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My first bit of research will begin with the concept of 'Close Encounters', exploring the meaning , the roots and modern day perception.

Where did the idea originate?                                                                                               In UFO'ology a close encounter is an event when a person witnesses an unidentified flying object. This terminology and the system of classification behind it was started by astronomer and UFO researcher J.Allen Hynek, and was first suggested in his 1972 book ' The UFO experience: a Scientific Inquiry'. He introduced the first three kinds of encounters called the Hyneks Scale.

First, Second and Third encounters:                                                                                    The first encounter is basically ' a sighting of one more unidentified objects eg. 'Flying Saucers, Odd Lights and Aerial Objects that are not attributable to human technology.            The Second encounter is an observation of a UFO, and associated physical effects from the UFO including: Heat or radiation, Damage to terrain (crop circles), Frightened Animals, interference with engines or radio reception and human paralysis.                                           The third means contact, fully interacting and experiencing extra terrestrials. 

Crop Circles?

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A reminder of the work that needs to be completed for next week

A2 & AS Graphics - all work needs to be uploaded

- FINISH Brainstorm of exam paper

- COMPLETE Facts & information from research on 4 ideas

- FINISH visualisation of four ideas from the facts (using secondary imagery)

- FINISH Photocopy experiments (layering and repeating)

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As Encounters, Experiences and Meetings

Begin by looking through the exam paper and references suggested to you.

Choose 4 themes /interpretations from the references or ideas of your own and produce research on each one asking questions, seeking out statistics and developing a level of in depth thought for each idea before you narrow your choice down. This is a task for this week and should lead you further into your own primary and secondary research next week.

Think – who,what,why,when, how many?

Response to a new landmark/sculpture. Eg  Angel of the North, The Gerkin, The Shard

Changing landscapes/cityscapes/ changing viewpoints

Political Encounters

Eastern and western encounters separately or together

Artistic movements and philosophies

Sporting encounters on an international scale such as the Olympics

Places we meet or encounter new ideas/ images/scenes

Encounters with nature / science /the visual world

Visual or text based narratives of events

Commemorative first day covers

Contemporary events in your life or on the news

Encounters with strangers/friends/acquaintances

Patterns in life/ nature

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I then decided to further create a less minimalist design, with grunge brushed to accompany the theme and also loud 'dirty' text which also represents some of the key issues in the book which is gambling. I also used subtle checkerboard patterns throughout the image which also represents a 'game'.

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This is my first Saul Bass study book cover, a lot is explained in my previous post. I decided to try a minimal design, with very simply arial text that does not intrude much on the silouhette. The image is also very mysterious, which may be more clear after the book is read.

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Saul bass artist study. Whilst thinking about my Saul Bass artist study I was wondering how i could effectively use the silouhette technique. I first began to think about debt or a gambling problem. How someone could be trapped by this stress and addiction but no one may actually see it, malignant. Firstly i simply photographed myself from the side to create my silouhette,  i also wanted to make appear that there was a volcano on my head that my mind was going to explode and as if i was full of bad hot dangerous lava. I would also wonder how I could represent this huge hold the person was in. I achieved this by simply adding some lines through the subject as if its been captured by the background.

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Saul Bass was a graphic designer and film maker, best known for his motion picture sequences and iconic logo designs in North America. As well as AT&T's bell logo as well as the globe one. Also the continental airlines 'jetstream' logo. He has worked with some of the most prestigious film producers and directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. 

The posters above which he created all share similar designs, the orange background makes them pop out and black silouhettes look more powerful. 

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This is a second artist study, using the same secondary image made brushes and a slightly different lay out, the teal colour I used is less suggestive than plain black and white, and no real emotion is perceived through the colour. Also i slightly changed the lay out, used a different font and also different back ground brushes to add some texture and stop the image being so flat. The initial colour was slightly too bright also, so I added a very slight light grey in the background just to tone it down a little.

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First book cover, artist study of Patrick Thomas. I began by creating a simple 'smiley' outline on adobe illustrator, and then dragging it into Photoshop where i then filled it in with the various brushes i previously made. I then removed the initial outline and added two borders on the top and the bottom which help draw the viewers eyes into the face, and also some different brush effects to make the image more interesting and less flat. I decided to use very simple arial font because I wanted the text to be as minimal as possible, the face is the main focus point and I didn't want any text intruding. Initially i wanted to use black and white so the colour does not interfere with the image and help provoke any emotion about it. However after creating a black and white version it looks very bleak and sinister, not angry or happy but almost twister and dark, giving a very mysterious feel.

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To begin my Patrick Thomas artist study I have decided to create a series of designs using specifically his style of combining and merging different layers to make one, this appropriately links to the word 'Malignant' because you could see someones face, but not actually understand or see how there feeling.

For my first study i decided to take a common smiley face and use it to disguise the real emotion behind the feelings. First  I had to create a series of different brushes to then make the actual piece, these images would have to represent anger and oppression which is very much opposite to happy. I took secondary images from the internet to make these and then hope to take it into the next stage of using primary images. I have decided to create a series of 6 brushes to include in my first study. An 'Atom bomb, Fist, Chinese symbol for Anger, Gun and two words 'SHOUT and 'AAAAA'

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Patrick Thomas is an artist from Liverpool, England. He studied at Saint Martins School of Art and The Royal College of Art in London, before relocating to Barcelona in 1991. In 1997 he founded Studio laVista where divides his time between printing, painting and occasionally making images for the international press. In recent years he has exhibited his work across five continents where it belongs to numerous private and public collections. He was elected a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) in 2005.

