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Monday, 20 August 2018

Voices Festival 2018

The Voices Festival 2018


Recently on August 15th, I was one of the members of Voices with Soul that attended The Voices Festival, which is a New Zealand Pops Choir Festival aimed at providing students in years 7-13 with the chance to perform contemporary music at a high level and to inspire great performance. Featuring over 25 schools and nearly 40 groups, it is the largest vocal festival for schools in Canterbury!!

Since I've been at Hornby High School, I have been to this festival twice. My first time was in 2016, which I thought was such an awesome year! But Voices with Soul then compared to now just amazes me because of how much we have grown and our sound has developed so nicely that we now blend like a true whānau!! 

This year, I was super excited to goto the festival as we were unable to go last year due to some technical difficulties with getting the dates wrong.... But this year we were onto it and organised! There was also a new venue this year, at the YMCA in town opposite the Botanical Gardens.. and I thought it was actually a really cool venue with lots of beautifully big studios where we spent the day preparing for our performance in some really cool workshops!! Personally my favourite was the acapella one we did with Jullian Hay who is apart of Voices Co, I really enjoyed that and have actually now considered joining one of their open youth acapella groups!! After the workshops we had some spare time to get ready before soundcheck and so us girls got ourselves looking all dollied up, but after the soundcheck nerves started to kick in, I don't know why but it doesn't matter how many times I go on stage every time feels like the first time again and I get really nervous. But the atmosphere was so  positive that when the show started and we actually got up there, I felt at home and in a complete state of flow. The stage felt like my home, where I belonged. And afterwards I was just so happy and overwhelmed with how well our performance went, and I was so grateful for the awards we received. Overall I think it was definitely a highlight to my year for sure, and I can not wait for next years one now!!!!



Wednesday, 28 February 2018

Design 2018



31/10/18

So I finished my Folio today!!! Technically I actually finished it yesterday, but after a malfunction with the paper, we had to quickly get paper couriered to the school and it arrived today... and I ended up with completely different paper to what I used for Panel 1. So I have finished it all now, but if there is enough ink after printing the level 3 folios then Mrs said I could reprint Panel 1. So this will not be my last blog post. I will do another one in the next few days just to do a wee reflection on this year like I did with my level 1 folio!



28/10/18

So I have been doing some hard work over the weekend to get my Panel 2 of my folio finished as it was supposed to be handed in on Friday for marking. However, Mrs is really kind and gave me a few extra days to finish them off.. so I thought I would do an update and say that I am quite happy with my poster designs! I think I will leave them as they are unless Mrs says otherwise... I'm just really happy with that final poster so yeah hopefully the first thing I do in class tomorrow is to print my poster work off. Then hopefully I can finish my t-shirt designs during that class also, if not overnight so that on Tuesday I get it printed of and stuck on my board before it is sent away Wednesday!!! Ahhh it's just so scary and cool to have that feeling again of almost relief that everything you have been working towards has come together but then the fear of how people are going to view it and grade you


21/10/18

So we had today off for Labour day and so I did some brainstorming for Panel 2 today. I will be re developing "We are all equal" and it kind of sparked a thought of my work from last year. So I was looking at my Level 1 folio to see if anything could be useful in my t-shirt or poster designs, and I think I could definitly pull some inspiration from it and develop it to generate something out it!

I'm also going to be looking at Shanti Sparrow for some inspiration of my layout for the poster as well as Barbara Kruger to play around with grayscale and bold red but instead using a bold pink and layering that with Paula Scher as my influence for the Typography throughout Panel 2. But for tomorrow when I get back to school I really need to work on the t-shirt and get more sketches and concepts done for that! And i really just need to crack down on everything this week, and spent intervals/lunches, after school even and any free periods I have to get it done!



18/10/18

So I have been trying to update my blog this week but it keeps on freezing like every time when I am halfway through writing it and I am starting to get really frustrated.. it has been another whole month since my last blog post and so I wanted to update it with some good news. As shown on the left I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED PANEL 1 which shows my brief, mood board, colour palette, logo design and phone case designs!!



But bad news is I only have one more week to finish the entire folio so I only have this week to get Panel 2 finished (worried emoji) and so I decided to only do two more mini briefs on Panel 2, being a t-shirt and poster. This is because I did not think I had the time to finish 3 mini briefs in 1 week.... so I had to adjust my original brief and re-print it but yeah now I have decided how I would like to layout Panel 2, I just need to get designing away now. I will do an update blog post earlier on next week.




03/09/18

Okay not trying to panic but we only have 22 days until our folios are due (after all this time I also just realised folio was spelled with only one 'l') and I am starting to stress. It is currently the holidays and I am still working on my Phone Case development at the moment and hopefully plan to have that all done by the end of this week. So I am just quickly updating my blog because it has yet again almost been a month since updating it. I am really happy with how the development is going and I think I just need to make it a bit stronger concept wise and then yeah just keep developing until I get something that I am happy to work with for my final phone case. I did try to retake some photos and develop the hand (with my skin care cleanser as the outline lol) to hold the megaphone but that did not turn out as I had planned so I decided to scrap that idea and go back to the drawing board.



