DPI [Week 2]: Collage Design

5.4.2021 (Week 2)

Wendy Seto / 0348805

GCD61204 Digital Photography and Imaging / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Week 2: Collage Design

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LECTURE

Today we are learning about the basic composition in photography. I have heard about this topic before actually, but haven't really got the chance to dive deeper into it. There are 4 basic compositions mentioned:

1. Focal Point

2. Scale & Hierarchy

3. Elements Balance

4. White Space

Next, Mr. Fauzi talked about the Rule of Thirds. The Rule of Thirds is the process of dividing an image using an imaginary grid to produce a more natural shot. We were shown to some graphic examples, from posters to movies. It was very satisying in my opinion, I'd love to see more of them. There is also the Golden Ratio, which can help to create a composition that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye through harmony and proportion. Lastly, we talked about Framing and Cropping in composition.

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PRACTICAL

We were told to prepare some magazines cut out graphics for our collage exercise since last week. I enjoyed making some similar projects previosuly, so it is not my first time doing this kind of stuff! 

My concept here is: Self Love. How? As you can see, there are a lot of food graphics (I found them on my high school biology text book), I chose them because I have a very bad habit of eating procrastination. I don't like to do things half way, so I always manage to finish it before I start doing something else. There are few times where I ate breakfast at 5 P.M. I know it sounds crazy and not healthy, but I kept on doing it. Hence, I decided to create this collage to remind myself if eating is a form of self love. The butterflies are to symbolize that growth is a process, we don't just wake up and become the butterfly. Piano is a musical instrument, I want to tell that music can help me heal. For the background, I ripped out a random page from my Physics Schaum. I will still read my magazines at some point in the future, but not my science books. Also, I found this heart patterned paper and a quote from my previous collage archives. I think it suits the whole concept very well. Mr. Fauzi asked us to take 3 pictures of the collage pre-composition:

fig 1.1 pre-composition #1 9/4/21

fig 1.2 pre-composition #2 9/4/21

fig 1.3 pre-composition #3 9/4/21

From the three above, I can't decide between the first and second one. I tried to ask some of my friends which one do they like better, but no one is answering until I realized that I only have 10 minutes left to submit the assignment. I finally decided to go with the second one, but the result is a bit different since I unintentionally paste them not in an exact position as before. Not gonna lie, I think I like the pre-compostion one much better!

fig 1.4 final collage 9/4/21

I then stick it on my wall and hope it can help me fix my eating pattern as time goes by. Thank you so much for the exercise Mr. Fauzi! 

fig 1.5 the collage on my wall 10/4/21

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FEEDBACK

I received a direct feedback from Mr. Fauzi about my collage exercise during the week 3 lecture. He said the compositions are good and he loves the way I played around with the space to show depth. He thinks I did pretty well by balancing the background to not look too obvious and succeed in making the elements look clear for the viewers to see. The flow and focal point are also there, including the golden ratio. I didn't do it on purpose but somehow I managed to own all the 4 basic compositions in my work. Really glad to hear this from Mr. Fauzi, it made my day!