Studio Brief 2: Design Process

 The measurements of a cassette sleeve

 A rough idea of the lay out


  To create collages for the posters I was designing I used photocopies of the different components found inside a cassette tape. I then cropped each of the different pieces and layered them up. I used photo editing effects on illustrator to help merge the snippets of images together.



My initial design, I took inspiration from the boarded on the back to the future poster this is why a black frame is used.
I like the use of futura as I think it works well to make this poster look more modern. There is no other reference to the film other than the boarder from the poster therefore I need to work on this. This could perhaps be something that is on the stickers rather than the actual poster. However I will try work on a way to incorporate it into this design.

 
Having the list of songs from the sound track on top of this collage didn't work therefore I will print in on the back instead so that I don't have to ruin the design on the front.

 The back is a repetition of the front however the bottom rectangle of collage has a white wash over it so that the text displaying the sound track is easier to see. I chose not to repeat the event time and information and instead just left a black rectangle. However the film title is again repeated twice.

 I then made a little icon to layer over the collage which references the typography of the film title in the original poster. I reduced the opacity to make it blend in however I don't like this and will make it darker.


 Here I increased the size of the central title, I think because of it's location it is hard to fit in on just one half of the folded piece. Therefore I decided to do it this way so that the title could be folded in half and is then revealed when unfolded. I also darkened the icon yet I still don't like how dark it is and the fact it doesn't integrate well into my design.
 Here I have integrated the icon more into the design and I am happy with how it looks. The lay out I have used made all the text sit to the left of each page, however I am considering scrapping this rule with the central title as it looks silly. It is not to the left enough in order to make a statement therefore may look better central.

  I decided to play around a bit and display the text across the whole design however I do not like this idea.

 The final front and back designs

Study Task 04: mono printing

I used my mono print induction as a method of generating some quick designs and ideas relation to my object. As I was unsure about the 3 prototypes I wished to make for my crit I thought I would create something abstract and versatile to use for either packaging, a zine cover or even a booklet. Here are some of my most successful pieces, the shapes are rough drawings of a cassette tape's components.

Studio Brief 2: Choosing a typeface

As I am designing a film poster I want a typeface that is neutral. I did some research into popular typefaces used for film posters and condensed fonts come across as more popular. I didn't have any of the suggested typefaces bellow on my laptop therefore I decided to chose a different one but one that was condensed.


I chose to look back at the research I had done previously into Vignelli's 6 typefaces.

Garamond

• 1530
•  French renaissance punch cutter Claude Garamond
•  Features large counters in a and e
•  Often associated with elegance and readability 
• Suitable for a range of jobs.

Bodoni

• 1790 
• geometric appearance contrasts between thick and thin stokes
• used for displays, headlines and logos.
• romantic typeface
• vertical stress
• slight serif bracketing
• cupped top serifs on b,h,l, not parallel to baseline in some versions
• top & bottom serifs on C
• vertical tail of Q
• small upper bowl of g
• usually no middle serif on w
• large ball terminal of c

Century

• 1896 
• specifically designed to print century magazine
• extremely readable typeface 
• each letter form exaggerates the characteristics of each letter to make them look as different as possible therefore making it easier and quicker to read.

 Futura

• 1927
•  Paul Renner.
• All strokes made in a single line
• geometric
•  basic
• no ornamentation
• the ‘O’ is a perfect circle 
• the ‘j’ has no curve. 

Times

• 1932
•  created for the times newspaper
• used ‘monotype plantin 113’ as a basis 
• used for a classic yet practical look 
• combines legibility with economy
• used regularly in books and newspapers
• not very suitable for on screen use.

Helvetica

• Late 1950’s
•  the most neutral typeface based on ‘Akzidenz Grotesk’ typeface
•  large x height
•  large counters in ‘O, Q and C’ 
• oval double storied ‘a’
• counter in a is teardrop shape 

I decided to choose futura as it is condensed, geometric and has no ornamentation so is pretty straight to the point. 

Studio Brief 2: 3 ideas/ crit

 1. Creating new packaging for cassette tapes which has a how to care for guide so that users can help prolong the life of their cassette tapes.







2. Redesigning movie posters that cassette tapes have featured in using prints/ photocopies of cassette tape components as the backgrounds/ to collage from



3. Creating a book made of acetate, each page has a print of each different component of the cassette therefore when they are all layered together it looks like a full cassette tape. Each page describes what each feature does/ what it is used for.


Crit feedback

> Creating posters yet having them the same size as cassette tape sleeves
> Using the clear empty cassette box
> Featuring the songs from the film's sound track
> Stickers in the cassette tape relating to the existing film posters to reference the stickers you used to get in cassette tapes
> Don't use the same film typography, use an element of it
> using photocopies over prints
> using thick white card to print on
> Wrapping around the cassette tape then folds out to make poster/ reveal more info
> Shown at hide park picture house
> Clear cassette tape
> series of 3
> something that uniforms then all

Study Task 04: Counter compositional

Using the cassette tape to dispense wool rather than the tape



Using it as a dog toy

Study Task 04: Exploring object typographically

Here I created as many letters of the alphabet that I could using components of a cassette tape.

