Here's the first concept for the Quality over Quantity. Here I was thinking about blue ribbons, gold medals and less is more.

After doing the first screen test there a few things to consider, registration etc. But mainly I was concerned with paying more attention with the set up and technique of applying the ink and onto which paper. So in the next trial I will have registration marks on the screen, not visible on the finished print as I will tape over them on the screen and just line them up with pencil that I can later rub off. It'll become clearer when I do it I'm sure. Found out a few other good techniques when applying the ink to help get the most out of the screen. Stay tuned for the next test. Here are a few pics of how they'll be laid out on an A1 paper stock which I'll be getting in 230gsm next week. Below you'll see I am also interested in how they'll look cropped and closer up, this is an idea I have to use some off cuts or mistake prints to reuse for pages in my contextual portfolio.

Apart from a few things I was quite happy with the results, working with a finer mesh screen and proper paper inks was challenging, they're a lot harder to work with than the heatset inks but the results are amazing. Crisp colours and clean lines. Had to use a lot of extender to thin the pigment out but was able to get the tones I was after. Next time I will pay more attention to the set up of the screens and may even look at contacting ESP for help with producing larger quantities of the posters once the designs are finalised. Lots of pictures below because I'm loving playing with my new camera.

Managed to find some lights that weren't too bright and putting out a lot of heat, originally 60watt they're now 25watt. They're not as blinding as before. Having trouble trying to get in touch with some transparent vinyl so I can use a similar effect to what I'm trying to achieve with the posters, layering primary colours to create secondary colours when the are over each other. The photo of the light box isn't too great, mainly because I can't stand it anywhere at the moment. It needs it's legs. Also the inside lights don't look too bright, mainly because I didn't give them long enough to brighten up.

I got a new camera yesterday morning, haven't had much time to play with it but it takes video as well it's EOS500D. Here are a few shots from yesterday afternoon.

Will take some photos of finished lights on lightbox tomorrow. Also will put up photos of my screen printing tests.

So tomorrow I'll be doing the first of the screen printing tests, will play with the inks first, get the right transparency and/or opacity. I'll also try and do a test run of one of the concepts for the Quantity over Quality posters.

So I started making my light box today, after all day yesterday running around getting silk screens and helping out a mate of mine by the time I got home it was 7.30pm and I was exhausted. So today I just felt like making stuff. Something that didn't require too much brain activity either. Here are some pictures of the progress on the light box, 3 of the 10 lights are fitted so I just have another 7 left plus 2 on the inside. Will get a mate Brad to wire it up this Saturday and see how it lights up, hopefully all works well. Been investigating vinyl and what best to use, I'm wanting the process colours but transparent. It looks as though it might to harder to find than expected.

So just registered www.brokenink.co.nz. I'm glad I've done it but now I'm going to actually make my website worth visiting. Should be busy working on studio project but it's Friday and I spent 12 hours here yesterday. Next week hopefully I should have the National font so I can really get stuck into my series of posters for the New Zealand Experiment part ll. So expect a bit more in a few weeks.

In the series of posters I'll be producing, one of the themes I'll be looking at is New Zealands drinking culture and how especially our younger generation are tending to drink in excess. It's been in the news a bit recently in relation to the Undie 500 in the South Island. I too used to drink quite heavily but during my first year of study in Christchurch I realised that even my habits weren't as bad as others and decided to change this aspect of my life. These posters would reflect this and hopefully trigger thought about the topic from the viewer. But it can also spark thoughts about other topics, such as design. I've been working on the Hare side of the comment "Quantity over Quality" and will later do the Tortoise side "Quality over Quantity". 


This particular poster is to represent a beer label and the quantity text is clearly over taking the quality text.