Penguin Brief

The painting of Erzulie is an interesting strand within the story, forming one of the pivotal points between the two families, and, to my mind, is symbolic of a number of themes within the narrative: the contrast in values, aspirations and cultures. Erzulie is also the voodoo goddess of beauty.

On her death, Carlene leaves the painting of Erzulie to Kiki. This gesture, between characters who have only recently connected via a sense of shared emotional values, is in direct contrast to the Kipps family’s own mercenary appreciation of the painting.

With this in mind, I set out to create a contemporary version of the Erzulie image, substituting ‘dime store’ price labels for flowers, raising questions about what it is that we truly value in life.

‘On Beauty’ is a complex read exploring a number of themes as it unwinds. This design features characters, loosely reminiscent of those in the book, who wear ‘dime store’ or corner-shop labels symbolic of the labels that we take on through life but also alluding to the value that we attach to each other. Zadie Smith appears to test the authenticity of such values just as the figures here contemplate the larger framed labels.

The book also deals with how values are affected by age, gender, status, culture and aspiration. The characters here, therefore, reside on different strata within the design, connecting on some levels but not on others. One character appears within a frame suggestive of a kind of abstract intellectual existence that doesn’t quite connect with real life or emotion.

A conceptually rich book, I wanted the colour scheme to reflect this.


‘On Beauty’ deals with, amongst other issues, how values are affected by age, gender, status, culture and aspiration. Zadie Smith makes reference to trees at different points within the story, comparing those in the fall of New England with those of London. This design takes the tree as a metaphor for the cycles and passage of time. Leaves, items of beauty in themselves, have been replaced with ‘dime store’ price labels, raising questions about how time and experience affect our values. The image suggests that some characters appear to endure this process better than others.

While I'm reasonably pleased with the designs, especially some of the colour combinations, I think that the end results could be better in a number of ways. The layout reveals the extent of my skill and understanding in terms of typography - I would like to develop it to be more dynamic and innovative. The designs are a little lazy in that I believe they rely quite heavily on acquired elements and development on the fly. In my eyes they would benefit from a greater depth of preparatory work, allowing them to become fresher and to demonstrate greater fidelity to the initial design concept.

Magic Brief

Researching the market it became apparent that the vast majority of magic aimed at children, with the exception of thematic bundles, is presented in a formulaic format, with fairly slick packaging. To develop magic's presence in this target area I decided that my design should be a reaction against this very clean approach; I wanted to make magic a bit more funky, appealing to a younger audience.

This was not just a punt in the dark. Working in a school during the project I took the opportunity to do a little bit of market research. I showed a number of existing magic related logos that I had collected from the net, plus images of child-oriented magic products, to a group of sixty 9-11 year olds. A number of patterns emerged: the most popular logo was for a magic suppliers called Magic Geek. A sizeable minority preferred Magic Bunny a stylised and glossy rabbit character with some cute value. A number of children also cited products that projected value for money via claims about the number of tricks or illusions contained.

The popularity of the Magic Geek logo seemed to confirm my hunch that an alternative 'surf-style' approach might work.

The development of the Jack Rabbit character arose from a hybrid of the Jack, found in a deck of cards, plus the rabbit traditionally pulled from the top hat. The line and treatment gives him a sassy irreverent character that I think will appeal to the target audience. The use of carrots and carrot type seemed to follow as a natural development - a kind of visual pun. As a character I think he has a range of applications from t-shirts and merchandise through to animation and motion graphics.

I am quite pleased with the concept but not so content with its application and and the execution. I think that I have spontaneously over-egged some of the graphic elements. I need to consider the application more carefully. Greater appreciation of marketing techniques would certainly assist. In addition to this the production values of the prototype push it too close to being home-spun rather than cool trashy. I need to keep an eye on quality and restraint. Parts of the design draw on ubiquitous design  elements and demonstrate an over-reliance on what I have just discovered in Photoshop rather than thoughtful concept-led design.

The hand-drawn type works quite effectively in the context but I am still working with type on a trial and error basis. I must increase my knowledge and understanding of how type and layout works.

Time is also a issue here. Moving on to the next brief means that opportunities to reflect, revisit and extend have gone begging. In future it would be nice to think that I could take one brief to its logical and satisfying conclusion.

Hero or Heroine

Is it indecision or eclecticism? As soon as I'm given the chance to choose a favourite influential designer, I become wracked with angst and uncertainty. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that in this instance my own success is dependent upon the choice. Also at the back of my mind is the nagging notion that there must be an infinite number of endearing designers out there who I have absolutely no knowledge of. I could spend weeks exploring this idea alone.

Anyway, my shortlist at this moment in time include:

Airside - I love their playful, dream-like, geometric worlds and characters. Bursting with character and charm.

Lemon Jelly - 2003

Insyde - 2006

Jonathan Barnbrook - I admire his political stance against, amongst other issues, corporate globalisation, and the way in which he weaves this into his work. I also like his combined use of image and innovative typography. Some of his work is almost decorative - an area that really interests me.

Forwards, Not Backwards - 2005

North Korea 2.0 - 2004

David Hughes - Dark and edgy characterisations. I am fascinated by his craftsmanship as muc

h as by his witty conceptual abilities. His use of deceptively economic line and sweet spatial arrangements are really appealing. I also like the way in which he introduces quirky hand-drawn type into his compositions.

Sanna Annukka - Her work appeals directly to my interest in decorative design and pastoral sensibilities. Bold, confident patterns that draw upon a long tradition of nordic folk art.

I suppose there are common threads at work here; they all employ drawing in one form or another and each applies a certain decorative quality - even David Hughes with his use of collage.

Eventually I decided to attempt two - David Hughes and Sanna Annukka - partly

 to initiate a challenge but also, I guess, to hedge my bets a little and discover which turned out to be more fruitful.

In so far as David Hughes goes I started with a definite idea regarding what I wanted to achieve. I was keen to draw out his political side whilst at the same time producing a piece that might be mildly offensive to some viewers. On his website, Hughes rather celebrates the fact that some observers have termed his images (or his mind) 'sick' by including their comments alongside the work. it strikes me that this is not a bad attitude to have. It was also important for me to explore the quality of his line - it is by turn fluent, economical, confident and edgy.

I don't know if David Hughes has ever tackled George Bush but he seemed to be a suitable target for the Hughes treatment having influenced global events with what many see as less than intelligent approaches and decision-making.

I had at the back of my mind the Michael Moore film 'Fahrenheit 911' and especially the moment where Bush, seated in front of an audience of elementary school children, is first informed of the attack on the World Trade Centre. It seemed to sum up how completely inept and out of his depth this man is.

Pursuing the George Bush idea, I decided to portray him as Woody from 'Toy Story', a reference to Bush's manufactured cowboy persona, and decided to have him unseated by a 9/11 style airliner attack on his stool. This seemed to harness some of David Hughes' classic irreverence.

I worked for hours trying to capture a Bush likeness allied to the Hughes' style. I tried tracing, observational drawing, distortion etc. etc. Ultimately I discovered that the most successful route to characature was to develop a series of key features for the figure in my mind's eye and then to execute these. Observational drawings and tracings became too life-like and less stylised.

The other key difficulty was the adoption of a style that both mimicked and got inside the mindset of Hughes. His illustrative style is deceptively simple and yet at the same time is terrifically sophisticated in its use of economic line. I experimented hard to try to achieve this fluency of line coupled to its spattered edginess. Dip pen offered the edge but not the fluency - too scratchy. Biro was an alternative choice but didn't quite offer the strength of line at times. This topic is still a bit of an enigma. I'm sure some of the quality comes with practice and experience.

Overall I was reasonably pleased with the outcome. It is a decent attempt at a characature of Bush and offers commentary on the personality. However, to my mind it still does not quite capture the piercing sense of distortion and quirkiness that Hughes uses so adroitly to illuminate his subjects. Nor does it yet include some of his hallmark hand-crafted type. I think it perhaps says more about me than it does about David Hughes.

Setting this to one side I became more interested in pursuing a decorative piece in the vein of Sanna Annukka. I was especially taken by her stylised treatment of nature, particularly birds. One of my favourite Annukka pieces is her cover design for the book 'Cold Mountain'. I therefore decided to combine two emerging themes by producing a poster for the book/film 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' - a favourite from the past.

I developed a Scandinavian style palette and worked on the bird utilising the drawing tools in Illustrator combined with elements from scanned pieces of wallpaper. The Wicked Queen font was a freebie that seemed to compliment the nordic theme. Other elements are vectorised images from the net. The whole is a spontaneous composition with few if any preliminary drawings.

