"I am a woman." | BrandNew part 2

Being a woman isn't considered a selling point within society. Being a woman myself, I often feel like I have to go the extra mile to prove myself beyond my aesthetics. I feel as though I am judged, and automatically presumed to be a tart or an air head, just for being a woman who expresses herself through her appearance. Of course, neither of these presumptions are true, and beyond my exterior I am so much more than what society labels me as. Yes I am a woman. And yes I am strong, independent, self-motivated, masculine and feminine; amongst other things.

I decided that my USP (unique selling point) is the fact that I do not conform to societies view of what a woman should be, and that being a woman shouldn't be a negative thing, as we are so much more.

Personally, I am fed up with having to explain myself and feeling guilty for enjoying feminine things. Why have I considered creating work hinting towards fashion a taboo? If that is my calling, then I should be allowed to explore that discipline without feeling guilty or being ashamed. Unfortunately, I have been told to feel just that.

As a personal response to this, I redesigned a Victoria Secret Pink bag. The original bag is a girly pink with white polkadots, that suggests that their consumers are girly, cute and fun. I chose this bag, as I wanted to show that women can be those things along with other characteristics that may not be considered appropriate for a female to have, and that there is more to us then our sexuality.

I chose to create a stencil to print the type onto the bag, as another one of my selling points is that I can create works by hand, and on the computer, as I often merge the division between Fine Art and Graphic Design. By stencilling the type with paint, the irregular print stimulates a stamp; I feel that this is appropriate as society 'stamps' and 'labels' women negatively.


I kept the exterior quite feminine but included masculine features such as the bold typography and the dominant use of black. However, inside it shows that I am internally more than just a 'woman', by clearly listing all of the reasons why through language.

Throughout this project I was highly inspired by the HeforShe campaign and the Guerrilla Girls - what they stand for as well as their branding/aesthetics. Both groups utilise a lot of text within their visuals to communicate facts and I feel like I wanted to take inspiration from that.

I used a lot of black, the HeforShe colour scheme and also the exposed pink from the VS bag, as I enjoyed having a shared masculine and feminine identity; while I also used bold, sans serif text.
I wanted the type to be quite masculine to juxtapose the femininity of the bag.

Overall I am quite happy with the final outcome.
It communicates that I am proud to be a woman and that it shouldn't been considered a negative as I can be both masculine and feminine, while exhibiting a variety of skills and unique selling points that I do not feel are specific to either gender. Unfortunately society likes to group and separate appropriate normalities for each sex, but I am proud to say that I do not conform to these stereotypes. This is my selling point.


Things that went wrong:
I didn't consider that the counters within the type would disappear when cutting out the stencil. 
The paint came out more red than blue-toned pink when it dried. 
The 'pink' paint left strong brush strokes and uneven coverage. 
I would like to recreate this by scanning in hand made elements and then finally creating the template digitally and printing professionally. 

Update: Since creating this bag, I have rendered a second version digitally and professionally printed the net in order to create a more 'professional' finish. I also embroidered feminine, lace knickers with the words inside of the bags to echo my concept. The embroidery machine would not stitch directly to the lace, thus I had to stitch the type onto another fabric, manual cut around each character and then hand stitch those onto the underwear. Almost all of these failed, expect for one: Woman.

Responding to the brief 'BrandNew'

"Is there such a thing as a new idea, to think independently and creatively? Is there really such a thing as originality?"


There is no such thing as a new idea but there is such thing as originality. If you recycle old materials, things that exist, to create a new product, then you are just recycling existing items. For example, you can not create new energy. Energy exists and is already 'there'. Yes, you can transfer energy from potential to kinetic energy, but you are not creating something new; just transferring it.


Items, materials, ideas etc. already exist; if they didn't then you wouldn't have anything to create something from - thus, you are only transferring or recycling existing items into something else but not something new.

On the other hand, originality does exist. As I mentioned, there is no such thing as a new idea; however there is such thing as originality. Originality exists in the form of moments. There are an infinite number of moments and possibilities but each one, are original. Not one single moment can ever be restored; if you were to recreate a moment, then that is all it is, a recreation - not the exact moment. Therefore moments, are in fact, original. 


