Alex Trochut

Alex Trochut is a Spanish artist, graphic designer, illustrator, and typographer born in Barcelona in 1981. He completed his studies at Elisava Escola Superior de Disseny in Barcelona and worked in Spanish design studios before he established his own design studio and relocated to New York City.

He has developed his own intuitive way of working through his design, illustration and typographic practices. His typography functions on two hierarchical levels, the first being the world we see and reading comes second. As a designer Alex focuses on the potential of language as a medium, pushing language to its limits so that seeing and reading become the same action and text and image become one united expression.

He has worked for multiple clients ranging from Katy Pery, Coca-Cola, BBC, New York Times, British Airways and many more.

Some of his work

What I like about Alex’s work is his creativity, with his design with Puma he has used the laces to write his words and the colours on the shoes are associated with the colours of the flags in those countries. He has done a similar thing to his work with McDonald’s for the big mac, using the colour that should be the beef patty with a ribbon effect to write the words where the beef patty should be so you are looking at the image whilst also reading it which I think is really genius.

Kingdom and Sparrow are a branding design agency based in Falmouth, Cornwall in the UK. They pride themselves on being unique and using that to make them stand out in the market.

Founded in 2012, they have now grown to be one of the largest branding agencies in Cornwall with 2019 being its biggest year to date.

They are regularly nominated for awards, in particular the World Branding Design Awards.

They have worked with brands such as Maison Du Vin, 58 and Co, 8Track Spiced Rum, Mission Coffee Works, Alt Co and many more.

They are a branding and advertising company that mainly aim towards adults which can be seen through their numerous clients being with alcohol companies and having their design worm being very adult orientated.

In the cans they have used different tones dependent on the flavour of the drink keeping a clean and sleek look. They also keep their showcase of their products sticking to the theme of the product they have branded with for example with alcholic drinks company has been presented with lemons and sunglasses with a yellow stand to keep a summery theme and uplifting.

What I like about the design that Kingdom and Sparrow do is each design is different depending on the brand. Some have a more retro design and some more modern, some more fun and some more classy. I also really like their way of advertising for example in the photos included where we see the monsters holding the cookies as that is the character of the brand.

Looking at other rebrands similar to this I looked up other drinks bevergages that have had a rebrand and I found Sound.

This rebrand caught my eye because of the drastic change in colour between the old and new. In their rebrand they have completey changed everything, which in my opinion was very much needed because of how dull it was before. When comparing this rebrand to ones of Kingdom and Sparrows we can see they put in some more effort into the showcase of their products which can make a very big difference to if people will buy the product. Although I really like the redesign of this product I believe that Kingdom and Sparrow do advertise their products better.

Wolff Olins

Founded in 1965 they have worked in technology, culture, retail, energy and utilities, media and non-profit. They are based in London, New York City and San Fransisco and founded in Camden Town, London by designer Michael Wolff and advertising executive Wally Olins.

It is a British advertising agency and corporate identity consultancy that has worked with brands such as GSK, Google Workspace, TikTok, Uber, McKinsey and Company, and Tesco. They help create transformative brands that move business, people and the world forward. Wolff Ollins work closely with brands to reach the result that both are happy with which they have their strategy for.

Through this you can see how they have worked with so many brands, they build great relationships between themselves and the client to achieve exactly what is asked.

Some of their Branding Work

They have worked with a vast variety of companies and each brand has a different design and approach to it which I like as they all have their independent styles.

 

Branding and Advertising Case Study

One of the brands the company has worked with is Tik Tok which I am going to be doing further research into. The target audience of this brand is teenagers t young adults who we see mostly using this app.

In their rebranding, they use a simplistic style where they place the creators same in the centre of the page with an image of the person behind this. They have used this throughout all of their advertisements using consistency so the brand of ‘TikTok’ doesn’t need to be written because it can simply be recognised through the syle after seeing it so much which is very smart advertising.

What I like about the branding examples is that the advertisements aren’t overwhelming and arent covered in writing they are simple phrases with a preview of the video with the brands’ colours in the background. When an advertisement is covered in words someone is less likely to read it but with something like this it gets the point across swiftly and grabs attention.

Something I don’t like about this branding example is it doesn’t work on something that isn’t digital, on all the examples that have been displayed by the brand they have either been on a digital billboard or a phone, these wouldn’t work on posters or paper billboards and these are not digital so I do not know how the brand would approach this.

The final pieces are showcased on the app and on billboards around the country which is something I could use for advertising, for example, displaying my work on an Instagram page or my posters on a digital board however I would also want to animate them to grab peoples attention further.

Comparing this rebrand to another one on the internet we can see this ad is a still image with still few words but has a more graphic, stylistic look to it using different tones and shadows. In my opinion, this is an ad which would and has caught my eye more because of the expansion of colour and futuristic look to it, it still isn’t in your face and by simply clicking see the report you give yourself your own choice to read more instead of being forced to. You can also imagine how this could be made to digitally move like the tik tok brand which would also work in his brand’s favour.

 

Who are they?

