Spreads

Here are my final spreads for my D.N.A, Discovering Nature's Answers, article for the magazine brief we were set.

Going more into detail about the magazine, it was group project set to create a whole magazine based  on topics that relate to the 21st century, with the deadline of just 4 weeks. Me and my team (composed of Jack Kingham, Tom Bishop, Chris Jellinek, Talveer Uppal & Ryan Vardy) called our magazine 'Century', relating to the topics & the state of time the magazine is in. It is aimed at males aged from 18-30, and is created in a factually true manner, with no unnecessary opinions or outputs. It is meant to be a magazine you will pick up and you will read, instead of one where you just pick up and glance and put down. It would be £10 in price, so the quality had to be to the highest standard.

Me & the team - minus T :P

We all chose a main article & a filler article. The main article was to take up at least 7 double-spreads. The filler was extra non-necessary work we put into the project to beef up the magazine and give good sequence breaks from the main articles. These fillers were no longer than the main, though could be handled completely differently if we wished.

We created a grid, folios & headers, a masthead & flourish at the end of each article, a baseline grid (which all the words sit on), a template that all the openings to the articles follow & the usage of well executed pull-out quotes. It was a 3 font magazine, with the allowance of any images we wished (within reason of course), and could use these images in a coherent manner (full bleed spreads may of worked with my article but not necessary with Tom's, or the pace of the magazine itself), so we could be playful but observant to the way in which we worked.

To me, the biggest success about this project wasn't even about the magazine's high quality completion. To me, the most successful part of the last month was our teamwork & comradeship. We all worked really well and poured all our time, energy, love & print credits (over £120 spent on all the spreads, mock ups and print outs!) into the final result. I'd be more than happy to work with them all again, and they they too think the same. Our tutor actually suggested we do it for another project at some point...bit of extra credit with a good group of designers and, more importantly, friends.

I chose DNA because it's a topic that has always fascinated me, but something I didn't know vast amounts about. It has become a massive part of our lives in the 21st century, from surgeries to even the thought of weaponry. Very frightening but very interesting. I learnt loads, even the chances of your existence (yes, you, reading this right now...the chances of you being a live I have discovered). I chose non-copyrighted images of a massively high quality to illustrate the article, and work as a typology of sorts, with captions that describe the images.

My filler article was different. I chose to do about tablet PCs & the effect they're having on the technological market today. I used a few images that worked in correlation with the images used and the facts chosen throughout the article.

The magazine came out exceptionally well, and our tutors gave excellent feedback, all positive. We have to change a few elements, like I have to rearrange to the position of a few of my images, but otherwise excellent. I'm looking forward to getting our magazine professionally printed so it can be added to the portfolio.

Century magazine final cover

Century magazine cover ideas

D.N.A

Part of group project is to design a magazine, including creating our own at least 7 double-page spread article of our choice on something in the 21st century, creating a grid, folios & headers, fonts & sizes, images etc. I chose the subject of D.N.A. Discovering Nature's Answers in the 21st century with the help of technology & mortality.

UPDATE: As of the 11th of November, these have been edited & altered, in terms of font choice & use, and text layout & proportion. Will add final spreads when project is complete!

Here are a few of my finalised spreads. More will be delved upon as the deadline comes to a close.

Skyrim Infographic #2

As you all know, I love Skyrim, and am very proud of my first infographic. I'm pleased to say that people really enjoyed it & it got a ton of views. Thank you to all the people that like it and commented on it :). Being based on a game gave me the ability to continually add to it & improve it, which is what I have been doing as of recently. Glad to say that it is once again complete for now. Hope you all enjoy. Added features include animals, statistics & Dawnguard data.

Hitman Minimalist Poster Concept

I've been playing a lot of Hitman: Blood Money lately, and so came up with a quick concept I will return to at some other point. Idea is based on the Crow enemy from one of the game's levels.

Joshua Hall @ Cargo Collective

Attempting to set up a website on the Cargo Collective. Check it out if you wish.

http://cargocollective.com/joshhalldesigns

My Skyrim Infographic Is Popular

My Skyrim Infographic seems to be doing fairly well. Its the number one image, as well as number seven, when searching for Skyrim Infographics on google. (Alongside an old logo design I made on the third row second in).

And it has posted on a number of tumblr pages. Went through a goldmine of Skyrim content to find it, but god seeing it here being appreciated was so worth it

Apparently they could 'stare at this for hours ahh'. Thank you guys for reposting my Infographic. Really appreciate it! Heres the link to the page where this screenshot was taken: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/skyrim?before=1339077459

Impressed considering it was purely a personal project.

I cannot wait for Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom Of The Wicked

The cover is gorgeous. As a graphic designer, I'm supposed to look into these

types of design and be fairly critical. However, I cannot fault this. The illustration
is amazing & detailed. I want this book now! Illustration by Tom Percival.

