Month: June 2016

Posted on

Tiger Tiger Graphic Design – Image making final project

I am doing a Graphic Design set of course through coursera. This is the third course and is about image making. This is my fianl assignment, the cuminaltion of the previous weeks work.

First we had to research a subject. I chose tigers.

Then, in week 2,we had to draw, paint and otherwise use our creativity to make images based on the research.

In week 3 we had to make spreads using the images from week 1 and 2 and show hierarchy of scale, space and figure/ground.

The final week, week 4 was to use the previous 3 weeks work and create a booklet about your subject.

.

Here is the final booklet in PDF form TygerTygerBookletFinal

 

And here are the JPEG files of the same.

 

The brief was as follows:

Instructions

In this final assignment you are asked to pull together all of your imagemaking work and compositional experiments into a single 8-page booklet. Now is the chance to play around on the page! As described, you can complete this assignment on the computer (using InDesign) or by hand.

Assemble the images you have collected or made into one place.

If you are using InDesign, scan or photograph your images so they are cleaned up and ready to go as digital files. If you are working by hand, you might want to photocopy your work at a few different sizes so you have some options to work with.

Set up an eight page booklet consisting of three two-page spreads and front and back cover. Each page should measure 8.5 inches wide and 11 inches high, or about the dimensions of a single letter-sized sheet of paper.

Adjust or alter your existing compositions from Week 3 to this new format, trying to use at least one form of compositional hierarchy in each. How can you create a sense of narrative going from page to page through the book? Try moving images around, and consider the edges and center of the pages.

Consider and create a compelling front and back cover for your book. What images or strategies can you employ on the front cover to give readers an idea of what the pages hold? On the back cover, how can you articulate a sense of closure to your narrative?

IMPORTANT: You will be uploading each component of your book as separate image files, 5 in all, starting with the front cover, then the three (reader’s) spreads, then the back cover. You may present your page spreads as exported files from InDesign, or photographs of your final, assembled book.

Do not upload printer’s spreads for this assignment as it will be difficult for your peers to review your project. See this diagram for further explanation:

Additionally, write a short paragraph that describes your process of assembling the book. What are some things you learned in the process of playing with compositional hierarchy?

Review criteria

This is a required, graded assignment, as well as very good practice! Three of your peers will assign you a grade on your submission based on the following criteria:

  • Did you upload all the required components of the assignment (title, short paragraph and 5 page spreads)? (6 pts)
  • Does the front cover adequately announce the subject matter of the book? Is it clear what the book is trying to communicate? (2 pts)
  • Does each spread adequately articulate a sense of compositional hierarchy? (2 pts each)
  • Does the book articulate a sense of narrative throughout its pages? (2 pts)
  • Does the back cover give a sense of closure to the narrative inside the book? (2 pts)

How would you have marked me?

Posted on

Tyger Tyger Burning Bright

I hear poetry whispering through my mind. Thanks to my standard 4 teacher Mr Crimp. Sometimes those whispers are called up as they echo an event or emotion in my life. Sometimes they appear from nowhere just adding beauty to a day. Sometimes it crashes in deeply moving me.

I do not like all poetry, much of it never whispers to me at all. But the ones that whisper, call and seduce me I love well.

Mr Crimp was my teacher in my last year of Primary School, I would have been 9 at the start of the year and 10 at the end. He remains, for many reasons, my favourite teacher of all time. He will be dead now I guess, he was close to retirement when he taught me and that was 40 years ago. Making him near 100 if he lives still. Yet he lives still.

He asked us to memorise poems and you got some kind of reward for doing so. I can’t remember the reward, for me I remember the feeling of satisfaction at often being among the fastest to do so. That was the real reward for me. It was one of the first memories I have of competence. Of standing up in class surrounded by people wondering why I thought I’d learnt it already. Waiting to hear my voice fail as I reached the limits of my memory. Not that they were doing so maliciously, just it was the expectation based on performances of other tasks. That kind of mute sympathy you hold out for someone whose side you are on but whom you fear will fail. You feel for them and expend sympathy before they even fail.

That first poem lead me to a lifetime of enjoyment. How sad to have missed the feeling of majesty my favourite poem brings me. But more of that latter. The first poem was short and cute (The Poplar Tree) like it was made specifically for a first poem to learn. Mr Crimp had a folder of poems he had collected over the years.

The poems grew longer and more complex and we had lessons to understand the background of a poem before we were presented it.

One day my Mum shared her favourite poem. I am sure she shared it before. For the first time, though., it resonated with me. Like I had learned how to hear the cadence and rhythm inherent in the verse.


Kubla Khan

BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
   Down to a sunless sea. …
Just a few year later when reading a book of poems and quotes. Mostly for the quotes I must confess. I found what would turn out to be a life long favourite poem. A poem filled with power an majesty, threat and beauty. It had a strong rhythm that carried you along but such imagery that it burned in my chest.

Many years latter I discovered the poem was talking on the surface about an animal that turned out to be my Chinese year sign. The tiger. Although it spelling in the poem hints that it might not be deep down talking about a tiger. This association though did add a little something to my appreciation of the poem.

The Tyger

<br>
Tyger watching
(c) 2016 Michelle Bergersen

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Can you hear the rhythm of this piece. For me it is like a jungle drum hitting each time the word Tyger is spoken. Try it out loud sometime. maybe it is more meant to echo the tread of a tigers feet. But for me these are silent. I tiger could pass you by an arm-breadth away if you were in it’s jungle. It’s striped coat mimicking shadows of trunks and branches- Its large feet spreading out to take it’s weight soundlessly are padded for extra stealth. So the beat of this poem is for me of drums, slow and deep.

Maybe it is meant to mimic the strong powerful beat of a tigers heart. I can see that.

Always though this poem stirs me deep inside, with a heart swelling power. I tried to read the poem oft quoted as it’s older sibling, having been written first.  The Lamb. The lamb is in fact directly written into the poem “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”. It is harder to get into for me. What do you think?


The Lamb

BY WILLIAM BLAKE
Little Lamb who made thee
         Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
         Little Lamb who made thee
         Dost thou know who made thee
         Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,
         Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
         Little Lamb God bless thee.
         Little Lamb God bless thee.
You can see Blake echoed also the question of who made the Lamb in the Tyger. This poem though is sweet and soft and contrasts starkly against the Tyger.
Whereas Tyger stirs me, it’s strong rhythmic lines give beat to the words and power to the lines. For me this is the poem that never fails to move me. Give me the sound of the drum beat any day. Give me the sound of the Tyger.