Landor is a global brand transformation company founded in 1941 by Walter Landor. He was a German immigrant along with his wife when they founded the company, his intent to ‘concentrate on designing everyday products that would make life more pleasant and more beautiful’

They aim to make an extraordinary difference for clients, employees and the world around them. They work together to go beyond people’s expectations in 20 countries. They have worked with popular brands such as Apple, Band and Olufsen, BP, Kellogg’s, Lego, Microsoft, Nike, Procter and Gamble and Singtel. It is a member of the Young and Rubicam group network within WWP plc, the world’s largest advertising company in revenues.

When working with Volvic, Landor rebranded the water company’s logo and what it stood for, they took what the brand had and gave it a new vibe. Volvic is the only brand in the world that can claim ownership of such a dynamic source of water, the brand took advantage of this and created a new backdrop behind the brand’s name in their logo using a mix of paint and the image of the mountain.

 

This was the outcome of the rebranding done by Landor.

 

BMW

BMW is a German multinational corporate manufacturer of luxury vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It targets customers of the upper-class margin as they are the people BMW is affordable to, they have positioned themselves as a symbol of quality, luxury, and high-performance automobile brand.

Kellogg’s

Kellogg’s has been a staple found on breakfast tables across the world for over 100 years, they are the worlds leading cereal brand and a leading producer of convenience foods.

The target audience of this brand is younger children which can be identified through the cartoon figurines on the packaging of the Kellogg’s cereal along with the bright colours which easily catch a child’s eye. Despite the target audience Kellogg’s can be enjoyed by a person of any age which it is by people who used to enjoy it as kids and have since gotten older.

In Landor’s rebrand of Kellogg’s, they wanted to make the appearance of the cereal more up-to-date whilst also keeping the recognisable attributes that make the brand so iconic. They kept the packaging simple keeping up with the modern-day trends and new eye-catching playful colours, no doubt the idea of what would stand out most to children would have also been the main factor in what colours were chosen for the packaging. The portfolio is now visually brighter, with a wider and more cohesive palette that makes packages stand out dramatically on the shelf. ‘Research results showed that nearly 70 percent of consumers were able to find the new packs on the shelf more easily, and the new designs increased purchase intent by almost 50 percent.’

In Landor’s rebrand, we can see the simplistic theme, in each individual cereal, they have an assigned colour in which everything in the package will be revolved around to keep the packaging looking clean. In these examples, for example, the purple Fruit’n Fibre we can see the different tones of purple and purple fruits or colours that blend with this, by doing this everything looks really organised and simple which I really like.

What I like about this rebrand is the modern twist and the individual colours each cereal has, they stand out and show that they all link together making them more identifiable to customers, a crucial thing in marketing.

One thing I don’t like is the retro, classic Kelloggs that has been lost, although the packaging looks more up-to-date, one of the missions in this rebrand was to keep it looking iconic and apart from keeping the logo the same, I believe a part of this has been lost in the rebrand.

To present this brand they have used a simple backdrop coordinating to the specific cereal apart from where they have showcased all the cereals together and used a neutral background against all the vibrant colours to make them stand out futher. I believe this works with this specific rebrand however this may not work with all showcases for a product, for example with my McLaren rebrand I am using a lot of colour so using neutrals as well may not showcase my product in the way I originally imagined.

Looking at rebrands similar to this I found the rebranding of LIDLs cereal, here we see the approach of taking away the cartoons on the front of their packaging which moves their target audience away from children. This was a result of the new government on junk food marketing regulations, by taking away the cartoons to stop children pestering for unhealthy cereals. As well as this we see a new more modern font, it has been enlarged to take up the room from where the cartoon once was and has been put in a striking white and red colour to grab attention in front of the dark blue behind it. I believe that although I don’t agree with th governments regulations as it takes the fun out of the packaging, with the restrictions given the graphic designers have worked well still making the packaging look appealing and eye catching.

 

What is a Design Brief?

A design brief outlines any key components for a project including its budget, timeframe and scale of the project. It will be made to suit and to help you understand your client/ customer in a better manner and avoid misunderstandings. A well-written brief helps you identify any problems that may arise in the future and helps with the development process.

Treintayseis is the graphic design studio of Nina Sans and Rafa Goicoechea. They are based in Barcelona. They specialise in Typography, Editorial Design and Illustration. Their ethos is believing in Visual Communication based on strong concepts and in custom languages for every project. They focus their work on creating brands and visual identities, art direction, type design and tailored graphic solutions.

Examples of their work:

 

36 Days Project:

 

What are Research Methods and Why Do We Use Them?

Primary Research-

The methodology that is used by researchers to collect data within the moment and not from the past means they then ‘own’ the data instead of using somebody else’s.

Ways of collecting Primary Research:

• Interviews- A great way to gather a large amount of information, they take the form of a one-to-one or small group question and answer session. An advantage of using interviews is there interviewer can judge the verbal response as well as the non-verbal response of the respondent for example their body language. A disadvantage to this type of research is it can because of biases. For example, the respondent’s answers can be affected by their reaction to the interviewer’s race, class, age or physical appearance. This type of research is highly personal and is an example of qualitative research.
• Surveys- Most frequently conducted online, questions are pre-written, offering the respondent little flexibility if their answer doesn’t fit. An advantage of using surveys is they are a practical way to gather information about something specific; can target them to a demographic of your choice. A disadvantage is surveys struggle to convey the emotion of the participant to the questions asked, there is always a risk they may provide dishonest answers and you would not know of this. Surveys are an example of quantitative research.

