Task 1
The creative process
The creative process is the process of which nearly every graphic designer goes through to undergo a piece of work they are tasked with. This process is used because designers need to have a set out to their process, knowing what they need to do at each stage to stay organised and to stay knowledgeable of what they are doing. There are many stages throughout the process and at any point a designer can not be happy with what they have ended up with, so they look back through the creative process that they were going through and reverse back to a point they were happy at, doing more research or trying out new methods etc.
Stage 1 – What is the task?
The first stage of the creative process is when you need to look at the task at hand. You need to be looking at what you have been given and what the final outcome should look like. Defining what the task is, is a very important part of the process as you need to have a general idea of what you need to do. And if you define it right at the start then you will be more confident of what you have to do and will know how to go about the task more than you previously did.
Stage 2 – Research
This part of the process is where you do all of your research into the design brief. You do this because, in order to fully understand the brief that you have been given, you need to know more about the subject of the matter and the things you may want to include in your final outcome. Thorough research is vital, as the more research you do and the deeper the research is, the more you will understand the brief. Also if you do more research you will create a better and more understanding outcome opposed to if you did no research and just put down whatever came to your head at the time.
Stage 3 – Brainstorming.
This is the stage where you make whatever comes to your head. You could do this is many ways. One way is that you could make a mind map, putting down whatever is coming to your head, filling the page with useful information that you think of on the spot. This is good to do as you can take an hour to think deeply of things you can associate with the design brief, meaning that the ideas you come up with there will stay on paper and you can refer to it whenever you are lost. Furthermore, you could just grab some paper and create some word associations. This means you associate as many words as possible with the design brief, so for example, if the design brief was to create a poster for an advert for clothing, you could note words like exciting, bold, fun. Trying to promote the design of the clothing or the feeling it gives you when you are wearing it. This helps as if you need to provide text on your final design, you will have words down already to choose from, giving you a title. The brainstorming stage is good as you can just let your creativity run wild with no boundaries, allowing you to see how far you could go with the design.
Stage 4 – Sketching.
This is the stage where you can begin designing the product you have been told to create in your brief. Although they are not proper sketches. They are to be small, colourless thumbnails that have been quickly generated. This is a little bit like brainstorming as you are just creating small pictures as they come into your head. They do not need to be detailed drawings either, being quickly generated as you think. This stage should take maybe two to four hours, meaning you would start with around 40 to 50 small thumbnail boxes and you would sit down and keep thinking of ways you could put images and text together to create a poster or cover. If no ideas come to your head you could take a small break and come back to it later when more ideas are there.
Stage 5 – Developing ideas.
This stage is where you would pick out 2 to 4 of your favourite thumbnails that you created and develop them in a bigger picture with colour. At this stage you would try harder to get your idea across with more detailed drawings and typefaces. This is because you are seeing how your favourite ideas would look if they are properly created, allowing you to see which one is actually your favourite and which one you would like to take further into the process.
Stage 6 – Experimenting with Materials and Processes
This is the stage where you would try different ways of how you could create the final outcome. This could be using paint, pastels, or even digital means. You would create a design in many different ways and with many different materials, and after you are happy with what type of art you are going to use, you move onto the next stage.
Stage 7 – Proper Sketch.
This stage is where you would take your favourite design out of the 2 to 4 detailed sketches you had created, and would make it in a bigger picture and even more detailed. This design would probably be A3 and would use your preferred art style that you have chosen. This would be thoroughly detailed and with proper typefaces, everything looking mostly like it would do in the final design. However, it does not need to be quite as detailed as the final design needs to be, but would need to be ready for presentation to the client.
Stage 8 – Client Review.
This is the stage where the client will look at the sketch you have created, and you would present it to them, explaining your reasoning behind the design. Feedback would be the most likely outcome after this stage, where the client would say what they are happy/unhappy with and how they want the design to be improved if they want it to be improved. This stage is vital as it helps you finalize the design further, and helps you make it closer to being perfect for the clients needs. If it needs improvements, then you would go back to the previous stage, reproducing the sketch again with the clients advice embedded in.
Stage 9 – Final Design
This is the stage where, if the client is happy, you would move onto creating the final outcome. This would be the best possible work you can do, using your materials and process you picked, the picture you picked, and using the clients advice to create the best piece you can, using the brief to refer to. After you were finished, that would be the design process done and the product can now be produced.
Research
Michael Bierut
Michael Bierut is a graphic designer who studied at the university of Cincinnati. Also, he is a partner at Pentagram in new York and works in their offices. He, the same as most graphic designers, follows his own process to the basis of the creative process I explained earlier.
