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.