Monday 7 February 2011

The Long and Winding Road

Evolve

I decided to start with the postcard reflecting my wider cultural influences or interests. I had already decided on the cover of Revolver, so found a picture of the cover and used this as my starting point.


As I had already decided who was going  to occupy the four main pictures it was just a matter of finalising who would occupy the photographs and smaller illustrations.

As Thom Yorke was going to replace the face of John Lennon it seemed natural to put the four remaining members of Radiohead in the illustration of The Beatles to his left. The strange figure on Lennon's ear in the original immediately suggested Alison Goldfrapp to me. I'd already decided on the White Stripes and they were perfect for the two faces in Lennon's hair. I also thought Jarvis Cocker would be well-suited to replace the striped, reclining figure. Equally, the smart, preppy look of Mark Ronson was a perfect replacement for John Lennon's upright figure - and then the idea of Amy Winehouse's face just above him naturally suggested itself.

Next to Amy Winehouse, I thought that the Pet Shop Boys would be relatively easy to draw and could fill the illustrated faces nicely. When I thought of McCartney's screaming face Kurt Cobain was the obvious choice and I thought it would be more arresting if contrasted with Fat Boy Slim in party mode. To their left I was then left with a group of four with one prominent amongst them - a perfect spot for Blur to occupy, while in the corner I had thought about grouping the trio in The Prodigy and decided to stick with this idea.

I had decided early on that it would be a nice touch to include a picture of McCartney as he is now and was pleased to find a recent picture of him in almost exactly the same pose and with the same expression as he appears above his ear. Replacing the illustration of the head in his ear - mainly because of the similarity of the hair - I decided to draw Kate Bush. I was left with the main area between the heads of Ringo Starr and George Harrison. In the original this seems very laddish and larky, with nine heads in a ball of activity. Because of this, and the importance of including someone wearing a hat to keep continuity with the original, I decided on two Manchester bands to fill this space - The Stone Roses (with hatted Reni) and The Smiths. To just subvert the laddishness slightly I decided include Nick Drake. The final places, on George Harrison/Brian Eno's head were always going to be for the Chemical Brothers. Because of his almost total baldness I knew this might have a slightly comic aspect to it and was really pleased when I found a photograph of the Chemical Brothers that I felt suited this feel.                   

I then began work on the main illustrations, starting with Badly Drawn Boy. Showing the naivety of the novice I spent a number of hours trying to draw Badly Drawn Boy in the style of Paul McCartney on the original sleeve. I then realised that I could just open the photograph of Badly Drawn Boy I was using, create a new layer, and draw over it. I was aware of the different hair textures used by Klaus Voormann in the original and was careful to vary the pen width when moving from hair to beard. Once I had completed the picture I copied the image on top of Revolver, placing it as close as I could to the original. I was pleased with the result, particularly the woolly hat which I was concerned wouldn't work but which I now think adds a nice twist on the original. Using different shades on the hat really brought out the pattern and helped add some texture.

I then went to work on Thom Yorke. I found a photograph which suited my purposes - front-on and smiling faintly. After the Badly Drawn Boy picture, this seemed relatively straightforward. My only concern was whether his drooping left eyelid might look forced or accentuated in line drawing, drawing too much attention away from his other features. Fortunately I don't think this is the case. I also didn't feel the need to do too much with the hair textures with this drawing. Thom Yorke is a much rawer character: I wouldn't have wanted to soften him or take attention away from his facial features. Brian Eno was also fairly straightforward. I chose a photograph that had Eno looking out at the view questioningly - in keeping with George Harrison on the original cover. My only regret is that I didn't keep the photographic image of the eyes in keeping with the original - although I did colour in the lips, which is a nice echo back to Eno's days in Roxy Music.

The final picture, of Noel Gallagher, was the most difficult and it's the image I'm least satisfied with. Although I'm pleased with the eyebrows and face I now wish I'd spent a couple more hours on his hair - perhaps weaving more gray into the gaps between the strands of black. However, I'd set myself 10 days and was running out of time. Scaling the photographs and changing them to black and white was relatively straightforward - as was cropping them. Drawing the smaller illustrations was also fairly straightforward, and all I was left with was the Parlophone logo and the Revolver type. I stuck with my idea of the Adobe  'A' and added 'Adobe Photoshop' underneath in place of the original text. I was still undecided on what to name the cover. I had been thinking of  'Revector' all along but this now seemed a bit forced (I was also aware that virtually all the work had been done in Photoshop, not Illustrator) and decided that 'Evolve' was better suited to the nature of the piece - which was more about the evolution of music and my musical interests than anything else.


