Graphic Design 6

When I came onto this course, I had already completed a two year Graphic Design course. Just before completing this course, I decided that graphic design wasn't for me. While I enjoyed some of the projects and some of the typography, I much preferred my drawing projects with Sam Winnard. 

Throughout my two year course, I became increasingly aware of design around me and how it influenced me day to day, this week I was reminded how it truly is everywhere, from the magazines you read to the design on the box of cereal you have in the morning.

I think the discipline of Graphic Design that I find most interesting is typography. I like how you can influence how someone 'hears' the text when they read it by having some parts in a larger print or a blocky font and how serif and sans serif can make the difference between someone with dyslexia (like me) being able to read something easily or struggling. This is why on all of my blog posts I haven't settled for the default font and have always changed it to Helvetica. (Also, Helvetica has been chosen as the best font so far by Graphic Designers around the world.)

I have enjoyed this week in Graphic Design, but it hasn't changed my mind and, though I will always think about the design that is all around me, it won't be the chosen career for me.

Graphic Design 5

Raygun

 I like the Raygun Magazine because it's not the traditional form of cover. There is a lot of text, up-side-down, over-lapping, faint, bold and some doesn't even seem to be English. A lot of popular magazines will have an image covering some of the text because they know people will still know what it is. This one, on the other hand has cut off the top of the image before it even reaches the text. I also like how the 'N' in 'Gun' is joined to the 'U'.

Olly Moss

I really like the work of Olly Moss and how he uses a very controlled colour palette of usually black, white and another colour. I love this poster in particular. His work is very clever and has many images or meanings throughout the design. For example, this one is an image of a hand bursting from the earth which is a typical piece of imagery when thinking of zombies. When you look into the hand, you see trees and a house, in the bottom left, you can see a man digging a grave. This describes in a very compressed way the story of 'The Evil Dead'. 

It's so clever and the media in which it was created is interesting too, I like how it looks traditional.

Sister Corita

 I like the work of Sister Corita because it has nice messages. She is a woman of God and so tries to spread love through her work. They are all colourful and beautiful. I like how you have to work a little to read it as the writing is up-side-sown or reversed, but when you have taken the time to read and understand the message you feel happy and at peace.

Ed Ruscha

I like how this work looks to be made out of paper layed on it's side to make it look 3D. A lot of his work is made from rather odd materials, for example egg whites, fruit juice, grass strains and blood. His work either has a meaning to it or just seems to be in the purpose of an experiment, which I like because even if it doesn't have a recognisable meaning behind it, it would have been a learning curve for him and he will have made progress because of it. Sometimes the transition from one work to another is visable.

Maricor Maricar

On one of my projects in Graphic Design last year I really got into the work of Maricor Maricar. They were shown to me by my tutor as it was similar to the work that I was thinking of creating and it helped me to improve my ideas. The detail and precision that goes into each of their works are simply amazing, which is one of the reasons why I chose to do my project in a similar style, so I could fully appreciate how difficult it is to make work this way. I enjoyed it thoroughly and have a high level of respect for them.

Why Not Associates

 I really like the style of this comedy carpet. It has famous quotes from comedians and funny films all put down as a massive poster and the floor in an old fashioned style that looks so fabulous. The whole thing is very simple with simple colour schemes, but put in huge on the floor in Blackpool and it becomes a massive success. I love it.

Graphic Design 4

4)

Stefan Sagmeister

  

I really like this piece. It says, "Being not truthful works against me." It's clever that it is written in a web because it could relate to a web of lies or 'not truthful'-ness. It can be a little difficult to read which is one of the best things in Graphics as it makes the public stop and concentrate to decipher what it says. Using just black and white keeps it simple so the message can be portrayed clearly and not hidden in a mass of colour.

Wim Crouwell

I really like this image. It shows the creation of one of his typefaces. I like how he has left the working marks on the page so you can work out how he came about making it. It looks to be done on paper and I can only imagine if it was done by hand, but I think it is. He has managed to recreate the font perfectly by using his marks. I think it's an interesting typeface.

