Month: October 2023

Composition is the aesthetic layout, and relativity, of graphical items that make up a visual message in graphic design; According to Amadine, composition can be defined as “ In graphic design, composition is understood as a creative process aimed at ensuring the integrity, interconnectedness and harmonious combination of all elements.” (Amadine, 2023, Composition in Graphic Design, Available Online: https://amadine.com/useful-articles/composition-in-graphic-design [Accessed 03/11/2023]) Good Composition Example I think this picture has good composition for several reasons. I have broken down the composition to highlight the balance in the colours using guidelines,and the pen tool in illustrator, to break down this picture’s baseline composition, as seen in the screenshot above.  I chose this picture because it is good at drawing attention to the photograph subject, which is the lady on the mattress. I feel it does this by using the rule of thirds to create a horizontal colour gradient from dark to light, which draws your eyes to the main focus of the lady. I also think this is a use of good balance too because the gradient is making use of all the space in the photograph from bottom to top.  Furthermore the photograph also uses the layout of shapes to draw attention to the posing woman. On the guidelines breakdown it can be seen that the two prominent shapes, which also happen to be the darkest use of colours, are triangles, and their toplines are balanced with one another, and I think this creates a nice composition which is aesthetically pleasing for its context of a glamour shoot.  Lara Jade, a fashion photographer,  states her opinion that triangles are effective in fashion composition; “A triangle is a great compositional tool and a good one to remember with posing. Using them in portraits and fashion photography can help strengthen an image and make it more pleasing to the eye. Look back at how the masters of painting used it to bring attention to their subjects using the head and arms in an angular composition”   (L.Jade 2016, Lara Jade’s 7 Tips for Posing Models, Available Online:https://www.rangefinderonline.com/wedding-portrait/beauty-glamour-fashion/lara-jades-7-tips-for-posing-models-2/) [Accessed 03/11/2023] I think that this has been applied to the composition of this shot, using the angle of the woman’s hand and arm, and also the shadows beneath her, to create a balanced use of triangles to create a nice composition on this photograph.  Bad Composition and Rework v In my rework I decided to use guidelines to try to make everything look more symmetrical and evenly placed. In addition to this I also tried to create a hierarchy using the colour blue, and a big text heading, so that the poster reads from top down to the bottom, where the smallest text resides.  According to Blue Sky Graphics, hierarchy can create good composition in graphic design, “Scale and visual hierarchy are some of the creative fundamentals that can really make or break your designs, so it is important to have a good grip on them in order to maintain a successful composition.” (Blue Sky Graphics, London, N.D, What is Composition in Design. Available Online: https://blueskygraphics.co.uk/what-is-composition-in-design/ [Accessed 03/11/2023] I also wanted to keep the central placed text from the original to keep it symmetrical, but i made the text more spaced out so it is easier to read and less offputting, as the original had all text in bold, which made it confusing as to which information was the most important.  Furthermore, I also used the blue colour, but removed it from the background, and instead used it to draw attention to the car image, and to draw attention to the title headings of the poster.  Blue Sky also states that “Symmetrical harmony evokes emotions of formality” ((Blue Sky Graphics, London, N.D, What is Composition in Design. Available Online: https://blueskygraphics.co.uk/what-is-composition-in-design/ [Accessed 03/11/2023]) The formality was missing from the original poster due to the chunky font, and the car picture behind the text,, and it is important for the composition of a poster which is for a fundraising/charity event to retain formality, as it involves money, and is addressing the public, especially since the format itself is quite informal (poster), the composition needed to have a level of professionalism.  Harvard References (Amadine, 2023, Composition in Graphic Design, Available Online: https://amadine.com/useful-articles/composition-in-graphic-design [Accessed 03/11/2023]) (Blue Sky Graphics, London, N.D, What is Composition in Design. Available Online: https://blueskygraphics.co.uk/what-is-composition-in-design/ [Accessed 03/11/2023] C.Newbold, 2012, Five Quick Tricks to Spruce up a Poster Design, Available Online: https://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/2013/09/05/five-quick-tricks-to-spruce-up-a-poster-design/ [Accessed 02/11/2023] (L.Jade 2016, Lara Jade’s 7 Tips for Posing Models, Available Online:https://www.rangefinderonline.com/wedding-portrait/beauty-glamour-fashion/lara-jades-7-tips-for-posing-models-2/) [Accessed 03/11/2023] (Meg Reid, 99 Designs, n.d., Available online: https://99designs.com/blog/tips/design-composition-and-layout/, [Accessed 31/10/2023]

