Final Review Proposal

Looking back through all of the projects I have done these past two semesters I've seen it's definitely been a trip. A trip of improvement, a trip of brain farts, and a trip of mistakes. For my final review I've listed things down for the past couple weeks thinking about what I'd like to show and to show how they connect together.
My list of pieces to showcase:

Dot book (to show how I can deal with type and image together)
Line book (juxtaposing, showing process!)
Haiku animation and taxonomy
Icon set (showing all steps to coming to the final color icons)
Museum Exhibit- along with my mock ups of the candy bars and post cards. ( to show how I can use some slight contradictions with color and words.)
Info graphics within Magazine spreads
Monogram and book layouts (to show improvement to my magazine layouts)
Change one thing poster (show the process of this, because I thought the evolution of this project was quite a long one for me)
Bus wrap for the weather project (probably not my billboard) (and maybe my animation I did)
Gail Anderson Poster
Seven Deadly sins project/book
6 degress project
and possibly adding in my 'nice to meet you' picture to add some personal flare.
Color theory book (different color fabrics) (to show how I can see and identify color, and be connected to all projects really, due to the way we deal with color now)
Building and initial pen tool exercises (to show where I started with the pen tool and measurements)

I also was interested in adding something I designed in my last semester fiber class.

I thought it'd be nice to show how I'm interested in using fabric and how i could use design outside of class.



The other stuff I wasn't sure about to show or now was:

Patriots and Poppies animation that we did for type 1
hand drawn perfect letter we did type 1

For now, I think having only 5 minutes to showcase my work will be difficult, but I definitely want to touch on my museum exhibit identity, magazine layouts, dot book, six degrees, Gail Anderson, and haiku.

I also think that showing how I transformed my icon set to relay to something else than what they were meant to be would be a good thing to touch on.

color iterations_gail anderson

So, here are my colors I've been messing with...plus more that I also messed with. But, what I decided on was this:

Also, since the type seems static I integrated the swirls and the type more, like this:

Color, yes, no?

Plaid shirts

What a coincedence!

Type: Gail Anderson

YAY! color, and smallller swirls...we'll see how that type is working. I'm not so sure about it yet. I wanted to see if I could match that vintage feeling of Gail Anderson with the colors she uses. Pale, and unusual combinations I feel are along her liking...no?

type: Gail Anderson

SO!...Here's my first real attempt at drawing swirls for miss Gail Anderson. The layout is definitely going to change so it becomes for of the focus, and instead of hand-rendered type I'm going to use Clarendon so that there is some contrast between the two elements. I'm completely fine with this decision as well, because the type is what took me the longest to execute so now I can focus more on getting more decorative and ornamental with the swirls throughout the rest of the poster.
Also, instead of working at a 100 percent for this poster like I did, I'm going to work larger so that some fine mistakes with line weight and a not so steady hand will show.


What to push for, more details, and more varying line weight within the swirls.

Gail Anderson Poster Iterations

Working through some poster iterations, and really concentrating on her type style I wanted to play with it. Although, I still feel like I'm not being playful enough. Here are some ideas:

 I feel that all of these are valid, different directions that describe Gail Anderson, just not quite there yet though. It was fun to mess with illustrative type though, its something I've never really presented yet.

Gail Anderson Work, and some Vanderslice photos

Type layouts edited.

Correcting and recorrecting. I'm having some trouble on decided what to do with my body copy paragraphs. I've moved some of them around, and then also re-sized them. They still fit in the grid and everything, but just a little bit more snug.

I tried some different stuff too. I slanted the body copy in different directions to match everything else, and when I thought it was okay...some saw it as if it was a mistake when I placed the text boxes or something. Which, I definitely did not want. Here is where my direction is going now. I'm still having trouble though. =( Help?

Final Magazine layouts

Finalizing the type layouts was a good process. I was really concentrated on a specific style I wanted to portray the entire time, and I'm not sure if that was a good thing or a bad. I knew who I wanted to attract, and I knew that I liked the idea of integrating articles. Working through all the problems I initially had took some time, and I still have a lot of issues to address due to critique.

I had a five column grid that I followed throughout, and then a top base line that I consistently followed as well. Once I had printed them out with just a white background, I felt it looked way too plain, and generic. So, I decided to add the gingham fabric background that I had scanned in, and then matched the color to match my icon system.

What was said in critique made sense, and I had actually experimented earlier with some of those suggestions. Such as, trying to break the grid and have them flow differently and not just have them all restricting in a box. I don't know, I liked the how much space each spread had around type, but I just have to find a different way of working with it where it looks much interesting.

Magazine Layout update

Oops. I've been slacking a bit on showing my magazine layout progress. To make up for it, here is my current layout I'm working on for my final one for this Friday's final crit.

