Handmade Type

My Handmade Typeface

In our Typography Project we were given the task of creating our own Alphabet. This had to be placed into a grid and presented neatly on the page. 

We had to pick something to create this Alphabet with and so I decided on sweet wrappers. I thought that twisted roses wrappers would be the best of ideas due to the unique colour that the wrappers bring to the page and it would be more interesting than the wrapper on a page with a letter cut out of it.

I chose a grey background for the fact that it brings the colour out more and makes it look like they shine more. 

The space could have been used more wisely to prevent the letters bumping in to each other and joining but the alphabet has turned out nicely and can be identified.

Grid Website Layout

 

Web Layout:

Three Grid Column:

Above is a simple three grid column website design I did roughly,  although it is simple it has all the things that would be needed on a website which is a heading/logo/website name, Tabs (Home, Contact Us, About Us, ect...), Imagery and information. For this I decided on making it simple but putting all the tabs in one box, the heading at the top, the information underneath and an image underneath the tabs.

Six Grid Column:

Below are examples of a more sophisticated website design that I did roughly, this included the use of a six grid column which involved text for four of the columns and the images and little text in the two columns. Below is not just a home design but a layout for each of the tabs/button. As this is a design roughly for my website I had the idea of four tabs/buttons (Home, Contact, Gallery and Competition). Each tab has a design of which is different in some way; this is the layout I would like to use but have changes where I would like to add different types of flash imagery going across the page. The picture will not be the same on each page, it will show my favourite images, artists or pieces of work and say what it is on the picture in the corner, if you click on the image it will lead you to another picture which would be my inspiration from that piece or my own version of it. The flash illustration would be something to do with my like and will be different on each page to change to the next. 

 

File Formats ~ Web

HTML ~Hyper Text Markup Language, this is the coding used to display websites and other information displayed in a web browser. It consists of the use angle brackets and slashes to form the code with the information needed also for example:

This is a simple example of a HTML code of which I found on the website seen on the link below:
http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_intro

CSS ~ Cascading Style sheets, this is a style sheet language that is used for the describing of the look and formatting of a document that is written up in a markup language, HTML. This is for things like the font, colour, alignment and size.

This is another simple example which was also found on the same website:

http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_howto.asp

FLA ~ FLA contains source material on the application Flash, this can be used for web for the use of flash design and also the use of creating buttons of which I have an example of from creating my own:

This is the normal timeline.






Whereas the one below is the scene timeline displaying the faces of the button.

SWF ~ Is an adobe flash file format that is used for multimedia, vector graphics and action scripts. This could be containing animations or anything needed to put on a website like activity on the page and buttons.

PHP ~ This is an open source which has the general purpose server, it has side scripting language which was originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages.

MYSQ Database ~ This is the open source relation database management system (RDBMS) of which runs as a server providing multi-user asses to a number of accounts.

FTP ~ File Transfer Protocol is the standard network protocol which is used for transferring files from one host to another over a network.

HTTP ~ Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is an application protocol that is used for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems which is the system of data communication for www.

File Formats

.PSD ~ A PSD is a file format on photoshop, images in photoshop are bitmap. PSD is only for adobe photoshop and keeps all the layers in tact so that when you reopen it everything will be there.

This is an example of the layer pallet in photoshop, when opening up my Borough Market editing photoshop document this comes up in the layers pallet showing the last thing I did to my manipulated item and keeping it in tact for if I then wanted to do more to it.









.JPG-RAW ~ A JPG is a file format for images that can be opened on anything, a windows computer, mac, phones act. It is an image that has been compressed, pushed together to produce a picture, all the layers would have been pushed together without being edited. Whereas RAW is also a compressed file format for images but you can compress it yourself by editing them first without having a jpeg and then editing it in photoshop.

.TIFF ~ A Tiff is an Tagged Image File Format that is used for storing images like JPEG. Gives a higher quality image for when you print.

.PNG ~ A PNG is a Portable Network Graphic that makes the background of a bitmap image transparent.

.GIF ~ A GIF is a Graphics Interchange Format which gives an image transparency so that when going on a page it can overlap a image but not have a white background covering the image up, it is also used for making little animations and used in videos.

.AI ~ A AI is file format in illustrator, images in illustrator are vector if converted. AI keeps the vectors clean and crisp.

.IND ~ A IND is a file format in InDesign which saves all the text and images safely for when you go back on the document but when going back on the format, if having photos on the document you have to change the image quality.

.PDF ~ A PDF is a Portable Document Format which is used to represent documents in an independent manner of application software.

Bitmap ~ A bitmap can not be stretched due to being a pixel image it shows you the pixel grid of which is made up of squares, this means that when making an image bigger to print it the image will pixelate like this :

Vector ~ A vector can be stretched and give a clear and crisp image without the use of pixelation being shown, this means that we can then make the image bigger to print it shown by the image below:

Both these images were zoomed into 1200%

Web Design Research

In our Web Design lesson we have been asked to do some research, this involved us finding a website of which would help us to decide our layout for our website we create.

From looking at the website below I found this Bottle Bell Photography:
http://www.thephotoargus.com/inspiration/40-great-photographer-portfolio-websites-for-inspiration/

Bottle Bell Photography has an amazing professional website of which looks rather spooky to the eye at first. It starts up with some music and a dimming light like a horror. The light has words appear in it like "conceptual", "emotive" and "transcendent" before coming up with the final "BOTTLE BELL PHOTOGRAPHY". If you want to miss this intro it has the option at the bottom of the screen. the colouring is simple with the use of black and a creamy colour between green and yellow (like a brown). The website has a textured flower background (like wallpaper) to make it a sophisticated website.

After the intro, the website goes straight to the gallery where you then click on a image of the four displayed to pick a category of photography you would like to look at. It goes straight to the set of photographs where it then is displayed as a small slideshow with a little information about the selected category at first, this slideshow can also be viewed at full screen of which is helpful as the photos are not particularly big. The name of the photograph is viewed above.

I like this website because it is different from other photography websites with the use of a slideshow and being presented as a film at first making it more interesting to look at. Out of all the websites I looked through this was my favourite as well as another website.

The website is seen on the link below:
http://www.bottlebellphotography.com/

Typography Dip

Today I got given my task for my Typography project through a lucky dip.

We were to pick a font from the bag, the font we got we would then research into and give our own opinion on them, after all the research is done I will have to create a poster of the good points about the font i had picked in the dip, the font that I got is Eurostile.

We then had to pick 2 more things of which involved a letter and a character although some people would get 2 letters. I was lucky enough to get 2 letters of which are L and P. With this task we need to find something to represent the letter like A is for apple, we need to make a poster like this with something that is not inappropriate but something that is suitable to our age group. We will then illustrate the letter ad character for the poster like for the letter you would have that big in the middle of the page and then something that represents it will be small on the letter.

Tom Lewis~ Manga Artist

Browsing through a facebook page about visiting Japan, I found a post about a London-based Manga Artist called Tom Lewis and when searching his work I found some really beautiful pieces he created. From looking at the two on the left it gave me some inspiration for my Web Design. I could have a little character of myself with a tree coming out and things I like on the branches like in his work and the items on the branches would be my buttons so when clicking on one it will bring up a screen and would include all of the things needed of that button. I think this would be interesting because it will not be boring, there will be movement in the webpage and I could use flash to make wind come across the page and move the buttons side to side as if wind had hit them. Therefore making a very sophisticated, interesting website with the use of movement, creativity and uniqueness as well as having a part of me in the website more.

I love Tom's work because even with the use of Dark Colours, it doesn't look depressing. It has beauty which I haven't seen in many other illustrations, it brings a smile to my face with how beautifully it is done and how much it stands out with the use of colour. The lines are beautifully drawn out showing the concentration and dedication to making a wonderful, sophisticated, unique and gorgeous piece that can touch the heart with one look. Another reason I love it is because of the inspiration of Japan, his pieces bring the beauty of Japan to them with the simple use of the Kimono and the Japanese writing. I love Japan personally which brings more excitement to his piece for me and makes me love them more.

