Refining my logo....

After completing our 150 logo designs, we were asked to choose a final ten that we thought were most visually appealing and communicated your product well. My Ten are below;

After picking the ten logo's i was most happy with we were split into groups and given the task of rating each others ten logo's so that we had a neutral decision of which one to go ahead with. The group that ended up with me picked the logo below for me to use. With valid reasoning. This wouldn't have been my intended logo of choice however it opens up more possibilities for me to work with as I'm not limiting my ideas and going with what I intended.

Groups reasoning...WHY?

-Most potential as a completed logo
-Can picture the logo on packaging etc
-The typeface used it pleasing

What? To Improve?

 

-Maybe look at adding image instead of just type.
-Make sure it remains visually consistent.

150 Logo Ideas...

After our drawing session we were given the task to go away and produce 150 logo designs based on one random word from our list of 9 statements to do with our "What is Good." I chose to use the word Gloss as I thought it was a nice set of letters to work with plus the word gloss ties in really well with my theme of spray paint. I found the task really engaging as I was trying to get ideas from my head to my paper as quick as possible, this was rather easy work for the first 100 designs but as I started to run out of inspiration I found it a lot more difficult to generate visuals. However I'm definitely going to work this way In future as I found the process really useful in a sense of getting as many variations of one thing as possible.

Fred's Logo session

Today we had to draw 1 logo per minute to communicate our chosen "thing" using words from our list of 9 statements. I found it hard to keep to the 1 minute limit but I felt that I came out of the session with a good understanding of the message that was being put across. Basically the more outcomes you can come up with the better your final outcome will be,  and its so so true. 

Typography Workshop.

What is type?

Visual representation of the Spoken language. 

The visual style is just a representation of how a word is imagined to be spoken.

1400: Type came about. Through Block press/Letterpress

Up to 1450 only information available was by people who could write, Monks, priests etc (Latin)

1450 First Book....knowledge accessible to people.

Paper sizes measures by the letter A are a standardised size so that it can be universally understood. 

In design

A 72 point typeface is an inch in size, 

Shortcut to enlarge type: cmd, shift, >

A point size is measured from top to bottom on the size of the metal plating that typefaces used to be printed on rather than the size of the type itself.  This helps to sit the letters nicely within there boundaries. 

There are on average 11 (65/70 characters) words in a standard novel.

Type communicates tone of voice, we completed a series of task but I only got a chance to screenshot one of them. The image below is meant to represent a pissed off dog. 

28/7 My 9 Answers...refined

What makes it good?

-There are endless amounts of companies producing spray paint which gives you a huge selection of matt paint, gloss paint, glow in the dark paint, chrome paint, varnishes, high pressure paint, low pressure paint, perminant, not permanent and a titanic variety of various different colour shades. 

Who would find it good?

-Street Artists/Graffiti Artists.

Who wouldn't find it good?

-The police and authorities ( When people use spray paint to deface property without permission)

What is it better than?

-Vinyls and stickers, spray paint can cover a much bigger surface area. 

If your good was a profession, what would it be?

-Sign writing

If your good was a celebrity, who would it be?

-Shepard Fairy

If your good was a place, where would it be?

-New york city

If your good was a product, what would it be?

-Montana spray paint

If your good was an event, what would it be?

-Write for gold

28/7 Refining my concept further

I Needed to refine my concept further so that my argument was watertight. Whilst at the same time relate each question to a brand, logo or identity to go with each point. 

So my concept I have now decided to work with is;

Good is Spray paint. 

I thought this refines my concept to the actual media itself rather than the act of spray painting included. 

What makes it good?

-Spray paint can cover literally anything.

-Its permanent and hard to get rid of. 

-It comes in colours hard to mix or find in relation to acrylic paint etc.

-You can control the flow of the paint using high pressure and low pressure caps, this allows more freedom in the work you're creating. 

-There is a variety of companies producing spray paint which allows you to get hold of matt paint, gloss paint, glow in the dark paint, chrome paint, varnishes and a huge variety various different colour shades. 

-There is brands of environmentally friendly paint. 

Who would find it good?

-Artists/Designers

-Sign Writers

-Graffiti Artists

-Street Artists

-Guerilla Artists

Who wouldn't find it good?

-The police and authorities ( When people use spray paint to deface property without permission)

-The council ( When people use spray paint to deface property without permission)

-People who don't take an interest in art, and don't have any form of creative background. 

-Joe Connolly the graffiti guerilla buffer. 

-People who cant work with aerosols. 

What is it better than?

-Its is better than conventional media because spray paint has less limitations.

-Acrylic and water based paints. It's quicker to apply.

