I managed to apply the vinyl today so I could have a finished lightbox to photograph for the graduate catalogue. The limits of vinyl cutting changed my design somewhat and this was a learning curve. In saying that I always knew it would take at least two goes at it to see what worked. For the final one I will change the design a little bit but there are parts of this design that I like.

I have been trying to think of ideas for a service box around the New Market business and retail district. The service boxes needed covering and to look good. A group of us students at Whitecliffe are putting together some concepts to put forward. Hopefully I get chosen as it will give me something to work on over the holidays. Here is my concept that I have put together in quite a hurry. It follows a bit with my studio project but leans more towards something that I would like to look at further and that is hand painted type. Type today seems to be mass produced at a fast rate, which mirrors our attitudes towards consumerism. With the older type used in this one I wanted it to represent the older notions of consumerism and capitalism which seems relative today with all the financial struggle the economy is facing here and around the world. Not sure if this is what they'd like as it's not exactly promoting patronage but getting the consumer to question theirs needs against wants and thinking about the effect on the environment etc.

This is a picture of my desk at the moment, I wonder what it will look like in 6 weeks time.

Almost forgot to mention that I went to Rocket Signs on the North Shore and found the right vinyl I was after for my light box. I want to have the same effect of the process colours overlapping to make secondary colours. Of course because it is a different process the vinyl colours aren't actually the process colours but I managed to find the ones closest to the colours I will have on the prints.

I went back to get production of these posters sorted, to make sure I was confident that I could pull it off, and do multiples at the same time without having the screens clog up and having to wash and dry them. I thought a lot about what I had been taught and also what would work for me personally. I improved my process and setup and it came out a lot better, I managed to do two that looked the same. These are still the old screens but I still made them work better. Way more confident now and can't wait to do them all. One problem I found was the mixing of the pigment and extender, stronger concentrations of the pigment created dark patches on the print, will hopefully rectify this next time round.

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.