The Hall Of Design: February 2011

Saturday 26 February 2011

My FUNDAMENTAL Success!

I'm happy to say that my February submission for the FUNDAMENTAL SCY competition (see earlier post about the brief) has been selected as one of the winners, and will be used as posters and flyers, all over Lincoln, to promote the nightclub's friday event throughout March. This means I get VIP entry to the club through March, and only £1 drinks for the whole month! Really happy with this success! Not only can I use this in my portfolio for the future, but it's going to be amazing walking through town seeing my posters all over the place! Cannot wait!

Be prepared to see this design throughout Lincoln!

Monday 21 February 2011

Zines : A Graphic Exposition : Part IV

The final hurdle of the Zine project is to create a master copy of my final Zine, then photocopy it 5x in black & white. This will give me a grand total of 6 created Zines, 5 of which need to be given in for the deadline, along with my research and mock up/drafts and information I've gathered over the months...which includes the stuff I've done on this blog. I need to print all 16 pages back to front over 4 A4 pages (A5 pages 16 - 1 on one side and 2 - 15 on the other), whcih I've done for my master copy, and then, once all that is done, make any necessary personal changes to the master copy (I'm going to write on my master copy and put in information gathered at christmas as well as personal quotes and sketches and other opinions that I feel need to go in). Once that is done, I will photocopy all the pages (in black & white, as this is how tradition Zines are made and it also saves us a lot of money as black & white is cheaper than coloured inks) and put them together to create my other zines. After that I'll need to bind them all, and then that should be it.

My Zine is called 'THE COLDHAM COMPASS'.
This is my front cover (page 1 - left) & back cover (page 16 - right).

My Zine is called 'THE COLDHAM COMPASS'. This is because my Zine is based around my local community, my home village, Coldham. When I lived in Coldham, I didn't know everything about it, didn't know a lot of it's history, and I've never fully realised what was good & bad about it. This community project has helped me realise and understand my village, and I have learnt more about it over the last number of weeks than I have done over the last 12 years of living there. The reason it is called "THE COLDHAM COMPASS' is because it is meant to represent the fact that Coldham is had so many ideas and directions placed into it and, for the most part, nothing has ever fully happened there before. Also, because there is actually more to Coldham than meets the eye. Someone who doesn't live there will think it's just a small hamlet in the middle of nowhere, but for those who live there, there are many things that the community have to deal with, not only on their own but together as well. This is the kind of style I'm trying to show and capture in my Zines. Hopefully I will.

Tuesday 15 February 2011

In Every Frame & Vernacular

Over the last 2 weeks we have had two more photography challenges.

The first one of these briefs we were given was called 'In Every Frame'. We had to create 10 photographs based on the theme of surveillance and show consideration of sequence and art direction as a way of conveying narrative, character and atmosphere. So we had to create an initial storyboard, showing what and how our story is going to be based on and where it is going. We also had to choose a subject to photograph, and give them our instructions on how to pull off a pose or cast a shadow etc where we wanted it. I choose my good friend Harry Winfield as my subject. Whilst always showing basic rules and principles of photography well and accurately, we had to make these as dark and stalker themed as possible.

Real weird ending eyyy? I dunno
I just had this idea in my
head of it should end, and it did...with no inspiration from
Iron Man or E.T....none in the slightest.

The second, most recent, and final photography-brief, was 'Vernacular'. We had to create 10 photographs in a form of social documentation, with observational skills and confident photography execution. Now, for those of you who have no idea what the word 'Vernacular' means, which I didn't until before I went out to take my pictures, it is meant to create a descriptive for something unique or peculiar to a certain place. Like a tractor on a farm, or a log cabin in a wood (example given to me by Harry). In a way, it is being able to identify a location through imagery instead of/as opposed to words. I shot all my images around Lincoln, and gathered a broad range of imagery to complete this brief. Whilst always showing basic rules and principles of photography well and accurately, I really had to look at the foundations of Lincoln and why they were it's foundations, choose my shots wisely and really be able to identify them with Lincoln before I could use them.

Thursday 10 February 2011

FUNDAMENTAL

In December a local club in lincoln called SCY sent out a new brief to the Graphic Design students at Lincoln Uni, to create a flyer/poster for their new event on friday nights called FUNDAMENTAL. It is a monthly competition for us design students. Once designed, we have to send our flyers to SCY and then they will choose who comes in first, second and third place. The best 3 will go in the club and throughout Lincoln. The briefs are based on quotes which we have to place in the design, and we have to include the FUNDAMENTAL logo and symbol, as well as SCY's logo. Also, on the back side, we have to place the information like when it is open, times, prices and drinks etc.
I have created & submitted designs for the competition in both January & February, and I must tell ya.....my February one is sooooooo much better than my January one.

