Author: Xi Wu

I saw many of my classmates’ blogs in the peer review class and I thought it was a great way to learn. I got a lot of inspiration from my classmates’ blogs, for example, how they used the layout and colours. I also got comments from my classmates, some of whom thought I should categorise my blogs for a better reading experience. I would like to thank Izumi for showing me how to add the menus and I found the page much cleaner after I added the menus. I am also grateful for the compliments I received from some of my students, I received a lot of encouragement and I am grateful that they liked my work.

Before applying to LCF I had seen a friend of mine doing work with creative directors and I was very envious of him even though I didn’t know what a creative director student was until the end of Term 1. Tim Walker’s work really blew me away and as I was looking at his work I thought this is what I want to do, and at that point I realised what creative director meant and what I really wanted to do.
The second semester was also the most enjoyable part of my work on narrowtive. I wanted my work to have a storytelling aspect to it and I wanted to be able to communicate with others. During my media studies I often felt inferior to my classmates, that I wasn’t as good a photographer as some, or as creative as others, or as good an editor as others. But at the same time I understand that everyone has their own style and all I can do is make myself better. I used to only like to use black and white, but since term 2 I’ve been trying to use more colours.
About the magazine ‘Youth’ is a way for me to document my life and to inspire myself. I wanted to show a sense of boldness, confidence and freedom, which is what I aspire to and what I am trying to do. I used a lot of landscapes and portraits in the ‘Youth’ magazine, but after doing the whole thing I think I still presented too few photos. I should have added more collage elements to showcase my creativity, but I think collage is my weakest part and I often don’t have the ability to imagine boldly from a single photo. After finishing editing my magazine, I went through the whole magazine and I think I am much better at editing and using colour than term1 and term2, but I think I need to improve and learn more. Although the magazine is not perfect, it is a satisfactory magazine for my current stage and I still hope I can get more tips to do better. I hope that the final piece I present will speak to the reader and that they will understand what I am trying to say.

• In the first session, we started to learn how to use Adobe Premiere Pro in order to create a promotional video, for me I’m really bad at doing things on the computer I’m used to using my phone or iPad, after the session sing showed us how many frames a second a video has and then showed us some really good videos. After watching the videos sing told us that a lot of videos can be badly edited if you don’t choose the right music, which I really agree with.When we started to edit the video freely, I found it very difficult to do so. First of all, the Adobe Premiere page has a lot of jargon and is in English, so there is no way for a non-native English speaker like me to get around it. I need to use a translator and the editing page has a lot of tools that are not suitable for newcomers.I spent most of my time trying to understand Adobe Premiere, so I didn’t edit the video I wanted. All in all, although Adobe Premiere is more professional, I think the mobile phone’s app is better than using a computer, which is not as professional but I can operate it better.

• In the second lesson we started to learn how to make an electronic version of the magazine. I think the second lesson was much easier than the first and it was easy to learn. A lot of my classmates were using computers for layout and I tried to learn but I always felt that I would spend more time on the computer. I prefer to use my iPad to do the typesetting which is easier to do and I am used to it. I would save my work on the iPad as a JPRG and send it to my computer and then paste it directly into In Design, which I think is the best way for me, and if I find that it doesn’t look good I will continue to revise it.I had always found In Design a pain in the arse to use, so I never used the software until I had to hand in an electronic version of the magazine this term, so sometimes it’s good for me to try new things, and I find that things I’ve been reluctant to learn before might not be so difficult.

• In the third semester we start to learn how to do 3D modeling.I thought the class was quite interesting and I learnt a lot of new things. We used Sketchup to make the venue for our PR event. It was very easy to do the building because we only had to use the tool to make a square and then use another tool to build it into the shape of a house. The most difficult part of making the venue was placing the furniture, as it was in 3D the dimensions and angles were very difficult to adjust. Also when I was using the site there was often a lag, too much energy was used to load the page. In the end I was not particularly happy with the finished site, but for a first experiment I think it’s OK.

I didn’t go to JPS, so I chose to research how to do zine at home. I went to bookstores and researched a lot of magazines and I think those magazines are more fashionable and more mature for 22-40 years old. I didn’t find any personalised magazines that were entirely aimed at 18-27.I think this vacancy has caused me to think about young fashion. Through my research I found that established magazines such as Vogue, Bazzar use very comfortable typography and the photos are neat and clear. I think they do a perfect job and their high aesthetic is one of the factors that puts them ahead in the industry. But I find that they don’t go for very experimental and highly saturated colour schemes for insurance purposes, which I think is probably related to their targeting. I don’t have to think about that in the magazine I’m working on, and I can be very experimental and bold.

At the beginning when the teacher told us that the theme of the azine was ‘Self ’,I started a mind map, listing all the things that were related to self in me.

After I had listed the elements of SELF, I realised that this is what I think of when I am 20 years old at the moment. If I were a few years older I might change my mind, so I decided on the theme ‘Youth’, which is not only about being young but also about a state of mind. For example, I got a tattoo on my body when I was 17 and I thought it was really cool, even though I don’t like it now and I wanted to get rid of it, but looking back I don’t regret getting it because I liked it at that time. I think that’s what I’m trying to say: “Do what you want to do, take responsibility for yourself and don’t regret it”.

Throughout the second semester I have learnt what a magazine needs to be. I hope to learn creative director in the future so I have chosen to add only a small amount of text to my zine and focus more on the photos and narrowtive. In terms of how to reflect my theme, I think there are a lot of photos in my phone that I can use, which is a reflection of the life of ‘youth’ at my 20 years old.

A party of about 100 people is held in the evening in the Barbican corridor and the invitees are young people aged 18-25. The rules of the party are that everyone has to wear a mask to cover their face and wear a costume they have always wanted to try but were too scared to wear out (or dress up as the person they want to be). It was an interactive game where everyone’s personality traits and information were posted on the walls in the corridor. Party goers had to draw straws to chat to random people and guess who each masked person was based on the profiles and personality traits in the corridor. The venue provides drinks and alcohol and music is played on the sound system. The party can offer a monetary reward or an item reward for guessing the identity of the other person correctly.
The purpose of the party is not for prizes, but to express yourself and make friends through real conversations.