Design Practice 1 Brief 3 - OUGD406

BRIEF - To produce a two colour screen print movie poster for a chosen Bruce Willis film. 

My film is Catch .44, an American action drama filmed in 2011.  It has a cast of well known actors including Forest Whitaker, Malin Akerman and of course Bruce Willis. The film was directed by Aaron Harvey and despite the big actors within this film, has only a 4.7 out of 10 film rating. 

I have started this brief by watching Catch. 44. I have brainstormed what I thought about the film and what I think is important and iconic information that I can possibly take forward to use as concepts and ideas. The main ideas being everyone is setting everyone up within the film, and so there is a lot of double crossing, murders and drugs.

When looking into my film I found this interesting quote someone had said about the film. It has been described as a 'Deadly cat and mouse game' which I thought would be interesting to base some ideas off of. There is also the slogan on the original movie poster 'If you are going down, take everyone with you'. These I think are some interesting concepts to work with, which I will explore through thumbnails and experimentation:

I have started some initial thumbnails based around the ideas I explored through brainstorming. I have focused on a few concepts when generating these:

- Cat and Mouse Game: I have focused on this concept as I think it is a interesting way of describing the film. There is a few twists in the film and everybody is after everybody, giving this idea of 'cat and mouse'. I have thought about developing a cat and mouse using negative space but am concerned about how effectively I will be able to create this. I then had the idea of creating a mouse trap to show this idea instead, I could remove the cheese for something more associated to the film i.e. money.

- Double Crossing: As everyone turns on one another within the film, I like the idea of using the concept of double crossing. This could be shown quite literally by having something crossing over or could expand on this by thinking about double yellow lines or something that is 'double'. I then thought of the main scene within the film where everyone has someone at gun point. I thought this could be represented nicely with this theme of double crossing by using lines and circles to represent who is aiming at who.

- Three's: Everything within the film seems to happens in threes i.e. all happens at 3am, three woman, three people at gunpoint. I thought this would be an interesting theme to play on as it seems to recur so often within the film. I am unsure whether this was intentional in the movie but I feel it stands out.

I have then started to take a few of the sketches forward digitally to start experimenting and developing. I have played on the idea of double crossing. If I where to continue with these, the left would need developing, as right now its too simple and the right would need to be formed into some shape that is relevant to the film. They definitely need refining but think I will keep with the same colour scheme used in these ideas so far. The yellow is used throughout the film showing the names of the characters, not only that but through research, have found most actions films use a similar colour pallet. Because of this I think the colour has a clear link to the film. 

This idea is focused on how many murders are in the film and how only one survives. I think this concept has potential but this visual does not. The layout is not appealing and I feel the circles are too big. These would need scaling down and the colour scheme would need changing slightly (maybe a black background?) if I where to continue with this idea:

I have started refining one of my previous digital experiments as I think it has a strong enough concept behind it as well as being visual interesting. The concept behind this idea was focusing on one of the main scenes within the film (three people aiming guns at one another). I thought of just a triangle showing this but the visual was too simple and slightly boring. To develop on this I have combined another idea with this. The idea being how many murders are in the film. To show this I have taken then triangle and repeated this 4 times to achieve the number of deaths within the film i.e. eleven. This still shows the one that survives, as well as further showing the idea of being doubled crossed which is represented by the lines overlapping one another. So far I think this concept is quite interesting but at the moment it still seems slightly dull with no impact. I am going to add colour and play around with type to developing this idea:

Developing on trying to achieve impact I have replaced the circles with a more interesting shape that represents the idea of death better. The sharp shape tries to represent the idea of impact and gunfire which is further signified by the colour. The yellow against the black creates for a more striking image while also linking back well with the film, as yellow is used throughout. The white circle represents the one survivor which I think again contrasts well and stands out against the rest of the image. I have also experimented with different types. I was firstly going to have a block font that would stand out but think having a more simple clean cut font helps from not detracting from the image as much:

I have then experimented by using different colours for each parts of the image to see which is the most effective. I feel these below still have impact but as I am screen printing these, am unsure whether the yellow is going to show up well with the white. Because of this I may have to stick with a black background so the image is as clear as possible:

I have developed this idea through colour but am still unsure about the type. I am going to ask peers on which they feel would work the most effectively and develop this idea on from there:

I have now moved onto an idea that my peers thought worked best in the interim critique, the cat and mouse concept. I really liked this idea and thought this would be an interesting route to experiment with. The main idea peers thought would work the most effectively was the idea of doing a cat and mouse through negative space. I really liked this idea but struggled creating this and representing both animals effectively. I was also concerned with whether it would be too similar to Noma Bars work. Due to these concerns I did not develop this idea any further:

