Manifesto project

Our Manifesto project involved creating a final visual manifesto piece which outlined various personal beliefs and significant words or phrases. We were encouraged to look into our cultural and familial backgrounds in order to find the content we would use in our manifesto. In order to do this, I began by looking into the landscape imagery of both London and Morocco, where I am from. The following images are examples of photographs I have taken of London scenery for this project. I have been using a square format in order to maintain consistency and proportion.

These examples of London’s imagery include famous and significant or recurring things such as the London buses, and the infamously rainy climate. I went on to use the featured simple photo of the BT Tower with a consistent colour scheme as the final photograph for the piece, due to its effective simplicity and reverent colour scheme, which suits my personal style and manifesto.

I experimented with many different trials of layouts and text composition, and ended up using a combination of three. The contrast of each of the different font styles created balance and contrast, while the limited line style and colour scheme retained its unity. I used a graphics tablet to recreate my paper sketches, and Photoshop CC once again to edit and compose the final image. 

Mapping project

Our Mapping project revolved around the concept of cartography and the many forms that it can take. I started my research with an artist named Fernando Vicente, who focuses on creating figures, shapes and animals out of simple geographical maps. He enhances and draws from existing shapes within the image, and shades them in a way which creates form. I decided to try several similar exercises, working not only with geographical maps but train lines, such as Harry Beck’s famous London Underground tube map.

The exercise involving the koi imagery is my favourite, as I felt that the fish’s simple lines and bold, contrasting sense of colour were a memorable visual theme. I decided to go with this for my final piece, using “koi” as its central idea.

I started by finding some photographic references online from which to practice drawing the shapes of  the fish, and proceeded to use a graphics tablet and a mix of Photoshop and Paint Tool Sai in order to create the line work. I am not yet confident with using a graphics tablet, so I decided to rely on simple lines and colour created using a simple circular brush. The following image is the line art for the final picture.

I believe that its simplicity was effective once paired with the background image. The underlying map shows several parts of South-East Asia, the place in which koi fish are the most popular, and contributes to the piece’s fairly pastel colour scheme.

Branding project

The next project we were assigned revolved around the concept of “branding” and our role within this as graphic designers. I chose to base my branding pieces around the volleyball sport, for which I created a logo, a Facebook banner complete with the page and its description, and several pieces of merchandise.

I underwent several series of trials for the design and composition of the logo. I created and was content with the name of the company (FLY), but was initially unsure as to how to represent this through imagery.

After sketching the designs pictured above, I finally decided to use imagery of the ball itself with wings; this seemed like a small and concise enough visual item to include in a short logo, and was memorable in its imagery. In order to create the finished logo, I drew it by hand, before scanning and editing it on Photoshop to give it its finished, more professional look.

I decided on the use of an angular, yet stylised typography design of exclusively upper case letters for the central visual theme. The stylised aspect, paired with the stripes of bold colours, is intended to draw in a slightly younger demographic, as FLY Volleyball is intended to be a youth club. This is amplified by the winged volleyball design. I continued to use a limited and yet contrasting colour scheme of blues and yellows with the banner and merchandise items in order to maintain consistency and a sense of professionalism within the design.

Book Cover project

This is a project in which we were to design a cover for the famous John Steinbeck novel, “Of Mice and Men”. The following image shows the finished product of my design.

I went about this task with the intent of creating a dramatic, dark tone, which many readers may find enticing; in addition to this, the dark tone reflects the aspects of the novel that were not apparent until later on in the story. This creates tension for the reader as they begin to read the book.

I used my own photography to create this, making use of a hand-drawn title and an original compositional idea. The hand and crushing imagery exists to represent Lennie’s (one of the main characters) unintentional murders that take place throughout the novel, all of which times correlate to his hands and the strength he cannot gauge himself.

I edited the photograph and scanned items using Photoshop CC, changing the amount of light in the photo as necessary, blending the title with the rest of the image. I removed the colour from the photo, leaving it in greyscale, which is a suited colour scheme for a book which has such a dark tone to it. I attempted to create a professional image while retaining a dramatic, and childlike (again reflecting Lennie) approach to the image.

Climage Change project

This is the piece that I created for the Climate Change project we were assigned during this week. The intended type of media was a poster, and I decided to take on a more shocking and dramatic approach to the task.

Many of the “eco activism” posters and pieces of media we see in modern advertising include very simple, bright, encouraging and calming imagery, in order to convince individuals to make a personal change and inform them of the benefits of altering habits. However, I  believe that climate change is a much more pressing and immediate issue than many are willing to account for, particularly in advertisements. As a result of this, I opted for a dark, serious visual theme which points out the danger we pose to the Earth, its climate and its health. 

The text present on the top of the poster was created using pen and pencil, and was scanned and digitally edited in order to match and enhance its overall aesthetic. I chose a colour scheme based on reds and blacks for the sake of both consistency and seriousness of tone.