Final OuTCOME MOCK UPS
For my final outcome on this unit, I decided to create a poster in the style of Neville Brody, as he relates specifically to this course and Graphic Design, I wanted to work in the style of Neville Brody because I was interested by his work and liked the overall aesthetic. I also liked the fact that his work is mostly always legible, but always visually stimulating and artistic, I was inspired by Neville Brody, because it is only recently that he has started using computers to create his designs, as he began as a Graphic Designer a couple of years before computers were even a big and mainstream thing. I found this inspiring because he created his work by traditional means, which is a lot more difficult, especially in the area of Graphic Design, and because it really made me realise how much we take technology for granted, and that at one point in history, you wouldn't even consider using a computer to create a magazine spread or poster, you would have to create it from scratch, using materials, printing machines and even plaster casts, not to mention photography, to mass produce your work. Most of Brody's work contained hand-crafted elements such as paintings or drawings and even collage. Before computers were around everything had to be cut and pasted together from paper cut-outs, film overlays or transfer prints. Brody often created 3D models, plaster casts or wooden carvings then photographed them for his designs.
Here is a link to my Neville Brody Pinterest Board: http://www.pinterest.com/roxyweaver/neville-brody/
I created boards to help me decide what Brody works I would be evaluating in my evaluation of his art. I found it a little difficult to differenciate between his actual work and other people work that have created Brody inspired works.
Here is a link to my Neville Brody Pinterest Board: http://www.pinterest.com/roxyweaver/neville-brody/
I created boards to help me decide what Brody works I would be evaluating in my evaluation of his art. I found it a little difficult to differenciate between his actual work and other people work that have created Brody inspired works.
Observational Sketches and References
The first thing I decided to do on this task was to take some observational sketches of Neville Brody's work and look at how he arranged type and how me manipulated type within his work, the sketches I made were very rough, just so that I had an idea of how to imitate Brody's style of work. Making the sketches was really easy and it really helped me determine what kind of fonts I would and should use in my poster/flyer, and also what kind of things I could do in terms of design and manipulation, Neville Brody has, throughout his career, manipulated and formatted text in almost revolutionary ways, so there wasn't anything I couldn't do in terms of design, the only restriction I noticed was that he only ever used sans-serif typefaces. I thought it would be a good idea to take observational sketches, because apart from helping me determine Brody's "style" sketching is one of the most popular and well used forms of mark-making, which this unit has focused upon solely. Sketching is also one of the easiest forms of mark making, as most people have the ability to communicate through pictures to some degree.
Outcome sketches
1ST MOCK UP IDEA
![Picture](/uploads/2/2/6/9/22696966/7905274.jpg?250)
This logo, which is the logo for FontFont.com inspired my first layout design and idea, I really liked the way it was all self contained, I thought this looked very "cool" and edgy. It also looked very coporate and professional too. I liked the way the two "F's" slotted into one another, but I thought for a layout it would have to be layered. On the actual website this logo is in black and white, although I actually really like the yellow and black.
The first mock up design idea I came up with was for the word "Exhibition" to be "contained within itself on the page", the first letter, "E", would take up most of the page, spilling over the edge, and not fitting within the actual page, then the letter "X" would be contained within this, at a smaller size, and then "HI" within the "X", and then the last part of the word "Bition" would be even smaller, contained within the "HI".
It sounds complicated, but it was actually really easy to do, I had some trouble using Adobe Illustrator though, as I haven't properly used the program before, but I managed to translate the original sketch I created on a sheet of A3 paper, into an A3 document in Illustrator.
The text I had chosen to display on all of my mock up designs was "Neville Brody Exhibition" and it would be at "The Royal College of Art" (I thought this would be a realistic choice as Neville Brody actually already HAS an exhibition there, not to mention he works there) and that it would be on the 14th of October, because this also seemed like a realistic date as it is actually almost October now. Here are some screenshots below:
It sounds complicated, but it was actually really easy to do, I had some trouble using Adobe Illustrator though, as I haven't properly used the program before, but I managed to translate the original sketch I created on a sheet of A3 paper, into an A3 document in Illustrator.
