Art Portfolio: Planning primary research

 For your project, you will need some primary research so that you can either understand your market and focus your work more clearly in a real-world context or you will need background research to inform your project work that comes from a primary source.

I conducted research on familiar comic books or something with past matters content. I found a story of the beginnings of The Beatles. It is also related to my project. 

The Baby's in Black: The Story of Astrid Kirchherr & Stuart Sutcliffe takes reader back to the early 60s, when Paul, John, George, Pete and Stuart decided to extend their musical abilities by playing in Kaiserkeller club, Hamburg.

The book was originally published in Germany in 2010. Therefore, the vibe of this book ideally reflects the place and experiences. This ultimate graphic novel has 195 pages. Accordingly black&white design reflecting the title. The author, Arne Bellstorf used individual renditions by pulling a lot of effort into creating characters through accurate emotions.

However, the story is not particularly about the fab four, it determines the sides of Lennon's best friend life - a relation of Stuart with a German photographer, Astrid Kirchherr.

Arne Bellstorf, Baby’s In Black: Astrid Kirchherr, Stuart Sutcliffe, and The Beatles, 2010

This piece of work is not only direct for the Beatles fans, but also according to reviews, but it is also an engaging, well-designed story. Even though, potential customers could be reached by the style of the design, the title or the summary of the story. The style is even though enough approaching, to dig deeper into biography. The idea of creating a long-length illustrative story defined a strategy to ''hoary old chestnut''.

As the author said, he was not interested in the music, but essentially in Astrid's photography. "The first thing I saw [of hers was a] famous self-portrait in front of a mirror. And I was just curious who this young pretty girl in Sixties Hamburg, my home town." (Bellstorf, 2012) And after this curiosity act, he collected the information and started to collaborate with Astrid to publish the book.

Numerous interviews and conversations deducted by Arne Bellstorf turned into creating pictorial narrative memories of Astrid Kirchherr's times spent with The Beatles. It tells a tragic love story, picturing a symbolic decision undertaken in the Hamburg subculture.

I conduct research on key points regarding my project. 

The aim of this questionnaire:

- to verify people's interest

- to determine what the book should include

I started my questionnaire with easy demographic questions about gender and age. The age was questionable because mainly my group does not exceed 21 years old. Therefore, it provokes me to concern the younger audience. Statistically, the group of my interest would not reach more than 40 years old. By doing this, I wanted to determine the ongoing interest in spare time activities, by listening to music or reading comics.

In the next question, I needed the information on whether the young age group still reading comics. By examing this, I will know if illustrations will remain strip structure in my project.

On the next question, I formulated a question close to the interest in the last decade.

The further series of questions suggested the attention taken on booklets inside a CD. I introduced music as an example.

Therefore, I persuaded thorough attention to detail in lyrics. It allows me to reassure myself of the importance of putting text onto illustrations. 

The last question has a suggestive form to the responder. Frankly, it was a straight forward examination, whether the idea of my project is still worthwhile. 

Conclusion:

By doing this task I have learnt how to create a questionnaire with preparation in advance. I realized how to conclude the questions tailored for the target audience. It gave me an opportunity to look closer into demands

My research in terms of the structure-related story found a ground in the comic book Baby’s In Black: Astrid Kirchherr, Stuart Sutcliffe, and The Beatles”. Which helped me to define my project as meaningful in public. As well as for fans and a larger audience.

References:

Geurtsen, R. (2018) Book Review: “Baby’s In Black: Astrid Kirchherr, Stuart Sutcliffe, and The Beatles” by Arne Bellstorf. [Online] Beatles-Freak’s Reviews. Available from : https://beatles-freak.com/2018/02/25/book-review-babys-in-black-astrid-kirchherr-stuart-sutcliffe-and-the-beatles-by-arne-bellstorf/ [Accessed 29/04/21].

Perpetua, M. (2012) Arne Bellstorf Illustrates the Young Beatles. [Online] Rolling Stone. Available from : https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/arne-bellstorf-illustrates-the-young-beatles-in-babys-in-black-19193/page-36-220581/ [Accessed 29/04/21].

Arne Bellstorf (2010) Baby’s in black the story of Astrid Kirchherr & Stuart Sutcliffe. Berlin Reprodukt.