My new online portfolio.

View my new online portfolio ...

www.behance.net/emma_mayman

Examples of my work from my online portfolio -

' Over the top health & safety! '

Visit Birmingham - Summer campaign identity logo

Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons - Interactive stand in shop.

The Olympic Cauldron.

The V&A Exhibition - Thomas Hetherwick


The Olympic Cauldron! - a truly beautiful design.

Olympic Petal.

Adverts.

Advert's from a magazine that just caught my eye...

Peter Callesen

Peter Callesen is a Danish artist, who transforms 2D sheets of the plain paper, usually white into highly complex and intricate 3D installations. He has a great understanding of the relationship between how the flat 2D image, along with the 3D image will lie together to create an overall impact and meaning. Each creation is made from only a single piece of paper, where he creates the 3D objects from only the paper which has been removed for the 2D image. The flat negative and positive spaces have a significant importance for the overall impact of his creations for example; they often act as the shadows of the objects or they even highlight the contrast between the 3D object and the flat paper it evolved from.

The message which is portrayed in most of his creations is a sense of tragedy and desperation from the will of wanting to escape; whether it be birds which are half stuck down and half cut away or people who still attached to the paper and trying to run away from a fire.

Callesen is also highly influenced by his surroundings and nature where he has created flowers, trees, birds and even waterfalls. The thin nature of paper therefore compliments this subject with it being delicate and frail and so his creations therefore give a stronger impact rather than if they were created with a denser material.

Distant Wish

Callesen uses this minimalistic media as he feels “…it the most common and consumed media for carrying information today…” “… and this is why we rarely notice the actual materiality of the A4 paper.” Therefore by taking this media back to its original blank form by removing the information, he has found “…a material that we can all relate to.” ^[1]  The fact paper is a neutral colour also allows him to create a wide spectrum of subjects without the material interfering and contradicting the message.

 His installations range from a framed A4 size of paper, to a staggering life size paper structure filling a whole room. Callesen creates these 3D installations with a fine scalpel and dentist tools to carefully cut out his immaculately detailed illustrations, followed by folding and gluing them together.

I find that the white paper gives his creations the illusion that the structures are in the process of coming to life, along with the fragility of the paper it feels that the structure is slowly evolving from its original flat form. This then creates movement and a sense that we the viewer can decide how it has developed from that one form to the other. Some of the movements are also thought provoking as we do not know how the situations occurred for example; the people running away from the fire, and so we are free to imagine our own interpretation.

Running Fire II

My most recent piece of work which has been influenced by Peter Callesen’s creations, is an installation from my Childline project. The installation is a billboard, which shows a puppet trying to escape. The puppet represents an abused child, and the hand holding the puppet is the abuser and when the strings, and the puppet are cut away from the flat page and start to break free from being abused the puppet starts to become three dimensional as it comes off the page.

[1] http://www.petercallesen.com/about, (accessed – 10/03/12)

The creative revolution in advertising

Over the years advertisements have increasingly developed, with the designs becoming more and more sophisticated.

Before the creative revolution their used to be a unified layout design for print advertisements, as designers knew it was a well tested approach to attract the attention of the viewing public. Their were also far more restrictions in the design process, such as their was a higher awareness of using the correct use of language in order to not offend anyone.

The image would also have as little white space as possible due to the cost of an image would be the same regardless of how much or little content it was comprised of. Therefore the company would want a full image to get their moneys worth. Even if the designer felt that the composition would have had more impact with less content by creating a more balanced image, the head of the company would have the final say.

 The standard layout for a print ad was a squared up image, with a heading describing exactly what was shown in the image. It would also have three columns of text underneath the heading and a large logo at the bottom, which is shown in the following advertisement. It shows the typical American dream car, which was in fact was a ‘dream’ as only a small majority of Americans could actually afford it.

However with the influence of pioneering graphic designers this unified approach of design for advertising soon developed and broke away from the old regimented restrictions and designers started taking risks with their designs.

One key graphic designer from the creative revolution was William Bernback, who introduced the idea of the concept into advertising communication. Bernback also developed the art director and copywriter team, due to designers and writers use to have to work separately, where designers were called commercial artists by joining these two teams together allowed for a far more creative and efficient process.
In 1949 William Bernback, Ned Doyle and Mac Dane co founded the advertising agency; Doyle Dane Bernback, in which was responsible for the famous revolutionary Volkswagen advertising campaign.


