Part 5 layout Assignment 5
I decided to go with the second brief whereby I would be designing a series of advertising for Abigail’s Party production. Although the first brief would have enabled me to experiment doing book covers again, something that I have previously struggled with, I wanted to try a themed project whereby I wouldn’t just have to be showing a selected amount of information, but there was a theme to the project. In this case it is the 1970s which features very bold and geometric designs, something that I used to handle by going all out. But I wanted to show myself how far I have come over this module and highlight that I can now hold back on the designs so that they aren’t so busy and full on. Doing this in the format of a poster, flyer, advert and programme cover shows that I am also getting better at designing things with different purposes, something that I sometimes struggled with at the start of the module. The layout potential of brief 3 would have been interesting to explore in such great depth and try creating infographics with something a little more mathematical however, there still wasn’t this theme that I had been hoping to work towards. A magazine layout is something that I have worked my through a lot during this entire module and before I undertook this course so I wanted to test myself by creating something that I am not always comfortable with and test myself in a slightly different manner.
What skills do I want to develop with this assignment? - In a way I want to avoid using any cliches with this project, but I know that sometimes the cliches are what characterise the identification of an era. For example, the 1970s are bold geometric patterns, flares and flower designs. Although this is a cliche, it is a cliche that works. So perhaps a better way of phrasing this is making sure that the cliches are controlled and not too overpowering. They need to be used well and with style so that the posters are appealing instead of cheesy. - Indesign and photoshop are my preferred software and I have struggled to get to grips with Illustrator over this module when I have tried to use it, so maybe this assignment would give me a chance to experiment with it a little more as it is a programme used a lot in industry as it is easier to keep images at a higher quality on this program.
Plot: In her suburban living room, hostess Beverly prepares for the arrival of her guests in the living room. Laurence, her estate agent husband, returns home late and makes some work calls. New neighbours Angela, a nurse, and Tony, her computer-operator husband, arrive. Beverly explains that Sue, another neighbour, will be joining them, as her daughter Abigail is having a party. Laurence leaves to finish some business and Tony goes to help him start his car. Beverly advises Angela regarding her lipstick application. Sue arrives and more drinks flow. Tony returns. Music from Abigail's party becomes audible and the conversation turns to Abigail and the problems of parties. Beverly asks Sue about her divorce and her ex-husband. The conversation moves on to living together and children. Beverly keeps topping up the drinks. Angela talks about an ill child at work, to Tony's irritation. Angela reveals that Tony used to be a professional footballer. Beverly goes outside. Tony offers round nibbles and the conversation lulls. Beverly returns with details of what she can see of the party. Tony offers to check, but Sue doesn't think it's necessary. Beverly tops up the drinks. Angela admires the furniture. Laurence returns and reports that the party is getting lively. At Beverly's insistence, Laurence reluctantly agrees to check on the party later. Speculation continues about Abigail's party. Laurence suffers from indigestion after eating some olives, then demands Tony has a cigar. Beverly and Laurence argue about what music to play. Laurence concedes and puts Demis Roussos on. As the evening progresses, Beverly and Laurence grow increasingly annoyed with each other; Laurence grows increasingly irritated by Tony; Tony becomes increasingly friendly with Beverly; Sue becomes more worried about Abigail. Angela remains oblivious to the growing tensions. Everyone gets progressively more drunk. Beverly turns up the music and starts dancing. Laurence jumps up, switches it off and goes with Tony to check on Abigail's party. Beverly apologises for Laurence and suggests they get drunk. Sue is sick in the downstairs toilet. The women complain how unsympathetic men can be to their aliments and discuss their husbands' respective faults. Angela reveals that Tony has a temper. Laurence returns alone and goes to make a sandwich. Beverly goads him and he returns pointing a butter knife at her, before making a humiliating retreat to the kitchen. Tony returns with a wet shirt and reports there’s nothing to worry about.
