YCN OASIS: FOILING

Another process I wanted to try for my brief was foiling I had the idea of foiling all of the work in black and then using other processes such as beading and sewing over the larger headers.

Print Room

For the production of my Oasis brief, I got a A2 screen at started to prepare if for the methods I wanted to use. This included stripping, cleaning and coating my screen in preparation for it to be exposed this took me 2 days to complete in order for my design to work.

When the screen was exposed I ran into some trouble with the design as they were not aligned onto the screen correctly when the technician exposed it. With this happening I felt that the time I had left to create the design was going to be a bit of a tight squeeze, however the technician said I could have an extra screen for free.

Before starting my design I brought some coloured mount board and cut them to an A4 size for the production of my work. I chose pastel colours as these are colours I found Oasis had used in their online work and in store.

To start the screen printing I aligned my work to a desk top to make sure the alignment of my work would be successful.

I then individually taped round my work to ensure that the other designs wouldn't go onto my work as I have exposed the majority of the messages onto an A2 screen.

I then brought some binder glue and some foil and using a squeegee I moved the glue over the design ready for the foil to be placed down.

I then placed the design into a heat press and waited for the glue and the foil to bind so that it would create a reflective effect.

I then let the design cool down for a few minutes before removing the foil to see how it had bonded to the letters.

On the reveal of the foiling some of the words had not taken to the foil and again it was quite hard to read. I then decided to try the process again but had to wait for my screen to dry due to using the type of glue for foiling you have to use if quickly and wash it off straight away as it can damage the screen.

After waiting for 30mins - 1hr, I tried the process again, following the same steps. However I ran into some trouble in the print room because it had been booked out for the afternoon for another course. I had been in the print room from 9am till 2pm and had only created one design that wouldn't be suitable for final submission. I then decided to reflect back on what I could do for the design and weather or not to continue with my initial idea. I spoke to some class mates who said that their was a foiling machine in the library and I could attempt my process there.

Library Resources

I decided to go into university on Saturday to attempt the foiling process in the library. After running into a lot of difficulty in the print room I decided to see the outcome of how I could rectify this process in an easier way.

I brought some more stock as mount board was not available to use in the foiling machine at the library and chose off white card as there were  not many options for me to choose from and  at this point I wanted my designs to reflect some form of consistency. The stock in total for this process cost me £2.00 which was a cheaper alternative to what I had spent the day before.

In order for the process to work I have to print my design on card using the bypass tray in studio 2, and then run to the library to make sure the foil would stick to the ink to ensure the process was successful.

After not having much success with the card I attempted using the designs on normal white paper. 

The foiling process worked successfully and I thought I could simply take photo's of the foiled process and super impose them onto my work after the photo shoot. Although this wasn't a safe / professional idea I thought it would be worth a try.

I did attempt to buy the same coloured stock in a paper form however, my stockist had run out, so I tried on a similar colour. However when it came to using the process again it didn't work. 

After trying a range of ways to get the foiling process right I decided to leave the idea and attempt to try and rectify it in photoshop. I felt confident in previous modules in doing this process and has worked successfully before but I think due to time constraints and small obstacles that came up along the way when trying to to complete this process had made me want to just try and complete my other idea's I spent a lot of money trying to complete this process and I think in regards to budget for the brief and the other processes I wanted to attempt I had to reconsider my plan of action. I think that I have done well in trying a series of ways to complete the process without giving up on the first hurdle but in doing this I may have lost some valuable time to complete my work on how I initially intended. I have definitely learnt a lot from this and will consider this for future modules to prevent me making these same mistakes again.