The text I had chosen to display on all of my mock up designs was "Neville Brody Exhibition" and it would be at "The Royal College of Art" (I thought this would be a realistic choice as Neville Brody actually already HAS an exhibition there, not to mention he works there) and that it would be on the 14th of October, because this also seemed like a realistic date as it is actually almost October now. Here are some screenshots below:
I thought that this would be a design idea that I could stick with and use as my final outcome, however I kept running into issues with this specific layout, such as legibility, hierarchy and colour scheme, so in the end I ended up abandoning this design and focusing on others.
Although this idea was the main inspiration for my completed final outcome, and even though I ended up abandoning this design, the idea still stuck, and was used in creating my final outcome, it was just this specific layout based on upon that idea that wasn't working very well.
Although this idea was the main inspiration for my completed final outcome, and even though I ended up abandoning this design, the idea still stuck, and was used in creating my final outcome, it was just this specific layout based on upon that idea that wasn't working very well.
2ND MOCK UP IDEA
The second idea I came up with was based on the way a lava lamp makes bubbles, I came up with this idea while looking at the Neville Brody piece below, and this Project Fuse cover that looked as if the letterforms were made out of goo, or shapes.
I thought this would be a great ideas as it was creative and interesting, but I had not thought through things such as legibility, making the shapes and how I was actually going to create a mock-up of this idea, needless to say the idea didn't really take, and I ended up focusing on another layout more that this one.
3RD MOCK UP IDEA
My second mock up idea was inspired by this Project Fuse poster, I really liked how interesting a visually stimulating it was because of the blurry text in the background, and the legible text in the foreground of the poster. I felt like this poster had a mysterious feel to it, as if something unknown was coming into focus.
This mock up idea was a lot more simple, and this is why it had potential. The idea was to constantly layer text, as Brody has done throughout his career. This idea was very easy to visualise, and so stuck around a lot more, I really enjoyed creating the mock up for this idea, as it was simple, but creative and also easy to visualise.
I thought that neutral colours such as browns and sandy tone would work well, but my tutor thought that something brighter and more impactful would make more sense since this is a flyer, changing the colours was a quick and easy task, although it took me a while figure out what colours to use.
I thought that neutral colours such as browns and sandy tone would work well, but my tutor thought that something brighter and more impactful would make more sense since this is a flyer, changing the colours was a quick and easy task, although it took me a while figure out what colours to use.
Thumbnail Sketches
![Picture](/uploads/2/2/6/9/22696966/3334197_orig.jpg)
These were the final thumbnail sketches I created for my final outcome, as you can see I was experimenting with putting the word "Exhibition" in different places on the page, but keeping it horizontal. These sketches really helped be determine how I wanted my final outcome to look, and how to organise the text on the poster.
1ST MOCK UP EXPERIMENTS AND Final VERSION
This was the idea that really stuck, and had the most design and impact potential. It was a variation of the first mock up idea I came up with, my tutor suggested trying the letter N instead, and when I did it made a lot of difference, this was the idea I spent the most time on and that ended up becoming my final outcome for this unit.
It took me a while to figure out what to do, and my tutors were very helpful in suggesting a lot of things, and teaching me how to draw thumbnail sketches, so that I didn't spend so much time just looking at the screen trying to figure out what to do. It was very difficult towards the end, trying to figure out how else I could experiment with the layout and make it more eye-catching and impactful.
I had trouble at times being creative and moving outside of my design comfort zone while creating this layout. Eventually I just had to decide because I couldn't find anything else that could be improved or changed within the layout without completely changing the layout or the actual concept.
It took me a while to figure out what to do, and my tutors were very helpful in suggesting a lot of things, and teaching me how to draw thumbnail sketches, so that I didn't spend so much time just looking at the screen trying to figure out what to do. It was very difficult towards the end, trying to figure out how else I could experiment with the layout and make it more eye-catching and impactful.