Beverly plays a Tom Jones record. Laurence turns it down and then snubs Angela when she asks him to sit down. Laurence unsuccessfully tries to assert himself by introducing more serious topics. Beverly asks Laurence to turn the music up. Laurence physically stops Beverly from getting near the record player. Sue seeks brief sanctuary in the lavatory. Beverly and Tony slow dance together. Angela and Laurence dance together separately. Laurence dances with Sue and discusses holidays. Everyone sits down. The conversation returns to Tony’s football career and Beverly inspects his legs. Laurence asks Sue is she likes Art and shows her various pictures. Beverly says Laurence has banished the picture she likes upstairs and goes to get it, much to Laurence’s distress. Everyone tries to leave. Laurence put on Beethoven’s Ninth and asks everyone to sit down. Laurence has a heart attack. Angela arranges him in the recovery position. Beverly arrives with the picture. Tony phones for an ambulance. Beverly gets in the way, flicking cigarette ash over Laurence. Things become increasingly heated and chaotic. Beverly orders Tony to phone again for an ambulance and screams down the phone. Sue tells her to shut up. Beverley shouts back. The music from Abigail’s party becomes audible. Sue phones Abigail, but someone else answers. Meanwhile, Angela attempts resuscitation. Laurence dies. Beverly starts crying on Tony. Angela suffers cramp in her foot and Tony goes to help her. Sue shouts to Abigail down the phone. Beverly sobs. Additional notes: Set in Essex. In terms of accents, not all of them have Essex accents. Laurence doesn’t have a specific accent which makes him sound more educated. However, he is in the lower middle class and is constantly trying to establish himself in a higher position to Tony. Sue, although possibly made to feel like an outsider in terms of being the only single one during the evening (Beverly also asks Sue about it), is probably the highest in terms of class out of the group. By being questioned about it within a new group, this could be done in order to try and gain a position of authority over Sue. Also upon arrival, Sue brings a bottle of wine and hasn’t eaten. This hints that she has the expectation of being fed for the evening whereas the others don’t arrive with such an expectation. There seems to be a lot of direction from other characters, insisting on actions considering this group have never met before. Doesn’t seem to be much friendliness, they all seem to get quite irritated by each other. The title suggests that something is going to happen at Abigail’s party but in fact we are within the main space from the start.
Visual Research: Theatre posters
What key visual communication methods are used on theatre posters? - Bold intriguing font that adds more interest to the advertising. - If there are well known performers these are often put as the second largest font to attract attention to the show because of the name. - Block colours are a primary focus in the background so that the images are highlighted. - Some indication of when the show is happening is important but other text often features. The visual hierarchy of this is clear with more information being put in smaller text as this is only additional aspects that are required. - Realism is highlighted through the photography and illustration style used, it highlights that you are going to be watching something live in front of you and that what you are seeing is real compared to at the cinema where there is still this kind of separation. - A lot of the ones I have selected, it may just be these examples, but they use bold primary colours to attract the attention of the audience. When used in the underground this works as these are the posters I remember seeing on my travels so the use of primary colours will be a must. - Sometimes quotes are used, this encourages people to know more about the storyline that develops onstage in front of them.
The 1970s - Barbara Brown Textile design
The 1970s - Fashion
What characteristics are evident within the 1970s? - Bold bursts of colour - Geometric designs - Colour overload, it isn’t done as small accents, every area is covered within a room especially, posters have a bit more of a structure. - Structure, the designs are fairly repetitive and well structured which is why they work. - the poster designs and some designs within the fashion examples seem to portray a sense of minimalism but others go in the complete opposite direction. When asked to describe the 1970s, many people that I asked said ‘bold, geometric patterns’ and ‘hippy clothes, flares etc’. For this reason, although some of this suggests otherwise in terms of design, I think with these posters the bold and geometric patterns should become a focus. Its difficult as many theatre posters have a key figure on the front to sell the tickets and give the performance a face, however, this cannot be done with this brief.
More research questions: What fonts were used in the 1970s? What portrays this era? How are dates presented on posters? What layout is used? What hierarchy is created?
Although the colours were taken from a images from the 1970s, the colours didn’t pop, they didn’t have the impact that the 1970s are known for so the colours needed to change. It was also important at this stage to establish what space was needed for text and how it would be arranged in terms of hierarchy. Finding a font with varying options was important as I wanted to try and not add more visual noise to the work and keeping one font for this chunk of text would be helpful.
After gaining feedback, everyonem as expected said the flower designs were what reminded them most of the 70s. Although this is a key focus of the production, I don’t want it to be so dominant. I continued to experiment with this but the designs became hard to balance and the focus was on the patterns instead of the dates of the production.
