Digitised Poster- Different Colourways

A colourway is a range of colour combinations in which a style or design is available. 

I took my psychedelic poster and digitised it on Adobe Illustrator. I used this opportunity to try out different colourways and see the affects of each. 

This is the original design and colourway of my poster:

Below I used a complementary colour scheme, which are the colours that are opposites on the colour wheel. In this case I used purple and green, this creates contrast and makes the poster very bold.

Finally, I used a monochromatic colourway. Monochromatic means the same colour but different shades of it, in this case blue. This makes the poster look very neat and clean, however it can come across a little bit boring or dull, as there is not much contrast between the colours.

Psychedelic Poster Reflection

After my research on different hand designed fonts and psychedelic posters, I drew my own design inspired by the late 60's trend. Here is the finished product below:

I hand drew a very typical font used in these types of posters, I was influenced by an image I saw on Google Images:

I also learnt in my research that there are rarely any space within the layout of the poster, so I made sure that every gap was filled with images or text, which is often what they did. I also kept my colour palette fairly limited, at just three colours. This is because when these were made, it was very expensive to have an extensive colour palette, therefore it was kept to just two or three.

Type & Layout- Psychedelic Poster Research

This morning our task was to read through the task sheet and practice hand drawing fonts from the images and books we were provided with. I practiced hand design lettering including styles such as; art nouveau, swashes and a mixture of different fonts together. For example, here is an image of my drawings in my sketch book:

The next part of the lesson we had two options, I chose to create the psychedelic poster. But first I had to do some research. The word psychedelic actually means 'mind manifesting'. It is an art displayed visually, inspired by psychedelic experiences and hallucinations. This specific psychedelic font was very popular in the late 60's, it can also included images and lettering forming together, here are a few examples of this font/style being used:

These posters are very bright and have a lot of colours, a colour scheme is not really clear. Also the layout is very cluttered and completely full with virtually no blank spaces, this was sheerly just the style in the late 1960's. The text is almost just moulded in the gaps of the poster and/or creating the actual image itself.

My Thumbnail Layouts

The next half of the lesson I put together six thumbnail layout designs for my typography poster. I chose two quotes and did three designs of each. I experimented with colours, fonts and layouts to find out what works best for my poster. I did this on Adobe Illustrator and here are the results:

As you can see I used very bold, bright colours to stand out and to be clearly seen. It also makes the poster easy to read and eye-catching. The first two designs are very simple and minimalistic, however on the third version of this I added outlines and borders to add a bit more interest, although I'm not convinced that this worked very well as it looks quite unprofessional.

The last three designs are my favourite and this will be the quote that I use for my final poster design. The second but last layout is my overall favourite, as I included a transparent background pattern which really adds to the design. Although on the other hand, the solid, flat colours used on the other two are very bold, which makes the type stand out.

Type and Layout- Posters and Book Covers

This morning I have completed some research on type and layouts of early 1960's posters and book covers. I found that the majority use very bright, bold colours as well as large bold fonts and typefaces. This is very eye-catching, clear and easy to interpret and I think this is why they worked so well visually. Common colour schemes were often primary colours and black and white, this can connote tradition and class. Here are some examples I found online:

I also researched into Marshall McLuhan, who wrote the book 'Understanding Media: The Extensions of a Man' which was wrote in 1964. McLuhan's theory proposes that the media itself is more important that the actual content and that that should be the main study. He also noted that all mediums or media have different characteristics that engages the viewer in a variety of ways. Here is one of McLuhan's books below:

 McLuhan is also known for his typo mistake on the title of one of his books. The title of the book is 'The Medium is the Massage' however this is supposed to read 'The Medium is the Message'. This happened because the typesetter made an error. McLuhan heard about the mistake and said "Leave is alone! It's great, and right on target!" 'The Medium is the Massage' is still the title of the book.

Mary Shelley Frankenstein- Research

Mary Shelley was the writer of the very well known story of Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster. The book was written in Bath and she started the book when she was just 18 years old.

Research Notes:

• Frankenstein was completed in Mary Shelley's lodgings at 5 Abbey Church Yard, Bath. (The building that doesn't exist.)
• Mary had two sisters, Claire Claremont and Fanny Imlay.
• Married to Percy Shelley.
• Mary's father lived in London when he tried to keep the news of Fanny's suicide quiet.
• 12 New Bond Street where Claire Claremont, pregnant with Byron's daughter had lived.
• Fanny Imlay committed suicide.
• Mary and Percy Shelley frequently visited Villa Diodati.
• Lord Byron and John Polidori were also present in the villa that night.
• Legend has it that Mary Shelley finished writing Frankenstein upstairs in what is now Jacob's Coffee House.
• Harriet Westbrook, first wife of Percy Shelley.
• Harriet Westbrook drowned herself in Serpentine river Hyde Park, when she was just 21 years old.
• Luigi Galvani's experiments influenced Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
• Galvani's most renowned experiment happened when he used dead frogs legs to experiment with static electricity, causing it to twitch.

Below are some pictures:

I also drew a quick sketch in my sketchbook, here is a screenshot:

Pictures I took myself.

Links:

http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/?location_id=51#Description

http://romantics200.org/2015/10/22/and-still-more/

https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/mary-shelley-frankenstein-and-the-villa-diodati

https://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/misc/shelleysites/england/Bath/Bath.html

http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/harriet-shelleys-suicide-letter

Folklore Museum Logo Research

Today we started off with a tea stained piece of cartridge paper, a thin napkin from the college cafe and a fade proof, fine line black pen. The task was to design a folklore museum logo, however we will be getting marked on our research and our ability to develop our ideas rather than the finished product. Below is my main sheet of research that I created:

On this I included related words to folklore and what it made me think of, this was my initial research. Then I drew small images relating to the topic and to spark some further ideas, this was my idea development process. As well as this, we also collaborated as a group on what was good about our ideas or what needed to be improved.

Below are some logo thumbnail sketches I drew, to get a rough idea to what my final logo design would look like.

Here is the napkin that I practiced drawing/doodling on, this exercise was to make it harder to add detail to our drawings, as the ink would bleed out.

Introduction to the Second Year!

Today was the fist day back at college and although we started as one large group, we have now been separated into our chosen topics. I chose digital publishing and so did six others, it is a very small class but gives us chance to have individual guidance from Steve our lecturer.

We got an idea to what we will be doing this year and how we will develop our skills throughout the different tasks and projects.

Also we took individual portrait photographs that we can use throughout the year for professional use, and to have them ready for when we need them. We looked at lighting techniques and also problem solved an issue we came across with glasses wearers. For example the glare and reflection of the light bulbs were on our glasses and therefore had to correct this by lifting the lighting umbrella higher and having the model stand closer.

Here is similar setup that we used in the picture below: