OUGD402 Studio Brief 1 | Donnie Darko Poster

https://www.behance.net/gallery/20815095/Going-Off-On-a-Tangent-2014


This is a poster for Bottleneck Gallery, another group that I am very interested in, created by 'Florey'.

OUGD402 Studio Brief 1 | Thought Bubble Festival - Leeds

Thought Bubble is a 'comic arts festival' that takes place every November in Leeds.

I had never heard of Thought Bubble before this year's event probably because I didn't live in Leeds, but this year caught my attention because Mondo are going to have a stall there, selling some of their most popular work but also some of the artists behind that work will also be there.

Unfortunately I am unable to go to Thought Bubble this weekend as it's my little brother's birthday which I had already planned to go home for prior to finding out about this.

This is even more annoying as Mondo are selling a Thought Bubble-only 'Back to the Future' poster which is one of my favourite films, designed by Matt Taylor who will also be there.

"BTTF is basically my dream project and as such is utterly terrifying, because it is embedded in the public consciousness and has it’s own library of iconography that even people who haven’t seen the film will know. On top of that, the previous BTTF series at Mondo are amongst the highlights of their output - so a little bit of extra pressure to live up to there.

For my design, I went back to Struzan’s original concept posters - there is a great one with Marty vanishing from the feet up, and as soon as I saw it I knew that I wanted to use it as my starting point. I think PCC and Laurent have closed the book on using the Delorean so I deliberately stayed away from that and focused instead on Marty and his instantly recognisable features. I used the title block from the original poster and stripped out the rest of the type so that the image stood alone on the page. I’m really happy with how it turned out and I hope that the Mondo faithful dig it as well."

http://mondotees.com/blogs/news/18113695-thought-bubble-2014-back-to-the-future-by-matt-taylor

http://thoughtbubblefestival.com/

OUGD402 Studio Brief 1 | OUGD403 Module Evaluation

OUGD403 Module Evaluation 

Overall I think the work I produced for this module turned out rather well. Studio Brief 1 taught me how type can communicate a certain feeling or vibe through different shape . This could be weight, angles, x-height and many other characteristics. This led me into Studio Brief 2 where I learned how to take one design and develop it further to make a full alphabet. This lesson doesn’t just apply to type and letters, but will apply to any project where I need to see what designs will and won’t work as a finished product. The research I did for the first two briefs helped me with Studio Brief 3 as it was all purely research based. Although I had done research before this brief it was not as extensive as it was for Brief 3. This brief required us to know the ins and outs of a chosen news story well enough that we could present it to our peers and they would clearly understand the story, the issues behind it and how and why it was reported. My chosen story was rather interesting as it was a very current issue involving Russell Brand, I chose this story as I thought I would be able to get a lot of research done while still be interested in the story. I was glad that I chose this story as for Studio Brief 4 we had to visually communicate a message that derived from our research from the previous brief. I had a lot of initial ideas but thanks to crits I was told that I should change paths, and I’m glad I did as I was very happy with the posters I produced. 

The feedback I got throughout this module was very helpful to me in making sure I got the best possible outcome. Although not every suggestion was great, it took me in a different direction where more ideas could stem from. Crits were the best place to receive feedback but just simply being in the studio and talking to my peers gave me some great ideas also.

I have learned from this module that preparation and planning is the best way to keep up with work. In the future I will keep on top of my blog daily and document every bit of development as during this module I have lost key design decisions due to not screenshotting or saving certain documents.

OUGD402 Studio Brief 2 | OUGD403 Studio Brief 4 Evaluation

Evaluation

I really enjoyed Studio Brief 4 as it was a chance to convey a personal message through our work for the first time.

When I first started designing my posters I was looking into 9/11 and I was going down that route, but thanks to the interim crit I got told to stay clear of that as it didn’t relate to my research as closely as the media did. I think this is where I went wrong with this brief; I was designing before I knew what it was I was trying to say, but then I was then helped by my classmates to find a new path to go down and the idea of the media  changing people’s words for the benefit of their sales was much more suitable. Once I knew where I was going with it I had a clear message  that made it easier to design than before. 

A challenge that I faced during this brief was with the colour restrictions. As  I did an illustration of Russell Brand it would have looked much better with a wider range of colours but  I had to make sure I stuck to the brief and only used two colours and shades of those colours. I overcame this challenge in the end by simplifying the illustration so less colours were needed.  In the end I think the illustration worked out rather well as it got the likeness and  people knew it was Russell Brand straight away despite the simplicity of the face and the features.

Another aspect I thought worked well was the use of acetate. By adding in this stock it allows the audience to interact with the poster which will make it stand out from the rest. The reason behind the acetate is it lets the viewer of the poster physically uncover the truth of the story, and reminds them that not everything the media says is 100% correct. 

OUGD402 Studio Brief 1 | OUGD403 Studio Brief 3 Evaluation

Studio Brief 3 was purely research based to prepare us for Studio Brief 4. This brief taught me many things about research and investigation into a certain topic, such as where to start looking. The brief told us we had to choose a story from the papers that were published on  25th October 2014, then look into that story as much as possible to get a strong understanding of what went on and from different points of view. 

