This is my home poster for my Home Home in Manchester. I created a pattern using icons based on my home ie pets, healthy eating, family time etc, and shaped it into a house. I wanted to get across the Manchester accent so I faded the h in home and replaced it with an apostrophe as H’s are often skipped in the accent. I used grey, dullish colours to represent the title of ‘the rainy city’ that Manchester has been nicknamed.
Amazing photographs by Alan Sailer. Hitting various objects with bullets and being able to capture the moment is a great achievement. I love how they are all unpredictable and there’s no way of knowing how it is going to look. The explosions that take place on point of impact are surreal, causing awesome visuals and compositions on the photograph. Such a simple idea that has been taken a long way and turned into a great series.
How it progressed
From the off Mutton Boon had huge expectations, perhaps a tad unrealistic, and we was too focused on the future of what we could do, that we lost a bit of touch with the present and kept swaying off course. However we got it together and wanted to produce visuals from stories of historical fiction and other stories that would be good to visualise. The first story we chose was the Minotaur from Greek mythology, but from the first week of choosing it, We came up a lot of visuals and saw potential to take the story even further and adapt it in many ways, so we chose to stick it to create all of our outcomes from. Firstly, we was being a bit too literal with the interpreting of the story, however the visuals were coming out great and all 3 of us were seeing our styles develop and be pushed as far as we could. We then decided to make the outcomes less literal and play around with feelings and emotions etc. However we thought this was still too literal, and we put our heads together and what spawned was 3 completely ways of interpreting one story, bringing it into the modern world and taking it from there.
I started playing with the idea of animal/human hybrids and thinking up a font and copy/visuals that related to this concept, and started making outcomes, however I thought there was still some pushing of the idea to do. I realised a lot of the things I was doing were quite military related, so I dabbled with this idea. I decided to pair the animal hybrids up into teams based on their abilities as animals, and them named them, gave them an icon and colour each relating to the 4 elements because their main strength each matched one of the elements which was a great revelation for me. I took the idea of being trapped in the Labyrinth with the mintoaur and made a game out of it using the 4 teams, and how they will all be trapped in the Laburinth with the minotaur to battle it out and see who wins. From this I created visuals that could be sold relating to the 4 teams (4 brands within a brand in a way), and I created an interaction with customers relating to the battle in the Labyrinth where they could vote for a team if they like because in doing so and their team wins, they get discount on an item they like, because the winner of the battle, all products relating to them gets a discount on all their items if you voted for them before hand. All the reason to get behind a team if you see a product you like and have a chance of getting it for cheaper. (the team with most votes gets an advantage in the battle, giving it more chance of winning.
A few week ago I was involved in a fictional project that was really a test. It was to see whether technology hinders or aids the creative process. We were given a brief where half of us went about it digitally, and the other had to do it manually without use of technology at all. I was on the manual side. The brief was to design a logo for a fictional vending machine company that had a new concept of texting a vending machine to get a product, and the cost comes out of your phone credit. There is software that allows the connection and interface. From the brief, I thought the main point was the connection and the interaction, so I focused on that area. I wanted to incorporate the idea of connectivity into the logo, and with various different attempts, I chose the one I thought was strongest and took that forward. I ended up with this. The D and the O in the company name (Vendon) provided a means to get the connection concept incorporated, and with it being a different colour, it can work as a standalone icon too if it was in a logo pack.
The latest feedback in the STF project was to make the black parts into lines the same thickness as the outline, and also mess around with typography underneath to see if anything sticks and works well with the icon. I have enjoyed doing this logo, and it has increased my confidence when it comes to designing icons and logos, which I have applied to the NMP.
I wanted to show how each of the 4 teams can become brands within a brand. Each having the same kind of identity in the way the icon is designed and having patterns, yet they are each unique which makes them stand alone too.
I thought it would be easier to post some outcomes in board format, save me the trouble of scouring through my documents to find each image. This is the packaging for the project I have done. I wanted to keep it simple, reminiscent of military boxes because in essence, each team I have created are at war with each other. The logo/icon of each team will be clear plastic on the box so you can see what is inside. The tags each display a message relating to the team in question, and the way it is shown reflects what the message is all about. The stealth one is hard to read and blended, the speed one finished before the end which reflects the message, the strength one overbearing and powerful in the space provided, and the intelligence one takes some figuring out to get the message. The letters in boxes spell out ‘reverse’ so when read backwards, the message makes sense.
This artists work is astounding. From Hydro 74, everything he produces is of the highest quality. His illustration style is great, I think it is the way he shades and adds detail that brings them to life and gives them an edge. I love how busy his work is, keeps you interested and wanting to view the rest of his portfolio. Even his business cards are metal dics, which goes to show his success. If I could ever reach a level anywhere near this work, I would consider it a great achievement.
MWM graphics. This artist does some amazing designs. He focuses on patterns and shapes which I have done a lot in this project. It is good to see how far he has gone with his designs, and how they vary throughout his projects. The colours he uses are almost always vibrant and stand out, making them attractive and appealing to the eye. It is inspirational to see the amount of objects and media his designs go onto, for example surf boards. You don’t see many designers having their work put on surfboards but it goes to show the different kinds of collaborations he does.
Some products based on the qualities of the 4 teams. Terra, the strong team representing strength, I chose a backpack because you carry the weight of it, which requires some form of strength so it is appropriate to that. The hoodie of Acqueous representing stealth, to be concealed and to hide. The trainers representing speed because they allow you to get the most out of your speed, and the hat for intelligence because it covers your head, which the source of all intelligence.
