Vis Com - Further Researching and Illustrations

In today's session we did a bit more research on my subject, that being historical posters, and have settled on a focus within that category, that being propaganda. The first thing I did in today's session was add more to my sketchbook on historical posters and their significance in history.

What I added to my sketchbook today was a page on propaganda in the BioShock video game franchise and another talking about real-life propaganda posters. The reason I wanted to look at the BioShock posters for inspiration was because of their interesting visual flair and the striking way that they could capture the mood and feel of the era that the game was set in. I could see a lot of tropes in their posters that gave a consistent feel to them, like their fixation on the colour red for the rebel poster and the gold fixation on the religious posters which seem to add to the mood of each poster and so you could instantly tell where each poster came from. The other posters I studied were from various sources that to me had an interesting look. This seems to be a common visual trick with propaganda  to be as eye-catching as possible to gather attention from the surrounding public. 

The second-half of the lesson was dedicated in trying to sketch in the style of these old propaganda posters, so I tried to draw a caricature of General Haig from WW1 (as an idea for a German propaganda poster), and a WW2 cartoon of Britannia kicking Hitler back to Germany. The first sketch I did is probably my favourite one of all because of the extreme detail and the expression on the face. Now I would like to scan the image into a computer so I can edit it and add colour. The second sketch I found to be mostly successful expect for the fact that its way to small to add any meaningful detail. Maybe if I edit it in Photoshop I could make it look a whole lot better after some editing.

The second batch of sketches were based upon 50's cartoons and Winston Churchill's face. The first two sketches were just more of a practice to see how well I would drawing the style of these traditional comics and while some of the details within the sketches are a little off, I believe for the most part that they show that I do have potential to draw within this style but I just need to practice more before I can really feel confident enough to draw in this style casually and skill-fully. The sketch at the bottom is supposed to be a sketch of Winston Churchill but for some reason looks a little off, maybe its the proportions of the face. The sketch isn't bad per say but its just that it doesn't look like the person I'm trying to depict, unlike the General Haig that I drew earlier. Maybe I should try it again and next time concentrate on the features more to get a greater feel for Winston's face. I'll use it for now though since I only have a short amount of time left.

Vis Com - Further Exploration

In today's session, I tried out some photomontage today to explore the range of different techniques and ways of creating posters. The first step was to print off larger versions of images that I have already collected and then I started to cut them up to try out different combinations with my imagery. I first started to stick them down with blu-tack so I didn't have print them off again if I liked one combination over the other.

The first combination I did consisted of three North Korean Anti-American posters combined together to create one long poster. I sort of like this combination because it really shows the sort of hate and malice that North Korea holds towards western civilization, and the blatant use of prejudiced views of the residents of North Korea as a tool for control over the populace. However I feel a black background would be more suited for this composition and this is what I used for the next photomontage to see if it would be more effective.

The second combination uses a black background and features 6 images which include the previous North Korean propaganda, some American propaganda, some Russian propaganda, and one advertising poster for 7-up (just to mix things up. I don't really like the composition of this piece as it is highly mismatched and devoid of any defining form to describe. The ideas while interesting don't really add up to any meaningful conclusions and seems to look like a cluttered mess. However the black ground is the best medium for this propaganda experiment which I learnt from constructing this piece so it isn't all too bad.

This last one, which is my final composition, has a lot more structure then the last one and overall feels a lot better with its theming and its message then the second one but still has that striking black background which was the highlight of the second one. The scene is supposed to depict (metaphorically speaking) the fall of america to the hands of patriotic North Korean soldiers. Again this is reinforcing this irrational hatred of America that North Korea has and its warmongering nature of wanting to start a fight with the USA. I think this my best photomontage yet since it combines interesting themes and good composition. My next experiment was with a on-line app called wordle.

The programme wordle can take any amount of keywords and create a collated image out of it which creates a unique piece of work and can be used for anything to Photoshop, to my photomontage. What I like about this programme is how easy and simple it is to operate it, all you need to do is type in the words and press the "go" button and it instantly generates the wordle. However because of its simplicity there is little room for customization and you can't place the words where you would like them to go but overall I found it to be useful for generating a quick piece of text work which would look good in other projects where the textwork could be used.

Vis Com - Initial Themes

In today's first session, we tried to establish a initial theme that we would tackle for the rest of the two-week period. My chosen theme was historical posters because I found the subject interesting and it allows me to have a definitive focus from the start instead of being too vague and not developing an idea in time for the end of the project.

I first drew an initial mind map of the all of the areas that I could explore within this project and additional notes for further inspiration. I think the mind-map helps me to process all the potential of this concept without trying to remember it all in my head and it also allows me to shake off any early ideas I might have had so that I could possibly use them later on in the project. At this moment in time I am leaning towards the idea of propaganda for my theme, since I could portray a lot of messages about war, politics, and social issues with just one image.

