Work In Progress (sb1)

Above is the email i recieved from Ollie Meeke asking if i would be interested in being part of a publication based on students at LAU.

the brief - A 24 hour visual journey and exploration of the word ‘ENERGY’ which shows the process of development through to the final outcome, with the freedom to be as conceptual as we please.

The 24 hours began by first generating ideas surrounding the word energy, at this point there was a particular focus in my own energy. As seen in figure two it was seen how long it would take of continuous drawing in order for my hand to run out of energy, figure 1 demonstrates another exploration of hand energy, but rather than shading, this one is an exploration of how long I could draw for before my hand started to hurt.

At this point there were many ideas such as looking in to what drugs provide energy and how to surive on no energy (see figure 1) however the concept which was found to be most interesting was the focus on human energy, and what is possible within a certain time frame  

As the focus of the initial idea stage centred around human energy, research began looking in to time and what is possible within a time frame. As the brief is a 24 hour one, with a heavy emphasis on the process design, all development work was completed in a sketchbook in order to accurately document it. The above sketchbook scans show the exploration of 24 hours, seeing what makes up 24 hours. It was found that within 24 hours there are 1440 minutes, 86400 seconds. 

Within the research stage, whilst looking the sequences of time which make up 24 hours, it was found that there are 288 sets of 5 minutes within 24 hours. The idea was then developed of using my ‘energy’ to create a visual exploration of type and the number 288, setting a time restriction of 5 minutes per illustration, I would eventually produce 288 versions of the number 288 using two pens; a thick black marker and a think black marker.

As the exploration continued, it was realised that there had to be a final piece whereas I had mainly been focusing on the process. After all 288 variations of 288 were complete, I asked the opinion of peers, asking them to choose their favourite type, I then developed the three most popular experimentations in to pieces of design which could then be presented within my feature in Work In Progress

The process of completing the 24 hour brief for Work In Progress allowed me to produce type which I would have not otherwise ever considered. Through documenting every stage of my process within a sketchbook it really helped to not only generate ideas but also to be able to look back and see what was working at an earlier stage. 

Choosing a rather conceptual focus for this brief also proved to be the right decision, normally I would of tried to produce an illustration of some form however I thought I’d see what I could do with typography, as it isn’t particularly a strong point, and the results were experiments and styles I didn’t know i could produce.