My tutor thought that we could try some mono printing and see if we could create any designs which could be used in our final designs. First, I had to create the design that I could trace from the create the mono print. I created a design similar to the shape sketch I created earlier. After I had mono printed this I created 2 more designs from free hand. I don’t like the effect you get from mono printing but I will scan these designs in and see if they can improve my designs.
I now started to create some design ideas and background ideas for my spray can. I firstly, created some simple blue designs using paint and different materials. I though that I could scan these in eventually and use them for the background of my spray can. I used sponges as well as just a paint brush to try and get a different texture for my background.
I then created some more detailed designs which again could be scanned in and edited in PhotoShop. Some of these designs were based and expanded from my line, tone, shape and texture designs. I used pencils, pens, felt tips, paint and cut outs to create these designs.
Finally, I created a mood board focused on the word atmosphere. I compiled images which I had found online and also the designs I had just created to make this mood board. This was just to give me some inspiration and to compare my ideas to try and get a better idea for which I prefer.
We looked at the timeline for which we are going to be researching and we looked at some famous artists. I looked at Dennis Calvert who specialises in light drawing photography. The detail and way he used light is different to every other artist I’ve seen and he used peoples silhouettes frequently in his work.
Firstly, went over the health and safety rules for the room we were working in. Obviously, covered the lights and the fact it would be dark. This meant there were trip hazards so all chairs and tables must be out of the way and all personal belongings had to also be moved.
Neil helped set up the cameras, including: tripod, frame of shot, ISO 100 and aperture. The shutter speed was set to 20 seconds so we had 20 seconds to create the light drawing. I enjoyed creating the light drawings and liked the creative side and coming up with a design on the spot. I created some designs like a boat and a tree. There was a lot of trial and error too to see how the light worked and how to create lines.
Once I started putting my final poster ideas together I started to look for royalty free backgrounds on Pixabay.com. I wanted to find something relating to my initial research and ideas. My tutor thought that it would be better if I took my own pictures.
I tried to find a place where I could take a picture of some trees or just a relaxing area. I thought that the area around the Blackburn cathedral was nice and it would allow the text to stand out well. I got a few photos which I thought I could use for my final poster.
My tutor suggested that I go out and take some pictures of some real life typography that I could find around the college. I walked to the town and took some pictures on the way of any typography that caught my eye or that I thought could give me some inspiration when creating my posters.
I felt as if I had enough research and ideas to start creating my posters and trying different ideas for each poster.
The first poster I started to design was a simple, solid colour background, with the word TYPE in the middle. I wanted the word TYPE to be displayed on 2 lines because of the LOVE sculpture in New York. I also found a poster online which had OH ME OH MY with each word on it’s own line. This poster had a shadow effect coming from the letters and going off the page. I also liked this idea but I wanted the shadow to be black instead of the bright colour they used on the poster. I thought this black shadow made the text stand out more from the background because I used the same colour just 2 different tones for the text and background. The shadow helped to contrast the text from the background and also fill some of the empty space on the poster.
My second poster design was based off of steps and I used the word type and reflected it over and over to make it look as if it was steps. I added a black shadow to one of the type words to make it stand out from the others. I like this design because it had a 3D effect but I feel as if it is slightly empty and maybe needs some more detail to improve it.
My next poster design is also a 3D inspired design and it has 2 layers or steps with a shadow separating each step. I got some inspiration from a poster I saw that had the word love and I changed the word to type and also changed to colour. I tried to recreated the poster because I liked the design and the 3D effect. This poster has too much empty space I feel and the word needs to be bigger to attract attention of the target audience.
My fourth poster is based off of my initial idea of using photograph or a real life background with a word place somewhere on the poster. I first tried to use some royalty free images but my tutor and peers gave some feedback and thought that it would work better with photos which I have taken myself. I added some dripping effect to the word typography and also added an overlay over the image with the word cut from the middle. This helped to give some more detail and a shadow effect on the word. This is one of my favourite posters but I wasn’t happy with the photos I could get and I couldn’t find anywhere in the are which suited my idea the best.
My last poster was a simple black background with the word typography spread out with each letter in a different position. This poster was a bit different to my other and I added a red line going through and around each letter to give a 3D effect and also some more detail. I like this poster and I feel as if it stands out and would be perfect for the target audience but after some feedback they said it was slightly difficult to read at first glance.
Similar to when I created some type ideas, I drew out some small poster layouts which I thought looked good and could then be designed into actual posters. I used my research which I had done about posters and type and put the annotations I had done into actual designs to see how they could look.
The first poster I drew up was the word type digitally added over a brick wall background. I wanted to create the word in 3D using Photoshop and try and make it look as real as possible. I thought this layout would make the word stand out. I also drew out my first idea of the word over a relaxing background. I also used inspiration from a poster I found, which had a step like design, and had a 3D effect. I also did some other basic designs but I am not too keen on those.
Now that I had some ideas for the background and layout of my poster I began to start looking into how I can show the word typography. I looked into different fonts and methods to create the text. I created 6 basic designs using things such as: stencils, stamps, cutouts and paint.
After creating these I realised that I preferred text which is created digitally and I thought it looked a lot more professional when created digitally. This meant that I could also use Photoshop and Illustrator to create and edit text.
To get some more ideas for my posters and the techniques I could use to create my posters, I started to compile some typography posters which caught my eye and ones I thought I could get inspiration from. I found some posters which related to my original ideas. For example: one poster had letters stood up and there are shadows being cast from the letters, another poster I found had a hand drawn word over a forest background, another had the word created using lines going from each side of the poster.
I annotated each poster I chose and this helped me to get an idea of how I can start my posters and what techniques I could use.
George Eccles 