Still working on them...and I'm questioning some of the ways I have the information put within the layout. I need to actually DESIGN the orange columns to be a composition, and make them more interesting to read. I'm also thinking about switching the last two pages to mix up the type and image more...plus that last page I think looks like it continues on to another spread (I could be wrong though).

Magazine Layouts

Working through iterations of type layouts for our new project for magazine layouts I've already learned a lot. I was influenced by the magazine Real Simple for my layouts and wanted to work off those. So, working through them, I ended up trying to make a logical grid, but also breaking it and making not so logical. I'm new to these layouts, but It's been fun to deal with something new and also something that is known to break the rules here and there. Here are some layouts I'm working with now:

I'm going to end up working with the more square grid idea. It's 11x11. And also, I'm hoping to use my own images:

I've taken some variations of this, and just a picnic set up for my article, and possible information graphics.


I'm also planning on changing my layout a lot. Since content and making it relate is becoming a challenge for me in this assignment, I have three different articles running through the entire large article. Today, Michael asked how it relates to each other, and how it worked on a grid. Which, was hard to answer, because for some parts I pretty much disregarded my grid, and I just thought a variation of type would be clear of differentiation within content. So, going off today's crit I'm decided to change up my layout. I plan to have one introduction page with a large image, with an introduction to the first part I have. Then the next spread work as a spread that has mostly text on both pages, because with my current spreads I've been having a pretty even percentage of image and text, so changing that up would be nice. And the last spread would be half image and half text.

I'm really excited to be working with this, and I'm actually not so bummed (at least before I was) that we are using our project from Graphic Systems. I'm lucky I chose something I think is fun.

Type 2: Written Reflection

Finishing for final crit has been good. The integration of my different expressive typography has been difficult, but also rewarding. Seeing that I actually got it to work has been nice. Of course it needs some refinements, but moving on will be nice.

Working through all of these elements within this composition was difficult. Starting out with experimental type and then trying to make a set that's cohesive to be part of an add campaign was interesting. Trying to convey each word within a composition was fun, but also difficult because some are similar in content, or results. Then adding them together to make a cohesive composition as it conveyed the emotion of the word.

I felt that I did a good job on the bus by having a good and even gradation throughout the entire thing. But with the billboard was problematic, since there is only a short amount of space to convey a nice gradient and each composition that conveyed my experimental typography it was difficult to integrate them into a specific space. This definitely taught me the I need to think more about where I'll be applying my art.

For cohesiveness between each of my composititons I worked a lot with gradients and color tones. Also, I added a black bar with text in it across the entire bus and billboard. I think this definitely helps my composition as a whole system. Dealing with hierarchy is always a good exercise. I felt that all of my images were equally important, but on my bus I decided to really emphasize the storm idea, because wind, rain, and thunder all lead up to a pretty large storm. (most times). But, on my billboard I dicided to keep them pretty much equal. The rain is pretty repetitive, but it still covers the amount of space.

Update: expressive type bus/billboard

 

Working through my problems I had with my last compositions, I feel I definitely resolved some issues.  The transitions be each section have definitely become more seamless, and have a better integration going on. Although, there are obviously some more progressions to be made. I have some dealing with the way I used my black bar throughout my bus, and how the text of my slogan is basically the same size has my logo. There has to be some hierarchy going on with the type, and I plan on messing with it more and more as we finish up this project.

Experimental type update

Working on the bus ideas for our experimental type assignment has been challenging to be successful on a bus/billboard composition. I've been working with integrating all of my experiments within on composition, and I wasn't sure if it look too sloppy, due to how I chose to use hand written text, rather than computer type. here is an example of what my first attempt is like. It is obviously not done, and looks very choppy, but photoshop and I aren't as close as I wish we were. Once this project is done, we'll be real close.

 

I want to a get a seamless gradient between my compositional words, so I am still working on that, as well has possibly using computer type within the composition. Otherwise I'm just going to be adding my logo, and the slogan of my news station.

 

So, since I felt that my integrated one wasn't working as well, I decided to try out using each bus as a different word, but instead of this idea...I'm going with the integrated bust and billboard idea. 

Here are some slogan Ideas:

-Day to night

-24-hour weather

-first look

-we won't keep you in the dark

-Storm team; first coverage

- Always there; weather first

- we know first

Still thinking.....AH!

Experimentational words

Cloud- thundercap, halo, short-lives, woolly, rippling, sky
Thunder- Boomer, Clap, Rumbling, Roll, peal, volley
Wind- Fan, fret, swirl, buffet, cut, tear
Rain- Dollops, tendrils, spatter, rain-wash, wisps, drenching

I'm going to go with ABC as my main news station and logo.

type experimentation 01

 

 

  

  

I definitely need to start integrating the other synonyms within each composition and also making four of them cohesive so they all look as if they are one idea, but using different materials.