Lizzie Wa Design

Who, What, Where, Why?

Who are you? (Name, background, influences, what makes you you?)

My name is Lizzie. My background is in photography and marketing. I studied art history at university and I am at my happiest when I am surrounded by nature. I love walking, cycling, wild swimming, watching the sunset. I am fascinated by animals, insects, birds and plants, I am interested in the relationship and juxtaposition between people, cities and technology with nature.

What is it that you do? (Showcase a pivotal project or moment in your practice)

I’ve recently been creating illustrated posters which I love to see printed and up in peoples homes. With these posters I am inspired by nature and travel. The one I chose for this design is my first and also most popular design.

Where are you? (geographically and does this have an impact on how you work?)

I have just moved to Bristol. I love the vibrancy, artistry and vibe here, but am still definitely finding my feet and adjusting to not being in the countryside.

Why Design? (What does design mean to you? What does it do?)

I love the power graphic design can have. It can almost jump out of the page and pull you in, and I want to harness this power to push for positive change in the world.

Design Process – Workshop Challenge

I started off with the idea of creating my quadryptych as square. However, as I started to sketch out my ideas I found that I could link two of the sections together easily by turning a sofa into a park bench. I felt like this worked nicely and seems to represent to me how inter-connected each of the questions were to me. Who I am influences what I decide to make, as does where I am, and these all link into why I love design.

After starting, I realised that to keep a sense on unity over the four sections, I needed to make sure the colours I used were the same. I tried to keep each section simple and bold. I also added in some small details for those who looked closer. The spine of each book on the shelf represents a part of my personality and my interests. This was also to represent how you often have to look closely at a person to find out who they really are.

For this first project I created my design in a format that I feel comfortable with and that I have mainly been using in my practise so far. I felt like this was a good starting point to express more of myself and a marker from which to expand into different forms over the coming weeks.

The feedback I received from this design from my fellow students was a positive one. They seemed to like how I had joined each section together and the way the sections told a story.

Lecture/ Reading

Having never worked in a graphic design studio myself, being able to have an insight into multiple studios was a very interesting experience and has given me a lot to think about. 

From the case studies and readings this week it seems that different studios have different ways of approaching graphic design. Two big differences in how studios seem to work is whether they design to a brief, creating what a company wants or needs, or if they design what they want to design and hope that others are inspired by it.

However both seem to be rooted in and require the same inherent skills and driving forces. I think Micheal Wolff puts it very well in ‘Intel Visual Life’ where he describes designers as having three ‘muscles’, curiosity, appreciation and imagination. I think designers need to be excited by and interested in the world around them, from the pattern in a leaf to the lines on a persons face. This curiosity and appreciation for the world around them makes them better at designing. I think Paula Scher draws on this as well in the Netflix documentary Abstract. 

“Design needs to take human behaviour into account”.

Paula Scher, Abstract

I think the third muscle Wolff talks about, imagination, can also be described as problem solving. A love of problem solving is a theme that seems to run through most of the designers interviewed in these case studies. 

These things all come together to create emotion in the viewer. Scher talks about the emotions and feelings created by different typefaces and a few of the designers mention the important link between colour and emotion and therefore it highlights to me the importance of an emotional response to design. The passion of all the designers interviewed also sparks the idea that maybe the emotion can only be sparked from design if emotion is also put into the process of creating it?

The idea of the joy of creating a finished product, mentioned specifically by Regular Practise, is something I can definitely relate to and something that really draws me to design. The final finished project as a tangible thing has always had such an allure for me.

Another interesting similarity between most of the designers in the lecture as well as Wolff, Scher and Adrian Shaughnessy is the importance of place. Many of the designers are influenced but the city they live in, but what seems to be even more important is the space they inhabit within the studio. The dynamic between staff, the physical layout and in Sam Winston’s case, the calm and quiet of his studio that works as a contrast to the vibrancy and noise of London. This speaks to me as I’ve not yet found myself a solid base location wise. Having recently moved to a new city, this idea has inspired me to explore the atmosphere of Bristol deeper so I can gain a greater understanding of the city and be influenced by the people who live in it.

Shaughnessy draws on the importance of respecting designers as individuals. I think his belief that the wellbeing and happiness of designers is vital in a graphic design studio is a very interesting one and something that is possibly not thought about as often as it should be. 

“A studio is well run when – staff are trusted, contributions are valued and efforts rewarded.” 

Adrian Shaughnessy, Studio culture

Finally, my favourite part of this weeks research was this quote from Micheal Wolff.

“I value knowing very little about almost everything. Then I come to it with a childlike freshness” 

Micheal Wolff, Intel Visual Life

The world is full of things we don’t know much about, for me graphic design being something I don’t know as much about as I would like, and I think of this as a fresh, creative and exciting thing and in my mind the perfect sentiment for the first week of this course. 

Reflection on Week One

This weeks lecture, reading and workshop challenge all worked to get me thinking about what design is to me. It’s shown me how personal design really is and how it can be interpreted and used in so many different ways, so working out my personal relationship to it will be very important going forwards. I think this is also a changing relationship influenced by change of location, change in technology and much more, allowing your design practise to develop and progress over time.

If I was to make my quadryptych again I would try to simplify it further to make each section more representative of what I am trying to say rather than the more literal depiction I’ve created with this one.

Feedback from Crit

“The landscape approach works well, linking the boxes into each other. Charming little details on the bookshelf. Not sure it needs the grey vertical lines…”

“Love the layout and how each one connects to the next. The colour palette is really nice and they work well together. The “Welcome to” before Bristol is a bit hard to read though, could it be straighter?” 

“I really love the simplicity of the quad and how easily it conveys a story. The third image stands out more because of the use of the darker colours and further use of the visual space. Could you maybe look at simplifying this design so it keeps in tone with the other quads? Maybe you could have a look at simplifying the landscape of Bristol? I really enjoy how you have connected each quad though, it is really effective in telling a fluid story.”

“Really like that your quadriptych is a horizontal journey. Would question whether the ‘Welcome to Bristol’ text is needed – the illustration does the job so effectively without.” 

I have updated my design in light of some of this feedback. Ive made the whole quad together as one piece without the lines dividing it and simplified and brightened the third section so its more in keeping with the rest of the design. I think this looks much more unified and I am much happier with the outcome.