Assessment 1: Postcards - Final designs

When drawing this postcard the main points i wanted to get across were; my name, gender, my love of animals, my fun loving/ playful nature and my love of the 'alternative' tattoo culture. I tried to achieve this by drawing myself in a tattoo style cameo frame with my name in a banner underneath. The frame in which i have drawn myself in is based on a tattoo that i myself already have. Again, banners are quite typical of a tattoo style and so i placed my name in a banner to keep with the theme.
I gave myself cat whiskers in this image to help portray my love of animals. The whiskers being quite a silly/ fun thing to draw i also wanted this to portray my playful, fun loving nature.
I love quite girly, kitsch, cartoon style graphics, and so tried to keep my postcard within this style. I wanted the image of myself to physically look like me but i also wanted it to be more of a cartoon style, than a realistic image. I kept the colours within the frame quite girly and pastel to keep with the kitsch/ kawaii tone. The cat whiskers also aid this.

This postcard is a fun take on a typical skull and crossbones image. Skull and crossbones are usually seen as quite a hard image, usually associated with the rock 'n' roll scene. I still wanted to keep some of the connotations of this image but with my own girly, kitsch twist.
I am quite a creative person and enjoy doing various crafts and so exchanged the crossbones for knitting needles to try and get that trait across. I gave the skull a pink bow to symbolise that i am a female. I used pink as it is the colour most associated with females and also because it is my favourite colour and is quite fun and kitsch.

For my final postcard, i have done a silhouette of a face in profile view. I then placed words on top of the head that describe me and my interests to form the appearance of a mohawk.
I added a bit of colour to the tips of the writing as punks can often be seen with colourful mohawks, i added pink to symbolise femininity. I consider myself a punk, and i live and breathe for punk rock music and so wanted this to be the main point expressed through this graphic, the first thing people noticed. Upon drawing this graphic, i wanted it to be inspired by post modern,  revolution style images and these are styles of graphic design i enjoy. I wanted my image to be quite simplistic and bold, almost a statement.

Assessment 1: Postcards - Rough sketches

 Here are some rough sketches of ideas for my postcards representing me, and my cultural interests.

The first image is of me and a couple of dogs, representing my love of animals. I have also drawn cat whiskers on my face to again represent my love of animals but also my playful side.  In the background there is a rainbow and some little stars, representing my love of all things kitsch, kawaii and bright again, hinting slightly towards a fun, playful tone.
The second image consists of me and two dogs again, representing my love of animals and my pugs. I have drawn myself in a rope cameo frame, similar to that found of a tattoo, with some tattoo style flowers around the edge both based on a tattoo that i have. This represents my love of tattoos and the alternative culture. I drew my name in a banner again to fit in with the tattoo theme. There is, like in the previous picture, a rainbow in the background to represent my love of kawaii designs.
The third picture is a skull and cross bones however the cross bones are made out of knitting needles. This represents my love of crafts. skull and cross bones are quite often used to represent the rock 'n' roll / punk scene, the alternative culture and tattoos all of which i enjoy/ partake in and so consider this a good representation of me. I placed a hair bow on the skull to make it a bit girly, kawaii and fun and to show that i am a female. I put my name in a banner around the skull to again create a tattoo theme.
The forth image is incomplete. I drew two tattoo guns crossed in front of a paint brush but i soon decided i didn't like this idea and wasn't sure where i could take it, so i gave up and moved on.
The fifth image is of me, a punk, in portrait with words describing me used to create the mohawk. This is inspired by the punk movement and punk/ revolution inspired graphics.
The sixth image is of me in the style of scream, a famous painting, one that is one of my favourites, standing in front of a pug, again representing my love of animals, on a pier overlooking Venice beach, my favourite place on earth. This whole image is very unusual and quirky, which is very representative of me. It draws influences from post modern art and from quite kitsch designs.
The seventh image is very 1950's art deco inspired. I love 50's glamour and anything vintage, especially from that era and so drew a vintage perfume bottle with my name written underneath.

My favourite images are the second, third and fifth out of the ones i have drawn, and so will now try and create these image on my computer, to make my final postcard designs.