From there we could look at other papers whether they were regional, national, international, we just had to find similarities and differences on how it was reported and discuss why we thought this might be. For this brief it was a requirement to start at newspapers but for future briefs where research is needed I will definitely start or at least look at the press as the many papers give many different view points, which is exactly what were need to look for. 

I then chose to move to the internet and more specifically; Twitter. This proved  to be helpful as there were so many results for ‘Russell Brand 9/11’ which gave me a lot to work with, The only bad thing about this is that there were lots of annoying links such as ‘8 more reasons you should hate Russell Brand’. If I were to do a similar research brief again I wouldn’t put my focus onto Twitter. Although it was helpful in a  lot ways, it took a lot of time scrolling through the tweets to find a genuine opinion on the mater at hand rather than just saying why Brand is such a fool. 

This brief has shown me that there are many ways of getting information and many ways of getting other people’s opinions. I now realise how important research is in a brief in relation to the visual side.

OUGD402 Studio Brief 1 | OUGD403 Studio Brief 2 Evaluation

Overall I think this brief turned out well. I believe I kept to the restrictions and submitted the deliverables accordingly. 

I think this brief went well because almost all of the research and development was done in Studio Brief 1. All I had to research for this brief was grids for layout and type and that proved very useful to me.  This allowed me to understand how to apply a grid to my letterform and how it would help re-produce it. Although I did this at the end I didn’t actually use my grid as I found it more complicated than just doing it  manually and following my own rule. My rule was moving one of the two letterforms over a certain amount. Th actual measurements varied depending what size I was working with but I got around this by starting on the same size canvas and scaling it up depending on where I needed it, making sure I kept scaling effects enabled. 

If I were to re-do this brief there would only be a few minor things that I would change. One of these being that I would establish my rule earlier on, rather than designing them all on one size canvas, saving it, then forgetting how I did it. In the future I will definitely learn from this. 

Another being  I wouldn’t leave it so late to print off my final piece. Printing earlier would allow me to review it and alter anything I didn’t like once it was printed onto stock. 

OUGD402 Studio Brief 1 | OUGD403 Studio Brief 1 Evaluation

Evaluation

I am happy with how my final designs have turned out despite a few difficulties along the way. I'm also rather pleased as when I first received ‘violence’ as my word I was unsure on how to approach it and how I would be able to communicate it through type. I think the key element that worked well with my letterforms were the sharp points and edges judging by by feedback from the two crits and from just discussing work within the studio. This was pleasing to hear because this was my preferred route to take for Studio Brief 2. There were a few parts of the outcome I’m not as happy with such as the brush strokes letterform due to the fact it looks a bit cheap and almost a gimmick font. Other ideas I explored that didn't work so well were the obvious options such as making the letters out of weapons, or blood dripping off the glyphs, but I scrapped these ideas straight away as I made a clear choice not to make my typeface so cheap and obvious at the start. I faced a few challenges during this brief such as trying to create enough content that would be suitable to supply sufficient feedback. At times I would be stuck for an idea for a long period of time before realising what could be done next, I got round this problem by constantly tweaking Futura and other designs to see what could be created. I will do this for future briefs too as it sparks ideas, but I think more sketching would have been helpful. During this brief I wish I had done my hand-rendered work. I avoided this because I wanted the letterforms to be very precise and exact, and if I were to draw it it wouldn't come out perfect. Now, I realise this doesn't matter for interim crits and general idea generating.

OUGD402 Studio Brief 1 | Mondo

I'm a big fan of Mondo and everything they produce from posters to the books. One thing that I know they do extremely well is their exhibition openings where they display new artwork from a range of artists all based on a specific film, genre, director or studio. Examples of this is 'Nothing's Impossible' - their Disney exhibition, 75 Years of Batman and a horror based one they've done recently. At these events it's a chance to purchase limited edition posters, meet the artist and get the products signed and socialise with like-minded people.

"We create limited edition screen printed posters for our favorite classic and contemporary films, television shows and comics, along with vinyl movie soundtracks, VHS re-issues, toys, and apparel. In addition to our online shop, we have a permanent gallery space in Austin, TX featuring a mix of original artwork and limited edition screen prints."

My favourite aspect of their work are the film posters they produce, but they make so much more; such as a recent piece of work which is a vinyl record for the OST of Shaun of the Dead.

Study Task 1

Identify and explain 5 things that inspire you.

1. Cinematography and film.
2. Architecture - Although it doesn't directly influence my work I do enjoy it.
3. Other designers online (Behance)
4. Liverpool as a city.
5. Prospect of being successful.

Identify and explain 5 things that you think are your strengths.

1. Timing
2. I think I can manage personal life and work well
3. Once I a project I'm passionate about I enjoy working.
4. Listening to criticism and taking on advice.
5. I'm creative.

Identify and explain 5 things that you want to learn during your time on the course.

1. Typography - As I've studied fine art typography never got touched upon.
2. Handle briefs better - More organised
3. Manage money better
4. Find what I want to specialise in.
5. More practical/physical work rather than mostly digital like I have worked with in the past.

Identify and explain 5 reasons why you chose this course.

1. My art teacher hated me and told me I'd never be able to get on to this course.
2. I wanted to move away and as I have friends and family here I thought Leeds would be a good choice
3. Interview went well.
4. I looked on Unistats and the employment rates after graduation from LCA seemed better than most others universities.
5. I didn't like my other university choices.