DESIGN CONTEXT

Saturday, 11 February 2012

LECTURES// Creative Advertising

Wednesday, 8 February 2012

OUDG 405 Self Evaluation

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have an increased knowledge of Photoshop and illustrator, which I used for all of the design briefs in this module. I have also applied some of the techniques and theory’s we have been taught in other modules to this one, for example which layout is correct as well as some colour theory and the correct use of type. In most cases I have applied the skills I have learnt as best I can. In some mock up pieces I used tools in illustrator for example to get work done very quickly and when I went to finish I worked into the designs until they were much more desirable. This is evident in the posters for the 100 things brief, were the posters all started looking very messy and gradually progressed.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
In this module, especially on the 100 things brief I carried out huge amount of research that meant that when I went to design the work I full understood what I was saying. I found that I could write body copy on the subject fluently and did not need to double check facts online. I felt that I fully understood the topic, although it is not black and white and there is no conclusion. I also developed more on the system of designing in illustrator. For the products I made were mostly text based with vector graphics images. The How To brief really tested my ability to produce work quickly and work as a team which is a skill I definitely think I have improved on since the start of the year even.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think I have become less afraid to produce more experimental work and not follow a pre-existing style as closely as I used to. In the future I would love to break free from conventional design for a module, although saying that I love design that follows the rules too. I also think I have worked out some good colour theory, in most products I would like to think that the colours are all suitable for each other and none of them clash. This is a skill I could develop further however, I feel that although I know what colours wont go together, I don’t yet fully understand which colours do.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
Weaknesses I have is that I feel slightly like I have become obsessed with illustrator and have become tied to its limitations. For the next module I would like to leave Illustrator for some experimental work in a different medium. I also think I made some design errors on one of two of my designs, for example the Dark side to Diamonds poster, which has a terrible drop-shadow effect on it. There is a message here that the effects in illustrator are to be avoided at all costs. I also started using high resolution images in illustrator, which was a huge mistake because it crashed the program on Macs, even my Pc struggled a bit. In the future I need to edit the images in photoshop and rasterise them until they are a low enough resolution that they will not crash illustrator.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? 1) Create some design sheets and sketch more designs, I except that this will allow me to explore more ideas. In a way at the moment, I experiment in illustrator, but of course the limitations here are huge. 2) I need to document the design process more clearly, at the moment I tend to design things in illustrator and neglect any form of documentation because I feel that if I stop designing I will fall off the horse. I expect this will allow me to get better grades. 3) I should listen to good criticism early on and change my designs. I Did change my designs because of suggestions this time but after I printed and ran out of other opportunities to print people still pointed things out to me they would like changed, in the future I should print things cheaply and ask for help during the designing instead of after the final prints. This would obviously allow me to change my designs while I still have a chance. 4) I should manage my time better. In this project I found that although the designs were all spaced out I did somehow end up blogging at about midnight or in the early hours of the morning. This is because dinner, washing, socialising with the people I live with can fill a gap between getting home and working on projects. I desperately need to find a good balance and stop cooking meals that dig into work time I guess. This should give me more time to document the days work and generally be a better designer. 5) I need to learn how to prepare designs for print better. I went several times to print out stuff for this module and although most of the settings were ok, because I had lots of double sided, things got a bit confusing and the alignment was rarely correct. There are lots of reasons for this, mainly my set up, then I found out that paper from the library is cut to the wrong dimensions. In the future I could go and talk to James about prints and then go and buy the paper and set up the files. This would allow the print process to go smoother and take up less time.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’) 5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation				x
Commitment			x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group				x

Monday, 30 January 2012

100 Things// More Inspiration

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/422059_241471025933285_105687816178274_575027_992154561_n.jpg

This 'drive' poster manages to hint towards old 70's American driver films and TV shows while retaining the unique look of the drive posters. It is also an incredibly intricate design with some amazing computer lead artwork and well considered colours. The strange strings in the background resemble a large motorway network which is quite a nice hidden touch.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7165/6793757063_7c3b4670f0_b.jpg

Some heavy text lead design for a university campus. Not the best work every but I want to start looking at designing some work that is dominated by text. Also despite the designers choosing yellow, red and blue to got together these usually clashing colours are tamed by being slightly saturated. The work also has a nice texture to it which adds to the 70's warn out feel.

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyo000HdL41r46py4o1_500.jpg

Using textured backgrounds like this is something I have been doing for my work. I really like the overall design but I'm so weary of using the ribbon myself because it is done so often. Still the colours are very rich and sit well on the page.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lynw7ndXH01r46py4o1_500.png

I would love to find out what this font is called, no luck so far...
The image has a high quality feel but is also quite blurry which would suggest that there is some artificial digital bleed on the lettering. The whole thing looks sort of out of focus and I really like the effect, as well as the dusty texture of the black and the way the letters have been cut into...

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyo3r3pMQG1r46py4o1_500.jpg

I find this image fairly interesting, more importantly I would love to learn how to create that watery mirror image. It gives the design some symmetry and places the two animals in a context. without the need to draw a whole stream and with banks etc.

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyl40lbavB1r46py4o1_500.png

Some horribly blurred photograph is used to bring the text jumping forward here. I realise that by de-focusing the background, anything that is sharp in the image will jump forward. A good tactic to use if i want to draw the viewers attention to one direct spot.

Saturday, 28 January 2012

LECTURES// Media Specificity

Sunday, 22 January 2012

LECTURES// History of Type

100 Things// Inspiration

These are some designs I have been looking at for inspiration on this 8 week brief. I realised that most of these posters that caught my eye have some very central circular figure that I could transfer into the shape of a diamond for my work...

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyk82piGa31r46py4o1_500.jpg

This is just an ad for a designer, I like the mystical nature of this work. All different components floating above a desert at an artificial nighttime. It is a strange decision to make the only object with colour the triangle. This is something I could consider for the postcard brief too.

http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles2/105815/projects/2990177/058cc131e700a244fbc4b370f8915038.jpg

This is a smart poster about the holocaust. It is essentially a timeline of 'antisemitism' and the large zone in the middle marks the dates of the holocaust, also creating the moustache of Hitler who is fairly hidden in the background. There is something about this poster that I find quite cheesy. Knowing that this is such a serious subject, the designer seems to have ignored that drawing fake moustaches on pictures of people is comical, and im not sure if this adds to the work of takes away something from it.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7017/6774821985_05b4328ddd_b.jpg

Again some surreal design, another landscape. Not sure if this actually falls into fine art...
But the shape in the middle with its symmetry is something I can take inspiration from on this current brief. Creating something similar and replacing it with a diamond is something I could test out. I like the darkness of this work, its quite mysterious and has some real character for me.

http://tutorialstorage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/b2e2e252be98b5a597219ae4763d73d0.jpg

Another strange space themed design for Nova 9, a pinball game that I assume is based on the sci-fi tank game from 1991. Still the level of Photoshop skills here is pretty inspirational and it continues with the surreal space like theme of some other work I have been looking at. I cant work out if the image is of a ball hitting a surface and shattering something of if it is an image of a planet being ripped apart.

http://tutorialstorage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/take_me_by_kevinarya-d4mk7je.jpg

The same thing again. Black and white landscape which some bizarre central object. I didn't realise when I was picking these designs that I was so drawn to this layout. Its is probably something I should consider when I design some more Posters and Flyers of 100 Things.

http://imgs.abduzeedo.com/files/ffff/137/carton.jpg

Carton is one of many new fonts I have downloaded for this brief, I showcase this one because it is probably the nicest and well rounded out of the lot. It has a quite relaxed but heavy feel to it because it has serif's but is all uppercase as the same time.