2014 s t r a n g e o c c u r r e n c e s c a l e n d a r p r o j e c t
something to consider I would like you to consider this digital process book as not only a booklet of the digital development, but as a design project within itself. Producing these books allows me to work/learn ayouts, displayed in a digital format. It also gives me chance to practise my skills for editorial design, which is a career path I have grown interest in in the last year of study.
Perfect Timing I have been asked by a shop in York to sell my prints in there store this coming summertime. For this reason I have decided to do this calendar project, it needed to be something to look ahead for and something that would sell so I can make a good impression with my work. I’ve decided on my exprience in Hong Kong to be part of this brief, titling this; Calendar Project ‘Strange Occurrences 2014’.
Contents Initial Ideas
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Secondary Research
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Idea Generation
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Binding Research
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Considering an outcome
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Final Idea for Calendar
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Questions.
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Layout Ideas
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Calendar Date Arrangement
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Illustrating via Stories
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Assigning Themes
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All Monthly Tasks
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The 12 Developments [this includes each moodboards]
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Each Months Final Illustration
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Designing the Front Cover
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Designing the Back Cover
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Front&Back Together
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Test Prints of the Calendar
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Binding the Calendar
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Photography of Final
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A2 Poster Idea
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A2 Visualistion of Poster
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Printing some illustrations onto t-shirts
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Summary & Reflection
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Initial Ideas. Sketching out the initial thoughts for the project - considering it’s theme etc. these are the sketchbook scans - please refer to the paper process book for a closer look at these developments
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left thinking about a process that could be used for this project and the months content
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SECONDARY RESEARCH Looking into a variety of calender layouts and designs allows me to bounce ideas around, here’s a few.
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Absolutely love the use of a concertina fold on this design, very colourful!
Scratching away a note or message? Unexpected daily tasks possibly?
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Applying it to a variety of platforms! Good!
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I like this idea of silkscreening the entire calender
‘be courageous’ - small positive notes is a nice concept
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This is playful, interactive, user is in control, it’s fun!
I could do a quick alternative and do a pocket set too
I’d like to add some kind of interaction, something to give!
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Could attach an envelope to each calender month with a note or task inside - aiding interaction
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Again turn it to digital - if all images are done in digital I could design a prototype of the UI
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Idea Generation Thinking about all kinds of ways to present the calendar and layouts after the secondary tresearch results.
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above thinking of layouts for the calendar should it be a book or a poster , or maybe loose cards even 18
above doodling after referring back to the research from earlier - getting ideas down on paper first!
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above this is where the idea of a task came to light - giving more interaction for the project - considering my user
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left Starting to think of creative ways to keep my user interacting with this work - I think this is a spouse of working on the app project and each project overlapping a little and the user experience has really grasped a hold of my design process.
Each month has a task that you must complete - this could keep the user engaged in each calendar month
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left leaving an element of suprise . The small pocket idea!
left leaving an element of suprise . The small pocket idea!
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above thinking of the illustration compositions - all one piece or seperate
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above how could this be displayed?
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left what would be the best size to display this calendar in? top questions - although I don’t see it, a lot of people tell me my work has an asian feel to it, possibly because I lived and studied in China for a year - and this is something I could major focus on, a kind of asian twist in the calendar. 26
binding research - how is it going to hang?
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Can it be used again? in other ways?
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Considering the outcome Here I thought it would be a good time to think about wha the out come of the project could be and explore this a little further.
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above I thought about making the illustrations all match up or having a kind of sequence to the images - so they would make a story and each month would link to the next illustrations story.
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above all the final smaller directions that the calendar could go in. Number 4 stands out the most at the moment and it has that element of suprise to it’s feature.
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above you have to pull out january to get to february somehow, make it interactive
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above I thought about making the calendar so you have to tear it - so it feels more personal for the buyer
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above think about this, everything is more fun when it’s interactive and you have an input!
