Summative Statement

Within this module I have tried to produce a body of work that relates to me and what I want to do with my practice and where I am going after uni. I feel that the quality of the work may not be to the standard of what is expected at this level in our course, but I have come to the realisation that although I don't want to be an illustrator that I actually don't have the natural talent to be one anyway and I think that has really knocked my confidence and motivation.

I would have liked to have produced more briefs for this module but unfortunately I was poorly organised with prioritising the modules during the first term as I only focused on COP and It has really affected my work as I have had to play catch up with both PPP and Extended Practice, even afterwards I think I should have not done the Hasbro brief for D&AD as I could not submit it for this module and it took time to make the videos.

I am really proud of my Final Major Project as I feel like i have accomplished some personal goals of mine. I feel like my practical and digital skills have gotten better and I have worked really well to the advice of my tutors. I only wish I could have done this all year round as I feel like Ive really benefited to the practice over the last few months.

I think my passion I have with this project has been a big motivator for me as I have spent many long hours in the studio even re-doing things to improve them and I have felt accomplished within myself. I am quite happy to have this as the last project for me to leave this course on as I feel like in the time I had I couldnt do anymore, but obviously with the way I have been working, especially the last few weeks, I feel with time I could have only gotten better.

Project Report

Presentation Boards

Updated SOI

Packaging Mock Up

For the exhibition I am going to stick my box design over a box that I will purchase, and I have found one online which fits my measurements, but for now this is my proposal of what my packaging will look like. I will use the border design for the game to cover the rim of the lid and i think it looks really good.

Game Finished

I am very happy with my finished product, I have been able to print all of the elements and hard back the board. I have not made it to bend as the last time I attempted this, it didnt work so I decided the safe bet was just to make it flat.

I cant as of yet cut out the cards as i need a circle cutter but I will have to do this for the exhibition but I am really happy with how they have printed as they have come out perfectly aligned.

Overall, I am really pleased with myself as I have put a lot of work into this project for months now with all of the research that has gone into it and I am happy that I have pushed myself to better my work as I have gone along no matter how long its taken me and I think it's really paid off!

3D Longboats

My longboats have finally been printed and sent to me and I think theyre absolutely great. I had to talk to the printers to get them in different colours for the different players but they look amazing and add that extra element that will appeal to the target audience.

I couldn't have wished they had turned out better to be honest, I had shields designed to be printed separately to be stuck on but the designs were too small to be printed so for now this is all I can do, but i dont think it makes them worse at all and I am very happy with them.

Colouring Book 3rd Illustration

I have finally finished the third illustration for the Extended Colouring book brief. I am really happy with it as I tried not to overcrowd the illustration and i think on its own, it is my favourite out of the three just for the simplicity.

Overall I really like this illustration when put all together, I would have preferred to change the line thicknesses so the foreground was thicker than the background but with the time I had, it would have taken too long to re-do the trees in the first image so they went together as a set.

Packaging

When putting the packaging design together I was getting really deflated by the composition, with the rectangle shaped box leaving a lot of empty space.

When I got home I decided that a square would be a lot better as the illustration could be bigger, filling more of the composition and taking centre stage like it should.

I also changed the title from black to a grey as i thought the black was too invasive to the image and stood out too much and not with the image.

Packaging Illustration

Once again I have really benefited from the advice of my tutor, the illustration I was going to have on the packaging is really bad, it has no expression or movement.

Patrick gave me some great advice to change the illustration and I think it has really paid off, I am quite proud of what I have done for this. I am not very good at drawing people but I think this is a definite improvement to work I have made before. I really think the time I have put into the project has made my skills improve. I think the illustration and the digital skills have gone up a level personally.

I think there could be improvements, I feel like the arm looks wrong but I am not sure how to fix it.

I have tried to keep the shading to a minimum and keep it stylised for the audience I am targeting. Overall I am really happy with this and I think I really work well to critique and value the help a lot.

Colour Wheel

Ive made the colour wheel for the game, and printed it onto mountboard so that I can put a pin in the middle and it spin

Board Finished

Im really happy with the Board game, I think I have definitely pleased myself in regards to my personal goal to work on the comments i got from COP about the development of my Illustrations. I dont think I could have done more than I have obviously theres always room for improvement but I've done my best in the time I had.

Shield Designs

Im really happy with the shield designs so far, they are quite simple and serve their purpose as illustrated fact cards.

I have chosen the colours for the following categories:

Blue - Vikings In England

Green - Religion

Red - Lifestyle

Yellow - Invasion

Map

I have finished the map for the centre of the game and although I was worried that it was too boring and plain compared to the rest of the detailed illustrations on the game, Fred reassured me that it serves it purposed and I dont need to worry about changing it.

I will be placing the Vegvisir over the top of this anyway so it wont be as visible as this.

I was worried about having Northern Ireland divided on the map, as at the time Ireland was one and because it is educational i didnt know whether this would matter but I thought I would keep it recognisable to the children audience.

