Keith Haring was an American pop artist known for his abstract and colorful pop art style featuring small characters engaged in strange activities. His work was published in booklets and displayed on streets and in subway stations to engage the public. For an assignment on pop art, the student conducted research on pop artists like Haring from books, websites and as part of a group. They developed poster ideas incorporating Haring's signature style and characters before creating a digital poster holding up the title, adding physical elements with markers. Feedback improved the final product and group work supported learning Photoshop skills.

1. Induction Project
September 2019
CERTA L2 Developing Study Skills

2. Task 1 - Research
• Pop art is an art movement with heavy influence on modern
advertisement and cultural icons like singers, it often features heavy
branding themes from the era in which it was established (the 1950’s)
• Keith haring is an American artist who publishes very abstract pop
artwork that often features small characters partaking in strange and
wondrous activities such as one of his works that depicts someone
riding a dolphin. He often publishes his work in the form of strange
and colourful booklets that you would expect to find in children’s
libraries. His work often displays his social and political views in weird
colourful fashion to match his iconography.
2.4

3. Task 1 – Research – Web source
• ”Pop art is a movement that was established in the 1950s and
flourished in the 1960s in America and Britain, drawing inspiration
from sources in popular and commercial culture”
• “Pop both took art into new areas of subject matter and developed
new ways of presenting it and can be one of the first manifestations
of postmodernism”
• “Early pop art in Britain was fuelled by american popular culture
viewed from a distance, while the American artists were inspired by
what they saw and experienced living within that culture“
Title/Weblink/Date accessed: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pop-art
2.2
2.3

4. Task 1 – Research – Web source
• ”Having bridged the gap between highbrow and lowbrow. He took
street art into the gallery and fine art onto the street. He transformed
subway stations into galleries and galleries into night clubs.”
• “As a child haring loved drawing cartoons with his father. He retained
this bold and simple style throughout his life”
• “What made Haring different from other artists was that he engaged
directly into the city, and its inhabitants. Rather than confining his
work to galleries he worked like a graffiti artist, leaving his iconic
designs in public spaces all over town.”
2.2
2.3
Title/Weblink/Date
accessed:https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1yqvgqRR8jmkSyhNJTKkZ0d/streetwise-art-how-keith-

5. Task 1 – Research – Book source
• The examples in this book have helped me progress my understanding
on this art movement. Pop art often reflects on America’s sudden
breakaway from the European art that it was often indistinguishable
from in the early 1900s, this breakaway came along with the rise of
Hollywood in the 50s and that can be seen in a lot of pop art. This will
help me in my work because it gives me a sense of America’s struggle to
be different in the art world in the early 1900s.
Book title/Author + Library location:
2.2
2.3
Pop Art, Tilman Osterworld – 709 046 OST. P.82

6. Task 1 – Research – Book source
• the second book that I looked at for research focuses heavily on how
bright and colourful pop art can be, I find this to be very interesting
considering how the pop art movement mainly took place during a
dark time for America. I feel that the art helps to show how America
tried to stay positive after coming out of world war 2 and how proud
they were based on all of the icons used (e.g. Stars, Eagles)
2.2
2.3
Book title/Author + Library location:

7. Task 2a – Idea Generation [individual]
• Incorporate Haring’s signature character iconography heavily.
• Make the title colourful and patterned in a similar manner to Haring’s work.
• Design it in a way that makes it feel like the title is actually present rather than
just putting words on top of the art.
• Possibly use text as a part of a scene e.g. have the text at the bottom with the
characters stood on top to represent some kind of floor.
• Possibly use a single character and centre them with information at the bottom
and top like some sort of portrait.
• Possibly replicate Haring’s style of making the characters hold a subject up using
the title as the subject.
• Incorporate the sense of movement that Haring’s characters often portray.
• Use a photo of a blank surface as a background to give it a slightly textured look.