His website is seen on the link below:
http://www.tomlewis.co.uk/

Information about him seen in the link below:
http://www.sabotagetimes.com/reportage/tom-lewis-the-urban-artist-with-talent-to-burn/

Creating a button in Flash

Today I created simple buttons with the use of flash, this is to give me the experience to help me when working up my own website. I can use this simple method to develop up a better looking and complicated button for a professional website.

The first thing I did was create an Action Script 2 document and I drew a square of which I will then turn into my button. I did this by going to modify - Convert symbol. I gave the name Button 1 and then changed the type which is known as the element to Button.

Press cmd L to get the library up which shows the button so that if wanted you can drag this onto the page to have more buttons (helpful for a webpage).

Double click on the button and it comes up with a grid on the button, this is to show that the button is a vector, there is also a blue box around it and a cross in the corner to show you that it is a button. When double clicking on the button you get a new timeline come up which displays the programming of the button/ button settings.

There is 4 states to a button, these are:
 Up - Normal state
Over - Hover state
Down - Hold down state
Hit - Click state

Each state should be different to define the button more. For example the colours would be different for all states BUT the down state and the hit state will be the same colour. To make this happen you need to insert the button onto each state but this is by going to Insert - Timeline - Keyframe

This copies the button onto the next page and then you can change the colour to show it is a different state of the button.

After we finished this we clicked on scene 1 which took us to the original timeline and not the shape programming/ settings. We then saved this as a flash document format (fla) and pressed cmd enter to view the button and test it to see how it works or if it work.

You can add text to the button but to do this you should write it on the page then place it onto the button. Click on the text and copy it, instead of pasting it onto the next state with cmd v instead press shift cmd v. This will then place the text onto the same positioning as on the previous state instead of the middle of the page.

London Trip

On 20th September, I went on a trip to London with college; we went to visit the South Bank side of London of which included the seeing of Borough Market, The Tate Modern, Bankside Gallery, Oxo Tower, the Skatepark and the Hayward Gallery, we then caught glimpse of The London Eye slightly.

Our first stop was Borough Market where we spoke with the Communications Manager, we had a brief meeting with her where she described the target audience and things about the business/ charity that she thought we should know which is not displayed on the website. During this brief meeting, I took notes of which had the information she had spoke about so that this could then help me with my designing process, thought process, my poster in general and my research. After this meeting she took us to the Market and then let us to look around and witness the special feel she had spoke about; this feel being one different to the supermarket by the simple use of speech. I found Borough Market interesting due to the fact that you could speak to the stallholders about their products they are selling and even get to sample their foods, the friendly feel brings the market to life more with the use of a smile it could brighten the day. 

After being at Borough Market we visited The Tate Modern, walking past Shakespeare's Globe on the way. We were to look around the gallery, the gallery was interesting and full of various art and styles. When in The Tate, I brought a few items from the shop of which were a large Tate rubber, drumstick pencils for my brothers, a book full of illustrations and a Tate bag to carry my items in, altogether coming to the price of roughly £30.

After seeing the work in The Tate, we went to another gallery of which was minutes away. This gallery was called Bankside Gallery of which was only a small gallery but had some very interesting pieces in of which could help with this project, this gallery also had some pieces of which was displaying South Bank itself. I found that some of the pieces in the gallery were eye catching and were more noticeable than other with the unique style they used and the use of colours.

When viewing Oxo Tower we went through the building and into another of which has 5 floors of work. The work in which we viewed was mostly to do with culture, showing different styles and cultural views on art. It was very interesting to see the different types of cultural art and to see someone working on a piece when you walked in was also very interesting because you say how he was working and thinking about what he was doing before he did it.

On the way to the skate park we saw this. The people were wearing safety equipment and
were creating templates in which they then had a jet washer machine
and was clearing the words out of the mud with the template.

