Design context format

Puffin initial drawings

Oscar brief poster mock ups

Below is initial mock ups of how the type could be layed out on the page - I won't be using any of these when it comes to developing the pieces because I want them all to be mainly handcrafted so the type will be based on some of the pieces below:

Below is the more developed pieces with some small illustrations and hand-drawn type - I haven't yet experimented with colour.
(Due to all the images being different sizes - I have had to add black backgrounds so that the pdf wasn't going all over the place.)

One thing to note was the toy story 3 mock ups - I drew a few different pieces from the prominent toys in the film that relate to the quote - but when it came to putting them all together on one piece, it wasn't working so well - so I thought I worked better with just the type and one piece, so I'm not sure whether I want to make a series of the toy story ones or just choose one that represents it best i.e. Woody's hat or Buzz's foot.

Puffin books copy

For the actual puffin competition brief, the copy was supplied (i.e. the blurb etc.) but as I have chosen to develop the brief across other Roald Dahl books, I needed to find the appropriate copy.
I was able to find the back covers cover Matilda, George's Marvellous Medicine and Danny, The Champion of the world so they have appropriate text - For Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I have had to use the text from an 'inside flap' of a special edition cover as this is all I could find; its still suitable.

Skyscrapers and taxis

I have previously posted the drawings of skyscrapers etc. that I had produced and an experiment with using the rainbow flag colours on the buildings to have it as a running theme - I have since added colour to all the buildings and I personally feel the colours a humorous, upbeat feel to them which is a positive assett.


Since adding colour to the buildings and deciding that I wanted to keep a black outline, I realise I will need to re-colour the statue of the liberty as she will look out of place with no black outline but the taxi's work well with the running hand-crafted style.

More pop up experiments

These are some slightly more developed 'pop-up-mock-ups'. Although I have enjoyed constructing fold out pop-up pieces, I'm not sure it would be viable as a promotional piece for a free event as it would be quite costly but I would like to produce a more 'complete' one - in colour etc.

This style of pop up works well as once it is opened, it is still a relatively flat image - just on different layers, which makes it easier to see everything as a whole.

I posted some images of the pop up before and initially I felt it worked quite well, but since producing a pop up using a different method, its clear that this doesn't look quite as good - the fact that the pieces have to be so angled makes it looks quite messy once opened, although I do like the composition of the skyscrapers in the background.

I then went on to tryout stand alone pieces - quite a popular papercraft technique at the moment. I was working with basic laser printer paper, so it wasn't the strongest stock but as a trial it worked fine. I am going to pursue this idea aswell, with the coloured pieces etc. and see how I can incorporate text - i.e. cut out pieces or drawn on afterwards.

Obviously, if I want to pursue this idea, photography needs to be a lot better but this was simply a means of documenting experiments.

NYC Pride photos

I posted some NYC Pride photos a while back, but these are the ones I am currently working with, that have been cut away from their background so I can use them digitally and they'll be easier to physically cut out.
If needs be, I have many more images but these were a selection that I thought captured the atmosphere quite well.

Puffin extended brief initial ideas

Lady Gaga 'Drawn this way'

While I was browsing my beloved celebrity gossip websites, I came across an article that was mainly about the fact Lady Gaga has been announced as a fashion columnist for V Magazine, an American fashion magazine, but at the bottom it mentioned the magazine were holding a competition to illustrate an image of Lady Gaga to go alongside the column (the reason why is explained on the written out brief).

The competition was only announced on 29th March and the deadline was 3rd April.
I found out about it on 31st and treat it as a very short, half day brief.

I decided to base the illustration on one of her most recent looks, with the horn type things on her head (more specifically, her look at this years grammy's).

On the competition e-flyer it suggested that she should be styled as an 'editrix' so I was thinking of how to do that and I simply put her in front of a laptop - I toyed with the idea of pen and paper but that may be a little 'old school' for her, however I still put a pencil on the image, on her ear so it still has a reference to a stereotypical view of a newspaper columnist/author.

I always find it difficult when I have a white background and aren't sure what to do with it, so in this instance I used an 'in your face', highly saturated pink to reflect the fact that Lady Gaga is generally in your face - but then I didn't really like it, so I went for a less 'in your face' one, lots of thin lines so that from a distance it looks like a pale grey.

Drawn this way brief

Design Context group surgery follow up

When I was preparing work for the context surgery, I was aware that I had a lot/too much planned and that's why I needed the help of the workshop.

It quickly became apparent that:
1) The chapters I had needed a thread to highlight the relationship between them all.
2) I need to keep it more simple/focused.

- The issue with the chapters looking a little unrelated is definately something I was aware of but I wasn't sure how to overcome it, the chapters were:

1. Type and illustration for food/drink packaging
   
2. Children's book cover illustration
3. Black and white illustration
4. Papercraft
5. Hand crafted type

The issues were:

1. Why specifically food/drink packaging?
2. -
3. Why black and white? And is it substantial enough for a chapter?
4. Could papercraft just be related to packaging?
5. This could be linked in with other chapters.

Also, I had specified that I would look at pricing and manufacturing techniques for mass production of papercraft etc. but it was highlighted that if i'm not interested in that - I don't have to include it - which was a relief!

After some discussion, it was suggested that I could title it 'Hand-crafted' and have 2 sections Type and Image, as then I could include all that I wanted an more because it could have hand crafted type, colour and black and white and its applications i.e. packaging, book covers etc. and the same for image.

Some of the other things I noted down that was general advice:
- Don't just regurgatate what you've found; how can it Not just be a collection of images.
- What are the markets for the work - Agencies/Companies that use them.
- If you're contacting designers to ask them questions, engineer it so that you get the response/information that you want as opposed to 'yes' or 'no' answers.
- On the blog - show things that don't work as well as things that do work, so that it sets a benchmark and backs up your opinions on what Does work.
- Get a good title!
- Can include your own work IF it fits - it shouldn't stand out.
- Teach the audience something - but make it accessible.

Also, one question that I got the oppurtunity to ask (but felt a little silly for asking) was;
What is the difference between hand-crafted and hand-rendered?
- Render - Formal
- Crafted - More informal, hands on.

So to conclude, I came out of the design context feeling positive and ready to get on with it!