Another photo + typography piece I made based on Kylie ballad lyrics – this lyric from “Flower” an unreleased ballad that she performed during her X tour – and one that has always been a fan favourite (definitely one of my own). The type was handdrawn and then illustrated by me – the image used does not belong to me, and is from her X 2008 tour, available on DVD.
The final exhibition/show piece for my project on stereotypes and categories of people.
Have just started a new project inspired by those song lyric + photo pieces of design that are pretty common online. These pieces were firstly inspired by “White Diamond” – an unreleased ballad track by Kylie – which I decided would be the perfect title track to an alternative Kylie album of ballads, from album, b-side and unreleased tracks to reworked hits such as “I believe in you”. To develop this idea as a design project I started experimenting with imagery and typography, which I hope to expand into packaging and promotion design for my “White Diamond” album concept.
The photo used is from an exclusive poster of Kylie from inside the “White Diamond” documentary DVD, which I photographed using shards of mirror to create an abstracted, fragmented diamond-like image, complimenting the similarly style “White Diamond” text used on the DVD. As well as my own minimal diamond logo concept, I started designing typographic elements using lyrics from different tracks, the “I believe in you” type based on a found font, which I experimented with decoratively by hand then re-created digitally – one of my first developed attempts at hand-drawn decorative typography made digital, which I’m actually pretty proud of (however much my hand aches from incessant pen clicking in illustrator).
Browsing through some different branding projects and logo designs, and once again I’ve come across another Wolff Olins design that I’ve become a little obsessed with. This is probably the least conventional identity for a technology brand I’ve seen (though maybe not aesthetically – it looks sleek, modern and technological for sure – the dots of the icon do feel like a familiar technological image) but the combination of the stylish image and the concept behind it communicates really well.
One of Belkin’s main approaches has always been to design people-inspired products, and so the branding, though essentially being used to promote technology, is based around this connection between the company, the people, and the products – with the technologically styled human image, possibly the cutest character-based logo I’ve ever seen. (Just saying that I feel incredibly guilty for the Panda – well played WWF.)
Check out more of the branding project here.
For my final major project in Visual Communication, I’ve decided to tackle the theme of stereotypes. Inspired by a range of artists and designers, most prominently Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, behind the fantastic photographic collection and publication Exactitudes, I’ve been considering the role of stereotypes within graphic design and mass media – and their social and psychological effects. The concept is to question the kind of categorization of people, seen as vital in advertising especially, that is not necessarily in the best interest of the individual.
To do so, I’ve started by collecting images of people, in a less constructed-appearing process than Exactitudes – simply asking people to submit their own head and shoulders photos. From this I will begin to design pieces empowering the individual over categories and stereotypes. So I’d really love your help for the campaign (which is purely for educational, non-commercial purposes) – which will be used in my final exhibition. All it takes is e-mailing a photo that you’d like to be used, like the photos above (smiling and plainer blackgrounds are preferable) it would be greatly appreciated!
You can e-mail them here: r.devine@students.ucreative.ac.uk
(Or you can just comment on this post with a link)
Cheers!
Beautifully illustrated, bold, spacial renditions of eye-catching but clichéd, questionably imaginative and wholly inaccurate stereotypes.
These cover illustrations for Wallpaper magazine, by Noma Bar (portfolio here), have me mentally contradicting myself, and feeling rather hypocritical for liking. I have to admit, aesthetically the set are fantastic, and I’d quite like to have a copy of each – and the indoor concept plays nicely with the bold, block-colour style, which could otherwise feel generic. And, as Noma Bar’s illustrative style is quite recognized for, the shapes and images play well together, creating some optical-illusion connoting merging of images that do exhibit Bar’s visual creativity (especially with the incorporation of 3D elements). Though, visually, they’re stunning, playful and imaginative, they do prove how much designers and illustrations rely on stereotypes; there’s no way these covers would be as striking without the dominance of over-used stereotypes, but (regardless of the 3D styles) do they do much to present anything other than these rather two-dimensional, stereotypical representations of the countries referenced? Then again, they are beautifully created, and, it could be argued, intentionally playful. But personally, I much prefer his other work, that showcase a huge amount of visual creativity and double-entendres, without relying on outdated stereotypes.
These posters by Minus18, Australia’s largest LGBT teen support network, intended to tackle different attitudes within the realm of homophobia. The message is bold, and communicated perfectly through the use of almost purely text. They challenge certain views perfectly (the idea of “flaunting it” I think is paticularly notable) and I really hope they get the kind of acknowledgement Stonewall’s “Some People Are Gay…” campaign had – as these are at least as powerful.
You can grab hold of these designs and more to print here.
It’s a campaign that’s more or less exploded on the internet (viral advertising done really well) with an incredibly powerful piece of film (the creative minds behind the film project have definitely done their job well.) Although there has been some criticism of Invisible Children, the charity behind the campaign, regarding how financially accountable they are, the wages of their leaders, and their true role and motives as a charity. Admittedly, the film (which can’t have been an inexpensive make) is so fantastically constructed that it may come across as exactly that – and the rather dominant role of Jason Russell within it comes across as a little vain and pompous. So maybe the charity itself isn’t as ethically transparent as charities should be, but maybe the charity isn’t what’s important, but the message (though whether the charity agree with that can be seen to be questionable). And communicating the message well is one of the key elements in any kind of campaign – and I have to say, though not quite as refined as some forms of advertising campaigns, the designs behind Kony 2012 do stick in the mind.
The logo, first off, is great. (The upside down triangle/hierarchy chart specifically), the communication of empowering the people a bold concept, and wonderfully executed and explained in the film. The following posters also have some conceptual merit – the historical reference to dictators, and the connotation of the current danger through the use of the red (though, stylistically, the clear Obama inspiration is maybe a little distracting from the concept, and could be considered attention-grabbing rather than anything else). The combination of party logos in the second piece is great (I believe the Republican and Democratic mascots – sorry for my British naivety if I’m wrong there!).
The video is definitely worth checking out, if you’ve managed to evade it so far. Either way, the message is clear, and good, and the campaign has done well to maintain that.
Another contemporary designer I’ve come across for inspiration - Thomas Østerhus, a norwegian graphic designer (portfolio here – definitely worth checking out just for the welcome image, even.) Really nice typographic work – some great aesthetics, and some really powerful concepts as well – I’m not entirely sure why, but I was a little captivated by the “word of mouth” piece, as well as “form”. Some really nice branding/identity for Bella Centre as well – like the less fixed use of the arrow logo image, used across different forms and combined with photography (but without the London 2012 logo/MTV logo changing logo-fill cliche)
A cover/poster design concept I made for my next (planned) experimental film, Reflections #3 – inspired by the idea of distorted reflections of reality, and representions in different media from fashion photography and mainstream film to pornography, that affect our own views of ourselves, image, relationships and sex – and influence our obsessions with “beauty”, romanticized relationships and manafactured sex. This idea first inspired me to experiment with scanning mirrors – in creating the abstract, fragmented image that I decided to use as the dominant image, with the red-shard motif something I hoped to carry on into the mise-en-scene and framing of the film. Definitely one of my favourite cover designs 