Exercise: Point of sale display - Designs

I went to the supermarket to look at their sale display if they had any. They didn't. Whilst i was there, i picked up some fruit and vegetables that look visually pleasing or interesting to photograph for possible display designs. I picked up a purple-ish cabbage, some carrots a pomegranate, some passion fruit and a pear and when i got home began to photograph these in different ways.

I experimented taking pictures of whole objects, from different angles, zoomed in sections. I cut some fruit in half. Some looked slightly like hearts ( pomegranate) when cut open. I then began playing with the seeds, trying to spell words or make shapes.

I then played around on the computer with these images and tried to fit them into designs.
Here is what i came up with;
For the fruit section, like a poster i had previously seen when researching i tried to carve swim wear into a pear.I made mine female so the mums who would see this might be able to draw similarities between the pear and themselves. Pear is often a shape compared to the female body, one that many women are similar to and perhaps wish they weren't. I added the text 'don't wish it be it. Eat right' To say to mums you don't have to look like this, if you want to lose weight and be happy, eat our fruit and vegetables! Its simple.
I made the text quite large so it can be seen from a distance. I made it bold and used a stencil style font as it reminded me of a boot camp, relating to the weight loss theme. It being quite bold and harsh writing and quite in your face makes the statement stand out more as if to say 'do it!' I added the text 'eat right'  underneath the statement to make it look like the solution to the problem i pit it in a nice, light, quite friendly looking font.
I made the background bright pink to make it stand out from a distance and also because pink and green clash, making it stand out just that bit more.
It is an image that will stick in your mind.

 For my vegetable display i kept this graphic again quite simple so it can be easily absorbed from a far. I created a pattern from nice, wholesome, earthy looking vegetables; cabbage, broccoli and heart shapes.
This implies the vegetables are good, lovely and enjoyable.I tried to make the pattern quite simple but eye catching. I then added bold text in red, a clashing colour in a font that would be easy to read from a distance with the words 'healthy living at its best' This implies the vegetables sold at this store are high quality, tasty and a big, enjoyable part of a healthy lifestyle.

Exercise: Point of sale display

For this exercise, i have to create a point of sale display to go above the fruits and vegetables in a local green grocers. It needs to be seen from the street, through the window to attract customers.
The shop is located near a bakers, newsagents and on route to a well respected primary school.
From this information, i can gather that my target audience will be parents with young children/ families. Mainly busy mums on the way to and from school. Maybe in a rush, quickly nipping to the bakers, or newsagents to pick up necessity for that evening dinner.

To attract my target audience, from afar, my display needs to be;

• eye catching, 
• easy to read/ understand from far away, 
• Simple so all information can be absorbed by a busy mum in a rush.

I made a mind map of my audience and the things i felt my display would need to be / include to attract this audience.

 I then made a mind map of all the things that came to mind when thinking of fruit and vegetables to help get possible ideas and inspiration for creating my displays.

I search on the internet for point of sale displays to see what other people had done, and to get some inspiration, however i could not find any, and so instead i looked at various different advert for fruit and vegetables to get an idea of what people had done to make fruit and veg look atrractive, appealing and engaging towards the audience.

Very simplistic and sophisticated. Featuring a lot of text, perhaps too much for a point of sale display. Key words: Fresh, exclusive.

Very colourful. A statement in bold telling you to eat more fruit. Advertising fruit for good health..

The only display i did manage to find however this featured no text what so ever.

This is my favourite advert i came across. Very simple, very colourful, very comical and eye catching.

I want to attract my audience by promoting fruit and vegetables as part of a healthy lifestyle.
Parents are always trying to get their children to eat more vegetables and mothers trying to shift post baby weight. Women as a whole are generally concern with their weight, and so this may be something to play on.
I want my displays to be very bright and bold as so to attract attention from a far. And perhaps be slightly comical so it will stick in your mind, the viewer will remember the display and possibly due to the slight comical aspect more engaging to children who might nag their parents to go inside the store.

Another important aspect of the display is the text. I don't want to include too much text so it can all be read from far away and viewers on the move looking through the window will be able to read most if not all of the text and take in the whole display.
Possible wording ideas:
Healthy living at its best
Don't wish it, be it. Eat right
Fresh all year round
Eat.play.love
Health and vitality
Love your body love your food.
Make your tummy smile.

