Final Ideas

HERE IS A QUICK INDIVIDUAL PLAN OF WHAT IMAGES TO TAKE AND A SKETCH OF ONE OF THE OBJECTS.

Here is quick mind map of the photos that I might take for some clipping masks. 

Final in-depth analysis

Here is a a book cover design by designer John Gall. This particular design is for a book called 'Sweet Bird of Youth' by Tennessee Williams. The concept of the story is about a Chance Wayne who returns to his home town as the accompaniment of a faded movie star. I believe that the techniques that has been used is clipping masks. Gall has used incorporated photography, to make the clipping mask seem more real.   

I have selected this artists because of how effective the clipping mask technique. I felt that the clipping masks have worked really well with the story of the book, is a really unique concept that really captured my eye when I first saw it. I find this work really inspiring because of how Gall has introduce the shape of a bird into the design. A symbol of a bird represents youth and this fits perfectly with the title. I also like to think you can get two different views when looking at this. For example looking from a distance you can't really see the photograph of the girl that has been embedded in the birds wings, you just see a pattern and a show of the bird. However as you begin to look closer to the design you can see that the creatures pattern on the wings is actually a photograph of a young girl that look sweet and innocent, like as the name of the book suggests.  

This particular design by Gall links very well to one of my initial ideas. I feel that working with a clipping mask technique and pictures, it will create a really simple but an effective look that I think will suit the style I'm thinking of creating for my five Brothers Grimm books. What ideas have you got in response to this work? The ideas that I have got from this particular artist, John Gall, is the how something so simple of a 'silhouette' of a bird and the amount of shape and detail that has gone into making the outline of the bird. Also by having the addition of the photograph introduced into the bird has worked perfectly. And it has really inspired me to be more ambitious with the type of silhouettes that I may use for each of the books. Out of the designers that I have seen John Gall has really inspired me to create a really minimalistic idea that will compensate well with my five books, hopefully I will be able to make and design something as good as Gall's work.
  

Experiments inspired by Initial Designers

Initial Idea 1

Here is my double exposure type experiment inspired by Rowan Stocks-Moore. How I created this image was by using my own photograph of a pair of shoes, tracing the image with a black pen, then scanning it into the computer. After that I then used an image from the internet of 'Cinderella', and used that as the background for the double exposure. Then using the magnetic also tool, I drew around the image of the girl in the shape of the shoes which underneath the tracing of the shoes. I added a blue background to make the exposure seem more dominate on the page. I like this technique a lot because it might seem quite technical to achieve but it is actually really simple to do.  

Initial Idea 2

Above is my next idea, inspired by Lynn Buckley. Her concept of design is combining drawings and photography together. I firstly started off with a photograph of my self that I made slightly bigger to fill an A4 piece of paper. My next step was too trace lightly around half of the face, exploring all of the detail in the picture. After I scanned the traced imaged into the computer, I then used Photoshop to create two layers; the bottom with the original photograph and the top layer with the drawing. I made sure that I placed the drawing directly on top of where the original image was. On the drawing layer I used the paint brush and fill bucket tools to add the right colours to the image. I liked the process of this experiment because it was a step by step guide which was pretty easy to follow. If I had to change anything about this experiment it would be to use different mediums, like paints, pencils, chalk. The reason why this is to get different textures and feels of the image, instead of relying on the digital effect.          

Initial Idea 3

My final experiment that I created in photoshop was inspired by Christian Jackson's minimalist illustrations. Again I used an picture of a pair of shoes that I photographed, and traced around them. I scanned the drawing into Adobe Illustrator, and expanded the image so that the lines would be more neater and cleaner in appearance. For each section of the shoes I added different colours into the area making the image more illustrational like. I added a blue gradient colour into the bows, a grey/silver into the side of the shoes and then a darker grey into the shoes itself. I like this type of experiment because it is really simple and can transform any image you want to create into a great illustrational image.

  

iFontmaker Experiment

Above is my experiments with the iPad and the iFontmaker app. This app is useful to creating your own handmade type. How I achieved this font was by using my finger to create the letters of the alphabet (upper and lower case) on the iPad. I created my font by scratch so that meant not copying a typeface on the app. I really like this technique because you have created it yourself and you don't have to rely on a processed fonts. Also creating your own font can gain you more marks and it can be more personal.