Opening night- Exhibition

The exhibition night went extremely well and I was happy my project was a success the freebies were taken, the opening was great sadly I didn’t get my high quality camera along to take the photographs, I however I still managed to capture some photographs.   

 The room had some interesting projects. I was happy my project as it was a success the freebies were taken, I’ve had praise from post-degree students, people who were interested in art and artists who came out and told me that I had really great work, it was definitely a highlight to the exhibition.

 The business cards were taken, I designed my business card in a multi-functional way they could be used as a book mark as well, and they took all I had supplied for on the opening day, I left a batch in my car just in case I needed to re-stock, these second set are to be used on the other day, I’m schedule for the exhibition, but I’m still happy that 75% of them were taken. I’m so glad that I Plenty of interested audiences. 

Exhibition day - last days of preparations.

Tuesday 30^th June we started placing in our portfolios in the rooms, we put them on the set locations we all agreed on,  but certain areas were empty, the reason behind this was that some of the posters and works the students were tasked with designing weren’t up to the full potential and have been taken down.

With the deselected projects, and the empty space, because of not having enough works in the other room which made the room look really dull and simple, we had to close a room on Wednesday 1^st July; we moved everything from the closed room to the other room. I mean we had one complete room that look incredibly well made, but I felt like we could have two nicely made rooms, but I was not that surprised, people wanted to keep on altering ideas, everyday which mainly cost us a lot of time, and that’s the main issue I thought.

The only problem with me is an individual in class or someone who wanted to pull a joke or prank which I’m still slightly furious about.

The overall room did look great, we added new lights that fit behind the skirting, so it wouldn’t look like we didn’t give much thought into it and neither would it distract the audience that much; the exhibition room looked very aesthetic in the eyes of the audiences. 

Final days - before the exhibition

The Last final touches were set, the LED lights had finally arrived, and the little touches of the lights looked very visually appealing and could help make the portfolios and self-projects look more interesting. The idea of the flooring was scrapped and is going to be replaced with carpeting. Hopefully the carpet will complement the rest of the room. The computers were finally up and running too, the logo was ready; everything was set up for the Collective rooms. Hopefully the room will capture the people’s attentions.

My favorite part of the rooms are probably the feature wall, and the hanging table, those things will stand out most definitely, hopefully it won’t distract the viewers’ attention too much and not keep an eye out for the students work. The whole exhibition was a new learning experience, it was stressful, but it had its ups, I mean it was fun and interesting at the same time I am very much happy with the end result.

So finally it came up to clearing up things, and recycling them the fun stuff, people know, after the exhibition is closed all this has to be dismantled. I really hope they keep the feature wall, I’d be mad if they take it down, because it looks so great up there, than just that plain white wall. However, we will be dismantling after all this, so all that hard work, gone. I wonder how we are getting stuff out thinking about it, but I guess there’s going to a lot of sawing and cleaning involved.

Also here are some cool photos of the pre-to-present photos. 

Day 11-12 - final touches

Flooring was something we were struggling with till the very end; someone came up with the idea of painting the floors charcoal black. I personally didn’t like the idea, I told some others I didn’t like the idea, but who knows it might turn out good. I was helping with the finishing touches inside the room, while the others were doing other roles, just in case we needed to hang things, test proofing and all that other good stuff to make sure the room won’t fall apart, but thankfully the room passes the test, the hanging table, is pretty much secure, that’s what was worrying me most, hopefully no one decides to think it’s a place to sit down. 

Day 10 - Exhibition Polishing off

Today we decided to start coating the wood with varnish, I honestly liked the old natural look to it, but it was not a bad idea and if the majority of the students agree it has to be varnished, than let it be varnished. At the end of the day, although intoxicating it might have been the pallets did have a nice new personality to them.

In the other room we were finishing the sanding off everything was finally coming together, and hopefully it would stay like that this time.

The end result was pretty cool. At the end of the day, everyone could tell that the rooms are finally coming along nicely; it was a much better and cleaner result. 

Exhibition construction - day 7-9

Eventually the idea helped us construct other things that fit with the design of the room such as the railings and tables, both of which took time to construct, we had the idea of putting a very similar theme to the other room, and we used different shapes which helped make the room more interesting in approach. Everything was meant to be constructed out of natural objects such wood or metal and the pallets was a great asset for the theme. We made the table hang by cables; the table fit perfectly, looks interesting and caught plenty of passerby’s attention.

Exhibition construction - day 4-6

We decided to use construction tools in order to create these pallets into usable stands. The stands are going to be used for the use of placing our portfolio. This idea was a way to make the use of these pallets more interesting, the original concept for the use of the pallets was to idea was to cover the windows with these installments, but it grew into a more creative and artsy idea and we adapted it to other ideas to help create a more favorable feeling across the room. 

Pallets were later put in smartly to level the average height, in order for the audience to feel comfortable by the way the pallets were constructed. This was in order when taking out the presented work and putting it back on. 

