Finishing first year at Uni

Hi there!

I haven't posted in a while, as I was quite busy with many things these past few months. So many things happened: I finished (I hope) the first year at my course in college, finally started working at a retail shop, and am Junior Graphic Designer of E+ Magazine, our university magazine that will launch in September.

When I started this blog I had really hoped to keep on posting a lot, but Uni life is SO busy! :)
If you want to receive posts more often, you can check my tumblr, where I post my works, but don't write much. But now, I will show you what I had done the past months.

First, let's get through with the least exciting part, theory class. Yes it is interesting, but design is not only about thinking, it's about doing as well. We had to write eight short essays and one extended essay of 2000 words referenced with an annotated bibliography. Above all, we had to create a publication, design and print for the hand-in, even though they won't grade that part. You can see the entire publication here:





The design is probably not the best, but because it does not count at all, I felt like experimenting with layouts and colours. I don't regret a thing, ha! If you have any comments on it though, please let me know. It's always nice to learn from other people.

Next is project info/expo, which was about inforgraphics. We learn the many versions of infographics and had to pick a theme and mode of enquiry. My theme was Light and I chose to view this from a scientific aspect, as it was the main focus of my secondary school. I decided to create many small infographics and connect them in an animation, because I couldn't choose between chemistry, physics, biology and technology. I had this huge story and started storyboarding, but didn't plan on creating it all. In the end, I did make a 30 second animation, so I'm happy.




Also, we are required to create a 25-30 page research document for all of these projects, so that's what I did. This one had to be printed, so I will show you through issuu.com again.





Next project went horribly wrong, but I managed to save it in an OK way...I think. Anyway, I'm not planning on publishing this one. It was planned to be an online game, but turned out to be a booklet. The point of it all was to raise awareness of a chosen discrimination, which I did about racism. You can view the research document below, so you might get an idea of the end result:

Click here to download interactive PDF.


The third and last project of this year was the most fun, as we got the chance to choose one of four classes. I picked motion typography class in which we had several workshops around typography and for this project I decided I want to learn After Effects and Premiere Pro.




It's worth downloading this research document, if you are interested in seeing the end results for the typography workshops. There are about five: 3D Type, Time based and sound based ones are the more interesting ones in my opinion.

Download here.


In the end, I think the outcomes could be so much better, but I learned so much, that I will forgive myself for this. My second term outcomes were more refined and there was so much work in them, but I changed. I decided to lead a less stressful and more healthy life. This doesn't mean I'm not open to critique. If there is anything you feel like saying, please do in the comments below :-)

Love,
Sophia

Liverpool street sketches

So I sat down in the Liverpool street area and grabbed my sketchbook. I haven't drawn in such a long time, it felt great. There were a lot of people especially because it was lunch break. Most of them were moving around a lot and some of them were standing in the same position for 5 minutes. Heaven!  Tried to mainly grab the interesting poses.
The funny thing is, when people notice you are drawing them and start fidgeting because they feel uncomfortable being watched, or when they just try to stay still for the sake of it. I also came to realize, how almost everyone in London is so addicted to their mobile phones

T-shirt

Using my animated robot character design, I outlined it in black and created a mosaic pattern to screenprint on a Primark t-shirt. Hope you like!

Check out my animated robot HERE.

Robot design

I have been working on this animated character design the past month and during school (aside from school projects). It is a design done for Opencommerce's new website.

Over The Hill

I created some illustrations for 3rd year Film&Television students at London College of Communication for their graduate short film Over The Hill.
They need some funding for their film. Click here to find out more about the film and support them.

A hundred likes

Facebook Page reached 100 likes. Thank you all!!!

Utrecht

I have been away for another couple of admissions, but let's continue with a chronological order. Today I'm going to write about the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht.

Home Assignment
So, after doing London stuff, I had four days to do my home assignment before flying to Scotland and to the Netherlands after.
We had to choose a socially relevant subject, that is somehow personal, and we had to create a poster with just typography and ten images that go with it.
I tried to make a basic idea and concept on the airplane on my way back from London. Research took pretty long at home, because I wanted to make infographics.
My theme was about immigrants because well, my looks, my nationality and the place where I grew up and still live are all very different. I did my research on Hungary, the place where I live and the Netherlands and England, which are places where I might go.

Since I am very illustrative, I had a hard time using just typography to create a poster. I chose to make an image from letters and made an infographic using a hundred letter of "i"s which each represent a person (1 %) and colour them by using my information on immigrants and a skin colour map.

