Week 5 Directed Study - CD Cover Design

Produce a design for a CD cover. It can be for an existing CD from a band you know, or from an unsigned band. The cover must include at least one photograph.
Produce a brief critical evaluation reflecting upon:

1. Your choice of image
2. Your use of type and shape
3. Your use of colour

The band I chose is called Katatonia. Is one of my favourate bands and they are playing doom metal. So an atmospheric image could be the correct choice to use, for this band's album cover. The image I chose is a photograph I took in Liverpool. I really like this picture because its really dark and atmospheric. The logo of Katatonia its there official logo so I couldn't change it. The album title is made by me. It is not an existing title but it is in the same mood as their songs. I didn't use simple fonts. The reason is because the band's logo uses a complex way of typography.


This is the original picture which I took with my camera last November:

Week 5 Directed Study - Communicating with colours

Colour: What is the meaning of each colour around us? What emotions can we feel with a colour in our mind? Did you ever though how a colour can affect your mood? Colour is one of the most important things, we need to have in mind to be a visual designer. So here is my research on colour and what are the meanings for each colour.


RED: Red is the colour of blood, love and fire. This is the reason everyone associate it with war, fear, energy, love, passion and power. It's an emotionally intense colour and it is proven that it can stimulate a faster breathing and a faster heartbeat.


ORANGE: People think is a combination of red and yellow. Yes it is! Red gives you energy and yellow happiness. Orange can give you both. Also represents sunshine, joy, creativity and success. Orange has very high visibility and is very important to know if you are a designer.


YELLOW: Yellow can be described as the colour of the sun, energy, happiness and also is a warming effect.


GREEN: if you would give a colour name to the smell, this could be green. The reason is because green symbolizes nature. It is very calming and refreshing colour to the eye.


BLUE: Blue is the colour of the ocean, water and sky. Also blue can refer to cold, fear or even death. Also blue can show loyalty and is a reason why many uniforms are in shades of blue.


PURPLE: Purple is the colour of royalty, wealth, money, and luxury. And also can be the colour of romance and girlish act. 


Companies that own colour:

1. Ferrari, Vodafone, Red Bull, Coca Cola, KFC
2. Orange, TNT, KTM
3. DHL, Shell, Kodak
4. BP, Animal Planet, Jaguar, Rolex, Starbucks
5. Intel, Ford, IBM, Philips, Facebook
6. Cadbury, AVID

Exercise 1: Write a brief report on how to source images and copyright:


I searched on www.istockphoto.com and on www.imagesource.com to investigate how you can buy different pictures and images that you may want to use them for design proposes. Those two sites differ in the process of how you can buy an image. istockphoto is working with credits. The more the picture's resolution the more the credits. Also there is a difference from photographer to photographer. The rating allows you to earn more credits for your image. On the other side now the imagesource web page has standard prices to buy a photograph. Again the biggest the resolution, more the price. Overall both sites are really good image web pages for source images and its appropriate for any good photographer to post their photographs.


Exercise 2: Locate 2 interesting colour case studies.
Theorise as to why those colour choices were made.
How brands "own" colour.

The Ferrari colour is red. At the moment you hear the word "Ferrari", in your mind comes the colour of red. The reason to that is because they created a very good branding. They choose red colour because it reminds you the words of speed, aggressiveness, and hot. Also as soon as you see their logo, you know is Italian because of the use of green, white and red colour.

TNT has a good branding. The orange colour is suitable to that company because of branding. The use of orange and white gives a nice contrast to the viewer's eye.

I like a lot the use of colour of Harrods company. I think that the colour choice is very clever. The dark green says that is British if you consider other big British companies such us Jaguar and Aston Martin or even the colour of tea, that is very popular in United Kingdom. This colour gives you the feeling of quality and luxury. 

Exercise 3: Locate 2 or more designs that incorporate photography and analyse them:

1.This is a very clever advert for AIDS.  The image add depth to the advert by putting many hands on the woman's body. It gives you the message that you have to use protection because you don't know the past of that person.

2.Another good example of AIDS advert. The scorpion symbolizes the woman, which is having an affair with the man on top. It also gives the message that if you don't use any protection, this woman will give you a painful death. 

3.Very clever advert by the BBC channel. The choice of the photograph the chose makes it event better. The 3D trick they used makes the message even clearer with their slogan. When I first saw this advert, I was really impressed by this result.

4.An advert for Panasonic and a very good one! They promote their new digital camera with the title wide-angle. The choice of the image they used couldn't have been better. 

5.Another good advert from Panasonic! The slogan they have used to the image they used is very clever and professional. "With intelligent face detector" 

References: http://www.smashingtips.com/35-creative-ads-that-makes-you-look-twice
                      http://pinewooddesign.co.uk/2009/04/14/spider-sex-shocking-condom-adverts/

Week 4 Directed Study - Ramble Across Birmingham

The field trip was a ramble across Birmingham City Centre in search of creativity. We were looking for interesting visual design work. Billboards, advertisements, leaflets, posters, graffiti and taking pictures of good and bad examples of visual work.


Here is the link, that I posted some pictures from the field trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariosMI and comment on some others in this group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/mc436outandabout/pool/

Here are some examples and the description of them:


1.This is a modern and a quite good logo and visual design. The part of it I don't like is that is not very clear what is it. On the other hand is making good use of typography.

