Week 1

In my first week, the class defined visual design as

“A composition of images, text, colour etc to appeal to an audience and to get a message across”

We also then all brainstormed about what decisions visual designers make and what designers we like so we can start to develop our design perspectives. Below are the brainstorms we created.

VISUAL DESIGNERS:

• Newtasty (Stevue Copter)
• Peter Harrison
• Meeno
• Elizabeth Rowe (Artist)
• Nick Walker
• Brennan and Burch
• Steena Person
• Augustina Rodreigez
• Rogerigo Lionzo
• Retro Cosmic – James White
• Don’t believe the type – Marta Cerda Alimbau
• www.signalnoise.com – Amazing Gallery

 

DIRECTED STUDY (WEEK ONE)

1. Find an example of visual design e.g. flyers, magazine cover etc
2. Find a digital design resource – Book, website etc and where we can find it
3. Concept generation – Your house requires a logo – identify various concepts and generate a logo.

 

Resource – KoiKoiKoi

“Koi means desire. Koi means follow your dreams. Koi is perseverance. Koi is love. Koi is determination. Koi is fear for regrets. Behind any idea, any project, any work, any creative, there are at least 3 “koi”.”

I’ve discovered an online magazine that I believe is a fantastic resource for any visual designer. KoiKoiKoi holds an abundance of different visual designs from all over the world which is inspiring to any designer.
Not only does the site have an endless amount of inspirational images it also has external links to other visual design blogs, magazines and designers. The website is clearly established to help you find specific information and designers, for example photographers or interviews. Additionally, this site is updated regularly which is really useful and also they have a page dedicated to resources such as inspirations and tutorials which include links such as free downloadable fonts to aid typography. I believe this is a fantastic and inspiriational magazine that can benefit a wide range of students with it’s resources and variety of work.

As I have found KoiKoiKoi so helpfull below I have included a few of my favourite images from the site and also some useful links that I think are extremely beneficial and/or interesting.

An Anti smoking campaign

Inspirational business cards.

Free fonts too improve your typography.

 

House logo

I really enjoyed this creative process of my family coming together to design and construct a house logo that really is personal and says something about us. The first point that came out is that the main body of the logo should be made up of a sheild, although this is a very common design choice we thought that it was the right one because it had connotations of protection and strength which is really something we pride ourselves on. On a comical note, sheilds are use in battle which is highly competitive which our house definately is (if not too much so) Below is the sheild template that I decided to go with for this logo

Brainstorming

It was apparent that we had a lot of ideas, but I didn’t want to put all of them into a logo because although our house is very complicated I didn’t want the logo to be over crowded and confused. So with the basic background decided, I chose for everyone to partake in a brain storming session so we could have all ideas down on paper for us to reflect upon. Below I have scanned in our brainstorm so you can see the ideas that were formulated. I decided to make this brainstorm colourful as I believe it would lead me to be more creative when generating the logo. Below I have scanned in our brainstorming session which I found highly creative and helpful

In the session we decided on a set of colours we liked, a template and design. We also listed a few things that we felt summarised our family. A few things that came up under ‘Our house and us’ were: Pride, protective, strength, strong and simple and some of our design ideas were:roses, lions/star signs, red, white and blue. Automatically I noticed a link between some of our descriptions and some of our designs so I felt I definitely wanted to incorporate a lion to represent pride and strength and also a rose to signify family history, beauty and also pride.

Inspiration.

After this session I formulated a set of inspirational images and objects to inspire my logo and below are some of the images I found inspiring.

2 of the image I have included of me and my mom and one with my brother and nan in too. Anything I do, these people are my inspirations so I think it’s highly important to include photographs of them. The final image has a strong design that is regal and powerful which I love. The side ways lion is strong and proud and the British colour scheme and even flowers are incorporated.

