My enquiry initially look at investigating how biological systems can be applied to generative design. However, the more I thought about this the more I realised that I was overcomplicating it. I was specifically applying the randomness within genetics to generative design but there is a degree of randomness in generative design already. Maybe when I was actually looking at communicating genetics through graphic communication in Unit 2, it made natural sense to talk about genetics and draw parallels between the field and generative design. Since I had left genetics and biology behind, my enquiry needed to change.
My new enquiry is How can generative design systems be applied within the context of graphic communication design?
With my new enquiry in mind, I had two project proposals. First I needed to develop a system for generative design itself. Second, by applying the system through a set of exercises I could produce a publication that compiled the visual output from said exercises.
I decided to step away from working digital and with code as I believed my previous set of iterations were very similar to the work I was producing in Unit 2. I wanted to push myself and see if I could apply a generative system to illustration. To do this, I inputed a formula into excel that would spit out a random number from 1 to 4. Each number was assigned to a colouring pencil that I then had to draw with. To act quick, I would change my colouring pencil based on the random numbers every minute. These exercise lasted 10 minutes each.
These exercise were quite stimulating as it forced me to work quick and adapt as I went along with the different colours. It also made me plan ahead and think of what part of the illustration to start with or work on next based on how the colour would suit the shadows and highlights of the photos I was drawing from.
I found that it was easier to work in quick strokes where I flicked the colour pencil across in lines or in small circles. This meant that the method in which I was drawing was most suited for working with textures such as those of animals or textiles.
I liked how the illustrations came out. They were very playful and colourful however, I found them too cutesy and not necessarily fitting to my visual language. I decided to go back to working without colour and wondered whether the generative design system could provide prompts for designing illustrations instead.
With this in mind, I produced an interface on P5js where I could press random buttons three times and it would provide a prompt. The first button pressed would provide an emotion, the second button would provide a subject like a man or dog, and the third button would provide a verb. This resulted in 64 different possible combinations which are presented below.
With these set of iterations, I didn’t give myself a time limit but as I was working with a pen I couldn’t be too precious with the drawings. I made very quick drawings that were playful and wasn’t trying to be too neat and tidy.