ITAP - Week four

This weeks lecture was about research and being inspired and it's importance is Visual Communication. Before I look at the principles, I am going to look at some definitions.

Research (noun): An inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories and applications.

Inspire (verb): To affect, guide or motivate by divine influence.

Now i'm going to put the word visual in front of the word to see how it changes the definition. 

Visual Research: The practice of creating pictures, impressions, appearances, rendering, projections, illustrations, diagrams, images, etc... 
Visually Inspire: To affect, guide or motivate through some form of imagery, photograph or vision. 

The first principle I have decided to look at this week is how the notion of ‘inspiration’ derives from constant inquiry, based on research, observation, recording and experimentation. The second principle I have chosen is how by understanding the various ‘practices & processes’ of illustrators, designers and photographers one is able to progress and advance one’s own practice. To begin I am going to look at Graphic Designer Nerina Fernandez, studying what has inspired her and how she has produced reflective visual journals from this inspiration. I have chosen to look at her as I am greatly inspired by her work, it is the sort of thing i'd like to produce in the future. 

Here is a youtube video of one of her sketch books. I have watched a few from various designers and illustrators but this one particularly caught my eye. 

Moleskine Nerina Fernandez notebook @ Detour exhibition

Snippet from Nerina Fernandez moleskine
From looking at Nerina's moleskine you can tell she has been inspired from many things. The good thing about a moleskine is that its small and you can take it anywhere, that's why many designers have them. Hers consists of everyday things such as maps, buses, policemen on the streets and theatres. I love how she uses a little bit of drawing or typography with everyday things she has photographed or picked up and creates miniature pieces of art. This has inspired me to get a moleskin and begin one myself. 

Here are some images I have drawn that are the sort of thing I would put in a moleskine notebook. From looking at these I can see that music is a big influence on my work and I am heavily inspired by it. Also, fond memories inspire me. The black and white sketch is drawn from a memory contain two people I care about. When I found myself thinking about them, I decided to draw the sketch and now keep it on my wall as an inspiration. I intend to do this with more memories over time. 

Sketch from a free party 

Logo designed for a soundsystem

To conclude I am going to leave you with a quote..

 "If you start with nothing, you have to invent everything from scratch''

This quote has touched me because it is impossible. If you tried to invent an idea from scratch you wouldn't be able to, you would have subconsciously already been influenced from past experiences and therefore you're work would contain similarities to someone else's somewhere in the world who is influence by the same things as you. I believe you can work as hard as you want on an idea, but if it hasn't been research or influenced it will never be anywhere near as good.