BrooksyArt

Oceans 11 quote design

2011-07-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

Quote design for one of my favourite quotes from Oceans 11.

My quote design for Unbranded magazine

2011-06-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

My Shepard Fairey design series

2011-06-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

Childline Instillation Project

2011-05-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

A guide to my Childline Instillation for my BCU project

Unbranded Issue #1

2011-04-04T14:59:00.000-07:00

http://issuu.com/unbranded/docs/issue1?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fcolor%2Flayout.xml&backgroundColor=FFFFFF&showFlipBtn=true

Link to the first issue of the Unbraned magazine that features my work.

Death By Info

2011-04-04T09:56:00.000-07:00

Ever thought that you were drowning in a sea of information. No? Well maybe as a graphic designer I think about it too much but surely you’ve noticed the overwhelming increase in information and advertisements that are now being shoved in our faces. Everywhere you look there’s a piece of design that is shouting to be absorbed into your mind. When you leave your house you will be bombarded with thousands of pieces of information that you couldn’t possible take in.

We are human sponges...yes you are a sponge...that absorb info, what information do we absorb and what do we squeeze out.

With so much information just floating around how does someone begin to get an important piece of information across to the public? With each added piece of information comes a decrease in value to information as a whole. People are less likely to take in your designs and your messages if they’ve just seen a hundred on the way there and will see a hundred on the way back. How do you stop your information from getting absorbed though the subconscious and get it penetrating though there conscious mind. And even then how do you get it to be embedded into the viewers mind forever. As designers we must come up with new ways to interest, shock, embarrass the public and get are work remembered.

It is important that we listen to what is being said by people, listen to what they want to see? Interpret what they want to see? Understand what they want to see? And create something that then stands more change of being noticed and remembered.

Information graphics is a great way of sorting information into a format that people want to see, make it easier for them to soak up that information.

Although there is a fine line between information graphics that is useful and information graphics that is just telling us something we didn’t really need to no. The design above is a great way to represent the information but is something we didn’t really need to no.

In advertising disruptive adverts are a great way to get your information noticed. Do something different and people will notice and remember it. Guerrilla advertising is also another way of getting your adverts noticed, hit the viewer in the face when they least suspect it with a piece of information and they will remember it...plus be quite scared.

Visual Aid video presentation

2011-04-03T07:28:00.000-07:00

Here's my Visual Aid video presentation.

Bill Bernbach

2011-04-03T06:40:00.000-07:00

Bill Bernbach, was an advertising creative director and was the renowned founder of advertising agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach. He created some of the agencies most famous ad campaigns, and has had a lasting impact on the advertising industry. Bill Bernbach is a classic example of someone who tries to looks at problems from a different angle to solve it. Bernbach’s famous VW Beetle adverts show how he comes at problems from different angles to solve the problem. At the time the VW Beetle was thought of as a Nazi invent car as it was in fact Adolf Hitler who gave them the order to invent a ‘people’s car’. So after the war Bernbach was given the job of selling this to America. Not exactly an easy task I think you’ll agree. Made even more difficult as the VW Beetle is a small car and the cars that were currently being driven by Americans were big gas guzzling machines.

He came up with an ad campaign that was to be truthful about the product. ‘Think small’ obviously trying to sell it on the fact that is a small car. He’s not going to try to sell the car as something it’s not. This poster suits it perfectly with Bernbach using negative space amazingly well and still making the car stand out.

Here’s another one of the ads were he’s playing on the fact that the Beetle hasn’t changed in over 30 years. Almost saying that the car is already perfect, no change needed.

This poster promoting the fact that the VW Beetle is made up of simple parts that you can get hold of anywhere and can be fixed easily.

All these posters play on the simple truths of the product there trying to sell. This is what makes the designs so memorable, it was something that hadn’t been looked at before and really stood out.

Disruption In Design

2011-04-03T05:51:00.000-07:00

Being different is a vital part of the advertising world. No one wants to see something that has already been done, it’s not going to sell the product. Disruption is a tool for change, an agent of growth. Disruption is not destructive, it is actually creative.

