Edgelands and Ruins Project Reflections, SWOT Analysis

Recently I finished my Edgelands and Ruins project and submitted it with my project development work. Although I spent longer than I'd planned in my action plan on this project, I learned a lot through the processes of making a book. During this project, I wanted to look at industrial structures influenced by my imagery and research of Bernd and Hilla Becher. The theme of Edgelands and Ruins came from the book 'Edgelands: Journeys Into England's True Wilderness' (Symmons Roberts and Farley, 2012), where the word 'edgelands' is defined through artists' work and the change in environment from urban to rural landscapes. I loved how varied this theme was as I could explore the themes through printmaking, which led to creating an explorative book using the risograph printer. 

Utilising traditional techniques has been beneficial in achieving texture and depth in my print work- all skills that can be attributed to my future practice. Using this project to experiment meant I produced a lot of printed outcomes that have been added to my website and portfolio. In addition, this will be great for my final show as I can have larger prints on display alongside the children's book I hope to make in Semester 2. Although I'd planned to finish this project in November, taking more time on it allowed me to fully realise the concept and make sure it had solid foundations in both the assets used in the book and links with influences from my research. The main strength is how professional the outcome looks while maintaining a hand-finished quality. While I hadn't planned to risoprint all the pages, I enjoyed learning more about this process which gave me a better understanding of the kind of imagery that is most effective for this process. 

Final book spread

Risograph print

Monoprinting process

Risograph print

Primary imagery of Glassworks Cone in Lemington and Walkers Pottery Mill in Corbridge

With my experimental printmaking, it led me to incorporate primary imagery from Prague Old Town and my experience of living in the countryside and travelling into the city, taking into consideration how the landscape changed. As a source of research, I visited the Glassworks Cone in Lemington and the Corbridge Walker's Pottery, some of the few remaining places to find bottle-shaped kilns. 

Overall, this was one of my most successful projects, producing many finals that could be used commercially. My aims this year are to think more about the purpose of what I'm making and the audience I want to reach. While this project's outcome is aimed at an older audience, the skills used can be replicated for a children's book. I'm looking forward to starting on my Iceland project next and being able to focus on that until the contextual essay later in the year.

Strengths-

• Trying something new. I learnt a lot of new skills through generating a risograph-printed book. It was a complicated printing process as each page needed to be separate, then using printers pairs to match them up.
• I learnt how to bind books by kettle stitching. This is a great skill that I can utilise in future projects as I work on children's books and zines. 
• Lots of experimentation over the summer allowed me to utilise the body of work to make a book. This meant my project didn't feel as rushed and I could use this imagery to explore different processes.
• Great work for my online portfolio and illustration Instagram account, more themes to develop and build upon.

Weaknesses-

• Since I spent a lot longer on this project than planned, it jeopardised smaller projects like the observation drawing one and wanting to do the Macmillan Book Prize as my final project. 
• A complicated process with the risoprinter, only managed to make 10 so I'd like to make more to sell.

Opportunities-

• Opportunity to enter the AOI World Illustration Awards with my finished book. I can make professional mock-up's once the new book pages are scanned. 
• By entering this competition I can look at other entries in each category to see which one my book best fits; whether its commercial publishing or alternative publishing.
• Can be turned into promotional material like postcards, prints and zines
• With the page scans, I want to edit them digitally and send the book to be professionally printed. I think this would be a great thing to have in addition to the handbound books which are harder to handle with the type of ink.

Threats-

• Shortened timeframe for other projects.