Stephanie Fung: Foundation at LCC - Final Major Project + Exhibition Details

Foundation at LCC - Final Major Project + Exhibition Details

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Project 5: I had to create my own brief.

My final project will be exhibited at my university. I am inviting all my readers and friends to attend my exhibition on 28th April 6 - 9 pm for Private Viewing. It will be a great evening to see my work in person and to show what LCC foundation has to offer (plus there will be nibbles and drinks).

What was your project about?

My project is about de-stressing. The interest started when I began to notice how I am easily stressed by social and education means. At Christmas, I was given a colouring mandala kit, it is a Hindu/Buddhist symbol for meditation. Each colour and pattern represented their own meanings and were suited for different types of worries. The designs of the mandalas led me to research why the majority of humans prefer to look at symmetrical objects. The reason being is that our brains are wired to be attracted to symmetrical objects because it’s much simpler for our brains to understand. Initially, I believed I was a visual learner hence I gave the mandala meditation a try but it did not work as well as I intended. Thus, I took a step back and researched further into the causes, symptoms and solutions of stress to figure out which type of stress applies to me. There are two types of stress: acute and chronic. Chronic is long term and requires professional help to solve it. Acute stress is short term, manageable and curable. There are 7 types of acute stresses: mental, emotional, physical, chemical, nutritional, psycho-spiritual and traumatic. After exploring all types of solutions to stress, I narrowed my focus to mental, emotional and psycho spiritual because they were most relatable to me. This led me to testing each solution and figuring out which solutions were most successful. Of course I knew everyone reacts to stress differently therefore I made the project personal and hope that either one of the solutions in the book is able to help the reader.

I wanted to make my piece interactive thus I needed my piece to be in a form where it can be touched. In the end I decided to create a book because it was a great way to contain information and a book itself is interactive. I knew I didn’t want my book to be a factual psychological book, I wanted it to be simple, helpful and fun book that helps to reduce people’s stress.

The final piece.

Did your intended course of action always go as you expected? If not how did you exploit opportunities that arose?

After deciding what stress to research, I explored various ways I could influence my book with the solutions. For example, I looked at colour and discovered blue, green and purple were most harmonising to our minds; hence I could apply those colours to the pages. Originally I was very interested in pop up techniques and playing around with paper because it was an accurate technique which results in a beautiful outcome. I felt that paper itself was quite a soothing material however after researching the solutions to stress it altered my book completely. I felt that adding pop up techniques to the book would have made the book too clumsy and cumbersome to make because I was already fusing embossing, cut outs and acetate to my book. Another unexpected outcome was changing my book into a colouring book, whilst I was listening to music I began to draw patterns and illustrations of how I felt during each song. This in turn, resulted to be the background of most pages in the book, where the reader is able to colour the illustrations.

Research and content. What and who inspired you? Why?

Initially, I was inspired by the golden ratio because it was scientifically proved that most humans enjoy pieces which were made by that technique. This led me to research into Leonardo Da Vinci’s work and made me discover how “The Last Supper” and “Mona Lisa” were all based on the golden ratio. I was very fond of this mathematical technique and made sure that my book dimensions were of that ratio as well. Thus, I learnt how to measure the golden rectangle (using the formula a+b/a) and also decided to make my book hand pocket size to ensure that the book is easy to carry.

Symmetry was also another thing which inspired me, most of my illustrations were made into symmetrical patterns which not only made my book more aesthetically please to look at but also provided a base for my book to keep the pages flow into one to another.

Uplifting quotes were also a main factor to my book, I found these quotes to be one of the most impactful solutions to my stress because when you are stressed your mind tends to wander and overthink. Reading these straight forward punchy quotes tends to set the mind straight because it is easily understood.

Lastly I didn’t want the book to have pages numbers because I wanted it to flow without any interruptions. I believe most of my inspiration came naturally from researching the solutions, it changed the format of the book as I was responding to the solutions. Moreover, I wanted it to be a book where it didn’t matter what page you opened because at least one of the solutions should be able to help the reader.

Experimentation, materials, methods and processes. What worked and what didn’t? Why?

I did experiment with pop ups however they were proved too fiddly and also restricted the number of pages I could have in the book because pop up books usually are quite thick, therefore I did not include the pop up mechanisms.

Majority of the time I was playing around with the design and layout of the pages, I didn’t want the pages to look predictable and synonymous. I tried very hard to make each page relate well to the text on the page. A main influence to the pages were the illustrations I drew, I had to scan them all in before creating patterns out of them for the backgrounds of my book.

In terms of binding my book, I chose coptic binding rather than hard cover because I enjoyed how the reader is able to open the book flat which means it is easier for them to colour it in because it has an open spine. It also required no glue and was simple to sew the pages. However, I found it difficult to have a tight binding because my folios were very thick, this meant the alignment when cutting the pages were a little off because the pages kept moving. Thus, over Easter I had to rebind the books to make the book look more succinct and neater.

Screen printing was also quite a challenge for me. I had forgotten most of the process because I had only tried it once. It took quite a long time to remember how to prepare my screen however the outcomes were successful and I was able to overcome this challenge. Printing onto book cloth worked very well which I used for my boxes; however I discovered that felt did not absorb the paint well.

I also wanted to foil block my pages because they gave a nice sheen however the paper I chose (fabriano) had a much different texture to the paper I tested with the foil. The foil did not adhere to fabriano smoothly hence I decided to not include the technique in the book.

I wanted to make my cover embossed because I enjoy the beauty of seeing the type when there is no type on the page. I named my book ”Calm” because it was a word which best represented the whole theme. Moreover embossed writing on white paper is quite soothing to look at. Prior to embossing, I had to lasercut my design and that was very simple to do because I have had experience beforehand with my previous Kubrick project. I would say the outcome of the covers worked very well.

Additionally, I wanted to contain my book in something presentable thus I decided to make a box. Box making was proven a challenge because I was briefly taught in a workshop how to make a clampshelf box however since the workshop area was closed over Easter I had to prepare everything at university an assemble it at home. I felt that if I had access to the facilities over Easter, my boxes could have been of higher quality.

final piece ft. selena's awesome cat jumper

I made three just in case I make a mistake.

What ideas has working on your FMP given you for the future? How would you approach this project differently if you did it again?

If I were to do this project again I would make sure that the pages and boxes were cut cleaner. Due to being rushed on the last week before Easter, the alignment was not as good as I would have liked it to be. I would also create second or third volume of the book which would include other types of solutions to appeal to a greater audience. Completing the FMP has made me understand myself better. I have come to realise why I become so stressed and with thorough research I have learnt how to deal with it well. The project is a success not only with its outcome but also completing the aim of finding my inner peace. I definitely think that the skills I have learnt from this course are transferable to my degree course next year. Lastly, I have thoroughly enjoyed this project and would love to create an improved version of the book in the future.