Pictograms Study task 2 - OUGD405

I took the Winter Olympic sport of Ski Jump. I wanted to portray the pictogram to show the action and movement of the sport. First of all I tried creating this piece that showed minimal design with the body parts but didn't want to show any gender.

In our group feedback sessions I was told the chest was puffed out too much and sort of looked a bit masculine so I took it in.

In the final group feedback I was told The design would look masculine as long as the chest was shaped as it was, it was also said that the chest did not fit in with the rest of the body shape. I changed it to more of a squared design but kept the chest leaning forward like a ski jumper would to become more aerodynamic. I was told the design may still need to lean forward further but I didn't want to over exaggerate and was informed people could still tell what sport it was.

Colour was mentioned in the critique so I experimented with a range of different monotone colours that I believed related to winter. Blue is a calm cool colour that reminds me of ice so that fit and although Red is a warm colour it is used in a lot of winter and ski wear to stand out from the snow.

Pictograms further research Study task 2 - OUGD405

I decided to look into some more pictograms other than just olympic ones.

These are a few I found when browsing through Pinterest; https://www.pinterest.com/ezekielyt/pictograms/

A lot of new icon designs have this interesting drop shadow featured within them or a bit of change in the colour to add depth to a simple piece. Each of the icons clearly shows what they're meant to signify.

I would like to attempt some of ideas used in this piece but also from some of the other posts I have looked at using simplicity to the highest ability.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/20316951/MIRACLE-MARKET

Pictograms Study task 2 - OUGD405

http://www.k2design.gr/en/project/366/athens-2004

I wanted to look into Olympic pictograms that featured a theme or linked to the country they were set in in some way.

The Athen's olympic pictograms (above image) fit a theme similar to that of the original Olympics in Athens. The idea is such a great one and ties old and new together keeping the heritage in the games.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/october/2012-olympics-pictograms-launched/

London's pictograms are still on a theme but with a different meaning. The designer has stuck to one theme with the logos, pictograms and the whole idea of the games. The shapes have been brought into all the designs tying them all together to create one solid theme.

http://www.olympic.org/sports

Our task was to pick a sport and redesign the pictogram for it.

OUGD405 - Studio Brief 01 - Wayfinding Primary Research

These images are from around the city centre in Leeds. The maps I think are quite interesting, the colour coding is helpful but there is a lot of information being communicated at once which could confuse people. If the design was easier to follow then the viewer would be able to find their destination quicker. The colour coding idea is a good one as it defines different elements within the city helping them stand out. 

The trinity shopping centre in leeds has hundreds if not thousands of shoppers per day so an easy to follow way finding system should be priority. The boards contain a lot of information in a long list meaning you have to move around to fins out where you would like to go. Again a colour coding system has been put into place but this is on a smaller scale to a city so it would be easier to split the colours up again maybe to the style of shops. For example if you wanted a clothing shop you could look for yellow on the signage or for a games shop look for red and so on. I think there is a lot of potential with what has already been provided within trinity.

Tropical world is placed outside of the city centre in Leeds. The signage and way finding isn't exactly consistent, some of the signs printed on inkjet paper some branding the logo on what I would describe as proper signage, this makes it harder to find your way around. The building takes you around in a circle so it doesn't really matter to much on directions around but more for what you can find and see where animal wise. Tropical world has a good system but it needs more consistency within the designs of the signage.

OUGD405 - Studio Brief 01 - Wayfinding Initial Research

My initial thought was to look into different signage and way finding ideas that stand out and are different to the 'norm'. I believed this was key because if you're walking through a place you don't really know you want the signage to stand out to you so that you feel comfortable navigating around otherwise you'd miss or ignore it and become lost and confused.

http://www.damienrobache.net/01/?/objets/Akira/
http://www.edwhitephotographics.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=0&a=0&at=0
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/e3/83/b1/e383b1c1799c734ed3e6396a99331895.jpg
https://ndga.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/serie-referencias-%E2%80%93-sinalizacao-3/
http://www.fromupnorth.com/beautiful-signage-1022/
http://buronorth.com/projects/project/the-strand

Firstly I looked into different signage for WC facilities and things that could link to that as I believe it's one of the most important pieces of signage. No one wants to be waddling around somewhere they don't know looking for a place to relieve themselves. 

Like I said above I wanted to look at signage that maybe is different, some is simple and sort of minimalist but some bring a new class or feel to the place they are in. A lot of the images above use pictograms, this is to make sure it is translated for everyone who wishes to view them. One uses type to communicate the message on it's own but it works and like I said adds class to the toilets.

http://theultralinx.com/2015/07/20-awesome-optical-illusions-typography/
http://www.we-heart.com/2015/03/31/truck-deluxe-tel-aviv/
http://gerarddehoop.nl/products/lighting/arrow3.html
http://thechive.com/2010/02/22/funny-restroom-signs-14-photos/

I started to look into lighting being used within signage. The ones above rely on power and sun light which I suppose if you want to see signage most does but the ones that rely on sunlight to shine in a particular way means they wont always be visible. Lighting does throw you off and is eye catching but I think more problems can arise.