We went to the skatepark to see a different aspect of art, the fact that we went to galleries and then went to a skatepark full of graffiti shows that although we can walk around a gallery and look at art in styles we might see all the time, we can also go and looks at different types of art like graffiti to get the experience. I personally am not a huge fan on some graffiti but I found that it was rather interesting for the fact that it was very colourful and different from everything we saw in the galleries, the colour was not as bold as the ones you would see in a gallery but due to being again colours like white and black the colours usually seem to come out more, this could also be the fact that the spray paint was not as bold and also that the painting had been there for a while and the paint was wearing off. 

The Hayward Gallery was the last place we went to of which was a Punk exhibition with the title of "Someday all the adults will die" this was not the type of punk I had expected so it was a bit of a disappointment but some of the pieces were very nice. I really liked this Punk Mona Lisa piece.

After we saw the Hayward Gallery we saw a glimpse of The London Eye and then got on the coach to arrive back on time. I really liked this trip and found that this was the best one because i found that the things we saw were a lot more interesting than any of the other trips.

Wates Poster

I was given a brief to create a poster for Wates Construction to promote healthy eating or safety on the site. 

After drawing some thumbnails I decided the good from the bad out of my designs and decided to produce this piece. I thought that to create a Healthy Eating poster it would be suitable to add an Apple to the page but instead of doing just an apple of which would be plain and simple, I decided to then produce the apple with the use of words repeating Eat Healthy the whole way through the apple. I thought the cream background would be suitable as it is a colour of nature and brings the colour of the green out more.
After finishing this I added my "footer" to have the company name on. This piece did not need a heading due to it all being displayed with the imagery and type. 

Web Design

Today I created my first website using TextEdit to write down the basic coding for the website. The code looks very complicated but if you know what each thing means then it should be very simple. 

The image to the side is of the code without the use of styling coding used, this code is very short and simple which would be good if you wanted an extremely boring and simple website. 








To the side is what this code produces without styling, it is simple. boring and poorly set out.





 





The picture to the side is the code we used to add the style to the website. This code is much more longer and looks more complicated by is very simple if you know what everything means and if it is set out nicely with the use of spaces. This adds more depth to the website and makes it more interesting and modern. This is just the basics to how to create a website.

The picture to the side is of the website with the style added, comparing this to the image without style, this website looks much better and more effective.

To create the website we used HTML, this is a web language of which stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. 

Websites that helped me create the website are linked below:

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_doctype.asp

http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_howto.asp

They helped me due to the example codes.

Work Simularities

I found the picture to the left, done by Kelli Murray, on her blog in sketchbook pictures. I have made this blog entry because looking at this piece it reminds me of another piece of art I have seen.

This piece reminds me of Rapunzel in the disney film Tangled. This is because in the film, Rapunzel hides in her hair like in the Kelli Murray image.

The image of Rapunzel is located in the link below:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/ashley_serena/hairhut2.gif

Peace One Day Poster

I have created a poster to promote Peace One Day.
To start off I created a mindmap of which helped me to come up with ideas for thumbnails, the mindmap is about peace which comes in different forms whether it be a flower, object, symbol, colour, quote or location.

I got peer evaluation on my thumbnails by Katie and Nathan in a small group crit in which they selected my best thumbnail idea and gave me notes on it, they said what was good with the idea and what I could add to the idea to make it better. I found this very helpful because it was nice to find out what they thought about my idea and to give me ideas to think about when creating it.

I created this piece in illustrator using the pen tool to go over the image of a lotus flower, I picked a lotus flower because they are a beautiful flower in which represent peace and are themselves peaceful when they float in the water. I changed the brush stroke to marker smooth which gave a ink look making the flower look more beautiful than just line work, I then added a quote said by the founder of the company Peace One Day and thought this would be very suitable to go upon this poster. I added gradient to my text to fit in with the logo as well as using the exact same colours which are located on the logo. When the text was all layed out I then decided to set out the pattern of my flowers of which I would like nearly touching the type or the text going over the flowers. I have used both of these methods located at the top and the bottom of the poster.

