Week Four: Development of concepts

Today in class I looked at taking the thumbnails I had previously made and rendering them digitally, but then Matt mentioned the whole idea of getting sucked into the computer, so I decided to try an alternative technique and instead do a bit of cut and paste. So I printed a whole lot of picture to do with my topic and instead started to create some posters with a cut and paste, collage effect to them. 

Concept 1

Concept 2

Concept 3 and 4

I then took these concepts that I had created and applied the De Bono hats to them, this was to ensure that I wasn't over analysing them and so I could stick to a critique system whilst choosing the strongest concept (s).  

     

                              

Concept 1: 

The objective in this concept is shown well, where it easily shows that we do not want the queen, we want independence (white hat), however there needs to be a tagline or an aspect that shows that it about the flag. This is the problem (black hat). It draws on the emotion of 'hanging the queen by her toes' which some people might see as good, and others bad (red hat). In terms of creativity (green hat) creating the queens dress out of the cup of tea is effective and smart. It could be developed easily to become more compelling and show my argument better too (yellow hat). Lastly, the concept does combine most of the hats too (blue hat).

Concept 2:

The objective in this concept is shown quite well, where again we can see that the queen, who symbolises Britain, as not our cup of tea (White hat), however, again the flag needs to be brought in too (black hat).  The same sort of thing again with the emotions of this one, where you either love or hate the queen and what she stands for in this poster (red hat). This lack a bit of creativity, where I haven't done much other than make the queen drink tea and paster words over her face (green hat). In terms of development I could continue will the whole idea that the queen drinking tea, and its not our cup of tea, but I think that other concepts have more potential (yellow hat). Lastly, this concept lacks in some hats (blue hat).

Concept 3 & 4 

The objective of this series is to show what is and what isn't our cup of tea, where something known for being kiwi is what we want and something known for being British is not what we want (white hat). Again, the fact that I am for flag change needs to be exemplified in the concept more (black hat). This concept draws on the feelings of patriotism and wanting to express our new Zealand-ness/ Kiwiana which will ring true to a lot of New Zealanders which is good (red hat). The concept is creatively constructed through creating the coffee cups out of the foods that symbolise the two nations, where it is simple, yet has a lot of meaning (green hat). These two have a lot of potential in the actual concept, where tying in the flag could be easily done too (yellow hat). All the hats are easily conveyed in this concept and I reckon this has the most potential so move on with. 

From this process I have made the decision to move on with concept 3&4, where I will now digitally render, develop and refine. 

Week Three: Style

Following the idea of the Animal farm post, where it shows numerous styles can be used to show one concept, where they can change the context or perspective of the concept, I thought that it would be beneficial to research some types of graphic design styles and how they are useful in design to communicate a certain point or address a certain target audience. This process advanced me in my project by enabling me to see what different styles represent and what effect they have when communicating a point or concept, so therefore I can ensure that I am choosing the correct style for the point/argument/concept that I want to portray in my poster design.

The following list is compiled from the major design movements that make up what most designers know today to be the various styles of design or approaches to design.

Victorian – characterized by symmetrical layouts, heavy ornamentation and decoration. This approach has seen a revival as of late with its heavily ornamented type, and detailed illustrations.

Art Nouveau – best known for its flat, outlined illustrations and hand-drawn typefaces. Often, this style is confused with Art Deco, but there is a clear distinction between the two. Art Nouveau looks hand drawn and lacks the highly geometric shapes that define the Art Deco style.








Early Modern – geometrically based, with a minimalistic approach, this style is dominated by clean type and photos rather than illustrations.

Art Deco – employed aero-dynamic shapes, Egyptian zigzags, motion lines and an airbrushed or grainy look. Think original comic books and old car show posters. This style has, once again, become increasingly popular over the last year or so and will most likely continue to do so. Unlike the Early Modern style, Art Deco highly exercises its use of illustrations and graphic representations of everything from everyday objects to cars and cruise ships.

Late Modern – mostly known for, distorted geometric shapes, and informal layouts. The only aspect of this style that isn’t informal is the type, which was devoid of decoration.

Swiss/International – best recognized for its complete lack of embellishment, this style employs the use of negative space, or areas lacking content, in layouts and could appropriately be labeled as very “clean.”

Contemporary – exemplifies simplicity and structure. Often, with the Contemporary style, visual metaphors and conceptual imagery are used.

