EARTH ARTEFACT
Development Document
Alexander Nicholson
Earth Artefact
What I’m going to do I will begin by thinking of three ideas that could possibly by my final piece by referring back to my research document. I will then look into different kinds of media to find the best way of creating a strong final outcome. I will record all my different media outcomes to a final point then decide which i feel is the strongest. Once I have decided on the strongest out come I will look further into how to develop it. I may even edit the outcome so that it looks as if it is in situe, on a billboard or street poster. I will explore all elements of my final piece from the colour schemes to the typography in order to get the best outcome. Whilst I am working through my development stage I will constantly consult my tutors and other students in order to get there opinion on how the work is progressing as
well as where they think I should take it. If I have any new ideas whilst developing my final piece I will look back to my research and make any relevant changes such as adding new artists or layout techniques as a constant reference. Over all I hope to exclude the poor outcomes whilst pressing ahead with those that are stronger. I have listed my three Ideas on the next page as an initial starting point.
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My ideas so far Idea Two
Idea Three
My first idea is to recreate the golden record. The original images and ‘instructions’ appear crude by today’s standards. I will develop different styles of media from as record such as a CD or Hard drive as these more modern ways of storing data allow a much larger capacity and a new style.
My second idea is to create some form of info graphic displaying different information, for example how far the voyager crafts have travelled or it could show what’s on the golden record itself. I could either make this in the form or large posters or collate them together into a book.
My third Idea is to create a series of propaganda posters that show the good and bad points of humans meeting with aliens because of the messages and coordinates on the voyager craft. I would create these using Adobe illustrator and display them out in the real world.
Earth Artefact
Idea One:
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Idea Two: Info-graphics For my second idea based around the idea of info-graphics I plan to create some photo-realistic images that convey information about the different planets in our solar system and when the voyager passed them.
Earth Artefact
I used inspiration from multiple artists to design these pieces which took on different format. I began by experimenting with different tools on adobe Photoshop to create an earth like shape although it quickly became apparent that I would need some form of starting image as the Earth’s surface is simply too intricate to draw from scratch. Once I had a suitable image I then used various tool and effects to create the images. For the backgrounds I used other tools and colours.
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Earth Artefact
Above is the highest resolution image of the surface of earth I could find, the detail is incredible and even allowed me to zoom in to different locations with great detail.
Earth Artefact
: http://naturalearth.springercarto.com/ne3_data/16200/textures/1_earth_16k.jpg
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Above is the highest resolution image of the surface of Mars on the web. It shows the various creators and jagged mountains, clearly whilst maintaining
Earth Artefact
the strong vibrant red tones the planet is famous for. http://www.marsterritory.com/marsimages/mars_2k_color.jpg
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Earth Artefact
How I made Earth
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Earth Artefact
Above is my photo-realistic image of earth which created using Adobe Photoshop. The first step shows how I added clouds and noise to create some faint stars in the background. I then used the spherise tool in Photoshop to create the shape of my Earth. Finally I added various drop shadows and glows making the image look realistic
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Earth To the left is my realistic image of Earth. I built this image up using various layers and masks. The clarity of the image represents the how much we know about our planet . I decided to choose this side of the planet as its showed the United states of America, in-particular Florida where the Voyager space crafts were launched from.
Earth Artefact
I will attempt to show various information about earth that hopefully show our understanding of our planet.
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How I made Mars
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Earth Artefact
Above is my finished image of the red planet Mars. I began with a black background and used the spherise tool within Photoshop. I then added various glows and shadows to give the planet an atmosphere. Finally I adjusted the colours of the planet with tools such as “Levels”, “Curves” and “Hue and Saturation”.
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Mars To finish the image I added a lens flare to recreate the brightness of the sun. I decided to give this planet a thinner atmosphere as I it is much dencer than Earth’s.
Earth Artefact
I could convey different information such as where our Martian rovers are and what they have discovered in the short time on the red planet.
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Earth Artefact
Adding info: Pointers
Earth Artefact
Once I had my image of Earth i needed to develop a pointer that could show specific locations on a map such as the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. I experiment with different shapes and colours although I feel that the last pointer works best as it shows the curves of Earth. It is also the easiest to see.
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Earth Artefact
Adding textures
Earth Artefact
Below is the photo realistic image of Earth although the original images shot in space look nothing like this as they are heavily edited by NASA and other space associations. The images that are close to Earth could be shown in this really high quality format, representing our understanding of the closest planets to us. The image on the right could represent planets on the outer edge of our solar system representing how little we know about these planets.
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Earth Artefact
Choosing a Font Gill Sans
Helvetica
Earth, Solar System, Mars
Earth, Solar System, Mars
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
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1234567890
Regular Bold Italic Light
1234567890
Regular Bold Italic Light 20
Arial
Futura
Earth, Solar System, Mars
Earth, Solar System, Mars
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Earth Artefact
1234567890
Regular Bold Italic Light
1234567890
Regular Bold Italic Light 21
Font Experiments
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For this text illustration I have edited the “O� to give the impression of a planet whilst adding a smaller circle to represent a small planet or moon. The faint ring shows the orbital path.
