self assessment 3

Kristin Seymour

Self-Assessment #3

            This project combined my first two projects in a whole new manner. I used the trails created by car lights from the first project, and the moss design from the second project. The central theme of the work followed the same overall theme I have been working with for over a year now, seeing the unseen. With this project I wanted to create an animated short movie that would be used for a portfolio. I am applying for an internship with Under Armour in the winter so I wanted to produce a compelling piece to send them. I have been creating art for the purpose of fashion and constructing clothing all semester. With this project I took the designs to a whole new level. I not only implemented the designs into clothing advertisements, but I also made a physical scarf with my design.

            My inspiration comes from my love for athletic clothing, specifically Under Armour. I love the company’s products, uprising and commitment to the community. They are also always coming up with new designs and new lines of clothing. This is why I would like to work for them. They just introduced a semi-artistic line called “Lux”. It is meant for yoga, but the designs are more artistic then those of their previous products. I think that my organic designs would add an aesthetically pleasing style to a new “artistically athletic” line of sports wear.

My inspiration specifically for the designs themselves comes from my organic surroundings. I have recently become interested in the shapes within nature. I began shooting macro images of objects within nature. First, I started with the belly of a turtle and then to moss on a brick path. For this project I focused on the moss. The shapes created by the moss were magnificent, shapes that I could never think up and create within my head. I feel that I have thus far been very successful with these designs and want to continue on this path.

As I have stated in previous self-assessments, my process is multi faceted and used multiple different methods and programs. I first take the macro photograph; edit it to black and white with high contrast and definition. Then I use Adobe Illustrator to separate out the shapes with live trace. I then recolor them and then move the design to Photoshop for adjusting and final editing for size and shape. For this project I took it a step further and downloaded clothing images from Under Armour, cut out the sectioned I wanted my design to be located, and placed the design within these sections. I also created a design from the car light trails and placed the design on a sports bra. I decided that I did not just want digital versions of clothing that I wanted to create a physical clothing item out of my designs. Since I cannot sew and/or create shirts etc., I created a scarf. I changed the moss design to have a white background with black outlining the shapes. I printed and attempted to sew the scarf. Although it did not turn out perfect, I am proud of what I was able to make.

I learned a lot about After Effects during this project. Most of all I learned that you cannot give up on a new art program just because you do not understand it at first. I, like most of my classmates hated After Effects at first. I was not as similar as Photoshop and Illustrator. It used different controls and short cuts. The location of menus was different and I had to get used to the key frames. It took weeks to get the hang of it enough to navigate around. In the end I figured it out enough to create the animation that I did. I then finished it in I movie, due to the simplicity of adding effects and sound. I coordinated sound effects with the light streaks to make it sound like electronic lasers progressing into car drive by sounds. This was intentional due to the source of the design. I then showed the source of the lights by taking the original photo from back and white to color through the saturation of the light beam across the image. This was accompanied by a sound effect that I think was one of the most successful ones in the animation. I then showed the original moss image and overlaid the design congruent with the shapes within the moss. I am very proud of how it was so easy to see the direct source of the shapes within the photo. The movie then finished with the appearance of two articles of clothing from Under Armour wit my two designs on them. I chose to play a musical piece with the movie because I felt that it suited the tone of the movie and the lack of words did not distract the viewers. The Hip Hop violin style was intense but playful at the same time. I would listen to this sound while running or warming up for a game, which I think suites the athletic wear at the end.

I am happy with the two finished products. Although I do think my first two projects were ore successful, I am proud of myself. I think I am less satisfied with this project because as an artist I like physical objects and works I can display more so then a movie. Yet, I do know that this movie as well as the scarf will help me as an artist while applying for internships.

Stepping back from my own work as a third party viewer I think I would see the animation as successful. I may say that it is too short and that I would want to see more clothing mock ups. I would notice the synchronization of the sound effects with the images as well as the music. I would also think that the scarf was interesting. It is not a normal looking scarf. It is a far more interesting design not like I had seen before. Usually scarfs are solid colors or very recognizable objects like feathers. This one has shaped that may appear familiar and I may try and connect with a previous memory, but unable to do so.

I think that even though this project I did not produce as compelling and successful of work as in the past, I did work very hard at it. I managed to create an animation from two programs I was unfamiliar with, as well as creating a physical object like I had never done before. Also, I completed this assignment on time and was ready to go 9:00 this morning. I am always prepared and finished before the due date. I take pride in my work and make sure it is completed and presentable on the due date. I think I deserve a high B for the finished products and an A+ on effort and time. 

the scarf I created

final project

I am using this as a portfolio style work.

