PROJECT 6: Branding [WEEK 1]

Our fifth project seems to be the largest so far and focusses on the topic branding. Over the next three weeks we are to think of an imaginary company/product/place to brand, create a branding identity and produce mockups of the brand in use.

To start with, the easy part was thinking up a company for the project to focus on. I thought of a student union bar for Ravensbourne as it is something the University is lacking in and I thought it could be fun to produce a design of what I believe it could be like. Thinking of names took me many spider diagrams to settle on, and even then I had a list of 20 options. 

With these 20 options, I decided the good way to to start creating a recognisable and relatable brand would be to get some user input into the decision for the name. I surveyed 25 students around the building and asked them to vote for their two favourite names out of the 20 I had. The results came out with 'Moon Yard' being favourite, with 12 votes. I then started researching some already established bars for inspiration for the aesthetic of the brand.

With the name of the brand settled on and some initial ideas in my head, I started playing around with typography to create some rough ideas I could develop for the brand, including some of the pieces I created in the calligraphy workshop the week prior. 

This week's outcome has started off strong, with some secure ideas that I aim to develop and iterate through next week and hopefully start finalising a logo. The process of drawing quick little ideas in ink made sense to me as it meant that I wouldn't be spending too long on each idea I had, getting too focussed on something I might not even use, or settling for something that took too long to be just a rough idea. I was quite pleased with my outcomes, as they offered up quite a few paths for development and more in depth designing. 

I then started designing a typeface that is shown at the bottom of the second page above which I started developing through experimenting with the typography of each letter. This typeface was designed more in detail than the previous rough sketches as I wanted to get an idea of where it could go if it was measured out and drawn accurately.

Moving on with this, I started penning out accurate measurements so that when it came to placing this into Illustrator, if I chose to develop on this idea, I would be able to create it how I originally wanted it to reiterate digitally.

Calligraphy Workshop: Type

The final introductory workshop was on calligraphy and type. By the time of this workshop, we had already started our first big project which is the branding project. Due to this, there was no set outcome to this workshop apart from the experience of experimenting with ink calligraphy. We started with a short tutorial on how to use brush to create lettering and how different strokes could create different effects. We learnt how to produce a typeface with this medium by creating our own with different strokes. Shown below are some of the typefaces I produced in this section of the workshop. I found it quite an interesting experience as it showed how calligraphy could be used to produce a very natural look but also can be used to create precise shapes and lettering when used correctly.

To connect to our branding project we had already started, I thought I should try and create some logo ideas for my brand taking the oppurtunity to use calligraphy to see how that could create an interesting look for my brand. I played around with ink splatter and brush pressure to see what kind of effects calligraphy could add to my brand if I was to use it as a logo. Below are a wide range of quick designs I created using the black ink and a mixture of thick and thin brushes. I quite like the effect this medium makes and I am glad I had the oppurtunity to test this out for my brand as I don't think I would've thought to use calligraphy as a medium when I set down to start designing logos or typography for my branding project.

Stop-frame animation Workshop: COP21 Ident

In one of our last introductory workshops, we were put into a group to work on stop frame animation. The brief instructed us to create a 10 second ident for the upcoming political conference: COP21 that is happening this in two weeks in Paris and focuses on climate change and is aiming to come to a conclusion on how to work together efficiently to slow down and stop the detrimental effect on the climate made by pollution.

The brief was fairly expansive as it didn't have any restrictions other than that the stop frame animation had to be made with paper/card under the stop-frame camera. Other than that, we could be as creative with it as well.

In a group of three, we started brainstorming ideas on how to effectively present this ident in an informative and attractive way. Our main idea seemed to be very consistent with the idea of focusing on water shortages. After some initial sketching, we put our ideas together and came up with the idea of cutting out a tap which slowly started dripping out drip shaped pieces of blue card which slowly grew into an Eiffel Tower shape.

Due to a certain complexity in our idea of the forming of shapes into the shape of the Eiffel Tower, it meant we either had to be extremely patient and also skilled with cutting up card by hand, or we could use a rotary paper cutter to accurately cut out the shape of the Eiffel Tower. I measured each part by hand to try and approximate the amount of "Eiffel Towers" we would need to realistically create the vision of it growing and settled on 25 so we could add a new bit every 2 seconds.

Using these pieces, we learnt how the rule for stop frame animation was that, to create a realistic movement, it is recommended to use a 25 frames a second approach, meaning for every second you should have 25 frames which change the position of the pieces to create the fluidity of movement.

