I decided on the theme of 'Type, Image colour and Pattern' because I felt this would give me a wide range of artists, techniques and media to look at.
First I looked at the design that goes into creating a restaurant brand, using Byron as my client - a food chain with a vintage, 1950s diner aesthetic. To reflect this I drew on the work of nostalgic, illustrative artists such as Ryan Duggan. I love his illustrative style, particularly his use of patterns to create shading. This reflects the mid-century aesthetic of limited colour palettes. Next I looked at Michael Haddad, someone who also has a vintage look but with a more surrealist slant. With his surrealist style in mind I constructed a unique way of photographing the elements of a burger by separating and suspending them on fishing wire. I drew this image that appeared full of movement on photoshop, resulting in a dynamic but nostalgic look which I used to create the menu's for my client.
After that project I moved onto looking at the links between music and graphic design by making my second client the music streaming platform, Spotify. I chose this client because they are linked to the work of millions of music artists, who all release album covers with music, giving a huge range of artists to explore. During the Gif Brief I made three moving posters that act as visual representations of the songs of an album I was promoting. Using gifs proved helpful as a way to tell more of a story through my posters.
For my first video I wanted to bring an album cover to life by transforming everyday scenes into moving paintings in the style of Brian Lotti, the painter who created the cover of the album "LOUIE". I think this worked effectively as a way to represent the escapism that music can provide as the viewer was transported into another world, one with a more bright and tranquil appearance. This linked to my theme because of Lotti's use of colour, as he uses short broken brush strokes not blended smoothly or shaded which creates bold, lively colours which makes the scene seem warm and inviting
For the typography brief I constructed a piece completely from lettering. I made a version of the "Mercurial World" album cover that was formed from words to do with the album, such as song lyrics and titles. I really liked this method of displaying type because it encourages the viewer to search for hidden details about information like a release date or the number of songs on the album, rather than having these details written plainly. I also liked the flowing and weaving movement of the text and thought it linked well with the constantly moving and exciting music within the album itself.
I enjoyed the method of screen printing because I think it made think much more carefully about the structure of my image and how to create forms with such limited colour, with shapes simple enough they can be cut onto thin stencil paper. I love the work of Marcel Dzama and their dreamlike surreal paintings and I think my image aligned well with their creative style as the flower seems to be unnaturally dripping into the water as a result of the bleed marks from the screen-printing process.
Outside of the lesson briefs I also experimented with 35mm film photography, trying old often forgotten methods of taking photos and combining the techniques of Trichrome photography with infrared film to create a surreal image to pair with the psychedelic music I wanted to promote
For My First final piece I wanted to make another video, but this time looking at a range of art styles, to reflect the variety of an artist's Discography. I looked at the work of MF Doom who often experimented with different style of music, reflected in a range of album covers. I changed the style of a single setting three times to show the sharp contrasts between his album art. The the comic style of the first cover provide the viewer with a feeling of safety, which contrasts with the more threatening and ominous figures in the other covers
At this point I had made two covers that focused predominantly on two of the three elements of my theme: The 'Magdalena Bay' album response consisted of pure typography, while the Brian Lotti video focused more on colour. With this in mind I wanted to create a video that explored pattern. I looked at the cover of Joy Divison's 'Unknown Pleasures' album which I felt used as starting point for looking at the work of Yannis Firer. I think this video showed how single point can flow into a dynamic and vibrant pattern which can form complex structure as it develops exponentially
For my third final piece I wanted a mix of Real life video and animation, and I wanted to include more of a switch between them. I also wanted to link to my essay, which focused on the idea of Vinyls being sold with a physical piece of artwork, and how the sale of vinyls has increased in recent years partly because of the appeal of its physical nature. I introduced a second music client, Rough Trade - a company which sell vinyls. I was advertising the ability to order vinyls from the Spotify website, a feature which few people use because little space is dedicated to the section on the Spotify app. I created a video advertisement using footage of a vinyl record, displaying their intricate pathways up-close, and then transitioned to an animated world to convey the incredible sound quality of vinyl and how this has an immersive effect. I liked this piece because of it's mixed media, particularly in a shot where I had animated text appear in real world footage.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this project because this theme gave me opportunity for exploration of so many artists, and the freedom to experiment with a variety of media, allowing my work to take off in unexpected creative directions.