As a starting point, we acknowledged that communication is key for a sucessful collaboration. Kayleigh and I discussed our strengths and weaknesses, and found a common theme: our illustrative style. We felt that we wanted to abstract the products, by stripping them back to their minimalist form and exhibiting the elements that speaks for the product itself.
We began by collecting the following information from each product: it’s shape, typeface, atmospheric aura and it’s colour scheme; as we felt that when these elements were combined for each product, we could communicate the items through their iconic signs, rather than indexical imagery. Sticking to the abstracted, minimalist ideology, we extracted only one letter from each product’s title to be the foreground of our designs. The characters that we chose were thoughtfully selected: for example, the K from Pukka has a decorative design blooming from the character, making it identifiable even when removed from its context. Some were not as straightforward as this, and we selected them due to composition: did we we want the y-axis of the ‘t’ or the x-axis of an ‘M’? Would an uppercase or lowercase letter work best within this space? And did we have a good variety of letters?
Using our combined illustrative skills and styles as an advantage, Kayleigh and I wanted to capture the mood, texture and/or function of the product by producing hand rendered backgrounds. Here we focussed on pattern making, colour schemes, composition as well as diversity. Each product has its own unique design that reflects itself in an abstracted, reduced form.
As we have a diverse illustrative skill set, no two pieces are the same. To create our designs we focussed on pencil drawings, pen illustrations, digital art, paintings and lenses based imagery; thus we were able to experiment with a variety of techniques, each being applicable to the product.
Due to our separate styles, our designs have a nice juxtaposition while complimenting each other. For example, Kayleigh’s designs are busier with more bold colours, while my own are more reductive and minimalist. Aesthetically these work well together and there is a great balance of the two.
Taking inspiration from the product ‘EMILY CRISPS’ we used didot as the header for our essay designs. Originally we used this type for the body too, but felt it’s wasn’t legible enough once we printed a test. We definitely wanted a didone style typeface with the medium contrast between thick and thin, thus we selected Baskerville for the body. Once printed there was no issue with the legibility.
As a printed catalogue felt too mundane for our ‘abstracted’ pieces, we decided the we would like to suspend our designs from the ceiling. We sourced a long, sleek corridor to help enhance our designs and opted to hang the pieces in the centre, one design behind the other. This way, we are still providing the spectators with the mystery of turning a page, but by making them walk past each design.
By suspending the pieces in the centre of the corridor we are being shouty, a nuisance and unavoidable: the elements of advertising in this consumerist environment.
As there are layers to our designs, we wanted to play on this rather than creating flat 2D designs. We printed the characters on a sheet of acetate (as a more budget-friendly alternative to glass) and hung these just before the backgrounds, making the distance between the foreground and background provide a 3D illusion.
Update:
We decided to develop our idea further and create a complimenting catalogue also.
Update:
We decided to develop our idea further and create a complimenting catalogue also.
