Bushido:: Visual Style Inspiration

I'm now going to brand an exhibition aimed at a younger audience to engage with and attend an exhibition to learn more about Japanese and Far Easter history specifically in terms of the idea of a warrior throughout history, culture, media and art.

I will focus more on the branding and I will not propose the exhibition layout and organisation itself, it's almost as if the museum has asked me to brand the exhibition and not work on the exhibition as a space itself.

I'm going to have a much more loose visual style now, as it relates to me and my design aspirations and portfolio and also gives a more cutting edge visual style not associated with this topic of the Far East. I'm inspired by studios such as HORT who have worked with Nike and took a fairly generic topic such as Basketball and turned it on it's head and portrayed so much movement and character and an experimental quality to it. 

I plan on taking notes from this towards the idea of the Samurai. Giving Samurai and Bushido imagery a contemporary and experimental twist, referencing the source material but creating cutting edge design which appeals to the idea of a modern exhibition and the demographic I'm targeting in London.


Can't wait!

Read More

Publication:: Binding

Right now I'm leaning towards this form of binding as it'll be simple to prepare for in terms of print, I won't have to print the leafs and individual papers out in the form of a booklet - which could be a bit of a headache when working with A2 size double page spreads -

I can print off each page individually double sided as you would with a perfect bind and doing this also eradicates the problem of the book functioning and when the book is finished you can flick through the posters

Doing this also allows me to perforate the edge so the user can rip off a poster or page to stick on a wall if they so please which will add a cool touch.

This publication is almost like a minaiture version of what I'm looking to do! I just want a separate booklet binded at the front with the pages at the back also separately usable.

The only issue with this type of bind is you have to account for the binding area in your inner margin and it can get quite tight in the inside margin, especially with a lot of pages so it might get ab it unweidly to use. I'm going to mock it up tomorrow as best as I can so I can crack on with the publication, time is not on my side at the moment.

This is the kind of aesthetic style I want to capture with different sizes and different forms of interactivity, once the binding is nailed down I can play around with the format and scales of individual pages.

Read More

Publication:: Mock-Up 1

I made a mock-up yesterday to better gauge thei nteraction and format of the publication. In terms of my concept it's very simple, I'm applying fundamental design theory to existing design by recreating the poster in either the European or Japanese graphic design movement of the 50's onwards in the post-war period. Although both are modernist I feel they approached progressive design in a different way and I want to illustrate this.

I've been scratching my head in terms of how to make the use and interaction of the product befit the topic I'm covering, I was inspired by the Tokyo '60 Design Conference. I love the difference in colours, stocks and formats. I really enjoy the way it's all layered and geometric yet also so colourful and playful.

Beautiful design ! The main concept in terms of usability is to reference this and have  the feeling of a variety of different products, formats and stocks somehow bound together to create this sort of scrapbook of visual debate between Europe and Japan. What I'd be referencing is also a very important event in Japanese graphic design history and bridged the gap between the rest of the world.

This is just a mock-up yet and I want to go to town more with the layering of formats and think about the colours and stocks more but I feel this is the best way to go, for my own visual development and for the brief.

With everything opened out on face value the information will be seamless throughout all the individual leafs, everything will line-up for example the title of the publication will run over the booklet and onto the stock underneath it creating an interesting effect.

Book is the first thing you'd read, this is more of the debate side with the layout and purpose of a standard book, I may have tipped in sections and little books within the book, this will be an extension of my essay laid out in a modernist format with facing pages in a separate layout, showing the conflict and agreeing elements between different takes on modernist design.

Once booklet is read you see the posters with a small cover which explains "How would X look if Europe (or a specific European designer) got their hands on it?" and similarly "How would X look if Japan (or a specific Japanese designer) got their hands on it?". The small cover will show the original design and the recreated poster underneath it.

Turning the small cover reveals a quote on the back of it which reinforces the design principles of that designer/movement and the recreated poster reveals itself. 

Turn a poster to see another poster and cover which recreated the same original artwork. 

It's almost as if the book is one product in itself which works as a book and the posters also form a sort of book. There will be a minimum of 6 posters, so at least 3 pieces of design will be recreated both in a European and Japanese design sensibility.

The issue for me at the moment is binding methods, tomorrow I'm going to discuss this with other students and see what they reckon. The issue is how I can bind a book to individual leafs (the posters) and still make the book function and not be tacked down and immobile.

////

I'm going to look into this more and give myself no more than a day to finalise exactly what I'm going to do and how it will be put together in terms of format and binding to find the best solution.

Read More

Type & Grid: Concertina Booklet: Existing examples

As a culmination of type & grid sessions with Phil I'm creating a football magazine which is in a concertina fold format as I feel this wil be a refreshing change and brings interesting possibilities in terms of flicking through a page at a time or simply opening it all up to create one big spread with ease.

A good call before starting this is to see what's already out there and the kind of visual style I want to aim for. I want this to be more of a premium supplement, not in terms of price, it'll be more collectable and exclusive to certain stores such as the Village book-store in Leeds. Catering for the consumer interested in experimental and considered layouts with design sensibilities.