-Vinyls and stickers, spray paint can cover a much bigger surface area. 

-Neon signs, Spray paint has a much more skilful feel about it. 

If your good was a profession, what would it be?

-Sign writing

-Spray paint shops

-Car detailing

-Commissioned artists painting murals.

-Aircraft painting

If your good was a celebrity, who would it be?

-Goldie

-Shepard Fairy

-Futura 2000

-Cope2

-Ewok

If your good was a place, where would it be?

-New york city

-The london Underground

-Stockholm station

-The berlin wall

-Amsterdam

If your good was a product, what would it be?

-Montana spray paint

-Molotov spray paint

-Belton spray Paint

-Ironlak spray paint

-Flame spray paint

If your good was an event, what would it be?

-Write for gold

I found that changing my concept to Good is spray cans has really helped to focus my work, I actually have an idea of where my project is heading for once. 

28/7 My 9 Answers...

What makes it good?

-Being able to express yourself freely with no limitations

Who would find it good?

-Artists/Designers

Who wouldn't find it good?

-The police and authorities

What is it better than?

-Its better than putting work up a gallery because there Isn't any limits.

If your good was a profession, what would it be?

-Car detailing

If your good was a celebrity, who would it be?

-Shepard Fairy

-If your good was a place, where would it be?

-New york city

If your good was a product, what would it be?

-The spray can tool on photoshop

If your good was an event, what would it be?

-Write for gold

28/9 What is Good..Building up my concept

The session with Fred today has definitely sent my project in a completely different direction to what I had expected. We were required to attend the session with our good is.. quote mine being Good is the act of spray painting derived from looking at graffiti and street art over the summer.

To start we were given 9 questions to answer each with 5 examples to start to give our concept direction;

What makes it good?

-Freedom of expression.

-Outlet for creativity.

-Anyone can pick up a spray can and get out there.

-It would make the world a much more colourful place.

-You're making you mark in time, saying I was here at this point, whether its legal or illegal.

Who would find it good?

-Artists

-17-25 year olds from a creative background

Who wouldn't find it good?

-The police and authorities

-The council

-People who don't take an interest in art, and don't have any form of creative background. 

-Joe Connolly the graffiti 

What is it better than?

-Its better than putting work up a gallery because there Isn't any limits.

-Blank walls, they are boring to look at.

-Using conventional media, like pens pencils etc. Using a spray can is such a fun media to use because of the difficulty it is to control. 

-Going out on the streets and being creative is better than being sat in a pub drinking. 

If your good was a profession, what would it be?

-Sign writing

-Spray paint shops

-Car detailing

-Commissioned artists painting murals.

-Fake tan spray on shops. 

If your good was a celebrity, who would it be?

-Goldie

-Shepard Fairy

-Futura 2000

-Cope2

-Ewok

If your good was a place, where would it be?

-New york city

-The london Underground

-Stockholm station

-The berlin wall

-Amsterdam

If your good was a product, what would it be?

-Febreeze

-The spray can tool on photoshop

-Fake tan spray

-Deodorant

If your good was an event, what would it be?

-Write for gold

I found it really hard to come up with accurate answers because I still felt that my concept was very vague. It was hard to properly answer each question because the act of spray painting relates to more than just using a can of spraypaint. I wanted to focus more on the spray can being a tool.

Illustrator workshop 27/9

Illustrator workshop

CMYK-PRINT
RGB-SCREEN

Selecting and filling a shape with colour;

Select object-double click fill box-select colour
Windows-Swatches-select colour

Creating your own swatch Pallet;

-Firstly you need to remove the existing swatches by deleting them using the delete button in the bottom right hand corner of the window. This opens up your space ready to start picking your own colours.  You can select a number of swatches by holding the shift key. 

The registration key will fill your shape/path with black, however it’s a richer black than the black available in the swatch pallet.

select the drop down from the top right hand corner and select, create new swatch you will be presented with a dialog box, on how to select the colour you are looking for.

If you’ve been provided with artwork and need to add previous colours used to your swatch pallet, select the top right hand drop down and select add used colours and they will be automatically added to your pallet.

Working with spot colours

In offset printing, a spot color is any color generated by an ink (pure or mixed) that is printed using a single run.

27/9 Lorenzo's lecture notes

Commercial print processes are;


Practical, technical, economical.

Main processes;

• Rotary printing
• Digital printing
• Screen printing
• Pad printing

Rotary printing

Image printing plates are wrapped around a cylinder. Its a automated print process.

The bigger version of rotary printing is a WEB offset machine, mainly used for mass printing I.E newspapers. 

Rotogravure- Typical print jobs- Newspapers, wooden floors, high volume work thats very durable.