Generating ideas
When Michael Bierut is getting an idea, he says it can happen in two ways. One of these ways that he says is of “really hard work”. Meaning he would probably sit down for a couple of hours, maybe more than one of these sessions too, just thinking of ideas for his brief he was given. He explains it as teeth or gears, meaning that he keeps trying and trying until the ideas just connect. This would imply if he was trying to relate two subjects that would have to be put into his final outcome. Or if he was just trying to find that eureka moment when he just comes up with a great idea. He said the other way he can get ideas for a project is if it was to “Drop on a shelf and land on your desk”. Meaning that it could just come into his head with no thinking what so ever, he just gets lucky and figures out what he needs to know. Just like that. Basically the two ends of the spectrum, one is to think for a while and try to generate ideas through waiting for something to click, or it coming right away.
Quotes from “A smile in the mind”, mentioned in Bibliography
Contextual Research
When Michael Bierut is researching, he spends a while trying to think of things to go off of, so if he was given a project to make a poster for a new trainer, he would go onto the internet and look at some previous designs, maybe look at work previous graphic designers had done for that trainer company. This would be for inspiration. He likes to get inspiration from others and seeing what he could do better than them to make him shine out. It seems when Michael Bierut is researching is really combines with when he is generating ideas, as he uses his research to help when the ideas don’t just come to him.
Exploration of materials, techniques, processes
When exploring materials, techniques and processes Michael Bierut would normally start off with a pencil and paper, just seeing what his design would look like in the basic drawing method. Then, just as any other person would, he would maybe use some paint, or digital methods, and other things, testing how hey all look. He really just brainstorms all these methods and keeps looking at each of them, normally making two copies, seeing what they look like and how they compare to the other things he tried out. He normally tries up to 5 or 6 techniques before deciding the one he is going to carry on with.
Feedback and review
Usually, when Bierut gets feedback or a review on his work, he would look at it and think of how he could improve the work that the client wanted improving. He would take into account what the client said and what he thinks of how he could improve it and then would maybe do a small sketch on a bit of paper to start with. He would then begin to generate more of these sketches with many ideas, seeing what looks best and what appears he has taken most of the clients opinion in mind. He says it is all about impressing the client.
Production and presentation of preliminary work and outcome
When Bierut comes to present his work, he says that showing them the final picture is just not enough or is not as good. He says that he likes to make them leave questions about the work, maybe only show them a small part. This is because it would make them intrigued about the work, maybe even so it forces them to ask questions. Another way he does it sometimes is the complete opposite. He thinks it “looks cool” when you make “no attempt to decode the idea” meaning that they can figure out what it means with no effort at all. He likes doing it both ways, changing it with every project.
Quotes from “A smile in the mind”, mentioned in Bibliography
Review and evaluation of outcome, action planning for future development
Bierut is always critical of himself after looking back at a project. This is because it helps him get the best out of himself in the next project. As he says that if he thinks he did well in a project or if he could not improve, he will never get better and his work could even go downhill due to arrogance. He then takes notes for himself and takes them into his next project, making sure he looks at them when doing it.
Saul Bass
Saul Bass was a graphic designer from America who mainly focussed on film posters and corporate logos. He was also an academy award winning film maker.
Generating Ideas
When doing his work Bierut usually started with trying to decide whether to use wit or to use humour. This is because these were the two types of themes he could really get his message across with, his ‘field of play’. He also said that when he was trying to come up with ideas his process took many unexpected turns and he never really knew where it would end up. So basically he always brainstormed ideas so that he could try to get something to go off of. After he decided the theme though.
Contextual Research
When researching, Bierut looked for “Simple, direct Ideas”. This helped him with the earlier stage too. So really, he treated the research stage like the idea generation stage too. He liked to look for other ideas in books or on the internet they had at the time, and see what he could do, maybe combine other ideas with his own, making the ‘ultimate piece’. This was a rather ingenious idea really, as if you get more than one good piece and add your own ideas or vice versa, it would become a very brilliant piece. Also when researching, he looked at graphic designers opinions of their own final outcomes. As this made him know what mistakes not to make with his own work. A great way to learn from other peoples mistakes. Making him stand out from the competition. Finally, he also got help by researching how the theme he chose could be exploited even more than he already knew. He would do this through looking at other designers work or looking at anything along the lines of the theme in any department.
Exploration of materials, techniques, processes.
Task 2 – My process
My brief is to create a double page spread layout for a wonderland magazine, promoting Vivienne Westward(A fashion designer). This will be a project of which I will continuously refer to the creative process, doing each step thoroughly in an attempt to create the best piece I can.
Contextual research
Researching Trends
Before I begin with anything to do with the magazine I must research into my design brief. This will help me a lot because if I see other work from graphic designers I may be able to get inspiration and take in what they have done. Like Michael Bierut usually does in his research. I will also be looking at the website – graphicmama- for design trends that I can integrate into my own design.
