Book-Binding

Our most recent project has asked us to create a Zine magazine [a small publication of self published work]. By collating the work of our summer brief of negotiated projects, we have been asked to produce an interesting and exciting Zine.

To help us think about the design and style of our publication we have had weekly sessions of book binding with Lucy Wilson [http://www.elizabethheart.com]. Lucy has a natural ability of breaking down information in order to teach you the required skills needed to perfect this craft. Japanese- stitching, chain- stitching, copic- stitching and paperweights are all to be considered when producing a book. Content needs to relate to material choice, stitching and book cover. These book- binding sessions have been insightful and we are starting to produce some interesting results. Formatting our work using the Indesign software has been a little more challenging and understanding the printer capabilities has also been a must in order to produce quality prints. They are many ways to incorporate designs to these small publications, hand sewing, paper cutting and collage make the content a little more exciting. I will post pictures later on of my designs and findings.

Work experience photographs

 Using my sewing skills

 The props department.  

Work experience/ Portfolio visit 1.

A new ITV period drama [my favourite] was being filmed in the North West and i pushed and begged to go along and meet the production designer and the art department team. I started the day by showing some of my work and talking about my interests. I discovered quite quickly that the art department was under pressure and working to a tight schedule and that going through all my work was time consuming. I offered to help instead and they happily accepted. After reading the script and forming an idea of what the production was about, i was asked to do some cleaning of the props ready for the set dressing. Luckily for me an urgent request for ten sets of blind to be made quickly gave me the opportunity to offer my sewing skills and show some initiative. They were pleased with the end results and this spiked an interest into my skills, accomplishes and what i hoping to do after my degree finishes. In return i asked about each of their job roles, the hours and the route to take in order to become a production designer or an Art director myself. I discovered that getting your foot in the door is half the battle and being willing to start at the bottom and work long hours for little pay. This information has not deterred me but instead made me realise just how much i want to work in the Art production side of TV/Film industry. The feedback i received was that i was more than capable of working within this area and being a team player [i needed to know this]. This in turn has given me some confidence in the direction i am taken and the whole experience over the couple of days has helped me realise i have more skills than i realised. Life experiences are just as important as my creativeness and being ready to jump in and get involved is a quality needed in such a fast paced industry. As for my own work, i have a varied portfolio of surface design knowledge, photography and illustration. Technical drawings and collating interior and exterior settings are something i need to work on and add to my collection of skills and techniques.