Brief 04:
A Very Alternate Christmas
Nathan Bolton
Notebooks
A Very Alternate Christmas: Brief Overview Brief
Concept
Audience
All I want for Christmas is for you, the wonderful students of third year Graphic Design, to create an A6 postcard based on a choice of either a Christmas film or song. The card can be either illustrative or type based, but it must be single colour as the cards will be riso printed. They will then be sold at events and online, with profits from this project foing to Simon on the Streets, a local homeless charity.
I was given the film of Die Hard. My design will take an illustrative approach and I intend to use iconic imagery from the film within the artwork to represent and communicate the idea of the Die Hard film. As the film doesn’t have the most christmas aesthetic, I will try to bring in the theme further within the design.
As this is christmas themed the audience will be those looking for christmas gifts / decorations.
Tone of Voice Tone of the postcards will be light hearted and festive, to fit with the theme of Christmas.
I will specify colour, film/song and illustration/ type if you agree to take part.
Nathan Bolton
Background Information
Purpose
A time for berating your partner through song, saving the people of New York form the evil clutches of Hans Gruber, spreading Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear, and saving your heart for someone special. If you didn’t get any of those references, then you may have been hiding under a rock for the past couple of decades, but I will enlighten you: They are references to just a few of the many great Christmas films and songs that help us to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year. (Fairytale of New York, Die Hard and Last Christmas).
The purpose of this brief for me is work on my illustration skills and work within a live brief. Also creating artwork for a specific printing process will be a good experience.
Deliverables 1. 1 x A6 postcard design (5mm margin) 2. 2 versions of the same design must be submitted: 1x black (high res tiff), 1x green or red (jpeg for online shop)
The purpose of the brief is to create a range of postcards for a specific audience on a set theme to raise awareness of a homeless chairity around the festive period. In doing this money will be raised for the charity.
A Very Alternate Christmas | 01
Research For the illustration of the film, I wanted to make a simple design but one that communicated it was die hard. I didnt think that die hard was a christmas film, after researching into it, the basis of the film is that it is set on Christmas Eve and the lives of New York are saved from the hands of Hans Gruber who takes hostage the people in the Nakatomi Plaza. As the main plot of the film is based around the Nakatomi Plaza, I thought this would be the most iconic image to use within the illustration.
Nathan Bolton
A Very Alternate Christmas | 02
Illustration Development Using the imagery from the research I collected, I was able to create a rough illustration that formed the outline of the illustration - first image. As the postcards will be riso printed, the design needed to be of a simple aesthetic and be bold, so the final design stands out through the outcome of the print process. By simplifying the illustration and concentrating on highlighting different elements of the building it makes the design more interesting, but also makes the building look more three dimensional and realistic. Also repositioning and reworking the positition / composition of the illustration within the format, this has created a more considered design.
Nathan Bolton
A Very Alternate Christmas | 03
Final Artwork Through researching and using the main element of the Die Hard film I created this design as the final artowork to represent the film and communicate the idea of Die Hard. With the use of visual imagery, I was able to create the illustration through developed stages and create this final design. As a postcard I believe this design works well as it is a simple but bold illustration which clearly communicates the idea of Die Hard. The way in which I have designed it makes good use of the provided colour and the process in which it will be printed.
Nathan Bolton
A Very Alternate Christmas | 04
The Postcard The postcards are being sold online and the money collected from them is being sent to a charity. My design and postcard is displayed in the image on the left hand side. The result of the print process was really good, it gives the aesthetic of a screen printed design, but takes much less time and is more cost effective. With the use of the one selected colour in each design it makes them very bold and in line with the Christmas style.
Nathan Bolton
A Very Alternate Christmas | 05