In some areas of advertising there is a lot of parity, everyone is doing the same thing. A good example of this is car advertisement. Having a car ad that doesn’t show the car at all would be disruptive as it goes against what everyone else is doing. Another good example is the famous Honda domino advert.

What most car ads had done was show the car driving along some winding road probably in the country side. Yet Honda went out to do something different. They do in the end show the car but only for a small proportion of the ad. And they created something that was so different from what any other car ad was doing at the time. This is disruptive advertising.

These disruptive techniques can also be used in other areas of design and art to improve your work. Modern art was very different to what was being produced by others at the time so even if you liked or disliked it, it was getting talked about and getting noticed. Using disruptive thinking in your design will get your work noticed and talked about.

Disruption = success

Big vision thinking is also a key part of advertising, think of that big idea that will really sell the product. Don’t be content to still with the small idea because it’s easier don’t be content to do what everyone else is doing because it is easier to think about.

Disruptive thinking has to start form the product. There’s no point trying to create a disruptive piece of advertising if the product you are trying to adverts is the same as everything else out there. It has to be a disruptive product. A good example of this is the original iPod commercials. The iPods where disruptive products when they first came out and with that they created an advert that was both creative and different to everything else.

Disruptive work gets talked about so you should always strive for originality. Always ask questions. Why should a logo for this type of company always have a logo like this? Why can’t it be totally different? The key to advertising and design is not to play it safe.

Info Graphics

2011-03-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

Brief design a piece of useful info graphics. I decided to look at the eye colour an create an interesting and factual diagram representing the distribution of eye colour.

This is my final outcome

Click image to enlarge

Semiotics

2011-03-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

Semiotics is the theory of signs and signifying practices. When you say think of a sign many will think of road signs or money symbols, signs that usually have only one meaning. But there are many signs and symbols that have multiple meanings. The sign of the cross is a good example as it has many meanings. Obviously it has religious connections, but remember it is also used to represent a health service or when in an orange square meanings warning irritable substance and is also used to represent England.

Ferdinand de Saussure defined a sign as a 2 two sided entity. One of these sides is the signifier, which might be speech or a written word, the other side is the signified, this might be a mental concept thought of by the receiver. There must be a bond between the two for the viewer to understand the sign.

Charles Peirce on the other hand defined a sign as a three sided theory. A representation which might be referred to as a ‘sign’. An object which is the ‘actual’ thing, and the interpretent which is influenced by the experience of the viewer.

Peirce also came up with another way of cataloguing signs into three groups.

An Icon or Image has a visable link to the thing it represents, and we use other signs around it to locate its true meaning. On its own you could only guess at its meaning. A sign showing two children walking doesn’t mean much, but when it’s in a red triangle with the words school underneath you are able to understand its meaning.

An Index sign has a causal link between the sign and the object, it is more subtle and indirect, possibly with a hidden meaning, smoke caused by fire.

And a symbol, these have no connection to the meaning its trying to represent it can only be learnt, such as money signs.

Book Cover

2011-03-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

Brief: Re-design a book cover using Indesign. I decided to make a book cover for the anime series Death Note.

Information Graphic Design

2011-03-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

Information graphic design is a way of transforming raw data or facts and turning them into a more visual diagram to make it easier to understand. It is simply a way of visualising data. This can is most commonly used in news broadcasts and newspapers to get there facts (or fiction) across easier and more visually. It is also used in maps and other way finding tools like signage in buildings.

The piece of information graphics below by Charles Minard which portrays the losses to Napoleon’s army in his Russian campaign in 1812, is a great example of how a lot of raw data has been taken and transformed into a very visual diagram. Information that would have taken awhile to gather from the data can be instantly seen from this diagram.

“A weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in 17th century England.”

Richard Wurman

Information Graphics are often used in newspapers to try to make their information seem more interesting, as they have to compete with the flashy motion graphics often used by news broadcasts on the television and online.

