SB2 Greetings From...

WEEK ONE

THE BRIEF

When initially briefed on this project I was slightly terrified. Not only because of my appalling knowledge of geography but because of it being all made on Illustrator, something very foreign to me. Although I felt the same towards photoshop then realised that it's actually quite easy to learn the basics and still create something relatively successful without having years of knowledge. So with this in mind, I came into the brief willing to try new things (even though of course I had no choice).

Recently I have also very much enjoyed working with using simple shapes, in both my previous vis com brief and in visual language tasks. I'm hoping that with this understanding I will be able to battle my way through Illustrator. 

Initial ideas

I approached this brief in the wrong way by spending ages thinking too much about the countries, like places I've been, where I'm from, hot countries, countries where Disney films are set etc. This wasted a lot of time as it didn't able me to come up with a theme of what I was actually going to draw in the postcards which is far more important. So annoyingly I went to the group crit with not much to offer, in turn making it harder to get feedback from (obviously). I've learnt that this is a very stupid thing to do and have vowed never to do this again. Luckily, I was given the idea to make them work as a set, so I gave that a go:

WEEK TWO

Ideas

Although I thought that it would work well as a set, it made it hard for me to come up with an idea that wasn't really boring and obvious which I really wanted to avoid. Then all of a sudden I had a brain wave..

Ideas

>Combining something simple (food) which something a little less obvious (hairstyles)

It's something that I know I will be able to do on Illustrator with my basic understanding and also at the same time something everyone can recognise - TADA! I then thought of four countries that have a traditional/well-known hairstyle and cuisine and started designing.

I decided to design my postcards but using gouache, something that I've only just started recently (this being the first time) and have found a new love for! It was a very useful way to figure out shape and colour, which helped me to see what things worked best as it forces you to work flat. 

I then looked at different ways to draw the hairstyles, trying to work out what composition would work best i.e. what one would be most recognisable, what one would work best with food. 

I then did the same researching different types of food, focusing on contrasting and interesting shapes and colours that would create a dynamic composition. 

To make me think more about shape and layers, I did some quick collage tests to see roughly how well they worked as a collective of shape and colour. I also really enjoy working this way as it's so easy to move areas around to come up with the best composition and forces you to work with shape which takes away any urge to over complicate with detail. It makes you think - what elements are the most important to communicate? 

I then simplified the shapes even more, trying to work out how I can communicate through the most basic of shapes such as circles. Especially as my knowledge of Illustrator is very limited, I need to not over complicate things for myself, as sometimes the most simple ideas can be the best. 

WEEK THREE

First draft

adding colour

adding food element

how to place food element

>CRITICAL INCIDENT - Realising the food was in the same shape was the hair - makes a great combo! - now need to maybe change the colour? - brown on yellow do not work together


This is my first attempt at Illustrator creating my postcards, I focused heavily on simple shapes and using CMYK. I think that it is kind of clear what it is, but I'm not quite happy with it. Although I did want to keep it simple I think that it's too boring and not enough is going on that would want to make you keep looking at it. I also don't think it shows enough skill, so I'm going to have to use the pen tool to attempt to make more complex shapes.

REFLECT TOOL 

>My chosen hairstyles are all very symmetrical, so the reflect tool soon became my bestfriend

adding food

making the hair look more realistic

I still stuck to using quite basic shapes in this Geisha head, but became more experimental with the pen tool when making the food. I think the food is very successful, as although it's still block colour, it's very clear what each element is. The colours also work well together, with the green and pinks complimenting each other and jumping out from the black. Although, there's still something not right that I need to figure out, it doesn't look realistically like hair enough so doesn't work that well with the food. I need to find a better way of creating the hair. 

I HAD A REVELATION 

I had completely forgotten the idea of tracing round an original image to get a more realistic outline of the subject! This is the perfect way to get the accurate head shape and hair that I have been looking for! Horrah! 

Annoyingly, I was enjoying making this so much that I was forgetting to screen shot, so I don't have many pictures to help document.. 

BUT! now I have found this way of creating the hair, I will redo my previous designs and follow the same process so (hopefully) they will be as successful as this one! 

I am really pleased with the way that this postcard design came out, as it's very clear what the image is and what it is representing (country). The combination of the hairstyle and food I think works really well, especially colour wise as the food is so colourful it jumps out from the plain brown hair. The pale green background then sets the whole thing off, not being too distracting and also complimenting the red. 

