Monday, November 2, 2009

Senior Project Proposal

It has been tough trying to come up with a theme and ideas that should lead to the jewel piece in my portfolio and that is also a push into the direction in which I want to further pursue graphic design as I leave KCAI and start my career. I want to change and advocate things but I am having a hard time putting my finger on exactly what I want to do. I really am open to a variety of things,but I want to focus on the integration and relationship that graphic design has with photography.

I feel that photography and design go together seamlessly as text and image but most of the photography these days is pre-shot and not always taken into consideration like stock photography and then later the design is worked in and around to fit that photograph. I want to work with design in the physical world and in different environments and use design and typography in a physical and tactile sense to create well designed pieces that could be applied to many things such as identities and advertisements rather than just overlaying text and art work onto an image. I have always felt that you can get a much better result when you go out and take the time to actually create something to make a piece work rather than trying to photoshop or manipulate a photo to make it work.

So I want to take my design knowledge and apply it to what I know about photography and join them to create messages, identities and solve other design problems and really take advantage and utilize what these two fine arts have to offer when they are used together in the right way or this new way. I don’t know who this will help or where this could go but I do know I want it to live out in the world rather than solely on screen. I can also see this direction forming into a way to show off graphic design's beauty in the world with the use of installations which really starts to make design more of a physical personal experience rather than just something you see online or printed on a poster. The ability to take and create your own perspective on how you view the design and how you interpret it can really open new ideas to creativity.

I know I am majoring in graphic design and that I am not going to be a professional photographer but I think the gap between the two should become smaller and more collaborative. I would like to think I could one day design work and create something in the environment and shoot it the way I have originally envisioned it to begin with so the end result is much more to my liking rather than just settling to make it work based on what I am given from professional photographers. I could easily see my work being shot by professional photographers after my initial and completed photographed design piece or I think working directly with a photographer on site and creating a piece would also be beneficial.

I also think my direction could solely live outside and in the environment for people to interact with, come in contact with, be affected by it and not even need the use of photography at all. The photography would be used to capture and give across the message in my mind and through that way I would have more control. Also whatever I make has to be documented by photography and maybe that is where the photography and the graphic design ends and really the message or the piece lives on by itself and it solely interacts with itself rather than with printed imagery. I would see this to be a way to have the design break out of being frozen in time and have a life of its own and maybe have motion to it or even an actual life span of existence. I want people to see design in a new way that will get their attention, inspire, reach them on a personal level, but overall become an enjoyable and hopefully meaningful experience.

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