OUGD404: Studio Brief 1 - How do you Read? (Development)

Reverting back to the original idea meant that it allowed for the contents to stand out and contrast agains the darker background and text.

Given that I originally thought about how this could potentially double up as a poster, I wanted to keep the contents to a minimum. Although I could have included short paragraphs on each section I felt that having just the colours and basic pictograms was enough to allow people to get to grips with the basics of colour theory such as with this page below.

At this point, it still didn't seem as harmonious as it could potentially be, the dark colour scheme didn't at all compliment the content within it and although it allowed for the colours to contrast well it looked too dark and dingy, not necessarily what I'd associate with colour theory.

Still keeping the content the same and the underlying theme of paint splatters, I simplified the designs even more to better compliment the overall style.

Having the colour scheme predominantly white, with hints of colour meant every colour stood out on it's own without the attention being taken away by something much less important. Simplifying the design also meant that the design appears much more mature and less like a child's colouring book like it did within the original designs.

Adding in little paint splatters between the colour and the text makes it flow that bit more smoothly rather than there being a harsh contrast between the white text and coloured circle.

OUGD406: Studio Brief 01 - Secret 7 (Development & New Ideas)

Further Development of Current Ideas

Taking into account the points made in the feedback session, I went on to further develop my main ideas up to this point.

Idea 1

Original Sketch

Inspiration for Development

Given that the underlying concept of my ideas are this idea of being worried and the connotations of being worried, I looked into some whimsically drawn illustrations since I felt that my idea is more illustration orientated.

The reason for this is that when worried or stressed I often become more clumsy, out of focus on tasks at hand etc. and so the 'carelessness' style of the work seems most relevant to my idea.

Rather than retaining the original drawing and adding colour to it, I decided creating a image traced alternative would create more of a distressed looked, again making the illustration more suited to the concept.

I originally experimented with block colour layered under the artwork, making it slightly uneven to match the style similar to the artwork above.

But it still looked too neat and even and so using the brush tool meant I was able to create a much more un even and jagged look.

Final Idea 1

This style of work suggests anxiousness, given the scruffy nature of it. It communicates a worried being due to the carelessness of the colouring in of drawing.

Idea 2

Original Sketch

Inspiration for Development

Whilst looking further into microvessels and things under a microscope, I stumbled across a few pieces of work that caught my eye due to their abstract appearance. This inspired me to develop my idea into something different and harness some of the colours and style of these photographs, in the hope to make my design stand out against others.

Final Idea 2

The underlying concept behind the wacky colours and disorientated composition is that it is representative of a worried mind, with the different layers being different thoughts that are causing said anxiousness. 

Idea 3

With this idea, the design appears very distressing due to it's complex mix of textures and distorted lines. The overarching theme of this was to give the appearance of shattered glass as often shattering glass or other objects can be result of anger/stress, often caused by worrying about particular things.

I wanted to retain this look but add further effects such as shadow and noise to complete the dark and distressed design.

After having a quick think, whilst watching TV, about situations in which someone could be stressed, it clicked that a lot of the time even something simple as watching watching TV can stress people out. In some cases, so much so that people go as far as to damage or break their TV, which I thought looks very much like my current design.

I thought of creating a distorted broken TV look and by incorporating a red overlay, that would further emphasise feelings of stress and anger.

Final Idea 3

Idea 4

As much as the sketchiness of this design already evokes feelings of worry and unease, I wanted to develop it further by adding relevant colours and creating a much higher contrast between the strokes and white space.

Originally I gave the design a dark and deep red look to accentuate the dark and looming passageway that is representative of a worrying person's mind but a friend pointed out to possibly try a lighter background to make the strokes sharper and harsher as opposed to blending in given that they're a similar colour.

Final Idea 4

New Idea (Idea 5)

One idea that was briefly mentioned in the first feedback session was something to do with a stress ball and so an idea that came to mind was to capture a hand grasping a stress ball firmly. Ultimately this would then be manipulated and effects added to it to create a darker and more stressed surrounding as illustrated in the sketch above.

First Attempt

For the first attempt, I made a stress ball simply out of flour and a balloon to fit the size of my hand as a regular sized stress ball would be too small in relation to the rest of the hand.

The only problem with the photos taken to use for this idea was that there doesn't appear to be much tension on the stress ball itself and so doesn't fully evoke the feeling of worry/stress that would make this a strong idea.

Given there was not at all much texture or tension going on within the photo, I decided to manipulate it in the hope to bring light to the underlying concept.

An idea I had was to focus on the contours of the hand and the stress ball themselves as often these highlight the different highs and lows of any object and would bring texture and depth to the flat design.

Different Styles of Contours

Final Idea 5

The background was something else I made adjustments, adding both texture and colour to it, so that the dark colour scheme would flow better together.

OUGD404: Study Task 09 - What is a Book? - Bookbinding

Photography Induction

Bookbinding

For this study task we had to photograph our books from our bookbinding induction we had a couple of weeks back. Each book had a different bookbinding method; the grey one was a concertina fold, the red one a saddle stitch and the green one a Japanese 4-hole bind. Each also come with their pros and cons as something such as a the concertina fold would be more for large images / to display work due to it's complex folding style. Whereas the other two books would be ideal for something such as notebooks or informational book.

Within the photography lighting induction, we were taught the basics of how the lights, soft boxes etc. work within a studio and was told to experiment with a mixture the lights and camera settings to find which combination best captures the object. One thing we also experimented with was silver reflectors, but with one of the sides painted gold to add more warmth to the shot.

The photos above were captured using just one studio light from a range of angles, hence the shadows and more depth within the photos. Whereas the ones below were captured using two studio lights that, in a way, kind of cancelled out each others shadows, making it better when shooting more 2D objects.

NEST Magazine

OUGD406: Studio Brief 01 - Secret 7 (Feedback)

4 Designs Comparison

During the last feedback session for this current brief, I received a lot about my designs at this current stage, including potential improvements and overall comments about the individual designs themselves.

One point that was made on a few occasions was that I should add colour to my designs to make them stand out more and be unique as at this point some of the designs lack contrast. This is going to be my next step with developing my designs, maybe not to add too much colour to some of them as I personally don't think it would work with the underlying concept, but some designs would definitely benefit from colour.

Feedback Comments

"I feel that design 3 works the best as it's more stressing to look at than the others."

"I'd say these work well without colour, I like the smashed glass designs as it works on the idea of being mentally broken."

"1 & 3 are the most eye catching. Colour might be nice but there is a certain charm to black and white, you might lose the level of detail with colour."

"I think that design 3 with the hole one is the best, just because it adds depth to the design."

Overall the feedback session was helpful in picking out the stronger designs of the bunch, as up until this point I was still undecided as to which one was most effective. Given design 3 seemed to receive the most positive feedback and that the underlying concept was understood clearly, I think this is the one I will focus more on in developing it into a final vinyl cover.

OUGD406: Studio Brief 01 - Secret 7 (Further Ideas)

One of my ideas that I followed up on was the one about how the blood vessels contract when stressed, which can often be a by-product of worrying. And so after research into this, the technical term for this that cropped up was vascoconstriction which is 'the narrowing of the blood vessels resulting from contraction of the muscular wall of the vessels, in particular the large arteries and small arterioles.'

An image was given as an example:

Vasoconstriction of a microvessel by pericytes and endothelial cells that encircle anerythrocyte (E).

This in turn give me inspiration for my first conceptual idea.

First Idea

Drawing a rough sketch of this whilst incorporating the textures and patterns that had previously inspired me, as shown on my first blog post, combined together to make for an interesting yet ambiguous visual.

Another idea I had that linked in with my first one was a slightly less magnified version of the whole blood vessels being constricted. One that showed a more overall view of the process, where the muscles expanded to constrict the blood vessels.

Rough Ideas

Inspiration for Idea Two

Katie Scott does a lot of anatomy based pointillism pieces, including the album covers done for Bombay Bicycle Club. This style of work is very similar to what I'm aiming to do with this current idea.

Idea Two (Rough)

Part way through

Finished Rough Drawing

Although none of my ideas up until now are done and final, the drawings have at least given me a good idea of where I want to go with them composition wise.

My third idea was completely different to the first two and instead was based more around the feeling of being worried, mental and emotional effects as opposed to physical. In some cases worrying can lead to isolation of both the person and their mind. They can isolate themselves from people but also become narrow minded in the way that they think, focusing on only their worry(s).

Idea Three

The main concept behind this idea was that it was a rough sketch of a never ending, narrow passage way. The sketchiness of the lines is representative of the uncertainty that often comes with worrying.