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Graphic Design Communication Statement

Graphic design communication is a discipline that combines creativity, technology, and visual communication to create designs that convey messages to a target audience. For a student starting in graphic design, it can be an exciting and fulfilling career path, as the field is constantly evolving, and there are always new challenges to overcome. I will explore how important graphic design is to me personally and to the world as a whole.

I have always been interested in visual arts, and graphic design communication provides a perfect outlet for my creativity. Through graphic design, I can express my ideas and thoughts in a way that is both visually appealing and informative. I am excited to learn more about the principles of design, color theory, typography, and how to use various software programs to create digital designs. I believe that graphic design is a versatile skill that can be applied in many fields, from advertising and marketing to web design and publishing.

In addition, graphic design allows me to make a positive impact on the world. I can use my skills to create designs that raise awareness about social issues or promote environmental causes. Through effective communication, I can inspire people to take action and make a difference in their communities. I believe that graphic design is a powerful tool that can help create positive change in the world.

Graphic design plays an essential role in our daily lives, from the logos we see on products to the packaging of the food we eat. It is a key element in advertising and marketing, as it helps to create brand identity and capture the attention of potential customers. Effective graphic design can make a product more appealing, resulting in increased sales and revenue for businesses.

In addition, graphic design is essential in the world of publishing, as it helps to make books, magazines, and newspapers more visually engaging. It can also be used to create infographics and data visualizations, which help to communicate complex information in a clear and concise manner.

Graphic design is also crucial in the digital world, as it is used to create websites, mobile apps, and social media content. A well-designed website or app can make it easier for users to navigate and find the information they need, while engaging social media content can help to build a loyal following and increase brand awareness.

Finally, graphic design can be used to create art and express ideas and emotions in a way that words alone cannot. It can be used to create illustrations, posters, and other forms of visual art that evoke an emotional response in the viewer.

In conclusion, graphic design communication is an essential discipline that combines creativity, technology, and visual communication to create designs that convey messages to a target audience. For me personally, it provides a fulfilling career path that allows me to express my creativity and make a positive impact on the world. Graphic design is important to the world as a whole, as it plays an essential role in advertising and marketing, publishing, digital media, and art. It is a versatile skill that can be applied in many fields and has the power to create positive change.

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Font is a very important part of Graphics and is so deep and complicated that you could write a thesis on the varies typeface that are out there. With the help of lecturers and DaFonts type foundry i was able to workshop what form of type I was going to go with for my GenCon poster. I stylized my poster to have a pixilated 80s aesthetic and i went though all these fonts to see what fits.

This font, Dungeon, seemed a bit too curvy and fancy for a pixilated 80s style I was going for.

Copperplate was a bit too blocky in my opinion and didn't fit my vison for my poster.

I experimented with this font a bit trying to make it look how i wanted as I thought it looked like a marker but found it too rough for my idea

I decided to go for this font as it fit the fantasy vibe I was going for. Ringbearer is the name of the font and I liked the textured pointy nature of it. I used this for my final poster and am quite happy that I found it and used the adobe suite tools to implement it.

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This is the final version of my poster for my graphic design brief. I was striving to go for an 80's pixilated style with muted water colour and a slight earth tone to it. The dragon is synonymous with the convention as many posters have a dragon, so I felt it best suited it. I wanted to be semi minimalist with the creature taking up most of the poster coming in from the left as if flying onto the page. The type is a font used in fantasy, so I thought it would fit best. I had to alter the size to make it eligible. I'm very happy with my progress in graphics and feel this is a good final solution to the brief.

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This Is my sketch book for my poster project in GDC. It was a big help as I conceptually came up with styles to incorporate into the final piece.

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Here is my final concept for my poster design. I'm looking to have a dragon, which is iconic imagery for GenCon being a fantasy vibe convention, and have die coming out of the mouth of the dragon to immulate fire towards the GenCon logo. I want to have the snout of the dragon peeking from the top of the page with only the mouth and nose showing no eyes ears or horns showing as I want to immulate the dragon flying onto the page. I've looked into how posters have a flow to direct attention to info on posters as I think I've nailed what I want people to see in my poster. I'm finalising the idea in Illustrator and Photoshop as I like the tools in there as its user friendly as well as my courses core application we are using. Ill have a version ready for my final week of Graphic Design over the coming days.

