Why
I started this month with some goals in mind: focus on new creative disciplines and finding some rest. My disciplines of choice were motion graphics and scrapbooking.
I noticed that a lot of agencies and companies are looking for motion, social media, and campaign designers. So I thought it seemed like a nice time to start investing in this discipline. And scrapbooking has been on my list of practices for quite a while. Last month I got a souvenir from a good friend of mine, an accordion sketchbook from China. This also gave me the perfect opportunity to start experimenting with the discipline.
Another side goal of mine was to start sharing my work more on social media. Throughout the year I've been looking for community and connection in the creative space.
This month I also received some good news, as I got accepted for the pre-master I signed up for. But I'll talk more about it later in this update.
How
Motion Graphics
Since I was in high school I always wanted to try out motion graphics, so curiosity always came back once in a while. The main threshold for me was finding the right tool or software, which was Adobe before I knew free and open source software. Recently Figma released its new animation and motion feature inside their tools, so I knew the time was right for me to start picking up motion graphics. And surprisingly enough, software didn't become the main threshold anymore for practicing this discipline.
I started with little to no idea what I wanted to bring into motion. To start off, I tried to add some motion to the chiyogami patterns I made in the past. I learned to apply timing to various states of graphics, you can think of visibility, scale, position, etc. Most of the results were pretty static, to which I tried to answer with easing and bouncy timings. Later during my practice I tried to do some kinetic typography, and that is where the real struggle started for me.
I wanted to add some wave motion to some poetry of mine, however Figma Motion doesn't allow you to do much text animations. As a matter of fact, I figured out I had to individually apply animations to every letter in a word or sentence. This completely ruined the whole design experience, as I was limited by the tool and couldn't execute my ideas to their fullest potential. I did manage to create a wave animation for a few words to some degree, but it's not what I had in mind. This became a nice checkpoint for me to look for some more capable motion graphic software. (unless figma becomes better haha)
I have yet to design some components for video media, so no preview sorry ):
Scrapbooking
The same goes for scrapbooking, ever since making this website, I've wanted to invest some time into scrapbooking. I always loved the aspect of mixed media, layout design, and layering of this practice. I also bought The ultimate practical guide to scrapbooking by Alison Lindsay to get some inspiration and understand the techniques and terminology behind scrapbooking. I realized I had been looking at both scrapbooking and junk journaling, and confusing the two. Though both seem to revolve around keepsakes, ephemera, and collage.
I managed to make two pages in the sketchbook that my friend gifted me. I made a page about a cool plush doll I bought and one about the London trip I took at the beginning of this year. What I love most about the process of scrapbooking is the freehand layout design and layering of different kinds of material and embellishments. It's kind of meditative and calming to just “Scrap” around. I hope to keep scrapbooking in the future and take some elements of the practice into other disciplines as well.
Social media and beyond
In contrast to this space, where I share dumps or complete bodies of work, I want to use social media for sharing smaller bites or portions. I mainly want to connect, discuss, or show the world what I have been doing. This website doesn't have a contact page yet, so you can't reach me at the moment. So I have created a dedicated Instagram, Bluesky, and Reddit account. Each platform has a different purpose at the moment: Instagram for zine and poetry work, Bluesky for motion and dev work, and Reddit for community discussions and exploration. I'm looking forward to finding some of my peers and discussing more creative stuff on the socials eventually.
I also did some physical socializing in the design and creative spaces. I attended some design talks at the GLUE Amsterdam festival, which was very intriguing. Unfortunately I missed the poetry events, though I was able to tune in to some talks on design and creativity. They left me thinking rather existentially about my career, but they were insightful nonetheless. If you're curious I attended some talks by:
- Martina Halsema about city culture and creativity being its lifeline
- Rubiah Balsem about the architecture of cultural landscapes
However, the best event I went to this month was the Print Buddies event, also in Amsterdam. It was a local market where illustrators and print artists could showcase and sell their work. Honestly I was only there for the zines, but unfortunately I ended up talking to almost all the artists, because I couldn't hold back my curiosity.
In the end I bought a lot of stickers, prints, and of course Zines!
What
So now that the month is over, it's time to look a bit forward. My pre-master arc commences as I will spend some time learning and practicing more design research. This period will also help me in my career orientation, as I will slowly find my fit within the industry. Definitely looking forward to engaging with the design industry and meeting new designers and organizations.
With the end of the year already in sight, I want to use October to revisit my website and its design. The last couple of months I have looked at a ton of new typography, motion & animations, compositions, and stationery. And since I have been improving my practice throughout the year, I want to apply those learnings to my website and spaces.