From looking at the different range of propaganda posters, I can very quickly get a feel for the style and culture of it, so much so that I could probably tell where the posters are from without visual clues like text, or flag identities. For example, the American style of propaganda is very grounded in traditional oil on canvas style of artwork with caricatures of enemies depicting them as ugly and spiteful. They also have a knack at stylising the human characters like the artist Norman Rockwell, who influenced a lot of American commercial artwork, in that they always have that painted/cel-shaded look that was a big part of his style. It's quite interesting also that they play the same tactics in trying to scare the viewer into whatever the government wants you to think, like dramatic scenes, symbols of patriotism, shock value, and a lot of bright vivid colour that makes the piece stand out to the public viewers.

3D Design - The Final Session

Today is the final session for the entire 3D segment, I had a lot to get done in the day so I have a lot to talk about and evaluate. Today I finished my final piece, put the finishing touches in my book and evaluated by progress through the evaluation sheet.

Here is my logo design that will go on the acetate on the lid of my final box construction. Its a simple design that was easy to design in Photoshop, so that I wouldn't waste time on designing an overly complicated logo that people wouldn't really pay attention to, and pays homage and inspiration from my study of Muji. Although its a lot more colourful then the Muji logo, the simplistic design philosophy is still there and is designed not to take up so much space and to try to be unnoticeable. I really like the design for the logo because its visually appealing but not to extravagant that it repulses consumers who don't like the tacky, and overly repeated looks of other shopping logos. I really wish I could have explored this part of the project more and create a consistent visual aesthetic but as it is its fine.

Here are the images of the finished product in full view, including the lid. In my opinion the acetate didn't work as well as I wanted it to because the logo on the acetate doesn't show up as clearly as it should, probably because of the dark interior. If I was to do the acetate part again I would have added a white background to bring up the contrast and to show the logo off more for the consumer. However I do like the window that I incorporated into the design, makes it stand out a bit more from the rest of the chocolate boxes. The design has almost a Celtic feel to it which roots it down into a more western style so its not just eastern (Japanese) based. 

The cardboard structure of the bx I feel has been rather successful, since it has that unique, raw visual flair and it meets my quota on eco-friendly and recyclable materials. However there is a bit of an issue with lid that it is too small for the box and thus hard to easily put on the lid for convenience, probably should have made it a little bigger in retrospect but apart from that the box works well. If you look inside the box you'll see a bunch of small notches which are supposed to support the chocolates when placed inside the box, not sure if they work but I think that I least thought of how the chocolates would fit into the box helps to improve how I think about the intricacies of 3D design.

This image illustrates how I would stack my boxes on a shelf in a supposed supermarket. As you can see it stacks in a unique and interesting way that is different from most packaging designs. I really like how well these boixes stack up together because it gives it a unique visual flair, and it can save on a lot of space in stacking shelves. I wish I did a few more boxes to see they would do in larger numbers but as it is its pretty well done.

3D Design - Finalising Designs

In today's session, I've finalised my box design and tried out another material to see if it would work better then the cardboard that I had been recently been using. Tomorrow will be finishing everything off and coming up with a final product that will hopefully come out as a high-quality finalisation of everything I have done.

The first thing I did today was create another version of my triangle box but instead of using cardboard I used corrugated plastic so that I can say I have explored a range of materials that are on offer for use. Personally I dislike the corrugated plastic because its too tough to cut up and it doesn't have the look or feel that I want fro my final product, plus it's not eco-friendly in the slightest made from un-recyclable plastic. Another addition I have added to the box is the addition of a clear acetate window on the lid so that you can look inside the product before purchasing. I really like the idea of this window for the packaging because it gives the consumer a preview of the product in question before purchasing and it makes the packaging stand out a lot more due to visual flair and overall usefulness. Although I didn't take away a new material to use, I have found a little addition to my design idea that will, I hope, make an overall better final product at the end of this project.

At the second half of the lesson, I decided to create my final product my collating all my ideas and designs together to create some sort of conclusion. The only thing I started today was constructing the base with a few little additions at the bottom, so in theory that they can help keep the chocolates in position and to help them stand if being propped up sideways. That little addition will hopefully add to the stock-handler friendliness that my product's ethics are based on. Hopefully, everything will be finished by tomorrow and I can do a few more tests for my ealuation at the end for further reviewing and reflecting. 

3D Design - Further Development

In today's session I developed my ideas further and tried a few experiments to try to get some possible new designs and ideas. I did some clay work first with my plaster mold and then I tried to make some more cardboard boxes to test out designs.

