OUGD 505 - Study task - layout

In the studio we were given a two tasks to complete, the first was to create a flyer for an exhibition in new york named jackson rising. This first task I found relatively easy as we were given a limited amount of images to work with. through this I was able to take what I though relevant and considering we were only given half an hour to complete the task I felt I got all the information on.

 Along with the images we were also given a brief with the information that need to go on it.

Layout 1 – Minimal Text / image:

Background:

This simple layout will ask you to utilise a short amount of body copy, title, date, and location. The minimal amount of text allows for the simple use of single imagery and the type to serve as the main visual elements.

Brief:

You are asked to produce a simplistic flyer design for Jackson Rising Exhibition at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art – New York) using the instructions below.

Specifications:

Format: A5 – Portrait

Title: Jackson Rising

Sub-Title: Curated by Jenny Dowd

Date: August 3, 2014 - August 31, 2014

Copy: Four artists met at an artist residency at the Ucross Foundation in 2013, now they come together to inhabit at MoMA, New York.

Location: MoMA, New York.

Contacts:

info@jacksonrising.com

www.jacksonrising.com

www.moma.org

Image: Jackson Rising ident / MoMA logo / NYU logo

Use of two colours only: Black and white

(Use embedded InDesign file and follow grid.)

Save as PDF file. 

I put some type into illustrator before I transfered it into indesign, I used the same technique used in the 'jackson rising' title to manipulate the sub headings to give the flyer a running theme. For a first attempt I felt it went quite well, If we were given longer on this task I feel making variations would be ideal to help play around with the hierarchy. 

The next task we were given around three hours to complete it, this task consisted of making a concertina booklet that consisted of 10 pages. We were given nine images from four artists that we had designed the flyer for. Along with this we were given a brief.

Jackson Rising

Background:

This text/image heavy layout will ask you to utilise body copy, title, date, and location, heading, sub heading, imagery, indexes, highlighted quotes. The amount of text allows for the use of imagery and the type to serve as the main visual elements.

Brief:

You are to layout and design a 10-page concertina folded brochure for a forth-coming exhibition titled ‘Jackson Rising’ at MoMA, New York. All images, copy and branding are included. You have to create a visually stimulating layout that showcases the artists’ imagery but does not sacrifice important information in this process. The images and information must flow harmoniously and offer a taste of what is to be expected during the exhibition.

Branding elements must be kept to black and white. Images must be unaltered and in colour.

Considerations:

Headings, headlines, body copy, grid, type, colour, image sizing, bleed, margins, flow, audience, narrative, language, purpose, size, external print methods, preparing for print, stock, distribution.

Specifications:

Format: A5 x10 – Portrait – Concertina spread (front and back).

Title: Jackson Rising - Curated by Jenny Dowd

Dates: August 3, 2014 - August 31, 2014

Location: 11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019, United States

Introduction: 

Four artists met at an artist residency at the Ucross Foundation in 2013, now they come together to inhabit at MoMA, New York. 

List of artists:

Ruth Boerefijn

Lindsey Glover

Mayme Kratz

Jenny Dowd

Ruth Boerefijn: 

My process is experiential. I make visits beyond my self: to Iceland, to the store where the fishermen buy their supplies, to the library.

The feel of manuscripts, photographs and maps give my hands something to articulate when later, in my studio, they work knotting and looping lengths of fishing line. It loses form over time, and can be reshaped; it is resilient. The line is a symbol of connection, of reaching into the depths for nourishment.

The colored paper is cut from my own drawings from nature-imprinted with other narratives and perceptions-through which I punch holes as a way of forging through them to get to the act of new expression.

Text is also a material with a memory and a shape. I struggle to arrange words so they can articulate beyond history to character, story, felt experience, and new possibility.

Lindsay Glover: 

Using multiple projections, Lindsey Glover transforms the Loft into a space for the exploration between perception, memory and experience. She collects photograph and video images that are later re-examined to find parallels in context, all the while focusing on the capture and storage of time.

Mayme Kratz: 

Mayme Kratz creates art from the natural life of the desert that surrounds her Phoenix home and studio. Viewing collecting as a way of archiving memory, she assembles a variety of natural forms—tangled birds’ nests, feathers, bones, seeds, snakes, and cicada wings—and captures them submerged in resin to create rhythmic, abstract sculptures and reliefs. “My collected specimens celebrate the endless cycles of change and rebirth in nature,” Kratz has said. In addition to these hanging and freestanding works she has also created a variety of videos and installations, including an interactive outdoor sculpture made of found tumbleweeds meant to disintegrate over time.

Jenny Dowd: 

Jenny Dowd explores space and movement with a series of steel and Egyptian Paste vessels. The boats hover, dive and flock overhead while exploring the gallery in a playful dialogue.

Contacts:

Ruth Boerefijn: www.ruthboerefijn.com

Lindsay Glover: www.lindsey-glover.com

Mayme Kratz: www.maymekratz.com/

Jenny Dowd: www.jennydowd.com

info@jacksonrising.com

www.jacksonrising.com

www.moma.org

Image: 

Jackson Rising ident / MoMA logo / NYU logo

Multiple Artist imagery

(Use embedded InDesign file and follow grid.)

Save as PDF file. 

Print proof copy if possible.

The images that were provided were 

We didn't have to use every image but we had to include all the information used on the artist.

I didn't find this task too difficult, but I felt I could have benefited from drawing out some mock ups of the pages before hand. When we finished the task we were told to walk around., some people in the class has some really good examples of the work which gave me ideas for things I could have tried on my version. 

I went for a very minimal style where I tried to use the photos interestingly. Some pages I would have liked to spend more time on and I feel its something I can revisit to try some more variations of the publication. 

OUGD 505 - Design production 2 - further research

I have spent some time analysing the winter games posters and its interesting to see how style changed over time depending on the current trends throughout the world. In some posters you can see the beginnings of different styles like minimalism, and how artists who were commissioned for the posters were influenced by their own background and in some cases previous olympic posters.

In doing further research on this subject I have found alternative posters to some of the winter games that were either used in individual events or as an alternative to the official posters. A trait that particularly stands out to me with the alternative posters is that they vary enormously from the official poster. The designer will employ one style in the official image then it is often a series will be created by a different designer that showcases a different part of the winter games or the city they are being held in.
An example that particularly stands out to me is the 1980 Lake Placid games poster, below is the official poster for the games, It takes on a very minimalist style seen in quite a few posters previous to this games, which is nothing particularly new. The colours represent the American flag and the shape of the lines represent a mountain range. This poster was designed by Robert W Whitney.

An alternative set of posters was created for these games with featured an obvious sport element, these posters were used as part of individual events a showcase quite a contrasting yet still minimalistic style.
Personally I feel they are more interesting that the official poster and they also show an obviously considered approach to graphic design in the way they use CMYK as a basis for the images. The images are also not tied to America in anyway witch gives the posters a much more universal feel to them, which I feel is an important aspect for an international competition,

What I find interesting about these posters is the way the graphic design changes throughout the years, looking back through the archive of posters you can see some really cutting edge anomalies for the time. One that particularly stands out is the innsbruck poster from the 1964 games in Austria, just by looking at it you can see that it is ahead of its time, especially when you compare it to posters that have come before it. The illustration style is quite different to any design of the time and the font is also something that stands out to me. It has quite a futuristic style to it with a relatively minimal feel with good use of space and placement of images.

OUGD 505 - Design production 2 - crit

We had a crit today that I needed to have to get an idea of how the direction of my project is going. I found it useful, and I gained some new ideas from it. 
I have chosen to go down the route of creating a collection of the past winter olympic posters. I feel this is a strong idea but I also feel it lacks ambition and it could turn out a bit boring. The idea was then suggested that I should try and recreate the olympic posters in a different style. 
From this I have done some research ono some artists suggested to me through the crit. One that I was told to look at was Mike Joyce, He has recreated a load of old punk albums in swiss modernism style. I particularly like this style and I like how he has interpreted it into something that couldn't be further from the punk movement. I feel the contrasting styles really work well together and its something that I wish to explore further though more research and some mock up posters. 

swissted - This is the website that explains quite plainly that Mike joyce drawing from his love of punk rock and swiss modernism, two movements that have (almost) nothing to do with one another, mike has redesigned vintage punk, hardcore, new wave, and indie rock show flyers into international typographic style posters.

These are just a couple of examples I have picked out I really like the simplicity behind the ideas. the layouts are very simple and work very well as does the use of opacity to create interesting shapes and colours.

