I took just over 50 shots (about a quarter of the street stretch) today.

Below is the work in progress file of my photomerging the pics together... lots of tidying up to do, especially in the road and sky, but I'm liking the result I'm getting so far (apart from the time consuming factor). It took me all day to string those shots together (about 8 or 9 to make that stretch) and as you can see I still have a lot of work to do.
However, I think this is a great way of creating something new and interesting out of the everyday.



In the practice exercise below I used 3 photos. Above, 8 or 9 photos used.

I took a few quick shots to see if my idea would work, as I can’t have a tripod set up and simply rotate… So far the perspectives are a bit all over the place I think because I’m taking too many steps between my shots. eg. The car is missing the middle, even though the building looks alright… obviously need to do more work on merging also but like I said, this is just a test. Already this is proving to be not as simple as I thought… but I’m really determined to pull it off. I will start shooting properly tomorrow and spend a full day editing and stitching some successful shots together.

At the moment, I have a shot in mind that will stretch my whole walk (to the train station, approx 7 minute fast-paced walk) that I do twice a day 7 days a week. Printed I’m imagining it approximately 25cm x 150cm… but this may change depending on how the next few days go, I don’t want to restrict myself straight away… give this project room to evolve if need be.

In redesigning my posters, I came up with this concept of capturing the environment with a panoramic shot of the street stretch and then taking out (and zooming in on) the type elements along the street that interest me and have them in the appropriate location along the street shot.

If there are many type elements in the same spot along the street, I could form a cluster of close ups above (it may start to look like a picture graph, which I quite like the idea of)

Below is just a mock up using a mall environment that we had shot and then stich the images together in photoshop. My new poster may also be a good way of showing how I can implement what I learn in one area of my design (in-house designer) into another (student designer), which I otherwise would not have been able to do.

Again, this is just a mock up of my idea as I need to shoot the street (and it’s been raining all weekend). I already have the zoomed pics that I can slot above or below the panoramic shot.

I'm looking at a new way of designing my posters:

taxonomy is the practice of classification, frequently hierarchical in structure. Almost anything... places, inanimate objects, concepts and events can be classified according to some taxonomic scheme.

The outcome of my phone conversation with Luke was my posters weren't about making 'pretty pictures' but more about how I am to colate these images. I'm going to get back to the starting point and look at the systems/categories and push those posters further.

They are going to MOVE BEYOND THE OBSERVATION and look at MAKING THE EVERYDAY AS SOMETHING NEW & INTERESTING

How? I'm not quite sure yet.

Why a post card series? It seems most appropriate for the kind of research I'm doing... about location, noticing surroundings, collecting and documenting... designing. Isn't that what post cards are about? A snap shot of the surroundings of a particular location, trying to communicate it to someone who hasn't been there...??

Anyway, that's my train of thought about this at the moment.

Some STARTING concepts below... no judgment!

Luke, I have a question...
Can our 5000 words for the end of the year be a piece of design work in itself? I know we're going to design it anyway, but can it be a large part of our project? I've just had all these ideas of design layouts, and am already about 700 words into writing my 'essay thing'. I want it to be a piece of design in itself. I've been thinking about a type of book format (i know, how boring, everyone does books! but I just really like layout design) and it won't be simple, but have a lot of my design work supporting the text. I will have the actual design work for submission also, but this text in book format will be like my end of year summery/mini portfolio/publication/catalogue type thing. You know how painting students for example, tend to have a catalogue at the end of 4th year of their work... I want the 5000 words + design samples to be something like that for me.

Thoughts?

Also, I have started putting together some artwork from the images I took for my posters. They final pieces haven't been fully resolved yet. Leaning most towards a post card series atm... I'm hoping to get them more 'complete' by end of the week. And then move into something else... ?