Type & Grid

Still trying to get my head around Layout design. Definitely something which I find quite taxing at times. From Lorenzo's session last tuesday I have learned a great deal more than I knew before. Sketching out thumbnails and creating layouts that probably wouldn't work.

I bought a copy of 'Skin Deep' a monthly tattoo magazine show casing artists work and interviews with tattooists around the country. The layouts seem to change across each page, which makes it more appealing to read. Giving you a fresh look at the turn of each page.

From this I picked an article which I could re-arrange and put my own designs/layout into place. Here's a few of the sketches.

Book Layout

Just a quick example of how I would want the layout of my hotdog book to be like. Keeping it as simple as possible to avoid confusion and unnecessary costs. 

What Is A Line : Personal Feedback.

From my posters I have designed, I realised that I could have easily put them into a better context, such as a book or a set of screen prints.  This is something that as a Graphic Designer I will be constantly trying determine throughout a brief. Making a quick decision in order to get a decent amount of work done.

But above all, from doing this brief I now feel confident enough to use my Illustration skills more thoroughly throughout my design work. Something I haven't been able to focus entirely on during other projects. Definitely an eye opener.

(Terrible Photo)

This is the set of of my final outcomes, printed onto white card. They look a lot nicer together, other than just random drawings without any fluency. Overall I'm definitely happy with them.

OUGD104 End of Module Evaluation

OUGD104 End of Module Evaluation

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN - LEVEL 4 

Module Code - OUGD104

Module Title – Visual Language

End of Module Self Evaluation

Name - Mitch Weaver

Blog - http://m-weaver1013.blogspot.com/

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Visual Language has been essential to my learning process throughout the year, I've been able to understand the basis and foundries of what Graphic Design can be. Layout, colour, form are the elements which I have taken and tried to incorporate throughout my own understanding, oh what design is.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?  

I've been able to understand that research isn't just a few bits of information and images that you think relate to your work. It's about actually implementing an effect across your own work. Taking something useful and making it visually appealing. This is has definitely helped me see how I should be approaching a project.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?  

From my work I think my biggest strength is definitely in my Illustration. It's something I'm constantly improving on and working on the most effective way to apply it to design. Throughout the set of posters I have created you can see a clear sense of contrast across each design.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully? 


Well, there's always a few consistent weaknesses throughout any of my work I do, this is something that I can continuously keep improving over the next 2 years. Time management, research and getting a wider range of ideas are my biggest downfalls. The only way to improve is keep trying.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these? 

1 - Draw, draw, draw more. Don't get too tied down into one idea.
2 - Experiment with colour. I seem to always result to monochrome, guess I like it.
3 - Manage my work time more effectively, better results.
4 - Use a wider range of media, not just the ordinary.
5 - Keeping pushing the boundaries of the brief, don't let it dictate your final outcome.

6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas:

(please indicate using an ‘x’) 

5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor

	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance			X
Punctuality			X
Motivation				X
Commitment				X
Quantity of work produced			X
Quality of work produced			X
Contribution to the group			X

Info-Posters

Finished a set of posters containing scientific information on the species of sea creature I have illustrated. I've tried to keep the layout as simple as possible, as the image itself is strong, I didn't want to overwhelm the page with lines.

Sea Creatures: Live Traced

Finally finished a set of 5 Illustrations for my concept. I'm now going to start incorporating them into a design that will work effectively in the aim and process of my idea. I want people to recognise these drawings to the actual sea creature they are.

Sea Creatures Illustrations

Spent the evening drawing up some Animals from the sea that I could use in my project. Not going to lie, but these took ages. 2 Hours a pop. I want to move on now into digitalising these in some way and creating a platform for them to fit onto. Screen Prints would be ideal.

Vector Shark

Sketchbook Pages

These are some of my sketchbook pages I've been working on. Mainly Illustration based to help me understand what it is I want to put into the project. As you can see there is little colour throughout the images. I feel monochromatic design works more effectively as I am able to sorely focus on line work.

