Analogue Communique 3D Development

Following on from the first workshop and looking at the ideas I generated I began to experiment and I decided on working with three ideas I had come up with: using lemons to spell out 'bitter' or 'don't be bitter', using hair grips to spell out the message 'get a grip' and using flowers to spell out the word 'grow'.

The first idea I tried out was the word 'Grow' spelled out using flowers, some which had bloomed and some which hadn't. 

I edited the photos that had worked out the best to make the light softer to create a gentler effect. From these I then created an animated gif in Photoshop, showing the pre and post bloom flower photos, making them seemingly 'grow', relating to the word the flowers spell out.

 

Typography in Graphic Design - Task 3

For the third task we had to select the most appropriate design out of the three roughs and create a complete alphabet on graph paper. Here is my first attempt at my chosen design out of the three drawn previously, drawn on graph paper.

I used pencil and made sure each box for the letters was the same size, but when creating the final version in Illustrator I will need to make sure each letter is the same width and height for it to look like a proper font and for it to work well.

On Illustrator I used the guides and rulers to scale my letters more accurately and to make sure each letter related and fit well with each other. 

I used the pen tool to redraw my letters and also the ellipse tool,for the circular components of my typeface. 

Once I had finalised my design on Illustrator I experimented with different colour schemes inspired by El Lissitzy's 'Proun' piece, which my letters were transcribed from. 

Typography in Graphic Design - Task 2

For the second task we had to draw up three rough alphabets from our initial shapes and letter forms, and then think about which one will be most appropriate to take forward to task 3. 

Here are my 3 alphabets inspired by my initial letter forms transcribed from El Lissitzky's work. 

To create these alphabets I used a pencil and a ruler and then outlined in a black fine-liner pen. For task 3 I will have to choose the alphabet which I think the best, to do this I will select my best letter from the 3 designs, and will have to make sure each letter looks like part of the same typeface, and the designs of the letters correspond well with each other. Also each letter should probably be the same height and the line widths the same to make it look neat.

Typography in Graphic Design - Task 1

For this session we were asked to carry out a typographical task. Using references provided, featuring a variety of architects, designers and artists, we were asked to transcribe shapes from these to make letter forms and or typographic characters. The letters could be lowercase or uppercase but had to be a,n,e,s and g. We had to generate at least 3 different options from the image samples provided. 

The first image sample I used to transcribe letter forms from was Edward Wadsworth's piece 'Newcastle' which is a Vorticist piece of work. Vorticism was a short-lived modernist movement in British art and poetry of the early 20th century. It was partly inspired by Cubism.

Here are the uppercase letters I transcribed from this piece:

And the lowercase sample:

I feel the uppercase letters could reflect better the different elements of Wadworth's work and be more expressive as the letters are very basic. With the lowercase sample I tried harder to pick out shapes from the reference to turn in to letter forms.

My second typography samples were inspired my Milton Glaser's Dylan Poster Art - 1966. 

Here are my uppercase letters inspired by this piece:

As well as my lowercase letters:

I quite like how the uppercase letters look, but feel the lowercase letters could look better in terms of shape but I think that I have transcribed Glaser's work quite well here.

The third reference I looked at as inspiration was  ‘PROUN’ by El Lissitzky (1923). 

Here are my transcribed uppercase letters:

Here are the lowercase letters I transcribed:

I found that this piece lent itself quite well to formulating letters as it features many different shapes and angles, with a mix of curves and straight lines.

For my fourth typography sample I looked at a piece of work by Laurie Rosenwald. Although she already includes type in her work, I was interested in looking at the shapes and images to transcribe letter forms.

These are my uppercase letters inspired by this piece:

And my lowercase letter samples:

I'm not sure the letters I've transcribed from this piece work that well, especially the lowercase sample as the a looks more like an o, and although the uppercase letters all relate to each other and match up to Rosenwald's work quite well they're a bit basic and I could have probably produced more interesting designs. 

The fifth image sample I used was Herbert Bayer's work, I used both of these designs when constructed letters.

Here are the uppercase letters I transcribed from this:

And the lowercase letters:

Using this reference material to transcribe letters was the most challenging I feel, maybe due to the fact that I was transcribing images with a 3d perspective, but I also feel these letter forms are my most expressive and represent the reference material I used well.

Creating Narrative and Copy - Thumbnails/Layouts

For the third task of this physical studio brief we had to produce a series of roughs that explored potential layout, structure and size of publication, which encapsulated the title of our story and we also had to explore layouts to contain our short story in image and text. 

We began by producing a series of thumbnails which explored title, image and layout potential. Thumbnail is a term used by designers and photographers for a small image representation of a larger image, usually intended to make it easier and faster to look at or manage a group of type and image layouts. While creating mine I looked at existing magazine layouts for inspiration to see what worked well. Here are mine below:

From these thumbnails I then experimented with different layouts on A3 paper using the text from my story that we had been asked to print in various point sizes and fonts to see which worked the best, also taking in to consideration room for images. 

