Overall, this module was one that I am very happy to have undertaken. With the area of graphic design being one that I hope to go into in some way once I leave University, being a part of the Graphics team for the exhibition, developing ideas and receiving feedback to help me improve my work, this proved to be a valuable learning experience for me.
Choosing this module also allowed me to develop my own personal branding - or at least, something very similar to what I would use upon leaving University - something that is again very relevant to my needs, and the area I would like to work in. Working in a graphics-based team is also something that I would expect to be doing in the future, so being a part of that team was very beneficial for me personally. I also enjoyed seeing what kinds of designs everyone else could produce, and the group as a whole were great to work with.
Hopefully, the exhibition will prove to be successful. It will be a testament to how much work everyone has put into it this semester, and I look forward to it.
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Friday, 8 April 2011
CV and Portfolio
With my logo and Business Card ready, the next step for me was to complete my Curriculum Vitae and Portfolio. Both of these have been designed in a way that accompanies my Business Card, so that I have a unified branding.
A CV isn't exactly the most exciting thing in the world, so to make the parts more interesting for the person reading it, I used a black/white diagonal split, which I also used for the contents page of my Portfolio. While the blocky font remains as a part of my personal branding for section titles, a more readable font (Lucida) has been used for the rest of the text. This font is also used throughout my Portfolio.
The front cover serves a similar purpose to the front of my business card, and is designed in a similar way. There is also a faded logo in the background which is a feature consistent throughout the rest of my Portfolio:
As I mentioned above, the contents page makes use of the black/white diagonal split that's used on the CV. For the purpose of the contents page however, this is mainly to differentiate the introduction text on the left to the contents list on the right. My personal mascot Ste can be seen running to the far right, encouraging the person looking at it to turn over to the next page. Some sample 3D and logo works can be seen on the left.
Here is a sample page of the Portfolio. Text is on the left while the image displaying the work in question is on the right. This is alternated with every page:
Also for this page showing a 3D Animation assignment, I have posted multiple sequential screenshots of the animation in question. Each of these screenshots has been numbered chronologically.
A CV isn't exactly the most exciting thing in the world, so to make the parts more interesting for the person reading it, I used a black/white diagonal split, which I also used for the contents page of my Portfolio. While the blocky font remains as a part of my personal branding for section titles, a more readable font (Lucida) has been used for the rest of the text. This font is also used throughout my Portfolio.
The front cover serves a similar purpose to the front of my business card, and is designed in a similar way. There is also a faded logo in the background which is a feature consistent throughout the rest of my Portfolio:
As I mentioned above, the contents page makes use of the black/white diagonal split that's used on the CV. For the purpose of the contents page however, this is mainly to differentiate the introduction text on the left to the contents list on the right. My personal mascot Ste can be seen running to the far right, encouraging the person looking at it to turn over to the next page. Some sample 3D and logo works can be seen on the left.
Here is a sample page of the Portfolio. Text is on the left while the image displaying the work in question is on the right. This is alternated with every page:
Also for this page showing a 3D Animation assignment, I have posted multiple sequential screenshots of the animation in question. Each of these screenshots has been numbered chronologically.
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Business Card Redesign
Following the completion of the welcome sign, I needed to get back to my personal branding, starting with an updated version of my business card, with a more expanded vision in mind for it.
The logo remains the same as before, however I have removed Gold altogether since I felt I could get it to work as well as I hoped, and Orange I replaced with a slightly different colour as I wasn't completely satisfied with the way it looked. Instead, for the colour scheme of my overall branding I decided to build my identity around Black and Orange-Red.
Orange-Red I chose because of a combination of two things: Red is my favourite colour, and my favourite sports team uses Orange as one of its colours, so I feel a strong personal connection with the combined colour. Red is bright and warm while orange is considered energetic, and the two together create a nice, vibrant shade which I am happy with. But because it is quite bright, I'm going to use it in smaller doses than Black, except on the back of my Business Card.
Also on the card this time is a 3D model of my personal mascot, Ste (short for Steven). He's there to not only help add a personal, friendly touch to my branding, but also to showcase another area that I am able to work in.
This time I've also designed the back. To keep it different enough from the front of the card, I have swapped around Orange-Red and Black. This side features contact details, along with a website on which I'm currently using to display artwork on (no personal URL as, while I do have my own domain name, I have not yet had the chance to do much of anything with it). Also added is a faded logo in the background, and Ste holding a letter.
The logo remains the same as before, however I have removed Gold altogether since I felt I could get it to work as well as I hoped, and Orange I replaced with a slightly different colour as I wasn't completely satisfied with the way it looked. Instead, for the colour scheme of my overall branding I decided to build my identity around Black and Orange-Red.
