Friday 20 June 2008

final major project for first year

My first project for my first year. It was based on protecting your food from your flatmates. I designed a range of labels to stick onto your food packaging. The idea was you have to break the sticker to get into the food. I was really pleased with this final project, however, I believe I could have developed it more.



Monday 2 June 2008

What is graphic design? Well . . .

DEFINITION...

WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN? From AIGA Career Guide

Suppose you want to announce or sell something, amuse or persuade someone, explain a complicated system or demonstrate a process. In other words, you have a message you want to communicate. How do you “send” it? You could tell people one by one or broadcast by radio or loudspeaker. That’s verbal communication. But if you use any visual medium at all—if you make a poster; type a letter; create a business logo, a magazine ad, or an album cover; even make a computer printout—you are using a form of visual communication called graphic design.

Graphic designers work with drawn, painted, photographed, or computer-generated images (pictures), but they also design the letterforms that make up various typefaces found in movie credits and TV ads; in books, magazines, and menus; and even on computer screens. Designers create, choose, and organize these elements—typography, images, and the so-called “white space” around them—to communicate a message. Graphic design is a part of your daily life. From humble things like gum wrappers to huge things like billboards to the T-shirt you’re wearing, graphic design informs, persuades, organizes, stimulates, locates, identifies, attracts attention and provides pleasure.

Graphic design is a creative process that combines art and technology to communicate ideas. The designer works with a variety of communication tools in order to convey a message from a client to a particular audience. The main tools are image and typography.

Image-based design Designers develop images to represent the ideas their clients want to communicate. Images can be incredibly powerful and compelling tools of communication, conveying not only information but also moods and emotions. People respond to images instinctively based on their personalities, associations, and previous experience. For example, you know that a chili pepper is hot, and this knowledge in combination with the image creates a visual pun.

In the case of image-based design, the images must carry the entire message; there are few if any words to help. These images may be photographic, painted, drawn, or graphically rendered in many different ways. Image-based design is employed when the designer determines that, in a particular case, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words.

Type-based design In some cases, designers rely on words to convey a message, but they use words differently from the ways writers do. To designers, what the words look like is as important as their meaning. The visual forms, whether typography (communication designed by means of the printed word) or handmade lettering, perform many communication functions. They can arrest your attention on a poster, identify the product name on a package or a truck, and present running text as the typography in a book does. Designers are experts at presenting information in a visual form in print or on film, packaging, or signs.

When you look at an “ordinary” printed page of running text, what is involved in designing such a seemingly simple page? Think about what you would do if you were asked to redesign the page. Would you change the typeface or type size? Would you divide the text into two narrower columns? What about the margins and the spacing between the paragraphs and lines? Would you indent the paragraphs or begin them with decorative lettering? What other kinds of treatment might you give the page number? Would you change the boldface terms, perhaps using italic or underlining? What other changes might you consider, and how would they affect the way the reader reacts to the content? Designers evaluate the message and the audience for type-based design in order to make these kinds of decisions.

Image and type Designers often combine images and typography to communicate a client’s message to an audience. They explore the creative possibilities presented by words (typography) and images (photography, illustration, and fine art). It is up to the designer not only to find or create appropriate letterforms and images but also to establish the best balance between them.

Designers are the link between the client and the audience. On the one hand, a client is often too close to the message to understand various ways in which it can be presented. The audience, on the other hand, is often too broad to have any direct impact on how a communication is presented. What’s more, it is usually difficult to make the audience a part of the creative process. Unlike client and audience, graphic designers learn how to construct a message and how to present it successfully. They work with the client to understand the content and the purpose of the message. They often collaborate with market researchers and other specialists to understand the nature of the audience. Once a design concept is chosen, the designers work with illustrators and photographers as well as with typesetters and printers or other production specialists to create the final design product.

Symbols, logos and logotypes Symbols and logos are special, highly condensed information forms or identifiers. Symbols are abstract representation of a particular idea or identity. The CBS “eye” and the active “television” are symbolic forms, which we learn to recognize as representing a particular concept or company. Logotypes are corporate identifications based on a special typographical word treatment. Some identifiers are hybrid, or combinations of symbol and logotype. In order to create these identifiers, the designer must have a clear vision of the corporation or idea to be represented and of the audience to which the message is directed.


PARTS OF GRAPHIC DESIGN...
ILLUSTRATORS...
(bring drawing skills to the table)
David_Foldvari
I can't get enough of his work...it's as simple as that!
Somehow, Foldvari manages to use a simple style of drawing in a very detailed way. There is an obvious understanding of the human figure as well as light and shadows. Along with a sensitive use of colour.
David Foldvari was born in Budapest, and has been living in the UK since 1986. Since graduating from the Royal College in London in 2001, his work has gained international recognition. Influenced by his Eastern European roots, his work often addresses subjects of alienation, identity and belonging; "Dealing with negative issues in my work helps to keep me balanced in real life". Recently his work has become more monochromatic, stark and melancholy whilst still managing to retain its humanity and dark humour. Increasingly his work is taking a more honest and personal direction and returning to its' fundamental roots. He now lives and works in Brighton, England.

PACKAGING...
(another aspect of graphic design - bringing 3D crafting into the fold)

Leaf Packaging...
Google Image Result for http://galleries.ipcignite.com/cropp...
Really interesting and unique way of packaging a tea gift set. Material and colour have been carefully considered to fit the brand image and the product they are trying to sell.


Light Bulb Packaging

Google Image Result for http://www.dezeen.com/wp-content/upl...
Interesting and unique idea. Basically, the 'Light Bulb Packaging' is a light designed by University of Brighton graduate Olivia Cheung that attempts to avoid waste by converting the packaging into product.

TYPOGRAPHY...
(introduces writing into a piece, as well as creating a mood by the choice of font)

Oscar Diaz
My interest is typography has only recently developed. Before, I thought it was a boring topic and I did not realise the importance of it in graphic design and world we live in. Below are some pieces by Oscar Diaz. I am drawn to his work as it takes a (possible) dull subject and creates interesting and lively pieces. I especially like the bottom piece, where he has taken a number of photographs recording the ink travelling up the paper to reveal the type.

Interesting typography films from Vancouver Film School

YouTube - Typography from Vancouver Film School
Jonathan Barnbrook.
The first typography to gain my interest and respect! Again, I am drawn to his work due to the way in which he creates something fresh and interesting from a typeface. His typesheets are brilliant, can could stand on their own as a graphic device without the type!
Ma(n)son font "Mason has quickly become a much used and copied font, based on drawings made in Barnbrook's sketchbooks over a number of ears with added inspiration from 19th century Russian letterforms, Greek architecture and renaissance bibles. It has been used all over the world by companies such as the BBC and Walt Disney to give an ecclesiastical feeling to their graphics.


I believe this was the first font which actually caught my interest! Probably because its original name was MaNson - a mass murderer. Due to this, the press attention grew and Barnbrook was finally forced to remove the N (well his publisher did).

Jonathan Barnbrook

Typesheets...



The Hush Sound - Lions Roar

YouTube - The Hush Sound - Lions Roar I am drawn to this piece because of the interesting relationship between image and type. Would the piece be as strong without the images? I believe in some instances it would be stronger, it in other places I think the images are needed and add to the strength of the piece.

Stylo Design - Eight

Such a simple idea but pulled off really effectively and professionally. It is still easy to read but the 8's are very visible. A good balance.


PHOTOGRAPHY...
(yet another element graphic design uses to show image)

Images from a blogger called 'boogie'. I am really drawn to these photographs. There is something about them which draws you in and makes you what to study them closer. I am especially interested in the top photograph. I really want to experiment which this media and way of writing type using light and a long exposure next year. i would also like to develop my overall photopgraphy skills next year.

GRAFFITI...(now this is where I question what is graphic design...)

Street artist Banksy has painted a mural on Essex Road, London, depicting two young children saluting while another child raises a Tesco carrier bag on a flagpole.

I love Banksy’s work. Yet another piece which captures the culture of Britain with tongue cemented firmly into cheek. However, this is obviously not normal graffiti tagging so which area does it fit into? Fine art? Graphic design? Graffiti? I am unsure to be honest, however I am tempted to say graphic design, as there is a message to the audience, it uses image and type, and it has an underlying depth to it.


SLOGANS...
(definitely a tool for the graphic world)

Vinyl adhesive brand e-glue has launched an “I Love Copyright” campaign to raise awareness of intellectual property infringements facilitated by, er, design blogs like this one.

WEB_DESIGN...
(another aspect of graphic design you could focus on)

The scroll-down page, called Good Things Should Never End, features a series of animated characters (like the one below) beside a rainbow-coloured river. It was created to promote Orange's Unlimited offers promotion to its UK customers. Basically, the webpage never
really ends! The designers were POKE and the animator is called REX.
Here is the link for it..... http://unlimited.orange.co.uk/flash/go

OVERALL...
I believe graphic design to be a tool of communication.

"Imagine if graphic design was banned, or just simply disappeared over night. There would be no written word, no newspapers, no magazines, no internet, no science to speak of. Everything would have to be painstakingly written by hand. Without design's process and ingredients - structure, organisation, word and image - we would have to receive all our information by the spoken word."
Graphic design is all around us, imposing meaning on the world. We engage with design everywhere, whether it be road signs or the washing label on our jacket.