Blood On The Dance Floor

Drawing of Dahvie Vanity drawn with HB and 4B pencil. Coloured pencil background.
















Singers of band, Blood On The Dance Floor





Drawing of Jayy Von Monroe, drawn with HB and H pencil.

Inspirational Artists part 3

Kelli Murray is an artist I studied in secondary, she was an Artist in which I based my final piece in Graphics on.

Kelli is an artist born in San Diego, CA in 1984, her work is styled to fit fashion which is because this is something she enjoys and something she can do when designing outfits. Her style is illustrative and cute of which works well to produce pretty and effective fashion pieces.

Kelli is now the head designer of Jedidiah Clothing Company, it is her illustration, design skills and style which produces a fashion line that speaks to the heart of its devoted clientele. Her style displays a distinctive hip and urban feel which has been shown by the imagery showing innocence and hope.

I like Kelli's style because it is a different and fun way to show a fashion clothing line with the use of imagery you would not see anywhere else, the colours are girlie as well as the clothing style which of course shows that the clothing is created and designed for women. The images are unique with a background behind it matching the image perfectly of which I have found is shown in the bottom two images, it shows what inspired her and how she has used the design material to make her own.
The top image shows a model and the drawing next to it, this shows that she designed the outfit and then created it for the clothing line, the model is herself.

Her work can be found on the link below:

http://www.kellimurray.com/

Inspirational Artists part 2

This work was created by  Oliver Winconek,  an artist of which has been working in Kent for the past 5 years since moving there. His work is inspired by his everyday encounters of people and events, his work is a signature of how he sees the World in his perspective.

His work is in a street art type of style if looking at his work you can see the street art influence, the link below has his gallery of work located on it:
http://www.oliver-winconek.co.uk/index.html

His work is created from stencils of which are hand-cut from  original photographs, his painting materials are a combination of spray paint and acrylic paints.


The pictures to the left are paintings of which are of a person called Emily, they show a good use of tone and colour but the fact that the imagery is rather dark could mean that at the time he was feeling depressing or when he saw the photography he felt they were depressed. Emily is looking down and her stare is looking empty which could show she was upset or depressed, although this could have been a pose I believe it was taken as a depressing state by artist Oliver Winconek of which he then thought about and it appear depressing in the painting.

My Progression Goal

My progression goal is to gain a high grade in my Extended National Diploma Level 3 Graphic design course, my main goal is to try gain DDD grading which would help with opportunities in the future and for when I want to go to University after a gap year.

I am planning to have a gap year so I can improve my thought generation as well as my drawing and computer skills for Graphic Design working. I would also like to take this gap year to move to Yorkshire, settle in well and get a job in which would help me to get some savings to go towards University.

The University in which I would like to study at is York College doing a course of which is validated by York St. John University.

The course I would like to study is located in the link below: 

http://www.yorkcollege.ac.uk/courses/description.php?id=243

Inspirational Artists

This work done by Rome-based artist, Silvia Pelissero is truly inspiring with the use of bright colours adding interest and capturing the eye. Her work is beautifully effective and something always interesting to look at.

Her pieces are created with the use of watercolour paint and white fine pen. The idea of the water running the paint down the face is her way of making her work different to every other artist, although the paint running down the page can be classed as messy it works very well with her pieces and makes them look more beautiful and unique. She likes to flick the paint upon her pieces also known as something messy but made beautiful with her creative mind.

She is my favourite artist of which I shall use as an influence in my hand created work. She is a very inspiring woman who lures you in with her beautiful, realistic art.

Her professional DeviantArt is linked below:
http://agnes-cecile.deviantart.com

Her youtube showing her speed painting is linked below:
http://www.youtube.com/user/agnescecile?feature=watch

Her Website is lined below:
http://agnes-cecile.cleanfolio.com/