Graphic Design

 Having started my research upon the Big Five of South America, as well as hearing which continents my peers have chosen, I want to actually change which Big Five I am focusing on. As much as I like the animals from South America, I have realised that if I research the animals of Asia. Within this I specifically want to focus on the Island of Borneo, an island filled with it's own unique animals and eco-system as well as somewhere that I have personally been. This will allow me to focus the design to match the country even better, and also allows me to draw on my own experiences slightly. I am also going to use my own photos where I can for the animals, this is because I have seen and photographed many of them, however, due to the fact this was quite a few years ago before I learnt any photography skills - they're not the clearest of images. However, I should be able to fix this using photoshop and converting the format to camera raw to edit more of it, the main issue being the...

 The main aim for this project is to create a small advertising booklet for a travel agency about one of the Big Five of a continent.  What is the Big Five? The Big Five are the five main animals of an area, the ones that are the most interesting and bring in the most tourists. The exact set of animals differ slightly depending on the source, but are consistent in general. Usually, these animals are unique to the continent or at least, are more common there. The Continents to choose from are: -Africa -North America -South America -Asia -Australia / Oceania -Europe I'm going to go with South America, as these big five aren't as well known as most other ones, and I want to bring them to light. South America also has a lot of unique animals. Finding the Big Five Now that I've decided the continent I will be working on, I need to research and find out what this big five actually is.  To do this I've looked up the Big Five of South America and then compared a couple differen...

My Hero Overview & Reflection The My Hero project was defiantly something new to myself, having previously not used InDesign to create anything so there was a slight learning curve. Having the freedom to chose anyone or thing that could be considered a Hero gave a very large range of designs and themes that I could create, as each design should be tailored to the hero chosen.  It took a while to come up with a cohesive theme that worked, and I was grateful for the feedback from my peers explaining how, at the time, the designs didn't work together and that I needed to ensure the designs all looked like a set. Using InDesign for the first time in this project was very helpful, I enjoyed the process of learning as I went, as well as being able to ask advice from peers who had used it before when I reached something that I did not understand, such as the program not loading my assets in their full resolution. This simple project has allowed me to become confident with InDesign...

With each asset created for this I wanted them to be cohesive and all work well together, making the event unified and all fitting under one specific scheme and aesthetic to help it feel more professional. Final Business Card Design Final Front side of the souvenir  Mock up of back & Final Back I've included both the mock-up and final image to share with the client how their final product will look once the sticker is also stuck onto the back. Final Advert Design Final Instagram Advert This was created ready to go straight onto an Instagram story, which can then be shared to something like Facebook stories or Snapchat, all having the same format. Final Billboard Final Billboard [Printed] Created for a printed rather then digital billboard, it's saved as a high quality PDF with pre-prepared bleed on it. 

With how I left the advert for the review, I already knew that I did not like it and how it didn't match the souvenir which I wanted it to do to help marry the whole event together under one design theme.  I created this image in much the same way as I did for the souvenir, importing the reference photo into my drawing software, in this case I used my previous design for the ad as I liked the layout, just not quite the style of here. From there I ensured that it was at the correct scale, before then blocking in each colour segment and making tweaks and changes to Gonzo's outfit to also keep that more cohesive across the designs. Apart from the suit, which I chose a new colour for, to make it pop and resemble the sort of thing that Gonzo would use, I used the exact same colour palette as the souvenir.  I made sure, as I knew that I'd need to use a lot of layers that I organised the file to have folders for each specific area, and then each segment with in that go it's ow...

The first step when it has come to creating the Billboard was to research what sizes they come in, and where these specific sizes tend to be used, as the brief has no specific size stated. After looking through a couple of different sites I settled on one that's 12 sheets in a landscape format.  The size 12 sheets is 120 X 60 inches, though due to higher print quality and skills now, these can be printed in four sheets, but it is still referred to as 12 sheets. It will be in a landscape format so it can have a main feature art piece on one side, and then information on the other side of it.  One thing I am having to do, is design it at half scale, this is because my art program is struggling with such a large canvas, and I can then use another program to happily scale this up to be it's full size. Even at this point the program is rather laggy still, working at an incredibly large scale compared to what it is normally used for, however it is more usable then at the full scale....

 Following the feedback I got, I wanted to redesign the souvenir to make it feel more coherent. The main difference I made, alongside changing the art for the back side, was to change the orientation of the back. I wanted to make the QR code and Gonzo on the back more coherent, so using a photo of him, I created a pose of Gonzo sort of holding a box, where the QR code can go. This however, then required being in a portrait orientation; I don't think the different orientations will be a problem as they won't be displayed together and it's not that large so rotating it won't be too difficult. To colour this second piece, I am going to do it in the same style and using the same colours as the front, this colour palette I will then drag through to the other items to make them all cohesive together. On the sketch I worked out roughly where the QR code will go as well as made any notes for what I will want to edit as I create the final colours and render of the design. So the...

 So I asked my peers about Feedback for my work so far and advice on how I can edit them to make them more successful.  Feedback: My main piece of Feedback was about making the work more cohesive together, that I need to solidify the Gonzo that I'm going with, the personality and what type of Character he is going to be.  The painted piece I created seems to have been the most successful and gave off the most personality, especially with the background. However, the back didn't seem as cohesive to the design and far more generic, as if less thought had been put in when it came to designing the back. The spacing between the text and Gonzo on the Instagram Story ad also needs to be something that I keep in mind, so that it doesn't become overly cluttered, especially as it will be seen on a phone screen, up close. Improvements: With the Souvenir, I am going to theme it more around that top painting. I will see what it looks like with just a similar background to the top with...

