FMP – Developing from feedback and taking everything forward

After a week away from this project I came back at it with fresh eyes and started again to try and come up with ideas, thinking back to previous conversation both David and ian suggested me going to the other ideas I started with, so because of this I went back to plastics and tried to find a way in which I could use plastics and discuss plastics in my project.

I started by going back the some earlier research as well as finding more research on plastic pollution in our oceans and on our coast. Now that I had a series of facts and information I could start to try and find ways that I could use it, this took many hours of playing around in photoshop and illustrator until I finally found something that I was happy with and believed could work. I knew that my type face would still be at the centre of my design and would be celebrated on my design and I knew that I wanted to look at plastic pollution and the effects that it has on our ocean so because of this I thought about showing the effects it has by designing my poster in such a way that I looks damaged and destroyed as this is what plastic is doing to our coasts. Bellow are the poster that i came up with along with the letters also in the same style

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Bellow discusses my posters and the thought behind them:

the biggest influence of the design was the effect plastic has itself, I wanted to show the effects that plastic has on our oceans and coast through the design of in doing this I also wanted to ensure that I didn’t take away from the posters themselves by making the surroundings too distracting. There are various effects and styles that have been used throughout to give off the idea of the posters being worn or damaged to show what viewer what it plastic is going to our coasts and oceans. All the posters have been given an effect to make them look like they are almost bubbling and water damaged as well as have a big tear taken out of them to suggest the destruction that plastic is having on our oceans and coasts.

Under the posters there is a dark image of rough sea that has been made to look likes its wrapped in plastic to help suggest that our oceans are covered in plastic, the image has also been darkened to help suggest that the topic being addressed isnt bright and cheery.

There are several hits of colour throughout the posters, these have been used to highlight key information and help draw the audience’s eye in, the colours have been selected with colours of plastic in mind.

The tear that cuts though the middle of the posters was to again suggest the damage that is being done to our seas and show how severe the effects are.

I feel like the poster are effective as they visual show the effects of plastic while also clearly communicating the problems around plastic pollution as well as this I also believe that the typeface has been really effective of celebrating the British coastline and truly celebrates its beauty.

This project has plenty of potential to be carried on further and used across so many different platforms and contexts, as stated previous these designs could easily be used in magazines, websites, apps. The letterforms also have the ability to be used in many contexts and for many different purposes both decorative and practical.

I believe that the project has been designed well for the audience in mind as it would be aimed at the older more mature audience that have the ability to make these conscious decisions about plastics, the posters don’t really need to be aimed at kids as it is the parents that make the choices with regards to their use of plastics.

Interms of this work in an exhibition the main posters would be size A0 (841mm x1189m) and would be 2 separate layers to allow for the poster to be torn by viewers. The type posters will also be displayed, showing both the letter from and the location, some in A3 and some the same as the posters as anything smaller will take away from the beauty that is our coastline. There will also be the use of the type face as decoration around the space, in varying sizes, some showing the full letter and others not. This will again be done to tie the entire space together, almost linking the work with the coast, much like the coast links the entire uk.

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FMP – Tutorial with David and feedback

Before I knew it I had my next tutorial with David, although i felt like I didn’t have much work it turned out that David actually thought differently, he felt that I had a really strong identity and something that providing I got my head down could easily be used to build and entire project. We discussed possible ideas and the use of my type as more of a display type and looked at how I could carry on the project and the issues that I could address using my type, there were many possibilities, we discussed things such as plastic, corrosion, sea levels and a few other topics. David also gave a few suggestions as go how I could use my type over different images.

Following this feedback I started to look at possible ways in which I could take the project and what I could do, I really struggled with this for a while so decided to take a little break and start looking at some of the other projects I needed to get on with.

FMP – Developing from feedback

I liked the ideas of an animation for my font and already had an idea in my head with how it would look. When it came to names this was something that I could give some thought and see what I could come up with over time as the name wouldn’t be vital to the progression of the project and then the other thing I had to tackle was what I’m actually going to communicate. Bellow you can see the completed typeface as well as the animation that I had come up with to show off the font.

I decided that Id name the font coastline san(d)s obviously because it’s a type made of coastlines and then I’ve played with the word sans and sand . it is far from the most elegant of typefaces but that’s not what its meant to be, it’s a celebration of the beauty that is the British coast, it shows of the diversity of our coasts and how individual each one is.

The animation is simple and clean, it shows how the type have been made up of each coast, I was still uncertain of exactly how ill actually use but it’s a good thing to have and potentially carry forward.

FMP – Looking at the coast and finding my letters

I immediately started looking at the British coast trying to work out how I was going to make a typeface, I thought it was going to be easy but it was far from that. Obviously there would be cases in which I cant create and entire letter with the coast so in these cases ill have to add a line or two to finish of the letter. Some letters were easy to find and others not so much, I found the letter A almost right away but then I struggled with finding B because of this I thought itd be best if instead of finding letters one after another that id just have to scan the coast constantly looking out for shapes that look like letters. Bellow you can see a selection of screenshots that I took from google earth that I then used to trace with the pen tool in photoshop to create my letter forms. I carried on making my way through the alphabet for the next few days until I was happy that I found parts of coast for every letter.

