Project 1.0: Word - Reflection

I feel like I learned a lot throughout this project. I’ll admit I got kind of confused at some points, but ultimately I feel like I tried my best to learn and understand the three different categories we were focusing on in this project. I noticed as the project progressed, it became a reflex to constantly document my progress. Every picture I took, I’d try to assess and evaluate even the small things that I could adjust to make the composition better. I had to push myself to figure out what I could use as materials. Finding items to use in order to create these was kind of challenging, but I feel like I did the best with what I had around me. I felt inspired by the ingenuity of my classmates when looking at their progress work. The materials they used and the ways they experimented with their letterforms made me want to try harder too.

I feel like one of the things that will be sticking with me the most is how to be thoughtful about my use of negative space around a focal point. I also found myself trying to pay closer attention to how things were aligning. I also had to be willing to just wipe everything off the page and be willing to start from scratch. After I adapted to the impermanence (aside from the pictures I took), I was able to make adjustments or try new things out easier.

One of my strengths was probably my attention to detail. I tried to pay attention to the small things. I feel like I could improve in my composition, as well as creativity when it comes to finding unusual uses for objects.

One of my most powerful learning moments was how backgrounds can make such a drastic difference. I knew this already when applied to other projects/situations, but it wasn’t really clicking at first with this. The background changed everything about some of the words. Also, remembering how versatile objects around me can be.

Three things mainly got in my way. One being that I couldn’t find as many materials as I wanted to be able to for the line portion of this project. I wanted to try using food, but I’m pretty tightly budgeted. I also had a hard time figuring out what to use for volume, but when I found some old popsicle sticks I’d bought a while ago, I thought those could be interesting to use. Lastly, lighting. I kept trying to follow the windows around my house to get a soft wash of natural light. Then, when I was working on the volume portion, the sun kept chasing me around the yard as I’d try to take pictures, and shadows from the trees kept getting in the way.

I feel like this concept could be both easy and challenging to grasp. Once you find the right materials and you understand what point, line, and volume really mean, it’s a matter of experimentation, creativity, and willingness to keep trying.