Secondary Research-

This is research that uses already concluded data, this can be from public libraries, websites and data obtained from already filled in surveys. It is more cost-effective as it makes use of already obtained data, unlike primary research where companies will hire a third party to gather data.

 

Quantitative Research-

Quantitive research can be used to find patterns and averages by collecting and analyzing numerical data. It is used widely in the natural and social sciences: biology, chemistry, psychology, economics, sociology and marketing. Advantages of quantitative research include studies that can be repeated because of standardized data collection protocols and tangible definitions of abstract concepts. Another is the ability to work with large samples as they can be processed and analyzed using reliable and consistent procedures through quantitative data analysis. Some disadvantages of this type of research include it having a narrow focus; predetermined variables and measurement procedures can mean that you ignore other relevant observations.

Qualitative Research-

Qualitative research can be used to find concepts, opinions and experiences by using closed questions. It is used commonly in the humanities and social sciences, in subjects such as anthropology, sociology, education, health sciences, history, etc. Methods of qualitative research include; observations, interviews, focus groups, surveys and secondary research. Advantages of using qualitative research are having natural settings, by this, you can get more accurate answers by catching people off guard and getting the most truthful answers out of people. Another advantage is the flexibility, patterns in responses can always change and not be rigidly decided beforehand. However, there are also disadvantages in contrast including, the real-world setting often making qualitative research unreliable because of uncontrolled factors that affect the data.

Both qualitative and quantitative data can be shown through an infographic.

The Five Dimensions of Framework

Interaction design is an important design component within the giant umbrella of user experience design.  

1D Design-

Words encompass text, which helps convey the right amount of information to users. Words especially those used in interactions, like button labels, should be meaningful and simple to understand. They should communicate information to users without overwhelming them with too many details. This dimension represents the semantics and the character of a user’s interactions. Phrases are powerful, as we are able to process them speedily, implicitly but they have an effect on us profoundly. A singular word incorporates widespread meaning, and words are open to interpretation. For that reason, the terminology we use needs to be familiar to our supposed users, accurately constitute the actions they denote, conveyed in a tone this is suitable for the placing and used continuously for the duration of the product.

2D Visual representations-

Visual representations include typography, icons and other graphics with which users interact. Visual representations usually supplement the words used to communicate information to users. This dimension refers back to the factors that aren’t phrases inside a product, including the typography, diagrams, icons, and different graphics. These factors aren’t any much less effective than phrases, as we’re able to process imagery simply as fast and extract meaning within a split second.

3D Physical objects or space-

Physical objects are a medium through which users interact with the product or service. For instance, a user interacts with computers and a mouse while sitting on a desk in an office space. Means of control, such as a computer keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, joystick, games controller, and keypad.

4D Time-

Time helps users understand visual changes in a UI; it also helps users track their progress. The time where the user interacts with and makes use of the primary three dimensions, and, as an example, where they’re able to test the development of those interactions. 4D Time also encompasses sound, film and animation, each representing another way of conveying information and improving the user experience in flip.

5D Behaviour-

Behaviour includes both action and reaction. Behaviour is what describes the mechanism of an interaction with a product. Interaction designers should utilize all five dimensions to consider the interactions between a user and a product in a realistic way.

 

Case Study- Timothee Roussilhe and Ben Mingo

David William Baum is an experienced venture capital standard partner with twenty-one years in the information technology enterprise, including twelve years in generation finance and 9 years in entrepreneurial working control roles. 

On the website on opening, you are greeted by a single image however with a slight movement of the mouse an array of different pictures spreads across the page in seconds. 

The website includes multiple images each included in different themes that are shown when hovering over an image, I decided to click on one called personal.

From here you can click on this image and move through the other pictures included in this picture file all relating to this topic.

The target audience for this website seems to aim towards young adults, it keeps up with trends of modern-day, retro cameras, perfumes, partying, travelling and much more all of these which are the main interests of young adults. It is a place of inspiration and a clever way to show the images too. Unlike sites like Pinterest where people can be scrolling it can become tiresome to the eye with the same layout over and over, with this website it is a new and refreshing way to display images and almost feels like the pictures are aid out in front of you on a table giving it that more authentic feel.

The Pinterest layout compared to the David William Baum website layout

Vs

UI-  User Interface is what makes a website interactive by using code. It includes just about everything from touchscreens, screens, sounds and keyboards.

UX- User Experience is the process of making physical products that are easy and efficient to use. Having a bad UX would drive someone off your website.

Adaptive UI Design- When the user interface adapts and changes for different screen sizes. When someone makes a webpage it must be able to function on different screen sizes.

Navigation- This is the act of looking through a website, using different pages for people to go to via one website this may be through buttons or sliders, not all information has to be crammed on one page.

