Part Three : Portfolio Responses and Evaluation
The Brief: In this exercise you will read existing signs, symbols and images, and then drawing on their visual language create your own symbols. Choose one of the following concepts: Danger| Movement| Love| Here How does existing visual language represent these concepts, for example both ‘danger’ and ‘love’ use red, while ‘movement’ and ‘here’ use arrows. Research the different similes and metaphors that are in common use. Document them through drawings, collecting examples and mind maps. Now create an alternative symbol to represent at least one of the concepts.
Responses:
The Brief: Using only an image of a light bulb, the word ‘light bulb’ and a block of colour of your choice create different designs that explore visual dynamics – as the kitten designs shown in the previous project. Think about your compositions, trying each element at a different sizes and cropping your photo. Your block of colour can be any size, so use it fully to create a sense of space in your composition. Think about layering your visual elements to create depth within your designs and think about contrasts. Be playful within the rules set, creating as many different designs as you can. Edit these down to about 20 designs that you feel represent the breadth of different approaches you have explored.
Responses:
The Brief: Draw two grids of squares, filling one with colours that you like and the other with colours you dislike. Then put the two grids side by side and ask the question ‘which one looks better?’ The usual result is the grid full of colours you dislike. This is because we tend to pick bright colours as the colours we like, which when placed side-by-side look garish and jarring. By contrast the colours we think we don’t like as much are often the more subtle and muddier mixed colours, tertiary colours and occasional bright hues. When placed side by side the effect is more balanced. This is an important lesson for designers when picking a colour palette to work with: use bright colours but balance them against more subtle colours. It will also help you become better acquainted with your image manipulation or DTP software – identifying where your colour swatches are, how to select them and how you blend colours by changing their opacity. Next try experimenting with placing colours together as Itten did.
Responses:
Like
Don’t Like
Like
Don’t Like
Angry
Brave
Creative
Danger
Energetic
Extra Special
Familiar
Gregarious
Hopeful
Independent
Jumpy
Luxurious
Masculine
open
Precious
Kinetic
New
Quiet
Reasonable
Sociable
tasteful
unhappy
Vital
Wonderful
Youthful
Zany
The Brief: Create a series of 10 abstract designs in which you balance blocks of subordinate, dominant and accent colours. These designs are going to be used as covers for guidebooks to the following cities: Madrid Malmo Managua Manchester Manhattan Marrakech Marseilles Melbourne Montreal Mumbai The books are going to be A5 landscape (210mm x148mm) size. You can use as many colours as you like and need to include the name of the city – where you place this and its colour are also important decisions to make. You may want to find out more about each city to help you develop your colour palette and also the size, shape and positioning of the colour blocks.
Responses:
The Brief: For this exercise you are going to make a montage or collage with a political message. Your subject matter could be a current issue, or something that you feel strongly about such as animal rights, the treatment of elderly people in hospital or images of women in the media. Collect images from newspapers, magazines, your own photographs or images online. Do remember that some images may be copyright – particularly anything associated with commercial companies or organisations. Create new meanings out of these extant images by juxtaposing and contrasting them. Be imaginative, playful, provocative or humourous.
Response:
The Brief: To produce a poster (297mm x 420mm) that celebrates a colour of your choice. Choose a colour that has a meaning that you want to explore and celebrate. Think about what the colour you have chosen means both to you and to other people and create something that celebrates that meaning, for example you may choose a golden brown because you like real ale, a vivid green because of a particular landscape, green to celebrate Irish identity or the yellow sandstone of Bath’s architecture. Work only with your chosen colour, its complementary colour and black and white. You can include text, collages, illustrations and photographs. Use black and white to help establish a range of tints and shades with your chosen colour. These limitations are to get you to work with colour thinking creatively about how to make a limited palette work for you. This project is as much about visual dynamics and contrast as it is about creating something with meaning. Make full use of it to show off to your tutor all the skills and processes you have learnt so far. You need to submit at least three variations of your poster as well as the finished artwork.
Responses:
Having originally thought that this would be an assignment that woudn’t push me as far as some of the others, I was definitely proven wrong. Although I am comfortable working with colour and experimenting with the various combinations and effects this can have, I rarely work with the other end of the spectrum, one that requires the use of minimal tones and playing around with just a few basic elements to change the perception of a piece of work. Each exercise built on the last, and then brought it all together within the format of the final assignment. I think the one that challenged me most was the book cover designs as, as evidence in my learning log, my initial plans did not work for this as they became far too abstract. Everything is looked at on a scale and I think I am starting to realise this applies far more than I first thought. Originally, I wouldn’t have viewed these covers to be abstract in nature, however, after looking at other examples, and examples of other student’s work, I think it is clear to say that abstraction definitely has a scale in regards to how obscure something can appear. The exercise that made me reflect on my use of colour most was the task mirroring the effect that Itten creates in his work. Simple combinations of colour don’t always work and it was interesting to start investigating why this is the case. Equally, giving combinations meaning is something that I always try and consider however, it is never done in such a simple manner. For future references in terms of picking colour combinations for my work, I will keep this exercise in mind, especially for trying to balance out different tones and the scale in which they appear as the same colours in different size comparisons can portray a different meaning. This was also helpful to work out the benefit of tints and shades and which work more effectively together. Sometimes it was a simple alteration and sometimes even this didn’t work so the whole colour combination had to change. Drawing on the visual language is something that I had a grasp with through my photography work. Our study of semiotics (as well as psychoanalysis) gave me a strong understanding in terms of the concept however, this was something I had to reapply to my graphics work. The signs given are no longer small additions or alterations to a composition of a photograph but this time it is starting from scratch to create something that draws on this existing visual language to obtain a strong meaning. This meaning, specifically with the first exercise was one that I struggled with, especially trying to work out what actually made a symbol a symbol. Although I would like to think that I know what makes a successful poster, symbol or book cover, this module is making me start to look at things in a different way. I seem to have a default set on how to create certain projects and specifically book covers and symbols have so far challenged me more than I expected them to. Identifying the individual elements that make for a successful symbol took longer than I anticipated through my experimentation as these are something that we automatically understand and it is trying to break down why we understand it to mean what it means and then build it back up in a different format. This is part of me learning to understand visual language more and is definitely something that I know is getting stronger, but I also know still needs some work on.