Vis comm folio – halfway through!

As the semester 1 ended last week, my vis comm folio reached the authentication due for Research and Generation of Ideas. My project involves the launch of a new public art gallery in Melbourne CBD, functioning as a creative community hub and artist studios as well as an exhibition space. Presentation one is the layout of gallery building and presentation two is the gallery brand identity and gallery membership package design.

As I love visiting galleries and learn about arts (that’s why I don’t usually go to galleries with my siblings… they will need to wait hours for me until I come out of exhibitions!), it is a fun process to design the actual gallery that makes people want to go and engage in. Reflecting the concept of ‘the gallery for young emerging artists and conceptual, modern art’ on architectural design and brand identity is not difficult, however explaining why and how the designs make you feel or think through the use of design elements and principles is sometimes challenging. Although I am not currently taking Psychology as a vce subject, I find interesting to connect how visual communication tells more than what is in front of us; individuals associate components of the design with their personal experiences and what they have seen them in their lives in the past.

Designing the gallery building has different forms of difficulties. First, I found difficult to understand the proportion between the area of site and the space for different purposes in the gallery. I never have been this conscious of the dimensions of the room, width of corridor, height of ceiling, and so on. When I am coming up with designs and developing them I have to consider how visitors may feel in the space with particular ceiling height, space in a room and how rooms are arranged (on floor plans). It is pretty much all happening in my head at this stage, but I will analyse different dimensions of classrooms at school and impressions of space as soon as term 3 begins. Building the connection between the images of design in my head and the physical environment may be the key for environmental design…

Last night I had a chat with my host family members about my folio so I showed them what I have done so far. I was grateful that they took time to read through my annotations and look designs, because it expressed me how much they are interested in my work and are enjoying understanding the process I am taking. 🙂 It is always great and rewarding to have somebody to show and talk about folio and design projects.