At first I struggled with how to express this ideology. To create an 'original' final piece or product, as like I mentioned, would be impossible, as I would just psychologically be abstracting or merging images or things that I have encountered before, making it just a transferred idea. So I knew that the product itself couldn't be the focus of my ideology, the idea itself would need the be the outcome. After a lot of thought and research, I came across the idea of 'Conceptual Art', where the 'idea or concept is more important than the final product, if such exists'. 

I found everything that I needed in order to inform my knowledge of Conceptual Art within the Tate's glossary of art terms. Here I found out what the movement really meant, and examples of artists along with their works. I decided that I wanted to create an interactive piece, where I am actually creating unique moments, that could never be recreated. 

As a designer, on a Graphic Design course, I knew that the pure concept in it's Fine Art form would not be enough. Whatever the 'product' was going to be, it needed to be clean, and minimal as this would not be the final outcome, the idea behind it would be. As I enjoy writing and consider it the perfect way to collate my thoughts, I wanted to incorporate language/typography into my piece and I particularly enjoyed Joseph Kosuth's 'Clock (One and Five), English/Latin Version 1965,1997.' and John Baldessari's 'The Pencil Story'.

I wanted to exaggerate the idea that ideas are not original and nor are products, so I chose a direct source of product inspiration: a sample pack of business cards from Moo. The idea of doing this was also inspired by Marcel Duchamp and his use of ready made objects. Using the dimensions of Moo's 'Original Minicard', I decided that I wanted to type 'This is a moment.' on one side, and ask the public to write the same on the back. I would then have a collection of captured moments, by creating original moments.

I chose to use a sans serif font, as I wanted something eligible and aesthetically simple to juxtapose the complex concept, and not stylised. Helvetica was the winning typeface, as the font emerged within the same era as Concept Art, thus I thought that it would be fitting.
I like the use of the full stop as it makes you pause, preserving the original moment for just a fraction of a second longer. It's small, quiet and subtle. 
If I had more time, I would like to have gone out to more public places, and asked a wider audience to interact while recording the process. Overall I am happy with my idea, as Conceptual Art is something that I had never indulged in, and I enjoyed challenging the excepted methods and practices of the traditional design process. 

Understanding the brief 'BrandNew'

"Is there such a thing as a new idea, to think independently and creatively? Is there really such a thing as originality?"

No. Personally I do not believe that originality exists. If you recycle old materials, things that exist, to create something new, is that really creating something new or just recycling existing items? For example, you can not create new energy. Energy exists and is already there, for example you can transfer energy from potential to kinetic energy, but you are not creating something original; just transferring energy.

I feel like that ideology can be applied anywhere. Items, materials, ideas etc. already exist; if they didn't then you wouldn't have anything to create something from - thus, you are only transferring or recycling existing items into something 'new' but not something original.

With this idea in mind, I am going to create a product that represents my conclusion.
Through research, I am interested to see if my belief changes, or if I still feel the same way at the close of the project. I currently have no idea how I am going to respond to this in terms of outcome, so I am excited to see what my mind comes up with! Through influences of existing things of course.

Jumble of my thoughts in my brain that possibly make zero sense to the outer world (welcome to the interior of my mind):

- Original elements that EVERYTHING is made up of.
   Metaphorical Representation: Earth, wind, fire, air.
   Metaphorical Representation: Earths structure: core, mantle, crust.
   Atoms.
-Maybe I could focus on the idea of everything being transferred from one existence (physical or otherwise) to another.
-Maybe if it came from another galaxy. It would be new and original to Earth, but not original in terms of the universe.
-Is this philosophy? looking at the outer world? Science, astronomy, psychology.
-Our minds subconsciously absorb everything, so all thoughts, ideas and images are just a reinvention or abstracted version of something that you have previously experienced. While to physically create something, you are just transferring or recycling existing atoms into a different form.
-Create something that displays all of the 'original' things things (that we know of).
-Periodic table.