Orange-Red I chose because of a combination of two things: Red is my favourite colour, and my favourite sports team uses Orange as one of its colours, so I feel a strong personal connection with the combined colour. Red is bright and warm while orange is considered energetic, and the two together create a nice, vibrant shade which I am happy with. But because it is quite bright, I'm going to use it in smaller doses than Black, except on the back of my Business Card.
Also on the card this time is a 3D model of my personal mascot, Ste (short for Steven). He's there to not only help add a personal, friendly touch to my branding, but also to showcase another area that I am able to work in.
This time I've also designed the back. To keep it different enough from the front of the card, I have swapped around Orange-Red and Black. This side features contact details, along with a website on which I'm currently using to display artwork on (no personal URL as, while I do have my own domain name, I have not yet had the chance to do much of anything with it). Also added is a faded logo in the background, and Ste holding a letter.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Welcome Sign - Version 4
This is now the final version of the Welcome Sign. Minor changes were made, particularly with the font choice to fit in with the overall branding, some drop shadows, an added web address for the exhibition's website, and the way the 3D logo and anaglyphic effect was applied. To get the colours of the anaglyphic effect to properly match the red and cyan colours of 3D glasses, I had to change Illustrator's colour settings from CMYK to RGB, and got nice, brighter colours as a result of editing this setting:
Overall, I'm very happy with the way this has turned out. I was given good feedback for this from other members of the graphics teams, with at least one saying that it really felt like the 3D effect was there. Maybe the effect actually works, maybe it doesn't, I have no way of knowing since I haven't been able to test the effect. I tried following a web tutorial on how to apply the effect properly, but some problems I came across with said tutorial stopped me in my tracks, so I had to improvise.
It was also suggested to me that I make a sign that says "Thank you for visiting" to those who are leaving the exhibition. For this, I essentially flipped all of the elements of the poster around while also making some small changes to the text:
Overall, I'm very happy with the way this has turned out. I was given good feedback for this from other members of the graphics teams, with at least one saying that it really felt like the 3D effect was there. Maybe the effect actually works, maybe it doesn't, I have no way of knowing since I haven't been able to test the effect. I tried following a web tutorial on how to apply the effect properly, but some problems I came across with said tutorial stopped me in my tracks, so I had to improvise.
It was also suggested to me that I make a sign that says "Thank you for visiting" to those who are leaving the exhibition. For this, I essentially flipped all of the elements of the poster around while also making some small changes to the text:
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Welcome Sign - Version 3
After showing my welcome sign to other members of the graphics team as well as to the lecturer, it was suggested that I change the format to landscape instead of portrait, and give it a white background while also making it fit with the branding of the final poster design that was chosen. I made these changes to my design and this is what I have now:
It's certainly more interesting than it was before, and I must admit I'm happy with the way it looks. This is, however, not going to be the final version of the design as I plan to make some more adjustments to really make it stand out.
It's certainly more interesting than it was before, and I must admit I'm happy with the way it looks. This is, however, not going to be the final version of the design as I plan to make some more adjustments to really make it stand out.
Monday, 21 March 2011
Welcome Sign - Version 2
Shortly after producing the initial version of the Welcome Sign, I knew there were some things that needed to change to make it better, so I made a second version of it. The first being that it was quite monochromatic, like my losing poster design, so I decided to add the anaglyphic effect to the logo. This idea will probably be carried over to a future version of this design once I've gotten feedback for it:
Friday, 18 March 2011
Welcome Sign - Version 1
Following the Poster development, I was assigned the task of putting together a welcome sign. This I felt didn't really need too much doing to it at first, since it's only really there to serve its purpose for five seconds before the person looking at it enters the exhibition.
With this cynical mindset of mine, I quickly put together this design making use of the 3D logo created for the exhibition, while bringing forward my idea of a red "3" and a blue "D" for the text. This design isn't final, and I will more than likely make some big changes to the overall look and feel once I've gotten feedback for it. It's a bit bland, but for something serving the purpose that it is serving, I think it's a good enough start.
With this cynical mindset of mine, I quickly put together this design making use of the 3D logo created for the exhibition, while bringing forward my idea of a red "3" and a blue "D" for the text. This design isn't final, and I will more than likely make some big changes to the overall look and feel once I've gotten feedback for it. It's a bit bland, but for something serving the purpose that it is serving, I think it's a good enough start.
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Poster Concepts
The Graphics team that I am a part of for this exhibition recently held a poster competition - in actual fact, that was the very first thing we discussed as soon as the team was formed. After our designs were all completed we held a voting ballot with the whole lecture group, or at least those who were present, from which the final poster was chosen.
Mine didn't win, but I'll go through the process of my design here:
For my design, I wanted to try out a fairly simple, text-based design. Using white text on a dark blue background - chosen to match the University's navy blue - I felt this would be pleasing on the eye. The large "3rD" makes use of a red 3 and a light blue "D", playing on the fact that anaglyphic 3D glasses usually have red for the left eye and blue for the right. I chose to capitalise the D in "3rd" for a unique effect, having it read as "3rd" while also playing on the exhibition theme being based on 3D.
