Showing posts with label GRAPHICS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GRAPHICS. Show all posts
[MAKING] TECHSOFT DRAWING
[GRAPHICS] CONDEFENCE LOGO
Again, this is just simply finding an idea and drawing it on Illustrator. I've not come up with a final look, but I do think green is the right colour.
Straight or playful?
Does the football work? Player? Brain?
Emphasise the wordplay? Too much?
For sure it's a difficult process. My way of working would be to keep trying and visualising until something feels right. But I haven't yet. The day wasn't long enough.
[GRAPHICS] WEB WIREFRAME
I've been thinking about a business concept for educating footballers. It's not the most thought out plan in the world ready for launch tomorrow, but it's certainly an idea that has been lingering for a little while, and may fruit some day. Don't steal my idea.
Condefence.
Great name I think. Here's the rationale.
And then the wireframe. This is essentially the mock up of the website. How the home page looks. What buttons link where. What each page looks like. How the hierarchy stands. Like a site map.
Condefence.
Great name I think. Here's the rationale.
And then the wireframe. This is essentially the mock up of the website. How the home page looks. What buttons link where. What each page looks like. How the hierarchy stands. Like a site map.
[GRAPHICS] SETTING UP YOUR BRAND
Thinking ahead to my own branding or my own brand, it's clear we need to be web savvy. Everything happens on the web. Meaning, a good website and good connections are necessary. That is, Facebook, Twitter, LinkdIn and the like.
USP vital.
Connectivity vital.
[GRAPHICS] BRANDING AND LOGOS
What makes effective brand images?
The first task for this workshop was to collate some likes and dislikes of branding examples.
The John Lewis Christmas commercial has been a continuous hit in recent years. I think its due to the core understanding of how we enjoy the holiday, they get it so on point. Its totally relatable and likeable. This year's in particular is excellent I think. Concept is perfect for me.
Nike's logo is so successful because of its simplicity and global appeal. It's like the chicken and the egg, I'm not sure which is established first, but its lack of the word "Nike", the fact that it's one continuous blocked shape, it's incredibly effective at being spotted and recognised from just a swoosh.
Gap had a ridiculous big-money brand revamp, stirring a lot of hype, causing eager anticipation of the change from the bland longstanding logo. Only for it to be revealed as Helvetica with a blue square. They changed back after like a month, it was bizarre. Both are horrible, the stretched out font is really bad.
Whilst IKEA are renowned for their unique mass production of decent quality DIY everything, their logo is quite poor and certainly doesn't reflect on the clean, simple and current products they have to offer. The Swedish colourway is predictable, the typeface is fat and squished, which I find strange considering their well executed use of Verdana (previously Futura) for their campaigns and pretty much everything else too actually. The logo I don't like though.
Anyway, this has been useful in terms of thinking through what makes for a good piece of branding. Is it simply the aesthetics that matter? Its relation and reflection of the brand itself and what it stands for? The concept behind the brand's philosophy and how that is represented?
Note: The Pentagram have designed some absolute beauties. I want their book.
The first task for this workshop was to collate some likes and dislikes of branding examples.
The John Lewis Christmas commercial has been a continuous hit in recent years. I think its due to the core understanding of how we enjoy the holiday, they get it so on point. Its totally relatable and likeable. This year's in particular is excellent I think. Concept is perfect for me.
Nike's logo is so successful because of its simplicity and global appeal. It's like the chicken and the egg, I'm not sure which is established first, but its lack of the word "Nike", the fact that it's one continuous blocked shape, it's incredibly effective at being spotted and recognised from just a swoosh.
Gap had a ridiculous big-money brand revamp, stirring a lot of hype, causing eager anticipation of the change from the bland longstanding logo. Only for it to be revealed as Helvetica with a blue square. They changed back after like a month, it was bizarre. Both are horrible, the stretched out font is really bad.
Whilst IKEA are renowned for their unique mass production of decent quality DIY everything, their logo is quite poor and certainly doesn't reflect on the clean, simple and current products they have to offer. The Swedish colourway is predictable, the typeface is fat and squished, which I find strange considering their well executed use of Verdana (previously Futura) for their campaigns and pretty much everything else too actually. The logo I don't like though.
Anyway, this has been useful in terms of thinking through what makes for a good piece of branding. Is it simply the aesthetics that matter? Its relation and reflection of the brand itself and what it stands for? The concept behind the brand's philosophy and how that is represented?
Note: The Pentagram have designed some absolute beauties. I want their book.
[GRAPHICS] STYLE SHEET MENU
Using several Styles, our task was to design a menu for an Italian restaurant, made up by Avni.
The background course title is one paragraph style.
Each item title is one style, each description one style, prices one style.
Header title and footer notes were independently assigned.
The background course title is one paragraph style.
Each item title is one style, each description one style, prices one style.
Header title and footer notes were independently assigned.
