February 2016 – Page 3 – Level 2 Design

February 19, 2016Brandon Barton

First Character Sketches

For my first character sketches I wanted to create some different types of animals, and illustrations I could later apply to a story, the very first 2 characters I made were a cobra and a bee. After thinking more about my story and what I wanted, these two sketches felt out of place and not applicable in the slightest to the story I wanted to tell. Regardless of the fact that Ithese characters wont be used I still feel as though what I’ve learnt with regards to the software will be useful for the later character illustrations.

February 17, 2016Brandon Barton

Workshop 5 – Presentation of Ideas

During week 5 we were asked to create a presentation showing our ideas thus far including research, inspirations and possible amendments. In this presentation I highlighted prior research which is already on my blog, this included: Typography, Colour Palettes, and Logo variations.

Presentations and presenting as a whole feels like a great life skill to learn, it allows you as a designer to reflect on work and possibly learn new skills. Presentations also offer the much needed life skill of pitching ideas and highlighting the development of a project to potential employers. As a designer just because you are content which a specific article of work, it doesn’t mean that your idea will be what a company is looking for, understanding this and using it to grow as a designer is therefore beneficial for both parties. Overall I feel as though presentations are not just useful in academia, but in industry comparatively.

Further amendments I would like to make upon receiving feedback would be: Developing my logo further (Explore different usage of typography, iconography), Show comparisons in prior iterations (What works better, and why), further develop output formats, and work on concept art.

Corporate Branding Presentation

February 13, 2016Brandon Barton

Logo Development (Final)

The first logo below was more of a direct translation towards my company name, compared to prior iterations it plays more with the idea of a literal campfire. Overall I feel as though this logo is weaker compared to previous versions, the design for the logs takes too much away from the central focus of the fire, it’s also quite distracting from the typeface too, which I feel works very well with the basic block colours of the fire.

new campfire

After evaluating what I disliked with the previous logo I decided I wanted to keep the fire and the typeface relatively similar, the type by itself felt very weak and looked out of place, however with even the small inclusion of the underlining the piece overall looks visually stronger.
As it currently stands this logo is my final piece I aim to use for the branding of the company. I feel as though it stays true to an imagined colour palette and general aesthetic I chose from the start also it feels visually appropriate to the IP I propose to create.

new campfire 2

February 10, 2016Brandon Barton

Environment Research – Creating Engaging Landscapes

In my previous research post I decided to explore characters and character development. In this post my aim is to evaluate the significance of landscapes and environment structure for games.

Depending on the game, environments can play a huge role. Environments create the world for players to become engaged with, poor landscape design and unrealistic choices artists make can drag the player from the world they want to become invested in, and so like many other elements to video game design, environments play a huge role in the game.

As mentioned in my previous post I compared the games The Last of Us and Skyrim, these two games are different in genre and aren’t a great point for comparison with regards to environment.

Skyrim is an open world adventure which pays close attention to the detail in geography to a real planet, despite the setting being fantasy it’s important to note how even considering the smallest details like the location of the imagined continent effects what you’d expect from the game.

Skyrim – Landscape Art

Understanding the imagined setting for my own world allows me to make informed decisions on significant details like: In game Day & night Cycle, Weather Patterns, Scenery, Architecture and even character design.

February 10, 2016Brandon Barton

Workshop 4 – Playing with Grids

During the workshop this week there was the optional task of experimenting with grids and becoming more familiar with Indesign.
Even though most of the skills I know already it was still nice to experiment and try new things.

I feel as though trying experimental layout design and becoming familiar with grids is a great skill to learn regardless of the assignment task. It allows for more informed design choices and can generally compliment whatever work you’re doing. An example is if strong illustration’s are placed poorly within a final document it can just have an overall impact on how good the illustrations look.

A link to the Pdf file is below:

grid layout