Despite attempting to accurately plan measurements and movement, time got ahead of us and we were forced to rush to the deadline, dropping frames and producing an overall messy concept due to not being able to stick to the 25FPS guideline and adding in far too much extra bits which made the entire video almost 20 seconds long. On the other hand, we successfully made use of the card to express the information we needed to, but had to withdraw on the aesthetic side due to running on too long and rushing the final product. Another thing that needs correcting, if this project was to be redone, is the consistency of the lighting between frames as this adds a rather horrible effect due to the constant change of lighting on screen.

PROJECT 5: Graphics - Book Cover

For the Graphics brief in this project, we were tasked with creating a cover for a book, with the only condition being that it be a book that has been/the author has been awarded a Nobel prize. I chose Death in Venice by Thomas Mann for very simplistic reasons: not only did I like the name but, although I haven't read the actual book, the summary of the story intrigued me on how I could portray the plot through the cover's artwork.

I wanted to play around with themes I hadn't really explored before, including illustration and contrasting styles of illustration to piece together something that was not only aesthetically effective but also expressed the theme of the book without giving anything away. I started with drawing an outline of an image I found of Venice by simply tracing over the image with a paint pen and adding stylistic elements to give it a very sketchy aesthetic. The use of this was meant to connect to the character of the story who was an author and this could connect to his handwriting. I also wanted to express this through the typography I designed but also wanted to have a contrast between the words "Death" and "Venice" to portray the connotations of death as a dark, scary thing and Venice as a place of beauty.

The use of multimedia in this design process proved to be a very simple process but I ended up coming out with many variations due to the difficulty in keeping the design simple and not too busy and I feel I did well to avoid overcrowding the cover. The use of colour was decided right at the end of the design process which is not normally how it goes or how it should go but was due to last minute reiterations to the concept as the silhouetted shapes were initally just meant to be outlines, and the addition of block colour made it difficult to stick to the main colour scheme of simple red, black and white and so this was changed to shades of grey, black and a darker red. Overall this design turned out to the standard I had hoped, but if given more time, I would like to finalise the piece with a bit more finesse.

PROJECT 5: Motion Graphics - BBC2 Idents

Project 4's brief was split into two parts, one being Motion Graphics and the other being Graphics. We were given the choice to complete either one, or both of these tasks. I decided to do both in order to explore the brief in depth. I started with the Motion Graphics task in which I was instructed to create a 6 - 8 frame storyboard, or a 10 second animation for a BBC 2 ident which reflects a specific aspect of the channel output. I chose to focus on art and the theme of production that comes with television. I began drawing thumbnail sketches for the storyboard, however after doing this, I decided to further explore this on Cinema 4D to visualise how it would look on digital format. I used a plugin called Thrausi to achieve the effect that I wanted, which was for the BBC 2 logo to appear to be shattering. Experimenting with this project, I achieved the look I was aiming for with the storyboard and consequently ended up rendering it out from Cinema 4D. In my free time, I played around with it in After effects, creating a final 12 second ident and also creating a second ident in a different style to attempt to explore both my own skillset and exhibit this work in my portfolio's showreel.

I feel like this part of the brief went fairly well, and although it was quite time consuming, it exercised my skills in motion design and prompted me to look into learning new aspects of motion design that I had not witnessed or experienced before.

Illustration Workshop: Fanzines

To build up to the first large project, we were set 3 weeks of workshops. Today we met with Sophie Ward, an illustrator specialising in murals and black pen work, to experiment with how illustration works and how it is a large part of graphic design. The focus today was on the idea of fanzines, something that came up through the punk era as an art trend. The idea of fanzines was that you had images and text, collaged together much like they would be in an official magazine, but done roughly by hand and then photocopied to produce the actual "zine". The benefits to this was the lack of cost for those trying to spread their word at the time about new trends and concerts etc. The style of the fanzine is now a very popular aesthetic a lot of designers and illustrators like to stick to as it produces a rough edged, trendy look.

Starting with the theme, I chose the subject of society's image of beauty and the conventions of physicality. Because of this theme, I knew I wouldn't need much text or writing, so I would focus more on the effect of illustration. Looking at well-known, stereotypical supermodels, I looked at connecting that with the Golden Ratio and the idea of "perfection".

I then attempted to create various artwork through the use of illustration and came up with drawing the above image onto images of models using paint pens. 

This excercise was a good introduction to the wider world of illustration and the trends and themes you can achieve with the rough, imperfect use of pens on paper. I found the use of these pens quite informative on how I can create cartoonesque images that are quite popular in genres of design like pop art. I also discovered in further research of illustration techniques the use of programs such as Adobe Illustrator (which I was introduced to in the Adobe workshop a few weeks ago) and Adobe Shapes that can be seen below.

Author's own, hand drawn in felt tip.

Author's own, digitised in Adobe Capture CC (Adobe Shapes)