dunsworth-graphicdesign1fall2017

[dunsworth-graphicdesign1fall2017]

Project 3 Reflection

This project was a bit of a challenge for me. There was a lot to consider, and the bug I chose was just so cool, I wanted badly to do it justice. When researching the creature, I found that it had a creepy background of folklore about it. That brought on many creepy illustrations and stories of the bug. I saw this as offering me two routes to take the project: ad to the massive pile of creepy acherontia-related art or take a more whimsical approach marking the moth as nothing to fear. Initially, I had wanted to take it the second way, as it is such an interesting insect it seemed to be a good way of highlighting its unique characteristics while downplaying its association with death and dread. This resulted in some cookie-cutter results, for my art leans toward the creepy side anyway. After some failed attempts at creating whimsy, I felt it was time to revert back to my comfort zone and experiment with hand-drawings creepy stuff. BEST DECISION. I decided on a series of images that are representative of each category while remaining related to the bug itself. I then drew these images in my own style with a bit of an encyclopaedic twist on them. I hoped that this style would set an informational tone for the cards. By juxtaposing these realistic sketches with my quick, cartoon-ish one line drawings, I believe I achieved a decent balance between creepy and whimsical. The titles were intended to mirror the sketches while the splashes of watercolor not only represented the quality of fun I wanted to bring to the subject but also the pattern/coloration of the moths wings and body. I had some struggles deciding on where to place the sketches on the fronts and back of the cards, but after hours of messing around with them, I feel that I found a pretty decent balance. The envelope was a challenge for me, as it was to be the first part of the project anyone would see when observing it. It stood to reason that the literal envelope should also envelope the style of its contents. I ended up somewhat accidentally arranging exactly what I wanted. A light exterior with a dark interior. The white recesses in color on the inside were placed there as a means of combating loss of ink at the creases when folded over and over. Honestly, I’m not sure if I would include that if I were to make it again. I may remake the envelope before sophomore review without these white spaces, as they create an unnecessarily blocky appearance.

[dunsworth-graphicdesign1fall2017]

My apologies for the late post. I had completely convinced myself that I had already done this.

Anyway, here is project three in all its physical glory. the cards turned out perfectly, but the lazercutter was slightly misaligned. Honestly, I’m the only person that even notices it, so starting to accept that small flaw. The enclosure method I ended up choosing consists of one large button in place of the skull on the front with a piece of hemp twine hanging from the bottom. That twine wraps around the entire envelope and twists back around the button which is sewn as well as glued to the paper. At first I attempted to sew the twine that makes up the one-line moth to the paper, but I did not have a needle whose eye was big enough to thread the twine without ripping the paper when stitching. I regret trying that now, as there is a whole on the inside. It isn’t VERY noticeable, so I’m not TERRIBLY worried about it. I decided to just glue the twine in place. It worked swimmingly with the exception of an unsightly shine around the figure. Overall, I’m still very happy with  how the project turned out. The cards fit pretty well into the envelope if not a bit snug giving it a solid, stable feel all around.

[dunsworth-graphicdesign1fall2017]

The final part of this assignment was to create a conceptually relevant/continuous envelope to contain the cards. The first image will be the inside of my envelope while the bottom is the outside. When cut and folded, It should work as a portfolio-like design. To keep it closed, I will insert a button-string closure device. The string will hopefully fit well with the fine lines around the edges of the outside. These lines were meant to also embody the style of the titles and sketched images on the fronts of the cards.

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These are my layouts and patterns. Which goes with what is pretty obvious. I set them up to where each card fits together with the watercolor splashes side to side. The backs of the cards coincide with the yellow splash by having the black splash in perfect sequence on the other side. I chose futura std light and bold for my body text while trying to get the text to fit around the images as well as I could.

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This was my initial idea for the front layouts, but I decided that yellow would work better on the front to contrast the text and images.

[dunsworth-graphicdesign1fall2017]

This was my working color palette for project three. The greys and yellows were meant to represent the coloration of the wings, described as bark-like, watercoloresque, as well as reminiscent of monarch wings (submarginal lines on lower wings only). The purple (appears blue in photo but is actually deep purple) was chosen as a nod to the primary hostplant of the species, atropa belladonna--deadly nightshade. Purple also complements yellow perfectly while working well with the grey, so I was a bit reluctant to have decided against going outside black, yellow, and grey.

