OUGD403 - Message and Delivery : Research

As part two of the Design Skills module, which focuses on 'Visual Communication' we were given an initial research brief, which required us to create a body of visual research in response to story, issue or theme found in the national press on Tuesday 23rd October.

The aims of the brief were to encourage the willingness and ability to formulate informed opinions on a given subject matter which is an essential skill for a graphic designer.

From the Daily Mail, I chose 'No Mr Bond, I expect you to Go Compare!' by Craig Brown which is an humourous response to an earlier news story published in the Mail on Sunday (30th September) about the new James Bond film, Skyfall which will include £28 million worth of product placement tie-ins.

 

- 'No Mr Bond, I expect you to Go Compare!' By Craig Brown

- 'Vodka Martini, James? No thanks, mine's a Heineken - just one of the £28m worth of product placement tie-ins in the new Bond Movie' by Chris Hastings

I chose this article initiallly, as the of voice in which it was reported was humourous and I found it particularly clever and funny. However, as I produced initial research into what product placement is I discovered several different areas in which I could produce more detailed research, such as; Subliminal messaging which I find interesting.

To start, I produced a spider diagram which outlined the different areas I wanted to research into, and specific questions I would like to know the answers to, such as; does it work?

This piece by James Vicary, was one of the first pieces of sublimnal messaging used in films. Vicary claimed that by flashing images such as 'drink coca-cola' every five seconds for 1/3000th of a second, which is below a viewers threshold of conscious perceptibility increased sales of the drink by 18.1% by unconsciously stimulating a person's thirst.

Similarly to the new James Bond film, Vicary has used subliminal messaaging within the film to advertise a product.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Unclesamwantyou.jpg

I believe propaganda is a form of subliminal messaging as its aim is to influence an attitude or a opinion by presenting only one side of the argument. I believe some examples such as 'Daddy what did you do in the great war? by Saville Lumley use subtle, subliminal messaging to influence these ideas. This design by JM Flagg has used sublimanal messaging by highlighting the word 'you' in a different colour to subliminally target the audience.



http://www.uspscenter.com/page.php?38

Although the subliminal messaging within this logo is not trying to advertise or sell a product to the viewer, I still believe it is subliminal messaging as the negative space arrow between the 'E' and the 'x' has been designed so it is not seen at first. Other logos which used similar techniques to this are the Toblerone logo and the amazon logo



http://inventorspot.com/articles/are_you_being_manipulated_subliminal_ads_29626

In many disney films, the micky mouse logo is a 'easter egg' which is has been hidden, I belive this logo is a subtle example of subliminal messaging as although it is meant to be a 'fun' idea the Pirates of the Caribbean logo is still subliminally advertising the disney brand by using the basic three-cricle-shape which is assoicated with disney.

Other disney films that contain subliminal messaging are the Lion King and the Little Mermaid.

http://www.newmediagroup.co.uk/?p=nvunwkuzn&paged=8

As well as films, product placement is also used in television programmes. Product placement was made legal in the UK on 28/02/11, however unlike America where product placement can be obvoius and sometimes influence the script, there a number of specific rules such as; the product placement of tobacco, alchohol, gambling, foods or drinks  high in fat, salt or sugar, medicines and baby milk is banned.

 My opinion -

Although I particularly find subliminal messaging or the idea of film makers deliberately putting hidden messages in their films for the audience to 'find' interesting such as with the hidden messaging in Pixar films, I believe when films or television programmes are used to advertise a product which is irrelevant it is too far. I believe, sometimes product placement could even ruin a film, particularly when the script has been altered to advertise.

OUGD403 - Alphabet Soup : Illustrator

Alphabet Soup : Illustrator

For the second of our four workshops into the introduction of Illustrator we focused on experimenting with tools such as; the blend tool and the width tool. Learning these skills and how to use Illustrator effectively, will prove useful when producing the final outcomes for this brief.

We started our second Illustrator workshop by modifying the 'g' letterform we created in last weeks workshop. The Width Tool, which we used, adds width to a anchor point and which enabled us to give depth to the 'flat' letterform. I feel this technique could prove useful when creating my own alphabet as it is an easy way to create a 'shadow' for an letterform, which wanted for one of my orginal ten designs.

As well hand-rendered letterforms produced using the pen tool, this technique could also be used on existing typefaces such as Helvetica to create an modified letterform.