Wireframe- A black and white two-dimensional drawing of what a webpage will look like.

Prototype- This is the test of your product to see if it is functional, it highlights the positives and the negatives of your products and allows you to change them before you publish your finished product.

 

After looking through 4 different layout styles today through different websites

Navigation Tree for Portfolio Website

My navigation tree gives a brief idea of what my website will look like and how it will all link in together. It shows what leads to what by clicking on different things on the page, this will make it easier when it comes to making my website as I have already planned on what will go where.

What is Behance?

Behance is a social media website which is run by Adobe, it is the leading online platform to showcase & discover creative work. It is a place for creators to showcase their work, it is one of the most effective ways to show your talent and to get it recognised as it is one of the most popular websites for this. A benefit for using Behance is it is extremely easy to use, there is no time wasting using coding and can be navigated straightforwardly simply through making an account on the platform. As well as this, you can look at other people’s work as other people look at yours, this is a great way to make connections to other people and praise them for their work or even talk about working together on something, the possibilities are endless.

You can create project posts where you can give a blurb of the work and show the development stages of themed work.

What is Dribble?

Dribble is owned by Dribble Holdings Ltd, it is a social networking platform for creators and digital designers to promote their work. It serves as a design portfolio platform, jobs and recruiting site and is one of the largest platforms for designers to share their work online. The benefit of this website is people can display their best work in the hope to be found by employers and vice versa employers can use this website to find the employees that best suit their business needs through their work.

Is Dribble Pro Beneficial To Your Career?

For people that are looking to get employed rather than showcasing their work for the entertainment side of things, dribble pro is worth it as there are more add ons with this subscription such as receiving their daily freelance design jobs newsletter.

Behance or Dribble?

In my opinion, I prefer Behance because of its links to Adobe, you can see how people have created their work and take inspiration through this whist using the Adobe software so you can experiment with the tools and tricks they have used to make their piece.

The Sanahunt Times Case Study

A fantastically designed high-end newspaper/ magazine for a Kiev-based fashion chain. Art Direction and Design from design studio non-format emphasise luxurious, monochromatic layouts with impactful introduction rare burst of colour. They contrast enlarged typography with dramatic photography.

Kjell Ekhorn and Jon Forss are the type directors/designers/art directors of the Sanahunt Times. They have worked together as the creative direction & design team Non-Format since 2000. The Sanahunt Times is an in-store fashion publication for the Sanahunt Luxury Concept Store in Kiev, Ukraine with a firm belief in the importance of bespoke design solutions. They believe that ‘each and every one of their design solutions must balance the desire to connect with individuals on an emotional level with the need for direct, strategic and effective communication.’ The target audience for this magazine is women aged 20 through 30 of the socio-economic background of upper-class status. This is because of the simplistic look of the magazine with the expensive looks on the models such as their clothes, as well as this the majority of the models are female aiming the magazine towards women. Across The Sanahunt Magazine, there is lots of contrast with it being black and white with pops of red across it to keep the audience interested, making it look like an old fashioned newspaper with a twist. As well as this the magazine balances the use of photos and text, this helps it not look overwhelming with all the text and gives the reader an idea of what the section of text is about. They also use a lot of repetition of the red marker across the text which is effective in making the magazine distinguishable above the rest of the magazines. What I like about the magazine spread is the way it looks as if it has been stamped or drawn on with the read marker spread and dotted around the magazine as if it shouldn’t be there, it gives the magazine a more laid back feel and stands out above other magazines through its originality. What I don’t like about the magazine is the amount of text it uses in such a small font, as well as this all the font is the same size making it look more of a chore to read because of it being so text-heavy.

When comparing The Sanahunt Magazine with the Cosmopolitan magazine I have featured there are many differences between the two. In Cosmopolitan there are cover lines spread out across the front page leaving no negative space which is completely opposite to the minimalist approach we see to the front cover of The Sanahunt. As well as this in The Cosmopolitan, there is colour spread across the whole of the cover with baby pink being the background colour and complimenting colours blue and white also featuring across it also different from the simple two colours of The Sanahunt Magazine. The Cosmopolitan in my opinion looks like a more approachable magazine with it telling the reader what they will be getting from the magazine including tips and featured stories, unlike The Sanahunt where you have to know what the magazines forte is to know what it will be written about.

For my recreation of The Sanahunt Magazine, I have followed the ideas of red writing being patched across the magazine with the black and white theme to contrast. I have used fonts that follow the components of The Sanahunt Magazine, this being serif with heavy amounts of text and have separated the text with photos. When placing the photos on my double page spread, I used two kinds of placements, one which took up half the page and one which separated the page in half with a black ground to make my page appear more full which I have also seen in The Sanahunt Magazine use by researching more magazines of theirs.