Post-Modern – this miss-mash style is best characterized by a tilted axis, collage-like illustrations, overlying figures, and impulsive decoration. This style has been used in varying degrees since its first uses and, if used correctly, can give projects a unique expression.

Digital/Grunge – the most recent step in the design evolutionary process, this style emerged only within the last decade and is easily recognized by its extensive use of distressed textures, unrefined edges, and a seemingly nonsensical approach to layout.

Psychedelic – promoted the use of abstracted curvilinear shapes, clashing colors, and hard-to-read fonts. Rarely used in today’s designs, the trippy posters of the 60s are the most easily recognisable contribution of the Psychedelic style.

Sachplakat –  The term Sachplakat, or Object Poster, was coined in Germany to describe a new type of poster which featured a realistic depiction of the product and little else.

After looking into the major styles above I have come to the decision that the best design styles/ the one's I believe are most effective are Early Modern, Late Modern, Swiss International, Contemporary and Sachplaket.

From here I will then apply some of the styles to my concepts to see what effect they have.

Week Three: Style and Perspectives

During class we were shown this example of the book Animal Farm, where for the same book, with the same story, there were multiple covers that exemplified numerous styles an perspectives. Through this we were able to see how the same idea can be shown in multiple ways. This is what we need to achieve in our final posters, where we need to take concept/argument and discover how can they be used to communicate the same concept in a different context?



In order to generate some strong visuals around this idea of 'not our cup of tea' I've created a small mood board with various pictures to get some inspiration into what symbols and content I could include to make the visual strong and convincing.

From here I then generated some thumbnail sketches for my concept/argument. 

From here i will take these thumbnails and render them digitally. 

Week Three: Typography

Below I have looked at some existing posters that have used typography effectively. This process allowed me to draw some inspiration from them, as I am not sure as to how I will display my text on my poster. 

Notes: The typography used in these two examples shows the type creating the object that it is expressing, where from far away it looks like an object, its not until you are close that you realise it is words, it is at this point that the viewer is intrigued to make out what it says. This is an effective way of incorporating subject matter and type, where the subject matter almost plays a secondary role in this, where normally its the other way around.

Notes: The typography used in this poster can be seen as a use of subversion, where the 'a' has had additional parts added to it to make it look like a teapot, which relates it to the subject matter and content of the poster. This is effective in making the text least boring and static, instead it gives movement and visual interest to it.

Notes: The typography used in this poster is very rhythmic, where it shows movement in link with the subject matter, looking as though it is rippling in the water. This type is effective as it gives emphasis/reference to the subject matter, making it seem strategised rather than just plonked on the page. 

Notes: This typography is placed to look at though it is part of the shadow, where through this, we can say that it is secondary information to the subject matter, which in this case is the iceblock. From this, we look at the iceblock first, and then we read the writing. The perspective and angle add further interest to this too, where the type is angles downward on a angle like a shadow. 

Notes: These two posters create their typography out of the subject matter, where nutella have made it look as though they have spread on the words with nutella, and the other poster had stuck on tape. These are effective ways in using the text as the subject matter, making the typography much more than just words, but rather makes it the subject matter itself. Its through type like this that you can get away with having it larger than the subject matter or even as the complete subject of the poster. I could look into using this type of type in my poster, using tea stain as the letters or something like that.  

Notes: Here is another example of subversion, where the artist has placed a picture in the position and shape of where the letter would normally form, to create more drama and make the viewer look twice to make it out. This is an effective way of showing a metaphor or just getting the viewer to look beyond the letter and rather what the artist is trying to convey by putting this letter and this image together.  Effective use of 'read between the lines' sort of thing, where again the type becomes the focal point of the poster. 

                                                 

Notes:  The use of typography in this poster again becomes the shape of its subject, but also relies on the fact that we can figure out the letters easily enough for them to be half chopped off. This can be seen as effectively utilising the fact that the viewer can easily distinguish the letters of the alphabet, so if you were to chop half of the letter off for the sake of interesting design, it would not hinder the way the word is read. Sometimes we forget that humans have this ability to recognise things that have been altered, so this poster is an effective example of adapting letters/words to create more interest to them without making them too unreadable. 