15/09/18

Last week went super quick, and there was actually a lot of progress in my design and surprisingly it was the week when my friends were not in class... lol. So I have now officially, finally finished logo designs!!!!!! Although I probably won't be printing them and getting them onto my folio for a few more weeks to come... But that's okay... So after taking in everyone's feedback on my poll of which ones/aspects of the logos they liked etc; I decided to combine all of their perspectives and opinions into my final logo. And honestly I know that it took a while but I am happy with the end result and I am glad Mrs kept pushing me to keep developing because I really do love it.

So today I started looking at concepts for phone-cases because it is getting really late in the term. But I think now it will just flow on really easy since finishing my logo. So for the phone case when sketching I came back to an original idea I had for the logo with the speakerphone... and then I also decided to incorporate that with one of the says I used for my logo "We are all equal".... so I wanted to play around with this idea when digitalising it I didn't know if I wanted it in the same font as my logo... So I actually did a combination of two different fonts, and I might that I might just continue more to play around with the harsh/sharpness of the edges so I might just smooth them out a bit, then I will look at the colours and see which is most effective on black and white space etc;

But other than that I'm just going to keep sketching and then digitalising etc; over the weekend and then take these ideas to school and see what Mrs thinks.. But so far this year I know that I have neglected my design work,  and it makes me sad because I love design... So I have made my goal have this case conceptions finished by this week and getting onto developing. Then the last week of term can be done finalising the case and then during the holidays I need to be planning concepts for my t-shirt merch, as there is not a lot of time left in the year... Although, I can not and will not let the stress get to me this year. Positive thoughts make for positive outcomes so I am just going to keep pushing forward and hope for the best outcome.


07/09/18

So I want to be able to finalise my logo this week so I have decided to print off some rough paper copies of my logo concepts, development and final logos just to check out how the layout looks on my board. Then I am also going run a poll to see which one my friends/ teachers like and then I guess I will just choose one.





17/08/18

I know I only blogged yesterday, but it's better than a whole month ago right? So I wanted to post a little update because I have had quite a huge development in one day that I thought I would compare with the photo to the right--> to the one in the blogpost below. And like I said yesterday I was coming into school today and that's where I managed to get lots of mahi done FOR ONCE!!! Because I don't know for some reason when I'm at school I don't actually feel like I'm in the creative flow anymore, which could actually be because of all my extra pressures n things this year? and I'm just always to stressed and thinking about so many different things that I'm not in the right mood to be in a creative design flow. So I was really quite proud of myself actually because it is hard to try get myself into that flow but Mrs Cairns was such a big help and gave me a good kick start with helping me develop the fist further than what I had done. As well as Mr Collins, whom I actually haven't spoke much to before and he gave me some really lovely feedback on all the ideas he liked and could see I was trying to play on!!! And yeah he just gave me a really positive boost! So talking a little more about the development so yous can understand what I have done since yesterday  -  I know the photos a little blurry but as you can see their are 5 different A4 sized artboards there where I've kinda just put different bits all over the place for now. But that will be the layout for the rest of the 1st panel below the brief and moodboard. I will do a sketch within the next few days and upload it so it makes more sense but for the top 3 boards that will be my Logo concepts, developments and then I will have 2 final logos. Then the bottom 2 will be my where I will put my Phone Case Designs - so the left one will be split in half of concepts and developments and then on the right will be 2x final designs for the case and because I'm thinking either like at the event you will get the option of two instead of just limited to one....or I might do an iPhone and Samsung which is thinking of my target audience.... so yeah I'll talk to Mrs about that... But I think 2 will fit nicely on the page as well. So within the next week I'm going to try organise the logos out so laying the out in each section the belong in eg. Concepts & Development then hopefully I would have finished my final logos and then finished Logos so I can move onto phone cases!!!!!!


16/08/18

So I just thought that I would do a quick blogpost update while it is Senior Assessment Week and I actually have time to do some posts, and my Art class is scheduled for tomorrow. So I'm just trying to get as much stuff done as I can because it is becoming such a slow process and I am getting really worried... But here is the development on my Logo, I decided to take a photo of a fist and photoshopped it and layered the lighting strike on top. But I still need to work on it and play around with a few more different things first. But I honestly hope that I can finish it by the end of Week 6.


14/08/18

Today I took a photo of Lavisha's fist because me and Mrs agreed that my logo just needed that bit more pizazz I guess (that was definitely not the word that was used though hahah) but anyway I thought that I blog this as it is the original photo and I am going to be playing around with the colours and probably going to image trace it etc;




07/08/18

Before I forget I am going to post this onto my blog. So I was looking at some Paula Scher work because Mrs wanted me to look at her typography for my Logo and I came across this photo... I think it kind of reflects what angle I was going with to start with which was like the megaphone thing I sketched for a logo design. Although I did not follow through with this design I would like to incorporate this with maybe my poster?? Or yeah I don't know I just thought it would be something cool to pull inspiration from.

