Westminster University Trip Primary Research
On February 21st, 2024, We went on a trip to Westminster University where we were introduced to photography and got the chance to learn how to use a camera and also got the chance to take our own photos with a Canon EOS R 100 in the photography room. The equipment is massive and looks like something from NASA technologies, some of the equipment used was a Giant Reflector, Soft Light, and some black and white platforms to adjust the lighting.
We first got our group photo done of the whole class, which turned out well except for the 2 people on the left who needed more time to be ready for the photo, but honestly, this brought more character to the portrait rather than everyone being on point.
We then paired up in groups and got the chance to take our own photos, we also experimented with the lighting by adding dark or white platforms to either absorb the light or reflect the light at a much greater level to get the desired photo.
This photo had more contrast as half of my face is in the shadow, while the other half is exposed to the light. This photo looks great and can be used for a dramatic film cover
For this photo, we experimented with the light, created more shadows around my face, and pretended to be angry at Thomas as the lighting suited the expression. This photo turned out well and I liked the expressions we acted in the photo.
I really enjoyed this trip, as it allowed me to learn how to use the rule of thirds in photography, and we had the chance to take amazing photos in the studio. I hope in the future I get to do more stuff like this.
These photos can be used for my identity project as I can use my own face to demonstrate potential ideas that can relate to the theme of identity.
Jessica Walsh - Secondary Research
Jessica Walsh's Nationality: New York City, USA
Jessica Walsh is a designer, art director, and entrepreneur known for co-founding the creative agency Sagmeister & Walsh. She has been involved in various design and art projects, gaining recognition for her work in the industry.
Sagmeister & Walsh is a New York-based creative agency specializing in design, branding, and advertising which was founded in 2012. The agency was co-founded by Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh.
Jessica Walsh gained fame for her work in the field of design and art direction. She also gained fame from contributing to various projects like graphic design, branding, and advertising. Her innovative and impactful work in the design industry has garnered attention and accolades.
Some of my favourite artwork made by her:
This poster of hers really stood out to me mainly because of the fact that the colours used in the posters are eye-catching and flow really well together. This poster also promotes healthy eating as many people are heavily involved with unhealthy habits which this poster stands against. This poster could also be an advert which is designed to promote someone's product.
Another piece of work that I really like:
This photo is really interesting as this photo represents curiosity judging by the person in the photo looking at something through her binoculars, curiosity is what makes people intelligent, without it the world would not evolve. The photo looks great, and the background makes the person seem like they are adventurous which really adds to the setting.
Identity Research
What is Identity?
Identity refers to the characteristics, beliefs, and experiences that define who an individual is. It encompasses aspects such as personal traits, cultural background, and other social affiliations that contribute to a person's sense of self.
How can Identity be used?
Identity can be used in various ways some include:
1) Personal Recognition: It helps individuals recognize and understand themselves, shaping their self-perception and guiding personal choices.
2) Social Interaction: Identity plays a crucial role in how people relate to others. It forms the basis for social connections and group affiliations.
3) Cultural Understanding: Identity provides a lens through which individuals interpret and understand their cultural background, traditions, and values.
4) Communication: Expressing one's identity is a key component of effective communication, allowing individuals to convey who they are and connect with others.
Identity can be a powerful force for connection and understanding, Identity is what makes people different from one another. Identity can be shaped and formed based on the experiences a person went through and the things the person was influenced by.
Victoria & Albert Museum Primary Research
Thursday 29th February, We went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and checked out a bunch of historical artefacts and statues that were from thousands of years ago. There was a lot of cultural history ranging from Chinese, Japanese, British, Roman, and other cultures.
This is another photo that I've taken as I thought it looked cool, this can be used for a film setting as the ambient light makes this look like a dramatic scene.
Initial Ideas for FMP
This is my mindmap of ideas that I plan on using for my final major project, some of these ideas came from the research that I've done based on identity which helped me shape these ideas.
For my Final Major Project, I'm planning to do a short film showing and expressing identity and a couple of posters that can be used as a film cover for this film.
Where would my product appear?
My product will be advertised via online platforms that promote advertising and also I will publish my adverts in public areas as I have a higher potential of getting people's attention. I will also do the same for my film.
My Research that I am going to use:
Primary Research - For my primary research I'm going to be doing various Vox Pops (short interviews), and I'm going to use my own photography and video evidence to enhance my ideas through this primary research.
