Development of Creative Thought and Structure

Challenging Mindsets

It is inevitable that we will at some point fall into a routine way of working, say you develop a style, you like the results so you stick with it, the problem is the outcomes will become predictable and very similar. To overcome this we need to break out of our comfort zone, try something new, be more playful and challenge ourselves to different ways of thinking. In design now the boundaries are blurring between specialisms, illustrators are using photography and graphic designers are using illustration, this allows us to experiment a lot more with mixed media and incorporate more elements into our work.

I find looking at artists and other creative students work, even those not in visual communication, helps to see how different people approach ideas and ways of presenting their work. Getting inspiration from various areas of art means you can interpret the themes, colour palettes or shapes into graphic design. To produce work that is fresh and original, I find it best to come up with as many ideas as possible to start with, the more you come up with the more likely it is that you will find something you never would have thought of before. By constantly developing our ways of working and things we are inspired by, will enable us to create new and innovative ideas.

Managing a Creative Environment

As an artist/designer it is vital that the area you work in is visual stimulating and an inspirational place. It can enormously enhance the production of creative ideas and experimental development. You need to be able to feel comfortable and relaxed, so you can completely immerse yourself in the work.

Personally I don’t like being in a messy environment, I prefer things to be organised and in there place, so rather than everything being out on the desk I have various boxes filled with paints, ribbons, pens, papers, old magazines etc. I surround myself with postcards, flyers for events, pages from magazines, tickets (from trains, cinema) and photographs, all which I have collected over time.

This is the work area of a graphic design studio called Mind Design, it really makes me want to explore it, look at all the books they have. It has been quite simply decorated but they have given it their own stamp with posters, objects they have collected, quirky furniture and lots of books. It seems there are several different areas within the studio, a place to work on the macs, somewhere to do messy experimental work, chairs to sit round and discuss ideas and beanbags to take a break on. Mind Design's website

Production and Outcomes

Interpretation

It is important to understand the historical context behind pieces of art or design. The moment in time when they are produced is very relevant to how the work is read. Books and plays are often remade and regenerated, doing this keeps the stories alive and allows then to be modernised and appeal to the audience of the time.

An example of interpretation is The Hunchback of Notre Dame originally a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831, has been adapted many times into films, plays and TV series. François Flameng created the illustrations for the original book, he used engraving and ink because at the time it was a popular and effective technique. In this case it is also very appropriate as it gives the scary/distressing feel, emphasising the darkness of the story.

In 1996 Walt Disney produced a film based on the novel, but adapted to make it more suitable for children. They made the Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Phoebus, kinder than in the novel, adding sidekicks in the form of three humanized stone gargoyles, and keeping Quasimodo and Esmeralda alive at the end. The use of technology meant the film could be completely animated, using actor’s voices. This version was a lot more innocent and colourful than the original, so it would appeal to children.

To conclude, books, films and plays will be updated and refreshed throughout time, mainly to satisfy the target audience and also as technology advances there are more possibilities to make new versions.

 Testing- Getting your work out there

Gaining feedback and getting reactions about work is very important in developing and improving your visual language and specific pieces. Especially as young, new designers who are likely to have had little comment/criticism about their work. There are several ways in which to do this including exhibitions, creating books and more recently popular online. By having a website or a blog it allows you to constantly update and change the content, and it allows you to show a lot of work and gain feedback.

I have looked at the website of Kate Moross, who is a designer and illustrator based in London. 

Her website I feel is simple but effective, it has a clear layout set in columns and black type on a white background. In her description there is a section which allows you to contact her and ask questions about her work and give feedback, there are also links to her other sites including flickr, blogspot and facebook. Then down the side are links, in bright colours, to other pages showing her work. If you navigate to the ‘WORK’ section it houses lots of examples of projects she has worked on, arrange by Client and/or Category. 

By creating this website and creating a network of all her other resources many people will see her work and maybe look further into what she does, also she will gain feedback along the way enabling her to look at her work and possible ways to improve it.

