GROUP BLOG WORK// Leeds Music Venues

 As a student city there are many, many venues for all sorts of music tastes. In the first few weeks of Uni students a re bombarded non-stop with leaflets. Clubs all trying to make the most impressive designed poster to attract the masses, or sometimes (no-bones) a niche crowd. When there is so much information about these events going out designers have to really step up and create something that really, really stands out...

GROUP BLOG WORK// Alcohol Packaging

 Here are some photos I took of the design on the front of bottles and crates of alcohol. Designers have to think about the target audience, what sort of people will drink what sort of beverage, what the audience expects the packaging to look like also for example.

Crates of San Miguel are coloured a deep golden to reflect the perceived quality of the beer and the warmth of its taste. A Blackletter type and old trade ship suggests years of experience and hits towards times of the Spanish empire. A fake condensed water is printed on the top to represent a cold beer on a hot day.

Erdinger is a German beer so a Germanic/ Roman font is used. Erdinger is suppose to be an above average beer so the label design is busy with text and image of a 'turn of the century' 1900's feel. It is also a wheat beer so this is symbolised many times on the bottle.

Strongbow and Fosters are low end beverages. However they are still both from major breweries so they get good designs. The fosters 'F' brands the beer almost like a sportswear brand, which is rare for alcohol. The cans are instantly recognisable as a result. Once again fosters use this warm golden yellow to reflect the colour of a pint on a sunny day.

Russian Standard and Smirnoff, both try to conjure images of their Russian origins. Pre-revolution Russia to be precise, with crowns, domes, gold foiling, etc. Russian Standard even prints its name in Russian to force the point of quality and originality. 

When people look for cheap items they are drawn to anti-design. Despite the ability of Tescos to hire designers to make a beautiful label they slap on this. Because people will be looking for the label, not the price!

GROUP BLOG WORK// Awareness of ethical issues

On of our five topics to research was awareness of ethical issues. I have been doing some research on the massive amount of poster design that was done in a response to the start of the war in Iraq. These posters were mainly designed quickly and by amateurs for the worldwide protests hat were occurring at the time. Most focus on the evilness of stupidity of George Bush and Tony Blair or the massive human cost of war. The posters all aim at raising awareness of the war, providing an opposite story from the new corporations perspective at the time.

WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN// Different Scale (5/5)

Here are some examples of Graphic Design at different scales from small to large;

-Microchip

-Book Cover

-Posters

-Train/ Blimp

-Field

WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN?// Different Media (4/5)

Here are some examples of Graphic Design which has produced or view in different Media:

-Screen Prints. Screen Printing allows designers to mix their own colours on a pallet much like a painter before screen printing very technical images. It also opens up a new range of textures and an individual, handmade feel to every poster that is produced. The process usually results in a limited colour pallet however as a result the designer can often be forced in finding more interesting ways to communicate using composition and layout instead. Screen prints are often designed on a computer or hand drawn and cutout.

-Digital. Any screen based graphics. Probably now the most popular way of producing and viewing graphic design. With a wide range of reproducible colours and interactive, moving image, 3d, ect, digital design has been the biggest revolution in graphics ever.

-Hand Drawn Graphics. Creating Design purely by hand drawn line is not very common, unless you are in a development stage of a brief. However hand draw graphics are increasingly popular and will often be reproduced many times by screen print or digital printing methods. Hand drawn design usually has a friendly feel to it and it is used by many to connect to an audience on a personal level, by charities for example. Or by designers to raise awareness of there blogs in a positive rather than the cold light of the digital.

-Clean Advertising. Started as reverse graffiti as a way for graffiti artists to tag streets without actually breaking any laws whatsoever. By cleaning grime off of urban spaces the negative space of a stencil creates the 'artwork'. Recently the advertising sector has become interested in this method because it says 'modern, clean, environmental, cool' and has undertones of illegal street art also.

-Nature. Using the natural world as a canvas has seen a resurrection in recent years, as it represents an environmentally friendly future which is a popular theme for commercial success due to the arguments of environmentalism.

                                                

WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN?// Different Message (3/5)

Here are some examples of Graphic Design trying to convey different messages;

-Political message. This can be design for a political party or it could carry an anarchistic message. Here the conservative party tries to look environmentally friendly and fresh, the labour party tries to look patriotically English and socialist.

-A message of charity. Charity organisations have always had to have clear logos so that they can be instantly recognisable, and that their message is clear and concise. Here the Sense Logo is two hands, holding to represent support and help, also different colours to represent diversity and open mindedness, they also could be bending into position to show the use of sign language used as this is a charity to help the deafblind. Finally the thumbs curve into an 'S' for sense.

-To Advertise. Graphic design for advertisement is very important in today's world. Everywhere people look they are bombarded with Advertisements for all different types of consumer products. As a result designers have to come up with increasingly diverse and interesting ways to advertise products to the market.

-Instructions. Instructions are important for us. They pretty much come with anything you buy. How to build, cook, prepare something. Designers have to create interesting and clear ways to help people understand these instructions.

-Humour. One message of graphic design can be humour, although this humour is usually designed to promote something else. Comedy in graphic design also appears to make people length or to get people talking about current issues. Here is a terrible joke;