Conceptual Design is the displaying of an integrated design process or message, in which, a graphical piece (typography, logo, ect) incorporates a specific messages pertaining to their intended purpose.  Webflow defines conceptual design as this “Conceptual design creates a strategy to transform a concept or idea into visual media. It’s the underpinning of a successful design process, and no project can start without it.” (Webflow, N.D, Conceptual Design: What it is and How to Build It, Available Online: https://webflow.com/blog/conceptual-designer#:~:text=Conceptual%20design%20creates%20a%20strategy,a%20completed%20project%20may%20look. [Accessed 03/11/2023]) This is a design by graphic designer Gary Dimi Pohty, it is a 2D graphic design which uses conceptual design to create a hidden meaning in the image. The design has a title which says ‘the third child’, which means the logo is about something which is about a third child.  It has the silhouettes of two children who appear to be playing a game together, they are on top of a grey background, which has allowed the designer to create a third outline through the placement of the two outlines already there. In the outline there is the body of a third child, which fits with the title text, because it is about a third child.  It is effective because it gets the concept across that this is about three children, and as such, displays the third child through double meaning. It also allows for the viewer to further conceptualise what this is about, what is the story about this other child.  It also appears that the shape of the third child looks to be making a praying sign, because the other children’s hands go over them, and because they are the light colour, it looks like the third child’s hands are in the foreground praying. It could conceptualise that maybe the third child is being left out of this playing with the other children, and has a darker feel to it that maybe it could have been designed for a book or film with serious themes.  All of this is done through the use of two shapes that have fitted together to make a third shape, and an additional meaning from the original shapes. Overall, It makes you think when you look at it which means that it is an effective use of conceptual 2D graphic design, and it is engaging to the viewer through its use of conceptualisation, which is the ulterior goal of this type of design work. Conceptualised Design I have decided to redesign Glamour magazine’s logo and to make it more conceptual. I created some clinking champagne glasses and fit them inside the letter ‘A’, as champagne and champagne flutes are connotative of glamour and a classy lifestyle. I also wanted to make it the same colour as the background colour so it kind of looks like it’s been carved into the letters.  I also added some girls doing some well known glamour model poses to show that the magazine is about glamour, and incorporated these inside the letters also. I wanted to fit them inside the word itself to give the logo some further conceptualised meaning, than just having the word on its own. I think that this lets the viewer know on first glance, that this magazine is meant for femme presenting individuals and those interested in things such as lifestyle, makeup, skincare, clothes, and fashion.  I used the silhouettes of a hyper feminine figure to attract readers attention to the logo and to give it a second glance to see the figures and the champagne flutes inside.  In conclusion, the logo looks better having some conceptualised meaning added to the words itself and I also think that the pictures make the logo much more memorable,and having a memorable logo is essential to building a well known brand.  I think it could also help femme presenting people to feel unified and empowered over their own sexuality and to feel more comfortable in their femininity in daily life, as I think it is important to have unified places to talk about women’s rights, such as magazines, and online blog posts. This logo could be used for their website as well as their print media, in addition to being used on posters and billboards. I think it is a bold conceptualised logo that incorporates a shock factor to gain attention from the reader/viewer. Harvard References C Lane 2018, Logos In The News, Magazine Updates, Available Online: https://www.logolounge.com/articles/magazine-updates [Accessed 2023] R Lisickis, 2021, This Graphic Designer Has an Eye for Hidden Meaning (30 logos). Available Online: https://www.boredpanda.com/minimalist-negative-space-hidden-meaning-logos-gary-dimi/ [Accessed 22/10/2023] (Webflow, N.D, Conceptual Design: What it is and How to Build It, Available Online: https://webflow.com/blog/conceptual-designer#:~:text=Conceptual%20design%20creates%20a%20strategy,a%20completed%20project%20may%20look. [Accessed 03/11/2023] Sketchbook Notes

