Digital Skills Lecture- Swiss Style Poster

This poster is the result of another extremely informative Digital Skills lesson inwhich we used both Photoshop and Illustrator to create this Swiss styler poster. In Photoshop we focussed on manipulating the image, this involved tools such as Gaussian Blur, adding noise, changing specific colour channels, and using many different blending modes on many different layes in order to create an aged appearance. After this, within InDesign, we focussed heavily on layout, taking the image we had created on Photoshop, setting it out as you can see above, and then manipulating the set copy by changing features such as the font and tracking.

This Digital Skills lesson provided me with much insight and a better understanding of both Photoshop and InDesign as well as the knowledge to use tools I previously knew very little about, such as the Marque tool for example. As with previous Digital Skills lectures, I will annotate the Screen Prints I took throughout the lesson and add them to my Digital Skills folder.

NHS Development

Initially, as you would expect, I began by simply drawing out a few different ideas in a few different ways. I instantly took a liking for the text being aligned on the left hand side so the N, M, P were stacked. I then simply tried putting friendly looking shapes to by the side of the text to see how it worked together.

Aside from the success of the text layout, I also felt quite positively with the curved wing like shape that I had made as it looked both friendly, and matched the clients wishes that the logo avoid going down the photography/camera route. Despite this positivity, I felt I required more initial ideas to work with.

The next few ideas I had focused more of the photography style logo, while the client was not so keen on the idea, I felt that it may have been the best route to go down considering the name of the department. The top idea (my favourite) was simply using a segment of an aperture shape but in particular, I like the way it wrapped around the text, being inline with the text at the bottom and then spilling over at the top. Considering that the ideogram is not all inline with the text, I can not help but feel that the logo still works very well. The 2 logo ideas below it were based on the viewing screen that is found on digital cameras, initially I thought this idea had potential as the edges of the shape could be manipulated to meet the top and bottom of the text. The bottom left and bottom middle ideas were supposed to be the corner of the camera fading off at the top, with a strap being the main focus of the ideogram, however, as you can see, it was not the most successful idea.

From this then, I developed 2 ideas on the computer, one of which I made up while digitalising the other and so the idea is not featured in my initial development.

The top idea came to me while creating the bottom idea on illustrator. The process was quite simple really. I simply created the initials using Arial Black, rotated the text box, created a new layer, and then created the 3D effect using the pen tool. After that it was a simply a matter on scaling it right, choosing a colour and getting it to work well with the text. Choosing the colour is what I found the hardest, I was very undecided and struggled to  find an appropriate tone. I began with it being a light grey, but when coupled with the grey text, it worked quite poorly. Eventually I settled that blue would be a suitable colour and that a lighter tone would give a friendlier appearance. Overall I would say that, although I am happy with the logo, it may not be the most suitable for this brief as it looks possibly a little too boring. My second logo however, I feel works much better. The text for instance matches my favoured layout that I decided upon in my initial ideas. I also developed the segmented aperture idea by having them overlap and then using blending options to make them appear transparent. I found that this gave a much better effect then having a space between them. Overall with the layout and the colours chosen I feel that this is easily the most superior of my 2 logo ideas.

Targets 7!

Again, due to the lack of an available scanner at college, I am unable to show you the current progress of my briefs. So far however, I redirected most of my attention away from the Little White Lies brief in order to focus heavily on the NHS logo designs after learning that Karen Guy would be coming into college for us to present out current ideas. After a sessions of group crits, I was instructed to try and come up with some more ideas as none of my current ideas were working to well. After restarting my idea development, I digitalised 2 of those ready to present to Karen Guy (which I should be able to post on here on friday).

My targets for this week then are:
-Scan in all work for the NHS brief to post on my blog

-Find another artist to research for my Little White Lies brief, preferably an artist who focusses on poster design

Targets 6!

Out of last weeks targets, I have managed to complete them all, with the exception of re-watching Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Unfortunately, I have so far been unable to get to a scanner so show my scamps for either project. I think now I shall have to wait until Friday before I can show what I have done. I have, as you can see from my previous posts, began my research for the Little White Lies brief by researching the 2 graphics designers, Matt Gondek and Olly Moss. While they have both been great sources of inspiration, I believe more research into graphics designers that have worked in designing posters will benefit me further.

My targets for this week therefore include:

• Scanning in my inital scamps for both projects which can be completed by friday
• Developing my initial ideas for the Newcastle Medical Photography brief, this will involve more work in my sketch book as well as some work in Illustrator
• Researching atleast 1 more artist for my Little White Lies brief



Olly Moss

Olly Moss is a graphic designer that I have only really recently discovered. His work, I find, is exceptional on many levels. What stands out for me most of all from his work is the intelligent input that has gone into every piece, from the Star Wars posters above, C3-PO's eyes are made of the 2 suns that the planet orbits, the centre of Bobo Fett's mask is made from an iconic building within the films, and part of Darth Vaders mask is formed from the tree branches. It is the clever details like those that I really appreciate about Olly Moss's work, the way he manipulates iconic moments from a film/game to form the posters is ingenious. Even despite this however, his work continues to surpass in terms of typography, colour and texture. The Wolverine piece below for example, first of all has another superhero in the picture (Batman) showing how he manipulates the shapes excellently, but the colours and textures just fit really well and make the piece stand out. It is due to this sheer talent that he has been given the privilege of designing the logo for the Playstation 3 game, Resistance 3. In terms of briefs I have at hand, I really feel I have drawn some inspiration for my Little White Lies brief, however I will continue to research other artists to increase my wealth of inspiration.