Design process

At this moment in time, I decided to hand draw my logo due to my inexperience of computer programs. However, later on in the course I would love to return to this and do it via the computer. I really enjoyed creating this logo even if I’m not the greatest drawing! I scanned in my progress at several stages to highlight how the logo developed (any lack of colour or oddness is probably due to the scanning).

step 1)I sketched out my design and started going over it in black marker to make it bold and stand out. I was about to do the writing when I started to think about my colour scheme and the colour of the font. I’m quite happy with the placement of everything as it isn’t over crowded and each image stands out.

Step 2)I decided that the text should be in black to contrast against the border and the colouring of the other images. I also added a border. Ideally when transferring this to a computer program I would make the lines a bit thinner and also the border a bit thinner.

Final step)

I added the colours – red white and gold (white being the background) and really tried to add depth with a variety of shades and lightness. I think that this logo would look a lot better if done on the computer but overall I’m happy with how it represents my house.

Desicions:

The Lion: I decided that a side profile would be best and contrast the rose, I’m not happy with the bottom half but I think the mane almost mirrors the petals on the rose which I’m quite happy about and it in my eyes symbolizes pride and power.

The rose: The rose also stands out and represents the beauty of my family, and more importantly my mom loved it and as she’s my inspiration for it I’m really pleased with that (Rose is my mom’s maiden name and also the name of her business)

The quote: Veni, Vidi, Vici – I came, I saw, I conquered. This highlights how ambitious and determined we all are and also our strength

The shield: Symbolizes power, strength and protection, and also competitiveness which is something we all overly are.

 

Example of design

I always visit David & Goliath when in either Birmingham or London, because I adore their creative designs and cute products. I chose this as my example of visual design because it is not only incorporated into their products but throughout their stores and the entirety of their website. I think that their design is a signature to their brand and appeals to a wide audience and both genders.

But mainly, I chose David and Goliath because I think that their design is fun, quirky and cute which is why I love it so much! Below I have included one of their products from their website to highlight their signature design and also why I love it so much.

What I love about this piece of visual design is the cartoony style that emphasises the humour the image and text provide. I adore the underlining humour of it and I have associated this fun design and humour with the brand.

What design choices have been made?

The brand have made the design choice of incorporating ’David & Goliath” onto all their products in a cartoony font that mirrors their style. Additionally, their products highlight a wide range of eye catching colours, fonts and images that reflects the brand. The almost doodle-like drawings intensify the comedy within the products and make them all appealing to their audience. The designers have obviously chose to make this into a brand and put that mark onto all their products and make it memorable.

In the example above, the designers have chosen to use an eye catching green which ties in with the naturalistic elements (such as animals and trees). They have also stuck to a very basic beaver picture which is cute and humourous. Finally, they put the drawing within a poloroid picture to emphasize the underlining pun and irony that the t-shirt (in this case) provides.

Design choices in their website:

Taking one of their websites –www.davidandgoliathtees.com the designers have chosen to carry on their cartoon image with bright colours, simple layout and captions.  The layout allows for a lot of their designs to be shown at once and for there to be a strong representation of the brand.

My experience of David and Goliath:

Below I have included some images that I have taken of some things I’ve got from David and Goliath which further shows their distinctive visual design.

Week 2

Last week we had to find visual design resources, and in class we fed back and I though it was important to note down all the resources that people said because I will learn from them myself and develop as a visual designer.

• http://www.garysimon.net
• http://www.eyemagazine.com
• http://www.deviantart.com
• Trade Magazines in Computer art
• http://www.creativereviews.co.uk
• The best newspaper design
• http://www.graphicsoft.about.com
• Raygun Magazine
• http://www.hiser.com

Type and Typography:

This week we learnt all about all about type and typography within design. To start the lesson we brain stormed what typography actually is:

And we then went on to learn key terms

• Use of type: form of illustration and not just to give information
• A complete set of characters – selected for legibility, impact and tone
• Serif fonts – fonts with feet and tails (usually used in print)
• Sans Serif fonts – “without serif” or without feet and tails. Used in printed headlines or display or screen text: contrast and screen legibility
• Geometric Sans-serif – scientific feel, based of shapes
• Script
• Blackletter
• Dingbat
• Kerning – where two letters overlap each other and/or controlling the white space between two letters.
• Tracking – letter spacing, affects a complete block of text
• Leading – line spacing – vertical space between two lines.

