Final outcome evaluation

My final outcome came out better than I expected it to, however I would change many things about this piece. I like the use of levels/layers in the piece as this gives a three-dimensional effect as if the work is jumping out of the page towards the viewer of the piece of work. I also like how the entire piece is devoid of colour and is only in black and white, except for the colour red which also features in this piece of work as it represents love, romance, intimacy and passion as well as being a vibrant, memorable colour that captures the interest of the audience of the piece. I would change this piece a lot if I could do it all again, I would like to change the main background and not have it collaged with photos as they are distracting from the main focus of the piece and look rather messy/unprofessional. I would also find a better way of suspending the heart shaped borders above the piece than folded paper as it bends and collapses if the piece is touched.

My piece was predominantly inspired by the work of Lizzie Mary Cullen as I found the small, intricate patterns used in her work, very interesting and decided to try and use them in my own work. I also used Lizzie Mary Cullen's detailed style of illustration in my own work as well, an example of this is the illustration of the Warehouse theatre in Croydon and the "Make your own memories, visit London" typography. I did however experiment with illustration-only techniques like Lizzie Mary Cullen's and decided that I wanted to add something more to it, to give the piece an interesting contrast of techniques and ideas in order to give an interesting and memorable effect overall.

My ideas have changed greatly since I first came up with this concept in my "Initial ideas". I initially thought about doing a hand-drawn-illustration-only piece made up of a mixture of moments/experiences in my life that have been memorable for me and took place in my chosen city of London. I decided that these moments should be themed and so considered using moments/experiences that took place in London and have been memorable with friends, best-friends, family, school, college, relationships etc. and came up with a list of memorable experiences for each. The list was as follows:
Friends- shopping, talking, meeting for the first time, finding out stuff about each other, sleepovers
Best-friends- meeting for the first time, running away from angry neighbours, sleepovers, inventing a secret language, making mini-versions of each other
Family- moving house, celebrating occasions such as anniversaries, teaching the kids family recipes, spending time with one another
School- first day, meeting best friends, engraving name in desks, weird/scary/funny/inattentive teachers, having detentions but waiting for each other
College- first day, meeting new friends, doing yoga in class, bunking because of getting lost, creating a tower of diet coke cans
Relationships- meeting for the first time, becoming a couple, first kiss, first time, falling in love, standing on a roof holding each other watching the fireworks, planning a future together, falling asleep in each others arms
I decided to go for "Relationships" as it had the most ideas I could use and it was also a very strong, meaningful theme.

Once I'd decided a theme, I decided to create a slogan for my poster that would encourage people to visit London but also tied in with the idea of having many amazing and memorable experiences in that place. I considered using "Memory filled wonderland" "London in love" "Remember your visit here, always" "A place like no other" "Where memories are created" "Make your own memories" "Remember this". In the end I went with "Make your own memories" as I felt that it was the most dynamic/powerful slogan and it captures the viewer's interest/curiosity whilst also bringing across the theme of love and making them want to visit London.

Overall I feel that my piece is convincing, memorable and unique, however I feel that I may have gone a bit overboard with the mixed media used such as rose petals, wooden hearts, collaging etc. as it looks rather busy and over-crowded and perhaps a simpler, two-dimensional design with less going on all over the place would have looked more professional and been more effective than the piece I created.