I also thought that I would take this opportunity to post some of my logo development as well (YES I AM STILL WORKING ON IT SADLY) because I have not posted any of that progress for a few months as I realised that I have not updated it in a very long time! I hope to have this finished by week 5. Because I feel as if the rest will just flow once I have finished I will have the base of my event done - The logo - so I know that the rest will be a lot easier to finish. 



06/08/18

So I have now (I think) finished all of my Art History assessments now!!! They are ready for Mrs to mark so now I can just focus on practical work from now on.








23/07/18

Wow it's the first day back of Term 3 and I realised it's been a whole other month since my last blogpost and I'm low key disappointed in myself because I used to religiously blog last year, I LOVED TO BLOG! But this year I just haven't found the time to do it, and it's been so frustrating because it is challenging my time management skills, and I feel like I have all this time to do everything, when I don't and I'm like burning out.  But since my last post I finished my Art History essay on Shanti Sparrow and Mrs is yet to confirm if she wants me to add anything ect; but I just went straight ahead and got a start on my last one which is on Paula Scher. I have asked Mrs Clemence to choose a piece of work for Paula Scher as I am still unsure on which one to do, but I have got all of my background information ready. I will admit I have not made much progress practically, and I honestly don't even have an excuse I just haven't had the motivation to do be practical because I am so worried about everything else going on in my school and personal life. I've just been very drained but I just don't want to continue thinking negatively because I am really bad for thinking negatively about myself... I am really my own worse critic, but I really need to buckle down because I only have this term to do it all......


20/06/18

It has been a little while since I did my last blog post. I do plan to try do them at least every 2nd Friday otherwise just whenever I can update them. However it's been a little while now because last week sadly my grandad passed away so if I'm going to be honest school work was not a priority for me. Although, I have had more development that I thought I would post about incase it looks like I've been doing now work for the last 2 weeks...

So I have now digitalised the 5 logo concepts I chose out of the 15 rough paper copies I had. And so I just played around with different things like the pen tool, shapes, brush marks, text and expanding ect; and I somehow managed to get that done at home within what would be 2 period at school and I was actually really pleased with how it turned out!! They all look like how I'd imagined them to when I sketched them out the first time. So like the "Leading Female Futures" Logo Concept in my last blogposts were developed from the top 2 Logo Concepts in the left image. The lightning bolt/Equal Power concept wasn't actually my original one though, it was developed so when I put it on my board I think I will need to use the original one and the other for development. So then in the right image is some more development on that one particular logo concept with the lightning bolt. I will continue to do for the others as well.  I hopefully plan to have all of Logo stuff done by the end of Term - End of Holidays. I have also almost finished my Art History on Shanti Sparrow. Hopefully by next week I can start my final Art History which I am hoping to get finished by the end of Holidays which in a way could be stressful as the first week I am in Auckland for Te Wero Pakihi. However the last week of holidays I will balance the workload with getting enough rest and energy to start Term 3!!!!





08/06/18

For the last 2 lesson I have been working on some more logo developments and I have really been getting in the flow with it.

So my next steps will be using the other logo ideas I have about "Equal Power" over the weekend and see what I can come up with design wise and then on Monday I would like to work on my Art History....



06/06/18

So within the last 2 days I have actually had so much more development and progress in my logo designs which I am so happy with!!!

At first I was a little scared of the Macs but I am starting to really get into the flow more so that's good, I think from now on I'm going to get things done a little quicker now I know what I am sort of doing. I am feeling more comfortable with my Mac and I am really loving Illustrator even though I still know so little about it... So today what I did was took my rough sketches and made a finished sketch to scan and start digitalising. So this is the start of my first logo concept and now I am just going to continue developing it further, doing some more design ideas and then making those  digital as well.



04/06/18

We are now in week 6 with 4 weeks left of the term and so I'm pretty sure Mrs was going to start going through our boards and discussing what level she thinks were at... and so for the last week I've just been working at developing my logos further out of the 5 I choose (finally).

So I'm just going to continue that this week, as well as do some work on my Art History, it's a bummer because we had today off school for Queens birthday so we missed out on a lesson for this week. But I think I might start coming in during intervals and lunches that I am free to continue working away at things.


27/05/18

So since last posting on my blog I got my brief and mood board onto my follio. And now over the weekend I have completed my first rough 15 sketch generations for my logo (technically 18 but more the better) Tomorrow I will show Mrs to see what she thinks and then I guess I have to choose 5 to continue developing, but I will be spending tomorrows period on my Art History. I would like to finish the Shanti Sparrow one as soon as I can but preferably by week 7. So the more I work at it the faster I will get it done and can start the last one in week 7 and then hopefully I can finish it by end of term if not theres always the holidays.


13/05/18

I thought it was about time I did another blog post while I have the spare time to write it because it's just been hard trying to find time to do things. So since the last time that I blogged on here I believe I have made some very good progress.

