Final Narratives

My Graphic Narratives

'Picture Yourself on a Boat on a River'

Hierarchy of Information? 

The main thing I wanted to achieve with this image is the flow of hierarchy of information and where your eyes are first drawn into. In particular, I wanted the attention to be on the camera as this is the element with the most detail and specific aspects to it - and also the piece that took the most time to finish. The viewers eyes would then follow the wording around to fully take in the picture. To achieve this, I made the camera quite bold so although black and white like the writing, I added in definite black lines and small eye catching and intriguing detail to draw in the viewer immediately. I made the camera bigger than more than half the writing so that it was so noticeable, it almost makes the viewers eyes draw into the lens of on the camera which I think is quite effective in making the piece compelling.  I finally wanted to add in the colour polaroid stripes, once again to add attention to the finer details and make your eyes catch on to the bright and vivid colours which are bolder than the background. 

The writing was a bit different as I needed to take into consideration the layout of the picture and not just the where your eyes are drawn into first. The top line 'picture yourself' and bottom line 'boat on a river' look bright and stand out against the vivd background therefore make a good prominent piece. I think most people would look at the camera and follow to the top line anyway as this is where the writing begins and obviously where the lyrics start of. Then, quite evidently the 'In A' is the following lyrics, there also in the middle of the piece therefore the middle lyrics. And although the boldest colour in terms of the writing all together, I don't think it draws any attention away from the rest of the narrative. 

Overall, I think that the information works well, looks bright and also attractive on the whole of the piece. I do think there is room for improvement, as now after completing the piece I notice that the 'In A' is quite prominent compared to the rest of the lyrics however at the time this was not something I noticed as I was focused on the layout and making all the lyrics stand out against the fluorescent like background.

'With Tangerine Trees and Marmalade Skies'

Use of Colour?

My use of colour was especially important in this piece as I feel I had to be quite specific and limited in choosing the mix of colours to use and the way to make them work together. As the lyrics present an idea of the colour for me i.e marmalade being yellow & light oranges and tangerine, being deep oranges & slight reds it was just a sense of how to put them together and and make them work without making the piece look too rooted in one colour.

As all the main images throughout the narratives are black and white with a single element of colour this was not something I had to think about to much therefore It was easy for me to pick the tangerine colours. I chose these bright oranges, yellows and light reds as I knew it would stand out against the blacks, whites and greys and would look bold and attractive. The background on the other hand took more consideration, as you can tell, I used the same picture for each background but just messed around with the Levels on Photoshop until I got the chosen effect. I liked that the background for this piece is not too yellow, or too orange but mixes in elements and similar colours i.e the greens, dark reds, bright yellows and oranges which all in all add such a good base to the picture and makes it look that much more fascinating.

The text colour again was quite simple, I wanted to keep this the same throughout the whole of the narrative so the black on top of white and vice versa. I think it's the easiest option for a piece like mine as they are so colourful, it would be adding in to much colour to have a vibrant font. I also think these to colours just stand out in general and go with any kind of colour.

Overall, I think all the colours are bold, vivid and daring, not just on this piece but throughout the whole narrative. It makes the whole graphic narrative interesting and extremely eye-catching whilst not looking to excessive with colour. I didn't have a limited colour palette as such, but I tried to stick with a theme for each separate narrative i.e. blue, orange, purple and pink, but this didn't mean I was restricted as there is more than one shade of each of these colours and therefore i could involve almost any of these shades together. All over, I think that the colour range is completely successful, so although each graphic narrative is a opposite colour to the next it flows really well and looks so interesting.

'Somebody Calls You, You Answer Quite Slowly'

Use of Text?

The typeface I used throughout the whole graphic narrative was called 'Riesling' which I found on dafont.com. Its an elegant and simple but works really well with the song I've chosen as it has a classic 60s vibe. I went through many fonts from hippy flower ones to patterned detail fonts but they didn't seem to fit not matter how much I adjusted them around - I believe this was because it just added to much detail. Once I found the font 'Riesling' it was just a matter of sizing it up and putting it on the page so it stood out amongst the bright colour and sharp detail images. I also needed to leave room for the images.

The scale of the fonts vary throughout each images, which goes with the theme of the song and the rest of the layout. Not only does it look interesting but it makes each piece look enticing and captivating. To adjust the font I used Photoshops 'Characters' tools, where I could adjust the height, width, spacing, sizing and placement of each individual word or letter. This made it really easy for me to move around fonts and make them fit into places so used up as much of the valuable space I could.

