The night started with some exercise, the tutors made us move around and do some exercise. This was mostly to make us loosen up and make people laugh. It didn't last long though, as the night that awaited us was a long one. I had been stuck in the tube for the past hour, so sweating with 60 other people in an enclosed space wasn't exactly my idea of fun, but I was mostly annoyed at the fact that my tardy arrival meant I'd missed the reading that happened just prior.

  We then went up and broke down into our respective groups, starting to brainstorm about the song "Holiday" by green day. We decided to focus not on the bridge or the chorus, but on the lyrics found towards the end of the song, as they contained the more inflammatory and visually compelling comments. 

"Sieg Heil" to the president Gasman
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel towers
Who criticize your government

"Bang, bang" goes the broken glass and
Kill all the fags that don't agree
Trials by fire, setting fire
Is not a way that's meant for me

  We specifically chose the lines"Sieg Heil to the president Gasman"; "Bombs away is your punishment" and "Who criticize your government", as the ones we DID print, but we had also started cutting others out as the time ran out, and we didn't get to print them in the end. The group started brainstorming about how to present these concepts in an attractive way. The president Gasman was the first to get conceptualized, I used my experience in stencil making to redirect some of the concepts being shot out into more achievable tasks, given the medium. I also got the idea of the composition of the words for the image (first sketch can be found in the sketchbook) specifically with the placement of the words "Sieg Heil" which I wanted to put as the eyebrows. We also decided on not using more than three colours in any of the images, this was mostly due to the time constraints, but I also find that mixing too many colours in this sort of project just creates more of a confusing visual mess, whilst a more concise and stylized approach induces the spectator to, well, approach the work.

  Although the group was very active, and full of creative energy in the beginning, soon came the main difficulty of this project, combating tiredness. This was quite the call back to our earlier project about "WHITESPACE", and specifically the quote about a feeling which we all feel. This was a fight against somnolence which we were all stuck in, and we all learnt quite a lot about surpassing our limits, but also about each other. I am used to staying up late so I was quite energetic until 10 am in the day that followed, but if I could do something better, it would definitely be to learn more about group management. In the beginning I was far too excited about the project, and I decided to give myself the job of cutting the stencils, which I did relentlessly at a continuous pace, but it would have been better if I had outsourced some of that work to the others, and taken short naps to keep my energy and stamina up. 

  Other than that I feel like we did a very good job, we managed to do several prints of three of our designs, and although we'd made some others, it feels like the workload was quite well divided between us all.

  What I learned the most from this project is the complexity and difficulties that come with the medium of screen printing. This project started with an approach to storytelling, and building a narrative. During my creation of the project, I ran into major difficulties with my story and how it was structured. I figured if I used something from my own personal life, and used my own emotions and judgements about said story, I would have an advantage with how expressive my drawings were. This technique usually works, if I take a project and make it my own by adding other parts that I feel strongly about, I can focus more easily on parts like facial expressions, and exchanges.

  In this case however, I realized halfway through that my story was feeling lacklustre, and that I was getting stuck on some easier parts like the research of iconography. I decided to split away from something more realistic and true to life, and delve deeper into what I seeked, whilst still keeping the general idea of the original story.

  The other difficulty I faced, was with the medium of screen printing itself, and how I chose to draw my narrative "strip". My illustration was very fine and precise, and it barely used any major colour splashes, which meant that the stencil created through the photosensitive "gel" had a lot of mistakes due to the drawings on the acetate paper not being dark enough to block the light. To fix this I used black piece of paper which I cut in the right shapes to create darker, solid, backgrounds to contrast with the subject being presented.

  Finally, the most obvious issue with how I managed this project was timing, and although this was mostly due to me changing the story I was illustrating midway through its creation, I still took a lot more time (and energy) than I was expecting. The only way I can think of to fix this issue would be to move some of my workload to take over my free time, but especially to reassess the way I calculate the length of time it takes to complete the work. A week has been allocated to every one of our projects up to now, but not all project take just one week to complete.

What challenges/advantages did drawing on location present to you?