Cutting out a piece of signage is different and can look beautiful if done in the right way. The use of pictograms in the second image is amazing yet simple. The 69 for the house number stands out to be but not only is the cut out aesthetically pleasing the typeface has been chosen well to fit the style of the whole piece. Lastly the number 3 on the end has been placed quite cleverly but at the same time it could be confusing from the left angle and from the centre it would look to be a 3 but from the right angle it could be an 8 or a 3, anamorphic type can look amazing but isn't always informative.

http://manausbikelounge.tumblr.com/page/3
http://www.pidgeon.com.au/index/index/view/1/167
http://www.laseternas.com/sonarpro/
http://www.lostateminor.com/2014/02/22/best-2013-photos/

3D Signage is an interesting style to look into. Managing to incorporate the surroundings together is a hard task but just taking a sign out of it's comfort zone if you will can change a lot. Space is an issue with this method but it can also lend itself to the space.

https://www.instagram.com/p/tfJQeRwuLE/?modal=true
http://whynotassociates.com/branding-identity-2/glitz
http://newgrids.fr/2012/11/07/wayfinding-westerdals/
http://www.ok-rm.co.uk/slide/the-queens-house

One of the most used but I think one of the easiest to display and be creative with is painted signage, namely onto walls. Most of the time this method is used in floor numbering to create big bold statements so you can remember where you are or quite easily find out. Cost wise all you need is a wall and some paint maybe some stencils and a human with the skills needed and willing. I think this maybe the method I will look into the most.

Letter Press Experimentation

Setting up the chase for letterpress is a stressful task but once you're practiced you start to see it becoming easier. I had to set it up multiple different ways when I first started this piece as I couldn't get a hold on which way round the letters or words should be placed.

The reason I added larger lettering in and spaced the words out is because it fits to the way the song lyric is sung. The words 'Black Treacle' were a larger point size than the rest to add emphasis as it is the name of the song. 'Tar' has been printed in italics because the word is augmented to carry on the note.

I was going to drag the ink down on the word Tar as if it was tar on the page but thought there was enough explanation in the piece already.

Black was the chosen colour because of the song title, red was used as an experiment but I added to much ink so the prints didn't come out as well as I'd hoped.






The final product is below.

OUGD403 Studio Brief 2 - Typeface Design Final Outcome

I moved on from Berthold to Helvetica.The reason was one that I touched on in the last post, some of the letter forms didn't fit the design, forms like the X and Y were easier to navigate around. The C, Q and S were squared off to a better angle for my design but other letters like the J were harder to decide where to cut through.

In the end I decided to use a regular font and a special font called Blackout. The Regular font is based on a stencil design for army or military type, the Blackout I think could be used joint with the Regular as well as on it's own for special characters.

The Blackout font uses the same cut outs as the Regular, I added in blocks of black, removed the counters and extended some of the forms to fill the shapes. This is the reason why I've chosen Blackout as a name for the sub category.

Since my updated manifesto I said I think the type would work with short statements so I researched strong slogans like NIKE's "Just Do It". after receiving feedback from my work people seemed to agree the design might not fit companies like NIKE, and maybe better to use an all male target audience for this design. 

Below you can see I've added the NIKE tick to the design and adapted it to suit my type design. I have fit it to work for a specific campaign and as you can see I have used a mixture of the two fonts to make up the design and make it pop a bit more.

The slogans below are that of the American Marines. From my manifesto I stated I fit the design to suit army type using block, bold,lettering. My feedback reflects this others in the class agreed that the design is best suited for military design. It takes the original ideas of being bold and brave and pushed them further to stand out and almost make you work for the outcome.

Overall I have managed to bring across the design I wanted to from my manifesto. The design is bold, powerful and most importantly Strong. It will work with military design and others reflecting that. The fact that I created two separate fonts that can work together to create some interesting typography designs is a bonus to this task. My feedback states that people enjoy the design and think it reflects the manifesto well. Usually I do not like experimental typefaces but this design has grown on me, at the end of it all I have learned to push myself and step outside of my comfort zone a bit more.

OUGD404 - Study Task 04 - Figure/Ground

Empire is a film based magazine, film is based on image so it makes sense the publication focuses on it too. The figure on nearly every page is an image to draw in the viewers eye to the story and make them want to read it. the ground mainly the text surrounds the images to show what it is focusing on. The text itself is not justified and instead is aligned to the left making the readability more for the viewer. The ground also uses a lot of white space as not to distract you when looking at each page unless they are wanting to lead your eye like on the bottom right image with a luminous orange background. The double page spreads are used sparingly to show off big releases and the film that is featured on the over runs subtly throughout building up the excitement for the main story. Although the type is aligned to the left the figure is mostly centre aligned.