FUNDAMENTAL January submission.

Well this is my January idea for FUNDAMENTAL. At the time, I thought that this flyer should have a a distinct look to it, so instead of having a standard A4 page idea, I went for a more Quadrilateral, shape, and used a light blue background in hope that I could emphasise the text, logo & symbol on the front/back. I also created a custom brush for the drops of colour and paint to try and make it look colourful and good to look at. I also added random glowing shapes for the sake of it, and created rings that orbit the logo. Back then, I quite liked the idea. Upon looking at the winners of the competition and their pieces, I knew I had no chance with this idea. Looking back on it now, it is almost abominable, far below the standard i'm used to designing and creating. Time to up my game for next time I decided.

Well February has arrived, and so has SCY's February FUNDAMENTAL brief. And, here is what I managed to create for it.

FUNDAMENTAL February submission.

Now, in my personal opinion, this blows my January submission straight out of the water! I really like this new idea, and really happy with how it turned out. And, unlike my January idea, I had a lot of fun making this design. I went on the basis that, I should create something that I would like to look at, and what kind of styles and looks would wow me over and make me want to go to this vent on every friday. This is clearly the result. I wanted something with a spotlight effect, but I never thought about playing with filter effects on lens flare on Photoshop. The design looks cool, colourful, interesting, eye catching and just generally a good idea, in my own opinion of course, for the FUNDAMENTAL brief. I'd be happy if it got somewhere, but I'm just excited that I managed to create a poster that I'm happy with and am actually rather proud of.

Sunday 6 February 2011

Zines : A Graphic Exposition : Part III

For the next part of the Zine work i've got to do, i've now got to do some drafts and 3x Zine proposals for next the next lesson. I've got to decide how many pages my zine is going to be composed of, and what articles/stories are going to be where in my finished Zine. 3 different drafts for a Zine isn't as easy as it sounds though! If my Zine has 16 pages then that means I will need to do design proposals for 3 lots of 16 pages, a total of 48 pages. Now, i'm not sure how to make all my Zines different from each other, but I guess this is the part where we try and get a real look and feel for our Zines, and try to give the right understanding and direction for each of them. I guess the more drafts there are, the easier it will be to create a ultimate final design.

Websites I'm going to try and use to help design my Zines are:

http://www.undergroundpress.org/pdf/Zines101.pdf - Zines 101 – A Quick Guide to Zines : Extremely handy little website with general and advanced information on Zines.

http://aisling.net/zine-layouts/ - A page taken from http://aisling.net/ : This is a page from the website of Aisling D’Art, a third-generation artist.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Zine_making - Everything you need to know about Zine construction.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Zine_Making/Putting_pages_together - : A guide to constructing a Zine using the correct number of pages. very handy, especially if you're not sure what paper to use and how much of it is needed.

This is the general set up for a 16 page Zine.
This is how many pages i'm using for mine,
so this is how I will be laying mine out when
I come to make it.

http://designinstruct.com/print-design/design-a-handmade-art-zine/ - A step by step guide on making a special Zine : by David Pena, a freelance designer / illustrator. This looks absolutely awesome, wish (or hope) my Zine looks something like this.

http://www.toasted-cheese.com/ab/05-05.htm - A guide to zines, with good knowledge and information : by Stephanie Lenz.

These pages should help in the construction of my Zine. Hopefully they will also be insightful for others who may need some help with their Zines. Most of this is based on personal experiences of other makers, and everyone has many, many failures. The trick with it is too never get discouraged. You can only learn by doing, and you learn the most from your mistakes.

Thursday 3 February 2011

Beauty

Alongside our Zines brief, we have also been set weekly photography briefs and challenges. Each week, our tutor gives us a lecture on the rules and compositions and styles of photography, which are extremely interesting as they show photographers and examples of their work, and then we are set the task of going out into the world and photographing the subject we given to look at.

Certain principles of photography that we have been taught and need to learn for ourselves include the 'Rule of Thirds', 'Leading Lines', 'Shot Construction', 'Wide Shots & Close Ups', 'Lighting', 'Backgrounds' and 'Exposure'; all things that we need to use/take advantage of in our photography and image making.

The first one of these briefs we were given was Beauty. As the old saying goes 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder', and this is most certainly true, as it is up to us what we photograph and up to us how we create the image and give off a message in our images, as long as it can in some way covey beauty, or follows the basic rules and princoples of photography well and accurately.

Here are my 10 images: