AIDAN MASON

PROJECT 1: PORTFOLIOZINE

For this brief we had to create artwork that expressed who we are as a person and a creative. Which is what we would use as a front and back cover for our portfoliozine which is a document that we used to present our other projects with a consistent style used throughout.

INSPIRATION

My process began with finding images for inspiration for my styling, the main idea that I was trying to go with was minimalistic but adding themes of chaos, so I wanted my design to be very opposite with calming yet chaotic.

STYLE GUIDE

After researching for inspiration, I went ahead and made my style guide, I choose these colours as they are both calming with the blues yet chaotic with the orange and yellow, with these colours I used Pantone CMYK swatches, this was to mitigate the difference when it goes to print.

Then with the typography I used Verdana for my body text as it is a sans-serif typeface I like and it's minimalistic. I then chose to use Rockwell for my header and sub-header as it is a slab serif font which works well with sans-serif fonts. I then chose to use Avenir as my quote typeface as it matches the typography already used but can be used lightly which gives off the quote vibe more so then the other fonts which don't have a lighter version.

Then for my elements and illustrations I chose to use a paper plane as it is minimalistic to create, but they are also chaotic as they are unpredictable of where they are going to go. Lines are used throughout the document as more supportive pieces of other elements or for framing purposes. I then also used transparent photos to keep in tune with the idea of keeping it opposite as photorealism is completely opposite to minimalistic illustrations, and I use that element for symbolism and a border for images.

COVER PAGE

BIO PAGE

QUOTE PAGE

BACK PAGE

PROJECT 2: CRAFT BEER DESIGN

In this brief we had to research craft beer packaging and then choose a design style that inspires us and is a leading practitioner, then we had to design a fictional brands craft beer packaging that relates to Western Australia in some way.

INSPIRATION

My main inspiration for my beer can styling came from the Beavertown Brewing Co. that is an American craft beer with a style that is a more handmade illustrative style with visible imperfections very similar to a rough comic, it has very bright and has contrasting colours, it's very busy all around the can and they use a consistent icon throughout their designs, that being the skull icon.

MY CONCEPT

My concept to keep it related to Western Australia is to focus on it's history, to be more specific the history of the Great Emu War (1932), in this time period emus were destroying a lot of the farmers land in Western Australia, so the government decided to send out WW1 veterans to go take care of this issue, after some very poor results from the veterans the government decided to discontinue the operation, which really meant our defeat.

In my design I will show a landscape of the Outback with emus running away from the veterans and finding their own ways of fighting back, I will put the emus in some military gear and make them look stupid to further emphasise the fact that we lost to a bunch of dumb birds.

WA OUTBACK INSPIRATION

SKETCHES AND BRUSHES

For this design I had illustrated all my content before putting it into illustrator for some of my designs I would use the Adobe Capture app to turn some illustrations into shapes and some lines that I made with charcoal, paint and pencil into brushes.

DRAFT DESIGN

This is my first draft which I have received feedback on. The things I plan to add will be clouds in the sky which will allow me to add text in a cloud font for the name of the beer (Blind Luck), I also plan to put other information in other clouds around it similar to what they do on the Face Inverter beer with the bubbles I also plan to add a few more emus in with one being shot out of an artillery gun into the tree and I will also add more military equipment to the emu's. I also plan to add more information such as the barcode to the side on top of the tree.

The feedback that I received was that I should change the bushes to make them more similar to the trees styling, I should also make the further land lighter in colour, and that I should also include more in the centre of the can to tell more of a story. I have also been told that my emu looks more like an ostrich so I will relook at emu's and I will make a better illustration. I plan to also put in some human characters to add more of the emu war factor into the can.

AFTER FEEDBACK SKETCHES

FINAL DESIGN

MOCKUPS AND MERCHANDISE

This is my coaster mockup, I decided to do a coaster as in my research I found that most young adult males have a tendency to abuse alcohol and often drink at home, so this would be something they could buy to put their drinks on whilst at home.

I decided to do a lighter for merchandise as in my target audience research most young people abuse alcohol, and studies show if you abuse one drug you are more likely to abuse another, clubbing is also a young person activity, which brings them closer to people that do smoke as drinking and smoking are accepted.

PORTFOLIOZINE PAGES

This is my coverpage for the second project that fits the style of the beer can but then also includes the paper planes which are consistently used throughout the portfoliozine.

This is my research page that goes through the research I went through with my target audience, and the beer that I take inspiration, what they do good, and how I've used it to inspire me.

This is my process page, it explains the content on the beer can and how I've taken inspiration from history and landmarks to make it. I also explained the feedback that I received and how it changed my design.

This page includes all of my mockups, this includes the final beer mockup which shows all the sides of the beer can and then I also included a lighter and coaster mockup.

PROJECT 3: ALBUM COVER DESIGN

In this brief we had to design a record/album cover for one of our favourite bands or musicians. We then had to use our own photographs as the base ingredient for the design.

MARSHALL MATHERS LP

The topics Eminem talks about in the album is his struggles when it comes to alcohol/drug abuse, his family relationships, growing up in the lower class Detroit, trying to achieve his dreams of being a rapper, his criminal side, and dealing with his new life of fame.

The design elements used is a grainy rough texture in black and white to give the eerie feel, then value is used to see the expression on his face as it's the brightest part, and all the lines are leading to Eminem and his drugs. The principles used are proximity to connect Eminem to his drugs, he also contrasts himself as he is the only living thing on the cover. He uses the alcohol and drugs to symbolise that he abuses the drugs and then he also uses the barred fence, chains, closed door, and brick walls to represent being in prison (in his own mind), after research I find that it's actually his old house from his childhood, which represents his lifestyle at home. The style is grunge photography.

SKETCHES

A lot of my beginning ideas where either really dark, or way too strong when it came to drug abuse themes, which I thought both would make sense considering how controversial he is, but in terms of a design I doubt that it would look good from a university point of view and what would be allowed to be published in the real world. So then I decided to maybe add things from the album such as the media, themes of him when he was a kid, mail from Stan, and add substance abuse but very limitedly as you can see in the previous album cover.

I had a direction now but I was just struggling for a location, as many of the photos I found online weren't going to work with the ideas I had, so I knew I would have to find a location accessible to me, I thought of using the school near me as it is slowly being developed and had things like a fence, brick walls and locked doors similar to the original album, then I thought of continuing to use his history in my design so I decided to take inspiration from his homelessness when he ended up staying in the home he was evicted from and slept on the floor, with no heat, water, nor electricity.

This led me to the idea that I could use the house at the top of my street that hasn't been fully developed yet to take my photos and have Eminem sleeping on the floor around all his possessions to match his life when he was sleeping on the floor of his evicted apartment before fame, and the undeveloped vibe of the house, matches his state of mind at the time when his life is falling apart, and the bricks match the original album cover.

GRUNGE PHOTOGRAPHY INSPIRATION

RAW PHOTOS

FINAL DESIGN

The front cover includes symbolism that reflects on the album and my own research on his past:

The pen and book symbolise his dreams of being a rap artist
The picture of the girl represents his own daughter
The newspaper represents his fame and the articles made against him
The notes on top of that represent the notes from Stan
The bat and spray can represent his life of crime
The sleeping bag, the bag, and the walls represent his period of time being homeless and sleeping in the home that he had been evicted from.

The back cover is a close up of the book where you can see the tracklist of the album, on this page is where all the drug references are for the album as only people that are interested in the album would see the drug references and not some random kid in the store.

ANIMATED ALBUM COVER

EminemAnimatedCover.mp4

PORTFOLIOZINE PAGES

This is the cover page for the project that is done in the same style as the final in the project, the paper planes are used to keep the consistency of the paper planes throughout the document.

This is my research page which includes all the information I could include and each part is labelled for the brief, and it also shows the original album cover.

This page is to show my process with the raw photos I took and the sketches I made. I also explain the journey I went on and how it got me to my final piece.

This is my mockups page that shows the final design on the mockups of a CD, this way I'm able to show both the front and back cover with the thought of the technology when it was originally made.

INTERACTIVE POTFOLIOZINE

CLICK THE PAPER PLANE AT THE BOTTOM

FILM COLLABORATIVE WORK

The major project film students were producing a film called "Nothing Special," and they needed a group of designers to create posters and instagram posts for the film for advertising purposes.

THE BRIEF

My part in all this was creating some ideation sketches and the original template for the instagram posts and then we all got together to discuss the design and come to a design we are happy with and then receive feedback on that design.

IDEATIONS

These iterations were made by me getting all the resources and then a lot of the other designers in the room looking at the designs and coming up with new ideas to include to make it the way we wanted it.

FEEDBACK

This is the feedback given to us by the film students on what further they wanted from the design.

FINAL

This is the final design that uses all the same elements just to fit the style of the image given to us.

CONTACT ME

Email:

Instgram:

@paperplanedesigner

Skillset:

Product/Packaging Design
Brand Guidelines
Illustration
Photo Manipulation

Common Styles:

Minimalism
Grunge
Symbolism

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