Exercise: Too much or not enough information - Final design

This is my final poster design based on the feedback i had received.
I used the image from detailed design as that got a lot of positive comments, and i feel it look better with text in front of it than the other image. I have used white, pink and green text on my poster as people liked the colour on my minimal poster and commented on the lack of it on my detailed poster. I used only pastel colours to tie it in with background and also to fit the bands style. I wanted this poster to be a statement as well as a concert flyer. The minimal text and colour scheme add to this.
I have used slightly more text than what was on my minimal poster, but still tried to use just only information that was needed.
I am pleased with my final outcome and based on the feedback on my previous posters from my target audience, i am confident that my final poster will appeal to my target audience and do the job it is intended.

Exercise: Too much or not enough information - Feedback

I showed both posters to family and friends to get feedback on both posters i made.
Poster with minimal details:
'Not enough information'
'Doesn't do much to advertise the concert due to lack of information although a good advert for the band'
'I like the simplistic look'
' The bright coloured text over a black and white background looks really good and eye catching'
'The picture says what the words don't, it fills in the gaps'
I got mixed reviews for my minimal poster, some people felt the poster didn't do well to advertise the event due to lack of text although other people liked its simplicity. It seemed to be people in or of a closer age/ dynamic to my target audience understood the message, and found it appealing.
Detailed poster:
'Too much information to take in'
' If i was passing by and saw this i wouldn't read it as its too busy'
'Not enough colour, feels cold'
'Thought provoking'
'Unusual image makes you want to know more'
'Layout,spacing, text and image are all very appealing'
'great but amount of text more suited for a different event type'
' i like that the bands are in bold, you can take in the main information without having to read through the rest'
A lot of people didn't like that there was a lot of information as they couldn't take it all in in one go.
People seemed to like the image and the layout but thought there was too much information for a concert poster.

I showed people the two posters together and asked them to pick a favourite. I got a mixed response.
people liked the minimal detailed poster as they thought it was more eye catching but thought it needed just a little bit more information. Whilst others preferred the layout of the detailed poster and preferred it as it did have more information however they felt some of the information was not vital and would of preferred it slightly more simplistic.
Out of the people i asked, those who were more fitting to my target audience said a more simplistic poster would appeal to them, as it catches their eye, they felt it fitted the genre more and said if they passed it in the street, they would know what was going on without having to stop and spend a few minutes reading it.

Based on this feedback, i will try and create a poster that is simplistic, but has slightly more information then my minimal detailed poster.

Exercise Too much or not enough information - Detailed poster

This is the poster i made for the music event with as much necessary information on i could think of. I included the band name, and those of the supporting bands, the name of the tour, the full address of the venue, date, age restrictions, door times, start time and finish time and prices of tickets both in advance and on the door. I again tried to keep this quite clean, crisp and simplistic even though its full of information. The information i felt most important i have done in a larger font and in bold. I have played around with different fonts, all of a similar style so they tie in nicely together.
I used the front cover of the bands latest album 'The blackest Beautiful' as the background. I didn't want anything to busy as there is a lot of writing going on but i still wanted something that would represent the band and was still quite 'out there' and i feel the album artwork did this quite nicely.
I used white text to add to the monochrome feel of the poster.

Exercise : Too much or not enough - Minimal poster

This is the poster i created for my music event with minimal information. I decided to only include the band name, the venue, start time and date as i felt this was the only information that was essential to the event.
For the background of this poster, i used a photograph of the band performing, as i feel it helps portray quite a lot of information that isn't given in text. From this image, you can get a rough idea of the genre of music, the vocalists image; tattoos, cut off shorts, open 'grungy' shirt, beard and floppy mohawk' establish an image of punk rock. The crowd screaming with their arms in the air, the singer almost stood on top of them, reaching out to them swinging his mic shows that this is going to be an energetic show and a good time. It portrays very well, i think, the raw energy i previously said i wanted to get across.
I used brightly coloured text over a black and white image to make it pop and stand out more.
I kept the design quite sleek and simplistic as i feel it not only looks good, but it fits in with the bands image.