These designs and the design process taught me that nothing can ever be fully discarded, it’s always good to go back and revisit designs as they can often be reworked. Everything takes a little bit of tweeking to get right as the designs develop and it’s interesting to see what really works to portray the 70s vibe. From the start I had expected to use a 70s themed font, afterall it is the font that has been a strong focal point on other theatre posters that I looked at, however, here, the themed fonts didn’t add anything to the design and instead took the focus away from the imagery and rest of the design. For this reason, a basic Sans Serif font was used instead. Although there are quite a few styles of text on this poster, they all balance well in terms of sizing and creating a visual hierarchy. None of them are too overpowering or contradict each other and add a different element of depth to the visual noise that was the 1970s. The imagery to use alongside the pattern was a little difficult to select as this was either going further into the 70s theme or it didn’t portray the themes that it needed to in terms of the play. As a result, rereading the brief reminded me that everything within the story is based in the living room and the sofa. Showing the audience the setting of the play on the poster is an interesting advertising technique. It allows the audience to already be placing people and storylines within the production that they think could take place here. This builds up the experience they have and although the storylines won’t match up, the title and the use of this sofa provide an interesting starting point for the production. With this project, as always, it was about constantly making small changes to see what would work and what wouldn’t. Sometimes I had to leave the designs and come back to them so that I would notice a small something else that didn’t work within the design. Contrast has been a big thing in my designs for this module and this time I didn’t want to create contrast. Part of the reason the 70s worked so well was because although everything was bold and busy, it was coordinated. Taking this aspect away from the design would make everything clash too much again so used the red as a feature tone throughout the designs and drawing on different aspects of the pattern to provide the colour palette worked effectively within the design. I was also very conscious that this would appear a little cramped but with enough spacing around each element, the work clearly has space to breath and a hierarchy is established throughout the poster.
A6 double-sided flyer
The area of the poster is a lot bigger than that of the flyer, yet there still needed to be the same information on the two. Achieving a balance between the elements was harder to achieve with this flyer and what I had thought to be the important aspects on the poster, and therefore the elements that I had made smaller for the flyer, were in fact the other way around. I had wanted to make a small feature of the sofa and lamp as this wasn’t important information for a flyer to feature. However, one suggestion that I received during feedback from my peers was that this was actually too small and it made everything seem to big so the proportions needed balancing out better. The pattern proved to be the focal point once again but this time it features in segments so that it doesn’t become too overpowering. It was interesting to see though how the balance changed from having the text above the pattern to positioned centrally as no colour choices seems to compliment both components.
What visual communication points have I learnt from here? - Patterns don’t have to be shown in full to still give the impression that is needed.
- Size proportions are important as keeping them the same between different formats not only keeps consistency but if they are changed, the text choices could now seem too bold and the hierarchy is adapted when it needs to remain the same in order to flow. - Although a colour palette is good to have, sometimes you need to explore outside of the colour palette (inverting the pattern) to work out what really works within a design, whether you need to add more colours to the colour palette or whether something actually does work and you hadn’t realised. - White space is ok to have, even if one of the main colours is off white!
Magazine Advert
What difficulties did I face with these designs? What communication methods did I have to adapt or comply with? - Once again it was a case of making sure everything was in scale with this design. Personally, I thought that the dates should be the main focus of the advert so that the reader knew when they could go and see the show. But it quickly became apparent that you can’t just have the title and dates, there needs to be something else to the design in order to encourage some interest within the production for those that perhaps haven’t heard of the play before. - The style and everything else had obviously already been laid out for the other designs. I knew what font choices and elements needed to be put on the design, it was just a case of achieving the balance. - The text allignment of the title is something that perhaps changed the most. Although I wanted everything to stay in the same place, sometimes the text seemed unbalanced because the proportions of everything else was changing. The text still says the same but sometimes the position and position of the surrounding colour blocks changed. - This sounds like a small change but it had a large impact on the way scale was perceived. Sometimes elements seemed to be more cramped and for a small advert like this, that isn’t ideal as it makes the audience think there is a lot to read and understand when really this is just dates. - Compromies had to be made in terms of changing the text allignment in the main bulk of text as well otherwise the column widths didn’t work. This is just a small change and although the ease of reading has been reduced slightly, in terms of the overall components and how hard it would be to read if the design was continued, then it is a compromise worth making.
