This week we worked on how to collaborate text with images to tell a story. Placement of elements makes it more appealing to eyes plus also make it more convenient for the person to understand the flow of it. We explored how differently we can place an image so that it can change the orientation of the publication and also the flow of reading. To make the audience see the photograph first and then read the text or vice versa or person should be equally focusing on both of them. It also tells us about the importance of the image that if the article is about the image, then the size of the image will be bigger and when the image is an element in the text, then the size of the image will be smaller.

To start with Indesign, we have to explore different types of publications. So this was our motive for week 3 to understand the layout and orientation of a publication. We explored different publications that are text heavy. Then from those, we had to choose one publication and work on its text orientation, spacing, font size, the weight of the font and much more to understand that how the placement of the text can make a publication more appealing. The text can also tell u more about a book, like a genre and the mood of it. If it’s a romantic novel, then the text will be cursive. If it’s documentation or biography, then the text will be rigid and concrete. If it’s a comic, mostly it will be comic sans. The text also tells us about what should be the flow of reading. It also tells us about what’s more important, and whats need to highlight.

This week we started with Indesign, it’s a software mostly use to make publications. It was a whole new software for me but was aware of it that something like this exists. We started with understanding the most basic element first that was the interface of it followed by, how to set up a document. I think setting up a document is as important as others steps of the design process. It makes our work more convenient. Then we explored different basic tools of Indesign and worked with them to get a basic understanding of what they do and what more they can do. So, week two was about this only, our introduction to Indesign.

The start of the week was with a refreshing and kick-starting our mind with Photoshop and Illustrator. After coming back from a long vacation, we were told to recall what we did in our last semester. So we had to make a vintage travel poster using photoshop or illustrator. So I chose London to work on because I think it’s a bridge between the past and present. We can relate London to the past also, and at the same time, we can see the modern version of it also. I chose to work on photoshop so that I can play with the elements as I want to. Firstly, made a sketch of a gist of London. I have never been to London. So this is a reference form what I saw it on screens. I used a simple technique of painting strokes then mixing them using a mixer brush tool and then some adjustments to get the following output.

So in this class, we were told that what we read in the seminar class we have to represent it visually. So we have to choose any 5 cities from the book “Invisible Cities” and represent those cities visually through illustrations. So it was an interesting process because how Calvino has described cities is fascinating and then converting them into something tangible and visually communicating stuff. So I tried to give a glimpse of the city to the audience.

We watched the movie “Amelie.” It is a story about a girl who wanted to help others. She played different roles in a single role like a matchmaker, guardian angel, and all-rounder helper. In the process of helping, she found a boy and fell in love with him so with all this happening, how she able to meet her love. We saw this picture to understand the unique perspective of her, how she looked at the world, to understand the perspective of the director also. The movie gave us a whole new perspective of the city she was in.
Then we were told to click pictures of the city with our own perspective using Gestalt’s theory and to tell a story with it.

The starting of this module was with a light team building and relaxing session. We were told to explain the meaning of the word, that the faculty has given us with the help of a skit. I think proper rehearsal and script is important for a smooth going skit. An understanding between the teammates is also important, this is a key element of a group task. So this was an advantage for all of us that we can make our own group. Although describing a word with the help of skit was a bit challenging because you have to expand a word into a 5 min experience. So it was a good start for us to face further challenges.

We discussed that what could be the different perspective or lens did Calvino use for his writing “The Invisible Cities.” So for me, there could be a possibility that these are the imaginations of his childhood because how children imagine their surroundings is something relatable to this for me. Children imagine everything in a dramatic way, how their parents tell them bedtime stories. So they make their own world of imagination with those fictional elements. And their surroundings started to change as per the stories with the touch of their innocence with no specific shape and forms. So what if these are his memories of his childhood, how he looked to a place he visited. There is a feeling of nostalgia for me in his writing.

The beauty of different ways how we can tell a story is something which is different for different people. We are referring to “Invisible Cities” by Calvino, in which he described cities with his own perspective and imagination. The way he expressed city can be real or imaginary. The element he used to describe the city can be direct or can be metamorphic. This is my personal thinking that; how he represented the city and also giving room to his audience to think it in a different way is something unique about it. So for me, the beauty of the text is that everybody can imagine the same city in a different way though he expressed it in his way.

So how we all imagine our past and our space is something which is personalized because we all have our personal feeling connected to it. But when we tell the same story to another person, there are three possibilities that we communicated well, and the audience got what we wanted to say; secondly, they didn’t get anything; or third, they got everything, and they are also connecting their feeling and building it more in their way. So this is what we did in our lecture, we read the essay’s of each other and communicated it through quick thumbnails that what we got from the description. Most unique thing we got from this exercise was that everybody looked at the same space in different ways. We got different perspectives on a single space, or I would say on the same description.