Notes: This poster is a good example of mixing it up with type, where we normally are inclined to read right to left, we would expect the type to be on the right side of the cup and be aligned left. However this designer has done it the opposite way, as if to say expect the unexpected. This makes the viewer question the choices much more as look for reasons why they have gone against the norm. It could also just be so that the viewer reads the text first before they see the subject matter. Because from first glance, when you read 'I will drink you under the table' automatically you think of alcohol, so it becomes more humorous when you then see the cup of tea.

Notes: This image shows how once again typography can be incorporated into the subject matter, where instead of placing boring univers text next to the cup, the designer has instead placed it within the foam of the coffee, which is much more visually interesting. 

From here I then looked at one of the idioms I used in my chosen poster concept 'not our cup of tea' where I looked at the exact meaning around it and how it could be said and presented in various ways. 

Not one's cup of tea

1. Not one's choice or preference. (Used to describe an activity you do not enjoy. Can sound somewhat affected.

2. If something is not your cup of tea, you don't like it very much.

In order to change the context, but keep the same idea I have looked at other ways to say the idiom too.

-This is our cup of tea

-Your cup of tea

-My cup of tea

-You're like the regretted sip of milk, that went sour weeks ago

Furthermore, I have researched types of Fonts, where I looked  into what effect they have, what they represent to see what ones would be suitable for my poster design. 

First off is Serif vs Sans Serif 

Where the choice between the two could easily go both ways for the concept that I am conveying because serif conveys quite a British, european, traditional look and the sans-serif conveys a modern take, which can represent a change, new. So in some respect they both work, so it will come down to what is most aesthetically pleasing I believe. 

It may be a matter of what weight I choose to communicate the 'voice' or emotion in my poster.

Below are the groups of fonts that are basic and clear to read, best for a persuasive poster where I want to have the message clearly read, rather than going for a distractive decorative font:

Geometric Sans-Serifs are those faces that are based on strict geometric forms. The individual letter forms of a Geometric Sans often have strokes that are all the same width and frequently evidence a kind of “less is more” minimalism in their design.

Examples of Geometric/Realist/Grotesk Sans: Helvetica, Univers, Futura, Avant Garde, Akzidenz Grotesk, Franklin Gothic, Gotham.

These are Sans faces that are derived from handwriting — as clean and modern as some of them may look, they still retain something inescapably human at their root. Humanist Sans manage to have it both ways: modern yet human, clear yet empathetic.

Examples of Humanist Sans: Gill Sans, Frutiger, Myriad, Optima, Verdana.

Also referred to as ‘Venetian’, these are our oldest typefaces, the result of centuries of incremental development of our calligraphic forms. Old Style faces at their best are classic, traditional and readable.

Examples of Old Style: Jenson, Bembo, Palatino, and — especially — Garamond.

An outgrowth of Enlightenment thinking, Transitional (mid 18th Century) and Modern (late 18th century, not to be confused with mid 20th century modernism) typefaces emerged as type designers experimented with making their letterforms more geometric, sharp and virtuosic than the unassuming faces of the Old Style period. In carving Modernist punches, type designers indulged in a kind of virtuosic demonstration of contrasting thick and thin strokes. At their best, transitional and modern faces seem strong, stylish, dynamic. 

Examples of transitional typefaces: Times New Roman, Baskerville.

Examples of Modern serifs: Bodoni, Didot.

lab Serifs are an outlier in the sense that they convey very specific — and yet often quite contradictory — associations: sometimes the thinker, sometimes the tough guy; sometimes the bully, sometimes the nerd; sometimes the urban sophisticate, sometimes the cowboy. Slab Serifs are hard to generalize about as a group, but their distinctive blocky serifs function something like a pair of horn-rimmed glasses: they add a distinctive wrinkle to anything, but can easily become overly conspicuous in the wrong surroundings. They can convey a sense of authority, in the case of heavy versions like Rockwell, but they can also be quite friendly, as in the recent favourite Archer. 

Examples of Slab Serifs: Clarendon, Rockwell, Courier, Lubalin Graph, Archer.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/12/what-font-should-i-use-five-principles-for-choosing-and-using-typefaces/

I also played around with my own typographic concepts:

From theses concepts that I liked, I then moved into Adobe Illustrator to see if I could create a font that would portray the look of tea.

Week Three: Inspiration Analysis

Below I have looked at existing poster designs, where I have analysed the Fundamental design principles, Rhetoric devices used and the aspects of the poster that I believe I could utilise in my poster design.  