8. Task 2a – Idea Generation [group]

9. Task 2b – Action Plan/Schedule
Session Activity Who is responsible
1 Book Research Ali
2 Web Research Kai, Dan
3 Individual Planning Kai
4 Group Planning Kai, Dan, Ali
5 Poster Designing Kai, Dan, Ali
6 Poster Creation Kai
7 Physical Additions to Poster
3.1

10. Task 2b – Action Plan/Schedule
3.1
• We started our research by splitting up and choosing who was doing
each slide, I handled one of the web research slides, Dan did the
other and Ali did the book research.
• We then got together and did a group mind map on bubbl.us and
used this as an opportunity to help develop each others ideas and
give each other some extra inspiration.
• We proceeded to start work on each of our posters, as a group we
provided support to each other with Photoshop and gave each other
advice on how to further improve our posters.

11. Task 2c – Planning
3.2
T i t l e
Date and location
Characters
holding up title
Another
character

12. Task 2c – Planning
• Use these slides to show your planning of your products, think about
structure and the components for each product [evidence for this
may include storyboards, flat plans, sketches, etc]
3.2

13. Task 2c – Planning
• Use these slides to show your planning of your products, think about
structure and the components for each product [evidence for this
may include storyboards, flat plans, sketches, etc]
3.2

14. Task 4 – Production/Final Products
• My first design idea for the poster involved having two characters
holding up the title while another stands on top of the date and
location below them, while this design was kept in mind when
creating the final product I did heavily develop on some aspects of it.
My favourite part of the design idea was the characters holding the
title up so that aspect was used twice in the final product. After I had
finished the digital design aspects in Photoshop it was time to add a
physical feature, for this I decided to add some black borders to the
text and some lines give the title a sense of motion like Haring does
with his signature characters.
• https://ktcreativemedia.blogspot.com
3.2
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15. Task 5 – Evaluation – Problem Solving
• 1) At first I struggled to find a physical addition I could use for my poster,
my solution was to draw with a black marker around the text to match
Haring’s signature style.
• 2) I struggled with using images of Haring’s characters from online because
they kept coming out at a really low resolution, to solve this I used
cmd+shift+4 to take a screenshot of each character and pasted them in.
• 3) When trying to do certain things in Photoshop the tools that I was used
to using for different tasks didn’t always work, I overcame this by asking
other people for advice and trying their method.
3.3

16. Task 5 – Evaluation – Working with others
• 1) I feel that we were able to split the research between us quite well, Ali
likes reading so she focused on the book research and me and Dan split the
web research.
• 2) As a group we shared ideas to make a mind map, I feel that we all
equally provided plenty of ideas towards this group mind map and even
afterwards when it came to designing the posters.
• 3) When it came to producing the final product we were able to support
each other within the group, this was especially useful considering that we
all had varying degrees of experience and skill within different areas of
Photoshop.
1.2b

17. Task 5 – Evaluation - Feedback
• Discuss the feedback you received from your tutor during the project
and how you used this to improve the project
• We discussed adding more black outlines to the lettering.
• It was suggested that I add more colour to it.
3.5

18. Task 5 – Evaluation – Active Engagement
• Define active engagement in your studies and briefly explain how you
used it in this project
• Active engagement is about your ability to show interest within and
take part in projects. In this project I showed the ability to be a part of
and work within a group to produce what I believe is a decent piece
of work.
1.2a

19. Task 5 – Evaluation
Accessing and storing information
• Explain where the books/resources are for your area in the LC
• Explain how to take a book/resource out of the LC
2.1

20. Task 5 – Evaluation
Accessing and storing information
• Explain where to store electronic information on the college network
• Explain where you upload work when it is completed
2.1

21. Task 5 – Evaluation
Accessing and storing information
• Explain where to store electronic information on the college network
• Explain where you upload work when it is completed
2.1

22. Task 6 - How do you learn best?
• Explain some of the ways you think you learn best [refer to the VAK
questionnaire results in tutorial]:
• Using the learning styles questionnaire I identified my ideal learning
style as auditory, I got the same results for visual but when it came to
finding out what they meant I didn’t think it meant sense.
1.1

23. Task 6 - How do you learn best?
• What makes it hard for you to study?
• I often struggle to study in rooms where there is lots happening such
as conversations and people messing on, this is because I can often
get roped in.
• What strategies do you think would benefit your studies?
• I think it would benefit me if I tried to get some more independent
studying time in each week.
1.1