Learning Objectives:
1. Receive and interpret the brief.
2. Apply visual design and communication techniques.

Event: 2 of 3

Weight: 60%

Due Date:  Week 8

Task: Create 2 effective composite montage images. One must be on any of the topic’s identified in class and the other one can be on any appropriate topic you want. (Topics identified in class are competition, futurism, Open Spaces & tribalism)
Effective composite/montage images incorporate many of the principles of visual design and communication- your images must be created from at least 3 other images which effectively communicate a “concept”.

For each image you need to write a short design brief which identifies the target audience, identifies the objective of what your image is communicating and how it is meeting it. Design Brief and Images to be uploaded to your site. The short report of what “topic” or “idea” your image is supposed to be communicating. Eg is it supposed to be telling a story of a life or time or feeling etc. This report does not need to be long but it needs to quite specific and what methods were used to create your image.

This artwork was made for a part in my personal website, and along its theme. The bird was magnetic-lasso extracted, then black-grey-white level tuned, with hue and saturation changed for the red colours (along the lines of the phoenix?), whilst my avatar up the top right was assimilated via layering effects and some smudging for lines. The background needed very little colour refinement.

The image wasn't intended to carry significant meaning as much as look pretty and fill a criteria requirement. However, just by existing as something viewable in this postmodern day and age, it could in fact have all kinds of interpretable meanings, an image that says something completely different (and quite possibly meaningless) to each perspective viewed with. It could convey a sense of lightness, freedom and complete ambiguity. To me, it conveys the flammability of birds... The final freedom flight of a delicate bird doomed to defy human science and be incinerated by flying into the sun, watched by a sad audience of one... it leaves a single golden feather to the world, to go in some battered Fedora, which may later be discarded in an old dusty loft to be nibbled at by a small starving family of ragged field mice...

 

The three symbols within this montage are the Ankh, a red blooming tree (burning bush?) and an aurora. This picture is aimed at any/all audiences, showing the symbols of life, and some of the mysteries around it, from which tribal life has acknowledged in its art and practice for centuries before the Saxons learnt to build boats. Layer styles used intensely; smudging, lens - flare rendering, hue and saturation work and blurring used. The tree is probably acknowledged by some as a true, pure symbol of life. The ankh shines above - a pseudo-symbol from the ancient Egyptian times, and a popular symbol even today - because it looks very cool in this mystical, rising-from-the-earth way. Again, this could mean anything and nothing, depending on the interpretation and perspective.

By coincidence it reminds me of a necklace that I used to have that had a sterling silver Ankh pendant dangling on it, I lost it in Autumn and being so sure that it would stand out against all the leaves, I went searching for it, for hours in the freezing German drizzle. Eventually I was driven home unsuccessfuly by cold and foggy weather (which looks nothing like the aurora.) Ironically, I found it a few months later, still safe in the jewellery box. Go figure, my subconscious mustn't like me XD So, there's some trivia for you.