Totemism in London

The ideology 

In response to the brief ‘Kiss Me Quick’, I responded by branding London through the ideology of consumerism and thus totemism within western society, and the natural/primitive instinct of wanting to belong to a group. I have decided to market London by depicting ten London locations and their variating habits through brands and inanimate objects.I wanted to focus on how locals view London as opposed to tourists, as I wanted my response to be truthful and not a false or typical depiction that a lot of souvenir shops thrive on. My ideology was heavily inspired by a Contextual Studies lecture by Roger Brown and through self-awareness, I was able to identify totemism during my London commute. I couldn’t help notice locals have a stereotypical aesthetic depending on their destination and travel route.

I want to expose that all humans show a readiness to be recruited by an ideology - a totem. London is packed with advertising which defines social groups through consumerism and our society allows objects to speak for ourselves and to define our groups and personalities.

My works subconsciously promote different locations within London, by exploiting the spectators instinctual anxiety of wanting to belong to a group, while providing them with a solution. “Do you want to belong to a group of Michael Kors lovers? Then head on down to Oxford Street”. Meanwhile, “if you would like to be in with a group of IT lovers and technology fanatics, then be sure to find your like-minded group in Old Street.’’

The technique

I decided to create ten pieces (instead of my deadline friendly idea of combining ten calling cards into one collage) as I wanted to challenge myself to meet the tight deadline and because I felt that a series of 10 individual, but linked, pieces would be more appropriate in reflecting our diverse London locations. To do this I clearly identified each location by using the nearest underground station in proximity; I selected my locations based on my knowledge of the area (the boroughs that I have most frequently visited) as I wanted to portray my view of the consumers within those areas as accurately as possible based on my visits, and for my research to be more reliable, as opposed to a biased investigation, judging a location and its inhabitants/regular commuters on an area that I had only visited once with changing variables that I would be oblivious to.

I roughly had the aesthetics in mind, as during this project, I was heavily inspired by artist, Vinz. I admired his technique of screen printing naked forms onto collaged newspaper, and then hand painting the final touches and wanted his composition to inspire my own. 

At first (as an alternative to sketching) I used secondary sources to depict my idea/initial draft so that, visually, it was more clear as to how I wanted my series to look, and so that I then knew exactly what I needed to collect or create by hand. Once I had a general idea in mind by drafting Westminster, Oxford Circus and Camden Town (three very juxtaposing examples of totemism - business, fashion, and alternative), I hand collaged a variety of backgrounds. I deliberately decided on a collage as to me, London is a place where lots of other cultures, ideologies, styles etc. have been ‘cut and pasted’ into our City.

I used newspapers that I had collected from London that were heavily packed with articles covering London politics, including the Brexit campaign and the monarchy and carefully planned the layout of these collected samples before committing and adhering. Alternatively, I hunted through fashion magazines and pulled out British brand names (and other recurring brands) that you often see around London, that can be easily identified. Before committing to the layout, I laid the pieces over the ‘political’ collage and photographed, before trying lots of different layout ideas and photographing each version so that commitment wasn’t particularly necessary and that I had a variety of collages. 

Itching to get messy, I pulled out my red and blue paints (effortlessly recognisable association with the London Underground) and painted some abstracted, minimalist pieces so that I had plenty of effects to work with later in Photoshop along with some other works. I was also interested to see how much development something needed before it could be identified as London.

Knowing that I wanted a figure in the centre to enhance the sociological/psychological focus within the series, I decided to hand draw these and I wanted my work to be entirely my own and to have a raw feel to compliment the hand created collage; this is also why I wanted to incorporate acrylic paint as I wanted to really focus on mixed mediums and to consider different textures and finishes to enhance that. I drew one male and one female as I feel that London (while not entirely there yet) is generally accepting of gender equality. I kept the figures neutral in graphite as I didn’t want to define a location based on race and get my ideas lost within my own work. 

Referring to my initial draft, photographic research and my own personal experience of London, I began to finally create my ten pieces within this series, using all of my materials. This process was more the concept of trial and error. Placing items, seeing what worked well visually through composition and balance.

I settled on creating these pieces for digital use, to further enhance the idea of advertising and consumerism, as digital advertising and marketing is becoming increasingly popular, particularly within London. My ten mixed media collages can be displayed on their own, based on location (possibly within the appropriate London Underground station) or can be collectively displayed as a repeating gif. They can also be used online, and thus viewed anywhere in the world on a variety of devices. By having flashes of changes, it also helps to grab your minds attention to notice. 

I feel that if I had chosen to print my final designs, then the audience reach is reduced, it wouldn’t be cost effective, and has more of a ‘dated’ aura, as opposed to modern digital technology which is understandably linked with London. As I am challenging marketing and consumerism, I feel that it’s only acceptable to reach a wider audience in awe of that.

Let's DO this!

Welcome to my updated blog! Wow it's been a while, eh? 

I used post regular content but for the last year or so since starting my BA Graphic Design course, I had been feeling deflated and like my creative work had lost it's... well, creativity, along with my spark. 

I can't quite identify the issue, however I am glad to say that creatively I am feeling a bit more like myself and to prove that, I have revived my blog and my Instagram - "The bitch is back!"

I think I lost my balance between creating 'art' for me, and creating content for clients. I misplaced my love for what I do, and as a result of that I feel like I haven't truly been myself. My tutors even called me quiet - ME?! QUIET?! (I would love for my past teachers/tutors to be reading this, they would have a right laugh at how incorrect that statement is!)

My issue is that I blur the line of Graphic Design. I don't create posters and commercial art just for the sake of it. I like my work to have depth and meaning; to branch out into other subjects to explore different studies: science, psychology, sociology, politics... You name it, and I will demonstrate an opinion through my fine art-ly inspired graphics. Unfortunately this isn't entirely how the real world of graphic design works, or what I felt I could indulge in during my first year of uni, so that part of me began to get buried under all of my requested projects. 

Thankfully, this academic year, briefs have been entirely open. I can go off independently and tackle the brief and topic in anyway that I see fit, and can expose issues and explore ideologies. 

Anyway, I hope you will forgive me, my little blog of brain-vomit, and I hope to post to you more regularly with love-filled work and updates. 

Infographic Design

MASTERMIND
ART DIRECTION, FASHION STYLING
AND VISIONARY PHOTOGRAPHY
EDITED & PUBLISHED BY 
VICTION:ARY 

Spine, dimensions. 

When looking for a book on a shelf, you're introduced to a variety of spines; a range of thickness, heights, materials, typefaces and colours. The spine is the initial most important part of book design as this is what continues the cover image, in order to inform the viewer on the contents of the book - to encourage you to pull it out, and into your hands. Spines need to jump out of the bookshelf, as this is the only means of identifying the book. 

The height and width (190 x 255mm) of Mastermind affects the spine width as each measurement works in correlation with each other. For one, the size of the book is usually dependent on the extent - how much text is there? How many photographs? 
Touching briefly on this point, Viction:ary have chosen the following internal format for this book: Preface (double spread), contents and abbreviation key (double spread), story board of introductory images and a quote (verso), a double-sided two-page 'inner book' bound to the gutter (180 x 130mm), interview text (recto) and then double pages of complimentary works (photographs). 
Due to this repetitive layout and voice, the dimensions of the book needed to be adapted in order to follow this layout of content, in order to achieve the desired number of words and photographs per page; thus, resulting in the width of Mastermind's spine. 

Due to the book being fairly tall and wide, this allows for a medium width spine. In comparison to other neighbouring books on the shelf, Mastermind isn't the largest book, but does dominate some smaller ones, making it stand out. 

The juxtaposition of the smooth texture vs. The grainy texture, along with the reflective appearance vs. Matte materials also strengthens the book's design, as the metallic, reflective card is more eye catching against duller books as it feels luxurious, new, modern and generally interesting; while the neutral, earthy, uncoated card is more economical, grounded and practical as it could be recycled card which resulted in cutting costs, in order to have the budget for a cropped gold sheet. 

