Calligraphy

For this task we used ink and a flat paintbrush and started off practicing with simple strokes horizontally, vertically and with curves. We attempted to copy the alphabet that was used for calligraphy. Once we grasped the technique of the brush and ink, we attempted to write a piece of text.

(Author's own photo)

Here I wrote out the alphabet but not in chronological order, but so that the letters all fitted into each other. The piece looks flowing when you first look at it. The letters vary in size and direction.

(Author's own photo)

This was a basic alphabet that I practiced before I moved onto text. I tried it in the calligraphic style of font.

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

Here I experimented with different effects and fonts to make the alphabet look more effective. 

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

This was my experiemntation with a passage from Romeo and Juliet. I made the text different sizes so that it was more appealing to the eye.

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

Our extension was to make wine bottle labels using the styles and techniques we had been practicing. I found this task hard as getting the knack of the brush and ink was difficult and making the letters look similar was challanging. However I enjoyed it as I had never used ink before and it has made me use it more in my work.

Type Plays

Our task was to experiment with layout on a 120mm base. We had to represent words in the way of their meaning. We used the light boxes to trace certain fonts and sizes to make up words. For example "Stripe" could be coloured in with lines to represent stripes. I found this task really interesting and enjoyed doing it. 

(Author's own photo)

I started doing all words in black and white and filling in some of the letters with block colour. I then chose to try colour which could give the word a totally different look and meaning. My favourite word in the black and white was the cracked as it had a disoriented feel when you looked at in.

(Author's own photo)

My favourite word in the colour was the no, which had it repeated 3 times and the colour gradient went up. I liked this as it could have so many combination of colours and it could look and mean different things.

I then experimented with the different words in different layouts of the page.

(Author's own photo)

For this image I had the word "fall" at the top of the page to make it look as if it was falling off the page. I also had "smash" stretched out across the page. Out of all the designs these were my least successful as they didn't really portray the meaning of the word.

(Author's own photo)

This layout was my favourite as the simplicity of the words and colour made them the most striking. The "black and white" was very literal but striking on the eye and the "no" with the colour and word reversed had a different meaning but also if you glance quickly it looked the same word.

(Author's own photo)

For this layout I repeated the word "quirky" four times around the page so that no matter the angle of the page the word appears the same. 

(Author's own photo)

Here I scanned my hand drawn images into Photoshop and added colour to show the contrast between the colour and black and white version. The colour adds a whole other dimension to the design. I wanted to keep the hand drawn effect of the text though as this looked more original. 

Overall I really enjoyed this task as there was so many combination of words and layouts that you could create. Also this task made you think outside the box of the obvious and explore the true meanings of the words and what you were trying to present.

Indesign and Photoshop

Our task was to create a film poster promoting the new film about the Chilean Miners. The film was called 33 and we started off researching the film and background information about the event. Because the film is based on a true story, information was easy to find and locate and this helped with the design of the poster. I also found the task easier than some of the other tasks as I am familiar with creating posters for films ect.

(Google Image)

I used this image to help me with colour. I wanted to keep the colours simple and to link with the flag.

(Google Image)

This image was taken from google and the men were actual miners in the accident. I thought this would be striking on the poster as they actually experienced the trauma and are involved in the film. The three of the also sat nicely on the poster.

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

In photoshop I cut out the men from the background and adjusted the saturation to make them have a red tinge about them. This linked with the red in the flag and gave a different dynamic to the photo rather than just black and white.

(Author's own photo)

I made the flag the fill for the text of the title. I thought this incorporated the flag in a different way, rather than having it purely as the background. I did this in InDesign and this was something new that I learnt.

(Author's own photo)

This was different example of the colours that I tried for the poster, however the red interlinked with the flag and the rest of the poster, so it worked better.

(Author's own photo)

My final poster included the an outline of the map in the background, so that people understood where the film is set. I also added the credits at the bottom of the poster. However to improve this I could have found a better colour, rather than having red on red. Overall I was please with my outcome for a days work.

Colour Wheel and Illustrations

For this workshop we learn the different range of colours that we could created ourselves without using pre mixed colours. I already knew the primary colours that are yellow, red and blue and the secondary colours that are orange, green and purple. The colour wheel highlights the different tones you can get by adding more or less of one of the primary colours. 

(Author's own photo)

I learnt about tertiary colours as I hadn't heard of this before. Unfortunately my red was very dark, resulting in my browns being very similar. However from other peoples colour wheels I learnt that orange and blue made lighter browns, yellow and purple made orchards brown colours and red and greens made sienna brown colours. 

(Author's own photo)

We had to take a book that we could create three illustrations based on the text. I chose Romeo and Juliet as it's a famous play and there are so many different interpretations of the book I wanted to create my own one. 

(Author's own photo)

For my first illustration I used a blue background that gradually got lighter and red typography for the initials of Romeo and Juliet. The font was old english font as the book dates back to 13th Century. I liked to font of this the best as I drew it freehand and I think it was successful. However to improve I could have made the background colours blend better to have a smoother effect.

(Author's own photo)

For my second illustration I drew a line of hearts, one row full and one row broken. I did this as Romeo and Juliet is a romance, however it doesn't have a happy ending. I chose a brighter red for the full hearts and this connotes romance, love and happiness, however the broken hearts I used a crimson red which is deeper to connote heartache, passion and death linking to blood. In the background I wrote out the passage of when Romeo and Juliet first meet in Act One Scene Five. However as this scene goes on Romeo discovers that Juliet is a Capulet and that they cannot be together which links to the broken hearts. I think this would have looked better if I printed to text first as then the text would have been even and clearer to read.