 As well as the Width Tool, we also used the Blend Tool in this session. Using the Blend Tool, we were able to blend together different shapes and colours. I particularly like the effect given by the 'specified steps' option as it showed the transition in the blending process. Again, I feel this technique will be useful when I produce my own designs in Illustrator as a couple of my designs are based on the idea of 'blending'.

 

I experimented with using the Blend tool on two letterforms, however Idon't belive this idea would work as an alphabet as it is not legible.

OUGD403 - Alphabet Soup : Typeface

As part of the Design Practice module, we have been given a series of set tasks under the theme of 'Visual Thinking'. Each of these tasks aims to develop our visual skills and exploration, using type as a starting point. The brief we have been given, Alphabet Soup : Typeface requires us to design a full typeface and glyphs that represents the personality or character of a member of our year group who we were partnered up with, using the randomisers.

As an 'ice-breaker' we were given a several questions in the form of a questionnaire, which was designed to help us learn about the personality / character of our partner as this was ultimately what we were trying to represent.

 Using the information I gathered during the 'ice breaker' questionnaire, I produced a design sheet as I found displaying the information visually useful when selecting possible ideas for the overall style of the typeface and the imagery I would use to represent Will.

I was particularly inspired by the idea of 'money' which I felt would be appropriate as it was something that was mentioned a couple of times during the initial questionnaire session, I also felt that the detailed illustrations used on bank notes would work for the 'attention to detail' aspect of Will's personality.



http://www.designdough.co.uk/index.php?id=4&bid=146

http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/money-art-slideshow-10072010/

One of the main aims of of the brief, and the Design Skills Module is to develop our experimentation. I therefore wanted to explore a variety of media during the initial ideas process, I was particularly inspired by these artworks I found, which layer several dollar bills and use the 'paper-cutting' technique to create an image, again the style created by this technique is appropriate for the 'perfectionist' 'attention to detail' aspects of Will's personality.

For this deign, I drew my illustration onto tracing paper which I layered over a printed lettform. I like how this effect is quite unusual however, I believe practically, this design would not work as a alphabet as the tracing paper may make the letterforms illegible.

Although I believe this design would work a a single character or an decorative font, I feel as a functioning typeface it would not be effective as the elaborate design around the character would effect the legibility of the character when it is used as part of a word.

I also experimented with the technique using a photograph of the dollar rather than my own illustration. I prefer the hand drawn version as I particularly like the 'detailed' effect I have achieved using a fine liner as this conveys the 'attention to detail aspect of Will's personality.

To produce this design, I have used the hand-rendered technique of paper-cutting which was one of the techniques used in the artworks I found in my research, I feel this technique is effective as it is quite unusual and more interesting than a two dimensional design. 

By cutting out the letterform and placing it over the illustration of the dollar bill, I was able to use it like  a 'frame' to control the what part of the illustration to be shown through the cut outs.

Again, as well as producing this technique using hand-rendered techniques and my own illustration, I also experimented with using one of my photocopies to produce the design. I prefer the style of the illustration to the photocopy as I believe some of the detail of the dollar bill has been lost. 

Once I had chosen the final idea for Will's typeface, I tried using the letterforms to produce a word as this would test the legibility of the design.

OUGD403 - Alphabet Soup : Illustrator

Alphabet Soup : Illustrator

As part of the 'Alphabet Soup : Visual Thinking' brief, which required us to design 10 letterforms based on our interpretation of of an word we have been given 'Alphabet Soup : Illustrator' which aims to use a series of four workshops to introduce and develop our skills in Adobe Illustrator.

We will use our outcomes for the first part of the brief to, experiment with opacity, half tones and vector-basd images and ultimately produce a typeface based on on of the original letterforms.

Our first Illustrator workshop, introduced us to the programme itself as well as the pen tool which we will use to replicate hand-rendered work digitally. The pen tool is also part of the Photoshop, InDesign and Flash programmes and the skills we developed in the workshop will prove useful when using these programmes in the future.

We started the workshop by completing a series of tasks, which showed us the various techniques to create lines, curves and shapes on illustrator. Although I had used Illustrator previously I found this task useful as I learnt new techniques.

We then applied these techniques by, tracing an hand-rendered letterform with the pen tool on illustrator, which is the process we will use in next weeks workshop when scan in our own letterforms.

We also tried using the pathfinder tool, which required us to use basic shapes which were then 'united' using the pathfinder and started to form a 'g' letterform. Although I feel learning several techniques will be useful in the future, I preferred using the pen tool to create letterforms on Illustrator.