I had trouble at times being creative and moving outside of my design comfort zone while creating this layout. Eventually I just had to decide because I couldn't find anything else that could be improved or changed within the layout without completely changing the layout or the actual concept.
Final OuTcome
Overall I am happy with my final outcome, it took a while to get to this stage but I am now happy with my poster, I feel that I have put adequate amounts of effort into making it look interesting, eye catching, different but professional.
I really like the colour scheme, it actually reminds me of certain sweet wrappers and designs, there's something about the colours I have chosen that makes it seem a little bit retro. Although I also feel that it is modern because of the diverse range of fonts, even though they are all sans-serif fonts.
When I printed it out with my tutor, I felt that it could actually work as a flyer or a leaflet. I feel that it is visually impactful, without being too in-your-face. I chose the colours I did because I didn't want anything too bold, but I wanted something that would stand out to an extent. I chose all sans-serif fonts because that is what Neville Brody only ever used sans-serif fonts throughout his career, mostly for legibility reasons.
I had difficulty trying to go out of my comfort zone, but thanks to my tutors I was able to expand my horizons and try new things. I made many version of this outcome design, because I kept running into issues with my layout designs.
To create this outcome I used Adobe Illustrator, I don't work with Adobe Illustrator so it took me a while in the beginning to figure out how to use the program, I would've prefered to use Adobe Photoshop, but Adobe Illustrator is more geared towards creating things typography related, such as posters, magazine layouts and so on.
Once I knew how to use Adobe Illustrator I had no trouble experimenting with this outcome. I did run into some issues but I figured them out quite quickly. Adobe Illustrator is also geared towards perfectionism because of how meticulous you can be while using the program, which is incredibly helpful when it comes to things like straightening text before printing etc. Those are the main reasons why I used a program instead of creating the poster manually in real life, it's also to do with the fact that you can get quicker, more accurate and professional results using Illustrator than you can by doing it by hand or using Photoshop.
You can also do things much easier and efficiently, especially when you are on a time schedule. It is also easier to work with Adobe Illustrator because you can create vector artwork that is very geometric and sharp, angles can be set, edges and curves can be created in a geometric fashion that gives you full control over shape, curvature and distant etc. Because of this you can make sure that everything is precise, symmetrical and balanced. Whereas Photoshop is geared towards Photo Editing and more artistic and more organic form.
The advantage of Photoshop is that art can be free-er, and more spontaenious, you can also mimic the effects of traditional art, meaning people who want to start painting digitally, can still produce works that look like they have been painted on a canvas. Whereas the advantage to Illustrator is that even if you don't have a big imagination, or are very geometric and meticulous with your art, you can control every little detail. Photoshop can mimic old traditional art techniques, whereas Illustrator allows us to create sharp, controlled and minimalistic modern art.
The biggest difference between the two in digital illustration terms is that Photoshop uses pixels to create it's images and save files, whereas Illustrator uses vectors, the main advantage to Illustrator is that while Photoshop can create more realistic images, Illustrator uses vectors which, thanks to the very nature of vectors, can be scaled to any size as vectors are replicated using mathematical and geometrical digital measurements, meaning that you can practically scale a vector to any size and not use quality, whereas a pixel or bitmap image is fine being scaled down, scaling up a pixel image will cause it to become blurry and blotchy, this is because a computer cannot handle having to enlarge the large amount of pixels, as it has to read and change every single dot and tonal change, whereas a vector is treated as an object in an of itself, therefore it can be read quickly and efficiently at any size.
This is especially helpful when designing logos or store names, as logos are sometimes on billboard ads and the sides of buildings, not to mention doors, cars, books and the list goes on, printers are also able to handle and print vector images better than pixel images too.
I would say that the most prominent formal elements in my outcome are shape, space and colour. Space is present within my outcome because of the way I have utilized text layering relation to the big "B" that is behind the rest of the text, this helped to create visual and typographic hierarchy and made my design visually stimulating by adding contrast. I could say the same thing for the element of colour, this is present in the text, as I have used a peach tone for things I want to stand out, white for the most important messages/words on the poster, and black for the rest, this also created visual and typographic hierarchy.
I personally feel that the poster bears many similarities to Brody's work, because the fonts are all sans-serif, and even though I have experimented artistically, everything is clear and legible, I also feel that it also bear resemblance because of the colours I have used, Neville Brody doesn't tend you use colours like yellow, bright blue, baby pink or green in the majority of his work, instead he uses more dark, masculine colours such as purple, scarlet, dark browns and deep reds. Although he does sometimes provide a brief flash of colour to draw ones eye to a certain word or effect, I feel I have also imitated this and done it well by using colour to create visual and typographic hierarchy.
The poster is also very typography based, with the letters and information being the main source of visual stimulation and artistic quality, there aren't usually pictures of people in Brody's work unless the actual text and work itself features a specific person, such as himself or a celebrity. Brody's layouts are balanced but some of his work is very messy and asymmetrical, this is by design most of the time, to push the boundaries of Graphic Design. My outcome also bears resemblance to Brody's work as he sometimes morphs and distorts text for visual effect, and also organizes it vertically or tilts it.
If I had taken a traditional (non digital) approach to my work, I think there would've been a lot more things to consider, I do think that it might've been easier in some respects, and I could've been a lot more creative, I could've used things such as collage and even pop-up images to amplify a message. If I was creating my poster outcome traditionally, it would've been a lot more difficult though because I wouldn't have been able to undo and redo things if I didn't like them, or if I made a mistake. One of the advantages of using technology is that you can make mistakes and then fix them with ease. I would've also had to create every single experiment and variation traditionally, which would've used up a lot of resources and materials, and wouldn't have been very efficient. To create his works traditionally, Brody would layer images and text upon each other, I am assuming by glue-ing them together, he would also layer them to experiment without actually making any commitments, this is a technique I would've probably used if I had taken a traditional approach. In future I think it would be interesting to see how I could create things such as packaging and posters traditionally, to really gain an insight into how posters and graphics were created before computers were brought into existence.
I really like the colour scheme, it actually reminds me of certain sweet wrappers and designs, there's something about the colours I have chosen that makes it seem a little bit retro. Although I also feel that it is modern because of the diverse range of fonts, even though they are all sans-serif fonts.
When I printed it out with my tutor, I felt that it could actually work as a flyer or a leaflet. I feel that it is visually impactful, without being too in-your-face. I chose the colours I did because I didn't want anything too bold, but I wanted something that would stand out to an extent. I chose all sans-serif fonts because that is what Neville Brody only ever used sans-serif fonts throughout his career, mostly for legibility reasons.
I had difficulty trying to go out of my comfort zone, but thanks to my tutors I was able to expand my horizons and try new things. I made many version of this outcome design, because I kept running into issues with my layout designs.
To create this outcome I used Adobe Illustrator, I don't work with Adobe Illustrator so it took me a while in the beginning to figure out how to use the program, I would've prefered to use Adobe Photoshop, but Adobe Illustrator is more geared towards creating things typography related, such as posters, magazine layouts and so on.
Once I knew how to use Adobe Illustrator I had no trouble experimenting with this outcome. I did run into some issues but I figured them out quite quickly. Adobe Illustrator is also geared towards perfectionism because of how meticulous you can be while using the program, which is incredibly helpful when it comes to things like straightening text before printing etc. Those are the main reasons why I used a program instead of creating the poster manually in real life, it's also to do with the fact that you can get quicker, more accurate and professional results using Illustrator than you can by doing it by hand or using Photoshop.