Exercise: Too much or not enough information

For this exercise, i have been asked to make a series of posters for an event, one with minimal details, one with as many details as possible and a final one based on feedback from the previous two.
I have decided to create a poster for a music concert.
Details that may be found on a poster for such an event are: Band name, support bands, date, time, ticket cost, time doors open, time bands begin, finish time, tour name, promotion company name, venue name, venue address, age restrictions.
The band i decided to use for this poster are a band called letlive. they are a five piece punk band from Los Angeles who refer to their style as 'soul punk' . They are known for their raw energy and their crazy outlandish behaviour on stage, often climbing the venue ceilings. I would like to try and portray this energy in my poster.
The audience for poster would be mainly young adults/ teenagers, both male and female who like to attend concerts and listen to rock music.
To attract this audience, my poster needs to stand out, and portray its musical genre, not look like a generic mainstream pop music concert.

Exericse: Book Cover design - Final designs

This is the final design for the book cover for War of the worlds. I tried to keep it quite simplistic. I include to planets at either corner of the cover, one dark, evil looking planet and the other, bright, the good guys, our planet earth. I used cursive writing for the book title and the authors name as this is a classic style of writing, and looks quite sophisticated. I added the text ' sci fi collection' to the spine so readers are aware the book is part of a collection
I placed the title in a white box, with a black band at the top and bottom, not too dissimilar from those I'd seen of already existing penguin books. I placed this in the center of the cover as i want this to be the center of the viewers attention and i also feel it helps break up the cover design, making quite a plain picture look more visually pleasing and interesting. The way the text is displayed on this book will feature on all three of my cover designs.

The next book i created a cover for was The first men in the moon again quite a simplistic design. I wanted all my covers to look quite similar so it would be visually obvious they were part of a set. They all feature planets in a dark blue, starry sky. All with the same style and positioning of text.
I used a big dark, cold looking moon of my cover design. It is quite cold and lonely looking, representing the fact that nobody/ nothing lives or is present on this planet. Before the two characters in the book, nobody had been there, they were the first men in the moon. i did the moon quite big so it was slightly overwhelming, giving a representation of the sheer size of the moon, and vast space/ universe we live in.

The final book in my collection is A modern utopia. Again with a similar design to the others to represent it being part of the sci-fi alien based collection i have created. This cover features a mysterious planet, a utopia, on a cushion. I have used a red cushion with gold trim, similar to royal cushion that carry jewels or other precious objects. This connotes that whatever is on this planet is precious, beautiful, highly valued, rich. A utopia.

Exercise: Book cover design - Research continued

As i was about to start creating my design ideas on my computer, it suddenly struck me, my design ideas might not fit in with the style of those released by the publisher i have decided to use.
As part of the design task, i have to include a publisher name and there trademark. I decided i would use penguin as they release a lot of classic books by old authors, as part of their penguin classics, and H.G.Wells being one of the most acclaimed authors of the 20th century i thought this would be quite fitting.
The classic penguin books all seem to have a similar of cover and i thought, realistically, would this publisher release these books based on my designs? so i thought it best to look at books they have released to make sure my cover is acceptable.

These book all have quite dark, artistic covers . The main feature noticeable on all these books is how the title is displayed. I large black box, with the title and author underneath both in different fonts and colours. There is also a white band on top of this with the publisher logo and name .

I feel it is necessary if using this publisher to display the title, author and publisher on the cover of by books in such a way as displayed here.
I was already aiming for quite a sophisticated, simplistic design for my book covers which is also quite fitting of all the covers displayed here.

Exercise: Book Cover design

For this exercise I have to create 3 book cover designs including the spines for 3 H G Wells books as part of a set. The designs must include the title, authors name, publishers name and trademark.
The Keywords for this brief are: stunning, contemporary, timeless, acclaimed author, relevant, fiction.
My first step in creating the brief is research. I will need to research different H G Wells books, their titles and what they are about I will then need to decide on a way to group these books to create a set. I will also look at previous designs for H G Wells book covers to get inspiration but to also make sure i create something different and i will look and how, if at all his books have been grouped before.
 Using the website www.goodreads.com i began looking at the different books H.G.Wells had written and read the brief description about what they were about so i could begin to group the authors books. I tried to group these books by themes running within the story lines.

