ALEXANDRA TRUTWEIN

Showcase 22T1

STUDIO 2 - DDX212 - 22T1

1024242@STUDENT.SAE.EDU.AU | @ALLYTRUTWEIN | PORTFOLIO

ABOUT ME

Hi! my name is Ally Trutwein, and I am a student here at SAE, studying Graphic Design. I am currently in my third trimester of study, and am thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.

I have always loved design since school, and the thing I love the most about it is that you can do whatever you want; "there ain't no rules" (to quote James Victore). The opportunities are endless and design is such a powerful form of communication in the 21st century.

I am very in touch with retro style, including 1970's and 1980's groovy, disco fonts and colours. I love a good texture over an image, to portray it as retro or vintage, and I love typography. Some of my design inspirations are Paula Scher, Milton Glaser and Andrey Azizov. You will always see the bright pinks, purples, blues and oranges in my work and know it's mine!

This trimester we have worked on a FolioZine, which is a combination of a portfolio and a magazine, showcasing our work from the four briefs we completed this trimester. In the past 13 weeks, I believe I have grown so much as a designer in my work and as a person, with knowledge, skills and communication.

FOLIOZINE

This Trimester you will be researching and delivering four unique briefs creating your own personal 16 Page A3 FolioZine to present your work. This is delivered via an initial overall brief to self brand and stylise the document, and then three following separate briefs that are to be showcased in the FolioZine.

DDX212_22T1_Brief 1_Alexandra Trutwein_Foliozine.pdf

BRIEF 1 - PERSONAL BRAND GRAPHIC

This brief requires you to develop a personal brand graphic that represents you, and that can be applied to your FolioZine. It needs to include your name or and part of the basis of the design must be hand made.

INSPIRATION

For this brief, I wanted to draw inspiration from homage style edits from the 80's and 90's. The use of collaging images, overlaying textures and using layer styles makes the design look retro.

PAULA SCHER

Paula Scher is an American contemporary graphic designer. Her work showcased a balance of pop culture and fine art, practising Aerican vernacular design. Her eclectic approach to typography became really popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and her branding of environmental graphics, packaging and publications and promotional materials were designed for a large range of popular clients. She is described as being 'fearless and independant' and I love that she is not afraid to use bright analogous colours combined with large typography intergrated into a pattern. Her collaging and layering techniques are an inspiration to me.

DESIGN PROCESS

I started by cutting out images of me to make the personalised brand graphic, because I think the way I portray myself as a person is a huge influence to my fun, vibrant design work.

I made a few little designs of my name on Illustrator, but I felt as though they were too strong for the style of design I was making, so I stuck with a classic chunky serif font that is the size of my background. I combined these cut outs and made a gradient graphic with my favourite colours and techniques on Photoshop. I actually took photos of my tattoos and cut out the background, featuring them in the background of most of the pages.

I played around on photoshop to get the right colouring, making sure the attention was not just on me but my name in the background. This took countless trial and errors.

I thought I was finally done, and then went on to design the rest of my 3 pages for this brief in a similar display.

It wasn't until a few weeks afterwards, after I had learnt much more Photoshop techniques in the gradual progression of my trimester, that I thought I should change the colouring to be more vibrant and not as complex. I had issues with the frame around the outside of the first page, so I edited some parts of the design, leaving all the relevant information.

FINAL DESIGNS

BRIEF 2 - RETRO BUTTON BADGE SERIES

This brief requires you to research Retro Design Movement and a key practitioner. Apply this knowledge to a Retro Button Badge Series for Rottnest Island.

RESEARCH

The way we percieve something as being vintage or retro depends on three things: nostalgia, perception of age and visual style. Nostalgia happens when someone viewing a vintage design grew up amongst the original years of that design style, and psychologically, they are drawn to the subject. Visual style refers to the art movement the piece is from; vintage being more historial and retro being more resect, but still in the past.

The graphic design style in the 1970’s specifically, was a groovy and psychadellic era influenced by hippies, disco and punk. People expressed themselves as extravegently as they could and typography was a huge part of the design style as the world moved on from the International Typographic Style. Fonts were hand-drawn and freeform, and inspired by glowing neon lights.

The 1970’s design style was used as a weapon of protest, the groovy music of the era impacted the bubble type, and the curved script and extended glyphs were carried on from the 60’s.

MILTON GLASER

Milton Glaser was a popular designer known for creating the iconic I ♥ NY design in the 1970s, to promote tourism in New York City. The original design was done my Milton Glaser in the back of a cab, drawn with red crayon on an envelope, and went on to be one of the mostindentifyable symbols of New York.

The design was so simple and was universally known. The only full word in the design is 'I'. The symbol of the heart and the abbreviation of New York was easily recognisable by tourists worldwide, and the pioneering design changed the way society interpretted design.

DESIGN PROCESS

My Rottnest button badge series was aimed at people aged 20-24, who love to go to Rottnest Island purely for a drink with friends and a swim at the beautiful beaches.