Programme Cover
advert
programme cover
Flyer
This assignment tested me in more ways than I expected but it also reflected how much I have learnt over the course of this module. The 1970s feel part of the brief was why I wanted to do this assignment, I thought having to design something to a theme was the perfect way for me to see how well I can now balance different design elements to all communicate the same message without going overboard in the ‘visual noise’ of a design like I used to do. I was quickly able to identify that the font was the main area that I wanted to show the 1970s vibe and therefore began with this. For this assignment, unlike many others for this part of the module, I didn’t see it necessary or benefical to create sketches as the design was going to rely heavily on fonts and patterns that would have taken too long to just sketch out. I knew the most effective way for me to create early mock-ups would be through digital designs. The font ended up being something that I didn’t quite get right until the rest of the graphics were confirmed. This highlighted to me how everything still needs to be thought of as a whole and each individual message needs to be changed slightly as other changes are made. Had I tried to start with the graphics, I think these wouldn’t have come so naturally. The patterns fits really well around the text and considering that this is the more important information, this is the way it should be. Through the selection of font for the main text, it was clear that I am starting to know my own FontBook a lot better. I can quickly name fonts that I think would work and try them to see whether they do. I am also becoming more aware of individual lettering and how the way the tail sits of the ‘g’ may not be right for the positioning of graphics underneath. All of these things are something that I have definitely started to understand more and more. Originally I would have said that a design didn’t work but I didn’t know why, I would make uninformed choices about what to change in the hope that it got me closer to the look that I was hoping to achieve. Now the things that I am picking up on are much more specific, maybe the spacing between lettering isn’t quite right, I don’t like the height of the numbers in comparison to the text or the allignment and positioning of the text. Developing my eye in this way isn’t something that I have noticed or could have guaranteed at the start of this module. The way my designs are now informed through technical knowledge and understanding my personal research process a lot more is helping me to produce results that don’t only fit the brief more effectively, but they are also designs that I enjoy. With this brief, trying to produce something with a theme is one thing that I still wasn’t comfortable with. Over the course of the module I have definitely had some hurdles in terms of formats that I struggle to design with but I hadn’t get been given something so heavily themed. I hate using the cliches within design as I find they become too expected and instead of appreciating the message that is being portrayed, in my own head for sure, I just think I have already seen these designs before. This is what I am always cautious of with a themed brief, that it will just become something else that people have already seen. As a result, I wanted to challenge my own perceptions and try and create something that maybe did play with the cliches a little (as these obviously work for a reason) but also challenged these perceptions and encouraged the reader to actually read the information and pointers that were being presented to them. I believe that I have achieved exactly that with this brief. The designs aren’t so overpowering with the bold geometrics or flower patterns that you want to look away from the poster, but they are balanced effectively together to show that this is a 1970s production without being too overbearing. The assignment also encouraged me to create a advertising theme. This is very different to the format of the Chance Housing Association where fonts and house styles also had to be encorporated but this was using the exact same information and showing the different ways it could be presented at different sizes and with varying purposes. Understanding what becomes important within each design is something I knew needed to be done at the start of the module but I never fully understood how it would change so much. Although visually I understood the changes, when designing it, I didn’t realise how the visual hierarchy can change so much because of the space and you have to make sure, as a designer, that it doesn’t change too much as the same information is important, and it is important to keep the same style going, but you have to achieve this in different ways and different formats.
Tutor's Feedback: The final assignment offered the choice of two briefs: you chose the promotional design brief for a theatrical production of Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh. Your learning journal shows a satisfactory range of visual research, you were also asked to do some research that relates to the play itself, Mike Leigh’s is famous for his distinctive treatment; dark humour and awkward social scenes. Your promotional material should capture the essence of the play somehow and stand out and be eye-catching. It would be good to see you applying what you learnt from the earlier poster and leaflet layout designs. The designs for all of the different promotional formats are very similar and it would have been nice to see more experimentation. The colour palette you have chosen is vey muted and not very characteristic of the 70’s, refer to what you identified: Bold bursts of colour, geometric designs, colour overload. Refer back to your research as you generate ideas and develop the design. Even your testing of your research revealed that the flower patterns were most evocative of the 70’s. If you refer back to your poster research you will find ways of combining text with complex images also consider the rule of thirds. Identify and reflect on the technical and visual skills you are developing.