The spine lettering runs downwards, in a traditional English fashion. The titles are vertical as the spine is not thick enough to accommodate horizontal type.
The chosen typeface for the title and subtitle is suitable for the subject of the book and the nature of the text. A Didone typeface with aspects of both continental and British taste (modern face) has been used as the gradual to abrupt contrast between thick and thin strokes is recognisable within the fashion industry e.g Vogue's didot typeface. 
Other characteristics of this typeface includes:
Vertical curves of the axis; 
the serifs of the ascenders of the lowercase are horizontal; 
double storey 'a' and 'g', 
horizontal cross bar, 
'f' sits on the baseline, 
single storey 'g' with open tail, 
pointed apex, 
and uppercase 'G' has a vertical spur.  
However, the title it's self has additional graphic characteristics, to resemble script types due to the cursive decoration. The letterforms are modular as they have been made up of separate elements. This has most likely been done in order to accessorise the type, making it more appropriate for the fashion-nature of the book. 

The spine is divided in 3 rows, the first row accommodates the figures (when concealed), the middle accommodates the title, and the bottom row accommodates the publishers logo. The height of the reflective, gold card has been perfectly cropped so that the title Mastermind fits directly in the center of the spine, despite being on the adapted book jacket. This gate-fold (more on this later) that overlaps the cardboard cover, conceals numbers that run horizontally down the spine. These numbers are horizontal as the spine has been divided into 3 columns, where the numbers inhabit the middle, central column, and accommodates the horizontal type. This is an interesting quirk to the design, as it contrasts against the vertical type on the gate-fold. 

Cover, gate folds, interaction. 

Masterminds uses multiple gate-folds to create the cover. Gate-folds are often used to display wider images, but in this case, they have been used to create layers of materials, textures and to peak interest by concealing information. According to notes of book design by Derek Birdsall, they should "always been wrapped around or bound to the center of a section". A wide image has been divided into three sections. The right section of the gate-fold, inside the book, has been bound to the fly-leaf, while the left section has been folded in half to wrap around the cardboard cover. 
The second gate-fold overlaps the first gate-fold, creating a layered effect and is bound to the spine to then wrap around the back cover. 
Where the two gate-folds overlap, in order to keep them flat and in place to prevent damage, a fastening has been attached to the right over the first section of both gate-folds. The colour of the fastening compliments the blue hue of the photograph on the first gate-fold, while being aligned with the text. By having this fastening, it peaks interest and encourages you to unwrap the cover, to reveal the concealed text beneath on the card. The fastening is also relevant to the fashion nature of the content. 

On the cover/gate-fold, particular attention has been paid to the hierarchy and disposition of headings, particularly through the use of font pt and line breaks. The increased leading for these few lines breaks up the unity, causing each piece of information to appear independent. 

The title Mastermind is again in the didone font with graphic characteristics. This appears to function like a logo for the book and is repeated in the same style throughout. Uppercase font has been used for aesthetics, and to also mimic the capitalisation of fashion magazine titles. By having this information ranged right, this could be considered to be potentially difficult for the eye to find as it hinders the reading process; however as this is only a short passage and the gate-fold has been cropped before it reaches the foredge, this almost centers the right aligned text, making its deficiencies less noticeable. 
By increasing the tracking between the capital letters of the book title, it prevents the type from appearing too crowded, thus an increased tracking makes it appear more elegant.
The same didone font (sans the graphic elements) has been capitalized and used for the subtitle as it's a smaller pt size, hence the caps for visibility and readability.
For the content lowest in importance (publishing company name) the type appears to be lineale geometric, constructed on geometric shapes, sans-serif and again in uppercase for clearer visibility. This style typeface appears neutral and so can be repeated throughout all of their works, regardless of content or nature of the book. 

The typeface for the cover page and fly-leaf is a graphic type, as the characters suggest that they have been drawn with lines rather than written. This reflects creativity, artistic elements while also being clear to read. All of the text written this way is in uppercase with equal x-height and pt size, in order the communicate equal importance, which is essential when depicting the creatives names and creative fields. An altered style has been used for the '+' character. The double line characteristic has been dropped as it appears that the double lines have been filled. The x and y axis of the '+' are equal lengths, making it appear geometric.
The horizontal numbers on the spine are also in this font and has the same base line as the corresponding creatives name. This gives the information dimension and movement as it flows around the spine and onto the cover. A horizontal line has been used in between the figures to separate them and to also add a sophisticated element. 

