Rob Galt Digital Portfolio
E : h e llo@ rob g alt.co.u k W: r o b g alt.co.u k T : + 44 (0) 7 80 1 4 7 3 4 4 1 — 6 St raw b rid g e Court 3 0 8 We st G re e n Road Lo n don N1 5 3 A N
Rob Galt Oldboy
This book was inspired by the South Korean film ‘Oldboy’ and was my first large scale editorial and book production project. I created the book through watching and analysing the film and then by gathering existing film theory of the film. The design was influenced by themes in the film and what I took from my research. The main aspects of the film revolve around secrets, control, violence and manipulation. However when you look on a deeper level there are ideas linked with South Korea’s struggle for democracy, anti-americanism and capitalism. The main character is locked within a small room at the start of the film, this is represented in the chapter pages which give the sense of containment and the aesthetic of a floor plan of a apartment building. The theme on control was a design element I could implement throughout the book, using boxes to contain typography and other graphic elements. This also reinforced my deeper research by suggesting the viewer would read between the lines literally. I also used paper mechanics such as pullouts and perforated pages. I used pullout pages to show scenes such as the corridor fight scene which a continuous shot in the
Click here for the Digital Publication
film, where the main character fights from one end to the other. Pages were also bound into the book but perforated on their outside so that the viewer would have to rip open the page to get to the information. This represents the way the main character has to fight to find the truth. The information on these pages were about America’s unseen but constant involvement in South Korea. America’s involvement in South Korea’s struggle for democracy is represented in the film as the main character fights for the truth whilst being manipulated by the protagonist. The countries involved with this moment in South Korean history I represented through the colours red and blue used in the book, China, America, Japan, South and North Korea all have one or both of these colours in their flags. The America flag was also subtly represented graphically throughout the book. I used the typefaces Arno pro and Signika. Due to the large amount of information in the document legibility was a priority and the san serif Arno pro full fulled this. I used Signika for more expressive type as it was a bold contrast to Arno pro as you can see on the chapter page.
Rob Galt Underground Art 150
This was a one day project, design in the morning and screen print in the afternoon. The project was to promote 150 years of artwork on the London underground by the London transport museum, so essentially a poster about posters Therefore I decided to create a poster within a poster about going to see the exhibition. I took the shape of the downward escalators as the main feature in my poster. This guide the viewer down into and smaller version of the poster they are currently looking at. This simulated the act of taking the underground to see the exhibition, as
you would travel down the escalators to board the underground train. I used the colours red and blue because it represents Transport For London and also to help create the shape of the escalators. Also the London transport museum is closest to the Piccadilly line so this was used as it would be the line people would travel on if they were going to the exhibition. Typographically I kept it simple as I didn’t want to detract from the bold image I had created, and therefore just provided the key information.
Rob Galt DTLOITHBC
This project was mainly a response to the NSA and the Edward Snowden hacking scandal, but it was also influenced by the phrase, ‘due to lack of interest, tomorrow has been canceled.’ It was my feeling that no one really reacted to the revelation. Instead people seemed to shrug it off like they were not bothered, or already suspected something like that was going on. There was also another term from a previous piece of work ‘we are passive interchangeable consumers.’ This stuck with me as it seems that is how those with power see us, as an interchangeable mass ready to consume whatever they market towards us. The choice of a newspaper format was supposed to grab people’s attention because they weren’t really paying attention to the news. It is also a more protest like format from a time when emails were not scanned and ips collected. I wanted to keep a simple colour scheme throughout and CMYK is the basic printing colour process. I used an eagle with the words ‘eye in the sky’ to show the idea of how the American government has changed. The eagle that use to stand for freedom is now the satellite dish being used to collect data about the general
public. Dots were used a lot within the newspaper to create the idea of networks and large amount of data collection, like a net connected to everyone; stealing their information. I adapted an American piece of artwork which depicted Barrack Obama to show David Cameron, I redrew elements and reworded the piece so it was more British. The back of the paper was a list of tweets which have been directed to David Cameron. This was to show the reaction of the people from the United Kingdom. However none of these tweets were about the hacks, just general abuse; this highlighted my original view. I used Din, Signika and Arno pro in the newspaper. This provided me with a lot of opportunity to be experimental. All the typefaces were used at different scales. Arno pro was mostly used for the copy, for good legibility. Both Din and Signika were used large. Din was used for small typographic detailing, like page numbers and chapter names at the top of pages. Signika was used large scale as curved cuts balance nicely with a san serif typeface.