 

Illustrator Fish.

Just been on Illustrator using the brush tool to sketch out an idea of the sort of imagery I want to produce. As you can see there is the skeleton structure with the main body outline, overlaid. I'm now going to continue creating more Illustrations for this that will eventually build a full picture.

Just added another layer and a different changes of colour to these 2 images. Hopefully I now have a better idea and base for my concept.

Mock-Up possible layout.

What is a line: Ideas/Themes

- Illustration
* Set of detailed prints.

- Themes:
* Animals                  * Zombies
* Buildings                * Album Artwork
* Tattoos

- Outcome: Produce a set of 5 Screen prints. Maybe form into a book.

This is just a quick mock up of a few ideas I would like to play around with. I want to definitely focus on illustration during this project as I know it's something I can easily put into good use. Obviously I need to get around the problem of putting a context to my drawings, so I'm aiming to research into a couple of ideas to gather essential information that would help my design work become more apparent.

Screen Print Induction

I've had both the Vernon Street and Blenheim screen print inductions over the past 2 days. Unfortunately I was not able to take any photos of the process, but I do have a set of prints I have produced today, which have generously been stuck to the notice board, free for people to take. I'm really happy I've finally had the chance to screen print, it's something I've been wanting to do since the start of the course. Definitely going to be focusing more on this side of producing final pieces.

Shark - Hand Drawn, Live traced on Illustrator, Screen Printed.

In Design Workshop

For this session we had to recreate the page layout and it's contents for a magazine. This will help us when starting our own project and giving us skills we may not have.

Creating a New Document.

Double Page Spread Pages.

Columns.

Placing a Red Strip Down the side of a page.

CMYK Values.

Changing the Swatch Colour by inputting the Correct CMYK values.

Text Wrap.

Adding placement text and putting the layout together.

Reflection of the magazine.

Visual Language - What is a Line ?

As part of a new project focussing on 'What is a Line ?' we had to come up with a number of themes and connect them together to create a focussing point that we could use throughout the project. I put together as many as possible until I had a wide range, which I could chose from.

Themes:

- Embroidery / Constellations 

- Painting / Walls

- Monoprint / Faces

- Dominos / Animation

- Maps / Journey 

- Leaf Rubbing / Family Tree

- Collage / Music

- 3D Craft / Buildings

- Stickers / Objects

- Infographics / Wire

- Light / Typography

- Grids / Sewing 

- Illustration / Controls

- Drugs / Timeline 

- Books / Digital

Chosen 3 

- Painting / Walls

- Stickers / Objects

- Light / Typography

As part of the task we had to swap our themes with another fellow classmate and let them decide which could be the best in terms of design and direction. '' Stickers / Objects '' was the theme chosen and the input I got back was helpful. As I don't want to limit myself completely I'm going to look into a few of these ideas to generate designs and approaches that could eventually become my final outcome.

Communication is a Virus

During this weeks Visual Language session, we were all allocated groups in which we had to come up with our key skills for the next brief. As a team we then put them together and created posters that represented our group. Our main word was ' Collective ' as this seemed to connect each person and their traits together perfectly.

Presentation Boards:

Our group put together 3 boards for a Crit Presentation to show our idea and how we are going to start approaching it. The main focus is to try and get people to give more, without the need of money. This can be down to anything from, possessions, knowledge, labour or even skill. By doing this we aim to alter peoples perceptions of charity and generosity. 

Hot Dog: Finals

Here are the final book layouts for the fair. I have tried to make each one different by adding splashes of watercolour to each page, then printing the imagery over the top. I think they have came out a lot nicer than expected! It's been pretty enjoyable approaching a live brief for the first time at uni.

Hot Dog Book: Finishing Stages

This is how the final layout will look like for my hot dog fold book. All of the illustrations have been created by hand then vectored on illustrator to create a clean, crisp and professional feel to the design.