Unit Samples
Graphic Design 1
Embedded Files
Assignment #2 - "WOW"!
Designer Milton Glaser states,"There are 3 responses to a piece of design - Yes, No and WOW! WOW is the one to aim for."
In this assignment students choose a graphic design work, artwork or piece of architecture that inspire them to say "WOW". Then write a reflection on the various media, elements, color, line, texture, used and describe how the choices are important to the visual communication of the idea; why it makes you say "WOW".
Artwork:
Minda Silvestr - 2019 Gold medal, Scholastic Art Award, Design
Reflection: This is a great example of POP art of today. This fictional company “Open for Breathing” attacks climate change head on by offering up a six pack of fresh air. The words “Open for BREATHING” resemble a neon sign that you might find lighting up a wall on a 24 hour diner. This 24 hour diner sign makes you think this product is not only available to you 24 hours a day but that you can and probably will use it at any hour of the day. There are two circular elements that resemble a view through a microscope conjuring biological thoughts of water or freshness through the use of the blue hue of the image. The side panels, while difficult to read state that this is a Prayer Plant Bonus Pack adding, what today might be a bit of humor, that in the future one could imagine this feature would be a very big selling point. In a polluted dystopian society, one can imagine how special “cracking open” a bottle to get whiff of precious fresh air might be.
The M&M's logo is a Slab Serif font. A regular serif font conveys a classic dependable brand, one that has either been around for along time or wants to be percieved as timeless. The Slab serif is the bigger meatier cousin of the serif. It's loud and bold and in your face classically BIG. The M&M's logo is classic and is recognized as a mutligerational brand. Kids, parents, grandparents, and great grandparents are all familiar with this brand and the logo helps to reinforce the consumers expectation and emotional recall of what this product is.
5 Types of Font
The font used in a design is chosen very carefully as it is one of the strongest elements used to tell the story.
There are 5 basic types of font. Anything that you see beyond these is are based on these styles.
Serif
Slab Serif
Sans Serif
Script
Handwritten
Assignment #3 - Cut and Paste
In this assignment students create an image using old school cut and paste technique to document a past or current news story or event using type font, color and imagery.
Students choose to utilize only cut out pieces from newspapers, magazines... or a combination of cut out pieces with color and images or text, hand made or pulled from the internet.
In the end, the viewer should be able to understand the message without any additional understanding of the news story that the student is trying to convey.
Title: Golf
Medium: Paint, cut out pictures and text from magazines applied to velum.
Message: Until 1983 the use of a black man as a caddy was a rule. As late as 1985, Clifford Roberts, chair of the Augusta National was quoted as saying, "As long as I'm alive, the golfers will be white, and the caddies will be black". However, in 1975 the Augusta National had its first black player, and in 1991 admitted it's first black member to the club.
Reflection: This image is the cover of a fictional Golf magazine, commemorating milestones of inclusion in golf.
This is a traditional "Cut and Paste" design, created on vellum. My first thought was to paste up the images, scan them into a program and insert a background image. It then occurred to me to utilize the transparency of the vellum. I then created the flag image on a separate piece of vellum and taped it to the back to create a halftone effect when viewed from the front.
The cover asks, "What's your handicap"? To the two markedly different groups, those on top and those held down below by the foot of a player, this word, in this context, means different things.
Those below the golfers are those that would not be allowed in or to join the golf club world. The 3 figures in the lower left corner form a stepping stone of sorts rising from the ground slowly until you see a full figure, full inclusion. The figures in the lower right corner stand defiantly, as Americans, as the golfers above look down questioning, contemplating.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has stated that she remembers family stories about her distant relatives native american heritage. Her declaration has been challenged based on her visual appearance. In this image I have taken a photograph from the internet of Senator Warren. In the style of Shepard Fairey I have created a new meaning for this image by dressing the Senator in a military style jacket with epaulettes and texturing it with wood-bark to convey a powerful grounded person of the earth. Rays of sun emanate from her jacket and an abstracted image of the american flag is in the background, formed from a reverse image and her headband.
The small yellowed spiral balances the yellow button on her jacket and has no meaning except to copy the iconography of Shepard Fairey who places his Andre the Giant face in a star on his work.
Assignment #4 Shepard Fairey style posters
OPOSSUM
My toothless old cat who has become a legend on Kauai, immortalized as she should be.
Assignment #5 Coca-Cola in Hawaii
Coca-Cola is a cultural institution in the United States and a global symbol of American tastes. It is the largest beverage manufacturer and distributor in the world and one of the largest corporations in the US. In its spread across the globe the company created marketing campaigns directly targeted towards each specific consumer demographic, which are markedly different from the US consumer.
In this project students were asked to take a historical look at Coca-Cola, and it's slogans, and design a Coke poster or bottle, along with a slogan to represent Hawaii as a state or its culture. They learned how to target and analyse a market using demographics and crowd sourcing.
Take the Coke - leave the rocks
I crowd sourced approximately 20 adults and students, asking them which slogan they preferred, "Take the Coke-leave the rocks" or "Coke-Aloha". The overwhelming majority of both adults and students preferred "Take the Coke-leave the rocks". The people asked were residents of Kauai and this may or may not have contributed a bias to raise cultural awareness. The intended audience for this poster would be incoming tourist. The ad might be in an in-flight magazine or at baggage claim upon arrival. If this were to be used as a PSA there might be text along the bottom with an explanation.
Example: Hawaii Tourism reminds you to enjoy your stay on the islands and please do not remove the sacred rocks.
In this work of art by Sonny Assu, called Breakfast Series, we are initially confronted by the familiar colorful cereal boxes of our youth, luring us with their smiling animal mascots promoting sugar-laden cereals. Upon closer inspection, we see that Assu has turned the pop art inspired graphics on the five boxes into commentaries about highly charged issues for First Nations people—such as the environment, land claims, and treaty rights. Tony the Tiger is composed of Native formline design elements, the box of Lucky Beads includes a free plot of land in every box, and contains “12 essential lies and deceptions.” The light-hearted presentation, upon further investigation, exposes serious social issues.
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Reflection: When I began this assignment I was intending to create a cereal named "Galactix" that had a space theme, designed for a science minded consumer. Once I began designing the front of the box with Bill Nye and I added the image of the world, I realized that this cereal needed to be about climate change. I changed the name to "HOAX" and began designing around this new theme.
The most difficult part of creating this cereal box was paying attention to the details about climate change and how to incorporate them into every aspect of the box. Making the ingredient list was a challenge in formatting and making it relevant.
Asssignment #7
Sonny Assu inspired Cereal Box
In this assignment students create a work that has personal meaning for them from a cultural, religious, political stance or based on current curriculum in another class.
Page 1 image is an original drawing created to illustrate the original sound design. The sound was created in, Groovepad app for Android
Page 2 is by artist Wassily Kandinsky and the sound design is original to illustrate that artwork.
The concluding slides are the assignment.
After thoughts:
Creating sound was exciting and it really helped me envison how the elements and principles of design work.
Assignment #8
Designing with Line - Creating a design to illustrate sound
Varying widths and alignment of lines might represent different melodies, tempos, and notes in a piece of music. What do your lines sound like? How do they make you feel?
This assignment was created to illustrate how varing line qualities using shape, movement, width, and elements and principles of design could illustrate sound or music. Original artworks and sound were created for this assignment.
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Originally I used an image from Wassily Kandinsky and created sound to represent the image. It was much easier than to create the design at the left.
I started with an idea of the sound that I wanted, how it would begin, what would happen in the middle and how it would end. The sound in my head that I illustrated started from nothing, a black hole, began to skatter out and then explode in chaos. From the chaos the sound would sizzle, make a statement, then return to a more rounded tone and rhythm and then fade away, calmly.
First I drew the central body of the design, the round oval the explosion and the frenetic line that explodes, then fizzles across the page and ends in a streamin thin line. The paper still had way too much negative space left and I knew I had to fill it. I thought that once I created my sound, using the Groovepad app on my phone, the imagery and pacing would be evident. But, then I got lost in the process of creating the line and imagery, which I thought I was matching during the process, but the sound, timing, flow and rhythm ended up following a different path. I enjoyed getting lost in the process of creating sound and imagery accompanying imagery and will probably create more of these.
Conclusion:
For this product, based on my two color changes, the original blue packaging with it gleaming white star reflections, brings to mind a cool crisp feeling that is befitting this toothpaste.
Assignment #9 How can color effect meaning
With a rainbow of colors to choose from, how does a designer decide which color to use for a product? Interestingly, the meaning of color is often dependent on its application. It's not as simple as one color means "x" apply HERE.
Here's where it gets tricky. Let's examine how the color yellow can portray different personalities within the framework of literature.
Depending on it's context in literature, yellow can represent sunshine as in, "she has a sunny disposition" or gold, as in "he's golden". Both portray a positive uplifting message. In another sentence, yellow can show cowardice, "Ya yellow bellied varmint!"
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Reflection:
For this assignment, I chose to change the colors on the packaging for Ultra brite toothpaste. the origninal packaging is blue and white and I often wondered if that is the best choice of color for this brand. The different shades of blue in the original packaging relay a feeling of cold arctic air, with gleaming star accents, as if the sun is reflecting off of snow. I like this look and can taste a percieved cool wind in my mouth.
The first color change was to red hoping that it might give this a cinnamon flavor feel. While the color red might represent cinnamon through the coloring. The words Ultra brite didn't bring to mind that flavor and the starlight glimmering accents don't bring to mind the flavor of cinnamon.
The next color change was to green. I'm not sure why I chose that instead of any other color, except that I like green, and I hoped it might look environmentally friendly. For an environmently friendly look, I probably should have chosen a darker green and if I were to remake this another time I would go darker. As this color is it is a weird green that looks like it is more fitting an army commissary and looks a bit sickly. NOT what you want in a toothpaste.