Rob Galt Website Design
Website page for Kudos. The page is called Kudos for researchers and takes the viewer through 6 steps of Kudos. The design involved icons and imagery, the flower is in keeping with their current brand.
Rob Galt Website Design
Website page for the fashion brand Elevate. The design promotes a minimal feel whilst giving a progressive frame for the labels clothes to be presented in.
Click here for the Elevate site
Rob Galt Website Design
Website page for London Plus Credit Union, build as a separate landing page to break down the loan application process.
Rob Galt Smoke Screen News
This was a simple idea that needed a lot of preparation. From my research I had found an example of the use of smokescreen stories, where other stories are released the same day by media, or the powers that control media, to cover up or distract from another story. I conveyed this idea buy screen printing six different layers on to clear acrylic. I then turned the pieces so the two printed sides were facing each other and bolted them together. This meant when you looked through everything lined up to form the phrase ‘media constructs your reality’. This meant the stories in front covered up the story at the back, so the viewer has to look past the smokescreen stories to find the truth.
I sketched an image for each of the stories and used Knockout capped up type to give the feeling of a headline. Then for the more spaced lettering I used Gestalt, I chose this font as it was more abstract and the reader would have to work harder to fully understand it. This was in the hope that people would try to line up the letters so they could read the message in the piece. I feel like this project would have been more successful if I was able to used more recent examples for the news stories, however I don’t have enough knowledge to analyse the media and take current stories which represent this process used to divert the general publics attention. I had to take these example from someone else’s work.
Rob Galt Perceptions
I wanted to investigate the way that people see themselves, as it could be argued that your own reality is the way you see yourself and how you think others see you. To do this I got six people to describe themselves using five words and then give one word about each of the other five people. I then projected what they said about themselves onto their front and what was said about them onto their back. I used the typeface Din for the project words because although I was trying to create distortion I wanted the words to be clear and bold. I used moving image and photography to document this process. This produced some really great shots and an interesting film. I put the photos into a large book and went through what each person said about themselves and what was said about them. Everyone was far more positive about each other than themselves. I used descriptions of the words that were being said in order to break up the large photos. I took the photos in the dark and the participant remained anonymous throughout, I did this to keep the focus on was said and the typography rather than who said what. I selected the photos to show all the words that had been said by the participants to give the reader a clear idea of what had been said, but also to provide a variety of angles and also considered how the spread
looked as a whole. Therefore I used photos which complemented each other and showed the great variations of type that could be produced by projecting on to a body. The images were very personal when you could identify a person which. I perfect bound the book as there were a lot of pages and wanted to make sure it would stay together. The cover was designed to be simple and in keeping with the rest of the book, intriguing viewers with its minimalist charm. I used a large number of typefaces in the book as I wanted to simulate the variety of shapes created by the projection. I wanted the chapter pages to stand out so I used a san serif called Egyptian Slate Pro as it very different cuts. Then I used other san serif typefaces, Hoefler Titling and Mercury, these with Din and Gotham help create a wide spectrum and break up the projection images within the book. The Video (Click here to view) I produced a video as well during the projection as I think this showed the diversity of the possible type appearances. It showed how the typography moved around the body and how the person interacted with words describing themselves. It also gave me the chance to push my editing techniques a bit more, using mirroring and slowing the speed of the film.