Before finishing my letters I had a group tutorial with Ian. In this tutorial I showed ian the letters that I had come up with and a way in which I felt they could be used, I also showed the letter forms as posters with the place names under them as another possible way for them to be used. Bellow are some of the images that I presented to Ian

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Ian thought that what I had was good and could see that I has potential to be carried forward, it was clear that there needed to be more to the project and that it needed to serve more of a purpose because at the moment it was very unclear as to what the project was trying to communicate, Ian suggested that maybe I do go back and look at some of my original ideas to try and communicate about plastic pollution. He also said that obviously my font still needed completing and that maybe I should look at some form of animation to show of the font as well as coming up for a name for it.

FMP – Creative brief and group tutorial

Bellow is the creative brief i came up with

ben thatcher fmp cb

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I still wasn’t 100% on exactly where I wanted to take this project but again I knew that this was another step in the right direction, I wasn’t at all too stressed about what id end up doing because we had been informed that it was very common for people to take a while to be set on exactly what they wanted to do.

After I had my creative brief I then went to David for a group tutorial to discuss what we had come up with and ask and questions or discuss further ideas we had. Following this discussion it was clear I had a few ideas of what I wanted but it seemed like I more so had a few separate ideas and not 1 big linked idea because of this David suggested that I try and narrow down to look at just one more specific element and maybe try link in my other ideas but only if they will work. The two biggest ideas I had was looking at the British coast and finding away to celebrate it and its beauty and the other I had was plastic pollution in the sea and the problems its causing, from these ideas its clear that they are related however to link them in a project may be difficult so this is why David suggested that I try and just focus on one element. During the tutorial David mentioned to someone about creating a type face which then got me thinking, as one of my ideas was to look at the British coast I thought what if I look the trying to create type face from the British coast. I suggested this to David and he seemed to think it would be a good idea so I decide that id use this as the building blocks for my project.

FMP – Developing and discusing my ideas

After taking my ideas to a group tutorial with ian and hearing what everyone else had to say I settled that I would look at plastics and single use plastic, it wasn’t much but definitely a start. After this I did some research and created a little mood board of things I had seen and liked to do with plastic pollution to help give me ideas for my project, after discussing this with tutors and peers it helped me gain a better grip on where I wanted to take my project, I still wasn’t certain but I had a much better idea.

Here are some sketches and few ideas that i also came up with during my research and discussions.

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I started to look at singles use plastics and maybe how I could used them in my work and almost use them as my posters or part of my design. As well as look at things such as eco friendly spray paints that i could use on these items.

FMP – Getting started

The final major project was an interesting one to say the least. As a graphic designer we are very use to being given a strict set of rules that we have to follow in order to get the desired outcome for the client which makes it very easy to know what you need and where youll end up, however, the Fmp would be nothing like that. As much as having full creative control is great and allows you to really achieve whatever I knew it will be struggle for myself as in previous projects and also in some field projects where ive been given the ability to set the brief myself I found it very hard to actually know what I was going to do, none the less I knew I had to get on and start to work out what I was going to do.

I started to look at several things that I thought maybe I could do my project on covering a wide range of topics, I looked at things such as Formula one all the way to plastic pollution, I really had no idea how or what I was going to do.

Dissertation Design

Before we dive into why ive designed my dissertation like I have we should probably understand what my dissertation is about. My diseration looks at the use of untruthful images and the effects they can have, it coves a range of context and a range of time periods from examples of the first uses of image manipulation all the way to modern day uses.

The idea behind the design of my dissertation is playing with the idea of manipulation and untruthfulness. Each chapter highlights a different area or context in which manipulation of images or untruthful images can be found. Each page for a new chapter is designed in relation to the subject of the chapter or the type of untruthful images discussed, that design will then be carried out through the chapter itself, as I progress through my dissertation I plan to cross over these designs into later chapters so for example a design that was featured for chapter 1 may also be seen in 5. For example as highlighted in chapter 1 the centre paragraph is extended and stretched passed the other and also has a square cut out of it (this doesn’t remove any words) to give start to suggest the idea of image manipulation, the images on the following page have then also been played with to suggest manipulation, with 2 having a rotated version behind and the other 2 having stretched version behind, again to show types of manipulation. Throughout the text there are also words that have been edited in some way, for example the word untruthful has been made more transparent so suggest the idea of a lie and being able to see through it as it isnt real, the word manipulated has been made bolder to suggest the changing of size via image manipulation. As the dissertation carries on more words will be played with in this way and in more extreme ways. As well as this as the dissertation continues and we start to discuss more and more types of untruthful images and different types of manipulation the edits made to text will become more obvious and much more visual and start to consume the page more so than they do at the start.

I wanted every chapter to undertake a slightly different design as I wanted to give the idea that things aren’t always as they seem so instead of keeping everything all the same I wanted to ensure there was a clear change, there are many elements that I kept using throughout such as specific words being in the same style as I still wanted to ensure there was cohesion between the chapters but I still wanted each to be its own individuality. Bellow is a small explanation behind the idea of each chapter.