Assignment #9.5 Negative space
This assignment is about filling negative space. The negative space is the white space and the positive, unchangable space is the black. Students were given 6 black and white images to choose from.
I chose the Islamic writing image. I removed the white background to make it transparent and then used is as an overlay to create the look of a font outline.
At first glance this image looks like graffiti. When you take some time to look closely, you begin to pick out elements of people, buildings, signs and trees. On closer inspection, beneath the image of the writing, you start to notice that this is a picuture of a Gay Pride float. The image was taken at a Pride march in New York City.
The reason that I chose an image from Gay Pride is to illustrate how 2 opposing ideologies can be harmonious.
Alternate images to choose from
Assignment #11 Historical Product Design
Designers look to history not only to learn where we have been, but to learn about human trends and behavior. As we know history repeats itself and oftentimes successful design from the past can be updated with a few contemporary tweaks to make it relevant today. There is a reason for the success of past design trends. This assignment was to create a package design for either a product or a toy that reflects a time period in design history.
Pretty as a Peacock - Body Powder for Men
Male and female sexuality was changing in the 1930's. There was a shift in American culture to a more liberated view of sexuality. While I doubt that this would have been a product it has all of the characteristics of being a product at that time.
The plumage of the male peacock is what we think of when we are asked to describe a peacock, long colorful plumage and a regal demeanor. "He" is no doubt the prettier sex of the peacock. In this box design I added the image of the male boxers to attract men to pick up this product. Without the boxers, I doubt that men of that time period would be looking at this type.
It was difficult for me to find an Art Nouveau font that I could curve on a program other than Photoshop. So I chose an Arabic font style to reflect the influence that Islamic art had on the time period. The muted colors of sage, dusty rose and peacock blue are my predominant color scheme that reflect the colors of the period.
Assignment #12 POP Art it!
The most mundane things are often the ones that reflect who we are in our everyday lives. When faced with finding an object to create a Pop Art image I began to look around my immediate surroundings. I saw a Swingline stapler and immediately began to remember the Swingline factory in Astoria Queens with its iconic giant stapler. That was going to be my Pop Art it creation.
SWINGLINE Staplers - an iconic stapler brand
I was going for a Pop art Studio 54 dance vibe that Ian Schrager would be proud of. With a red background and inverted pop art colored Swingline stapler I began to create my poster. Trying to recreate the rhythm and movement of music in my poster, I added a dizzying swirl of the name Swingline in a serif font reminiscent of the Jazz era. Although I was looking for a disco vibe I felt that a serif Jazz font was a recognizable music font and would bring to mind swing music. Adding to the movement and feel I created a filter overlay to resemble lights reminiscent of a disco ball.
The word Swingline is not in the Swingline font as it was very hard to match, I must have searched through hundreds of fonts. If I revisit this project in the future I may try to find a more closely matching font. I would also change the curved bottom word "Staplers" to "Easy Loading" to reflect the actual sign on the factory in Queens as it would also add to the Pop Art imagery.
Assignment #13 Deconstructivist syle advertisement
In the 1980's the Deconstructivist style of design was cutting edge. Rooted in the Punk Rock scene and escalated through the 1990's Grunge scene this was a distress and gritty look. Everything from the background to the font and broken or separated words were tattered and warn.
I thought the style might be great to use for an exhibition of antiquities and thought the image of Michelangelo's David was a befitting image for this.
The first part of this assignment was learning the art of Frottage, creating a rubbing from a textured object. Later on students learned to vector the textures and use them in this assignment. I used a vector texture on the background several times. For each layer I rotated the texture to create a more random pattern. I also vectored the image of the David to create a sort of deconstruction of David fading away to give the impression of the passing of time.
The font is distressed in order to add more to the authentic nature of the movement. I split up words and varied the size of the font and carefully chose which words were capitalized and which were not, in a continuation of randomness. The date I chose is an homage to my alma mater Cranbrook Academy of Art and is my MFA graduation date.
Assignment #14A Commercial Storyboard
Storyboarding is how a layout is determined for websites, animations, movies, or interactive applications where there are many screens, each of which looks different. In such cases, storyboards are used. A storyboard is a series of images that summarizes the layouts of each screen, or frame, in the design project. Storyboards often look like a comic strip, but they contain much more information. Each element, including sounds, videos, animations, navigation, interactivity, colors, and so on, is drawn out and described in detail for every frame.
In this assignment students learn to use basic story structure and the importance of starting with a plan.
Opener - Problem statement - Solution - Call to action
I chose to create an ad for a self winding toothpaste tube. I knew I would have to shoot this commercial myself so I thought about ways that would only include one person, in one place, with a camera and tripod, and a simple voice over.
Assignment #14B Video ad from story board
I remembered those silly ads that would show a frustrated person and then suddenly they found this amazing solution to their problem, like the self winding toothpaste tube. To make it look like the toothpaste tube was rolling up I used stop animation. Other than that it is a straight video with voice over.
This is basic story structure in action.
Self wind with voice.movGoogle Sites
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