[GRAPHICS] INDESIGN STYLE SHEETS
There are two types: paragraph styles and character styles, each window found under Type & Text. Paragraph styles are useful for batch text (ie paragraphs), whereas Character styles apply for individual letters, for example in the case of drop caps at the start of each chapter, or for ligatures, etc.
[GRAPHICS] MANUAL TRACING
For more complex images, we can trace manually, using the Pen tool. Clicking adds points, shift+Click adds curves and the Anchors are adjusted for right angles. I took this image from our JFC photo log and chose to trace an outline of the boys.
And by using the Layers, I can control individual lines and layers by selecting what to view and what to hide. In this case, each boy and the ball (blue, orange, black) are all independent Layers, as are the green borders and strap I added. The original photograph is also a Layer itself, positioned at the top to cover the rest, and hidden also.
[GRAPHICS] LIVE TRACING
Bringing in a JPEG image from the web, in this case the new adidas Euro 2012 football, the tracing tool automatically blocks out the image into colour patches it reads. As these 'blocks' are all independent, I can then change the colour of a certain block. Potentially very useful.
[GRAPHICS] SIGNPOST TASK 2
I thought the hand action was ok, but the guy's face was ridiculously bad, no? Literally looks like a beginner drew it up on Illustrator. Now, mine clearly doesn't solve that problem, but I wanted a sign that was more symmetrical and have a sense of sensible authority. So, it's an authorised person blocking you entry. Some drawing flaws of course, but I think the builder's hat, ID badge and fence make for a bold clear message.
This is the Car Wash at Sainsbury's. Not a huge change, but I think my rendition is cleaner, brighter and more inviting. It's just an arrangement of circles, rectangles, straight lines and a trapezium, but I find its simplicity is appealing, in comparison to the free irregular lines from the builder in my other sign.
[GRAPHICS] SIGNPOST TASK 1
Using Adobe Illustrator for the first time, the task was to collate some 'odd' signposts from the New Cross area and improve or make our own versions of them. Having learnt the Pen and Anchor tools, as well as constructing simple shapes, it was an opportunity to put them to practice.
Here are some amusing ones I found out and about.
It's almost like, 'this way for a holiday'.
Yes sir.
If a dog is caught fouling, he shall be given a yellow card.
You might die.
Yep. Five is too many.
Here are some amusing ones I found out and about.
Say it in a deep manly voice.
[GRAPHICS] BOOK COVER TASK
On day one with Avni, we looked at books and the design that goes into their covers. Because let's be honest, we all judge a book by its cover. Otherwise what purpose is the cover serving, right? I think so anyway.
So in partners, we made up a book for which we would design a cover.
We were using the library computers, onto which we saved the relevant files. Turns out you're not supposed to save it there, because it doesn't actually save it. Yeah. So I'm afraid we lost our work. The cover was nice though. We chose a square canvas for the book shape and filled it with a cute shot of a toddler enjoying ice cream, editing it on Photoshop to give it a bit of sepia tone and cropping it. We even designed a publisher's logo on Illustrator, which I think was rather effective.
But yes, the main lesson here was not to save onto the computers, instead to use a personal USB. Damn.
So in partners, we made up a book for which we would design a cover.
We were using the library computers, onto which we saved the relevant files. Turns out you're not supposed to save it there, because it doesn't actually save it. Yeah. So I'm afraid we lost our work. The cover was nice though. We chose a square canvas for the book shape and filled it with a cute shot of a toddler enjoying ice cream, editing it on Photoshop to give it a bit of sepia tone and cropping it. We even designed a publisher's logo on Illustrator, which I think was rather effective.
But yes, the main lesson here was not to save onto the computers, instead to use a personal USB. Damn.
[GRAPHICS] OLYMPIC POSTER TASK
To emphasise the importance of computers and the typography that we all have access to, our task today was to make a London 2012 poster using rubbing techniques. That is, laying paper over a ridged bit of existing lettering and rubbing pastel over it to depict the letterform. Seemed a bit like a primary school task but never mind.
The task did have some rules, including compulsory text content (event details), a self-chosen strap line, clear influence of the five rings, and that we couldn't use letters from the same rubbing source next to each other. So having planned a general layout for the poster, decided on a strap line, and counted how many of each letter was needed, we set off in search of rubbings. Letters came from signs around campus and local streets, numbers from house doors, bins, cars, and Os from drains (creative!).
Here's what we came up with.
The task did have some rules, including compulsory text content (event details), a self-chosen strap line, clear influence of the five rings, and that we couldn't use letters from the same rubbing source next to each other. So having planned a general layout for the poster, decided on a strap line, and counted how many of each letter was needed, we set off in search of rubbings. Letters came from signs around campus and local streets, numbers from house doors, bins, cars, and Os from drains (creative!).
Here's what we came up with.
Not quite the typography class I thought it was going to be. But for sure I'll be looking into it with more depth. I'm gonna be typeface nerd.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)