The colours that have been used are all from different adobe programs, I decided to do this as I felt that the programs play a big part in the manipulation and creation of untruthful images, this is far from me blaming adobe, its just me trying to find a way to get more colour across my design whilst keeping it related to my dissertation.

The design and layout of the introduction is to highlight the image that sparked my interest in is entire topic, hence why the second page has been split into section much like the image was and the first page has been made slimmer again to suggest the idea of the image being cut off.

The cover and contents page have been made to look like they are from a typical dissertation with the exception of the colour on them, on closer inspection you can see there is text faint in the background that reads “untruthful images aren’t always as they first seem often, they are made to look like something that they aren’t. Just like at first look this cover looks like its for a normal dissertation however on further inspection and after reading it clearly isn’t just a ‘normal’ dissertation.” My plan was to have this in an almost shiny/gloss print so that when the light hits it you could read it but obviously this was not possible with everything going on. But the main idea is so that at first the viewer may think it’s a normal dissertation but then notice that something seems off and start to investigate further, much like with untruthful images.

Chapter 1 looks at the earl stages of image manipulation and what it is because of this I wanted to give examples of manipulation in the text as well as in the images by rotating them or showing them being moved, to give th idea of manipulation.

Chapter 2 has been laid out like it has because there is a quote in there about Lincoln saying “as he was often described as having a gangly frame” because of this I wanted to highlight that with how I laid of some of the text.

Chapter 3 is playing with being staged and the fact that the word staged is actually making up a circle in a way suggesting that idea of something being something it isnt

Chapter 4 is playing with the fact that moving image is featured and I wanted to show that movement in the text

Chapter 5 is suggesting that models are often photoshopped to make them look skinnier hence why the text is like it is

The reason for the yellow on chapter 6 is because the national geographic magazine features heavily in that chapter.

 

The process behind the creating of my dissertation was long and took a while to work out exactly how I wanted it to look as well as the selection of word that id alter, I had to ensure that the alteration I had made were representative of the words themselves for example I made the word “photoshop” the same blue as photoshop itself and I made the word “Lincoln” thin as that how he was often described, every other altered word has been changed in a way I felt best represented it.

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Ben Thatcher Diss design marks

Ben Thatcher Diss design

Above are 2 version of my diss design, one without and bleed marks and another with.

Overall I am happy with the outcome of my dissertation design I feel like ive got across what I wanted really well and achieved what I was after, I believe I represented the essence of my diss throughout the design, each chapter has its own look based on its contents yet every chapter also has a sense of cohesion through the fact that there are many words that have been altered in the same style throughout, I believe that the cover is also a really good way to show the entire idea behind my paper as its tricks the viewer into thinking its one thing when in actual fact it isnt at all.

Criticality – Feedback from Theo and Martyn

Following the next lot of feedback on this work from both Theo and Martyn they both really seemed to like the work and that it was clear that a lot of thought had gone into the changes and edits, however, they also decided that maybe a video wasn’t the best idea as it didn’t always give them enough time to discover everything on the page, because of this Theo suggested some form of more personal interaction with the work, maybe make it like Instagram itself, just find away to give the viewer more control over the pace. Bellow is that I came up with

Criticality pdf

click above to go to the interactive pdf. Bellow is also all the images used incase the link doesnt work.

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Im really proud of how this turned out I feel like the addition of the heart and broken heart is perfect as it represents the like button that is on Instagram and also gives the viewer that interaction that they may often have on Instagram as it as if they are liking a post to go forward and unliking it to go back, I believe I really hit the mark here with what Theo wanted as ive now made it much more personal and given the viewer the ability to control the viewer at their own pace instead of giving them a video that they have little control over.

Criticality – Putting together my first lot of work and feedback

The design of this project was simple, as all I needed to do was ensure that I matched everything up to the already existing Instagram layout, the most difficult part was just ensuring that I had the correct font and made sure it all looked real and not at all photoshopped. The biggest challenge was working out how id show as my work.

Why instagratification? The idea behind the name is that a lot of time people use social media for gratification and gain gratification from the followers they have or the likes they get. So the name is a play on both Instagram and gratification it also plays with the fact that it sounds like instant gratification again suggesting that the likes and follows people get instantly gives them that gratification

After I had put together a few edited Instagram pages I went to Theo for some help and advice and to see what his thoughts were. Theo liked where the project was going and could see the message that I was getting at without any explanation which was great, however, he did have a few suggestions and words of advice, it was clear that I needed to add more pages to give more example and variance. Theo also suggested that as this work is from my dissertation that I could find a way to add in quotes from my diss to help tell the story more. As well as this I asked about how I should present my work to the audience, Theo suggested that I put it into a looping video that would then be played to the audience. Bellow is the video that I came up with including all the new posts and my quotes.

I was happy with how this turned out and feel like I achieved exactly what Theo wanted and asked for.