Task 7 - Presentation & Exhibition Research

Journal Entry/Bestiary Presentation Moodboard

This moodboard is a showcase of various examples of artists who have used the same sketched, journal-page style I am trying to achieve with my project. I created this moodboard to help me find and research examples of how other people have presented their work in terms of layout, space management, background style and anything else that I found visually intriguing in the examples I found.

One feature that I found in many examples from this moodboard that I hadn't previously considered, and am very fond of, is the inclusion of a human silhouette to give an idea of scale to the creature design. I think this is a very small feature that won't take up too much of the page that will be able to provide the previously ambiguous scale of the creature in a simple, understandable way, helping the journal page to look more authentic and believable whilst also being able to create some intimidation through the threatening size of the creature.

Something I have realised from this research is how tiny the font size of the handwritten annotation is in these pages, being almost unreadable without getting up-close or zooming in. In my journal page prototypes, I was struggling to fit in decent amounts of information without taking up too much space on the page with annotation and leaving no room for illustrations. Therefore, I definitely think I should take some time to experiment with not only different fonts, but also different font sizes to find a good balance between readability and quantity. I can also plan out some areas in my pages where I vary the font, scale and positioning of text to highlight specific comments or important information, which could help to make the page feel more man-made and authentic than a consistent font size written by a computer, with an obvious idea seen in most of the examples above being a larger, handwritten or script font used for the title of the page.

Another interesting idea I found from these examples is the usage of stains and marks to highlight and accent illustrations. I have already experimented with adding grime and markings to my journal pages to help them feel more weathered and old, but something I have noticed in some of the examples in my moodboard is the usage of strategically-placed stains and darker patches placed around or behind illustrations to essentially give them a shadowy border, helping them to stand out against the rest of the page and appear slightly smudged and sketched. I think this is something really subtle that will really help the overall composition of my page, helping to draw viewers' eyes towards the main focuses of my presentation whilst blending perfectly with the style I am following.

Continuing with a similar theme, another feature I found interesting in these examples was the intensity of the grime and stains around the page and how they varied between examples. For instance, the image in the bottom-right of the moodboard has very visible markings, becoming almost completely black around the edges of the page. In contrast, the example near the top left showing an elf-like character is almost completely plain white with very subtle colour variation across the page. I find that the more intense these markings are, the more aged and weathered the page appears, as well as indicating what kind of medium the artist used to sketch their illustrations, such as watercolour, ink and pencil. This could be something I vary across my moodboards, using more intense markings to imply more intense and dangerous creatures which would help to show the behaviour of the creature at a glance as well as helping to clearly distinguish a difference between my three presentation sheets.

Ideas Generation Presentation Moodboard

Whilst my previous moodboard explored ideas of how journal pages have been displayed and laid out, this moodboard aims to help me in displaying the behind the scenes work that led to my final products, exploring how I can lay out concept ideas, including sketches, silhouettes and prototypes, etc. I'm not completely certain that I will be including this in my physical presentation, but it will be helpful to consider to aid in my final judgement and will also be useful when uploading my ideas generation to my portfolio on ArtStation.

One feature that is common among most of the examples I found is a desaturated, grey/blue colour scheme used for backgrounds and designs. I find that this helps designs to remain visible no matter how light or dark they are and avoid taking attention away from surrounding designs due to grey's neutralness. Additionally, because grey is such a bland colour, it helps the viewer to focus on the designs which stand out against the background.

Another common feature I noticed was colour variation being used in the background to surround or accent designs. I found varying examples of how this was achieved, including straight, rectangular bars behind designs, shadows around the base of designs and glowing, brighter colours surrounding the designs and fading out into the background. I think this is a slightly more risky yet effective technique to implement as while in some examples I find it helps designs to stand out against the background even more, in others I find it to add too much detail to the background, making it noisy and distracting from the designs themselves. Therefore, if I include this feature I will ensure I keep it very simple and try hard to avoid making the background over-detailed.

Another idea I found which I am quite fond of is the inclusion of reference images next to what they inspired. The only example of this I found was the dragon-like monster on the middle-left of the moodboard, and I think it is really effective at showing the artist's design ideas and inspirations and I can definitely see myself using it to present features such as my aquatic dinosaur's shark-inspired heads or my salamander's mole-inspired claws.

This moodboard is comprised of previous presentations created by students displayed around the halls and classrooms that I have both taken photos of and screenshotted from previous student's blogs. These are some of the most sources of inspiration I can take for my exhibition as I can see how other people have approached the exact same task I am exploring and find techniques they have used to help their projects stand out.

One thing I found quite interesting from these examples is the range of different resolutions and aspect ratios used between projects and in some cases even within the same project, mixing landscape and portrait images. I find that this helps to break up monotony in these exhibitions and makes each page look unique and interesting, as opposed to repetitive slides. Because of my journal style, I'm not sure if I would be able to effectively incorporate this idea to display my final products, however if I choose to showcase my ideas generation I may take inspiration from this to display the steps I took to reach my end product.

Something else that stands out to me in a lot of these examples is different methods that have been used to border images. In making this moodboard, I found that vignetting and bordering entire pages or specific features was quite common, and was achieved in many forms including gradients, coloured boxes in the background, lines forming an empty box and more. I find that this really helps to draw the viewer's attention towards important parts of the presentation and helps artwork to stand out against the background with an easily achievable effect. I have already done some experimentation with this idea in my prototype pages using gradients, stains and page borders and I think it turned out quite nicely, so I may try out some different methods on top of these or alter what I have already created to see if I am able to improve the effectiveness of my backgrounds at drawing people's attention.

Another similarity I noticed between most of these exhibitions is that many of these examples display their titles in lighter, often purely white text overlaid onto darker backgrounds. I find that this makes the titles feel really bright due to the contrast against a darker environment and assists it in visibility and weight on the page. I could achieve this in my journal page style by potentially increasing the intensity of markings and stains surrounding my text, making it look as though more pressure was applied to the pencil when writing it and creating an intense, darker patch on the page around the title. However, I will need to be careful to avoid obscuring the title and nearby information, as with the text and stains being similar colours, they could easily blend together and be difficult to read.

This moodboard contains a collection of photos taken at gaming and media conventions, showcasing how developers market their products at events and how they make their images stand out on monitors, banners and walls.

Something unique I found from these examples that I think could be a nice addition to my exhibition is the inclusion of a QR code. This could lead anyone who scans it to the ArtStation page of my project, where they will be able to view any features that I don't include in my exhibition, such as my initial sketches and ideas generation. Additionally, this will easily allow people to look at the rest of my ArtStation profile, inviting people to view my other work as well. A similar feature included in some presentations were links to other social media including Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. However, I probably will not include any of these as I do not have any professional accounts on these sites dedicated to showcasing my work.

Another prominent feature commonly included in most of the examples I found was a very large title usually placed near the top-middle of the presentation, often in a heavily stylised and unique font to help it stand out. This seems to be a really effective practice as it clearly states the name of what is being presented and is usually the first thing someone sees, making it stick in people's heads and provides an easy way to find out more about the presentation by searching the name online. This is also commonly accompanied by some kind of logo, symbol or tagline to help create intrigue in viewers by showing them a small piece of content and inviting them to find out more, as well as vaguely establishing the tone and genre of their presentation, helping people to identify genres and themes they like. I might incorporate this into my presentation with a long, flat board above my designs displaying a message like "CRYPTID DESIGNS", written in a sketchy, handwritten style to display what I have created and to make my exhibition stand out.