Elle Newman

 

As part of our new typography brief we were asked to create mastheads and straplines for our zine title. We were asked to create something that could be cut out by using a Laser cutter. I first made a spider diagram to try and come up with the name for my zine and strap line. I chose the name ‘ Dirty Boy, for my masthead as ‘Dirty Boys’ was the name of one of David Bowies songs that is less well known. I feel like the name of the zine is current and I can see it working very well. I also pick a quote that David Bowie has said for my strapline “Music is life” I really like this quote as music has a huge impact in my life and I thought that it makes the zine well rounded. I then drew a few designs out so I could decided what kind of font I wanted. I chose a simple line one for the Masthead because its easy to read and could stand out on a page. For the Strapline I chose something more decorative to contrast the masthead. I then created three designs that could be used for the Laser cutting machine. The first one is more simple with just straight lines, that could be quite effective on the page. The second one is a little more decorative with musical notes down the side. The third one is the most decorative with a heart filled with musical instruments as Bowie played a number of instruments himself. I quite happy with how they have turned out, but I think I am leaning more towards the third one as it stands out more and I think it would look effective on the front page of my Zine.

In 2013 I was lucky enough to visit the V and A to see the exhibition ‘ David Bowie IS’ in London. It was one of my favourite exhibition I have ever seen, which is why I had to include it in my blog and sketchbook! I spent a good 2 and half to 3 hours in the exhibition and could of quite happy spent longer, if i’d of had the time. I learnt so much in the exhibition like how he processed his ideas with biro sketches and notes and cut up lyrics. I also found out who influenced Bowie to go into music and fashion. His main inspirations were Little Richard, Andy Warhol and Kansai Yamamoto. I will use this information to help me create my zine and even help me find ways to process my zine like him!

 

I have finally decided what theme I am going to do for my zine. I have always been a huge music fan, so I felt that it was only fitting to use David Bowie as the theme for my zine, as he sadly died a few days ago. I want to create something that is a kind of tribute to Bowie but also is very artistic. I want to experiment with typography again and look into using it to illustrate his lyrics. I also want to look into his fashion and how it changed over the years. and also people that influenced him and created the David Bowie that we know today.

The first thing I have done is to get, loads of books about Bowie from the library and I also have watched documentaries and read academic papers on him as well. From all this research I have learnt so much about him and his life, and have created a timeline of David Bowie. This has helped me understand and gives me a snap shot of what his incredible life has consisted of. Next I am going to look at who has influenced David Bowie in his life and hopefully use that to create some art work that I can use in my zine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final part of the typography brief was to pick a word from the list that we liked and to create 3 different typography versions using  the grid we had learnt. I chose the words; structure for alignment, equal for balance, consistency for repetition, rank for hierarchy and diversity for contrast. I then created three fonts for each word using a varieties of mixed media like paint, felt pens, ink and biro. I really enjoyed doing this and I really liked the way it all worked out.

 

As part of the typography workshop brief, we were asked to annotate the typeface, shown above. This helped me to become more familiar with how a letter is formed and provide me with more knowledge of typography. We were also asked to create lists of words which we felt described the 5 design principles, shown in the picture above. We were then asked to draw various fonts for each of the 5 design principles, I really liked doing this as it made me think different ways of explaining myself by  using typography.

 

 

For our new brief AD138 we are creating our very own Fanzine. We can pick any topic that we find interesting to be the theme for our work. We are also getting lessons on Typography, Fashion illustration and Life Drawing to help us create our zine. I was a mixture of excited and  apprehensive about this project as its our first individual assignment and I’m not the best artist of all time. I found the most difficult thing to do, was to come up with an idea for the theme of my zine. As there were no boundaries the possibilities were endless and that was a little scary for me. I have started my project by doing a lot of research into what a zine really is and the history behind them. I found this very interesting as I had never really heard of Zines before. And I even found a Zine club in Brighton that create and make Zines. I found that zines were originally made by science fiction lovers who made there own stories and super heroes for enjoyment. But soon got picked up by music lovers and feminists who made them also. As I am a huge fan of Music I think I’m going to look more into this and hopefully pick a theme by next week!