>But now I think this one has gone so well, I'm now a bit scared about the other postcards as they have to reach the same level of success.. 

I then tried again with the Geisha hairstyle

>I did the same technique by using the image trace to get the outline of the hairstyle, and added another dress element that they would traditionally have (the pin)

>But something still wasn't right, the shape looks clumsy and misshapen even though I had followed the outline of a Geisha's hairstyle.. I even added the outline of the ears to try and make it look realistic, but still looked terrible. I spent a while looking back and forth from the Mexican hairstyle I created and this one to see where I went wrong. 

I noticed..

1 - the ears are WRONG. Too high up and who's ears are shaped like that?

2) - the first hairstyle is from a slight side view, which I think in terms of composition works better than a front position as you're more like to get a view of someone thats too the side a little more than just front on.

so I tried AGAIN - Fourth time lucky...

>Much better! actually looks a lot more like shape of a Geisha's head and not a blob of black. The side view improves the whole aesthetic of the piece, so I'll definitely keep that in mind for my next two postcards.
>Annoyingly again I didn't take enough screen shots!! I get far into the computer world of Illustrator and forget that I actually have to document as I go along. That's one reason why I don't really like Illustrator, you can get lost into it like some kind of trance and loose track of what you're actually doing which I find doesn't happen as much doing more hand crafted work. Which definitely evident in my next two postcards, as I had barely even bothered screen shooting at all.

>I definitely took on board my mistakes from the Geisha hairstyle and chose a head/hairstyle shape that wasn't straight front on and had ears to make it look more real. I really like the hairstyle I chose because it's just so iconic and you can really tell what country it's from. The plaits also work well with the shape of the sausages, making it easier for my to combine the two elements together. Although they don't match the similar format of the previous two by being on top of the head, I think that if they were then they'd look a bit too messy as they would have distracted too much from the plaits.

> I also took the idea of adding a token element flag to the hairstyle, making it even more obvious what country it was representing. But instead of just whacking a flag in, I decided it might be more interesting to infuse it with the ribbon, to make it a more subtle addition. 

 And the final one...

>I used the headband as a guidance tool for where the food should be, which I think worked quite well. The food doesn't look out of place or mismatched, it works in the same kind of way was the first two postcards do.

>In reflection, I'm not too happy with the shape of the hairstyle and also the dirty yellow colour placed underneath. I don't think it's as clean cut as the other postcards and looks a bit messy and rushed. Although, I think it's saved by the food, as this is where your eye goes to first. The colours are so bright and work well with the pale blue background. The shapes are incredible simple but when put together create this delicious head piece which in my opinion is the best aspect of this postcard. 

OVERALL EVALUATION

>Overall I am happy with the way my postcards turned out. I think that the simplicity of them works well, as it shows that you don't need loads of elements taking over the space to explain what you're trying to say. The pastel colours I feel are also really nice on the eyes, making it more enjoyable aesthetically to look at as they are both soft and work well complimenting each other. 

>I also think that combining two elements of a culture which usually have nothing to do with one another is another success of my work. It's a totally different idea that hasn't been done before, again making it more enjoyable to look at as well as being exciting conceptually. 

>However, I think it's obvious that some postcards have taken longer to craft than others - the Mexican compared to the german postcard. Which I think lowers them all when put together as a foursome. I think I became a bit lazy when doing the last two, which is incredibly frustrating as it makes it work less as a set and is also a terrible trait to have. If I could do this again I would manage my time a lot more to make sure that I produce each element to be just as good as each other. I will definitely have this in mind for my next brief. 

>But seeing as I have never touched illustrator in my life and had no concept of what a pen tool was, I think I have done pretty well. They're definitely not perfect and played it safe just using block shapes and colours, but I think this simplicity idea did work well and shows what I wanted to say. 

FEEDBACK

>I am pleased with my feedback as I received a lot of positive thoughts on my work which has definitely helped my self confidence in using computer work. Everyone seemed to really like the concept behind it which is what I was also the most pleased about, so glad that this is apparent. 

>But it's a bit hard to properly use this to evaluate my work as there's some conflict. Some really liked my use of space and others said that there's maybe too much space and should have added some element of the face. So with this I found it a bit hard to come to conclusion of whether the negative space was a good choice or not.... Either way I will take this feedback on board for my next project which will hopefully receive just as good feedback.