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To match the sketchy nature of my images, I decided to hand-draw the titles as well in the style of Chronicle Deck. I experimented with Hoefler engraved 2 paired with Hoefler text regular. These are my first drafts of the titles, as I was not quite happy with them.

[dunsworth-graphicdesign1fall2017]

Pictured are the sketches I drew by hand and scanned, initially only for the front layouts before I decided to incorporate them into the back patterns. I chose to make them this style as a way of calling back to the way an encyclopaedia�� may be illustrated. The mechanical, informational feeling to these drawings helped to balance the whimsical one-line drawings quite well.

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These front layouts were right around the middle of my process. They directly influenced my final decision. I really liked my simple hand-drawn digital drawings, but felt they were a bit out of place with their whimsy. This led me to try what I would ultimately go with--a sketchy hand-drawn approach to emphasize the creepiness of the bug.

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The assignment required the class to create 5 5x7 cards with an informational layout on the front paired with a relevant pattern on the back. These are a few of my very first layout design ideas with a couple screenshots showing the processes of how I got some of my shapes.

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These are a few of my earliest pattern ideas for Project three. For this project, we went to a facility called “Insect Adventure” where a knowledgeable entomologist enlightened us on some of the more unknown aspects of the insect world. We were permitted to pass around, hold, and inspect certain bugs before making our choice. My choice was the Death’s Head Hawk Moth (scientific name Acherontia atropos).

[dunsworth-graphicdesign1fall2017]

Given only the text required, I was challenged to create an event flier for a Shakespeare play presented at Stockport Opera House. This exercise was meant to test and extend my ability to implement effective typographic hierarchy using only black and white. I used one type family of varying weights, capitalization, italicization, thicknesses, and sizes. I tried to keep my typographic furniture relatively inconsequential and as only to compartmentalize and accent certain information in order to let the words take up most of the space.

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I created this composition under a challenge to transform a list of tips and tricks for getting in the mood to get ideas into a comprehensive, visually pleasing poster. The list was written by Ellen Lupton. I chose to borrow the format of a notebook filler paper cover sheet. This format seems to me as an instantly recognizable, nostalgic image.

[dunsworth-graphicdesign1fall2017]

These compositions were created by rotating the lowercase letter “k.” I then experimented with complimentary colors and inversions. These color combinations worked the best for accentuating certain aspects of the pattern.

[dunsworth-graphicdesign1fall2017]

These are the few screenshots I remembered to grab while in the swing of it. The colors here are correct, so ignore the ludicrously wrong hues of the previous posts.

[dunsworth-graphicdesign1fall2017]

Project Two Reflection

I really enjoyed looking so closely into the hospital setting. For my literal entire childhood, I had a dream to become a licensed physician. I loved science, learning about the functions of the human body, and helping people heal/understand themselves on an anatomical level. Ultimately, my creative side won out and led me to the path of graphic design. Having this little cross over allowed me to use my prior knowledge and existing interest in the setting as a guide in my research and composition.

From the beginning, I had my ending frame shape. The teardrop works on many levels, as it establishes a recurring shape as well as indicates the concept of location. The color scheme started rough, with bright green and red. These colors were horrible. In your face and overall unsettling. This led me to darken the red to a light burgundy which appealed to me and seemed like a more suitable shade for a hospital. For the second color in my palette I decided to find its exact compliment by inverting the red. The result was a barely greenish blue that I could only describe as “clinical.” After a bit of tweaking to find the right shades (as suggested in critique and with much help from my peers) I had the colors down. Next, I chose a theme to carry across the icons. I decided that the red would make up the part of the body each department specializes in while white would cover the instruments typically used. This was one of my biggest successes in this project in my opinion. A struggle I did face was trying to keep a good balance of each color and a consistent level of detail (most problematic with neurology and microbiology). I scaled them back pretty well, but I’m still not entirely happy with my solution to those issues. Overall, however, I am quite happy with my final results.

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Here is my final set of icons with the color palette to show how messed up they are in the JPEG.