FINAL PIECE//

 For my exhibition, I had two large A1 prints that I could put in my space. So I had to decide what out of all my work was most suitable for the exhibition. After deciding to put up my three portraights and one peice of design work, I couldn't decide which piece of design I wanted to use. There were several elements from different pieces which i liked the most, so I decided to create a final piece purposfully for my exhibition.

 

These are the three pieces I wanted to combine to create a final image. I wanted to take different elements from each design. For example, Colour and shapes from the top, the composition of the middle and type layout from the bottom. I then started experiment with different compositions. I wanted to create a clean, simple peice of design to put alongside my tri-tone imagery, as I believe they would compliment each other well.

To begin with, I re created the three shapes I wanted to incorporate. I like the combination of three different shapes, so I wanted each one to represent a different aspect from the three above pieces. Here we have the my new shapes with the type, pattern and logos in. I decided to keep them in greyscale, but with the typography a nice aqua colour. I did this so that the typography would be lifted from the neutral background. I was very happy with these shapes and decided to combine them into a couple of layouts.

Here are my first two layouts. Although I like them both, I prefer the one on the right due to the way the layout reflects my original posters better. I like how the light grey square centralises the graphics and creates a border around the focal point. I also like the opportunity to place logos in the bottom open space. I don't like the colour scheme though, and have decided I want to make the background colour more subtle so it doesn't distract the audience from the typography. The colour scheme will be more similar to the design on the left. I think this colour scheme will compliment my tri-tone photography better than a contrasting olive green.

Another thing I like about the design on the right is the overlayed shapes and how they fit inside one another, although for my next draft I may remove the pattern behind do to it detracting form the other shapes, and that the pattern is already being used with the triangle. By removing this it will also add a sense of symmetry which I think will make my work more tasteful.

Here are my next drafts.

After making some final developments, here is the design I decided to go with. I decided to create a slightly off white background to create a thin white border around the design. I also made the logos at the bottom which represent the different styles of riding, relate to the type by using the same colour for both. I like the textural feel to the shapes and I like how it contrasts to the block colour of the background. It also gives the piece a more organic feel and makes it more interesting than a complete digital piece. Overall I am really happy with this design, and thing the simplicity of this design will compliment the set of images which will be presented along side it.

DIGITAL TYPE//

After combining my photography with my hand rendered type, I decided I would like to use a similar concept at the beginning of my moving image piece, but to be more appropriate I wanted to create it digitally. I took inspiration for a number of sources. I've always been interested in brand identity, and logos such as below. These are my favourite style of logos.

 I decided to use a circle as the base shape for my logo. I love how shape can sit cleanly in the centre of the design and seperate the logo from the background image.

I experimented with a handfull of hand rendered type just to make sure, and although they were more appealing than I orginally thought, the digital ones worked better as they appeared cleaner and smoother than the hand rednered. Working digitally is more versatile because of sizing and rendering, as I won't have to worry about loosing quality if it needs to be enlarged. I decided to keep the colour scheme very minimal with greys/blacks/whites. I did this because I intent to lower the opacity and blend them on top of other designs. I saved them all as layered files though, as this would if neccersary, give me the possibilty to change the colour if I wanted too.

I overlayed them onto a few screen shots for some testing. I like how these came out and they had the desired effect. Although they all work well, I purposfully made each test slightly different, to experiment with slightly different variables, so I knew which method worked best. For example, When the shot was out of focus, I used an opaque design, as the clear logo contrasts nicely from the out of focus background. Whereas if the background image was in focus (top)  I lowered the opacity slightly so that none of the shot was being hidden and you could still make out objects/outlines through the logo.

My favourite is definitely the out of focus method. I like how it is easy to ready the test, and there is no distractions in the background. When the clip gets pulled back into focus though I would fade the type out so it isn't in the way of the footage.

 ILLUSTRATIVE TYPE//

I also decided to have a more illustrative approach with some of my type. I used bold colour palletes to make them stand out. I like how they have a childish look to them and think the are really eye catching. They also allowed me to bring in these illustrations of BMX's which I did at the beggining of the project.

I drew these images with the intention of creating an illustartive design, but at the time I couldn't get my ideas down on paper, so I decided to put them to one side for the time being, but they tied in perfectly with my hand rendered typography.

I blended them subtlety into the background of a few, as this gave the typography a bit more context, because as a stand alone they would be misleading to the audience. I am overall very pleased with these designs, as I have always been a fan of hand rendered type since coming across the work of Nate Williams and Chris Piascik, and then  coming across the "Hand job book of illustrative type." After being inspired by this I always had the intention to introduce it into my final project.

After finishing this work with typography, I realised that I wanted a similar design to be created for the start of my moving image peice. I want this to be digital, as I believe this would work better with a HD video, as the crisper, smooth lines would look more appropriate than hand rendered.