I cannot wait for Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom Of The Wicked. I simply cannot. Really. I want to read it now... it looks awesome. The Skulduggery Pleasant series of books has long been one of my favourite series of books by irish author Derek Landy. At this point I had read all 6 books so far 3 times over and have actually just started the second Skulduggery Pleasant book 'Playing With Fire' which is possibly my favourite out of all of them... possibly. The book stars a magical and powerful skeleton detective (Mr. Pleasant) & his  young apprentice (Ms. Valkyrie Cain). The pair take centre stage alongside a huge cast of characters, in a magical world so close to our own in Ireland, and yet so far away from our understanding.

There have been so many epic moments in the series, none of which I will deprive you of. I won't deprive you of the all powerful evil gods that were banished thousands of years ago (beings so evil in fact, that their shadows cast away from them), nigh-indestructible half-gods that have stitched up using and deadly ancient animal organs, necromancers whose abilities reach so far that only pointing at you will kill you, vampires that pull themselves out of their human skins, large men with visor covered faces wielding massive scythes with deadly grace and skill, a genderless creature in limbo with a scab where his nose should be & even an unstoppable masked assassin who can cause your bones to shatter with a touch... who loves his cat... which he has simply called 'cat'. Honestly, the universe Derek has laid out before us is amazing, funny, in-depth, cleverly connected with well thought out plots & paradoxical moments and some of the best cliff-hangers possible in a story. I, who loves and has always loved fiction, science fiction, thriller, action & adventure & fantasy books for many a year now, have become so engaged in this series. Honestly, there is something in each of these books for everybody.

Don't believe me? Check out the reviews from just the first book:

'Skulduggery Pleasant serves up a thoroughly satisfying blend of humour, magic and adventure. Once you've met Stephanie and Skullduggery, you'll be clamouring for a sequel.' Rick Riordan

‘Hugely enjoyable – a thrill-a-minute adventure.' Jonathan Stroud

'It's exciting, pacy, nicely handled and fun. I sincerely hope Landy revisits these characters.'
Philip Ardagh, Guardian

'A gripping debut.' Phil Hogan, Observer

"A remarkably accomplished debut with wonderful dialogue." Robert Dunbar, Irish Times

"[Landy's] fight scenes are perfectly pitched. His characters are exceptionally well drawn and delightfully colourful… Reading [this book] is like riding a rollercoaster.” Irish Independent

"Landy's witty style will win him fans of all ages… With writing of this standard, a rattling plot and definite potential for cross-over appeal, it's a good job Harry's [Potter] resigning before he's forcibly retired." Irish Mail on Sunday

"Humour and magic combine in this thrilling adventure." Waterstone's Books Quarterly

"…people in the book world are raving about this book." Glasgow Herald

"It's pacy, it's funny, it's irreverent. The relationship between Skulduggery and Stephanie is tremendously strong. Stephanie is a splendid character – blunt, logical and outspoken… We enjoyed Skkulduggery Pleasant. Muchly. Roll on volume two!" The Book Bag

"A rip-roaring adventure." Irish Sunday Independent

"Full of black humour, super powers, mysteries, murder and mayhem." Carousel

See what I mean? Check out the books for yourself.

As for me, I have purchased the short story 'The End Of The World' & I will be doing a personal Skulduggery project throughout the year.

Minimalist Movie Posters: Halloween Minimalist Movie Poster

A quick minimal movie poster based on Rob Zombie's 2007 horror film 'Halloween'.

A Skyrim Infographic : My Skyrim Journey

I've wanted to create this for a long time now, and finally had the time and ability to create it to the highest standard that I desired. As you can see, it is based on the game Skyrim from The Elder Scrolls series. This infographic displays a numerous amount of information which I have gathered & accumulated in my Skyrim playthrough and allows viewers to clearly see some of the most important statistics that I have gained along the way.

At the top, you can see the race and name of my character from the game, and the title(s) he has held in that game world. The map below shows the whole land I have explored with the locations of Skyrim's main holds and the number of locations I have discovered beneath it. The map is encircled by images of each hold's insignia. The rest is fairly self explanatory, with the appropraite information being displayed. These are adorned with images from the game that I have found (which act as achievement images) to show a certain representation of the stats (eg. the thu'um section uses images that represent achievements/trophies once unlocked in-game). These are also joined by certain objects in the game that correspond to that piece of data (eg. beneath the thu'um is a dragon-wall which is how the player learns thu'um words). I have also created multiple comparative charts of Skyrim's diverse range of colonists and wildlife. Each square on each chart represents 1 foot in height by 1 foot in length to show the height and length of all of Skyrim's denizens. For example, on the animals chart at the bottom of the screen, a rabbit is a foot in height when in comparison to a giant which is over  9 feet taller. All are as accurate as can be based on numerous amounts of data collected from the game and the web. Soon to be the newst edition to my wall... hopefully it'll take A0.

