MDes Design Communication: Synopsis & Final Video

Exploratory Design Practise Andrew Smith

Synopsis of work completed & projected outcome.

I started off by looking at thing which I have an interest in like hill walking and badminton. I also looked at things which are important to me like, family past and present & friends.

Topics being thought about at the start.

Conversations with the dead! (Came from watching a programme about old people entitled “THE HOME” RTE1).

A road divided! (Thinking about community/ family divides)

Behind doors! (A camera angle showing the outside of front doors, but what happens inside them)

Started looking at Photographers such as Bert Hardy, I came across a couple of his photographs of the city in the central library.

Imogen Cunningham, Bruce Davidson, Walter Chappell and Sharon Lockhart

Looking at album covers, advertisements and print material which interests me.

I took photos when I was out walking and an old ancestral house nearby, trying to generate ideas and thoughts.

The conversations with the dead came back again when I decided to take photographs of headstones particularly the type. I also took rubbings of the stones. I decided to take pictures of a family grave. This in turn led me to an ancestral house where I recorded a few videos. From the photographs I came across the reflections of the graveyard on the stone. This made me reflect and think on the people within the grave although I didn’t know them personally. Recorded some more images and took more photographs, came across letters written by a relative. I decided to combine the letters with photos. Combined the letters with photographs which I took picking out sentences that stood out. Was also looking at christograms and catacombs as influences.

I hope to put together a short video using final cut pro and a series of postcards/posters combining type and graphics.

Final Video

I used Final Cut Pro to combine video clips take. The Video is Called letters, blood & graveyards.

Idea generation behind video