This experiment in design started out as a plaster mold that I had made earlier and ended with a modded design of the original sweet jar that I feel makes it easier to shelf and able to carry more sweets. I think overall the design of the new plastic bottle has gone down well because it still looks visually appealing but as a consequence to all its enhancements it stores a lot more and an fit into smaller shelves if necessary. I think the only thing I could really improve on is to actually add more and maybe change it into some kind of final design, but overall a successful little experiment.

The second thing I did today was another model of a chocolate box design in the triangle shape I used last time but with some improvements added to make it more useful and more refined. I think that this new design on my previous box is such a great improvement over my other one because it actually has a functional lid that goes on top of it, and the fact that its stuck more securely with hot glue instead of just masking tape on the other one. The material is a lot better as well since its much more secure and its a lot more recyclable and eco-friendly. The improvements I need to make on this one is its visual look as its a bit too minimalistic so adding a label or two might make it stand out more, and the quantity of the product so that I can see how well it would do on shelves and in a box. Hopefully this will develop into a final conclusion that will be highly successful.

3D Design - Sketching and Experimenting

Today we achieved quite a lot because we managed to do some test sketches, create some prototype models out of various materials and , casting some chocolate containers that I wish to study and alter to try out my ideas. This a particularly long and arduous day so I have a to talk about.

The first thing I made was a product that I based upon a sketch in my book. This design was based upon a standard chocolate box. The point of this experiment was see if I could construct a box out of scrap materials and cheap adhesive. The box was supposed to be glued with a glue gun but the one I was using was faulty so I improvised with tape which is a very weak adhesive and one I will not be using in the near future. However the design, for all intents and purposes, works and the card board holds well together so it could be a possible material that I would use in the near future. The design will not be my final one but shows what you can do with the cheapest and recyclable materials.

This next piece was based upon another sketch of mine which was to try another geometrical shape apart from a standard box shape. There are some measurements that I would like to alter so that I can make it bigger but apart from that it works relatively well. I'll definitely put it in my future sketches to further enhance the idea and maybe get a real box produced. When I do further experiments and designs I want to cover it with some actual box art because at the moment it looks plain and boring which really isn't my goal. The storage capabilities could be immense for this design if done properly.

The next thing I did for experimentation is to take a cast of an existing product to deconstruct, or to alter it for inspiration. The casting didn't go as planned as one of my items, a plastic sweet jar, collapsed on itself and is now permanently damaged. the future I'll try to avoid plastic objects for casting and to think further ahead in time before I act. If its any consolation, the bottle bent into an interesting shape so maybe its not entirely hopeless, I'll have to see when I take a plaster copy to see if it is truly salvageable.

The next experimentation we did was with plaster to create some molds to experiment with and to learn the basic techniques of mold making. The first item we did was the plastic bottle on its other side (the good side) and the intention was to create a mold so I could make future versions if I wish. The second was a replica using the plastic casting I did earlier. I won't know the results of these experiment till a later date.

3D Design - Research

Today was all pretty much about research and gathering as many sources and/or materials to really get a final idea on what I want to do for the rest of the course. As previously mentioned I've had a deep interest in pacakaging so I decided to stay on that theme and then see what goes from there.

We had to try to decide upon our artists studies and our definitive theme for the rest of the project. The theme of packaging interests me because its challenging enough to satisfy my interests, whilst also beimng easy enough to easily access. From some of the packaging I've seen in my research, I really like the cool designs and the innovative ideas that come from it, especially some of the ornate chocolate boxes. However I want my products to also be sustainable and eco-friendly,  so I've looked at those kinds of packaging as well and found a lot of beauty in their minilism.

I've decided to go into further research on the company Muji because they are all about that minilimist design that I favour and also their environmental friendliness. What I like about them is their design philosophy that is based upon old zen traditions and philosophies. I will definitely take into account these traditions into my own work in the future. Tonight, I will be working on some sketches and attempting some artistic experiments. I will talk about how those go in my next post.



3D Design - Initial Ideas

Today, we watched a presentation on different different directions that we could go in 3D art and then tryed to decide upon our themeing for the the rest of the two weeks we ill be doing this segment.

For the presentation we looked at a bunch of different artists that were all about the many pathways that we could take in 3D design. I found it to be very informative and opened my mind to a lot of possibilities that could be explored in this subject. The trouble is that the subject is rather daunting to me and feel often intimidated by the onslaught of varied activities that we could do in this area.

I think in my themeing I've decided to go on to the theme of packaging although I would like to explore the subject just a little more broadly before i serttle on a final theme. I am really interested in the prospect of researching about confectionery packaging because of the ease to find primary sources and the fact that it could lead to a lot of creative ieas and designs along the line. I just need to be careful not to rush too far otherwise if I change my mind I'm going to be severely hindered later down the line. So for now I'll take it slow before I rush on a head.