My Reflection: I thought I had done a sufficient amount of research around the play and previous visual advertising of the play. I didn’t want the style to reflect too much on past visuals that had been used. It was interesting to see what aspects these other designs had considered important but the component that I struggled with was the lack of a human presence. I had avoided using a figure for the fact that the character of Abigail doesn’t actually seem that important within the storyline but all other designs had given her a face. Because I didn’t have a portrait of the actress playing her, instead of putting in a silhouette, I made the choice to disregard it entirely, which wasn’t the best method. I had found looking at other material more beneficial but this lost the essence of the 1970s and this therefore makes for a fair comment from my tutor, the research helped me in ways but it didn’t get me where I needed to get to, hence it was satisfactory. My focus of the 1970s was broad but it was never employed within my designs. The muted tonal palette was something that I thought would work best and I viewed it as a way of not overcomplicating my designs instead of realising that the colour needed to be there to portray the 1970s. My research should be reflected on once more to progress these designs. They need to scream the 1970s. Looking at other posters from productions of Mike Leigh would help to show how they reflect on his own personal style and this could then help to inform my own designs.
Other Mike Leigh production posters:
Mike Leigh poster characteristics
- Mike Leigh’s name features but the size isn’t as big as the title. It is in between the title and other text sizes (like a sub-heading). - The figures are often looking off the frame to suggest something else is going on and the look makes its suggest that somethings this could be the awkward social scenes referred to before. - Muted tones - A single figure is normally used (or if more figures are used they are often obscured) so that a face can be given to the main figure within the play.
BUT...Reminder of what characterises the 1970s and Abigail’s Party posters: Abigail’s Party poster characteristics:
- Bold colours, primary use of ywllow and ‘retro’ colours - The fonts vary, some are suited to the time period whilst others are Sans Serif in nature. - Mike Leigh’s name appears and, like the other posters, it is in between the font size of the title and the other text. - Abigail is given a face so that we can characterise her within the storyline.
What characteristics are evident within the 1970s? - Bold bursts of colour - Geometric designs - Colour overload, it isn’t done as small accents, every area is covered - Structure, the designs are fairly repetitive and well structured which is why they work - All the forms, and the fonts, are free flowing
Tints and shades to experiment with from research of patterns
Themes commonly explored by Mike Leigh and characteristics of his plays: - Dark Humour - Awkward social scenes - Every day life and the underlying issues - Love and relationships - His writing isn’t political and his method (explained below) highlights that the writing is developed based on character and less about a political message as was common at the time. Themes within Abigail’s Party: - Love and marriage - Suburban Life - Life within the lower middle class - Aspirations of the 70s - Social anxiety Leigh’s approach to film making is a little different and this should be reflected within my designs. He starts with a very basic outline and the story and characters develop through improvisation. When each character is introduced to each other is dictated by Leigh but the plot and characters develop a lot between both Leigh and his cast. It is free flowing. Trying to reflect this within the geometric pattern will provide interesting results. Using shapes and their connotations: - A circle and triangle combination would prove effective. It highlights movement but the triangle has some stability and reflects innovation. - If this doesn’t work a circle and square combination would also work. The square provides more stability and doesn’t have the idea of innovation but this can be added with how the shapes interact with each other.
A3 Poster
What have I learnt from these designs? - Once I started experimenting with the patterns, whilst keeping a strong base structure, I realised how much these elevated the designs. - Block colours were really helpful with grounding the patterns and this choice was informed by looking at examples within interior design. As these are much larger spaces, the control is important so looking at these methods influenced my posters. - Keeping hints like outlining the text adds subtle additions of colour. Making sure that the palette was bold was important and linking all the colours made sure that the colours popped even more and emphasised the pattern. It reduced the clashing. - That more colours doesn’t necessarily mean it is out of control or will become abstract, there is control within the theme here.
magazine advert
Flyer front
Flyer back
programme cover
One comment that was previously picked up on by my tutor was the fact that I hadn’t used the exercises to inform the assignment. For this reason, I felt it important to look at what I had done before and what was perhaps more successful. Although an identity had been created before, the identity that was created across the different mediums was basically the same design. I wanted to add variation here and focus on what the key components were for each design. The programme cover is a particular favourite of mine as it really highlights the party element. The sofa isn’t an important thing here and instead would be really good to use inside the programme. Making sure that not all visual clues are given away too early is important but there needs to be enough to cause interest. This was why the poster had the most components. It had the purpose of attracting more people and this would probably be the first thing that people see. But with the programme cover there could be a little bit more fun as people already wanted to see the play. Maybe this could have allowed for more experimentation with enhancing some of the patterns but it also needed to function well. The success of the pattern is based on the repetitive nature and enhancing a few squares would have taken away from this.
