Altered books Reflection and Feedback

 

Reflection

I really enjoyed this assignment, so far this has been my favourite in the Creative Book Design unit because of the process being so practical and hands on. I got to design something personal to me and there was a sense of creative freedom. Coming up with Ideas to start with I found quite difficult becasue every theme there was no final outcome in my mind as they were to vague such as my love for animals or anything art related like the cartoons I do. I thought back to a project in school I did which I had to alter every page of my sketchbook and it was so fun because I could do what I wanted. This assignment was exactly like that so when I thought about making the theme about my Grandad in the Royal Air Force as family was part of my planning and out of everyone that seemed like it would be the most success. 

The vintage, memorabilia route I followed as it just seemed right. This meant I could collect relevant pieces, referencing my grandads things from his service, use mediums to age the pages such as coffee and burning. So this book all revolved around a picture of my Grandad Phil in his RAF uniform and all the other content fell into place. Learning he used to pack parachutes I researched what that entailed and the bags they'd pack, how important the job was. It was quite intresting. I of course looked throughout a few websites of the RAF during the 50's so not quite the war and had to make sure I checked the official RAF website for the information.

Designing the two pages I experimented with the layouts, moving the photos in diffferent ways, positioning the bottle caps and such to see what would fit best. It was pretty straight forward with the placements after the initial mock up. The propeller made out of canvas chips was a spontaneous idea, I was looking around for some items and bits to use and sitting in the draw there was 4 left sitting there. It clicked that I could make a propeller and stick them together with glue and a nail so it could spin on the page as an interactive feature. The bottle caps I collect came in handy for this assignment too, They were the perfect size for badges and the SOS talisman pictured in my research.

I must say I didnt use much typography in withtin this book. I didn't intentinally not want to use any but It just so happened with the amount I had found and created for the pages left no space for a bold title ot sentences. The only trace of text is the plaque of my grandads name inspired by the box he took home with him after her served. The tied up poster has text on but this was just part of the image.

The artist research element of this assignment I found helpful. I looked on the smithsonian Library and previous exercises to pick artists I liked the work of the best and that I wanted to take inspiration from Alisa C banks  and Kerry McAleer-Keeler being the top choices because how immersive both theyr'e 'altered books' are. I think I achieved a similar affect.

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