Evaluation of Personal Project

HERE IS MY EVALUATION FOR THE PERSONAL PROJECT.

Our brief had to link in with our previous project of the CD project. I decided to link it to music. I had three main ideas that I possibly wanted to create for the personal project, these were a range of typography posters, a collection of tour merchandise or a few illustrational posters relating to music. I really liked the concept of the three ideas because they all linked in with the previous project. This was because I made a packaging for a CD, I used illustrations in the booklet and I also used typography in the logo design. 

The journey that I took during this project has been from making a decision of which idea I should go for. I finally made a decision and I chose to create a range of typography song lyrics posters that were relating to the theme of love, hate and heartbreak. The reason why I chose this theme was because everyone has listened to a song that has meaningful lyrics. The research that I looked into was many different typography designers. One being Mico Toledo, who works with song lyrics and typography. He also uses illustrations to resemble the song lyrics he is trying to portray. So I chose six song lyrics that I thought they could work really well on a poster design. After choosing the songs, I tried to work with make techniques, handmade and digitally to see what was my best strengths. I found that my best strength was woking with handmade type. I worked with different experiments and finally came across a poster design working with watercolour paint.

The inspiration for my final outcome was this poster using watercolour paints. The reason why I liked this was because of the effect that the colours merged together giving the paper and words a textured feel. I really like the this design, because I feel I can benefit the song lyrics. I think this because of the way that the theme is love, hate, heartbreak using watercolour paints it can almost look like someone has been crying on the page. The colours I want to use will hopefully work well with the lyrics that I have chosen.

I am really happy with my final outcome of six posters. I feel that i have worked really hard on this project and really have developed on my technical skills. I am glad that I chose to work with typography because I will thats were I am strongest, in experiments and skills. Also the songs that I picked out to make them into a poster work well with the watercolour effect.    

If I could improve on anything on my final outcome it would be to maybe make the posters slightly bigger so I could work more within them. For example having more space to work within the text giving the paint to merge more together more easily. Also maybe expanding my ideas by making a t-shirt or a bag to go with the posters. 

Overall I really enjoyed the project because it was something that I chose to do and I felt more confident in creating more than one thing. In this project I think that I have taken my time to develop ideas, from the font I would use to the final technique that I would carry out on to the posters. I also developed skills within experiments that I made from digital to handmade. Hopefully I will be able to use these techniques or experiments in the exam project.

Final Outcome

Below are the six poster that I have created from tracings, to watercolours to a slight editing of the page and colour. Even though I have altered the colours from the original you can still see the effect of the watercolour and brush strokes on the page. The reason why I changed the colours on photoshop was because i though that I would look better if half of the poster had the same scheme. So you have 3 with pinks and oranges and the other 3 you have blues and greens. I think these colour combinations work really we together with in all the posters, because you can actually distinguish all of them between the colours and the font I have used. Once I was happy with the editing stages, I printed them out on to A3 cartridge paper to get a better finish. Hopefully all my poster will catch peoples attention when they look at them. 2      

Progress of poster

Here is the progress of how I create my final outcomes of posters. I firstly started of with making tracings of the text I though worked well with the lyrics. Then using water colour paints I painted onto the outline of the font onto water colour paper so it would work better. After choosing the colours that would suit the lyrics, I scanned the watercolour prints into photoshop and played around with the contrast of the colours. Hopefully with a lot more editing I will be able to get the right outcome that I want to achieve.     

Final Inspiration...

Here above is my final inspiration, for my final outcome. With this is the design outcome that I want to achieve, will test my technical skills and all push me further in experimental skills. The reason why I like this watercolour effect in the letters because it gives a lot more definition and instantly becomes more eye-catching. I want to use this effect in all of my six posters, but using a variety of typefaces and colours, to hopefully get a good result. If I have enough time during the exam I want to hopefully create something else that will involve the songs that I have chosen. 

Poster Analysis

Here are three poster designs that have really caught my eye. I am going top discuss what I think is the best design and what is the worst layout.