We are now about to enter week 3 of term 2 and I have now completed my first Art History essay on Barbra Kruger which Mrs said is at the level of Excellence so it is now my mission to get the other 2 finished by the start of Term 3. I have started on my next artist Shanti Sparrow and am currently researching for some information about her and a little bit about her personal background, education history etc;


 

And last week I got the right software on my Macbook for Design and since then I have been in the flow just doing my thing and working at getting a mood board made for my board (which I have completed), finalising my brief and starting logo concepts.

Tomorrow I will need to sit down and talk to Mrs Clemence about my brief because last term she said I should refine it a little bit more so we'll have a discussion then I would like to get my brief finalised and finished by the end of this week, and as you would've seen in my last post I have started ideas for my Logo but will need to start getting more in-depth and have sketched logo concepts done by this week to have my concepts ready to go onto my board by the end of week 4. So what I have done so far is finished my mood board which consists of research - to do with feminism, and then my Artist Models and some of their work that inspired me for my own designs and then colour palettes. And I used the honeycomb shapes because I thought they were cool and would like to use that shape throughout my designs. I have also made a layout plan of my board. Which has my current brief and finished mood board on it. Then I have also done the layout of each of the things I am designing and they're divided in sections structured as "concepts, development, final design"



1/05/18


School is back and I feel super refreshed and ready for another Term! On the first day back the first thing I did was make a board layout plan and it might change but not likely. For the first 2 days of being back, I've been working on developing ideas for my Logo because Mrs has been away.  I think so far I'm definitely on track with that because we have only been back for 2 days, and my ideas have been flowing and I'm both really surprised and happy about it. In the photo on the right on I've done some rough drawing ideas, inspired by some that I seen online with on the better copy of paper I've started to put ideas together for certain purposes and create an overall meaning. So for the rest of the week I am going to continue working on those Logo concepts.

Then once Mrs Clemence is back I would love to sit down and have a catch up with her and talk about my theme as she still thinks it needs refining, my art history and what needs to be on my mood board. Then after talking with her I will spend the next 2-3 weeks putting together my mood board, finishing my first Art History and finishing my brief. But by week 4 I need to have my brief, mood board, and first logo generations done. I also want to finish my Art History by Week 5 at the latest as well, I thought I would be done quicker but the truth is that's just not possible for me with a lot of other assessments to do.
I think so far I'm definitely on track with that because we have only been back for 2 days, and my ideas have been flowing and I'm both really surprised and happy about it. In the photo on the right on I've done some rough drawing ideas, inspired by some that I seen online with on the better copy of paper I've started to put ideas together for certain purposes and create an overall meaning. So for the rest of the week I am going to continue working on those Logo concepts. Then once Mrs Clemence is back I would love to sit down and have a catch up with her and talk about my theme as she still thinks it needs refining, my art history and what needs to be on my mood board. Then after talking with her I will spend the next 2-3 weeks putting together my mood board, finishing my first Art History and finishing my brief. But by week 4 I need to have my brief, mood board, and first logo generations done. I also want to finish my Art History by Week 5 at the latest as well, I thought I would be done quicker but the truth is that's just not possible for me with a lot of other assessments to do.


22/04/18

Forgot about blogging. Again. But it's the the first week of holidays so I thought why not do a blog post to discuss the progress I made this last term and my goals for Term 2 to keep me on track. Overall I think I did reasonably well last term considering I had some time off school, and a lot of other times out of class due to public holidays and simply just being a busy year with Year 12's always having opportunities like Mai Biz, UC Discovery Days, and Music Workshops ect; but I am still happy where I am at.

So this term I focused on developing a concept/theme, structure of my brief and researched some artist models to start my Art History Assessment. The artist models I have decided to study this year are Barbra Kruger, Shanti Sparrow, Paula Scher and Julien Pacaud and as you would have seen in a previous blog post I am currently doing my first Art History essay on Barbra Kruger's "Who's the fairest of them all" photographic silkscreen print. I think I would be more than half way through but no where near finished at the same time. I am just waiting for Mrs to make some more comments on what I could further develop on, and/or add to it. I would hope to finish it by the start of the second week back of term. I would also like to finish the other 2 Art History essays by the end of Term 2, or first week of Term 3 at the latest.

On the other hand I managed to develop a good concept and theme that is what I believe in and have a strong opinion for as well as structuring a good foundation for a brief, I did narrow it down a bit more but Mrs thinks it still needs more refining to it so I think that is something we will need to discuss in the first week of term. There is a lot I would like to talk to her about so I'll make a little list of things and then ask her for her time to go over at least some of the things within the first week back so I can plan what I need to do for the following weeks. I also would like to start playing around with designing on the macs during the first week because I need to have my first generation of logos onto my board by I think week 4. So if I'm not discussing with Mrs or planning for the next few weeks then I think I should be on the macs playing around with it and get familiar with it because I used it once last year briefly and I didn't really get it at all so I'm going to have to be very patient with it.

By week 4 next term my brief, mood board and first generations for my logo should be on my board. That will be my main priority, so I will spend 3/4 periods on practical so that will mean either discussing things with Mrs first, designing logos, working on the brief, or putting together the mood board (since I altered my theme I will take things from my original mood board and add other things to suit my theme now) then the other period will be spent doing Art History, and I will also work on them both in my own time.