2.This is a good visual design for an advertisement of a new film. The red writing and the white background make the text clear and visible to read from a distance. Also from the photographic design you can understand that this is an action film because you can see the 2 actors running and behind them a shadow following them.

3.This is a very creative visual design as part of graffiti. You can easily understand that this is made by a professional designer because of the use of colour that is making it clear, the shape of the design that is a "speech bubble" designed on the shape of the specific building.

4.This is an example of a not bad, but not good enough logo..is very simple without any creativity but with good use of colour.








From this field trip I've learned a lot about Birmingham's creative industry, that I had no idea about. We saw many companies that had to do with visual designing or photography studios and many more graffiti studios and paintings. It is a very creative industry with many opportunities to work and be part of it.

Week 3 Directed Study - Business card

Individually, brainstorm a logo and business card design

Create a logo (you can use Illustrator if you wish), and layout a card in InDesign

Remember: business cards are 85mm x 55mm

                                                  

Business Card Brief

for “Bright Ideas Design” again

They are a young, funky company, and would like the business card to reflect that image

This time- both type and shape!

Logo for Bright Ideas: 

For my "Bright Ideas" logo I wanted to be something that contains colour and creativity together. Instead of the letter I, I used a lamp in its place. The reason  to that was, because all people are related from a young age, through cartoons and adverts with a lamp as an idea. When I made the lamp, I wanted the rest of the logo to be simple and bright. I think its a catchy idea and its appropriate to young people, which is the company's goal.

Business Card (Front): 

For my business card I choose a background colour that is attractive to the eye, its funky and playful. Also the orange colour suits to yellow which is the lamp's colour. Furthermore the circles I made is for decorating purpose. The viewer understands that this company is a modern one with bright ideas and bright visions. The reason I used those fonts for my name and my occupation, was because it gives the message that I am professional in my job and they should have trust in me.

Business Card (Back):

The back site of my business card is white because it makes really good contrast to the front of my business card. The structure of it is exactly the same. Only the background colour is different. Also I wrote my contact details on a light lilac colour, which is almost the same as the circle that is closer to my details.

Find 3 interesting logo case studies and analyse them:

This is the logo of Armani's clothes. I not a really big fan of clothing, but I have to admit that this is a very clever logo idea.  
Many people could say that this logo is really simple and anyone could have done it. The only thing that i am sure about is that if you are not a good designer you will never come with this idea into your mind. Logos have to be as simple as they can. In this case the designer chose the most elegant fonts that he could find around. With really thin lines and in contrast to big black lines. Even if you see it in the road for example, it shines and you understand immediately that this is a serious big clothe company. Also black means, is appropriate to old business man or even in general wealthy people that can afford to buy this kind of clothes.

Now I have chosen this opposite clothing line called PRIMARK. Only from the picture you can realise that it sells cheap clothes but with value, and it refers to all working classes. Its logo shows no standards require to buy clothes from our shop. But from the other hand I could say that this logo could be improved. The blue colour of the logo doesn't fit in at all. Furthermore they is space for improvement on the type of font they used.

Third and last logo case study is the UNITE's logo. Unite is one of the biggest companies in United Kingdom for private student accommodations. I cannot really say that this logo is an example of a good one. Yes, the slogan they are using is a clever one. Furthermore I can find anything else good on that logo. First of all the colour reminds me a big financial company, and not something appropriate for students living in. Also the type of fonts the used are inappropriate for this kind of company.They should have used 2 or 3 colours in it with more creativity and also the fonts should be in sons serif which they will show that is a modern company, appropriate for modern student to live in.

Week 3 Workshop 1 - Visualising Words

Building on your design skills in typography, produce a visual response to one of the following words;

Your Words: backward

                        forward

                        motion

                        stretch

                        shrink

                        conversation

                        ideas

                        expand

                        mixed

                        perspective

                        repeat

                        tilt

         Well first of all I came up with a draft idea how my logo will be and I drew it on a piece of paper. I wanted in some way to mix up the letters and at the same time to understand what the word is. In inDesign I used the type tool for each letter separately, so I will be able later on to edit each letter one by one. So I read the word mixed normally. Then I choose what type of font I was going to use. When I decided the font I was going to use, I change the letter M and E to capital letters and with a thicker outside black line. The other three small letter I let them small but bold. The next step I took was to decide how I will mix the letter. So I came with the idea that you can see above. The last step was to edit the shape of my letter individually. So I pressed the “create outlines” button to distort my letters.

          

Week 2 Directed Study - TYPE CASE STUDY

Find an interesting type case study: An advert, a newspaper, a magazine spread, a poster. Make a critical analysis of the use of type in your case study.

·        The design shows a woman’s figure with entitled THE WOMEN. 

·       . Inside the figure it writes different words that can describe a woman.

·        The designer uses Times New Roman as a font.

·        The reason to that is because this type of font is more elegant and is more appropriate for women with style.

·        He makes very good use of typography, because the most common words to describe a woman’s character and life, are in bigger size so the viewer’s eye will go straight to what the designer wants you to see.

·         It is a very good visual design because it’s simple with white background and easy for the viewer to understand what he sees.
      

       Example 2: This is another good example of good use of typography. The designer uses the colours of white and red. Red is the colour of death, blood, war. White is the colour of piece, calm, happiness. He uses sons serif fonts because is a modern visual design. He uses powerful words. Those words he uses mean exactly the opposite. That is making very strong point of the image.

      Other Examples: 

     

    




















     Reference: http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2009/05/very-inspiring-uses-of-typography.html