Colour Theory
For the start of this brief the tasks we were given were to test our ability to mix colour and evaluate our capabilities of creating tone with limited colour choice. This included a copy of the colour wheel, 2 sixteen step scales one in Grey and the other of my choice and grids that referenced tone and colour that can be associated with atmosphere and place. I found this task interesting and more challenging than I expected as it was quite difficult to get that perfect colour tone from just being able to mix either primary or primary and secondary colours, but a better understanding of tones and hues I believe was achieved.
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Composition Warm Up
For the next part of the brief we had to create abstract collages that evoked a certain meaning; Aggressive,Storm at Sea,Sexy,Quiet,Tokyo and On the Ice Shelf. This was done wtih the intention of using colour, texture and composition to achieve this.
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Designing with Type
The last task set for the first week was to design with type. The object of the brief was to create and convey a message to viewer using only typography, these fell under the categories of Scale, Playful, Power, Pattern,Masculine, Feminine and using typefaces Bodoni, Rockwell, Helvetica, Claredon, Calibri and Myriad Pro.
This task was one that I thoroughly enjoyed as I like Typography and how in this task I was able to experiment and play around with the layout, colour, scale and structure of fonts and how they can be interpreted when set to the correct theme.
This task was one that I thoroughly enjoyed as I like Typography and how in this task I was able to experiment and play around with the layout, colour, scale and structure of fonts and how they can be interpreted when set to the correct theme.
Scale
Playful
Power
Pattern
Feminine
Masculine
Composition
Week two's brief theme was 'in the style of' where we were given three artists and three books with the aim of producing 3 book covers (front only) which each incorporated the style of one of the designers with the freedom of choosing the designer that best matched each book.
The artists were Vaughan Oliver, Peter Grundy and El Lissitzky with the books (in order of my choice of match) Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding and Animal Farm by George Orwell.
This has been another task which I have thoroughly enjoyed as the challenge to convey the right message to the viewer and in the designer's style created a greater understanding for myself to appreciate the importance of each designers own style.
The artists were Vaughan Oliver, Peter Grundy and El Lissitzky with the books (in order of my choice of match) Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding and Animal Farm by George Orwell.
This has been another task which I have thoroughly enjoyed as the challenge to convey the right message to the viewer and in the designer's style created a greater understanding for myself to appreciate the importance of each designers own style.
Bridget Jones's Diary - Peter Grundy
To begin with I was not very fond of Peter Grundy's style on first glance, however after spending time with his style and playful colour choices I am now converted and actually found his style to be the one I most enjoyed incorporating into a book cover. I used Illustrator to build and create and loved playing around with shape, fonts and colour.
At the beginning of the week I produced thumbnail visuals which I then developed into digital copies and then finalised to clean digital images.
At the beginning of the week I produced thumbnail visuals which I then developed into digital copies and then finalised to clean digital images.
Along the way of my digital process I took screenshots to show how I was building shapes in Illustrator to create my work.
I have linked videos which helped me to create these.
I have linked videos which helped me to create these.
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Digital Developments
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Final Developments-Top 3
Animal Farm - El Lissitzky
My second choice of book and artist was Animal Farm in the style of El Lissitzky, I already am quite aware of his design style from researching his work for another module and previously and after researching George Orwell's book they were the perfect match. The strong constructivist and communistic relations from the book and El Lissitzky's work, developed well into a book cover although it was tricky trying to figure out how to adapt a pig and animals into a constructivist style. I like the heavy use of typography in his posters so tried to incorporate this as much as possible into my designs.
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Digital Developments
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Final Developments - Top 3
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Bleak House - Vaughan Oliver
Lastly, Bleak House in the style of Vaughan Oliver was my final book cover. After researching in Oliver, I understood that his work does not necessarily have to have a imagery that connects to the subject matter. His creative flare distressed and distorted, mainly consisting of dark earthy and grungy colours, but always at the center of his work is bold typography usually in a scripture or hand written font.
When creating in the style of Oliver I took photo's of texture's of the ground and tree's where I live and then edited them so that they blended into the background creating distorted layers and giving the imagery some rough essence to it. I tried to find the most interesting fonts that I believed best matched the imagery, rough brushstrokes and elegant hand written fonts were the main focus when I was trying to achieve this.
When creating in the style of Oliver I took photo's of texture's of the ground and tree's where I live and then edited them so that they blended into the background creating distorted layers and giving the imagery some rough essence to it. I tried to find the most interesting fonts that I believed best matched the imagery, rough brushstrokes and elegant hand written fonts were the main focus when I was trying to achieve this.
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Digital Developments
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Final Developments - Top 3
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Final Top 3 Choices
Bridget Jones's Diary
Animal Farm
Bleak House
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Telling Stories
For the final task of the brief we were given the challenge of creating an 8 page book based on a song we were given. My song of choice was Ring of Fire but the Bob Dylan version, I am not a fan of the Johnny Cash version! The main aim of this brief was be able to use typography, imagery, colour, composition and artistic flare to create a book that was personal to myself when I listen to the song with my interpretation of the lyrics and rhythm in a visual way. We were given full creative direction so you could really develop each page how ever you truly desired as long as the inspiration was in connection to the song.
I really tested my creative and digital skills from completing this task and absolutely loved it, I believe the past few weeks really added stamina to my work from understanding the power of text, it's uses and colour. The only rule we were given was to have the full song written throughout the book.
I really tested my creative and digital skills from completing this task and absolutely loved it, I believe the past few weeks really added stamina to my work from understanding the power of text, it's uses and colour. The only rule we were given was to have the full song written throughout the book.
I found these video's useful when researching and thinking how I would approach this task.
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Building Process
These screenshots were taken along the way of digitally designing my book pages using Photoshop and Illustrator. This creative process is something I really enjoyed when it came to this brief as I felt from thumbnailing my ideas I was more certain about what I needed to build and research in order to create the work digitally. This helped me to further develop my skills, confidence and knowledge.
I have linked video's which helped me along the way.
I have linked video's which helped me along the way.
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Developments
Final Book
https://issuu.com/home/published/final_book_7edbc9fa98d567
Front (1)& Back(8) I chose to do a simple front and back cover, as I didn't want to take too much attention from the inside of the book which I knew has a certain path to it. The Cover is simple and doesn't make you think much of it, such as the song at the beginning however the smooth and jazzy tones eclipse the round and fun tone throughout the book. I kept in tone with the colours that came to me when listening to the song, reds, oranges, pinks and dark colours incapsulate the song as the ever referring lyrics to 'burning ring of fire' and 'flames'.
Page 2 just gave me a sort of 'groovy' vibe when you listen to the Bob Dylan version. I knew I wanted to really emphasize the lyrics and use bold typography with powerful colours throughout rather than lots of imagery and really enjoyed seeing what I could create and get the same message conveyed to the reader as I do. The song to me in this version is fun, smooth and sophisticated.
Page 3 was the one page that I felt I had to add some sort of imagery of burning rings even though I was trying not to, it was really hard to pull away from fiery rings being on the scene somewhere as I couldn't get the thought of it out of my head. I also didn't want to add the same imagery as the lyrics do repeat themselves and didn't want the pages to seem repetitive, this is also why I re-wrote the chorus over and over but a bit faded as to show this. Originally I wanted to have rings like Saturn's falling diagonally on the page with the text weaving in and out of the rings or being inside them however I then discovered the flame tool in Photoshop and this way I felt I could get that fiery imagery onto the page realistically and adding effect.
Page's 4 & 5 is where I really had some fun and just wanted to add a bit of surprise to the rest of the book. The lyrics just reminded me of retro vintage sweets and how love is like a sweet pill to take, addictive. I also felt I wanted this page to be fun as the thought of a child in a sweet shop just kept running through my mind, I wanted to incorporate both but make it be fun yet relevant, also this part of the song Bob Dylan sings is catchy and just adds more upbeat tones to the song, again I wanted to envision this in my book half way as the main point of the song before it quietly dies down in the song. I really loved building the shapes in Illustrator and I am rather proud of my work as I didn't think I was that savvy with these types of digital media yet I feel I have proved myself wrong and feel rather pleased with all the work I created over the past 3 weeks digitally.
Pages 6 & 7 Are the repetitive and steady ending to the song, therefore I wanted to pace the book slower and just focus on having bold typography to take center fold to the final few pages and use simple colours that really get across the feeling and sophistication of the song. I believe I achieved this with the emphasis of the words that stood out to me, and using slight effects to create that warm burning imagery of flames that you get when listening to the song and from reading my display of the lyrics in my book.
Front (1)& Back(8) I chose to do a simple front and back cover, as I didn't want to take too much attention from the inside of the book which I knew has a certain path to it. The Cover is simple and doesn't make you think much of it, such as the song at the beginning however the smooth and jazzy tones eclipse the round and fun tone throughout the book. I kept in tone with the colours that came to me when listening to the song, reds, oranges, pinks and dark colours incapsulate the song as the ever referring lyrics to 'burning ring of fire' and 'flames'.
Page 2 just gave me a sort of 'groovy' vibe when you listen to the Bob Dylan version. I knew I wanted to really emphasize the lyrics and use bold typography with powerful colours throughout rather than lots of imagery and really enjoyed seeing what I could create and get the same message conveyed to the reader as I do. The song to me in this version is fun, smooth and sophisticated.
Page 3 was the one page that I felt I had to add some sort of imagery of burning rings even though I was trying not to, it was really hard to pull away from fiery rings being on the scene somewhere as I couldn't get the thought of it out of my head. I also didn't want to add the same imagery as the lyrics do repeat themselves and didn't want the pages to seem repetitive, this is also why I re-wrote the chorus over and over but a bit faded as to show this. Originally I wanted to have rings like Saturn's falling diagonally on the page with the text weaving in and out of the rings or being inside them however I then discovered the flame tool in Photoshop and this way I felt I could get that fiery imagery onto the page realistically and adding effect.
Page's 4 & 5 is where I really had some fun and just wanted to add a bit of surprise to the rest of the book. The lyrics just reminded me of retro vintage sweets and how love is like a sweet pill to take, addictive. I also felt I wanted this page to be fun as the thought of a child in a sweet shop just kept running through my mind, I wanted to incorporate both but make it be fun yet relevant, also this part of the song Bob Dylan sings is catchy and just adds more upbeat tones to the song, again I wanted to envision this in my book half way as the main point of the song before it quietly dies down in the song. I really loved building the shapes in Illustrator and I am rather proud of my work as I didn't think I was that savvy with these types of digital media yet I feel I have proved myself wrong and feel rather pleased with all the work I created over the past 3 weeks digitally.
Pages 6 & 7 Are the repetitive and steady ending to the song, therefore I wanted to pace the book slower and just focus on having bold typography to take center fold to the final few pages and use simple colours that really get across the feeling and sophistication of the song. I believe I achieved this with the emphasis of the words that stood out to me, and using slight effects to create that warm burning imagery of flames that you get when listening to the song and from reading my display of the lyrics in my book.