Matt Gondek

Matt Gondek is a graphic designer that I have respected since I discovered his work way back in 2008. Since then, his work has evolved exponentially in terms of quality. While always involving great mixtures of bright colours, initially, his work began with very little texture and shading. Over time his work has developed to be more varied, as well as include much greater detail, whether that is in the tone he uses or in the finer textures of his work. Nowadays his work is much darker in comparison to his once bright and jolly pieces while continuing to improve in his use of finer details.

Matt Gondek is arguably one of my most inspirational artists. His work is the kind of style that I would love to be able to produce, would a brief allow it, I would like to design some of the weird creatures in the style of Matt Gondek, as of yet, I have not had the opportunity. Obviously I lack the ability at the moment to replicate it, but, I find the most appealing part of Matt Gondek's work has to be all the tiny details he includes, whether its all the wrinkles he puts around eyes each with a shadow or the slime that has correct tone applied everywhere. There are other artist that follow a similar vein to Matt Gondek in terms of style, some that are arguably much more skilled such as Dan Mumford, but it is Matt Gondek that has inspired my work for years.

Los Logos Compass

As you can probably tell, this book is packed full of logos of all different shapes and sizes. With previous editions prior to this one, Los Logos books continue to show the development of logo design through time. This book alone acts as a great archive of modern logo designs, split into sections to help categories those logos with similarities should the reader be look for a particular style to gain inspiration from, whether its logos that use ideograms or logos that manipulate text.

For me personally, this book has been a great investment, especially considering the recently received brief for the Newcastle Medical Photography department at the RVI. Looking through this book has really helped me generate initial ideas as well as think of ways to develop those ideas to better fit the appearance of modern logo designs. While I do have other books on other areas of graphic design, this book stands out especially to me as not only a great purchase but as a source of great inspiration.

Targets 5!

My targets for this week include:

= Developing some of my "Newcastle Medical Photography' ideas

= Research some artists for the Little White Lies brief
= Begin to create some scamps for the Little White Lies brief
= Endeavor to re-watch Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy

Briefs

I have now been given a series of briefs to choose from to complete by the end of the academic year. The first brief, the mandatory brief, is to design a logo for the 'Newcastle Medical Photography' department at the RVI. There was not too many specific guidelines to follow, other than, trying to avoid a photography based logo as they have seen plenty of those ideas. Other then that, we are free to do what we want, within reason. Initially I did not find this brief all that appealing as I did not intuitively have any initial ideas. As a few days have passed, I have a couple ideas now in my sketch book, both worthy of development unless I think of any other ideas.

I also have 3 options for my second brief. The first being, creating sticker packs for a new ipod/iphone app called Cupples. The idea being that the couples purchase these sticker packs and send these between each other. We were informed that these could be themed, named and drawn by us.

The second brief was for BadBoy clothing, a company who is a major sponsor for the UFC. The brief was to edit there logo using textures, while keeping the layout and symbols the same. We also have to redesign their clothing lines, which involves changing where their logo is situated on any of the clothes they produce.

The final option for this second brief is to choose a brief of our own where we can find one, wether this is from friends, businesses we can contact or by looking on sites such as D&AD.

I believe I have found a brief that I have found more appealing to me on the D&AD website, to design a front page for Little White Lies magazine, showing the main character from 1 of 5 of their favourite films. These films consist of Drive, Black Swan, The Tree of Life, Super 8 and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. For me, I find the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy cover the most appealing, while Black Swan would also be amazing, I have seen a lot of different work based on that film. Straight away I have a few ideas for the front cover that just need to be put into my sketch book as scamps.

Self Branding

This is something I found especially difficult, particularly when it came to thinking of a name as I did not want to just use my name. First of all I used the idea of teeth as frame for the text. This resulted in 2 quite interesting ideas both of which I was quite happy with even if the name 'Connor Design' is ridiculous. 

To try and add a bit of diversity to my brand ideas, I tried to go down a different route in terms of the images. I thought I would go down a more unusual and less common route of lots of tone and detail with a heavily sketched appearance. For this I decided to draw an crazy evil robot head with the name 'Roboticus' next to it. The name came from a play on my surname, Roberts-->Robots-->Roboticus.

(When I sketched it, I did not anticipate that it would not fit the page)

While out of my designs, the robot idea is my favourite idea, however it seems a little unsuitable for a brand logo, it would also take along time to vectorise or sketch with a graphics tablet. The heavy tone and detail could work against the logo is the sense it will be void of bright bold shapes to catch the eye. You could argue however that due to the large image, sketched tone and font, that it would stand out amongst the simpler, more usual logos.

In the end I decided to go with the 'Braces" idea, out of the 2 teeth ideas I preferred this one due to its darker feel. Not only that, but I feel that the text stands out more and includes more specific details such as the brace wire wrapping around. I also feel that, because it has been scanned in from my sketch book, the colour from the lines have a faded appearance, which looks far nicer then if I were to go over it in the graphics tablet.

Alvaro Tapia Hidalgo

Alvaro Tapia Hidalgo is an artist I have recently discovered. 

His work caught my eye due to its sheer visually striking appearance. From what I have seen of all the artists I have looked it, Hidalgo's work has an abstract unique quality about it. Clearly, what makes these images stand out most of all is the perfect combinations of colours he uses. From what I have seen, he tends to favour a more pastel blue, and when coupled with a jet black background, the foreground images are emphasised. Between the sharp defined edges and shapes and the rough, gritty textures, the juxtaposition of artistic methods compliment one another greatly throughout all of his pieces. While all of his work seems to follow in a similar vein, a variety in the content of his work is apparent, this method and style of his works with horrific images to small animals.