Studio Brief 1: One Week Book - Ideas & Development

Ideas

After meeting with my group to find out what they had learnt and recorded on their trip to Kirkgate Market, it was good to see that my research linked closely with the vibe they had got on location.

- A lot of the big stalls inside the main hall were shut/empty and there were a lot of leaks and dilapidation throughout.

- The outdoor stalls had more going on in contrast but it had been hard for the group to engage in conversation with shoppers/traders due to the pressures of busy retail. They felt they couldn't spark up a conversation unless they planned on purchasing from the stall - which is fair enough. This resulted in overheard conversations being recorded instead which helped give an idea of the types of comical people/characters that visit the market.

* * *

Speaking as group and using what we had collectively researched, we decided we wanted our book to focus on the state of the market in modern Leeds and the people that use it/ what goes on there.

The 8 pages of the book would consist of 4 pages dedicated to characters found at the market and 4 pages dedicated to the types of stalls found at the market over its lifetime. Spanning from when the market was at the height of its success to now when stalls are closed and the building rundown.

One member of our group was not present at this stage, therefore to make sure we had enough artwork to fill our book the 4 of us each took on the task of producing 2 pages each of artwork.

I was given the task of the front cover and also producing a page for a stall at present day.
Working from photos and quotes collected from members of my group (and consulting with them for ideas) I was able to come up with the following ideas for my pages:

Book title: "The Council Should Fix This" - This title is based on a man the group observed on their trip to the market. Whilst loudly saying this statement, he proceeded to jump up and down on a broken drain just inside the entrance to the main hall of the market. 

Front cover artwork: An image of a man jumping up and down on a drain (maybe legs only), with the large title type over the top of the image. "A trip to Kirkgate Market" to appear at the bottom of the page under the artwork to set the scene/location.

Stall artwork: A closed stall with its shutters down, dilapidated surroundings/leakages and pigeons...there are always tons of pigeons!


Layout

One sheet of A3 = 8 A6 pages of artwork

Front Cover

Pages 1 & 2

Pages 3 & 4

Back cover

Pages 5 & 6

Once we had the layout of the book sorted and worked out what page was going where, we decided on our colour scheme. We wanted something vibrant and contrasting to help highlight the detail we had in our images, but also reflect the colours of the market itself. Taking into consideration that we were screen printing the final artwork, we decided on a lighter colour: pink and a darker colour: green. As with a lot of screen printing processes, it is beneficial to have a lighter and darker colour to show contrast, especially with such a limited two colour palette.


Sketches

Front cover initial sketches

I have to be honest, I did really struggle with the task of drawing out my designs. I think because I hadn't been there when my group visited the market, it was hard drawing ideas using other peoples information.

I was also trying to keep in mind that the artwork for these pieces cant be too complicated and making things complicated seems to be one of my traits.

Stall initial Sketches

Stall idea 1

Stall idea 3   

Stall idea 2

Chosen compositions

Colour

Now that I had the designs down it was time to think about how the colour scheme was going to work. This was difficult because there are so many options and variations. I wanted to optimise the contrast of the colours and make it aesthetically pleasing whilst still keeping all the separate detail aspects visible.

 Using a light box, I was able to trace my final designs onto several pieces of layout paper so that I could play with colour and composition. The limited colour palette meant that I had to think about block shape and line. We had also decided as a group to try and incorporate texture into the artwork.

Final colour composition for stall page

Final colour composition for front cover

I am really happy with these choices. I think they make the most of the colour we have chosen as a group and the detail should hopefully stand out in the final product. It is good to have an idea of what the final pages could look like with the full colour, as the next stage is about to get a whole lot more complicated!


Prepping for screen print

In order for the screen print process to work, you have to have screen print positives. These are what will be exposed onto the screen for the colour paint to be pushed through at printing stage. This meant that I had to split my designs up so that I had a screen print positive for each colour on each design, but each separate colour needed to be in black so that the screen would expose properly.

Again I used the light box for this and traced each design, making sure I split the colours. On one page I would only trace the areas of pink, and the other page I would only trace the areas of green. When assembled they would make up the whole image.

Front cover:
Red page detail & Green page detail

Stall: Green page detail (I lost the red page)

Transfer to coda trace

The next stage of the process was the fun part for me. I love inking up! 

Using the coda trace was great as it has such a nice surface for the pens I was using. The rest of my group had already finished their designs and inking by the time I came to doing it so this made my life a lot easier. 2 pieces of A3+ coda trace were used for our designs (one for the pink details in our designs and one for the green details) and each page was lightly marked up using pencil. Each area for the artwork was arranged and measured as per our original layout page, so that everything would be in the right place when we came to print.

A3 coda trace layout - Inking up

I positioned my layout paper split colour designs under the area left for me to ink. I had to make sure that I had the correct page for the respective colour and also that I had lined up the area perfectly so that when it came to folding the book, the artwork would be in line with the artwork created by the other members of my group. I enjoy fiddly things like this - its always a challenge!

