Speaking from experience: Illustration

Other posts for this brief:

The website

Primary Research

The brief

Secondary Research: Illustration

Secondary Research: Blogs

Secondary Research: LCA Resources

PPD blog

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.

Funshop: Free Fest

BIG ideas!

These are our groups ideas from our two week workshop with John. In my group was: me; Luke; Ben H; Sam; Kirsty F; Francesca; Charlie; Yafet and Eddie. Our idea for an event in Leeds in 2012 is Freefest - a free festival, containing lots of different communities with different activities. It is inspired by Woodstock. Realistically, I don't think this event could ever happen, due to things like healthy and safety and money worries, but it was fun to think just how big our ideas for this event could be. The idea is a fun festival which makes people forget about problems of today, such as xenophobia, the credit crunch, political unrest and racism. Everyone would come together, and have an escape, if only for a couple of days. The idea is that the festival is free because it is not sponsored by a company, but sponsored by people's generosity, as you bring your own food, and then share this, promoting a real community vibe. The event aims to be exciting, engaging, memorable and fun.

Think BIG - rather large bunting for our presentation. In the background you can see some keywords used to describe our event, such as multi cultural, community, giving and free.

 We set each other individual tasks - I created this map of the event, showing what will be happening in what area

Speaking from experience: The website

Other posts for this brief:

Illustration

Primary Research

The brief

Secondary Research: Illustration

Secondary Research: Blogs

Secondary Research: LCA Resources

PPD blog

I have decided to use blogger to create the website, as this is something that I am now familiar with, and also, I think it will be good for the new students to use it, as they will be creating their own blogs when they start.

View the blog.

I need to consider that there are 46 new students coming, who will all have different tastes, may be different age ranges, and be interested in different things. I need to choose a colour scheme that appeals to both genders. I also need to ensure that the design for the blog is simple, clean, easy to use, and does not take away anything from the images of work that will be shown on the website.

I've recently re-designed my blog. (More on PPD blog.) Based on feedback in the crit about blogger sometimes being ugly, I've changed the design of the LCA 11-14 blog, so that it is simple and clean, and later, the designs for a logo and header can be added.

The more I look at this layout the more I dislike it. I'm not sure about the colour scheme either, but I wanted something fresh that wouldn't steal the attention away from the work. I think the way I have laid out the columns is good though.

I decided that I would set this blog out how our course blogs are set, with different things on different pages, rather than having everything on one page. This means a lot more work but I think will make the site easier to use. The other pages are: before you start (equipment lists, reading lists etc); contact; links (useful websites, visiting artists etc) and first years work.

Ideas for logo

As this project is supposed to be all about who I am and who I want to be as a graphic designer, I think the designs need to represent what I like. I also want to represent where we are as first years on this course, keeping this blog real to our work, rather than making the design too flashy and professional.

- Illustrator drawings of graphic design related items such as Macs, pencils etc

- Lightbox traced drawings of tutors

- Photograph of whole of first year

- Drawings of class members (photographs taken from the VLE)

- Type only, adjectives/keywords about the course, such as: ambitious, creative, big ideas, determined, passion, fun, innotative
- Collage images of graphic design items made from different coloured card

I started having a play about with creating a logo by editing a font I made earlier on illustrator by tracing around existing font 'Myraid Pro' but in a messy way. My favourite is the design in the bottom right hand corner as I like the shape, but I think the colour scheme still needs to be played around with.

This is what the site looks like now with the new logo. I think it looks much better, especially with the negative space. However, I do think I need to include illustrations.

I have also made headings for each page with my font.

Content

Next is the task of choosing which pieces of work to display. I will include at least one piece of every first year students work, so that the blog shows a fair, real example of the work produced on the course, rather than just selecting pieces with the highest grades or that are believed to be the best. There are 17 briefs that I will cover, and 45 students. So, I will have three pieces of work for each brief. Some of the work for these briefs will be group work.

Following a suggestion from Jo in my first crit, I have decided that the work will not all be on the blog at once, but instead, a post will be revealed every Monday and Friday. I have made a time plan for how the work will be revealed.

