Brief

Ideas

These are some of the pictures I found and pined it into my interest board. These images inspires me to produce my final outcome. I would like to use these techniques and ideas for my experiments.

What inspired me

What inspired me the most in this project is this picture that I found during my research stage.

This art piece was created by Nik Ainley who produces personal arts and commissioned illustrations . His work is mostly digital, which makes him a digital illustrator. He does a lot of work for magazine, books, album art and poster. Nik Ainley came to love the illustration world whilst studying for a physics degree. Once he had finished this degree, he then pursued the life of designing. He is based in London where he does all of this work using 2D and 3D software alongside learning new techniques for his benefits. He was a self taught artist as he learnt how to use the CAD software such as Adobe Photoshop and other 3D software this then developed the love for digital art. He works on typography and 2D/3D art. He has being designing and creating these art piece for about ten years. His work has been used all over the internet. For example www.digitalarts.com shows off his work and gives tutorials to the users which lead me to create my own type of 3D typography poster just like the one Nik Ainley created. The reason why I have chosen to analyse this piece is because I want to make a similar outcome for my final art piece. I like the techniques that Ainley has used which looks great and pops out to the audience.

This image doesn't really have a meaning. This image intended for a tutorial that would show users how to use the tool in certain software. Although, from the looks of it, the word create does link in with the effects and techniques used within this piece. The swirls that the letters create makes sense to use “CREATE” as the main text as in the typography itself is being created. It is growing.  The genre for this work is 3D art this mostly comes from the typography used along with the technique. Also it is an illustration art as it was intended for a company. The theme that is given off is more of piece and clam, the colour used portray this feeling and atmosphere. It gives off a warm feeling due to the pink with a white gradient. Adding to that, the background image also give off a warm feeling. The pattern used suits the 3D typography used and the colour used emphasizes this effect. The artist as I have said got the idea from using the tool in the software to build such techniques.
Well, within this, gradients and patter and textures have been used. The gradients are used for the front face of the text and the patters on the trail. He has used chequered pattern. This is work was made from Adobe Photoshop as the artist told. The way the artist uses colour in this works well together. For example the pink works well the light grey texture in the background. Also the faint green works well which brings out the letters.
Finally, I chose to analyse this piece of work because it caught my attention due to the technique used to illustrate the 3D outcome. I also liked the colours and textures and patterns used within his work. My first reaction when looking at this image was surprising, I have never seen this type of work, it was unique to me, it suddenly caught my eyes and I want my final outcome to catch peoples eye, make them look deeper into the image. Although, what I don't like about this image is that the swirls used to portray the letters is to much to my liking. This work has truly inspired me to create my own and develop this into my own style.

http://www.shinybinary.com/

Analysis of ideas

One of my main ideas for this personal project is to create an advertising campaign for a new song for an artist. So, I went off looking for advertising materials and came across this image below. 

This picture was created by an illustrator Danny Allison. Danny Allison is a well known illustrator who was born in Blackpool and still living there. He was born in 1979 which makes him 33 years old. He has an interest in photography as he studied this course back when he went to college. He was late to realise his artistic skills as he wanted to go into the skateboarding profession and he had a passion for this extreme sport.  After getting a severe injury on his knees, Allison went and took a course at his local college, Blackpool College. He took the course of photography where he found the course very enjoyable. This was where he's career started to take shape.

This image is a collage filled with pictures and painting. It was created in 2012 for the upcoming royal celebrations such as the royal wedding and the Jubilee. It's a front cover for a magazine.

I have chosen to analyse this art work because it links to my brief of creating an advertising campaign and also I am looking into how to present an image for a magazine cover. I also wanted to experiment and develop this type of art and adapt it into my own type of work piece.

http://dannyallison.co.uk/editorial-1/ this is the link where the original image came from, the official Danny Allison website. 

Although, I wasn't able to find much history behind this work. His work is more associated with collage and photography. In most of his work, he has a similar theme where strokes of paint is used along side the edited images. 

