into graphics generated by algorithms. Wherever I can, I incorporate photography as the primary medium. I recently discovered photography whilst enrolled in a course at the London Academy of Media and Film. Photography is not only valuable for enriching my projects, it is also very inspiring regarding colours and shapes, for instance. I am new to photography, which might be a reason why I am so thrilled about it. Even though it takes a lot of practice and time to become professional, I am going to start publishing my photographs with a stock photography agency mainly to receive feedback.

I am currently creating a digital self-portrait. I am interested in portraiture for various reasons. First of all, its aim is to capture the subject’s feeling, emotion, expression, and even personality and mood. To represent these traits accurately is usually rather challenging. Moreover, creating a self-portrait enables me to include various techniques. I take photographs of me and morph them. The finished movie sequence is imported into Flash, where I add contributing layers.

The layer embrace sketches and graphics that appear randomly to change the portrait’s overall look and expression. Just like in painting choosing the right colours is the most difficult and most exciting process to overcome. I could spend hours trying to find the exact colour or colour combination. It definitely pays off. The second layer accommodates essentially scripts. Random algorithmic graphics help to emphazise the unsystematic portrait.

I would not consider myself a geek as far as programming is concerned. Instead, I make use of some simple animating and feel confident in scripting attempts.

Even though there are a few approaches that are new, the part I feel most curious about is exhibiting the final piece, because it will not only be a way of expressing emotions, but will also reveal my face. That is a total new experience.

I would like to conclude by saying that the process of maturing is a neverending process and therefore creativity is unlimited.

YOMP/Xing

In week 4 we played the YOMP/Xing game. Basically it is a board game with a start (idea) and a finish (goal). The board is divided into three zones: "very soon", "soon" and "later". There are many cards of groups such as "people", "marketing" and "finance", which need to be evaluated and placed at their appropriate position in the timeline.

Due to the fact that there were 4 of us, every single card's place had to be negotiated. We started having real discussions. We decided to start a small webdesign business. 

To be honest, to see all these steps that need to be considered when opening a company are quite overwhelming. The game brings across that point quite well. However, since we do not have much background knowledge, I would not call it a very useful tool to learn business strategy.

I the following week we were given the chance to play the game again to see differences to the previous round. Unfortunately, we already had problems coming up with a good business idea. Finding a niche product seemed quite difficult.

In the end, we decided to open up a brothel. Though the idea was not taken that seriously, we worked through the game just as well as we did in the previous week. This time, however, some of the cards changed their meaning quite dramatically. Lawyers, for example, were no longer people who we would need to consult, but they became our goal as clients. Also, legal implications were treated completely differently. This definitely added a bit of fun to the so-called game.

Path - Kind of Presentation

I would like to find work in either Advertising, Design or the two of them combined. That is why I decided to present myself in an online portfolio with some of my work samples. Ideally, companies I apply at will have a look at my home page "www.easelly.com" and will decide whether I am suitable for their company. The portfolio should mainly include advertising work, personal projects and photography. All in all, it should look welcoming, have a straight-forward navigation and should not distract from its main purpose to show my work.

Mini-Show

Some students were given the chance to exhibit their pieces from last semester to the external examiner. Because the last presentation was quite a while ago already, we could value our work more objectively. Unfortunately, there were only three students in total, who were prepared to show their work.

I presented my "Three wise cows".

Artist Statement

Writing an artist statement is undoubtedly important in an artist’s career. It may help to classify the artists’ work, to apply at exhibitions and jobs, to tender for commissions, residencies and other forms of institutional support.

Writing a statement about your inspirations, influences and urges is challenging and takes time. You need to express that you know exactly what you are talking about. Try not to be one-sided. Thinking of positive words, that describe your art makes writing easier. The statement needs to be true and honest. Still, you need to make yourself stand out, look unique and passionate. At the end of the day, your career can heavily depend on it.

Thinking of the fact that artists have to write a statement about their work seems wrong in a way, too. If an artist is required to describe his work, the work will not be able to speak for itself. Therefore, the person looking at the art piece will be biased and will not be able to examine the art piece individually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist's_statement

Expectation of the Module

I see Art Practice and Presentation as a module that can help me with my preparations for working in a creative environment after university. It will make us have to think about our individual professional future.

Support and suggestions in how to put together a valuable portfolio as well as in writing a job application will be granted. The importance of an online presence depending on the path chosen may be discussed, too.

Moreover, we probably study the necessary steps if you decide to become a freelancer or if you decide to build your own business.

We will be required to reflect on our own abilities and aims to find an appropriate niche for our work.