Exhibition construction day 2-4

The original concept a lot has changed, the clean and organic life to the portfolio was difficult to maintain especially for something like moss, the original concept would have worked, but it retained a powerful smell which would not be very appealing to the audience. So we brainstormed a new idea, this newly built idea is a much stronger concept and looks more appealing. It took much more time and effort; however it is being sorted and is looking very appealing. The idea of using wooden pallets even though it’s a cheap material, the beauty of an exhibition is to make things look attractive. 

Exhibition research : 3D rooms

These are some 3D test models, to  showcase what we originally wanted the rooms to look like, however the idea did change.  The rooms mainly stayed with the same overall concept, the only difference is the walls and flooring has completely changed from black to other elements and or colours, the flooring is going to be made out of wood, and the walls have been altered to white instead of black. This makes more sense with the room, because of the colour palette chosen. The coloured walls in the other room is nearly the same, the coloured walls on the sides are actually hung up banners to help promote the students work further.

The artwork and stands are going to be lit with LED  strips, this helps portray different moods to the room, remember each colour represents a different mood, however we need to be careful applying this method, especially since people might feel uneasy due to the many different colours in the room. 

Exhibition Fundraising part 2

As mentioned previously, one of the fundraising projects was to create father’s day cards; here are a few cards that got chosen from the majority. Since father’s day is around the corner, these cards will help out. Particularly, because of the location, we will be selling them at such as the campus, when the students are going to be in campus receiving their results we are going to take this as an opportunity and sell the cards. If we decide to take this further, we might be selling these cards, to public places, because of any remaining cards and so on.

The reason why we did this father’s day card event, is because the mother’s day cards worked out very well, it would be great if this assist us further with the fundraising, because even if we have enough money for the exhibition, it is always better to have a few extra money in store just in case things break, or someone adds in to an idea, which would cost us more.

Exhibition: Sponsors

Sponsors mainly help with gathering resources for practically free. What is in it for the people trying to sponsors you?  People like to be advertised, and if the items you would want is to  particular interest too many others for example: an item such as decoration like plants, a lot of people are interested in gardening, or plants, it is something people can start and learn about and it is not restricted to anything, so if a person does like the decoration and is thinking to decorate their homes, they would want to know where to get it from, this helps the sponsor by attracting more costumers without doing any forms of campaigns to market or advertise themselves. There’s plenty of ways to get sponsors, one is to mainly ask around or get someone to help get sponsors for you.  This someone maybe is a person who knows tactics more, or knows people from the businesses you are trying to get objects from. 

In our exhibition,  we are trying to receive ferns, tires, wooden pallets, paint, lights and so on, each are coming from different companies, and we have managed to mainly get all these things from different businesses, with either a return back, or they have freely given them to us, just approach smiling, friendly and ask them if they could help with sponsoring these items and if they can great, if not move on to other companies, it is always better to try and save money, even if you are not a student. 

Exhibition : Fundraising

To set up an exhibition, one needs to use money, whether it is to buy paint, lights, construct things, nothing is free, but fundraising is an option that can aid you set up a better exhibition. Fundraising can be done differently, for example: throwing a party with popular DJs (the exact prices need to be negotiated with this person, for example 20% of every ticket sold). It could be a simple event such as water balloon fights, selling drinks, foods or sweets and so on. Fundraising is better done in a group in terms of management and raising money; it also helps out if you could also advertise the exhibition while you’re trying to gather the money. 

As creatives we decided to create father’s day cards and sell them to students and other individuals along the way. Not only does fundraising helps you collect money, but it also a way of advertising yourself the exhibition it might even get you fans, because of the particular interests they would have with the topic.

Exhibition thoughts - group work Part 8

I started to edit the video into the following sections the basic shots and creating interesting transitions from one another, the point of this was to have a continuous motion throughout the entire thing, we met up enough times to discuss the exhibition. This gave me a lot of footage to work with, enough meet ups to declare the end result of the exhibition. The style of editing is going to be similar to previous year’s exhibitions, I am attempting to give the video more interest with carefully constructed shots that build a story line to the exhibition and this will hopefully be displayed by the type of shots chosen.

These are the basic shots I’ll be using, over the shoulder, close up, extreme closes up and mid shots. 

Exhibition thoughts - group work Part 7

We split into different type of roles in order to complete our tasks and I was personally assigned to record the process, help brainstorm for new ideas, give perspective about the newer ideas. In constructing the tasks, I started working on a rough storyboard. The storyboard was sketched for me to follow the exhibition, I then decided to detail the storyboard, at least start to make it cleaner, the only reason for this was to keep a clear mind of how the footage should look like, my intentions is to create something that would construct interest within the audience, and this would have to be carefully placed in order for the advertisement of the exhibition to be successful, because it’s a way of increasing the audience and their perspectives towards the exhibition.

