Follow the Rhythm

I want to keep focusing in this project with simplistic, bold statements. I was thinking I could maybe do Taylor Swifts song “The man” as it holds a very strong and powerful message and frankly calls society out.

I made a Pinterest mood board – here is the link – https://pin.it/yCNvdcK

 

I did some quick planning in my notebook but then decided to switch to a different song as when I tried sticking the two sides of Taylor as a man and a woman it looked awful. I instead decided to work with the song, level of concern by twenty one pilots as it allowed me to make a more simplistic and bold cover like I wanted.

 

 

 

Final piece

I went for a simplistic and bold design. I imitated loosely the shape of the pen drive in white at the bottom and used a starry sky background – I like how the tranquil, quiet sky contradicts the song, the titles and the colours themselves (which were the colours originally used in their own cover).

I am quite pleased with the outcome.

100 Iterations

We were tasked with researching a minimum of 100 on an agreed upon topic by your group. My group chose structures, natural and man made. Man vs Nature in a way.

I liked this topic as you could take either a very structural, architectural approach or a quirky one.

We created a joint group chat and Pinterest board, where we collected images for inspiration.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/eausshmck/ixd102-project-02/

I noticed that sharp lines could be created by manipulating light and that every single one of them was unique, the theme of uniqueness or one offs lead me to fingerprints and tree rings, they tell a story. I kind of like to look at tree rings like wrinkles nearly, you get more the older you get and they tell a story of your life. I want my narrative to be about similarities, how a building, a tree or a person can be unique. I want to group these 3 unlikely trio together. This idea of showing a legacy, age or a lifespan reminds me of tiny we are and that in the blink of an eye it can all be missed. As quick as a heartbeat really. I want to illustrate this in my illustration, using lines only. I want it to be as simple as possible. Less is more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the 3 main images that inspired me, they sort of made something click for me.

I decided to represent nature, mankind and mankind’s creations through solid line drawings, I decided to use a fingerprint for humans, a tree ring for nature and an old building outline for man made structures. I decided to draw a building that looked a bit older in style, to keep with the theme.

I will have them start at a single line and end at a single line, to represent a heartbeat and how truly fast life goes by.

Progress: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think there is something very poetic in the seemingly never ending chaos of lines and circles in the fingerprint, which is another reason why I chos it, it clearly shows that life is complicated, it’s never straightforward or untangled – a stark contrast to the building which consists of pin straight lines. It is also interesting to see that the lines in the tree ring are more complex and unperfect.

This is finished outcome, I left in black and white as I wanted the lines to speak for themselves without colour taking the attention away.


UI artist cards

User Interface design.

I found this topic very interesting, here are some of my notes on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my go at creating a UI artist card

 

I decided to go with a very muted and serious colour pallet as that is the feeling this song evokes for me, I wanted the design to not only be functional but to also mean something more.

Typography

After studying typography with Paul on Monday I wanted to experiment with lettering and how to create designs with them.

Here are some of my notes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to stick mainly to black and white – I have been trying to be more minimalist in my designs as  I find that sometimes I overfill the page in an effort to look complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Point, Line, Plane


Icon challenge

As part of a class exercise we were tasked with an icon challenge using figma.

We were to create icons/buttons for:

  • Play
  • Stop
  • Pause
  • Fast forward
  • Rewind

Things I will be considering:

-Who am I designing this for?

An elderly person with dementia or cataracts: I could use a colour system, like the traffic colour system – it is universally recognizable and the colours will stand out to the elderly person with sight or memory issues. Similarly this system could also work for a child as the red, greeen and yellow are very bright and engaging colours. I could add words instead of symbols along with an audio feature so the elderly person can use it more easily.

Here are the icons I made using Figma.


Thumbnails

These are some of my notes and research for this topic, I tried to do little drawings  while taking notes, they helped me visualize and focus on the task, I then went on to design some on paper before experimenting in Figma. The circle one was originally meant to be a panda, but I got carried away so now its an alien panda 🙂 The second one I increased the width of the lines each time by a factor of 5 – I like consistency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

App Thumbnail Task

During my Mondays class we learned about the Fibonacci principle, we were then tasked to create 3 thumbnails of apps on our phones using figma.

 

The 1st thumbnail is of my gallery, the second is my Instagram home page and the last one is my Pinterest home screen. I really enjoyed making these thumbnails, it was fun and a good way to warm up to using figma.

I am quite pleased with the outcome, I do tend to gravitate to this colour pallet as I think it looks clean, simple and elegant.

 

Research

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project 01 – Manifesto

Manifestos, Mottos and Mantras


To me a manifesto is a declaration of intent not only to the world but also to yourself, it presents values which a person stands for or is inspired by – or as Paul put it ” a battle cry to inspire you when things get tough”. A mantra would be more like a slogan or statement repeated with the purpose of uplifting oneself. Mottos would also be a form or motivation much like the mantra and the manifesto. A creative method for artists to express their intentions – a way to artistically articulate something that is meaningful to you.

I am not a fan of the ‘typical’ uplifting quotes as I find them kind of empty of real meaning. I want my manifesto to mean something and to do that I think it has to be personal – maybe like an inside joke or private story? Whilst I understand that a wider audience than just me will view it, I think that the message my manifesto will convey should be directed at me to keep me going; it needs to be MY battle cry.

I want to not only consider the words I use but also the design and colorus I utilize as, for example, a background or design with a mainly pink colour scheme will feel more personal to me than a green color scheme would as this colour does not resonate with me as strongly.


Breton, a surrealist manifesto

Surrealism, as Andre Breton explains is the combining or merging of reality with dreams, in art and all aspects of life imagination is to be a person’s greatest quality. As Breton argued, there is no point in creating ordinary and boring art that reflects reality as perhaps doing this only pushes away the subconscious and the creativity in us. Breton stated that “realistic attitude” is the same to being “hostile to any intellectual or moral advancement.” I guess that he was trying to argue that if we only accept was is directly in front of us and look no further a different and perhaps better way of thinking, analyzing and imagining things can never be achieved as the rose-tinted glasses, or in this case the ‘wacky’ glasses have not been put on. Breton’s manifestos lay out the politics of the surrealist movement – he clearly conveyed his message, I would like my manifesto to do the same.

The Dada Manifesto

Dada Manifesto is not a singular writing, it was a movement. the best-known pieces for this movement were created  by Hugo Ball and Tristan Tzara. Ball wrote his piece in 1916, while Tzara’s wrote his in 1918.

The Dada movement originated during WW1 when young creatives living in neutral Switzerland decided to take their aim at the issues that led to the war, such as nationalism. They became known as Dadaists. They were searching for a way to disengage from the cruel reality of the times.

Dada was influenced by Cubism, Expressionism, Futurism, and Constructivism. This movement – the same as many other movements- had the urge or the aim to change the world for the better. They craved freedom. The anti-intellectualism of the time heavily influenced Ball and Tzara.

“Dada world war without end, dada revolution without beginning, dada, you friends and also-poets, esteemed sirs, manufacturers, and evangelists. Dada Tzara, dada Huelsenbeck, dada m’dada, dada m’dada dada mhm, dada dere dada, dada Hue, dada Tza.” – Hugo Ball, Dada Manifest.

“Freedom: DADA DADA DADA, a roaring of tense colors, and interlacing of opposites and of all contradictions, grotesques, inconsistencies: LIFE.” – Tristan Tzara, Dada Manifesto.

To Ball Dada perhaps meant goodbye but to Tzara Dada was meaningless, perhaps because he viewed art as also devoid of meaning. What comes to mind after researching this is that a manifesto can mean different things to different people – the way it is perceived and under which mindset will heavily influence its meaning to the viewer, even if the resulting meaning was not the one the artist intended to communicate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


What I would like my Mantra to be/do

  • challenge and provoke
  • Advertise me as a designer
  • Not be too long – short and sweet seems better to me
  • Theatrical – I want it to make a statement, to not be obvious
  • Motivate me

Famous quotes by artists that inspire me

  • “Every artist was first an amateur” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “Creativity takes courage” – Henri Matisse
  • “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” – Pablo Picasso
  • “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton
  • “We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents” – Bob Ross
  • “The “principles of true art is not to portray, but to evoke” – Jerzy Kosinski
  • “As my artist’s statement explains, my work is utterly incomprehensible and is therefore full of deep significance” – Calvin and Hobbes
  • “Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein
  • “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it” – Salvador Dali
  • “You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club” – Jack London
  • “Creativity is a drug I cannot live without” – Cecil B. DeMille
  • “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not’?” – George Bernard Shaw
  • “Reality continues to ruin my life.” ― Bill Watterson
  • “I’m killing time while I wait for life to shower me with meaning and happiness.” ― Bill Watterson
  • “You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood. What mood is that? Last-minute panic.” ― Bill Watterson

 

 


Motto ideas

  1. With hard work todo se logra.
  2. Tomorrow es el dia mas ocupado de la semana. Get on with it.
  3. Get on with it already.
  4. Mañana está ocupado, work hard today.
  5. Mañana lo ocupaste, work hard today.

 


Design research ideas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Sketches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Digital progress and final outcome

 

 

I really like this last version – after talking to my professor it was established that the previous 2 versions with the vertical writing were too difficult to read – Their complexity made them obsolete. Good design is easily understood – I did not take that into account here. My designs should be able to be appreciated by anyone. I would like to try and experiment using only typography, I want to make it – simple, BOLD and easy to understand.

 

 

 


Experimenting with type

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that using only the type without a background really helps the words pop and solidifies their worth. Sometimes less is more; this is something that I learnt while studying the Fibonacci Sequence.