A second variation of this poster was produced, and for this one I instead applied a faux anaglyphic effect to a white 3 and D, as a subtle way of conveying the theme, on the same coloured background:
When both designs were shown to other group members in the classroom, the dark blue background wasn't too well received, as the brighter Mac monitor made it look purplish. My monitor at home makes the colours on screen look slightly dimmer than they really are for some reason, and that didn't help. With this idea not being as well received, I chose to instead have black text on a white background, and see if that turned out any better:
The "R" inbetween the 3 and D was capitalised, as suggested by another student in the graphics team. Along with this change I also added the University's logo to the top of the poster. With this change, I feel that the poster lost what I hoped made it eye-catching in the first place; however, at least one other student noticed the anaglyphic effect when it was shown on the screen. Overall, I don't feel that using a white background was the best idea - especially with my design being quite simplistic compared to other team members - and thus it only got one vote from the other students present when we held the voting. Perhaps I simplified my design too much and thus made it boring?
In retrospect, I think having the red 3 and the blue D on the white background would have been a much better design choice for me to go with, as something like that is more likely to grab the attention of passers-by than just black with an effect that may not be noticeable.
Mine didn't win, but I'll go through the process of my design here:
For my design, I wanted to try out a fairly simple, text-based design. Using white text on a dark blue background - chosen to match the University's navy blue - I felt this would be pleasing on the eye. The large "3rD" makes use of a red 3 and a light blue "D", playing on the fact that anaglyphic 3D glasses usually have red for the left eye and blue for the right. I chose to capitalise the D in "3rd" for a unique effect, having it read as "3rd" while also playing on the exhibition theme being based on 3D.
A second variation of this poster was produced, and for this one I instead applied a faux anaglyphic effect to a white 3 and D, as a subtle way of conveying the theme, on the same coloured background:
When both designs were shown to other group members in the classroom, the dark blue background wasn't too well received, as the brighter Mac monitor made it look purplish. My monitor at home makes the colours on screen look slightly dimmer than they really are for some reason, and that didn't help. With this idea not being as well received, I chose to instead have black text on a white background, and see if that turned out any better:
The "R" inbetween the 3 and D was capitalised, as suggested by another student in the graphics team. Along with this change I also added the University's logo to the top of the poster. With this change, I feel that the poster lost what I hoped made it eye-catching in the first place; however, at least one other student noticed the anaglyphic effect when it was shown on the screen. Overall, I don't feel that using a white background was the best idea - especially with my design being quite simplistic compared to other team members - and thus it only got one vote from the other students present when we held the voting. Perhaps I simplified my design too much and thus made it boring?
In retrospect, I think having the red 3 and the blue D on the white background would have been a much better design choice for me to go with, as something like that is more likely to grab the attention of passers-by than just black with an effect that may not be noticeable.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Week 3 Part 2: Idea Presentation
With our trip to London being completed last week, we soon decided to base the idea for our theme to present to the rest of the class: The best of Britain.
Having chosen this theme, a mood board was created as part of the presentation: with Britain having a particularly iconic culture that is reknowned worldwide, many of these elements such as the Union Jack's red, white and blue colours, as well as our Royalty and of course the UK's love for sausage rolls and alcohol were incoorporated into this mood board:
This was presented to the rest of the lecture group simply as it is, with a short clip of the national anthem being played to help get the point across. Ultimately, it was up to everyone else in the group, including ourselves, to pick any of the other ideas from other groups that were presented: Best of Britain lost out to the far more popular Third Dimension concept.
In hindsight, I wasn't entirely keen on the idea that we initially presented. That may be because, with the UK's culture being around us day in and day out in some way or another, it doesn't come across to me personally as being something particularly new or exciting to display for an exhibition.
With the concept presentation done and out of the way, the class was split into three teams: one handling exhibition related things, another designing a website for the exhibition, and finally the graphics team who will design the posters, flyers and such for the exhibition. With me wanting an opportunity to further develop my skills in graphic design, I joined the latter team.
Having chosen this theme, a mood board was created as part of the presentation: with Britain having a particularly iconic culture that is reknowned worldwide, many of these elements such as the Union Jack's red, white and blue colours, as well as our Royalty and of course the UK's love for sausage rolls and alcohol were incoorporated into this mood board:
This was presented to the rest of the lecture group simply as it is, with a short clip of the national anthem being played to help get the point across. Ultimately, it was up to everyone else in the group, including ourselves, to pick any of the other ideas from other groups that were presented: Best of Britain lost out to the far more popular Third Dimension concept.
In hindsight, I wasn't entirely keen on the idea that we initially presented. That may be because, with the UK's culture being around us day in and day out in some way or another, it doesn't come across to me personally as being something particularly new or exciting to display for an exhibition.