I think that the work has got a theme, the theme being all the imagery used are linked to the United Kingdom. For example the colours used represent the national colours used on the Union Jack. The ideas used within it are very upfront, they stand out for example the bus which relates to the iconic red bus that represent the UK. To make the theme more visible, the cover gives us a hint of what it is all about, like the title, "A royal good celebration". From this, we can assume that his cover is more about the royal family campaigning about the upcoming jubilee and wedding. We can also assume that the artist got inspired from the royal family and the English culture of Allison.

Further more, the techniques that Allison uses in this cover is collage, he uses images he has taken and combines it with CAD. for example, he has pictures of the London Eye, the red bus,the aeroplane, he mixes this with come red and blue brush lines. I assume that the artist uses CAD software to produce the artwork. The artist used the United Kingdom flag colours like red, blue and white and forms the flag in a messier way as a second background this works well against the background. It contrast well due to the deep blue and the bright white and red. The background reminds me of parcel paper used during the war or when it was used earlier in the 1900s. It gives it more character, the background it self gives off some historical meaning for example World War 2. Moreover, the images used represent Britain for example the bus, London Eye, the British Airways Logo etc.. Overall the images used and the design does inform us about what the topic it is trying to raise.

In conclusion, I have chosen this art work so that I can get inspired from the design used and also use this method of presenting and develop it into my own kind of work. Although, my first reaction to this work was that I found it interesting, I felt that the work was modern with the simplicity of the design and the colours used. For this reason, I like this work for what it is right now, simple, elegant, outstanding. From this it reminds me of the history of the United Kingdom. I find Danny Allison's work to be unique, I haven't seen much of this type  of work before so I tend to like Allisons work a lot. From that, the work has inspired me to create my own version of this type of work. I like the way the artist used imagery and edits them.

I saw this artwork before on a Mc Donalds truck whilst on the road. So I searched for the artist for this art work and came up with the name Kate Forrester. 

The artist responsible for this artwork is called Kate Forrester, she has a degree in illustration since 2005 where she studied at University Of Brighton. Forrester is known for her paper cuts, typography on books jackets. She also works for commercial companies like John Lewis, Mc Donalds and many more.

 This art work is a "huge paper cut illustration" as Kate Forrester puts it. It was intended to be put on the side of the Mc Donalds trucks that roams around England. It was a part of the ABC campaign that Mc Donald had this summer, this was one of her outcomes. This was used to promote and advertise about the produce that Mc Donalds used for their food. For this reason, I have chosen to analyse this image. The techniques used and how Kate Forrester uses her skills and produces a clear and detail paper cut. I also want to use this technique and use it for my own outcome. I would like to develop this idea and take it a step further.

Looking into this art work, I found that this image was one part of many other art works she has created. There are different types of art work that relate to this image. The link provided will show all the other piece that sums up the meaning of this individual piece.http://www.kateforrester.co.uk/words/mcdonaldsab/ in there, there is also other works that Kate Forrester has created for Mc Donalds that used typography. 

The theme within this work is about farms, the use of chickens and hens are used to illustrate the message given off to the audience. Also, the words used gives us a hint of the it is about "ALL OUR EGGS ARE FREE RANGE". The background is a cut out of a farm what shows us how the chicks are "free range". For example, a chicken is singing as it appear because of the musical note that appears next to its beak. The whole idea of this image is to tell us, the audience, what makes the company good and what standards their food are at. We can assume that the artist got inspired from the subject given to her, in this case the eggs are free range meaning the chickens roam around freely happy.

In this piece of work, the artist has used only two types of materials, paper and pieces of wooden planks in the background.The technique used was paper cut. This is very detailed, the small cut outs adds a lot of detail, the process for doing this may have taken a very long time especially for trucks. I think that Forrester may have used CAD software to develop her art work and refine the outcome. Looking at it makes it look spectacular and detailed. The use of the wooden planks, the colour contrasts well with the white paper cut out. The wooden planks reminds us of farms which I think has worked well with the whole idea of the piece. I think that the white paper gives off a better outcome rather than using a different colour paper, it emphasises all the cut outs in full detail. I think that the texture behind the cut out is the key element that sets us off thinking its related to a farm or something similar.

