Brief
Using the object that you have randomly selected you must create an eye chart replacing the congenital series of letters with your object. Explore scale and format. The object must be legible and clearly identifiable from 20 feet away.
How many ways can this object be re-created? How much detail must you maintain for it to communicate? Line quality will become an important factor, as the change in scale will affect the detail of the image.
This is a drawing based brief that can either be hand crafted or computer based. No letters can be used.
The final image must be presented on an A2 portrait format and use only two colours (including stock).
Rationale
Brief: What is the problem you intend to solve?
I must create an eye chart replacing the expected letters with images of my random word: pear.
Who needs to know?
People in need of an eye test, but it may also be of interest to those interested in fruit or design in general.
What do they need to know?
They need to be able to see what is going on in the eye chart from 20 feet away, so it needs to be legible.
Why do they need to know?
They need to test their eye sight to check it is okay, and being able to tell what is happening in every single image on this chart should prove this.
What will they respond to?
They will see image only with no other clue to communicate.
What research is required?
Primary
- I need to talk to someone who has had an eye test and ask them about their experience
- I should buy a pear to photograph and cut up to see inside
Secondary
- I will research different types of pears as it is a fruit I don't know much about
- I will look at how pears have been used creatively in the design industry
- I will research standard eye tests to see what I am initially working with
- I will research creative eye tests to see how people have made their own tests before
- I will research pictograms and signage to get an idea of images that still effectively communicate from a distance away
Ideas
- Cute pears with faces like the paper chase prints
- Different types of pear, hand drawn with fine writer
- Halftones of pear, computer based
- A pear being eaten, starting off whole and ending up just the pips
- Screen printed different shaped pears
- Vector created pears from different angles
Development
I started by doing quite a bit of research [see blog post], as I initially didn't really feel very inspired by the object pear. However, through my research I found lots of creative takes on drawing and creating artwork of pears. I decided to test out my ideas by drawing many little pears to see which style I liked best.
The sketchy style drawing of the pear in the bottom left was my favourite style of pear. My design decisions have been effected by the fact that I can only use one colour and stock. With pears, the use of colour would have been a good way to show change. Instead, I decided to draw out different types of pears, based on photographs I found in my research. I enjoyed this rough style of drawing, adding detail but making sure that it was still obvious what I was drawing. I looked at a standard eye chart and worked out I would need to draw 21 different pears, so I did this with fine writer. Drawing straight on to the paper without first drawing plans in pencil was unusual for me but I enjoyed this, and I decided to use all of the pear drawings rather than keep drawing lots out like I would normally do.
I scanned in my pears, and thought that there was something missing, as they had lost the sharpness of the fine writer when being scanned, so I live traced the pears on illustrator and tried to arrange them like an eye chart.
After asking for feedback from a friend to make sure that it was obvious what I had made - as after all the chart being understandable was a key point in my rationale - she suggest making more of a jump between each different size as they are all quite different. I spent a while playing around with this and eventually came to my finished arrangement. [see blog post]. I then experimented with different shades of green for the background, but decided against it, as the pears stood out the most just black against white. This also makes it look more like a real eye chart, as they are just black and white, as the use of colours could cause confusion. I have thought about screen printing this design, as screen print is something I want to try again as I haven't done it in a while. Through screen printing, I would get a texture on my images that relates to the rough sketchy feel. I am aware that screen printing is quite a time consuming process so it will depend on how much time I have left, but if I don't screen print this design I will make sure I do get to screen print another design.
