Project Reflection

Below are the final piece for two projects from the third year of University at Cardiff School of Art and Design. 


The Surf.

Surfers Path from Stewart Mackellar on Vimeo.


This was my Student Self-set module, which I found to be my favorite and most exciting project in the third year. I chose a new medium 'After Effects' to create this piece. Being an affluent surfer I wanted to let people experience what I go through in the water, through feelings, senses and sights. I feel that I captured this sensory experience well by playing with the emotional responses such at anticipation, excitement and contentment. I used a program I had not used before to generate skills in a new area to become a much rounded designer. I feel the areas of development are following my feedback, are to intensify the experience of the surf, provoking a greater sense of adrenaline and action in the later part of the video. This video reflects who driven I am to become a successful designer.


I have gained vital skills in After Effects in order to hopefully create other original, thought provoking animations or videos. I feel that with adverts becoming extremely common on the internet whether it be through, adverts on youtube or drop down adverts to display a short animation. To have an added skill to provide a creative team keeps me a step ahead of the game. 




Penguin Book Cover: Perfume. 

This project was live competition brief for Penguin books. Perfume was one of the books to design. The story is about a person with an acute sense of smell, which gradually take over and becomes driven to fulfill his extrodinary sense of smell. He gets engulfed in this process to create the perfect smelling perfume, he eventually turn to the scent of beautiful women, which ends in tragedy. I feel this piece is a strong representation of the story in that I have tried to convey and sense of mystery, by displaying the beautiful woman as in 12 pieces. The hair which come across the page is to bring your eye to the back page where the blur is displayed. The hair blowing in the wind also conveys a theme in the story of how he smells from a distance through the air. typographical treatment I used, is to keep the flowing sense of smell in the script type, also to look feminine to convey the theme. 


I feel this went hand in hand with the brief and was happy with the outcome.