Leaflet Design

This design is primarily the work of Stephen Bewers. He designed these leaflets to be printed double-sided so we can hand them out to get people interested.

What we are trying to achieve is effective designs that are a collaboration of our work. This uses the background and logos created by Polly, the layout, wording and icons from Stephen, and designs from myself and Martyn.

What I have done below is mocked up a design using the finalised assets the whole group has decided to use across all of the work (A1 boards, posters, website etc) to keep them in tune with each other. This means the background, fonts and design bits are replaced, but the positioning and general arrangement stays the same.

More A1 Board Developments

After more discussions with the graphics group, and some input from people in other groups, this appears to be coming close to a final design. Once again, we are showing the image to as many people as possible in the whole exhibition to gauge opinions.

I prefer the darker design as it draws more attention to the work:

The text also stands out clearly.

A small number of people have commented how the design is slowly drifting away from a retro style which I do agree with. However, it is a group decision and this is where the process has led us so far.

It is still open to deliberation, but we are nearing a decision. We certainly need to soon as we need to produce 20 of these boards, test print them, then prepare them for the professional printing.

New A1 Board Design

Using inspiration from the graphics team and their various pieces of work for the exhibition, I have created a new board design. Again, this is subject to change and needs to be discussed with the group still at this point in time. However, we will need to decide on a design style soon, so this is my input for this week.

This time, care has been taken with the layout paying particular attention to how people's work will be oriented. We need alternative designs to cater to people who want three landscape pieces, or other people who want a combination of landscape and portrait etc.

An idea came about early on with this theme to have 20 unique 8-bit character sprites on the design, one for each student showing work. This is only being used as another means to create a general theme across all the boards to make them look like they are from a set.

More attention has been given to the background, making it more of an 80's style, but with a futuristic twist. All of these designs are in very high quality so they are sure to look nice on the final printed boards. No matter what design we go with, the group knows the standards of print to make them good quality.

Final Business Card

After a lot of tweaking, I like this design for my business cards. The cube now matches the same cut-out style of the text. Both sides have the same colours, fonts and texturing.

Unless I or anyone else notices some problems, I will most likely use this design and do a few print tests, then commit this as my final design.

More Business Card Ideas

Staying with the theme of purple, and staying in style with my website, I have redesigned my business cards again. I am happier with this layout for the information side of the card. The theme is there, the text is positioned nicely and more balanced than my last design. The relevant information is there and it is clear to read. The two corner borders just frame the design and make it look more complete.

As for the other side of the card, I like the text's cutaway effect, clarity and position. The background colour and texturing also works. I want to keep the cube as an integral part of the design as it symbolises my interest in 3D work, but I'm finding it difficult to find a position and opacity I am happy with. 

Having it in the left corner or centred are the only positions that work for this image. The design below has it with a high opacity which, to me, looks too "stuck on". It just doesn't blend well with the design.

I prefer the image taking up the whole background, and faded out a little more so it blends better.

And finally, a little colour correction on the cube layer blends it in with the purple a little better. This last image is my favourite, but I'm not quite sure it will be my final design yet. Perhaps a little work needs to be done to fade it in a bit more as the edges around the cubes are a bit bright.

And once again, these CMYK images don't look right on Blogger. The thumbnail view is fine, but the colours go way off when viewing full size.

Sound and Video

I am under the impression that if a student wishes to choose a sound or video as one of their submissions to the exhibition, an image is needed to represent the piece. I am thinking about submitting the character animation I am working on, so my idea was to have a simple icon over it. It would be large enough to show people it is not the actual piece.

For animations, a film strip overlay.

For any sound pieces, a speaker.

This way, it is clear what the work is, and that the viewer can go and watch / listen to it elsewhere depending on the final layout of the exhibition. The icon overlay would be identical for everyone's work to keep consistency.

Business Card Idea

Here is a business card idea I have come up with. I have been working on designs for personal business cards before this module, so this is a little closer to a final design than I would normally be at by this stage. However, I am prepared to make adjustments.

The card is set to CMYK, 85 x 55mm at 300ppi for a high quality print. A 3mm bleed is recommended, but as I intend to do a test print at the Digital Copying Services on campus, I have no bleed as their pricing list states the image must be 85 x 55mm. I have been recommended to use PDF format. If the prints are not satisfactory, I will then edit the image to have a bleed and use one of the (more expensive) online companies I have researched into.

I would like a double-sided card and want it to convey my own style. I am interested in 3D work above all else (although I would like to freelance in web and Photoshopping to a lesser extent also) so I have opted to use one of my 3D models as a focal image. The collapsing metal cube is faded into the background while the text showing who I am and what I do is in the foreground, being key information.

A faded, double purple line separates the two lines of text. According to crystal-cure.com, purple is the colour most favoured by artists, is good to meditate to and if you surround yourself with purple you will have peace of mind. I feel this is a good reflection of my personality in just one colour as I think of myself as a calm and peaceful person. A deep purple like this has always been a colour I favour in design too.

The image below is the original HD render of my 3D model that I have used in this card design.

The reverse of the card is, again, simple and reiterates to the reader who I am, what I do and also how to contact me. The style is kept the same. This does seem a little empty or unbalanced to me, but I don't dislike it.

The grungy style of the card is intended so it matches the style of the website I've been building. After many redesigns of the website prior to this module, I have recently settled on this theme.

I intend to make layout changes and colour tweaks as I would like my website, business card and possibly CV to all have a similar style. For example, I would like the horizontal line to be the same purple as on the business cards. Some functionality such as the contact form also still needs work.

I currently have a functioning php gallery set up of my work on one of the tabs, so it is coming along nicely.

NOTE: Upon publishing this post and viewing my card images in full size, they look very...blue. I am hoping this is due to the image being set the CMYK but being displayed via an RGB screen. However, this is what the test prints are for. The two RGB images on this post (original cube render and website) display with the correct colours.

Design Test

This is a design idea I came up with to showcase our work along the 80's theme. The ARU logo is clearly displayed at the bottom which I believe is a requirement (I will obtain a high resolution logo from marketing for the final product). There is a clear section for each student's profile image and text. The image is in the style of a polaroid.

The bright coloured stripe has been faded out to make it stand out less, as we do not want anything distracting from the actual work, but it is probably still too bright. This is a compromise that will need attention as we do not want anything too distracting, but the 80's is all about bright, neon colours.

Various icons from the time (this example shows Pacman) can be used to add more to the design. Having the stripe, and to a lesser extent, Pacman, going across the separate boards gives a sense of unity, and brings the whole exhibition together.

This is only an initial idea, and much more development and complete overhauls will more than likely go into this. This is also just my individual work and I would obviously like input from other members of the group to improve on this idea.

Mezzanine

Using the measurements a few of us took, found over on Stephen Davidson's blog, I have created a basic 3D model of the exhibition space. This way, we can visualise the layout in a quick and efficient way. For example, when we have the dimensions for banners and posters etc, we can check to make sure they all fit in properly.

This will also help us to see in a clear view how the place will look before moving everything in and arranging it then finding it won't work or an easily preventable problem happens. We can use this model to accurately make the most of the space we have.

Exhibition Profile Photos

I made a blog post a while ago about the photo editing that was required to adjust the photographs. My group and a few others I have spoken to about the photos agree that they did not turn out as well as we would hope. Using my photo as an example, it is clear that the lighting is not very good and has given it quite a yellow tinge. Too many shadows are cast on the face and the background was white.

Using some filters in Photoshop addressed some issues, but the overall opinion is that we would like better photos done.

Using the same filters on all of the photos produced a variety of effects which makes them not similar enough in style.

Also, being students in the field of design, I have heard a few people mention how they just look like bog-standard, school yearbook photos which is an opinion I agree with. This will be discussed and we will come up with suggestions on how to improve the overall style of these photos such as having unique backgrounds to each photo or a theme to stick to etc.

