Lana

Whilst my plan for the booklet was to send it off to be printed and bound professionally, time and cost meant this was no longer a possibility, as I needed at least a week for this to happen. However, I have learnt different binding techniques in the past so I thought I could do it myself.

This seemed simple enough until I remembered the Print Shop at Ravensbourne doesn't print two-sided. This completely changed how the book would be bound as it meant putting together individual pages rather than spreads.

The best thing to do in this scenario was to use hot glue to bind the pages and cover. 

The next problem I faced was how to include text. I was unable to accurately print text onto the back of each page which left writing by hand the only real solution. I trust my hand-writing enough, but took extra measures to ensure it was tidy and legible.

The final booklet looks better than I thought it would, even though it isn't perfect. I think it was a good attempt and I learnt more than I can take forward to improve my book binding in the future.

Since the idea of a composite robot wasn't working out for me, I was left wondering how I would create the images for my book in the time I had left, bearing in mind I would need time to print and bind the booklet.

I've never used Illustrator before, but I thought it would be my best bet and enough of a challenge for me to not just use it as a last resort but also a learning experience. 

I found it easier to use than I thought, and the drawing process was made quicker by the fact that once I had made the robot I was able to copy and paste most of it for the following images.

I thought it would be nice to have an element of reality in the images by incorporating real photos and objects somehow, and whilst I thought about doing it for backgrounds, I kept it more subtle in just the objects which I think gives the book a cleaner look.

Overall I'm happy with how this looks and I think it has brought Mr Tidy Robot to life, even if not in a real, physical way.

Today I tried bringing together images to make up a digital version of the robot. This is something I've never done before and I wasn't too sure about how to do it, but I knew how to use Photoshop and so I started there.

I took a few basic photos of objects around my house that were the right kind of colours and began cutting these up, adding shadows and highlights, to make a 3d looking image.

Unfortunately, this proved too big a challenge for me, and perhaps with more time I could work to perfect it, but ultimately I think this is beyond my skill set for a while.

I enjoyed the attempt, and it's something I could perhaps try again in the future, but as the exhibition draws nearer, and bearing in mind the time I need to then create a book, this is something that doesn't seem likely to work for now.