Monday 14 March 2011

FINAL POSTER DESIGN



I decided on this piece as my final design. I just thought that the simplicity of the composition was more striking and to the point then any of the other work I've produced and I liked that the imperfections of the weaved square and the cut out letters are are visible, showing that they are made my human hands, simply with paper and a scalpel.


Saturday 12 March 2011

Final 3 poster designs


Here are my final three choices for my final poster design.



Tree Weave

Developing on the idea of weaving I decided to try to use each square as a pixel to draw an image. To do this I had to draw the image on squared paper and then follow the design with the weaves. And fitting to the brief with the idea of paper, I decided to draw a lovely little tree.

It's tricker than it looks but eventually I ended up with this little gem.
Apart from the fact it looks like a child created this, I still quite like the effect, especially how even though I've only used two different colours and shades, the pleating has given the impression of shadow in particular areas making it look like there is a range of shades used.

Weaving

After deciding not to use the sculpture in my final poster I continued using the coloured paper to work on a simple design I could use instead. The way Jen Stark creates such dynamic mixtures of colours and repeat pattern from such simple shapes gave me the idea to try weaving different coloured strands together.





At first I just decided to start weaving a block together but then I decided it would be nice to focus more on the link between the composition I'm creating and the brief for the poster, so quite simply I decided to create a block of different colours made up from 100 squares for the 100 years of the company.

Paper Sculpture

After completing the sculpture I went about trying to photograph it in a way which could be used as the main image of my poster. I didn't want to add anything to the poster, which is why I designed the piece with all of the necessary information already carved into a section, however it proved very difficult to photograph the sculpture creativly without neglecting the text.

At first I attempted to photograph the piece while it was moving




I really liked how the text doubled up, almost like a shadow but realistically this tecnique was getting me nowhere.

Using the studio space at uni I attempted to photograph again, taking advantage of the lighting and background oppertunities.




I do like these shots but I didn't feel like the text is ever all that clear. I decided to continue trying to photograph it at home.








I do like some of the photos taken but for some reason I didn't really take to any of the photos to use as a poster so I decided to take the project in another direction.


Friday 11 March 2011

PAPER POSTER SCULPTURE

To create a sculpture for my poster design I wanted to develop on from the work I created for my final piece for task one. Using the idea of an ariel, and sphere like sculpture I wanted to create a similar piece but this time including images and information cut into the piece with relevance to GFSmith Paper and their upcoming exhibition. I began looking on the website to identify the different forms of paper they provide and this gave me an idea to incorporate into the design the different ways the paper provided by GFSmith Paper could be used.

Visually I thought the design that looked best were of an envelope, paper crane, postcard, greetings card, paper plane and book. Below you can see the 6 different designs.

(I have no idea why blogger hates me an has turned most of them the wrong way! There are also a million pictures it refused to upload, so the ones below are the only ones that worked. DONT UNDERSTAND)








Initial Poster Experimentation


After looking at Jen Stork's work I was inspired to experiment with coloured paper and simple shapes. I decided I wanted to keep the poster quite simple so as you can see, that's the vibe I was going for. I wanted the design to very obviously just look like cut out paper.





JEN STARK




I'm not normally overly interested in more abstract designs but I definitly enjoy looking at Jen Stark's work, and more than anything wonder how she even goes about creating such exciting and visually complex designs. The use of colour is an obvious attraction and definitly contributes massivly to the effect of each composition. I really like how simple the basis of each piece appears to be but the process of creating the outcome is hard to imagine. After only focusing on plain white paper or card so far I'm interested in purchasing some multicoloured pages to try and add new elements into my designs.

POP UP DESIGNS

100 Years of GFSmith Paper- General Outline

As the second half of the project focuses on creating a poster for GFSmith paper I began to do some initial research into the company I knew nothing about. After reading about the history of the company from family ties and blood lines to the difficulties the company has faced throughout its lifetime and throughout both wars, I definitly feel more interested and intune with the project. Learning that the company has survived even after suffering the fate of two wars and literally loosing everything, as the website puts it the buisness was at one point literally 'flattened', it gives a very strong visual image of flat paper and also the idea of a pop up, the company sinking to the ground and then building itself back up again.

IMAGES OF FINAL PIECE


Here are some photos I took of my final piece using the studio facilities at uni, I really like these four shots in particular. I really enjoyed trying to be creative with the light and adding my colour filters to capture the best shot.




BIRD BALL- creating my final piece

Developing on the work I've created so far I have decided to continue with the idea of ariel and sphere like sculptures. For my final sculpture I wanted to create a design that focuses on cutting into each piece, creating different images into each section. After researching into birds and realising the link between the nature of flying and creating a sculpture that hangs like a mobile I decided to go with the idea and chose a range of different bird silhouettes I would use.






spitting feathers


After looking at birds and deciding it would be nice to include them in my designs somehow I started experimenting with how this could be done. After looking at the photographs from The Natural History display but also at the feather pens inside the shop I decided to focus on the idea of using the feathers, so I started trying to figure out how I could create them out of paper.

First I cut out feather shapes, and cut into them creating the frayed edges, after that I cut appropriate sizes of thin wire and covered them in white paper. I could have done without the wire but I thought it would add a nice element because then I could mould the shape and structure of each feather.



After I had created a few I decided to try and hang them to photograph to see how they would work as an ariel display. I wanted the feathers to look as though they were falling or caught in a gust of wind so I attacthed them at different points and and tried to stagger the angles of each one.

















I'm really happy with how these photos came out, I think the photos where the light is behind the subjects rather than the front look more effective.

I also attempted to take a few photos demonstrating movement, the feathers falling in the wind. I do like the effect, especially how the shadows gave the effect of more feathers than there was, however the images are too blurry to be used.