Saturday, October 31, 2009

Australian Idol Catalogue

This is a continuation of the 'Call your dad' poster that advertised the Australian Nobel prize Laureates exhibition. This diary is intended to be bought from the souvenir shop after the exhibition so visitors can have something to take home with them.

Each Australian Laureate had very little in common, aside from being Australian. I wanted a way of linking them all in the most relevant way possible. A diary disguised as a hard cover novel seemed most appropriate, it's something that all genuis' can associate with, a place to scribble their ideas.


The booklet was ring bound at Officeworks, an underestimated place for designers, as long as you're there to instruct the people doing your job, it's completely fine. Conveniently there are twelve Australian Nobel Prize Laureates, so I illustrated one for every month and added a piece of biographical information behind each one.


I think I've mentioned it before but I chose to study Australian Laureates simply becuase I had no idea about them. After reading up on them, theyr'e some of the most fascinating yet disliked people I've read about.


Every character was drawn in pastel, this was my first time using it too, I gained inspiration from Pixar concept art, especially artist Lou Romano who worked on Ratatouille, Wall E and UP (I'm sure there's more, check him out). Each winner has some amazing facial traits which makes them a pleasure to draw, but the three shown here are my close favourites.


Not every laureate is Australian born which makes you wander what actually constitutes being Australian. Although we have a funny way of claiming somebody successful as one of our own.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Stationary Design


This is a stationary project I did for a graphic design studio assignment. The brief was to create a logo, envelope, letterhead, business card, an additional piece of stationary and a folder to keep it all in. The client is the eccentric owner of the 'Museum of Modern Oddities' (momo) who exhibits colour. This gave me a prime excuse to use the laser cutter, much to the head of Art and Design's dislike (it's a noisy machine and students have to accompanied by staff to use it). I initially used a thick piece of box card for the folder but there was no chance it'd fold the amount of times I needed it to. So I ended up with some beautiful 300gsm card which masked the envelope underneath.


The Envolope doubles as a letterhead when it opens. The photo on the front is of the butcher on Lygon Street, there's some beautiful yellowy light that shines through the stained glass patterns, which worked great for me. Throughout the assignment, I adapted these four shapes that represented the 4 colours of the CMYK (Cyan, yellow, magenta and key, usually black) colour makeup. This is because they are the base colours for all printing, so they almost work as a blank canvas to adapted to any exhibition at this museum.


The business card was definitely a challenge, probably because I put more work into it than I needed to. Initially, I made a card that opened up to present a pop-up version of the logo, made completely from acetate. It ended up messy, unbalanced and broken. With this one, I carried the idea of colours overlapping one another to create different effects. moreover, the two elements, board and acetate, depend on one another to create the final product, neither one can work without the other. The front of this card features the client's face (my dad) in highlights (on the card) and shadows (on the acetate) which give a floating effect.


The additional piece of stationary is an invite to the opening to the exhibition. I kept it very minimal and simple. The folds close and create a triangle. On each face, the colours of the logo appear individually until the viewer fully reveals the whole piece. The type is minimal so the detail of the folds can be further appreciated.


This is one of my favorite projects from this semester, I had a lot of fun with it and the end result proved very rewarding.

By the way, I submitted the 'Call your dad' poster but it still needs improvements on the type, I'll post that up with more details when I get it done.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Inspiration


One of the most amazing music inspired animations I've seen. It's an ad for the Zurch Chamber Orchestra. It features sheet music that then becomes a rollercoaster ride, very engaging.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Inspiration


Harper’s Bazaar August 007 ~ “The Simpsons go to Paris with Linda Evangelista” “Models”: The Simpsons, Linda Evangelista, and various designers with Illustrations by Julius Preite. Marge lets down her hair for Versace. Lisa gives up her pearls for Alber Elbaz. Homer dresses as Karl Lagerfeld. Selma & Patty in Viktor & Rolf. Maggie rides around in Jean Paul Gaultier’s Birkin Bag. Quite possibly the most incredible fashion spread i’ve seen (ok maybe tied with the Marie Antoinette Vogue spread?).

I think the Simpsons have developed an amazing sense of fun vs fashion and that yellow skin always gets me. Click here to see the rest of the images, they're amazing.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Call Your Dad

Here we have a uni/self set brief. For a uni assignment, we were required to create a double sided poster advertising an exhibition for an unsung Australian icon. I chose a father/son duo from Adelaide named Henry William and Henry Lawrence Bragg. I had no idea who these men were which created more interest. From research I discovered these two were the founders of x-ray crystalography. Basically this occurs when an x-ray beam shines through a crystal and light bounces in several directions to show the density of crystal molecules. Check out this animation from my number one resource, Wikipedia. Oh sweet reliability

What I found most interesting was the x-ray beam, when magnified, looks like a coil. By linking family members with coils, I thought of phone cords.


The self assigned component of this brief came from a poster competition called Positive Posters. The objective is the create a poster with a positive message about change, hence my phrase 'Call your Dad'.


We often underestimate how much a simple gesture can make a big difference. By calling your dad, if only to say hi, could change a mediocre day to something worth smiling about. Moreover, embracing that change makes you feel better about yourself. The Seb Lester inspired calligraphic line work illustrates the ease of connecting with someone in an instant and the amount of glowing joy it creates. So call someone you haven't spoken to in a while, it'll brighten both your days.