When it comes to web design I think it is important that your website is a bit different, quirky, especially in the creative industry you need to stand out straight away. Also you need to make sure you can navigate easily around the site and find what you are looking for.

Other sites I found interesting:

http://www.copyrightdavis.com/

http://www.pushpininc.com/

Development of Ideas and Structure in Moving Image

3 Act Structure:

The three act is a commonly used way of structuring plays and feature films, it is also important in visual communication to have this sense of narrative and story telling.

It is based on the simple thoughts of a good story having a beginning, middle and end. Or to expand on this, there is establishment, a crisis and then a resolution. A scenario is established, what is happening here and now, setting the scene and anchoring the viewer in the story. Something new is then introduced, a crisis throwing out the equilibrium previously. Finally order is restored, problems have been resolved or decisions have been made, a new equilibrium is created (not necessarily a happy ending).

I’ve look at Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland as an example,

The film starts with a short flash back to when Alice was a young girl and she goes to see her father after having a recurring nightmare, he takes her back to bed and she explains to him what the creatures were like. It then cuts to a scene of a horse and cart travelling down a track, with the type ‘Thirteen Years Later’. Which brings us to the here and now, Alice’s father has died and her mother takes her to a high society garden party where she receives a rather unwelcome proposal of marriage. She is unsure how to reply and chases a white rabbit in a waistcoat and accidently falls into a large rabbit hole where she is transported to a place called Underland.

Alice is greeted by the White Rabbit, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Doormouse and the Dodo. They argue over her identity as "the right Alice," who it is foretold will slay the Red Queen’s Jabberwock on the Frabjous Day and restore the White Queen to power. This is the main crisis, Alice must find the Vorpal sword in order to slay the Jabberwock, There are obstacles in the way, the red playing card army are sent to capture Alice, she escapes and makes her way to the Red Queens castle in a attempt to save the Mad Hatter and find the sword. She retrieves the sword and befriends the bandersnatch, she flees and takes the sword to the White Queen.

Alice is unsure about the prospect of being champion to the White Queen, she meets with Absolum who gives her the courage to fight. When Frabjous day arrives they prepare for battle, and the two armies come together, Alice manages to kill the Jabberwock and the White Queen gains control of the throne, the problem being resolved and restoring Underland as a good place. She gives Alice a vial of the Jabberwock’s blood, allowing her to go home. Where she has to face the issues from the beginning of the film and has to take charge of her life. She refuses the marriage proposal, becomes an apprentice in her father’s company, and sets of on a trading ship.

Character Design:

There are three main aspects to character design, appearance, action and interaction. Staying with the same film, I will focus on Alice as a character, she is the Protagonist, the one who we view the film through and who experiences the conflicts throughout.

     Her appearance is vaguely based on that of previous makings of Alice, but her blue dress no longer has the white pinafore and has more intricate detailing with black buttons and lace around the neckline. She has curly hair and has lost the headband and bow of her youth, also wearing white boots with a small heal.

     Alice is a 19 year old girl, who doesn’t quite fit into the high society Victorian lifestyle, she doesn’t behave how she is expected to. She is very curious and has crazy thoughts, she is also shown to be strong willed and brave.

     Interaction, conflict happens with every new character Alice meets and is confronted with strange behaviour, she is quite wary of the characters in Underland and isn’t sure if they are friends or enemies. 

The Creative Brain and Drawing

Utilising your creative brain

Our brains are made up of two halves, commonly known as the right brain and left brain. Being conscious of how the brain functions can help us to be more creative.  I found it fascinating to find out that each side of our brain functions in a completely different way. The right side of the brain is intuitive and visual, whereas the left side is verbal and analytical. Although we have a natural tendency to favour the left side, both sides of our brain are working together throughout daily life.

By learning to consciously use the right brain we can be more creative. The right brain is child-like, it has no sense of time, it’s care free and spontaneous. As a child you aren’t concerned whether your house looks exactly right you just enjoy drawing it. But as we get older we often become critical and self conscious about our work causing tightness and lack of creativity.

