Contextual Studies

Here is one of the images I took whilst experimenting with photography, I thought it was significant for my contextual studies as it is an example of history, and once everyone was using one of these, now hardly anyone uses a phonebox and you hardly see them around.


The First ever magazine that was published was the German Erbauliche Months Unterredungen released in 1663. Unlike todays magazines the first magazines where written mainly by only one author, the target audience for magazines where the Intellectual type and didn't appeal to a wide variety of audiences like todays magazines. The subjects included court events, theatre and literature, mainly aimed towards the men rather than women. The first women's magazine was Ladies Mercury launched in London in the year 1693.

Website: http://www.magazinedesigning.com/history-of-the-magazines/
Author: Nikola

Unit 9

Unit 9

Recently I took part in a group critique task. We each had to present our work to the group of students from other courses as well as our own, then we would take it in turns to critique each others work and say some positives and negatives and what to improve.

I evaluated my experience:

I thought that I explained what I needed in the time given, however I felt that I could of condensed my presentation more so I could show only key things that where important in the time given.
Others said that I came across as confident and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. The presentation went well, better than I expected as I was feeling a bit nervous leading up to it. I felt it helped that I was talking about something that I enjoy and am passionate about, and this meant that I didn't have to think too much about what to say. This also meant that what I was saying came across as more natural when I was talking and I felt more relaxed.
This experience gave me inspiration for my work from seeing others, I also gained some useful advice and suggestions on how to improve my work, overall it was very beneficial.

This is what others said and there feedback to me.

Logo Design Unit 9

This is what I designed after looking at the design that I found from pinterest.

           I then added some text to my logo which is my initials.

This is my final design for my logo, I added the green leaves behind as I was inspired by the design of the packaging I saw from Pinterest.

My logo design process Unit 9

Here is one of my watercolour pieces I painted a while ago. I wanted my logo to be professional looking and I wanted it to look clean cut, but I also wanted to show that I do illustrations as well as design. So I somehow wanted to incorporate an illustration into my logo, whether it is a painting or drawing.

This is one of the first designs that I made, I thought that It was ok but the leaves where a bit too distracting, and it was too detailed.

I tried to reduce the amount of space and condense the leaves, I also changed the colour of the text to black and widened the green strip behind.










      




I decided to work with shapes from researching a few artists on pinterest, here is a rough copy of what I came up with.

This was an unknown artist that I came across on Pinterest, I liked there use of line and shape, also the use of natural leaves in the logo.

Herb Lubalin

Herb Lubalin

Herb Lubalin was an American graphic designer, he worked with Ralph Ginzburg for a magazine company, he created and designed the typeface ITC Avant Garde.
Lubalin's work is creative and elegant.  I love the use of typography in his logo's, for each company you can see that he has clearly adapted the style of typography to fit the theme and character of the business. Unlike Paul Rand's work Herb Lubalin creates a 3-D effect in some of his logos, however both artists stick to minimal colours in their work. I like how Herb Lubalin's logo's are almost an artwork in itself and not just a logo, for instance the mother and child logo, you can see that he has beautifully created the image of a mother carrying her child within the o of the word mother.
To conclude I think that both artists are unique, and each have different qualities to their work, although i think that I prefer Herb Lubalin's work because of it's individuality of each of his logos.

Logo Designers

Paul Rand

Here’s what a logo is and does: Written by Paul Rand himself.

A logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon.
A logo doesn’t sell (directly), it identifies.
A logo is rarely a description of a business.
A logo derives its meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around.
A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it means is more important than what it looks like.

Paul Rand was one of America's leading modern graphic designers, his work included advertising, book and corporate design. He studied at Parsons School of design in New York City, although the majority of his work was self taught.
His Logo designs have a fresh and clean look, I have noticed from studying his work he uses a lot of negative space in his work, this makes the eyes focus on specific parts of the logo such as the text. Paul Rand also sticks to a minimal amount of colour, this way it is still bold but isn't distracting and overpowering.

