Sketchbook

Sketchbooks

The brief was to make a sketchbook out of old annual books to make a hard front and back cover. For the filling pages of the sketchbook we used odd bits of paper and card that we could find and organised them into groups of 4 pages called signatures. Once we had organised the paper and the covers we had to punch holes into them at specific points with a bradawl. after that we stitched all the pages and covers together using a coptic stitch and the final product was our own class room made sketchbook. (see above for the one i actually made).

I liked this as a first task to do because it was easy and enjoyable and we ended up with something that we could actually use. 

Manual

These are drawings of a few tools that i did in pencil but later on went over in fine liner to make them stand out more.

This is the first page of my manual. we used the guidelines on the pages to make sure that everything was in place and not on the wrong page. This is page one finished and coloured.

Book binding manual

For this task we were asked to create a instruction manual for the hand stitched sketch book we had made the task before. The manual had to include things like step by step instructions and a list of material and tools that would be needed. Once we had put everything through photoshop and had created the finished design we printed it out and it had to be cut out in a certain way and folded properly so that it was staple free.

Zine

Zine

A zine is small scale press it is hand drawn and done for pleasure and not for money some zine artist have regular fans that they will mail their work to maybe 4 to 6 times a year. Our task was to make our own zine that was at least 8 pages long. The content for our zine had to be anything we found funny, interesting or inspiring. We had to come up with a final design and then photocopy it 10 times and circulate in and around college.

I feel like this task helped us to develop our drawing skills and get creative!

NME Magazine.

For this task we used a programme called InDesign. We had to copy and replicate the front cover of an NME magazine cover. We had to copy everything from the the same text type to the same size of each letter.

This task i found a little bit harder because we had to try and copy everything so that is was pretty much exactly the same as the actual cover but it realy helped me get to grips with InDesign and it's benefits in graphic design

Magazine analysis

KERRANG
This magazine is about rock music and so is mainly aimed at rock lovers usually about 16+ because of the bad language and some of the adverts.

The layout of the front page is very busy as theres a lot of things around the page in no order, theres a lot of pictures and a fair bit of text. .Its set out with the more important things are bigger and stand out more.
There isnt much white space because most of the page is filled with a big picture of the lead singer of bring me to the horizon Oli Sykes and other pictures and text. The type used for the heading hot shot is in red, orange and yellow and in the middle of the O in hot there is a flame which links in with the word you use different type to highlight the more important things for example band names.
You eye seems to follow the title of the magazine until you get the big picture in the middle of the page of Oli Sykes then your eye seems to follow him until you get to the heading hot shots and from there you read from left to right all the way to the bottom. The heading hot shots and the picture of the camera are more prominent than everything else because they seem to have been brought to the front.
The way the photographer set up Oli Sykes doesnt look like her really did much it looks kind of boring or slightly moody. But the camera that has been used as a suggest link to the interview that he did for kerrang as a sneak peek to what they were talking about. The way he is looking in to the camera sort of draws you in gives the reader a slight connection with the artist. They used bright lighting that was placed at a slight angle. The colour scheme all seems to tie into the heading hot shots with vibrant colours made up of red, yellow, white and black, these are all fairly warm and bright colours.
They have used lots of ornamentation almost all titles are in a box to stand out from the background and less important items are in 'stickers' this separates them from all the other text, they also use suggestive ornamentation with the heading hot shots because it looks like it has been written on a film roll relating to the word 'shots'. There is two clusters of images but the more important pictures are placed at the bottom of the magazine and dont seems as dominant as the other cluster of images at the top of the page that are not as important but are more dominant because they are higher up the front cover and just seem to stand out more.

Double page

The layout of the double page spread is very simple because it has used the grid technique. All the text is in columns and it has a really simple type. The heading of the double page spread is very simple but at the same time very prominent at the type of the title is the same apart from thr word rock that is bigger and bolder than the other words but it also has a different type than the rest of the title.
The colour scheme of the double page is very similar to the front cover with the same four colours but with an added fifth colour blue for the background. The colour yellow on the double page spread is also used to make things stand out more and be more prominent so they used it as the colour of the headings for each paragraph. The gutter between each column is marked out very clearly with a very thin white line.
The pictures that are used on the double page spread are actually photographs they are more like hand drawn cartoons and they are very simplistic but they seem to stand out quite a bit and your eye is drawn to them.