The colour, like previously said, was again quite simple to choose. Black and white were the most simple colours to pick as they add boldness in an eye-catching and readable way, rather than a colourful and striking way. I decided to switch round the black on top of white or white on top of black to again make the piece more interesting and compelling  and also easier to read. It also makes the characters have a 3 Dimensional effect.

I feel the font overall does reflect the theme really well with its elegant, mythical and old school vibe but the way i've styled it to suite the narrative gives it the slight modern twist it needs to attract people today. It flows really well with each drawing to as they represent quite a hippy and free vibe.

'A Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes'

Use of Imagery?

The use of imagery is something that I could grasp in this particular image really well. The lyrics alone have a vivid visual representation that could be quite easily transferred into an actual image. And it was also quite simple to do, I created the eyes by drawing them by hand so I could add as much detail as possible then I used the scanner to get them onto the computer to begin editing. I adjusted the contrast, brightness and sharpness only, using Adobe Photoshop so that I could make the colour more bold without losing important detail. I then found two different images of kaleidoscope, once again adjusted contrasts and colour and transferred them to the picture of the eyes using various different Adobe tools. After that, I fitted them on the page along with the lyrics and matching the background.

I think this use of imagery reflects the theme really well, it follows the hippy, colourful and 70s vibe that is a continual theme throughout the whole of the piece. The abstract image especially, is eye-catching in a way that it draws you in and makes you want to look deeper into piece rather than just having a quick glance.

Tools and Techniques

I usd multiple tools to create all my pieces, I began by drawing the basic images by hand, taking inspiration from pictures I found online so that I could perfect them to his I wanted. I then scanned all the images and took time on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator adjusting the size, contrast ad brightness using there tools.

Rough Drawings

             

  

Graphic Novels & Jack n Jill

Hansel and Gretel

The book I decided to analyse was the Hansel & Gretel Pop Up Novel. The use of colour is fitting within the novel. The artist uses a variety of deep autumn/earth (green, blues, browns) colours which fits within the feel of the story, for example being set in a woods relates to the earthy colour scheme. The most used colours in the Hansel and Gretel novel are greens and browns which refers to nature and wildlife environment and also follows the story of them being trapped and lost within the woods. This novel however does include several pops of colour, for example the moon in one of the novels pages has a crisp pearl white colour which makes it stand out from the page. The colours I personally feel are effective within this novel as it makes the overall book look very engaging and interesting; you straight away want to look through this novel as its exciting and something new.

This novel is excellent for its use of imagery. Each page has a different pop of illustration which makes the book extremely unique, as this traditional tale is usually seen through normal novels or film. I have never seen the tale be portrayed through pop up graphics which makes it exciting to read. The use of imagery is really good; the actual illustrations have been hand drawn and to a highly professional standard, furthermore portraying the tale very well. The pop up affect of the novel makes the imagery looks 3D which is different and intriguing. What I find good about this novel is the unexceptional aspect of it, when you first look at the book you don't expect it to be a pop up book this makes it very interesting. Overall I found the imagery in this novel to be really good, I liked how detailed the drawings were and the use of the 3D pop up affect.

The use of text in this novel is also very good. On the front page of the novel the text is an old fashioned style font which relates to the tale being a traditional classic. The text is easy to read and clearly positioned throughout the pages which is good as the main focus is the imagery. The text is the same within the novel which I feel is good as it makes the novel look more professional and slick.  The colour of the text is black which makes it easy to read, especially from a distance. The text on every page is placed on a white background, which I feel was did to firstly make it look clearer in the book as the animations are extremely engaging and the main focus. I also feel the text was placed like this to give the impression of a traditional fairytale style book, with the use of an old fashioned style font and placed on a white background.


Jack & Jill

I wanted to create a clear but creative design for my Jack and Jill storyboard. I decided to make my board quite bold and imaginative, for example the big arrows and exclamation points make each section of the story stand out. Every box I have tried to apply creativity therefore not keep to the same designs and shapes but explore different patterns as you can see in the first box i have used different fonts and arrows and I feel this makes the box that bit more eye catching. The second box was a part of the story I could make quite visual, I joined to images together to make the landscape of the trees and mountain that Jack and Jill climb up and put the arrow to signify where the two climb up. The next few boxes I put together a random collection of images to piece together the rest of the story. 

