OUGD404: Type Journal

I quite liked the use of colour also the friendly appeal the font has, even though it is a serif font. The font itself is quite wide and the it doesn't seem to follow rules in terms of the baseline therefore seeming quite child like and therefore liking to the idea of infant- puppies. 

OUGD405: Brief 1- Ideas

(From Design Context Blog)

"From looking at a variety of frames within my research I have found that the most important elements I want to concentrate on is how the audience can be captured. As I have been looking at upper market stores (such as in the Victoria Quarter) I found that the craft of the frame seemed to be highly important, therefore I think the image and the text used should reflect that. I found how Selfridges convey their photo frames is highly interesting because they focus on the idea of the building, I wanted to explore this further perhaps if there was a store that sold photo frames within the Victoria Quarter in Leeds. "

These images I photocopied and edited in photoshop to experiment with the idea of minimal colour within design to concentrate on the shape style of the photograph rather than their colour quality and having the image as the main focal point (much like most backing paper designs). I also used photoshop to try and start experimenting with manipulating image into text and merging. 

From looking at my photographs of buildings and architecture I had found that there was another idea that I could experiment with. The idea of "frame within a frame" which is part of the formal elements within photography- therefore relating to photo frames. Within this idea it could work that I layer photographs and experiment with depth of field along with text on top. This idea could work incredibly well for inspiring photographers and being sold in a creative environment rather than a stereotypically commercial store (Ikea, wilkinson's for example).

After experimenting with a similar technique (from research) by using water colours from my own photographs I found that this wasn't as successful as I had initially hoped. Therefore I think I will try this again using a different photograph using fine liners and ink- the detail in this image has been lost due to the nature of how water colour works and therefore I feel that this hasn't been a successful experimentation. 

Crit of initial ideas:

Feedback:

Before the crit I wrote down three questions which would direct my feedback to help me develop my ideas. I wasn't incredibly sure which idea I wanted to go with so therefore I wanted advice on which they thought worked best. My questions included:

1. Which idea do you think is the strongest?

2. What do you think in terms of media/processes?

3. What would you suggest in terms of improvement?

As a whole the majority of the feedback was directed towards the third idea. as a whole they suggested to look more into calligraphic typography and traditional printing methods, however instead of using traditional printing methods I want to experiment with photoshop as the brief is directed towards a digital way of working. It was also suggested to experiment with use of colour and research more into colour theory and what certain colours contain certain connotations. It was also written that loved that I have thought about creating hand rendered type rather than on the computer before scanning. One of the sections of feedback given was to look into the idea of creating humour and bringing the Victorian era to the 21st Century- however for my target audience I don't feel this would work, however this idea would work for a younger audience. However there were other positive comments such as "simple, to the point, people can clearly understand what the sizing is". Very few people commented or chose my first and second idea and they commented that they would be far too over complicated and contain too much information, as a whole my feedback has drawn me closer into looking at ideas and developing my third idea which is to include the sizing into the frame through written form- "six by four", "seven by five" and "eight by six". Therefore I will research further into typography of this time and possible font choices which I could manipulate with hand rendered techniques as well as using photoshop. 

OUGD405: Brief 1- Victoria Quarter

Victoria Quarter

After looking at different types of frames and a wide range of stores I found that the higher market stores and frames appealed to me more due to my own personal taste, this meant that I wanted to visit somewhere that held ideologies of higher class/ upper market stores. This meant that today I visited the Victoria Quarter in Leeds to gain inspiration for this brief through looking at the idea of Victorian architecture and how the building affects how the store/ products are chosen. The photographs below are taken by me and are a form of primary research into patterns and structure. 

I especially loved the roof within the Victoria Quarter as it is beautifully crafted and would work well with a photo frame which is trying to show beauty and craftsmanship (decorative/ historical looking frame, perhaps could be Victorian inspired). The patterns on the floor have also given me an indication as to the colours I want to use, gold/neutral tones as well as dark blues which are often used in wealthier stores. I also found that stores within the Victorian Quarter use frames to display and sell their products. I found this quite interesting as I am researching the backing paper for photo frames, companies use frames to highlight the importance of their own work, this could also work in highlighting the importance of a particular brand or idea when designing the backing paper. 