Typography has a long history, starting from text being hand painted by scribes in the form of “black letter”, to its future as typefaces used on computers graphic design, newspapers, book,s and advertisements; it has allowed for the filtration of knowledge to the masses, and made information more accessible to society. According to J.M. Wells of Britannica “Typography, the design, or selection, of letter forms to be organised into words and sentences to be disposed in blocks of type as printing upon a page. ” (J.M Wells, Britannica, 2023, Typography, Available Online: https://www.britannica.com/technology/typography, [Accessed 03/11/2023]) Good Typography Example I think this is a good example of typography because of its utilisation of hierarchy when the viewer goes to look at it, and this is achieved through the use of the combination of bold and semi transparent, sans serif text; first the viewer reads the full sentence, before going back and receiving the second meaning of the text. It leads us from “Why do we want to be something more”,  to “Why do we want to be so thin”. When looking at this piece, the reader can infer that there is a much deeper meaning to the sentence than on first appearance.  This is followed by the small text at the bottom of the poster which has information about anorexia, and a link to a website also. In this way, the user is pulled in by the colour and text, and can easily, in order, read through the hierarchy of information, to the small text at the bottom. When looking at this typography it is evident that it has a good use of bold font, and colour to draw in the viewer, and uses two to three words in each line to keep the user engaged on the text as it is very easy and quick to read. It does exactly its purpose, which is to attract user engagement to convey a specific message, and then direct them to a website once engaged. Furthermore, the use of reduced spaces between the letters (kerning), allows the eyes to smoothly read the text, without feeling there are big awkward jumps between letters, adding to the overall punchiness of the typography; this, in addition to small leading space allows the user to read it quickly, which is necessary when the reader has to read the text twice over in order to attain the desired message, as the user could become disinterested very quickly with something that requires a double take.  Bad Typography Reworked This is my redesign of the original logo prior; I made the decision to remove the colours  because, although the idea on the original logo was to create a 3D glasses type colour theme to make the text seem like an optical illusion, it was actually subservient to its purpose of being able to convey information. I felt that it made the text hard to read, and the secondary background text was lost in translation, therefore I decided to do a much more toned down version of this, using a main text in black, and a secondary background text in grey. There is a slight overlap to keep the 3D feel of the logo, but without being unappealing and distracting from the type. I also tried to maintain the feel of the text jumping out at the reader by using the envelope distort, and make with warp tools on illustrator at 20%. I feel it keeps the feeling of a text in motion without being too harsh on the eyes like the first logo. In the positioning of my typeface, i noticed there was a shape in the negative space around the text, a diagonal line, in which i saw a shape, and realised it looked like the profile silhouette of an open laptop, and i decided to incorporate this into my design to show that the text is coming out of a laptop or an open webpage on the laptop.  I wanted to use ‘Minion Variable Concept’, a serif typeface, to make the logo seem more professional for a web design slogan, as many businesses will employ web designers to create their main websites, so it is important to maintain a feel of professionalism reflected in the slogan.  In future I would like to be able to make better logos, incorporate good use of colour, and have a better understanding of composition.  Harvard References Bolden(2022) Bad Design Vs Good Design: 5 Examples We Can Learn From. Available Online: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/bad-design-vs-good-design-5-examples-we-can-learn-frombad-design-vs-good-design-5-examples-we-can-learn-from-130706 [Accessed 07/10/2023] (J.M Wells, Britannica, 2023, Typography, Available Online: https://www.britannica.com/technology/typography, [Accessed 03/11/2023]) Kara Holmstrom (2023) The Importance of Typography. Available Online: https://www.digglescreative.com/blog/importance-of-typography-in-advertising.html [Accessed 07/10/2023] Xoja (2010) Anorexia By Xoja on Deviant Art. Available Online: https://www.deviantart.com/xoja/art/Anorexia-149163506?q=boost%3Apopular+in%3Adigitalart%2Ftypography&qo=9&offset=70#comments [Accessed 07/10/2023] Sketchbook Notes

