My Fourteenth Blog Post

Artist Statement Draft

Hello and welcome to my portfolio website. My name is Evanthia (Eva) Evgenidis and I am a first year Design Student at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). From a young age I have had a passion for expressing my emotions and thoughts through design using a diverse range of visual arts, such as painting, sketching, photography, videography and crafts. Presently, I am beginning to discover my areas of interest and techniques in design, while also representing my originality and personality throughout it. My journey as a creative practitioner in design began with the production of a variety of design projects which entailed distinct design modes and techniques, including videography, sound composition, film editing, two-dimensional graphic design, three-dimensional environment design and finally website design. Across all my projects I have remained with the theme of growth, peace, tranquility and hope. Creatively, I strive for audiences to feel calm and intrigued by the appreciation of nature through design, building a connection between my admiration and love for nature to the wider community of viewers to also find wonder in the smaller details. Nature is a common feature within each of my projects as well as my favoured colour palette, consisting of the colour green, pink and white or cream.

During the course of this semester in Digital Media Studio 1, I have utilised multiple softwares which were new to me. The softwares which I am progressively learning the techniques for include many of the Adobe Creative Suite and more. Specifically, Visual Studio Code, Adobe Premiere Pro and Illustrator, Unity and Figma. These softwares were an introduction to each area in design which I thoroughly enjoyed using and am anticipating to further my knowledge in all, however with a focus more towards Figma and Visual Studio Code. I anticipate on specialising in website design and UX/UI design. In regards to my future aspirations of web design my approach with the layout and style of this webpage was inspired by the classical and impressionism art movement which I have articulated in my webpage. Both represent my interest and appreciation of classical, poetic and elegant design which embody my personality. Specifically, I have attempted to closely base my design from Claude Monet and his artwork due to a connection in my first project from the Digital Media Studio 1: Production course. As I cointinue this expedition through design and digital media I hope my creative ideas and productions portray my soft and poetic styles and how there is more in less, as the smallest of details can make an immense impact through the expression of emotion, nature and personality through design.

Assignment Summaries

Assignment 1

My concept for the video edit was based on nature, surrounding the idea of a connection between symphonic instumental melodies and nature, specifically flowers. I attempted to create a melody which was calm and inspiring, similar to the stillness of the nature featured in my video.I focused on my personality and interests, rather than potential future. The concept of flowers and relation to my name, depict the softness of my personality and my values and qualities of sincerity, honesty, selflessness, kindness, humility and compassion. I expressed my personality and interests through the visuals of flowers and the soundtrack. The soundtrack was a meaningful addition to the video as I composed it to signify my interest in classical art, music and elegant design styles, while also incorporating the Claude Monet artwork. I chose to depict how classicl music, art and flowers can be expressed through design as they embody characteristics from an era of the past, which I deeply appreciate and admire, as well as the symbolic meaning of flowers in my video, being hope and appreciation of the smaller details.

Assignment 2

Throughout all my projects I have drifted towards themes of peace, tranquility and growth as they realte to my interests, personality, past and new beginnings for the future. Generating ideas in terms of 9 different icons that represent and embody the theme of calm was difficult at first, as I was looking at the world literally rather than metaphorically and emotionally. At first I thought of the general dove, meditation and leaf symbols of calmness however they were too common and didn't evoke an originality based on my own interpretation and emotion. I finally developed 9 icons with the idea of my personal interests and favourable things, such as the dango, a japanese dessert, which is one of my favourites, especially the combination of colours in the dessert. The idea of a dessert synbolising calm, alongside a dessert of my liking, is how I continued to develop my icons, relating back to myself. I continued through with sub themes such as, tea, dessert, nature, weather, plants, home, peace, rest and home.

Assignment 3

At the stage of contemplating on a change in my life, I found it difficult to develop an idea. I finally went with a major change during my university journey which was transferring from one degree to another. I came to the decision of a overwhelming cityscape which was more representative of my emotion towards that year of my life. The second environment I planned to make one path at first which lead to a bench seat however I decided to make the environment open and consist of multiple pathways circling around to a gazebo, emphasising the freedom and peace I have currently, while also portraying the difficulties of life through multiple pathways. For my first environment the different elements within my cityscape consisted of towering city buildings, roadblocks and a road sign. I was able to unify these elements through the music and positioning of each asset. The theme that I unified these elements with was tension and overwhelmingness, which was displayed through the close proximity and towering height of the buildings upon the user and the soundtrack. For my second environment which represented the change, included elements such as, cherry blossom trees, bonsai tress, a flower bed path, bench seat, bridge and gazebo. The reason why more elements were included in this environment was related to the idea that my creative abilities are no longer suppressed and I am able to have freedom in my delivery of art and design, having more options available in the design field. These elements also represent rest and hope, with their soft colour palette and symbolic meanings surrounding the theme of hope, growth, peace and rest. In this project I paired the towering city buildings of a dull colour, with a tense and overwhelming futuristic sound, compared to the open line of trees, colourful and soft visuals of my second environment, paired with a tranquil and calm sound.

Wireframe Drafts

Before adding my paragraphs I focused on the layout of the webpage, by mapping out each section. My process of designing was for a total of 5 days. In the early stages of my webpage I only had a very basic and first wireframe draft, a test page which was made during class. From the initial draft I later was set on a certain style and theme. I gained an idea after trying the grid layout wireframe and further refined it with a style that suited my overall theme of classical and impressionism art related to nature. I have included screenshots of my drafts below and my final designs and wireframes in the next post:

First Design Draft