Getting Into Gear – Some More Desk Research and Some Initial Experimentation

Lindsay Applications and Interactions, Self Reflection 0 Comments

Ok, this week is all about experimentation and developing our projects. I did some visual research in relation to stamp artwork history in Malta to see what was done in the past. Cannot say that the artworks were not beautiful, however, many designs are rather “conservative”. In the sense that they always played it safe. There is the typical ‘flora and fauna’ theme that occurred every few years, the usual historical figures and the seasonal ones like Christmas and Easter. A popular theme, both in Malta as well as in other countries is the historical figures theme. Such a theme can be seen on Maltese stamps since the 1800s.

The examples above from left to right: *½d orange – brown; Prominent Maltese 1974 – 1c3 Girolamo Cassar*;
Bottom: *Dominic Mintoff 2016*

That said, the commemorative ones are quite interesting indeed. Whilst looking at one of the lesser popular themes – Astronomy, I came across some interesting designs indeed. Below are some examples of the stamps I found. They do not belong to the name collection, in fact, they were printed of the course of about 20 years.

The examples above from left to right: *Commemorations 199*0; Europa 2009;
Bottom: *50th Man On The Moon 2019*

I would like to go with a retro-futuristic “outran” style for my designs. Following up from last week’s sketches, I went on with doing some more, this time with neon colours. As a form of motivation, I thought of buying some new stationery and just have fun with it. I never really experimented with neon media before, and it was a fun. The black light really made the colours stand out. Below are some of the sketches I did. In conjunction with this, I went around the island taking pictures as I am building a stock image library of sorts. The pictures are rather random, but the idea is to use elements of the photo and create a collage type of artwork.

Following up on this, I will do a couple more sketches as well as watch some tutorials on what the best way to go about creating this “outran” style I am after is. I will be referring to the work I did back in Module 1 as well as the concept boards. I really hope this project turns out the way I would like it to be.