Example of a sans serif font:

Other ways to control text

• Colour: fill and line
• Style: bold, italic, underline
• Distortion: warping
• Size: variety, drop caps
• Rotate
• Building up in layers

Workshop task: Create a business card in InDesign

How to get business card template only using typography:

1. Create new document
2. No facing pages, landscape
3. 90mm by 55mm
4. Margins: 5mm
5. Toolbar: selection tool (highlight, move, delete) – general, direct selection tool – specific and type tool [T]

My template:

Directed study:

1) Find an interesting type case study

• an advert, newspaper, magazine spread, poster etc
• prepare a brief two minute presentation
• include critical analysis12

2) Free practice: type and typography experiments.

 

Experimentation

In lesson last week we learnt how to use adobe in design and also about typography and then we formatted what we learnt into a business card. I had so much fun doing this, and although I’m still working on my own personal business card I decided in my spare time to have a go at creating some business cards for a variety of different causes and people using only typography.

Business card one: for Adam.

My boyfriend is currently a catering student who aspires to be a chef. I decided to use a green colour on the right side to create a slight border constructed of technical food terms (I tried to include terms that I know that he likes, especially barbecue) My favourite part of this business card is how I used his full name (which is luckily four words!) to construct a fork silhouette. I decided to use the colour as it has connotations of being organic, healthy and fresh.

Business card 2: Breast Cancer awareness.

I decided to use 2 shades of pink to represent the iconic pink ribbon logo. Originally I intended to incorporate the phrase ‘FIGHT BREAST CANCER’ into the shape of the ribbon, however I’m not sure how to curve text yet and I wanted it to look good. Overall I’m quite happy with this, I think the use of 2 different shades of pink is effective. I also tried to put a block of colour behind ‘fight together ‘ which was successful!

(sorry about the quality!)

 

Type case study

Buried is a new and exciting film about a man who’s stuck in a coffin with only 90 minutes of oxygen. The whole film’s narrative is central around the sense of claustrophobia and entrapment.

My assignment task for this week is to do a critical analysis of an interesting type case study and I believe that this film poster is a perfect example of how to use and make the most of typography. In this example, the designers who have created this poster have used the core elements of the films narrative – entrapment and claustrophobia – and adapted it to print by manipulating typography. To me this poster reads ’Saul Bass’ and the famous Vertigo movie poster design which was also constructed in such a way that the audience, in this case, would feel a sense of vertigo (see picture below)

Below I will go through in detail about each element of the type construction giving a critical analysis and opinion on the overall effect it creates.

1) Sans Serif font –

By using a sans serif font instead of a serif one all of the letters are individual, bold and stand out powerfully. Additionally, I think it compliments the quotations and the style of the type used on other promotional posters for the film such as the one below. However, I also think that a serif font may have been effective because the tails and flow may have created a more swirled effect to mirror more of the descending feel.

2) White font v black background –

This classic colour combination is reflective of a newspaper article, apart from it is introverted – which once again intensifies the quotations employed. Additionally, the designer has elected to put the title of the film in a bold red colour to stand out again the rest of the poster but also bring your eye straight to the title of the film to create an immediate association between the great poster and the film. Personally, I feel that the strong colour contrast makes the typography techniques employed by the designer even more dramatic and effective.

3) Increase or decrease in type size –

To coupled the sense of claustrophobia the  film creates throughout the narrative, the designer here has simply included a variety of scaled types to create a simple yet effective result. Because the image and title ‘Buried’ are located near the centre of the poster, your eye naturally descends which makes the decreasing text size more noticeable. This clever technique makes the image of Ryan Reynolds seemingly entrapped and reflects the connotations of the title ‘Buried’ and the films plot.

 

Personally, I think the film posters for Buried are some of the best of 2010, and this has got to be one of my favourites. Now I have learnt a little bit more about the importance of typography I appreciate this poster even more. The striking and dramatic colour selections along side the scaling creates a subconscious sense of enclosure. Furthermore, even as the top quotations are unreadable as they scroll off the page instensifies this mood even more as it shows how buried Ryan Reynolds” character really is!

 

Font conference?

This video absolutely tickles me pink! Not only is it hilarious but, after studying typography, I realise that it personifies types just as we select types in visual design for a specific purpose.

I always used to choice comic sans for a humorous and comic effect, just as this video depicted ‘him’

Sorry if anybody is offended by the occasional swear word or anybody who uses Microsoft works!

 

Week 3

Shape and form.

This week we looked at

• visual metaphors
• compelling designs
• how to use shape and form in InDesign

In groups we worked together to create a piece of visual design using these methods that reflected one of the following words;

backward, forward, motion, sketch, shrink, conversation, ideas, expand, tilt, mixed, perspective or repeat

Me and my partner decided to do repeat and this is what we came up with:

From doing this we learnt how to do effects in InDesign and also how simple manipulation of shape and form can change meaning.

I decided to look at interesting and simple uses of shape and form when I got home and these are some of the examples I found:

Directed study:

• create a logo for Bright Ideas Design and put this into your business card
• Find at least three interesting logo case studies with analysis

 

Business card

 

In this weeks directed study we had to incorporate a brand onto our pre-made business cards. The brand was ‘Bright Ideas Design’ and I generated this logo which both represents the brand and also ties in with the aesthetic of my business card. The brand wanted to be represented as a young, funky company and I think that my card represents this.

Colour

The bright pink colour palette gives off a young and funky vibe and is also bright which links back to their company name. Additionally the black heavily contrasts against the pink to add an edge of sophistication without compromising the funky quality. Furthermore by adding a ‘glow’ quality around ‘design’ in a lighter shade of pink, shades have been developed and also relates back to the concept of ‘bright’.

Shape and Form

I decided to have the piece mirroring my name in a similar style, so I rotated it so it was on its side and was of a similar height. Also because this consisted of three words and not 2 i decided to put ‘ideas’ within the I of bright to make it a little bit funkier and also allow me to add in a simplistic light bulb logo. I drew the logo in InDesign using simple shapes and lines and blocks of black, overall I’m quite happy with the outcome, considering I cannot draw at all. To mirror my name once again I put ‘Design’ at the bottom of the text. Also, I thought that this might make your eye draw ‘Buckley’ and ‘Design’ together to associate me with the brand and the brand with me.

Typography

For the bright design element I used a combination of two fonts – Thornburi and Poplar std. These two are both sans serif fonts but contrast heavily in style. I decided not to use a serif font at all in this element because the company wanted to be presented as funky and young not older and traditional. I really like these two fonts because they contrast a lot and yet compliment each other just enough to create a cohesive design that matches the brief.Overall? I’m quite happy with how my original business card has married together well with the company logo I created to make a legible and good card that matches the company’s design brief as well as how I want my card too look and represent me. I think it would be useful to get some feedback for my card and maybe even come up with a completely contrasting design to offer variety and comparison for the client.

Additional work:

I decided to play around with the logo I began to generate in this card using InDesign to make a brand identity and maybe event a logo that could be replicated onto a poster or advert.

 

My logo:

I decided to stick to the same colour pallete i used in my business card but this could easily be adjusted to suit the clients wants. I used the light bulb again to represent visually ‘ideas’. I quite like the logo I’ve created even though it is quite basic, but sometimes simple is better!