Visual l Syste ems By Sam Nightingale
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Sam Nightingale Arts University Bournemouth Level 5 Unit 1: Visual Thinking 02
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Visual Systems Pages 06 - 25
Wayfinding Pages 28 - 43
Subverting a brand Pages 46 - 57
Visual Crypsis Pages 60 - 75
Design Bridge Pages 78 - 81
Type Pages 84 - 89
Book Design Pages 92 -97
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Visual Synthesis
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VISUAL SYNTHESIS
The Brief A visual system offers an underlying structure to design, a set of rules that can be deployed to inform a limitless set of creative implementations. Visual systems, the parameters, colours, ratios, processes etc., within a given design framework bring a coherence and consistency to all the modes of communication within a visual identity. Visual systems can offer a creative strategy at the development stage of the design process together with an extensibility of the visual identity of the final outcomes. Before this project I did not know what a visual system was. For this project I need to do more research into visual systems and find the use and purpose of them. My take on the brief is to create a system that can be set up and then used so that it works even if certain factors are changed, such as date imputed into them.
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INITIAL IDEAS
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VISUAL SYNTHESIS
After doing my initial brainstorm the two ideas I liked the most were looking for faces in the environment and creating something that links with sound and colour. Firstly, my idea for looking at faces in the environment. This idea was to go around the AUB campus and photograph as many faces that we could find out of building, paths, walls etc. I then thought this could create some sort of project where people could go around the campus and find these faces, or have a way of finding their own faces and uploading these to a website or app. I thought I would test out this idea by walking around the campus but me and my group found it quite hard to find examples of this and thought it may not work as well as we initially thought . My next idea was to link sound and colour. My initial thoughts were that we could record sound from different areas and have this as an infographic showing where the loudest areas of the campus are. However, I wasn’t sure what the purpose of this would be. Therefore, I needed to think about the use of this and how it would help map AUB. When me and my group discussed all our initial ideas we all agreed that we liked this idea and we all had different ideas on how we can progress with this system. So we then decided to go away and do some research on this subject.
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INITIAL IDEAS
Initial ideas from my notepad
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VISUAL SYNTHESIS
After noting down my initial ideas I then decided to go and get some books to help me choose my ideas. I found the book Data flow which has lots of really nice examples of data being presented. Me and my group have decided on the theme of linking colour and sound so we went through the book to try and find examples of these. We found lots of examples of circles being used with colour, this could be an interesting way of displaying our data. As we are using the theme of time then using circles could link to a clock and we can show the time in that way. This was a really helpful book as it gave us lots of interesting ideas to think about, such as colour, shape, scale and if it’s going to be print based or animated. Our next step is to use these ideas to develop our idea. Once we have decided our system we can then collect our data and begin the design process.
Date Flow
Date Flow
Date Flow
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RESEARCH
“Visual metaphors are a powerful aid to human thinking. From San-skirt through hieroglyphics to the modern alphabet, we have cipher, objects and illustrations to share meaning with other people, thus enabling collective and collaborative thought. As our experience of the world has become more complexed and nuanced, the demands to our thinking aids have increased proportionally. Diagrams, data graphics, and visual confections have become the language we resort to in this abstract and complex world. They help us understand, create and completely understand reality�
Date Flow
Date Flow
Date Flow 2
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VISUAL SYNTHESIS
“What is a visual system?” Before my research I was not sure what a visual system was. After doing some research and discussing with my group we understood it better. A visual system is a set of rules or codes that can help shape a piece of work. These rules used in a system can help the structure and make it easier for the audience to understand. Most design work has visual systems and this gives the work consistency. A system allows data to be imputed which then creates the visuals of the design work.
“What is our visual system?” Our visual system is combining sound and colour to inform people of where is the loudest and quietest places to study in AUB. We have collected data on the hour at 5 different areas of the campus. A decibel meter reading was taken and then these numbers were used and put into groups. We will then create 4 different clocks that show how loud it is in each of the areas. We decided to make each of these clocks animated.
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DATA COLLECTION
A table of our results that shows how we took each reading and sorted them into groups.
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William Benton After deciding on our clock idea I needed to do some research on some artists who create interesting patterns. These patterns by William Benton caught my eye as they are snapshots from animated patterns. As our idea is to create an animated clock I was inspired by these images. I like the use of colours and how they are slightly see through which allows the colour from behind to come through giving the idea that the patterns blend in together. As our idea is to do with sound the circles link in with sound waves. I think that using circles will give the idea of sound. My idea is to use circles and make them look as if they are pulsing or changing depending on how much sound is being projected. I feel as if I won’t be able to create patterns this complex as I am using After Effects for the first time and this may limit the complexity of my work.
“Environmental recordings from the British Library Sound Archive translated into motifs for pattern design. I studied the sounds made by water and the physical patterns relating to the sounds. I made moving abstract animated patterns inspired by the forms and compositions in nature where the sounds were recorded. I also took snapshots of the them and turned them into A3 Risograph prints�
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Andy Gilmore These patterns are by Andy Gilmore. I wanted to find some other examples of patterns that were different from the ones by William Benton. I find the image to the right interesting as the pattern is the similar shape to a clock. I could use something similar to this and change the colours of each section depending on the information we have recorded. However, I would quite like to move away from the classic clock design and make it more abstract so that when you first look at it you can necessarily tell it is a clock. In the image above this creates what I would consider a wave effect. I could look into animating this so that the pattern moves in a wave movement. This again links in with the sound waves that we recorded. I think both of these patterns could become very eye catching once animated. I now need to go away and start designing some possible patterns to use for my clock.
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“A master of colour and geometric composition, Andy Gilmore’s work is often characterized as kaleidoscopic and hypnotic, though it could just as well be described as visually acoustic, his often complex arrangements referencing the scales and melodies in music.”
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VISUAL SYNTHESIS
WHERE IS THE QUIETEST PLACE TO STUDY AT AUB?
STUDIO
LT SUITE
Each shape represents a hour in time. Light blue is the quietest time going through to purple being the loudest.
LIBRARY
After looking into the research I did on the patterns I decided to make my own pattern. The one I created from influenced from Andy Gilmore’s designs. The idea is that each shape represents an hour of time and the darker the colour goes the louder the area of the campus is. Although we have chosen to go for a clock design I felt that we may need to have some key that explains the clock. However, after having a tutorial we decided that the clock should just be a stand alone thing and that an infographic was needed. Although this work wont be used I think it was good to do because it gave me a chance to create my own pattern that I could maybe move into After Effects and then animate.
REFECTORY
COURTYARD
VERY QUIET
QUIET
NOISEY
LOUD
VERY LOUD
EACH SECTION REPRESENTS 1 HOUR OF TIME FROM 9AM-4PM
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DESIGNS
These are a few rough sketches of some of the patterns I could use to animate my clock.
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VISUAL SYNTHESIS
Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics, visual effects and compositing app developed by Adobe Systems used in the post-production process of film making and television production. As my group decided on making 4 different animated clocks for different areas of the campus, this meant I had to learn how to use After Effects. As I had never used After Effects before I used Lynda.com to follow some tutorials to try and learn the basics of how to programme works. I found it quite hard to start off with and therefore had to think about what pattern I was going to try and animate. After looking through some other tutorials I found one that was similar to a design I wanted to do. It gave the effect of the pattern exploding out and I thought this could work as the louder the noise the bigger the look of the explosions could be. The tutorial that I was following gave instructions on how to create this simple exploding pattern. Once I had done this I played around with the size and shapes of the pattern to give off different effects, this lead to the pattern almost resembling fireworks. I feel like this started to work but it was all happening a bit fast, therefore I tried to slow down the whole thing slightly. After using After Effects for the first time I would like to explore it further in future projects. I feel what I have created from my first tome using this programme have come out well and better than I expected.
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AFTER EFFECTS
This is the set up of my layers. Each one is a different part of the explosion therefore there is a lot of layers that overlap and only last for a very short space of time.
Each layer lasted for around 1 second.
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VISUAL SYNTHESIS Refectory
Graphics Studio
Courtyard
Library
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DESIGNS
Each of our designs is set to represent a different area of the campus. We tried to keep to a colour scheme to using blues and greens and making the shade darker depending on how loud that area is. I feel like we have come up with some interesting patterns however as we have worked separately on these then they don’t work as a set of clocks together. This could however work as we wanted people to be able to easily tell which clock represented each area. I think we needed to stick to a strict colour scheme of using exactly the same colours for each clock as this would create a better and easier to understand visual system for the audience to work out. I do however feel like the clocks do what we set out to do and look abstract enough to make people curious about what they are, as well as being easy to understand once they know how the clocks work. We have stuck to our visual system and created something that could be used to help people around the university.
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VISUAL SYNTHESIS
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Critical Analysis Our final outcome is 4 animated, abstract clocks that inform students where the loudest and quietest areas of the campus are for studying at that time. If the area is quiet then the colours should be green going to blue for louder and purple for the loudest. Each clock has different movements, which give them an identity that makes it easy for people to recognize. I am pleased with how these clocks turned out however I think there is a lot of potential to develop them on further. Firstly, I feel like even though they need to be different there needs to be some aspects that bring the different clocks together. I feel at the minute they don’t look like they should be together as there is no consistency on time and colour. This could make it confusing for the audience, therefore I think we’d need to sit down and work on the clocks as a group to give them more consistency. Another improvement is the placement of the clocks. When we were presenting our work we had each clock playing one after each other. From our peer analysis people suggested that we needed to show all four clocks next to each other to understand them better. This could be done on a TV screen around the campus, or on something like computer screen savers. This would allow people to walk past, see the clocks and instantly recognise what they are without having to stop and take time to work out what they were doing. Overall, I think we created the basis of a good idea but we just need to move it on further and improve the overall look and readability of the clocks and their function.
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Wayfinding
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The Brief In the second part of this Unit you will build on your exploration and understanding of visual systems and begin to recruit your creative strategies to solve real world design problems. Wayfinding design involves the development of visual systems of signage, landmarks and mapping to facilitate the navigation of complex environments. Wayfinding is something people use every day and sometimes it’s something we don’t even notice is helping us. I would like my group to explore an interesting wayfinding system. I think this brief makes us focus on a system, similar to the previous brief. This means we need to have a strong system and know who we are targeting and how we are doing it.
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WAYFINDING
For my initial research I found a few book that showed examples of signage and existing wayfinding systems. After talking to my group we would like to move away from a conventional sign and try and create a system that uses another human sense. These books were good help as they gave us ideas of how existing wayfinding systems work and what aspects we need to bring into our project. Next we need to brainstorm some more ideas and work out who our target audience is and what system we want to use.
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RESEARCH
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WAYFINDING
After doing our initial research my group discussed what idea we wanted to pursue. From the idea of creating a sign using a different sense we came up with the idea of create a wayfinding system for visually impaired people. We found a map that is designed for visually impaired people that uses textures that are on the map. These different textures represent different parts of the walk. I like this idea because it allows the person to understand the surroundings in a way that they would be able to build a visual understanding instead of just reading words in braille. I would like carry this idea forward as I feel like we could create something that not only helps people but creates a system that could be used in lots of different environments due to a system that we create.
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INITIAL IDEAS
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WAYFINDING
Azonline.com
Azonline.com
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RESEARCH
Once we had decided on the braille idea we then needed to think about the designs and how we were going to create and display it. We did some research into subject and found a research report that claimed ‘The use of different materials with varied textures improves the recognition of tactile images by young blind people”. This lead us to look into looking at the use of textures and shapes. We found a school in America called Chandler School for Blind, this school is specially built for blind children. One of our initial ideas was to have something on the floor so that when the child enters the room they walk on something that gives them an indication of where they are. However, from our research we found that this school avoids having textures on the floor as this can confuse pupils who use a stick to help guide them around. Therefore, we moved onto looking at textures on walls and around the doors. We came up with the idea of having a plaque outside each door with an image that the pupil can feel and work out what classroom they are entering. The Chandler school has different textured walls to help with wayfinding. One of the designers that worked on “Seventy percent of the way we the school said “Seventy percent of absorb information is through the way we absorb information is sight, so when we had to go to a through sight, so when we had to go to a deeper level and depend on deeper level and depend on the the other senses, it made us work other senses, it made us work harder and think differently.” This is an issues us as group had to harder and think differently.” think how we would solve as well. These findings gave us lots of ideas and we decided to go away and think about how we would create a system that the pupils could follow to help them navigate around the school.
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WAYFIND-
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DESIGNS
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WAYFINDING
After thinking about the images we wanted to be on plaques we decided on the theme of animals to name rooms. We thought this would be a good idea because animals come in all different shapes and this meant we could make each plaque easily recognisable. We named each year group class after a different animal and then decided we would have the name of the classroom, the school year and the teachers name in braille below the image. From our research we thought it would help aid children’s learning of braille as they can relate the shapes of the animals to the words they were learning in braille. With the animals we had to choose if we were going to make them life like or cartoon, we felt that life like would be better as in the future learning the real shape of the animals would help. For four of the classes the animals did not have a texture to them. However, for the tiger and the giraffe we added in stripes and spots. This extra texture could make it more interesting for the children to feel. We needed to test this when we do the laser cutting and then decide which one would work best.
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DESIGNS
‘Year 1, Lion Room, Mrs Wright’
‘Year 3, Elephant Room, Mrs Brown’
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WAYFINDING
The small version which each child is given at the beginning of the year to take home and learn what each plaque means.
Once we designed the different animals we then used the laser cutter to engrave them into acrylic. This is the first time I have used the laser cutter before and I would like to use it more in the future as I think it’s a very useful tool. In our first test we set the engrave to work once, we realised however this didn’t engrave deep enough. On our second test we set the engrave to work twice and this provided exactly what we wanted. Due to the plaques main use to be touched it was important we got the right depth of engraving. Once we knew we had the right settings we then set the rest of the designs to be cut. Overall I am pleased with how they came out and I like the fact the animal is left clear with the rest of the plaque having a frosted look.
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LASER CUTTING
This is the large version. There will be one of these outside each classroom. Each on will have its own animal. This will help the children know where they are.
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We laid out our work on the table in the order of the plaques would go in.
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Critical Analysis For this project I feel we had strong outcomes, we identified our target audience well and had a system and designs that worked well for this target audience. In peer and tutor assessed critic we were given ideas how to improve certain aspects of our idea. Firstly, if the plaques were placed in a mainstream school then adding a colour to them would make them more visually pleasing. Also they could act as another wayfinding system for able sighted children who may find it hard to find their way around school at the beginning of the year. Even though we did research I feel like we really needed to go into a school environment and watch or speak to a visually impaired child to really understand if our idea would help them. Before moving on with the idea I think this is important, as it will hopefully give us a better understanding of what helps them find their way around in day to day life. Us not being able to do this research was down to not having enough time, next time we need to be careful that we pick a brief to move on with that we can achieve in the time frame we have. Having said that I feel we made a good start and this project and it is something good that is helping visually impaired children. The strengths of this project are that we set out a clear structure of how we wanted the plaques to look, this gave them a clear visual structure that helps with the wayfinding. We worked well as a group and had clear ideas on where we were going and the aims. We now need to do our primary research and use this to improve our ideas. Changing the scale or making the plaques more interactive could make the whole thing a more fun thing to have around in a primary school for all the kids. I feel that this project has been good for development I was using new processes such as laser cutting and I also looked into new themes that focused on other senses and not just how something looked but also how it felt to create the image.
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Subvert
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SUBVERTING A BRAND
The Brief This project will build on the deconstruction and analysis of the mapping brief at the start of the year. Every brand will have an underlying visual system that informs the design structure of touch points with its customers and potential customers. There will be a tight control of the brand narrative or company persona that these implementations generate. For this brief I am going to have to research how companies are branded and how I can take an existing brand and alter it whilst keeping to the existing brand look. I am going to research current issues that are surrounding company’s and see where I can subvert one to change the message of their identity but without moving too far away from that identity so that it is still recognisable.
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BRIEF
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SUBVERTING A BRAND
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INITIAL IDEAS
My initial ideas for this project are to take an existing brand and change it to give it a different message. My main idea was to look at alcohol brands and change their names to raise awareness for drink driving or the health issues. Other ideas were to look at large brands and how they avoid paying their tax.
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SUBVERTING A BRAND
The Budweiser logo is one of the most iconic and memorable beer logos in the world. The company has carefully built a strong corporate identity with its logo, the package and the colours used, in addition to the messages, all of which have almost stayed unaltered over the years. The “crown logo” of Budweiser is a prime example of a great corporate identity. The theme of the brand is “The King of Beers”, as the subtle use of the crown over the signature-styled company name and the red bow-tie shaped background symbolize classiness, elegance and royalty. The colours of the Budweiser logo are deliberately kept very bright, so that they can easily be seen from a large distance and help differentiate the Budweiser products in an overcrowded marketplace. Red colour is, for instance, used to stimulate the appetite, and white to typify purity and cleanness. The heavy usage of red also asserts that the company is proud of its American heritage.
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HISTORY OF
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SUBVERTING A BRAND
Once deciding on using the Budweiser brand I then had to work out how I was going to re-create the logo. I decided to use illustrator and then the pen tool to draw around the simple shape of the existing logo. I used the colour selection tool to get the right colours and added the different layers that create the logo. I did not want a direct copy of the existing logo therefore I used block colours and did not use the stripped effect that the current Budweiser logo has. When it came to the text I realised that to make ‘Be Wiser’ all I had to do was remove the U and D and take the E and place it after the B. Therefore, in Photoshop I was able to cut out these letters and simply join them together again. I decided to not use the crown on the existing logo as this make my new logo slightly different from the existing one and not a direct copy.
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CREATING THE LOGO
Each layer of the Be Wiser logo I created.
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SUBVERTING A BRAND
t would be placed in pubs.
Billboard poster.
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DESIGNS
Old Budweiser poster
I looked at existing Budweiser adverts and thought about how I could use these to change that to my new subverted brand. One advertisement that is popular with Budweiser in the bottle top turned around the other way to make it look like a crown, they do this as they call themselves ‘King of Beers’. I decided I was going to use this as the brown bottle is something that people will instantly relate to Budweiser. I think that the deep red that they use is also important, if it was a lighter red it would not have worked as well as Budweiser has always used the deeper red. For the place mat I decided to show the design in context so added it to an image I found of a place mat in a pub. The idea is that when people are having their drink in a pub they see the place mat every time they pick their drink up. I think this works better than the other design as it is more subtle and it being placed in a pub environment will make the message stronger.
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Critical Analysis These are my two final pieces for the ‘Subverting a Brand’ project. The first is a poster that would be used on billboards and in pubs/clubs etc. The second is a place mat that would be in pubs so if people were in the pub its something that is placed on the table and give a subtle message when people are sitting around tables. The purpose of these items was to take an existing alcoholic brand and change it slightly so that when people first looked at the logo they might not instantly notice a difference in the words. I feel I achieved this well as I kept to exactly the same font, colours and layout of the existing Budweiser logo. As for the final pieces I feel like I should have not used to statistic and just used the ‘Don’t drink and drive’ slogan on both. I think that sometimes people read statistics like that and aren’t that shock by them. Where as ‘Don’t drink and drive’ is a slogan everyone knows and has a simple but effective use. I initially thought about doing the some process with other brands of alcohol however I thought that if I started creating too many imitations of other brands it might be come confusing to the audience which ones are real and which ones are drink aware versions. I feel this is one of my strongest projects of the unit as the outcomes have subverted the existing brand yet still kept the same visual look as existing Budweiser advertisements. I feel the weaknesses of this project are slight design issues such as the placing in the bottle and the difference in drop shadows on the two different items, these are things that can be changed and would give the final pieces a more professional look.
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Visual Crypsis
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VISUAL CRYPSIS
The Brief Visual Crypsis is a strategy within the process of camouflage where a system merges with the surrounding environment. In the natural world an interactive visual adaptation can offer cover for attack or defence. Within the context of Graphic Design an important aspect of understanding the functionality of a visual system is to explore how one system can interact with another. What effect does a visual System have on its surroundings? How is the communication of a system-based design affected by the visual context of its implementation? I feel like this brief is very broad and we expected to start thinking for conceptually and pushing ourselves to think of new ideas. I would like to try and push myself to try something new in this project and feel it’s a good chance for me to push my ideas generation further.
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BRIEF
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VISUAL CRYPSIS
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INITIAL IDEAS
This project is very broad and therefore I found it hard to come up with initial ideas. I would like to use type and change it certain ways to see how far you can push it before it becomes unreadable. I think that creating musicians in their lyrics would be visually pleasing however I’m not sure that the idea is very conceptual.
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VISUAL CRYPSIS
This is the process in which I made these images. I started with the dark colours and then added in the shadows.
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The final images of Bob Marley (Right) Liam Gallagher (Below) and Jay Z (Bottom)
My first idea was to use the lyrics of famous musicians and slightly alter the colour of the text to show the image of that musician. To do this I took all of the lyrics of one album from that artist, I then found an image of them and placed it behind the text. From these I followed the image behind to alter the colour of the text. I found that there was a quick way to do this in Photoshop, however when I tried it the effect it gave was not what I was looking for. My visual crypsis system for this was the idea that when you are far away it is clear that it is an image of the artist but you are not sure what it was made of. However, when I initially printed it off I found that this was not the case and it was actually quite easy to tell it was words. I think this may be because of the size of the text and I need to reduce the leading a kerning to make the text more compact. This would have allowed for me to add more detail to each image. After tutor assessment I realised that this had been done before and didn’t bring anything new. It was suggested that I looked for a new theme that focuses on a more interesting subject such as something in the news. I could also try and use something else to create the image that is the opposite to what the audience believes the main message is.
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I decided to look into other artist who used type to create images. I came across a designer called Thomas Yang who created this poster below. I felt like this works a lot better than my previous designs because instead of changing the colours he had made the text where the image is bolder, This creates a much more subtle image that blends in well with the background text. I also think that because the added in image doesn’t fill the whole page the composition of the whole image works nicely. The image on the right brings in the element of using very small images to make a much larger image. This is something I talked about wanted to try with my work as I feel it adds an extra element to the crypsis system. This is the perfect example of what I wanted to try because when I first saw this image I did not realise that it was made up of small animals, this is what I want to achieve from my work.
100copies.com
Thomas Yang
VISUAL CRYPSIS
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100copies.com
VISUAL CRYPSIS
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DESIGNS
Following on from my last research I decided to go with the idea of using tiny images to create a larger image. From talking to my tutor when we discussed me looking at a news story I decided to go with the theme of gun problems in USA. From doing some research I found that thousands of people die from guns in the US every year. I found made gun vectors and then using a similar process to my previous idea I placed an image and then traced over this with the guns. I feel like this is the start of a more interesting image as hopefully it creates the visual system that I want where you can’t tell it’s made of guns. To give the image some context I am going to add an aspect that gives facts or figures on the gun crime in USA.
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VISUAL CRYPSIS
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DESIGNS
To give the poster some meaning I decided to add the names of all the children who have died from guns in USA since Sandy Hook. I feel like the added detail to the face works well and helps with the identity. However, the black box with the red text in it does not work yet. I think I need to rework this and make it feel as if it actually fits in with the rest of the image. After have a crit with my tutor we both agreed on this. It was suggested that I cut off some of the body and make the image feel less long. I think I am nearly there with this image once the bottom is sorted out.
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VISUAL CRYPSIS
Moving on from my previous attempt I feel I have created a much more visually appealing outcome now. By getting rid of the bold black box at the bottom and making it grey it brings the image together more. Also removing the red text helps as it did not fit with the visual style of the image. To make sure that it looked right before printing I tiled the image and printed it out. I feel the that the visual crypsis system I was trying to achieve works once printed off bigger.
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VISUAL CRYPSIS
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Critical Analysis Out of all of the projects so far in this unit I found this one the most challenging however, I feel like it pushed to me to work more conceptually. When I first read the brief I realised it was very broad and there was no real outcome that was expected of me. Straight from the beginning I stuck to one idea which may have hindered my final outcome as I did not text out a few ideas before I jumped into pushing one idea further. I feel my crypsis system was a strong idea however my first designs that I made with the musicians didn’t do the idea any justice and once I printed them off and saw that they didn’t work I knew I needed to add something extra to them. Adding a theme to the work gave it some meaning and context which it didn’t have before. The main thing that I would have changed about this project is choosing a different theme that is either more current or something more close to home. I feel I could have looked more in depth at it then and create something that had more of a meaning instead of something that people might just ignore when they walk past. I think that the actual design of my piece is the strong point and the guns create a really nice visual . As my idea was that you can’t tell what the head is made out of till you are close this system definitely works. From my peer and tutor assessment and my own personal view it was agreed that the idea was quite weak and doesn’t do justice to the design work. I think creating a series of posters would make a much more interesting visual, one poster on its own looks a bit lost and if you walked past it you would probably just ignore it. If however I was to stick to this idea it was suggested that I move away from the very familiar image of Obama as it feels like something that’s be covered a lot before. I feel that project has challenged me most as a designer as my idea was there but it took me a while and a lot of working time to come up with the final piece idea. I feel positive that even though struggling I was still able to create something visually strong even if it was a weak theme.
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Design Bridge
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Examples of work from Design Bridge
After looking at a number of graphic design companies to visit my group decided we would like to visit Design Bridge in London. We rang up the company and arranged to go and have a tour around and ask some questions about the business. Before going I looked into Design Bridge to make sure knew about the company, the work they have done and about how the company works. The company have over 25 years’ experience in the design and branding industry. They are currently working in over 40 countries across the globe, employing people from all over the world. On their website it says about their approach to work ‘No two brands are the same and no two brands should ever have the same solution. However, we believe all successful brands do have one thing in common: a great idea at heart.’ I like this philosophy as it shows they focus on having good ideas but try to make each brand individual to themselves. As Design Bridge is a large company it means that they have all the aspects of branding a company under one roof. This means they have departments from branding strategy, product design, brand naming and corporate branding. I like this as it means you would get to work alongside other people from different departments.
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Question and Answer
We were invited to ask some questions at the end of the tour
DESIGN BRIDGE
How has the company changed over the last few years? The demand of work has increased. We have had more contracts with big companies that demand more work. The amount of people working here has increased. Do you contact large companies? We have a business team who works with the large companies. Most of the large companies come to us due to built a relationship over the years. If we do small jobs it snowballs into more products. How much work do you have at one time? Project sizes and times span varies depending on what it is and how many products they want from us at that time. How did you become a designer? I entered lots of competition and I won one of the awards. This gave me a head start on others as I had contact with the company. Make sure that you are persistent and act keen when looking for jobs and employers like this. Is the company social? Yes we often meet up in the pub after work. We all go out as a company however it has been harder as the company has grown in size so much. Do you like working in London? Yes, I was a bit scared to move to London at first, but I settled in well and love working here. I think it has the best opportunities in the industry as well. What is it like working at Design Bridge? It still feels like we are at University, there is a really fun atmosphere. How many people work here? We have about 250 people now, however its grown a lot in the 2 years that we have been here. Can you give us any advice? When applying for jobs make sure you come across and friendly and enthusiastic. Look out for getting placements and entering competitions to gain relationships with companies.
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Examples of work from Design Bridge
I found this trip to Design Bridge really helpful as it gave me a good insight to how a company works and the sort of jobs that are available. As I have never visited a working graphic design company before it was good for me to see the working environment and how the offices are set up. I liked the fact Design Bridge was a large company who work in teams, this gives them a chance to share ideas and working styles. I also liked that they have all the different departments under one roof. So once the designers and branding departments had finished designing the products then people from the same company will carry on with the advertising of that product. I would have liked to have seen what it would have been like to work in a much smaller company so I had a comparison. Design Bridge has made me think a lot more about the future and what sort of job I want. I would like to visit some more companies in the future, hopefully on placements.
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Type Book
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TYPE
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INITIAL IDEAS
As a class we were given the task to create a book that highlights certain rules and things to avoid when using typography. Firstly, we made a long list of type rules that we thought were important. Once we did this we then split into small groups and were given two topics to look at. We had to research this topic and then create a small paragraph explain the rule and why it is important to follow it. Once, we did this we then had to created a double page spread that will be used in a collective book by the whole class. It is important to follow most of these rules when using typography as it can help with readability and make the type look better overall.
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My first 3 designs, the bottom two are the ones I fee work best.
TYPE
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DESIGNS
My groups different designs
After doing research into paragraph headings I found out the uses and what is the normal rules for using them. I wanted to push the boundaries of using a paragraph heading by changing the layout of the words. Paragraph headings are the way of introducing the block of text after them and can be used to make a statement. I feel like my two designs in the picture below work well as they are bold and are clearly a heading that catches your eye. I don’t think this design is something that would be used for every paragraph heading in a document, however it could be good for a statement page or something a bit different. I think the design on the right works better because it is easier to read, this is because it is directly above the two paragraphs of text.
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TYPE
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My design was chosen by my group to be featured in the final book. I think as a whole the class created a visually pleasing book that highlights important things when considering using type.
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Book
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BOOK
The set up of my book is A4 pages with a 10mm margin on the top, bottom and outside, I then have a 20mm margin on the inside to compensate for binding. I felt having a margin around the outside keeps the book looking neat and I have kept to this margin through out. For my grid layout I have five columns across and 7 downwards, I thought this would give me flexibility when it came to placing images and text but also giving me some sort of structure. For my blocks of text I either had them two or three columns wide, this allowed me to have a good line length which can improve the readability of the words. For images I was a bit more flexible, I felt like limiting my images into the grid my hold back the designs of each page. I did however use the gutter in the grid to help me with the spacing of my images. I feel like I have kept a strong visual language through out my book and this has been helped by sticking to my grid.
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LAYOUT
When thinking about the layouts of my pages I tried to think about how I could make it visually pleasing whilst also sticking to a structure. I decided that I have going to try and create shapes with my text boxes, this lead to moving towards a layout that uses diagonals such as the example above. I felt like this improved to visual look of my whole layout and it moved away from just having everything either centred or on the right and left. I tried to make the book consistent through out. For example, all of my artist research kept to a similar layout this means when you see that when looking through the book the reader should recognise this. I also used exactly the same layout for all my critical analysis pages which gave an end point to each of the sections of work. In the process of making the book I changed certain aspects that didn’t fit the visual style I was using. For example, I had placed a text box between two images, this is something I had no done at any other point in my book so therefore it was pointed out that it did not look right. After making these changes I now feel like the visual structure of my book is strong.
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BOOK
Aa
Palatino When choosing which font to use I wanted a font which would work well in a body of text and also for headers. I decided on Palatino which is a serif font, I think for a body of text this font is good as it is not fancy or stylized which I was trying to avoid. I decided to make my font 11pt, I feel this could be one weakness of my book as the font may be slightly too large. I felt because I was using A4 I needed slightly larger text to fill the space. I also changed the colour of my text to 90% black, I don’t think large blocks of black text looks as visually pleasing as a dark grey therefore used this through out my book. The final thing I changed was making all of the text justified to the left. I did this to make it fit to the visual structure of my book. As I wanted to create shapes I felt that having the text justified which made it the same shape as the images I was using allowed me to do this much more successfully.
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To help distinguish between each section of the book I decided to use a subtle colour scheme. Each section has a different colour which is used through out that section for the headers, captions and quotes. I think this helps the reader with finding their way around the book. I decided to use the typical colours from the colour wheel but alter them slightly so they aren’t so bright. This links in with not using black for the text and trying to make everything look too bright and no thought being taken into the colours chosen. I feel like I could have used the colour more however I did not want to over complicate the design,
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Final Unit Analysis Since starting this first unit of level 5 I have seen a step up in the level of that is expected of us as designers. I found that there was a good variation of projects that allowed me to work in lots of different situations such as group work, solo work, short projects and longer projects. This was helpful as it made me have to make sure that my time keeping was done well. I feel that my time keeping was one of my biggest improvements for this year and that I always had my work done on time. This helps as I am not rushing to finish I project the night before which may bring down the standard of my work. I feel like another strength has been pushing myself to try out new programs and ways of creating my work, for example using the online tutorials to learn how to use After Effects. By doing these things it pushes my work to show I am trying to use new things, even if the work is not as high standard as I would have liked I think it was good to show that I am willing to try new things. Last year I did not enjoy working in groups however this year I enjoyed it a lot more and like listening to other peoples ideas and working together with them. I think this is important, as working in groups is something that you will need to be able to do in a working environment. Even though there have been a lot of positives from this unit there is a few aspects I would have changed. I think that I struggled a bit with idea generation for some of the projects and I went with my first ideas instead of testing out others first. This is because the project briefs were a lot broader and therefore it pushed us to think more. Even though I found this hard I liked the challenge and that it wasn’t made easy for us. Overall I think the standard of my work has been good for this unit and I have displayed skills in lots of different ways and not just kept to the same style through out. I would like to carry this on to the next unit and hopefully develop my skills even further.
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Books Klanten, R (2008). Data Flow: Visualising Information in Graphic Design Klanten, R (2010). Data Flow 2: Visualising Information in Graphic Design Klein, N (2010). No Logo Maeda, J (2004). Creative Code: Aesthetics and Computation. Fawcett-Tang, R (2008). Mapping Graphic Navigation Systems. Smitshuijzen, E (2007). Signage Design Manual. Kramer, K (2012). Advertising for People Who Don’t Like Advertising. McLendon, C B (1982). Signage: Graphic Communication in the Built World. Lucas, G (2006). Guerrilla Advertising.
Websites Gilmore, A. http://crowquills.com/ Textured images help tactile recognition for the blind. http://www2.cnrs.fr/sites/en/fichier/cp_final_gentaz_en.pdf. Before a blind child can read a map. http://icevi.org/publications/icevix/wshops/0352. html. Chandler School For The Blind. http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/20130815new-feel-valley-school.html. http://designofalifetime.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/photo-made-from-text-photoshop-tutorial/ Yang, T. CYCLISM. http://www.100copies.net/product/25-cyclism. Branton, W. ( ). British Library. Available: http://www.williambranton. com/58021/3579854/gallery/british-library. SUMMARY: PRESIDENT OBAMA’S GUN-CONTROL PROPOSALS: http://www.ncsl. org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/summary-president-obama-gun-proposals.aspx. Budweiser Logo.: http://www.famouslogos.us/budweiser-logo/
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