Information Graphic design can also help businesses get the most out of their customers. A good example is David Sless who was asked to redesign a customer application form that when researched found that only 42% could use it. After Sless redesigned it they found that 95% could then use it and increased their sales by 8%. There’s nothing customers hate more than having to work to purchase something or work to find something out about a company. Having a website, application form, questionnaire that is easily understood can really help.

People get information though a number of different channels, mobile phones, computers, verbal interactions, printed information and audio information are just some of the many media’s out there so we have to design multi-media information systems to cover every possible way people will want to get information.

Some of my favourite Information Graphics comes from two books called Visual Aid and Visual Aid 2. These books take information that you hadn’t really thought about and made it into something that you find you actually would like to know about and their visual style makes their Graphics very clear and interesting.

Here is one of their designs comparing the speed of sound with the speed of light in a very visual way. I found that it was something I hadn’t really thought about but after seeing this diagram something I thought I needed to know.

Ethics In Design

2011-03-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

People do not usually think about the impact a designer can have with their work, and the moral dilemmas that they face. There can me moral, immoral and amoral designs all with their own impacts on human behaviour. A war poster telling people to join the army, is it moral for getting people to help defend your country, or is it immoral for getting persuading people to go and fight and kill each other, or an alcohol advert telling people to try a new drink. All design, advertising or informative, can have impacts, good and bad on people and their behaviour. So where do you draw the line between what you are willing to design. Designers are agents of mass communication, what we design can be seen by millions of people and some of those will be influence by what you say.

James Montgomery well-known recruitment/propaganda poster created in 1917 is famous around the world and has been adapted several times and is a classic example. This poster may have been a vital component in the driving force behind the war, getting the solders to recruit to the army and fight for their country, but it might also have sent millions of people to their deaths.

Some designers might say that everyone has a choice, that a poster cannot force someone to do something, but then does design really exist. Isn’t the whole purpose of designs to influence people, to make a difference?

Another example the fine line in ethics is Google street view, many people feel that this is a breach of their privacy, did they ask for our permission before they took pictures of us and our houses. Yet no one complains because Google is a big business and most of us use it every day. The line between what is right and wrong is very blurry.

Designers need to think of themselves as tools of mass communication, everything that has been designed has a value, everything that we design has a value, and everything has some impact and someone. Think about the personal responsibility when designing, consider the message that you are putting across. Is it the one you intended?

Mini Brief

2011-03-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

Brief - Create a new logo for an outdoor clothing range called Smile.

Here is my solution

Old & New designs for Unbranded magazine

2011-03-03T06:01:00.000-08:00

These are a series of images that I created for my Old & New design work for the new Unbranded design magazine.

NEW BLOG!!!

2011-03-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

I have started creating a new condensed blog to post just my own work

http://brooksyart.tumblr.com/

Have a look and follow if you like my work

Visual Guide to the Designer SO-ME

2011-02-17T07:57:00.000-08:00

So-Me (Bertrand de Langeron) is a Parisian Graphic Designer and Art Director for Ed Banger Records. The label is home to acts such as Justice, Mr Flash, Busy P and So-Me himself, and has worked with the likes of Kanye West and Daft Punk. So-Me coordinates all the music video and album art for Ed Banger Records.

So-Me works a lot with hand drawn typography, creating interesting and unique work, as all his typography is done by hand, two pieces will never be the same. So-Me’s ability to quite quickly produce these hand done typography pieces is what has helped make him so successful.

Ed Banger records dramatically rose in fame in 2007 when they managed to sign a number of new artists, most notably French electronic group Justice. The music video So-Me created for their rework of ‘Never Be Alone’ by Simian, won the award for best video at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006.

This is famously remembered after Kanye West stormed the stage complaining that his expensive music video was better than Ed Banger Record’s. This then provoked a re-designed spoof cover by So-Me.

In the end Kanye West hired So-Me to create the music video for his song ‘Good Life’, which turned into an instant success.

So-Me also created the cover art for the song, which I feel isn’t as strong as his previous design work as he uses a lot of existing typefaces instead of completely hand done typography which is what made his work so unique.

