Developing designs which I hope will go on to become my final designs- after considering my past design experimentations I have decided that I would really like to focus on these key points:
-creating a 'type as image' piece.
-using minimal, select colours.
-bold designs- not too much fuss or detail.
-using quotes and/or literature.
-creating one poster for life, one for death, and one which concludes/summarises the two.
I considered life and death- and was fascinated that, despite being so extremely opposite in their nature, without one another, they wouldn't exist- really, contradicting one another.
From researching and studying quotes, I found that the most common factor that ran through life and death was love- it bought the two opposite states together, and remains a constant throughout this time.
Therefore, I began to design with the intention of creating a 'life', 'death', and 'love' poster series- the love a mixture of both life and death.
During this time, I have considered what our head of graphics tutor, Fred, has said to us in regards to our design practice- from now on, we not only have to consider the client or breif's requirements, but also our own style- staying true to ourselves and developing an aesthetic we would be pleased to persue.
Although I am relatively new (since starting university) to the Adobe Illustrator software, I decided to use this- with each time that I use it in graphic design application I feel more confident and daring- definately the route to go for at this stage.
I began by creating an outline trace of my lungs, and then went on to use this as a "guideline" for my text to sit in- a template I would later go on to delete to create a dense block of type as my image...
...the body of text quotes (so far).
I searched the internet for a wide variety of inspirational, humourous and light-hearted quotes and philosophies about life. As I believe it is in my nature, I wanted to create an optimistic and positive design- when people hear the words "life" and "death" they are rarely linked with feelings of happiness and relief- but this is something I wanted to change, hopefully the quotes inspiring the audience to a new outlook, and less fear in the difficult subject matter(s).
Beginning to look at layouts- titles and sub-headings; how I can make this design suitable in a poster format. Similar to designs I have created in the past, I really like this clean- cut and bold style- focusing on the content more than the surrounds to avoid distraction. However, I felt the added details needed to be a little bolder as they started to get lost on the page.
I felt that this style was a lot stronger- the sqaure full stop suited the angular, bold typeface and the reference to the "quotees" added balance to the page- and, of course, the decreased risk of plagurism! (especially in consideration of potential publication for the competition brief prize).
...Not yet alphabeticalised, but the design above now complete (sans alignment) with the quotees and lung design.
...Creating a similar design in the theme of 'love'- joining the two opposites together.
...Beginning to create a design for 'death'. I decided to represent this by an empty rib cage, as I felt that this would create a good series, linking in with the ribs and heart images that I had already created.
At this point I was beginning to consider stock- and thought it would be a fun idea to print the designs on acetate, therefore, the posters could become interactive- and could be layered to create the "full ribcage" triptych.
I had wanted to continue staying true to the colours of the anatomical parts- therefore, the bones would be an off-white/cream colour, however, this was proving very difficult to use on screen and I could tell that it wouldn't print well, perhaps I could use a subsitute colour like a light grey, or a darker creamy-brown?
Until I have decided, use a bright colour for ease, to edit at a later stage...
...As I progressed with bulking out the design with my quotes, the image became harder and harder to distinguish- and it was clear that I had added too much detail in the original illustration. A little put-off by this, I attempted and experimented in a new direction...
I tried this technique with a skulls head, and while it was undoubtedly clearer an image, I felt a little dis-heartened that the series would be affected by this, and was determined to try again with a simplified rib cage image, though decided to break up the design as a new idea occured...
Worried about not conveying any particular style, I considered an alternate message for my images- 'love grows'...
...'life gets fuller' (richer, more exciting, fufiling).
However, I felt again that this idea was perhaps a little too over-worked, and wanted to simplify my ideas once more...
...After re-arranging my quotes, alphabeticalising and centre-aligning the reference to the quotees, I felt far happier with the design- bold, yet informative.
...After a short break away from it to re-asses it's potential, I went back to re-design the ribcage- drawing a much simpler outline which I think was far more representative and communicated itself far more clearly.
I layered my lungs image onto my ribs and was very fascinated by the result- and despite text overlapping and illegibilty, I thought that this was actually quite interesting, and forced you to look more closely at the designs, therefore, I was happy to experiment with printing this out onto acetate to layer...
...However, when I added the heart as well as the lungs to the rib cage, it all became a little too busy for my liking (admittedly, this can't have been helped by the colours I used)- from this point, I decided to remove the 'love' element, and focus instead on creating a third picture which focused on my two opposites, not a new dimension to the mix.
...Again, I came back to my 'the meaning of death' design- making the style match that of the '...life' poster for consistency in the series, as the colour was still an issue, I tried the design in black, but I felt then that the image was harder to comprehend as a rib cage, and should stick to the colours of the image, as oppossed to aesthetic licence/ease...
My 'life' design- combining both the elements of life and death- as the two are always linked. I used the life image as the main focus- but with the rib cage at a 25% opacity of it's original colour...
...and vice-versa...
...and the third poster design, linking the two opposites together- I arranged the rib cage and lungs from different perspectives- hoping to create a clinical, scientific look- as if under analyisis. I also switched the colours for the 'life&death' header- once again, a reference to the bond they have.
Although I know that there is plenty more that I can do, I am happy with the designs for the time-being. I have had to make many fast-paced and soemtimes a little hasty decisions during this design stage due to the restrictions on time (increased pressure from outside projects, part-time employment, etc)- and look forward to hearing possible critisms and feedback in my progress tutorial on Friday.
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