Then & Now - Early experiments

Keeping with my 1972 - 2012 theme, I have knocked up a couple of poster designs that I may or may not want to go with. The first design is very Swiss, as you can see:

Okay, so it's not the garish wallpaper design that I was going on about last time, but I had this other, cleaner design that I think may have legs. The idea here is to have two sets of silhouetted icons, showing design classics from 1972 (or the seventies in general) and 2012. I have done a couple already, as you can see, like the spacehopper and lava lamp. I have plenty more ideas for 1972, including a fondue set, the pocket calculator, Pong (the first videogame), Snoopy and those stupid little Troll characters. 2012 may be more of a problem. I have done the Plumen bulb, and I guess I could add an iPhone, iPad... most things seem to be small rectangles these days. Maybe that's my point.

The other design is focussed more on the shapes and colours I associate with the period:

I think this design would look lovely screenprinted at A1 or A2. It would be nice to experiment with the colours to see how the blend works on the overlaps. I will definitely print this poster at some point, even if it is not the design I end up going with for submission.

Then & Now - Research

Seems that in my initial thinking I was overlooking a pretty significant event that could make my work very different to everyone else in the year - I am unfortunately turning FORTY this November, so I could surely do something based on how things have changed between 1972 (then) and 2012 (now).

What were the seventies really like? I remember them to be mainly brown, orange and yellow. And bleak. There was a real sense of general gloom in the seventies. And a general weirdness, perhaps some sort of global acid comedown after the sixties. That would explain some of the horrific TV shows of the time, especially The Banana Splits and Animal Kwackers.

But my enduring memory of the seventies is definitely of the garish colour schemes, particularly the wallpaper and carpet patterns. This is an area I would like to explore for the project. I think some of the old designs would look really nice screenprinted. Perhaps I could do a couple of images, showing how pattern design has changed, if indeed it has. Maybe it has come full-circle. Certainly in terms of wallpaper design you can see some of retro patterns making a comeback, only now they are used sparingly on 'feature walls' which makes them less overwhelming. Here are a few designs that really typify seventies design for me:

These would look great screenprinted (and I need an excuse to get back into that anyway). I will have a go at knocking up a few designs, then try to figure out how to execute them...

Then & Now - Initial thoughts

Despite being up to our eyeballs in dissertation right now, we have been set our first project for the year. The title is "Then & Now" and we need to produce two outcomes; one 'big' and one 'small'.

Okay, so what are my first thoughts on the subject?

Something that has changed over time

I am reading a great book about the moon landings at the moment called "Moondust". This got me thinking about the primitive computer technology that was used to put man on the moon. How does this compare to the processing power in my mobile phone? I assume not very favourably. So there's one train of thought. Not quite sure how to make something visual from that, but that's not the point at this stage.

Fashion. Yeah, this has changed over time, obviously. Problem is I am not particularly interested in it as a subject.

One idea I had over the summer that would fit this brief is to do with football (and fashion actually). I was thinking about how you rarely see a player wearing black boots these days, whereas in the past there was no other option (okay, apart from Alan Ball's white boots). Perhaps I could do screenprints of team line-ups for big matches throughout history, where I use little boot icons to represent each player on the pitch. The boots would be coloured to match the ones worn by the player during the match.

So for the 1966 World Cup final, all the boot icons would be black, except for little Alan's. If I did one from let's say Argentina 1978, most of the boots would be black, apart from maybe the Argentine playmaker or winger, who would probably have had white ones. A similar image from the Euro 2012 final would be utterly bereft of black boots, with the majority being luminous orange, lime green or pink. Even the bloody centre-halves!

Another thing that has changed markedly over time is our consumption. How about a pair of images that show the sheer volume of brands we are consuming these days, compared to different points in history? Could be visually interesting and makes an important social statement.

How about the relative value of celebrity Then & Now? Look at the first Hollywood superstars and how they had true class and compare them to today's X-Factor 'celebs'.