This type edit shows the names of different planets where I have added a gradient mask which represents the colours that the planet is most well known for. For example the blue, brown and green represent the seas, mountains and rainforests of Earth.
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This illustration pictures the voyager space craft floating away from the type, asif it is traveling through space. The green lettering also indicates the lush green colours of Earth.
Earth Artefact
In this illustration I have replaced the “O’ with small illustrations of golden records, however I do not feel this has worked as well as the other illustrations.
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Info-Graphic vectors This small vector will be used to show information about what we know of the size of the planets in our solar system. For example the line running across the middle of the planet shows the diameter in either miles or kilometres whilst the inner ring shows the circumference.
Earth Artefact
Not only will this help life forms quickly learn about the planets in our solar system but it will help them understand our units of measurements.
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This thermometer style vector displays the average temperatures of the planets. Of course we have reliable data from planets such as earth and Mars due to there inhabitance and exploration although outer planets such as Neptune and Pluto can only be estimated.
Earth Artefact
This also serves as an indication as to weather the planet can sustain life.
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Info-Graphic vectors
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This symbol can be used to show roughly what different planets are compositionally made up of. For example we know that Jupiter is a gas planet whilst planets such as Mars and Earth are made from rock. Each symbol also acts as a reference as to weather life could survive on these planets.
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Earth Artefact
This is another symbol which helps us convey information about the planets within our solar system. The arrow sweeping across the planet shows the direction of rotation (most rotating anti clockwise) whilst the small dashed line shows the tilt of the planet. The different tilts of the planets are responsible for polar ice caps and different temps across the planets surface.
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Info-Graphic vectors Within different mytholigies and other scientific terms each planet in our solar system has being branded with its own symbol, allowing us to easily reference and catalogue each one without any names or descriptions.
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These symbols are usually derived from some myth or even a god as Neptune’s symbol resembles Poseidon’s trident.
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A symbol that explains itself. It suggests weather there is life on the planet. of course Earth is the only known planet to harbour life although it is thought that at one point Mars may have harboured some form of life. We know certain planets cannot sustain life although we are hopeful that there is other forms of life in the universe.
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Page layouts
Earth Artefact
For my first layout design I decided to include the coloured ‘Earth’ title whilst arranging the info-graphics in an even order across the page although I feel this was too cluttered and was hard to follow
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Earth Artefact
For my second layout I moved the text around and arranged all the circular info-graphics to one column which I felt helped the flow of the page although I was left with a large gap in the middle. I could possibly fill this with text although I felt it would distract from the info-graphics and defeat the point of them being there.
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Earth Artefact
In my third layout I greatly improved the positioning of the info graphics giving the page a more consistent flow. I also gave the info a colour theme changing the title to this too although I feel that this distracted from the image on the right.
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Earth Artefact
Above is my final layout, I decided that I would colour code the titles to the colours of the planets, giving each page a flowing colour theme with an immediate focal point. I also added dividers to space out the info-graphics.
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Idea Three: Bad propaganda To start with I began sketching some basic ideas, finally coming up with these two ideas. The first shows how an aliens ships weapons are being aimed at Earth whilst the other shows some form of alien creature wrapping itself around earth as-if its about to be consumed.
Earth Artefact
Once I had finished my sketches I scanned them into a machine and opened them on Adobe illustrator where I traced over the image creating a vector outline. This gave a much cleaner look to the piece and would allow me to focus on typography and colours.
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Earth Artefact
Idea Three: Good propaganda For the good propaganda posters I attempted to show the positives of encountering alien life. The first image shows how perhaps mankind could use lien technology to explore the universe whilst the other shows humans and an alien species shaking hands showing friendship.
Earth Artefact
Once I had finished my sketches I scanned them into a machine and opened them on Adobe illustrator where I traced over the image creating a vector outline. This gave a much cleaner look to the piece and would allow me to focus on typography and colours.
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EARTH
DON'T PUT US IN THERE SIGHTS! 40
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Texture I decided to take this image forward to see how the images would look when they are fully coloured.
Earth Artefact
I began by adding block colours to the image as shown in the second picture. I then added light and dark tones to the aliens arm and the surface of the earth to give the piece a more realistic textured look.
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Earth Artefact
Background Once I had added texture to my image I decided to experiment with different backgrounds. The first was a space like black back background which made the colours within the images stand out. The second was a form of old paper which resembled old advertising posters. Although the colours didn’t stand out as much the piece retained a vintage look.
Earth Artefact
The third was a brick wall texture which give the impression that the image had being sprayed onto the wall with some form of stencil, again giving a weathered look.
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Earth Artefact
How it would look Finally I added the type to my image and experimented with different filters and other adjustments withing Adobe Photoshop.
Earth Artefact
To show how the piece would look in the real world I edited it onto a real life bill board in the city centre. I feel the piece stands out and in the right context displayed the information appropriately.
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Earth Artefact
EARTH ARTEFACT
Earth Artefact
Research Document
Alexander Nicholson
University of Huddersfield 48