OUGD405 - Studio Brief 1 - Development - Let's take a selfie

Original calligraphy sketches

I tried to play on the pop culture of the time with this piece as when thinking about photographs now everyone thinks of ‘selfies’ rather than capturing a memory. So I thought that I would play with the idea of the selfie. Straight away I knew that the frame had to include a mobile phone, as this is the device that people take selfies with most. I tried with black and red as a combination first but I don’t like it, it’s not bold enough and it feels slapped together without thought. 

So I went further into what selfies are and who takes them. And it is mostly girls who take selfies so I chose a bright fuchsia pink to contrast against the black and it looks so much better for it. I then thought I should stick with the phone theme and put my dimensions for the frame in with a save image button. Finally, I didn’t think it needed much more development a part from to stand out from the background. So I added a dark navy to contrast with the bright pink and whites so you could see the outline of the phone from a distance.

OUGD405 - Studio Brief 1 - Development - If you can dream it you can do it

These were my initial sketches, at first I was going to have it all in a script font but after looking at Jessica Hische's work I wanted to emphasise different words with different types of lettering. So I made the "you can" bit bolder to push to the viewer that you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. 

After scanning in my design, I started off by trying to alter the shape of the letters to add more interest. Also, I added drop shadows to emphasise the text and make it stand out from the background. Initially I thought that I could curve the works and Photoshop a ribbon on them. But when I warped the words to form a curve, it just didn’t look right, it distorted the text and took away from the effort I had spent to make it neat. And the with the blue colour scheme the text just gets lost, it’s not punchy enough.

I took a leaf from Jessica Walsh’s book and chose a bold colour scheme and I think that it works really well. I love the bold burgundy contrasting against the light blues. I undid the curves and tried slanting the script words instead to emphasise them as I believe that they are the most important part of the quote. Also I painted in parts of the text to once again contrast the background a bit more so it is more legible.

Finally, I reverted back to the original burgundy colour but made it a lot brighter and add the texture very faintly. I think the lighter colour works much better than the one before because it allows the words to pop out more than before.  

OUGD405 - Studio Brief 1 - Development - Great art picks up where nature ends

I started off with a very natural palette, of green, white and blue to reflect nature. I had to alter the original sketch as I resized some of the text as the bottom words were too large compared to all the other sizes of the type. Also originally I was only going to have the vines on "picks up" however I had to draw it in on "nature ends" as well to tie the two font styles together a bit more.

I then experimented with using different colours and textures to give the background a bit more interest than being a flat colour. This paper texture that I picked out doesn't really suit the design very well as the colours are too similar to those used within the type so the quote blended into the background rather than popping out. So I reverted back to the blue background, and decided to add another pop of colour within the leaves of the vines as the lines are quite fine so it makes them stand out more from a far.

So once again I went back to the blue background and tried to focus on improving the individual elements of the design to make it work better as a whole. I added dotted lines to separate the different styles of type and also added in the dimensions of the frame. I started with a black dotted line and dimensions but I felt like this stood out too much from the design as I haven't used any blacks in the design so far.

After consulting feedback from some of my peers they said that the blue clashed with the emerald green colour and that a more natural paper texture would work better. So I found this light brown paper texture and I think that it helps the text stand out a lot more than before. I also changed the dotted line to the emerald green colour and added a black shadow to tie it together more. With the emerald green dotted lines only it didn't stand out enough and they couldn't be seen from a distance.

OUGD405 - Studio Brief 1 - Development - Say cheese!

Original Scan

I didn’t want this design to be serious so straight away I thought that I should probably include cheese in some way. I wanted these last two frames in particular to target a younger audience of early to late teens. I think that this sort of humour suits that age range because it’s very clean and simple. So I created this repeat cheese pattern for the background. I simply placed my hand written text on top of it and added a white drop shadow to add contrast. However I felt like something more needed to be going on in the design.

I tried the lettering in an orange rather than black to try and make it more visually appealing. But I think the orange is a bit lost in the image with the white shadow. 

So I changed the shadow to a dark brown and immediately it makes a huge difference. I also added in the dimensions. But it was still lacking so I asked a peer for some feedback. She said that I needed to step away from the colours that are similar to cheese and use something that is completely opposite. 

Instead of having a background completely made up of the cheese pattern, I took a circle out of it to frame the wording. The colour blue works really well with the yellows and oranges as they are complementary colours, so they help to make each other stand out. 

Finally I decided that it would be more fitting if the shape that the cheese was in was a block of cheese. So I used a triangle and added a 3d effect to it by making the top of the wedge lighter than the side. Also, I added the same texture I have used in previous designs to add interest and tie the pieces together as a set.

OUGD405 - Studio Brief 1 - Photoshop Experiments - Creativity takes courage

I started with a crumpled paper texture which I taken a picture of and then applied my hand drawn type with embellishments from illustrator onto the top. I duplicated it and inverted the colours to be white to add a shadow that contrasted from the yellow of the background. I also used the brush tool and my pen and tablet to add some accented dashes to some of the flourishes of the type to make it pop more.

I then played around with colours and layer styles of the texture in the background.

This was made using Linear Dodge on a blue background

Making the background monotone

I tried a blue shadow and I think that it's really effective.

 Next I wanted to try and replicate Jessica Hische's piece "You left me alone in the dark" so I found some images of stars and overlaid my type over it. For the image below I used overlay when the text was white, I think that this is quite effective because you don't lose anything from the beautiful image behind but you can still read the quote clearly. 

I also tried this overlaying technique on a darker sky, but I think that it is too subtle and couldn't be read from a distance, which is my aim. 

I then went back to basics and tried a different textured background, editing the colours from a brown to this emerald green colour with the hue and saturation image adjustment tool. I really like this colour because it jumps out at the page at you and invites you in. I think I will maybe try playing around a bit more with the quote to make it really stand out.