The briefs could have either appeared backwards, starting with seeing the speaking with experience brief and the last brief they would see would be the summer alphabet, or forwards. I decided in the end that the briefs should appear in order, to give reassurance from the start, as we have developed so much in a year, to initially see where we are up to now could be scary. Also, when the course starts, it will have been a while since the students have seen the earlier briefs. I thought that there could be a countdown on the blog showing how many days until the course starts. 

The new students will receive the link for the 1st July. The design of this card will be the same as the design of the blog. The summer personality alphabet post will be available then. The students will be told to keep checking back at the website, which gets them into the habit of regularly checking things, as this needs to be done when they start the course and need to check the VLE and their emails.

July 4th - How to..

July 8th - Alphabet Soup

July 11th - Alphabet for partner

July 15th - No News is Good News Poster

July 18th - No News is Good News Mailshot

July 22nd - Illustrator

July 25th - Leeds What If Group Work

July 29th - Collection 100

Aug 1st - Photoshop

Aug 5th - Design is about doing

Aug 8th - Communication is a Virus

Aug 12th - Book Fair

Aug 15th - Photography

Aug 19th - What is a line?

Aug 22nd - In Design

Aug 26th - Speaking from experience - Last post

Permission

After a suggestion from Amber in the crit, I sent this message out on the VLE and on our group facebook page, but I haven't had any replies, so I will assume everyone is fine!

Type and Grid

Type and Grid

Before the session we were asked to bring two examples of articles about the same subject from different magazines, one high end and one low end, which we would them compare in the session. We were also asked to bring our own images to do with the subject in the article.

Original Articles: Beauty News from - 

You Magazine 24/04/11 (High end) & Heat Magazine 30/04/11 (Low end)

Task

- Compare articles. Read each and understand their content

- Do an average word count

- Write a short statement describing the articles

- List 5 significant differences between the articles. Consider these to help change the content

- Choose a new format (210x210 or 148x220)

- Re interpret the article with your own heading and strap line. Include the new images, but the most important thing to consider is the layout.

- Use A2 paper and produce sheets of quick layouts and then more formal ones

- Use a grid with at least 6 columns 

- Design for double page spreads. Create thumbnail guides by working to half size

- Evaluate what you have done by recognising what has worked and what has not

- Make decisions with aspects such as the font, and the size and weight of this - what is to be read first?

- There will be a mini crit next week concerning the new layouts

You Magazine

36 lines x average of 6 words per line = 216 words

The article is about exquisite perfumes that a bride may want to wear on her big day. It mentions a perfume which is being re-launched for William and Kate's wedding.

Heat Magazine

There are 3 short articles each with a max of 80 words

The articles are about new beauty products that A-list celebrities use. There are lots of images of the products. A different Kate's wedding is mentioned - Kate Moss.

Significant differences between the articles

1. You -  One font is used. The type is kept simple and readable. Only three colours and four different pt sizes are used.

Heat - Mix of different fonts (at least 5 different) - Serif and Sans serif. Two colours are used but on different backgrounds. There are lots of different sizes and weights.

2. You - Images are of beautiful perfume bottles, arranged in a space saving way. 

Heat - There are photographs of celebrities and beauty products. There are 9 images, which are all different colours, shapes and sizes.

3. You - The background is white with a little negative space and a block colour margin.

Heat - The page has a white background, but also a block blue background and a fuzzy grey background. Some text has either a yellow or a white background behind it. The images overlap the margins.

4. You - There is one simple heading and subheading. The page is only about one story.

Heat - There are 5 headings and one subheading for the main heading. There are three different mini articles and also a box with images of products.

5. You - It is the title and the images that stand out the most. The typeface is used throughout the magazine and is readable and sophisticated yet does not particularly reflect the contain of the article or the images.

Heat - The title is the first thing you notice as it is in a bold, large, pink circle. Then you notice the photograph of Sienna Miller as it takes up nearly 1/3 of the page.

