My Final Year – Degree Practice Digital Sketchbook

Final images of the Congruous exhibition flyer/poster/instagram post and logo I finalised today. Now including the Artstation logo!

Images of the Finalised designs for Congruous Exhibition flyers.

I will also be making taster posters for individuals to share on instagram of their own work. This means they are made with the same font and layout – for continuity.

Currently I am working on my staircase/hallway work for the upcoming exhibition which I will be discussing in my next post.

I spent the last week focusing on making a logo and poster for the upcoming exhibition.

Image of painting in staircase area

I worked on a few examples of logos and posters for the exhibition. The first one was received well, but after speaking to family members and having feedback from my peers, they felt the wording was too broken and didn’t have a flow to it. Also after a couple of days I didn’t really like it!

Image of first logo idea

I also worked on a poster to go alongside it which I wasn’t so keen on and felt it seemed to simple and not professional enough. I was told that the handwritten element of it was received well, so I considered this as I worked on the new one.

Image of first poster idea

Below was the idea for the new logo, which took the hand-drawn element and the simple word in a single row idea too. This was received well and we decided to go with it. I was quite happy with it and developed posters and instagram posts to go with it.

Image of final logo

I worked it into the final poster idea. I decided to use our last names, which felt like a nod to the fact the female artists throughout history were often referred to by both their names and male artists were and still are more commonly known by their last names.  I felt it was more professional and worked into the poster better. I also used our instagram handles as it will be a virtual exhibition and we will be showing our work on the platform too.

Image of final poster

I also worked into a square design for an instagram post.

Image of final Instagram poster

I decided to work with a colour scheme that was professional, subdued and also reflected to University’s logo. I decided to highlight the ‘us’ at the end of the Congruous title as I felt it was in keeping with the meaning of congruous – ‘in harmony’ which is how I felt working together with my peers while at home. The title congruous came from a word I learnt while working with Matt for the dissertation module. The word was ‘incongruous’, which was a difficult word to find a sure meaning for, especially in the context of art. Kieran suggested the word congruous as a version of it which played well on our themes as they are often in harmony.

I was invited to be involved in the mail art project The Waiting Place by Ann-Marie James at the Art Station in Sandmuxham. However, I did not anticipate the arrival of the beautiful pack that was sent to me. Enclosed, typed on the thickest paper with the brightest pink ink was an except of the waiting place by Dr Seuss. My favourite part of it is as follows:

Everyone is just waiting…

a Better Break…

or Another Chance.

While reading this and appreciating the words and images running through my head, reality kicked in. There are people who can no longer wait. Families who waited for the worst to happen and those who didn’t have the chance to wait with loved ones this past year. The devastating loss of lives we have experienced as a country and as people has been inconceivable, and yet it continues to grow. Every day the virus is taking our loved ones away from us and while we do everything within our power to keep safe and protect the vulnerable, I have a feeling that we are not at all in as much control as we like to think we are.

Image of The Waiting Place stationary

I thought about it. Three hundred and twenty two days have passed since the first person died due to COVID-19. That first, huge loss of a life on March 5th 2020 was horrendously, just the first of thousands of people to die. But now as we pass 91,470 deaths today, January 20th, 2021, there are so many we can only comprehend individual lives by a daily figure. An electronic database of numbers which seems to endlessly rise. Yet here we still are, waiting for the day to come when the number stops going up.

Image of 322 Days photographed on a previous work which was used as a background

Following the changes in COVID-19 restrictions, we embraced an idea to hold a ‘Virtual Exhibition’ – something we are all seeing more of these days. It is based in our homes, so we have all taken a room or area within the home and are creating work in response to the space. The plan is to make a film of these areas, so it becomes an unusual tour of a puzzle of mis-matches spaces within a home environment. It will be shown on the. Artstation website from Feb 15-19 2021 and we will be doing an artist takeover of the Artstation’s instagram throughout the week. I’m looking forward to this as it will be a great opportunity to show my work on a professional site and through their insta page.

Images of the initial stages of the abstract painting in the stairwell.

I decided to make some work in the stairwell and just paint directly onto the walls. (I’ll find a way to paint over it when I move out! Sorry Carillion..) I don’t have a plan for the work other than to use what i have learnt about my painting style over the last few years. I will be freely painting onto the walls with a variety of materials, acrylic, enamel, watercolour, pastel and oil paints to name a few. I will also be adding very tiny words and sentences, similar to my Suspense in Black work I showed in Arlingtons during the Common Space exhibition last year.

Image of Suspense in Black 2019 in the Common Space Exhibition 2019

The triangular metal piece has very small writing on it which i think is effective. I had some feedback from Ann-Marie James back in 2019 where she suggested that including the small writing within my work was unusual and something she hadn’t seen before. I was very chuffed with this and it’s something I’d like to include in this piece.

Although much has changed in these past weeks, luckily our interim exhibiton is still going ahead. However it will be a bit different. Initially we had planned to have a physical exhibiton at the Artstation in Sandmuxham from Feb 8-12. I had been working on a large abstract painting which I had on the floor in the studio. I had moved it from the wall to the floor so I could work on the painting easier, but I had some feedback about how it was placed on the floor and I decided to work with it. I continued to work on the piece and decided that it should be exhibited on the floor. Once we visited the Artstation back on December 11 I knew that it would work really well on the floor in this space. I played around with the image I took of the floor space at the Artstation and made a digital mockup of the painting in the space.

Digital mockup of large abstract painting on the floor of the Artstation

After playing around with the painting on the floor outside, I decided to exhibit it with objects underneath to create a sculptural landscape. I felt that this worked well and I plan to photograph the piece outdoors when I can. I feel that photographing art in a natural environment helps to view it in a different light to that of the white cube.