Year 3 AR6704: December 2016

Tuesday 13 December 2016

Fashion Posters - NYFW & LFW

Screenshots of the two posters together. This was before the NYFW poster was completed.

Monday 12 December 2016

Research on the union jack and quick outcomes that I came up with from it. I quite liked the figures in the second image, the one on the right is more appealing, possibly because you can make out more of her face and some more of the flag detail.

Both are rather abstract in appearance though.

Among my research I also looked at the Queens hats and outfits. I wasn't aware of how vibrant some of her outfits were or how interesting the hats could be. I decided that combining a hat within a skyline could work and so instead if using my own shots of the shard (because they had glare from the windows and the quality wasn't the best either) I found an image online and used a British designers photograph of a hat they had designed just to see if the idea could work. I liked the outcome but I would have to use my own photographs and so I dismissed this idea as the images I had were just from my phone and most skyline shots I did have were taken from inside and thus had a reflective glare on the window.

I scanned in my original paper cut. I also laser cut a different skyline in case I wanted to use a different skyline instead (the aim was to use my original cutting though) When in London I found this print in two if the museum gift shops that we went inside. I liked the style of it and was curious to see if I could digitally produce something like it.

Before altering the layers to make them smooth

Added a different blending option o the skyline layers to try get a screen print styling.

Alternating around with colours. this one and the one above reminds me of the font used on a gin bottle when it has been embossed. I think of Gordon's gin but I was unable to find a photograph to show what I mean.

Went back to the original idea I had of the gin bottle stretched text. I visually found it appealing but I felt that it gave the viewer too much to look at and made the whole scene too busy.

The figure in this was used just to see if the idea of adding in a figure helped to give the whole poster scene a more fashion based feel. it did and made the whole thing more aesthetically pleasing however, I need to use my own image.

I used photographs taken from the London college trip that I had taken at one of the museums. Getting the correct colours was difficult as i was then applying a blending modifier to get the screen print effect so you could see the skyline behind.

after comparing the two posters together, i decided that the silhouette for London needed to change too so i used the same collection of my work and photoshopped the figure onto my scene.

I had originally gone to use the figure above in pink, however I made the mistake of trusting a computer to sleep so I could go back to editing after a shift at work. This led to me loosing about 2hours worth of editing. I then went with the purple figure and spliced part of the yellow one to get a large enough body.

Fashion Poster - New York

Laser cut skyline of New York that was scanned into the computer. This will be brought into photoshop to style it like the London skyline with layers.

First attempt at the New York themed Fashion poster. Skyline needs to take up the majority of the page. Will make it larger and add colours.

Two different colour variants for the NYFW poster. I used a silhouette figure from the internet just to see where the placement of my own could work. Filling the sky space with the lettering of the location was a test. It wasn't as effective as the London versions and so this idea was dismissed.

Trying to decide on the NYFW logo. Typeface from the official website was used. The inclusion of the sponsor was removed after alternating between colours, as it distracted the viewer from the main information and the LFW poster did not include the sponsor either. Often there are many sponsors too so that made it difficult to choose one for the poster.

Above shows some decisions made for choosing the colours. The LFW poster does not include any black in it and I wanted to avoid using black in the NYFW poster too. The sponsor was removed from the text.

Once happy with the silhouette colour I worked on the type colour. I found this poster harder to get the colours right because I had used shades taken from my sketchbook research of new York and its iconic buildings.

After a critique I went ahead and made some of teh suggested alterations, such as changing the figure in both posters to one that is more exaggerated and fashion orientated. In doignt his altereation I used some of previous work from the past, scanned them and then photoshopped the silhouettes onto the poster.

Below are four alterations to the poster. You can see that besides the colour changes and silhouette, I have increased the size and hieght of the skyline. To ensure the poster worked with London as a set I compared them together.

I chose the 3rd comparison because the colours are from the same palette although different shades. I feel that this allows them to work together but gives them enough difference so they are distinguishable from each other. The London poster gets a different silhouette too.

Fashion Poster Research

Research and Experimenting:

used key words that I associate with London, such as Union Jack, the Queen and London Fashion Week (as this is the subject matter for the poster) to get a brief background knowledge on fashion illustrations and fashion in general associated with the two chosen fashion weeks as I had no prior knowledge of them, or fashion.

Experimenting:

Wanted to use paper cutting as it not always a common practice used in the 21st century. often things are made with the aid of a laser cutter. Also wanted to see if my hand and wrist injury had improved to comfortably create something using a craft knife.

tried out different materials underneath the paper. The most visually appealing is the last image above with the white and grey faux fur. The other two images don't show enough of the texture of the material and the one on the top right is just a dull brown carpet so regardless I found that image less appealing and interesting.

Tried paper quilling too. This took up too much time and so this was abandoned. In hindsight now as I write this, I could have explored this idea further but at the time I was conscious of the time restraints and the fact I had to make two posters.

More Research:

Before I made a start on my paper quill I did some research into quilled lettering as well digital quilled pieces too.

http://www.allthingspaper.net/2011/10/quilled-card-and-digital-quilling.html - traditional and digital quilling.

http://www.allthingspaper.net/2011/09/digital-quilling.html - digitally quilled.

https://www.behance.net/sabeenu - paper quilled typography by Sabeena Karnik.

https://www.artyulia.co.uk/ - Yulia Brodskaya is paper quilling artist who I have admired for a few years now and has provided me with much of my inspiration for the craft of quilling.

https://www.pinterest.com/sazzaya/paper/ - my pinterest board that includes both paper cut and quilled work by others.

Skylines have had an appeal to me throughout my life, possibly due to my lack of experience in a city location or it could be because I often get drawn in by the skyline scenes that have limited detail and colour often within silhouettes.

Tried the skyline scene with the London fashion week paper cut. Didn't work out as well as I had hoped because the skyline needed to be further away from the text cut out. Due to the cheap flimsy paper and no one around at home to help hold the paper I struggled to try and achieve this myself. I didn't like the final out come that I did get. I wanted more detail of the skyline visible.

After this I hit a creative block. I then moved onto the book cover. It wasn't until after the London college trip that I went back to complete this poster brief.

I chose the poster brief because I feel like I avoid posters and I often struggle with choosing the correct typefaces and so I felt I should push myself to be out of my comfort zone.

Further Research:

Hat Designers:

http://www.vogue.co.uk/shows/autumn-winter-2015-ready-to-wear/ziad-ghanem/
http://www.localspotter.com/interviews/london/570-cult-couturier-ziad-ghanem#.WH-jN-aLSUn
- Ziad Ghanem, haute couture designer.

http://www.sofeminine.co.uk/fashion-accessories/hats-d23952.html - top 10 hat designers in the UK.

http://philiptreacy.co.uk/collection/aw16 & http://philiptreacy.co.uk/studio - Philip Treacys hat designs and bio link.

I used this image later on in the project to overly the shard into the hat shape.

Fashion Illustration:

http://jason-brooks.com/ - Primarily looked at the fashion, illustration and lifestyle sections of his portfolio. I found his work visually appealing because of his use with vector shapes and silhouettes.