Speaking To Fred

I asked Fred for a mini-crit in his spare time today as I find him really helpful to me. I asked him about my shield designs and the game so far as a whole. He said i need to stop thinking of each element as an isolated illustration and start thinking of everything as a whole package as I am worrying too much.

He reassured me that my designs so far are working well doing what they are meant to do, which has reassured me to carry on and stop over thinking it.

Writing Out The Facts

When I spoke to Patrick the other day, we also discussed how I am going to write the facts on the cards. He gave me a great idea which was that I could do multiple option questions where I give a Easy, Medium, Hard option to be able to move 1,2, or 3 spaces depending on what the player can answer correctly.

I really like this idea but now I have come to writing the research I have gotten into questions and answers, it has made it a lot more difficult as now I have to include 3 facts on each question, meaning I need to do some more research for some more cards to make it's playable game.

I think this is something I will have to do after the deadline for the exhibition as I have to prioritise my time at the moment to finish the practical as that is taking longer than expected. But I am sticking with the multiple choice question as I think it is a really good idea although more difficult.

Sea Background

Ive made the background for the board game, and although it's what I wanted, minimal, shapes etc. When I have put it on the board, the colour overpowers the grey detailing that I have done and it almost hides it. I am going to have to ask for some advice on it tomorrow.

I do quite like it though as it is quite simple and gestural and does look like birdseye view

Border

When I spoke to Patrick the other day, he mentioned how he thinks I should do the border similar to the carving in the centre of the board.

I re-designed the detail to be similar but a bit different and used that as the patterned that was consistently ran around the edge of the border.

I also left little plaques for the runes from the vegvisir to be places on the four edges

I am really happy with the finished product.

New Game Moving Places

I have finally finished the new game moving places for the board game and I am really happy with how they look in the end. They did take a full day and a half to make as at first I really struggled with painting them on the computer. I think my lack of experience and skill really hindered me.

The more I persisted, the better the they got, i used new skills like using the effects on photoshops and clipping masking textures and the added details of cracks on top, really make them stand out.

Im very happy with how these look now and I am glad that I took the advice from Patrick as I think these are 100 times better than the other squares I did before hand.

Devil's Causeway

After researching Devil's Causeway with Patrick, I feel like this will be a great change to the game. I really like the hexagonal shapes that are formed in the stones, It will look really good on the game.

Talk to Patrick

I spoke to Patrick today and asked for some advice regarding the board game and how I would like to make the background a sea illustration but how I would do that regarding the perspective for the different players and not look like an image upside down.

Patrick recommended that i do the background as a birds eye view anyway, so that was quite easy to sort. But he really liked my carving illustration but he said i've set the standard now so the rest will have to be just as good and the squares aren't really cutting it. I totally agree, and he suggested I have a look at devils causeway in Ireland, where the volcanoes underground make the rocks form in a specific way near the sea. Which suits the theme of the game really well.

Game Squares

Ive started the game squares for the board game, and although they are exactly how i designed, i cant help but feel slightly underwhelmed by these compared to the carving I did yesterday.

I dont know whether its because they are all uniform, but i am going to have to talk to a tutor about it tomorrow.

Viking Carving

So it has taken me 2 days to successfully complete possibly the smallest element of the board game. I think I have completely underestimated the length of time it would take for me to do this board game compared to the last one.

Nevertheless, I am really pleased with the outcome, it looks better than I had expected as I am not confident with Photoshop, although from this period of time on the computers, I have gained quite a lot of knowledge on shortcuts and I think the practice is helping me quite a lot.

Fact Cards

For the educational part of the project, I would like to have the fact cards on the back of Viking shields. I am aware that for COP, my critique was that I needed to focus on the illustration side and develop it more so I am trying to keep this game illustration heavy and I think this would be a really fun way to add colourful illustration to the game.

I am going to split the information into different categories almost like trivial pursuit and show this by changing the colour shields to suit each category. For this to work randomly,  I will also have to produce a spinning colour wheel so it is fair to what type of question they will get.

3D Printing Longboats

I have spoke to my brother and explained what my aim is to do with this brief. I want to 3D print longboats for the game pieces, I'd like them a substantial size as the board is quite large and it would add a colourful element to the game.

Viking Churches

I have being looking at the Viking architecture and design for some inspiration for the game. I find the designs quite masculine and very intricate with strong lines and weaving carvings.

Vegvisir

Speaking to my Icelandic room mate Sol, she mentioned to me about Vegvisir, which is a Viking Compass with runes around that where meant to protect them at sea. I feel like this would be a great addition to the board game, as it could be laid over the map in the middle, very opaque but hinting at what it is. 

This could lead the children to research further into the topic by not knowing what it is and being curious enough to look it up for themselves. I am also thinking about having the runes on the outside border.

The teacher could also teach the children all about this before being played. I think it adds a lot of context to the game with the theme of the subject.

"Not all who wander are lost"

Ancient Viking Carvings

I have been doing some research into the carvings done by Vikings, which seemed to have been done in stone and wood. I love the designs they did, they are really detailed and very intertwined. The middle picture is a design on a Viking church that represents the fight between good and evil, which I think would fit really well with the concept of the game. I think Invasion could be seen as good or evil, depending whether you are looking from different sides and looking at the reasons in which it was done. Im not condoning what happens when people invade countries, but in this instance the Vikings needed better land to farm crops to feed their growing population, so from their point of view, they were doing good for their community, whereas the English would have seen them as Evil, coming to invade and take their land.

Character Sketches

I have done some initial sketches of characters that can be used for the game. After the Femonopoly game that i produced for COP, some of the feedback that i got was that i need to focus more on the illustrations. I do believe that I am not very good at this, I know this is the course that I am on, but my confidence is very low and I am quite embarrassed to even show my work now. Nonetheless, this is the illustration i am most happy with, just because of the strong lines making him a powerful figure.

Although, I am quite nervous to do the illustrations for the game as I don't want to ruin the concept by letting it down with the practical

Fact Cards

For the fact cards, which are pivital to the educational element of the game, I am going to make them as different coloured shields. The different colours will represent the different categories of questions. As i mentioned before, there is not enough facts based solely on the invasion that is required for the curriculum as the Viking invasion is only a sub-topic in KS2 History. So there will be other categories such as lifestyle and religion etc.

In schools the teachers would have to brief/set homework based on the contents of the game, but from memory I can remember learning about the Norse religion in Year 4 and I am certain that you learn about how the vikings lived in school, so the children should have some knowledge about the other information in the game.

With there being different categories of cards, I am going to make a colour wheel they will have to spin so the category is chosen at random. I am unsure of how many different categories there will be as of yet, but this is something that I will figure out later in time.

I also have to figure out how the game will work in regards to how they find out the answers for the questions, depending on it not being difficult or a lot of hassle for children at that age.

Board Ideas/Sketches

Ive started drawing out my ideas for the board game itself, I know that I would like the board to be split into four separate parts, for the individual players. After doing some research and some knowledge on the subject already, I want thee to be some rune/stone carving aspects of the game as that is what was commonly done by the Vikings.

The concept of the game is that the players will have to answer questions on the Vikings and the invasion of England and the first player who answers all the questions correctly gets to invade England, in the middle. This meaning the players will essentially play as vikings themselves. 

By drawing the board out, I then concluded that the game looks quite like a map, which really fits with the idea of the players travelling to invade England, especially when vikings were know for their travelling by sea.

Proposal

After more thoughts, I have been thinking about other possible products or ways of distribution that could go along with the game. I was thinking how the game could be proposed as being life size for a school hall, so the children could play as the game pieces and have to work together in teams. This could also help with team building and communication between children, hitting the hidden curriculum. I have done research into what parents would like their children to be taught and this is one of the ways that it could be brought into the classroom whilst learning the normal curriculum.

Talking to John

Ive been speaking to John recently about board games and how I am really interested in doing them, I dont think I'm great at it, but I do enjoy the process of making something that is functional and a fun way to educate people. I think with the concept of the game, there is a possibility that it could work as a format for different games on the other topics in history, for instance, the anglo-saxons, the romans etc.

How The Game Will Work

I have decided that this game will only be 4 player, this is due to the average friend group size and family size. I will divide the board into four as they will need to answer questions (educational part) to win. I am almost thinking of a snake and ladders idea where as instead of rolling a certain number you would have to answer a question to get to the end.

Research for the Game

I have been doing some research online and firstly I started with the revision sites that are available to primary school children on this topic, I wanted to see what the actual facts that they need to know are. I have found that because this is just a sub-topic that they don't need to know a lot of information.

For a board game to work, whether what the format is, I would need to have a lot more information that what is required to have for the Y5/6 educational purposes. So I have decided to make more of a general Viking game, which not only hits all the criteria for the curriculum but will also give some further knowledge and may put a lot of the information in context for some of the students.

FMP - Viking Game

For my FMP I am doing another board game, although different from the Femonopoly game for COP. Originally I was going to produce something for secondary school, although on further discussion, it would be more likely to be used in a primary school. The reason for this being that teachers in Primary schools, have to teach all subjects although they may only specialise in one. This would mean that an additional educational tool would possibly be welcomed by the teachers.

Also, I would like to hit some of the topics mentioned by parents as things that they would like their children to learn for example, communication skills and working as a team so I might propose that the game could also be played life size in a hall and the students have to work in teams.

I have done some research into the curriculum for primary schools year 5&6, and I have decided that history would be a good subject to go with as it can be illustrated easier than subjects such as maths.

After researching the topics within this subject, I thought a game on Vikings and their invasion of England would be quite interesting to make, and would be nice illustrated.

2nd Illustration for extended Colouring Book

Ive started to extend the papyrus colouring book brief as a personal brief of mine. I had already decided that I had wanted to do this before i discovered that the brief was just an A3 spread. This illustration follows on as a further piece of the park, including further activities that can help with depression. It includes gardening, activities like flying a kite and sports. The hard part of this illustration was definitely the perspective, its not something i am great at, but i like it anyway.