Graphic Design: Photos I Like

PHOTO LIBRARY

Here is a library of photos from the internet that appeal to me and have helped influenced my own style of graphic design. They're from a broad range of websites, mainly tumblr. 

Source: http://41.media.tumblr.com/0425fb709b1427936379397d9a011e6a/tumblr_ng2ttkMixY1r5vojso1_1280.jpg

This design appeals to me through its minimalistic design. A clean dark background gives emphasis to the bold white type which is scrabbled about the poster, which spells out "We love graphic design". I also really like the use of contrasting bright colours on the tubes which are in different vectors and sizes which gives the design a sense of depth. If I could improve this design I would give the information text a more dominant colour scheme to give it more clarity.

Source:http://40.media.tumblr.com/832d9066f2dbf5d0334d688d68143196/tumblr_nfzcbfEQKP1tr6gdto1_r1_500.jpg

This is Philippe Foré All Weather Train Weather design in 1972. I love the use of colour in this design. It's eye-catching multicoloured stripes looks like the dispersion pattern of white light, similar to the album cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Yet again, there isn't much depth to the design but the fact the stripes veer of to the left of the poster replicate a train track. The shapes used in the design make up a train like structure so by using a range of colours for each strand could be seen as reinforcing the message this design is going to give that these are all weather trains (colours representing the weather.)

Source: http://40.media.tumblr.com/5f88179870f11bbd92bd04b89fec70ed/tumblr_ng3ajbQSlg1qzbjuko2_1280.png

This is one of Tano Veron's Symmetric Animals. I like this design as it has a vast array of colour, shapes, patterns and of course, symmetry. There is little simplicity in this design, for instance the background is just as complex as the tiger's head. This design would be very hard to replicate myself and would take hours of dedication to create such an image. Maybe not best suited to help influence my project. 

Source: http://coolmaterial.com/home/pictogram-movie-posters/

I really like pictogram posters. Their simplicity in colour and shapes are what make these designs so popular as anyone can potential make their own one. The symbols used in these designs are universally recognisable as well as the use of the helvetica typeface. If I can incorporate any form of pictogram designs within my project I will. I have attempted my own pictogram designs for one of the homework tasks in another blog. By creating these posters, it forced me to learn new skills, tools and shortcuts on photoshop that I had not used before.

SOURCE: http://www.snapily.com/blog/minimalist-movie-posters/

Minimalist film posters are effective as they capture and emphasise key elements of the film and are usually made by fanatics for the films. The above examples are just a few of my favourites, these designs are similar to the pictogram designs but the use of colour and more freedom on the typeface gives these designs a different mood.

Photos I've Like on Instagram

Photos I Like on Tumblr

Critical Introduction to Project

CRITICAL INTRODUCTION

In the 21st century, technology has advanced the way we educate and communicate with each other. The digitalisation of teaching has made education become more efficient, simple, reliable and accessible for teacher and student. George Whale's project aims to communicate these aspects of digitalisation. Through the visual aesthetic of his designs within his project, Whale keeps to a contemporary, minimalist design by exploring the use of colour, framing and pattern and how these aspects of digital design can be used to "convey a mood, describe reality or codify information" Lupton (2008). Simply by contrasting the first fundamental colours of graphic design with green for the branding of the DigiTeach conference pushes the conventional design aesthetic into the present and gives visual energy to the project. The 3 colours that dominate the project are neutral, cool colours. The green conveys growth and new beginnings with calming attributes in comparison to the neutral colours of black and white which gives the project power, elegance and sophistication. Black dominates most of the project and the aspects of white connotes cleanliness and gives the aesthetic a minimalist feel

Influenced by the designs of Saul Bass and Paul Rand, their incorporation of geometric shapes and frames within their designs conveys information in a clear and organised fashion. Whale monopolises on this aspect of design with consistent use of stripes and rounded squares throughout, which improves the legibility, layout and presentation of his presentation.

The use of typography is key in terms of the visual communication of the project. Being targeted at an adult educators, a neutral yet professional typefaces is needed, and none other would fit the mould better than Helvetica. After watching Hustwitt's Helvetica documentary, Whale discovered the power and dominance this font has in everyday society and how people attribute the font's success to Steve Job's incorporation of the font into the apple operating system. From this, Whale made a connection between helvetica and Apple and decided to use app icons as another typeface of the project as app icons "tell a story and build an emotional connection with users" Apple iOS Developers (2014). Therefore, by using these icons instead of another typeface, it gives the an interactive feel to the aesthetic.

Overall, Whale's project displays firm understanding of the basics of graphic design and shows development in his own style and creativity through his lack of use of colour, texture and transparency, giving his project formality. It integrates simplicity with poise.

Blog Address:

http://creativedigitalmediaterm1.blogspot.co.uk/

Bibliography for Introduction

1. Lupton, Ellen (2008) Graphic Design: The New Basics, : Princeton Architectural Press

2. iOS Developers (2014) iOS Human Interface Guidelines, : Apple Inc. Available from: 

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/Iconography.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH59-SW1

3. Helvetica (2007) Directed by Gary Hustwit. UK: Veer and Swiss Dots

Project Brief & Research

Project Brief:

Design a Press & Promotions Pack for a Digital Media festival or conference. You must choose the title and develop the overall style of the pack yourself. The theme and direction of your project must be well researched, developed and presented for acceptance by your tutor.
Some suggested themes might be similar to those found at the following key event websites: reasons.to, brightondigitalfestival.co.uk, offf.ws
Your Press & Promotions Pack should contain the following elements:

• A poster & double-sided flyer with map (same main design with appropriate
  headings: date, location, (fictional) web address etc.)
  
• iPad template / web based click-through (five sections, use supplied
  template)
  
• Letter-head and online banner for print and social media sites such as
  Twitter, Facebook, etc.
  
• Concept proposal for promotional delivery campaign utilising local public
  transport.
  
• Two novelty promotional items (such as T-shirt, stickers, badges, bags, etc.) 

You should consider the narrative of the campaign build up, perhaps developing teaser banners and other such media.

You should create all the visual elements of the project, from the composition and layout of the promotional material through to all the graphics and associated visual imagery, you may however, place dummy type as the main text content.

Your project should demonstrate that you have researched and developed both your theoretical and practical concepts and aesthetics, while also exhibiting suitable technical accomplishment for this level. It should explore the design and presentation of information and your understanding of its relevance in todayʼs digital society. Think critically about how you represent the exhibition and the work, and explore the visual language needed to accomplish this successfully. Through your research, you should question visual communication from a variety of differing contexts, publicity and marketing, self-expression or formal presentation.

We will be expecting your final portfolio to engage its audience both visually and conceptually and it must be suitably informative. Also, do take into consideration copyright and levels of accepted decency and taste. 

Aim:

My first intentions were to create a press and promotional campaign for a student award ceremony, which celebrates the collective works of GCSE and A-Level students in the secondary school I worked in as a technician for the film and media department called Graveney school. I wanted to call its " The G.A.F.T.A.s" instead of BAFTA as it would be the Graveney Academy of Film and Television Arts instead of the famous BAFTA award ceremony. 

However, my tutor said this idea was not following the brief so I changed it to be a press and promotional campaign idea to be a conference for teachers of all levels on how digital media can be incorporated in teaching and useful it can be. Since it was going to be aimed at teaching professionals, I wanted my piece to be minimal and sophisticated, so I did some research into branding and colour theories as well as similar events that could inspire me with my designs.

Planning & Research:

Now I had an idea for my event for my project, I had to come up with a way to brand the conference. I decided to call it 'DigiTeach' as this was going to be a conference on digital teaching, I combined the words and used different fonts for the 'Digi' and the 'Teach' part of the text. 'Digi' being in a modernistic, digital font with 'Teach' being in the classic helvetica font, which I was inspired to use after watching the Hustwit's documentary film Helvetica (2007) and realised its power in marketing and advertising by its 'perfect' appeal. Since watching this documentary. (I haven't stopped using helvetica across all areas where I can used the font.)

As this was going to be a conference for teachers, the design had to have a formal aesthetic as it my project had a target audience. Therefore, simplicity and sophistication was key and this theme would have to go across all areas of the design. I took me a few attempts to come up with a final designs for the branding of the conference, but here were a few of my branding attempts that I did. I used Adobe Photoshop for my designs as it was the software I had become most efficient with in comparison to InDesign & Illustrator in the previous task set throughout the module. Unfortunately, I misplaced all my hand drawings and doodles of the project brand design.

1st Attempt @ DigiTeach Logo

2nd Attempt @ DigiTeach logo

Final Draft for the DigiTeach logo

Once I came up with a branding for the DigiTeach conference, I sent the work the previous colleagues I had at Graveney school. They described the logo as being clear, simplistic and professional - exactly the response I was looking for!

Now I had a brand to work with, the rest of the campaign would follow this visual aesthetic with its form and colour scheme.

LETTERHEAD & ONLINE BANNER

When it came to designing the letterhead & online for the conference, I researched the web on social media sites for promotional 'cover photos' as well as looking at the dynamics of a formal letter from other companies in the media industry. I found that the design consisted of a logo/branding of the company in the top corners of the letter head, with minor details of the company in a much smaller font at the bottom of the page. I based my letterhead and poster around this formal structuring and ended up with this.

Letterhead Design

Online Banner

POSTER

A poster is key to any promotional campaign, so it was important to spend time on the design of the poster and if it follows the same aesthetic as the other designs. The key was to keep it as simplistic and formal as possible. My first few attempts of the poster design were visually unpleasing and had to much information on them and didn't follow a similar design theme to the branding of the conference and the letterhead for it. Here are a couple of my attempts of the poster, so are uncompleted as I wanted to play about with the structuring of the information given on the poster.

First Design - Incomplete

2nd Draft of poster - Too much going on

Clearly, these design ideas did not follow the visual aesthetic I'm aiming for, therefore I decided to cut out as much information as possible from the poster and keep the design as minimal as possible. Also by splitting the core information of the poster to the top and bottom of the poster gave the text more emphasis and appeal.

3rd Draft of poster

Furthermore, for my final design of the poster, I realised I had to change the slogan of the poster and change it from "bring your students into the 21st century" to "bring your lessons into the 21st century". This clarifies the fact that the target audience for these posters are teachers/lecturers. I wanted the typeface of my slogan to be made with 'app' thumbnails on the Apple and Android market. I had to be aware of what apps to use that would fall into the colour scheme of the poster as using too much of a certain colour would make the poster seem visually unpleasing - using a broad range of colours for the app icon typeface would not. 

I used an apple template as a psd. file to give all the app icons a consistent shape and also 
moved the slogan of the conference to the middle of the poster and got rid of the majority of the information on the front so it had a clear and concise aesthetic. However, still more needed to be done with the core design of the poster. I constructed two final designs for my poster/flyer and here's what my final product.

Final Draft #1 - Poster/Flyer [FRONT]

Final Draft #1 - Flyer [BACK]

For the back of the poster, I framed all the information as I was inspired by Saul Bass's poster for The Man With The Golden Arm poster he did. I gave the flyer a QR code and social media sites too. I used Bing maps screenshot for my map on the flyer.

NOVELTY ITEMS

For my two novelty items, I have chosen to do a t-shirt and a sticker/badge design. I aimed to make the t-shirt as minimalistic in terms of design patterns continued the use of stripes, like I had used in the letter head as the main visual on the t-shirt which you can see below. These designs follow the same aesthetic of the poster and letter head designs through incorporating the main branding of the conference (DigiTeach) with an in-complex pattern.

DigiTeach T-Shirt Design #1

DigiTeach T-Shirt Design #2

These are my designs that could be used as badges or stickers for the DigiTeach conference. I have kept the colour theme of black, white and green it both of the designs to show consistency within the design aesthetic.

Badge Design

Sticker Design

iPad TEMPLATE / WEB-BASED CLICK THROUGH

For my 5 sections of the DigiTeach iPad app template, I used the sections based on the back of my flyer such as directions on how to get to the conference and contact details, a schedule of events. Unlike the other pieces of the promotional material, the design aesthetic on the app templates contain more colours than the white, black and green which I believe give the templates a more soothing appeal. However, you could argue that it's similar to the design of the back of the flyer. By framing the information in a colour, it makes the text stand out from the background. Below is my app design for the DigiTeach conference.

DigiTeach App Template 1

DigiTeach App Template 2

DELIVERY CAMPAIGN

As my conference takes place in Brighton, I thought I should utilise the way events are advertised in town already. I have chosen to utilise public transport advertising like the buses and trains and cabs. This will give me a better understanding of how my project looks in the public eye as well as allowing me to develop innovative way of getting across the same information, through advertising.

Bus Stop Poster

Billboard Poster

CONCLUSION

I really enjoyed the project. It pushed me to be more creative and I had to utilise softwares I had never used before which have now developed my technical skills. I can now set up design to be prints of web-based prints using marks and bleeds too. I found it tough at the start, but once I had my logo in place, the rest of the project ran smoothly.

Week 4 Task

Creative Production: Digital Media

Homework Task #4:

Using pairs of contrasting letterforms (straight and curved, for instance, E and O), experiment with cropping, scale, contrast, texture, composition etc. develop a series of four compositions to be presented as logos to go on a record, CD or DVD package. 

Inspirational piece

Week 3 Task

Creative Production: Digital Media

Homework Task #3:

Collect pictographic images (from the internet, scanned from books, found and photographed yourself) and attempt to tell three stories via the content or message the signs imply. Use cut and paste techniques learned in the Photoshop video. 

Reservoir Dogs Pictogram Poster - My Attempt on PhotoShop

The Wolf of Wall Street - My Attempt on PhotoShop

Breaking Bad (TV Show) - My Attempt on PhotoShop

Week 2 Task

Creative Production: Digital Media

Homework Task #2:

From GRAPHIC DESIGN THE NEW BASICS: Five Squares Ten Inches.
http://gdbasics.com/html/texture/designProblem2.html

1. Create five justified squares of text, each with its own visual texture. Produce variations of value, density, and transparency by using different type styles (old style italic serifs, uniformly weighted sans serifs, geometric slab serifs, text set entirely in capital letters, and so on). Adjust the light to dark value (typographic colour) of each square by changing letter spacing, paragraph leading, and other attributes.
2. Arrange the five blocks of text inside a ten-inch square. Manipulate the scale and placement of the squares to achieve compositional balance, tension, and depth. Squares can bleed off the edges to reinforce the illusion of amplification and recession. 

Saul Bass: Film Title Sequences

Foreword by Martin Scorsese

Saul Bass. Before I ever met him, before we worked together, he was a legend in my eyes. His designs for film titles and company logos and records albums and posters, define an era. In essence, they found and distilled the poetry of the modern, industrialised world. They gave us a series of crystallised images of who and where we were and of the future ahead of us. They were images you could dream on. They still are. [1]

SAUL BASS - Early Life

Saul Bass

Saul Bass was born in May 8, 1920 in New York City. He studied at the Art Student's League in Manhattan until attending classes at Brooklyn College. 

He began his time in Hollywood doing print work for film ads, until he collaborated with filmmaker Otto Preminger to design the movie poster for his film Carmen Jones (1954). Preminger was so impressed with Bass’s work that he asked him to produce the title sequence as well. 

Carmen Jones poster by Saul Bass (1954)

This was when Bass first saw the opportunity to create something more than a title sequence, but to create something which would ultimately enhance the experience of the audience and tell the beginning of the story within the opening credits. Bass was one of the first to realise upon the storytelling potential of the opening and closing credits of a film. [2]

TITLE SEQUENCES

"I have felt for sometime that the audiences involvement with the film should really begin with the very first frame." [4] 

CORNERED (1945) Opening Titles

Before 1950s, film openings titles used to be unimaginative, consisting of conventional lettering over an equally conventional background that did little more than suggest the genre of the film. They tended to be show onto the cinema curtains only to be raised in time for the first scene. The status of credit sequences were low. According to Bass it was "a time when the film hadn't begun yet". [1]

Bass's earliest title sequences grew directly from graphic symbols. He brought a Modernist design of sensibility to film titles and revolutionised not only what they looked like, but also how they were thought about. He was one of the first people to realise the creative potential of the opening and closing of a film. [4]

Ocean's Eleven (1960) Opening Titles

"I began dealing with titles in terms of setting the mood, creating an atmosphere, an attitude and a generalised metaphor for what the film was about. And setting up the subtext of the film." [1]

Thus, the title sequence is seen as a passage, a transitional vehicle that helps the audience cross from the world outside the theatre into the film diegesis. 

Title Designs of Saul Bass


Hitchcock believed Bass invented a new type of kinetic typography. Kinetic typography or 'moving text' is an animation technique to evoke a particular idea or emotion. This is clear in Hitchcock's classic films in which he collaborated with Bass such as North By Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960). [2]


BASS'S LEGACY

Catch Me If You Can (2002) Opening Titles

From cut-out animation to live sequences, Bass used diverse film making techniques amongst all his title sequences. In some essence, all modern opening title sequences which suggest a mood/theme/genre can be seen as a legacy of Saul Bass's innovative work. Some examples that pay homage to Bass's graphic designs and animated title sequences are Catch Me If You Can (2002) and the AMC TV series Mad Men (2011). [3]

Catch Me If You Can Opening Credits



FILM TITLE SEQUENCES

Saul Bass was involved in directing the title sequences for the following films:

Carmen Jones (1954) The Big Knife (1955) The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) The Racers (1955) The Seven Year Itch (1955) The Shrike (1955) Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) Storm Center (1956) Attack (1956) Edge of the City (1957) Saint Joan (1957) The Pride and the Passion (1957) The Young Stranger (1957) Bonjour Tristesse (1958) Cowboy (1958) Vertigo (1958) The Big Country (1958)

Anatomy of a Murder (1959) North by Northwest (1959) Psycho (1960) Spartacus (1960) The Facts of Life (1960) Exodus (1960) Ocean's 11 (1960) West Side Story (1961) Something Wild (1961) Advise and Consent (1962) Walk on the Wild Side (1962) The Victors (1963) Nine Hours to Rama (1963) It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) The Cardinal (1963) In Harm's Way (1965) Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)

Grand Prix (1966) Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966) Seconds (1966) Such Good Friends (1971) That's Entertainment, Part II (1976) Broadcast News (1987) Big (1988) The War of the Roses (1989) Goodfellas (1990) Cape Fear (1991) Doc Hollywood (1991) Mr. Saturday Night (1992) The Age of Innocence (1993) Higher Learning (1995) Casino (1995)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] --> Bass & Kirkham, J.B. & P.K. (2011) Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design

[2] --> http://www.areaofdesign.com/americanicons/bass.htm

[3] --> Interview with Olivier Kuntzel & Florence Degas, designers of the Catch Me If You Can (2002) title sequence. www.artofthetitle.com (Retrieved: 2011)

[4] --> Saul Bass: Title Champ [Documentary] (2010) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jFpQMpsMiE

SCRIPT

George:

Saul Bass. Before I ever met him, before we worked together, he was a legend in my eyes. His designs for film titles and company logos and records albums and posters, define an era. In essence, they found and distilled the poetry of the modern, industrialised world. They gave us a series of crystallised images of who and where we were and of the future ahead of us. They were images you could dream on. They still are.

Peter:

Saul Bass was born in May 8, 1920 in New York City until his passing in 1996. He studied at the Art Student's League in Manhattan until attending classes at Brooklyn College. 

He began his time in Hollywood doing print work for film ads, until he collaborated with filmmaker Otto Preminger to design the movie poster for his film Carmen Jones (1954). Preminger was so impressed with Bass’s work that he asked him to produce the title sequence as well. 

George:

This was when Bass first saw the opportunity to create something more than a title sequence, but to create something, which would ultimately enhance the experience of the audience and tell the beginning of the story within the opening credits. Bass was one of the first to realise upon the storytelling potential of the opening and closing credits of a film.

Peter:

Bass was also seen as landmark in changing the face of film advertising through his emblematic film posters. Before Bass, film posters relied heavily on depictions of key scenes or characters, however Bass’ work captured the key elements and themes of the films using symbolic designs. For example, his iconic poster for The Man with the Golden Arm uses the centrepiece of a jagged arm and uneven typography to highlight the protagonist’s struggle with heroin addiction.

Bass has designed posters for the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Stanley Kubrick. His last commissioned film poster was designed for Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List in 1993 but was never used. After spending five decades designing film posters, Bass’s work has become identifiable for his distinctive typography and a minimalistic “paper-cut” appearance often featuring geometric shapes and bold colouring. His style has remained influential and is still being replicated by the film poster designers of today.

George:

Before 1950s, film openings titles used to be unimaginative, consisting of conventional lettering over an equally conventional background that did little more than suggest the genre of the film. They tended to be show onto the cinema curtains only to be raised in time for the first scene. The status of credit sequences were low. According to Bass it was "a time when the film hadn't begun yet".

Bass's earliest title sequences grew directly from graphic symbols. He brought a Modernist design of sensibility to film titles and revolutionised not only what they looked like, but also how they were thought about.

"I began dealing with titles in terms of setting the mood, creating an atmosphere, an attitude and a generalised metaphor for what the film was about. And setting up the subtext of the film." [1]

Thus, the title sequence is seen as a passage, a transitional vehicle that helps the audience cross from the world outside the theatre into the film diegesis. 

Hitchcock believed Bass reinvented a new type of kinetic typography. Kinetic typography or 'moving text' is an animation technique to evoke a particular idea or emotion. This is clear in Hitchcock's classic films in which he collaborated with Bass such as North By Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960).

SHOW TITLES CLIP

Peter:

From cut-out animation to live sequences, Bass used diverse film making techniques amongst all his title sequences. In some essence, all modern opening title sequences which suggest a mood/theme/genre can be seen as a legacy of Saul Bass's innovative work. Some examples that pay homage to Bass's graphic designs and animated title sequences are Catch Me If You Can (2002) and the AMC TV series Mad Men (2011).