1. Look at your answers to the ‘Independent project modes of enquiry’ questions. Your answers will help you with this workshop.
2. When writing your brief there should be a strong and enduring focus on relating the Independent Project to an audience and with a clear view on how your work links to the wider world through entrepreneurship and the sustainability agenda.
The independent project preparation form asks:
Field of study: How will the project communicate your critical / industrial intent or direction?
Based on the initial questions we filled out, I realised that a lot of recurrent themes or interests lie in making art that is based on current world issues. I also have a keen interest in people and their personalities and am often inspired to make work that has been influenced by people or is about people. Other recurring answers involved me being influenced by various magazines, and having a strong interest in layout design and design editing. Placing these findings about my work into our current situation, I’ve felt it best to create a magazine that explores people’s situation in the pandemic. I intend on exploring this issue in a positive way through my own research and image development in order to uplift people’s spirits, raise awareness and highlight benefits and resources available to many. As my work depends strongly on visual representation, storytelling and putting things into perspective, I aim to explore ways in which we, as a community, are able to stay connected.
Brief: What is the problem you are aiming to solve or communicate?
2020 has been hit by a pandemic that has affected the entire world. It is evident that people are feeling extremely isolated from the world right now. Some in terms of relationships, others friendships may be more affected, and in some cases even family. But generally speaking we are all feeling secluded and seperated from the wider world. Being affected by the pandemic physically, emotionally and financially is difficult to deal with, especially when the restrictions have been put in place all of a sudden. Everyone copes with these type of situations differently, but being in this environment may cause people to fall into bad habits. being on your own, or stuck in an isolated place could trigger certain feelings and emotions, and therefore people look for a routine to steer them away from slight transgressions.
Aims and Objectives: What do you hope to achieve by the end of this project?
My aim of this project is to create a magazine including positive content about the global pandemic in an Art and Design style. There would be a running theme of inspiration as to how people are keeping themselves busy, how people might have been affected and general articles or content pages surrounding the current issues. As a magazine with a mixture of art and design, as well as inspiration, I’d be creating a solution / escape from the current isolation people are limited to. Ideally it would allow people to feel less alone with whatever difficulties they are facing in the current climate.
3. Sign up to the Careers and Employability Newsletter:
4. Use these links to look at job vacancies and internship opportunities
5. Having completed the above tasks, set about creating a list of 5 organisations / charities / companies, and/or venues where you would like your project to be seen / used / found useful.
While researching job vacancies and internship opportunities, I found a number that would be of use to me! I frequently read through opportunities listed on student careers, but hadn’t heard of the other two websites given. I found it helpful to look at the kind of vaccines that are open at the moment so that you could potentially steer one of your projects in the same direction to suit a company.
A company called Studio Thomas particularly stood out to me. They are a visual arts company who design for bold brands and also publish art books. During lockdown they’ve set out creating briefs each week to keep designers busy in a more constructive and creative way. Brief number 3 is called ‘Editorial’ and involves an opportunity to create more content, possible collaboration and a more involved design so the brief is to create a Lockdown Zine. This is ideally suited for my entire project and therefore Studio Thomas is on the top of my list of organisations / companies where I’d like my work to be seen.
Other organisations include:
Studio Thomas
GUAP Magazine
ClearBrand
Without
NY Times Opinion Art