Semester B – Level 2 Design

February 26, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Picturebook Development Plan

During the workshop of week 6 the group was given a new brief simply called “Picturebook Brief” the brief requires us to create a minimum of 8 pages regarding themes which children may find hard to deal with, the idea behind this is to get us to think about how we can deal with diffcult subject matter, and make it applicable through illustration and Typography making the topic more digestible for children.

Before setting out and creating the brief there was an obvious learning curve of what’s expected from us, and how we can tackle this. There was obviously an emphasis on some components which at first seemed somewhat commonplace and easy to overlook, however paying close attention to what’s expected, I now know that there should be a lot of attention paid to Typography and Colour, focusing on these two elements gives the book more visual coherence and overall makes the end product a lot better.
During the early stages of the brief I will focus on colour palettes and typography research, this should help inform the end product and make it a lot more professional. One final element I will look at will be the ability to rework and change ideas, a lot of the time designers think what they’re doing is final and good enough to submit as an end product, this is something I want to avoid unless I’m 100% certain of my own ideas.

Development Plan

The development plan for this brief will detail a time schedule of all the elements I’m working towards and when I want them completed by. I feel as though time plans are a good tool to use and stick to so as you understand how to spend on each component.

Week 6 – Research/Project Planning Stage

Name for the PictureBook
Research on inspirations (Artists, Authors)
Look at examples I want to influence my work on
Progression with the Design/Overall Branding

Week 7 & 8 – Concept art and further ideas development

In-depth picturebook research (What conventions do I follow, examples of how to compose a narrative for kids, how to make the end product look/feel thematically appropriate? )
Rough sketches (Concept art, Character art)
Experiment with Typography (how does it look/feel with supporting illustrations)

Week 9- Further Illustration Exploration

Finalised Title (Reach a point where I know what I can improve for the cover/title)
Typography evaluation, new choices from old, variations and how well it works
Further Character concept art, Settings for the book, Environments Etc.
Upload Sketches – Evaluate Likes/Dislikes
Further develop environments, showcase potential settings for the character

Week 10 & 11 -(Easter) Final Tweaks

Finalised Illustrations (What character am I using? What Environments/Themes?)
Room for improvements (Are the sketches representing of the book enough positively? Room for tweaks?)
Finalised Colour Palettes

Week 10 onwards – Polishing final output

Have a finalised booklet 8/10 pages
Character development finalised uploaded to blog separately
Colour Palette and supporting work uploaded to blog
create final Pdf for the semester, uploading both projects.

Research & Source Material

https://uk.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=illustration&rs=typed&0=illustration%7Ctyped

February 13, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

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 1, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Importance of Typography in branding

The most noticeable feature of these logos is that neither heavily rely on the imagery rather they put focus on the typographic design itself. This is possibly due to the fact that lesser know indie companies need to make their name known hence the image isn’t centralised as much as the actual typography used to represent the brand. Another important aspect to acknowledge is the usage of basic block colours and why this is an essential part in company branding. The general idea behind keeping a logo simplistic has a multitude of reasons, these tend to be: Clarity of message, Applicability across different forms of media, Expense and how Explicable it is. Understanding these key components allows for a brand to be created and represented in a quick, memorable manner.

Taking this research into account I will make further amendments to my logo’s and experiment with different ideas focusing around typography and how centric it is as a part of indie branding.

January 23, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Research for Entropia

When I set my own brief I knew the direction I wanted to take with it from the start, a few inspirations and current video games which have inspired the style I want to take with my own imagined IP are:

Firewatch, Minecraft, The Long Dark and The Last of Us.

Within recent years the video games I’ve found myself playing has gone down the path of Survival and themes which deal with human struggles within a post apocalyptic world. Games like The Last of Us don’t just highlight the brutality of the world, a lot of juxtaposition is given between the horror/gore and the natural beauty of a world being reclaimed by nature, this is the element I want to focus on within my concept art and the branding of my own IP

The title for my game is Entropia, I feel as though this name highlights the theme and general story I want to tell, a few examples of the games mentioned prior are below, and should give an indication towards the theme’s I want to develop for my own game.

January 20, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Project Proposal (Design Workshop Semester B)

For design Semester B my proposal is a new video games company who have signed a partnership to Sony and the exclusive platform of PS4. This new games company will need a brand, and a concept of the IP they’re going to create.

For the brand I will produce a corporate branding package, which will include:

The Company’s Name, Documentation and examples of the usage of their Logo on official products/merchandise

As for the game, I will produce concept art, posters, and potentially a website. For concept art I will focus on the environment, items, and the main protagonist. In order to be thorough and execute this brief correctly I feel as though I will need a consistent flow of ideas, development and variations.

Overall I feel as though this brief will be challenging, but I aim to make it manageable through allotted time on different sections of my work. the first area I will work on is the branding of the company, I will look at existing companies and decide on the direction I want to take with it after research.

The outcomes for this brief are:

Concept Art and documentation of sketches for my IP
A mock up Website
Corporate branding (Official Documentation, Merchandise, General office items)
A finalised A4 Poster from the promotion of my game