Week Five: Development based on Feedback

Now that I had an idea of where I was going with my posters based on the new feedback, I began to experiment with various concepts and techniques. I first started with the sex pistols themed poster because  that was the most fresh and new, which is what I needed in order to free my mind up a bit after being stuck in the design block with the previous poster development/ reinventions. 

I started in Adobe Photoshop, where I created the text that would cover the queens face.

I then created a tea cup help by a glove using an photograph which I then put a halftone effect on, with further editing like brightness and shadowing to get it to look as close as possible to the queen. 

   

Next I put it all together 

From here I experimented with colour. I wanted a bright colour that packed punch. I first looked at red, as I had already used that in my previous poster. However I felt like it screamed blood and danger too much, so I then moved onto yellow. I found that this looked effective, but easy, I felt as though I needed to take it further. So I added a bit of a green tinge to the yellow to make more of a 'sick' colour. I was happy with this colour as it signifies 'not our cup of tea' 'ew yuck' sort of thing, where the green colour conveys my concept better/effectively. 

From here I looked more so into the positioning of the queen on the page, whether I wanted her centred, bleeding of the page or cropped in. I then decided on the centered, but still taking up most of the page. I made this decision based on the fact that if she was centered I could easily align text with her elbow, which would create an overall balanced look.  

I also looked at effects that could further the look of the queen, to push the design even further, where I found that the darken effect looked the most effective. The light ones blended in too much. Normal included too much white in the face and so did hard light. i found that darken made the poster look more complete and polished. 

From here I moved into Indesign, this way I could work to more of a grid when implementing my additional text, such as my tagline. 

I wanted to have a rule above my text to draw the eye to it, so I did a quick tagline underneath for the aesthetics, so that I can print it out and check the point size in relation to the poster size because its hard to clarify the scale when working on the small screen.

I then printed the poster, taped it up on the wall in the flat, stood back and analysed it form numerous angles. The colour contrast worked really well from afar, however I found that the point size could be bigger and I could use bold. Further notes were made, that have been noted and I will change in future editing.

Because I only wrote a quick phrase for my call to action in the above designs, just to get an idea for the point size, I then brainstormed a better call to action phrase to include in the poster, highlighting the one's with the most potential.  

Once I was at at comfortable stage with this one, I then moved on to the other poster. Matt said he like this one, from my concepts...

So I took his advice and played around a bit with this, where I worked more to the golden triangle and then added some additional text that is more of a call to action. 

However I wasn't quite feeling it, and felt as tho it was too simple, and not in a good way, so I wanted to push it further. Therefore, I got a similar image as the teapot and started playing around with different effects and filters, where I liked the cutout filter the most, as the colours wasn't altered too much. 

From here, I then implemented the text image of 'not our cup of tea' I placed on twist on how the stain would normally be below/underneath, but in this image it symbolises almost a fighting back, or change in domination by being on top of the cup.

I then looked at the positioning of the cup on the page...

Where I found that I like the middle the most. I then added a shadow effect.

From here i then looked at positioning the text, where the two circle are currently my favourite. 

I have set up a further meeting with Matt to gain some more feedback, where these are the ones that I have chosen to go forward with. 

Week Five: Critique Continued

Overnight I created some new concepts based on the feedback that I had gained from Tulia, where I took what she said into consideration and applied it to some new concepts, that didn't stray too far from my original, because I did like the overall look in the originals. Below is what I came up with. 

I then took all these concepts to Matt to gain some further feedback and again a fresh eye other than my own. I explained what Tulia said, and Matt agreed, there was too much trying to be said in my previous poster's. I also came to the realisation that in the first concept (labelled 1) of these ones is just the same, repeating myself but without the cups, so I ditched this and moved on. The feedback led me to the 4th concept (labelled 2), where I just need to experiment a little more with composition and style. Where I also need to bring in some additional text as a call to action, because I have the main text, some sub-text/tagline and now I need more of an explanation that tells the view what to do. 