It shows the source of my organic designs from their photo origin to their digital design after.

I wish to use this while applying for an Under Armour internship. I am in love with the company and brand and think my artwork would be a nice addition to their clothing lines. A more artistic side to the clothing.

Artist research #3

Artist research on Takashi Murakami

            Takashi Murakami is a Japanese artist dealing with sculpture, digital media, performance and even factory-produced textiles. He is a well-trained artist receiving degrees in Art from The Tokyo National University of Fine Arts. He is world renowned and especially famous in Japan.” Takashi Murakami's work has been exhibited in prestigious museums all over the world, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and a recent solo retrospective exhibition at the Bard College Museum of Art”  In class specifically we have seen two of the ads he worked on as well as a few sculptures. “In 2000, Murakami curated an exhibition of Japanese art titled Superflat, which acknowledged a movement toward mass-produced entertainment and its effects on contemporary aesthetics.” It seems like in all his work I have viewed there is a mass production, industrialized side to it. He is most famously known for his collaboration with Marc Jacobs to create hand bags for Louis Vuitton.

http://www.takashimurakami.com/biography.php 

            He is known for his main character Mr. Dob. This character appears in many of his works digitally and in physical form. This character as well as others appear in the line he created for Loius Vuitton and in the advertisements for the new hand bags. The New York times reported in 2003 that the handbags were flying off shelves and that the supply was not keeping up with the demand. “Waiting lists in stores from San Francisco to Berlin still number in the thousands, and People magazine recently lamented (or celebrated?) the fact that the only humans who actually seem to be able to get their hands on his totes which sell for more than $5,000 apiece are ‘A-listers’”. Murakami was not exactly happy with all the hype that had happened as a result of his collaboration. He saw himself as an artist not as a fashion designer or hand bag maker. He was quoted by the New York Times saying:  "I need to rebuild the wall between the commercial art and the fine art I do," he says. "I need to focus on the fine-art side of me for a while." He knew that his new found fans knew him as a hand bag designer, not as the artist he wanted them to know him as.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,452870,00.html

I find this very interesting because even though he was a famous artist prior to the collaboration, the Louis Vuitton gig made him famous world wide. He even thought that his artwork was selling for too much now that it was not worth that much. He enjoys being an artist not a fashion designer and seems to me like he is not in it for the money. I myself have been struggling with the whole idea of doing art for me and doing art to put food on the table so to speak.

Murakami’s sculptures and artwork is very striking when first viewed. It seemsto appear childish at first but when looked at more closely you begin to see the puns and darkness of his work. Big bubble characters with large eyes and bright appealing colors eat other helpless characters in the scene. Or a sculpture of an anime looking man holding on to his genitalia and a stream of white spiraling around the person. Although his work appears to be geared toward children because of the colors and bubbly figures, it is not something I would show my eight year old sister. The New York Times said “Murakami purposely engineers a neo-Pop Art universality to his work, making his art both effortlessly accessible and intellectually provocative an ingenious feat. His sometimes sincere, usually ironic, often disturbing plays on the empty smiles and bright colors of cartoon cute are designed to appeal to the preteen in Tokyo”. I wonder if the preteens in Tokyo have seen his sculptures of anime people such as “Hiropen”?

http://www.takashimurakami.com/art.php

I like his work but also am still trying to figure out a lot of it. I also like working with very bright vivid colors. I know that bright colors are often associated with children and pre-teens, but I still use them. I am not directly trying to target that age group with my art and I feel that Murakami is not either. I am also getting in to the fashion side of art more recently and Murakami is best known for his collaboration with Louis Vuitton. I wish to target a different type of fashion. Rather then a $5,000 handbag that only “A-listers” can get their hands on, I would like to design graphics that will go on athletic clothing. Under armour my main inspiration.

Murakami seems to be a very interesting person and artist and I do want to explore further into his different types of work and see what he will come up with next.  

revised rant

So revised idea: scarf printed with white moss print.

continue with the after effects
- light streaks coming in
-light streak saturating photo
-moss image
-shapes showing in to design
-designs on clothing

good portfolio style

final project rant

So I am thinking as of now to create a new ID design from a macro photo much like I did from the last project. Then compare that design to the light design I created and the moss one that I put on a white background. I want to print two scarves and hang them like a tapestry on the walls for presentation. Also, I had the idea of projecting the original photos on the scarfs for the crit. I don't know if I will have time to do all of this though so it is a work in progress.

projects