Even thought the negative space idea did not work as well as I would have hoped, I still wanted to use the cat and mouse concept in some way. I then developed the idea of using a mouse trap. I have started illustrating a one below but concerned people will not understand what it is straight away. Perhaps when the poster is more developed it will be more clear:

My initial idea with this was to have an illustration of cheese i.e. cat and mouse game. However in the interim critique someone suggested to me to change this to something more related to the film i.e. money. I thought this was a interesting idea and so have developed both. I do think however, the money will work much better than the cheese, as it links in better with both poster and film: 

I have added both of these onto a black background as I feel it relates much more to the film by being darker, I also think it makes for more of a striking image. I have added text and used a central alignment  which I think works well. I am still concerned people will not understand what the illustration is and so added the caption 'Its a deadly cat and mouse game'. Hopefully people will read this which will make it more recognisable. Like my previous idea, I am going to ask peers on there opinions and whether they think this is recognisable as a mouse trap or not: 

I have moved onto developing a new idea based on the concept of double crossing, as this was an idea peers thought was interesting in the crit. The concept being there is a lot of double crossing within the film and so thought it could be interesting to this take literally i.e. anything that is double. I came up with the idea of double yellow lines as this is classed as a warning and so thought this would fit in nicely with the concept. I thought having to plain yellow lines however could be quite dull. From this I developed two lines but had them crossing. This creates for not only double yellow lines, but double crossing yellow lines: 

I have the mocked up what this would look like digitally but concerned the pattern is not the noticeable. Maybe once screen printed this will stand out more:

I have had a conversation with two of my tutors to discuss which would be the best idea to take forward to screen print. The problem is that all of my designs are going to be quite difficult to align for the two colour screen print. One of my tutors suggested if I had time, screen print all three of my designs. Although I would love to do this, I am already not that confident with screen printing. After speaking to them, they both agreed my double yellow lines is the most effective design but matching the two positives would be difficult. One then suggested I could delete every other line so the pattern is not as intricate (shown below). Although this may make the process easier I still think it will be difficult and so I am going to expose both this and my 12 murders concept. I think this will give me more room for error and if one goes wrong I can print the other.

I actually prefer the 'double crossing' pattern with every other line deleted, as I feel it makes the design more clear: 

All four positives I am going to expose: 

I took down both sets of positives I wanted to expose to the print room. I discussed my concerns with the technicians down there about the alignment with both. He actually disagreed with my tutor and stated the double yellow lines would be easier to align than the 12 murders, as I would have to make sure each 'star' was correctly aligned as well as the lines connecting them. I wasn't sure on which one to do so I started with my favourite design (double yellow lines). 

I have started the screen printing process with the black colour first. This will allow me to align and see the second colour of yellow better. I started off printing okay, although was nervous as I am not all that confident with screen printing:

After a few attempts I started having problems with my screen. My first problem was I was not giving equal pressure to the whole screen and so one edge was not coming out sleek and straight. I needed to remember to give the same amount of weight across the screen so this would not happen again:

I then started having problems with the screen drying out. I was working far too slow but felt my confidence in this was an issue as I could not work faster. Luckily one of the technicians came to help. I sprayed the screen with water to help with the dryness of the screen. I then did a few pulls and printed onto newsprint to get the screen back to normal, as at first the prints where too wet. Once the screen was back to normal use, I started printing again:

Another problem I faced with my first colour was when I was flooding the screen, the image was still attached. With my first pull I did not press hard enough, again forgetting about the amount of pressure needed. Because of this the image had stuck to the screen and so when I removed it, it removed the image. I then again had to practice a few pulls on newsprint to make sure this did not happen again:

When I was printing I new I wanted my final posters on thick card like stock. This was because I felt this would suite my posters better for the genre I was working to. As a matt like card would be more impacting in colour than say a textured paper would be. I bought the card from the print room and found my images to print better onto this. I did practice prints on the cartridge but as this was filmy and textured, the ink seemed to soak into the paper more, giving a more 'damp' look. The card however did not have this problem due to the thickness of it, which gave for a better finished quality:

After I had some decent prints on the stock I wanted I started on the second colour. I chose yellow as not only does the type of genre of the film use this, but within my film the names of the characters appear in yellow. I thought yellow would also contrast well with the black and white.

However I also had problems with the second colour. The alignment was tricky but not overly difficult, the problem was getting the yellow to show up. The technician stated the yellows tend to come out quite translucent on the white stock, because of this I had to pull the ink through 4 to 5 times to get a strong enough colour:

When I was printing it was pointed out to me that I had a typing error on my posters. I was extremely disappointed because I have always spelt checked my work but obviously not correctly on this occasion. I have missed the 'I' out of Bruce Willis. I am disappointed as I will be printing all three of my designs digitally for the module hand-in so I can correct this for then, but my final screen printed poster cannot be rectified in time. It is also going to be shown in the studio in a small exhibition and although it may not be a huge typing error I still think it is noticeable. As everyone needs to screen print, both first and second years for this brief, I would not have time to re-expose and print this, as it will be extremely busy. I knew already, but this has shown me just how important spell-checking is and although I do this, am going to have to get third person to check through my work.

Finals and Evaluation

This is my final screen-printed poster. I am overall pleased with both concept and visual outcome. When starting this brief I thought I would have difficulty in generating ideas as I struggled at first, but think I found my own way to represent the film in a way I liked. I think my overall concepts of 'double crossing', 'cat and mouse game' and '12 murders' have been interesting enough to create effective visuals from these. I think the finals are simplistic but engaging and the colour choice helps to create impact for them. 

The one thing I am disappointed with is the spelling mistake on the screen-printed poster. However this has been a learning curve, as now I will check and double check to not let this happen again. Another thing I have taken from this brief is the screen printing process itself. I have had a lot of problems as it is the first time I have done screen printing on my own. This shows I do need a lot of practice, so when it comes to the second and third year I will be confident to execute finals to the best of my ability using any process. I am going to use the summer to take advantage of the resources as they will be quite quiet in this time. 

Evidence of sending poster off to AMP website:

Design Principles: What is a Book? - Format Research - OUGD404

BRIEF - To look into what makes a book. In doing this I will be creating ten double page spreads that will show my new understanding and knowledge of type, grid and layout. 

For this brief I have looked into formats to get an idea of the size and shape I could do for my double page spreads. I think the format is important as it gives me restriction with the different layouts I could possibly use. Because of this reason I will have to choose a format that is not only appropriate to the brief and the double page spreads, but one that also gives me enough leniency with space for the content. 

I started by looking into A sized formats. I think working with either a A4 or A3 size allows enough room for content and would be efficient, but I would like the format to be more interesting than the general 'A' size:

I then moved onto what I deemed to be more interesting formats. I looked into square sizes as they are less commonly used but also an interesting shape to work with. I feel this size would still allow enough shape and size for effective layouts. I would need to thumbnail with this format more but feel it is a possible route to go down as it is flexible enough to use:

I also looked into landscape formats. I feel this would be a effective route to take as it gives me similar room as the A4 format, but the orientation allows for it to be slightly different than regular layouts. What I found however, is this format seems to be popular with imagery rather than text. I am unsure whether this would work for both, but could experiment with composition and initial thumbnails to see if it could be successful:

I then looked into something completely different. A format that was suggested within a session was 2:1 ratio. I looked at some books that use a similar shape to this, however I found this format was used for more conceptual books i.e. The title 'Tall book' and so then book is 'tall'. Although I think this could be visually interesting to work with, I am unsure whether it would be restricting myself in some way as it would not be as lenient as the other formats I have looked into:

Design Principles Session 3: What is a Book? - OUGD404

This weeks session was more of a practical session which allowed us to explore the idea of a grid and learn more about layout. We started off by discussing the elements that are on a grid and how they work in conjunction with one another. 

We then was asked to select a layout and think about the graphic elements that made up the spread. This was to think about the design decisions the designer had made and how these have been worked onto a grid:

We then thought about thumbnails, we proportioned the thumbnail so we would get a accurate scale of the format we would be using. This is so once taken digitally is it an similar representation to the digital version.

I used the content from the previous layout to create some initial thumbnails. I have thought about the different ways I can manage the information on the page. I have tried experimenting with scaling the imagery over both spreads while also thinking about how I could crop into images and scale them down. I tried to always keep the right amount of body copy to give a fair representation of the content:

For the next session I need to have thought about and finalised the format I will be using for my 10 double page spreads. I have researched into a few book formats that I found interesting and from this created a few thumbnails around these. I started initial thumbnails with the content from of my spreads by using a A4 format. This was effective as it allowed enough room for both text and image. However I would like to use a more interesting format, as I would like to be more creative with the size of my DPS. Because of this, I looked into formats with 2:1 ratios, square and landscape formats. I have done initial thumbnails with each of these formats to get an idea on how I could use them for effective layouts and compositions. I am having difficulty deciding on which would be the most effective for the amount of content I will be using. I need a good amount of space to achieve this. I think I may discuss this with peers and have a small critique on which format would be the best to use: