ess Daly’s J Portfolio

Reflective Questions

Research

Topman:: My key influences for Topman were Edvard Munch and Vincent Van Gogh. The reasons for this is firstly I was really interested in Ed-vard Munch’s the scream, (which was exhibited in Berlin.) I was interested in how his past and feeling came out in his paintings, especially fo-cusing on the painting “The Scream” and how his worries and anxieties were portrayed through the painting. From watching a radio broadcast, where the casts were looking into Munch’s life, and how his work developed, Van Gogh was brought up in the radio broadcast. What interested me from the broadcast which had a direct effect on my work was when it was said that Van Gogh used to just leave his work anywhere, even in the garden, because he believed the painting needed to fend for themselves. The shock factor and intrigued, of this, then took me to base my design around the idea of the effect of the atmosphere on the painting, which is why the paint on the final poster has been designed using dripped, and leaked ink.Even though my main influence was not directly linked to Berlin or Germany, it has smaller, less direct links, which have been found though in depth research into Berlin, and Berlin’s art scene.Through looking at Berlin’s art scene I feel I have focused my designed on the prime concept of the store and what will be sold. On the brief it said artwork would be sold in the shop along side books, because of this my designs reflect to the public what will be inside the store.Magazine: Our group’s most important influence when researching into magazines was (125 The Annual). This magazine was an important influence because we took direct inspiration from it, from feeling inspired by the layout and format of the magazine. We loved the unique and ambitious binding, which had been used by the designer. We also liked how the binding complements the magazine, and gave the magazine a hand made feel, which made the magazine feel more valuable. We also loved the layouts of the photography and text inside. Throughout the magazine the pictures were laid out differently but each page of imagery pushed the boundaries of how photography can be layout. Having different layouts on each page kept us interested, and wanting to carry on flicking through. They also showed confidence in their use of white space, as some pages contained mostly white space on the pages. I liked how even through I was not that interested in the subject of the mag-azine, I still wanted to flick through and enjoyed the photographs. This way the magazine expanded to a larger audience, not only to the audi-ence interested in the subject but also people who were interested in the visual content of the magazine. We wanted our magazine to hopefully reach people who you would not think would normally buy a magazine like this.Investigations

Investigations

Magazine: I learnt a lot from the magazine brief, layouts are a weakness for me, and I was not looking toward to it at all, but after working with a range of different people with different talents, I began to gain more knowledge on designing layouts. I found out the reason layouts were my weakness was because I did not know much about them, as I began to research into layout I slowly became more confident. As my confidence built I began to enjoy the brief more. When it came to designing the layout of the magazine, we began with a basic layout, 2 columns which contained mainly text. The more we researched, the more we wanted to develop the layouts and make the layouts more appealing and interest-ing. This resulted in us challenging how a magazine should look and in turn made our magazine more imaged based, as we believed this was more important for our magazine, as we wanted to portray emotion through our photos. Our photographs were the strongest part of our mag-azine, as many of the group members had a huge interest in photography. As the photos were so strong we wanted to showcase them, and show them a larger scale.Topman: As branding is an area of Graphic Design, which I am really interested in, I was excited from the beginning with this brief. I took into consideration a lot of what the Studio Dumbar workshop had taught me for this brief; I wanted my designs to capture the audience, and to get my message across. A way I did this was by adding bold colours in my design. This brief taught me a lot about the importance of getting your message across, and how to visually show this message clearer, but still keeping to the theme. Having a strong theme and concept behind the designer were very important as this was the basis for our designs.

Reflection

MagazineResearch stage: Throughout the research stage of the brief, I looked at different directions we could take the brief. We focus our research by each selecting an area we were interested in, to research deeper into. This helped us to dig deeper into separate sections. Sharing out the research between the team members, also made the research feel less daunting to the other group member. In researching I looked at a range of areas, from what makes humans feel love, to why hu-man and dog bonds are so strong. I took great care in my diverse research, as by doing this my group would have a better collection of research and ideas to work with, it also gave the group a good amount of knowledge on the subject. Devolvement stage: Throughout the development stage of the project my group was bursting with ideas. We had so many different ideas of how uncon-ditional love could be interpretive, and showed through the format of a magazine. In order to find the best theme for our magazine, we looked at each other’s idea separately to see which had the most scope, and could be carried on for further issues. Not only that but we also wanted our final theme to contrast against the obvious responses as we thought this would make our theme more interesting. At this point the strengths of the group began to show, which helped us with assigning work. By knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses we were able to get the best results. Finished piece: Our finished magazine answered the brief in an interesting, and unique way. We created a magazine, which was originally inspired by the word unconditional, but added our own spin on the word to a magazine, which had strong concept, and interesting contents. The brief was challenging, and at times took me out of my comfort zone but I worked through it, and because of this I learnt a lot.

Topman: Research: For the Topman brief I found the research stage very important. I knew very little about Germany, and as this was the location of the store it was extremely informant I portray Germany through the designs, even if that is only through the less obvious ways. Through researching Germany my ideas began to form themselves. I researched different aspect of Germany including the landmarks, the culture, the language and the art scene. By doing this it made picking a theme harder, but helped me pick the strongest theme with the most potential.Development: Throughout the development stage I began to explore different forms of art, including painting, graffiti street art, and work shown in exhibi-tions around Berlin. I tried different types of paint, and inks to find a texture and density, which suited my design. I tried different way of spreading the inks and paints to see which gave the most interesting outcome.

Final piece: I was very happy with my final piece; it was strong, eye catching and interesting. It represented my theme well which was art, but at the same time portrayed the identify of Germany by using the colours which are used to represent Germany in their flag. The designs also hinted what is inside the store to the audience too, which I believe is also important, as it will attract the correct audience.

Studio Dumbar Workshop:Sian’s and mines finished sign from the Studio Dumbar workshop.With the sign above we were challenging what it means to be ladylike.The sign is interactive to engage the audience more.

Berlin Topman Concept store:Logo for the Topman Concept Store in Berlin.

Berlin Topman Concept store:Development ideas for the poster for the Topman Concept store.

Berlin Topman Concept store:Final poster design for the Topman Concept store.

Berlin Topman Concept store:Second poster design for the Topman Concept store.

Berlin Topman Concept store:Flyer design for the Topman Concert store to advertise the opening.

Berlin Topman Concept store:Second flyer design for the Topman Concert store to advertise the opening.

Berlin Topman Concept store:Promotional material for the Topman Concept store.The shopping bags come in different colours, each one with a different colour from the german flag on.

Berlin Topman Concept store:Second promotional material for the Topman Concept store.

hemsöka

Hemsoka Magazine (Unconditional):Logo design for the group magazine, called Hemsoka.The magazine looks at obessions, the first issue looksat obsessions with dogs, and unconditional love for them.

Hemsoka Magazine (Unconditional):My photography which was used in the magazine.

Hemsoka Magazine (Unconditional):Cover design of the Hemsoka magazine, along side my layoutand photography pages.

Hemsoka Magazine (Unconditional):A few of the magazine layouts.