~ Creative networks- development - experimentation & final ~

Throughout the design process I have experimented lots with different ideas. Each are informed by the target audience (art students) and the artists the posters are based upon (mike mignola etc.)

My initial sketches are all surrounding the theme of 3D design. 3D design is a good way to design posters as they instantly grab attention and become more interactive than standard 2D designs. This sketch shows examples of making parts of each poster 3D; the iconic hellboy horns, The batman logo, Typography, a ripped style design revealing his work and a cityscape. 

Following various online tutorials I produced some mock up 3D bats. Although the design would work well its more iconic of the film and 'overdone' rather than representing the artist himself effectively.

The next design experiment was to use the 3D idea but 'inverted'. The first design idea is informed by the 'action' and utopian theme of Mike Mignola's work. The idea was to print a minimal title/date design on a coloured stock (the colour informed by the speaker, red for Mike Mingola as he uses red in most of his illustrations and light blue for Todd Haynes as its iconic within his most well known and recent film Carol. 

Todd Haynes iconic film Carol is about a lesbian relationship in the 50's; its about love, secrecy and the fight for a women's right for her child. Informed by this context and the idea of secrecy I created a minimal design depicting the title & important information. I then folded over the edge revealing a still from the film; giving the audience more visual content surrounding the speaker. The prototype represents a light blue coloured stock for the front page print; this is informed by the cinematography and branding of the film (iconically pastel, melancholy and blue). The typeface is also informed by the branding of the Carol film, its also clean, clear and easily legible to get the information across effectively. 

Secondly is the Mike Mignola variation of this design idea. Rather than using the folded corner design I produced a ripped open design. This is informed by the action, dystopian, super hero nature of his work. Once again informed by the speaker himself the front page is to be printed on red stock (the colour most seen throughout his work). The typeface used for this design is 'Resistance' its a mix between a slab serif and a traditional gothic typeface; relevant to the style of illustration. 

The next experimentation route was with considering 3D form within the design in a simpler way. I felt creating a label style design (3D) would have the same 'grabbing attention' effect but would be easier to reproduce with consistency. This image shows some basic experimentation of the layout of the label design. 

Using the resistance typeface informed by Mike's work and Avenir as the body copy to ensure strong legibility. 

Using the label design ensures that each poster, (no-matter who the speaker is each time) is consistent in design with each other. But each can have a main design element that is inconsistent and individually informed by each speaker.

 The designs are initial experiments using the overall theme of 3D design in a different way. I rendered images of Mike Mignola's illustrations into Spheres. I think although this design is aesthetically effective its not as well informed and considered as it could be.


Moving on from 3D design - moving on from the theme of 3D I decided to focus on the type and information within the posters. Making that at the top of the hierarchy of information and creating the visual elements (aesthetic) as a secondary importance. 

 These are various examples of type only/type focused designs. I experimented with various placements of type to see what made them more effective - how placement, pt.size, typeface effects the hierarchy of information. 

This was my favourite of the type only designs as it can be 100% consistently be reproduced for each guest speaker over the year. It uses bold type in the background to inform the audience of who the speaker is, the repetition of such making it the most important piece of information. But to ensure the information of date and context is displayed clearly this is put in-front, clearly on a white background. 

I finally decided to further pursue the idea of producing a consistant label for all the designs but create a background image for each that was informed by them. This image shows how we created an abstract representation of the design (using liquify in Photoshop) to create a background informed by the illustrator. This was the obvious use of unedited imagery (which we felt is overdone) is avoided but it still delivers the iconic colours of each artists work.

These images show some physical/mock up experimentations of implementing the label onto the background design. Although this does look effective we actually found it being 3D didn't add all that much to the design, and keeping it integrated within a 2D design would reduce costs and time in final production. 

 This is an initial experimentation creating a more integrated label design. We initially chose to justify the label and the main type within it left.

Further experimentation shows the decision to blend the background colour of the label with that of the abstract background to re-inforce its integration and the colour theory. 

These are the 2 final designs submitted for this brief. The main background components of the designs are distorted/abstract versions of the guest speakers work - making them directly informed by the colour theory they personally use. This abstraction makes the poster intriguing and exciting, causing the audience to want to know more. 

The final label it integrated within the design using colour matching. The type setting it centered making it bold and at the centre of the audiences eyes (the top of the visual hierarchy). The title typefaces have been chosen informed by the artists themselves and style of work produced - and the body copy has been chosen for legibility and consistency within a set.