Project Design; Local Exhibition

PITCH

The purpose of the exhibition is to showcase local youth talent. Each contributor should submit a minimum of 8 images that showcases their best work, whilst adhering to the theme of "Vintage and/or Retro".

Meetings

Thursday 12th February

10am-1pm

Attendees: Samuel/Owen/Alice

Room: H108
Discussed: Roles
Sam took Manager; Alice took Curator; Owen was Designer
The theme was agreed, and each contributor submitted their subjects.

Thursday 26th February

10am-1pm

Attendees: Samuel/Alice

Room: H108
Sam presented his pitch. The final date for image submission was agreed as April 16.

Thursday 19th March
10am - 1pm
Attendees: Samuel/Alice/Owen
Room: H108
The number of boards was agreed; 6 (2 each). Sam wanted his images grouped together, so we agreed he would have the 2 centre boards. Alice and I would mix our images on the remaining 4.

Thursday 23rd April
11am-1pm
Attendees: Samuel/Alice/Owen
Room: H108
Final prints collected and mounted; labels, biographies and prices agreed and printed also.

My role in this is designer; not a role I would normally have chosen - this was allocated after other roles were already bagged by my colleagues.

Design Background Ideas

With the theme of Retro/Vintage to work with, and a budget of just £300 (the majority of which would be spent on prints and mounting), designing a suitable backing would be a challenge. Anything over-ambitious would also likely detract from the exhibition itself. Knowing that Sam visits Brick Lane for it's retro atmosphere and collection of vintage trinkets, I considered using a brick-patterend backing paper. On reflection, I decided that this would have distracted people from the images - it would have been too overpowering. I decided that a plain backing would be the best option; last year's exhibition with a cream colour was, we agreed, an eyesore. This year, I opted for black.

Estimated Budgets

A4 - 4 Prints Each - £7 (4 A4 Pictures each)

A3 - 6 Prints Each - £25.80 (6 A3 Pictures each)

A2 - 2 Prints Each - £13.20 (2 A2 Pictures each)

= £46

x3

(£138)

2 Cans of Mount Spray

=£17

2 Metres of Velcro Tabs

= £4.40

(£159.40)

3 Bottles of Wine - £36

1 Bottle of Champagne - £25

(£61)

=£220.40

(Excluding soft drinks)

Setup

(Images courtesy of Alice-Anne Bull)

College & Feedback

There was some miscommunication about the location of our exhibition. We were contacted by the Queens Theatre and it was explained our display should have been in the downstairs bar area.

Whilst waiting for the matter to be resolved, we failed to publicise a launch date, in case we had to dismantle the exhibition or move it. Unfortunately, no decision or resolution was circulated, and by the time any response was known, the date had arrived to take the exhibition down.

Because of this, we had no feedback to images or the exhibition. The decision was taken to also partake in the college open-events, by exhibiting our work there and gathering responses. Images were also circulated on Facebook, and responses taken that way.

"Some of the mounting needs to be improved - there are air bubbles under some images. Some are also out of focus or suffer motion blur, but that probably comes as put of the subject of the images."  Lawrie Rose

"Some of the images are visually quite interesting, even to someone who isn't that much of a railway enthusiast. I can see the appeal for people who do like them." James Gaffney

"Many of the pictures are very well composed. I think something more is needed though, because they lack that unique point. Anyone can take a picture of a train, so you need something interesting in yours to make them stand out." Christopher Blower

Evaluation

I don't market myself as a professional photographer, but I do enjoy taking pictures that I can exhibit, from which I can get feedback on how to improve. 

I think the exhibition would have been much better if we could have framed and hung our images, rather than using the boards provided, which limit us somewhat. The wood these are made of is also very solid, which means it can take several attempts to get a staple in to hold the backing paper.
In hindsight, I would have liked to have acquired paper that was cut-to-size, rather than overlapping multiple smaller sheets. This would be costly, but improve the appearance of the display tenfold. As emphasised earlier on, design is not my strength, and I would rather have had a job like curator that would play more to my abilities.
The curator also took on the task of arranging the display; this puzzled me as I thought this would have been a designer task. However, at this point, we were approaching the setup date, and rather than cause a fuss, I simply allowed this to continue without arguing.

The confusion that arose around the request to move the work, and the lack of response thereof, is perhaps the main setback for the project. We weren't able to host a launch event because of this, which meant we didn't get our feedback. More pressure for and clear communication was really essential to resolve this, but didn't happen. This would need to be kept in mind for any future instances.

Communication was the big let down overall for the project, as mentioned previously. Without this, everything else can fall apart, thus the lack of publicity and launch night. However, I am content with what we achieved; not 100% satisfied, but content. There are improvements - like utilising the space available - that I would like to have made, but given the setbacks we encountered, I think we did an average job.