Logo design research.

Cubist logos

Cubist logos are designs that are made up of distinguishable shapes. This effect is good as it can easily give an icon or logo a 3D look with out having to go through the process of creating it in a 3d software. 

Peep show logos

 Peep show logo are made by creating the logo shapes and then overlaying a separate image. this logo works by the logo shapes allowing us to "peep" thought to the image behind.

Pixel logos

 Pixel logos consist of many squares, much like the cubist style logos, the difference is that the pixel style have a much more 2D look.

Shift logos

 Shift logos are created by overlaying several parts of the logo, all with a lowered opacity. By doing this more colours are created by the overlap and the logo is more eye catching.

Spore logos

Spore logos are spiky angular graphics. When this is combined with text, the contrast between the angular graphic and the regular text makes the logo pop.


Images from Logo Lounge (http://www.logolounge.com)

To create text in 3Ds Max I went to the shapes menu and chose the text option then clicked on the stage and by default "MAX Text" appears. To change the text I go into the modify menu where I can change the font and what the text says.

Applying textures in 3D Max.

By going to the rendering menu I opened the compact material editor. In the editor I can import images and apply them as textures. I also created some cylinders and with bent them using the modify list.

In the compact material editor I can change the diffuse, specular level and glossiness which adjusts the highlights.

Using 3DMax.

 I start off by creating a cube, I then add more segments (4x4) and right click and converted it to an editable ploy. By doing this I am able to select a face and extrude it.

To make the shape more smooth I selected TurboSmooth from the modify list, and increased the iterations to 3, this makes the shape blend into it's self and gave my this effect.

I also created some text in 3DMax that I then exported as a .png file, I exported it as a .png as the transparency of the image is retained. I then opened the .png in Photoshop and applied a gradient background and some basic light trails around the 3D text.

T-Shirts inspired by Astor Park.

Audio recording with marantz.

I learnt how to set up the marantz audio recorder. I learnt how to create pre sets that allow me to change the set up in  seconds and also how to change the levels which adjust the recording quality. On the top of the marantz there are two male mic plugs, I used the mono plug as I was only using one mic, if i was to plug in two mics I would create a stereo recording.

Graffiti artists and the culture behind the art.

Roy Christie came to visit the college and shared with us his art work and some of the culture behing the art. Roy started graffiti when he was 8 years old, since then he has painted walls all over the UK and developed a name for himself as a profesional graffiti artist. Roy was brought up in Wembury, which isn't a typical urban area, despite this he found areas to paint and refined his skills from there. Roy told us that one of the main aspects of the graffiti culture is hip-hop music and he showed us a video of a b-boy explaining how, as dancers, there moves reflect the art work.

During the session we had with Roy he showed us how to create some graffiti, although mine was not that good I still managed to get some shapes down and create a basic image. My first shot at graffiti will follow in another post.

Here is a link to a video of Roy Christie doing some graffiti at Plymouth bus station. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_HsQzk2FTM)

Capture methods.

 In illustrator I made the typographic elements, I used the font Madrid Pro and manipulated it's structure and added gradients.

 I took a photo of my hand and in Photoshop pixelated it to give it an 8-bit look.

For the final image I placed the previous elements onto a radial gradient background and to the typography added a small black outer glow to give it depth.I finally typed the year of my birth into the right hand corner of the image and set it behind the rest of the typography.

Exit through the gift shop.

This film documents the rise of an aspiring french graffiti artist, who previously traveled the world in the shadows of some of the greatest street artist ever. The french artist Thierry Guetta AKA Mr. Brainwash filmed graffiti artsits such as Shepard Fairey, Space Invader, Joshua Levine and Bansky, through out the time he was filming the artist he had no specify direction in which he wanted his work to go, he was just filming for the sake of it.


After a while the street artist began to wonder why Thierry was so regally filming them, in an effort to convinces to artist that his filming was going to good use he told them that he was making a documentary on the secretive lives of graffiti artists.


After many years Thierry began to collect a large amount of film that was not be re-viewed. So in an attempt to put his film to good use he created a 1 1/2 hour film that Banksy went onto describe as "boring" and "frankly shit".