References:

https://www.brandnewworld.ch/brand-new-salon/creative-minds/27556/kjell-ekhorn.html

https://www.commarts.com/project/19870/the-sanahunt-times

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/a38103145/khloe-kardashian-cosmopolitan-uk-cover-interview/

Health and Safety

For my recreation of well-known health and safety signs regularly seen inside or around buildings, I used illustrator, the shape tool and pen tool. By using the shape tool I could create the red circle that borders the instruction in the interior. To create the symbols on the inside of my circle, I used the pen tool and filled this in with only black so it is bold and stands out, giving a clear order. I put a red line through this to show a person that this is not what they should be doing, and to finalize this added one final box underneath my circle and using the text tool wrote out my instruction in white to make it stand out above the red. As I was creating three signs I copied and pasted my design so this design would repeat and not differ from the others, changing nothing but what I would have drawn with the pen tool and the instruction in the box underneath. This makes it easy to understand and recognise that actions with red circles and cross through them is what a person should not be doing, if there were be different symbols that came with all of these and signs with different designs it would not be as simple to understand and a person can get mixed up with this more easily.

Repetition–

The action of repeating something that has already been said or written.

Why is it important?

It helps transition a memory from the conscious to the subconscious and creates emphasis by drawing the eye forward to a focal point which helps when presenting customers with lots of information.

How can it speed up our process?

As our mind creates a subconscious to everyday things such as the shopping cart always being in the top right corner of a shopping website, it becomes easier for a person to do this and saves them time rather than looking around the page for it. Keeping something repeated, creates a sense of normality for a person and helps them understand things quicker, from a young age a child will start to understand that red signs mean ‘DO NOT’. Therefore, not only does repetition help an individual it helps the collective of people work together by making them all be on the same page with simplistic ideas because of repetition and it becoming a subconscious to them.

What is Bauhaus?

Bauhaus was a German art school founded on the 12th of April 1919 By Walter Gropius in Weimar Germany. The movement encouraged teachers and students to pursue their crafts together in design studios and workshops, its creators believed in bringing artists and craftspeople together for utopian purposes. Painting, typography, architecture, textile design, furniture-making, theatre design, stained glass, woodworking, metalworking were all things a person could pursue at the Bauhaus as there was no special distinction between applied and fine arts. In 1930 following the increasingly unstable political situation in Germany the Bauhaus had no option but to relocate to Berlin, where it operated on a reduced scale, the Bauhaus was ultimately shattered in 1933.

The movement followed a geometric, abstract style featuring little sentiment or emotion, its aesthetic continues to influence architects, designers and artists. The most common characteristics of Bauhaus consist of; functional shapes, simple colour schemes, industrial materials, balanced asymmetry, holistic design, san serif fonts and minimalism. Places, where Bauhaus is still most commonly used and recognised, is the Swedish furnishing brand IKEA.

The brand continues to use the components of the Bauhaus movement keeping its designs minimalist with simple colour schemes. This shows the success of the Bauhaus movement and the impact it still continues to have in modern society with its recognisable approach to art and furniture both then and now.

Using illustrator and the pen tool, I created my own pieces of furniture following the rules of Bauhaus, simplistic, san serif font and balanced asymmetry. What I like about my recreation is my use of shadowing, using different colours to add dimension and realism to my furniture. If I were to change anything about my piece I would not only add more different pieces of furniture but also make the background to my poster brighter with different opacities to make the piece more eye-catching.

What I like about the style of Bauhaus is its simplistic design and how clean it can look, it does not make things look messy or overwhelmed but instead tidy and organised.

Task- Using pen tool & shapes on Vectr / illustrator recreate the below image

Using the pen tool I have created my own floral design, I have used different gradients of green to make the image appear more realistic as all leaves in a plant are not the same colour in real life. 

To further this design I then grouped my design over and over duplicating it to create a reed garden. when doing this I placed the plant at different distances from their duplications as well as overlapped some of them to create an overgrown effect and make the design all link together instead of them looking separate. 

 

Key Elements of the Movement

• Popular throughout 1860 – 1920
• William Morris was the creator of the movement
• Revolves around different textiles, designs and repetition
• Mainly seen now in modern wallpaper

Task- Make a mood board with inspiration & annotation inspired by the arts & crafts movement

 

 

 

Task- Create your own wallpaper design inspired by the arts and crafts movement

In my recreation of the arts and crafts movement, I made my own wallpaper using the ideas of leaves and connecting these with dots. What I struggled with in making this wallpaper was making it symmetrical, the red dots included are not all symmetrical however with the leaves I was able to copy and paste these making them in line with each other. In the future, I would use a different method or design to prevent this.

What I like about the arts and crafts movement is how it has been able to move with the times and been able to have been turned into something modern and we still use it every day either in art or to decorate our homes.

 

Different genres and styles are used to reach different consumers, this is why style is critical as it is dedicated to the aesthetic of the work.

• Style from the 1920s-30s
• Seen in fashion, decorative arts & architecture
• Successor/reaction to the Art Nouveau movement
• Inspiration from cubism, seen in geometric patterns
• Imagery based on plant forms
• Drew from the modern architecture of Bauhaus
• Use of gold –luxury glitz & glam

 

Victorian Style

• Victorian Age (Queen Victoria Reign 1837-1901)
• At the latter end of the Industrial revolution
• Extravagant Typefaces with serif and bold fonts
• Warped text
• Heavy use of symmetry
• Detailed floral patterns
• Use of intricate borders
• Floral inspired
• Some injections of flat strong colour 

  Task- Design new packaging for a confectionery product inspired by Victorian style

  

Kinder Bueno is the brand I will be redesigning to show my recreation of Victorian Style.

With inspiration from Victorian-style confectionary, I created my own wrapping for a famous chocolate snack and took the modern look to it back to a Victorian one. I made sure all my empty space was filled with patterns as this is a theme we see in Victorian packaging and I used a serif font to give it an older style look.

I decided that I could make this packaging better and more Victorian, so using a different brand is what I did.

I began by looking at the packaging we know now as mentos so I could follow this and stick to its main components in the brand that make it known for example its main colour is blue and the name of it is large and central.

To follow the Victorian style I have used intricate borders with black and white, keeping the theme of white elements around the packaging to match the idea of mint as well as the colour of the gum. For my font, I have used serif to keep with the style as well as keeping it all bold and extravagant just like the codes and conventions in the style with bold colours and making words stand out further with the stroke feature. For the background colour, I have kept with the colour blue as this is the main colour of the brand however I have slightly faded this as in the Victorian ages there were not these strong dyes that could be used for packaging so using this colour makes the packaging look more realistic to the times.

The Colour Wheel

Colour Theory- The use of colours or a mix of colours to achieve a result of colour/colours that works well within your graphic.

Hue- The attribute of visible light which it is differentiated from, the term is also used to refer to colours that have no tint or shade.

Saturation- Refers to the intensity of colour in an image, as it increases the colours appear purer as it decreases the colours appear to be more washed out or pale.

Value- It is the gradation from light to dark across a form, the higher the value is the darker and more black it appears, and the lower the value is it appears lighter and more white.

Primary colours- Colours that cannot be made however can be used to make any other colour. These three colours are red yellow and blue.

Secondary colours- These colours come from the result of mixing two primary colours together, eg green orange and purple.

Tertiary Colours- The result of mixing equal amounts from the primary colours and secondary colours. Examples of this are teal and violet.

Colour theory is important as it helps us understand what colours work and complement each other and which do not. These colour schemes are necessary to know what should be used to create an aesthetically pleasing piece of art for example red on the green would not be anywhere near as eye-catching on red on top of white. You would want to be aware of the colour wheel and colour theory as it can either help build up your business or by not using it make it look disorganised and unprofessional. An example of this incorrect use would be using red for marketing a baby brand as the colour evokes emotions of anger and danger, a more suitable colour would be white or pink to show purity and cleanliness.

Formal Element- Tone

Tone is an essential element in graphic design and is defined as different shades of colour by adding neutral tones or altering the hue of the colour. Using tones can make a basic palette more interesting and aesthetically pleasing.

Task- Create a tone technical sheet using a logo of choice

Disney plus uses tone in their logo to show the action of the plus falling into place like a star which is a clever way to use it and add different colour tones to the logo. By looking at the different colours in the line you are almost drawn to follow it down as the colours change which shows the way the logo is grabbing and intriguing something a logo must be to interest customers.

Expressionism

This movement started in the late 1800s- early 1900s and takes inspiration from Cubism, Surrealism and Dadaism. Its main focus is on the expression of emotion, meaning and experience. It was particularly popular in Germany, and Berlin (post ww1) and was communicated through distortion, fantasy and exaggeration. It uses a variety of textures and tones, a build-up of brush tones to make texture and the use of shapes and lines to make recognisable figures. Color, in particular, can be vivid and non-naturalistic in expressionist art; brushwork is often loose, and paint application is abundant and textured. Expressionist art is often emotive and mystical in nature. It can be considered a continuation of Romanticism. It may be said to start with Vincent Van Gogh and then form a major stream of modern art embracing, among many others, Edvard Munch, fauvism and Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, the Brücke and Blaue Reiter groups and the neo-expressionism of the 1980s.

Task- Produce your own expressionism inspired illustration using software

 

For my recreation of Expressionism I have decided to use the landscape of the Statue of Liberty as my place to produce my illustration. I began by placing my image into photoshop and lowering the opacity, I then added another layer which would be the layer I would be using to paint. Using a wacom tablet I began to paint over the image using the ink dropper tool to get the most accurate colour match and then using different tones of these colours to blend in and follow the codes and conventions of expressionism. After placing these colours in roughly I then used the smudge tool to blend all these colours together to give it the look of a real life painting.

I continued to do this with all of the other sections in the picture and  when finished, attempted to smudge all the colours of the sky together. For the Statue of Libery I did not smudge it around as it was the piece that is made to grab attention and be the ‘centre piece’ despite it not being in the middle it is the thing that is supposed to stand out the most above everything.

Infographic Illustrations 

By using the shape tool I was able to create my own first aid and danger sign regularly seen in the works of Health and Safety.