Below are examples of football magazines and match programmes I like for various reasons such as scale, colour palette, layout and communication.

The Good

I've highlighted these as I feel these have a much more considered layout than match programmes you might find these days with bold text, less emphasis on the players and more of a class and collectibility about them. The images are more considered and have less emphasis on layering players and sticking drop shadows and outer glows around them

West Brom 68

Arsenal '54-'55

Ajax '75-76

Arsenal '71-72

Arsenal '63-64

One of my favourites! Simple yet so bold. 

You wouldn't see something like this now. Cheeky bit of helvetica

FA Cup '67

City v United '75

Portsmouth v Wolves '39

United v Derby '70

The Bad

Don't mean to sound like a hipster but it seems decent design kind of got lost through the years in terms of match programmes and I definitely wouldn't bother keeping any of these. This is the design style I want to steer away from.

This isn't the aesthetic style I want, won't go anywhere near it. I feel it creates a certain image of football I want to steer away from, it feels and looks cheap and tacky. 

Existing Footy magazines

My magazine will differentiate itself from most magazines out there and market itself towards a specific audience to be more a coffee table magazine, rather than a throw-away magazine as a lot of football magazines are.

FourFourTwo is a stop-gap between cheap football magazines targeted at the younger schoolkid demographic and between high-end glossy coffee table magazines.

All these magazines target a certain demographic and probably are successful in doing so but they create quite a stereotypical, dare I say 'unintelligent' image of football fans with grungey and loud text with overcrowded front covers. Football fans are human like the rest of us and appreciate a nice bit of design too. 

I feel in the past football magazines didn't feel the need to be so loud and the communication was more pure, like here...

Against the norm?

There are a few magazines out there which break the trend and have found success such as Howler magazine a US based glossy which has a highly illustrative and well designed approach to football coverage.

My magazine will most likely be a free supplement available on the stands at select football matches or maybe all. It will be inexpensive to produce and won't hold a vast amount of content but I aim for it to be clean, clear, experimental and a change from the usual stuff you'd receive. And also importantly, collectable.

Read More

Publication Proposal & Feedback

In the CoP workshop before Easter we dicussed Publication proposals and concepts we had, I discussed my concept and overall it was well received and people felt it was good application of theory and design in synchronisation and people seemed to understand it.

Title of Publication

Modernism

A Visual Debate Between Japan and Europe

Project Proposal

I intend to communicate the relationship between:-

1. Japanese Modernism and European Modernism visuals

2. Japanese/European modernist principles in application

3. Japanese and European design motivations and social implications on design

4. Cultural change in Japan and Europe post-war

5. Difference in motivations and modernist design between Japan and Europe

I Intend to educate

on differences and similarities between European and Japanese design and inform on modernist design theories of both areas by applying it to existing design. This will be done through a written element but more importantly visually.

to a group of...

Design students, lecturers and enthusiasts of 20th century design and modernist design, especially those interested in Japanese culture and art

...that

Japanese design is very different to European modernism, yet arguably equally as important and an an influence on European design and the Swiss movement. Also to visually educate on basic design principles and characteristics outlined by me through visually recreating existing design "in the hands of.." to see almost a 'before' and 'after'.

In order to achieve this I will produce...

A publication which pays special attention to format and stock to create a visual scrapbook aesthetic which captures a debate between Europe and Japan and opens up the history of the modernist graphic design scene of the 60s and the key figures involved and how they influenced each other. The layout will have a mixture between European and Japanese sensibilities giving a constant discussion and disparity between the two even in terms of layout. Existing designs will be recreated in the style of either the regions or specific artists styles to emphasise the design principles shown by both. 

For example to recreate "Keep calm and carry on" in the hands of Massimo Vignelli and then in the hands of Ikko Tanaka. Two wildly different design styles but around at the same time.

Read More

Publication:: Presentation Boards

Modernism_
Japan x Europe


Presentation boards for 
Monday's group discussion.


Topics covered

Concept

Subject Research

Publication Research

Print Process

Open publication - Free publishing - More graphic design

Read More

Publication:: Dieter Ram's 10 Principles

"Less, but better."

Dieter Ram is a great modernist designer, who has made loads of beautiful industrial design, apparently Apple according to many is the only company in modern times which answers to all 10 of his principles of "good design". I feel the list is directly applicable to what designers such as Muller-Brockman and Massimo Vignelli think about graphic design, it allows me to gauge a bit better the ideals I should take into account when designing.

So many great points about good design:

• Innovative design
• Emphasise usefulness of a product. Disregard anything which detracts from this
• Well-executed products are beautiful. Being beautiful is important to our well-being
• Make the product talk. Understandable. Self-explanatory
• Unobtrusive. Neutral and restrained. Leave room for self-expression
• Honesty. Don't manipulate consumer. Make promises you can't keep
• Avoid being fashionable, never go out of date
• Nothing must be arbitrary and left to chance.
• Great care shows respect to customer
• Conserve resources. Minimise physical and visual pollution throughout life cycle
• Less but better. As little design as possible.

Read More