Christmas postcard (live)
Brief: This was a brief set by a fellow student and it was to create a piece of artwork which would then be sent to print by risograph as part of a set of postcards used to fundraise for a local charity. Each individual who entered was given either a song or film and had to also choose whether the piece would be type based or image based and if it was to be green or red. My choice was the song ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ by Slade, for it to be typographic and the colour green.
Natalie Dyson
Christmas postcard (live)
01/03
Research: With the brief I was already given a song and theme of typography which narrowed down my research areas from the beginning. I began by doing general research on the lyrics and picking out lines which could work generally with the theme of Christmas but also be strongly recognised as from the song. Once this was chosen I began to look at existing visual research around the theme of type and how it could be used to illustrate words and meanings. I looked at a variety of styles from hand written script to sans serif fonts and found that subtle changes to existing fonts could work to simply illustrate the meanings of the lyrics chosen. Sans serif also worked better as one colour as the brief asked because tones and shadows in hand script would be unnecessary as they would not translate into the print.
Natalie Dyson
Christmas postcard || Research
OUGD603
Christmas postcard (live)
02/03
Concept & ideas I focussed my ideas on the lyric ‘Are you hanging up a stocking on the wall?’ as this will work with the Christmas references and the association to the green colour specified by my brief. The other idea which I had was to use the reference to reindeer and kissing Santa but this was discarded because these elements are stereotypically related to the colour red. Similar to my research I developed an illustrative narrative of the lyrics through simple changes and additions to existing base typefaces. I attempted to make the letter ‘G’ appear as if it was hanging as the word suggest and it was something which I had sketched out in my ideas. I quickly realised though that digitally this would not work as legibility has been lost and it distracts from the flow of the line and lyric when read. I also attempted a candy strip on the lettering to add to the appearance of Christmas and to add some subtle details to the typographic piece but again this did not work and reduced legibility. Eventually I settled for a design which was very simplified as this would still narrate the story of the lyric but also keep legibility high. Keep decorative fuss to a minimum so that it could be read and stand out in a group.
Natalie Dyson
Christmas postcard || Concept & ideas
OUGD603
Christmas postcard (live)
Natalie Dyson
03/03
Final solution || Final solution
OUGD603