This first design is very colour orientated, meaning that there are lots of colours one on the page. That is what you first see when you look at it. The typeface that has been used is a little complicated to read in my opinion, because of the words are in white. The typeface is really fancy and has a really unique patter at the top and the bottom that gets be little distracted. The font that has been used as before is fancy, by it also has lots of different shapes that have be evolved into the words to get a more retro look about it. However, I find it hard to read not only because of the font a litre distracting, also because of the grey background that half of the letters are placed upon. As you look further down the page you can notice a little pink box, with the words 'Be Nice' written in it. When I fist looked at this poster I didn't automatically see the pink text box in the middle bottom of the page. All I noticed was the paint smudges in the top left hand corner, going into the white 'Work Hard' text in the middle. I do think this is a good poster layout design but i would like to think that, you would be able to capture all of the poster with one glance rather than having to take double glances as such.

    
This next poster is one of my favourites, not only because the watercolour design is something I am willing to achieve for my final outcome, but its how something so simple as just words and colour can look so pretty on a piece of paper. When I first so this poster, I didn't really think it would appeal to me so much. The way that the phrase is all the same size and typeface, really grabs your attention. The font that has been used is really elegant in the way that the serifs off the end of the letters all curl almost around to each other. The font is almost childlike in the way that it has been written/drawn onto the paper. Now the watercolour effect is really inspiring to see because the artist that has designed this must have taken ages to get this final effect. The water-colour appeals to me quite a lot because of how handmade it looks, and if you make a mistake on the page, with the paint and water, you can make that apart of you design. With this poster, the way that it has been presented is straightforward; by having the multicoloured phrase centred in the middle of the page, it will be instantly be captured when people are looking at it. 




My final poster analysis is of this very busy advertising poster. Now this design isn't my favourite out of the three but it does have its positives in my opinion. First of all what I like about this poster is the different typographic fonts there are in one design. All of the fonts are bold and instantly stand out front the page, and by having the colour as well adds a little more to the design. I like the background of the poster, because it looks almost rustic and a little old making a good contrast between the modern typography. However, I do feel that by having a lot of text on the page, gets really distracting to look at. The reason I say this is because when I look at it, I am drawn into the top of the page 'Recorder' and half way down the middle 'Pop Bitch', I think this because of the red that has been introduced into the words. I just feel that all the typographic fonts that are on the page, deserve to be on individual poster showing off them one by one, not on the same design getting over crowded.  

Smudged Watercolour Text Effect

As for more experimental work I found a guide of how to create a smudged watercolour effect in photoshop. Instead of the artists song lyrics I decided to make the effect for the artists names. The effect almost looks childlike as it as it appears to be painted words. I do like the outcome, because I have added a crumpled paper effect to the back so you get the texture of both the watercolour effect and the crumpled paper. This isn't one of my favourite outcomes that I have created but it shows a development of my ideas and the direction I want my final outcome to look and feel like.  

Digital Watercolour Experiments.

As I have previously shown, I have made digital watercolour text on Adobe Photoshop with again my chosen lyrics. After following a tutorial step by step, I ending up with these six designs. Out of the six lyrics I picked three different typefaces to see which lyrics suit the the font. Also the colours that I chose for each design I think suits really well to the song.

For the first chosen design using the watercolour technique was Coldplay's song 'Fix You' is a mixture of pastel and more vibrant colours. I think the colours really mis well with each other and the text is very fancy and fits the letters.

The next design I decided to use was Alicia Key's 'Fallin', with a different font and a more natural colour scheme. The lyrics are quite meaningful and I think that the watercolour effect suits them perfectly. Also the rainbow of colours doesn't distract you from the words.

Then after that design I went back to the the first typeface I used because I felt that I would suit the lyrics of The Goo Goo Dolls 'Iris'. The colours that I used were a mixture of dark greens, pinks and blues. In my opinion the colours mix well together to get the perfect balance across the song lyrics, and you can still easily read them.

This is probably my best design out of the six, because it is one of my favourite. This song 'Warzone' by The Wanted, works well with the text that I have used. This is because the song is a bout heartbreak and I feel that the font that I picked has a boldness about it and and gets the lyrics across. The colours that I have used are a mixture of pinks turing purple then to red, to get the effect of hearing/seeing something heartbreaking. You can also see where the colours have merged together to get the perfect digital watercolour. 

