"An on-going examination/ conversation between the dynamics of personal exploration and professional practise"
- Matt Owens, Volumeone
How are you presenting yourself? How are you seen and how are you portrayed by others?
Dialogue between self and the industry- where to position yourself?
Design Practise
- Appropriateness of Response
- Quality of Resolution
- Meeting the Deadline
- Not only about the aesthetics. This practise is effective and successful.
Appropriateness of Response:
- What Is The Problem?
- Who Is The Audience?
- What Is The Context?
- What Is the Method of Delivary?
What is the Problem? Are you being asked to do something or is it something you want to do?
What Is Your Rationale?
What are you Doing and why are you doing it?
Where do you Position yourself within these Relationships?:
- Are you someone who is Concept Driven, Idea Driven or Research Driven?- Why do you work in this way?
- Defining your Practise- Audience Driven? Design driven by Context? Driven by Media?
- Choosing work- Driven by the Creative Elements? Choosing work based on ethical interests? Interested in Commercial Elements
- Practise Engagement- Handmade? Digital? Lens Based?
- Dimensions of Work- 2-D, 3-D or 4-D (Movement, Time or Sequential)
Quality of Resolution:
- Depth of Appropriate Research
- Breadth of Initial Ideas
- Selection of Potential Solutions
- Thorough Visual Development
- Attention to Detail/ Crafting
- Clarity of Presentation
- Type, Image or Type and Image?
- What is your Signature/ Visual iIdentity
- Is the Media the Message?
- Tone of Voice?
Play- Try It, Test It, Make It Better
Collaborate- Space between working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight and vast creative potential
Meeting the Deadline:
Only the best designers can produce work for the deadline
Message, Communication, Clarity, Context
+
Creativity, Concept, Idea
x
Skills, Organisation, Discipline, Commitment
÷
Boundaries, Limitations, Rules, Time
=
An Effective Design Practise
From this, we were given 10 questions that we had to answer about our Design Practise:
What Is Your Professional Name and Contact Details?
Charlie Rotherham
charlotterotherham@hotmail.co.uk
What 5 Words best describe your Design Practise?
- Organised
- Involved
- Responsive
- Committed
- Thorough
What 5 Words describe you as a Person?
- Reliable
- Hard-Working
- Friendly
- Eccentric
- Disciplined
What are your 5 Strongest Design Skills?
- Ability to Meet Deadlines
- Large Amount of Ideas
- Handmade
- Evaluation/ Critical of Own Work and Others
- Developing Illustrator Skill
What areas of Graphic Design interest you the most?
I am interested in work that has a specific function or purpose based on the context it is needed for. I am also interested in brand identity, packaging and making a product.
Who are your 5 favourite Graphic Designers/ Design Studios?
- Noma Bar
- Daniel Blackman
- Abram Games
- BLOW
- re:design
What makes them your favourite? (Where can you find them?)
I like work that uses integrated imagery to produce a message by combining elements from different areas and putting them together to make one united, integrated image. I like using a bold but minimal colour palette and keeping things very organised and as simple as possible. You can find the work of these artists contextually on blogs, in public environments as posters, in publications and book as well as searching on the internet.
What are your 5 favourite Design Blogs?
What 5 things do you want to be?
- A Millionaire
- A Success
- A Professional Graphic Designer
- In A Stable Job
- Somebodies Boss
What 5 things do you think you need to do to be this?
- A Lot of Hard Work
- To Take Risks/ Chances/ Stepping out of my Comfort Zone
- Trying New Things
- Continuing to Learn
- Support
We were then put into groups of 3 with the pretence that we were to interview each other in order to get information from each other.
Beth:
Bethany Dalzell bethdalzell@hotmail.co.uk
Innovative, Professional, Efficient, Modern, Precise
Organised, Approachable, Passionate, Dedicated and Flexible
Software Skills, Arts Worker, Fast Learner, Communication
Brand & Identity and Print-making
Wim Crouwel, Joseph Muller-Brockman, Pentagram, Analogue, Luke Pearson
From Up North, Design Inspiration, Design Week, Creative Review, Juxtapose
Successful, Respected, Accomplished and to be Happy
Oli:
oddball oliverdye@g-mail.com
Illustrative, Honest, Creative, Odd, Balls
Northern, Honest, Nice, No Balls
Illustrations, Handmade, Digital, Creative Thinking and Creative Typography
Designers Republic, Kid Acne, McBess, Pete McKee- Likes them for their attitudes
Behance blog, Lost Type
Freelance Graphic Artist, Thought-Provoking and to make a difference, Lasting and based on Ethics
Study Task:
From the information gathered from the interviews as a Group of 3, we need to produce a Free Ad (A Creative Personal Ad) for each member of the group that will communicate the Design Practise of yourself and the other members of your group, thereby printing 3 x separate responses. It needs to be printed at an A3 scale but not in the standard A4/A3 format in shape. It is to have 50 words maximum and can be Type/ Image or Type & Image.