Something that combines both the past and the present

Not sure what I would be saying with this, but I am thinking that an image of dinosaurs wandering around modern Bath/London/New York would look pretty cool.

Something which is both Then & Now. A timeless classic that hasn't really changed

• VW Beetle
• Vespa scooter
• Helvetica!
• Converse All-Stars
• London black cab
• London Underground map
• Raybans
• Brogue shoes
• Braun products (Dieter Rams)
• Fender Stratocaster
• Gibson Les Paul

Other ideas from different parts of my brain

Olympic branding Then & Now. Compare and contrast the awesome Otl Aicher designed Munich Olympics of 1972 with the dreadful pink splats that Wolff Olins knocked up in their lunch hour for London 2012. Another angle would be to look at what happened to the Olympic infrastructure after the circus had left town. What became of the amazing stadium in Beijing? I remember seeing images of derelict stadia left over from the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. What a waste!

While stuck in traffic on my way home from uni the other day, I got to thinking about how traffic density has ramped up in Bath over the years. How could this be explored and represented visually? Where could I get the data? It would be nice to present this graphically for any number of cities around the world.

How about air traffic density over the UK? This would have an important environmental message and could look striking visually. This needs to be explored...

Another idea I had was to do a series of Then & Now photos to show the extent of damage (and damage that is still visible) from the Bath Blitz in World War II. I would personally love to research this and I find it quite eery when I see the shrapnel damage to some of the buildings in the city centre but unfortunately I think this subject has been done to death. And it is a bit too obvious.

And so back to football

One final idea on the football theme - how about a piece that documents the change in the design of footballs used at major tournaments? I could do a book shaped like a regulation size five football, with vector illustrations of all the balls (should be able to find enough reference material online) and snippets of trivia on the other side of each one - things like tournament top scorer, most assists, controversy surrounding the ball at the time (too bouncy, floaty, swervy, etc.).

Wow. That was a long first blog post for the third year. 

Hipster Graphics

Is this what hipster graphics look like? Ooh, it's so deep and mysterious...

Trying out my new Bamboo tablet thingy

Of course I still suck at drawing but I am having fun anyway!

Poster Idea for Publication Exhibition

Finally we have a name for our publication exhibition - "Let's Begin". So I began by knocking up this poster/flyer idea...

It is going to be printed in black onto different coloured paper, so I designed it with that restriction in mind. I think it even works quite nicely on brown!

I posted it on our Facebook group and it passed without comment. Oh well.

Think Art!

Well? Go on then!

I Done A Art!

Could this be the beginning of a new direction for me?

Probably not.

Publication Project - Finished Books!

After a few printing issues last week I have finally got a stack of twelve beautiful shrink-wrapped finished books!

I am still not sure whether to refer to it as a book or a magazine. I guess it's more a magazine because I have played around with different layouts, giving each feature spread a distinct identity. If it was a book I may have been more restrained.

Talking of restraint, following the (mostly positive) feedback on my mock I made a few little tweaks to the design, the biggest being a reduction in fonts used from six to three (cover aside). I stuck with 8pt MetaPro Normal for the body text, plus OCR A Std and Caliper LightCubed for headings and big quotes.

I am really happy with how it turned out in the end. It has the high-quality look and feel of some of my favourite indie mags, which was what I was aiming for.

Business Card Idea #1

I really want a business card that stands out, so I have chosen a pretty strong block of solid colour for the front, while the back is more restrained:

Professional Contexts - Presentation

I've got to do a "Pecha Kucha" presentation in a couple of weeks, which is basically 20 slides, 20 seconds each, about who I am as a designer, what inspires me and where I see myself in the creative industry in the future.

Next week is the dry run, so I really need to start thinking about these important questions, thus making the task less nightmarish.

Let's see then... I would never want to work for a massive agency/studio, so I will most-likely be self-employed. However, I have worked on my own from home in the past and it is not conducive to good mental health, so ideally I would share studio space with a couple of other people, even if we work on different projects.

