It happened on this year... 1979

I want to focus this brief on Britain 1979 and the events that took place and shaped Britain and caused many issues throughout the country.

I've been looking at political events, music and culture, inventions and fashion.

 General brainstorm of events and ideas of what could be done with the brief and which direction I could go with. I could create a timeline of the year and include many events but I think I want to focus on something which has a lot of depth and maybe goes beyond the specific year and make this the focus rather than the year.

 One main thing that interests me is Margaret Thathcer as Prime Miniser, appointed as Prime Minister in 1979, her time as leader lasted until 1990 so this would go beyond the specified 1979 year but has a lot of depth to it and could make a substantial publication and deliverables.

I've also been looking at possible deliverables including a range of publications, a range of prints to go with this, a calendar style publication, promotion for the publication, a calendar style poster or promotion.

Other areas I have been looking at are music and post punk which came about towards the end of the 70's after punk. I  would really like to explore this but think it may overlap too much with my other brief on the reggaeexhibtion as I want to look into ska with this.

Initial layout ideas

As a starting point, I have based my layouts on using the block and grid style used on Steven Holl's website and using a full bleed image of the students work behind this, hopefully the box wont take too much attention away from the image but there is a description about each student's practice and the inspirations to be included.

I've used a full bleed image for the layouts above to focus on the work where as the design below has more white space but still uses the blocks to contain copy and give it a kind of structured look.

Page count

We got given the emailed information about the Interior Design course off Steve and from this worked out a suitable page count which was a multiple of twelve. Planning it around all students on the course getting back to us we came up with giving everyone a double page spread, which is 17x2=34 as well as course content and basing it on a mulitple of twelve we've come up wtih 48 pages to fit in all that we want for the time being.

We went through last years book to see if there were any obvious things we needed which we hadn't included and the order they have done it. We are thinking to make it flow like a journey on the cours to include a summary of the course, then an overview of level 4, then level 5 then 6 then go into each individual student.

This is a quick rough idea of the page layout and how the pages would flow.

Ben Kelly

 Steve mentioned he liked the Ben Kelly orange used here, I think orange could be a good colour choice with black and white or grey but possible a variation of this, we'll have to experiment with pantones to come up with something suitable.

In the meeting today we were also discussing the small black dots used on the background and possibly subtly incorporating these in the book possibly on inside pages which are blank or similar.

Year book inspiration

Steven Holl

An American architect and watercolorist, perhaps best known for the 1998 Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum in Helsinki, Finland, the 2003 Simmons Hall at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the celebrated 2007 Bloch Building addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, and the praised 2009 Linked Hybrid mixed-use complex in Beijing, China.

 This is the design on his website, I really like the blocks and visible grid with uneven columns and rows and the highlighted blocks which is selected. I think we could take this style and idea of boxes and blocks and experiement with this in the layout.

 I like how the box is overlayed on top of an image but is because it is white it is quite subtle and the image is still visible.

A lot of the stuff I have looked at by Steven Holl seem to be blocks and squares/cubes and I think this could be a nice incormporation into the design for the eyarbook.

Variations of letters

I've took some of the ideas I had drawn previously and digitalised them, I have based the angle on the letter A and taken this idea through to other angles which are the same like in the M but don't want to overdo it and use it too often.

I've experimented a bit with repeating some of the shapes to create patterns and imagery which could possibly be used, taking the angle of the A and enlarging it and repeating it.  I like the subtilty of the angles but think it could be explored further.

With this initial design I have taken the angle from the A and created a pattern from this placing the letterforms ontop this as an experimentation for a visual for Anna.

Initial typeface

 

I tried out variations of styles of using angles and blocks within the name Anna and initials AM. A lot of them look quite playful and maybe and possibly steer too far away from the kind of image I want to portray for Anna.

I then tried out using just lines to create the letterforms, some more abstract than others and actually just looking like blocks and possibly not legible as actual letters. I think  I'd rather stick to actually altering a working typeface.

So I started to work with century gothic bold as a starting point to work from with altering the letter forms because of its simpllistic sans serif forms and angles and thickness. It isn't too bold that it looks childish and rounded and not too thin that it is unnoticable and wouldn't stand out.

1979! Margaret Thatcher

IMAGE OF MARGARE THATCHER

THE IRON LADY

Dubbed the "Iron Lady" for her firm opposition to the Soviet Union, she implemented a number of conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.

the first woman to head a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became prime minister after winning the 1979 general election.

Thatcher Thatcher, Milk Snatcher

Prime Minister (1979–1990)

responsible for: eradicating socialism; supporting capitalism; cutting income tax for very high earners from 83% to 40%; privatising state industries and state housing; pushing for Victorian family values; national recession; endless inner-city riots; bringing down the mining industry. Oh, and pitching our men into a bloody and pointless war just so she could win a second term.

 Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a decisive and divisive figure, loved and hated in equal measure. Is the complex character behind the Iron Lady facade obscured behind reminiscences fond and hostile

  Opinion in the country was sharply divided, of course, hence her victory in three general elections. 

"Whether we supported or opposed her during her years in power, Margaret Thatcher's legacy continues to shape the society in which we live today”

 

Initial type ideas

Since I've been looking at blocks and angles I think the most suitalbe type face would be a heavy/bold block type to represent this through lettering.

I've started to draw down some ideas of how I can manipulate letters and make the name represent blocks/panelling/angles but not be too image based or over the top.

I started with changing the A and other angled letters in the name like N and M.

 I looked at using the same angle within the A and using this with similar angles used in Anna's full name and making this the focus of it.

Existing patterns etc

I found these few promotional things that I liked and thought the style was apporopriate to what I want the style to be like, sans serif, bold typefaces, black and white, repeated patterns, lines etc.

I really like the use of line and think this could fit in well with the idea of angles and manipulating the lines to create the letters of Anna's name.

Angles and blocks

I'm looking into angles and blocks as inspiration for letter forms to create the logo and identity for the fashion branding. I don't plan on creating a full typeface but possibly altering existing letters subtly to represent this idea.

I can see how letters could be based around these kind of shapes and alter parts of them to create these angles.

Identity

 Layered swing tickets, this is something Anna mentioned she liked, she wants some use of accetate in her swing tickets. I like the layering idea it fits in with her style of work I would just have to experiment with stock etc.

 I like the use of blocks I want to design something similar with just black and white with blocks of black, possible taking something from her name as a continued pattern or something like that.

Graphic Design for fashion

 I've looked at this work because I think this kind of style, monochrome, and solid block sans serif type would suit Ann's branding. I really like the silver used for the Lacoste packaging with the black over the top. It's very simplistic but very stylish, the colours and type speak for themselves.

 Again, with this stock it has a kind of metal effect which I get the feel or urban from which I need to represent in the branding.

Film Festival

I decided that A2 would be a much more suitable size for an event like this to make more of an impact so I said this to Gabrielle and she was happy about that.

I started to play around with ideas, she said she wanted it to be quite simple but I wanted to have a concept behind the idea not just a design.


I first of all played with the idea of black and white to represent the clapper board used in filming etc but didn't want to use the shape or form of it so it wasn't too obvious. I then remembered that Gabriielle wanted colour for impact so tried a orange with the black and white but it looked like an animal pattern.

I then played around with more ideas and thought about using the idea of pixels as film is a screen based discipline. With this I could include lots of colour and represent the theme subtly.

This is my design which I sent Gabrielle, I changed the text around lots and am still not happy with it but if she likes the concept I can change it.

If she doesn't want to go with my design I still want to take the brief further and possibly create tickets, invitations, maybe a film guide etc to get more out of it and make it a bigger brief.

Film Festival

We recieved an email from Fred with the opportunity to design a poster to advertise a film festival being put on by third year students at the Uni.

I really liked the sound of the brief as I want to produce more arts and culture work and try and expand on it to make it more of a brief.

 I emailed my interest to Gabrielle to find out some more informtation, she sent what she's after and was very open to ideas.

Sarah and I thought we may as well work on it together if we both want to do it because we work similar anyway. but unfortunately down to time etc we didn't work on it togehter.