30/03/18

So it's now the end of March and I haven't done a blog post since half way through the month...
A lot has been going on and I just spent the last 3 days at Mai Biz,  and I'm just not feeling as on top of things as I did this time last year..... However, I think because of my injury at the beginning of the year and being sick a few times I have been feeling very stressed because of it, and it has made me put a lot of pressure on myself. So a lot has happened that I haven't blogged about.

First thing is that I slightly adjusted my theme. So instead of focusing on sexual assault and domestic violence for my event I thought it would be a little to heavy and when it comes to designing it could be too complicated. Therefore instead I have decided to make it an event to empower females and address equity and equality. Its more simple, but still a strong theme where I could really create some cool designs! I can already visualise things in my head already! So I have made some really good progress with constructing a good foundation for my brief that I'm pretty happy with. Throughout the year I will probably add bits and pieces to it, but I think for now it covers a lot of what the event is about and all the specific details at this very moment.

I'm also half way through Art History which is due at the end of the Term... This is more of what I'm stressing a little about, but I'll check in with Mrs Clemence on Wednesday and see if she can give me a few comments on it because honestly this year for Art History has so much harder than it was last year!! I need to have finished 3 Artist Model Researches before the end on Term 2! So yeah I'm starting to get anxious about that because talking about design med ia has been difficult for me. However I'll eventually get through it... but I think because I've finished my brief I can focus the rest of the term on to my Art History to get that finished! Then I will be able to get a rough start on my second one during the holidays.... So that means I only have 5 periods left to get that finished because of Easter and the UC day I'm attending so there is a lot of effort I'll need to put in at school and in my own time to get this finished to an Excellence standard.



15/03/18

It's been 2 weeks since the last time I blogged because I've been really busy trying to catch up with everything in all of my other classes and I feel like I haven't prioritised this class like I should of. But I have actually made some good progress, I'm just not exactly where I would like to be this far on in the term. However I have created a mood board that is really going to help me with creating my brief and having a solid idea on my direction and focus for this year. It took me like 4 periods to get it done but I like to take my time with things and get it right! I've also started my art history and decided to choose Barbara Kruger. I chose her untitled who's the fairest of them all because I think it says a lot about  gender inequality and the perception of women having to be beautiful. I guess in a way it does tie in with my theme so it could contribute to me figuring out how I want to design this year. So I've done a few paragraphs on some of her background information, and a bit about the piece itself. My goal is to have finished this by the end of Week 9 so I'm going to really try focus on this and get it done!! As well as obviously still working on constructing a brief because I'd also like to have a finalised brief by the end of term.



28/02/18

Since being back at school it has been a little stressful having to catch up in each class but I think I've made a good start to the year so far in terms of knowing what I want to design and working on a brief! I have a lot of ideas but I'm still working on narrowing it down on specifics and more detail. I do want to create a mood board for all of my ideas and to get really specific on the where, time, date, colours, guest speakers and music for the event and really get to the detail!

For the last few days I've been focusing on my Art History. Last year I got an Excellence on this assessment so I'm hoping for that this year as well! On Mrs site there was a slideshow to go through about Art History, showing some exemplars, criteria ect; so I just wrote down some notes from that so I can remember and bare in mind some of those things while doing this assessment because like I mentioned I really want to get an Excellence!

I only have 2/3 of my artist models decided. I'm going to be using Shanti Sparrow as one of them which I've already talked about in a previous blog post! And Barbra Kruger who was a feminist
artist who I'm really interested in! A lot of her work uses typography and she mainly uses the grey scale and the colour red in her work which is is bold, clear and in a way is confronting. I came across her work today when I was going in to a more depth research on the history of feminism and while doing some research on feminism I found her! So now I just have to find a 3rd artist model! Also while learning about the history of feminism and learning about the different waves and movements I think it helped me gain a stronger understanding on my 'why' and the direction of where I want to head!!

 I also really found The Riot Grrrl Movement Art was really cool and I loved the style of the designs!! I think they are going to have a lot of influence and impact on my designs this year I might use them as my 3rd artist model. I'll look into it.



21/02/18

Today was my first day back at school for a while so I wasn't really sure what was going on. Although I did then manage to make a start on ideas and plans for my brief going more in depth on my 'why' and 'things I care about'. So I would call myself a feminist and one of the things I feel really strongly about is equal rights for females because we seem to have the short end of the stick in life. I love talking about all the issues surrounding females like their equal rights, having a voice, speaking out about sexual abuse and domestic violence ect; and I don't love talking about it because they're really funny to laugh at or gossip about, I love talking about it because it isn't talked about often and people don't feel comfortable talking about it. And I think it would be cool to confront people with that and when I think about people not wanting to address issues like these I constantly ask myself why? Because we need to talk about it, because nothing will change if we can't even simply talk about it. A perfect example of this is Donald Trump, he recently tweeted that it was too early to talk about gun violence, but nothing will be done if it is not spoken out about. So now I have a strong idea on what my theme is for this year I'm going to spend the rest of the week looking at the exemplars online of the Excellent and Merit grades and I'll write down some notes comparing the 2 grades just to know the difference between the level that's expected and to understand why they got the grades they did because that's definitely what I'm aiming for this year! Then next week I want to focus 2 periods on my Art History paper because I have barley got a start on it, I've only chosen 2 Artist Models (in last blogpost) but I think I will do the actual assessment on Shanti Sparrow because there a lot more information on her.



