Studio Brief 1: Live Brief

Evaluation

I wanted to take this brief as an opportunity to challenge myself to diversify/try new things, focused on; simplicity, technology, graphic design and engaging with something I am apathetic towards.

With this brief I have been battling with simplicity. It has been difficult figuring out how to incorporate deliberately trippy optical illusions with simple block shapes and still retain legibility –important element of a poster. I have been using negative/positive space to create simple yet impacting designs, very different from my previous works. The hookworm animal has been admittedly a face-value/re-occurring motif but to fans it would be memorable and make sense (for example more than something hidden in lyrics).

I am not interested in their music at all but I thought it would be good to tackle something I don’t particularly like as this could be the case in a job. Hookworms have an electro-ambient feel to them with lots of digital effects which is why analogue wouldn’t fit the music. Each beat is exactly on time (quantized) through digital production (similar to the optical illusions I created as they had to be exactly in the right place for the illusion to work). This has resulted in developing new skills on Photoshop and Illustrator and experimenting with limited knowledge (using extra shapes and colouring in on Photoshop to cover up mistakes).

Experimentation with graphic design is also new to me. I don’t have a lot of understanding of fonts, just a gut feeling if they work or not. I also feel that these posters are exploring a more design element to illustration opposed to fine art visual communication.

In this project I started off with visual design research rather than written research as previously. This was looking at designs in books to do with optical/graphic illusions rather than lyrics/articles/quotes as a stimulus, perhaps because a poster needs to be engaging to an audience without portraying an inner/specific meaning like appropriate to editorials or my Atwood project.

Previously I have always struggled to begin a project immediately but for the first time I started the same day as briefed. This was important because there was a short turn-around so I got stuck in experimenting before I started roughing. I think that this was possible because I was detached from the subject of the poster, I didn’t have emotional investment (a different type of project).

I am pleased with what I have achieved with these posters. I think that they work well as a set of 3, they have been thoroughly developed and they fit the bands aesthetic whilst still communicating through my visual language - a balance between their identity and putting my stamp on it. I have learnt more about type (what works and doesn’t through experimentation). I have also learnt about positioning and scale of text to balance out an image - the poster is aimed to be at a2 scale and not necessarily legible at a5/a4. I also feel I have had multiple design ideas and have developed 3 finals which have similarities but are different and strong enough in their own rights.