Rob Galt Fluxure
I worked for the photography course in my final year of university to create their catalogue. This was the first I’d collaborated with another practice and taken up a role as a editor. It was a good chance to develop my skills as a curator. I wanted each student stand out so asked them all to select a pantone colour that would be used to identify them throughout the publication. The cover is made from all the different colors they selected. My main aim with this publication was to
provide each student with maximum image space, they only had a spread each. The next was to use simple typographic detailing as not to detract from the photography and let it be the main element within the publication. I wanted to create a good rhythm within the publication so I alternated designs and positions within the catalogue but kept a similar pattern for the viewer to follow. I also designed the promotion material and sign-age for the Fluxure exhibition at the OXO tower.
Rob Galt Branding and Video
Branding for the Racing Post’s cafe stand at an exhibition. It is difficult sometimes to push a brand outside of it’s comfort zone. I used the inspiration of horse racing silks to inspire the coffee cup design within the logo. I used the brands red and black for colours. Then i also created a video explaining recent developments in their products.
Click here for the Video
Rob Galt Branding
Branding for Portyx which is a finance service for businesses to keep track of invoices. The logo represents growth and commerce, whilst trying to look welcoming.
Rob Galt Branding
Bright sparks logo created for drug company campaign centered around their forward thinking ideas around brain disease treatment. The logo represents brain activity which relates to the topic and the campaigns objective of new ideas.
BRIGHTSPARKS
Rob Galt Branding
Branding for Sam Dougal fashion designer. The monogram represents the strong bold lines of his design whilst keeping a delicacy to his work.
Rob Galt Branding
The logo for TORF was created during my time as an intern at Joylab. The word torf is Welsh for crowd and the service torf was developed with the Welsh theatre company as a tool to connect with their audience and gain information about them to market products back to them. The design of a logo centres around the idea of a crowd, many people making a whole. The many dots make the whole T. A simple idea yet clean and in keeping with Joylab’s design style. I was going to develop the logo so that as the site was loading the dots would move around and fade in to form the T, like a crowd getting to their seats.
TO R F
Click here for the TORF site
Rob Galt #CapThePress
#CapThePress was a protest aimed at media ownership within the UK, with a more varied ownership and a cap on how much a singular person can own being the aim. I approached this project by developing the slogan ‘we the media’. This meant that the posters were almost acting as a disclaimer to the public. I wanted the posters to be eye catching to people walking past and therefore designed them to stand out from the other posters around, and place them in areas where posters are not common, which I achieved. To do this I used a large variety of colours and bold typography to make them stand out from other posters on the street.
I also wanted to humanise the media by giving it a face and this face was Rupert Murdoch. He really represents the man with the most media influence and he is the kind of person my protest was aiming to attack. I drew him an then duplicated his face a lot of times to give then sense of him watching people. I also used bold black blocks to replicate redaction or the media not giving you the full story. I documented my work with photography which I then put into a newspaper. To break up the photos and create a narrative for the read i used quotes and bold typography. The project attracted attention from the local independent paper the Bristol Cable.
Rob Galt Quantum Mechanics
Quantum mechanics was a large part of my third year investigation into reality. This was really interesting and I could create great responses from this research with quotes about reality, or experiments or quantum mechanics. I created a book about reality click here to see it. This helped me to push my boundaries and opened me up to be more experimental. I created a typeface using pentagons which stemmed from repetitiveness within the universe, this got a mention on the creative review blog. With this typeface I created three posters which stated information or quotes I had discovered while researching quantum mechanics. I then created a series of three posters using quotes that I found interesting from
Click here for the Digital Publication
scientists about reality and quantum mechanics. Even after all this research into complex experiments and theories, I did not really understand them. This was eclipsed when I watched documentary explaining reality using mathematics which summarised by saying 0=0. I created a response from this statement which really brought all my research to a close. It was appropriate close as no one really understand reality and why should I? The success of my investigation should measured on my projects. I had explored reality to a good extent and in many different directions, such as personal, societal and scientific which all created good projects.