Alphabet Soup Final Letters.

Here are my final designs...

This is my first finished letter I think that it follows the conventions of condensed the best as it is the one that looks the most like current typefaces. I like the bold appearance and clean lines.

This design is the opposite of the one above, I don't like it as much as I feel it sacrifices readability to fit in with the theme. Although this was one of letters that got chosen by the group that critted our work as their final five as they thought it was the one that portrayed 'condensed' the best.

I really like this design because of the simplicity and the pattern that has been created by the surrounding lines. I also think it portrays an object being condensed inside something really well.

This idea follows the theme well too. I think it is interesting how altering the form in this way has created a new and interesting typeface, with a design that could be applied to other letters.

This is one of my favourite examples as I really like the overall look and the concept behind it. This is also another letter that was chosen by our crit group as they liked how the letter was still visible even without including a solid outline.

This design is another that I really like, I think this is because of the stylistic appearance with the bubbles and again how the letter has been created without using an outline.

I like the concept behind this letter. I think that the bold, simple letter looks good with drip design feature and creates a realistic and impressive overall look.

This example took the longest to create as it involved lots of tracing and detailed colouring. I was worth putting the effort in though as I really like how all the boxes fit together.

I think this is one of the designs that could be maybe hard to understand with the back up explanation. as it could be hard to tell that the added flourishes are being removed, therefore condensing it tom make more simple.

Finally I think this design is another that might need more explanation. To begin I experimented with making it shorter by cutting off the top and leaving it like that, although I found that it looked more like a 'h', this is why I included the top and just reversed it as a design feature.

Alphabet Soup Development.

Here are some textures that I have drawn to help develop some ideas for my final designs...

This idea is about not the letter being condensed but the shapes that create the letter being so, so that they form the shape. My least favourite is the stripes because I feel that it is less interesting than the others. I really like the triangle design but I think that it could be quite hard to recreate and form the shape I want. Finally is the squares, I think this is what I will use because I like the pattern it creates and think it will look good on a larger scale.

Next are my condensation bubble illustrations, inspired by the imagery I found on the internet. I really    like the white sample but I think I will do the black one so it fits more with the collection of other letters.

Here are some circle experiments that  will use for my design showing the process of gas turning to liquid. I think I will have to incorporate it into my letter shape before I decide what size to use, but I think it most likely going to be one of the smaller ones.

Lastly is my condensation drips I think these would look really successful coming off of the letter like in my photography research.

Alphabet Soup Initial Drawings.

Yesterday I did some initial drawings based on the definitions I had read. To begin with they were quite easy to come up with, but as I got further through it got more challenging. Even though, I found that the ones I did at the end were more creative than the first because of this struggle. I tried to come up with a design for each of my definitions, hopefully this translates across. One problem I think I might have when showing these to an audience is that it may be hard to link them to 'condense' without reading the research I have done prior to this. At the moment the sketches are quite basic but I think they will be helpful as something to base my final pieces on...

Alphabet Soup Initial Ideas.

Today we were set our first brief from our design skills module...

The word I recieved was condense, so the first thing I did was to draw out some initial ideas. They are all very rough, but it demonstrates some of my first thoughts transferred to paper...

 

I then looked up the definition in the dictionary and noted them down to help gather some more inspiration. Here are some defintions that I found...

1. Turn from gas to liquid.
2. Make shorter.
3. To reduce something, such as a piece of writing, in length.
4. To make more concise.
5. To undergo condensation.
6. To make something dense, more concentrated.
7. To make a liquid thicker by removing some of the water.
8. Compress/contract.
9. To become more compact.

At the moment I am quite unsure about what routes I will follow, I think some further experimentation and research is needed before I am decided.

Final Piece.

Yesterday we completed our final piece for the project, the whole group is really pleased with it ! I love the retro, vintage look that is brought by the choice of colours and the curved edge borders. I think all the images fit into the composition really successfully too. After feedback from blog group two we changed the name to 'How To (Not) Flag A Taxi As A Student,' as we found a lot of our points were advising the things not to do, rather than the steps to flag one. Another thing we altered was the text, we thought that just having the points as bullet points didn't really provide the humour we were looking for so we added additional descriptions to accomodate this. I'm really glad we did this as I think it appeals to students even more now. Here is our final poster design...

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After deciding that we were going to make a fold out card/poster here is our design for the cover...




All of the group are really happy with how it has turned out, I love the front and am really happy that we have been able to include our taxi guy! Also, for the back we thought it would be a good idea to include some taxi firm numbers. Not only will it be helpful for students new to the city, but it will also be a reason for them to keep the card instead of throwing it away after viewing, as the numbers will be good to keep.

After finishing we went down to the printing room and printed off two A4 sheets with the cover on onto card and then a corressponding amount of A4 posters. It was great to see everything coming together and be able to hold what we had created in our hands. We then took some photo's of our product in context...



Layout Development.

Next we developed the layout idea to incorporate the images and type successfully, I am really happy with the look of this. I really like the contrast between the smooth surfaces and rough textures and I especially think that the appearance of the sick is very effective. It is still to be completed but here is how it looks now...

Illustration Ideas.

These are some digital illustrations drawn by Sam. I really like the linear style and I think they show a strong link to our aeroplane safety card idea, the retro colour choices are also good and fit well together. He created them using an outline tool on Photoshop over the top of the photo's we took yesterday. Here are some examples...

Here is a further digital image that has been developed from hand drawings...

I love how all the images look so good together and the alternative colour choices also give a really quirky look. The textures are also really effective and add another level to the overall look.

Layout Idea.

Here is a layout that I quickly put together last night. It is just a basic representation of how we could fit all the info onto the page. The grey area at the bottom is where a larger illustration would go and then smaller ones could fit into the other boxes. I don't think all the points need corresponding images, so on those we could just use type.

Summer Brief.

Today everyone presented their summer project to their blog groups. It was really interesting to see what everyone came up with as everyone's style of work was really different. I also found it a helpful way of getting to know the people in my group better.
Here are a few examples of my work...

I included both the full and letter version so the information could still be read. I think it has been successful because I feel it shows my style of work whilst still informing the audience with facts.


Our group then made a list of similarities that appeared in our projects and they are...

1. Mostly digital.
2. Mostly white backgrounds.
3. Most have themes.
4. Mostly capital letters.
5. They all followed the breif of 10x10cm
6. They show a range of ideas.
7. Colourful.
8. Some include hand rendered aspects.
9. All legible.
10. All seperate alphabets work well as a set.