Looe Cornwall

I am basing my project on a small town called Looe in Cornwall, it is a beautiful place with a welcoming feel and community. It is also right by the coast, I took a visit to Looe today and talked to a few people, asked questions and gathered information for my project.

Some of these questions included
Are you visiting, or do you live locally?

Describe your surroundings in less than 10 words.

Describe how life by the sea makes you feel in less than 5 words.

I got some really interesting responses from people and most of them where not living locally. Some of these responses where "It makes me feel at peace, the surroundings are very calming and I don't want to go home when I'm here."

" The atmosphere and surroundings are very relaxed, a word to describe how I feel when I'm here,  invigorated"

I hope to go back very soon and talk to some more people as I found this experience really interesting and beneficial, It gave me inspiration for magazine articles that I could write and my target audience. The community there is very friendly and open, it's a lovely place to be to break away from the busyness of the city.

Silk Screen Print Designs

I have made a new design in the style of Ophelia Pang, I tried to include shaded parts to my design as it will make the look more bold overall. I have also tried to use shapes and create a repeat pattern with my design, I think that the seaweed in particular reflects Ophelia Pangs work with a child like style.

Ophelia Pang

I found this artist on blogger, They also use silk screen printing to create tote bags and purses, I like that the designs are very bold and colourful. The artist uses a variety of shapes and lines to create a picture and paint a scene. The art has a child like features in the drawings and designs which makes it quirky, intriguing and fun. I could use the style as inspiration on how to develop my final design because I definitely nee to make my design more bold. I also have to bare in mind that I am limited to using only one solid colour for each print, and I can't add all the different colours onto one print because I would need to split my design into separate layers so I could add different colour to different parts of the pattern

Blog : http://opheliapang.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/more-tote-bags-mock-up.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/yFIMw+%28Dirty+Paws%29
contacts : opanghk@gmail.com
Published by blogger

Silk Screen Workshop

Today I took part in a Silk screen printing workshop, I found the workshop very beneficial as it helped me to critically analyse my design and learn about the process of putting it from the computerized image to the material.
There where many positives and negatives I learned about the work process that I would have to go through in order to create printed items for my magazine. The whole process of printing was fascinating, the fact that you can create a design by hand and print onto almost any material. I enjoyed learning about  all the do's and dont's when it comes to silk screen printing. When I was there I also got to see a lot of other peoples work, many of which where from experienced Print and Textile designers, this gave me a lot of ideas and inspiration for my own work. Every pattern was unique , I even saw some typography prints. Before the workshop I made some designs of my own and printed it onto acetate, I started from drawing a rough sketch then scanning them in onto the computer and editing the image. I got to talk to the workshop leader about my work and manage to get a lot of advice from her, from looking at other peoples prints I noticed that there work was detailed but bold, the lines where very clear and prominent. We where looking at my design and we came to the conclusion that there was still work and development to do, if you look at the design I made below, you will see that the lines are quite thin and they look even thinner when printed onto acetate. For the ink to come through clearly the pattern needs to be very black when it is on the acetate, and the lines need to be a bit thicker to allow more ink through. 

 This is my initial sketch, and below is my final design that I need to develop.

This is the design printed onto acetate.

Magazine Layout Ideas

Here are some pictures I have taken for inspiration from the suitcase magazine. I love the high quality pictures, the photographers really capture the essence of the places, showing the atmosphere and vibrance of the place.

 I would like to include a section featuring the people and subjects that are in the magazine, I think it is a more creative and visual way of displaying the contents page.

 The way that the writing is layed out shown in the example here is very effective in grabbing the readers attention. I like how it has a key quote from the article in the centre of the page, this way the reader gets a hint on what they are about to read. It also makes the reader wonder ask questions about the text, making them want to read more.

 Towards the end of the magazine there is a photo journal, i thought that it would be a good idea to make a photo journal also. This way I can focus my photography on one subject instead of having a random group of photo's. It will also give me an opportunity to explain the photo's and write the story behind the photography.