I learnt a terrific amount about slicing and breaking components apart in Illustrator. In my self-tuition I probably picked up some really bad habits but I had great fun. Pleasing myself. Decorative design. I was in my element.

I would really like to develop this style further but it's on to the next project I'm afraid. Alternatively, I feel that it could readily lend itself to a craft oriented line of exploration e.g. paper-cuts or fretted metal work. 

I would dearly love to look over the shoulder of a designer working through a piece like this. I think you would pick up so much in the modelling of the process. You could then begin to truly get inside the head of the designer and not just produce pale pastiche but authentically rooted pieces of design. Without the depth of experience, research and preliminary preparation I believe that I could struggle to produce other pieces that sit comfortably in this style. This piece might rely too heavily on 'found' elements rather than a self-generated sense of style.

Charity Brief

Featured Charity: The Bren Project

The Bren Project is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee working in Cheshire and North Staffordshire.

It strives to offer adults with learning disabilities the opportunity to experience work in a supportive environment where they can develop a range of necessary skills at their own pace. This means that they enjoy the experience, become comfortable and accomplished and feel part of the workforce.
It was formed in the summer of 2005 and named in memory of Brenda Godwin, a leading light and inspiration to many in the world of supported employment. Sadly, Brenda passed away in 2004.

The charity was founded on a need identified by the founders’ contacts within the sector, particularly organizations such as Job Centre Plus, Social Services and Carr Gomm – the charity who supports adults with LD in the field of housing.
Currently the Bren Project has two part-time managerial employees and has just secured sufficient funding to run two initial projects commencing in January 2008. The ‘Your Turn’ project focuses on adults with LD while the ‘Moving On’ project aims to work with school-leavers.

I have been a member of the board of trustees since its inception – an invitation from a friend who happened to be one of the founders. The thinking behind such invitations was to secure a board with as broad a range of backgrounds and eclectic skills as possible.

Funding
The Bren Project is currently funded exclusively via successful bids to charitable trusts and companies. This is the most cost-effective method employed by the majority of charities who do not have large numbers of volunteers to drawn upon. Funding has been secured through the work of an initially volunteer but now part-time employed Funding Manager. It has taken two years to get to the verge of operational status but we feel that, for a charity that has no track record, this is no mean feat.

Image, Identity and Promotion
My greatest ‘hands-on’ role within the organization has been to attend to its design needs: essentially the logo and web site. This role emerged partly via default and partly via my willingness and interest in this area.
The logo attempts to embody the work of the charity through a sense of inclusion. It was chosen by the trustees, from a handful of ideas that I came up with. The colour-way was also selected by the trustees as a group.
When it came to designing the website, I worked from established information that the charity wished to communicate. I built on the blue colour scheme and augmented it with neutral grey. I feel that the overall effect is one of ‘cleanliness’ and ‘success’.
I applied images that complemented the colour scheme and were loosely related to the subject matter of each page. This is a problematic area in that the charity does not as yet have access to images of beneficiaries and their associated work environments. I am sure that as time goes by the site will develop considerably in terms of this element.
The site is relatively straight forward to navigate and feedback has been positive. Once again, I feel sure that its complexity will grow over time. As it stands, it fulfils the needs of the charity and as a first attempt at web design I was quite pleased with it. The project was double-edged; it produced a site for the organization and gave me a chance to learn Dreamweaver a little. The proportions of the various elements of each page are probably a little out, and some might say it’s a bit boxy but I think that the site will evolve as the charity gets into its stride and gains access to images directly related to its work. Some pages need conflating because they don’t carry sufficient information in their own right to make them viable. Others need editing to make them less wordy.
The Bren Project does not have an advertising/promotion budget as such. As a fledgling charity it has just secured sufficient funding to run projects for a year, so it is very much a ‘hand to mouth’ style existence at present. It is projected that ten beneficiaries will participate in each of the two schemes and that those participants have more or less been identified. The charity, therefore, needs to control its expansion; it is not in a position to be able to extend its service beyond the scope of the current projects unless further funding is secured. It also wishes to build up a cast iron track record of success, important to attract future funds, and the trustees believe that this is most likely to be achieved as a small-scale operation in the first instance, where quality of provision can be closely controlled.
Priorities for promotion in the first instance could therefore be:
· Prospective employers – to offer as wide a base of employment opportunities as possible
· Funding – materials to promote the charity, and support funding applications


