Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Handmade Font

Handade Font are an Estonian company, set up in 2008 by Vladimr and Maksim Loginov. They aim to do exactly as their name says, they want to create unique and interesting fonts. Taking inspiration from and using whatever they can get their hands on. 


Typeface created from cardboard boxes used on moving day.
What I like about the typefaces created by Handmade Font is that they can use items that most people would see as messy and manage to create beautiful, professional looking typefaces from them.

Type made from hay

All of Handmade Font's typefaces are available to buy from their website: www.handmadefont.com



Eduardo Recife


Eduardo Recife is a Brazilian Graphic Designer and Typographer. He has been in the design business since the 90's, his website 'Misprinted Type' features his personal work. Recife has a unique, vintage style which is easily recognisable as his. He discussed his style in an interview, saying; 'old graphics were unbelievably more beautiful than what we have today. It was more poetic, and the colours were more attractive.'

Recife has done much work for large clients such as, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and the band Panic! at the Disco.

TCM/ commissioned by RayGun
Recife uses a range of processes to create his work, such as hand rendered skills, collage and photography. Techniques that I also enjoy using, which could be why I like Recife's style so much. I also like the surreal aspects of his work, I like the fact that the viewer has to work out a possible meaning behind the image, in my opinion it makes Recife's work very exciting and interesting to look at.

Verde Magazine
'Typography for me is so strong because it’s a mixture of both 'words' and 'image'. What can be more powerful than that when trying to communicate something?' - Eduardo Recife

The New York Times

Monday, 9 September 2013

Festival Research: Run to the Sun and Reading Festival

Run to the Sun is a Cornish festival, all about sunshine, sea, cars and DJs. These features are reflected in the design of the website, logo and posters.

The use of the colours green, yellow and blue reflect the ideas of being near the beach in the sunshine, whereas the grey and the grungy textures are mirroring the genre of music and its association with clubs and nightlife. The layout is very easy to read and gives plenty of information.

The logo is similar to a graffiti tag, again bringing in the genre of music.

On the hand, the design for Reading Festival is very neutral in comparison. 


This could be because there is no set genre of music, hence using the artists' own styling. This also allows for the festival to appeal to a wider range of people. However, the use of red, black and yellow, which are seen to be danger colours could indicate that the festival can get a little rowdy.

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Exhibition Review

Recently the college held an exhibition displaying a variety of A Level work. We have been asked to find a piece we found particularly interesting and review it as research. One display that appealed to me was by Joshua Woodford. The ideas and concepts behind his work are what appealed to me. For his final piece, he created a bedroom.



The bedroom aimed to show how people interact with things they come across in their everyday lives, eg: family, friends, pets, objects. Along with the clash of private and public that comes with these interactions.


Having spoken to Woolford, he told me he was heavily inspired by Tracy Emins and her infamous piece, 'My Bed'. Where she reveals her most secret place to the public eye in its 'embarrassing glory' showing the world her true habits and imperfections. A concept that Woolford has aimed to recreate with his own twist.



Tracy Emins, 'My Bed'

Woolford is going on to study Fine Art at Winchester University. His blog address is: http://joshuawoolford.blogspot.co.uk/ 





Monday, 17 June 2013

New Project: Tune In

I've started a new project titled; 'Tune In'. The final outcome for the project is to design an album cover and album spread, using ideas and concepts inspired by your song choice.


'Lungs' album cover

The options are:
Cosmic Love - Florence + the Machine
Stupid Girls - P!nk
Muse - Uprising

I began by looking up the lyrics to each song and picking out certain parts that I felt I could create visuals from and then mind mapped these ideas.

For example: Stupid Girls - 'looking for a daddy to pay for the champagne' from this lyric, I had an idea that you could photograph a fairly young girl with an older man, wearing fake wedding rings or holding hands. As to exaggerate the ideas of 'sugar daddies' and female objectification and emphasise how ridiculous they are becoming.

'I'm Not Dead' album cover

After mind mapping I've created moodboards for the two songs that I feel I have the best visual ideas for - Cosmic Love and Muse. I then decided that my ideas for Cosmic Love are the best overall, and therefore have decided to use this song to create my final piece over the next few weeks.

'The Resistance' album cover




Thursday, 16 May 2013

Loui Jover

I found out about Loui Jover from a fellow student's blog and having had a look at his work, I've decided to include him on here, as I really like his style and feel that I could apply that style to my current project.

Jover is an Australian based artist who primarily uses paper and ink to create his work. He has been drawing since childhood, proclaiming that he draws, 'obsessively every single day'. He says that this is why he can use a variety of styles and approaches in art. Jover has qualifications in Commercial and Graphic Art, alongside an advanced certificate in Visual Communication.

'Flying'
Jover creates a canvas from the pages of old books, then draws with ink.
From Jouver's profile on Saatchionline:

"there is a fragility to these images that I find interesting (as if the wind may blow them away at any moment) and the hand drawn stark black lines against the intricate printed words of the book pages offer a strange fusion and depth that seems to give the images a kind of 'meaning' and back story, even though unconnected in a contrived way. I never pick the image for the pages or visa-versa they just collide as chance permits, any meaning they may have is purely created by the observer and their own imaginings."


'Parisian Love Story'
I like quite a few things about Jover's work. Firstly how by using only one medium he has the ability to create such detailed and intricate pieces of art.  I also like the way in which, he uses different intensities of ink, in order to add definition and further detail to his work.

'Secret Place'

Thursday, 9 May 2013

David Carson

David Carson is an American Graphic Deisgner, he is well known for his 'innovative magazine design' and 'experimental typography'. Carson's came across Graphic Design in 1980 when he attended a two week Graphics course. But it wasn't until 1983 that he decided to become full involved in it, he attended the Oregon College of Commercial Art; during the course he attended a three week workshop in Switzerland, taught by Hans-Rudolf Lutz, who became Carson's first great influence.

In 1984 Carson was appointed as the art director of Transworld Skateboarding, during his time as art director he developed his signature style of 'dirty' typography and non-mainstream photographic techniques.

Carson's cover design for Transworld Skateboarding

 
 Carson has worked for many clients, such as: Armani, Yale University, Barack Obama and Quiksilver.
                                                                               
  
Campaign poster for Obama, 2009
Whilst I like Carson's signature 'grunge' typography, I think that some of his pieces where he has used a more simplistic typeface look equally as good and are just as affective as when he uses his raw, distressed typefaces. I also like how he intergrates the image and the typography, rather than them being two separate aspects.


Cover for 'Monster Children' magazine.