In my current project, Design and Composition, So-Me’s work has helped me as it has given me some good inspiration and showed me the importance of hand done type, showing how when used properly it can have a much greater effect then computer created type. The way he positions his type and controls his designs even when they contain so much text, has shown me what can be accomplished if the composition is thought about. I have looked at creating a design similar to So-Me’s Ed Banger Records design (below) for my first page of my double page spread.

Paper plane

2011-01-14T06:12:00.000-08:00

Interesting design I made for my foundation final major project that I have just found on my computer, and thought I'd post it on here.

Eddie Dean quote

2011-01-12T15:02:00.000-08:00

A design I made for one of my favourite quotes

Neil Gaiman quote

2011-01-11T14:27:00.000-08:00

A design I made for a quote that caught my attention

Development of Creative Thought and Structure

2011-01-09T08:20:00.000-08:00

Developing creative thought and structure is a vital part of any practice be it Illustration, graphic design or any other creative area and a way of doing this is by overcoming mindsets. During our lives we are constantly picking up new skills though education, training, observation and personal experience. These help us become creative, allowing us to generate ideas or invent new solutions for old problems. Creativity allows us to think outside of the box, make unusual connections and creates new ways to look at things.

A common problem creative’s often find themselves facing is overcoming their own mindset. Creative’s over time develop a certain style which is often used in their work. Although this can be a good thing in getting your work recognised it, by tackling everyday problems in the same way often leads to predictable results, which will lack that element of surprise and creativity that really sells your work. Breaking your own rules, taking yourself outside your comfort zone and doing something different often leads to much better results that really hold that creative edge.

Think about the rules you often use in your work and find ways to challenge yourself, change the rules by ask yourself ‘What if?’ and ‘Why not?’, free yourself from your own preconceptions. The work above is a great example of someone looking at the way you write a sentence and thinking ‘Why?’ and they have broken every rule to create something that shouts creativity and looks stunning.

Another way of developing creative thought is by restating problems. As an artist/designer you have to look at problems from different angles. A visual problem may be easily answered one way, but can also be answered better and in a more interesting way when restating (redefining) it. Taking an unconventional route to get to a more creative answer. Creating problems statements that are more open gives you a lot more space and depth and lots more possibilities to answer the problem.

A good way to generate fresh ideas is to set yourself a target of generating between 75-100 simple ideas without evaluating them, the first 20-30 will be the simple outcomes that you can think of straight away, but as you create more you are forced to look at the problem from different angles to create new creative ideas, there’s are the outcomes that will be the most creative and will answer the problem in a much more unconventional way and breaking your own rules and mindsets.

These are a number of outcomes I created for a brief to make 100 creative outcomes focused around a given letter form.

The random triggers that help you answer a brief can come from anywhere, an image or word not even related to the problem, so taking a different approach to a brief when you have hit a mental block can always help you find the creative outcome.

Production

2011-01-07T08:41:00.000-08:00

The design workflow

A design workflow is a diagram that shows the design process of your work. It shows the inputs and outputs of each person involved in the design from the client through to the finisher. The inputs are what they receive during their process in the job, and the outputs are what they put into the job process, be that price estimates, design or prototypes. This creates an easy to understand diagram of where the workflow is going.

Above is an example of what a typical design workflow diagram would look like for a normal design company. With the Client, Designer, Repo house, Printer and Finisher being the five main areas of the design process, each with their own inputs and outputs.

Above is a design workflow diagram for my latest design project. My diagram is a lot simpler as I am all of the processes resulting in there being is less information passed between processes.

I think that in a big design company with several different processes with lots of different inputs and outputs a design workflow diagram would be quite useful at keeping track of which stage the current job is at, and also at seeing where time or money is wasted in a job. But in smaller companies or solo practitioners a diagram might be a waste of time as there are few processes that you would need to keep track of as you are involved in most or all of them.

From Novice to Expert

The novice to expert scale gives a good indication of where you’re are in relation to the novice and expert. It gives you a good idea of what you need to improve on or what you need to be able to achieve if you want to reach the next level of your chosen area.

I believe that I am in the beginner section, as I have a working knowledge of key aspects of Graphic Design. And hopefully through University I can progress to up the next stages.

My evidence for being at this level of expertise is that I can complete most straight forward tasks unsupervised, like with my Brandon Flowers advertisement but when a project of more complexity like creating my University safety advice campaign I need a few crits to keep me on course and to help develop my ideas.

Images and Text

2011-01-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

‘One look is worth a thousand words’

This famous saying which is widely attributed to Fred R. Barnard around the 1930s and raises an age old question, is an image worth a thousand words? Certainly an image can be worth more than a long winded description or a statement of what can be seen, but most times a small amount of text is all that is need to really put an image into context. A small amount of text can totally change your perception of an image and give you a more accurate view of what the image really is.

These are examples of how the images are changed depending on the signs that they were given to hold up. Without the text you may have subconsciously created those 1000 words in your head about each person, mainly judging them on outward appearance, whereas now in some cases just a small piece of text as totally change your view of the picture. By adding text you put the image into context. If each of the signs was swapped over each picture would have a new meaning and we’d each see it in a new light.

I think that an image can quite often be better than 1000 words, because with the picture we are able to interpret the image ourselves, each creating are own 1000 words, but in most cases an image works best when combined with text so that there is at least some direction for us.

This can be interestingly linked to whether a photograph can really capture everything. I don’t believe it is possible for a photograph to really tell the viewer everything as every photograph is interpreted differently by different people, but also because every photograph has elements to it that the viewer would never be able to guess without some sort text accompanying it. A good example is the photograph below.

At first I interpret the photograph as a seemingly normal slightly overgrown car park in the countryside somewhere. It is only when accompanied by the article below do you find out the true meaning of the photograph.

Without the article the viewer could only have randomly guessed at what secret meaning the photograph actually held. That is unless you happen to live nearby and often visit this area.

After seeing an example like this it shows that unless a photographer deliberately sets up a photograph so that everything that can be seen is everything that there is then the viewer will never be able to truly understand the image without some text.

Safety brief alternative outcomes

2010-11-30T10:19:00.000-08:00

These are the outcomes that I didnt end up using

Poster:

Flyer:

Student Safety Project

2010-11-25T12:51:00.000-08:00

Production and Outcomes

2010-11-25T12:44:00.000-08:00

Interpretation can be a big element in film and illustration, the way illustrators and creators decide to interpret an idea to come up with something new. They often use a ‘Zeitgeist’ to interpret the original message. The time and place have a great effect on their production. A good example of this is the story War of the Worlds by H.G Wells. This was original created as a novel but has been adapted into several films, notably in 1953 by George Pal and Bryon Haskin and in 2005 by Steven Spielberg. It has also been adapted into a famous radio broadcast by Orson Welles and into a musical by Jeff Waynes. There have also been games, comic books and theatre performances, all with a different interpretation of the original story.

An easy way to observe the different interpretations is by looking at the different alien ships in the different films and illustrations as each illustrator and create has tried to recreate what H.G Wells described in his book. The time and place has a great effect on the production both in terms of content and the actual making of the work. In the pictures above you can see how immense the differences are, as the early work being created by hand with simple pen and paper whereas the modern adaption has been created using Computer-generated imagery (CGI) giving the designer more freedom and creating an overly more advanced image. The imagery is also affected by the period produced because of the types of inspiration the designer will have looked at. The space ships are meant to be future creations so it shows what they thought the future might look like, with the 2005 film creating a much more sleek design possibly drawing inspiration from Star Wars and Star Trek designs whereas the older illustrations are more box like and almost comical by today’s standards.

Another big element in production of outcomes is testing. Creative’s are constantly testing their work to make it better and see how their audience reacts to it. They can do this in a number of different ways like publishing work and the use of galleries, and now that the internet has become common practice, creative’s can test their work on websites, blogs and creative and social forums. Basic forms of testing are individuals blogs like this one, and then there are more complex ones were you can compare lots of other creative’s work, www.debutart.com is a good example as there is mainly illustration based work with a range of different styles on show that you are able to compare.