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Over easter we were tasked to take some images on famous graphic designer Anthony Burrell website, change it creatively as well as tie it into the word Anthropocene. The word means how humans have an impact on the environment. We as a class did this as a thank you for coming to speak to us about his knowledge of the industry and to give him a copy of all of our work collectively. I got an M which I was very happy with cos there was a lot of room to be creative. I got the idea to make a smoke stack out of the letter as it has straight edges and a building out of the middle. As you can see I went through a few iterations as I had research and feedback and went back to touch it up. I'm happy with how I went about this and am comfortable with a famous graphic designer seeing my work.

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Graphic Design for Gen Con

Gen Con is a popular gaming convention that attracts thousands of visitors each year. As a graphic designer, there are many ways you can create designs that will appeal to Gen Con attendees and help promote the event. As i do my research for this project i have taken to writing down ideas for things that i think are vital for a gaming convention like this one.

Create a dynamic logo: The Gen Con logo is one of the most recognizable features. As a graphic designer, you are tasked with designing a logo that captures the spirit of the event and appeals to gamers. It needs to pop.

Create merchandise designs: Many attendees at Gen Con love to purchase merchandise like tees, hats, and posters as souvenirs of the event. So i cool logo will make people take items with free advertising on them.

Understand the target audience: Gen Con attracts a diverse audience, including hardcore gamers, casual players, families, and people interested in gaming culture. This is a delicate balencing act that i think can be pulled off by being broad enough but using images that span the whole community like dice.

Create a strong visual identity: A strong visual identity is crucial for any event. There is a need to create a logo and a color palette that represents Gen Con's brand and personality.

Use gaming-inspired imagery: Gaming-inspired imagery such as dice, game pieces, and gaming characters can add interest and excitement to your designs.

Overall, there are many opportunities for graphic designers to create designs that will help promote Gen Con and appeal to its attendees. By adding gaming elements and creating visually appealing designs more gamers will feel like their favorite fandom is being represented and therefore will attend the convention. I am happy with my resaerch into GenCon i feel like i have a better understanding leading into my last two weeks to create the final poster.

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Graphic Design So Far

As a student with a passion for graphic design, I have found great joy in creating posters and conducting research for Gen Con. The ability to use typography, color, and imagery to convey a message and capture an audience's attention is exactly i wanted to do for a project. I love exploring different design styles and experimenting with various tools and techniques to create visually striking and aesthetically pleasing posters by using Adobe products.

The research process involved in creating posters for Gen Con allows me to delve deeper into the subject matter and gain a deeper understanding of the topic at hand.

Overall, the combination of creativity, research, and design in graphic design and poster making for Gen Con is a perfect match for my interests and skills. It allows me to express my artistic side while also engaging with meaningful and relevant content.

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Artist Research

Austin Kleon

Yvonne directed me to this book and im glad she did.

Steal Like An Artist" is a well-known essay by Austin Kleon, which emphasizes the importance of being influenced by others in the creative process. The essay, which has since been expanded into a book, has resonated with artists, writers, and other creatives who often struggle with originality.

In an art school setting, the pressure to be original can be immense. Students are often encouraged to create work that is entirely their own, and the fear of being accused of plagiarism can be paralyzing. However, Kleon argues that all creative work is, to some extent, derivative. No artist creates in a vacuum, and all artists are influenced by those who came before them.

In addition to encouraging artists to embrace their influences, Kleon also stresses the importance of sharing their work with others. He encourages artists to be generous with their work, to put it out into the world even if they're not entirely happy with it, and to embrace the feedback they receive. This can be a difficult concept for art school students who are used to being graded and judged, but Kleon suggests that the act of sharing and receiving feedback can be an essential part of the creative process.

"Steal Like An Artist" is a valuable read for anyone in a creative field, whether they're an art school student or an academic lecturer. It offers a fresh perspective on the creative process and encourages artists to be more open to the influences around them. By doing so, they can create work that is both original and informed by the rich history of artistic expression that came before them.

I know for myself that reading this book has been an eye opening experiance as i always held myself to making something throughly unique and not use referance but as my time ta college has shown that you need to "steal" art and make it your own.