OUGD404: Type Journal

I found this type on a Piano in Haddon Hall and I really loved the eccentric and excessive use of decoration and curves within the type. It definitely reminded me of artful calligraphy and that of the origin bone especially with its thin line weight. 

OUGD403- Module Evaluation

Within this module I have gained many skills and further challenged my existing knowledge of Graphic Design. In the first brief I truly began to understand typography as a highly important part of design, not only the use of fonts but how they are created and can be manipulated. Before this brief and starting the course I had rarely been exposed to the anatomy of type and the reasons why certain typefaces are used. This progressed through to manipulating Futura in my first brief based on the word "occupation" by attending and taking part in my first few critique sessions my understanding of type developed incredibly in a short space of time. I now understand that typography is a never-ending learning process where you can develop a wide variety of innovative ideas. Through this basic understanding the first few briefs (1, 2, 3) allowed me to experiment with my knowledge of typography and design in a very basic manner. Adobe Illustrator workshops helped me progress my manipulations of type because I never used this software before this helped my development within design as it gave me a new medium I hadn't used before. By being introduced to illustrator within the second and third brief I will now be able to confidently improve my existing basic skills and apply it to new briefs. 

Brief 4 I thoroughly enjoyed because of the amount of research on a interesting topic of choice. From existing understanding and passion for animal rights, conservation and welfare I found this project personally enjoyable and also frustrating. I found that the research and analysis of the negative portrayal of sharks was present in most people due to the media, and when presenting my work I found it incredibly difficult because this issue doesn't currently affect Europe- therefore I felt quite underwhelmed by the response to my ideas as a whole. As a continuation of this I found brief 5 challenging due to the short space of time, before starting this degree course I was given longer to complete briefs than a few days, therefore naturally I found this quite challenging but I am adapting to the ways in which briefs are set.

I also really enjoyed creating a typeface for Joe (brief 3) as learning about a person and then trying to present an element of them into a typeface was challenging but enjoyable, this is because what he likes is very different from what I am used to, along with the rest of this module as my work is normally heavily based on hand rendered design and less clean cut, however learning skills and looking at design that Joe has introduced me to has helped my general understanding of Graphic Design and that there are many different ways to produce to a design and that listening to others broadens my understanding as my initial idea is not always best. 

To conclude I feel as though I have learnt and gained knowledge about Graphic Design as a whole and a better understanding of typography. However the work I produced I feel slightly underwhelmed by the execution of it due to my initial lack of skills on illustrator but also my general understanding of Graphic Design. As the course progresses I think I will naturally also progress with my skills and understanding when learning new processes and mediums such as screen printing and making use of the photography studios as this module has been quite basic in terms of processes and more about content. From this module I have also learned better ways to present within critiques as I initially found these incredibly difficult especially for brief 5 (presenting in front of the class) and by using design boards I have found that my confidence has slowly begun to increase as I feel more able to give feedback to others.

OUGD403: Brief 5- Final Crit

Presentation: 

The final critique for this brief was a presentation, in which each person in the class presented their own work (posters and research) for the whole class to view and crit. I personally found this type of critique incredibly challenging compared to other crits we have completed before. However I think it did help somewhat with my fear of public speaking and I have found it easier post crit to give people critique on their work and become slightly more confident in my own thoughts as a Graphic Design student. 

When I presented my work the critique I received was that they thought the simplicity and clarity of tone of voice and message were portrayed well. It was also mentioned that my posters are high impact because of they question the viewer, my text poster was especially mentioned due to the use of "for soup?". However it was also mentioned by a couple of people that they didn't like the use of blood on the fin on my image poster- since my critique I have asked people who are not on the Graphic Design course if they would understand the image without the use of blood and they simply answered no.  

One of the ideas suggested was to remove the blood splats and make the contents of the soup red, however I don't feel this portrays the message as well:

After the final critique it was also mentioned that to understand my message more I should put my posters into context as to where they could be used:

This is one of my posters shown on a image I found on (google images) of a Chinese billboard. If I were to improve this project I would source someone to translate my posters correctly to make them more internationally relevant- google translate often translate in incorrect grammar. 