This advertisement shows how ‘DDB’ changed the approach of advertising from the American dream of a huge expensive car, to a more realistic compact car. Their approach was to not state the obvious, for example the title ‘Lemon’; is not expected and it is not directly describing the image, but makes the viewer read the piece of text underneath to get the complete meaning.

 Even today, the same approach of advertising is still being used for Volkswagen, for example the following image is recent Volkswagen campaign where it highlights the fact it is a reliable car, however it is not stating the obvious.

Simple but different

It has become increasingly difficult to get a piece of print advertisement noticed, as we are constantly bombarded with information and images in which are all competing against each other for our attention. Therefore the combination of bold colours, multiple images, large pieces of text with exclamation marks and arrows will not work in your favour, but rather work against you as it becomes too complicated and confusing.

 Leonardo da Vinci, “…simplicity is the ultimate sophistication…” By simplifying a piece of text or an image to only show the most meaningful parts and removing the unnecessary obvious information, which can communicate a far greater impact. To create a piece of advertisement into a great simplistic form, involves a lot of clever thinking behind it to make sure it is not dull but unexpected simple, for example by putting a twist to the usual outcome.

 Juan Cabral is an Argentinean art director who shows how deeply researching a subject, can lead to uncovering a different insight rather than the obvious connections, which can be highly predictable and so making the advertisement boring. This idea can either be really simple or simplified, making the advertisement easy to follow but still keeping it meaningful and so memorable. One example of Cabral’s advertisements is for Sony Bravia, where the quality of colour was the unique selling point. He discovered an interesting fact that a television was made up of millions of tiny balls to create the colour image. Cabral therefore used this simple idea of having millions of brightly coloured balls falling down a street and so creating an intense surge of colour.

Sony Bravio Television Advertisment

Logos are another example of where the more simplistic you make it the better, due to the fact it is often the first glimpse into the company and therefore it should give an instant, clear message. Often when trying to put everything that the company has to offer into a logo can cause it to become over complicated. This then may lead people to misinterpret the message and so causing them to go else where and possibly to other competition. After completing a recent project which involved designing a logo for ‘Visit Birmingham’, allowed me to realise the importance of keeping logos as simple as possible. This is due to the fact that they need to be adaptable on any type of medium, from the largest scale such as a billboard to the opposite end of the scale such as business card.

 One artist, whose work I find inspirational for various reasons is Peter Callesen, one of those reasons is the fact that he combines one of the most simplistic mediums; white paper and the simple technique of cutting and folding. However with this minimalistic approach Callesen creates the most complex and meticulously intricate pieces of artwork all from a single piece of paper, even for his large scale installations.

Peter Callesen - White Diary

Information Design

When designing a piece of information you must keep it clear and simple to read, by only having the most important information which you want to communicate to the viewer. Due to the fact that our pace of life has become increasingly fast, this means we do not have enough time to stop and read a long piece of text and therefore information needs to be straight to the point to create an instant message.

 Information design comes in a variety of different forms, for example, packaging, recipes, road signs and bills. It has a clear purpose to inform the viewer by communicating a message in simple means which can be easily understood. For example a recipe is normally laid out with the ingredients listed in the order in which you will need them, followed by the process which is clearly broken down into bullet points.

 Otto Neurath developed the ‘Isotype system’ which is a method of showing connections of information in a pictorial form, for example displaying the information in chart or graph. This therefore allowed complex information to be not only easier to understand but also quicker to read.

 Erik Spiekerman typographer and font designer, “...in order to design for understanding, we need to understand design...” If you are designing a piece of information without any knowledge of the basic design rules, it is very likely that what you are trying to communicate with be confused and disjointed. There are key principals in which you should understand before designing a piece of text. Firstly grouping information; i.e. lines, space, headings, and sub-headings. Secondly consistency with the appropriate language, layout and a constant clear grid structure should be applied. The typography must also be legible and appropriate for the target audience to understand with consistent spacing and the use of white space and alignment also helps to balance the text to make it more inviting to read. Another principal to consider are graphic elements to aid the clarity of the text such as bullet points, line length and icons and finally the visual hierarchy; i.e. the type size/weight, colour, value, placement and spacing.

 A recent example where I have needed to use these rules of information design were for a product research questionnaire in which all of the principals played a significant part in the design element to make sure it was clear, simple to follow and quick/easy to complete.  Otherwise if I had ignored the basic rules the questions could have become misinterpreted and then my results would have been invalid.

The art of graphic communication

The art of being an effective graphic communicator is to be able to have your heart, head and hand working simultaneously together. Your heart is involved with expressing emotion along with engaging the audience, whereas your head is the tool behind the ideas and strategy and finally your hand is the technique behind your work.

 The process of design has to be appropriate for the given subject so that the message can be communicated effectively. Such as when designing for an invitation, you have to persuade, invite and engage and so setting up a relationship. However designing for informative means you need to be able to inform, educate and allow your information to be understood from complex data to simple concepts. It is also important to use consistent graphic language for example colour, typeface and layout as these will all help with making the information easier to read, understand and recognise.

 Information design can be anything from road signs, timetables, menus, instruction manuals to brochures. My recent visit to Cadburys world for product research is an example of how information design is in constant demand for our everyday movements. From the moment I left the house to start the journey, I needed to follow road signs to the train station, followed by looking at a timetable and platform number at the station. I then followed a map on foot, where I occasionally also checked the road signs to keep on track.

All of these different forms of information design are completely different, for example a road sign needs as little detail as possible as drivers will only have a small amount of time to take in the information as they go past. However if too many road signs are situated in one place, this can also cause an overload of information, regardless of how simple the individual signs are. Whereas a map designed for walkers will have a lot of detail including all the street names and locations in which you can plan your exact route.

Overload of signs

Another type of graphic communication is expressive graphics in which is involved in developing briefs, values and communicating messages. For example; motion graphics uses trade marks to create the story for a film.

How text can change our first impressions and understanding of an image.

The meaning of an image can be misinterpreted if the viewer is not provided with the necessary written information corresponding to the image. Elements of images without text which can lead them to being misinterpreted are, firstly if the image has a very small amount of detail, an unfamiliar image which has been taken away from its usual context or an image which been cropped down from its original size and so allowing the viewer to only see a small section from the whole image.

By not providing information about an image can be done on purpose to make people look deeper into the image and allowing for each individual to decide their own interpretation of what is being portrayed.

However the use of text with an image can also conjure up misinterpretations and therefore can affect the message in which the image is portraying. Where an image alone could have no obvious meaning and so does not communicate a message to the viewer, by adding text can instantly change ones impression.

An example of how a plain image can be influenced when a simple piece of text is present, is; The Treachery of images by Rene Magritte, which include, ‘This is not a pipe’ and ‘This is not an apple’

With a first glance, this painting looks very simple with just a single unanimated object on a plain background, and so giving no sense of emotion or thought provoking insight. However when you notice the writing underneath the object, ‘this is not a pipe’ the viewer starts to look more deeply into the image and starts to question what in fact the image is of.

“How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture "This is a pipe," I'd have been lying!” ¹

These painting therefore caused debate due to the interaction between the image and the text.

Another example of how text can influence an image is if it is purposely placed to force the viewer to either look at certain areas first or to almost ignore areas and to highlight others to ensure the message is obvious and so an almost superficial communication.

  [1]   Torczyner, Harry. Magritte: Ideas and Images. p. 71.

Milestones- Which do you consider to be the 10 key developments in the production the technology for Graphic design?

With there being so many important milestones, which have played such significant role in the development of Graphic, design between 3500 BC and 2011, it is difficult to only choose 10. The following milestones in which I have chosen I feel give a broad insight of how the development rapidly changed and adapted throughout the eras.

In 3500 BC, one of the earliest forms of the written language was developed, where Sumerians used cuneiform alphabet on clay tablets, and so created a platform for future of the written language, where cuneiform was soon replaced by the Phoenician alphabet.

In 868, the first printed book was produced, in which was produced in china and was called the diamond sutra.

The art of type soon became more sophisticated and in 1400 Koreans printed with metal to create movable type, this led to printing becoming faster, cheaper and it allowed text to become more creative.

In 1477, William Caxton produced the first printed book in English, and set up a press in London, England in which he introduced the art of printing.

In 1837, the photographic process (the daguerreotype) was invented by Louis Daguerre, which was the first successful completion of the photographic process. It was a very slow process in which was developed by Daguerre and Niepce

 The introduction of colour separation by the use of filters was demonstrated by Clerk Maxwell and as the photographic process was being increasingly developed, soon colour photographs were produced.