Furthermore, I became confused about what to do with my second poster now, where I couldn't quite do the 'our cup of tea' vs 'not our cup of tea' anymore. It then became clear to me that all I needed to do is do the 'not our cup of tea' in two ways. Again, I was over complicating it. So I looked back at a few of my old concepts and found this one. 

Which kid of resembles God save the queen from the Sex Pistols..

So I decided I would take these two concepts, mash them together, and this would be my second poster concept. 

Week Five: Critique and Feedback from Intrim

Today during class I gained some feedback from Tulia, where she said that my poster is trying to say too many things, that all mean the same. The concept has been over complicated and needs to be brought back and simplified. So back to the drawing board, where I need to take my current poster and alter it slightly so it is simpler and straight forward with its argument. This process advanced me in my project by getting an outside eye that is both well trained and fresh to look at my work to see whether or not it is communicating my argument well. Sometimes you can become to engrossed in your work to see that its over done, where you know what everything means, but others won't. This is a prime example of that, and now that I have got this feedback I can strip my poster back and make the message clear.  

Week Four: Analysing latest two poster concepts

Below I analysed my two most developed and successful poster designs of late, to see where the faults lay and to see if my argument was communicated well enough. I followed the questions below:

• What does each element within your composition bring? What does it represent? > literal, symbolic, metaphoric.

• What does the combination of elements say?

• How does the arrangement of the elements affect meaning?

• What tone / atmosphere is emerging? Is this appropriate for your message?

• Look at the Fundamental Design Principles > which are you using? How can they be used more effectively?

• What hierarchies are you utilising? > dark/light, bold/sketchy, detailed/simple. large/small, foreground/background. Contrast provides interest.

Each element in this poster represents the idea of independence and the need to express our individuality as a country in our flag. The symbolism of the cup is a play on the idea that tea parties and tea is a British thing. In addition to this, I have brought in the use of the kiwifruit as a symbol of something 'New Zealand'. It also works in with the sub-text 'put some kiwi in our flag'.

In combination, the elements say that we are over the influence that the British have over us as a country, where we need to become independent and have our own voice, show whats really 'us' as a country. This is shown in they way its taking something that is a British concept and making it something our own, enforcing that this is 'our cup of tea'. The elements are arranged with a hierarchy, where the main text, which presents the main idea takes up majority of the page, with the image of the tea cup as the secondary element that justifies/backs up/explains the text, followed by additional elements that also give justification/explanation to the concept.  The atmosphere is very bright and vibrant, and very fresh looking, which is appropriate for the message, where the green has connotations with New Zealand's clean green reputation. Furthermore, it gives the impression of 'go'. In terms of Fundamental Design Principles, I have used Rhythm, Balance and scale. Rhythm is shown in the way the elements are arranged all in a circular rhythm. Balance is shown in the way each element is arranged, where I wanted to achieve a look that was evenly spaced in comparison to each other. Scale is used in creating hierarchy of the elements. The hierarchies I have used are predominantly light, where dark is used sparingly to add dramatic effect and shadowing. I have used more of bold look with the visual elements, with the text being more of a sketchy look. The overall look of the poster is very simple, with little bits of detail in areas, but its not overly detailed. Large and small elements complement each other, where the cup has little kiwifruit segments next to it, adding more interest and reinforcing the symbol of kiwifruit tastefully.The background and foreground compliment each other effectively too with the use of similar colours.  

Each element in this poster represents the idea of independence and the need to express our individuality as a country in our flag. The symbolism of the cup is a play on the idea that tea parties and tea is a British thing. In addition to this, I have created the cup out of bangers and mash to exaggerate the idea that the British have too much input in our current flag.  In combination, the elements say that we are over the influence that the British have over us as a country, where we need to become independent and have our own voice, show whats really 'us' as a country.  They are saying that 'its not our cup pf tea' and we need to make our own mark. he elements are arranged with a hierarchy, where the main text, which presents the main idea takes up majority of the page, with the image of the tea cup as the secondary element that justifies/backs up/explains the text, followed by additional elements that also give justification/explanation to the concept.  The atmosphere is very bright and vibrant, where the red is a very British colour so that plays one part and then the red also has connotations with 'stop' which is a good way of saying no to the current flag. In terms of Fundamental Design Principles, I have used Rhythm, Balance and scale, much the same as the other poster. The hierarchies are the same too. The overall look of the poster is very simple, with little bits of detail in areas, but its not overly detailed. Large and small elements complement each other, where the cup has peas next to it, adding more interest and reinforcing the symbol of bangers and mash tastefully.The background and foreground compliment each other effectively too with the use of similar colours.  

