Major Project 1 - XL Recordings Influences

GIG POSTERS/BAND PHOTOGRAPHS

Bold

Bright

One main image

Red, black and white

Simple typography reflecting band's theme

Layered imagery

Dissertation Mania/Major Project 1 - XL Recordings

This month has been a blur of dissertation and I haven't managed to get much else done but it's finally done and handed in! Hurrah!

Now I can get on with my first brief of FMP which I'm very excited about.

I have chosen to work with a D&AD competition brief for the first half of this term. It is an XL Recordings project which gives a list of events related to the label to choose from, to base a poster design around.

I have selected "The White Stripes Play The Amazon Theatre, in Manaus, Brazil" as my event. The brief also highlights that the poster should be a celebration of the artist and so I have spent the past couple of weeks finding out everything there is to know about the band. As they are already one of my favourites, what I do know about them has lead me to select them for my project, as I think the raw, reductive style of music,  and simple colour scheme suit my working method.

The research I have conducted has brought me to a list of key themes to explore visually, including the number three, the use of only three instruments: guitar, drums and piano (rarely at the same time), Jack White's upholstery background, Red white and black colours, peppermint candy, the surroundings of the amazon, and the Amazon theatre.

I plan to spend the first few weeks purely drawing and building a body of work to allow myself to have ample amount of imagery when i begin to construct actual poster designs. Work to follow.

Lecture - Robert Urquhart

These are the notes from a lecture from last term that I thought I had lost. Luckily, I found them in the back of the sketchbook I have began using for my major project so here they are!

"Life is impossible to predict!"

• Education is vitally important.
• Meanderers and coasters, however, can also do well.

"We know that design organises, clarifies, cleans thing up, makes them nice, but if thats all that design accomplishes then how do we account for the Euphoric Bustling World…" 

-Martin Vtelsky

Brand yourself!
Education is often based on conformity, whereas creative life is often the opposite. It is important to understand both sides.

• Do more than what you are told to do.
• Try new things.
• Teach other people what you know.
• Everything is a draft.
• Pay attention to details.
• Ask stupid questions.
• Know whats going on.

Strategies/Strategist

• Good strategists have two good skills: critical thinking and writing, and if they are really good: pattern seeking to find a useful thread.
• Know what other people are working on in different fields.

PHONE ARTS COLLECTIVE

• make art on their mobile phones
• experiment with new media-use your phone as a studio 

PSYCHADELIC DIGITAL ART

• neons/zietgist/glitch

USER INTERFACES/CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY

"When a company hires you, in its most basic terms, they have a problem that needs solving."

Skills to learn to make you flexible

• user interface
• html - codeacademy.com
• css
• photoshop
• basic typography
• basic colour theory
• layout
• UX deliverables - wireframes/mockups/guidelines
• evaluation methods

Also you should be good at making friends. Show character, creativeness, knowledge and good presentation.

Go deeper with the subject instead of taking it at face value - BE INTERESTED, BE INTERESTING

D&AD - "Graduates should work for nothing"

Intern magazine - graduates should do this to show reaching out to industry and get noticed at the same time as it shows an admirable spirit.

www.b3ta.com