Another significant milestone of the production of graphic design was the invention of email by Tommilinson, which allowed the communication of messages to be sent and received almost instantaneously and so a lot faster and cheaper than sending messages by post.

The development of the precursor to mackintosh by Lisa introduced by apple changed the industry for graphic designers.

In 1984, Fujio Masuoka invented Flash memory while working for Toshiba

Adobe in design was launched in 1999, which is another example of how technology is becoming more and more sophisticated and adapting for today’s way of living

When and how was the first book printed in Europe?

Johannes Gutenberg printed the first known dated book in Strasburg 1945, in which was produced by printing press, a revolutionary invention by Gutenberg. Gutenberg being a goldsmith developed a printing system which was based on the existing hand screw press, he created individual letters that could be moved and put into lines to create sentences. The printing press was devised of ink being rolled onto a surface, which can then be pressed onto a print medium such as paper and so transferring ink. He used this process to print his forty two line Bible, which was published in 1455, known as the Gutenberg Bible and approximately 180 copies were printed mainly on paper.
His revolutionary invention of printing changed the production of literature, not only did he create a larger means of literature production therefore gaining a bigger audience, but he also made the process cheaper.  The large quantities was a key element in profitability of printing and so led to the first mass production of books, where the printing press could print around 3600 pages per day in comparison to the 40 pages by the typographic hand printing method.
William Caxton learnt the process of printing due to his ‘pen became worn, his hand weary, his eye dimmed’, this led him to produce the first printed book in English (The Game and Playe of the Chesse). Caxton set up a press in London where he introduced the art of printing in England and in 1477 on the 18^th of November; the first dated published book was printed (Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers). ^[1]

[1] Ward's Book of Days, Pages of interesting anniversaries.

     [ http://www.wardsbookofdays.com/18november.htm ], [accessed - 16//11/11]

Character Design.

When a character is being designed, the construction does not just happen automatically; every feature has a reason behind it. Due to the fact each character is unique they need to be designed and constructed to be able to perform their own specific function.
Every aspect needs to be considered when designing a character from their appearance, their interaction with other characters, body language or the choice of dialogue, for example the choice of words and style of the language can tell us a lot about the character. Such as we would immediately notice if a character was confident by their loud voice or by non stop talking.  
In books, television programs or films there is always at least one protagonist, who is the main character and does not necessarily need to be the ‘good guy’.
 This protagonist allows the reader/viewer to have a connection and so ‘a way in’ to the story and is key to most stories as without the main character, it becomes harder to identify and relate to significant events. 
There is also often an Antagonist, who is the cause of the conflicts and without this character the protagonist would have little problems and so would lead an average life with not a lot happening. A stereotype can also be introduced to communicate a lot of information about a character very efficiently. 

 One example of how a character has been specifically designed in order to communicate its functions is the main protagonist in ‘Cars’ a Disney Pixar film. The character is an animated anthropomorphic racing car, in which the design of the car was influenced by a high powered sports car, possibly a Mazda Miata or a Dodge Viper in order to communicate its speed and also its authenticity. The colour red is also a typical racing colour and it is also very bright which will attract the audience of this film being children. The racing car is called lightening McQueen, with ‘lightening’ communicating the cars high speed and McQueen was named after the late animator Glen McQueen and also from the influence of Steve McQueen a racing enthusiast where the car also shares some of his traits.

Lightening McQueen.

Story development.

In a the development of a film there is usually a three act structure, for example for a two hour film these three acts would possibly be spilt into 30:60:30. In act one; we see the introduction of the main character(s), the circumstances surrounding the actions of the characters and generally what the story is about. The main character allows the viewer a way in to the story and also the actions of this character drive the story throughout. These actions can give the viewer an insight to the interrelationships amongst other characters and also places them within a time and place. Act one also encounters an ‘inciting incident’ an event in which sets up the first plot involving the main character. 
In Act two, we see the ‘first culmination’, in which we see the main character to be close to achieving their goal, however this then falls apart. Shortly after the main character reaches the lowest point and we feel that they will never reach their goal.
Finally in Act three we see the climax and the ‘second culmination’, where the plot reaches its end and the story development causes the main character to confront the opposition (antagonist). Close to the end of the film there is a brief period of calm, which then balances the tension.

We can clearly see how this three act structure in the film ‘The Proposal’, in ‘Act one’ we are introduced to the main characters; Margaret Tate and Andrew Paxton and we immediately know their circumstances through the main characters where Margaret is the executive editor in a chief book publishing company and Andrew is her assistant. Margaret is strongly disliked by the other employees and by Andrew due to the fact she is cold and very strict, however these interrelationships change as the story develops. The ‘inciting incident’ in which sets up plot one is when we discover that Margaret faces deportation and her only way to overcome this is to marry Andrew, who has no choice as otherwise he will loose his job.

I Act two we see the ‘first culmination’ where we see Margaret and Andrew close to reaching their goal of getting the official documents of their marriage. However this soon falls apart when the antagonist (the immigration officer) suspects’ fraud and so Margaret decides to abandon the marriage to save Andrew from getting into trouble, and so we then see a change of relationship between these two main characters.
Finally in Act three the climax of the film we see Andrew and Margaret relationship change from hate to love and they confront the antagonist and decide to marry for real and we finally see a brief period of calm at the end of the story, where things seem to be back on track again.

Three act structure-[http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/pruter/film/threeact.htm]

[Accessed 14/11/11].

Creative Platforms.

What platforms have been used by illustrators/creatives to enhance communication?

The platforms in which illustrators can enhance the communication of their work could include anything from editorial newspapers, advertisement for billboards or installation projects. By being able to use a variety of mediums in which to apply your illustrations or typography to, instead of restricting yourself to the same practice, this will then allow you to communicate to a wider and more diverse audience.  

 I have been looking at typographer and illustrator Kate Forrester, who specialises in hand made typography in which is she intricately cuts out and often intertwines with flowing illustrations. This hand made quality produces a personal feel to her work, which allows the viewer to be able to connect with what is being communicated. “I am always excited to find new applications for my work.” Forrester

Her style of intricate paper cut outs have been used on a variety of mediums for different contexts such as book covers, supermarket packaging and incorporating text onto chocolate bars.

Book cover design - Kate Forrester

One example of where her artwork has been adapted for a large scale platform for advertisement is for Mc Donalds, in which the advert was on the side of a lorry. The large scale means she has to adapt her illustrations and typography to give the same strong impact, in which her smaller pieces already give and it is also a good way to promote her artwork with it being in such a public view.

McDonalds advert

Another more recent example of where her illustrations have been adapted for a different platform is on a tin which has been designed for the royal wedding. I feel her personal style of work compliments the subject of the wedding and so communicates a clear meaning.  

Interpretation

Illustrators respond and use zeitgeist of their time and place to interpret messages and content.

The iconic Disney character ‘Mickey Mouse’ has changed dramatically over the years due to the influence of the time and place. The original illustrations of Mickey Mouse are dated from the late 1920’s, where the first short film was in 1928 and due to the fact colour screens had not yet been invented this meant that the films started out in black and white. We can clearly see how the content of the 2^nd film 'The Gallopin' Gaucho’, in 1928 was influenced by the time and place, where we see Mickey smoking and drinking. In this era smoking was a social interaction and not known to be bad for you, therefore it would have been accepted. However as his popularity grew and he became a role model for children the content of the films became restricted. 

1928

As technology grew, this also had an influence on the films, as before the film (The Karnival Kid) in 1929, Mickey had not spoken and had only given the odd sound, for example whistling.

We can also see how this era influenced Mickey’s clothes, where his gloves have three lines on the back of them in which represent darts in the fabric, which were typical of the fashion in that era. ^[1]

The 1930’s led to the first screening of colour films, and also the redesign of his character, by animator Fred Moore. Mickey’s appearance became friendlier, when his eyes changed from being solid black to white with black pupils, other features also changed such as the shape of his body changed from being round to a pear shaped. As colour was introduced to the films, we see Mickey’s iconic red shorts and yellow shoes, which over the years become brighter and bolder.

1935

Even today the famous character has continued to be adapted, for example the ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’ where it is becoming more and more digital, due to the influence of the modern technology. The message in which I feel is communicated is how the character has been made to adapt over the years in which to keep up with current trend. 

2000

[1] The Opry House - March 28, 1929, Mickey Mouse Follies, [http://mmfolliesbw.blogspot.com/2007/10/opry-house-march-28-1929.html], [Accessed 06/11/11].