NME
NME is a magazine about the more mainstream music instead of being aimed at just one genre of music. NME is aimed aimed at music lovers around the ages of 16-17+.

The layout of the front cover of the NME magazine is very ordered and clear. The colour scheme is made up of 4 colours red, blue, white and yellow, they use yellow when it comes to trying to make something stand out more making it bolder and more prominent. The type for most of the text is very much the same apart from headings and other important text that needs to stand out and be noticed and using the yellow text colour and different text its really makes certain things stand out more and look more prominent.
When the photographer took the picture of the two bands on the front cover he got them all huddled together wrapped in then two flags one from each country the american flag from the american band and the english flag for english band what it looks like the photographer was trying to do was show that english and american bands are working together to bring the music revolution to the fore front of music news.
Ornamentation is used to on the front cover in four places, they use it to make the advertisement for the UK's vs US's which is the best scene and it works really well they also use red, white and blue which are patriotic colours for both countries, ornamentation is also used to make information about the 2013 music revolution more prominent and bold to help do this they also used to colours for the text and changed the type on certain words in this instance they are the names of both the bands in the front cover photograph. Ornamentation is also used to make information that is that important seem just a little bit more important.

Double page spread

The layout of the double page spread is very orderly and neat. They have used the grid as a template for the text so that it is kept neat and clear with it being set out in a grid all the text is kept in columns it makes it easier for people to read because there is no words that are getting to close and merging. There is a gutter placed between the columns marked out clearly with a thin red line but it sticks out because it is on a white background.
The grid is also used effectively on the left side because the used a photo package with a page clustered with photographs but it looks tidy and organised because they have used the grid to keep the image a good distance apart that isn't to big or small. None of the photographs seem more important than the others.
The more important information about the band that is being interviewed is at the top of the page in a different type and are bolder than the rest of the text. The colour scheme of the double page spread is made up of only three colours black, red and white, black is the most used colour because they use it for the general text, then the red is used to make things stand out more because it is used only for the headers and the name of the band it is also is the colour of the title which coincidently is also the name of the band (Deep Vally).
Most of the type in this article is very much the same the only type that is different is the title and this needs to be a type because it has to stand out and look prominent because it is the title of the article, the next most important peace of text is the information about the band and we know this is more important than the writing below it because it is bigger and bolder and they used a different type to write it in.
Ornamentation is used only once on the double page spread and that is a 'sticker' in the top left corner which is promotion the competition between America and England for which country has the best music scene and it is very effective because it uses the patriotic colours of both country's America and England. I think the photographs are really effective because they show that just because a band has become famous doesn't mean they don't lives like normal people and at time they wont look as good as some people think they do all the time and some time they do crazy things while they are out having fun.

Colour workshops

In this task we were working with paints and blending modes, complementary colours and making a full colour palette with only 3 primary colours and later adding white into the mix. This was a particularly useful exercise because it helped us to think more about getting the right tone rather than getting the exact colour every time.

Blending experiment.

The point of this task was to help us master blending techniques and pattern overlay in photoshop. I feel this was a useful thing to learn so that your are not just stuck to using basic colours and boring textures while using photoshop.

I thought was a pretty fun task to do and it helped us to learn about photoshop without stressing about things.

Cut and paste poems.

 

For this task we were told to make cut and paste poems and the reason for doing this was for us to let our subconscious do the talking and not be hindered by creative block. First we had to just find and cut out lots of random words from different magazines and almost just let them arrange themselves into a poem. It was really interesting to see what came out on the page, lines were often funny, poignant or completely bizarre which was the beauty of this task. Once we had crated the poems we had to scan them into photoshop and find imagery that connected to some of the words and this was how we created our background. Finally we had to print off and fold the sheet of paper in a certain way to create a finished poetry booklet.