PROJECT 2 SENSE OF PLACE

week 8 - week 10

LECTURE AND BREIF

For project 2 we were given a brief , in which we had to observe our surroundings and look for certain design principles in our natural surrounding , look for a place that means something to us or reflects some type of feeling to us and then use them in a design 

CONCEPT

For sense of place my initial concept was to go around places that i grew up in , click a picture and naturally let the picture itself reflect the meaning and idea with minimum amount of editing because of the nature of the project i wanted to be as natural as possible .

So i started my research and experimentation on a low scale such as going around in my own house to observe what kinds of designs can be over looked even though they have always been there , i went around all the rooms and found that most principles shown in my house included more rule of third and geometrical patterns and i started taking pictures which i thought expressed a certain feeling 

i ended up splitting different places into different groups 

1- Inside house 

2- inside building

3-surrounding building 

INSIDE HOUSE 

In my house i found most of the stuff to reflective of comfort and welcoming most of them being very subtle and friendly so i kept my mind on that and started , i did also do some staged photography keeping that concept., i did try to look for other different principles besides rule of thirds such as flow , text and harmony 

Inside house shots 

I clicked all these shots keeping in my to show comfort and friendliness along with the simplicity and expressiveness of the place 

After i narrowed down some shots , i partially designed each of them just to see what i'm working with and how many editing possibilities place photography can provide

ROUGH DESIGNS

I tried this one because of its simplicity and expressiveness but with minimal addition of elements i was more into using the elements in the shot itself , and here i used repetition to give it that design look with simplicity

INSIDE BUILDING 

After exploring a little in close proximity surrounding , mostly indoor my house i stepped out a little to a more wider proximity such as my building lobby , stair case and enterance area to see what i can observe and find there 

For this stage i changed my concept a little to more personel feeling base what i thought of it and why i thought of it like that , maybe if i had an experience there or is it just a simple design , and how many of these i can actually use t express a certain story rather than an emotion 

INSIDE BUILDING SHOTS 

The shots inside building for me were more attractive to me compared to inside house because of the already built in designs , which supported my idea of minimal editing , these also contained some of my potential candidates for final choice

ROUGH EDITS 

These two particulary caught my attention becasuse of how expressive they were of principles repetetion and rule of thirds along with how many possibilities they actually provided me to use for a design 

i was planning on giving them both a haunted theme just because i thought that the pictures themselves expressed that idea 

FIRST CONSULTATION AND FEEDBACK 

In the first consultation miss said that she was rather pleased but we were all in our experimenting and research stage so we can look around for more idea later in the week

SECOND WEEK 

For second week consultation i had taken more shots but this time outside, in the open environment i just walked around my block observing potential designs with a meaning and the variety of ideas and mediums i can use 

OUTSIDE BUILDING 

Once i stepped out i realized that there were a very overwhelming amount of designs and potentials that i can use which led to me having a lot of choices to choose from , in this stage i didnt have a certain theme i was going along with what the picture expressed and i tried to edit them to emphasize that certain characteristic of the shot .

SHOTS 

In this stage i realized that i had to specify down my ideas so after taking a lot of the pictures i started narrowing them down by characterisitics

SHOT 1 

1- The first picture i shot is the cornish right in front of my building, i took this shot on the feeling of relief and free becasuse the area in the picture is where i grew up , it just felt like all of that is my home 

EDITS

i tried to keep minimun editing so i just reflected the area over and under , i also wanted to emphasize on the bright nature of the picture  supporting my welcoming home feeling 

it also showed a certain level of balance 

SHOT 2 adn SHOT 3 

2- The second and third picture i shot was at the same area while walking  i took the picture because it just gave me that feeling of reassurance and hope because of the pandamic crisis these days it just showed how life is slowly going back to normal 

EDITS 

Although they both had the same theme i tried using different mediums and principles to express the feeling one was harmony and th next is typography 

SHOT 4

SHOT 4 on the other hand was a completely different approach this shot i chose because of what he picture expressed instead of what i wanted it to expressed , plus it had a very contrasting element a SHIP made of stone ,#

So yeah i thought of briniging that ship actually to life while keeping it stone 

SECOND CONSULTATION AND FEEDBACK

Overall miss said everything was fine and she suggested to use the first one as it was more expressive of the idea and principles, 

HOWEVER 

During this consultation while miss was going through others work i did pick on a very important point which was 

i noticed miss emphasize a lot on what the place actually MEANT to us and not why we chose that certain place to shoot , more towards MEANING and the principles 

FINAL SHOTS 

So after that point i walked out again  and stated clicking pictures of places which more meaningful to me AND  expressed a design principle 

Again i had a lot of shots it was hard to narrow down 

i took all these at places that i regularly visit of where im reminded of some memories when i cross them and for my final shot i chose 

THE STREET BEHIND MY HOUSE I CALL MY SECOND HOME 

I chose this shot in particular just becasue of the amount of feelings and memories i go through when i look at it , this is a street right behind my building  my building being the one that is reflected on the wall , this is where i literally spent 70% of my life , where i got my first bad habit , where i spent and still do spend time till this days , this place has a lot of years of my life which literally makes me feel like its my home , like i wouldn't even call it a street .

PROCESS

So from my earlier consultations and experience i wanted to go for a emphasize rule of third assymetrical balance type composition  and this the process , theres an explanation at the end 

progress 1

I started with some pretty basic stuff just to catch an idea how it can go , and in this one i thought it was too zoomed 

Progress 2

yeah it didn't take long to get the way i had to go most of my problems were keeping similar size symmetry reflections but it was easy to get around 

Progress 3

i tried a couple ways and i got , after i got the layout done i moved to more minor details like blending of the building unwanted elements in the mid symmetry and yeah it was done

FINAL SUBMISSION WITH EDITING 

I chose this symmetrical balance design because i wanted to emphasize the leading lines of the street into my building , my building being the center , along with that earlier in the consultation miss gave me some ideas to play with so thats what i used here , i cropped the picture into quarters and reflected them horizontally and vertically to get assymetrical balance along with the rule of third leading lines all of them leading to my building further expressing my concept of the street being my home feeling .

REFLECTIONS 

overall i found this project just as interesting and enjoyable as the last one and it taught me how to express ideas in different ways and mediums , even using certain places without a human subject or a facial expressivness 

AND 

Explore ideas but not too much because they become hard to choose from 

FINAL FEEDBACK 

your observation of your surroundings is well noted. Keep up with the practise of being observant as it is important for a designer. The results of your observation and idea exploration is apparent in that they have informed and supported you in producing a final idea that shows your understanding of design principles