After what I thought was a good start to the year, being full of energy and ready to be thrown into the thick of it and get designing again, I stopped short halfway.
This module has been what I believe to be my most productive as well as the part of the course where I feel as if I can throw out ideas without need to worry about acceptance or respect from others since I have already been accepted with open arms.
Although I have still being rigidly using illustrator as my go to program over photoshop, my digital skills have vastly improved, mainly because when I ask for help from someone they are more than willing to help out and give me their advice which has greatly boosted my confidence not only as an individual but as a designer. The advice and tips gained from workshops and certain individuals has helped me raster items properly and consider outcomes more clearly in context to a problem or brief.
On a negative note, I do think that the recurring problem of time management and lack of variation has been the death dealing blow to my overall progress. This becomes evident if we review my rationale which explicitly states that I would be exploiting various print methods with a focus on this. I have only screenprinted and used a rather primitive (yet highly effective) method of foiling, when I look at other people's work it makes me realise that I could have juggled many more small briefs that could of kept me going and created some lovely portfolio pieces. On the other hand, in the past 2 weeks I have picked up on this and managed to turnaround 2 briefs much quicker than I had done at the start of the year, which is definitely a bonus and is down to my decision making abilities vastly improving.
I think that I have not pushed the briefs as hard as I wanted since I bogged myself down with research and was more concerned with getting them finished which blinded me to the potential and possibility each brief had.
With all of this in mind, I think I have gained enough confidence and clarity in regards to my own practice to give myself a good start for next year's FMP even if it was at the expense of my own personal practice.
I aim to be better organised, make proper use of my diary as I did at the start of the year since it did help me greatly as I cannot fully rely on daily scrawlings and notes in my notebooks.
I need to think of all possibilities relative to possible brief outcomes as well as producing something far more considered as not to hinder the final product.
I do believe though that this has been my most productive and least distracted module/year to date, this in mind, I would like to maybe move into some collaborations both outside the course and inside the course since I feel as if my ideas have improved and matured compared to my latter years.
Tuesday 13 December 2011
Manchester Book Fair Revisited.
I have been working on this brief for just under a week now, and it is becoming apparent that when I actually get myself together I can make decisions and indeed produce something to a standard I am happy with. Its just a shame I figure this out at the end of the first module.
This brief was intended as an incredibly quick turnaround but due to prepping boards and printing, it took longer than intended.
The initial sketches were scrawls in the back of one of the notorious notebooks which I then fleshed out on A3.
Revisiting this brief allowed me to flex some illustrative skills whilst giving myself restrictions which I never normally do.
Sticking to a strict 3 colour 8 tint palette turned out to be a good decision, but one that did not become apparent until two days in of tampering with the illustrations I had done.
The colour decision was boiled down from a range of colours I had selected from the various swatch books on illustrator, mainly sourced from the Russian Pop Art and Middle Ages section. This was intentional since alot of the books I was illustrating had dark themes set in an alternate universe/timeline.
I decided to source different typefaces for each book since they all have such different themes. But the decision to keep the hand drawn/illustrative style applied to the typefaces made the overall outcome much more acceptable.
This is simply because the type did not compliment the illustration.
This resolved, I still felt that there was something missing, so I sourced out some textures (something I tend not to do) and apply them, turned out they worked fantastically and gave the illustrations some feel and depth.
The logo was an instant idea to help tie the books together as a set, simply reading a book with the experience of playing a game combined together to form a booktroller.
Admittedly I didnt finish the blurb, but I just ran out of time, plain and simple. I thought I could draw and design a suitable outcome for the brief, since I had such a clear idea of what they would look like.
On the other hand I am very pleased with the outcome.
This brief was intended as an incredibly quick turnaround but due to prepping boards and printing, it took longer than intended.
The initial sketches were scrawls in the back of one of the notorious notebooks which I then fleshed out on A3.
Revisiting this brief allowed me to flex some illustrative skills whilst giving myself restrictions which I never normally do.
Sticking to a strict 3 colour 8 tint palette turned out to be a good decision, but one that did not become apparent until two days in of tampering with the illustrations I had done.
The colour decision was boiled down from a range of colours I had selected from the various swatch books on illustrator, mainly sourced from the Russian Pop Art and Middle Ages section. This was intentional since alot of the books I was illustrating had dark themes set in an alternate universe/timeline.
I decided to source different typefaces for each book since they all have such different themes. But the decision to keep the hand drawn/illustrative style applied to the typefaces made the overall outcome much more acceptable.
This is simply because the type did not compliment the illustration.
This resolved, I still felt that there was something missing, so I sourced out some textures (something I tend not to do) and apply them, turned out they worked fantastically and gave the illustrations some feel and depth.
The logo was an instant idea to help tie the books together as a set, simply reading a book with the experience of playing a game combined together to form a booktroller.
Admittedly I didnt finish the blurb, but I just ran out of time, plain and simple. I thought I could draw and design a suitable outcome for the brief, since I had such a clear idea of what they would look like.
On the other hand I am very pleased with the outcome.
Open publication - Free publishing
Open publication - Free publishing
Open publication - Free publishing
Open publication - Free publishing
Open publication - Free publishing
Open publication - Free publishing
Open publication - Free publishing
Wednesday 7 December 2011
BOARDS ROUGH ROUGH
Open publication - Free publishing
Open publication - Free publishing
These are the rough boards that I did for the final crit, so people could at least get a feel for the composition and layout of the boards.
Got a lot of decent feedback from the crit as well, which I took on board.
Got a lot of decent feedback from the crit as well, which I took on board.
Tuesday 6 December 2011
MOUW Blurb
The last and most glaringly obvious task was to do the blurb for the Manual. I cross referenced writing styles from the webzines in context with the brief and decided to go for a 'user-friendly' and audience specific body copy.
Freeway Gothic was used since it is the font used in the booklets.
MOUW Promo Poster Digital Development
I had spent some time doing a few preliminary doodles of these posters until I jumped straight onto a mac.
I figured that if you bought the manual you would want a little something extra, especially since if you missed out on the promotional magazine with the free stickers you would want something to make the manual feel special.
I chose the weapons that worked best with the type from the adverts, since I figured that the type was more effective when you could read it along with the bulky imagery.
They would be printed on a stock that is similar in colour but it would be much denser and durable that sugar paper.
I figured that if you bought the manual you would want a little something extra, especially since if you missed out on the promotional magazine with the free stickers you would want something to make the manual feel special.
I chose the weapons that worked best with the type from the adverts, since I figured that the type was more effective when you could read it along with the bulky imagery.
They would be printed on a stock that is similar in colour but it would be much denser and durable that sugar paper.
Monday 5 December 2011
Future Planning Committee Initial Ideas
My initial ideas for my Future Planning Committee brief. But looking at how long I have left, I think this will most likely be on the backburner for FMP.
This brief just has way too many deliverables with too much content. Cant wait to start it though.
Friday 2 December 2011
Almost Done
At this stage, I would say I am nearing the end of this brief. The tagline 'Putting britain back on the bap' is far too misleading from my intended campaign although it does work as a play on words for the target audience.
The imagery for the bottles and posters will still need some tampering, I'm still not quite convinced yet but I will crack it in the next few days.
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