Alan Fletcher

I like how Fletcher has organised these signs. As you will see from my previous post, one discipline in Graphics is signs and symbols. That would mean creating or recreating them, Fletcher has used existing ones with another discipline of layout to create this image. It looks very odd but I like it. It's a limited colour palette of red, blue and green but it stands out and is very striking.

Kris Sowersby

 
Kris Sowersby is a Typeface Designer. Some of his typefaces are really simple but very nice and sophisticated. This is an image that he created and I simply Google Imaged his name and it was near the top of the first page. As soon as I saw it I clicked it because I knew that this was the one I wanted. I'm not sure what it is about it, but I just like it. I like that the flourishes off the sides of the letters are continued lines from the inter hatching design. I like that it looks so doodled as if a smitten school girl/boy had scribbled in absentmindedly in the back of their notebook while their minds driften over a school crush or something. It just screams innocence and fun. I love it

Pep Carrio

Pep Carrio has done some amazing visual journals and is an inspiration. It's like a picture book to the inside of his mind. I love how thick the book is, almost as though he couldn't stop. The drawing and collages are fabulous and it makes me want to start creating journals too!

Noma Bar

 

 I really like what this very simple image means. They have used a pound sign '£' on a plain shape that is taken to represent a face. The cross through the sign represents this man's eyes, while the flick and the bottom is his moustache. There is a cigar coming out of the counter of the sign. What I like most is the combination between the very simple shapes and colours and the much deeper meaning. Rich people smoke cigars and have handlebar moustaches, and it's a '£' that represents his face. It's fantastic design.

Graphic Design 3

1) Six main disiplines within Graphic Design include advertising, web design, corporate identity, packaging, typography and sign and symbols.

2) We all went down to the Chesterfield College Library to look at what Graphic Design magazines/journals were available. The main ones that we relevant were Eye Magazine, Creative Review and Computer Arts. I found a rather interesting article in Eye magazine about a comic magazine called 'Katy Keene' (1645-61) which captured the essence of post-war America. Katy Keene was all about glamour and is described in the article as, "less exotic 'pin-up', more girl next door-" and was later crowned as 'pin-up Queen'.
The resaon I really like this article is because it called for fans to submit their own artwork that would be published in the magazine along with the fan's postal address so people could contact them. Because of this approached they achieved and mantained a loyal fan base, many who went on to become established designers in their own right, for example; Anna Sui, Betsey Johnson, Lloyd Sensat, Jack Evans, Barbara Rausch and John Lucas.
I really like how it managed to create artists from the public through a comic magazine that anyone could walk to the shop an buy. In the magazine they also did dress-up paper dolls that you could cut out and change the outfits. This is what caught my eye at first with the article as I used to have a modern version of this type of doll and I loved it. Definitely fun for every one and a little trip down memory lane for me, although of course it wasn't this exact model... I wasn't around then!
Click here to view the article.

3) I have looked at the Design Museum in London's website and have found this famous graphic design company, 'Graphic Thought Facility'. I used to research them in my Graphic Design course last year and really like their design for 'habitat', simple but clever. 

Click here to view their page.

Graphic Design 2

Here are the words that we had to pick from a list of six. I chose 'Consume', 'Collapse', 'Flowing' and 'Stability'. At first I struggled with this as it was a very abstract way of thinking but then it came a lot more naturally. 

In the end I quite enjoyed this. 

I didn't like or really understand doing to background. I understand that it helped us think about shapes and colours that may relate to the words we had chosen, but I feel that it took the centre of attention away from our designs.

Graphic Design

Here is a photograph of the work we did today. We had to pick 4 objects, draw from the type on the packaging in thumbnail form, pick a thumbnail design and copy it on the the collage and ink ground we made. Here is what I created.

Top left - graphite stick, single line.
Top right - pastel, left handed.
Bottom left - black water-colour.
Bottom right - blocked shape out with masking tape then went over with a dark blue, water-colour wash.

Fine Art

In this lesson we placed objects on an over-head projector and traced them onto A1 parcel paper we taped to the wall.
We weren't allowed to create anything from our imagination but draw round objects, use objects to print onto the paper and so forth.
I enjoyed this project quite a lot, but it isn't what I want to persue. It did, however, lead me to what I want to do.

I put a net bag on the OHP and traced around it with blue pastel then used a small, plastic skeleton and painted around the shadow. After watching some videos of various fine artists, I adopted one of their techniques of using masking tape to block out a box and paint over it. It didn't work as well as I wanted it to because the masking tape ripped at the paper. The second box really wasn't a square, this was an accident as it looked fine up close, but I kind of like it better that way.

Here I went around various mechanical components, a clamp, a metal shoe stand/shaper and used paints and pastels. I had a large empty space across the middle and so placed the large metal chain across the page and used red simply because I hadn't used it yet. I splashed the watered-down paint over the chain hoping to create a negative shape...

...however, it didn't really go to plan and looked more of a mess. It was going to take a long time to dry and I figured I had ruined it anyway, so I taped it up and let the paint run down the paper. I hoped that it would go straight down but it started to run as soon as I picked it up off of the table. It was an experiment that I learnt from but not a successful piece on its own.

3D/Spacial Design

Bauhaus

 Bauhaus used to be a school in Germany and have created buildings, furniture and typography. This piece is one of my favourite typography pieces. To me it looks to be in the style of Russian propaganda but after research I know it to be designed by Germans and Hungarians.

The rich contrast between the white, black and red is traditional yet still has a modern flare. It is the sans-serif, blocky font that makes me think of the famous Russian poster designs. I like this piece because of the neat lines and the stark colours. I also like how the poster doesn't seem to be straight. The writing is all at a slant and off-centre and this isn't the traditional approach to posters but it is one that I have seen in some Russian designs.

Marcel Breuer

  I really like the design of this desk. The shapes are very interesting and I like how the metal bars flow on and surround the whole design in what looks like a single piece. It's a very sleek design that looks very modern and unique. The colours of black and chrome is a clean, crisp and modern colour scheme. 

This desk is very practical for laptops and various other small computers as there isn't really the correct space for a desktop computer, but this is the way modern society is turning and so isn't a negative feature.

Le Corbusier

  

I really like the design of this building. It is very straight, squared-off and very modern. I like how the majority of the building is white with splashes of a deep blue-ish - green. I like how the top floor of the building outstretches the base and has colomns supporting the extended top floor. The large windows covering every wall is very modern as the older design of buildings had much smaller, more private windows. The design as a whole looks very neat and inviting.

Ross Lovegrove

I really like the design of this chair. It's very organic and flowing and the sleek design makes it almost look fuid. Many people associate white gloss with being a modern colour and so this chair looks very futuristic and therefore interesting. Even the shadow that the chair creates is very interesting and from every angle it has something new to offer. 

The design looks to me as though there are 3 handle which could aid carrying the chair. One large at the back at the top and two at the front near the front legs. I very much like it as a whole and it looks almost as though you could sit on it backwards because of the large open space at the back.

Zaha Hadid

As apposed to the popular idea of most modern things being fluid and sleek, this building has gone for a more ridged approach. It is a mixture of very interesting lines and shapes and, not unlike Le Corbusier's building, the windows are very open and dominant. It looks more like a work of art than a building and this is what I like about it. There are spaced out collections of 6 pillars supporting the over hanging top floor, but it is odd that the part that sticks out the furthest seems to be unsupported and standing out like a balcony.

The building almost looks like a machine with its sharp corners contrasting to its sleek curves. Altogether a very interesting building.

Sir Alec Issigonis

The mini has been a popular vehicle for many years and still is today! This amazing design is one of my personal favourites. It is sleek and modern even though it is quite an old design which makes it timeless. The set of the headlights make the car look open and almost happy if you believe, like me, that a car's headlights are its eyes. It's simply brilliant and has featured in many films such as the original Italian Job as it is a pretty speedy little thing it makes for the perfect get-away vehicle.