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B a h r a i n P o l y t e c h n i c

Design Justification – Assignment 2 Kawther Alsaffar 201201868

08 Fall

Kawther Alsaffar 201201868 WMB7005 Design Justification

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Table of Contents • Color Scheme ................................................................................................................................. 3 • Pictures ............................................................................................................................................ 4 • Typography ..................................................................................................................................... 4 • Quotes ............................................................................................................................................. 5 • Textures .......................................................................................................................................... 6 • Buttons Style .................................................................................................................................. 6 References ............................................................................................................................................. 7


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In the following points, I will justify my design choices for the “Reggae” mood board in terms of the main sections.

• Color Scheme The color scheme consists of six colors, which are one primary colors, two tertiary colors, and three neutral colors. The main colors of the scheme are red, gold yellow, lime green and black.

("Tertiary colours," ) The reason I chose these colors is because they represent Reggae music. This is because this type of music is sang by many Jamaican artists who believe in a religion called Rastafarianism, or Rasta (Romer), which is where the four colors come from. According to BBC, Rastafarianism associates certain meanings with each color. Red holds the meaning of blood in it, which Jamaican black people have lost, many years ago. As for yellow, it is a symbol of Ethiopian wealth, while green is a symbol of the green life in Africa. Lastly, black represents black people’s color, who are the ones that started this religion (BBC, 2009). My color scheme also includes grey and a shade of white. The reason I included them was mainly for the purpose of creating balance and contrast, and not letting the main colors make the design too colorful and overwhelming. Even though I had already decided on the colors after researching Reggae music, I still used a color scheme generator, to guide me to the shades of those colors that look best together. I used Pictaculous.com, which allowed me to upload a picture I liked, and then suggested a number of color schemes that go along with it, and I chose the one I liked best. I could describe the color scheme as bright and generally warm and vibrant, as it mainly consists of two warm colors, and the colors have high saturation.


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• Pictures Unfortunately, I could not find many free images about Reggae in stock image websites. Therefore, I looked for large pictures in other websites instead, and many of them were wallpaper websites. The pictures I have chosen for the mood board all have a certain meaning that is related to Reggae music. The biggest picture is for Bob Marley with a very happy expression. This implies mood of the music genre itself, which is happy, relaxed, chilled and laid-‐back. The other meaning of the picture is that Bob Marley defines Reggae music, as he was a very iconic and popular person in it (Bio., 2014). Other pictures include Bob Marley and another person smoking, which is in fact Marijuana. Attached near to them is a Marijuana weed colored in Rastafarian colors. This implies an important meaning, which is the use of Marijuana for religious reasons in Rasta (Romer). There are also two illustrations. One of them is the peace sign with the two words “Peace & Love”, which symbolizes both Reggae music and the 60’s in which Reggae music was introduced (Romer). The other illustration shows the black shadow of a Rastafarian man with long flowing hair, and with the other three Rastafarian colors in the background. I chose this as a visual representation of Rasta, as it includes the colors as well as the hairstyle of Rastafarian people. I decided to make the portrait pictures gray scale, as I think it would complement the color scheme, and it would reflect that Reggae music was introduced a long time ago. However, I still made sure there is a “pop” of color in the illustrations, which used the main colors in the color scheme. This way, more emphasis would be put on those colors, making them dominate the design, and not allow other colors to interfere and ruin the color scheme.

• Typography In order to choose the fonts for the mood board and the website, I looked into many Reggae posters and designs, and tried to sum up the similarities and characteristics so I can choose the proper font. Below are some of the examples that I have looked into.


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After looking into the examples, I identified some of the fonts used in the posters using a tool called “What The Font” in myfont.com, and I used the knowledge I gained from looking at the examples to decide on the most appropriate font for the website’s headings and quotes. Here is the terminology for the font that I chose, which I downloaded from font-‐zone.com. Alternate Gothic2 BT

-‐ Font: Alternate Gothic2 BT. -‐ Type Family: Regular. -‐ Sans Serif Font: Yes. -‐ Letter spacing: small. -‐ Use: Headings and quotes.

After this step, I used a font-‐pairing site called “The web font combinatory”, and I tried finding a similar font to “Alternate Gothic2 BT”, and then pairing it with something that looks good with it. So the result was “Helvitica”, However, I used “Apple SD 산돌고딕 Neo 무거운” as it is very similar and I prefer it more. Apple SD 산돌고딕 Neo 무거운 (Regular)

-‐ Font: Apple SD 산돌고딕 Neo 무거운. -‐ Type Family: Regular. -‐ Sans Serif Font: Yes. -‐ Use: Sub-‐headings.

Apple SD 산돌고딕 Neo 무거운 (Thin)

-‐ Font: Apple SD 산돌고딕 Neo 무거운. -‐ Type Family: Thin. -‐ Sans Serif Font: Yes. -‐ Use: Paragraphs.

• Quotes I included two famous quotes in the mood board, from well-‐known Reggae songs. The first one is “Don’t worry be happy” from a song of the same name by Bobby McFerrin. I chose it because it is one of my favorite Reggae songs, and I think it reflects the genre. This is because Reggae music gives you the feeling of relaxation like there’s


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not a single worry in the world, and thus it makes you happy. Also, this has been mentioned in other Reggae songs like Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”. The second one is by Bob Marley himself, which is “Love the life you live & live the life you love” (Bob Marley). I chose it because it is an inspirational quote that talks about things that are often mentioned in Reggae music, which are love and life. I also selected the images of the quotes with the font in my mind, as I wanted to use the same font that I will be actually using in the website, in order to keep the cohesiveness of the mood board design.

• Textures I chose the textures to go along with the theme of the black and white pictures. Therefore, they look vintage and a little bit old and stained, with colors from the color scheme. I think this reflects the fact that the music has been introduced in the 60’s, and it matches the direction I have taken in my design. The texture will also add a contrasting effect between some clean and sleek parts of the website like the buttons, which will make the design interesting.

• Buttons Style For the buttons, I have chosen a clean background, with a different Rastafarian color for each button, and with the content of the button being in white. Although only the social media buttons are shown in the mood board, other buttons in the website will most probably follow the same style. I chose these colors in specific for the buttons, because black and grey will be used for background. So, this will make the buttons more noticeable, and will draw more attention to the design concept.


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References BBC. (2009, October 02). Rastafari at a glance. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/ataglance/glance.shtml Bio. (2014). Bob marley biography. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/bob-‐marley-‐9399524 Bob marley quotable quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/93997-‐love-‐the-‐life-‐you-‐live-‐live-‐the-‐life-‐ you-‐love Font Zone. (n.d.). Alternate gothic2 bt. Retrieved from http://www.font-‐ zone.com/download.php?fid=2874 Miller, E. (n.d.). Basic typography terminology. Retrieved from http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/typographyfonts/tp/basic_type_terms.htm IMDb. (n.d.). Reincarnated. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2312602/ Romer, M. (n.d.). Reggae music 101. Retrieved from http://worldmusic.about.com/od/genres/p/Reggae.htm Tertiary colours. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.colourtherapyhealing.com/colour/tertiary_colours.php

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