In conclusion, I have chosen to look at this work because I wanted to use this idea and develop it into my own work for my outcome, I would also like to experiment cut outs and see how it can be manipulated via CAD software . I also liked the idea of the use of the wooden planks in the background, its something that relates to topic being raised but also it's something unique, something that hasn't been used to represent a farm but still works well. 

I like the finer detail that Kate Forrester has put in, it really shows in contrast with the background. As well as the image that has been cut out gives us a story about the chicken.

What I don't like about this work is that I think more typography should have been used rather than images.

Kate Forrester has similar works with Rob Ryan as they both do paper cuts. This work reminds me of Rob Ryan's "Our Adventure".

Kate Forrester's work has truly inspired me to do similar ideas like this one.

Mind Map

Project Idea sheets

Final product

Evaluation

Evaluation

Brief: 

To create an album artwork for a band, musician or compilation CD. within this, I had to design and make a logo, packaging, album booklet and label for your my chosen album.

To come up with the ideas for this project, I did some brain storms of many different artists, bands, musicians etc.. From then on, I had to decide which artist I should use for my album artwork.For each album, I needed to  find out what their genres were so that I could get a better understanding of the music and the imagery that it gives off. Their music is the most crucial element and it will also have to link with how the album artwork is presented.

The creative Journey 

starting the project was mostly experimenting and find out new ways to present art work. For the first  week or so, there was a lot of experiments. The experiments were about music for example, instruments were used as an object and my task was to use a certain technique to draw this instrument. 

I tried blind drawing, where I had to close my eyes and draw the objects previously shown. This technique was extremely hard as you only had your hands and an image in your mind. Another experiment was single line drawing, this is using one line to draw the object and you can't take the pencil off the page which then negates the concept of "single line drawing", the line had to be continuous. compared to the blind drawing, this task was easier and I also enjoyed it, I found a new technique to present images now. I like the messy, draft look of images, it makes it seem more real so this technique is one of my favourites.

Another one of my preferred techniques was doodling. The artist Billie Jeans who did a Nike Vandal poster about a shoe really inspired me to create my own image about music. I created my own image using a keyboard and objects around it relating to music and items I liked. His work is truly, I adore his doodles. I also looked into other artist like Rob Ryan who is good with prints and paper cuts. 

Inspiration 

Packaging - many research went into looking at unique CD package for my album. I wanted mu package to be unique, something different to normal packages. I wanted my outcome to impress my customers. After a long search, I found pop up packages to be rare to use for CD cases. I thought I would look into this even more, so I looked into the Jake Box a special type of CD case that has a free standing CD as soon as you open it. The creator for this was Jakob Skarin. I really liked the idea of my CD to be free standing. It's a modern approach to holding CDs.
http://jakebox.com/
I then searched for more CD packages with these features and I came across this.

 The concept of the CD rising up wait my main attractions to this package. It seemed modern and it was different to normal CD cases which just click into a groove.









Along the way I also found an interesting pop out case.

I wanted to incorporate  this mechanism into the above  case

Front Cover Design

For my front cover, I wanted to use my previous experiment on stencil  as my basis for my front cover. 

this is the image I created before and I wanted to use this idea for my front cover .

I got idea from a famous painting of Marilyn Monroe as a pop art work. The artist was name Andy Warhol. 

This was my first attempt on making my front cover, I took a picture of my self again the microphone and took a part of my face so that there isn't much showing. It gives off the effect of mystery. Although, the colours within this wasn't appealing, this didn't reflect on the music that Bruno Mars writes.

 So after many more experiments I changed the colour scheme from brown and green to blue and yellow.
This was the final outcome. I also added a yellow transparent shine to the end of the microphone.