You can also do things much easier and efficiently, especially when you are on a time schedule. It is also easier to work with Adobe Illustrator because you can create vector artwork that is very geometric and sharp, angles can be set, edges and curves can be created in a geometric fashion that gives you full control over shape, curvature and distant etc. Because of this you can make sure that everything is precise, symmetrical and balanced. Whereas Photoshop is geared towards Photo Editing and more artistic and more organic form.
The advantage of Photoshop is that art can be free-er, and more spontaenious, you can also mimic the effects of traditional art, meaning people who want to start painting digitally, can still produce works that look like they have been painted on a canvas. Whereas the advantage to Illustrator is that even if you don't have a big imagination, or are very geometric and meticulous with your art, you can control every little detail. Photoshop can mimic old traditional art techniques, whereas Illustrator allows us to create sharp, controlled and minimalistic modern art.
The biggest difference between the two in digital illustration terms is that Photoshop uses pixels to create it's images and save files, whereas Illustrator uses vectors, the main advantage to Illustrator is that while Photoshop can create more realistic images, Illustrator uses vectors which, thanks to the very nature of vectors, can be scaled to any size as vectors are replicated using mathematical and geometrical digital measurements, meaning that you can practically scale a vector to any size and not use quality, whereas a pixel or bitmap image is fine being scaled down, scaling up a pixel image will cause it to become blurry and blotchy, this is because a computer cannot handle having to enlarge the large amount of pixels, as it has to read and change every single dot and tonal change, whereas a vector is treated as an object in an of itself, therefore it can be read quickly and efficiently at any size.
This is especially helpful when designing logos or store names, as logos are sometimes on billboard ads and the sides of buildings, not to mention doors, cars, books and the list goes on, printers are also able to handle and print vector images better than pixel images too.
I would say that the most prominent formal elements in my outcome are shape, space and colour. Space is present within my outcome because of the way I have utilized text layering relation to the big "B" that is behind the rest of the text, this helped to create visual and typographic hierarchy and made my design visually stimulating by adding contrast. I could say the same thing for the element of colour, this is present in the text, as I have used a peach tone for things I want to stand out, white for the most important messages/words on the poster, and black for the rest, this also created visual and typographic hierarchy.
I personally feel that the poster bears many similarities to Brody's work, because the fonts are all sans-serif, and even though I have experimented artistically, everything is clear and legible, I also feel that it also bear resemblance because of the colours I have used, Neville Brody doesn't tend you use colours like yellow, bright blue, baby pink or green in the majority of his work, instead he uses more dark, masculine colours such as purple, scarlet, dark browns and deep reds. Although he does sometimes provide a brief flash of colour to draw ones eye to a certain word or effect, I feel I have also imitated this and done it well by using colour to create visual and typographic hierarchy.
The poster is also very typography based, with the letters and information being the main source of visual stimulation and artistic quality, there aren't usually pictures of people in Brody's work unless the actual text and work itself features a specific person, such as himself or a celebrity. Brody's layouts are balanced but some of his work is very messy and asymmetrical, this is by design most of the time, to push the boundaries of Graphic Design. My outcome also bears resemblance to Brody's work as he sometimes morphs and distorts text for visual effect, and also organizes it vertically or tilts it.
If I had taken a traditional (non digital) approach to my work, I think there would've been a lot more things to consider, I do think that it might've been easier in some respects, and I could've been a lot more creative, I could've used things such as collage and even pop-up images to amplify a message. If I was creating my poster outcome traditionally, it would've been a lot more difficult though because I wouldn't have been able to undo and redo things if I didn't like them, or if I made a mistake. One of the advantages of using technology is that you can make mistakes and then fix them with ease. I would've also had to create every single experiment and variation traditionally, which would've used up a lot of resources and materials, and wouldn't have been very efficient. To create his works traditionally, Brody would layer images and text upon each other, I am assuming by glue-ing them together, he would also layer them to experiment without actually making any commitments, this is a technique I would've probably used if I had taken a traditional approach. In future I think it would be interesting to see how I could create things such as packaging and posters traditionally, to really gain an insight into how posters and graphics were created before computers were brought into existence.