Conclusion

The page from heat magazine is too busy and there is too much going on with all the mixes of images and type. I also think there are too many different colour schemes used. The article does not appear to follow a grid as everything is scattered across the page. While I think the page from you magazine is more sophisticated and professional, I still think it could be improved with a font that is more relevant to the article, making the page more interesting. Both articles are quite busy and would look better with more white space, which could be achieved by turning the article into a double page spread. Through comparing them I now have a lot of ideas for what I could do to re-invent the article.

Re-interpreted Article

My idea for the new article is to take ideas from both magazines, so that the content relates to theme of beauty for a wedding, so that the bride feels like a princess.

New Grid

I have drawn out a half size grid for both of the measurements and have decided to try design ideas for both sizes to challenge myself and to see which I like better.

148x220

210x210

New Layout Designs

I tried two layout designs in the style of the heat magazine page; I think these look more sophisticated than the original page as the one page is spread over a double page spread, however, I still don't think the shapes and angles that they are placed on work. I also tried a layout in the style of the you magazine page, and thought that this looks much better with an extra image. 

I tried lots of layout designs, and my favourite style are the double page spreads with one simple page next to a page containing lots of images and text, but still some negative space. I thought the layouts that were too simple wouldn't work as there is not enough information being conveyed and they also get a little boring. I thought the 210x210 layout was much easier to design with and I much preferred the results created with this layout. I would like to take my favourite layout designs and try these at actual size, with colour.

Feedback on layout designs

I was in a crit group with Sophie, Baljeet, Kirsty A and Kirsty H. I also got some feedback from Lorenzo. Here are the points from this crit:

-Think about trying the headings and completely different sizes, weights and fonts, as many are the same

-Try more informal designs as most of these are quite structured

-Try aligning things diagonally, and be more experimental with designs

-Pull out quotes from the articles 

-Everyone generally liked the simplistic ones the best and considered these the most effective

-The design with the large half perfume bottles was everyones favourite

-The layouts with symmetry on both pages were also liked a lot

-There was a mixed opinion on which layout worked best, but the rectangle layout seems more suitable for a magazine

-Generally the designs with two columns of text look better than the ones with three

-Need to use thicker lines to show the hierarchy of what is on the page - what should be read first?

-I have mainly used a 'regal' style font so should try others as well

-I should look at other magazines and find layouts that I like, and question why I like it and then try out that layout with my own designs, to test what works and what doesn't.

Speaking from experience: Primary Research

As the target audience for this brief are new students to the course, and thats what we were at the beginning of the year, our group is the target audience, so we can use each other for research. I made this simple questionnaire and posted it on our groups Facebook page to get some responses.

Questions

Before starting, did you
1) attend an open day?
2) attend the degree show?
3) look at the yearbooks?
4) use the Leeds College of Art website?
5) If so, did you find these resources useful?
Which one was the most useful?
6) Did you lack motivation with the Summer task?
7) Would you have liked to have seen more examples of first years work before you started?

Responses

My own response 1. Yes 2. Yes 3. Yes 4. No 5. Yes, especially Fred's presentation at the open day. 6. Yes, I didn't really know what standard was expected and was scared as I wanted to make a good impression 7. Yes, this would have been very useful

‎Charlie Crosby 1. yes 2. no 3. yes 4. no 5. the open day was useful but long 6. yes i also had a lot of other things that i was doing over summer though like working full time running a kitchen, training, leeds festival and a girlfriend 7. i dint think about it much but reckon that could be helpful to see the standard of work that is expected from 1st years instead of seeing how crisp and immaculate the 3rd years work is that have been on the course so much longer

‎Max Gregory 1) yes, 2) no, 3) yes, 4) no, 5) open days were really useful, sold the college a treat. 6) very much so, was doing it the first few days of college. 7) yes think it would have been good to see what was going on
Sarah Roberts 1) no 2) no 3) yes 4) yes 5) the best bit was the interviews with tutors on website 6) yes - left it the end 7) yes i would, it would help more as we compare ourselves to third years

Kirsty Alderson yes, no, yes, yes, yes - the yearbook because it told me things about the course, the open day because it meant i could tell whether the college was for me or not and meet the staff and also the website because it had loads of relevant information. Yes - i hadn't designed anything for a while when i started on the summer task so i got really stuck sometimes. I thought i saw enough work to understand the course :) i thought the open day was most useful.