Exhibition thoughts - group work Part 6

Setting in with the name glow, we decided to implement other important factors such as the use of lighting we intend light to be a huge factor into our exhibition idea, especially since the name of the exhibition is called glow. Originally we were intending to call it something related to black and white, Yin and Yang, or zeal. The name glow came to mind, because I suggested we use glow in the dark spray paint in the dark room, to make the exhibition look and feel more interactive than it is.  The others suggested to keep it clean as possible. I tried to implement as many ideas to make it more original, because it felt like a blank canvas at first. After having the blank canvas constructed into merging a few ideas, the dark room just reminded me of the portfolio room in the previous year’s exhibition. Which relatedly had similar structures to the one we started mentioning the similarities and how to eliminate them from the schedule. Personally I think the portfolio room which was set to be in the black room. 

Picture of last years exhibition: 

Exhibition thoughts - group work Part 5

I decided to sketch out floor plans after we finished brainstorming for one the room ideas as a group; I decided to dedicate a bit more time with the idea of creating how the area will be perceived and how the area is going to be split, we had initially thought of putting one of the rooms, with our portfolio’s which would be easier for the attendees to be able to navigate inside the room and the other room will be provided with the diverse work from each and every student from the course. The white room, in my thoughts should be where the portfolio's should be exhibited, because of deep contrast and emphasis on the portfolio’s, but it could work in vise-versa, however the previous end of year exhibition had a dark room, which made me avoid a repeated idea, however it did work very well because it was beautifully constructed,  white portfolios and well-planned out light sources, which indicated that simplicity does work well for the majority of the audience. 

Influenced with this idea, I decided to put this into the white room , the only problem with this, is the focus of light to be overwhelming, or it would work because the only colour in the room, would be the portfolio, which will put attendees at ease when they focus on just the portfolio alone. The other contrasting elements would be just the black quotes on the walls, which should be over the exhibition stands on the wall.

The other group members have presented very interesting ideas, which we will be discussing further in the following group session. 

Exhibition thoughts - group work Part 4

When constructing an exhibition space keep in mind the safety of the audience. I mentioned this earlier, but I cannot stress this enough, if an attendee gets hurt, not only will it be ruining the exhibition, but also it might cause severe troubles to the exhibition place, other exhibition participants from exhibiting their work, but it might get you into trouble, but there are ways to stop this from occurring. One of the reasons why we ditched the metal and wood room idea, is because metal isn’t particular safe, there are a lot of people that feel a bit off putting when sharp edges are involved, obviously people can take procedures to make the metal safe, but the mindset of metal and the dangers that come with it will still remain there. So one of the elements to keep in mind is how the place is perceived by others. Secondly, look at the floorplan of the room, have the dimensions, see what is possible, make certain people won’t collide into the presented material or each other, something small such like a carpet could make someone fall, if someone happens to be the unlucky individual that does trip and fall on a particular piece, especially if the piece is made out of stone, wood and or metal, it would be devastating. An incident is enough to close down an exhibition, so the health and safety is something important to consider. 

Exhibition thoughts - group work Part 3

Not liking the name we eventually went from black and white to the name void to eventually coming up with the glow. Glow became a thought after brainstorming what kind of spray cans we were intending to use and was eventually put as a name because of the glow in the dark spray paint. The idea came as previously mentioned from the Avicii video, where they used black spray paint on a white background, which we were intending to use the black and white spray paints on the contrasting rooms; the glow in the dark spray paint was to provide the audience with some interactivity, in order to make the exhibition more entertaining. After this we decided to use quotes coming from the different students around the class and students from the school, we are intending to at least have twenty to thirty different quotes inside both rooms. As a form of light we have decide upon using energy saviors as a form of light this is because of the colours the implement and they are also much more economical. We were thinking of combining both rooms together with the contrasting elements whether arrows or lines to in black and white, this was in order to implement a sort of movement coming from the doors to the ceilings to the other door and this would provide a bridge point from room to room and it could also pave the way for the audience to which room goes first and how the rooms connect. 

Exhibition thoughts - Group work Part 2

Keeping further discussion, after the exhibition elements idea, we started from point A again, and started to discuss what we could keep from the previous idea, such as the ideas of the light and the scent. Looking up a means of inspiration, and seeing what the students have done previously in the end of year exhibitions, and gathering further insight about exhibitions. Eventually agreeing into keeping the element of contrast in the exhibition and wanting to keep the idea minimalistic we decided to go for the name black and white, which then remembering a popular Avicii music video entitled ‘Avicii – The Days’ as a sort of inspiration, of what we could play with using these black and white elements and typography together. The video is just what we pictured to do with the exhibition rooms, keeping it clean, keeping it simple and yet very fun and aesthetic, however unlike the video we have been provided with two different rooms, which could lead to a yin yang kind of feeling to it as well, the black and white symbols, symbolism of balance between both rooms. We wanted it to feel like it was fun to construct and also fun to watch, kind of like an experience that people could see, and it would be very well presented if not rushed. We liked the idea and kept on researching what else we could implement as a sort of interaction for the audience and the exhibition.