It was also mentioned that the use of social media could be a large contribution to the increase of awareness and societies perceptions of certain social issues, that is why I have put my posters onto a Tumblr post because that is a social network site which allows people to 'reblog', this works like the traditional word of mouth and can also work the same for sites such as Twitter and Facebook. 

OUGD404- Type Classifications & Manipulation

Based on the session where we picked out of the fonts we had initially chosen to manipulate. Firstly we had to define what made a good typeface based on how it represents its origins of; stone, sable, bone, wood, lead and silicone. However for the next session I will chose the best set of fonts which represent the type classifications; roman, gothic, script and block. In my manipulations for typeface I looked at the font Day Roman as a form of "stone" however for this next section to the task I will review and refine my font choices. 

Roman- Baskerville

Gothic- Gill Sans

Script- Brush Script Std

Block- Impact

Within this session we looked at the idea of legibility and readability and how this can be described within all the examples that people brought showing a range of roman, gothic, script and block fonts. As a class we found several points which were interesting; these included that complex letterforms were difficult to read such as script and block fonts. Lowercase letters are much easier to read (in both roman and gothic- serif and sans serif) this could also be the reason why these are used within body copy in books for example. Contrasting glyphs within the lowercase for instance within the roman (Baskerville for example) contrast with ascenders and descenders therefore making the letterforms easy to differentiate between them. The size of the font on the page also made the words easier to read which also involved the space in-between the words/ lines of text. There was also another element which made certain fonts easier to read than others, distance away from the text. Up close roman fonts are much easier to read (lower case) however up close upper case tend to be less readable and legible because of their shape. The further the distance the easier it is to read upper case letterforms, especially gothic fonts such as gill sans because of their simplistic nature. Lower case gothic fonts are used on motorway signage because they can be seen from a far distance and are easily read (for safety). 

Terms learnt within the session:

Legibility- is the degree to which glyphs in text are understandable or recognisable based on appearance.

Readability- Is the ease with which text can be read and understood. This can be influenced by the line length, type style, kerning, tracking and point size. 

Leading- Is the distance between the baseline and the successive lines which make things further away.

Kerning- Makes the text closer together and closes/reduces the amount of space between letterforms.

Tracking- Is the making of letterforms further apart (the opposite of kerning).

From my four fonts (roman, gothic, script and block) seen above within my example prints we were asked to dissect the letters to create sentences reading "the quick brown fox". However we found that from looking at these sentences they didn't read as this and certain words were read before others such as the words in the block font. 

Task: Create four separate sentences which all read "the quick brown fox" from the above, manipulating only with upper/ lowercase, point size and arrangement. 

OUGD403- Brief 2: Further Development

From asking people their opinions on my work within the previous developments I found that the main feedback was to work on simplifying the letters into large and wide letterforms (three dimensional) therefore portraying the idea of occupying space physically. 

After receiving this feedback I then experimented with removing parts of the letterform much like my initial letter "I". However I intersected these letters in several proportions to create the idea of a structure. I felt that the darker contrast between black and a mid grey tone worked the best and therefore I will pursue this idea into a full alphabet set.

Final Design:

Printed Matte A2:

After printing my A2 poster design the feedback I received was that my initial word was quite hard to understand from my design, however they state that "occupation" was incredibly hard to portray within typography. There were also mentions that my experimentation worked well with using the 3D tools within illustrator as well as removing sections. However from looking at my final design I think that this text would not be suitable for body copy, as it is too details and large. In context this alphabet set based on occupation could work in relation to typography with buildings.

I used my font below in a few different ways:

I think this font works best when used for only smaller words such as headers, they could also work as a magazine. If I were to further develop this idea I think I would create a body copy version of this text also which is much more simple to use. I would also experiment with using this within books/ magazines based on buildings or photography and use acetate to add a layer showing the 3D element to the font. I think this font would also work incredibly well hand rendered or made out of materials such as wood- therefore being able to experiment with light and shadows within photography.