You are also able to view short biography’s on each of the artists and even ask for a portfolio, printed and PDF, so each artist is able to get feedback and possibly job prospects by displaying their work with other peoples.

Story Development

2010-11-07T06:02:00.000-08:00

“Every movie needs to have a beginning, middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.” Jean-Luc Godard

The three act structure is the theory that every film must have a beginning, middle and an end.

ESTABLISH : CRISIS : RESOLVE

For a typical 2 hour film this is usually split into the ratio

30 : 60 : 30

To create a true 3 act structure you need a protagonist, this is the main character that is almost representing us in the film. Act 1 ends when the protagonist makes a choice that then propels the film into the main act. Act 2 has the protagonist get into some sort of crisis which leads to act 3 where it is all resolved. In a 3 act film the characters start in a state of equilibrium, which is then disrupted leading to a sequence of events until in the end a new equilibrium is reached. Usually this is accompanied by an inner story in which the protagonist undergoes a change emotionally.

A film that can be linked to this 3 act structure is The Matrix.

Act 1: Beginning –Neo’s liberation
Turning Point: Morpheus captured

Act 2: Hacking into the Matrix – Rescue of Morpheus
Turning Point: Neo fights Smith

Act 3: First Smith Fight – End
Climax: Neo Runs from Agents Resolution: Neo comes back to life and easily defeats Agents

I think in a basic form this theory can be applied to most films, but that it is just a theory, it is not a strong guide to make a film work, the 3 act structure can be mixed up any way, with the end at the start or the middle at the end. The better films are usually the ones that don’t stick to a rigid structure, keeping you on your toes.

Another element of story development is the hero’s journey. In 1949 Joseph Campbell wrote a book called ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, which proposed the idea that myths from all over the world seemed to be built on the same ideas. He mapped out the blue prints what underlie most myths, and these can be linked to the film The Matrix.

1: Departure

The call to adventure - “Follow the white rabbit”

Refusal of the call – Neo won’t climb onto the window ledge

Supernatural aid – Trinity removes the bug from Neo

Crossing the first threshold – Neo leaves the Matrix

The belly of the whale – Smith’s Interrogation

2: Initiation

The road of trials – Fighting Morpheus

The meeting with the goddess – Meeting the Oracle

Temptation away from the true path – Cipher tempted by returning to the Matrix

Atonement with the father – Neo rescues Morpheus (father figure)

Apotheosis – Neo becomes The One

The Ultimate boon – Humanity’s salvation now within reach

3: Return

Refusal of the return – Neo fights agent instead of running

The magic flight – Helicopter

Rescue from without – Trinity saves Neo from agents

Crossing the return threshold – Neo fights Agent Smith

Master of the two worlds – Neo’s final phone call to machines

Freedom to live – Humans victorious

Obvious the rules do not always fit in order but with a little reshuffling the blue prints can fit the film.

Reflective Visual Journal

2010-10-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

Your RVJ, critical journal, notebook, scrapbook whatever you call it is an indispensable tool for all visual creatives. It is a portable laboratory for all your creative thinking and development, it is a place where you can safely nurture and evolve your ideas, it is your primary tool for engaging with visual practice.

“I begin with an idea then it becomes something else”

Pablo Picasso

Working by hand in your RVJ is vital. Drawing and creative thinking are the same thing. It is a way for you to create a connection between your hand and your imagination. It is a way for you to get your ideas out of your head and onto paper so that they can fully develop. Most people carry a negative self-consciousness when it comes to drawing, afraid of other peoples criticism of our work, but drawing in your RVJ allows you to draw and doodle freely without feeling like you have to create a master piece to satisfy other people. This removes the barrier that limits your exploratory mark making. Drawing in your RVJ is the best way to problem solve, Leonardo Da Vinci developed a lot of his ideas by ‘thinking on a page’, and he use images to best describe his work.

You can almost see his mind at work when you look at his designs, you can see his train of thought, this means he is able to analysis his work and fully develop his ideas.

