Studio Brief Three, Design Process, Research

I looked at tattoo magazines and websites to get a grasp on their layouts and designs. Total Tattoo is a very popular magazine, however I really don't like their layouts.

I think they're very text heavy which looks very unappealing and too much to read. I also think they put too many images on one page, there doesn't have to be a photo for each point the writer has made. Even on the second image where its image on one side and text the other the colours are awful and dark and her name is hard to read.

After looking at these I know I want to create a clean simple layout where there is only the important information on it and no more than two images per page. I want the tattoo to speak for itself while the content is actually interesting to read.

Studio Four, Design Process, Research

I knew I wanted to do a poster straight away because I could picture in my head a strong image of fists with slogans 'tattooed' on them about working and with a really simple but bold design.

I started to look at blogs to find some good designs using minimal.


I love this design, I think its so simple and subtle and when you get it, it works really well! 
I like the one colour and the look of the stock choice. I want to create a simple and effective poster, much like how this has succeeded.

 I think this one is very typical graphic design at the minute but I like it for the vector image, it shows how deep oil rigs go down in the sea which I didn't realise. I think its message and slogan work really well together. 

I just like this one because it's funny and quite true.

I'm not looking to create anything like this but I just really like the look of this, I think the colours really work well with the animal. With the circles and grids it adds more texture to the fur already.

I like the simplicity of this poster and actually how its italic! It's so simple and quite an obvious idea however. I think the black and white work well and keep it clear.

I don't think this is that high impact, I think its just a good image and then interesting information. I think some people would look at the image and then not read the text however. This is why I want a small tagline to get my point across quickly before the viewer get bored.

I love the colour orange so was drawn to this poster, it works very well with image and text. I think you can see the exclamation mark but i like the image of the comb as well.

I want my poster to have a good enough image it can stand alone without the text and still work.

Studio Brief Three, Design Process, Final Crit

Crit

Although this crit was final a lot of people weren't at their final ideas. I was definitely one of those people, I've really struggled to get my head around this brief, but with talking to people I was able to design one spread sheet and have an idea of what I wanted to do for the other 4. 

The crit has really helped my ideas for layout and how I can make them relate to tattoos. I think I was too concerned on the grid system and making sure I used a grid which is really hard when it comes to tattoos, since most tattoos don't even have straight lines.

Questions I asked

• Is this typeface appropriate?
• Have I included all research? (this was an unnecessary question)
• Can you see what shape I've made with the image boxes

Feedback

• Like the type, but use a better looking one
• It's quite condensed - quite a few people said this
• Could do a simple line drawing of the machine
• Use an actual image and wrap with text
• Don't over fill pages
• Make sure they're not chaotic 
• Splatter ink on the pages
• Get an image of a tattoo machine and cut it into the sections of the image boxes I created

I think I agree with a lot of this feedback, I don't want to over fill the pages but make sure my content is there.

I like the idea of drawing the tattoo machine but would rather use image since thats part of the brief. I also need to think about the aspects of my pages and what I could incorporate in to make it do with tattoos.

I agree with the font, I like it but it's a bit crap so would like to find a better one.

I really like the idea of sectioning off the same image but having it one page, it probably will be possible with the aspects. 

Studio Brief Three - Design Process, Research

To start to understand this brief I needed to research into layout and get grasp of how important it is and the grid systems. I started by looking at some magazines in the library that caught my eye.

These double page spread caught my eye because I wanted to look at the way image and text work together on a page.

I like this layout on the second photo, it looks like the right amount of body text for one page opposite an page full of images, I think this kind of style would work well with my topic of tattoos. 

I could use the images to illustrate the facts and statistics etc.

I also think the third image layout works well. Although the images are quite bold and interesting to look, they're not overpowering and are intriguing.

This publication caught my because of the front page, so I thought the inside must be interesting.

With the second image I think the cluster of images works really well, when you read the text it means your eyes don't wonder and you stay interested, then images work well to illustrate the text.

The square at the bottom with separate text works well too because it gives it important space, to attract the eye. The grid hierarchy is well worked out, with images quotes and text.

Studio Brief Three, Design Process, Research

I enjoyed the research brief because I was able to research something I'm very interested in, so when it came to researching the grid system I struggled on two levels.

First level was that I don't really understand what the grid system is, if anyone can design one, if there real rules to follow etc

Second level was that I knew I was going to struggle to relate it to tattoos which are normally free hand and free form.
I knew I didn't want to break the grid because I would rather try and make a grid relatable to tattoos and the content of the pages.

I looked at a couple of books with a brief history of the grid system and also on breaking the grid. It helped me understand that the grid is there to help the idea come across to the viewer, which generated some ideas on my layout.

When I looked at these pages I was thinking of having images one side and body copy on the opposite, normally left page with text and right with image. I wanted to keep the layout minimal and symbol because from looking at tattoo magazines they are incredibly busy, full of text and images. 

I would rather dedicate a page to one image and the relevant text, which obviously isn't possible for a widely printed magazine.

Studio Brief Two Design Process - Research

I started with the word 'stationary' which means to be still or non moving. However when talking to others in the class I realised I probably was supposed to get 'Stationery' which is the pens and pencils etc. 

I decided to go with stationary anyway because I thought it would be difficult trying to think of ideas, which it was!

So as a large table we all sent round our word and played word association to see if there was nay ideas that came from that, it didn't really help because people thought it meant pens and pencil, however there was a few decent ideas such as - 

Frozen - still image
Hibernation and winter
To make a stationary move, so using image

After a week of thinking of some ideas I was thinking I could go with the idea of how you can be emotional stuck in life. 
We did a crit where I showed what I would research, and asked some questions

Is this a good idea to research? Is there anything to research?
Can this be visual?


A lot of the replies I got were more words of warning. The brief was to collect 100 pieces of research on something I was interested in, with this it was difficult to get statistics on non moving things, or to think of what the 'things' are!

So after the crit i was back at the start, without any idea of what I could. After thinking about the word stationary and stationery for a while I decided to change it to stationery to mean pens and pencils, and relate that to mark making and art. From that I thought of what I'm really interested in, which brought me to Tattoos.

There are many other styles but I've just looked at my favourites or the ones I'm more interested in.