First I looked at poster designs that I were visually successful:

Notes: This poster can be seen as using the rhetoric device of metonymy or a metaphor, where the bottom of the bottle is used to imply whats in the bottle through the way that the tomato stalk is placed on top. In this, the bottle has been substituted to look like a tomato. The fundamental design principles used are Balance, where the main image in centre aligned and the poster itself is very symmetrical in its set out. You could say that there is a bit of scale use in this, where the 'tomato' is much bigger and focalised compared to the body copy, along with this we have perspective too, where from the way that this is set out, we come from a bird's eye view perspective. I like the way that this poster is conveyed, its cleverly done, with its use of imagery, gives a real authenticity to the product by implying that its the real thing in the bottle. 

Notes: This poster can be seen as using the rhetoric device of a metaphor, where the grate in the road is acting as though its a dish rack for dishes. You get a real feel the conditions and the dirty ground, where this is emphasised by the very white dishes. This metaphor then being justified by the tagline underneath 'too many people eat on the streets'. The poster demonstrates fundamental design principles such as contrast, perspective and depth and rhythm. Contrast is used between the white of the plates and the dirty, rusty dark tones of the grate and street, giving emphasis to the metaphor. Perspective and depth is used to create this angle that reiterates a real life situation, where people are generally walking the street and have to look down, or look back at the people on the ground who can't afford to live like those looking down, by using this perspective it makes it more real to the viewer, like they have seen it before, it draws on the emotion, guilt. Lastly, rhythm is used, where there are spaces in the grate left for more plates, so you get a sense that they are just going to keep filling up with plates and the issue will just keep continuing. 
   

Notes: This poster can be seen as using the rhetoric devices of satire and a metaphor, where satire draws attention to both particular and wider issues in society, as in this poster its saying oooh society loves to go on sushi dates and not worry about the world, so the audience who loves sushi looks at it, and then its not until they're closer that they realise that it isn't sushi its rubbish, almost like a shame on you. The metaphor comes into play with this, where the rubbish is making up the sushi to give emphasis on the idea and the tagline 'what goes in the ocean goes in you'. Fundamental design principles used are  scale and proportion and perspective and depth, where the sushi is a focal point, quite large on the poster and the perspective we get is as if we were sitting at a table and about to eat it. These techniques makes it a little more in the gut, because it feels as though that could be you sitting there about to eat that, rather than if we were looking up or looking down at it.  

  

Notes: This poster can be seen as using the rhetoric device of a metaphor, where the teacup is made out of a lime, which automatically tells the user that the they are selling some lime flavoured drink, and then further visual cues, like the mug and the tea string, tell us that it is most likely tea. The fundamental design principles used are balance and colour, where the image is in the center acting as the complete focal point, the colour also emphasises this by giving almost a glow around the cup as if it was holy or angelic, also the background colour is just a shade of the colour used in the lime, which gives even further emphasis to the point that its all about the flavour/product and nothing else. I like the way the artist has used an existing recognisable thing to create the mug, I could use this in my 'not our cup of tea' concept. 

I then looked into series posters, as we are designing two posters for the same concept/argument, I wanted to see how other designers achieve this without putting the same exact concept forward.

                                           
Notes: This series has the same look and feel to it, however the way in which they have set these two posters apart is through colour, subject matter and flavour. The colours used relate to what subject matter is presented, which is effective because straight of the bat the viewer will associate the colour with the flavour. Next the subject matter changes, just slightly, where they aren't completely different subjects, they come from the same family, still have associations. Finally, the flavours that are being promoted are different. Overall, you get the same feeling and you can see that these two posters are the same, but they are still communicating one concept in two ways. If I were to apply this to my brief, I would look at colours used, subject matter and maybe instead of flavour I would instead be communicating two different taglines. 

Notes:  Again this is very much the same, where the background colours are the same, the logo or text is the same and positioned the same, the only thing different in these posters is the subject matter, where we have a pig made out of bacon and a fish made out of salmon. So again, we see easily that these two go together as a series, but they are communicating two different flavours.  

Notes: These two posters use different colours, there taglines are positioned in different areas and the subject matter is different, however you still see that they match, and come from a series.  This is because they have a common denominator, the pleat texture. This is a effective way of showing how your posters connect without having them look identical. 

This advanced me in my project by enabling me to see numerous different ways to utilise FDAP's and Rhetoric devices to create a visually appealing and persuasive poster.