Portfolio Box

Mirrors

Game Play

Codename Crapheap Challenge.

Possible title:
Remake, Re-use, ????

Brief outline:
A game of recycling and recreation. Use household waste/recyclables such as cardboard, wrappers, broken objects to create something in a team from a chosen theme. This is then judged.

Items need to play:
Theme cards
Junk
Tools - scissors, tape, glue, welding torch etc
Pen + Paper
Pre-warning/notice of the game being played so junk can be gathered.

Rules (subject to change):
First come, first serve on rubbish
Area limit
Time limit
No pre-made abjects i.e. no toy cars
No stealing
No hitting
No running in the halls
Hidden rubbish stashes (possible)

  

 

What is Graphic Design?

Over the Easter break we were set the task of answering the question “What is graphic design?”

I couldn’t quite think of how to depict or produce an artist piece to answer this question.

Instead of going home for Easter, I spent the “holiday”, if you would call it that, working on university assignments as well as freelance work for a client.

The definition of Graphic Design as explained on http://www.agda.com.au/about/what-is-graphic-design is:
Graphic Design is an interdisciplinary, problem-solving activity that combines visual sensitivity with skill and knowledge in areas of communications, technology an business. Graphic design practitioners specialise in the structure and organisation of visual information to aid communication and orientation. The graphic design process is a problem solving process, one that requires substantial creativity, innovation and technical expertise. An understanding of a client's product or service and goals, their competitors and the target audience is translated into a visual solution created from the manipulation, combination and utilisation of shape, colour, imagery, typography and space.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUeiZ6c6EBw

For me, I have discovered that the subject within a working environment is more about task juggling, and more precisely, finding time to allocate to various tasks set by clients. In my case, it is juggling uni work and client work. While it is important to prioritise uni work over other things, surely working for a client and establishing a good relation upon project completion is just, if not more important, as the universal aim for students getting into a job after university. Well, that’s all good, but it is easier said then done as these days, the competition for anyone within the arts is getting more and more greater, and the success upon getting a place with a business is more reliant on who you know, more than what you know.

If I was able to do the things within graphic design that inspire and motivate me the most,  as for example: doing my own design ideas and setting up my own online apparel store, I would. However, I have to work around tasks of higher priority, which need to be done, and so bringing my own ideas into life must be postponed. That is just the realities of life.

So this is my little rant about what I feel graphic design is. Don’t get me wrong, I love the subject and always have, but I wanted to express my own personal thoughts about what I feel graphic design is. Sorry for not painting a prettier picture.

Disaster Book

For this brief we were tasked with thinking up a disaster, not necessarily a catastrophic one such as the polar ice caps melting or a zombie apocalypse, instead it could be a daily disaster like dropping your toast butter-side down when you're already late for work.

After thinking of an appropriate disaster we had to make it into a small book constructed from a singular sheet of A4 folded down to make an A6 booklet.

It took me a while to think of a disaster that wasn't a typical kind, I wanted to do something that was unique and have a personal connection with.

While watching The Pirates of the Caribbean - The Dead Man's Chest I was captivated by the tragic love story between The goddess Calypso and sailor Davy Jones. I feel that this love story is the best love story, a mans love for the sea but unable to tame it, not exactly your typical "and they all lived happily ever after".

The disaster of this story, shortened down:

Long ago during Greek mythology and legends, the daughter of Atlas, Calypso ruled the seas and was both loved and feared by all men drawn to the sea.

A great, sea-fairing man by the name of Davy Jones fell deeply in love with the goddess who too returned her affection.

Calypso charged Davy Jones with the duty to command the Flying Dutchman, to guide souls of those who died at sea into the afterlife so that once every ten years he could come ashore and be with her, together for a single day.

After ten years of faithful servitude Jones returned from the underworld to be with his true love to find she was not there, for she, the sea, was fickle and untameable.

The betrayal committed by Calypso was too much for Davy Jones to bear and so he carved out his heart, locked it in a chest and hid it away from the world.

Enraged, betrayed, cruel and now heartless Davy Jones conspired with the Pirate Brethren, telling them how to imprison Calypso to single, mortal form, unable to rule the seas.

Jones returned to the seas, abandoning his task of ferrying souls and instead sought to rule the seas himself. This path would change the life or Davy Jones forever.

Page layout mock-up

 Test layout

Final

To make the book look authentic to it's subject matter I stained the paper with tea and crumpled it to give it an aged effect. I also Incorporated my own pen illustration on the the front cover of the book, regrettably the designs within are not my own but I manipulated them in Photoshop to blend them into the paper colour.

In the film Davy Jones cut's out his heart and locks it away in a chest, I made my own adaptation of this within the photos by instead of a real heart inside a chest the heart on the cover of the book is the heart of Davy Jones.

                       

Quote - Typographic - Design 2

Because my previous design involved imagery I had to to redesign a piece without any form of imagery whatsoever. I will say that typographic artwork is not my strongest of skills as I am not a huge fan of this type of art and don't really understand it.

First Design
Because John Locke was a highly influential philosopher who wrote about topics such as political philosophy, epistemology and education, which helped to found Western philosophy I made a typographic design resembling a philosophical equation. The font used is Chalkduster - Regular, giving the look of a professor/lecturer's chalk writing on a blackboard.

Second Design
My second design which I think looks more attractive is a piece which resembles an eye exam chart, involving all the characters of Locke's quote. The font used is Century Gothic - Bold.

Unique Business Cards

For this brief we were given the task of designing and producing business cards that related to our personality.

I chose to construct a cigarette pack but holding 20 or 10 individual business cards, each card would include an example of 1 of my works on the front while on the back would be my details.
This card holder would enable myself to take my cards with me and when it comes to handing out I could either offer a single card of the entire pack. I don't believe you have to be a smoker to appreciate the novelty behind this gesture idea.

I am a huge fan of vintage art work such as Art Deco and for my cigarette-like holder I wanted to adapt my own design to it but with some relation to a recognisable cigarette brand.

I chose to go with Lucky Strike as it dates back to 1871, introduced by a man named R.A. Patterson and is internationally recognisable brand design. I replaced all the cigarette related information/detail with my own adaptations such as graphic designer quotes, my own slogans. I redesigned the lucky Strike with my own logo but using the same colours so that it would share a similar relation.

                     

Quote - Typographic - Design 1.

Given Quote:

“There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men” – John Locke

John Locke, born August 29, 1632 – October 28, 1704 was a British philosopher as well as an Oxford academic and medical researcher who was widely known as the Father of Classical Liberalism, regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers.

Common Questions Children Ask                                                                       

·      Why is the sky blue?

·      What is infinity?

·      Where do babies come from?

·      How is electricity made?

·      What are black holes?

·      What is infinity?

·      Why is the sky blue?

·      Why do we have a leap year?

·      How do birds fly?

·      Where do babies come from?

·      Where do you go when you die?

·      Why do people kill each other?

·      Why are some people born with disabilities?

·      Why are people gay?

·      Why does cutting onions make you cry?

·      Where does the wind come from?

·      Why is the sea salty?

·      How big is the world?

·      Is God real?

·      What makes thunder?

·      Why do you blink?

·      How do planes fly?

·      What is time?

·      How does Father Christmas get down the chimney?

·      Where does water come from?

·      What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

·      Are aliens real?

·      How much does the earth weigh?

·      Why is water wet?

·      Where do birds go in winter?

·      Why is the moon sometimes out in the day?

·      Where does water come from?

Poster                                                                       

The poster design is centred around Locke’s quote, which describes the innocent, naive questions asked by children are the hardest for adults to answer without being stumped by them.

The Design:

After drafting up various designs I chose to go with a design that would be visually simple yet effective and apparent to the viewer.

The design contains some of the many innocent questions asked by a child that adults find difficult or fail to answer and when in doubt generally respond with the default answer “Nobody knows the answer to that”.

The questions would be arranged in diagonal orientations (I experimented with horizontal orientations and it didn’t look visually appealing, instead it looked rather bland. I tried a vertical orientation and it was just too hard to read, negating the point of the design.

I chose for the type to be enclosed with the profile of a child, making it more visually apparent to the viewer that the topic relates to a child/children.

I experimented with and without the usage of a background colour and colour usage within the profile image.

After designing a poster involving a boy’s profile I decided to adapt the same design but involving a girl’s profile, feeling it would appeal to both the male and female demographic (possibly stronger for parents).

Potential Imagery Fonts                                               

I wanted the font of the questions within the image to represent a child-like hand writing, so for this I tested out the following fonts from my font library within Illustrator:

·      Handwriting – Dakota

·      Marker Felt – Thin

·      Marker Felt – Wide

·      Chalkduster – Regular

·      Ballpark Weiner – Weiner

Experimenting with these fonts I made my own conclusions on each font to justify my decision:

Handwriting  - Dakota

I feel that this font is too thin, italic and strung-out. When compiled within the image the typographic composition is too visually stressful.

Marker Felt - Thin

This font is better but still too thin, making the typographic composition too busy and distracting.

Marker Felt - Wide

The wide version of Marker Felt works a lot better than the Thin version, delivering the effect of a child’s pen handwriting and still clean enough to read clearly. This font also looks a lot better in the typo composition too.

Chalkduster - Regular

Chalkduster delivers that handwritten effect in the font design but I got the feeling instantly that it would over-complicate the design, making it look messy and chaotic.

Ballpark Weiner  - Weiner

This font is one of my personal favourites but admittedly it’s not best used for every design piece. I felt that over-usage of this font would make the piece unreadable, and negate the purpose of the design.

I chose to use Marker Felt – Wide font as the font within the imagery and the main typographic focus.

Designed by Pat Snyder who is an art teacher and son of a master sign painter. Marker Felt is exceptional in its combination of casualness with clarity and definition of form. It is particularly useful for delivering onscreen presentations to large audiences.

Quote Font                                                                       

For the quote I wanted to use a font that was more serious visually but not too harsh or bold. I chose to use my personal favourite Century Gothic – Regular. I feel this font has a certain elegant, visually tranquilizing and sophisticated design about it, Like a statement being told a serious yet subtle tone. The right colour usage for this font would justify it furthermore.

Colours                                                                       

I wanted to use a soft, subtle, child-friendly colour scheme that would be suitable and relevant for the topic’s design.

I chose to use a mint, eggshell-blue for the boy’s poster with a C.M.Y.K. of:

·      C = 48

·      M = 6

·      Y = 27

·      K = 0

For the girl’s poster I chose to use a subtle pink with a C.M.Y.K. of:

·      C = 0

·      M = 38

·      Y = 8

·      K = 0

I also experimented with using a light-dark grey for both the boy and girl’s profile image, acting as a bold contrast between the type and background. I decided against this design though, feeling it was darkening the image too much. The C.M.Y.K. used was:

·      C = 0

·      M = 0

·      Y = 0

·      K = 75

I wanted to make sure the design wasn’t loud, bold and too in your face and using these colour schemes gave the poster design a warmer, subtle yet striking effect to it. I used a plain white swatch (C = 0, M = 0, Y = 0, K = 0) with the design too; this was to portray a sense of innocence within the piece, relating to the innocence of children and their questions.

Evaluation                                                                       

I will admit that the final design isn’t anything unique, finding similar typographic design pieces online after idea drafting but the idea and adaptation is completely my own and I feel it works very well. In the beginning I was quite sceptical about the fact that what I thought was my own new and original design had been completed numerous times before but with the time given for the completion of this project I’d of rather produced and completed something similar to already existing designs than not being able design or complete anything.

Overall I am happy with the finished results. I feel all the elements used within the design do the poster and the quote justice. One thing I would change in the future is for the posters to be printed on a higher quality, heavier paper, similar to matt watercolour paper.