Questions I may ask in my Vox pops:
1) How was your childhood? - This question makes the person reflect back on their life and point out certain events that the person enjoyed
2) Is there anything you could change about your childhood? - this question makes the person think of different ways they can improve their past experiences.
3) What would you rate your life on a scale of 1-10? - this question makes the person make a list of pros and cons in their head about their life which will enable them to make a rough estimate on the score.
4) How has your life shaped your personality? - This question asks the person about their personality which can give me an idea of how experiences can change a person's life.
Secondary Research - For my secondary research I'm going to use various of different websites for certain information as it will allow me to get a wider perspective on the topic and to see what statements are in common. I might use books to get more information if needed.
Target Audience/Demographic
My audience is going to be targeted towards people 13+ as people as young as 13 can get a perspective on other people's lives and how their experiences shaped their identity. The Demographic will be people who are interested in expressing their past and sharing different perspectives based on their views and opinions.
My competitors
To make sure I stand out from the crowd, I will check out my competitors' work to see if they have anything in common, that way I can avoid doing repetitive stuff to make sure that I stand out from all my competitors
How can my ideas be adapted for various media outputs?
My ideas will influence some people to do the same research as I will be doing in the future, and if other people do the same, it will create a topic that can be shared through different media outputs.
Secondary Research
Max Huber
Who is Max Huber?
Mark Hubert was a graphic designer who studied at the "Kunsgewerbeschule" in Zurich, Switzerland. He found work in 1940 at the prestigious graphic design studio of Antonia Boggeri in Milan. He paired up with other graphic designers and began doing projects together which won them prizes and awards.
Some of Mark Huber's work:
These posters have a 90s feel to them, which makes them look old and historic. The abstract shapes make these posters stand out along with the color scheme that was chosen for them. The first one has a very bright yellow line in the middle that runs through the Jet car which probably refers to the car being fast as lightning. The second poster has a unique red spiral shape to it with a tiny photo of some sort in the middle of the spiral.
I like his artwork a lot as it has a certain level of uniqueness to it which makes his work really stand out from the rest of the designers. My favorite one is the first poster as it looks really eye-pleasing and clean, although I prefer the title to have capital letters at the beginning of the word.
How does Max Huber's work relate to Identity?
Max Huber's work expresses his identity through his posters by demonstrating his interest in the Automobil industry judging by the first poster, he may have some skill in certain areas of the Automobil industry which might happen to be a key component of Max Hubert's identity. In his second poster, he shows interest in Nuclear Energy judging by the text "Energie Nucleare", this relates to the fact that he was alive during the 1st World War, and Nuclear Energy was in demand for scientific research which may have inspired him to create this poster.
April Greiman
April Greiman is a Pioneer in Graphic Design who is known for her work in new media and graphic design. April Greiman was a very influential designer in the late 20th century. She studied design at the Swiss modernist Wolfgang Weingart. She gathered fame through her innovative typography, photography, and layout approaches.
Some of April Greiman's work:
April Greiman's choice of colour in both of her posters is what makes these posters pop out, the colour scheme seems to be a choice of vibrant colours in random places as a way of making the posters look chaotic. She also uses shapes in different colours that are stuck together to create a background that suits the main attraction of the poster which happens to be a portrait of someone.
I'm not a fan of her posters as everything is randomly placed which creates a chaotic environment. Although the colour scheme fits really well, I don't like how everything is put together, If she balanced out the shapes and made them more even, then I think her posters would look much better than what they look like now.
How does April Greiman's work relate to Identity?
Her work demonstrates chaos (at least in my opinion) by noticing the fact that there is random stuff plastered all over her posters, these random stuff may be things that hold some sort of history or context that represents her experiences in life, which can be a part of her identity. The second poster shows her face as the main part which indicates that this poster was influenced by her or at least by her life which can resemble her identity.
On 7th March 2024, We went to the Sky Up Academy and explored a wide range of things within the buildings, some of the things were, the studios, where live-action filming was taking place, the Sky Sports Center, and the Sky News Center, which both had live recordings that were shared with millions of people live all across the globe.
Personally, I had a great time filming as I got the chance to use a professional camera and learned some camera angles and shots along the way. By far one of the best trips that we ever got the opportunity to attend.
Infographics and Cartography
Infographics
An infographic is a visual representation of information or data, Infographics focus more on the visual aspect, demonstrating information through pie charts or any other graph or illustration that shows certain information without having to use lots of text to explain what the data is showing.