Using an RVJ also helps you utilise your creative brain. In your head your brain is essentially split into two separate parts, and they carry out different processes and functions, you can improve your creativity by utilising these functions and your RVJ helps achieve this. The right side of your brain is like a child, experimental, playful and curious and the left side is the opposite, organising, editing and classifying. It is positive to approach your creative work consciously aware of which brain mode you are using. With your right side playing and the left side evaluating you are sub-consciously switching between the two when in a creative process.

Play/Evaluate

Speculate/Interrogate

Experiment/question

Right..Left..Right..Left.. Right..Left..Right..Left.. Right..Left..Right..Left

Using your RVJ you are able to easily utilise your right side to maximise your creative potential and then analysis your work after with the left side to establish links in your work. It also allows you to almost ‘play to a theme’ to get the most out of your work without it becoming random doodling, it allows you to explore in a direction.

Here are good examples of the different types of work you produce with the different sides of your brain. The Left side is very ordered and organised with large amounts of text explaining what is happening. The right side creates very creative and open work that does not really have any purpose or direction until your left side takes back over.

By utilising your brain and controlling the mode that you are in you can greatly improve the quality and quantity of the work that you produce and capitalize on your creative potential.

3 Projects

2010-10-27T04:52:00.000-07:00

For my course I had to complete a brief for each of the different subject areas, Graphics, Illustration and Photography

Graphics

Create an A5 flyer for an event, the event I chose was Brandon Flowers' live tour in Birmingham.

Illustration

Illustrate the word fusion, I chose to look at ambigrams and combined the words Life and Death together. The word changes from Life to the word Death in the mirror

Photography

Photograph your first or lasting impression of Birmingham

Visual Hierarchy and Visual Legibility

2010-10-24T04:50:00.000-07:00

In Graphic Communication visual hierarchy is an important factor in any design that uses text or imagery or combines the two. It is the order you see first. A good graphic designer should be able to guide the viewer around the design in the exact path that he wants.

Newspapers are great examples of visual hierarchy, different parts of the newspaper need to grab your attention at different times.

The headline is the first thing to catch your attention, then it’s the ‘Free DVD’ font, then the Daily Mail header, then the image, then the Sub-heading and finally the text comes last. This is more or less how the designer of the newspaper intended the view to read it, so the layout’s visual hierarchy works.

There are some devices that can be used to create this visual hierarchy, the colour and typography are the two main ones. Obviously the biggest and boldest words the page will catch the viewer’s attention first and be read first. Hence the reason the headline is the biggest on all newspapers. The colour or the difference in colour between the background and the text helps make words stand out well, in the newspaper examples the white on blue stands out better than the white on red, although it also helps that the words are also big and bold. The yellow on blue text, makes it easy to read but makes it step back slightly from the bold ‘Free DVD’ text.

With images clearly the bigger the image the more it stands out but the colours in the image can sometimes alter that.

The positioning can also plays a big role in the hierarchy, because we read from left to right we will (supposedly) view the design from left to right, this is why in most cases the headline is positioned on the left and the large image on the right.

Another important factor in Graphic design is legibility. The viewer needs to be able to read what’s on the design. This may seem obvious but still happens. The main culprit for creating illegible text is using really small font. If the viewer has to struggle to read it there not going to bother. Although in some cases a smaller font can still be readable and benefit the overall design.

Is the font here legible? The white on black font makes what would be an illegible size font somewhat readable, although I personally think that this font is still too small even though it can be read...ish.

Another factor that can affect legibility is the use of colour in the text and the difference between the background and text colour. As we have seen above white on black works well in making the text stand out, but colours like yellow font on a white background is never legible and a combination of red and green causes confusion for many people making the text or image less legible.