OUGD403 - Design Skills, Alphabet Soup

'VISUAL THINKING: ALPHABET SOUP'

As part of the OUGD403, Design Skills module we were asked to produce a 10 letterforms that explored the manipulation and anatomy of type to communicate my own interpretation of the word I chose from the randomisers.

The mandatory requirements of the brief;

The ten letterforms must work as a set, series or sequence

To produce the set we were only allowed to use hand-rendered media

Each letter must be represented in 10x10 resolutions

All letters must be black and white only

From the randomisers, I selected the word 'Melt'. To begin the research process into this brief I looked up the word in the Oxford Essential English Dictionary and on the internet.

To also help develop initial ideas, I collected synonyms for the word 'Melt' and its possible uses within a sentence. Once I had gathered this information, I was able to produce an initial ideas design sheet and choose which definitions / synonyms I would communicate within my ten letterforms.

The emphasis of the visual thinking brief, was to focus and explore the manipulation of existing letterforms, I therefore used a photograph of a serifed typeface that I collected as part of the summer brief research as the starting point for each letterform.

For my first letterform, I chose the dictionary definition 'To become liquid or to make something liquid, by heating' as the basis of the letterform. I chose this definition as I it was what I associated most with the word 'Melt'. To convey the impression of ice melting, I was particularly inspired by paper-cutting craft and the idea of negative space to show how much the letterform had melted.

For this letterform, I chose the definition 'To fade or disappear gradually' as, like the first letterform I produced I wanted to explore the use of negative space to communicate a letterform. I was particularly by an image I collected that showed floating sunglasses to convey that a head had disappeared. To incorporate this concept into my own design I used the counters of the letterform to convey it had disappeared.

Again, with this letterform I wanted to convey the dictionary definition 'To fade or disappear gradually'. Originally I liked the idea of conveying the gradual melting of the letterform through three letterforms, however, one of the mandatory requirements of the brief was 'each image should contain only one letterform'. To develop this design, I merged the three designs into one letterform which I felt still creates the same impression of melting whilst also complying with the requirements of the brief.

For the basis of this letterform, I chose the word 'disintegrate' which is a synonym for the word 'Melt' I chose this synonym I felt visually, the word had a striking image. As one of the aims of the brief was to 'manipulate existing letterforms' I wanted to explore this with the letterform I was designing. To achieve this I experimented with cutting up the letterform with a scalpel to give a 'disintegration' effect, however, for the first outcome I produced I felt the effect was too 'sharp' as I imagined the disintegration process to to be softer.

For this letterform I used 'Fade' which, again is a synonym for the word 'Melt' as the basis. I chose the word 'Fade' as the basis, as when brainstorming, I was particularly inspired by the idea of 'mist' or 'ice' which I felt could be quite graphic when incorporated into a letterform. To communicate this idea I chose to layer tracing paper over a letterform, as it is translucent and still convey a letterform whilst also giving a 'faded' effect.

Again, with this letterform I chose to communicate the dictionary definition 'To cause to disappear gradually; disperse'. To communicate this through my letterform, I chose to use negative space, which I feel is a strong visual idea. To give the impression of a letterform by using negative space I used a pencil crayon to shade the shadows and tone around the letterform.

Again, I chose the synonym to 'Melt', 'Fade' as the basis of my letterform as I felt this word could be interpreted in many ways which is appropriate for the brief we were given. I tested a variety of media, which I 'smudged' or 'blurred' to give this effect. From the media I tried, I felt watercolour pencil worked best as when I spread water across it, a layer of colour was taken away which gave this impression of 'fading'.

For the letterform, I was also inspired by the synonym to 'melt', 'fade'. To convey this Idea I spread water onto a printed letterform which caused the ink to gradually disappear. I particularly like the texture created when using this technique.

For this letterform, I used the dictionary definition 'To cause (units) to blend' as starting point. To communicate this idea I wanted to create one letterform from two separate characters. I was particularly inspired by the idea of logos which commonly use this technique within their designs.

Again, the aim of this letterform was to communicate the the dictionary definition 'To cause (units) to blend'. To achieve this I layered a letterform on tracing paper over another letterform as the translucency of the tracing paper gave the impression of the two blending.

My Final Letterforms: Melt

Overall, I am pleased with my final solutions for the 'Alphabet Soup: Visual Thinking' brief. I feel through my ten letterforms I have effectively experimented with a variety of media and techniques to convey the meaning of my word, 'Melt' which is one of the requirements of the brief. I also believe by using black card as the stock for the ten letterforms they work as a series which is another requirement of the brief.