Manifesto

For my manifesto project I struggled to think of an idea to relate mine to. I don't have a religion and have no strong beliefs on anything much, so I decided to create mine on something I'm interested in which is fashion. I wrote a mind map of everything related to fashion, and most of the things were negative, such as the size of models, the way you have to look ect. This stimulated my idea for my manifesto. I wanted to create something about the steroetype of fashion and how anyone can be involved. 

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

I wanted to make my piece visual with symbols and colourful. I sketched out some symbols that could be included in my piece and some different words in fonts and colours to let me see visually how my piece could look. 

(Author's own photo)

Some of the ideas I came up with were a word search were the words related to my issue were already highlighted. This was a playful way of displaying my thoughts and was something different. This was a quick mock up of a design that I did on photoshop. However I decided not to use this as it wasn't busy enough for me and I couldn't incorporate the symbols easily.

(Author's own photo)

  (Author's own photo)

I chose to have fashion written down the middle in bold so that the topic of my manifesto was clear for the audience. I used contrasting colours with each other for the symbols so that they stood out and black text so that it was bold and striking. I allowed some of the words to be large and some small so it looked like a neat collage. I used fonts that were on photoshop and fonts that I had found as I felt a week wasn't long enough to manipulate all my own fonts.

(Author's own photo)

For my final idea I have decided to print my manifesto on a canvas bag for my portfollio. This relates to the fashion theme as it's an accessory and this is something that could be sold to promote the message of my manisfesto. I really enjoyed this task as it could be related to anything and I gained some more experience using photoshop to create my manifesto. I was happy with the way it turned out, its how I thought it would look, however I think I could have considered the colours better. 

Branded film edited

Editing our film was a bit of a struggle as none of the members really knew how to work editing software apart from one of us so it was difficult to divide up the editing time between us all. However we all sat round and tried to help with ideas and what looked good. We used Final Cut Pro to edit our film which worked well.

(Author's own photo)

We started off with a montage of the words that we used in different font and colours to catch the audiences attention. These words got quicker and the pace speed up to create tension and grab the attention of the viewer.

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

Our clips were then cut so that they were about 12seconds each and they merged into each other. Each clip was slowed down so that the smudging of the writing on the face was effective.

(Author's own photo)

We wrote the question 'Who am I?' so that the audience could think about this throughout the rest of the film.

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

              

(Author's own photo)

We struggled to find a song that fitted with the film as we wanted something upbeat but also sad as this was an emotional piece. We ended up using 'Muy Tranquilo' by Gramatik as it had a fast beat but a high pitched piano which had emotion. 

Overall I think our film was successful in relating to the word branded and each clip always related back to the word.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av9i1_Lgn9I

Branded

We decided to film in ravensbourne as all we needed was a wall to hang our background on. We started off by shooting our model in plain clothes to show the outcome of her loosing her identity. Our team worked really well in filming the shots. None of us had any real movie experience, however we all worked well as a team. We all pulled together to bring in props and accessories for the shoots.

(Author's own photo)

This was our indie look. We used bright colours and festival wear to dress our model. She removed the sunglasses and headband and smeared the word 'hipster' off her face.

(Author's own photo)

For the geek we made our model wear glasses, bow tie and have her hair in high plaits so that she looked goofy like. The work 'geek' was written on her face for the audience to see.

(Author's own photo)

My favourite look was the goth look and our model look really good and scary. The spiked leather jacket added to the effect and the word 'goth' was written on her face.

(Author's own photo)

This was the final image shown at the end of the film to show a pure model and how identify is lost.

(Author's own photo)

This was the typography element of our film. We used it as a background so that all the words related to the words were included in our film. We hand drew all the words on two A1 sheets. I think this worked really well as the words were bold and eye catching and the audience automatically looked at it. Also the black and white colouring was harsh showing the message of the film.

(Author's own photo)

Graphic film - Branded - Group M

Our task was to create a one to two minute short film on a word that included typography and an individual film poster. Our groups word for this task of creating a film was branded. We started of by creating a mind map of everything that we thought related to this work. Also we got a dictionary description to help us so that we didn't steer off track. Our main though that came to mind was the branding of animals. However we then moved onto brand identity and how logos allow the audience to recognise the brand. Our first idea was to create the word branded out of different logos that included those letters. However we then realised that we were more heading towards the word rebrand which wasn't our task.

(Author's own photo)

We then decided to look at social branding and how everyone has a label of their social groups. Chav, emo, goth, neek, nerd, indie all came to mind. We then created a mind map of words that related to these categories. We experimented with different fonts to link to the typography element of the task. This was good as it allowed us to create the background for our video.

(Author's own photo)

After thinking of different words for our social stereotypes we though of the idea for our film. One person would be dressed up in four different ways with certain words written on their face relating to that steroetype. Then as the film progressed the words and accessories that the model was wearing would be wiped away and removed. At the end the four different stereotypes that we started off with would turn into one person, the same person, creating the message that through branding you loose your identity.

We created a storyboard to help us work out how long each shot would be and what order we wanted to create the film in. This was helpful as it brought the idea to life and we could see it visually so that we could change things. 

                

(Author's own photo)

We also had to think about our individual poster to promote the film. I struggled a little with this as I wanted something bold and simple to catch the readers attention, however I normally like busy designs with lots to look at. I came up with a few ideas. One was to have to word branded written multiple times with different logo letter, another was to have branded stamped on a persons back.

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

My final design was slightly different to my draw design of a girls back with no clothes and the word branded stamped on. I then changed it to a wooded mannequin as then this didn't restrict my view of the stereotype just being women, but to both male and female. Also the wooden mannequin also related to the issue of people not being real and themselves. I used photoshop to change my image to black and white and add the text on top of the image. This is very plain and striking, however I think it works well. To improve I oculd have used indesign to manipulate the font myself and maybe had it the effect of dripping paint down the back. I chose black and white as I thought this stood out more to the audience.