13/02/18

Last week I was looking at some artist models to reasearch and I was really interested in Shanti Sparrow and Kellyn Walker. They have both been named as one of 33 Women Doing Amazing Things in Graphic Design. They have completely different design styles, however I really like them both!! I would love to incorporate some of their design styles into my work this year!

Shanti Sparrow is an award winning Australian designer and illustrator. Like myself she dreams of living and creating in New York. Her engaging posters and brochures catch the eyes of many with her vibrant and bold approach to design. She creates brands filled with individuality and personality. Her expressive typography and well thought out colour palettes create memorable and iconic branding. She collaborates with many people to create awareness and raise funds for important humanitarian, environmental and research based causes without profiting from it herself. She loves animals and the environment which is reflected much through her designs and illustrations in the children books she writes. The layout to her work is simple but effective and all the details are right there in front of you to get the point across straight away. I think her work is very intriguing and when I look at some of her work I would  really like to use this kind of style in designing posters, specifically for a teenage festival and I think this style of design would be the kind of design that would catch a teenagers attention - it's colourful, appealing and nothing to complex, simple but really well thought out.

It was really hard to find any information on Kellyn Walker as her website is currently under construction. Although personally as soon as I seen her work I felt like i had an instant connection to her design style. The summery/earthly vibe in her design is really interesting and although her colour palette is significantly different to Shanti Sparrow's I think the greyscale and odd use of other colour such as army greens and brownish golds are really lovely and they all seem to compliment each other and work really well. When thinking of her design style I can imagine incorporating her style into designing clothing and websites. I would even like to use the nature element to her work with all the leaves, branches and maybe adding kowhaiwhai designs would be cool. I'm not sure if the pentagon image in the right corner of the collage is her work or not and I'm not even actually sure what it is but when I was trying to find some of Kellyn's work I came across it and I don't know I just really like it and I want to incorporate cool shapes like that in my work this year.


02/02/18

Oh how I missed blogging. Today was officially the first day back at school and my first day in Design! I'm so excited for this course and I hope that maybe this year will be less stressful because I kinda have my head around NCEA now but I probably shouldn't say that so early on in the year.... But for the next week were going to be brainstorming ideas for a concept so today I got started on some ideas and started with things I care about...

Tuesday, 23 January 2018

Music 2018

Welcome to my Music Blog for 2018!!


Group Performances:

Song Choice: Any Man of Mine
Artist: Shania Twain 
Composer: Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Shania Twain
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N2k-gv6xNE
Other Group Members: Lavisha and Anna.

What is this song about?
This song was a new form of feminism, pretty much saying that any man of hers has to be proud of her and better tell her that her dress fits right even when it doesn't, and he just has to agree with her and support her! She combined country songs with pop style production and marketing, using video to create a dynamic image, injecting country with a more uptown style, and taking control of her career like no female had ever done in Nashville before. Shania set new benchmarks for everybody in country music. 

What do I think of the song?
I'll admit it took me awhile to warm up to the idea of this song. I love country and I like a few of Shania Twain songs. However I hadn't heard this song before and so I didn't have much of a connection with it. But in the last month I've started to really love it! I also I think it appeals to me more because of the sassy and assertive tone of the lyrics and it's just such a catchy song and the lyrics are actually quite genius! I think It's also a good song for us girls to sing because it's good to change it up and explore different genres of music. Which this year is actually what I want to explore as a solo artist as well.

Final Grade: Excellence



Solo Performances:

1st Song Choice: A Million Dreams
Artist: Hugh Jackman and Ziv Zaifman from The Greatest Showman 
Composer/s: Benj Pasek & Justin Paul
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSQk-4fddDI
Grade: Excellence 

What is this song about?
This song is about young mans future wife and he tells her of his dreams for the future and explains his confidence that if they work hard for it, they will come true. In the first verse he talks about closing his eyes and yet being able to see, displaying his ability to ignore reality and open not his eyes but his imagination to a whole new world of possibilities, and through the darkest of times, and “the door” meaning the new stuff you have not encountered before. He believes that his world will be a world full of things unimaginable, things that are new, hence the term “opening a new door” and he welcomes people who were not traditionally welcome as they were different. Then then adult version of himself recounts the same dreams.

What do I think about this song? 
I love this song, it's so sweet. When I first listened to it it reminded me of "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles for some reason but I think it's a really good song and in a way very unique and diffrent for me as well. I also love The Greatest Showman and thought I would like to do my own rendition of it. 

