It's been a while since I updated this blog with work i've produced. Since i've gone back to College i've worked on a couple of modules, but as recently as this week, I finished a personally directed project for college. The module centered on Alternative Techniques, and developing an area of design which you wanted to explore further, with the workplace in mind.
I chose to look at Graphic Illustration for a number of reasons. It's an area of design that has a huge scope for work, its found everywhere, in magazines, newspapers, websites, books, branding, advertising, apps, posters, you can go on and on. Secondly, whilst at school, I studied Art & Design rather than Graphic Design (which wasn't available). So i've always had an interest in illustration and particularly illustration in a graphic style. But it's an area i'm yet to really develop, and I thought now would be the opportunity to look at that, and try and develop my own style. Finally, my portfolio's lacking some stuff that stands out. This years going to be a big year for me in terms of compiling a solid portfolio of work, thats going to grab some peoples attention, and hopefully find me work. So I need some stuff thats getting away from live briefs, work that showcases my style and my interests.
Skills
The 'Alternative Techniques' Module outlined the need to highlight some skills that you were going to develop. One of the reasons I had shied away from illustration so far was down to the fact that i'm not the best with illustrator. I didn't have the confidence to take a detailed drawing, and realise it digitally, to a professional standard. Because I like to keep things minimal, I could get away with a quick doodle, and then just mock it up digitally, but really, that isn't going to get me far in the long run. So one area was to improve my skills in illustrator, try and improve my efficiency in it, and look for other ways to use it.
Secondly, Colour. I know what looks nice, but creating palettes that work myself; not so easy. I know what I needed to look at though, so I decided to look into Pantone, how printing works (CMYK etc). The output side of colour too, how printed things look, was an area I wanted to look at also.
Finally, idea generation and development. As mentioned earlier in this blog, i've had a few frustrating experiences with getting ideas. They weren't unique problems, everyone has them, but I wanted to look at that again, and see how I could improve, particularly focussing on generating small ideas, and developing them fully.
Research
So I created a brief that allowed me to create a set of illustrations that could be used in a range of applications. Websites such as Society 6 give illustrators the chance to sell there work on T-shirts, phone covers, in frames, pretty much anything. It's a good way to get illustrators noticed. My work would be designed for their website.
I then did a bulk of research into the current trends around, looking at a range of illustrators today, analysing there styles, techniques and where there work is featured. A few of my favourites were Vahram Muratyan, Owen Gatley & Morgan Blair. I then went onto produce some style sheets, focussing in on areas and styles I was interested in.
Ideas & Development
From my research, I noticed the trend of applying texture to illustrations. Colours too still vary largely, some keep things very bold and minimal, others uses more pastelly hues, but theres a clear trend of block colour, even if that involves simple gradients. So minimalism is still very popular, but people are looking at ways to make there digital work look a little more hand rendered, and dare I say it, even vintage in some ways.
Like all my design work, I like simplicity and functionality, and I knew my illustrations were going to reflect this idea too. To come up with some ideas, I decided to pick music as my theme. I'd give myself the length of a song to come up with an idea, and then i'd develop that. Chances are i'd come up with just one, maybe two ideas, and they're always either very literal, or just really simple. But thats exactly what I wanted from this project. Hopefully in the future, I can apply this thinking to my branding projects, and instead of trying to magic up a finished idea in my head, I can properly develop a small great idea.
To develop my ideas, I had to develop my skills. I worked on improving my skills in Illustrator, and in the end, a little bit in Photoshop too. I looked at grain effects, how to use the pathfinder properly, gradients, I finally got round to looking at how CMYK actually works, I faffed on with textures and making them into vectors, and generally, I just managed to become a lot faster in alot of aspects.
In an ideal world, i'd have loved to have screen printed my work, or used some other printing process. Unfortunately, this just isn't available to me at college, it's something i'd have to do somewhere else, and in the time frame, I couldn't do that. But its something I definitely will get round to doing.
Final Outcomes
Overall, I was pleased with what I managed to come out with. Printed, the work came out well, and I was particularly pleased with the colour palettes that I was able to come up with. Even though I think i'm always going to have a simplistic approach to my work, I think I maybe played it a little safe with the designs. But they looked pretty good. I'm going to try and come up with my of my own projects over the next 6 months, Its a great way for me to showcase my style and interests, and it's allowed me to develop my skills.
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