TYPOGRAPHY//

I wanted to move away from my Photography for a bit, so this week I decided to focus on Typography. First of all I needed to decide what type I wanted to go and which designs I wanted it to go on. After researching into typography, there were two main styles which I liked the most. Here are two examples below.

As you can see, one is very illustrative, and the other is very graphic. I wanted to try both of these techniques and maybe even combine the two.

 

So to start off, I read through my back catalog of The Albion and from a variety of other sources to find some suitable quotes. I wanted short phrases which are either common quotes when down at the skate park, or more deep and meaningful quotes from professional riders. I wanted the quotes to represent ths the reason why they ride BMX. The quotes I came across in The Albion were all relativly similar and they all express how BMX is not just a sport but a lifestyle, and one that is different to the norm. Here is my list of quotes I gathered.

Skate park quotes;

-Can you backflip?

-Can you Tailwhip?

- Are you sponsored?

Parents quotes;

- Are you riding your Circus bike again?

-Are you ever going to grow up?

-Do you need stabelizers?

The Albion;

- Chasing some kind of thrill

-The Scenic Route

-The long and windy road

-Mad, with a healthy dose of method.

-On your own path

-In your own time.

Others;

-Another Route

-Any which Way

-Life Behind Bars

-Off the Beaten Path

- No particular direction

I liked most of these quotes/phrases. But I decided to mainly use the ones from the Albion interviews with professional riders as I felt it captured the reason behind why people ride better, where as the parental quotes seemed quite negative towards the sport. The quotes were all relativley similar in meaning and i felt that the idea of BMX being a different way of life was clearly expressed through all of these quotes.

I initially sketched out some ideas, the varied from simple fonts and compositions, to more illustrative approaches. I wanted to do all of these designs hand rendered as I love the unique quality of line that is created. I then recreated these drawings by using tracing paper and fine liner, as this wood be better for when I scanned my designs in. 

It was clear to see, when drawn in pen, which designs would be more successful than others. for example, 'Life behind bars' was too busy and would heavily detract from the image/design it would go with. Whereas others, like the 'In your own time' would compliment my photography well as it would have a more graphic feel to it. For the more illustrative ones, I plan to use them as individual illustrations. Where I would use a bright colour pallete to exmphasise the childish approach.

Here are my first images with the type on.

I like the outcome of these and they have the look I was planning. My favourite aspect of these images are where I Blurred the background, as you can still tell what the image is, but it makes the type clearer to read without detracting from the overall piece. I also like the bottom two images more due to the centeralised type. I think this makes the typography more prominent.

I don't like the top one though due to the background image not being blurred, I feel the type clashes with the background slightly and is harder to read. I chose not to blur this image due to it not being as easy for the audience to decipher what it is, but this makes the whole image not as successfull as the others.

FURTHER IMAGE MANIPULATION//

This week I wanted to continue editing my images, but I wanted to try using shapes to bring attention to a certain area, or as a way of incorporating images or other design work back into my images.

I have always been into simple design, where a simple shape like a circle or square is used to contrast against the background. The most common use for this would be to highlight typography. Here are a few examples I gathered whilst doing my research. As you can see, Charles Bergquist uses circles to excentuate certain aspects of his design. I like how it is heavily contrasted, and immediately grabs your attention. When doing this within my work, I want to use the shapes to blend relating images together, and to bring my logos I made last week into my photography.

Here are a few of my first attempts at using a shape within my photography.

The bottom two are my personal favourites, I like how the subtle contrasts really grab your attention without distracting you from the original image. I think these are a more sophisticated approach to the overlayed images, which feel to clumsy and are a distraction to the background image.

After this I decided to introduce my logos, I used a simple set of three or four in a variety of compositions, ranging from small subtle logos, to full page blends. I created these in Photoshop by adding them in as a new layer, and either overlaying them or lowering the opactiy to blend them into the image. I think top is my favourite, as I like how the logos are large and the image is now unrecognisable. I also like the texture which i added over the image to give it a more organic feel. For this one I used colour select to select all three logos, I then placed this outline over the image, inversed the selection, and deleted the image to create a white background for the logos to sit on. I think this is a very simple, but bold design thats looks more sophisticated than my others.

I continued this technique, by creating a contrasting square on another image. But I wanted to make them stand out even more, so I decided to add a Blur. I chose a motion blur, which gives the effect of the camera moving from side to side within the chosen area. Although I liked this idea, after reflecting on it I chose to alter it to a Gaussian blur, as this provides the blurred, mysterious look, but the image behind is more recognisable, which is the effect I was originally going for. I then decided to try adding the Gaussian blur with a circle, as I think this would work really well with one of my logos and be more successful than the image with the square.

Here is the image I chose to add the logo too. I think this is the most successful edit I have created. I really like the composition of the photograph, and think the introduction of the logo adds a sense of symmetry, which would make this image work great over a double page spread. I also like how the subtle blur brings your attention to the logo without making it too bold.