Learning Points: - Focus on what the brief is asking of you. The 1970s was clearly important and the designs went off task. (For personal use, maybe I should print my research off and have it in front of me as I design, this would make sure that the focus remained on the observation points that I had achieved from here) - In order to create an identity across advertising, the same layout doesn’t always have to be used. The focus with this one was the layout and to experiment with this, which to start with I didn’t. - An identity relies on a few key components being consistent across all mediums, fonts and colours as well as maybe one image would have been enough. - Not all inspiration has to come from graphics and other posters, looking at interior design here helped me to realise how balance was achieved. Everything can be used as a visual stimuli.
Evaluation:
After submitting this assignment to my tutor, I have to say I was quite happy with the designs. I had managed to not go overboard with colour and pattern for this assignment, the colours remained controlled so that the message could be clearly communicated to the audience. However, what was quickly pointed out to me was that this was the point. The 1970s, I had identified myself, were characterised by bold colours and geometric patterns and it somehow worked based on the balance that had been achieved. This balance could be applied to my own designs so I needed to go bolder with the patterns. Contextually with this play, one that I hadn’t heard of, I was able to very quickly grasp the important aspects and themes. At times I did need to expand on my research slightly, as pointed out in my feedback but expanding the contextual research about Mike Leigh and his other plays confused me slightly. The designs of other posters for his plays were incredibly muted and similar to my original design, however, these had been deemed unsuccessful. As there were so few components on these designs, I was unsure how I could portray the concept of the play, highlight the 1970s as well as show Mike Leigh’s style all within one design. I soon came to the conclusion that patterns didn’t just have to be taken from the internet, I could make my own that utilised the shape psychology and links that I had previously researched. In order to write his plays, Leigh actually uses a very different technique. He comes up with the basics of characters names, their relationships and at what point they each get introduced to each other, but the rest is devised through role play. The cast play a large part in how the characters are portrayed to the audience and their individual traits. Reflecting this into shapes made me think of circles for the community that is created when writing as well as triangles for the innovate yet stable (and proven) way of writing that Leigh uses. These designs during my development reminded me more of a golf jumper instead of the 70s so I used the second alternative, circles and squares. This basis allowed me to be creative in terms of not creating a repetitive pattern but something that would have interest. It allowed me to almost curate the pattern on screen as the colours and shapes all had to be evenly balanced and being able to develop this visual skill will help me to develop more complex patterns in the future. Once I had created these final deigns, having experimented with the type and layout quite extensively, I was able to see how these designs had helped me to develop my style better than they had done originally. These designs have a stronger colour palette and design components to the previous design and being able to learn to control these elements highlights exactly how far I have come from the first assignmnet. I can now communicate a message clearly to the audience whilst still maintaining my strong, individual graphical style that has now established itself as a more controlled version of what I was previously producing. Being able to say that I have achieved this at the end of the module is definitely something I can say that I am proud of and it has been achieved through a vast extent of experimentation. Constantly reconsidering elements and how they interact with each other has been the key to the success here. But yet again, it shows that I forget to revisit my research. The research that I undertook didn’t just look at poster design and bold patterns but by looking at interiors, I was able to establish exactly how colours were balanced in larger segments. Similarly, throughout the exercises prior to this, I had been able to look at the visual communication techniques of posters, flyers and the like so my main focus here was establishing the style and emphasising the style of Leigh’s writing. So when I forgot to revisit the research for this assignment, it also meant that I forgot to reflect on the research that I undertook for visual communication methods across different formats. This meant that the designs were often very similar and although this created a strong identity across the different formats, this can be achieved in other ways which were not yet explored until my development. Obviously I wasn’t going to be able to perfect everything by the end of this module but the main point, of being able to control my personal style, has definitely been achieved. Now it is key to focus on my research throughout in order to judge how successful a design can really be.