With the best intensions Banksy told Thierry to go back to LA and start doing some street art and enjoy the art for what it is. However Thierry took this the wrong way and interoperated Banksy's words as orders. Thierry returned to LA, sold his profitable vintage cloths shop, re-mortgaged his house and set his sights on becoming the next great art movement in the space of a year or two. He adopted the name Mr. Brainwash M.B.W and started tagging every available space in LA.


The downfall to this great aspiring artist was that he was not original, at all. Many of his art works were rip-offs of the greats before him such as Banksy and Shepard Fairey. This did not put him in the good books of the other artist despite him be totally engrossed within their work.


In the end Mr. Brainwash put on a huge art show that displayed "the same amount of art work from as collaboration", this show made Mr. Brainwash just under $1,000,000 in one week. The show was so well publicized and hyped up that art dealers flocked from all around the world to get a deal on the next up and coming artist, despite it be very similar to the pieces already in the market.


Some people may say that Thierry Guetta is a fake or fraud for "copying" or "stealing" the ideas of other artists, but I think that it is very clever what he has done. He has managed, within a very small amount of time, to sell himself as a brand and brain wash us all into buying his art living up to his street name Mr. Brainwash.

"Good artist copy great artist steal" - Pablo Picasso

Pen and Ink (Nanami Cowdroy)

Pen and ink is one of the oldest forms of illustration and here is some examples of how good the results can be. 


Nanami Cowdroy is an illustrator that used pen and ink to create these amazing drawings. She uses very fine pens and combines that with black water marks to give the image depth. 

Nanami Cowdroy's main style is Japanese and oftener combined with hands.  

Astro Park

In Illistrator I created this basic Astro Park typography image.

Typography piece from a photo.

 

Firts, to get the defined areas of colour, I had to make the photo greyscale, I then added a filter called "cut out" to get the differences in greys. Using the magic wand tool I selected the different areas of greys and made a work path. By making a work path I am then able to type into the area and the type wraps to the areas shape.

 After going to portrait of the photo I then repeated the proseess for the background.

Typography

I created this typography piece using Photoshop. I created a path and using the type tool clicked on the path, by doing this when I type it follows the path.

For this typography I typed of "59graphics" and using wrapped text manipulated it into this shape. I then duplicated it and inverted it to make he final image.  

David Carson

David carson is one of the worlds most famose graphic designers ever. He is best know for his pioneering style combining "grunge" with typography and his work in the Ray Gun magazine.

The International Center for Photography (NY) singled out Carson as the "Designer of the Year" for his use of photography and design. This is one aspect of Carson's style that I tried to translate into my own work.

Above is a great example of how Carson has combined typography, design and photography into one image. The typography and the design were first printed and then photographed to achieve the final image, this way of working is not common among other artists. 

This (above) is an example of the "grunge" technique that carson developed and presented to the main stream. He uses a clean cut font that is the repeated on top of its self many times until it is hard to recognise. However by looking at the center black image closely you can still make out the work "typography", which says a lot about what he was trying to achieve with this effect.

Astro Park

This is a montage of photos I took at Astro Park in Plymouth. This is my digital research into capture.

Panoramic of graffiti at Astor Park.

Panoramics are a very effective way of capturing a large space. When using a digital camera these images can then be imported into software which blends all the photos together and create a large image. If the panoramic was captured using a film camera the individual photos would have to be manually joined together which would take longer and maybe less well blended together, which may show the start and end of each image.

Capture method (SLR Camera)

SLR Camera

The SLR works by light travelling through the lens and being detected by the sensor at the back of the camera. The sensor then converts the light into pixels that can the be up loaded onto a computer and enhanced. The advantage of taking photos in this formate is that they can be reproduce an unlimited amount of times and no negatives are used meaning they do not need to be developed.

Capture mind map

I used this mind map to explore the different ways in which I could capture during this project. By using a mind map I can clearly see, when I'm making it and also later on, how I can develop my ideas as I find a visual illustration easier to understand than a piece of writing or a list.