On the reverse of the first gate-fold, justified text has been used. The information has been composed with a variety of pt sizes used systematically, in order to prevent hyphenation. Horizontal lines are used as extended hyphens between the quote and the creative practitioner's name, this appears to be a fashionable solution to unsightly rivers that often occur with justified text. 

On the second gate-fold inside the book, bound to the fly leaf, the information echos the second gate-fold information in a clearer format. The black on a non-reflective surface with more contrast is clearer to read. It's punchier and more visible, while contrasting the darker photograph. 

Weight, binding.
Mastermind isn't very well balanced in the hand when held open, due to the weight and that fact that the binding doesn't allow for the pages to lie flat or to stay open on a particular page, unless forced. Due to this, the book is to be rested on a surface, and for your hand to turn the pages while holding the verso down. When forcing the pages to lie flat, the binding feels weak - this is due to the perfect binding. This method of binding is often used for magazines as they have a shorter shelf life and isn't very durable. However for Masterminds the pages haven't been glued individually, but as signatures with high strength, flexable adhesive so that it's more durable. This method of binding is a cheaper alternative to others. It's quick and easy as no sewing is required, so it's suitable for multiple publications. Viction:ary possibly chose to use a paper back cover as it appears that they like to reduce costs where possible so that the budget can be spent on higher quality paper inside for the photographs, as well as ink and the gate folds. 

Page layout, alignment 

The point size of the content internally is quite small in order to fit on one page. However in order to fit all of the content on the recto the size of the book has needed to be increased. The size of the book could fit in a handbag, but not in your pocket. Therefore this book isn't something that you read on-the-go, especially as it's more than likely needs to be placed on a surface. 

The alignment of text throughout the book ranges from ranged left, ranged right, centered and justified. The alignment appears to be selected based on fashion, as opposed to a particular reason. However the quotes that are placed over the storyboard photographs appear to be aligned based on a balanced composition and for increased and more appropriate visibility. 

The text inside of the book has been arranged in 3 columns. This makes large amounts of information more approachable and thus, easier to read. There is also a hierarchy for this content, which has been displayed through the use of underlines and capital letters. 

The use of a computer during book design, allows the gutter margins to have a matching number of "x-heights" to a given millimetre depth. Often, trial and error methods are used to determine the perfect design, in order to achieve the desired number of words per page. This includes: number of lines, type size and line spacing (leading). 

Colour, photographs 

Mastermind combines luxurious colours that are often associated with wealth, along with neutral, earthy tones. Gold and blue are the luxury colours that juxtapose the white and the un-coated, cardboard brown. 

Inside of Mastermind, there is a white gutter margin, and a warm toned grey-beige background. This is a nicer alternative to a white background, as the contrast against the black text is softer and less harsh. The same effect is created on the first inner gate fold, as navy blue text has been used on white - again, less harsh than black on white. 

Photographs have followed the fashion nature of the book, as they have been displayed to resemble a collage/story board. The images have a range of scale, different orientations, and some bleed up to the head or foot of the page, overlapping the gutter margin. This gives it a more unique, fun and interesting appearance, as it's more spontaneous that a simple grid layout. Referring to the double page photographic spreads, some of the images even overlap the hinge, however these have been carefully placed so that the focus point of the image, is off centre and not disturbed by the hinge itself. The photographs have also been categorised, not only by photographer, but also colour schemes. This helps to make the pages more aesthetically pleasing, while also maintaining some structure so that the images compliment each other.

Typographic Poster

Using a supplied font in three different pt sizes, I created 3 A3 posters. The first one was designed using just one font size (left), arranging all of the supplied information. I dislike this poster as it's quite boring and has no dimension to it. Also by all of the text being the same font size, it's difficult to navigate clients to the primary information. 

For the second poster (top right), I used two fonts. This is a much nicer effect as you can highlight the primary information and push back the 'less important'. I was highly influenced by the National Portrait Gallery posters, however these posters have portraits/images in the centre of the poster, thus I used the primary information typography to create almost an interesting shape to stand in as an image, while the secondary information is neatly positioned in the corners. 

