Aluminium where to next?

Experimenting this past week on aluminium foil was an extremely valuable lesson for me as a creative. The ability to play and experiment with a material was something that I never really did or was good at. I am a person that when confronted with an assignment, prompt or design idea, I would always come up with a concept instantly and have a hard time experimenting because I had already paved the roads in my head leading to the final product. But now having completed this assignment, I feel as though my ways might change slightly. The experimentation that I underwent allowed me to make deeper connections with the material and explore aspects of it that I would not have if I had not been experimenting. The serendipity of the experimentation process is something that I have learned to very much respect and now, utilize.

There was a slight hiccup during the week where I had set one of my main trajectories for the assignment to be working with cyanotype. I wanted to see how aluminium foil would interact and create unique designs when combined with the cyanotype in the exposure process. However, my order never arrived. This was a pretty annoying realization since much of my experimentation was relying on this technique. I did not let this situation get the better of me though, I had already been experimenting plenty with my original seed ideas, I was able to divert my attention into other paths.

The final outcomes of the process were extremely valuable, keeping track of the process daily and writing out my thoughts proved to be a very valuable practice, allowing me to reflect and think about my choices during the process. I discovered several new techniques that were unique to tin foil, such as the hole stippling and printing that I already have ideas to work with on personal projects. In addition the play with light and foil was able to help me learn more about lighting and photography at home. I was able to find a way to turn the foil sheets into textures that can be used as assets in a website or for texturing digital posters.

Overall, this week and a half was extremely important for me as a designer, learning to experiment is very important and I feel as though I have made some incredible strides in my ability to do so. I look forward to implementing my new perspective in the coming projects next year.

How Can Aluminium Be Useful for a Designer?

Light was one of the first things that was suggested for me to play with. Aluminium foil is a thin metallic film that does not let light through, due to this attribute, it is used in the kitchen to wrap foods so that they do not spoil.

One of my most successful experiments with light came from poking holes in the foil, lighting it from the back and taking pictures of the result. This technique has a great deal of potential in installations, studio photography lights and even certain designs on its own. I would definitely persue this technique more given more time.

Printing on aluminium foil seems as though it wanders a little far from its material context, however, I would have to disagree. What sets aluminium foil apart from simply paper, is the way it interacts with the ink. Black ink specifically, when printed with on foil, adopts a much deeper and darker hue that can be used in a plethora of ways when designing with it.

In fact, while experimenting with this technique I thought out a way to approach an album design that I have been working on for a friend. The concept for the artwork was for it to have the same aesthetic as the comic book 'Sin City'. A black and white comic book. I was unsure how I was going to go about texturing the blacks, but now I think I have an idea...

A more obvious yet still very useful method for turning aluminium foil into a graphic design tool is to derive textures from it. I have used this technique for the buttons on this website, but the concept is not limited to this only. By crumpling, the tinfoil to a desired grain, scanning it and then adjusting the threshold, you are able to create a texture. When put into programs like photoshop, one can play with the blend modes to apply the texture onto flat, basic colors to make them come to life.