Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Specialisms/Skills

When I think about my skills and the things I might one day want to specialise in I'm pretty set in my ways. I know the things that I'm good at, but more importantly I know the things that I am not good at. I am also aware of the areas which I find more interesting and the areas I know I will never want to explore further. However well I know myself, I still found it difficult to think of five examples of my specialities. Below are the first five things that came into my head, meaning hopefully the most important five things to me.


Example 01: Colour
Colour is important to me, it keeps things light hearted and non serious. Below is a fantastic example of the use of bright colours and editorial design. The brochures which where created for Nottingham Trent University's graduate show combine a beautiful font choice with bold variations of the primary colours; red, yellow and blue. Colour can be used in so many ways; as the predominant colour like below or as a highlight when working with black and white or more muted tones. I personally think I prefer it when used as a highlight, that way it's not so overwhelming and more subtle. I also like the use of different colours rather than the ones shown below, pastels for example.




Example 02: Vector Imagery
Illustrator is my favourite programme and ever since I discovered how to work the pen tool I haven't looked back. Since making the discovery I have also developed a new found respect for artists who use it predominantly within their work. Siggi Eggertsson is an artist who uses clean, vectorised imagery and pastel colours to create incredibly complex and often times intricate pieces of design. Below is just one example of his work although it does display his many talents, talents that I one day hope to emulate. The only thing that I don't feel corresponds to my work is his tendency to create images that appear pixelated, this is something I am not interested in. As I said previously, now I know what goes in to working with Illustrator I can appreciate Siggi's work even more and the amount of time he spent on the piece below must be staggering. It is my responsibility to keep working on my skills in order to become as efficient on the programme as possible. 



Example 03: Type and Composition
Working with Graham in my type elective has taught me that I may have an inherent skill in editorial design and working with type layout. Even though I have found the tasks challenging I also consider the things that we have been taught to be things of general knowledge. For example using the right font choices and sizes, a simple grid and not making images too focal are all elements of editorial design that I knew before the sessions. Below is a small excerpt from an Italian magazine. I chose this particular article because I liked the subject matter and the colours, combined with the layout of the body copy, I found it a great piece of design that I could relate to. 



Example 04: Packaging
One area in particular that I feel passions towards is packaging. Whether it be extravagant and large scale or smaller and more basic I am interested in all areas. If I had to pick one specialism right now that I could only do for the rest of my career I'm pretty confident it would be packaging. If I could just combine it with pop culture then it would be perfect! I chose the example below because of a few reasons: the interesting print processes, the retro inspired visuals, the choice of stock and the intricate interior design. I also like the colour choices and the textures created using what I'm guessing is Illustrator. I love working with my hands; cutting, folding, gluing, they're all things that I enjoy and could happily continue to do until the day I die, and with inspiration coming from the example below I don't think I'll have any trouble continuing to design. 





Example 05: Hand Rendered Type
Mike Perry is an incredibly well known designer, most commonly known for his hand rendered type. Below is just one example of his efforts, one of my current favourites. From the simplistic combination of black strokes and bold blocks of colour to the use of negative space, it just seems to work incredibly well. As well as my interest in laying out computerised type and editorial design I also like to dabble in hand rendered type and more experimental design. I like how in the example below it manages to be both restrained and quite zany, an approach that I like to incorporate in my own work.

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