On the right is the back of the CD case. I used the same messy design.



Inside 


For the inside of the CD case, I wanted to keep the colour scheme the same so that it stays consistent. It's the colour is consistent then the it will look more professional.

Here is the net with the designs implemented on it.

The Booklet
 The booklet for this is small, I wanted it to be small so that it fits well within the CD case.  

     These are the final outcome for my booklet. As you can see the booklet contains some imagery and lyrics. It's a small hand book which only contains three songs I liked.
The back has the list of the songs and also a bar code to make it look official.    







Poster 
For the poster, I wanted to make it very special. Many experiments went into deciding what do use to make the poster, I wanted an icon image to represent one of my favourite songs by Bruno Mars. So I used the Moon as my iconic image and then edited with other images of me and the stars behind. This was my final outcome.

 The lack of quality was down to the printer as the darker parts didn't show up properly. But the original computerized image is on the right.

I think that this has worked well together, the whole concept of the moon, me holding the guitar and also the neon font on the bottom right.

What has gone well?

I think everything has gone to plan. The original design for the CD case stayed the same, no adjustments were made due to faults of errors. The overall progress for this project was good, the outcome came out the way I wanted it to. I am very happy with my art work I made my self, the use of software really helped me develop my ideas. For example my front booklet cover image, I really enjoyed creating that, the idea worked perfectly which I liked. Also I love the poster I made, it looks original, the picture of me holding the guitar also worked well with the help of Adobe Illustrator.

What I could have Improved?I think that I could have improved my booklet. The lack in time responded to the quality of finish for the booklet. I think that if I had more time, I would have improved the quality and be more detailed with the overall finish.
Also, the back of the CD case, the quality wasn't up to my standards, I think that the images weren't very clear.
The security for my CD case is a bit too strong as it can damage the case after a long term use.

Conclusion:
Overall, I found this project challenging as everything within the CD case had to be made from scratch, the booklet, CD design, poster. I found the tasks was demanding but I managed to work through it and time my progress so that I don't lose track or go off course. Also, the lack of time added more pressure to my designing and experimenting process. I felt like I didn't have much time on my hand especially near the dead line. This made me alter a few things due to lack of time, trying to minimise as much time on designing and making the final outcome.
Although,  I learnt new techniques from the tutorials for my designs and I can now develop them in my next project. For example my stencil style front cover and also my front booklet cover which I like.
Overall, I find this task of packaging enjoyable as I learnt new experiences and skills  .

For my next project, I would like to use some of my skills and techniques I learnt from this project and  use them to my advantage and also develop them a stage further. For this new project, I would like to involve some stencil work 

security

with many long research and experiments, the security for the CD case was narrowed down to magnetic tapes or Velcro.

First I attempted the magnetic tape to hold down the case. This wasn't successful at all as the magnetic tape wasn't strong enough to hold the unfolding card.



My second experiment was to try out the Velcro. This had a pleasing outcome as it held the CD securely and the security was strong. The CD was also able to hold its' place when the case was turned upside down. Three little circular stick on Velcro were attached.

Nets

 These are the nets for the CD package.

colour theme

Colour Theme: Yellow and Blue

I chose yellow and blue as the main colour theme because it looked attractive and worked well with the images that I have created. The main reason is to sell and make the CD case "spring out" to people, so why not use bright colours to illustrate this idea.
I think that it works well.

Here is inside layer net.

I think that the dotted blue with the yellow splash effect has worked well together, it makes it look attractive and also the splash effect was used in conjunction to the front cover as it looked messy.
I will use this colour theme through out the CD package so that it stays consistent.

CD design

for the CD design, I thought about making using the Bokeh effect I previous created earlier on during the project.

I wanted to use this effect and implement this into the round shape of the CD it self. Also I modified the colours a little to make it match with the colour theme.

 This is the net for the CD, the outer ring is the actual size for a normal CD with a diameter of 12 cm.