As the first piece of work I've completed I'm pleased with 'Evolve'. I think the photographs are well-chosen, if a bit roughly edited in places, and - apart from Noel Gallagher's hair - I'm pleased with the main illustrations. If I was submitting the piece for assessment I would also spend more time on the smaller illustrations, which lack uniformity and - in the case of the Pet Shop Boys - any resemblance to the actual artists. Finally, I was gutted to realise that the piece was 56cm x 56cm, not A6 as requested. However, I realise it was probably a good thing to make this mistake now rather than later.

Too Much Symmetry

As I had decided on the idea of the saucy postcard, the main aim was to come up with a caption that had something to do with graphic design and was an innuendo: not easy. I decided to look through a few postcards for inspiration and found the one posted below:


I liked the image and it immediately suggested asymmetry to me - something I had been reading about. I played around with a few ideas and needed a tension within the postcard. When I saw the postcard below the idea of symmetry suggested itself.


As it was a postcard about myself I decided that it would be fun if I was the man holding the rock and my wife, Sarah, was the woman with the puppies (so to speak). I was initially hoping to add a pun on the name Jan Tschichold (graphic designer and leading exponent of asymmetrical design) - something along the lines of 'Think Tschichold' 'Cold? It's bloody freezing.' However, it became clear that there wouldn't be enough room for this and I limited myself to asymmetry. I used the rock picture as my main template and added the picture of the girl above.

I enjoyed this project, particularly employing all the different colours. I made a key mistake when starting out in Illustrator by not creating closed paths - as a result I was not able to fill shapes and areas as I would have liked. I also found that I had to use Photoshop more than I would have liked, as I was more used to the painting tools. 

Once I'd completed the image the final challenge was to fit the text in. I looked up some more postcards and found the one posted below, which had a good range of letters.         


I copied the lettering as well as I could, although given more time I would have liked to have replicated it more accurately as the irregular capitals were always one of my favourite aspects of the seaside postcard. Ideally, I would also have liked to have more closely captured the wash effect of the originals. However, I do think that the block colour in my version is okay in its own right.


Overall, I'm pleased with the result. It is a postcard that says something about me and one of my earliest interests in graphic design - although I do wish I'd checked the spelling of symmetry. Once again, it's a good mistake to make at this stage! 

Designers Underground

I went with my idea of the map of the London Underground, with each line representing a different movement and each station a designer within this movement. Although this postcard took the most time in terms of planning, it was the most enjoyable. I went back to a couple of graphic design books and grouped the designers around eight main movements: Art Nouveau, Modernism, Bauhaus, The International Style, Corporate Design, Poster Art, Postmodernism and The Digital Age.

I looked at the Underground Map and started to think about which movements should occupy which line. I decided that Postmodernism would be perfect for the Circle Line - going round and round picking up influences from all the other movements. I also wanted Modernism to have a strong presence, and decided on the Central Line, running through the middle of the picture. This meant I could also give it a strong linear feel, beginning with Picasso on the left.

I then wanted to put Bauhaus and The International Style close together, but not on the same line. It was at this point I came up with the idea of splitting one of the lines into two with Jan Tschichoold at the meeting point - and the Piccadily line was perfect for this. I had already decided I wasn't going to use the Metropolitan Line and so was able to use the nice shade of Maroon for The International Style section.


I wanted to counter-weight the Central Line of Modernism and went for The Digital Age in a top to bottom movement in black along the Northern Line. My priority with Poster Art and Corporate Design was then to balance the elements already in place and the Jubilee and District Lines seemed best suited to these ends. Once this was done all I needed to do was pick the typefaces to suit the movement and do the project.


Once I had completed the planning, the actual work itself was relatively straightforward. As I started to complete the project I added a few extra touches, such as the 'Logo by Edward Johnston' under the 'Underground' sign, and replacing the 'Thames' text on the river with names of various movements and developments that have influenced the history of graphic design. It was also about this stage that I decided to add the National Rail sign to particular designers of note.

This is the project I am most happy with and it was good to revisit some of the names I had been studying. If I had a bit more time I might have added the Ferry sign to famous emigres. I might have also have spent a bit more time choosing the designers of note and on the accompanying logo. However, as only my third completed piece of work, overall I'm very happy with the result.

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