Study Task 04: Photos

The 50 photos I took using the reel in side the cassette tape as my view finder and only taking photos through this. Here are my 5 favourites:

Studio Brief 01: Final outcome and evaluation

Listening to feedback and using the monopoly colours as well as the arrow as a background image.

 I then did a mock up to see how my brown cards would look on top of this as well as the verbal direction 'go directly to lands lane'. I wanted to use verbal commands like this as they remind me of the 'go directly to jail' cards in the monopoly game. I used the typeface copperplate gothic as after doing some research i discovered that this was the typeface used on monopoly title deeds therefore relates.
     

I do not like the combination of the brown paper on top of the mint green and red therefore decided to scrap this idea and use white/ off white paper instead.


Here is a mock up of how that would look. I think it looks a lot more like monopoly cards and relates more to the aesthetic of monopoly without being to cliche and tacky.


I then created a mock up of how to pictogram for this place would look. I understand my pictograms are very abstract in comparison to the general look of monopoly but I think it helps make the work my own as well as relating more directly to the place. As all of these arrows will be displayed in historic places it makes sense to use pictograms that don't look too modern.



I then added blue squares like you would see on the monopoly board as well as the title deeds. However I think these will look better on the reverse of the card rather than this side as they need to be in association with a place name to make them look more authentic.



Here is one of the board in context, it would be placed on the side of this building



Evaluation

Overall I am happy with the outcome from this project, if I had more time then there are a lot of adjustments I would make but overall I am pleased. My wayfinding system is mainly objective as it follows the rules of structure and layout associated with a traditional monopoly board, the colours and typeface was already chosen for me. My pictograms on the other hand juxtapose this and are much more subjective. They are designed by me and influenced by my feelings towards the certain places, they are representations of specific places through collage. The pictograms are very abstract and difficult to read however I think this contradicts nicely to the simple, universal design of monopoly. I wanted to contradict the things I had read and work I had looked at such as Otl Aicher’s pictograms for the Munich Olympics. I wanted to disregard a conventional grid and create something much more expressive. As much as I like this idea I don’t think the two clashing aesthetics work well together, at least not as well as I had hoped. If I had more time I would refine the pictograms and make them more readable and recognisable. Despite this I did use some of my research to influence the designs of my pictograms such as Hoffman’s idea on shape and the way in which the line works as the connecting link. This influenced my collages a lot as not only does it work as a connecting link in each of the individual collages it also helps to link the series as a whole. Frutiger’s ideas on the circle also stuck with me and subconsciously influenced my design, a lot of circles are used in my collages. 

In terms of colour I think the decision to go with the traditional monopoly colours was wise as they work well together and make the whole wayfinding system recognisable as monopoly related. I am grateful for the criticism I received in my crit when my designs were made from using brown paper as I think this diverted away too much from the monopoly idea and hearing my peers disagree with me made me realise that the monopoly theme needed to be more of a focus. As for the interactivity of the system I think this has worked as well as I had planned, the wayfinding system is fun and hands on yet is still functional. 

In relation to materials I wish I had been more adventurous, it would’ve been nice to construct my own peg board like the ones used by Pentagram for LCC and somehow worked my design around this. However in terms of time scale and limited resources I think my outcome is successful and I am happy with it. 

Studio Brief 01: Final Crit

The physical mock up of my design,
each card has a print of part of the pictogram on it. The cards are removable and are therefore collectable by the 'player' / person following the route. After doing research into the original printing of monopoly I decided to make the cards look as much like the originals first printed in 1936 as possible. I chose to use brown paper as I though this would pay homage to the history of it. I also chose to hand print the lettering on it with a stamp kit I had as I thought this would also respect the history of the game and relate well to it.  Here is an image I found of one of the original monopoly title deed cards. I wanted to use this similar style to create my own title deed cards for people to collect containing a historical fact about the specific place.



Here is the card I created, each different place will have a different colour like a monopoly board does.


Bellow you can see the cards in context and what they look like whilst being pulled off.

THE CRIT

The feedback I got from the crit was, that it needed to be seen in context in order to understand it. Possibly using the symbol as a way to direct people.

Rather than having the arrow on the actual place/ building. Using it in-between places in order to direct people. 

Using the monopoly arrow some how. Possibly printing it on the card in the background rather than using the shape as it is too narrow to play around with. 

Split the shape, have one as a directional sign containing cards with clues/ directions to the next place where as the other half of the shape has the historical fact about the place you are at. 

Reference monopoly more. Using the boarded on the cards, the colours, the type face. Possibly using blocks of colours amongst the collage.