Photoshop Changes: 

To put colour onto the Jack n Jill board, I simply put the image into photoshop adjusted the contrast and brightness slightly (so that it was easier to get a full block of colour). Then I used the magic wand tool to pick out the blocks of white then finally used the paint bucket tool to fill in the blanks with colour. 

Graphic Narrative - Statement of Intent

What song lyrics have you selected? Why?

For my Graphic Narrative I have decided to choose the song Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds which, is originally by the The Beatles but I am basing it on the cover by The Flaming Lips and Miley Cyrus. I aim for my Graphic Narrative to be creative, colourful, and imaginative with use of lots of detail and bold colour. I have so far decided to use the first two verses of the song(shown below) but am undecided whether I want to do more as I am keen to put a lot of detail and time into each part of the narrative.

Lyrics:

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

I will be doing a different design of the narrative for each line of the part of the song I have chosen, as each one is completely different to the other I feel as though I can really explore the range of ideas I have from being inspired from ilovedust - my chosen graphic designer. The song itself is artistic and visionary and I can fully apply this to my designs to make them stand out and different to any other.

What format will you Graphic Narrative take?

I am going to be doing my Graphic Narrative simply as a book featuring the illustrations, each design will  include the writing as a part of the artwork as it fits to artists I am being inspired on and tells the story of the song creatively. I think being in the style of a book means that each page can be dedicated to each line of the song therefore more detail will be taken in from the art instead of having to look at two or more design at a time.

How will you change your script to make it more modern, historical or futuristic twist etc to your script, illustrating a mood/style or intended target audience?

As my chosen song doesn't relate to a modern, historic or futuristic twist this will not be involved in my designs. The song, Lucy in The Sky with diamonds is said to be related to LSD therefore has a psychedellic vibe to it therefore bright colours, exaggerated patterns and designs and a lot of detail incorporating this into my design is going to be important to make it relate to the song in the best way possible. If people see bright colours and all sorts of patterns then they will feel a sense of the song for example happiness, esoteric and and creativeness which is what I'm aiming for. Despite not a full modern twist there will be a slight modern feel to the art as it will have some as it relates to my chosen artist, ilovedust.

What designers or illustrators do you feel will influence and inspire the style you are working toward and why?

Chris Dyer

Firstly I'm very much involving my inspiring artists work into my design, ilovedust incorparate a lot of detail and pattern into there work and I think putting in mine will give it a modern twist as well as adding a psychedelic feel to it. They also pic very bold colours and incorporate this with black designs to make it look bold and stand out, I feel as though for the type of song I am doing this relates well as the songs lyrics stands out itself and can more with a great design. Im also looking into many psychedelic artists such as Chris Dyer in terms of patters and Josip Csoor in terms of visionary and colour - trying to get inspiration from these as much as I can, I want people to look at the artwork and feel a sense of euphoria and imagination and by getting as much inspiration as I can from existing artist I can really achieve this.

ilovedust

Josip Csoor

Which techniques and materials do you hope to use? List and include source i.e. collage, photographic, typography, drawings, diagrams etc…

Im planning on making all my designs firstly by drawing, therefore doing the basic outlines then adding in the difficult detailed patterns into the object if this is what the pattern includes, by doing this I can really add everything I want to and if I feel as though I can improve if need be as i'll be able to start over and try out different designs with no problem - as well as drawing, I might add in paint to be able to incorporate the colours and get the sort of patterns i want without the difficulty of software on a computer. After getting my initial designs I will then scan them into a computer and use Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator to enhance colours, detail,. clean up errors, and add the lyrics using dafont. By doing the font on a software I can really get the detail and shape I want and fit it perfectly to the rest of the artwork.

Self Directed Work - Graphic Narrative - ilovedust

ilovedust 

'Never Not Working'

Founded by Mark Graham in 2003, ilovedust began as a small company in Southsea, England. They create fresh, innovative designs which make up for they're breath-taking, award-winning portfolio. They're work includes typography, illustration, branding, packaging, murals, animation and apparel designs. Throughout the 12 successful years of creating illustrations and graphic designs, ilovedust have grown to become a hugely successful company collaborating with brands far and near, including - RedBull, Nike, Coca Cola, wired, MTV, Virgin Media, Absolut Vodka, Empire Magazine and many more. Detail, craft and strong narrative are what piece together ilovedust' diverse portfolio. The 22 strong team are 'passionate by their craft' and love what they do, anticipating whats to come in the future.

