Studio Brief 2 Idea

Studio Brief 2 Idea

Today we reviewed our ideas for the exhibition and decided to change it a bit. We looked at the every noise now website which is where everyone selected their micro genres and noticed that it was all within a grid system of a kind. The system divided the genres up into four categories which were organic, mechanical and electric, dense and atmospheric and finally spiky and bouncy. Our idea was to implant this into the exhibition by placing the flags and objects in the middle of the room and each wall would represent each category. People would then hang and place the objects and flags into the category they thought the genre belonged in. This would give an interactive element to the exhibition compared to a normal one where you would only look at a painting then leave. There would also be a listening room with all the cassettes lined up on some sort of rack, then people would select one, sit down and listen.

After this discussion we were all given different tasks within the project such as social media design and typeface creation. I got the task of creating the poster for the exhibition which would be printed and placed around the city and uni. Ideally I'd like to create the document size at a smaller scale ratio of the exhibition place but I do not yet know it's dimensions. I will use the grid from the every noise at once diagram as a base for my designs. 

Pattern sourcing

Pattern sourcing

By using the previous scanned in images of the Brazilian reals I had collected, I decided to source some patterns from the notes also to create an aesthetic for my designs. I discovered I could do this when inspecting the bank notes up close. They have been designed incredibly carefully with loads of different patterns and shapes. This is to prevent people from forging them. There were so many patterns here it would be silly to let his opportunity go. Using these patterns also relates well to my album cover research from the band Mercenarias. I could perhaps use these patterns across all of my designs to link them together, creating a certain style between them meaning people will know they're meant to be together. 

After sourcing these I also decided to play with the note as a hole. Maybe doing this would produce some sort of flag design. I tried putting a halftone over the note and also playing with different colours. I overlaid some of these colours which were sourced from the Sao Paulo flag to see what kind of effect it could have.

Studio Brief 2

Studio Brief 2

Today we began our group project with some initial ideas and idea generation. We were to brand and advertise an exhibition for the cassette tapes and flags we were producing for studio brief 1. It was up to us how it looked and the way the whole thing was curated. We would have to consider how people would walk around the space, if they could take anything home from it and many other factors. After some research we found a few important points to consider.

• gain peoples interest over time
• social media
• interaction at the exhibition
• details are important
• don't over do it and distract from the work
• layout of the exhibition
• how people move through the room
• materials usually seem to be cheap
• guides, booklets, maps and free stuff
• booklets would interact with work
• how text would be treat in the catelogue

After this we started putting out thoughts onto paper and discussing the general and bare basics of what this exhibition might look like. We started exploring the actual cassette tapes, what they were made of and how they worked. We came up with two appropriate titles, side A/side B and also rewind. This relate to the cassettes general purpose and function of how there are two sides and also that they rewind which is pretty obvious. We thought about people walking through the exhibition following the path of a tape inside a cassette as well, taking the form of a human cassette almost. We also discussed the cassettes being held up with pencils like when you rewind a cassette. Another good idea was to put the catalogue inside a cassettes case which everyone could take home. One thing discussed about the catalogue was that there would be a part A and part B. Part A would be formally laid out whereas part B would be a bit random and less . cared for reflecting on a tapes layout within the track list. Usually side A would have all the singles and basic structured songs whereas side B would be full of instrumentals, experiments and really long songs. 

Typeface Creation

Typeface Creation

I wanted to create a typeface for the front cover design of the J-card that would match the rest of the aesthetic for this design. I thought that using a basic font would be way to generic and not quite fit correctly. This typeface would only be used for the cover and not the track list as that would be way too small and unrecognisable. I decided it would be suitable to source the type from a Brazilian note which links to previous research. I could also source some patterns from that for later creation of the J-card. I managed to get a note from a cash converter and scan it in at a high Dpi so I could define all the slight patterns and bits of type. 