Lawson's 'Waterfall' suits the effect that I'm trying to portray, and also works with the colours and typeface. The colours that I picked were different shades of blue to represent the water. The type that I used is really dominate and stands out alone without even adding the watercolour effect to it. I think that the colour and text work well together.

For the final watercolour design was the song 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' by Taylor Swift. The colours that I used were red/orange/yellow to represent the anger of the lyrics. The font I used was also a major factor of putting the song lyrics and the text together.

All in all I really like this design effect, it works really well on screen with the effect and is quite different to anything that I have done before. Even though it did take me longer than I it would, it has worked out really well with all of the lyrics and the watercolour effect. It also shows contrast between handmade watercolour and the digitally made.       

Water Colour Backgrounds

Here are 6 designs that I created using water colour paint and different text typefaces that I thought that would suit each individual song and its meaning. 

To firstly explain why I chose to use water colour paint was because of the different effect having two different colours all merge into one. Giving the paper more textured feel, and can see that where the paints have interlinked with each other with the added water as well to give this almost rainbowy effect. i chose six colours for each song lyric. When I was applying the paint and it had then dried, I wanted to and print the lyrics on to the painted paper; but however when I was trying to print onto the paper. The paper was to thick to be printed on. So the other alternative was to scan the water colour paper into the computer where I then placed across the text of my chosen lyrics to achieve what I wanted to be doing in the first place. Even though having the paper scanned in wasn't really my first intention, I still like the effect of the water colour on screen but I do prefer the original because you can see and feel the texture of the paint.

Here are my six final out comes. The six different colours that I used I thought suited the lyrics really well and the texture of the paint is really appealing and stands out, and it works really well with the black or white font that has been placed. Hopefully with some more improvements and adjustments I will be able to create a final outcome similar to this experiment that I feel that has worked quite well.    

Anna Garforth

Anna Garforth is a graphic designer that works with lots of different materials to create unique designs and typography.I like her style as she keeps her design almost the same in each piece but with slight alterations so that are original in the own right. Her style is almost has a curve added to every letters to make it seem more elegant and fancy.
Here are my favourite designs that she has created: 

Firstly the top design 'Wild at Heart' is situated in the middle of a garden with long grass covering some of the letters. This adds to the effect of the typography design. For the text its self, it is very powerful and eye-catching, in the way the letters all have serifs and are wild as such because they seem to be floating away from the other letters. Also as you look at the image the phrase looks 3D in a way that make you take notice a little bit more than usual.

The second image that really appealed to me was this design phrase made out of homemade biscuits. I think this is a genius idea because you can determine the colour brown you what each letter to be. Also I must of taken a lot of time and patience to create that amount of detail without breaking the biscuit dough before baking it. I think that its incredibly clever how such a simple idea of making letters out of biscuits. This is probably my favourite typography design as it explores all different kinds of fonts and shapes within the texts. I would like to try and re-create something like this because it looks really effective and stunning once it has been completed.

The next design is really breathtaking because Anna has actually grown moss and weeds into the letters of the word 'GROW'. I find this technique really unique and quite extraordinary, the way that she has grown the moss into that shape. The way that the letters all linked together in one flowing motion. This design must of taken quite a lot time to create and let it all grow into the exact shape and the same length to get the perfect outcome. Maybe in the future I would like to try and create a similar effect with other words to see what words and letters work well with moss and weeds in the garden. 

The final typography that I really love is this design that is on the orange and yellow post it notes, and have had black pen on them to create a whole phrase that have been split up onto different parts of the post it notes. When you look at the image close up you would be able to look at the different fonts and texts that have the very own unique style and that make you take notice of them more as each individual word rather than a whole poster. 

All in all I really like Anna's designs, and have been really inspired by them because they are not normal to any other typography designers work. Hopefully with more development and more experimentation, I will be able to create designs like this and will become as breathtaking and outstanding as Anna Garforth's.