There are ways to get into the right brain way of thinking, examples of these are drawing with your left hand (opposite hand), using continuous line and setting yourself a time limit in which to draw, say 1 minute. This enables you to produce images that aren’t perfect but make you work more freely and be more experimental. By creating images and ideas using our right brain, we can then evaluate and them with the left brain thoughts, annotating and thinking about how they could be improved and developed further. Learning to work using both sides of the brain is an extremely useful tool.

Drawing for ideas:

Drawing allows you to connect you hand, eye and right brain, linking to the thoughts of using your creative brain. We can’t hold all our thoughts and ideas in our minds, drawing allows us to sketch out these thoughts and make connections between them on the page, translating our ideas into a visual form. It is a fundamental part of the idea generation process, it’s not about creating a masterpiece more about solving a problem visually. The key is getting over your inner critic and drawing without embarrassment, experimenting with new things, working with different media, just simple drawings and thumbnails. I find this tough, I want everything to always look perfect first time and I understand now that I should have a more relaxed view and just sketch my ideas happily. I’m going to consciously draw more and have fun with it and try not being too precious with my work.

Whether you are creating a poster, a logo or magazine spread initial sketches are a crucial part of the creative process. In these times of constantly improving technology, it is even more vital that we do hundreds of sketches before going near a computer. If we can’t communicate a simple idea through a sketch, how would we begin to create it on the computer. Once you have done drawings and got the idea clear in your head, design programmes can be extremely useful in making this idea come alive.

Examples of work by David Fullarton, an artist/illustrator.

I feel David Fullarton has this loose, unconcerned style of drawing, he isn’t bothered that it looks perfect but he is clearly expressing his thoughts in a playful way. He achieves this by working with a mixed media approach, illustrations, found objects and hand drawn typography all working together. He draws regularly, just things that pop into his head and I think this is a good way to approach it, a drawing a day may have to become a habit of mine.         

more of his work here http://www.davidfullarton.com

"Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is,

 it will be well worthwhile, and it will do you a world of good."

 ~ Cennino Cennini.

Visual Hierarchy and Legibility

Visual hierarchy:

The main goal of design is to communicate. By using the concept of visual hierarchy you can more effectively communicate information. You can emphasize significant information to attract the viewer’s eye, organising the elements of the design to create a scale of importance.

Visual hierarchy creates centres of interest on the page, highlighting sections you wish the viewer to see with importance. Ultimately leading the eye around the piece, drawing attention to the main features. To create a hierarchy you adjust the visual weight of the elements, there are several methods to regulate visual weight – theses are size, colour, density and space, also images adjust visual weight.

The example I have chosen is the cover of Elle magazine, I feel there are three main parts to the cover – the image being the main focus, then the title and the main feature articles. The image is striking taking up a large percentage of the cover, with a strong facial expression, her hand on her chest and the black bow underneath, it keeps your eye moving down the centre of the page. Her face is being framed by the two L’s of the title, bringing your attention to the title and then down each side of the page to the bold headings, informing you of what the main articles are about. Most of the type throughout the cover is uppercase using similar fonts and limited colours, this consistency keeps it simple and allows you to easily view all the items without confusion.

Legibility:

What makes a visual communication legible?

Legibility is all about how well a piece of communication is viewed, mainly can the type be read clearly and also looking at images and if they can be understood. There are a few key things that should be considered to ensure type is legible - they are size, layout, typeface and colour. Also big chunks of writing, especially in capitals, should be avoided as it is generally hard to read, also text over images as this often makes them both illegible.

Looking at the same example above of the Elle magazine cover, nothing has been lost on the page everything is readable. The title is a pastel colour in a large, bold typeface at the very top of the cover making it stand out from the other elements and not interfering with the image.  Also the black type over the centre section of the image is bold, simple and has been carefully placed in order for it to be clearly visible.

Thinking about the combination of visual hierarchy and legibility leads to well thought out, clear and successful pieces of visual communication.

