Final Evaluation

This year in CSVPA has passed shortly, and Final Major Project happened to be the fastest part of it while it took twelve weeks period to complete it. There were lots of barriers and challenges on the way to the end, but I’ve managed to achieve this level and finish up the course.
For my FMP, I have chosen and researched the topic of Minimalistic lifestyle. The choice of this topic was based on my interest and desire to know more about out. The freshly looking theme which is getting the attention on social media was the perfect opportunity to try out new things and give a try to challenges. To share my approach on the minimalistic lifestyle, I’ve chosen to create a digital magazine-catalogue which would visually demonstrate the beauty of this way of living to an audience.

When the project has just started, it seemed to me that one day I’d find myself bored by this simple topic, but I was more than wrong after all I’ve never lost the interest in it and couldn’t wait to explore it through different aspects. A few times, I have to stop myself from making massively impossible plans for my research or development because the twelve-week project started looking small when I’ve completed half of it. It became clear the original idea of mine can’t be finished up by the deadline.
By the way, my first intention was based on making a full, big and informing magazine like the once you all know: Vogue, i-D, Bazar. In the middle of the project, I started working only harder and doing more researches as well as beginning the development of my outcome.

Talking about the research into the minimalistic lifestyle, I’d like to mark myself pretty high due to difficulties which you would come across if tried working on my topic. Nowadays, in the twenty-first century, people are cover with clutter and belongings and obsessed with the idea of accumulation. That is why it was a challenge to find people who openly talk and promote this new to society lifestyle. So talking mainly, I’ve looked at works of many artists such as Henrik Eiben with his simple shapes and lines drawings, Kwon Young-Woo who inspired me on experimenting, Eikri Amanda Abubakar who does impressive digital collages, Thea Gregorius with her detailed mark-making and Renée Goin who expresses herself in fashion illustrations. Also, I’ve researched influencers who speak openly in social networks on the Internet, and those were The Minimalists, Courtney Carver and Matt D’Avella. My interest was also caught by fashion brand COS and i-D and Kinfolk magazines. Not to mention, most of these people who it talked about above have inspired me to make a response to their works.
The primary research also did not lag during the trip week when we visited museums and galleries in Cambridge, Oxford, London and Margate; also I’ve continued doing it in my main sketchbook by creating fashion illustrations and some mini photoshoots.

To continue with, I’d like to talk about the development of my final piece which I’ve started doing during the seventh week of the project which I consider the perfect time because it has allowed me to have enough time for everything including experimenting, expending my creative thinking and enjoying the process of growing up my outcome. There’s also a significant benefit came from time management and let me to look at my project idea realistically and to understand my opportunities and possible targets.
Developing of any catalogue or magazine starts with the plan where I lay out all the pages I’ve planned without including details. My second step on the way to my outcome was creating colour selection page with palettes and mood board where I’ve shown my intentions and conceptual idea. I think that this step is more than essential to be completed because it gives the visual sense. My following actions were concentrated on planning the photoshoot, which consisted of a concept where I demonstrated my thoughts and possible approaches on shooting. Moreover, after the plan has come to life, I’ve dedicated a few pages telling about my outcomes and development of the catalogue ready photos.

The exhibition was one of the biggest challenges of the project because, for the first time for the whole project, we had to preserve our skills to the audience, which consisted not only of college students and teachers but also guests. None of the above characters was familiar with the projects in advance; it was my main goal to facilitate the understanding and perception of my work for those who had never heard of it before. My setup gathered two main objects: the poster, which I hardly worked on the day before and the Mac with automatically playing presentation of my catalogue.
The best award on the day of the exhibition for each student was attention, and I inadvertently watched if people stopped or wondered if they were interested. And you know, I was utterly glad when I bent more than ten fingers in twenty minutes! Almost everyone who saw my work stopped for a minute to see the poster and presentation.

To sum it up, I’d like to conclude that I am satisfied with my work. It was my first chance in life of trying on working on the same topic for twelve weeks period, and I am happy to say that I enjoyed it a lot as I feel that I’ve developed many of my skills connected to different aspects of my subject: writing, editing, communicating and succeeding!