After this I then took type straight from the notes to spell the chosen title of my cassette which is 'better to elect a rhino then an ass'. I translated this into Portuguese which is the spoken language in brazil and it translated to 'melhor para eleger um rinoceronte, em seguida, um burro'. I found all these letters within the note and spelt it out carefully.

Here is the type on the left taken straight from the note and here on the left after being thresholded and ready for screen. This will be used for the main type on the cover of my J-card. 

Rhino Head Illustrations

Rhino Head Illustrations

Today I began illustrating different rhino heads and skulls using different line weights and strokes. I wanted to achieve a real rough and tough illustration that would link perfectly with the general aesthetic of punk. This would hopefully be the illustration that would sit on the front of my J-card. 

These area a few of my initial sketches which began very simple line drawings. I found that these were a bit plain and contemporary for what I was trying to do so I tried doing it again in a thicker pen. This still seems to look a bit childish perhaps like part of a kids book so I tried filling in some of the gaps with some shading to make it more aggressive and sharp. Then I tried using only straight lines to give it more edge. I wanted it to seem a bit less detailed so I also tried putting the illustrations on a screen and photographing them from a distance to hopefully create a pixelated effect. After this effort I realised that it didn't really seem like a rhino skull anymore it was quite indistinguishable. I then decided to illustrate a straight up rhinos head so it would be more literal when it became distort.

Now i tried using the previous techniques to illustrate my final rhino head design. I ended up using a thicker line weight as it added more aesthetic value. It would make it easier to expose onto screens as well given the thicker lines. When I place this into the cassette layout at a smaller scale it will also look a little bit more distort as the lines would seem closer together making the viewer have to decode what this illustration really was.

Initial Ideas Crit

Initial Ideas Crit

I have recently received feedback from my peers in a silent critic and also a group critique to help me further progress my flag and J-card designs. During the silent crit I gained a lot of positive feedback about my general aesthetic between each design and how they differed from one another. For the flag designs, most people stated that the fish/money design was the best one as the patterns selected from the money clashed really well together. One key comment I picked up on was that the colours in this were too calm since I was trying to represent Brazilian punk. They should either have a reason behind  their selection of be more harsh. It is true that those colours were impact randomly selected. A lost of people really liked the chaotic colours of the red, black and white taken from the Sao Paulo flag so perhaps I could incorporate these somehow in the money design. A final comment a lot of people picked up on was the skull design had a really great aesthetic and was laid out perfectly in the J-card design. This design didn't really have much context but I could take this further with my idea of the rhinos.

During a group critique it was decided that my rhino idea was the best one and should definitely be taken forward. It was recommended to approach it with a harsh medium of design by painting a rhinos head or skull or maybe trying drawing it out really quickly in different weights of pens. I would have to figure out a layout for my rhinos to go in as this was not yet discussed. It has been decided that my cassette tape would also be called 'better elect a rhino then an ass' but translated into Portuguese. This was sourced from my previous research relating the rhino in politics. I was also recommended to use the Sao Paulo flag colours but perhaps change the black to a slight dark navy for more of a variation in the designs colours. I would probably use these colours in both the flag and the J-card. For the flag I was told that I could use a piece of Brazilian currency edited into the correct colours and printed on A1 tyvex paper so it would be un tearable and un burnable representing the aggression and strength of the genre. I would also cut the edges down a bit to kind of show that it's a massive note so it would be the length of A1 but not the width. 

J-card Initial Ideas

J-card Initial Ideas

Today I began my J-card initial ideas, which were mainly my flag designs but placed within the J-card layout. One new idea I created was taken from a popular album cover by the band Mercenarias. They used a close up shot of some money exposing all its textures and halftone effects. I wanted to take this ida and use for myself so I had the idea of scanning some of my own money in but thought that using English money would be defeating the purpose. I managed to source some Brazilian reals from the internet and used that as a base. I edited the colours and managed to pull two solid colours that could be used for screen printing. I managed to get plenty of lines and textures from this and applied it to both my flag design and J-card design. 

