Project Review

My client brief is to create logo design, ticket design and advertising posters for a Cambridge Fruit and Vegetable festival, which is taking place on Parkers Piece Cambridge. The subject matter and content for my client brief will be the fruit and vegetables, as I will be taking pictures of only the interesting fruit where I will then be creating different manipulations from observational drawings and also creating pieces straight off the computer, for example logo designs and ticket designs.

The developmental work that is required to go forward with my project and designs is that I need to explore more artists that relate more to my work and the pieces I would like to produce. So that then I can gain influence and inspiration for my own logo designs.

I believe that my strengths for my final major work are my practical pieces and specialist techniques, as I believe that I am good at looking and analyzing artist work by finding out the true reason behind the work. Then I use the techniques that I have learnt from the artist and put this into my own work. A good example from this is the artist Michael English that I analysed. This helped me discover the way that colours play a big part in art, as then I went onto creating my Photoshop pieces focusing on colour which was a success.

My opportunities for my project are to explore new ways of experimenting with logo design on illustrator and looking at new ways to produce what I want and make it look professional. My weaknesses are my imagery, I need to take more images of a variety of fruit and veg and also i need to zoom in more to the detailed areas tat make them so unique and interesting.

I would like to focus on a few main things to create a good logo design, as I feel if I focus on the shapes and colours I can create a simple logo the will grab the viewers attention which is exactly what I would like to communicate. 

Gallery Visit - Taylor Wessing

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2013is a 
unique opportunity to see sixty new portraits by some of the most exciting contemporary photographers from around the world.
Through editorial, advertising and fine art prints, the exhibition explores a range of themes, styles and approaches to the photographic portrait, from formal commissioned 
images of famous faces to more spontaneous and intimate 
moments capturing friends and family.
The gallery has four main prizes for the photography work that has been submitted into the National Portrait Gallery, below is an image of the first prize winner by Spencer Murphy Called Katie Walsh. And below that is a picture of all the top four photographs.

As I walked past the ticket man I was smacked with the first amazing photography which was a large A1 piece, as this was my first time at the taylor wessing prize event, the atmosphere was clean and basic with great big pieces on the wall surrounding me, I didn't know where to look first.

The first prize was awarded to Spencer Murphy for his interesting piece of the jokey rider called Katie Walsh.The 35-year-old grew up in Kent and studied at the Kent Institute of Art and Design before getting a BA in photography at Falmouth College of Arts. I have chosen this image because it is the most important photograph in the room as it got 1st prize. The most important thing and the most impressive thing that makes this image so incredible is the detail that has been captured with the digital camera. There photographer has used this technique with using a normal shutter speed shows the detail and makes the picture look motionless. 

In this image you can see the jokey rider Katie Walsh with a confused emotion. The viewers eye is firstly draw to the eyes of the rider and then taken down the page with the tiny detailed pieces of mud. Then the colours of the clothes are bright and capture your eye. As a jokey rider the way that people identify them is by the colour of their clothes. For example Katie Walsh wears a burgundy top with white stripes. This shows part of her identity and also shows part of her story. This then gets the viewer thinking about what the photographer is trying to say. 

I believe that the environment that this photograph has been taken in was just after a race, as after a jokey race the rider has a lot of emotion on how the race has gone and how they have performed. I believe that this is a really good time to take the image as you can get a lot of emotion in the image and it can mean a lot more than a staged photo shoot. 

Also I feel the the dirt of her face and clothes make the piece so alive because of the way that it shows a realistic feel to the piece and the way it feels like she has just got off the horse.
  

I feel that this gallery has a very good atmosphere and has so great photograph and the best in the country, I also feel that it is a great gallery to visit because if you are an artist like myself you can get useful ideas on the photographs and also add some of the ideas into your own work and outcomes.

Although this is photography and I am doing graphic design for my final piece I still feel that I can take something away with me to my own work. I believe that this piece by Spencer Murphy has shown true emotion well and built up an image that shows the true picture. In order to do this in my own work I think I will need to work with shapes because I want the viewer to know what shape I am showing however still have that interesting part to it and make it something that you cant stop looking at. 

