Alice in wonderland brief

Create and produce packaging for a food and tea stall and advertise the festival.


As when I finish college I want to do graphic design, as I find it most interesting, I have decided to do this project based around that. So I have had a few ideas which I have thought I could do for this project like advertisement posters/ banners, leaflets or packaging design that would fit nicely into the festival of Alice and wonderland, but also into my graphic design theme too. But the design I favour most at the minuet is the packing designing which I could take as big or as little as I want because lots of graphic designers do design sets for movies and design work to go in them, in the same way as in the real world if a client approached you wanting a front cover for their product magazine for example.

So i have decided to do a mad hatters tea party tea and cake stall so people attending the festival can pop in and have a quick break. But as their still at the festival i want the experience of alice and wonderland to carry on through into that and it not just be a tea van which is boring and uninteresting. So i am going to design packaging for the food e.g. coffee and tea cups, Boxes for cakes and sandwiches and a banner to advertise outside. However depending on how well I get on with this it might end up going in different directions as for this project their is lots of scope for improvment, as i could being a graphic designer, design artwork for a indoor cafe doing artwork for inside, table cloth designs, any pottery art but also like little table number sculptures with the mad hatter on for example.



Materials and techniques 

With this project it gives me a lot of scope to do lots of different design work and not just stick to one or two different ways of working even though it is still a graphic design project. As i don't want to just be stuck on a computer churning out just design after design on photoshop and illustrator as their is more to graphic design than just that, and also the project lends itself to being more adventurous and doing 'impossible things' which is the nature of the whole film which the festival is based on. Also not only do i want to be more adventurous for the project, but also to push myself and my own abilities to give my work more of a edge!

So i am going to use materials like Paint, pencil drawings, clay work, photography but more experimental work like exploring light effects to create quite surreal work! But also i have got to use digital work as well on the computer as that is a big part of graphic design, but adapt it to try and create more unusual images by maybe combining a few different materials. For example photography, 3D and sketch work to create more just a position and surrealism with my work. But also natural with this project it is a very psychedelic busy images that are rather unusual as it is a dream. But with my work i like to keep it very simple ( not boring) but images that have the philosophy of less is more that can catch peoples attention and draw them in. But also i like the use of blank and white or very select colors. So this is something i am going to have to explore into and see if this project can be manipulated to fit into a style that i like.


Research

For my research i am going to try and look into a range of artists as the larger the understanding of artists and peoples work. The better the understanding of your own work and will be able to create much better images with more depth. So for me wanting to create packing and advertisement banners/ posters for the alice and wonderland mad hatters tea party. But adapting it to fit into a more simplistic style like Alexey Brodovitch style. Who for the Harper Bazaar Fashion magazine used simple blank and white photography and typography to create images with lots of positive and negative energy. But if i don't have the depth behind a striped down images then it won't work as viewers won't engage with it! So I also have to do a lot of background research into the Alice and wonderland film or book, so that any work I do has clear and strong links with what the festival is about.


Method and evaluation

To do this work I am going to see how it goes and not have too much of a strict time scale. Obviously I am going to have to follow a ruff time scale as to when the whole project has to be finished and certain assessment dates. However I will set myself certain points in the project where I will look back at this brief and evaluate where I am within the project to make sure I will be finished for the deadline but also make sure that I am not straying off track, so I achieve the goals I set out to do and don't get lost within the project.

Andy warhol

Andy Warhol was pioneers of the pop art world and one of the main artists today that we associate with the pop art movement. He originally was from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania before moving to New york in 1949 where he started as a commercial artists for advertising, magazines and illustration, that he worked at for many years, before he started to experiment more with his art. He took images from popular American culture like the tin of soup, coca cola and the banana. Which are some of his well-known and iconic pictures even today, which are ironically pop art and immediately associated with Warhol. Although after this he moved on to more portraiture based work like the most famous of all Marlyne Monroe! The image that I feel along with the tin of soup design is his best work and for that reason is why it is his most famous! It is so simple, bold and colorful that you get with pop art, which is why I think the image is still modern and used in todays world. It is just a simplified version of a painting that is done in block color or like with the tin of soup like a stamp effect that is repeated. Which is why at the time it was so simple and innovative. Also this is why his work has been copied and duplicated and his style adapted countless designs even in to 2014.

This design philosophy that less is more throughout my work and research is what I have been focusing on, because usually the work that you then produce is much more eye catching and will stand out to people. But even though the designs are simple they often have much more thought and provoke more emotions with its audience as they have to try and interpret what the deeper meaning is behind something, that creates a bit of confusion that is what captures a viewer. However although I do not want to create a front cover that has an obvious pop art theme, I do want to take little hints and suggestions from it to use in my work, Even if it is just the fact of the bright colors or the multiple stamp effect.

Graffiti

Graffiti artwork is a art movment which originated in the late 1970s and evolved spray painting artwork in a public place, but really took off in the 1980’s and was most commonly found in cities across the world. However it was most associated with the new york subway system. This mindless vandalism which people considered it to be had turn into what we call graffiti.  This gave people - usually young people a chance to be extremely creative, but at the same time controversial and communicate strong feelings or views through their artwork. However this was not a new technique because for thousands of years people have been drawing and doing artwork on walls from the stone ages with carvings on stone, the Egyptians  and romans are all kind of classed as what we call ‘Graffiti’ now. Although with the artwork now it is much more artistic with usually lots of bright colors and you can find the art work on the side of a alleyway near your house, in towns and cities all around the world but also now in galleries which are done legally as it is a recognized type of artwork.

But this is why I am looking a lot into the world of graffiti because they are very expressive and are often very good at conveying their views and message to people who see them, but in a modern and fun way. Which is why I think teenagers and young adults are drawn to it because of its rebellious backgrounds and also the fact it is usually funny, bright and modern. So it plays a very big part in communicating views over to them, that is something that is very important factor in designing the NNC guide. This is because you have to make a connection with teenagers for them to want to pick up something like that. Which is why I feel a lot of teenagers don’t pick information leaflets or booklets because they are always done in a very boring and conventional format- which is just boring!

Vexta

Vexta  

Vexta is a graffiti artist that I have found in a book called ‘Street Artists the complete guide’. She is a artist from Sydney before moving to Melbourne back in 2003, which is when graffiti art was really started to take off.  This movement inspired her and she started working along side other artists in Melbourne to open illegal art shows in abandoned buildings. Which is partly why I think graffiti became very popular because especially young teenagers to late 20’s were attracted to the rebellious side that the artwork signified, and was often done illegally. So this artwork was a form of expressing your views and making a noticeable stand against society. Which is something vexta agrees with as her work was often very political, which you fine a lot in graffiti art even now. For example her stencil artwork of two skeletons kissing- with the caption “this is what war victims look like.” Which is a very powerful piece that was created in protest against the the PM John Howards support of Presidents bush’s military military presents in Iraq! Also when she spoke at the Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne she said “ My early street work definitely has a strong activist  element to it because the street can be a very powerful place to encourage debate and thought about certain politics and issues, especially when place in opposition to advertising and its shallow aesthetics.” Which I agree with. 

 I am not saying that the work I am producing for the college is intended to be anywhere near as deep or political as this piece. However what initially attracted me to it were the bright colors, which is something I want to have in my designs. From looking at some graffiti artists, they tend to use very bright colors in there work which is what I think attracts the teenagers to it. That is something I need to do with my work so I need to be able to relate to it.

Heres some of her other work I was drawn to and liked that she has produced, although she has now done more subtle themes that are more suitable for galleries, as she didn’t wan to be just seen by others as a political artist.

Further art work on VEXTA SITE

Information i got from a book i have on graffiti artists by Eleanor mathieson and Xavier.

Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian was a dutch modern painter in the early 1900s, who is considered one of the founders of the de stijl art movement which consisted of very basic geometric shapes and colors. Which was a rebellion that arose from the art deco movement, which was very over decorative.

His work was often simplified landscapes like the tree artwork he did, although my favorite piece was the composition with red blue and yellow which is extremely modern even now, which is a sign of a good piece that can stand the text of time. But What I think makes it stand out is that it is so simplistic and bold, that it is very eye catching, which is why I have been looking at it for my NNC survival guide. I have incorporated this style into some of my front covers like with the multicoloured jaggered tiles, which was overplayed over Connors face and the horizontal colored lines. 

   

These 2 particular pieces i did i tried to stick to very geometric shapes which i took from Mondrian to subtly influence the work. Even though i have used more bright 80's psychedelic colors and haven't used bold primary colors like the composition with red blue and yellow. I feel that the students at the college will be able to relate to it much easier. Meaning it is a stronger front cover.

Also my title has taken inspiration from mondrian with its horizontal and vertical line and geometric patterns to give it a bit more depth than just standard writing.

Overlayed color tiled composition

This is one of the front cover images I have done on photoshop that is one of my best that i really like. I like it because i feel it is more attractive to my target audience and they can relate to the artwork very well with the bright and exciting colors.

First thing i did to create this was to pick the picture of connor which i liked best and that i felt told a story and would draw the audience in.

Once i had picked the picture i was going to use i then starting playing with different filters and effects, but decided on a simple black and white filter on the image. By going to image, adjustments then black and white. Which i then played with the different colors to bring Connor out of the background more and make him stand out more.

After this i went and designed a abstract piece of art using the polygonal lasso tool to create these jagged tiled shapes, which i then filled with bright psychedelic colors.



I then took the artwork and put it over the image of connor that i previously edited. I did this by going into the overlay options and selected linear light, because it was best out of all the options. As i wanted to still have connor bold but the colors bright. So things like overlay and multiply took over the image too much.

Although it already looked good i just turned the fill option down on the actually colored tiles so it looked the best it possibly could.

hough it already looked good i just turned the fill option down on the actually colored tiles so it looked the best it possibly could.

Now i then add the title for the booklet which was learner survival guide. Which was in futura extra bold font, as alot of big magazine companies like NME use it for its classic but also contemporary look. I also position the learner and survival close together at the top and the Guide down at the bottom. This is because when they were bunched together at the top it looked to generic, but it also took over and covered connors face too much!

Although it looked to sparse and was a bit disconnected and didn't look right.

So i took the title and put it into a new photoshop document so i could redesign it to to look more intriguing but also so even though the words would be spread out, that they still felt connected. But because i really like the text i had but i was struggling to fit it into the front cover and it look right, i decided to adapt it to make it more unusual. So i took a idea from what i did for the title i did for my media magazine front cover for my AS level, which was this

By extending the lettering gave a much more interesting look to it which was much more exciting and meant it was like no other title out there.

With the LSG title i adopted that approach again by extending the letter L swooping over and connecting into the top of the L in the word survival. But just rounding off the top of the L so it didn't look too sharp. I did this by making the L in Learner a separate layer and moving it down, then by using the rectangular marquee tool, extending it all the way over.  Then warped the corner so it was round.

 The same technique was used to extend the R down to the U, i just used the rectangular marquee tool.

After all this i placed the new title back into the image for the front. Which imediatly  looked miles better. The text now seemed together even though they were apart and it also framed connors face which i really liked. But i have still retained the classic text look with the Futura font, but now looks more modern as well.

Finally i added a slight drop shadow on the layre style options by increasing the distance and decreeing the opacity of it meant the text stood out more but it doesn't look like it is lifting off the paper.