After participating in a workshop on basic HTML I discovered I was not as much a stranger to the world of contemporary technologies as I initially worried I might be. Even through the small amounts of blogging I had done prior to the module I had taught myself some simple HTML for visuals without realisation. Despite this I still felt my knowledge too basic to miss out any stepping stones by throwing myself into creating a whole site using exclusively HTML, although this is something I want to learn in the future.
My research took me on many trips out within greater London, from the Hindu temple on the edge of Wembley to the Buddhist fsmpls in Wimbledon. I find myself much more receptive to information when discovering it first hand, imparticular visual information. With a project stemmed primarily from a love of patterns, the items in the V&A and architecture of the significant buildings provided a wealth of visual information, the majority of which I drew into sketchbooks on location. Later these drawings and photographs were backed up with additional written information on my research blog, for example, the website ‘MindBodyGreen’ was very valuable resourcewise for me during the course of the project with articles specifically placing the concepts of ‘peace’ and ‘being grounded’, key philosophies of the chakras, into the modern, western world lifestyle. Publishing my research on the blog allowed for me to experience another form of contemporary technology and made it easily organised enough for me to look back when later applying research to working, but also meant I could gain feedback from others at any stage.
The art style I chose to use was very connected to surface pattern design, using multiple media such as acrylics/inks I allowed myself to get carried away inspired by the research thus far. This meant that I could incorporate patterns from my V&A studies etc. I kept the colours and symbolism on each sheet within the realms of the relevant chakra point. The messiness and freedom of the working style, whilst still having significant motives that gave it some organisation, was supposed to portray the idea of a transition from an imbalanced lifestyle to a balanced one. I also chose to vectorise the patterns using Adobe illustrator to enhance this.
Following an informal review with peers at an approximate halfway point within the project I realised that my pieces thus far had no purpose and only existed for themselves. In order to overcome this, I returned to my two initial brainstorms of ‘imbalance’ and ‘chakra points’ to contextualise the seven coloured pieces and give them more of a meaning. It was at this point I decided to look into the tea traditions, as well as teas being linked to balances themselves, each chakra point supposedly also has its own ‘flavour’ and each one is associated to imbalances of different body parts or moods. At a personal development level, I also wanted to re-explore branding/packaging as its something I’ve only tried once before at secondary school level. By badging each ‘tea’ under the names of a chakra point and assigning each one its applicable imbalances, I created a range of seven products which I intended to be aimed at adults of the Western world who live lives plagued by imbalances often not realising it. Choosing to print the vectorised designs onto brown paper gave the pieces more of a raw, authentic feel, although it obviously did rather dull the colours down to be less vibrant.
I felt the most appropriate method of online publishing would be to give the “product” a website of its own. The next pathway within my research was to look at how companies operating with a similar ethos used the internet to promote a product and engage with customers. Using this information I turned to Adobe Muse to begin creating a site of my own, initially I spent a week trying to get to grips with the software and despite being near failure I persisted until suddenly I understood its dynamics. Being familiar with other software from the CreativeSuite I was able to construct a fairly basic five page website which incorporated pieces from my research under the titles ‘about’ and ‘inspirations’. I chose the addition of slideshow widgets in order to add some movement dynamic to the site, drawing the viewer’s eye to the photos themselves. Similarly, I chose to give the website essentially an opening page using the full-screen slideshow tool as I felt my seven coloured pieces should also be shown in full-colour, however had this of been an exercise purely rooted in branding, I would say that they were not in sync with the mutes tones of the website and packaging itself.
Because of the fact that their main purpose within the project was to be suitably published online, I had to consider mostly how the teabag boxes would photograph and hence keeping the packaging fairly simplistic amongst the hectic patterns was essential. Therefore I was not able to execute some of the more innovative box shapes I initially drew up, however I do believe that the rectangular shapes photographed well both together and alone. The addition of gold paper for both the button logo and the flavour label was probably the decision that solely transformed it into a ‘product’. In conclusion, having started this module has significantly developed my understanding of various contemporary technologies and their significance in our society, particularly within the practice of visual communication. Through both blogging my research and using Adobe Muse for the first time I was able to solve the brief within the parameters of contemporary technologies. As we enter 2015, the idea of a product or person not being connected with the web seems unrealistic and I certainly see the beneficial nature that having had the opportunity to experiment with multiple ways to post online at this early stage, will have on my own personal professional future.
Word count of reflective summary: 1000 words exactly.
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