I then developed my rhino idea slightly as before it was a poor attempt in my opinion. I added a few other rhinos to the image and played with different thresholds and ways of extracting them. I also wanted to use a really basic punk aesthetic with lots of rough textures and harsh imagery. I made the image really busy and confusing with a really clear point that this was a rhino. I really like the aggressive imagery here and how it reflects upon the genres attitude. I managed to fit this in both J-card format and also into the A1 flag. This design would work perfectly when designing for screen.

The final three are almost exactly the same as the previous flags, but with minor alteration to fit them for screen. They have also had minor alterations to the layout to fit in the J-card format perfectly. Negative and aggressive imagery has been used to reflect the genres fast pace music and general aesthetic. Sao Paulo's flag colours have also been sourced for the red, white and black design with the illustrations within reflecting on the theme of community. 

Flag Initial Ideas

Flag Initial Ideas

Today I had the task of creating a collection of A1 flag designs to represent my micro genre of music, Brazilian punk. I used a bunch of images I sourced from the British museum Flickr to try and inspire me into new art forms and see if I could create something different to my usual designs. I was taught some bitmap, halftone and threshold effects on photoshop which was the main focus of these designs and the aesthetic. I used mainly bright colours for my first few designs to reflect the colours from a lot of Brazilian art and culture. I know this isn’t really representing punk but it definitely aids the Brazilian aspect. Using negative imagery like goats heads and skulls contrasts against the bright colours making the whole genre translate perfectly into these first few designs. In my feedback from the critics I received a lot of positive feedback for these especially for the colour and the use of animals. Maybe the animals are a bit random and the context could do with some refinement but I do really enjoy the aesthetic used in these first few.

In the third design, my idea of community translated quite well to a few even though I wasn’t one hundred percent sure on it. The colours on the pattern are taken from the Sao Paulo flag which are red, black and white which is the relevance of that. The community aspect comes from the simple D.I.Y illustrations laid out in their collection together which was translated well apparently. 

Finally I took my really simple image of a rhino and placed it in the flag layout. This idea came from my previous link between Sao Paulo and rhinos but the final production is a bit simple. However, I did get at least one positive comment for it which stated that it was good because it matched a really basic punk aesthetic with it’s simple black and white colour scheme. I will develop them all a bit further to see which one is the best and see what happens in a later crit. 

Initial Ideas and Crit

Initial Ideas and Crit

Today I began creating some initial ideas for my flag design. After the previous talk we had about semiotics, I was able to make a start limiting myself to a 45 degree grid making simple line drawings and logos to see what may come of it. I based these illustrations of five words related to my sub genre and research. These words were rhino, culture, aggression, trade and against. 

Here was a bunch of my initial sketches to get me going. I was trying to be a bit literal here but hopefully something more unique would come out of these shapes. For the rhino illustration I was attempting to draw a simple rhinos head which then developed into a rhinos horn becoming even simpler. For the word trade, I was attempting to illustrate some simple arrows and jigsaw like blocks to resemble the term. For the rest of the terms, sharp and spontaneous shapes emerged for obvious reasons which managed to resemble the other words pretty well. I was having more trouble with the trading one however. I wanted it to work well but didn't know how to do it without being incredibly literal with arrows. One idea I had for culture was to show too illustrations the same shape but one fades in colour resembling multiple cultures, which is what that genre welcomes. I also wanted to perhaps use the word community at some point as that what the whole scene thrives on.

Here are a few digital mock ups and developments of my previous sketches. I began with a really simple illustration for the term against, depicting a jagged line bouncing against a wall or shield. This is very literal and could use improvement. The second two illustration are reflecting the term culture. As stated before I would show two shapes and one would fade showing diversity. The third idea here is showing the phrase trading and simply linking two objects together. I managed to not include any arrows in this one luckily. For the finale rhino horn, I was advised to follow the grid exactly to give it this pixelated effect. This gives it perhaps more character compared to the simple line drawing on the right there. 