Impossible is nothing

2010-10-13T04:10:00.000-07:00

A card tower I made for a Constraints project, this tower was made with just cards and no cheating occurred...ok maybe a little bit

Research and Development

2010-10-06T06:15:00.000-07:00

Though Visual Practice a deeper understanding of the subject can be gained. Visual Practice goes on all the time, whenever we watch TV, read a magazine, use the internet or walking into town, the world is so full of examples of Graphics, Illustration and Photography that you can’t go anywhere or do anything without observing some sort of inspiration that will develop your ideas and way of thinking about your subject, be it Graphics, Illustration or Photography. But the collection, study and exploration of a subject can majorly improve your understanding. Inspiration can come from anywhere and by collecting and studying a vast array of materials and work will mean you have a broader range to draw upon. By studying and exploring ideas that inspire you, you can develop your own work with new ideas and skills.

Visual research can also be linked to the application and evaluation of drawing and experimentation, an illustrator should always be experimenting to develop new skills and ideas and to help the development of a ‘personal’ Visual Vocabulary. You should analysis your own work just as much if not more than the work you look at for inspiration. By experimenting you can create hundreds of ideas that you can look back on and draw inspiration from to create or develop an idea later on in your career. The Illustrator Jill Calder is a good example of an illustrator who creates tonnes of sketch books full of seemingly random ideas that can later be developed into a final piece of work. Jotting down ideas on anything you have will not only help in allowing you to never forget anything but also creates some new effects that you would find out otherwise.

“I fill notebook after notebook after notebook because I feel sick when I forget potentially good ideas, I take photographs, I draw, I scan, I Photoshop.”

Paul Davis

I have collected loads of sketchbooks from A level, Foundation and University with all my thought processes and experimentation and inspiration from past projects that I can go back to and look at to get inspiration or develop my current ideas on a project that I may be doing, there is usually always something that can push forward my work or start it off in a new direction. I have scrap books of random things that have been of interesting to me that I can look back and pick up ideas from.

Anything and everything can inspire you to create something new, to develop your understanding of your practice, and enhance your visual vocabulary.

Foundation Course Final Piece

2010-10-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

This is my Foundation Course final piece

-Brief: Sell an unsellable item (1 paperclip for £1)

-Solution: 100 alternative uses for a paperclip

-Size: A1 Mounted

-Grade: Merit

-Price: £85

Connectivity

2010-10-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

Originality, ‘the ability to think or express oneself in an independent and individual manner’, an original idea is one not thought up by another person beforehand, yet most pieces of work have taken ideas and inspiration from previous peoples work, does this mean the work is no longer original, or is it just a new take on an older concept. Casper David Friedrich created the ‘Chalk Cliffs on Rügen’ in 1818, a direct link can be seen between it and Cliff Richard’s ‘Heathcliff’ CD cover created in 1996, and again in 2009 a obvious link can be seen with David Tennant’s RSC Hamlet design.

It is clear that both of pieces have used Casper David Friedrich’s work as inspiration to create there new take on an older idea. Another good example of modern work ‘paying homage’ to older pieces is the Pogues album cover for ‘Rum, Sodomy & the Lash’ created in 1985 which has many obvious links to Théodore Géricault’s piece ‘The Raft of the Medusa’ created in 1818. There are many other examples in other media like film and music. The band Oasis drew influence from The Beatles who drew influence from others before them. Does this mean they weren’t original? The film ‘The Killing’ 1956 was a direct influence for Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’, its influence on Tarantino’s use of the fractured narrative structure is obvious. But where is the line between ‘paying homage’ and plagiarism?

But can recontextualised ideas be contemporary? All these pieces are considered original even though they closely resemble previous work or ideas. I believe that these pieces are a little too similar, almost on the verge of copying, but there are other examples of work were inspiration has been take from previous work yet they have made vast changes to their version creating a totally new piece of work, a good example of this is an advert for Ashanti beer, which has drawn inspiration from Hokusai’s ‘The Great Wave Of Kanagawa’.

This piece has recontextualised Hokusai’s piece and made a new contemporary piece out of it. I feel that taking fewer details from the inspirational work or creating a bigger contrast from the ‘original’ creates a more contemporary piece. Because every piece of work, Art, Music, Film draws inspiration from some piece of media that has come before, and if all those pieces were called unoriginal then we wouldn’t have any original work at all.