Project Difficulties, Solutions, and Learning Points

This project was in my opinion the most difficult of the three we have encountered in BDS 101. I think the mere scale of this piece and the three feet minimum requirement was extremely difficult. I have never worked on something so large before and it really was a challenge. Especially as an illustrator I am much more comfortable working on a tiny pieces and my small sketchbook pages. Nevertheless I really enjoyed the large scale and the grand impact our project has in photographs. It was really great to see our pieces from far away on campus, quite a strange and unique sight. 

I would love to create an illustration on such a large scale, and am really drawn towards the magnetic effect of street art. The large aspect of these pieces carry the same sort of stop and look reaction from the public. I think it would be pretty great to see my illustrations on such a massive scale. 

The scale made it difficult for the construction aspect of this project. Since we decided to create entirely 3D letters, the individual pieces that needed to be measured and cut was immense. I think we definitely underestimated this point of the project, the sheer time it would take for building/wrapping our eight letters. I think we could have come up with a alternative for creating our letters that might have saved us some valuable time. 

I learned how to work with cardboard and the varying levels of problems this tends to create. What I felt was the most valuable aspect of this project was the photo essay book. It was quite a learning experience coming up with a way to convey the word ‘exchange’ and have my photographs displayed in a logical and aesthetically pleasing format. I feel like this part of the project will last with me the longest, partly because I love books and sketchbooks. I can imagine making future pieces similar to this one. There is something very gratifying about making a book with all these folds and flaps, and figuring out how to place everything for the printer. I felt like my end book was a successful solution to the problem presented and quite an improvement on my initial ideas.