Swiss International Style

The main ideas behind the swiss style movement are simplicity, objectivity and readability. The movement was formed in Russia, Germany and the Netherlands during the 1920s and 30s and is a culmination of Russian constructivism, arts and crafts, photography, De Stijl and the Bauhaus. The style can be easily identified by its bold headlines, stark composition and minimalist approach.

 Swiss Style design includes:

• Grids
• Asymmetric layouts
• Sans-serif typography
• Precision
• Geometric abstraction
• Simplicity
• Objectivity
• Photography

                                   

The Swiss Style Movement believed that art should be balanced and precise. The first image shows what the style would not have approved on and the second shows what they would have as all the circles are the same size and lined up equally unlike the first where all circles are different sizes and spread unequally across the page with no order.

By following the rules and components of the Swiss International Style I created a poster advertising the Confetti College. By using a san serif font to keep it simple I spaced out my text and lined it up so it looked organised, not crammed together making it look busy as this would not follow the rules of the style. I used colours that similarly blended together and only used minimal colours to keep it minimalist. By using the shape tool I created a border around my confetti logo for my asymmetric layout as I only did this on one side of my poster. I chose a minimalist font to make my headline bold, doubled up on the text lowering the opacity on top of each other to achieve a bold yet simplistic look.

What I like about my take on the Swiss International Style piece is my use of trying to use all components that the style follows and keeping it as minimalist as possible whilst also making the poster look fascinating. If I were to change anything, I would try to find other fonts that are also san serif that represent the college better eg; more modern and digital.

After researching and experimenting with this style I really like how clean the results are after using it. It shows that even by using minimal colour and adding lots of effect to a poster, a message can still effectively be shown and grab the consumers attention.

What is Fillmore?

Fillmore auditorium was opened in 1965 by Bill Graham and was a legendary music venue, epicentre for rock n roll. To advertise they used iconic psychedelic gig posters to show their acts such as Jimi Hendrix. Each concertgoer was given an iconic poster when leaving a gig, they were a visual representation of the music that was played at the Fillmore.

Task- Create a mood board for inspiration that contains 3 Fillmore posters with annotation. 

Task- Pick a music artist and create a Fillmore-inspired poster.

For the creation of my Fillmore poster I have used the artist Tyler The Creator, I have chosen this artist and this album because he is a modern artist and I wanted to use the same colour scheme from the original album cover and convert his into a retro Fillmore poster.

To begin with, I used the pen tool to outline the subject of the image which in this case was Tyler, after this, I removed the background so I was left with a blank canvas to work with left only with the subject of my poster. To make the background I use the smudge tool to blend the colours I had added to create a swirling motion starting at the centre behind my main image. I used the ink dropper tool to get similar colours that are already used in the original album cover so I could stick to the original theming but add a Fillmore twist. Finally, for my font, I used an array from san serif to serif, for the name of the artist I made it the largest piece in serif so it would be the first thing to grab attention and add a mixture to the poster showing a bit of craziness. For the location of the concert, I changed the font to san serif to show its informality of it and used a font that looked like a handwritten pen to add more to the mixture. As well as all of this, I made the colour of my fonts neon colours and colours that contrasted between the fill and stoke so they didn’t blend into the background as well as also following the codes and conventions of Fillmore posters.

What I like about my poster is me still trying to keep to the original theming and use the colours from the original to show the process between that and Fillmore but if there were something I were to change in future is I would fill the negative space in my poster. In the original, there is no negative space and there is something happening in every corner and space however in my conversion to the Fillmore there is lots of negative space, something that isn’t seen a lot in other Fillmore posters.

Hierarchy

Task- Create 2 versions of a poster featuring information on how to make a cup of tea & a cup of coffee

Version 1 uses hierarchy to make the tea more important

Version 2 uses hierarchy to make the coffee more important

To demonstrate the use of hierarchy, I created 2 posters featuring instructions on how to make a cup of tea or coffee. I did this by making what was most important on each poster larger than the other, for example in the first poster the cup of tea is more important, therefore the image and the font are both larger than the cup of coffee and vice versa for the other poster. Another way I demonstrated the hierarchy is using different fonts, my more important image would have a more interesting font to grab attention whereas the other one has a boring san serif font and is a lot smaller making it a lot less interesting to look at.

Hierarchy is important as it gives you a guide on how to lay put your work, whatever you want to grab the reader’s attention first you will make larger and more eyecatching, it adds different dimensions and depths to your work keeping people intrigued rather than everything being the same size and people not knowing where to look first.

Dadaism

Dadaism was launched around 1916 during the end of WW1, it is also known as Dada and is linked to surrealism. It shows its rejection of the ‘norm’ and instead focuses on humor and absurdity. Traditionally it incorporates methods such as collages, cut-up imagery, and photomontages/manipulation.

Early Dadaism Pictures 

 

Task- Utilise Dadaism to create 3 edited pictures

I used an image of Boris Johnson for my Dadaism work as he a public figure who is not liked by all and therefore easy to work with and “make fun” of because of all the stories of him in the news. I used the same image across all three pieces and by using a clipping mask was able to manipulate the image to make it look like he was holding he shouldn’t be. Using the pen tool I outlined the hand and made this a clipping mask which I could then use across all my images. I gathered pngs from across the internet that I could use in one of my images as well as gathering a font that had the style of graffiti following in the style of Banksy placing political messages across walls. In another one of my images, I used more recent and relevant digs such as Boris Johnson’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis. I did this as many Dadaism artists have followed doing stuff like this where they take political leaders’ words and use them against them in their own work, I wanted to do this in one of my pieces so used a news article and placed it inside the hand clipping mask.

