Week 21-22 (April 17th -30th)Making an Official PublicationThe month long Easter Holiday was a good break from #sticky. We were finished with the off-site 'show' but Andrei, HyeYeon and I felt that we needed a more substantial publication that nicely encapsulated the work as a whole. The '#sticky' stickers is also part of the publication however it was more for the promotion of the event more than the actual purpose and process of the work.
We took this time to reflect on the sticker project and created a publication that included one of our favourite #sticky moments. It also includes information on locations, the Facebook address, and a collective artist statement. Click on the image below to see the pdf version of our publication.
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There are two particular artists that inspired this work, the main artist being Rachael Maclean (please see 'Singapore Girl..." blog) and the other less influential artist, Anne Horel.
Unlike McClain, Anne Horel uses the actual emoticons from the emoji app (the keyboard that every social media currently uses). She shows that emojis have become more than a form of iconography, but has become a language of its own. Just like any language, meaning is not created by the word (or symbol in this case) but context. She re-contextualises the emojis in a new setting of a moving gif-like image that is synchronised to music. Horel is every well-known in the online community, becoming something of a internet celebrity. She's an avid snapchat user and posts her work on Instagram. Week 19-20 (March 6th - 19th)We had such a blast sticking stickers all around London. We carried our stickers around and made very playful and improvised decisions that led to some interesting instances. We did it the day on the off-site show location we chose to present #sticky so that we could attend the private shows afterwards. Some of these photographs are on the Facebook page but here is a collection of some our favourites. Week 18 (February 20th - 26th)The stickers took a couple of days to be confirmed and produced so we turned our attention to the publication of our works. We came up with the name #sticky for our group and decided to get '#sticky' stickers printed as the publication for the event. Because we all had different approaches to the stickers, each of us came up with our own versions of #sticky. Along side the physical stickers, we decided to go online (as it is also a public space). We created a public facebook page called 'Sticky' and used our #sticky stickers for the cover photo. This page includes information about the event, our group, our artwork and information on where the stickers are location. It was updated in real time, where we posted pictures of some of the stickers in different locations. Friends and family (and other public Facebook users) were able to access, follow and like the page along with its contents. Below are some snapshots of the Facebook page online. All people have to do is search 'sticky' in the search engine. This meant that we had to plan out which locations we were going to have our stickers at. We chose locations that were near other off-site shows. It allowed people to stumble across our stickers on the way to other private shows. We timed it so that the our crit will align with the last event on the list.
Week 17 (February 20th - 26th)After much consideration, I decided to narrow the series to 11 different designs (5 Andrei pixel emoji + 6 block text). I really wanted to work with the repetition of the images within the public space but at the same time allow for small variety. The stickers had to have a consistency to them. Cost was also a big part of the production. It was much cheaper to print multiple copies of one design, rather than more designs and less copies. I still continued to stick with fun colours that were eye-catching. It was important that I demanded the attention of the viewers. I used vague, simple but strong words and presented them in pairs to emphasize on repetition. It gives it a sense of rhythm in many ways, very similar to the momentum and pace of the virtual world. The words are to have multiple (or double meanings) very much words and behaviours that are prominent in internet, meme and social media culture. The words are brought into the context of the public physical world and created a parallel of some kind... In the end, they turned out great! Week 17 (February 20th - 26th)At this point, we were visiting sticker printing places and realised they required certain formats and guidelines. I started formatting based on those requirements as a continued to work out the kinks in my designs. The guidelines given by the printer shops caused a bit of a challenge in designing the stickers. Some of the designs I created were either impractical to produce or were too expensive for mass production. Finalising the stickers had to take into account all these restrictions, but at the same time not compromise the integrity of the work.
The pink lines shown in the first two designs are solely guidelines for the printing shop and is not part of the design. I tried both circle and square sticker formats to see how they would look. Week 17 (February 20th - 26th)I continued with creating a variation of texts and formats. I started becoming even more selective as I created more stickers. They became more simplistic but it still held a sense of playfulness and boldness.
Week 16 (February 13th - 19th)I continued to create more stickers, my interests started to shift towards the text and repetition. I was thinking more about composition and combinations of smaller simpler designs, rather than singular and busy designs.
Week 16 (February 13th - 19th)We all created our own sticker designs using the photographs we took in the studio. This is what I initially came up with. I played around on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and came up with different/tweaked versions of the same image. Unlike my illustration series, these designs are popping with neon colours like red, blue, yellow and green. I attempted to create loud and busy aesthetics to create something fun, playful and psychedelic. I made Andrei the centre of the image and included images I found on the internet. Symmetry, repetition (copies) and pairings with text are still evident in this practice. It is aesthetically very different from the collages we did as a group, but connections can still be made between them.
Week 16 (February 13th - 19th)The exercises we had done so far were all using found material in some way. We thought it would be interesting to make out own material by taking photographs of ourselves and see if that could be used in creating the designs for out stickers. The following slideshow shows behind-the-scenes documentation taken by HyeYeon in the photography studio. The photography session led us to take a series of photos involving our facial expressions, hands, and even posses mimicking emojis. I personally liked the pictures of Andrei mimicking emojis the most. I decided to stick to those expressions. Here are the photos I selected to create the stickers: |
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