Research. – Level 2 Design

February 29, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Research for Picturebook

After researching some illustrators briefly, I decided to narrow my focus in finding an artist whose style I liked and wanted to inform my own work. After searching through examples on pinterest and google image search, I came across an Illustrator called Anita Jeram. Jeram is an illustrator of children’s books and some of her work focuses on simplistic flat colours with heavy hand-drawn characters, the style I found was something similar I wanted to replicate which I felt was achievable despite my own abilities within illustrating to be lacking.

Overall the illustrations seem simplistic, whilst maintaining an element of design which can be conveyed easily into telling a narrative for children, so I feel as though this is the most appropriate for the style I’m trying to achieve.

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 24, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Workshop 6 – Picture Book Research

During the workshop this week I was working on research for the picture book brief, the brief outline is to create 12 pages or more including illustrations and a typeface which compliments the style and aesthetic of the book. The aim of the picture book is to make a serious subject matter digestible and appropriate for children, these subject matters can be current in media and the news, or could cover other topics for children to make them understand serious issues from a young age like: Global Warming, Terrorism and Online Safety.

Overall I feel as though the picture book brief is a great way of working to a project with a more unique age group compared to other modules set prior.

The research I did this week was primarily just what I found and liked the look of on Pinterest.

The general aesthetics and feel of these books is something similar to what I’d like to mirror, I like the usage of both collage and flat, but vibrant colours to illustrate themes for children. It’s my personal belief that so long as the visual representations of the themes within the book are engaging and vibrant then anything can be made digestible for children regardless of the topic.

February 22, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

Module 2 – Semester B, Picture Book Brief

During the lecture this week (week 6) we were introduced to our new brief and given some examples of work that should inform our own product, the project is to create a picture book which tackles serious matters and explains it in an easy, effective way for children ages 6+

In the lecture we looked at a few examples of picture books which tackled serious problems but made them applicable to children. The works from authors and illustrators like: Neil Gaiman, Maurice Sendak, Davide Cali, Serge Bloch and David Mckee were all highlighted in how they illustrate or write in a way which makes complex issues digestible for a younger audience.

One thing I took away from this lecture is that just because a demographic may include only a young age group it doesn’t mean that the subject matter has to reflect that. Author Neil Gaiman made a valid point when talking to a critic about his reimagining of Hansel & Gretel, “I think if you are protected from dark things then you have no protection of, knowledge of, or understanding of dark things when they show up.” (BrainPickings, 2015). Overall I feel as though any subject matter can be explained to children and it doesn’t always need to be sugar coated.

From here I will further research the authors and illustrators that were referenced in the lecture, as well as using Pinterest to find inspirations and ideas to inform my own work.

Bibliography:

Neil Gaiman Reimagines Hansel & Gretel, With Stunning Illustrations by Italian Graphic Artist Lorenzo Mattotti. Available from:
https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/10/28/neil-gaiman-hansel-gretel-lorenzo-mattotti/ [22 February 2016].

February 10, 2016Brandon Barton No Comments

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.