Mapping

For the mapping project i decided to document where I went via pubic transport for 2 weeks. I wanted to created a more abstract piece of work that didn't follow suit to my usually  very straightforward work. This is my first piece but I want to explore this idea of documenting travel and hopefully build on this starting point. 

Entire Font

I created on photoshop what the entire alphabet would look like in regards to the font I made for the branding project. I wanted something elegant and professional. I think the end result worked really well and suited the feel of the 'Cava Bar' brand. 

Font

I created my own font using photoshop and wanted to have the two prominant words grand and apparent with the 'of' floating happily amidst the two. The 'of' was inspired by the bubbles from cava with the two o's seemingly floating. 

Branding Project

Im in the process of researching and designing my brand for my street food business. I came up with the company that sells glasses of cava by the glass and spanish sausages in buns and plated. It is loosely based on a tapas bar but much more rustic and cheaper than a traditional swanky tapas bar you might see in London. It was based on a couple of places I visited in Barcelona whose approach is chaotic bargains that make you feel satisfied and alive! The price of the product is the absolute key element of this business' success. 

I have been looking at the branding of deli's and diners, for contrasting elements of "rustic authenticity" and "cheap vibrancy". The over all look must demonstrate quality and must have a brightness about it that translate a sense of fun within the establishment.

Colour 

For this task we had to play with the concept of colour and learn the rules that apply when using colour charts. I found this process more difficult than I first envisioned. I don't often use colour within my work so having to explore this area felt quite alien. I wanted to take the two opposite colours within the colour chart (i.e. blue and orange, purple and yellow and green and red) and find an object that used only these colours. I found this process really enjoyable and using only coloured utensils made me explore a style I hadn't before.

The Laser Cutter 

We were told to design an image using typography on illustrator and indesign. I used the phrase 'Swig Of Ink', took the individual letters that make up the phrase and scattered them around an A2 layout.

Above is a video of the laser cutter in all it's glory. I really enjoyed this method of design, using the machinery was totally new to me and it's precision and delicacy was almost hypnotising. I would love to experiment some more with laser cutting, and try to included imagery to make an even more visually dominant piece. 

As part of the 2 week graphics workshop we had the task of researching a particular subject from football to Illustration and then had to make a book cover with the InDesign program. I wanted to go something simple and perhaps a little unexpected when someone thinks about illustrtion. It would have been easy to draw an illustration and smack it down on the front cover. But I felt the idea that a black square could convey a message and emotion just as powerful as an illustration when used in the right context was a more interesting interpretation.

I found a quote and that became my blurb which again conveyed a powerful but uncomplicated expression of my particular subject choice. I found the project interesting and made me understand the importance of making something simple to create an equally or even stronger message than the most of obvious choice.

Personal Manifesto 

whilst researching and brainstorming interesting layouts for manifesto's I got fixated on incorporating food into my manifesto. I began by looking at physically incorporating food and typography. 

this then evolved into written documents that are about food, such as menus, nutrition labels, etc. 

For my final manifesto I decided to use the layout of a nutrition label often found on food packaging for the nutritional content. Using InDesign I copied the layout of a standard nutritional label and then went on to replace the words and percentages to characteristics, personality traits and ethics I want to possess. 

I really enjoyed this project due to the researching element. I knew very little about manifesto's and getting the opportunity to explore different approaches and responses to them was really enjoyable. I was also really pleased with how my final manifesto turned out, both from the technical parts of it and the creative. Having to explore what attributes I feel are important actually made for a lot of thought. I wanted to include characteristics that I really do feel are important in shaping a person. narrowing the list down was a challenge, and then also dividing the percentages from a total of 100% also proved challenging. Having to work out what areas are more important was hard, especially when choosing between traits such as 'liberal' and 'open minded'. I wanted to communicate an identical nutritional label with the lookers first glance but for this to soon be visually questioned when looking for a second or two longer. 

Graphics 'TIME' film poster

The first week of graphics we were divided into groups and given a word which we are asked to make a film centered around said word. Our group was given the word 'Time' and with this we brainstormed the issues that arise or could arise within the structure of a film. We originally decided that decay would be interesting and this eventually evolved into a study of time processes that in some way or another get from one point to another. Independently we had to design and create a poster for the film. 

In making my poster I studied movie posters that inspired ideas for my own and designed a rough layout. I drew the eye and and in addition drew a clock which I then scanned into my computer and placed in inDesign which i used to create the poster above. I wanted the clock to be placed in the center of the eye. This was to indicated that time is perception and subjective, which was also the intention of the film. I found the film element of this assignment harder than anticipated, I think this was due in part to the group work. I usually am quite an independent thinker when it comes to creativity, so shifting my working process felt unnatural. Making the poster was my highlight and studying the way in which different movies present their film was interesting. I was unaware how influential an image when trying to convey the message or tone of a film. 