2nd Song Choice: Black Velvet 
Artist: Alannah Myles
Composer/sDavid Tyson & Christopher Ward
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkXNEmtf9tk
Grade: Excellence 

What is this song about?
This song is about Elvis Presley form his looks to his music. Some lyric analysis: "Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high" - Jimmy Rogers, an early blues singer, influencing Elvis (the baby) at an early age. The Victrola is the record player, played loudly. "Mama's dancin' with baby on her shoulder" - Gladys Presley dancing with the infant Elvis. "Black velvet and that little boy's smile" - You can buy a black velvet Elvis painting at any respectable yard sale. Early female fans were drawn to his "Little boy smile." "Black velvet with that slow southern style" - Elvis delivered some of his songs with slow, undulating hips. "Black velvet with that slow southern style" - Elvis delivered some of his songs with slow, undulating hips. Check out "Steamroller Blues" live.

What do I think about this song? 
I love this song! It's got a rocky edge to it that I think is different for me and I like it! I wanted to mix it up this year and pick a range of different songs and the reasons behind why I picked this song are 1. because it reminds of being at my grandparents house as a child and listening to all kinds of music with them 2. I loved Elvis Presley as child and I still do now thanks to my grandparents because they introduced me to so much music! I really want to loosen up for this song and have fun with it and bring the sass and edge to it!!

3rd Song Choice: Sober 
Artist: Demi Lovato
Composer/s: Demi LovatoMark Landon, Tushar Apt and Sam Roman

What is this song about?
This song is about Demi Lovato admitting her drug and alcohol addiction that she has struggled with since a young age, dating way back to when she was on Disney Channel. Demi is ultimately sorry that she is not sober which is emphasised throughout the entire song, and specifically says sorry to her mum, father, friends and fans. She doesn't know why she does it every it time but it's only when she's feeling lonely that triggers her and she promises to get help because it wasn't her intention to relapse.

What do I think about this song? 
This song really hits me hard. I love it even though it makes me cry. It's so beautiful and raw. I have looked up to Demi for so long, and knowing that she suffered this addiction while she made me feel such joy and happiness while at home sitting in front of my TV screen really hits me. And it's so confronting, and so sad. I feel so bad for it. As I've grown older and seen how open she is with all of her struggles with mental health, her weight and drug and alcohol addictions she's become so much more of an idol to me, because she is such a real and relatable person. And unlike others who judge her, I believe that people don't choose to be addicted to anything and that's why this song resonates with me. I've known many people with different addictions.

4th Song Choice: Blown Away
Artist: Carrie Underwood
Composer/s: Chris Tompkins & Josh Year
Grade: Unassessed 

What is this song about?
This song is about the chilling, vengeful tale of a young girl with an abusive, alcoholic father. The song describes him as a mean old mister. The daughter can feel a storm coming, and she just wishes it could wash her past away, and in doing so, you know, take her father along. So it's a very, deep, dark story and so visual, when you hear the words and you hear the music, you can just see it all happening in your head. The tornado represents growing up, leaving your past behind. "Til theres nothing else standing", "nothing left of yesterday", "all blown away.."The girl had a traumatic and difficult childhood, and she needs to overcome it. 

What do I think about this song? 
I have loved this song since it came out in 2012! It is so emotional and powerful, and is one song that I have always dreamed of being able to pull off! This year I'm so excited that I can sing this song for one of my solos, and I would really love to do this song justice and portray it as the beautiful and emotional song it is


Final Grade: Excellence 


Composition:

07/02/18

I'm so excited for composition this year that I thought I would get started as soon as I could and then surely slowly get things done at a steady pace so I thought I would do a blog post! I feel as if I have definitely gained some experience over the last year when it comes to composition and I'd really like to continue the same sort of style. I guess I really kinda need to actually figure out what my style even is and figure out how to express myself through my music without caring about feeling vulnerable because that's how you write music. You have to truly connect to it and feel it for others to relate and be able to connect to it too. I think the main thing I do want to improve though is my playing. I think I definitely am better than when I came into Level 1. However, I know that I could be better if I just practiced a bit more and had the patience to kinda just sit down for 30 minutes - 1 hour to just figure out my way to getting better and better. Because I honestly would love to make a career out of this and share my voice with the world. I used to think it was embarrassing to want that because a lot of people say it's hard to become successful in that business let alone in New Zealand. But I know that whatever I set my mind to, I will achieve it and I will get there. I am determined to accomplish all of my goals. I am aiming for the lofty mountain and I will continue to fill my basket with knowledge! I wonder what this year will bring, and I wonder what kind of songs I will produce. I'm really excited to see what happens!!!


31/03/18

We are currently on break for Easter and I thought thought I would do a blogpost because I've been thinking of what kind of songs I am going to be composing this year. I would love to write a song about learning to accept your self because it's something that I've been trying to do over the last year and I want to actually start writing songs that make me vulnerable and emotional because that's what I love about music and so I'd like to do that myself with my own songs.. Similar to 'This is Me" from the Greatest Showman, I want it to uplift people and inspire them to be true to themselves and to be who they are! I want to take people on a journey of discovering yourself and who you are and I think that's the kind of song people need to hear. So I'm really excited to see what I can come up with and I might start looking at different chords and start thinking on lyrics ect; and really start thinking about that one because I want to make it perfect!!! For a second composition I'm not sure what I would do but I definitely know I want it to be something different and unique as well.


