We were tasked with creating a lookbook. This was to include all of my work that was done in the past 5 weeks in VIC 105. Firstly I need to draw out a plan of how I wanted this to look. As we could only have 8 pages and I have done so much work I wanted to make sure that my best work was seen and was presented well. I created a mock lookbook on paper, I have included the pictures.

Finally I created my digital lookbook using Adobe InDesigns, I have attached images of the pages below. The link to the pdf is here Lookbook

Task 1 Icon Influence:

Our task was to analyze three icon’s. I  wanted to choose icons that were all developed for the same company but used differently. I chose the icons for google apps, more specifically of “Maps”, “Home” and “Play Store”. What I absolutely love about these icons is the brand identity that flows through them all. It’s very clear to see that they are related. The use of the Google colours is a great way to show that these icons represent the Google family.

Google Maps: A great Icon that conveys what the app could be doing. It shows a Pinpoint which points towards this being a mapping app. The smooth curves and bright friendly colours make the app look attractive to potential users.

Google Home: Again strong usage of bright colours linking back to brand identity. Very clear to see that this is a home/house. Minimalism done very well. This is my favorite of the three icons, the way the colours flow into each other is very aesthetic to me.

Google Play Store: This is the play store app, I find the use of the shape brilliant. I am sure almost everyone would be able to recognize that the shape is that of a “Play” button. This shape can be seen everywhere and is often used to represent play or starting something.

I also really enjoyed how these Icons had no text yet are able to clearly show what there intended usage is. The simplistic approach leaves the icons uncluttered and also universal in that language does not hold them back.

Task 2 Designer Influence:

We were also asked to look into a Designer of our choice. To keep my theme running from above I chose Ruth Kedar.

Ruth was born in January 1955. She is an artist and designer, best known for designing the Google logo that was displayed from May 31, 1999 to September 1, 2015. Larry Page and Sergey Brin were looking at designers to design their logo and website and Kedar was asked to present them with some preliminary design ideas. They liked her approach and design style and she was hired to design both. The design was accepted due to its playful design, the customized Catull typeface and unique visual expression.

Here I have transcribed an interview with Ruth were she talks about how she feels about the logo she created. “It was playful and deceptively simple. The design subtle as to look almost non-designed, the reading effortless. The colors evoke memories of child play, but deftly stray from the color wheel strictures so as to hint to the inherent element of serendipity creeping into any search results page . The texture and shading of each letter is done in an unobtrusive way resulting in lifting it from the page while giving it both weight and lightness. It is solid but there is also an ethereal quality to it.” I find it really inspirational that something so iconic can come from something so simple by design. But has had so much thought put into it, until it is absolutely prefect.

Ruth’s deceptively simplistic and clear look is something that I myself want to include more in my designs. Sometimes I want to keep working and working on a design which can lead to over complication.

Objective

Firstly we had to pick an object with a function, I picked a clothes hanger.

Subjective

We had to create a digital icon to represent the object using Adobe Illustrator, mine can be seen below.

I wasn’t too happy with my icon made in Illustrator, I wasn’t able to manipulate the curves as well as I wanted to. So I decided to have another go, this time using Procreate. I also changed up the Icon a little to make it more interesting. I was very happy with this result which can be seen below. The curves of the hangers really came through here and made it really clear what the object was.

Functional

Next I chose to do some quick sketches of what the Icon may look like if it was to represent movement, function or behavior

My final Icon. I was happy with how my Icon turned out. I was able to clearly show the function of the object through my Icon.

We were tasked with writing out the alphabet in a calligraphy style. I found this very difficult due to being left handed, my hand was constantly smudging my letters and led to me and my page being covered in ink. I took many attempts at this as I am a perfectionist and wanted to get it right. I started by using the traditional calligraphy pen with nib and Indian ink. But found it hard to manipulate the ink being left handed. So moved on to using calligraphy pens which had been suggested by Liam. But found that these too smudged a great deal. I was able to work around it by leaving drying periods between letters, although this was not ideal.

Below you can see some of my initial attempts without leaving time to dry.

And below you can see my attempts with leaving time to dry between letters.

This task was to analyze our name. This was to give a greater understanding of the anatomy of type.

Below is my analysis of my first name. I have labeled key parts of the typeface. The font I used was “Eina 01”

We were tasked with making a wordmark that was personal to ourselves. I enjoyed working with geometric shapes previously so wanted to bring these into effect here.

Below are some of my initial ideas:

Final Outcomes:

The designs below were my favorites of all my ideas. I loved how my name looked within the circular shape, it made my name fun and rounded while also being deceptively simple. I felt the bold type worked well especially as it gave the letters a rounded edge which further kept in with the circular idea of the wordmark. My favorite of my final pieces is definitely the first, the white text on a black background. This just makes my wordmark pop and draws all attention straight to it. The outline on the letter gives the wordmark an almost 3-D effect which I love as it almost jumps off the page/screen at the audience.

These were some alternative colour choices I looked at, In the end I chose my final out come one because it was the most readable. But I also felt the colours of the pink and green complimented each other.

Gorilla

I chose to look at Gorilla for my brand. Gorilla started as a glue manufacturer in 1994, since then they have branched out into tapes, epoxies, and other adhesives. Gorilla’s brand is a very strong one. There text is always bold and sizable. Orange is the main colour used throughout the brand, paired with black which allows for great contrast. To me orange is a colour associated with building, this aspect ties in well with the usage of the product. The brands mascot/character is a gorilla, this again conveys strength. It also makes the brand seem fun and approachable by all. The cartoonish aspects of the character also makes it appeal to a younger audience. This also shows the personality of the brand and that gorilla does not take itself to seriously. The message of strength is clearly shown in a lot of the marketing, most clearly in the images of tape holding a large weight. While I find the logo has a lot going on the rest of the packaging/branding is very minimal. To me this helps get across the message of the brand, the tape has a lot of science in there (represents the logo) but you don’t need to be a genius to use it (represents the rest of the branding).

Gorilla tries to target a lot of audiences but the main audience is DIY enthusiasts or those that regularly fix things. I feel the brand connects with them through it’s strong image (The colours, bold type, imagery of tape holding weights)

This week we were asked to look at an album cover, that we found interesting and analyze it. After searching my music collection I finally chose Cry Baby by Melanie Martinez.

Cry Baby was the debut studio album of Melanie Martinez, released in August 2015.

I really liked the mix of the digital background and cloud with the drawn and homemade style of the houses at the bottom. I found the use of colour had good contrast the Light pink of the background with the blue of the title.

My favorite part of the album cover however is the typography used at the top. The use of letter shaped balloons gives the text a rounded look which makes it look fun and playful.  Which is a strong juxtaposition with the meaning of the words it is spelling out.