After a group crit, it was decided that my rhino idea was definitely the best one. They stated that I should change the horn illustration to a whole rhinos head like previously. This makes it more obvious of what it is as at the moment its hard to tell what its meant to be. I showed my favourite album cover from this genre of music which was a close up of a note of the currency used in Brazil with the title of the band at the top. My peers said that I could try using money to somehow illustrate something or perhaps put the rhino head in where the queens should be. I was recommended the app can . scanner which instantly thresholds any photo taken. I could use this to help me illustrate the money as scanners refuse to scan them. When thinking of a possible colour scheme it was way too easy to just use the Brazilian flag so I was recommended to research the Sao Paulo as that is where the genre originated from. 

Presentation Summary

Presentation Summary


Pictograms , used to warn, guide or protect and be immediately understandable to all cultures

Signs and symbols

Container, represents a fully 4 sided closed box, open top like a box
Protection, represents the grid with a line on the top protecting it from falling objects
Object, a full 4 sided complete object

1938 Charles Morris defined semiotics into three groups
Semantics: sign and meaning depending on context
Sytnax: relations among or between signs in formal structures
Pragmatics: relationship between the sign and the sign user
Circle signs, feeling are stressed more with these signs, viewers place themselves inside or outside the sign
Arrow sign, horizontal arrows direct you on how to move

Otl Aicher, Munich Olympic Games logos, created to be universal logos that all the teams participating could understand

Look at
Kobayashi.ikki

OUGD404 Evaluation

OUGD404 Evaluation

This project has been very beneficial for me and I have learnt many skills that I can transfer to other projects. For instance learning about the grid systems and colour theory was incredibly useful. This helped me when laying out a publication and also how the pagination worked. I will be able to use these layouts and grids in many other forms in the future for magazines, posters, design boards and laying text out also. When learning about colour theory it made me realise how much thought goes into the selection of colours. Learning about contemplating colours and vibrating boundaries which I found the most interesting and useful in my work. This will help me when designing for screen printing and also general graphic design work. 

These skills helped me when designing the book cover for the book cover brief, especially the grid systems. They helped me give my covers a consistent house style throughout making them look like they were part of a collection which was exactly what I wanted. Also, when selecting the colours I was a lot more hesitant instead of just choosing some colours randomly. This was done to give each cover a similar style even though they were all different colours they were all a similar tone. 

If I could improve this projects I would probably redo my publication for the grid systems as it was very low quality compared to the colour theory one. I'd use the same paper stock thought giving it a more professional finish and stick with a similar grid to the previous publication. Although I thought hard about the colours I don't think they reflect my theme perfectly so if I did it again I would most certainly source the colours from some of the record sleeves I discovered in my research. 

Sao Paulo Research

Sao Paulo Research

Given the fact that Brazilian Punk originated in Sao Paulo I thought it would be a good idea to research the city and perhaps find a link between it and the genre. I found some interesting facts like is has the largest Japanese settlement out of Japan and it has the third largest concentration of skyscrapers. These facts were interesting but didn't really link to my genre. A lot of Brazilian Punk deals with political issues so I thought I'd research some politics in Sao Paulo. I discovered that as a joke, rhino was put forward as a political candidate in an election against corruption and actually got 100,000 votes. A commentator stated "it is better to elect a rhino than an ass". I thought this tied in quite nicely with the genres political influence and could perhaps be a good starting point. 

Brazilian Punk Playlist

Brazilian Punk Playlist

Today I created a playlist for my micro genre of music which was long enough to fit on a cassette tape. This was done so that I could eventually press it onto an actual cassette. I tried to replicate the facts from before that I uncovered by laying the playlist out in a sort of timeline. This means that as you played through it, you would travel through time of this genre beginning in the late 70's and early 80's and end up in the modern day. The band with the most songs in this playlist is a band called Mercenarias which was a band made up of just women. At the time they were outcasted by the punk scene in Sao Paulo because they were all women. When punk music was first being originated over there it said that black people would only make hip hop and women would do popular music. I think the reason this is my favourite band in that genre is because they seemed to be punk against the punks and they also sound great.