Journal Day 45

Today I learnt and tried photo printing; a method of printing that uses UV light to transfer an image onto a screen. The adhesive applied to the screen then acts as a stencil, as only the exposed sections can be washed away. This works very effectively for doing thin or tricky parts of a image. I used it to create the outline for my houses. It was quite a time consuming process, taking most of the morning preparing the screen. By the end of the day I had only managed to apply 3 of the houses colours to the fabric.

However I felt the time was well spent. I could quite happily have stayed in the print room until I had finished, no matter how long that took. I find the results to be pleasing and satisfying, with a certain amount of order to them. There is a large reliance on chemistry in photo printing, and less reliance on skill. Sure, you need to be able to design and draw the print but that I feel I can do. Simplistic, colourful styles work best, and that is what printing is now known for. And that is something I am enjoying doing :). I feel that I am/could be good at it with a bit more practice.

This is definitely something I want to take into Part 2 and hopefully also work experience and jobs, possibly a career in the future. I have enjoyed researching printers and illustrators through a few print blogs and would be incredibly excited if I were to ever get to use a digital printer that could take away the painstaking process or print screening that we have been taught so far.

I believe I like printing because to me it feels like the pressure is taken off. I don't have to create beautiful lines or drawings with the skill of my hand with a pencil or paintbrush. I can leave that to the print. I can come up with the idea and slowly watch it become real. I love the bright, fun, simplistic patterns. The gorgeous repeated patterns that I can imagine being in someone's home as a wallpaper print, or on a pillow. I now get excited when I see kids clothes with fun prints on, because I feel that that is something I could design! I like the realistic application. The visualisation of it being used in real life. It is transferable and practical, it isn't just art. It makes us happy when we go shopping, when we buy gifts or decorate our homes. It keeps the consumerists in us spending. It makes for a fun trip out with your mum or your friends. It is something I have always enjoyed and liked. It gives me a way to transfuse my interest in interior styling and decor with the practical hands on side of design and craft.

I am also quite interested in this a subject. The art that has lead to consumerism. How art has become such a huge part of our now extensively visual lives. When did that happen? Why? Was it just because the technology was available and we could have it (i.e greed) or was it because we were bored with the plain lives our ancestors had been living? Are we now all patients of ADHD, constantly needing something to stimulate and excite us? I am. I always need something to be doing. It's nice to have a day of silence and focus every now and then, but I get bored if I'm working without music or tv. I need another story, something else happening, to keep me interested. We need that in our lives. We need the floral patterns of Cath Kidston to put a smile on our face every time we reach for our phone/keys/wallet/bag or whatever else it is she designs now. We need that feel good factor when we buy a product. To know that it is visually correct and acceptable. It has to have been designed well. Not always for function or purpose, but for appearances.

In the 20's it was all about form and function thanks to the Bauhaus. Now we have lost a lot of that. We like products that combine function; that can do two things at once. We want products that are beautiful, even if they do function well. What made us loose the need for the combination of both?

Abiento x