After seeing that Milton Glazer created a globally iconic design that was so simple, to attract tourism in New York, I thought about those humorous shirts that say "I went to ____ and all I got was this lousy shirt". These shirts are meant to be satirical, but do still attract people's attention to the location that is said on the shirt, much like the I <3 NY shirt.

I started to think of a way I could promote Rottnest Island to people of the target age group, in a simplistic but appealing way, and I loved the idea of the mockery shirts as button badges but describing what someone in that demographic would do at Rottnest.

I took this idea to Photoshop and digitalised the scamp that I had drawn up. I felt like typography was a strong point, but I would need some type of illustration or graphic to add to the design.

It was then that I thought of the idea to warp some 1970s style bubble text in a curcular shape, and add in a simple, offset colured illustration in the negative space to appeal to the target audience more.

I drew up 3/4 different illustrations based on images, of people drinking the main types of beverages one would have at Rottnest: beer, wine, and cocktails.

I played around with different colour combinations and layer styles to see what colours would be the most appealing for a button badge set. The oppotunities were endless.

I wanted to make sure for at least one of them, I slightly paid homage to the classic teal and orange tourism posters that were popular in the 1980s.

FINAL DESIGNS

BRIEF 3 - INTERDISCIPLINARY ALBUM COVER

This brief requires you to design a record cover for an audio student. You are to work collaboratively and follow a brief that the audio student has given.

THE BRIEF

For this project, I worked interdisciplinary with an Audio student named Conor Atkinson. I chose to work with his brief because his design ideas were vibrant and retro looking, and I love anything retro, colourful and neon, so I thought it resonated well with me. His brief (as shown on the right) had links to images that projected synthwave, cyberpunk and neon themes.

Conor's brief for me.

RESEARCH

The general theme of Conor’s moodboard was overarching Japanese themes and iconic architecture/locations, geometric suns in the background of a dark, neon city, cars in a cityscape, and palm trees and mountains. His style of music was synthwave; using Japanese intruments, so the graphics he was looking for had Japanese culture and influence.

The target audience for Timeline was broad. Conor mentioned that although it was intended for people who listen to synthwave, it wasn’t often you heard traditional Japanese instruments in EDM. Electronic music usually has a demographic of 20-30 year olds, but synthwave is made to feel nostalgic, so he has targeted his music to those who have had a good amount of life experience.

DESIGN PROCESS

I worked closely with Conor throughout this entire project, sending back and forth feedback and iterations to make sure he was on the same page as me and to ensure he was liking the direction of where I was going.

I started 2 other ideas for the album cover artwork before finding the exact assets I needed to do the final design. My original idea was to have a car speeding along the highway, with Japanese iconic architecure in the middle ground and the long road at a vanishing point in the cityscape in the background. I wanted to include palm trees and a vapourwave sun, but I was conflicted because the setting was a cityscape at night time, so I would have to choose one or the other.

My first idea was not as strong. I was getting used to the photomanipulation techniques and perspective shift, and I ended up with this design. Conor loved the colours of the city and the use of the Lambourghini Countach, so I made sure to do the same in future ideas, however this design was not strong enough.

My second idea was a lot cleaner looking, but I really struggled to find an image of a Lambourghini Countach in this particular angle. I showed Conor the design and although he loved it, we both agreed that the use of the original car would be better because it is from the 1980s. He also wanted more iconic Japanese architecture.

My third and final design took hours of searching for the specific images, but was worth it. It was a different perspective shift than the original idea, but the progression of my ideas concluded at this one, which, against the Japanese street cityscape background, was perfect.

I did some general photomanipulation and seeing what it looked like as one image, then posterised it a bit to make the artwork blend better. I used a few illustrative filters, so bring out the textural elements of the design too. I changed the hues and levels, to bring out other colours in the image and see what looked the most neon/synthwave style.

I sent it to Conor, and he wanted me to include a vapourwace sun in it somehow, even if it was a Japanese cityscape.

My next challenge was to find the perfect font and placement for the title and Conor's name. I started with the title at the top, but because the background was detailed and colourful, I thought having it along the side of the artwork would look more effective, and it would also make sense, considering the background was a lot of Japanese written signage, hanging vertical from the shopfront.

The progression of the block text as the title was interesting. I had visual gaps in the text and needed to fill them in to create an easier to read title. I extended the bar of the T and the tail of the L, to create a solid block of text, and then I had Conor's name in the same position below it.

FINAL DESIGNS

This is the final design of the album cover.

BRIEF 4 - BOOK COVER DESIGN

This brief requires you to design a book cover, back and spine for the classic story, Little Red Riding Hood. You are to use lino printing as another medium for your design.

THE STORY

Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault

“The original story is about a young girl who travels through the forest to her grandmother’s house and meets a friendly wolf. The wolf asks her where she is going and being pure and naive, she tells him. The wolf then finds a quicker way to the grandmother’s house, and gobbles her up. When Red gets there, she notices her grandmother’s features are different, and eventually realises they resemble that of the wolf’s. She calls for help and a woodsman makes the wolf spit the grandmother out.”

RESEARCH

I have chosen to depict Red as a small girl on a treacherous path to her grandmothers house, which will be representing growing up. The road ahead is unpredictable and scary, a metaphor to her adulthood and future, and the confrontation with the wolf is a representation of people she may meet in life that will hurt her.

The red colouring in the book cover represents the problems and bad things she may face on the way, and the path in the shape of a wolf’s head depicts the idea that life can be scary, and to be careful with who you trust, as some people are out there just to cause evil.

Originally, I was planning to design my front cover in aerial point of view, flowing onto all three panels, but I had problems with how I was going to draw the trees, because I didn't want to draw them as circles. I found a solution to the problems and that was to alter the perspective to a high angle, so there could be different thickness of the path, and that way I could draw the trees as little icons.

DESIGN PROCESS

This is my experiemental lino piece where I practised my lino carving, leaf and path patterns. I was orn between drawing my trees like a pine tree or as a skeletal branch. I decided to go with the skeletal branch looking one, because I think it added to the mystery and daunting theme.

I carved out my front cover panel (top) and all the tree icons around it. After, I coated it in ink to press it onto a piece of paper. The print of obviously flipped, but I edited that on Photoshop.

This was the original lino print. I love the little details such as the white speckles in the black background from the ink, and the etched pathway looks great, as it is not meant to be perfect.

In Photoshop, I drew up the back panel and the spine with the lasso tool then duplicated the path and edited it into the selected area. I did the asme process with the trees in the background, however I amde sure to keep a stroke of black around the path and cut out some trees that were in the way, to make the pattern less loud, and to differenciate the ilustrations.

Placing the text was a huge part of this process, as because I had such a detailed and chaotic background, I needed to make sure the text wouldn't clutter it more, but draw attention to it. Having horizontal text was very hard to read. I had to make sure it had a stroke on it so again, you could differenciate.

I wanted to write the blurb as the shape of the wolf's mouth, because that was a great spot of negative space.

I also thought that the spine title should be smaller, so I decreased the size, but had to fill in the negative space, and the silhouette of Red was a perfect addition. I was indecisive about adding in an eye on the text of the spine, but I didn't want to make the word illegible.

FINAL DESIGNS

This was my final book cover design. I am proud of it, and all the little thinks I have added in to make it more interesting, such as the barcode in the shape of grandmother's house in red, foreshadowing the story, and the overal shape of the wolf's head overarching on all three panels, which is something people wouldn't know unless they opened the book all the way.

COLLABORATIVE WORK

Any collaborative work you have done with another student or designer.

TIMELINE ALBUM COVER

Working collaboratively with Conor Atkinson for the Record Album Cover was a really fun and interesting project. It was so good to get feedback both cool and warm off somebody who you are designing for. It gives you another opinion on your own work when you can feel a bit stuck. Conor was lovely and great to work with, supplying all the relevant information I needed to fulfil his brief.

1. What target audience is your music aimed at? (demographic, age, style, personality traits, hobbies)

I really had no target audience in mind when starting this because i’m one to think “whoever listens to this, listens to it”.

If i were to actually think about it though, it would be people who want to listen to something a little different, it’s not often you hear traditional Japanese instruments in EDM. Because it’s synthwave (and thus a part of electronic music), i’m most likely aiming this at an audience around 20-30 years of age (Synthwave typically tries to make someone feel nostalgic, so someone with at least some life experience would be necessary). In terms of demographics, probably just a mixture between Western and Japanese cultures.

2. What marketing tactics do you have experience in or plan on doing for the EP? (soundcloud, bandcamp etc?)

I do not have much marketing experience so far, but if i were to upload these they would most likely go up on soundcloud and Youtube.

3. What marketing tactics have you used in the past (if any) and your honest opinion on them in terms of if they worked/didn't work, what you would have done better?

I haven’t done much in terms of marketing things before, but most of the time i just make music that i think is cool and don’t give much thought into who actually listens to it. Of course this makes it so that i’m not really gearing myself towards a particular group of people, nor am i trying to actively gather attention to myself/my music, which means that if i were to properly get my name out there, i’d have to start thinking about these things.

4. What emotions or feelings do you want your music to evoke to the audience?

I want to evoke a sense of nostalgia in the listener. This is one of the main parts of synthwave after all. I also want to create a sense of chill etherealness (if that’s even possible). Currently 2 of my songs are quite different from one another in terms of what i’m trying to convey. Song 1 (Star Jumper) is more upbeat and dancey, while Song 2 (Becoming Synthetic) is more chill and ethereal/ambient).

PREVIOUS WORK

Personal and/or freeland from outside of SAE.

RESTLESS

Restless is a Perth based event for like minded people who share the same love for underground house & techno. I have worked as a designer for the Restless event posters since the start of this project, and it has given me a chance to showcase my ever changing design skills.