Project 7: These are a few...

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This project is based on personal effect that has a great value to me. I have chosen 6 personal things that describes me or things that are connected to my personal life. 

The first one is typography; the reason being is that it has been a complex topic to explore. Since, the day I have learnt about typography it has been one of my favourite topics, as it brings out the creative side of it and it combines with many different elements that makes it very creative and interesting. Also, in typography the message behind it is very clear and easy to understand, where as an artwork is quite difficult to recognise the message behind that particular artwork. At the same time, I believe that typography is more creative where you can create a simple artwork just by using typography. In addition, the different use of fonts captures the beauty of the typography.

The second one is spray stencil, which can also link to typography as we have to use different types of fonts to create an artwork, but at the same time you can use an image to spray the artwork. 

The third, is the collection of different inspiring quotes, the reason being is that these quotes gives me hope that one day that I will be successful and it inspires me to live my life to the fullest as we only get one chance. This reflects back to my personal life, as I want be a very successful Graphic Designer in the future and live my life to the best as I can. Also, this links to typography, as there are many elements of different fonts that are combined together to create an artwork.

The fourth one is the scents of love, as this also reflects back to me as the use of different typography logos and the use of different fonts. The logos have been my second favourite from my other Graphic Design topics, as the use of different style and size of the fonts, which reflects back to typography. In addition, scents are part of my daily life as I use perfumes quite a lot and love all the different kind of smells. Such as in summer I would wear something that is flowery or sweet. However, in winter I would prefer to use something that is less intense.

The fifth favourite thing is family & friends as this is one of the biggest parts of my life, as these people some how reflects a part of me. They always inspire me to achieve my goals and have a successful future, they are the ones that brought me up with good values and beliefs, and lastly these are the people that will always support me, as they will always be a part of my sorrow and happiness no matter happens. I see most of my friends as my own family as they are there to support in my good and bad times.

And lastly, another thing that plays a big part of my life is Henna design. This has always been part of me since my childhood, as I liked the henna patterns and the smell as well. Henna is something that came to me naturally, as I was really fond and passionate about. Therefore, from a young age I started creating my own henna pattern designs by looking at other inspiring henna artists, such as Ash Kumar. Henna is also part of my tradition as it is is used during Asian weddings mainly on the brides. Because of my great passionate for Henna, I decided to do a part time job as a henna artist, as this brings out the creative side of me and this is something that I enjoy doing. In addition, I have started to do henna patterns on candles to use it for any special occasions as decorations and also invitation cards.

Overall, all these 6 things connects to my personal effect that has great value to me. Due to some things that are sentimental values to me such as family and friends, as they will always be part of my life journey and this journey will always be part of my memory. In addition, I always see them in context with wider value as these are the people that brought me up with great values and they have always been supporting regarding my aspirations.

Through my research, henna patterns are spread out from hair to body and from there to arms. At the same time it has spread dramatically, as now days people are using henna as a tattoo and this has become so popular. Henna has lead to another form called Celtic Knot designs. Celtic knots are many different types of knots and styled graphical images of knots that are used for the decoration, which is used widely in the Celtic style. All these different knots are mostly known for they adaptation for the use in the ornamentation of Christian monuments and manuscripts.

Islamic art covers the visual arts that are produced from the 7th century and onwards by the people who lived within the area that was occupied by or ruled by culturally Islamic populations. Therefore, it is very difficult art to define because it covers many lands and various peoples over 1400 years. It is not art specifically of a religion, or of a time, or of a place. Which is why a huge field of Islamic architecture is the main subject of a separate article, leaving fields as varied as calligraphy, painting, glass, ceramics, and textiles, among others. In addition, Islamic art links closely to Henna, as both of their patterns are similar to each other. 

During this project, I have visited a Victoria and Albert museum to see the artwork that relates to the Islamic art and this has helped me out to produce some more artwork based on Celtic. 

Looking through the images of celtic and from Islamic art. I have came up with the few design to start the final project with and below is an images which I Image Traced them in order to have a clear image design. I then decided to build an A3 box which have celtic designs all around the sides. The reason for me to produce a box is so that I can store everything that I see around which really inspires me. 

Here are some design layouts of the top design for the box. I have designed a cross using my own design, but eventually I noticed that it does not represent any part of me. Therefore, instead of using a Christian symbol, I have now used a Hindu symbol as it represents my religion as well as part of who I am.

From few designs which I have created to see which one will be most suitable for my box. The images shown below is the design for the top part of the box as well as with the long side and a small side, which I have decide to use it for my box. The designs that I am using, I have came up with my own and I have drawn them below. However, I did copy and paste some bits to create a pattern as well as, I have reflected some of designs so I can have the same design going through the whole piece but reflected to change the pattern.

Below shows the final images of the designs that I have changed into different colours, in order for me to start the design using Laser cutter machine on to the wood. The colours shown below stands for different types of design that could be produce using the Laser machine. 

Engraving	BLACK	C/0 M/0 Y/0 K/100
Scribing	RED	C/0 M/100 Y/100 K/0
Inner cut	BLUE	C/100 M/100 Y/0 K/0
Outline cut	GREEN	C/100 M/0 Y/100 K/0

After using the laser machine, these are the results that came out on to the wood and it looks really attractive even though it's just designs at the moment, yet it still looks very appealing and eye catching.

I then started to put these pieces together in order for me to produce an A3 box so I can keep everything that is personal to me.

These are a few images shown below of the final box, which I have produced. This is something that I didn't expected to be when I started this project but the result came out really good. I am really pleased with this outcome as I had drawn all the designs into Celtic art, rather than produce the designs onto software.