Flexography- A positive, mirror image transposed on a rubber plate, where sticky ink is directly transfered onto print surface, usually as a roll feed. usually used for crisp packets, bottle labels, cling films etc.

Lithography (Litho) Planographic

Rotogravure (Gravure) Intaglio

Flexography (Flexo) Relif

Digital printing- The reproduction of images by translating the digital code direct from a computer to a material without an intermediate physical process.

Ideally suited to short run or special ranges of print.

Screen Print- A printmaking technique that uses a stencil and screen exposed by UV light.

Pad Printing- A printing process that can transfer a 2-D image onto a 3-D object. i.e keyrings, mugs.

Colour systems for the print process 

Print is made up of subtractive colour-screen is made up of additive colour

What Is Good Concept Development...

After researching lots of broad subject matter across the stretch of summer I needed to refine my ideas and concentrate them towards developing a much more specific concept and rationale.


What are you trying to communicate?
 
I am trying to communicate that Spray Cans are good, I.e why they are interesting to use as a choice of media and how they compare to other forms of media already out there. I wanted to communicate the complexity of a spray can and how they work, comparing paint from year to year and the new devices that have been brought out to enhance their usability. For example the range of spray can caps available to control how the paint travels from the can to the surface its being applied to.

Who are you trying to communicate to?

I am trying to communicate to young,  aspiring artists who find it difficult using spray cans. Graffiti in itself is the biggest art movement known to man, and understanding the can before you go out and get yourself arrested would be a very big help. The crowd of people who follow Graffiti is however very diverse, ranging from all ages but as my target market I am going to focus on people ranging from 17-25. I think this would be the age that if you had an interest in perfecting your work and understanding the techniques behind using spray paint you would be tempted to read more into it.



How will you use print design and production methods to achieve this?

I want to create a spray paint guide, that could be something for artists to slip in their pocket or carry around with them, giving them tips on using different brands of paint, working with different caps and techniques when using the paint.


What is already out there and how can you adapt, modify, reuse or respond to it?

There's already guides online on how to use spray can caps and books In Halfords advising people on how to effectively cover there cars when faced with a chip or scratch in their paintwork. However I want to look into both of these, picking up information from a range of sources to re-work as my own, I think guides to painting cars would definitely be a good source of research as I imagine the information given would be very broad.

TASK

Find at least 5 diverse examples of the effective/creative use of print in the following areas of design: Branding and Identity Packaging and Promotion Publishing & Editorial Information & Wayfinding You should aim to identify design work from a range of commercial/cultural references, target audiences and creative contexts. You will need to identify primary and secondary sources and not rely solely on web-based examples as this will encourage you to be more adventurous in your research and diverse in your findings. You will also gain a more informed understanding of the 'real world' context of the work. Your findings should be recorded and critically evaluated on your Design Context blog.

Research Sources / Further Information

Mandatory Requirements / Deliverables

A series of posts to your Design Context blog. demonstrating an in depth investigation into Design for print in relation to the 4 areas outlined above. Significant critical evaluation of the examples identified through your research including informed reasons for their selection.

In Design Workshop

Speaking From Experience

Speaking From Experience

Speaking From Experience

I wanted to produce a poster that explained that our course Isn't like the standard Leeds Met Job where you're in six hours a week, this is like a full time job and you need to be here as much as possible. One thing that I've learnt is that within graphic design you can't slack off you need to keep current and up to date with whats going on in the world around you as much as possible. This combined with my love for the printing studios in college I produced this idea above.

Speaking From Experience

At the start of the course I specifically remember amber saying in a lecture that "This is teaching gold, It's a privilege to be here." I thought this would be an ideal quote to use because the standard of teaching on the course is exactly what she stated, plus its put in a fun way that represents the course as a whole. I wanted to keep my idea as simple as possible so I took the most literal image i could think would match with my type, that being some gold bars, then produced the design below around my initial drawings.

Speaking From Experience

Comic Sans is a subject that's very much talked about throughout the studio mainly because of Fred's Hatred for the typeface. Personally I couldn't see his beef at first but then i sat on illustrator for 3 hours trying to make a poster about why not to use it, and instead came up with a poster that explains how it will become your worst nightmare.

I am really happy with my outcome and sort of proved my statement right, I eventually gave up and used one of my favorite typefaces, League Gothic. I might play around with the colours to make the text stand out more or even make the imagery in the background a lot less literal.

Speaking From Experience

Another habit i tend to have when i get to college is drinking far too much coffee and i wanted to express this through one of my posters. Almost like a warning for first years that caffeine will become your best friend pretty much.

Colour Variations;