Task 6: Review and Enhancement

Advanced Professional Practice subject had given me opportunities to enhance myself and develop a more professional personality, I was chosen to be the leader of the entire class, it was time consuming and it was really difficult to be the leader nor the student president, but ultimately I am glad to take the chance to be a leader, I can't say that I'm a great leader, but I have practiced myself to be one. There are a lot of things that I expect myself to do better and I'm still working on to achieve and enhance.

During completing and working on different tasks, I have found my way of exploring myself in a way to understand myself better. I collected different feedbacks, advises and suggestions from different lecturers and classmates then to analyse them on purpose to find a way to develop a better and more efficient work, I critique what I do and what I work on based on the feedbacks I get from people and find a best solution with brain storm by combining different suggestions and advises from people. 

Throughout the entire subject, I had created my work mostly in Adobe CS softwares and iWork apps of Apple. I had read and researched on many tips of editing and the basic design awareness such as the Bleeding lines, create outlines, margin line, the dpi matters and etc. I have also practiced myself on writing formal documents throughout the subject as well, mostly I work with iWork apps from Apple. 

I have dealt with the manager of Publika shopping mall to confirm the exhibition space, it wasn't the first time for me to deal with people outside the college, so I had a confidence of doing so without problems of fears, and eventually I had gained the information what we needed to book the exhibition space with no problems. Curation of an exhibition is a lot of works to do, it needs the people who work for it with the most hardworking attitude, ultimately it will eventually end up to be a happy ending.

During the curation of the exhibition, we have designed flyers that informs the publics about our exhibition and we have also created a public Facebook event as the internet information stands a big part of our time, we spread ourselves though internet and the traditional way - the flyers.  

We had a lot of meet ups in the studio and a lot of discussions about our exhibition to create the best exhibition curation within a team, the team work we had wasn't the best and most efficient, but we'd always end up solving the problems with our brain storms.

Book Project: 坏, Corrupted.

As I have planned for this graduate art project to create a book that contains the artworks that I produce throughout this entire project. Before doing it, I have researched on different methods of book binding and considered different types of book binding to create this book.

Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper or other material. It usually involves attaching a book cover to the resulting text-block. Before the computer age, the bookbinding trade involved two divisions. 

Some of the more popular Book Binding methods include: 

1) Saddle Stitching.  This softbound binding method is one of the most simple and widely used binding styles. Saddle Stitched books are constructed from folded sheets that are held together by staples driven through the crease of the fold. For example, a Saddle Stitched book that measures 8.5″ x 11″ when closed is constructed from 17″ x 11″ sheets that have been folded in half.  Saddle Stitching is the least expensive book binding method and works well for programs, wall calendars, booklets, newsletters, pamphlets and direct mailers.

http://www.paperchase.net/products/softcover-books/attachment/04_smythe_sewn685x489/

http://www.formateditions.co.uk/services/knowledge/stitched-bindings/#1

2) Perfect Binding.  The soft cover books that fill the shelves at bookstores are good examples of perfect bound books. The spine is square and usually printed upon. Also, the cover is generally made from paper stock that is heavier than the interior pages. With the perfect binding method, the book’s pages and cover are glued together at the spine with strong yet flexible glue. Then the three open sides of the book are trimmed to give them sharp clean edges. In addition to the common “paperback” book, the perfect binding method is used for manuals, catalogs and thicker brochures. One of the primary advantages of the perfect binding method is its professional finished appearance.

http://www.handson-inc.com/finish.html

3) Spiral Coil Binding.  This popular binding method uses a plastic or metal coil that is inserted and twisted through small holes or slots that run along the spinal edge of the book’s cover and pages. An advantage to this type of binding method is that the book can be opened a full 360 degrees which permits it to lie completely flat on a desk or table. This makes spiral binding a good choice for reports, sales presentations, proposals, directories, cookbooks and maintenance guides. If necessary, pages can be manually added to or removed from a spiral bound book, though not as easily as with a 3-Ring binder.

http://unicorn.net.au/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=169

4) 3-Ring Binder.  This common binding method is another way to join separate pages into book form. Ringed binders containing loose leaf pages and tabs are frequently used for sales presentations, seminars and business meetings because the tabs allow the user to quickly index to a specific page Three-ring binders are also commonly used for price lists and operation manuals because pages can very easily be added or removed as changes occur. The cover and/or spine of the binder can be printed upon directly, or the binder can be made with a clear plastic overlay which allows printed inserts to be slipped in for the cover and/or spine.

http://www.pinazangaro.com/product/Sale/bryant-3-ring-binders.html?sku=36506

5) Hard Cover. There are various ways to bind a hardcover book. Sometimes the pages are gathered and sewn together with strong thread before the cover is attached. Other times the pages are simply glued together near the spinal edge before the cover is applied. The cover of a modern hardcover book is generally made from pieces of thick, rigid paper board. This dense board is commonly covered with a glossy coated paper for improved appearance and durability. In some cases, the paper board is covered with leather or a similar material. Because the front and back covers are inflexible, they must be created with a flexible hinge area near the spine to allow the book to open and close easily. Hard Cover binding is the most expensive binding method and is used for books that see frequent use such as textbooks and cookbooks, or when longevity is important such as a bible, yearbook or other keepsake. Hard cover books are also referred to as hardback or hardbound books.

http://zekoqyh.idwap.info/?c=bab-blanket-aiti&p=ard-cover-comb-binder

I remember that I had bound a book in first year of my study for one of the assignments in Skills for Academic Learning subject. And here's a link to the blog post of that book I bound years ago: http://kalilasnowjan.blogspot.com/2012/04/creative-book.html I had bound that book by Spiral Coil Binding.

I have considered binding this book that I'm working on with the same spiral coil binding method that I used couple years ago, but I gave up this thought as this method can lose the content of the artwork which I don't expect it to happen. I have also considered a lot of other book binding methods such as stitch binding and staple binding like the method of saddle stitching, but for such a book contented full of graphs and photographs are not such a good idea to go with as it may "hurt" the content of the graphs" and as well as such binding methods might turn out to be very unstable of the book itself.

Miss Nadira is the tutor on this book project as I have consulted a lot about book binding with her, and she helped me and guided me with this book project, she suggested me to bind my book with Perfect Binding method to bind my book, because perfect book binding won't lose the content of the book and the pages are glued the together. The down side of this method is that it wastes quit a lot of blank pages to be glued together than using them to print the content, but that way gives a better outcome of the book.

The tools that I have used to bind the books are:

cowgum glue

Cowgum glue was used as a big part while making and binding the book, cowgum is a very flexible glue that allows you to unstick and reap off the ones are bound together easily without destroying the pages, I have used this glue to bind individual pages to bind all the pages together into a book.

spray mount

Spray mount is also very useful while making a hard cover for the book, but I find cow gum glue more useful than spray mount and I'd prefer working with cow gum more than spray mount, because of tis flexibility. But depending on gluing different materials in different situations, spray mount might be more useful than cow gum glue, for example: gluing something really thin onto a board like form boards or hard paper boards.

metal ruler

Metal ruler is a great tool to help cutting with a cutter or knife, it helps cutting straight with out curving cuts. But be cautious while cutting with a metal ruler, cause you might just end up cutting your thumb accidentally, so focus while you cut and don't distract yourself to other matters. 

bank cards

Bank cards are used for applying cow gum glue to help the glue flatly fit into the page that you are going to stick, you can possibly use your hands and figures to apply cow gum glue, but it won't be as efficient as bank cards, and it will get your hand and figures really dirty and messy.

sharp cutter

And of course a sharp cutter, I have used this tool to cut off the edges of the book, so that the entire bound book will not have uneven edges, and it can be used in many other making process, like hard cover cutting and etc.

hard paper boards

Hard paper boards were used to make a hard cover for the book. But unfortunately it turns out, my book wasn't thick enough to add a hard cover on, and the spine wasn't wide enough, instead I made a semi-hard cover for the book, as I have experimented and tired to make the hard cover with the hard paper boards, it didn't turn out to be good looking. But it was definitely worth a try!

Here I will share some photographs of each pages and covers of the entire book and the final look of the book:

These 3 images above are the hard cover I made but failed a bit in the end because of the thickness of the book that I bound.

Book Cover

The conclusion of this entire book project: I had a lot of fun making this entire book even though it was a complicated work to do and it was time consuming but I have learned and practiced myself a lot while doing it, it is the first time that I work on such a book project, and I'm pretty sure I will be working on creating books this way again in the future. 

