Other posts for this brief:
Illustration Experiments
I wasn't completely sure which style of illustration to have on each page, so I thought as this is such an important aspect of the design that I should spend some time developing my ideas and then choosing my favourite from there. To begin with, I needed to take some photographs to trace.
Collage. The first idea I tried out was making the items out of collage. This took a lot of time but was very fun and I'm really pleased with the results. However, after doing some artist research I found an artist (Jamie Hearn) who had basically done the same thing beforehand. Still, I really like the work I have produced, but will wait until I have tried more things before deciding.
The second idea is tracing over the photographs on illustrator. At the moment these are just black and white, but I am going to try some different ones with colour. They take a long time but I think the results are really worth it. I'm not great at using illustrator but I'm learning more as I go along.
Illustrator experiments with colour. These are my favourite so far but I think if I decide to go with this idea they need to be a lot neater, and include more detail.
Photoshop drawing using graphics tablet. I quickly gave up on this process as I didn't like the results. I have produced good results with the graphics tablet before but thinks it works with smaller, less detailed images.
Fine liner illustrations. Again, I like my fine liner illustrations, but, I don't know if I should use these as I always seem to use this for my illustrations and it would be beneficial to do something different.
More work on illustrator.
Heres are some screenshots of an illustration of the Blenheim walk building that I'm working on. I thought I'd just include the front of the building but it didn't look right, so I'm expanding it a bit. Its taking quite a long time, but I will be adding colour, as I prefer my previous illustrations with colour to those without. I edited the photograph I took of the college to really bring out the colours and to make it less dull.
Adding colour by picking it out of the photograph.
I do like this image without the lines, but I decided to try it with lines at different weights. I think it does look better with lines but with really thin ones.
[Top row (from l-r), uniform basic 1pt, uniform basic 4pt, uniform 5pt flat 1pt]
[Second row, uniform basic 7pt, uniform 5pt oval 1pt, shaped brush 5pt oval 1pt]
[Third row, uniform chalk 0.75pt, uniform 3pt round 0.5pt, uniform 2pt oval 0.2pt]
I've gone back and added colour to the mac book illustrations, and traced some more images. I do like the look of these images but I am beginning to feel that they are not that creative as I am just tracing off a photograph.
I tried to re-work the logo so that it can fit in with the designs.
Headings for each page
Home page
The image of Blenheim walk building is going to be on the homepage, so I'm experimenting with where the text should be placed.
Contact page
Before you start page - I need to draw some more items to fill up this banner as I want it full of equipment.
I've created a camera and a sharpener, as well as re-making the glue as I felt it looked quite scruffy.
I still need to re-type up all the information for this page, as it got deleted with the blogger meltdown.
Links page
I thought about drawing an image of Fred for the links page, as the links are recommended by the tutors. I then changed my mind, and have decided to draw a student (Sophie) using a mac, as this is what the page is about - links for the new students to use. It was really difficult to draw a person and I don't think the results are as impressive as the illustrations of the equipment.
First years page
In the second crit, Amber suggested it would be useful to include an image of this years forms reps, Charlie, Luke and Lewis. I decided I would draw them on illustrator continuing in with the same design theme.
The pictures from the first day on the VLE aren't great quality, so I've found alternative photographs on their face book pages.
The moustache just wasn't working so I've removed this, and added some tufts to the hair to make it look more like Luke. I think this image still needs some more work, and I'm also not sure whether they should just be head shots or head and shoulders or full body, but I'll continue experimenting before I decide on this.
I've decided that it wouldn't be fair just to include the form reps as the work is not just theirs, and also, the new starters will have to decide their own form reps when they start. So I think I will create a yearbook style page with the photographs of everyone from the first day.
Before colour:
With colour:
This took a whole day to create but I'm really happy with the result and think it will look good as the banner for the first years work page. This is my favourite banner of them all I think! I had designed this "hello!" heading but it doesn't fit anywhere so I've not used it.
Link Card
I've designed this card as a double sided business card, so that the right information can be conveyed but so that the card can also look attractive. Here are some experiments:
For the final card I've decided to develop the third experiment (with the mac laptop), as the card is referring people to a website so this makes the most sense to use this image. I prefer this to the mac computer image. I've printed this card onto my own stock, which is like heavy newsprint, just to make it a bit more interesting than if it was printed on to snow white paper. The card is business card size, so its small enough to keep in a purse, or to put on a notice board etc.
After Final Crit
I re-made the headings for each page after feedback in the crit, so that they match in with the rest of the title text. I've also removed most of the shadow on the boxes; I didn't actually put it there it is an automatic blogger setting.
How I would extend this brief...
Another idea is one that was suggested by Max when we were thinking about what problem we should answer for this brief. If I was to extend this, it might be nice to print a small booklet with a few example of our work in instead of just a small business card.
