Month: January 2021
FMP WEEK 8 (WC: 18/01/2021)
Ensuring that I am continuously creating content throughout this national lockdown as well as updating my Pinterest mood board has helped me stay productive and inspired to make FMP work. I created a series of photographic edits using various different techniques learnt from Adobe Photoshop and various photo editing applications and software. Experimenting with photo editing is something I have hardly ventured into or even given much thought. Taking a series of complimentary images and being able to create an effective editorial layout or new poster design using them is a very effective skills which would be very useful moving forward in the production of visual content for my final major project. Which is why I was pleased with the success of these collages, this is something I will definitely be doing in my future practice.
Shown below is an update of the images I have collected as visual research for my FMP to improve my design skills and stay immersed in my project.
What this mood board does, is it brings forward repeated visuals that I am clearly engaging well with at this current moment and I draw out small elements from each of these images that I find appropriate for my work and start to implement different techniques to create more interesting content and work that is relevant for my specialism. In this particular instance, I have noticed that I have been saved a lot of quote posters; designed in a futuristic yet clean style, very refine and a lot of blurred shapes, simple lines and fonts complimented with a phrase, quote or word that is generally though provoking if not uplifting. This reminds me of the posters I created which I had shown in a previous blog post of uplifting quotes in different colourways which uplifted people’s moods in the end. This is something I would aim to invoke further within my professional practice and in particular through my magazine, as I wanted to create thought provoking and very highly conceptual based work which fits around the same theme. There is also a big influence from 90s rave culture that I could tie in with the style of my magazine. The graphic design of rave posters from the 1990s has always been so inspiring to me as they evoke such a dynamic mood through a poster and really embody the atmospheric energy of being in a crowd of people; they way people translate that unique feeling onto a design will forever be inspirational to me an something I would love to achieve effectively.
That being said, I could explore the way sound makes me feel and showcase this in my work somehow, Being able to produce my own sounds for small video curation or experiment with evoking certain moods through the sounds objects make or using a basic sound editing software could enhance the sensory design of my magazine. During this pandemic it is important for me to think about different sensory ways my audience can stay intrigued with the work that I am producing online.
Moving this mood board into an analogue format is something which appeals to me as a tactile way of production is something that has always worked effectively for me and would be an appropriate way to keep my ideas close to me, on my bedroom wall, and be able to constantly update information if I were to see a piece of visually interesting content from a magazine or a particular article that compliments my research, just as a few possible examples.
Shown below is a select few of the collages I have created, the rest will be in my sketchbook.
As a collective, I find these images to work well together and compliment each other’s layout, this is due to the consistency of the designs, all the images have grain, there’s elements of repetition in each image, bold backgrounds are another element seen consistent throughout the designs too. All these allow each image to flourish as an individual, yet each design follows suit and links back to the previous one. A motion is seen within each of the visuals through the liquified backgrounds, repeated foreground interest, or elongated images for example. The motion created fabricates an energy in the images, making them appear youthful and dynamic; complimenting well with the psychedelic backgrounds ensuring the images stay in motion and don’t become static. As I did these fairly quickly, there are several small editing mistakes and parts that I could have corrected earlier on/ taken a different approach to, yet I find that these imperfections add to the style of my collages in a similar way I discussed before with the tactile collages showing textures of ripped pages but in this case the extra textures come from my choppy editing style which was highly influenced by magazine editorial spreads from the 1990s-2000s, especially younger female orientated fashion magazines.
Image number one exudes a stance of confidence and security, this is highlighted in the poses of the models; the model who is placed in front of the other two has her own third of the image which she is occupying without being too centred and unbalanced in the image. Her pose is self-assured; she has her head back and hands on her hips as if she is secure in herself. This also translates into the two girls in the background and other two thirds of the frame; the girl on the left seems secure holding onto the other girls leg; her stance also makes her seem stable and confident like the previous girl due to her pose as well. With her leg coming towards the foreground it shows she is not taking herself back, she’s projecting herself forward.
This brings us to the second image which I find to be positioned fairly well for a few different reasons; where the background has a strip of colour centred directly in the middle of the page, it highlights the foreground interest as the bold colours contrast with the block colours of blue for the jeans which makes them stand out more, the repeated picture from a slightly different angle which has been enlarged really brings a focal point to this imagery which is the jeans. They become subtly enhanced as the image on the left gets repeated but not too overwhelming as they don’t take up too much of the page, there’s negative space left for the background and they only take up two thirds of an image, any more would become off balanced most likely.
FMP WEEK 7 (WC: 11/01/2021)
My productivity levels in the weeks prior to this one had been running fairly low due to working overtime, adjusting and coping with the new national lockdown amongst many other lifestyle changes. This led me to turn to my ever-growing inspirational Pinterest board I curated to influence my design decisions and stimulate my work flow and idea generation for the day.