With the concept presentation done and out of the way, the class was split into three teams: one handling exhibition related things, another designing a website for the exhibition, and finally the graphics team who will design the posters, flyers and such for the exhibition. With me wanting an opportunity to further develop my skills in graphic design, I joined the latter team.
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Week 3 Part 1: Business Card
Basically this week, we were shown examples of existing business cards, and we were recommended to create our own, advertising what kind of service we would provided as advertised on the card.
I'm interested in pursuing a career involving Graphic Design, particularly sports team branding, so I have designed myself a logo on display in the middle of the card, to essentially display an example of the work that I would offer:
Obviously the font I did not design myself, but effects were applied to the two letters, spelling out my initials, showing right here what kind of work I can produce. The logo is a draft and may be changed in future, so maybe think of it as a placeholder for now.
I also produced a second version of this card, making changes to the description of the services I would offer at the bottom, but also giving it a brightly coloured background that would make it easy to notice:
The pantone for the orange I've used here is a bit more vibrant, which I think would help it to stand out more. But again, these designs are "preliminary" so may be changed in the future.
I'm interested in pursuing a career involving Graphic Design, particularly sports team branding, so I have designed myself a logo on display in the middle of the card, to essentially display an example of the work that I would offer:
Obviously the font I did not design myself, but effects were applied to the two letters, spelling out my initials, showing right here what kind of work I can produce. The logo is a draft and may be changed in future, so maybe think of it as a placeholder for now.
I also produced a second version of this card, making changes to the description of the services I would offer at the bottom, but also giving it a brightly coloured background that would make it easy to notice:
The pantone for the orange I've used here is a bit more vibrant, which I think would help it to stand out more. But again, these designs are "preliminary" so may be changed in the future.
Friday, 4 February 2011
Week 2 Part 2: London Trip
Our group took a trip to London to help give us a better idea of how to further develop the ideas that we came up with.
Our first stop was the Tate Modern. Inside somewhere was a room filled with really old CRT type TVs displaying old recordings of... whatever it was. Something that was black and white and old.
At some point after leaving the Tate Modern, we decided to have a look for an exibition that was advertised in a newspaper, based in Camden and Leather Lane. Neither of these were exibitions per se, but they were empty shops that instead displayed neon light signs on the windows. Both of these appeared to be closed, but it turned out that they were essentially advertising each other, and that there was a bigger one to come in the future.
Finally, at some point we walked through the Chinatown area. Chinese New Year was being celebrated at the time we were there, so I felt it appropriate to share this photo which could easily be tied into the Travel theme that my group discussed.
Our first stop was the Tate Modern. Inside somewhere was a room filled with really old CRT type TVs displaying old recordings of... whatever it was. Something that was black and white and old.
At some point after leaving the Tate Modern, we decided to have a look for an exibition that was advertised in a newspaper, based in Camden and Leather Lane. Neither of these were exibitions per se, but they were empty shops that instead displayed neon light signs on the windows. Both of these appeared to be closed, but it turned out that they were essentially advertising each other, and that there was a bigger one to come in the future.
Finally, at some point we walked through the Chinatown area. Chinese New Year was being celebrated at the time we were there, so I felt it appropriate to share this photo which could easily be tied into the Travel theme that my group discussed.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Week 2 Part 1: Theme Ideas
As I have developed a better understanding of the module: we were put into temporary groups so that the lecture group as a whole will be able to come into agreement with one, greater idea for an exibition to be held at the end of the Semester. We will then be split into different working groups based around what we are best at individually.
The ideas our group of six came up with include:
Forgotten Technology - This exibition would essentially be a display of items such as CRT monitors, floppy disks and other old computer components that are considered archaic today.
Time - Clocks, watches, and other similar items would be on display with the general theme of the exibition also revolving around the Past, Present and Future.
Travel - While not featuring any elements relating to modes of transport, this exibition would be split into 6 areas representing different cultures from around the world.
The ideas our group of six came up with include:
Forgotten Technology - This exibition would essentially be a display of items such as CRT monitors, floppy disks and other old computer components that are considered archaic today.
Time - Clocks, watches, and other similar items would be on display with the general theme of the exibition also revolving around the Past, Present and Future.
Travel - While not featuring any elements relating to modes of transport, this exibition would be split into 6 areas representing different cultures from around the world.
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Week 1: Introduction
My name is Steven Reeves, and this is my blog for the Web Gallery and Exhibition Module.
I have a very very vague idea of what it is we are actually doing. We've been put into temporary groups of 6 and will be doing something or other. Maybe it will be better explained to me next week.
I have a very very vague idea of what it is we are actually doing. We've been put into temporary groups of 6 and will be doing something or other. Maybe it will be better explained to me next week.
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