My main introduction is about being an outsider because of one's looks or nationality. By choosing my theme I was mainly influenced by the changes in the educational system and the rapidly growing anti-foreighner mentality in Hungary (in 2013, 40% of Hungarian residents are said to be racist by tárki.hu).
In the next three images I colour coded each country and used their own language to show information. These images were drawn to show stereotypes, introducing the countries.
The last six images are all infographics showing some information on immigrants. The left pie chart shows all residents and the right pie chart shows immigrants only, which holds the exact same information as the bottom three images.
 
Admissions
After arrival we all had to wait in the canteen. I had a great chat with other participants, mostly with Product Designers. My first thing to notice, was that I really stood out. The school was full of people with wild looks (piercing, vibrantly coloured hair, daring clothes, etc.) and it kind of felt like I didn't belong there. Also, I didn't get a chance to talk to other foreigners (if there were any).
After waiting for 15-20 minutes, they finally called all Graphic Design participants to go upstairs and put down our portfolio on a table with our name card for the first round, then we had to return to the canteen and wait for a few hours. They provide free wifi in the building, but a book would've been nice to keep my mind away. Waiting for the results was quite nerve-racking.
After those few hours they call us again, and we are led to a room where a speech was given. After going back to the portfolio-room we had to grab our portfolios and go home if the name card was still on it, or otherwise go back to the canteen and wait for the second round, which was the interview. I honestly looked through everything to make sure I don't unnecessary wait in the canteen. Heck, I even looked under the table and searched a bit around the portfolio that was next to me.
I started to panic after waiting for 1,5-2 hours in the canteen. All my chat-buddies went home and the place started vacancy. Still I assumed they either forgot about me, or there was nothing to forget, because I simply didn't make it to the next round. In the end a few second year students sat with me for a chat and helped me figure it all out. Turns out I was last to go (I waited 6 hours total that day). They gave me some tips on the interview, for which I am thankful to this day.
The interview went pretty well. The teachers were very polite and listened to what I had to say. I'm happy they liked my home assignment and they appreciated my works in the traditional media as well. They also told what parts of my portfolio they didn't like, which I really liked.

Results
After a week or two I received an e-mail that I was accepted. I still haven't decided which school I want to attend. All I heard and know about HKU is that the first year is traditional media only, the teacher-student relationship is great, but the school is a bit messy and unorganised. Also, what I know is, that animation students tend to want to go there.

Oh, and I got on the wait-list at Edinburgh College of Arts, which is pretty neat.

Sketchpile

Wunderbaum

Bring me to the cliff this December

Me and Bear. Christmas cards for this year.

Memory of Bakonybél

Fall break came and I have been to Bakonybél for a few days. I was planning on painting wonderful forest sights dressed in autumn, but Sunday night the first snow fell. The next day we took a hike in the mountains and although I decided to paint another time, it was the most enjoyable day. Stepping on the fresh virgin snow and making it crunch under our old and dirty hiking boots, listening to the forest sounds; I never thought winter could be this beautiful. There were times I thought my ears would freeze off and I couldn't feel my toes anymore, but it was all worth it, and I would love to do it again.

One or two days later I simply couldn't resist sketching down a piece of memory from the hike I'd never want to forget. I didn't like the end result, so Bear told me he should have it. I had to mention him, because I'm utterly thankful for these few days. This sure was the best vacation I ever had and he was perfect at planning it all.

I named the sketch My Memory of Bakonybél.

Riot

First message. I didn't know watercolor that well when I made this, so there was a lot of struggling.

Still Death

I don't smoke, but I chose the ashtray in the shop. Had the urge to paint it ever since we bought it. It's a Still Life.

Shoe box

Self Portrait

My very first Art Exhibition

Hello World!
Since I'm far behind from being good enough, and the lack of time I have these days, I never got a proper reason to start an art blog. But now that I'm sick, and after realizing, that without advertising myself right now, I will be nowhere after graduating, I thought why not?
My last push (and only motivation) to starting this was my very first Art Exhibition that I had a few days ago. And let's be honest, starting off a blog with my first exhibition is pretty neat.

Time and place
The exhibition took place in the Trafo Club, in Gödöllő, which is almost an hour away from Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Unfortunately, because of this, only a few of my friends could come and see me, but that doesn't mean I wasn't happy or satisfied. In fact, the 21st of September 2012 was one of the happiest days of my life. The sea of love I received that day was just unbelievable!
It started at 8 p.m., and I was super nervous since I was the greenest and youngest of all the artists, but my friends kept encouraging me and in the end I wasn't that bad, I guess.

this was my stand

I still feel I didn't deserve this, though I'm proud that I managed to come to this day this early. All the people were proud of me, and that's the main reason I felt happy that day.