This process was effective as it got me thinking about what the poster is actually saying to the audience through its visual elements. This advanced me in my project by enabling me to analyse my work critically and see what I need to improve or change in order to be able to answer the questions better. 

Week Four: Continued Development

From my previous cut and paste concepts, I then rendered the one's that I thought had the best potential digitally, where I looked at perspective, cropping and grids to see what worked and what didn't, experimenting with different techniques to develop and refine my concept. 

I found that these designs were very basic and do not portray the flag concept very well, therefore, after also gaining feedback from the teachers, I moved on, and begun to refine and stylise the concept better.

I found that the background colour was very old-fashioned almost custard looking, which has too many connotations with past and this is not what I am going for, I want to create a clean modern poster that captures attention and reiterates that arguing a concept that is a present/current issue. For this reason, I changed the background colour to a much more vibrant green.  The solution to the fact that the flag concept was not conveyed well enough in the poster designs above was creating a flag image into the kiwifruit, which I then experimented with in Adobe Photoshop. 

I found that this expressed the flag issue much better, where visually it was much more interesting and effective having the New Zealand flag chopped into and made out of the kiwifruit. The look of it is much more polished and fresh looking compared to the previous too. From here I looked at incorporating my own Adobe Illustrator font, that I created to look like tea stain letters. The simple univers type used in the original designs lacked impact and was very boring, however, the font i made was much more effective and works well with what its communicating. 

  

I combined the two, simply, to see how well they worked together, where I then incorporated some additional text to further justify my argument. 

From here I then looked into creating more of a polished and refined look for my text, thus I re-worked it to fit into a tea stain ring, this made it look much more complete and whole. 

I then combined the two, to create the poster below, where I experimented with different ways of incorporating some additional text. 

The poster I found to look the most refined and finished is the green one. From here, now that I had discovered the style and look that I thought was most effective, I got started on creating the other poster, where I would just follow the same process as above.

Firstly, creating my teacup from bangers and mash...

Then creating the tea stain text...

And then combining it all together....

 

Whilst doing this one I found that having the outer edge corners a little bit darker and fading in looked quite effective too, so i applies that style to both of my posters.

                

I looked into changing the font of the secondary text, where I looked at numerous options. 

From these experiments I found that the Futura Condensed looked most effective. 

After looking through my previous blog post on colour, I decided to look further into the meaning of the colours I was using, where I found that the green was effective to represent New Zealand as a clean green country, as well as symbolising 'go' through green, as in the poster is pro New Zealand and pro new flag. However, the orange doesn't quite have the same effect, so I thought of developing this and trying the background as red...

I found that this related to Britain more than the orange, and it symbolises 'stop' as in the poster is saying stop to the flag we have now, which is currently too British. Therefore I changed it to red..

From here, I need to look at a way of incorporating some additional text into the 'not our cup of tea' poster, as well as incorporating the flag into the bangers and mash tea cup somehow, either through gravy or through cutting into the mash. 

First, I looked at creating the 'cut into' look that I had previously done in the kiwifruit poster. So I created a 3D union jack in Sketch-up, in order to see where the shadows and pieces of it are. 

From here I implemented it into Photoshop, where I begun to create layer masks out of the mash potato in the shapes created in Sketch-up, to make it appear as though it has been cut into.. 

However, I found that this did not look as effective as the kiwifruit concept did, so I thought I would look at an alternative way of bringing in the union jack. So, I looked into creating the union jack out of gravy, where I used the pen tool and added effects like bevels and shadowing. 

I found that this looked the most effective so I went with it, applying it to the current poster. I then added some additional text.

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