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Artist Research

Jon Peterson

This is a book I got for xmas from my SO and it just so happens to be the perfect research for this poster brief. I'm doing GenCon the oldest tabletop convention in the world and this is the telling of how Gary Gygax, a wargaming enthusiast as well as a game maker, as he wanted to get more involved in the scene thus leading to the creation of Dungeons and Dragons.

GenCon was born out of many correspondences to other gamers across the Midwest and rest of the USA. To get the names of up and coming tabletop games mostly revolved around 19th and 20th century and Gygax's works a gathering of nerdy peoples and tabletop shops and companies selling miniature trains, cars, planes and other minis to act as a new way of marketing the small but passionate community of gamers .

Today GenCon has a similar objective but is now a place where announcements for the plethora of popular wargames/tabletop role playing games are unveiled.

Throughout the book are graphics of old newspaper ads, which GenCon would have been advertised as, and I like the tattered black and white with bulky text. I'm taking inspiration from my reading of this book to keep the poster I'm designing faithful to the ideals and vibe of GenCon from the 70s and todays.

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Artist Research

Trevor Girard

This graphic designer is the man behind one of the most recent big splashes in the D&D community with his creation of a logo for the fictional D&D group in Stranger Things the "Hellfire Club".

The show set in a late 80's world right around the time that Dungeons and Dragons was vilified by the mainstream media for indoctrination into occult of American youth. The print on tees of the members depicts a demon or Balor a classic monster in the original books for D&D. Girard explains that his interest in metal music inspired the tee as the fictional person in the show who made the design Eddie Mnson was a metal head also so it's not too big a lead to go from metal to fantasy. Many bands derive from the books and tropes of metal to make lyrics also album covers of the 80s have a fantasy fairytale vibe to them. The weapons, font demon head and dice have a homemade feel to them and that is not a mistake as Girard wanted to make a design that Eddie Munson would have been able to make with limited resources.

As I'm a metal head and also love D&D ill take a page from Girards playbook and flip through my books to get inspiration; not too unlike what I have been doing with my conceptual sketches so far.

The images at the bottom are some more designs I found by the artist on his website where you can see he has a great rasp of what the 80s feels like with thick black outlines, rough lines and muted colors aswell as humour that is "vintage".

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Some more images i found while reseaching for the poster brief. I like the otherwordly font used to depict the abiltys of DnD and the dice design. Looking more into these kind of design is halping me pool together diffrent ideas for what i want to put into my final poster design.

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As i want to incorperate isometric imagrey into the centre of a famous icon from the tabletop community i have been looking at nature shapes through bit and minimal artists. The sharp edges are hard to work with my first few goes at making a scene in Illustrator but with time i have gotten better. It is hard as i want to keep perspective while also putting the scene in a small part of the icon which will be a Dragon or Beholder isometric. With my ongoing sketches the idea is revealing itself to me the more i work on it.

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As reaseach for the graphic design poster brief i have been looking at minamilist posters around dribble, instagram and pintrest. Trying to convey info for a poster while trying to keep to one tone and one image is challenging for a style to follow but i like the idea and combining it with geometric shapes. I have compilled a movie poster, a wall hang poster and a minimalist city poster as my referance for the type of poster design im researching to pull off so maybe it will be my final design. The images below show what i can tell to be well exicuted minimalism with a simple word and outline of a famous object or landmark of an iconic topic. DnD has plenty of images that i can work on in Adobe suite to make a siloutte to coney the GenCon poster well.

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These are more finalised thumbnails where, from my last sketch exercise, I was told to blend ideas together. I tried to blend the geometric art and a dragon head. A character sheet with some promotional text that would be on a poster. Portal idea and work it in Photoshop to look like a convention crowd. And a beholder monster with a dice in its mouth. And finally adice with a axe impeded in it against a woodland lake area. I'm happy with my progress in drawing. I'm finding these exercises are starting to help me land on an idea.

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Here is my final mood board that is to do with the tabletop festival GenCon. I quite enjoyed this process and am very happy with how it turned out. GenCon is a first and foremost a place for creative people to get together and socialise and see other cool things people are passionate about. There is something for people who are into all things tabletop related to Warhammer and roleplaying games to merchandise & collectables to supplies for painting the miniatures for tabletop games. These events can be chaotic and that is seen I'm my mood board so i need to break the mood down more and land on what avenue to go down for my final poster process.