Design and Media Art Foundation Review 

Over the past 4 weeks I've tasted and explored the 4 pathways that Ravensbourne had to offer on the Design and Media foundation course. I am being completely honest when I say that each course appealed to me and played on different aspects of my own personal strengths in very different ways. What came with this realization was how difficult choosing my final pathway would be. I started the course with an intended open mind and wanted to really explore each path completely objectively. Although having said that, from the forefront I definitely favored graphics and having this particular subject last worked greatly in my benefit. 

Being that before the course I had already gained some life and work experience I felt I had a good starting off point for most of the subjects. But was pleasantly surprised to find myself slotting comfortably back into an educative approach and embracing all the really relevant methods of design that I was discovering. Lens based media was probably the pathway I knew the most about as I have previously worked quite intensely within the television and film industry, and also studied film at a level. What I liked about the classes within lens-based media was how much photography played apart within the pathway, an area I appreciate on a hobby level but not professional. It demonstrated how the dynamic and basic format of photography is centered on story telling. It often relies on an individual trying to convey a message or feeling through a formulated and often decisively structured image. It seemed like a rather simple notion but was in fact something I hadn’t considered.

The fashion and textiles portion of the foundation was probably the subject I had the most fun in and got to let my inhibitions down and emerge self in with no fear of failure essentially. I think I have always felt as though I have very few artistic skills within fashion and textiles, which ended up being a huge benefit with in the classes. Most of the work assigned was practical and allowed us to use materials we perhaps wouldn’t in any other subject. It was the subject I felt overall gave us the most freedom to cut, stick, snap, bend and create with no rules or restrictions that had to be followed.

3DD was probably the pathway I was least looking forward to out of the 4. I believe this was down to my ignorance of the subject matter its self. The start was fast paced and we jumped straight in with a number of tasks to break away from conventional design processes, redesigning simple drawings of bananas into rabbit hutches and such. I naively hadn’t expected any of the pathway introductions to be challenging. I had envisioned pritstiks, safety scissors and inoffensive tasks that would scarcely scratch the surface of the next 7 months ahead of us. So when I found my self scratching my head when a task was set I felt genuine frustration, something I hadn’t anticipated. It was almost puzzle solving, and have the foresight to design and build a structure that physically works. Of course there’s trial and error, but essentially one of the most important elements to 3DD is piecing pieces together, and if you’re really on the money making it look beautiful at the same time. I found this whole pathway so interesting and like I said the most challenging. It makes you think and physically build things, the romance and traditional craftsmanship of this type of design is one of the most satisfying I can imagine. At least that’s how I felt. 

The last and most important subject, for me atleast, was Graphics. I had anticipated this week from the very first day of the course. The style of design and artistic technique within graphics is the one that my own artwork partners best with. The use of grids, precision, correctly replicating the world in the way the human eye replicates the world in our brains. Looking at artists who work in realism and photorealism is something I have appreciated and strived for in my own work from Chuck Close to Gerhard Richter. I found every aspect of the graphics week fitting for myself and I knew it was the path I would be choosing. For me one of the really important aspects of this whole process is to leave feeling like I have accomplished a skill. Even if just the basics, that element is so important and something I feel is relevant within the graphics pathway.

Every subject has been so interesting and so different, I always feel within design so many different elements come into play. If only for a day you get to explore an art medium you knew nothing about you can take that unfamiliar process of design and incorporate it into your own work to build and develop your own individual style. 

GRAPHICS

Our final assignment for the graphics week was to design and make exhibition posters for our own exhibition in 2033. I thought it was really important that I incorporate my style of artwork within the posters, so every image is one illustrated by myself. I used photoshops InDesign to layout the posters and add typography.
This whole project I found really interesting and relevant to my own work. The technical approach to most of the design process definitely appeals to me. My passion and ability is drawing and illustration so getting to use this within my art work was really important. The area of typography was one I hadn't really explored before and found really interesting. I usually focus mot of my artwork on the human form which we focussed on in our first class so this i felt more established in. But I like I said typography I'm not so familiar with so I would definitely like to explore this side of graphics in more depth.

Graphics

Our next focus within graphics was typography. The design and use of text to create visually interesting  pieces of work as well as the possibility of using to text to convey a message, idea or feeling through its physical look or simply by what it says. 

The pictures below are a few examples of the typography I created. I wanted to play with contrast and the ability of using black and white to create the form of letters. Shape was also an important element to my typography, which interestingly wasn't intentional. I only discovered this repetition when looking through my work at the end of the day. 

Within the typography class we had to come up with a word and then use our word within a square, the same size as a cd case. My word was swig and again I used shapes and pattern pieces to form the letter and word, almost giving the end pieces a puzzle disposition.