Ramble about posters, I would

Ok so yesterday was the poster crit, and it was interesting, enough to keep me awake anyway. Some of the ideas made me think, especially the euthanasia and the anti BNP ones. I think overall as a feedback session some people didn't get as much credit as they deserved, I think reflecting on different work in such a short period of time can make you lose objectiveness especially when you have a run of decent designs. I think as a themed topic a lot of the posters failed to make a significant impact, mine included, but then I think that is a fault with the brief as it didn't specify that the posters should flow or have any sort of coherence. Having said that, because the brief wasn't that specific it did allow me to explore different avenues further down the line that arguably resulted in me producing some of my most successful posters. Due to the nature of my presentation I didn't really get any group feedback that was useful. By that I mean as I talked through my work I highlighted the problems with some of the design choices and also the strengths and weaknesses of each poster so there was little else my course mates could have commented upon. That isn't to say I am an all seeing, all knowing poster designer, it's simply I am my biggest critic no matter how fiercely from time to time I will defend my design choice, but also because I have reasonable graphic design knowledge for a first year student. Nooowwww, why the naked picture? Male buttocks? It is because through quite an open presentation I got some decent relaxed feedback from the group, one idea in particular was that with the photographed field poster, it could have been realized by having a row of people holding hands and running through the field naked. I'm not going to go into the reasons why that would be effective as I've written enough already, but I was pleased with the way my presentation interacted with the group and made a few people respond. At the end of the day, that is the point of propaganda right? making people react? Super duper, and on one last note there are 2 impressive illustrators on our course who I would say should be encouraged to pursue their traditional methods. If anything their designs deteriorate when put into digital format, however much I celebrate digital tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator, I would love to have that kind of natural drawing ability and interactive media design...I don't think they will realize their true potential on this course.I think that is a shame as Rachel and James are impressive artists. FIN!

Mount me, now don't I look better

Mount board £10, double-sided tape £2.75, printing credits £8, waiting 2 hours to have your propaganda posters printed off by a shocking network printer set up in the Northumbria Design building...priceless? Try annoying or even unnecessary. But never mind. I do think they look better mounted, the 2 predominantly white posters are even whiter than usual because the .pdf wasn't set up properly, and I'll be damned if I was going to go to the back of the queue again, plus they aren't exactly striking so i think I will be feeding the recycling bin with them some time soon. But they are all on A3 mounted on A1 and I really like the Jamie Reid style poster, also probably the face...book one, if you get me there. Yep poster design indeed. I saw one of my course mates Agi's poster today on his blog, he also found the existing poster of the 'QUIET' design, and has done his own version, I changed mine more than he did but it still made me think back to a previous blog entry of mine - rehashed graphic design, yada yada. My hair is getting so long, I swear I'm going to start finding food in it and ALSO it snowed a lot today, icy pavements ladies and gents, watch your step.

Feeding back on the feedback

So today I presented my portfolio site, first up 'n all! Erm...you know it went ok, I know the site has a professional look and that is intended, seeing as it is a similar design to that of TukTuk's, and so I can appreciate the comments made that it didn't reflect 'me' as an individual that much apart from the 'who' page which has a big ass cut out image of my head. I think I got a lot of decent feedback, that my logo needs to be worked on is something I knew already and thats a simple job really. Other then that, create an actual homepage instead of the recent work crops I've got going on. Maybe an image set into the background similar to the 'who' page although I'm not a fan of having useless pages on portfolio sites, a welcome screen I find to be a prime example of that! Fair comments all round i thought, but I've enjoyed having a blog so far this year for the first time so incorporating that into my portfolio site right now feels right, it will make me connect with it more, instead of just doing it because I have to. The oven is fixed in the kitchen finally...but still no microwave. Such is life.

On another note

Just on another note implied by the post title I'm sure, web design is so short lived, you go to a website to get information you look at it once and think...yeh sweet, nice one. Given that it is a good site that is, but web design is never going to hit the creativity boundary as it is restricted to the capabilities of the user...which given your every day website is someone who can't spell definitely. I know on Tuesdays in IMD we are concentrating on web design and why not, yes it is important to learn about as everything is on the web but...I don't think it is worth while blogging my web site ideas, in fact, I don't really think about them that much. The best ideas I have won't work as only I would know how to interact with them, to put it another way, when I visit art galleries I often over hear polo neck wearers talk about 'what the artist is trying to say' and roughly 85% of the time I think the artist probably never thought that much into it. Recently my thinking was backed up by a prolonged study on Jackson Pollock. He quite frankly said he didn't stop painting until he realized his original intention. Now I bet if you had a painter like him today, painting live, I bet you would get some polo neck wearer saying, "I can see what he is going for there", but do you, do you really? Can anybody know how another person would interact with something they had created? Really? I think you'd be better off at home, eating butternut squash.

High roller pass

I've been thinking about my tenth poster for a while now, and often I think more in the bathroom...now we don't have a bath, so I mean the toilet because I can't think in the shower, but I also mean stood up in the toilet, not sat down. So, the image you see here is one I read practically every time I dispense fluid - sexy.

Anyway ever since I started this module I've been thinking about these posters, and my final poster I've decided will be based on this one, just because. And it's 'just because', because...I think this poster is poor graphic design anyway, plus I've modified it at some point when I was drunk, often I wish I was funnier when I'm drunk but still, I don't see any other efforts on this baby!

I'm going to hit the root of my personal interest in this propaganda topic, that people live their lives on facebook, and well, I will say now I know this can be done better.

Windows XP hills and my note pad

So I'm trying to get these final 2 posters done, and making an effort to not posterize them I figured a new take on the anti-facebook theme was needed. Focussing on the fact that people spend far too much time on the computer, on facebook, doing whatever. I started thinking about one of my early ideas about wonders of the world vs facebook. Suggesting that mobile facebook meant people were missing out on things right in front of them, but with this approach I'm being quite broad saying that you should get off your computer, get out there into the real world. I've read and seen lots of things over the last few years about kids spending too much time watching tv, playing computer games and what not. This unfortunately is not my photograph so...that sucks. Points for composition? Well...it's centralized text, whoop. I've got a hangover today and my eyes hurt, the worst kind of hangover, found a really nice bar down near the quayside though, can you believe our microwave is now broken? 1 poster left!

Let the world see your face

You know it worked out not so bad, I sat here for a while playing with the idea that facebook was a stupid name for a social networking site, and then thought no it isn't so ridiculous. Although I do think when things get said like, "Well I facebooked them earlier" just sounds...poor. My message here though, kind of getting away from the imagery suggesting there is a book in place of the face, {cough} and instead I think it works quite well. How inspirational! LET THE WORLD SEE YOUR FACE! Kind of a, get out there kidda! Sort of feel. Posterizzzzzation, yeah I don't care anymore, I like the effect. I will tell you what I do care about though! The oven is broken, so I can't shovel my usual 25 minute baked carbohydrate down my throat, instead i settled for microwavable pre-baked, oh yes, baked potatoes. A couple of things to note here, don't buy pre-baked microwavable potatoes, also do not purchase no drain tuna, it is just so salty I needed to drink in between mouthfuls, and thirdly don't be a selfish turd, eat all my cheese and not replace it...so Jon what did you have for tea? Potato topped with salt - no cheese. My dietitian will not be clapping!

Put another shrimp on the BAARRR B

This isn't a finished poster...no no, it is a progression, and I'm uploading it simply because I imported the facebook type and then thought...hmmm, I bet everybody would recognize that as being facebook without it being the full word, yes? no? I'm not sure about that but you can see where I am going with this, facebook....face covered by a book...yeh. Well as part of my research I wikipedia'd facebook origins and turns out it was founded by some well educated little fella gutted that his girlfriend had dumped him. He got drunk and progressed with the idea of facebook. Funny, when I get drunk I don't make multi-million dollar social networking sites, I tend to send inappropriate texts/e-mails and always manage to say the wrong thing. Something tells me I'm better off sober.

Look at you now

I was just reviewing the posters I have already done before moving on to another one, and I thought one of the first ones which was 'I joined facebook to be anti-social' was just, well, crap. Didn't have any depth, it was a centralized image with centralized text and had a bit of nothing about it. So I've swapped it around a bit and came up with another little slogan to go with my original posterized image. Now...I think this is a very slight improvement, I'm still not sure it is framed very well. Quite loose because of all the blank space out on the left. I've just remembered talking to somebody about a singer, and he said, "He couldn't sing to the song we were doing, he's a singer but he must be a screamer"...yeah

I did it! All on my own Mum!

So I actually did what I said I was going to do, many hours later and with much reluctance from my flat mate to let me use him in the image we have this! I think it has that modern urban feel to it, the lower type which is quite undefined gives that feel. I recently had a e-mail from Mike (course tutor) commenting on my over use of posterization. Well...yes and no, and this was actually going to be a photograph poster, and I'm sure that is terrible technical language but I'm sure you get it! But the subject insisted on it being edited to layers...so...I don't think it's so bad. The balance is wrong, the facebook is either wrong in white or too large, probably a grey tint and slightly smaller? Blog...blog...strongbow...bolg. FIN.

Argh, can't stop!

Despite my previous post, literally seconds after it wrote it, I went into my research folder and found a really cool war propaganda poster. I found it not in its original form, the text had already been edited by an American to make a anti homeland security poster. So I carried on my murdering of the original by replacing the text, taking out the american flag colouring on the arm and slipping in a cheeky facebook on his hat. But I am determined to practice what I preach so I'm thinking of making this poster myself, a photograph of a hand over somebody's mouth and then so hand rendered yellow strips, scanned in and placed over with a drop shadow? Maybe? I like the idea of shutting people up on facebook though, I mean even if you enjoyed facebook as a social device, I still don't need to know that you've woken up, that you're cold, you need the toilet and you've just picked your nose. Even worse people who put, "Can't trust any of my mates anymore, I should have known, my life is over" I mean I know Eastenders is exciting and everything but...it's not real love.

Pot Kettle, Kettle Pot

Thinking a fair way back now, a communication theory lecture on the 14th of october, we looked at a range of these Alexa Chung images. Basically taking classic war time propaganda images and shoving her skeleton in place of the original illustrations. 

Things like this annoy me about a lot of modern graphic design, seeming to lack depth and any real thought, and I expressed my views at the time to lecturer Liz , ha! alliteration. 

Without dwelling on the rant I had at her too much, I was just looking over my poster designs for the propaganda theme and hello - train spotting, god save the queen, and some sort of take on swiss design. Lacking originality springs to mind, lazy design seems to be a reoccurring theme in a lot of the work I see around. Not so much a criticism I suppose, its just with the tools that modern designers use, the lovely adobe suite being the powerhouse - we can't exactly expect to see wonderful illustrations, and heaven forbid anything 'new' which is actually original and not something slightly altered. On the topic of my anti-facebook theme though, I'm sat in one of the suites and I can see facebook on somebody's computer - tut tut