Experimentation With Backgrounds and Final design – Caligram Design 2

After finishing my caligram, I went back to my original thumbnail sketches to see if I could add interest to the design. I wanted to use some sort of imagery that might aid the reader identify homer more easily. I watched an episode of the Simpsons and made a list of things that is synonymous with the character of Homer. This included:

The simpsons clouds- as seen in the opening titles, the clouds move away revealing springfield below

Doughnuts – Homers favourite snack

The Kwik-E Mart – Homer often visits the kwik-e mart to fuel his large appetite

The powerplant – Homers place of work

Although i think it has the right connotations that Simpsons lovers would love, I think it distracts from the typeface and makes it harder for the type to really speak to the audience. For that reason, I chose to keep it on a white background, with my name featuring at the bottom right of the page. This simplicity lets the character and typefaces really stand out, and you can just imagine it hanging on the wall.

Evaluation

Overall I’m happy with the design. I feel my typeface choice was overall quite effective, using contrast where possible. This will be my final design for submission. I hope they see the fun side to this and my experimentation with type interesting.

 

Digital Design Process – Design 2

In this blog post, I wish to demonstrate my process from start to finish using screenshots as a work.

I started by outlining the basic shape of Homer Simpson. A combination of using the pen tool, and the pathfinder pallet to merge and divide certain shapes to make the lines as clean as possible.

 

 

 

I adjusted the handles all around homer to make sure every element was smooth and realistic, without an imperfections.

 

I then opened a separate document and laid out the typefaces I may or may not use in the design. From my initial planning and sketches, I was able to easily select suitable typefaces. I already had a lot of these in mind, however after looking through my type kit, I found Futura extra black, which I thought stood out and would be great for the body of my design. DK Petit four is my experiment.It’s 3D child like charm may be difficult to warp effectively, and the type may not be readable. Chunk Five is another display font, like Bebas and Futura extra black, however has strong serifs from being a slab serif font. This may contrast nicely with the other two quite neutral display typefaces. For Homer’s face, I wanted to use a combination of thin and shadowed type, as there are more intricate shapes making up Homer’s face. In contrast to his big bold body, I wanted his face to seem more complex, featuring his thought processes on a daily basis. “Bubble Gum” is the bubble font I pointed out I wanted to use earlier in my research for the “mmm doughnuts” on a circle path, forming his eyes. I feel this typeface really brings out the playful, childish behaviour and mindset of the character. The DK Vermillion typefaces makes me think of someone quite simple minded, maybe even dumb, and Homer certainly has those stupid moments in the show. 

I then started to write out the lines and converting them into a mesh, In which I could warp the typeface to the shape of Homer.

I found it quite difficult to get the proportions right when working in a confined and irregular shapes. However, I found using 2 columns and 2 rows in the mesh, I was able to stretch either sides anchor points out to the width of the shape, and then find the middle point. This made the words proportionate but with the necessary warp to get the shape. There was no loss of readability which was key.

I carried on going through each part of homers body from top to toe, using my sketch as a guide. I changed the design slightly from my original sketch. I felt like there should be a prominent quote from home in the centre that makes the design have a purpose. The rest of the text would just be the catchphrases and characters associated with the character. The end result was as follows:

I was quite happy with the outcome. I started to think about my design and what background I might use to entice my audience. I produced some thumbnail sketches to show my ideas on paper. This will also help determine whether I should colour the design, or just leave it in black.

 

I decided that the design would have more interest if it was coloured. I then went online and googled to see if I could find the exact colours used to make up homers appearance. I found this website really useful, and I was able to match the RGB colours in my swatches palette in illustrator.

Design Process – Design 1

After conducting my initial research, I sat down with a pencil and sketchbook and thought about what path I wanted to go down, and what the purpose of the design is.

I started by focusing on love. People are fascinated with the topic, and there are so many different forms of media that evoke the feeling such as music, literature, advertising, and posters.

Signifiers

I made a list of all the key signifiers surrounding the topic of love:

• Heart
• Pink & Red (colour)
• Emotion
• Roses/Flowers
• Embrace/Hug
• Kissing/Lips

This list was the initial part of the design process, thinking about how they might work in a design context.

From my initial research, I decided to produce a poster that could be hung in a young girls bedroom. This type of design has boomed in recent years.

Typefaces

Love is a very personal and private emotion, and this should be reflected in my choice of typefaces. Script fonts are predominantly used in this kind of design. This is to give a more personal touch to the design, and also the thin strokes usually seen in script fonts makes it a great typeface to pair with something more rigid and bold, such as a Egyptian or sans serif typeface. I will explore different variations of typefaces in a separate blog post.

Inspiration

I looked at various different love posters to gather inspiration for my own design. Here are just a few that I looked at. They all have signifiers to love such as a heart and eternity sign. The typefaces used are contrasting from fluid script fonts to bold serif and san serif typefaces. 

The Final Design

Evaluation

I like the design and the use of typefaces. They contrast and compliment each other, but also have connotations of love with the use of script typefaces. This is just one design, howvever I want to produce something a little more interesting and different for my final typographic poster for year 1, that demonstrates my abilities with adobe and my typographic

Research Into Typographic Posters

The initial part of my design process involves looking at other typographic posters to draw inspiration from and form my own ideas for my design. In this blog post I want to dissect what works well in the designs and in particular, the typeface choices and how the effectively visually represent the theme.

in the design below the text has been arranged in a rectangular block running vertically down the page. There is a mix of large sans serif typefaces, that is evident in the word “books”, Egyptian in varying weights, and a calligraphy used for very small, unimportant text, and used in a decorative fashion. The typefaces marry together nicely, and they all relate to reading books.

The whale below has text warped to the shape of animal. This is a technique that I’m particularly interested in. Calligrams are a fun way to make the text more interesting and visually stimulate the reader. There are many different typefaces used, from caligraphy fonts to egyptian. The feel of the design is very nautical yet informal, so could be used for a book cover targeted at a younger demographic.

This calligram design has a punk/gothic feel to it, using the colours black and pink to signify this. The typefaces used in the body of the shoe have an aged feel to them. There are sharp serifs and small embellishments within some of the characters to give this medieval punk feeling. This is then combined with a calligraphy typeface in the sole to add contrast to the design.