Picture from the website – https://graphicmama.com/blog/graphic-design-trends-2018/
Above, is something I saw in the website showing all different graphic trends and this one caught my eye. First of all, I like it because it creates a feeling of excitement and change. Also with the picture in the middle, it changes colour as the “Glitch” happens, making it a naturally eye catching effect for a photo. Also, with the picture on the right, it creates a good sense of confusion, forcing the reader to look all over the page. This is because the letters are scattered all around, maybe making the reader wanting to collect all of the pieces and put them together to see what word they form. The fact that the picture in the background is wavy appeals to me too, as it works with how all of the letters are around the picture, creating a sort of pattern throughout the picture. As for the picture on the left. Although it looks rather basic, the black and white works well with the technical glitch effect, causing it to give the picture an edge to it, and making it look maybe even like it has a dark feel as well.
Picture from the website – https://graphicmama.com/blog/graphic-design-trends-2018/
The effect above is the one that really caught my eye. This is because it has a very exciting feel to it. I particularly like the effect because it has a sort of ‘2 in 1’ value, as you can get two pictures into one page. Of course the pictures have to be similar for this effect to work, but I like it a lot and it is certainly something I would think of using in my work. Also, the good thing about this effect, if you look at the picture on the left. Is that in some cases you can portray someone’s personality through the effect. Or how they may appear if they wear a certain type of garment. This sort of effect would therefore work well with the brief I have been given, as it is about a fashion designers work, and if you show something like this it would really show more off about the clothing than anyone would think it would if you just showed them a picture of someone wearing the clothing item. This effect also gives the work a very smooth and calming feel to it as well. Because it is very rhythmic and simplistic so it does not make your brain try to figure things out as much.
Picture from the website – https://graphicmama.com/blog/graphic-design-trends-2018/
Above you can see some pictures demonstrating negative space used in design work. The website also shown above says that the work can evoke “positive emotions” Which would be great to use when I am promoting a designers work. Because if the page makes them feel positive when looking at it, maybe they would feel more needed to buy some of it or feel more appreciative of her work. The picture on the far right is a great example of negative space. As you can see the umbrella is taken from the black background, then inside the umbrella is some buildings and a night sky, which is a perfect way to use the method. Also, this method overall looks very appealing, and has definitely got me considering using it.
Picture from the website – https://graphicmama.com/blog/graphic-design-trends-2018/
Before I moved on to researching the actual magazine itself, I thought I would look at an option for trendy typography. The pictures above shows “cropped typography” which although apparently needs a lot of skill to pull off, is very aesthetically pleasing and looks great. The point of this typography is to show as little of each letter as possible, but to still keep it readable. I thought I would just look at this, as I will most likely be using text I in my outcome, and if I use a text that is in trend, then it would definitely improve the outcome of my work.
Researching Wonderland Magazine
Wonderland magazine is an independently made magazine that gives perspective on all types of talent in any industry. This could include film, art, or even drama. They also showcase different artists work too, as well as giving their opinion. They showcase it with pictures and maybe some text, but have their own style of which they set their pages out. They like to represent many things about fashion to the readers. All the good things that relate to the types of art that they showcase. They feel like they do not dictate to readers, but their goal is to inspire them to pursue their own goals in the art industry.
This is an example format of a double page spread in wonderland magazine. It has the format of a usual magazine, with filters on the pictures. The ain thing I will take from this is the page numbers at the bottom. Since I now know how to format them. I will now be able to create a replica to this. Although, I may not use as much text as this as it is to showcase the art, not to have a huge wall of text. Another thing I will take from this is the text over the picture, I will remember to intergrate this into my design. I will take much inspiration from this, and I will try to refer back to this format as much as possible in my creation.
Researching Vivienne Westwood
I am now to research Vivienne Westward and her work, to give me a greater idea into what to put onto my double page spread when the time comes. This is a key part so that I will know more about the designer and more about the work she does so that I can make my work the best possible.
Vivienne Westwood, born in 1941, is a graphic designer from Derbyshire in England. She is most known for influencing ‘Modern punk’ and ‘New Wave’ music styles. This is most likely through her fashion style that she designs, showing how influential her work can be. She is a very large scale designer, working with many companies. She is also known for taking huge risks like when she impersonated Margaret Thatcher once. I will go over the different types of work she creates, analysing it. As this will help me go towards looking at what part of her fashion I will use on my pages.
‘Punk’ Style
This style is more of her risk – taking ones. It appeals to a smaller audience yet is very substantial in her work as, as I said before it started a whole generation of music genre. People seem to like this style as it is more exciting and on edge than most other designs competitors create. If anything Vivienne was the one person who started this whole punk style off that we see today. This is why it could be something good to put on my pages as it is unique and a very important part of Vivienne Westwood’s work.
‘New wave’ Style
This style is essentially the same as the punk style, but it is a little more strange. It is the concept of wearing rather unusual clothes in a strange fashion. As you can see in the picture above it is rather dark like the punk style. Though still looks different due to other factors, like the clothes they wear. I personally cannot really tell the punk and new wave fashions apart too much. But it is the sort of fashion that Vivienne created. Dark, on edge. That is really what she is all about. This is why I shall refer to both design types as much as possible, as they both look similar therefore I can combine all her work with my own format that adapts to it too.
Outcome from research
I have now completed my research and can now move onto the next part of the creative process. I can take much from this research. From the trends I can remember to refer back to them during creating my outcome due to the fact that they are relevant and will make my art more appealing. With the other research, I now know much about Vivienne and her work, and the format of wonderland magazine. And since I know all this, I can move on to the next stage with it all in my mind, being able to integrate it all into my design as much as possible. And if I ever forget I can move back to this to get inspiration for my design.
Brainstorming
Now that I have done my research I shall now generate ideas through finding word associations to help me with my typography. This is part of the generating ideas stage. This is an important stage because it will help me know maybe what words to use in my typography and titles. Basically brainstorm any words that relate to the topic.
Although the picture is a little blurry, this is when I did word associations with the topic of Vivienne Westwood’s fashion. I feel this helped me out a lot as I managed to get words I would not have thought of if I did not do this process. I did this too because it would help me make the page look more professional with more advanced words that would overlay my pictures and so on. Having this in my ‘word bank’ will be hugely helpful as I will not run out of things to put in my typography. Making the words on my page hopefully look great.
Ideas Generation
Idea Development
Experimenting with materials and techniques
This is the stage where I need to try to see what effects I can use in my design to enhance it and make it look even more professional. This is where the design trends come into place. As in my thumbnails and my four developed thumbnails, I only used drawing and adding colour, and had not yet tried out techniques. Which is why I am now going to do so, so that I know what they look like and I will be able to combine the colour pictures and the graphic effects. The more techniques I test the better as it will strengthen my work through having tested many techniques. I will just be using one picture of Vivienne Westward’s work for this stage, just to see what the techniques will look like with a general idea. As many of the pictures I use in my final design will probably different effects applied onto them anyway, so I need to just test it on the one person instead of many.
Above is the picture I will be editing.
‘Glitch’ Effect
As you can see, the above picture shows one aspect of the glitch effect. I chose to do this one as it is the simplest to create and therefore gives off the general idea of the effect quicker. I chose to use red so it would fit with the colour. I think this effect works well with the Westwood fashion, as it is sort of dark and edgy, meaning that it goes well with any picture of the clothing or with a person wearing it. I would spend more time on the effect in my final design if I choose to use it, making it look much more professional. But this gives off the general idea anyway. One problem with this process is that it can look a bit unprofessional or ‘rubbish’ if it is not done right. So if I want to do this process in my final design I will have to get it spot on and much better than this attempt was.
Double effect duotone
As you can see, I have applied the duotone effect to the image and I can now analyse it. First of all, I think that the red works well with this image as it goes through really well. For the actual effect, I am not sure it works too well with this particular image. But baring that in mind, I think it is a very effective way to edit an image. It can be used to portray a meaning or personality too, but I just did it simply. This is a possibility to be part of my design, but if I did it in my final design of course it would be much more professional than this one is. I am happy with this effect though, and overall it gives a good feel to a piece of work or an image.
Negative space
As you can see above, I have applied negative space to the same image I have been using for the other tests. I did this to just get an idea for the technique so I didn’t really go into further detail. The image has a feel like it was cut out from the red background. Like it was a sheet of paper and the image was just cut from it. I like this technique and it could definitely be made into more detail.
Typography
I now feel like I have tested enough techniques and processes that I may want to use in my final design so I will move on to testing typography. I will be using photoshop once again and will edit the typeface how I may think it could look.
Cropped typography
Above shows that U have attempted to do the cropped typography process. I really like this process as it looks good if it is done right and I feel I accomplished it well. The text has spaces in the right places and it has a nice overall feel to it. It is definitely an option for me to use in my final piece. But I need to test a couple more to broaden my ideas.
“Creepy”
Above you can see I have tried to create a more spooky feel to the word. This was done through a text I found that I think is rather scary and creepy in a way. And then the background blood red colour and the fade effect really compliments the scary text and the colour of it. The text I used was called Tempus Sans ITC. I like this type face and will definitely consider using it in my final design. It also fits into Westwood’s style which is very helpful.
Georgia font
Above you can see I tried something rather simple. I just got the georgia font and coloured it in the blood red. This is because I wanted to see what just making a simple font would look like and I wanted to see how it would turn out. But I now know it looks very unproffesional and I will not be continuing with this into my design.
https://www.biography.com/people/vivienne-westwood-20624587
https://graphicmama.com/blog/graphic-design-trends-2018/
https://www.webpagefx.com/blog/web-design/creative-process-professional-designers/
https://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/about/
Andrew Gibson Graphics 