They're Work: 

The piece above, made for BSSP was made by ilovedust to be put as the cover of they're Kiss Kama Sutra book. The heavily embellished illustration uses embossing and debossing to create this magnificent piece to be put on the final book cover. In terms of colour, despite the fact that this piece of work is only dark colours, mainly black and deep grey, the work does not fail to stand out. The limited colour pallete is what makes the piece so intriguing to look at because no matter where you look, left, right and centre detail can be seen and it gives it a certain depth and 'mysterious' look - this all helped by the embossing and debossing, of course.

The typeface, centred right in the middle has a range of different fonts which work well together and make a beautiful centre piece to the design. When first looking at the artwork, your eyes are immediately directed toward  'KISS' the typeface, I believe this links  to the popular metal band 'Kiss' - gives off a very rock n' roll vibe which I believe is what the designers where aiming for and also reflects the theme of the book very well - it's also great that this is what you are first drawn into as this is the beginning of the title of the book. Below the words 'Kama Sutra' stand out with a western, cowboy vibe and once again holds a touch of rock n roll. The scale of all the fonts work well as they lead from small, to bold and large, to long, tall and striking. Your eyes follow the name of the book in the way supposed to. Once again the typeface although black stands out extremely well, with the embossing and debossing making it shine in certain light or if looked at in a certain way I feel this  makes the book different and unique to most. 

An ancient bible 

Although no imagery, there is a heavily detailed illustrated border around and throughout the book, which once again looks as though it is very much western, rock n roll inspired  - it also looks like it has an element of ancient religion/church design  put into the artwork which makes it very intriguing and cryptic like. Like previously said the design has elements of creativity in every corner you look into all due to the extremely intricate design work - with it ancient and old look it makes the book look like it is important and holds importat contents inside.                                                                                                           When looking at the book I was personally first drawn into the title of the cover which is successfully done by the bold writing and intriguing fonts. After taking time looking at the title, you are almost immediatley attracted to the beautiful border giving you a chance to take in all of the book fine detail. The hierarchy of the book covers information is placed exactly right, your eyes being attracted to the main subject of the book then aloud to wonder and take in the rest of the design shows that this piece successfully fulfills the wants of the client.

I feel as though this piece of work was most likely to of been created on the computer using design software such as Adobe Illustrator. Beforehand some of the design ideas may of been drafted by hand but after that I feel as though to make the work design so detailed and specific it would of had to be done using software. To create the embossing and debossing the piece would of had the been printed from a computer using a special printer to create this effect. 

                                

Despite just a small piece of work, I feel this piece is holds so much detail and creativity that it successfully attract people towards it immediately. The different texture, the embossing and the use of just on colour is what makes this piece so noticeable and absorbing.

"we are always evolving, we are always changing and our direction is still unknown if I’m entirely honest. we just want to turn up to work and enjoy what we are doing  – that’s our first objective.'' - Mark Graham, creative director of ilovedust

More ilovedust Artwork - 

 Tiempo 94 Football Book Patches for Nike

'Seven Deadly Sins' - Scientific American magazine

T Shirt collection - karl lagerfield x ilovedust 

'#theworldislistening' - The Grammys

'Mural' - Nike US Open of Surf 

'Welcome To The Jungle'

 

        

Videos & Interviews

what made you want to become a designer / illustrator?


mark graham: in terms of being a designer/illustrator I’m not so sure it was an idea as such but rather that I just found myself going that way in terms of direction and interests. skateboarding to me played an absolute massive part in shaping that – even to this day, it’s the ‘thing’ which has made the biggest impact on me and my work. I was always inspired by people like mark gonzales, ed templeton, jason lee, people that mixed skating with more design based approaches in terms of their board graphics and the companies that they helped set-up. skating is just a big greasy melting pot of ideas and styles, personalities and values that you can’t help but be inspired by it and want to go out there and make your own mark too.

what do you think your strongest skill is?

MG: personally I think my strongest skill is knowing that there is a huge amount of people out there who can do things a lot better than me, and those are the people I want to work with and collaborate with. as a company I would say our biggest skill as a studio is being able to keep a cool head whilst all those around us are losing theirs and deliver a quality of work that makes everyone involved very proud.

in such a competitive industry how do you try to ensure you’re always in demand?

MG: by keeping young blood pumping through the veins of the company. ‘make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, darwin, shit happens, I ching, whatever man we gotta roll with it’  – tom cruise in collateral