PROJECT 4: "Brand New" Badges and Poster

 

Second term's final project... We were asked to create a product that demonstrated the question of whether there was such thing as 'originality', to think independently and creatively. The focus was to create a new idea, concentrating on investigating into ideas / concepts that would lead to the finished product. There were no limits to the design whatsoever, except that it had to fit inside the A3 portfolio box.

To start off, we had to create our own 'badge' displaying our unique selling point. I am clear on how my work as a designer could be summed up - two of my strongest graphic skills are typography and colour contrast. When working I focus quite simply on the design itself. The badge I produced consists of four different variations of the statement "Kai Magliulo is a graphic designer. Smart and simple." with opposing black-and-white text or background. This was meant to show a plain variety of my design abilities and directly reflect my statement.

My 'new idea' itself was initially very hard for me to create, as I wasn't used to the amount of freedom in the brief and didn't know whether I could create something 'original'. However I concluded after much thought, that almost anyone can create an original idea (whilst still being influenced by many other things), and wrote a small essay talking about this concept. I then used the same text to design a piece of typographical art, with faded red and yellow text blending together against a black background to create a full statement out of two halves. Although I wish I didn't merge the individual letters so close together as it makes certain portions of the text hard to read, I liked how this piece turned out. It illustrates how my work has matured / developed over the course, and I really like the unintentional focus on the line "True originality is an understandably vast concept".

PROJECT 3: "Quotes" Poster

For this assignment we had to design a purely typographic poster around a quote given to us from a lucky dip, using a typeface relevant to our given quote. My own poster was based on the Woody Allen quote, "Not only is there no God, but try finding a plumber on Sunday." - a line which originates from Allen's early fame as a stand-up comedian, where he made monologues based on his own brand of observational humour whilst playing the character of an intellectual yet insecure neurotic. Allen would later become more revered as the director of many classic films, most famously 'Annie Hall' and Manhattan', and continues to direct movies to this day (the latest being 2013's 'Blue Jasmine').

In the poster I used the 'Windsor' font due to its appearance in the title cards featured in most of Allen's films (from 1977's 'Annie Hall' and onwards); it is a very minimalistic design, consisting of a plain black background with white centred title. These title cards are probably as famous as the movies they are featured in, and I personally like how simple yet visually appealing the design is. Another aspect about Woody Allen that inspired my project was how his films are frequently set in New York, being the city he was born and grew up in, so I decided to recreate the NY skyline using only repetitions of the chosen quote.

The design brief needed for there to be no images and use solely typographic design. Through typography I created an image, and feedback in the crit a few weeks later drew this issue up for discussion. Getting as much information as possible is important as a designer. I was pleased with the final piece, as it was strong, effective and used typography through the iconic skyline design. 

PROJECT 2: London Museum Postcards

This second assignment consisted of a branding exercise in which we had to create 16 A6 postcards based on our own personal impressions of London. We were asked to represent our different experiences / viewpoints visually. The design also needed to be laid out on one sheet of A2 paper for the final presentation.

My starting point was to list down as many London Museums as I could... then researched to see any that I may have missed. I wanted to create sixteen clear and coherent designs that, while looking visually similar / connected, clearly represented each museums' own unique identity. I researched all 16 of my chosen museums, and in each postcard I used fonts and colours that resembled their logos and official material. I also had the idea of displaying images of the museum's respective objects with barcode lines running through them - this was meant to show how every museum had its own exclusive identity.

The final design of the postcards focuses solely on the museum's most basic information (both in terms of the address and the representative graphics), giving everything an admittedly bare / minimal design. However this was all deliberate, as I wanted to showcase the museums in a frank, simple manner that could be accessed by anybody.

PROJECT 1: Dance Steps Poster

Our first project for the second term was interesting - we had to invent a new dance step and present it as an A3 poster. We could choose for ourselves what country/time/language the dance would be set it, as well as list dance styles and steps relative to the research. The poster itself had to use two-spot colour printing (use only two colours in the design). I initially researched “boogie-woogie” and then set about creating this poster for some of the basic steps based on “boogie-woogie" dancing.

The title of my created dance "Boogie-Woogie No. 5" actually comes from the title of a fairly recent song by a Japanese pop/rock band called PUFFY, but the fast tempo and enjoyably upbeat rhythm was my main inspiration for choosing the boogie-woogie genre and doing further research on it. Boogie-woogie as a form of swing dancing is a term mostly used in Europe, not dissimilar from the East Coast Swing in American, and was most commonly performed in competition form alongside rock'n'roll music in the 1950s. The step-variation is performed as a six-beat dance pattern. The term "boogie-woogie" is also given to a genre of piano blues originating from African-American culture in the late 30s and early 40s; itself a twelve-bar rhythm but also associated with popular dancing.

Certain elements of my design were inspired by the graphics of 50s diners, namely the checkered design and choice of fun, cartoonish fonts. I used a bright pink against a plain white background for the colour scheme to make the graphics stand out whilst also giving the poster a more simple appearance. I personally like how plain the design of the poster itself is, and the stark contrast of pink and white really makes the content stand out. Even though I wish I had just a bit more time to do some further research on "boogie-woogie"and improve the way that the dance steps are shown, I'm happy that the design achieved a minimalistic yet visually communicative / effective.