Research and Inspiration.

ITAP lecture on research and development of practice, thinking about what is research? How do designers go about researching? And how is inspiration found? Research and inspiration are closely linked, both are about exploring and investigating the world around us but using slightly different approaches.

Research is the task of building up a bank of knowledge, exploring and examining. This can be done by drawing, collecting and recording the things around us. Research is quite direct, looking for specific things related to the project or brief you are working on. There are two different approaches to research. Primary comprises of producing new things, taking photos, drawings, interviewing people, essentially starting from scratch because the information doesn’t already exist. Secondary is looking at information that is already available, work that has been created or research that has previously been completed, such as looking through books in the library or going to exhibitions of artists work.

Being inspired isn’t about going out and looking for it necessarily, but collecting things along the way. Anything you find interesting for whatever reason - even if you think it’s a bad piece of design - widens your knowledge and ability to produce exciting and original work.

Inspiration is everywhere. Throughout everyday life we are being inspired by things that catch our eye, whether it be the lettering of a shop sign or an advert on a bus. By observing the world and documenting the things we are influenced by, we can become better as designers. Making sketches, collecting flyers, taking photos, recording overheard conversations or whatever it may be, all adds to the collection of influences. Inspiration happens continuously and often fast, so by recording what we have seen or thought straight away it won’t be forgotten enabling you to go back and look at it at a later date. Accumulating information from lots of different sources allows you to interpret them in your own way and create new things.

Personally, I love collecting examples of typography, adverts from magazines and flyers I have picked up among other items. I often put these up on the wall, allowing me to be constantly surrounded by interesting imagery. Also I find it beneficial to take photographs when I’m out and about, to document unusual or exciting pieces of design, I especially like looking at window displays.

Looking at the work of fine artists and illustrators is always valuable, recently I have come across the work of Seb Jarnot whose work interests me especially. After looking at the work of Jarnot it seems he constantly makes sketches and doodles of which some are created through observation and some from his imagination. I think he has a quirky drawing style. This is shown in the below picture

I find his loose drawing style interesting and the fact that he uses just a simple black line particularly appealing. I also like the way that the images appear to be incomplete, just ideas and concepts that could be developed further. This continual inspiration is useful when he comes to producing his commercial work, he can look back on it and think about what style or imagery could be appropriate for the particular brief.

Researching and gathering inspiration are essential skills as graphic designers, as well as being inquisitive, generating ideas and thinking creatively. So by exploring all these ideas, experimenting without pressure of working on a brief you can improve your skills and have the chance to develop your own visual language/style.

ITAP- Notions of Originality

Is there such a thing as originality? In the art world, it is difficult to be 100% original, it is impossible not to be influenced by other artists work and things that are going on around us. You may be influenced by another’s ideas, it is important to have your own thoughts and ideas and not to continuously produce similar pieces. But being inspired by an artwork can be a good thing, trying their techniques and adopting some of their style that you admire. Another side to this is that it must to some extent be seen as a compliment that someone has copied your art or even that they have been influenced by it.

Velasquez's Portrait of the Pope Innocent X, 1650

Francis Bacon was inspired by the work of Diego Velasquez, especially his image ‘Portrait of Pope Innocent X’, Bacon called this image “one of the greatest portraits that has ever been made.” He created several expressionist variations of this piece. Bacon’s paintings are not complete copies, but he has used the same image of the Pope, a similar composition but has used his own painting style which makes it his own work, his is a more gruesome version.

Bacon's Study after Pope Innocent X, 1962

Bacon's "Study After Velazquez' Portrait of Pope Innocent X", 1953

All the great painters have at some point copied/imitated another’s work to try out their techniques or learn how they paint. At school this is also something we all did, copied pieces from famous artists and tried to re-create them using the same media, forcing you to look closely at how the painting was made. 

So as artists/designers we should strive to be as original as possible, take risks, develop new ways of working and overall we need to engage people, give them something new to look at.