Infographics have nice striking visuals to capture people's attention effectively, sometimes infographics can have engaging visuals that can communicate information clearly and straight to the point.
Infographics are a necessity when it comes to visual communication, the more creative the infographic is the more it grabs people's attention thus creating potential customers if a business is involved.
Infographics can help us remember information as we humans are visual creatures, It's a second way of communicating with other people.
Why are infographics important?
Sometimes, information can be hard and complex to understand, Infographics make information like this easy to digest. Infographics can help in:
1) Provide a fast introduction to a topic
2) Demonstrate a complex process
3) It can raise awareness about complaints or problems
4) Can provide and compare multiple options
Example of Infographics being used
Infographics can be used for marketing as a way to attract clients or to discuss potential business ideas
Infographics can also be used by the government as a way to display information about certain changes and laws of the country
Infographics can be used for educational purposes in schools as a way to make learning easier for students who are struggling with complex information.
Example of an Infographic:
This is a great example of an infographic as it illustrates perfectly what the topic is about, the light bulb indicates ideas that can give a clue to people as to what might the topic be about (ideas about a certain topic)
How can Infographics be used in Identity? (my own thoughts)
Based on the research that I've made, I can safely make an assumption that infographics can be used in identity to express visual representations of a person's life experience and how it shaped the person's personality through the experiences they had, the best way infographics can show identity is through posters that are designed creatively to show a person personality through meaningful illustrations.
Infographics can show also information about other people's lives based on surveys that were handed to people asking them about their lives and experiences that shaped their personality, then the information can be represented in a pie chart or some sort of statistical graph that shows all the information gathered from the surveys people have taken.
Cartography research:
Cartography is an artistic and scientific way of demonstrating a geographical area usually on a map or a flat surface such as a chart. Cartography may have some elements of political, cultural, or other non-geographical divisions in the represented geographical area.
Cartography is an ancient way of representing geographical areas, It is a prehistoric illustration of hunting and fishing territories. However, as technology advanced so has cartography as it now involves the use of aerial types of equipment such as drones and satellites which photograph the earth and use the photos as a base for maps and charts.
How can Cartography be used to represent data:
Cartography can be used to display the weather or any natural events that may happen in the future.
Cartography can also be used to display different parts of the world as a way of helping people navigate places effectively.
Cartography can be used to represent analysis about a certain topic on people across the world, an example of this is discussing people's preferences in chocolate, some people from Belgium may like x amount of chocolate flavours while some from France might like Y amount of chocolate flavours.
Why is Cartography important?
Cartography is an important aspect as it keeps people updated about events about the world such as the weather, political news, and information about other topics relating to the world. Cartography plays a key role in maps as it helps people get to places faster without having people know or memorize the place fully.
Cartography is very important when it comes to knowing our planet. It helps us become more aware of our actions on the planet and notice how it affects our earth either for the positive or negative.
Example of cartography:
This is a perfect example of Cartography, an Illustrated geographical piece of land that was drawn by an artist who has explored this certain part of the world. It shows the places that this area has such as a forest up north and mountains north-west.
How can Cartography relate to identity?
Cartography is a tough way of relating it to identity as they are completely different topics. However, cartography can relate to the theme of identity through people's experiences across the world; an example is the people in wars or global hunger.
Identity Poster Research - Secondary Research
I want to make a poster that really shows identity through great visuals and great creative aspects, Identity can be shown through different types of illustrations but as long as it displays good visuals that also demonstrate identity that that will be a great poster to take inspiration from.
I did some research online and found out about a Dutch Designer named Vincent Vermeij who made posters that really captured my eye. Chungkong is the online pseudonym of Vincent Vermeij, he designs great visual posters that captivate his clients. Chungkong breaks down topics into their key components and creates vibrant and lively poster designs, he covers topics from cult movies, music, books, and sports.
Some of his posters are:
1) This is the first poster of his that caught my eye, the colour scheme is on point and matches the font text and the illustration, it represents identity through the fingerprint which is in the shape of a person. This poster beautifully represents identity as the fingerprint is a unique characteristic of the human complexion.
He also created this poster which does not relate to the theme identity but I've included it in my research because of the fact that the visuals are really eye-captivating, and everything fits together perfectly
I really like ChungKongs aesthetic as it is simple yet effective in capturing people's attention, the clean designs ChungKong makes is very unique and very different from other designers, which makes his work stand out from the crowd the most.