Test Design

Following ideas from the mood board, this is a quick test to show that it is possible and quite straightforward to replicate such a style.

In illustrator, a custom brush is made from different coloured squares.

Then, I cut three corners away from a rounded rectangle shape to make the path.

The custom made brush style was then applied to the path.

Once it is in Photoshop, it can be modified further. Using some graffiti brush styles, a grid image and blending techniques, I finished with this image. This is just a test so the layout and alternative colour schemes haven't been considered, but I am confident that with group effort this style can be used to its full potential.

Or, we could give it a 3D effect like this:

By doing all of this ourselves with software readily available, we can customise resolutions and layout perfectly to the requirements of any banners and prints we need.

Mood Board

After deliberating about our ideas as a group, the graphics team have decided to pitch an 80's theme for the exhibition. The reasoning behind this is that in general, a lot of students who will be exhibiting work were born in the 80's (although I'm not one of them!) and that it is a whole decade of design and trends.

The original idea came from Stephen Davidson, and after talking with him, it seems his group (exhibition) will not be pitching the 80's idea. However, myself and my other members of my group saw this as a good idea, and superior to our own so we would like to give it a chance.

A bit of research reveals the colours, designs, fashions, etc. that were popular in that era. I made a mood board of these things to get inspiration.

Gaming was on the rise to being a major industry, colours were bright and eye-catching, there are many recognisable products and past-times and most importantly, a wide variety of this was part of the lives of many students that will be exhibiting which makes it a bit more personal (not to mention the nostalgia factor for the visitors!). Even though I was born in 1991, the 80's was the inspiration and beginnings of many things that I grew up with.

The designs will be attractive and bright and can be updated while still retaining the original 80's feel. Some of the fads such as the Rubik's cube can be implemented into the exhibition by having some lying around that visitors can play around with, keeping them engaged and interested. Perhaps even one or two gameboys could be obtained for visitors to play with. This all ties together with the work being displayed as many of us will be showing work such as 3D models and digital art.

Although the 80's was known as a relatively characterless decade for food, there are some products that could be used as snacks. Skittles did start being manufactured in 1974, so perhaps for the sake of accuracy they should be left, but the colours fit in well and they were most definitely popular through the 80's and even today. Although originating from the Middle Ages, it seems that Blancmange became a very popular food in the 80's which is not so common now.

Looking at this invitation below that is in the mood board also inspires me for design ideas.

The design is distinctly 80's, but has been made with modern technology which shines through, which is what we would be doing. The simplicity of the bright curved lines could be used as a way of unifying our display boards and the triangles, circles and zigzags could be dotted around the place.

Photo Editing

For the exhibition, we wanted a photo of each person who will be displaying work, and have them all in the same style. We booked a camera and the studio to take them. The photos did not turn out so well due to a lack of good lighting. I used Photoshop to readjust the colour and tone, then increased the brightness.

The images were taken at a high resolution and adjusted in Photoshop at 300 DPI, which is an industry standard print resolution and using CMYK colouring to prepare the photos for ink.
The photos were originally going to be 8" by 10" but because the headroom varied between photos, they were sized down to 8" by 8". The edits are high resolution so they can be resized anytime.

Theme Ideas

To have a successful exhibition, there must first be a central theme so all of the work fits together into the same scene.

Idea 1 - Program Workspaces
One idea I had was to use the theme of software. This would be based on the software that we all use in our area of study like the Adobe Creative Suite and 3DS Max etc. The relevant work would be displayed in the workspaces of these programs.


Idea 2 - Japanese Sumi-e
Just an idea that might look good, but it may be difficult to make it look effective, and have the time to create artwork. Bit of a random theme?

Idea 3 - Apocolypse
Because of the conspiracy of the apocolypse at the end of 2012, it could be something to work with. Blacks, earth tones and dim lighting.
My favourite idea was the first one of the workspaces. It is being developed further by the graphics team.