Kam Tang Artist Research and Transcription

Photoshop

After completing the first black and white line drawing, the same as the fine liner I decided I needed to add colour into the piece to make it more exciting and make it so that it grabs the viewers attention and is detailed enough. I only used 5 colours in this because I didn't want to over complicate the piece I used realistic colours by looking at the fruit in front of me. The line involved is still there, however I have added the solid blocks of colour to create a more 3D piece and make it look more realistic.

This is another line drawing that I have created. This piece is of a kiwi that I was looking at. I have used continuous line and solid colours. I also have added 7 seeds on top of this because I wanted to make it look as realistic as possible however by keeping it very simple a basic. I have varied the line movements I have used to create different and exciting areas so that the viewer can be taken on a journey around the page.

Here is my last line drawing of a strawberry, this is my favorite piece because of the contrast between the colours, for example the way the the red and green are so bright they compliment each other. When creating this piece I wanted to find a way to divide the colours up on the main red of the strawberry. I decided to use directional lines to show visible areas so that the darker areas and lighter areas are easier to show which makes the piece more 3D. The strawberry piece compared to the pomegranate piece has some strong differences. The main difference and the most important one I feel is the shape of the fruit and the way that the lines are different, for example in the pomegranate piece shows soft and round lines, but the strawberry has strong and sharp lines which shows a different quality to the fruit. In my final logo I would like to focus of the shapes involved in the fruit as I believe this is the best way to communicate to the audience.  

Photoshop

After completing my observational drawings and prints I then went onto complete specialist technique studies. My specialist technique was digital and computer art by using the computer with Photoshop and Illustrator. To the left is one of my first digital manipulation I created using Photoshop. I created this by scanning one of my observational drawings of the pomegranate, that I drew using fine liner and wash. Once I had scanned this into the computer and opened up in Photoshop, I decided I wanted to add more colour into the piece as there were just small tints of blue and purple from where the wash had mixed with the fine liner. I added the colour by using a wacom tablet. This helped me because then I could determine the pressure that I put on the page so that the colours flow into each other. When manipulating this I decided to have the pomegranate by the side of me so that I could pick out the right colours to make it as realistic as possible. I really like this technique of creating a Photoshop layer over my original piece because then I can get the piece showing through behind the strong colours.

Once I had created my manipulation from my drawings I then went onto creating pieces straight off the computer. I created this by using Photoshop and I used a wacom tablet to perform the lines. This line drawing has been created from inspiration by Paul Klee the inspiration from this came from when Paul Klee said drawing is just like taking a line for a walk. I took this quote literally. I created this using the wacom tablet, however when I was drawing I did not take the pressure off the page making the piece a continuous line drawing. I really enjoyed drawing this as I could draw the detail into the middle edge where the seeds are.

Paul Klee

Bio

Or The Mocker Mocked, 1930, oil on canvas, 17 x 20 5/8 inches (43.2 x 52.4 cm), Museum of Modern Art, NY.

Paul Klee was a painter born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered to be a German-Swiss. Movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism influenced his highly individual style.

Printing

Here are some more of my printing pieces I have created, to the left is a piece that was made by direct observation from a pomegranate. I chose this fruit to do my printing from because of the complicated shapes involved inside when you cute the fruit in half, which I enjoyed looking at because of the little seeds and harsh shapes that the viewers eye is drawn to and taken around the fruit. This printing piece I have created is an etching. This was created by looking at the object and drawing onto the etching plastic with a nail creating grooves into the plastic so that once I had finished the piece and added the ink onto the surface the ink would go into the cracks and then I wiped the excess ink off so the the lines would become clearer once been through the printing press. With this first one I just used plain card to print onto, with this card I had to damp the page so the the ink would stick onto the card and show.

This is the same printing piece as before however the thing that I has changed is the surface I have printed onto. I have used a fabric which has had emulsion painted over the top of to create a bumpy surface so that the ink that has been printed goes into the grooves of the fabric. With this print I have made sure I used less ink, as I thought that my first effort had a lot of areas where the ink had smudged. This was mainly because of the dampness of the paper. With the fabric, I did not have to dampen it because the fabric absorbs the ink well.

Here is another relief print. This piece is also from direct observation of a very rare fruit called a persimmon. The relief print works really well with a detailed fruit. This is using the same technique that I used when I was drawing the kiwi fruit. However I used more ink because I wanted to try and add some block colour in the piece. After looking at my first creation from the kiwi, I thought that the lines were very basic and I needed to add more solid colour to it so then the piece looks more 3D and realistic. I made the solid black areas by using a different tool, I cut a small piece of thick card up to push over the top of the drawing, although you can't see this with the pen drawing once I pulled the piece of paper off you can see the areas that I used a lot of pressure with the card which I think brings a different quality to the print that I like a lot.

Printing

This is my first printing piece that I created, I used the technique of printing with relief, this was done by using a A5 piece of etching plastic underneath a piece of paper. Then I used a pen to draw the kiwi from direct observation, this then put pressure onto the page to be applied where the pen marks are. I really enjoyed this way of printing as I could see the drawing with then pen, however when you turn the page over the drawing is transformed into a detailed and solid piece with the strong black lines and areas of the excess ink that had been left behind from when the paper was on top of the plastic. I believe that the kiwi was a great fruit to work with when I was creating this piece as it has brilliant shapes that are simple enough to be picked out and to work with my pen. The piece is one colour but does not have to come across this way when looking at it, as the viewer can identify the fruit and use their imagination to show where the colour should be. However if I would do this piece again and refine it I would make sure that I do not leave as much ink residue around the background of the piece so that it looks a lot more simple.

Here is another printing technique called reduction. This is called reduction because you are reducing the amount of ink there is on the etching plastic. Firstly I cover the whole area of the etching plastic with printing ink and then use different tools to take away the ink by drawing and moving the surface. Once I have done this, I take the plastic to the printing press, I damp my paper and put it through. Once out you can see to the left that the ink is left behind and there is not ink where you have moved the layer. This is a really good way of creating a printed piece because of the way that you can position the ink however you want it and also if you make a mistake then you can re apply the ink. The difference that I feel is the most important difference between the relief method is the thick lines you can create if this, however you can only draw strong and sharp lines with the pen for the relief method.

Observational Drawings

There are three observational drawings on this blog, these three were most probably my best, as they are so bright and vivid. This is because of the media and technique I have used. On this piece to the left I have firstly drawn on an A5 piece of card with a sharpie and other pens to get really strong and bold colours and shapes, that show the viewer what the piece is meant to represent, which is what the fruit is truly like. Once the sharpie had dried I then covered the whole page in quink ink, then I used bleach to take away the quink ink and reveal through to see the bright colours from the sharpie. I really like this because you can't see the whole picture and what is underneath completely, which is a really nice effect. 

Here is another piece using sharpies, however with this one I decided to not use the quink ink and bleach, because when I was  creating the last piece I was worried about ruining the first piece when I added the quink ink, because I thought that the bold colours from the sharpie made the piece look very exciting and different to what I had produced before and that the brights colours work well with the pomegranate.

To the left is another one of my studies and one of the last observational drawings. The media I have used for this is fine liner and water, I firstly drew the fine liner on by drawing the dark tonal areas and the detailed areas. Then I applied the wash onto the piece of card using a small brush to control the areas that the wash will cover, for example in the dark tonal areas I have used more fine liner and more wash to make the area darker. When the wash hits the fin liner ink the ink automatically turns blue and purple because of the pigment in the ink. I really like this effect because of the small tint of colour involved and it adds a new layer over the just black and white drawing.

Observational Drawings

Here are two more observational pieces of the pomegranate I had, the one to the left has been created using inks and watercolours on a surface that I made with masking tape over a piece of card. I decided to use this material because I wanted the inks and water to go into the small cracks and be stored to show darker areas of the ink. I used bold colours to show the bright and exciting inside of the fruit and also because of my pieces before these were basic colours and I wanted to add these in to show a true representation of the real pomegranate. I have used line strongly here as I firstly drew the basic outline of the seeds inside and then I filled the areas in with different water colours that match the real thing. I really liked using this piece, as this is my first coloured piece and I wanted to add colour into my work so I could move on with my work.

This piece has been created using lots of different techniques, for example the surface that I was working on was just the normal card and nothing else, as I wanted to get a smooth base to work on with my ink and ink and also then I could control where the ink was going and be able to prevent it spilling to other places, so that I could keep the circle form of the pomegranate. Once I had added the ink onto the page and it had dried I then added biro qualities onto the page to show the interesting shapes and areas, so that the viewer can be taken on a journey around the page.

Observational Drawings

To the left is my first observational drawing piece, the object I was working from was a pomegranate. I firstly used a 2b pencil to drawing the small drawing in the bottom corner. I used a 2b because I wanted small detailed lines to communicate the structure of the pomegranate seeds. In the top corner I created a small fluid piece using the juices from the pomegranate to get a sense of colour but by keeping the black and white drawing separate. I drew this piece when I first opened the pomegranate, so the fruit was still quiet hard and white inside, I used the pencil really softly over these areas so that I could create strong and sharp edges around them to direct the viewers eye towards the seeds inside.

Here is another pencil drawing of mine, however this one is of another object, this is inside of a red cabbage, I cut into the vegetable to discover these interesting and bold lines. 
I added these lines in as close to the real thing as possible, I picked this one small section, because I really liked the way that the lines fed to a focal point which was a lot more exciting this focal point was the left hand side in the middle, the viewers eye should be caught on the top right corner and then led a journey towards a change in angle to this focal area. I used the juices again for this piece to show the colours, as I thought that the play a key role in making this vegetable very exciting, however I did not want it to detract from the basic pencil drawing so there were only small subtle hints.

Michael English

Bio

Michael English (born in Bicester, Oxfordshire, September 5, 1941- died in London September 25, 2009) was a British artist known for poster designs he created in the 1960s with Nigel Waymouth and the design company they established Hapshash and the Coloured Coat and for several series of Hyper Realist paintings in the 1970s and 1980s. His early childhood was spent moving around England with long holidays spent in the South West of Ireland where his mother came from. Throughout his childhood, he developed a fascination with drawing, often technical subjects such as aeroplanes and trains both of which remained a fascination throughout his life.

My 5 Artists/ Designers

Here are 5 artists/ designers that I have chosen to use for my initial research to start off my project. All of these are related to my specialist area as they have all been created using photoshop and or illustrator. My personal favorite poster out of these five is the one created by Santtu Mustonen, I like this poster because of the fluid shapes used with-in it and how the colours work well together to create a strong piece to grab the viewers attention. These all support my brief for my project because of the technique that i am planning on using to create my advertising posters and tickets, with logo design.

Maxim Logunov

Maxim Iogunov graphic designer, art director MartDesign studio. JNovosibirsk, Russian Federation.

Aron Vellekoop

Aron Vellekoop is a graphic designer & illustrator, living and working in Breda, The Netherlands. 

Caleb Kozlowski

A Design Director at Hybrid Design in San Francisco.  

Santtu Mustonen

Santtu Mustonen is an artist interested in colorful mud, moving images, 3D design, art direction and contemporary illustration.

Nauman Afzal

Lead Graphic Designer (Freelance) at WCCL Network, Interaction Designer / Owner at nomi Designs.

Secondary Images

These images are of the fruit and vegetables that I will be looking at when creating my work. I have found these from an image source website called corbis, I am looking at these secondary images so that I can get an idea of how fruit and vegetable is photographed in the real world and also how they are positioned to created interesting scenes and qualities.

Primary Images

Here are some of my primary images for this project, I have taken zoomed in pictures of detailed fruit to get a sense of their colour, texture and shape. (PRESS READ MORE FOR IMAGES)

My Project Brief

The theme for my project is fruit and vegetables, I have decided to create and go fourth with a new idea, brief and theme for my final major as I want to design something that will be used and useful to the public.

The fruit and vegetables that I will be using and working from will be a selection of strawberries, kiwis, red cabbage, red onion, pomegranate, mushrooms and other exciting fruit and vegetables. I have chosen these because of the detail they have when you cut into them. My favourite of them is the pomegranate because of the individual seeds inside and the way that all of them come together to produce a detailed fruit.

I will be producing my logo designs and advertising techniques using photoshop and illustrator, my ideas will come from artist research and my own developing stages. Also I will be producing my own practical manipulations, changing the qualities and making the fruit and veg look even more exciting so that I can use them in my designs.   

My Client Brief

To produce the logo design, ticket design and advertising posters for a fruit and vegetable festival for a events company in Cambridge.

I will do this by creating different designs and manipulations on the computer by using photoshop and illustrator. I will mainly be using my observational drawings and mono prints. Also will be using my etchings to understand shapes. My images of fruit and veg will play a big part in my piece as well and I will be looking at influences from different artists and designers to inspire my own work and outcomes.