What I like about my interpretation of Dadaism is my use of using such a public figure and using relevant mockery around them taken with inspiration from modern dadaism artists. Something I would change about my work is being more experimental with the software instead of placing my images in the same place of images, I could have used the pen tool or ellipse tool to make my own shapes to push myself further.

Futurism Design Movement

The movement launched onto the scene in 1909 and is an expression of modern life with elements of cubism. It uses a bold, abstract style with contrasting colours, focusing on progress and modernity. It uses urban landscapes and new technology, this being along the lines of trains, motor vehicles or mobile phones. The futurism design movement is a movement that focuses on the future, expressing this through the different designs in the work.

A piece of futurism art in the early days of the movement, there is minimal use of colour.

More modern days of futurism showing a motor vehicle, there a range of different colours.

Certain trends that occur along futurism work is linked to cubism, using blocky styles of illustration and different gradients throughout the design. Through the art, the impression is trying to show the ways of modern life throughout the year’s changes but comparing the early days of the futurism art movement to modern-day there is a jump in colour.

Technical Worksheet of Contrast

Task- Make a technical sheet showcasing your understanding of contrast

In terms of graphic design, contrast refers to the presentation of two or more objects within the design in different ways. Graphic designers find it useful as it creates a focal point or a spot where the eye is naturally drawn because of its vibrance. Examples of contrast include; black and white, big and small, fast and slow, thick and thin. The more different these aspects are to each other the easier they become to compare and become more contrasted with each other.

Task- Make a piece of digital illustration reimagining something in futurist style

For my modern take on the futuristic style, I used a new model of the iPhone as my centrepiece. By using the pen tool, I was able to outline the exterior of the phone and use a 0.5pt stroke as I needed a thinner outline. I decided to stick with the colour purple and to contrast, this colour with orange for my background, as well as I shadowed my phone multiple times with different shades of purple in squares to follow the blocky technique of the futuristic style. I added an orange gradient behind this design to create the contrasting effect that the futuristic style movement follows.

If I were to do this piece again however I would use more of the orange colour in my piece and try to use other contrasting colours within it as well my piece I believe does not look as vibrant as I believe it could be. What I do like about my take on the futuristic style is my use of shadowing and repeating my shapes as it is a great way to show the phone is the main part of the piece.

When comparing my work to another piece someone has made taking a modern take on the futurism movement, their work is a lot cleaner and shows how simplistic the piece can be whilst also being futuristic which is what I really like about it. I will take inspiration from this piece for future work when using the futurism style.

What I like about the futuristic art movement is how abstract you can be with it and experimenting with different colours. It is a great way to bring something modern and use a style from the past and combine the two to show how the object may have been viewed and advertised in the past.

German Object Posters were originated in the early 1900s around Germany and were called ‘Sachplakat’ or ‘Plakastil’. The posters followed the theme of having large, flat colours making them easy to produce, and by having bold typography they were easier to read by passers-by. German object posters were one of the main reasons that colour advertising started to boom and why we have it in our advertisements today.

A German War Poster from 1900 promoting a matching business.

A modern-day poster promoting staying safe from Covid-19 using the style of the German Propaganda Posters

 

Task- Create your own German Object Poster and develop it with features such as typography, colour and extra detail

After taking inspiration from the German propaganda posters from WW2 I made my own poster promoting Pepsi with a witty slogan. I made this within illustrator using the pen tool to make my logo, I traced over the original making my design process easier and making my stroke bold to grab attention. For the background of my poster I used red and blue as these are the main colours of the Pepsi brand, I blended these colours into each other using the gradient tool and used bold white typography for easy reading when passing by.

 

What I like about my recreation is the detail and accuracy I used with the pen tool, I would continuously go back to the direct selection tool to make angles of my line the most accurate they could be. However something I would also improve on this piece of work is making sure all my lines attach to each other, I couldn’t figure out how to resolve this in such early stages of using illustrator but in future, I would want to improve on this.

German Propaganda Posters in my opinion are very effective for grabbing attention and getting a message across without using words but instead with colour and imagery, they can be applied to modern problems from today to also convey a message which proves how well this style works.

What is Adobe Photoshop?

Photo manipulation and editing software

What is Adobe Illustrator?

Digital graphics/ art & design software

What does the term ‘Graphic Design’ mean?

The art or skill of combining text and pictures in advertisements, magazines or books

Design Style Examples:

Victorian

Psychedelic

Kitsch

Bauhaus

Task- Design a history timeline using images and colour and create a custom finish.

This is the timeline of graphic design through the years I created and annotated. In my personal research through the internet, I read about the different eras of graphic design and how all of the different styles have led to the style of graphic design we have in the modern day.