Previously, I had stated that I wanted to progress my talents and venture further into skills I had not previously explored in depth to add some more dimension to my FMP, learn some new skills and adapt them to my work appropriately. This led me to investigating the idea of trend forecasting; as design concepts for my FMP to fit into, adapting my work to trends that I have research for the future to ensure my FMP brand stays relevant, up to date with news but also ahead of schedule. Trend forecasting is a transferable skill which can be dissected and transferred into several other elements of professional work such as utilising the skills needed to research into a developing micro or macro trend and applying it to the developing fashion industry and placing that in a different design concept for a graphic designer, for example. Exploring further into current social affairs, culture and sustainability and how they influence elements like interior design or the main colour trends for a season is extremely interesting for me as I had previously not given this much thought as the only time I had done it previously I had not enjoyed it. This is teaching me to go back to old skills I haven’t developed in a while and see if there is a way I can apply that to my more recent style of working.
I remembered an essential piece of information from my studies on my Art and Design Foundation course which was to really utilise the productivity of creating mind maps frequently and to aim to start each project with one. A mind map is an organic documentation of a thought process; I have often found that mind maps produce the most instinctive ideas, the ideas which come to mind first with no filter are often the most obscure and interesting, therefore the most useful for transforming into a marketing plan for example. Reminding myself of these techniques which ensure a more productive work flow is essential as my ways of researching and producing work are constantly changing and adapting therefore it is useful to know what has worked well in the past and how I can use that in my future work.
The example below is one of my trends, out of seven. Using Adobe Photoshop, I created a format for each trend: a mind map, several pages of research into different obscure areas which influence the whole trend, a trend report and an overall trend board with colour palette and visual imagery. I aimed to keep all the pages as visual and engaging as I could to practice suing Photoshop for my own skill development, as well as constantly challenging myself to experiment with layout design and creative direction.
I am very pleased with this outcome, each of the seven trends have a different quality to them which creates and harmony with the other trends as they all compliment each other to fit into larger macro trends which everybody is affected by in the fashion and creative industry. I made the presentation of the work consistent through the use of repetitive fonts, layouts and background designs which work effectively when dissected and presented both individually or grouped together to show the whole design process.
Following on from this, I have generated a surplus of ideas through the use of these mind maps which is a technique I will be embedding within each of my projects as an essential starting point. I will gather these ideas and begin to collate them into different files for each section I need to work on for my magazine; such as website/online space design, creative direction, magazine layouts, copywriting idea generation etc.
FMP WEEK 6 (WC: 04/01/2021)
To progress on from last weeks work, I wanted to gain a source file of visual imagery that can inspire me daily to produce well informed work; this was suggested to me by a tutor that the best way to get into graphic design and art direction is to start collating the resources and inspirations i have found in a few documents or files to be able to search through and build up my own personal style, My chosen format to conduct this in was through Pinterest. Considering the clean format of the website, its accessibility for iPhone and easy to use design it seemed appropriate for me to be able to start my visual research journey with. I create monthly playlists of music that inspired me which I engage with all the time and therefore found that translating this into my professional approach to starting work would be very easy for me to get used to. So far this has really helped me in terms of a creative block; any time I’m feeling slightly lost on the project I note that it is usually due to a lack of visual research and inspiration for that day and go back to the Pinterest board while constantly adding new ideas and getting more inspired.
This way of working was taught to me on my Art and Design Foundation course. We were instructed to create tactile visual mood boards which change every week according to the journey of how the general project research was going to ensure it was kept up to date and relevant. Having the inspiration board on a wall that we have access to easily, such as by my bed could really allow myself to become immersed in my project and never miss an ideas as I would have an easy way to jot down notes and ideas by adding them to the wall, this could enhance my way of working and is therefore something I need to try out. Even me adding some posters from fashion and art magazines on my wall has allowed my personal working spaced to be transformed into a physical creative documentation of my interests and personality.
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As shown on the Pinterest board, a clear yet diverse style is beginning to become prominent through the repetition of certain styles which allow me to discover what to implement into my own design work. There is a sense of utopia, shown through the positive quotes and fairly-like, futuristic imagery, alongside a darker tone with a lot of dark hues being used and paired against contrasting tones, several futuristic designs and very contemporary graphics as well as unique layouts and ways of distributing typography to an audience. All of these design elements add a new dimension of research to my work which will lead me to continuing this Pinterest Board to enhance the research for my future FMP work.
These are two examples of the work I have created this week, all examples will be shown the sketchbook. In all honesty, I don’t think these reflect my best work during my FMP journey so far nor do I particularly like them however it is important for me to realise, especially working towards the final major project in my final year of university during a pandemic and national lockdown, that not making clear, objectively ‘good’, progress does not matter as long as I am constantly collecting inspiration and taking well needed reflective breaks from creating content to produce my blogs is progress to be proud of. It is even essential in my eyes to make work that is not as successful and analyse why in order to progress creatively and professionally as a designer.