Initial thoughts about the brief
My involvement with the charity appears to present an ideal opportunity to work on what is tantamount to a live brief. However, it is not without its complications. To pursue it with any sense of reality, it feels like I have to work within the constraints of the needs, resources and aspirations of a small local charity. At the same time I have to set this against the expectations of the course with its desire for students to reach out and innovate in a truly imaginative way, embracing all forms of new media. It feels like I am caught between a rock and a hard thing. Pursuing a dummy brief for a high street, high status charity would, it seems, release me from this quandary. I could truly explore the realms of fantasy.
I have discussed these issues with the charity manager and he accepts and supports this position. One way forward that we have identified is that I work on materials that the charity may not be in a position to use immediately but may be of some use in future.

Moving it on

Having talked to Pauline about these issues and initial ideas, I feel that I have a way forward although I'm still not absolutely convinced about it. I have decided to re-style the rather static logo and to try and incorporate it into a piece that communicates what the charity is about - diversity. At the moment this seems to be the most appropriate channel in that the alternative, a fund-raising campaign, is way off beam for the charity as it stands - it is not a 'cost-effective' method for a small charity. Raising awareness of the charity's message and core being would be closer to the mark. There's always the chance that a powerful campaign of this kind could bring in funding anyway.

The charity already has a presence on the web and I want to heighten this by incorporating an idea that has emerged into a Flash banner that could appear on the charity's own site or any number of supportive sites. I want to strike at how diversity is welcomed and accepted as an enriching element of our lives in so many ways, and yet when it comes to people who are 'different' we do not appear so open. I want people to reflect on the idea and take stock of their own views and actions in this respect.

First attempts at the logo re-design were dismissed by Pauline as too clinical. I kind of agree with her but I am finding it difficult to find a route into using a more playful 'handcrafted' style that squares with the image of the charity. I like the more natural forms that have crept into mood boards but to my mind they seem to evoke environmental organisations. I was pleased that they enabled me to learn a little more about Illustrator in the process.

The Flash animation has progressed quite well and it is certainly something that I could not have achieved nor conceived a year ago. However, I can't help thinking that what I have achieved so far is reasonably comfortable. It seems a little bereft of true inspiration, imagination and the necessary knowledge base to achieve more. I still believe that when you understand how your tools and materials behave it fires your imagination - well it always has for me. It just makes me speculate onto another level - OK, so it does A, now what if I combine that with B. Another form of stimulus. I suppose it draws on our fundamental desire for 'play'.

The Flash banner has a serenity about it that I wanted to capture - largely due to the colour pallete and the timing involved. It has also allowed me to make a link with the natural world. The typography is a little clumsy and less than elegant in places and I still have to reconcile the issues surrounding the logo in order to incorporate it into the finished piece. The type is problematic because of the way in which I have constructed the effects in Flash. The fade-in effects have been set up as movie-clips which mean that they appear as transparent bounding boxes on the stage when placed on the time line. It is then difficult to position them against one another with any kind of finesse. I have realised that it is vitally important to perfect the typography - size, scale, font, position etc. - before beginning to construct the associated effects. Either that or construct all the effects on the time line itself - although this would le

ad to a very complex structure. Some might say that I should circumvent the time it has taken me to deal with such problems by concentrating purely on the design idea and then approaching someone with the appropriate expertise to help me realise it. However, I really enjoy the problem-solving nature of the process and it does lead to deeper personal learning. 'Play' again.

I am still working on the looser more naturalistic identity for the charity and have high hopes for some of the ivy flower heads that I have been working on. Their form seems to symbolise, quite adequately, linked similarities and yet differences - the concept behind the original, but quite formal, logo. If I can combine this idea with an appropriate colour that doesn't resonate too heavily an environmental tone, then it might work.

The project overall has involved a lot of research, and other work, to what seems quite a small end. I wonder to what extent all the research and preliminary activity has influenced the final design. Subconsciously it may have had a huge impact but if someone were to ask me to articulate its contribution and to describe it in terms of a logical sequential process, I would find it very difficult. This concerns me a little and makes me wonder whether I need to find a coherent method of working that is comfortable and more justifiable.

