Prada Real Fantasies Look Book S/S 11

Prada’s latest look book provided a great deal of inspiration and reference for the mood book I created as a part of the Topman project. This look book by Prada is unlike most other look books as it does not focus solely on the clothes and has a little fun with the images and effects. 

The latest collection by Prada makes use of bright colours and bold prints and so their look book needed to be as outgoing if not more outgoing than the clothes are. The video that accompanies the collection is just as crazy but it all fits in with the overall look being created by the collection. It only adds to the collection.

As Topman are a fashion forward brand who like to break boundaries and do things a little differently. I felt that they would like to be seen to be doing something a successful fashion house is doing but take it one step further. 

Caravan Branding - In House Design

Inhouse Design are a studio based in New Zealand. This particular project caught my eye because of their tightly considered use of type and language to create a unique brand. They have mixed just the right amount of new and old which follows the clean and simple look that makes it look interesting to the eye. 

The brand switches from clean simple and bold text to intricate detailing on such items as the spoon handle communicates that it’s an expensive brand that takes of every detail. 

This project is similar to the brand that i created for ‘Full Stop’ such as there was great care taken in the detailing of every piece in the brand. The concept also works across all platforms as it does with the caravan project. It’s a very good example of good restaurant branding that I am sure i will reference again in the future. 

W: http://www.inhousedesign.co.nz/

Tropicana Natural Energy Ad - DDB Paris

I came across this advert while looking for more inspiration on how to best communicate that a product can deliver energy that is natural. I’m almost kicking myself that I didn’t think of this idea first. 

The concept is simple and executed in a brilliant manner. The spectacle created obviously looked as brilliant in real life as it did on screen. The ad itself was directed by Johnny Hardstaff who is phenomenal at coming up with innovative ideas. 

I think it works especially well because there is a central focus around the fruit itself and this is something that can sometimes be lacking in my designs for the I AM drink. I think there needs to be a large focus on the ingredients inside for it to communicate a clear message that it is made up of natural ingredients. 

V: http://vimeo.com/22167226

W: http://www.ddb.fr/

Capital Kitchen Project - Cornwell

Cornwell are a brand and communications agency based in Australia. They created the branding for ‘home wares and food concept store’ called Capital Kitchen.

This was the main inspiration and reference point during the ‘Full Stop’ brief. I loved the simplistic style. By mixing new with old and clean white surfaces with lots of textures such as wood and brick they created a very authentic, natural brand.

They mixed in a variety of nostalgic food items into the illustrations to represent a time in history when things moved at a much slower and calmer pace. By putting this is a busy city such as Melbourne it felt like a retreat away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

I wanted to try and create the same effect with my 'full stop' project by injecting a little more fun and playfulness into the brand. 

It was a fantastic reference and I was lucky to find something that encompassed most of what i was trying to communicate within

my design. 

 W: http://www.cornwell.com.au/

Hip Hip Hooray

Hello!

Unfortunately I've managed to abandon this blog, but then again it has been a busy year since I last posted! I've graduated from university and ready to make my mark on the graphic design world. Just where do I start? The graphic design world is so wide and varied I feel it's going to take me a while to find where myself and my design fits into it all. But, I look forward to finding this out because, as long as I'm designing for a living I'll be happy. I'm going to start by adding my influences and inspiration to this blog as I always find i go blank in interviews when asked this question.

Updated Arthouse Posters

It was suggested that the typography was a little boring and safe. So i decided to change the typeface of each title to a style that reflects the nature of the film a little better.

Arthouse

MY PROGRESS - FROM BRIEF TO FINAL IMAGES

After receiving this brief in the post I set about finding out what the meaning and definition of Arthouse really is. I had some ideas beforehand but I felt in order to make a well informed decision as to which films to pick I needed to do this. The great thing was that I instantly knew which films I was going to pick.
I have been a fan of Studio Ghibli films for a long time and this was an obvious choice for myself as soon as the option “World Cinema” was mentioned in the brief. The company is Japanese and after just returning from a trip to Tokyo myself I was full of inspiration from what I had seen and experienced there.
I felt that this was perhaps jumping the gun a little by instantly picking a set of four films to make posters about. So after some research and a little mind mapping I had come up with two other ideas that I felt were worth exploring. These were; a hammer horror night, which would showcase films like the original Dracula and Frankenstein etc. who were made by the company Hammer and the second idea being a film night called ‘Kaiju’ which would show films like godzilla and Gamera.
I made mock ups of the Hammer Horror night and the Kaiju night posters. For the Hammer Horror night I experimented with minimal imagery and type e.g. for the Dracula film poster I placed two upside down white triangle next to each other which symbolised the fangs of Dracula and so on and so forth for the other posters. I also put together some posters using typical Hammer Horror typography which is iconic of the original posters. Even though the development was going well I really didn’t enjoy making these posters and I didn’t feel they truly depicted my style of work.
I then moved on to look at how I could explore the ‘Kaiju’ film night. These were all Japanese films and the name Kaiju means monster in Japanese so I began by trying to make the perfect lettering which lent itself to Japanese typography used in the original poster for godzilla etc. After asking a number of people if they could read the word Kaiju I got a mixed review, some people could see it and some could not. Due to the mixed reaction this immediately put me off wanting to continue with this idea. After coming away from it for a while I decided to push on with making visuals in hope that marrying the text and visuals together it may look better. At first I tried to draw each poster and quickly moved to collage as I seem to have lost my ability to draw. Using patterns to create a new and rather modern looking Godzilla I was quite happy however the same effect didn’t carry through to the other posters. I really didn’t feel confident in advertising and designing posters for films I had only got a glimpse of. So I went back to the drawing board.
I came back to my Studio Ghibli idea and as it so happened I came across and image of spirited away in which someone had drawn the bath house from memory in a block colour of red and then an overlay of a girls silhouette. This immediately spoke to me as a creative. I had previously been struggling in how to produce posters using Studio Ghibli images because they are so unique and stylised that I thought it would hold me back but this image showed me that it didn’t need to be that way.
Looking at the DVD boxes for the Studio Ghibli films I realised that to most other people the covers look like they would be aimed at children due to their animated style. However, the stories within the films and the meanings behind the animations give enjoyment to both children and adults. So, as the DVD covers only really appealed to children and may be overlooked by anyone older yet knowing that they would still find enjoyment in the films I felt I needed to create posters that advertised the films to an older audience while creating posters that still put across the unique style of the Studio Ghibli animations.
The choice of red and white was to try and hint at the Japanese backgrounds of the films. I also wanted to the focus to be upon the drawings. I took stills from the films and put them straight into illustrator. I picked object or characters from each film that weren’t central to the plot but were there in key parts e.g. the sweet box is used throughout GOTF by the older brother, he gives it to his younger sister as a pick me up or a treat. When his little sister dies he realises the sweet box is empty also. People who have already seen the films would also pick up on the subtle references and perhaps get a slight enjoyment in recognising such images. The typeface used was a similar typeface used on the covers of the DVD boxes and I felt keeping such a simple colour palette and using the same typeface on each poster unified them as a set and drew attention the images.

SUMMER PROJECT REVIEW
Together in our tutorials we reviewed each other’s posters. I was a little worried beforehand that they were too simple and that made them boring. They were well received by my group and having put them up on my own blog I have received a couple of good comments about them. My tutor lizz made a good observation that a couple of posters needed working on so that they worked a little better as a set. She also mentioned that I could make each poster work a little harder which is what I was expecting to hear. She suggested changing the typeface of each title of the film. I believe this would add more character and would take away and fears about the posters looking boring or plain.