In terms of this work, this is the icon age. Given the mass of signs and symbols that bombard our consciousness, we think in iconographic terms. We live and breathe in icons. Patrick Thomas is iconographiste. His graphic art is rooted in popular imagery that is routinely repurposed and recomposed; he transforms the most common visual artefacts into uncommon commentary on society and politics.

Thomas' imagery is recognisable yet surprising, disturbing yet comforting. What does comforting mean in the context of his myriad of guns and skulls? Thomas; prints are beautifully crafted, subtly coloured and smartly conceived. There is comfort in his virtuosity. The images also draw the attention of the viewer and leave a mental "cookie". They are sign posts of the contemporary scene, and milestones in the history of pop culture.

The stencils Thomas use in my opinion are very effective, they are always accurate and have a realistic silouhette. The kits he produces are very interesting, he then uses a selection of stencils to create one piece. The collection of stencils could all represent different things and when combined create a character or other image. Therefore the stencils could represent different emotions or stages in the characters life. I would like to incorporate this with the malignant book cover. Furthermore Thomas limited palette helps with the minimalist theme, simple black silouhettes can create an atmosphere.

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Georgiev, Stefan Kirov  People's Artist (1971). Born 6.VIII.1915, Kalofer. Son of the painter. He studied (1940-1945) mural painting at the Art Academy, under Prof. Dechko Uzunov. Works in all areas of applied arts. Author of many books with covers of folk tales, posters, preserved factory and trademarks Christmas and others. Greetings, advertising pages, deluxe forms and letters, stamps, labels, packaging and more. His work, which draws its ideas and motifs from the folk tradition is characterized by imaginative, relaxed, clear composition, successful relationship between the font and image clean forms, original artistic ideas that completely cover the contents of the work. In color also works clearly show his great professional skill. Since 1945 participated in many exhibitions and biennials in Bulgaria and abroad: Belgrade, Budapest, Berlin, Moscow, Warsaw, Brno, Ljubljana, NY - I World exhibition of the trademark; participate with 23 paintings from all 250 of the world, and more. Provides exhibitions in Sofia, Moscow, Prague, Berlin, Warsaw, Budapest, jubilee exhibition in Sofia (1975). Won multiple competitions for print, posters, trademarks, Lounge, telegrams, shape books.His works enjoy worldwide fame and his name appears in the largest encyclopedias of applied graphics.

Stefan is most well known for his hundreds of logo designs, he creates black logo illustrations which range from many things, they are very striking and effective. They are also minimal and could represent a word or concept. In my own work i hope to use this simple black logo design to create something relating to one of the book cover briefs.

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Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts. As a specific movement in the arts it is identified with developments in post- world war 2 western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960's and early 1970's

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Penguin Books is a publisher found in 1935, it revolutionised publishing in the 1930's through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworth's and other high street stores for a sixpence.The books are colour coded, orange for fiction, blue for biography and green for crime. 

Penguin Books has paid particular attention to the design of its books since recruiting German typographer Jan Tschiold in 1947. The early minimalist designs were modernised by Italian art director Germano Facetti, who joined Penguin in 1961. The new classics were known as "Black Classics" for their black covers, which also featured artwork appropriate to the topic and period of the work. This design was later revised to have pale yellow covers with a black spine, colour-coded with a small mark to indicate language and period (red for English, purple for ancient Latin and Greek, yellow for medieval and continental European, and green for other languages).

In 2002, Penguin announced it was redesigning its entire catalogue. The redesign restored the black cover, adding a white stripe and orange lettering. The text page design was also overhauled to follow a more closely prescribed template, allowing for faster copyediting and typesetting, but reducing the options for individual design variations suggested by a text's structure or historical context (for example, in the choice of text typeface). Prior to 2002, the text page typography of each book in the Classics series had been overseen by a team of in-house designers; this department was closed in 2003 as part of the production costs rationalisation of the Classics list, and any design work is now done by editors and outside suppliers.

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The book design brief is the one I am most interested in, there are multiple choices to choose from including 'Upside Down' 'Topsy-Turvy' 'Malignant' 'Sideways Glance' 'A birds eye view' and 'All that glitters is not gold'. They are all realy interesting and open up a plethora of options. This is how the brief reads:

You can consider a Minimalist approach to your designs. This is not essential in your final book covers but would be a good starting point in your research. Minimalism as an art movement was to simplify artwork and to strip it down to its fundamentals features. This influenced graphic design, with Pelican book covers and the film posters of Saul Bass.

So I will begin this brief by researching into minimalism and also pelican book covers and some of the artists associated.

This is the brief 'Design a series of books, choosing one of the following title

  ‘upside down’ or ‘topsy-turvy

  ‘malignant’

 ‘sideways glance’

 ’A birds eye view’

 ’All that glitters is not gold’

You can consider a Minimalist approach to your designs. This is not essential in your final book covers but would be a good starting point in your research. Minimalism as an art movement was to simplify artwork and to strip it down to its fundamentals features. This influenced graphic design, with Pelican book covers and the film posters of Saul Bass.'