 I have been looking for inspiration for titles for my articles, this particular title captured my attention.

 Layout Designs
I thought that this was almost like a collage, It was the first page of one of the interior design magazines. I like the choice of photographs and they blend nicely together and flow, rather than looking like a jumbled selection of photo's.

 Photo Collage from the interior design magazine.

 Photo Collage

Nice Layout for displaying a key quote or piece piece of text.

Magazine Style and Audience

I have been doing a lot of research into different types of magazines and from this it has given me lots of questions and things to think about. I am now starting to develop the style and type of magazine I want to create, my audience is also key. From looking at different magazines without concentrating on there themes too much, I have come to the conclusion that there are two different types of magazines I can go for.

The first type of magazine is a community magazine, for example I have been  looking at the Looe magazine which is made for the community of Looe in Cornwall. It is a free magazine that is handed out to people in the community, it is an informative magazine that talks about news and the latest events that have happened and events in the future that people may want go to. This magazine is also aimed towards tourists who are visiting as it can be found at the local tourist information centre.

The second magazine is a travel and fashion magazine, I have been looking at a magazine called Suitcase. This magazine is aimed at young professionals who love to travel, the subjects it covers are completely different to the other magazines that I have looked at. Its is informative but in a different way, it tells stories other than a news report, you feel like you are reading a short novel and experiencing the place yourself rather than just being told what happened. It features local businesses but that is not it's main focus or theme. It wants to grab the reader and make them admire the places it features, and make them envy the people that live there. The magazine has a modern look, it looks clean and fresh. The pictures fill the page and the photography is of a very high standard which also draws the reader in as if you where there yourself.

To conclude I think for the content that I want to include in my magazine, I think I am going to create something similar to the travel and fashion magazine. I am going to base my magazine on the Suitcase magazine, as that was my inspiration for this project. I like the whole layout of the magazine and the writing and fonts used, so to further my research I am going to do a survey to find out more about my target audience.

Printing

Here is another way of printing that I found from an artists website called The Crafted Life. I like the typography used on the bag because it a water colour effect to it, and it is very minimalistic.

Website :http://thecraftedlife.com/iron-transfer-girlboss-tote/
Pinterest : https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/477029785511798174/

Gift Shop Items

I found this bag on Pinterest made by a blogger called Poppy Talk, the handle was made from an old belt and looks very effective against the white material. This inspired me to try to find creative way to make my items without making them too complicated and expensive.

Blog link: http://www.poppytalk.com/2013/08/diy-feedbag-tote-wleather-straps.html

Pinterest link: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/45950858674598939/

Silk Screen Printing Workshop

 I plan to do a silk screen printing workshop so I have been researching artists who use silk screen printing in their work. Sarah Abbot is an illustrator who uses silk screen printing, I liked her work because of the solid colours she uses. Her work is bold and eye catching, the style of work has a natural theme throughout and she focuses on greenery, plants and nature. I would love to incorporate some of this style into my own prints, using the theme of sea life.


 

Izziyana Suhaimi

Izziyana Suhaimi is also an embroidery artist, she illustrates people by sketching and using watercolour, then incorporates embroidery into her sketches to add colour. She mainly uses her embroidery to show fashion in the clothes that the people are wearing in her illustrations. The patterns she creates using embroidery are vibrant and floral, her work is very similar to Sarah Benning as they both have a unique way of using thread and stitching to illustrate the world 
around them.

Website: http://www.izziyanasuhaimi.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/izziyanasuhaimi/

Gift shop items

Sarah Benning is an embroidery artist, she also studied fine art. Banning has a unique way of illustrating through her embroidery, she uses very neutral colours and creates detail with the contrast of colours she uses. Her work mainly focuses on the natural environment such as green plants, and occasionally she will do portrait work. I think that her work and techniques could be used to create small gift shop items to include in my magazine, such as keyring's or purses.

Website: http://sarahkbenning.com/about/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahkbenning/