For this project, we will be invistigating the creative process of an the illustrator named Christoph Niemann. Our end products will be a documentary video and a research paper that inform the viewer / reader of how Christoph Niemann is able to consistently produce high quality illustrations. We note everything from his daily routine to his short and longer term strategies for self-improvement.
2 - 20 - 2017
Individual Annotated Bibliography Draft
Abstracted: The Art of Design. Summarize.
This is a Netflix original series that starts with an episode about Christoph, his life, and his creative process. From watching this episode, I've learned
that Christoph works from 9:00 am - 6:00 pm alone every day. I agree with his assessment of abstraction, where he desires to remove things that are not essential for the point of his illustrations. He says that an illustrator wants to draw the line between too real and too abstract, for example hearts representing love are too real when they are drawn as biological drawings, but too abstract if drawn as a circle with some dots. Christoph uses Legos as his 3D pixels to help him think of new designs. He felt welcome when he came to America and started working in New York City, because people 'got' the majority of his work. A lot of his work is to same magazines and projects at the last minute. He works by himself at his studio, because he finds it helpful to separate work and real life. He can't work very well while sitting and watching people in a coffee shop. He has a nice looking family, including kids who like the Subway.
Assess.
I think that this source is useful, it was made in direct consultation with Christoph Niemann, and it is intended to provide insight into the process and lifestyle of a representative graphic designer.
Reflect.
This source shows personal insights into how Christoph conducts his business. I think that it will be very helpful when we try to describe his process.
Portfolio Summarize.
This is Christoph's personal website, where he displays information, news, and many samples of his work.
Assess.
This is a good, reliable source. It is symbiotic with the abstracted tv episode, because it shows a lot of the work that was discussed therein. To understand the process, it is useful to see the end results of the process.
Reflect.
This source is all about concrete examples of this process. We can use this source to make particular points to augment the generalized and abstracted points.
Abstract Sunday - New York Times Blog
Summarize.
Christoph acts as a visual columnist to tell stories using pictures and words.
Assess.
I'm not sure that this provides much insight into Christoph's practice, but it shows more examples of his way of expressing concepts in pictorial forms.
Reflect.
I think this will be useful in describing Christoph's style of narrative, because his pictures and words tell stories sequentially, rather than all at once as in his New Yorker Covers.
99u Article Summarize.
This article provides some insights on Christoph's schedule, especially his thoughts on time management, deciding how much work to take on, etc.
Assess.
It seems like 99u is a reputable website. This article corroborates information discusses in the Abstracted Episode.
Reflect.
I think that this source provides yet another perspective on Christoph's time management capabilities.
Instagram. Summarize.
This is Christoph's Instagram feed which shows a bunch of his work together, without indirect linkings.
Assess.
This source seems useful and valid. This source is useful for easily viewing most of Christoph's work at once, without commentary or categorization.
Reflect.
I think think this source will be useful in efficiently checking out thoughts on his process with vast amounts of examples. It is a good measuring stick to gain and judge one's impressions on his work.
Individual Storyboard Draft
Team Annotated Bibliography
My teammate Ari and I had a video call and synthesized our storyboards. We also combined our annotated bibliographies.
Link.
During Spring break, I talked about film making with a friend of mine, Ari and I had a video call meeting, and I've created some assets for the movie. I'm also starting to work on the research paper.
Animation
Sounds
Wall clock ticking at an ever increasing rate: Link.
3 - 28 - 2017
Research Paper
I woke up at 8am and spent an entire day working on the research paper. I collected my thoughts and now have roughly 13 pages of research paper written. Over the course of this next weekend, I will prune it down to 10, remove a couple repeated ideas, and focus the narrative. My productivity on the research paper is a direct result of the many weekly meetings I have had with Ari, where we have discussed and informed each other's views on Christoph's process. The outlines and categorization schemes that we have made for the video and otherwise have also been helpful at getting me towards ideas that I would not have otherwise thought of.
You can see the paper in its raw, unfinished state, here.
3 - 30 - 2017
Montage Test Video
Today on March 30th, 2017, I've made my very first After effects video. I decided to make a video about Christoph Niemann that is a montage of his various illustrations. I hope to test it out of various people I know, so that we can get some much needed feedback to inform our final video.
4_3_17: Project Submission Date
Final Research Paper
I spent 10 hours on Saturday editing the paper to draft number 2 and 3.5 hours tonight editing the paper to the final draft, which may be found
here.
I also completed an updated outline, which may be found
here.