Research into Influence:
I started by looking into the blogs of my other group members and having a look at the designers that influence them. This would give me some contextual understanding of the work they like and the styles they like.
Beth:
http://b-dalzell1215.blogspot.co.uk/
Beth's blog is very thorough and clearly she does a lot of development and experiments with her work. She uses a mixture of handmade and digital and uses quite detailed pattern that mixed into simple imagery. I think this would be something to include within the Free Ad.
I then went onto looking at her designer influences:
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"New Alphabet Typeface" (1967) by Wim Crouwel
Michael Place (2007) "Striking the Eye: An Interview With Wim Crouwel" [Weblog] Creative ReviewAvailable from http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2007/july/striking-the-eye-an-interview-with-wim-crouwel (Accessed 18th February 2013)
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Wim Crouwel- Crouwel focuses on Typography Posters as he manipulates the traditional layout and presentation by repeating, overlapping and mixing scales of type to produce patterns within the posters, whilst at the same time, keeping it minimal and spacious. His designs seem decorative despite the fact they are more functional in their need to present information.
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"Pentagram Archive" (2013) by Pentagram
Pentagram (2013) "Archive" [Internet] Available from http://www.pentagram.com/work/#/all/all/newest/ (Accessed 18th February 2013)
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Pentagram- The studio Pentagram are multi-disciplined and undefinable yet they seem to specialise in producing clean and modern brand identities, with emphasis on black and white word based brands. The range of professional works shows how versatile the studio is thereby highlighting the flexibility of the work they can produce.
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"Zurich Tonhalle Concert Poster" and "de Film" (1955-1960) by Josef Muller- Brockman
Graphis (2010) "Portfolios | Josef Muller Brockman" [Weblog] Graphis Available from http://www.graphis.com/portfolios/view/pieces/?id=2128 (Accessed 18th February 2013)
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Joseph Muller- Brockman- The designer is renown for keeping his work specifically ordered in a grid layout, taking advantage of space and composition as well as manipulating shapes like rectangles and mirroring them with the layout. The colour choices are primary yet sparse and kept to a minimum palette.
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"Analogue Showcase" (2012) by Analogue
Analogue (2012) "Analogue Showcase"[Internet] Available from http://www.madebyanalogue.co.uk/showcase/#all (Accessed 18th February 2013)
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Analogue- The eclectic and exotic range in design is very modern and slightly futuristic in aesthetic and media choices. There is no set specialism and the fact that they seem to specialise in producing heavily digital work alongside traditional lettering is quite an unusual mixture. This shows how they might have a set signature but they can do more than what they are known for.
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"New York Times" (2013) by Luke Pearson
Pearson, L (2013) "New York Times" [Internet] Available from http://lukepearson.com/2013/01/new-york-times.html (Accessed 18th February 2013)
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Luke Pearson- Pearson has a comic book illustration visual language that dominates a lot of his work yet sometimes this is developed into larger, more graphic pieces. The work he produces seems to be based on having a narrative, either as a single image or as a set of images to produce a longer, drawn out story allowing him to comment on the world around him or issues he feels strongly about. The fact it is illustrated gives it more of a human, approachable feel to the work.
Oli:
I can't get onto Oli's blog based on the link that is available from me so I will have to base his Free Ad on the description he gave me and the designers he likes
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"tdr Car Booty Affair, Nothing is Forever, Everything Must Go" (2012) by Designers Republic
Creativebloq (2012) "Designers Republic sells off iconic indie artwork" [Weblog] 19th November Creativebloq Available from http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/everything-must-go-designers-republic-sale-11121230 (Accessed 18th February 2013)
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Designers Republic- Designers Republic is quite a quirky, futuristic based design studio that uses a lot of bright colours and illustrations to produce a healthy and strong identity. Its very distinctive and makes it stand out from the rest of the designers available as it seems quite forward thinking and iconic.
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"Ouija" by Kid Acne
Kid Acne "Ouija" [Internet] Available from http://www.kidacne.com/blog/gallery/ (Accessed 18th February 2013)
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Kid Acne- Very illustrative and urban approach to Graphic Design with emphasis put on the imagination of the work and the raw organic aesthetic, particularly with the monochrome colour scheme keeping it simple. This gives the impression that the work is just like a doodle that has been done on a page. The ethics behind the work seems very important to Kid Acne and this is something which sticks out for Oli as well.