Paula Scher
I also researched another famous American graphic designer and painter named "Paula Scher", she was one of the most influential graphic designers in the world. She has worked at the New York office of Pentagram since 1991, she was an Art Director in the 1970s and early 80s.
Scher's identity was formed around branding systems, promotional materials, environmental graphics, packaging, and publication designs for big companies like Microsoft, Adobe, and Coca-Cola.
Scher has won lots of awards such as "The Art Director Hall of Fame" in 1998, the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 1998 to 2000, "Type Director Club Medal" and the "Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI)
Scher's work was published all over the world and is published in many different types of museums from across the world.
Some of Scher's work that I really like:
This piece of work really stood out to me, the colour scheme is very unique and pleasant to look at, the portrait of the woman's head is blue which matches the yellow background, and I really like the words that come out of her mouth, almost like she is saying what she identifies as.
Personally, this is the best artwork from Scher, the poster looks clean and visually pleasing.
This poster also looks really interesting, the vibrant red background with the arrows pointing all over the place, with the sky as the fill for the arrows makes this poster look really eye-opening.
Poster Research-Primary Research
I did a survey regarding people's lives and asked them to rate their lives based on their experiences, I've gotten mixed reviews which makes this survey more diverse. This survey will help me in the future by forming and creating new ideas that people will be pleased with.
First Question
For this first question in my survey, I asked people to rate their lives on a scale of 1-10 and as the results show, many people seem to enjoy their lives, which tells me that they have very good memories of what they have experienced.
Some people gave a low score on their life which leads me to believe that they have experienced bad memories or they have something that they are insecure about which leads them to believe that their life is lower than average.
Second Question
The second question is very interesting as everyone chose something different which creates a perfect 1:1 ratio, because of this I will try to include a combination of both aspects from the results below in my projects so that it suits everything that people voted for.
Third Question
This question really focused on how spoiled their lives were when they were a child, this can impact their personality as if they were spoiled they will constantly ask for more and will be not as appreciative as someone who was not spoiled as a child.
This can heavily impact social aspects and personal life which can relate to the theme of identity and which can promote a key element of someone's identity.
based on the result below, many people did sometimes get what they wanted as a child but they didn't constantly get everything which in my opinion is a perfect balance for someone to have as that can create a personality that knows what they want but sometimes they have to work for the things that they want.
Fourth question
This question asked people if they had more bad or good memories of their childhood and most people voted that they have a combination of both which implies that not everyone is perfect and that everyone has their ups and downs which can shape them dramatically, as your childhood experiences can really shape you as a person, the way you act and the way you behave, this can also impact your social life.
Some people created their own statements which tend to be on the negative side showing me that some people were unfortunate enough to go through negative experiences during their developmental stages of life, this can shape people into having negative traits that can affect both emotional and social aspects in their life.
This survey has shown me proper evidence of what people went through and still going through in their lives some bad and some good things, with this survey being done and with the the reviews from people being collected, this can help my FMP projects as I can adapt new ideas based on the research that I've done.
Film Research
Secondary Research
The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Identity is an action film that was first released in 2002 that was directed by Doug Liman and starring Matt Damon in which he plays the role of a man named Jason Bourne who is unconscious at the sea with major memory loss of his own identity and how he ended up in the sea, Jason tries to discover who he is and we later discover that Jason was a highly trained assassin while being pursued by people who want him dead.
The film is based on a novel written by Robert Ludlum in which he wrote about a character named Bourne that travelled through Europe trying to escape his pursuers and discover the truth about his past, Bourne later on meets Marie Kreutz who is a character played by Franka Potente, who team up and helps Bourne in his quest for finding his identity.
Unknown (2011 film)
Unknown is a 2011 action thriller directed by Jaume Collet-Serra that starred Diane Kruger, Liam Neeson, and January Jones. The story is about a doctor named Dr Martin Harris who woke up from a coma after a major car accident in Berlin, he then discovered that his wife did not recognize him and that another man had stolen his identity, he then went on a mission to uncover the truth while being entangled in a dangerous conspiracy between secret organizations, assassins, and attempts to assassinate world leaders.
The movie portrays the significance of being confident and having control over one's life. When Harris wakes up from his coma, he realizes that his identity has been usurped by someone else, and he makes a desperate attempt to regain his true identity and the life he had before the accident. This emphasizes how crucial identity is to our self-perception and how losing it can be a perplexing and scary ordeal.
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