Below are my four layout designs based off my thumbnails, I decided to try 2 with a two column per page format and 2 with a three column per page format:

I think probably the ones that work best are the ones with the three column per page format, as the text looks better this way, separated in to smaller parts. The one I think that works the least well is the second one I did as I'm not sure that the image and text work well together on that layout, and there is a lot of white space, so the title could have been bigger.

Creating narrative and copy - Mood boards/Editorial Visual/ Mood & tone

                   For the second task of this physical studio brief we had to print off images relevant to our short stories, including pictures of the setting and characters so we could create a mood board on a3 card that would illustrate the direction of our story and quickly inform others of the 'feel' of our narratives. Below is my draft/initial mood board based on my story, but I feel changes need to be made as at the moment I am not sure you could grasp the story from the mood board. Also I am concerned with using too many images and it looking too busy, but also feel lots of white space will not look good. 

Creating narrative and copy

               The first task set for the physical studio part of the Process and Production module was to write a short a story/article based on ideas from newspapers and magazines.We had to bring in newspapers and cut out interesting articles/headlines/images to inspire our own story. 
               For my story I used an article from The Independent as inspiration. It was an article reporting that the last male white rhino in a Kenya conservancy had died and now the white rhino species had become biologically extinct. I then came up with the story that the last remaining white rhinos decide to take the fate of their species in to their own hands and plan to escape from the conservancy to find other species of rhinos. 
               Initially I was unsure about how to start the task and was unsure how to write the story, how I would format it and whether to write it in the style of a newspaper report or like a traditional story. Here is the story:


 The golden sun rose over the Kenyan Ol Pejeta Conservancy, just like usual, sending warm rays of sunlight on to the backs of the white rhinos. The northern white rhinos had been in the Kenyan Wild Life Conservancy for years and had grown up in conservation. Although this seemed like a normal day, bad news was on the horizon that would change the lives of Sudan, Najin and Fatu forever.

      Elodie Sampere, a ranger at the conservancy, had just began her usual morning checks making sure the rhinos were all fine when she was startled to find Suni, one of the male rhinos, lying on his side and apparently not breathing. She quickly asked the other rangers to come and check the rhino; “Not breathing?” one of them asked, his eyes wide with fear, while the others rangers exchanged nervous glances – if Suni died there would only be one male rhino left, Sudan, who was too old to be used in breeding programmes and the death would be devastating for the northern white rhino species.

     After around an hour tending to and looking over Suni, the rangers confirmed that he had died of natural causes. “At least Suni didn’t fall prey to poachers” Kirui, one of the rangers, exclaimed sounding quite relieved. “Yeah” another ranger replied, agreeing with Kirui. Then the rangers fell silent before discussing options on how to save a species that had just become biologically extinct.

    Even though the death of Suni posed a great sadness and difficulty to the rangers, the other rhinos at the conservancy felt even worse. As night fell, Sudan, Fatu and Najin met to discuss the day’s events. “I only spoke to him yesterday!” Najin stated, clearly distressed by Suni’s death. Sudan and Fatu looked at her then bowed their heads, too sad to talk. Then after a few minutes had passed, Fatu, the young female rhino spoke. “We have to escape.” She blurted out.

“What!?” Najin and Sudan replied, looking utterly perplexed. Fatu took a deep breath then repeated her sentence; “we need to escape – soon” she added.

“But where would we go?!” asked Najin who looked extremely nervous and on the brink of extreme panic. “I’m too old!” Sudan shouted, stomping his hoof on the dusty ground. Fatu sighed but continued to speak to her friends. “The humans act too slowly! With Suni gone our species will die out. We need to find the southern white rhinos if we are to survive!” Najin and Sudan stared at her, shocked by her drastic proposition. Sudan, the old male rhino, finally spoke up in a quiet voice, “I am too old to go..” his words were met with much protesting but he stomped his hoof and Nagin and Fatu became quiet again and he continued “.. but I agree that you two should at least try to escape. I used to know of a group of southern white rhinos but it may prove difficult finding them..” he trailed off. Fatu was happy her plan had been accepted by Sudan, but Najin was fidgeting and clearly uncomfortable with the idea. “Maybe we should just trust the humans to save us; they’ll know what to do!” Najin said while looking eagerly at her friends hoping she could persuade them.

“No. We trusted the humans and look what happened. I agree it will be dangerous with the poachers desperate for our horns, but it is a risk we will have to take”. Fatu looked determined. Nagin looked disappointed but finally agreed somewhat begrudgingly.

        The three rhinos were awake all night discussing plans of Fatu and Najin’s escape until finally they had a firm plan in place. “Good luck” Sudan said looking at Fatu and Najin- both of the female rhinos looked slightly apprehensive about their risky journey, whether or not they would even be able to find a way out of the conservancy’s boundaries. The journey would be a long one with the conservancy spanning 90 000 acres. They had planned to set off the next day, and as uncertain as they were about the plan, they were certain it was better than putting the fate of their species in to another’s hands, especially when those hands were responsible for the eradication of their species.