For the third poster, again inspired by the National Portrait Gallery posters, I used 3 font sizes. This creates a much nicer aesthetic as it's more interesting to look at, but it also helps me as a designer to navigate the audience through the information. Due to this, I feel that the 3rd poster is my favourite, as I like the three levels of important information, and also the aesthetic and composition. 

Primary information:
What?
When?
Where?

Secondary information:
Who?

Tetriary information:
Travel information.

100 new uses for a brick

So this is my first project for University of East London (where I have achieved a full Vice-Chancellors Scholarship for Academic Excellence to study BA Graphic Design).
The brief set asked the students to illustrate 100 wacky uses for a brick, and then arrange these illustrations on an A2 black and white poster.


In order to respond to this brief, I began by creating a mind map, listing these 100 uses, and then creating a tiny, rough sketch to go next to each idea. I then decided to grab my sketch book and redraw each of these designs in more detail with better and more clear line works. These drawings are roughly the same size as an A5 sheet of paper, but of course some sizes vary. For these, I used a fine liner pen in various widths, as opposed to my initial sketches being created with an ordinary biro pen.


Using my very unreliable printer, I scanned in each of these drawings, page by page (there are approximately 5 illustrations per A4 page), before then opening each page in PhotoShop to increase the contrast of each; these were then re-saved and opened in Illustrator, allowing me to Live Trace the pages, to create clean, smooth vector drawings.
Using PhotoShop, I used the magic wand tool to remove the paper background from each Illustrator document, leaving the clean lines only.

As for the layout of the poster, I played around with a couple of ideas. My initial thought was to get creative and create almost an advent calendar, where each 'day' is a brick which folds open revealing a use of the brick concealed beneath. However we only had Friday to Friday to complete this whole project, with other classes on Wednesday and Thursday; meaning there was only 4 days to complete the illustrations and the poster.

Inspiration and playing with

orientation and layout.

I like this layout, however the illustrations

would have been too small to see. 

I opted for just a simple poster in the end. However I didn't want to just lay my illustrations out one by one in a 10 x 10 grid format, as I felt like that would be the obvious option for the majority of the students. I'm really into science, so when thinking of an interesting grid format, the periodic table came to mind with its categories, irregular shape and much more interesting layout.

As I used the periodic table as my inspiration for my layout this caused a couple of issues as there are not 100 elements/noble gasses within the periodic table, so it required me to rearrange the design, place some illustrations outside of this grid, dividing them with a simple line. As for the typography choice, and the overall design, I was inspired by Chanel as I appreciate the cleanliness, sophistication and simplicity of the branding. Considering the poster was required to be in a clean black and white colour scheme, I turned to the inspiration of Chanel, and also incorporated a thick black border with a solid white background, which is classic for the brand.

Overall I am quite happy with the design. I feel like it does look a little boring and not as impactive as I would have liked. However given the brief and the timescale, I feel that the outcome was successful and I am happy with my inspirational choices as I feel that it took the poster from being a simple 10 x 10 grid so something more hearty and irregular. I also rotated one on the illustrations 180 degrees, to create a decorative floral piece. 

Final Piece

Showpack Designs for London Fashion Week S/S 16

There was a time when I was SO good at being loyal to my blog, with weekly posts and a constant flow of artwork/designs. However 2015 has definitely been the year to boost my career! I have been lucky enough to freelance with Select Model Management, and since the resign of the Head of the Art Department, I have now adopted that role. During my time at Select, I have been fortunate enough to design some showpack ideas for London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2016.

Here are a few previews of my designs:

Not final designs. Must not be used without permission. Copyright S.Sargeant©

Special Bookings

Retouching

So it seems that my last update/blog post was all the way back in April. Usually my consistency with social media is quite admirable, however recently my personal work has been put on hold while I have been freelancing with my agency - of course the artwork created within these companies can not be shared on social media, hence my lack of updates!

What I can update you on however, is that my recent freelance work has been focusing on retouching and artworking at Select Model Management. Due to this addition on my CV I am now considered to be a retoucher, and so I have been working on a new retouching portfolio!
Here are some of the images:

Not all initial images are my own. Intended for personal use to practice my retouching and to demonstrate my skill.