aldertreedesign-blog

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It’s been a busy few weeks; with me finishing up my first year, moving home for the summer, working etc. But I’ve finally got back into the swing of things with design work, starting with these quotes over photos from a recent holiday to North Wales. Loosely inspired by the graphics from a National Trust for Scotland magazine.

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Seven Steps- How is a Thonet Bentwood Chair made?

Here it is! The (almost) finished ISSUU publication on Thonet’s Bentwood Chair. Yes, we missed out distribution, but the making process is there and clear enough to understand. Go ahead, check it out! Hey while you're at it, take a look at some of the other publications made by my course mates. You never know, you might learn something new today.

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Seven Steps

Development work created for the seven steps project. we had to answer a question using seven steps, ours was ‘How is a Thonet Bentwood Chair made?’ These graphics were created with Adobe Illustrator and showcase some of the steps within the bending process

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The Arrival - Shaun Tan

The one point perspective in this piece follows a curve on one side. This works with the angles of the buildings opposite to draw the eye up to the top of the hill. Tan has added shadows and detail to this piece drawing the eye to different areas on the way up to the vanishing point.

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The Place of Nests- Shaun Tan

Two point perspective has been used to fit the owls and buildings together at different angles. Line and shadows are used to create details as well as the idea of an unseen light source.

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“The lost thing made a small sad noise” - Shaun Tan

This piece uses 3 point perspective from above, with the vanishing points beneath. This works with the piece as it shows off the height, width and depth of the columns. But as if it was from a first person point of view, looking down from above.

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Gallery - MC Escher (1946)

A visible example of one point perspective, this piece seems to disappear into the distance. Escher has taken the time to add perspective to each archway, making the piece 3D throughout. But he has also used tone to create shadows and highlights, adding a small amount realism to the piece

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Belvedere - MC Escher (1958)

An example of two point perspective, this piece contains more details. Shadow is used to highlight areas of changing perspective. Also there is a clear horizon line within the mountain range across the back, where the two points came from.

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Tower of Babel - Mc Escher (1928)

This is a clear example of 3 point perspective, especially with the birds eye view. Escher has used lines and tone down the walls of the building, getting the eye to follow them. This is a simple approach towards perspective, yet it gives off the illusion of 3D on a flat work surface.

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Arthur Melville vs Sergio Mancinelli

Arthur Melville was a Scottish Painter, well known for this watercolours. The first image is King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, painted in 1989. 

Sergio Mancinelli is a Visual Development artist from Italy. The Pier was made completely using digital software.

These pieces are both done in colour, the tones in Melville’s piece are more muted and watery looking compared to Mancinelli. This is due to the media Melville would have had at his disposal at the time. The Pier is brighter, full of vibrant tones and shades, mainly because Mancinelli has a whole digital canvas at his fingertips and he can work with a wider range of colours, letting his imagination go wild. Melville had to work with what he saw at the time, like real places and people,creating a sense of realism in the piece. Although the details are not hyper realistic, you can make out what is supposed to be brick work compared to what is fabric, etc. Mancinelli’s piece, on the other hand, is surreal and you can tell its come from his mind, without a reference to work from.

Both artists have used composition within their art, along with shadows, shape and tone. Mancinelli is very keen about spending time on composition, geometrical structure and lines. Melville does similar things , but has focused on pattern and shape in this piece, you can see it in the architecture. These artists seem to be keen on story telling too, which shows even if these pieces are centuries apart, the values and ideas behind the art remains the same. 

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Carlisle City Centre

For our first project we had to choose a location in Carlisle and create a publication based on it. In pairs, we had to decide what we wanted our location to communicate to readers, ideally something to do with the spirit of the place.

After much discussion on where we should choose, we agreed on the city centre as the subject. I thought this could be a great place to people watch, and look at the different types of people that pass through the city centre each day. After observing people over the course of a few days, I noticed that there was often something specific about the people I was choosing to photograph. Each person seemed to have something that made them stand out. For example; a little old lady with an umbrella that seemed too big for her body, a man in a bright blue coat and a young woman with blue hair wearing a pair of creepers with huge soles. 

Looking at what made these particular people a focal point, made me realise that we tend to focus on people who look different. We pick them out of a crowd because they stand out for one reason or another. It might be because we admire their style, or a brave hair or make up choice we’d never attempted, but had always wanted to. Some people consider doing this to be judgemental, but I think its more a case of respecting the ways that we are all different, showcasing that each individual has their own little quirk. Something that makes them who they are. I think there’s nothing bad about that, I mean the world would be boring if we were all the same.