Lisa Whitaker ‎1. Yes, 2. No, 3. Yes, 4. Yes 5. Struggled to find much GD work on the Leeds College of Art website. The open day was useful just seeing how driven Fred was! 6. Yes but really got into it in the end. 7. Yes would have been good to get a flavour of what was to come. x

Sophie Wilson 1. yes 2. no (scandal!) 3. yes- they were pretty scrumptious 4. yes 5. i found the yearbook was most useful- it gave me a real motivation and sense of what the course was about, and what i could expect- it also showed a lot of th...e great work that have been produced, and what i could aspire to! :) 6. hah, no! i was working at it like a mad thing...my first all-nighter was due to the summer project ;) 7. yes, definitely! i dont think we got a great insight into the 2nd years work...i still don't really know much about them or their work, probably due to my own fault, but it wouldve been nice to gauge a sense of who they are a little more! xx

Kirsty Cave erm i didnt do any i dont think lol apart from look at the prospectus.i liked looking at the work in the prospectus :) i was really stressing about the summer task and didnt do it till near the deadline because i couldnt think of an idea......when i did think of one i thought it wouldn't be good enough compared to other peoples...but it was all good in the end. i think maybe it would have been good to look through the 2nd yr (then first years) work because we would know what standard to had to level with but at the same time i didn't want to see it incase my work wasn't good enough...you should never compare your work to others! :)

Baljeet Kaur Samra ‎1. yes. 2. yes. 3. yes. 4. yes. Open day was the best made me realise how much better the course was than other places. the degree show was amazing! got a real flavour of the course. 6. yes. 7. yeah would have been good :D

Joe Warburton ‎1) no, 2) no, 3) yes, 4) yes. 5) Yeah definitely.. I liked looking at past students work in the yearbook cos it gave me insight into what outcomes they produce and to what standard, just showed how top notch the course was really. 6) Kinda, it was left pretty much to the last minute. 7) Yeah

Sarah Pritchard 1) yes 2) yes 3) yes 4) yes 5) I think to an extent they are all useful. The one I personally found most useful was the open day. Hearing all about the course from Fred who is so enthusiastic about it all really helped to get a good idea of wh...at the course was like and after I attended the first one (I went to about 3) I instantly knew this was where I wanted to go.
6) I did actually over the summer, but towards the end when the beginning of the course was fast approaching I soon got into it.
7) I think from the website/yearbook/open day you do see a whole lot of work produced from the course, but out of it all there was only like 1 or 2 pieces that were actually first years, so yeah I do think maybe include a few more examples somewhere in there, or maybe send out links to the blogs or something to have a look through before starting.

Matt Tucker 1.no 2.no 3.yes 4.no 5.yearbook 6.yes 7.yes

Chris Van Niekerk 1. yes, 2. no, 3. yes, 4. yes, 5. the year book and the website was alright, 6. yes cause it was summer, 7. maybe.

Simon Cherry 1. no  2.no  3.no 4.yes 5.Yes. They gave me an idea of how the course is structured 6.Yes. 7. Yes

Kirsty Fruin yes, no, yes, no, no, no, yes

Dom Rugman no, no, yeah, no, no, yes, yes

Luis Bachini 1.No 2.no 3.yes 4.yes 5.yes 6.yes 7.yes

James Michael Mooney no, no, no, no, no, yes, yes

Tally of results
Q1. Yes [10] No [8]

Q2. Yes [3] No [15]

Q3. Yes [15] No [3]

Q4. Yes [10] No [8]

Q5. Yes [15] No [3]

Q5b. Yearbook [5] Open day [6] Website [2] Prospectus [1]

Q6. Yes [16] No [2]

Q7. Yes [16] Not Bothered [2]

What these results mean... Most people lacked motivation with the summer task, and would have liked to have seen more examples of first year work before they started. I feel that if they had seen this work, they would have had more motivation to complete the task. The resources that people found the most useful were the yearbook and the open days, so these are things that I can look at when thinking about what my website would need to be useful. I believe my results back up my answer to the problem that we do not see much work other than third years final pieces before we start.