Given the subject, it helped enormously with catching the mood, and also the instant in which we were living in. In a way it was quite challenging to find the right angles for our sketches when we had the limitations of cold weather, rain, and private properties. 

How did you determine what images you wanted to draw at a big scale?

For my final image I decided to choose a specific moment that I experienced at the Barbican centre. I redid a moment during  my lunchtime where the sky was gray, I was listening to some concerto music, and I was nearly done with my waitrose sushi. The drizzle stop and as I put the last piece of sushi in my mouth, the strings section burst in and the sun peaked out, all in unison. Needless to say, I got shivers, and the perfect timing of it all, the culmination of all my senses being tended to by that very moment, created a memorable instant.

How did you choose your material?

 I decided to go very minimal, as an inspiration I kept Christoph Niemann's Illustration in which he uses negative space to represent a simple scene of people eating food. I used my moment of blissful experience, and transferred it onto paper. I did include some easily recognizable elements of the Barbican centre's landscape, like the supporting columns often found under the buildings, but also the balconies adorning the sides of the Shakespeare tower (not too dissimilarly to what can be found in Eliza Southwood's rendition of the very same building)

What would you improve/change/keep?

If I could redo it, I would definitely pay more attention to the proportions in the composition, and apply a lot of the knowledge I learned about during the crit session on Thursday morning, like the use of different thicknesses in line work, the creation of narrative through composition, etc. I would also pay more attention to the way I use the dripping from my paintbrush.

  I would like to add that my artwork was lost before I could get it critiqued, I don't know how this happened but I don't really have any pictures of the finished piece to show. However, I did take quite a few pictures of the pieces of inspiration I found at the Barbican center, and a page of my sketchbook basically outlining what the piece looked like. Additionally, I took note of the critiques given to the other student's pieces, whilst mostly focusing on the elements that could be applied to my own work.

• Composition:

 /   Upwards diagonal usually is associated with "positive energy".

 \  Downwards diagonal is more usually associated with a more "negative" energy.

A contrast can be created by making a "dirty" or "busy" background and showcasing a "clean" subject.

A narrative can also be created through composition, or a sequence of events can be presented through the use of dividing "panels", similar to how a comic would work.

• Colours

Umberto explained to us how there can be two "waves" of perception: with red hitting us first, and the softer blue coming in second (this was mostly specific to the painting he was showing us, but can be applied to other palettes).

What did I learn about visual language?

During this project, I used most of my prior knowledge of app design, and UI design that I'd learnt through personal interest. This made it harder for me to stray away from my preconceived ideas of what good app design is and what it looks like, and go in the direction of a more personal and unique approach, which I saw in other student's works. I think that it was of great help of the tutors to show us previous works in the same project, as for me, it immediately showed me what lengths one could go to, without estranging the user and making him forget that what is being used is an app. 

What did I learn about the value of feedback (and where to get it)

Feedback was especially important on this project, and although my client was absent during the end of the week, the feedback I received in the beginning  was good enough for me to make some major choices about the app's design and concept without knowingly trampling over my client's intentions. I had quite a few problems with timing towards the end, and when the day of critique arrived, my project was far from finished. Because of this I did not get much feedback. This, and the similar experience I had during the "Field Notes" project, made me understand how valuable feedback can be, especially when a work is already good in itself. Some of the students had excellent illustrations, but their user journey was not very clear, so their overall "votes" were lower. It may seem unfair to those students but it's a very valuable lesson to be taught about practicality and aesthetics.

Was I a helpful client/Did I have a helpful client?

I feel like my work as a client wasn't too bad, even though I dislike being too hurtful in my comments, I still push myself to nitpick and find mistakes that people can improve on. The main problem I encountered in this case was communication, my designer/client was absent during most of the end of the week, and I had no stable way of communicating with her. This made the whole act of giving and receiving feedback impossible, which in turn added a lot of difficulties to the project.

Overall, I didn't only learn more about the exchange between a potential client and a designer, but I also learned a lot about UI design, and my way of working on programs like photoshop has sped up significantly. I think this experience will help greatly with my future projects, especially with their technical aspect.