I started to create some ideas based on the look of the original posters, I wanted to copy the main shapes and colours with simple representations. 

My thought process behind this was simple to use some basic representations, I didnt add any text which i think would tie the images together better. I feel as a whole they dont particularly work so I tried a different poster. 

I feel this image works better than the first one but I feel the visual representation doesn't need to be as obvious as I have made it. 

In this poster you can see the aspects I have tried to emulate, I do feel that its too obvious and could be cleverer in its exicution.

I started to look in more detail at the posters created by Mike Joyce, I can see with some of them quite a loose connection to the artists either in there name or song title. I decided for the next step in my development I wanted to use a similar way of working by choosing one aspect of the winter games poster. In most cases this came down to the countries flag or maybe a certain aspect of the original image.

The colours used on these represent the country to some extent or represent the colours used on the original poster, on some I feel they need more work and possibly some more text. I had a look at fonts for this side of the project, as I felt helvetica wouldn't cover it, I found some interesting swiss style fonts that I have played around with in a few of these examples. 

OUGD 505 - Design production 2

The Winter Olympics

I have chosen to go with a topical subject for this project, I find something fascinating about the winter olympics. I think mainly its the beautiful setting that its usually in or it could be the fact that every event is so much more dangerous than the summer olympics. The first winter olympics I actually started watching was 4 years ago in Vancouver so i'm relatively new to the idea of it. Ever since I was younger I have been lucky enough to be taken away to go skiing each year, I feel this factor really boosts my interest in all the winter sports. I have noticed, although interest has grown each year that there are far less people watching the winter olympics than the summer olympics. I think this mainly comes down to a few aspects.
Great britain doesn't feature too heavily in many of the events, this is down to our smaller team and the fact we come from a country that doesn't have many facilities or mountains our athletes can practice on.
unlike the summer olympics where we have a much larger team we feature in many more of the events.
Watching the games recently I have noticed something lacking in many of the events, its the competitiveness of it. Many of the events aren't head to head and are timed instead which makes not as good for viewing. Some events are head to head like the speed skating, Boarder cross and even the curling, which has apparently been the most tweeted sport of this winter games. This fact isn't too strange considering Great britain has been playing nearly every day in the qualifying rounds.

In therms of athletes in the winter games I feel they equal if not surpass any other athletes in the world, the conditions are more extreme and the endurance is more in many cases. danger is another factor, most of the sports in the games has a degree of risk from the highly risky slopestyle to the less risky biathlon, compared to the summer games there is nothing that carries a similar amount of danger.

For my research iv'e been looking at some of the old photos from the winter games, seeing some of the old technology is really fascinating, and it is interesting to see how far the games have actually come.

For this project I would like to create an introduction to the winter olympics, I might broaden this beyond winter olympics and use winter sports, I feel both have rich histories that many people are unaware of. I feel until I properly define a concept I could do a project under the different options for this brief.
A brief history of...
A collection of...
An introduction to...
Things you need to know about...
An exhibition of...

I feel an introduction too would be ideal at the moment down to the fact of the growing popularity of the winter games people would naturally want to know more. My initial ideas for this would be to create a publication including interesting facts and information about past and present olympic games. this concept is adaptive and I know over the course of this brief my ideas will change and im sure my subject matter might even adapt to a different thing.

I have been looking at a lot of old poster recently in this instance I have been looking at old winter games posters. They bare a strong resemblance to old ski resort posters but this is an understandable comparison. 

One of the posters for the current Sochi games still has quite an old school theme, which I like the fact that it shows some kind of heritage. For my publication Its possible that I could do a brief history of the winter olympics, the thing that im most attracted to is the marketing, in particular the older posters that I have given examples of above. If I were to focus on this specific aspect I could go down the route of an exhibition of or a collection of which personally appeals to me more.

These posters are all the ones ever created from the winter games, aside from the most recent sochi one. I like seeing the first poster differs quite dramatically from the most recent one. although there are similarities between all of them, strong lines and bold colours seem to be a theme running throughout, these aspects can even be see in the first posters. I like the fact that the posters really define the eras very well you can see a very typically 90's style in the French and the Lillehammer posters.

All of the posters are listed here with a brief explanation, something I would like to recreate in a more informed way.
Winter Games Posters