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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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.