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"Coffee Table" (2012) by McBess and Substain
McBess and Substain (2012) ""Coffee Table" [Internet] Available from http://thesubstain.com/#/mcbess-coffeetable/ and http://blog.mcbess.com (Accessed 18th February 2013)
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McBess- Also specialising in illustration, McBess seems to stick to a staple black and white visual identity that is marked by the busy and urban style impression of his work. This seems to be a re-occuring theme within the inspirations that Oli has shown. This mixture of having traditional imagery mixed with a modern aesthetic manages to keep it up-to-date.
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"Teenage Kicks Exhibition" (2013) by Pete McKee
McKee, P (2013) "Teenage Kicks Exhibition" [Internet] Available from http://www.petemckee.com/work/teenage-kicks-exhibition (Accessed 18th February 2013)
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Pete McKee- McKee has a distinctive approach to imagery which means that his work has a uniformity due to the fact that he seems to be settled in his approach to illustration. The choice of colour is muted but gives his work more of a humanity approach. The way that the characters don't seem to have expressions means that the illustration has a lot of work to do to get the emotion or image across but it still manages to work.
Making Free Ad's:
From these, I went onto producing the A3 Free Ads. They had to be of an A3 scale but were not allowed to be actual A3 and instead, of a different layout.
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| Divided up layouts |
The black areas are to be ignored and the white areas are the areas I decided to work from. I gave Beth the narrow one as it seems the most structured and rigid. Oli was given the smaller one as it seems more intimate and the ethos and style he presented through his influence is quite personal. As for me, I decided to have a square that takes up the full width of the page as I like to have a lot of space in my images.
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| Beth Initial Designs |
From the information I had, I knew Beth liked quite modernist simple influences so I wanted to keep it quite structured in layout but I wanted to incorporate the ideal that she uses pattern sometimes within her work. Thats where the idea of having a pattern within the geometric shapes came in. The navy blue was a colour choice built from the Muller-Brockman reference. I picked a serif font due to the fact that I wanted something elegant to go with the pattern idea as well as highlight that she has an innovative approach to design which is not held back by fixed styles.
I decided that it was very clumsy in the way it was put together and looked quite unprofessional so therefore I went onto developing the ideas further by making the designs simpler.
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| Developed, Simpler Designs for Beth |
Taking the idea of using grids and lines to another level, I decided to use the simplest form of the pattern and have it become a columnised pattern in itself. I also did a variation using just 2 swirls and a centralised information input to go with it. I felt these were of a better quality design wise and much more representative of Beth in regards to the professional sense and the need for efficient and organised design.
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| Oli Initial Designs |
The first idea I had was the concept that I would use the attitude that Oli had to design to produce the Free Ad. He wants to be able to make a difference with his work so I decided to show this by doing an illustration of the world and having his details with it. I did a black and white version and a colour version to see which would be the best aesthetically as well as due to his mixture of black and white and colour influences.
On the other hand, even though they had the best intentions, I felt that the designs were so poor in regards to quality and presentation that I decided to scrap that idea and make something else that was as simple as the previous designs.
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| Developed, Simpler Idea for Oli |
I decided to try and interpret a brand for the name itself, oddball. To visually show an oddball, i designed a cluster of white circles on a black background and highlighted one in a colour to emphasise it being the odd one out or oddball. This was made even simpler by having some circles in a row and colouring one of them in in a different colour. I settled on blue overall as it is a key colour in CMYK which would keep print costs down but also as it represents the world that Oli wants to make a difference in.
For myself, I like integrated images, simplicity and large amounts of space so I created a simple pattern which is integrated all within one shape. It is ambiguous so that it lends itself to the idea that I don't have a set specialism in Graphic Design and will give anything a try. The type is justified and out of the way as I don't like having large amounts of information and using only the bare essentials. The colour was used as blue seems to e a re-occuring colour that I feel most comfortable using yet I didnt want to use one that had already been done.
Finished Designs:
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| Finished Designs Altogether On Screen |
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| oddball Finished Design |
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| My Finished Design |
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| Beth Finished Design |
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| Printed Out A3 scale Finished Free Ads |
I am much happier with these designs then the original ones I had made as they are a lot more simpler and makes the design appear much cleaner, considered and professional. Overall, Im pretty happy with the outcome as, if i had kept the designs how they were, it would have been much worse. I'm particularly happy with my own in regards to the visual quality but I think the oddball one is the most successful in regards to the idea and concept and how the Free Ad could be used to spawn a brand identity.