Laying the pink/red detailing coda trace sheet over the top of the green coda trace sheet made it clear to see how this design was going to work. Each sheet represents a screen for a different colour so once combined and printed - our artwork and book should come to life!

* Now to screen print! *

Studio Brief 1: One Week Book - Research

             HOTDOG BOOK

Brief: To produce a collaborative screen printed A6 hotdog book based on an experience/research on a set location. 

Our group of 5 were given the location of Kirkgate Market - a really great location due to its size, stalls and status within Leeds. Loads goes on here so plenty of options for visual solutions to this brief.

The first day of the brief I was unable to make the trip to the market with my group, however to make sure I didn't miss out on what it was all about - I was able to do TONS of research on our location.

Main Research Points: History
- Built in 1857 due to a demand for markets and food halls.

- Expansion and success of the market played a huge part in Leeds being granted city status in 1893.

-1904 - The large entrance hall built (main entrance in image 1)

- Christmas 1975 - The great fire (below)

Main Research Points: Recent times
- Currently one of the largest markets in Europe

- Has over 800 stalls (inside and out) and 100,000 visitors a week (although this is declining)

- Owned and managed by Leeds City Council

- The market employs 2,000 people directly but many more indirectly and informally making an estimate of 22% of retail employees in Leeds city centre.

- Traders have to pay the highest rents in the North (amongst some of the highest in the country)

- The market is one of the last remaining independent public spaces in Leeds city centre

- Due to focus and interest in new stores and shopping centres elsewhere across Leeds, over the past 15 years there has been little investment in the market and its buildings. This has caused vast deterioration throughout the market where areas have been left to ruin, to the point were traders have had to leave and shoppers experience affected.

- Plans for a luxury shopping centre next to the market opens in 2016

* * *

Researching about the market was really enjoyable as it has had so much history and drama throughout its lifetimes and it's influence on Leeds has been so great. It was sad to find out that after all this time, the future of the market is so unclear. It has been a more cheap, more ethical and more environmentally friendly place to shop for so long, that its closure would have a really big impact on the people that rely on it. (Mainly people from the poorer neighbourhoods, the elderly, students in leeds and the traders themselves who need their business to stay afloat). 

The market traders are now having to fight for its survival in order to keep livelihoods going, whilst paying the highest stall rent in leeds to sell products in a deteriorating location. 

Petitions for the market, its survival and fair treatment of its traders is an ongoing act by a group called Friends of Leeds Kirkgate Market: https://kirkgatemarket.wordpress.com/

* * *

I hope the rest of the group were able to get some good visuals from the trip and combined with the research I have found I am sure we will come up with a good theme for our book.

Notes: A few theme ideas for book:

• the market and its unclear future
• trading conditions
• market conditions / shoppers experience
• types of people who use the market
• a history of the market and it use throughout its lifetime

Now to meet with the rest of my group and generate some ideas

Shape and Texture

Task/Aims

Continuing on with the idea of drawing with shape, this task enabled me to incorporate texture to help emphasise tonal qualities and details. The previous task created a very graphic/flat aesthetic to my work, whereas this task has the possibility of creating a more personal tone of voice and a further sense of depth.

My aim for this task was to really get stuck into exploring different textures and media. In the past I have been really particular in the media I choose to work with for final images, often staying within my comfort zones producing expected, bland and repetitive final imagery. This is an element of my practice I want to let go of, hopefully resulting in a more free way of working and some interesting/unique/unexpected outcomes.

Media/Texture experimentation

Potato Printing:

Results - Smoke signals:

Line to Create Texture - Pen (more smoke signals):

Watercolour / Watercolour Pencil:

Watercolour pencil and rice

Watercolour pencils and rag rolling

Brusho Experimentation:

Brusho and cling film

Shape and Texture Results:

Weaving - Native American ceremonial blankets/fabric:

Successes/Failures

Throughout this task my main aim was to explore a variety of techniques new to me or techniques I had not visited for a long time. I feel I achieved this with some messy but pleasing and interesting results.

Potato printing was great fun and something I have not attempted since being a child. I feel this technique worked really well for the task and created some successful textures within the smoke signal shapes. I really like the patchiness and the interesting lines generated from the knife cuts when the block shapes were made.

I also think that the brusho experimentation and final results were really interesting and using this media was a really fun and brand new experience for me in this task. The strong colours and the way the ink reacts with water really added depth to the images and shapes that I was able to create and I look forward to using brusho a lot more in my future work. I also think these images have a well crafted, high detail finish to them.

Again for this task I found I was more motivated and inspired to focus on the Native American / Indian side of my visual subject instead of the Cowboy aspect. Knowing that I wanted to work with texture and strong colours, I felt this lent itself more to the Indian subject thus resulting in more ideas in this area, however I do hope to focus on Cowboys in future Visual Language tasks to mix things up a bit and create some new and exciting imagery.