Reference:
Formax Printing: http://formaxprinting.com/blog/tag/types-of-bookbinding/

Task 5: Graduation Showcase

I gotta say, this graduate exhibition is the most challenging assignment of all these 3 years of study, the most challenging is always at the end. I am as the student president who's in charge of the entire work flow, and it wasn't easy to take such a huge responsibility, I often snapped at my classmates and lost control with the words I say to them.

There were tons of works to do and to be checked while working, we have made many gantt charts and schedule to follow up with the work flow. First of all we have divided ourselves into different working teams.

Hereby I would like to talk about each team's teamwork as a president. Mohsen is as the V.president and he has been a really supporting partner to work with, he's full of ideas to help and always willing to help, he's a great leader with a nice temper, he would never snap at the problems and he would always comfort the students and encourage us to do our best, and I'm really glad to lead the entire team with him. The event manager and assistant are really responsible as well.

The PR&Marketing team along with the Finance team had a great team work, as they helped us locating a sponsorship to lose a bit off our burden. We have gained 600 RM sponsor funds from Zhung Zhen ltd. and these funds helped us a lot during the planning and making of the exhibition. One thing that can be done better from this team is that they have forgotten to research on different agencies that could possibly explore our creativities and building a good career ahead our future.

The Exhibition team is a blast with the best leader Steve, Steve is a very responsible leader, he is always willing to help, always has this positive vibes while working. He had helped a lot and put a lot into this entire exhibition, and I'd say he could gain a lot of credit through this entire exhibition.

Creative team might be a bit draggy, but entirely they had produced design works but not as efficient. Mohsen gets the most credits in creative team as he's always producing beautiful designs full of ideas.

We have looked up to the last batches who have successfully graduated and curated their exhibition a year ago while working on our exhibition, we also have tried to find inspirations by looking at exhibitions that were done by others around the world. 

We had been through a difficult time picking up a right theme and name for ourselves, and we had asked the individuals from the entire team to contribute their ideas and share what they think of. And we really had a bunch of funny and adorable names for ourselves. 

Our thoughts were messy while choosing a name for ourselves, and eventually with Ms. Nadira's help we had finally decided to name ourselves "SOULS" as in "SOU15" which represents 15 of us. And our slogan is Visual Existence, as in the word "Souls" can be understood very abstractly and can't be visually seen, but through the artworks of our hardworking, our souls were reflected onto our artworks and they are visually existed.

Our schedule constantly changed and was constantly updated as the schedule was intense with tons of works to do on our plates, but we still eventually managed to finish up everything before the deadline which I am very proud of. 

The process of designing the logo was various and alternative, all of us liked different types of designs and agreed with different things, eventually we have decided with the logo by voting at the logos we all like and prefer from the ones that were designed by the student presidents. And ultimately we had decided to go with the design above this paragraph that was done by V. president Mohsen. 

The banner design was a head scratch, we seemed like to squeeze out all of our brain juice to come out with a great idea to design our banner/poster, we have tried capturing motions of our bodies with dslr cameras set up on a slow shutter speed mode, and we also have tried scanning our hand motions on a scanner, but the outcomes didn't seem to be good looking at all. Eventually, I had spent a little time experimenting in the photo studio by myself, I set up the studio tungsten light to let the light shoot from the behind of the subject to have a silhouette effect, and I found it very eye-pleasing when it's black and white. And eventually we decided to go with my idea of this banner design.

The most important part of this exhibition is the layout of how I would like to showcase my artworks in the exhibition, in the beginning, I had a layout sketched down: 

In this layout sketch, I had planned for an M sized panel with the top and bottom panels, but some changes had occurred while setting up the panels, the mall didn't have enough panel boards to be installed, so we had finally decided to leave the bottom panel boards empty and only display the artworks on the top panel boards, so I had changed the layout, I moved the bottom 3 horizontal landscape A3 sized artworks onto the top panel boards along with the 4 A3 sized portrait/vertical artworks and hung the experimented artworks that I had made in the darkroom - the black and white photographic papers contains the exposed objects. And on the side of the panels, I had displayed the back up book cover pages that I had printed as an extra and didn't apply them into making the book  on the top panel boards, and the empty bottom, I had displayed the small black and white photographic papers that contain exposed subject matters. 

My conclusion of this exhibition: I had a great time curating this exhibition, we had been through happy moments, sad moments, angry moment as well as emotional moments and tiring moments, but we all gained a lot through all these treasurable and memorable moments. It was a real challenge to me and real experience of my life time!