Thursday, 30 April 2015

OUGD603 - Design Publication briefing & initial ideas

Forever ago a few months back now, we had a visit from Ben at Ditto Press who presented us with a brief that I think a lot of us were confused about.

I never blogged it since I didn't think that my ideas were strong enough to pursue into an actual physical item, and if I'm honest I felt disinterested because I didn't understand. I think that it was such an open ended brief, it caught a lot of us off-guard, as we weren't used to working like that.

The brief was to simply present our 'methodology'  IE the way we go about producing work, but focussing more on research. I don't know whether it was because it was so early in our year, and as we are growing all the time, I didn't really identify myself as an independent researcher but more independent in how I went about producing.

So instead, I invented a fictional methodology, I called it 'One hour Internet', the idea that to research a project in a unique way, would lead to unique production outcomes. The One Hour Internet meant that the designer would limit themselves to only one hour of internet for initial researching of a given project, finding out initial facts like dates, locations, contacts, etc.
The final outcome of the One Hour Internet methodology publication would be a journal much like 'wreck this journal' and it would encourage or inspire the user to think of other ways of researching that didn't involve the internet.
Or it would be a giant poster or wall mural of a huge spider diagram, showing loads of alternative research ideas: 



The only way I felt like there was some sort of challenge to the project, was doing something that was out of my comfort zone - I spend nearly all my time researching on the computer! But this meant that my ideas were dry and purely decorative, and so the project went stale.

Until today.

The brief became a bit more open to just your research methodology - and not only what was being produced. The brief became a 'publication' about yourself, in any form you wanted it to take.

The Monday just gone, I paid a visit to a design studio local to me at my home in Warrington, Cheshire : Media and Digital. There, I got to see professional and everyday application of Augmented Reality, something I had been fascinated with for a very long time.

Over the course of the three years I have established a love for historical and contextual themes, particularly 1940s, 50s and 60s design, design for children and Theme Parks, themed spaces and experiential or interactive design. I saw this as an opportunity to show that.

My strengths lie in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop illustrations in these styles.

After my meeting at Media and Digital (MAD) they explained the basics needed for a successful augmented reality poster:

  1. A jam packed 'trigger image' IE the printed image that the smartphone will have to scan to prompt the animation.
  2. A decent length animation, whose first frame should match the trigger image, for a completely seamless transition.
  3. Music

I decided that for the animation, I should animate a quote, 1960's title sequence style. Plenty of bright colours, child-like hanna barbera style illustrations to match and some cool 1960s jazzy music.

The quote I chose was from my biggest inspiration and closest idol, Walt Disney (again expressing my love for theme parks) "It's kind of fun to do the impossible".

Then from that, I decided, 'what's impossible?':

  • Rocking Horse poo
  • Hen's Teeth
  • Flying Pigs



I feared that the whole thing would look a little weird, but hey, I am weird.

This outcome would basically 'tick all the boxes':

  • It shows off my strengths and interests in digital illustration and contextual styles
  • It exhibits my love for interactive and experiential design that could be used in themed spaces such as theme parks.
  • It shows where (or who) I get my inspiration from (Walt Disney)

There would be a lot of work, as I have never done animation before!! But would it be enough as an experience to see the work that had gone into it??


Tonight I have sketched this image ready for the critique tomorrow with Tony Broomhead, I'm hoping my group can tell me I'm not crazy. Or that I am and it's OK!

OUGD603 - The Disney Wedding Podcast/ Fairy Tale Weddings Podcast Brief

After the launch of my website only yesterday... I already have a client!

Carrie Hayward approached me via email:


The brief is to create a logo kind of Disney-esque, Vintage style and wedding-y: she couldn't have approached a more suitable person! 

I replied with this:

'Hi Carrie!

I'm so delighted to have such a quick response since posting my website only last night! I am humbled that you like my work. 
I do do logo design - and have just had a look at your blog and I'm excited! I can see you're a victory-roller and Disney lover just as I am, so this should be good fun.
My rate is currently at £12.00 an hour - I'm assuming you are stateside? It's about 18 USD an hour, and I doubt that the logo would take me more than a day (8 hours).
I really like the new vibe you are going for - if you are interested I ask that you send me a few more pictures of the kind of logo vibe you are after (just off google or something), so we know we are on the same page.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks and kindest regards,

Sarah'

To which she replied with links to a couple of Pinterest boards of the kind of things she was after for logo:

And the intended theme of her blog she wanted to use:

She also added further specifications:

'A couple more things I thought of....
  • If one word is to be stressed, it should be "wedding"
  • We should downplay "Disney" if possible
  • I'll need a version that fits in a square for iTunes that's somewhere between 1400 x 1400 and 3000 x 3000 pixels
  • It might be nice to have a rectangular version too, but I think a square should work with most of those blog theme headers'
So I shall be starting off with ideas now!!

Friday, 24 April 2015

OUGD603 - Penguin book cover Competition 2015 UPDATE

Today was the announcement of the shortlisted entrants for the Penguin Book Cover competition. Unfortunately, I wasn't accepted, but I'm not too disappointed since I really enjoyed creating the work and it's been a strong contribution to my portfolio, even if it wasn't what they were looking for. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the winning resolution in a few months time.


Wednesday, 22 April 2015

OUGD603 - Verity & Matthew Wedding Stationery Design - Final Images

Here are the final images of Verity & Matthew's Gatefold wedding invitation:



Open from the front with the couples 'logo'


Open inside


Open from the back

The end result of the designs turned out OK, but if I were to do the project again, I would suggest doing something more elaborate in design, or if the client is insisting on something more simple, then I would suggest something more cost and time effective!

Thursday, 16 April 2015

OUGD603 - Peter and Paul interior space brief - final piece and conceptual mockup

So,

I completed the design :  

We proceeded to take our own photos of the area it was intended for and I went and added the design in photoshop and mocked it up on the wall:


You can see the design also on my website here: www.sarahhealdesign.com

Wednesday, 15 April 2015

OUGD603 - Peter and Paul Interior Space Competition - development

It's been a few months since me and Roxxie last presented our work to the senior management team, graphic design and Peter & Paul, and even though our idea was rejected, we decided to pursue and finish the design as if it were chosen, and present it as a conceptual mockup in our portfolios. 




Since the last post, this is as far as we got. Since then we took the design, scanned it and took it into Adobe Illustrator.




We did the initial digitisation way back in January, and sitting here only three months later I'm already thinking I would do it differently knowing what I know now. I traced over each letter using the pen tool and a mouse, when now I wouldn't doubt using my drawing tablet and playing around with line thickness to create the same effect, only it would take me a day, not two weeks! 
I was responsible for the lettering at this stage, whilst Roxxie was more about the grapes, vines and leaves. 


I then added the shadowing detail, again I would do it so differently had it been a few months later. I added the shadows as a bunch of shapes with gradients in them on top of the design. I don't know what I was thinking of! Because when it came to adding in the 'to' ...


.... I used my drawing tablet and added the shadows in Photoshop with the brush tool. Took about two minutes!! 



And you can't even tell the difference! 

I then moved onto the fountain. I started with the concave shell shape above the tap, by drawing a set of gradiented circles in a semicircle shape. I decided to use the pen tool to create two straight edges on each one, after seeing a teardrop tutorial in first year.





Then after messing about with the gradients, ended up with something like this.


Roxxie did the tiles design, but I rearranged the pattern so that the tiles were equally spaced apart like a tiled wall might be. I really liked the spacing she previously created, but felt like the rest of the design was already busy enough and perhaps this is a section we could pull back with.


The design so far. The yellow thing bottom left was to become the tree.


After using the pen tool to 'fill in the gaps' of the vine, it was difficult to make the tree flow seamlessly. I wanted the type to be left kind of on it's own, meaning that the bush had to become thinner near the top of the design. I took colours from the image on the right as inspiration for the fat branches for the tree on the left. I decided at this point to import the whole design into Photoshop to add textures and to add leaves and drop shadows.


We wanted the drain pan of the water bottle filler sink to be like the bowl beneath a wall tap. So I took a mash of different images like this one, layered them up and took pieces of each one to create a textured design.




I also used loads of different brushes to add splashes.

I planned out where the leaves were going on the vines and tree. I mainly wanted the leaves over adjoining sections so the transitions of tree and thinner vines wasn't so harsh. Here you can see all the other textures on the tiles and tree trunk, complete with a little grass. I put in a drop shadow on the tree itself. 


Progress


The design so far.

More leaves


The stone texture I used to layer up on the stone fountain.



I then followed a tutorial to create my own water stream.


I used the layer style options to create a 3D effect for the 'engraved' text.


Closeup of the fountain complete with textures.


Closeup of the tree textures.