 I then tried to look at books that had been grouped before and how they had been grouped as i did not want to do what had already been done a thousand times over. I narrowed by themes down to two possible ones i would use; utopia and aliens. I the made a mind map of the two and the books i could include focusing on keywords on what the books were about, and things that came to mind when thinking of those themes to try and get an idea of what i could include of the book cover designs.

 I decided the three books I'm going to use for my set will all include the theme of aliens somewhere within the story, and so the books i am using are: War of the worlds, First men in the moo and A modern utopia.

Using the keywords from the design brief, i made another mind map based on H.G.Wells and how i might incorporate such ideas into my designs.

Before i began to sketch rough ideas for my cover designs, i decided to look at book covers that already existed to get ideas, but to also make sure i was doing something different, and not too similar to what had been done before.

I then began to sketch rough ideas of my own based on the research i had already done.

I tried to keep my ideas quite simplistic to keep in with some of the keywords such as timeless, in the hope that my design will always remain relevant, and not 'out of style' but also in the hope the simplicity of my designs will give a sophisticated look suited for such an author.
I tried to make my designs intriguing and visually pleasing for all ages to hopefully attract his already existing audience as well as a new following.

Exercise: Visulaising your ideas - Leaflet designs

I experimented with different folds of leaflets, and where i would put the four pieces of equal text, contact details as well as pictures and anything else that would make a leaflet more visually pleasing and more likely for the viewer to pick up / read.
Here are the different leaflet ideas i came up with;

The first leaflet i made was with an A4 piece of paper, i simply help the paper portrait ad folded it in half creating a leaflet with 2 inside pages. I tried to split the text so 2 chunks of text would go on each page with pictures to fill up the gaps, making it look more visually engaging and making the text look less overwhelming.

Inside pages

For the front page of this leaflet, i felt an image taking up the entire front page would be quite eye catching, as well as getting the subject across without the use of a lot of words, with a simple heading placed in the center of the page. I put the contact details on the back page along with another image.

Front and back cover

For my next leaflet, i used the same fold but instead held the page landscape.
Again, i put 2 chunks of writing on each of the inside pages.

I put the contact details on the back page and on the front page; a large heading and a picture taking up the remainder of the page.

 

I then made a leaflet using a gate fold. On the inside pages, there is one large page and 2 smaller side pages. i decided to place 3 piece of text divided between the 2 side pages along with pictures, and a final piece of text, the most important piece of text, in a larger font on the center page, with a large image underneath 

The back page will feature the contact details along with an image. The front pages when closed will have a heading across the top, with a possible tag line underneath and image taking up the bottom half of the page

I used a roll fold to create another leaflet giving me 4 inside pages filled the 2 pages either side of the central inside page with images to break the writing up. I placed 2 lots of text on the very central inside page, and text and a picture on the other side page.

 Again i put the contact details and an image on the back page, and a heading on the front page. I went for a more simplistic approach for the front page of this leaflet and put the heading large to fill up the front page.

I used a concertina fold next, similar to the roll fold, giving me 4 inside pages. I put the heading and an image both taking up 50% of the front page, and a single image on the back page. I then divided the 4 pieces of text and the contact details amongst the inside pages as well as several images.

This time i used a piece of paper larger than A4, A3 ad cut a flower shape out, fitting with the theme of creating a community garden. I put the text on a various different petals within the 2 inside pages. Putting images in some of the petals and leaving others blank. Heading will go in the center of the flowers

I put the contact details on the back page in the center of the flower. No other images or text will feature on this page.

 The other side of the inside pages

The front page features the heading in the center of the flower with no other text or images.

My favourite leaflet style i have created is the last one, in the shape of the flower as it is the most creative, and visually pleasing so far. I personally, would be far more likely to pick up or look at that leaflet than any of the others because of the interesting design shape. other people have also said to me when shown all of the leaflet designs that this one is also their favourite.

Although once the leaflets have colours, images and proper text on them, they will look different, and perhaps thus may change.