I need to evaluate more closely the reasons for pursuing different lines of enquiry within the design process. I feel that seeking guidance/feedback more regularly within the journey would also sharpen my critical skills.

Summer 2007 Experiments

Playing around with vector style graphics - brushes and masks - Illustrator and Photoshop.

Suffolk coastal images loosely based on reality. Created in Illustrator.

The Love of Books

Found myself really getting into this, probably to the detriment of the Charity and Typography briefs. I think it was the fact that I had a free reign to explore my own ideas. In this instance it meant that I could use my own life experiences to create images. Once I'd started, this appeared to provide quite a rich vein of ideas. I would like to continue but have to give time to the other briefs.

The images displayed here have been scanned into Photoshop and adjusted, mainly using the noise reduction facility. I think this gives them a smoother more 'integrated' appearance.
I found that trying to use spontaneous painting as a starting point didn't really work for me. The results tended to be too crude for my liking. My prefered way of working evolved as one where I would begin to collect component parts of an idea, say photographs, patterned wallpaper, coloured paper etc, and then play around with arrangements until a pleasing one emerged. I found this to be more flexible than a method that began with paint. I would sometimes build the composition around specific and pertinent words or phrases identified and isolated on the page. Some have a loose grid organisation to them.
Painting had its place later in the process.I also discovered the importance of persevering, and the role of layers in this process. Early in the process it was tempting to give up on some of the images but in persevering and applying further layers it became apparent that designs could be turned around and made more successful. They also became more sophisticated as a result of this process.
One particular process that gave pleasing results was the layering of tissue and handmade papers onto which images had been printed. To achieve this I had to find ways in which to pass tissue paper through a printer. Generally, I glued it to a standard piece of A4 paper around the edges and then separated it again after it had passed through the printer.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results here. They have a coherence and consistency of style about them that I like. I would like to develop this to include a wider range of devices and techniques and to create some images that have a greater simplicity to them.

Typography - Extended Practice

Dave certainly knows his stuff and the examples of motion graphics were often stunning and inspiring. But in asking us to play around with similar ideas it felt like the cart was being put before the horse. How could we possibly create anything approaching what we had been shown? We'd not been taught the necessary techniques. We might just as well have been asked to build an H-bomb. Well that's how it felt.
We had the option to fall back on static type but in taking this route it felt like we were falling short.
In creating a typeface I didn't want to just manipulate objects into letter forms - it seemed a little obvious. I wanted to find a more indirect creative solution.
I decided to play around with an old stencil that I had at home. Initially I took some photographs of sunlight passing through them to create letter forms on the window sill. They were quite interesting and fluid but lacked a little in consistency and definition. Passing a pin-art toy through the stencils gave rise to a typeface that I was quite pleased with in terms of the creative process but which appeared to be machine-like and somewhat devoid of emotion/expression. I think I'm more attracted to natural forms. I could of course, if I had time, make my own hand-made letter forms out of clay or some other material and pass them through the same process to achieve a more expressive and unique typeface.However, I believe that this type would work in the right place.
Unfortunately the next task didn't seem to offer it that place - we had to select a poem or quote to incorporate our typeface into. I found this hard. By Dave's own admission we were approaching this task in reverse: the natural order is perhaps to design/generate type that has some sympathy with a text.
While I was searching for a suitably mechanistic phrase that would suit my type, I stumbled upon the Grouch Marx quip about 'Time wounds all heels'. I thought it was quite an amusing play on words and one that generated an image of type being created out of plasters. So the plaster typeface was born out of sympathy with the phrase, as you would expect. I don't find it a particularly startling solution, but by this time I was beginning to lose interest in the task. I think I would have been more inspired by a hand-drawn approach to type creation, besides I wanted to spend more time on the 'Love of Books' brief; a far more satisfying activity for me.
I did manage to resurrect the pin-art typeface in the First Thurday poster task. I think it works quite well here in the context of quite a 'dark' autumnal design. I think that I might have used it more as an opportunity to play around with one of those ubiquitous vector-style silhouette designs. Still, I enjoy trying to figure out how others have achieved particular effects so it satisfied my curiosity in that respect. I'm still of the opinion that it would have been better to have set the brief and then to have developed a typeface on the back of it rather than trying to shoehorn an existing typeface into an incongruous brief. I suppose in the way we tackled it there is a chance that you might come up with a serendipitous solution that you would never have thought of otherwise.