25/05/18

For the last month I've been writing ideas down for lyrics and I think that for my first composition I am going to be talking about insecurities and how they can affect you and how people don't necessarily see you for who you truly are inside and they think the real you is the physical you like on things like social media platforms or when they see you walk past them at school etc;  and I really wanted to do a song about this because I have struggled so much with my anxiety and insecurities and learning to accept myself.


04/06/18


So I've decided that my first composition is definitely going to be tackling insecurities like how I mentioned in my previous blog post. I want this to be my first composition because insecurities are something that I have always struggled with and think some people will find it relatable as well which is the kind of music I want to make and share with people. I've come up with a good starting point for lyrics which I'm going to continue developing and I'm leaning towards having for the chorus as "Insecurities have got the best of me, looking at Instagram so anxiously, Do I look to big? and how about my skin? I'm so tired of feeling this away" because now they kinda just give me those vibes so this week I'm just going to start playing around with melodies and chords and so I'm making Monday and Friday my composition days. So because we had today off for Queens Birthday, I know on Friday I will need to figure out the kind of sound I want to have to it and play around with chords and melodies.


8/06/18

Today I worked more on my composition and started playing around with some chords like B major, C# Major, Bb Major and E Major.




11/06/18

Today I continued developing the chords for my compsition and decided to change it a little by using the same B major chord throughout it just changing the singular notes.



18/06/18

Today I started playing around with lyrics and the chords to try make the melody to the chorus. And then I continued onto adding single notes in the chords to create a rhythm to it.


23/07/18

Wow it's been awhile since I've blogged and I feel really guilty about it. Last year I would religiously blog and just do it, but this year has been so crazy that I really have not had the time to do it and I feel as If I have neglected my compositions. But it is day 1 of Term 3 and I am setting a goal for myself now to get my first composition done by the end of Week 4, which is plently of time I think to finish it because I have the core done (the chorus) so I just need to piece together some versus and a bridge.  I also have decided that my second composition is going to be about my Grandad passing away... he passed away last month now and it has just been something I have had a lot to say about... but I just feel like I want to write a song for him but I'm just not sure yet what exactly I'm going to write. But I plan to have this composition finished by the end of Term or week 1 of Term 4 at the latest!!!


30/07/18

Since my last blogpost I have actually been motivated to get things done for this composition because I know that I write a song faster than I have done.. but so I have actually made some progress!!! So first of all I wanted to really focus on getting the beginning of the song fully sorted before I even thought of the verses so as I was playing around with the chords, I managed to come up with a really nice chord progression that I am going to use for the opening of the song to go into the first verse... and then once I had wrote that I was coming up with heaps of different things lyric wise and it kinda just flowed and at the time all the scribbles make 0 sense so I just made a good copy of them for the blog but yeah I came up with pre chorus lyrics and verse 1... so now I just have to do verse 2 and a bridge then polish it all up hopefully within 2 weeks.




03/08/18

I would really like to get my composition finished by the time I go to camp next Thursday because that is what I did last year. And I will feel like I am really falling behind if I leave it any later!! So that is the plan for that one! But so for the last 2 days in music I have been brainstorming lyrics for the second chorus and was going to try figure out to end the song... Although I think I need to learn to take one thing at a time cause I am bad for trying to take heaps of different things on board.. But so the progress for the second chorus went good. First thing I thought when writing the 2nd verse was if I was to introduce positive vibes or keep tracking with the feeling of insecurities and then what people say about you.. So those were my options for the verse and first thing that popped into my mind was "Stick and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" and I wanted too reference that because that's what the try to tell you as a kid, but you know what? It still hurts so I made the verse  "The saying goes sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me, but when I was 13 I couldn't wait to leave High School because of the things they said and thought about me" and so after putting that with the other part of the song it had a really nice flow to it. So I think that I should be finished by the time I goto camp because all I really need to sort out now is the ending of the song.


07/08/18

Today I was trying so hard to get the ending of my song sussed. And eventually after about 20 minutes of internally screaming I came up with the perfect lyrics to end on a positive note because I have obviously overcome a lot of the fears and feelings I felt as a 12 -14 year old. And clearly I'm not bulletproof so I know there will be things that hurt me from time to time but I'm happy and that is what I wanted to end the song on and give hope to others who are struggling to overcome their own... So I did finish that and recorded my first draft for my composition! I'm going to try record this tomorrow before I go on camp so when I get back my 2nd composition is my focus. The photo on the left is also all of the paper I gathered from lyrics and chords ect;


09/10/18

It is the second week of the holidays and I thought I really needed to do a blog post because I have not blogged about my second composition at all since last time.. So for a quick update on that I have been writing lyrics for my second composition as well as some keys and melody since the last week of school and so yeah I'll upload a progress update when we go back to school.


Final Grade: