If you can't think of anything to get for Christmas:
Amazing.
I actually want this for Christmas now, the only origami that I do is paper swans. Furniture would definitely be a step up!
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
New Black Swan Posters
Today I came across these posters for Black Swan, the new film starring Natalie Portman playing a ballerina in competition. The advert for the film seems intense and thrilling, even the way it's filmed suggests this. At first glance, it reminds me of Russian constructivism from the shapes and colours used. The posters were designed by the London based company, LaBoca incorporating different themes of the film. It reminds me of the design matrix we learned about a couple of months ago, merging different aspects of the film together into one coherent design.
The poster above is instantly visually appealing, the almost black silhouette of the swan provides a frame for the ballerina image. The two images together almost reflect the beautiful shapes that are made, how graceful they are. This is then contrasted by the typography used at the bottom of the poster, the kerning of the letters adds a harshness to the already harsh, heavy style. The spacing between the letters also allows room for the starring roles to be placed in between. I think this is a nice design feature that makes the viewer have to look closer to read the information which is always a good thing because it adds interest.
I like the way that all of the posters look different but look like they belong to the same film.
The first poster (above) combines the ideas of the gracefulness the swans wings and the ballerina's arms. The colours contrast this grace and make it seem more sinister, The Black Swan is meant to be an elegant dance and these film posters are portraying it as a sinister film about competition. The matching eyes of the swan an the ballerina almost add an extra fear factor to the film.
This poster used a profile silhouette of a girl with a swan overlaid on the top. The image has been cleverly used as a mask for the white silhouette with the swan's eye used as the girl's eye too. Yet again making it seem more sinister.
The poster above is instantly visually appealing, the almost black silhouette of the swan provides a frame for the ballerina image. The two images together almost reflect the beautiful shapes that are made, how graceful they are. This is then contrasted by the typography used at the bottom of the poster, the kerning of the letters adds a harshness to the already harsh, heavy style. The spacing between the letters also allows room for the starring roles to be placed in between. I think this is a nice design feature that makes the viewer have to look closer to read the information which is always a good thing because it adds interest.
I like the way that all of the posters look different but look like they belong to the same film.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Wondering what more I could have done?
Just having a bit of reflection this evening over the last project. Overall I achieved 56, the pass rate is 40 which meant that I received 16 marks over. However, I was feeling very down about this after learning the marks everyone else achieved. It started to make me think my work wasn't good enough.
Now, after reflecting on the effort and amount of work I produced, I think I can say that I could have put more effort in. I am in no way doubting the amount of time I spent on the work as I spent most evenings and afternoons doing the work. I am doubting the distractions and effort into doing the in between work as well as the final presentations.
The final presentations were no way near my standards, well saying that in the past a project tended to last months, not days. The projects in the first 6 weeks have really opened up my eyes to what university work is going to be like. Maybe I didn't realise how much work was expected and the quality of work that would be produced. At A-levels you concentrate on your own work and occasionally see other people's but you had your own task or project to work on so there was no method of comparison? At University we're competing against everyone because that is what it is going to be like when I graduate, 100 people from my course are going to be looking for jobs. That added to the 100 other universities there are with Graphic Design students graduating. Definitely going to have to learn to stand out!
Anyway, back to the project, I feel like I have wasted a lot of time ensuring that all the in between work was up to scratch - Spending too much time thinking about other ideas to build up the presentation of work, or coming up with the idea and filling in all the work in between. The second project helped me to realise it's more about the final outcomes of the projects as there was not as much pressure put on producing sketchbooks. This helped me to focus more on improving the final design without doing unnecessary tests or work to make it seem like more.
Definitely learned a lesson here, I need to start thinking about the later stages of design, the final outcome because at the end of the day that is what actually matters to the client. They are not going to care about how much blood sweat and tears you've put into all the initial ideas and the presentation of the research is not going to matter if they think you haven't put enough effort into the final presentation. So from now on I'm going to start doing what everyone else seems to be doing and thinking about the final idea from the word go, because that's how it will develop better.
Now, after reflecting on the effort and amount of work I produced, I think I can say that I could have put more effort in. I am in no way doubting the amount of time I spent on the work as I spent most evenings and afternoons doing the work. I am doubting the distractions and effort into doing the in between work as well as the final presentations.
The final presentations were no way near my standards, well saying that in the past a project tended to last months, not days. The projects in the first 6 weeks have really opened up my eyes to what university work is going to be like. Maybe I didn't realise how much work was expected and the quality of work that would be produced. At A-levels you concentrate on your own work and occasionally see other people's but you had your own task or project to work on so there was no method of comparison? At University we're competing against everyone because that is what it is going to be like when I graduate, 100 people from my course are going to be looking for jobs. That added to the 100 other universities there are with Graphic Design students graduating. Definitely going to have to learn to stand out!
Anyway, back to the project, I feel like I have wasted a lot of time ensuring that all the in between work was up to scratch - Spending too much time thinking about other ideas to build up the presentation of work, or coming up with the idea and filling in all the work in between. The second project helped me to realise it's more about the final outcomes of the projects as there was not as much pressure put on producing sketchbooks. This helped me to focus more on improving the final design without doing unnecessary tests or work to make it seem like more.
Definitely learned a lesson here, I need to start thinking about the later stages of design, the final outcome because at the end of the day that is what actually matters to the client. They are not going to care about how much blood sweat and tears you've put into all the initial ideas and the presentation of the research is not going to matter if they think you haven't put enough effort into the final presentation. So from now on I'm going to start doing what everyone else seems to be doing and thinking about the final idea from the word go, because that's how it will develop better.
Monday, 13 December 2010
Technical Workshop - Last before Christmas!
Today was the hand-in for the Typography Module, I feel pleased it's out of the way now before Christmas and hope that everything is alright with it. Looking round at other people's work made me a bit apprehensive but what can I do now? Learn for next time I suppose!
The technical workshop today was about book covers. I've never really taken the time to look at book covers, except those womany ones that I read on holiday where they have a picture of the story on the front with some simple font. Not really inspiring but its a good read!
So today after looking at bookcoverarchive.com I was slightly more inspired to make a book cover. I have to admit though, I did struggle. I was sat there thinking 'I can't do this' getting frustrated with myself just staring at the scene. But then a bit of experimentation lead me to the idea of purposely overlapping the text so the word 'Outsider' was actually on the outside.
Here is the final book cover, well after about half an hour of doing it. I couldn't really find an appropriate place for the author title so as a last minute decision I had to place it at the bottom:
The colours of the book cover along with the font makes it look spooky, which was the genre I was going for since I haven't heard of the book before. The 'Outsider' title looks like a gate for the 'The', blocking it from the outside world, the long looking font also creates this feeling of a gate. So overall, I think some parts of the design are successful and others probably need a bit of work.
The technical workshop today was about book covers. I've never really taken the time to look at book covers, except those womany ones that I read on holiday where they have a picture of the story on the front with some simple font. Not really inspiring but its a good read!
So today after looking at bookcoverarchive.com I was slightly more inspired to make a book cover. I have to admit though, I did struggle. I was sat there thinking 'I can't do this' getting frustrated with myself just staring at the scene. But then a bit of experimentation lead me to the idea of purposely overlapping the text so the word 'Outsider' was actually on the outside.
Here is the final book cover, well after about half an hour of doing it. I couldn't really find an appropriate place for the author title so as a last minute decision I had to place it at the bottom:
The colours of the book cover along with the font makes it look spooky, which was the genre I was going for since I haven't heard of the book before. The 'Outsider' title looks like a gate for the 'The', blocking it from the outside world, the long looking font also creates this feeling of a gate. So overall, I think some parts of the design are successful and others probably need a bit of work.
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Interpreting is a pain :(
I've now found that people do interpret things in different ways, just like last week when in our group project we all came up for ideas about the project that were literal. For instance my idea was interesting facts about the spine and other animals. When in fact the brief wants a more creative feel to the website, this did not stand out to me when I first read it but when someone explains to you the idea around it, it makes sense and then you just feel stupid for not realising it.
Had a lecture on Monday about this as well, whilst Phil was explaining something he suddenly shouted. After everyone had their mini-heart attack he explained that we'd probably remember that instead of what he'd been saying in the lecture. So it made me think that although I'd interpreted the brief wrong, it's understandable to do that because at first that was the only way I was thinking.
It's alright to get things wrong, just move on and forget about it.
Had a lecture on Monday about this as well, whilst Phil was explaining something he suddenly shouted. After everyone had their mini-heart attack he explained that we'd probably remember that instead of what he'd been saying in the lecture. So it made me think that although I'd interpreted the brief wrong, it's understandable to do that because at first that was the only way I was thinking.
It's alright to get things wrong, just move on and forget about it.
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Too many ideas..
The other day, I felt I needed to have a conversation with Phil about the project 'Letterbox'. I was getting frustrated with having several ideas for lots of news stories and I felt like I needed someone to guide me. I presented him with several ideas, two with drawings and annotations - These were the ideas that I felt had the most direction and scope for the project.
The first idea involved a murder in the woods. I thought about using hair extensions wrapped up in the trees of the woods. This idea then evolved into the letter form being made out of the branches, twisted like a fairytale. Phil suggested that looking at fairytales would help me add concept to the idea which would make the design stronger. I liked the idea of looking at fairytales, I was just struggling with how I would find branches that would twist and curve inside such a small box?
The second idea involved using cigarettes as a letterform inside the box, which Phil suggested I use animal fat coming out of the cigarettes - this disgusted me at first but it got me thinking of how I could improve the design and make it seem more interesting/similar to the story. Then I started thinking, how can I make it less disgusting for myself and thought of using geletine. So I conducted a little experiment of using geletine, then seeing if it would stay in the same position after it had been set in the fridge. The picture below shows this was a success.
After sketching a few ideas after the conversation with Phil, I thought that the cigarrette idea would give me the most to work with and the best idea. I liked the fact that I wasn't told which idea I should do, I was given a choice on which project I would like to do.
The first idea involved a murder in the woods. I thought about using hair extensions wrapped up in the trees of the woods. This idea then evolved into the letter form being made out of the branches, twisted like a fairytale. Phil suggested that looking at fairytales would help me add concept to the idea which would make the design stronger. I liked the idea of looking at fairytales, I was just struggling with how I would find branches that would twist and curve inside such a small box?
The second idea involved using cigarettes as a letterform inside the box, which Phil suggested I use animal fat coming out of the cigarettes - this disgusted me at first but it got me thinking of how I could improve the design and make it seem more interesting/similar to the story. Then I started thinking, how can I make it less disgusting for myself and thought of using geletine. So I conducted a little experiment of using geletine, then seeing if it would stay in the same position after it had been set in the fridge. The picture below shows this was a success.
After sketching a few ideas after the conversation with Phil, I thought that the cigarrette idea would give me the most to work with and the best idea. I liked the fact that I wasn't told which idea I should do, I was given a choice on which project I would like to do.
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