reinventing illustration, The bag...new and improved!

okay, my final bag took a lot of time and when I came to sticking the front clear panel on I had a lot of problems finding a glue that would work, in the end I used superglue which left a huge mark and made the whole thing look un-finished and more like a mock....not the look I was going for after hours of work! so after the final crit I new I needed to change the front, and along with that I decided to improve the back of the bag as I ended up not being able to do it as well as I had wanted due to time.

so here it is....

out of all of my previous projects I think this is the one I developed most from the beginning. I was really lost at the start and trying to make a good impression I didn't want to move out of my comfort zone, but when it needed to be much strong I decided to try anything, and ended up with making something in 3d which I have never done before. Every aspect of the bag relates back to the book "the secret lfe of bees", with the overall effect being the story trapped inside a honey jar.

my interpretation

photography!

after a lot of camera problems!...I decided to go into central london in rush hour to get some first hand photos.  Not sure if there is away to put them all on here so here are a few of them for the minute:

main focus

I have found it difficult to pick a main idea so quickly, but hopefully it will pay off with future work too. It still needs to obviously be worked into as an illustration but my idea is to focus on the london morning/evening rush hours. When I finished the last project I was hoping to use 3d work in more projects as I really enjoyed it but with the limited time and how I work I don't think at the minute this would be the route to go. Although i would like to bring the clock ticking but not moving into my final piece somehow, I think it would work with adding to the urgency really well. 


I've come across a really inspiring artist "Robin Eckardt" that I decided to look into a bit further, and discovered that the main focus behind her work was the fact she is from the caribean and so she has used her natural homely colours to illustrate the scenes she found over in London.


here are a few pieces of her work:

Her works full of life, particularly with the top image, you cant even see people but you can clearly interpret there presence there. 

Ideas for the new brief...

I 've picked the quote "even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day" Withnail And I


I began by brainstorming a few quick thoughts, (even the obvious ones) and these are what I came up with:

• use of typography, stretching the text, dragging through time
• hand of clock not moving, yet clock still ticking-3d
• hour glass 
• cogs jammed? 
• x-ray, broken hand?
• use photography, busy city
• thinking of where time stands still for different reasons/ people
• - when you fall over!, plane journey-literally sitting and waiting, hospitals ect
• rush hour
• snails?!
• acetate, laying a figure over different times of a day...getting complicated, think I could end up with a whole book!
• standing still in city while people rush around
• head made of cogs, brain function

New Brief!

The basics of the new brief is a one week project where we illustrate one of the sayings/ quotes that have been given to us. Im quite excited to do a one week brief as we haven't had one in a long time and I always feel I overcomplicate my ideas nearer the end, and give myself so much more work to do than I need for the final, I am hoping by doing a project like this I can  get over this feeling as we physically have a lot less time!

The actual bag...

I have turned the backing of the jar into a bag, where there is also a pocket inside to hold the controller for the lights. I have kept the continuity of the bag by using the same fabric to back it as I have done the top of the jar.

creating the final product

Overall I am pleased with how the final piece has turned out, but although I made mock ups of the final objects, I didn't practice on how to glue the pieces together and found it very difficult to stick the clay model to the clear plastic without marking and damaging it. I also think that if given the chance again I would consider simplifying the product as I found a huge amount of time was needed to make it, where as if I had made it simpler I would not of had to of started so early, and could of used the time to develop the piece further.

working with clay

Within the text Lily is trying to escape from her life and to find out her past. I have had the idea to have her climbing up the inside of the honey jar. With her hanging on such a smooth surface the idea is to not know whether she will slip back into her past.

Adding the lights...

Below I made a mock up of the house featured in the book, i've chosen to make this the main focal point as i think its such a key feature in the book. Its the only place that Lily has ever felt completely safe. The lights will also go at the top of the bag but the main place will be behind the windows.

making the bag 3d

I actually made this before the midway review. But the review gave me a much clearer idea of how to enhance the design. My original thought was to recreate the illustration behind the globed out honey jar. But once I had discussed this idea I realised this could be taken a lot further and the objects inside could be made much more 3 dimensional. The start of making these are pictured below.

Research into 3d pieces

After the crit...

Bag designs

Research into the character of Lily

photographic research

throughout the book there is a constant reference to the house owned by the women that Lily runs away to, it is the only place that she has ever felt safe and secure, away from her father. I think it would really help to have it as reference on the bag as it plays such a key role.

(there are more images reflecting this but I am having trouble uploading them, they should be up soon!)

Ed Hardy

Not something I would normally be interested in, but when it comes to a traditional tote bag i've found hardly any designs that stand out strongly apart from the "im not a plastic bag" campaign, Hardy uses such strong colours that in a way his bags really shouldnt work, but they do. They all seem personal at the time they were developed.

Sean Hillen-photo montage

when I looked into flashbags designs they had a lot of images where people had sent in photographs that had then been put together as one image for the bag. It gave me the idea that i could use photo montage to illustrate my own bag.  I've come across a photo montage artist "Sean Hillen". I found his work really individual to him, as all the images in the montage are of his personal opinions, theres no right or wrong way to tell the story. I think this idea could work really well in telling my own interpretation of "The secret life of bees' . I can pick up on keep elements of the story as I have said before, and place them all together.


There are a lot more of his images here; 
http://www.seanhillen.com/

http://www.flashbagsonline.com/

Flashbags are a personalised bag design company i found through a news article, they transfer an image onto a bag or purse and use a clear plastic to protect the image. The main issue i have had with the production of my bag is how to transfer the image onto the canvas. I think this idea would translate really well onto my own work as i could us a thin layer of acetate over the illustrations, this would even still allow me to work over the images with mixed media if i wanted to but would still allow me to work on the original media. 

Im trying to pick up different elements of the narrative, this is of the engagement that happens near the end of the text, the flower for the ring is a mixed media element. 

Research into current bags

http://www.timeout.com/london/shopping/features/2948/London_handbag_designers.html

This is a link to an article I read  "modern handbags in London" by Kathryn Miller that was featured in Time out. I found it particularly useful because it has current designers that are selling in the market today, and there personal views on making their own bespoke handbags. Its clear they all feature a unique selling point, with Orla Kiely its the overwhelming 50's and 60"s colourings, I think i've focused a lot of my time on creating a bag that stands out for so many different reasons, looking at these designers its clear that I really don't need to over complicate it.

"The Secret Life of Bees"

I've read This book recently- "The Secret life of bees" by Sue Monk Kidd,  think this will be a really good base for the bag, at the minute I feel like it needs more of a focus, by picking a book  I actually have something to illustrate, before I felt like I was picking up on more of a style of work than working the style around a subject.

Mixed Media pieces