The first image was created by combining existing collages to create as a background for the text which has always been inspirational to me, it was found in a magazine and is hanging by my bed and a point of reference for building my conceptual style of thinking daily. The blend used by the photo blending tools on Adobe Photoshop makes the text fade into the background and becomes a collateral part of the design, rather than standing out by itself,. Also the positioning of it is not engaging for a viewer, I need to put some consideration in the movement of the eye of the viewer as I have done so successfully in previous collages. Making me realise I need to reflect on what has worked positively in previous designs and keep that consistent in all future designs.
This second image was made using an image from UnSplash, which I added a gradient map on top, which I do find to be one of the successful parts of the image, however, the image of the person once again blends in too far with the background interest, maybe changing the colour and hues of the image to a more contrasting colour could enhance the design elements. In addition to this, I felt the whole image was fairly bland due to the lack of colour palette; the main colour is too consistent throughout the image with a lack of diverse colours, or even complimentary coplo9urs to add dimension. The distribution of the subject is also placed too evenly throughout the image; to refine this further, I could have spaced out the colour and considered the use of negative space to improve a creative layout. Adding some text on top to interact with the image could have pushed the poster further conceptually.
FMP WEEK 5 (WC: 28/12/2020)
This week started out positive for me as I received my grade for task one which I had submitted previously. Following on from this, I used my feedback from what was complimentary about my work to logically inspire my future designs. The feedback from my work was to focus further on fonts and typography, implement more research into my blog and experiment further with downloading fonts online and seeking free for commercial use fonts to experiment with. My personal selection of fonts used were adequate but could have had some more refined and detailed typography choices that were backed up by some evidence in the form of appropriate research. In the past I hadn’t placed much consideration for the type of text that I chose to use in my work and was oblivious to how different colours, dimensions or serifs can influence the communication of what the design is attempting to represent. After educating myself further, carrying out trials on typography and analysing some more design layouts relevant to the style of my FMP could enhance my design elements further for a more successful project.
Another section of my feedback was that some of my strongest work was situated towards the end of my sketchbook. The work being referred to was a selection from a small sketchbook I curated consisting of several quick collages I made focusing on shapes, layering and evoke a mood from imagery and patterns all taken my me so I had complete ownership of the design. The anticipation of working towards the deadline for the end of task one enforced my way of working which led me to creating work that wasn’t over thought, picked apart or refined too heavy. The collages were well considered in terms of placement as I went with my eye mainly and chose the layouts that suited the shapes of the design initially, rather than refining for hours to create a collage that doesn’t work.
This led me to creating a series of posters made from tactile collages similar to last weeks work but adapted to a new set of text which I found in various psychology, philosophy and fashion magazines as I found it was useful to branch out when it comes to visual and text resources for collages as this creates more interesting juxtapositions between the text and he image which has been sourced. This is a few examples, as usual all will be in the sketchbook.
All the collages were created through the same format of utilising text from various print magazines which I then took to my scanner on my printer, to create some analogue graphic design typography trials which were then implemented in a collage. The collage in the background gains texture from the use of scrunched paper. and the text blends in well crating a harmony with the whole image as I used the photo blending tools on Adobe Photoshop to ensure the white background of the text would not be so hard against the collage and sit on top, I wanted to engrain it in the full design. The scanner adds psychedelic swirly shapes which create a movement for the whole poster, my eyes travel downwards carefully as everything is positioned on the page to read neatly in a vertical formation. The text reads fighting from afar’ which was drawn to me due to the many possible connotations and personal connections that people could take from this text to make them think about their own experiences in relation to the design, or how they design is impacting the customers mood, and poses the questions for future reference: what moods are my designs evoking to the public? Is this a good thing or not?
I’m pleased with the second collage however this took quite a few trials and tests for refinement which led to this final design. This has taught me that some of my designs and posters could take around five ,minutes and some could take five hours which is equally fine. It helps for me to create work to my own eye and what works for me at the time rathe than being to scheduled and spending the same amount of time on each piece, for me it is about adapting to each experience of the design and what message I want to convey. Sometimes one piece can take far longer than others. Once again the scanner I used has created an abstract design which elongates the shapes of the typography I chose, which lengthens the form and creates a downwards movement similar to the collage above it. The circular shape in the middle came to me by accident when playing round on Adobe Photoshop, this happens frequently with my designs and is a great way for me to create more individual looking work led by experimentation and trials although leaves me lost when searching for a way to recreate this look. On the plus side, this encourages me to explore the tabs on the software to find new solutions to common problems.
The last collage is my personal favourite from the series. Something that I had not previously placed much considering upon was utilising imagery from online resources such as UnSplash which I discovered through a LinkedIn Learning graphic design class which states a few resources to make use of copyright free imagery for no cost which is essential for a designer especially during this pandemic where the means of sourcing visual information has become limited. I also discovered the liquify tool during a TikTok tutorial graphic design video, a tool which I had seen many times yet hadn’t used before even though it is extremely simple and compliments my distorted style of working so well therefore becoming an appropriate tool for digitally manipulating my imagery for my FMP. The colour palette used compliment each other well as the main colour is the grey which is neutral, and thus allows the bright in the green and blue to pierce through and become focal points of the design.