Like the last publication this uses the images as the main figure as your eye is drawn to them but the ground and the writing takes up most of the page. Some pages the font is justified making neat blocks of text and some is aligned left. There is less white but also more as there is more text but because there isn't too much going on on the page then you can read the text easier. If there's more content then use less design.

This particular magazine uses a lot of full pages for one image. This means the main figure on one page can be an image but on the page next to it you can feature writing about the image. This is using the space to a potential that might not be available all the time if you have to worry about costs or content. There is a lot of  white space as not to overcrowd the spreads and make it more pleasing to the eye.

The publication above is a local one for LCA. Based heavily around design images are key but because the publication is on a budget the sizing is B5 and pages are limited. Most pages use the images as the main figure and only use a small amount if any type. Some use a lot of text meaning the images are smaller or there are less of them meaning the text is the main figure. White space is used to free up the space and make it lighter but the opposite is used to draw your eye and change your focus in some areas. 

OUGD403 Studio Brief 2 - Typeface Design Further Devolpment

Once I had looked into the stencil type experiments I decided to take it further and transfer it to an entire alphabet. Some of the design decisions were hard to make, like where to cut through the type at especially on letters like X and Y. The letter forms weren't the shape I imagined them to be, I thought they'd be the same weight all the way around but instead they have very subtle differences making it hard to place a straight line through them. I had to adjust the forms slightly to make my ideas work.
I chose the name O.P as in overpowered, the design I think fits this as it's based on Helvetica which, nowadays is arguably one of the most over used fonts. The stencil design reflects that of Army or military type design.

OUGD403 Studio Brief 2 - Typeface Design Manifesto - Updated

So my first manifesto seem to be very broad and not have one particular outcome. I decided to look more into the design after experimenting with some ideas.

Name : O.P. (Over Powered)

My typeface will be bold, powerful and strong. The design will reflect that of a stencil almost the style used in warning signs or Army signage. I would like the typeface to show power in it's look. The typeface may not be legible in body font but will work for short bold statements. 

OUGD403 Studio Brief 2 - Typeface Design Experimentation

Initial Experimentation -

Firstly I looked into the different typefaces we had to choose from. I put all the fonts into Bold to reflect my manifesto and the idea of being strong, I think Bold works the best. 

I chose 4 of the typefaces to experiment with as I thought they looked like the strongest designs. 
When searching for a way to start designing my typeface one of the suggestions was to start with the letterforms above adhecions. This was because they apparently serve for the most of the other letterforms to get a general idea of how you typeface will look.

Helvetica - 

I didn't want to go down the obvious route of choosing Helvetica but thought it would be best to try it. I was thinking about buildings and architecture when creating the initial designs. 
If you think of a building it doesn't have a rounded base to stand strong it's flat so I decided to take this through in my designs. 
Taking this further buildings don't sport a gaping hole in the middle of them to stay up so I decided to take these out also which made for quite an interesting design.

Garamond - 

Originally I was going to take this typeface and go down the more traditional route. I was going to make into into almost a Slab-Serif design but I decided against it and instead just made some of the serifs harsher.
Once finishing on the top design I realise I had only been working in lowercase lettering which, to me made no sense when working to design for the adjective Strong.
I quickly changed this and worked in uppercase cutting out parts of the letterform which, I know earlier I stated looking at buildings great gaping holes in them would not work to keep them standing.

Berthold -

When conducting a Google image search I came across some lettering that reminded me of a sort of strong man Gym.
After a group critique I was shown that the design also resembles something similar to the stencil type the army uses. This gave me the idea to make the type reflect that style more and maybe even take it through to stencilling and putting the design into practice.
I took the same stroke line through each letter changing the placement as I went through until I found the right place for it. Some of the letterforms I had to change to help with the design like the A, the C and the S. Giving the counter in the A another side to the top, the C and the S I moved the ends of the forms to square it off almost like Helvetica.

OUGD404 Study Task 3 How do you read? - Grids

 Why are Grids Important?

Grids make a publication easier to read, produce, and engage a reader both with familiarity to the layout and with interest in a piece. 
If a piece is readable then a viewer is more likely to engage with it, the piece could be as interesting as you want but if it's hard to look at you're not going to be grabbing many peoples attention.

Grids are also important for familiarity not only to the reader so they are comfortable with the piece but also to the publisher. The whole piece will be produced much faster if you have a set layout to adhere to. Production will be more efficient and will mean that you can stick to a particular design. You still have freedom within the publication but overall it makes the production much more controlled and not so random.

After drawing out our grid on the first page we realised quite quickly that out 6 column layout did not fit to the other pages. Overlaying the grid onto the pages gave us the information needed to correct are mistake. The columns had to be split into 12 rather than the 6 we had previously drawn out to fit the text. This meant that you could have smaller bodies of text in one column and bigger bodies across 2, images can fill up to 5.