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above cutting a line across the top and bottom of each illustration so you can tear off the illustrations
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above Find a way to somehow save the illustrations so they are not wasted! This is so annoying with printed calendars and it is such a waste of paper! 43
above a gift for the buyer
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The final idea for the calendar The idea for the calendar is going to be the task idea - where each month you are given a task and this can be completed within that month - the second section to this calendar is the option to cut away each months illustrations along the cut line so that you are not wasting your calendars and gaining 12 illustrations at the end of it
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Questions. Who is this for Sarah? Who is your audience? Is it a niche market. (I would say yes) How could it be displayed as a final outcome? Will it be framed or strung, held or put in a box - consider all the different options
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Layout Ideas Please find much more of this work in the paper process book attached with this CD. It’s difficult to display in a scan as a lot of them were mock ups of the layouts.
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Sticking with the task idea I think giving tasks each month with be a really nice idea for a calendar - people will be able to engage and attempt small tasks each month. Also being able to tear the illustrations off at the end of the calendar is a strong idea too - I’m going to try use both n this project
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above brainstorming 50
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Calendar Date Arrangements
above the task idea, link it into the page itself 57
above having a small tick box could be playful
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Illustrating via stories Stories could be a nice way of keeping the calendar flowing from month to the next. I’ve scanned in some pages to show you my thoughts in the paper process
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Assigning Themes I thought instead of having a lot of random tales and stories, I could theme each calendar month, so it could relate to a Strange Occurrence throughout. Here I’ve
redesigned the page from the paper process book so you are able to follow each month clearly of it’s direction and theme.
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January (new) - New World
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July (dancing) - “Don’t lose your head”
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February (binoculars) - Binocular
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August (pattern) - shelter
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March (tangled) - “Got outselves in a wee tangle
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September (lost) - “heads a shed”
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April (circus) - Riding the arm
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October (connected)
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May (giving)
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November (creatures)
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June (warmth)
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December (hang on)
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All Calender month Developments Starting from the top, I’ll design each illustration following my theme guide on the opposite page. There will be moodboards and initial sketches for some, if not all of the developments.
Please note. The sketchbook pages which are scanned in are the highlights to my design process - please refer to the paper process folder alongside this digital CD copy for a deeper insight into my development
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All Monthly Tasks Januarys Task
Find an adventurous friend and take a trip to the coast. Explore the sea! Maybe even take a dip, don’t let the weather stop you!
febraurys task
Take to the hills this month! Find the highest mountain and climb it and admire the view whilst eating your sandwich at the top.
Marchs task
Jump into a pile of leaves whilst nobody’s watching
Aprils task
Try something new this month! Learn how to juggle, take up cycling or take more time to play! Afterall, life’s too short to not have fun.
mays task
Don’t stay indoors this month. It’s warming up and the sunshine wants your attention. Go camping and build a campfire - cook up a feast!
junes task
Go to your local pool or find a nearby lake... then jump in! (be careful though)
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julys task
Summers here! Tell somebody your biggest dream and try accomplish it! if it’s not possible yet, do something crazy and half related and hope for the best!
augusts task
Pack your favourite book and a picnic, walk out your front door and take the afternoon soaking up the suns rays and reflecting on how beautiful life is!
septembers task
Tell that special parent, friend or lover how much they mean to you and take a moment to realise how lucky you are to have them. Nobody does this often enough!
octobers task
This month, give your time to those who really matter. Instead of a text, go for coffee, instead of a skype chat, cycle to there home. Switch off - it’s good for the back pocket as well as the planet.
novembers task
It may be turning cold but this months strange occurrence asks you to take a dip in the local pool, let out all the workish blues and jump in the deep end.
decembers task
Steal the carrot from somebodys snowman this month! Naughty IS nice, you could even replace it with something more fun - test out a variety of vegetables...
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January’s Moodboard
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January Lot
January
january cold
HW Jan 2011
Winter Sunset #2
C o l o u r D r o p p e r The colours to the right are the final choices for January’s calender illustration. 74
Januarys Development [New World]
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below final illustration choice to take further
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Digital January In all my illustration practise my journey starts off on paper and it is then scanned and traced in digitally, here is Januarys development process
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left tracing over the original drawing
above using colours from my moodboard research for January, I’m playing around with different complimentary styles.
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Illustrating the Islands
above tracing over the original drawing
above using moodboard for colour fills
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below google search + adding parts
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above using a shadow effect to make the small islands look lifted from the flat background
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above adding small features, in this case, a swimming pool
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Illustrating the Creatures
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entire page the process for each image is screenshot from the original tester journey - I apologise for it seeming choppy, it’s easy to get absorbed in the illustrating and forget to screenshot.
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left the random man who’s holding on
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Home & Gardens
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left oh hello!
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Colour Tests for January
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Januarys Final Illustration
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February’s Moodboard
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Winter Love
February Azure
st. Valentine
february clouds
Chilly
f i n a l c o l o u r c h o i c e s The colours to the right are the final choices for February’s calender illustration. 104
Februarys Developments [Binoculars]
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The Sketchbook scan I will work from
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Digital February In all my illustration work I sketch and them move onto the computer to trace and start adjusting the illustrations - Here is Januarys digital development journey.
Illustrating the roads
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left illustrating the roads and paths for this illustration was one of the funnest parts of this month. I can feel myself loving this 3d bevel feel in illustration as I go through more projects
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Illustrating the pond section This section was only very simple on the original sketch but I came up with the idea that the binoculars could be looking in some direction of the ocean or sea, and for
the sake of the composition the sketch is in already, a pond was a good start
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above a floating man, this would make anybody look through there binoculars wouldn’t it? 112
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The pond final
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Illustrating the eyes
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left hmm, hooks on the eyes or no hooks o nthe eyes 116
The floating people
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Illustrating the shop I thought it would be fun to make the typography on the shop look realistic and generally this whole illustration - I want it to feel space-ish but also fun and playful
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Feb: The Final Binoculars Illustration I’m finding it really difficult to choose between a dark background and keeping it white - so here is both outcomes until later
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Marchs Development [Tangled]
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Digital March Moving onto digital for this calendar month. I decided to make the character quite playful but worried looking - with the theme being tangled, he isn’t going to be happy.
above rough character drawings
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above no hair to lots of hair
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above testing both illustrations from the paper sketchbook in one composition
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above flight of the hollow people!
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Illustrating the hand gestures
above hand gesture no.1
above hand gesture no.2
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above hand gesture no.3
above hand gesture no.4
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A new perspective
above trying a different perspective for this piece to see if the background could bring the illustration into another idea. 131
above grasping various aspects of the illustration. Thinking about involving a second character (the leg he’s holding) 132
above testing another composition of a circle and his legs falling through the holes, I’m not keen on this drawing though.
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Marchs Final Illustration
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A p r i l ’ s Moodboard
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April Ttheme
April skies
April set
April showers
Soft spring
f i n a l c o l o u r c h o i c e s The colours to the right are the final choices for April’s calender illustration. 136
Aprils Development [Circus]
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Digital April Aprils drawing was done a while back in one of my sketchbooks - it’s a collection of a memory from Hong Kong and it states a strange occurence with me and playground.
For this reason, I wanted this illustration to be playful and busy - the circus idea seemed to grasp my overall experience rather well, so sections of that are apparent
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Penny Farthing Drawing
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left turning the bicycle on a tilt so it can fit in to the composition better
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Testing Moodboard Colours
above I’m adding colour to see which ones are complimentary for this illustration, using my moodboards with the eyedropper tool to collect nice april feeling colours! 143
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above eyedropper tool
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above this illustration was difficult to screen shot as there were so many sections to get absorbed by that I forgot half the time to collect the shots - I hope you can see the flow of my process from these pieces.
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above testing on a dark background
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April: The Final Illustration
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above a zoomed in version to grasp the busy bits
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M a y ’ s Moodboard
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maye
pica colour
Tkilmay
May sun
May
C o l o u r D r o p p e r The colours to the right are the final choices for May’s calender illustration. 154
Mays Development [Giving] left this illustration was rather simple in it’s process as it was a case of scanning and reworking digitally with only small sections being changed.
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above taking coours from the mood board to create an innocent May effect
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left this illustration was pretty much taken from the sketch and added colours and some small extra sections
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above trap door
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above top piece finalised
above pop up man
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above making shadows of the folds is fun! also, the road leading from his box leads up to the house
above road nose!
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A Different Composition
above testing the cicle composition
above splodge
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May: The Final Illustration
above road nose!
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J u n e ’ s Moodboard
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June Wedding
SummerHyrdo
Blueberry Pink Blossoms
Blue flowers
June Wedding
f i n a l c o l o u r c h o i c e s The colours to the right are the final choices for June’s calender illustration. 164
Junes Development [Warmth] left this illustration was pretty much taken from the sketch and added colours and some small extra sections
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Digital June
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above playing with this idea of shadows again
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above testing different colours against the moodboard research
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left could this be extended in to more of a bulky-ish illustration? Or is simple better?
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June: The Final Illustration
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J u l y ’ s Moodboard
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colors mono rus
spring breeze
summer sunset
ice cream on the pier
plaid and blue jeans
f i n a l c o l o u r c h o i c e s The colours to the right are the final choices for July’s calender illustration. 172
Julys Development [Dancing] For Julys calendar month, it’s going to be rather playful hopefully, going with the theme of dancing it needs to be upbeat with bright colours with what July brings...
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below I began by drawing over the illustration with the pen tool
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above after working over the images with the pen tool, I tried and tested some colours from my mood board. I’m finding it hard to work with this illustration as it’s quite bare... I might try adding sections 175
above maybe having a festival feel to the month - keeping it dance related
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right illustrating the festival idea
dan c in e Jul y
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Creating a Pop-up book feel
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above I’m unsure whether an a5 piece of card would do it justice
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July: The Final Illustration
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left after trying the festival idea, it really wasn’t working too well and so I decided to be safe and stick with the whispering girl illustration - the only downfall is it comes away from the original theme of ‘dancing’, maybe this can be explored in another brief
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August’s Moodboard
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summer breeze
orange august
late summer mint
smooth side
late august
f i n a l c o l o u r c h o i c e s The colours to the right are the final choices for August’s calender illustration. 184
August Developments [Pattern]
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Pattern plans The focus of August is pattern and I have lot’s of pieces to work with for my ideas - as you can see opposite I’ve thought about it involving characters
or it could be lots of faces and they could be screenprinted onto bags?
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left as it’s going to be patterned I’ve taken a busy illustration to work on There was one particular section of this illustration that I loved and it was the woman standing on the cables with the umberella - I tested this section in the next pages.
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Digital August
above drawing over the scan in digital
above colour!
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above testing as a repeat
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Working on a repeat
above testing as a repeat 191
above testing as a repeat 192
Compositions & colours
above testing as a repeat
above testing as a repeat
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above testing as a repeat
above testing as a repeat
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Compositions & colours
above umberella upright
above upside down chinese heads
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above tiny pattern tester
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August: The Final Illustration
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above testing as a repeat
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September ’s Moodboard
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September falling
September wedding
September
Autumn is coming
autumn leaves
f i n a l c o l o u r c h o i c e s Final colour choices for Sepetembers calender illustration. 200
Septembers Development [Lost] Septembers imahe was a very simple one, the theme for this month is lost and I found in one of my sketches a small section of this feeling/theme.
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Digital September
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Playing with the head of boxes idea. I think the reason begind this illustration giving me the feeling of loss is because the head is empty and the heart is raining
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above/right placing a black background on to try to emphasise this word ‘lost’
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above raining inside
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September: The Final Illustration
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October’s Moodboard
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October Soft
october days
svalbard october
october lake
october Mist compound
f i n a l c o l o u r c h o i c e s Final colour choices for October’s calender illustration. 210
Octobers Development [Connected] This illustration speaks about Hong Kongs connectivity as a city - it is one big machine of connections. This is where my thoughts lead to
in this illustration and this is why I have chosen it as the Strange Occurrence for October.
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below I have my moodbaord at the ready!
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Character 1
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Character 2
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Character 3
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above rainshower feet & your A, B, C’s
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October: The Final Illustration
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background or not background 220
November ’s Moodboard
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November leaves
17th of November
cold november
november friday
november willows
f i n a l c o l o u r c h o i c e s Final colour choices for November’s calender illustration. 222
Novembers Development [Creatures] Creatures as Novembers calendar month was interesting - I had the perfect match - there not the weirdest characters I’ve ever drawn but I love the compositon and the scenic aspects of being in water. The strange occurrence in this piece is the awkward wave faces.
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below ”Ooooooo” [ocean voices]
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above testing colours
above lots of fun with the transparency effect in these colour testings
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above use it on an iphone or ipad? Hello phone/laptop/ipad wallpapers.
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November: The Final Illustrations
above lighter bottom
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above darker bottom
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December ’s Moodboard
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december skies
december flower
happy x-mas
english winter
father christmas in the snow
f i n a l c o l o u r c h o i c e s Final colour choices for December’s calender illustration. 230
Decembers Developments This is very much the same case as the previous few illustrations - the development for is very straight forward as I only had to scan in my drawing and then add colours
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left playing with colours - however these screenshots seemed to have altered colours please be aware of this
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above colour test
above colour test
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above colour test
above colour test
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Testing colours: Purple December
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left using the moodboards for colour testings
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Testing colours: Orange December Working off the moodboards straight onto the illustrations with the eyedropper tool
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The Background: Colour Tests
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above working on a pattern border is difficult as I’m not sure it looks too busy
above so far these are the favourites
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December: The Final Illustrations
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left this final illustration was really difficult to decide upon because I don’t normally work with pattern in my work and the border here feels very heavy with pattern - however on my SBIllustration facebook page I got feedback that the border looks neater - so I’m going with this one from primary resource!
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Each months final Illustration The next three pages will show you a collection of all twelve finalisedillustrations for the Strange Occurrences Calendar
January
February
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March
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April
May
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June
July
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August
September
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October
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November
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December
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Designing the Front Cover For the front cover I thought it could be a nice idea to collect a small section of each illustration from the twelve already illustrated. Take a look a the sketchbook scans here too...
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Combining illustrations into One
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Final Front Cover illustration The process to get to this stage hasn’t been recorded too well with screenshots but here is the overall look - you can see there is a number of other calendar months mixed into one composition.
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Designing the Back Cover Taking the same idea, shown differently. With many calendars you get in print these days, they have a back which shows all of the the months images on the back - I tried this and really enjoyed the mix of imagery, so this is now the back cover for the work!
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Front&back Together
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Test Prints of the Calendar I ran some test prints for the signiture checks before printing the full calendar, please refer to paper process book for the real books, it’s much better looking in hand.
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left spell check!!!
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Binding the Calendar Handmade & Bound
above checking each signiture is in line
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above cutting each page to its correct size
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above using both rulers to measure the straight middle line for sewing
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above sewing each signiture together
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Photography of Final
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A2 Poster Idea
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A2 Poster Design Visualisation [Framed Poster]
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Printing some illustrations on to a t-shirts
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Reflection & Summary
Managing the Project
Highlights
I found this project was managed rather well, I didn’t fall of track of my selfdirected project length at all. The order of my illustratons were done in a structured manor and the outcomes feel strong in each calendar months content
With an enourmous love for creatures and strange occurrences myself - this project was a highlight from the off! It was great news to recieve such a pleasant email from the owner of the store in York and so this was the drive behind the calendar. I wanted it to say “Oh, that’s defiantly Sarah Burgess’ illustration work” so that my work speaks as me as an illustrator, I feel I’ve accomplised this aim. Another highlight was the response on my SBIllustration page regarding these illustrations on tshirts - I’ve sold four already!
Failures
What would you do different next time?
I’ve been working on a user experience brief in another project this semester which focuses very much on it’s user and their needs and my reason for the design. Doing a project like this, has no target user as such, it is aimed towards a much more niche market, which in a sense has been a struggle for me to accept after being so absorbed in a project which revolves entirely around it’s user.
If I were to take on this project again I would not change too much apart from my screenshot journey, I feel I didn’t take enough screenshots to show you this process entirely from the beginning to the final outcomes - however, apart from this I am pleased with the final pieces and the response (and pennies) I am making already from doing this project.
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Thank you for taking the time to view my digital process book, feel free to take a look through the paper process or give a months task a go!
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