As of May 11th, I may have to update this, as 1: my stats have increased in since I've created this & 2: Dawnguard will be here soon, so maybe I should place the two factions (The Dawnguard & The Vampire creatures) on here. As I am werewolf in this playthrough I cannot become a vampire, so on this poster the vampires will become enemies and the Dawnguard as allies. However, the next playthrough will see me as a creature of the night. Not to mention all the other creatures who will be awaiting us. I will have to see if this does need updating.

Skyrim Infographic...Coming Soon

Skyrim Infographic...Coming Soon.

by The Hall Of Design.

Jurassic Park Infographic

For a project at uni, we've had to create an infogarphic based on anything we want. As long as it displays a good amount of information, it is acceptable as a graph. I had started a garph based on the amazing skyrim & use my personal stats to fill the graph with detail. However, I stepped away from it, leaving the Skyrim graphic as a persomal project to explore in the recent future. Instead, I wanted to do something else I'e always loved. That was when I thought of it. One of my all time favourite movies. Jurassic Park. The franchise is amazing & huge, spanning the world over. I had my decision made.

With that, I started. I wanted a graph that shows information and dimensions on the islands where the 3 films are set (all this is based on the movie canon, nothing to do with games and other media).

Also, a a way of mapping the number of people in each film, without including any of the main characters. This is a way of showing something that has never been done before; mapping who lives & dies besides the central characters. You will see no Alan Grant or Ian Malcolm here. You know how Ray Arnold is though right? And Udesky? You'll find out who has lived & died in the Jurassic Park films.

Also, about the dinosaurs themselves. The films are mainly about the dinosaurs, but unless you are a large dino fan like me, you may get bored looking through the advanced information on a species. So I created a simple graph that shows the height & length of the most famous dinosaurs in the series.

The result, with a lot of tweaking, came out fairly well in my opinion.

I'm very happy with it now.

Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank Minimalist Posters

Tomb Raider, Mario, Oddworld Abe's Odyssey & Ape Escape Minimalist Posters

PS1 Video Game Minimalist Posters

I have been doing these posters for some time now. These represent some of my favourite ps1 games when I was growing up. If there was more than 1 game in a series, the first poster represented the protagonist & the hero, where as all the others afterwards represent their main enemies, and the main bosses of that game. The background colours show the character's skin colour, and each one has 2 distinguishing features. See if you can guess who is who, and what game they are from.

Jurassic Park Minimalist Poster

Based on my love of minimal movie posters. Did this very quickly, just a quick thing, it's ok, though I know I'd need to do more work on it. I used a vector of the franchise's iconic Tyrannosaurus Rex, and put that over several amber textures, as this is, for those who may not of seen the movie, the way that dinosaurs are created in the film; dinosaur DNA is extracted straight from mosquitoes that got stuck in amber over 65million years ago, and one of the main characters uses this to bring them back to life.

Duke Nukem Poster

A quick poster I made for my favourite all time gaming character Duke Nukem, based on my love of minimal movie / game posters. Used a number of vectors, textures, images & gradients to achieve the final outcome. I'm just nots ure if maybe Duke's insignia should be smaller or not. 'Hail To The King Baby!'

Massimo Vignelli Quote Poster

I saw this quote by amazing italian designer Massimo Vignelli & it resonated with me about design and all processes it entails. I had intended on creating a textured typographic poster during a tutorial. I couldn't really got a hold of it though I will keep practising. However, by the point where I lost interest in it, I had done a textured background (and learnt about photoshop patterns in the process) and I created a poster based on the quote by Massimo Vignelli. 

In Design You've Got To Think Outside The Circle

I did a design around last october. I was with Alice, and I was thinking a quote that is well known in the design industry. One of them was 'In Design You've Got To Think Outside The Box', and it was Alice who said, how about 'Think Outside The Circle'. That was when I did a design for the quote. This is a redesign of the original design I did in october. It looks a lot better than the original, thanks to the discovery of effective usage of textures, and I feel it looks more fitting with quote. Besides, it looks more aesthetically pleasing, and far more eye catching. In some ways, it reminds me of my SCY flyer I made last february, with it's outrageous design and usage of colour. I'm happy with this redesign I did today.

This is the original design I did ages ago. I liked it after creating it the first time, though after numerous questions about the design ('Why are there pentagons?', 'Why is the circle so small?', 'Why doesn't the representing quote go outside the circles?'), I started looking at it that way myself and I started seeing what others where on about.