taking a line for a walk

Self Evaluation

What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Throughtout this modual i have really kept to hand crafting and less digital work. this for me is where my strengths lie so i this modual has really helped me explore that and i have looked at more materials and techniques i can use, e.g. i used soldering for the first time which was really good fun and now something i can use whenever i need to.

I have also used techniques that we looked at when making the books, i felt it was apporpriate to present some of my work in book format and was able to do this from previous sessions.

Also when we had the photography and lighting session i was able to experiment more with this, maybe more so than some of the others, as i had access to the studios for my photography elective.


What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I think i have alwasy been quite good when it comes to research, i am always updating my blog with interesitng designes, but i think this modual has encouraged me more to use the reseach i have found alongsied what i am doing, referencing back to different designes or techniques, which has maby kept me quite closed in terms of what i have looked at but i feel i have explored what i do have more than i would normally.

When looking throught magazines or at posters, i have started to notice now the visual language used, expecially at the signs and symbols used. it took me a while to grasp the simplicity of the symbols that we were doing, so seeing example outside of the classroom was useful for me to simply understand it better.


What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I honestly feel that one of my strengths is my research and my blog, i am constantly adding things relevant to my work aswell as things that simply interest me, looking throught other peoples blogs, on the corse or otherwise, can show up some interesting sites, or designers that in turn could help me. this will be an ongoing process through my Degree.

Another strength would be my photography work, at the beginning of the year i had sort of abandoned my camera, but now im getting back into it and if nothing else, can document my work in a very professional way that can be put on my blog or used in my prtfolio.


What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

one major weekness that i have discovered is that i do all this research, and get it on my blog and in my portfolio, but then i sometimes leave it at that, instead of developing my ideas from what i already have and the inspiration i now have, i tend to leave it and go back to it later. i thnk this is less about time managment and more about me realiseing the amount of work needed.

When we have been looking at sumbols and pictograms i have been really interested in lesson and been sucessful with what i produce and understand but very rarely apply these to what i am doing in other moduals or my work. this is something that i need to sort out. i understand how it can be applyed to other areas but i never actually apply it!


Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1 i will deffinalty try and apply the techniques that we have learned in other lessons/moduals to work i am currently doing, they are tought to us for a reason so i must try harder to involve them

2 i think i need to start sticking to one project at a time when im working on it, i tend to flutter across all my work and therefore forget to do things or loose interest. so when i do wright myself a time table i need to make sure i stick to it.

3 i need to be more confident in my work. sometimes it can be quite intimidating and so sometimes when i should ask for someones opinion, i tend not to and just keep sturggling. when i have struck a design block all i really need is someone to tell me what they think, so that i can develop it further.


How would you grade yourself on the following areas:
(please indicate using an ‘x’)

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor


Attendance 5

Punctuality 4

Motivation 4

Commitment 3

Quantity of work produced 3

Quality of work produced 4

Contribution to the group 3

Final images

These are the final images for What is a line, they will be on the front of a postcard side by side. this is promoting safety with electricity.

wire poster

Here i have souldered the whole piece together and have layed it on black paper. this piece is something i am considering for a final piece.

This is something that is more of an experimentation, using a long exposure on the camera so i get this shaked look. i think this lookes well if with the context of a live wire.

First lesson in Soldering

well my table is still there so i would say a sucessful job,

At first you can see it was a bit messy getting solder everywhere

but it did get better and so most of it is neat.

more experimentation

i decided to do the letters seperatly rather than the whold word

i was looking at the amount of wire i would need for differnt letters and words, and yes i kept running out. can you guess what it was going to say.

iv looked at different thickness of wire that i could use, and even though the thicker wire was a lot harder to bend, at my crit it was said that the thinner wire looked a lot neater and had a more delicate look to it.

'it sparks a live wire'

I have looked at differnt layouts of the wire type iv been working on!

having the wire all connected together sat ontop of each other as one piece rather than seperate lines.

here i tried seperate lines but still keeping it in the center of the page.

also looking at having the wire layed out as if written, kept to the left
Iv also looked at extending the wire to the ends of the page from the words.

This Photograph is by Gudni Einarsson, as well as having the context of wire i am aiming for this style photograph, black and white with a higher contrast that almost looks rustic and aged.

Julia Griffiths Jones

Julia Griffiths Jones is an artist who looks at mostly clothing garments through bending wire, she also collaborates these with stitch to add colour, texture and a more clothing look to them.
i really appreciate the work in this, all the detail bended together looks really gorgeous as part of the piece.

my 3 rules of line

So after nearly 4 months on this project where am i?
well i have explored line visually through materials such as tape, paper, ribbon, stich and wire, which has brought me to creating wire letterforms which i will be later photographing.
my 3 rules that im sticking to are:

1- im only going to use black and white photography as im looking at the use of metal
2- im using only gardening wire, for pratical reasons more than anything, its easier to bend and a lot cheaper than most
3-im not going to use more than 3 different typfaces eaither in one composition or to explore seperatly

Oh wow i love this, shreaded paper layed over 3D, mabey foam board letters, its by a comapny called 'miss swiss'

This is just lots of example of line and type and ways in combining them

Line Letterforms

Hion Aoyoma works with type and what im sure is lazer cut, its all one piece of text joined together with the vine like curls that run through it. iv looked at this as part of Visual Language as its all joined together with either the line of the type or the vines.

This is John Caserta, hes used a hot wire foam cutter to produce these letterforms, hes experimented with the speed of the machine and created this rather gorgeous piece, and produced it into a poster. ther a Video of his experimentations on his site JOHN CASERTA

tape type

These are some of the experimentation's iv been trying at home really quickly to see how it works. i really like the tape its really quick and easy and the overall piece is effective and legible (which is always a good thing)
The words themselves are not relevant just simply words that i could do as i was just experimenting.
iv also used wire and paper to do similar things and think i would like to carry on using all these different medias and merge them together.

Line and Type

bending paperclips or wire into the letter forms.
This typeface is Agrafa Hairline

Alex Ostrowski

Pet punk

Chloe Yeoman

Tracy Chapman

AMAZING this website is jsut gourgeous, its Tracy Champans website completly flash based. when you dirst go on its all white vector drawn image but there is a paint pallet in the right corner and you can colour in each section, its simple AWSOME!
its also luckly related to my book of 100 project that iv jstu handed in, but its simple drawn images and colour in block colours.

What is a Line

The album cover for Three Days Grace was what first ispired me with the cut out line of figures we all did when we were younger. i developed the idea to typography.

I cut out each letter on folded paper in the style of a handwritten typ face as i was also looking at the continious line of handwriting so i made it so they all joined up together when folded.

When unfolded they dont look like the letters anymore but still quite interesting shapes.

Im looking at a connected series of experiments with paper, stitch and wire and any other materials that will help me connect and use continous line.

After the presentations on Tusday, the work that stood out for the rest of the group was the cut out alphabet and the page of stitch line i did. im going to experiment more with this and see where it takes me, but i deffinantly want to keep with typography rather than images. i will be looking at ways to connect the letter forms and ways in which they work together as one piece or seperate pieces fitting together.

Eric Staller

These images asolutly fasinate me, these are a few of the light drawings from Eric Staller. although im not doing light for my What is a Line project they are deffinantly relevant to some of you. iv never tried any light drawing so the illusion of this is still quite pure for me that i dont know how hes done this, but there is now doubt they are beautiful.