Colour is used in graphic design to add an aesthetic, or conceptual value to a text or image, to evoke certain wants or emotions from the viewer, and can be employed for a number of reasons, from marketing, to video games; Gold Rabbit defines the use of colour in graphic design “Colour is a universal language and a powerful communication tool. Of all the elements that make up a visual design, colour is perhaps the most vital and influential. Research conducted by psychologists and marketers have highlighted how colour can influence our emotions and perceptions.” (Gold Rabbit, 2020, The Importance of Colour in Graphic Design, Available Online: https://goldrabbit.co.uk/the-importance-of-colour-in-graphic-design/#:~:text=Colour%20is%20a%20universal%20language,influence%20our%20emotions%20and%20perceptions. [Accessed 03/11/2023]) Good Use of Colour I feel that this is an example of use of colour because the art is simple and made from stylized shapes, and it pulls the immediate focus onto the colour red, and evokes many ideas such as red for martyrdom, which has origins dating back to the execution of Mary Queen of Scotts, and her allegedly wearing a red petticoat under her dress as her head rolled across the floor. As stated by Natalie  in ‘On The Tudor Trail’ website: “Mary was dressed almost entirely in black with a long white veil, edged in lace that flowed down her back and a red petticoat.” (https://onthetudortrail.com/Blog/2012/02/08/the-execution-of-mary-queen-of-scots/) As the lady in the bright red dress is upon a vast black background, it is open for interpretation that she seems lost in something big, and upon closer observation, you can see the title of the book is actually fitting into the bottom of this lady’s dress, very neatly.  It is an effective utilisation of a bright colour, and i think the simplistic style of the shaded shapes, against a black background is eye-catching and effective, and contextually relevant to the book since the women who are kept as incubating slaves in this book are forced to wear, and be identified, by their bright scarlet dresses.  I also think that although the author’s name is in grey, which could be hard to see upon the black background, I think that it highlights the fact that this book is not about the author, but a much more important, political, and philosophical statement about the bodily autonomy and future of women.  Overall it is a striking book cover and the bright red draws the viewer’s attention straight away, and makes you want to read the blurb to find out what this book is about, which I think is an effective use of colour in graphic design; and also is parallel to the use of red as symbolism in the story itself.  Poor Use of Colour and Rework. My design process for recolouring this book cover was to highlight the horror themes to stand out more, and to be a little bit less ambiguous than the original, which just had a pink background. I did keep some of that pink colour but I wanted to incorporate it into a theme of flesh colours. I wanted the book cover to visually have weight to it, like a slab of skin; to attempt this I used a lot of skin tone colour, and additionally blood colours; As stated by Edward R. Tufte, he felt that the use of colour in graphic design should be “governed by good ideas”, and so I used a concept for my choice of colours in my redesig, and i want the viewer to interpret the theme of the horror genre through these abject colour choices. I also think that this colour theme draws from people’s real life experiences, as Tufte also stated that the colours used in graphic design should speak to people’s experiences with colour in nature. I think that everyone has had an experience with seeing blood and cuts on their own skin, and people know the connotations of these colours from watching horror films, seeing dead animals, and witnessing their own injuries; therefore i feel that these colours are connotative of blood and injuries to the flesh, and i feel that this is good graphic design for its intended purpose, which is a horror book cover.  I also changed the colour of the sheep to red, which seems contradictory to the title, but ‘black sheep’ being black seems obvious and played out, and so i wanted the sheep to be blood red, and i also turned the letters that the sheep is conjoined to, into the same blood red so it gives the effect of running or dripping blood, which again, is reference to the horror genre of this book, and draws on experiences of deep injuries, which draw large amounts of blood; i wanted to use these colours to draw the reader’s attention to the book cover, and to make it stand out.  Harvard References Glorify 2022, 20 Best Book Covers Of All Time, Available Online: https://glorify.com/learn/book-covers-of-all-time [Accessed 19/10/2023] (Gold Rabbit, 2020, The Importance of Colour in Graphic Design, Available Online: https://goldrabbit.co.uk/the-importance-of-colour-in-graphic-design/#:~:text=Colour%20is%20a%20universal%20language,influence%20our%20emotions%20and%20perceptions. [Accessed 03/11/2023]) Gooden T, 2023, Check Out The Delightfully Sinister Cover For Horror Novel Black Sheep- Nerdist. Available online: https://nerdist.com/article/black-sheep-horror-novel-rachel-harrison-exclusive-cover-reveal/ [Accessed 26/10/2023] Natalie 2012, The Execution of Mary Queen of Scotts, Available Online: https://onthetudortrail.com/Blog/2012/02/08/the-execution-of-mary-queen-of-scots/ [Accessed 19/10/2023] Tufte. E.R., 1990. Envisioning Information. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press. (pp. 81-93).