It's all an Illusion...
Do you ever look at something, and wonder if you’re seeing it for what it truly is. Has an aesthetic ever confused you on your perception of reality? Have you ever let yourself become truly enhanced by an illusion?
When we were asked to create our own optical illusion which might provoke people to feel this way, it was definitely an exciting challenge. We took a lovely trip to limerick art & design college. Here, we were put in teams of five to create our own optical illusions together. I was put in a team of three graphic designers and an Erasmus student. I hadn’t spoken to the people on my team before this project so I really enjoyed the idea of working with new faces.
I immediately noticed how open, confident and opinionated my fellow team members were. This, of course, wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, they had a very different approach to the project which was very different to mine. I surprisingly found this very refreshing. None of the team members were afraid to say what they were thinking which was actually really cool. I usually thought of myself as quite an outspoken person until I was put in this team. It really put things in perspective for me and I learned a lot from it. I was happy with our initial idea to stick with diagonal stripes for the illusion. Simplicity can sometimes be the best thing under time constraints. We decided to tape this up outside the college and inside the reception so that it looked like it was joined together. There was a glass window barrier between both sides of the team working outside and inside so communications were a bit of a challenge. There was a lot of sign language as well as running inside and outside to make things just perfect.
The graphic designers each had their own distinctive style which was really interesting. You could tell they all really knew who they were and weren’t afraid to show it. Not to sound creepy but I would never get bored watching the students that go to that college, I was intrigued by them. I love getting to know new people so learning about the art students, what their up to , what projects their doing and just their general opinions gave me a lot of perspective on things. Our courses link in various ways with project deadlines however their studio is very old fashioned alternative artsy style compared to our modern innovative environment. I really enjoyed comparing our course to theirs and I think working them was a big eye opener. I hope that we cross over with them in the future. It really shows that even if we think we know it all, we don’t and it’s good to get the opinions of others who have been used to other approaches to their work and a healthy mingle of this can make something amazing. Unity is key. We all have extraordinary talents, some of us can be more technology based, some of us prefer pen and paper and it’s important to use one another. Design can be so competitive that I think sometimes people forget that we can learn so much from each other. The whole exercise reimbursed this idea to me.
Our final illusion turned out pretty sweet. There’s always a thrill when you stand back and observe your own work. Saying this, I absolutely love seeing the work of others and I am always impressed with the work of classmates. The optical illusions created were remarkable for the time we had to do them. For me, peoples work had a perfect mixture of humour and beauty. I love the creativity that surrounds me every-day in college and as much as you can say it’s all to do with what we use, our facilities and what surrounds us, it’s honestly the people who express this creativity. I hope to keep inspiring, be inspired let that creative current of mine keep flowing.