Here's the design I initially came up with for the social media advert, but I wasn't really happy with it. The visible lines on the design are the rulers I created to help me know where the safe zone ends on the Instagram story. I  really liked the pose that Gonzo had in this photo, so really wanted to use it in the social media add, however trying to fit it and all of the text came out as rather cramped, which was commented on with the feedback.  The fonts and colours also weren't quite working out for me, making some of the words hard to stand out, and looking too clinical for the hero's personality. So, I made a second pass at the design... So here's the second pass for the design. I defiantly prefer it to the first one, Gonzo may be smaller but he does still stand out really nicely. There's also more space for the text and the secondary font is something I do really like. However, I am still unsure as to whether it works stylistically with the souvenir avail...

 The souvenir was a little difficult to design, considering the fact that it is such a small size and in most cases you just end up creating a business card, it was rather hard to work out what you should design, that isn't just a business card. It also wants to be something that the people in attendance would want to keep, and not just throw into the closest bin to them. I need to design both sides, I also want to add some bleed on to the card, to ensure that when it's printed and cut that it prints correctly and none of the information is falling off the edge. The exact level of bleed to be added differs exactly between printers, but I shall go with a 3mm bleed and ensure that all of my text or other important information is securely inside this area.  When booting up InDesign not only can I set it so that the file itself is in the size I need, 88x55mm, the size of an average business card, I can also set up the bleed in this boot up menu. This gives me the area just off of ...

I wanted to create a vector of Gonzo that can be safely used on any of the work, as a vector means it won't distort no matter what size I make it at. It was also a good way for me to simplify down Gonzo, to keep him at his recognisable self without having to worry about him not being clear at a distance or small size. To create it I referenced one of his official photos, and for the colour palette I created a secondary palette using Adobe Colour from the merchandise used of Gonzo, giving myself a consistent look to the official merch. I chose to use the light blue nose as a personal preference, it looking better to me compared to the purple that is also used sometimes. I did chose to not include the little thin tufts he has coming off of the back of his head, as it just ended up looking a little confusing and messy. I did all of the line art in one layer, before then locking in and importing my colour palette from the adobe library. I locked the line layer to ensure that I didn...

 Looking at the general audience and age-range for my 'My Hero' event I've decided to go with an Instagram format for this Social Media Ad.  This is because Instagram is a flourishing social media platform, and the stories can be posted just to an account or pushed out as an ad post that anyone looking at Instagram Stories can also see. It's also a very similar format to Facebook Stories and Snapchat posts, so could be easily cross posted on those two sites. Instagram can also turn these stories into advert posts with minimal edits, so it's a good format that can then be cross posted very simply with minimal design edits or graphical know-how, which is very useful. Instagram stories also allow you to attach links, so you just need to press, or swipe up on it and it will take you to the webpage of your choice, so can be a fast way to take the viewer to a more informational page. Allowing you to keep only the minimal information you need to inform them on the advert, ...

For the Souvenir especially, there were some specific assets that I really want to use for it, that either aren't available or not quite how I need them. Gonzo's signature was this main problem, and at first I thought that I might need to personally draw up my own version of this signature to use. This was mainly because I wanted one more along the lines of the hand-drawn signature that made for Gonzo when things are actually signed, in comparison to the 'newer' created on available from Disney. However, I discovered that Illustrator now has a new mode that allows me to Image trace, thus turning a png into a vector far easier then having to completely hand draw it myself. However, I did go in and edit how the image trace was creating itself, and then edited some details that I didn't quite like how it appeared, following the advice of a tutorial.  (Betts, 2019) I kept all of the file in the one main layer, as I won't need to go in after the fact to edit this vec...

 When coming up with elements to include for the hero it is important to keep the branding correct to the hero, so that it's in line with any other events that happen with the person, so that it seems official. Including a Signature So, not only do I need to ensure that Gonzo himself looks accurate and recognisable in all of the advertising and merchandising, but if I include his signature that also needs to be accurate. From my research I've found two main sources of a signature for Gonzo, one by Gonzo's original puppeteer and voice, Dave Goelz; as well as two from the official muppet wiki, another physical signed autograph as well as a digital recreation inspired by Dave Goelz's signature for Gonzo. Official Signatures: (Muppet Wiki, 2018) This signature from the wiki is stated to be based off of the signature's by Dave Goelz but is a lot simpler then the ones he draws, making it clearer with what it says compared to the signatures he gives out. It also makes it e...

With my target audience being such a wide range of fans it is a little difficult to pick a specific media type that will work for all the fans in unison. It want's to be fun enough and child enough to draw in the child audience, but also sensible enough that it won't alienate the older or child-less fans, and also let the parent's know that it's a real event to attend and not just one for children.  There's a fine line to balance to work for this combined audience, but then that's how the character works, being silly and fun enough that children love them but also there's enough character behind there that adults still love Gonzo. In general I will need to aim more towards the adults, as in the end it will be the parents (adults) that bring their children along and have to travel to the event. Advertising is good to draw children in, but they won't be able to make the final decision.  There's also the case that older fans can also be teenagers, havin...

It's something that will be taken away from the event and used to remember that day and what happened, so it needs to be designed in a way that will make people want to keep the item. It also has to remind them of the event, of the hero that they met.  The way I'm sort of picturing it is a cross between a tiny art print and a business card, with some sort of imagery on one side that could be displayed on a wall, or in a wallet. The other side would have something more technical on it, maybe something like a signature and a QR code that could send you to a video link or graphic. This could potentially be something that is customised per person, or there could be a limited run of it with different things linked. I need to ensure that it's not over complicated, as it being business card sized means that it will be rather small. The UK average size is about 85 X 55mm  (instantprint, 2019), although there is defiantly some wiggle room in the exact size depending on the business ...