Most of the stuff I like is rather cold and structured in a classic Swiss grid-based style. I love what Paprika do, as well as Build and Music, but what does this say about me as a designer? All three of them use a lot of big, bold typography over solid blocks of colour and Music in particular seem to have a genuine sense of humour. This is very important to me, and something that I struggle with as it seems to be in direct opposition to the austere Swiss/German aesthetics. Maybe I can resolve this one day but for now I just have to switch between my two hats - sensible and mischievous.

The companies mentioned above, along with many of my other favourites, are well-established and no doubt charge a small fortune working for prestigious clients. I think I would like to produce work of a similar style but for small businesses in the local area. Not all small businesses want an off-the-shelf £99 website or Prestoprint stationery, so I think there could be a market for what I am planning to offer.

Until I can think of something better I will continue to work under the name AA72. I don't want people to think of me as a one-man band, operating out of my bedroom, even if I am, and the URL aa72.co.uk is available, which is a bonus. It's easy to remember, at least for me, being my initials and year of birth, and I think some people get too hung up trying to find the perfect name. It's pointless. I mean, look at the companies I like - Paprika, Build, Music, A2/SW/HK! So now perhaps I should crack on and produce a strong visual identity for AA72.

What else can I talk about in this presentation? My views on sustainability? Hmm, I don't really have strong views on that, I don't think you can be too concerned with that when starting out. Same applies to ethics - if Coca Cola or McDonalds want to pay me £100,000 to design a new logo I am very likely to oblige. No-one is forcing anyone to eat that shite. I would however not do any work for arms manufacturers or the military. Getting back to sustainability, I think that really comes down to the client. If it is a high priority for the client I would factor it into any proposal or quote. Obviously if the client was Greenpeace or The Body Shop then I would consider sustainability as a priority from the offset.

I am not an illustrator, although sometimes I get the urge to create something that is more than just type, like this sausage poster:

I would of course still take on work that required less crude illustration, although I would most likely sub-contract it to one of the proper artists I know, acting instead as art director.

And that is all I have for now. At least it's a start.

Publication Project - Request Denied

I emailed the printers to see if it was possible to get proofs of a couple of spreads, mainly so I can check that the photos are bright enough and that the silhouetted character vectors stand out against the black backgrounds. I also asked for a blind dummy, whereby an unprinted book is made up and bound using the exact paper stocks I have chosen, just so I can get a feel for the finished publication.

They told me this could of course be done but unfortunately they would have to charge me a setup fee of £20 for the proofs and £15 for the blind dummy. I can't afford that at the moment so I will have to just have faith in my decisions and hope for the best. I have sampled quite a few paper stocks and also proofed the questionable spreads on various printers at home and uni, so there is every chance they will be fine.

Obviously if I was doing a much larger print run then I would go ahead and pay for these as they would only be a tiny fraction of the overall cost. For twelve copies at £125, an additional £35 is just too much.

Project Ideas for Year 3

I think we have to do six self-initiated projects in the third year. From what I saw at last year's degree show it seems everyone tries to do the following:

• a book
• a typeface
• a blog or website
• some posters, inc one to advertise the typeface and one for the book

I have been thinking of ideas for a book and the one I keep coming back to is a book of quotes and portraits of all my favourite musicians, who all happen to be dead. I will call it something like "All My Heroes Are Dead", if I am feeling sensible. On another day I might call it "Moths".

Having recently visited the utterly shite Damien Hirst exhibit at Tate Modern, I might be tempted to call it "Unfinished Business in a World of Broken Promises". 

Another project I would like to undertake would be to design a new set of banknotes for the UK. I would get rid of all those boring old farts and instead celebrate the people who make this country great. People like Simon Cowell, Jordan, Jade Goody (gawd bless her), Amy Winehouse and Boy George.

Hmm... how about a set of eighties-themed banknotes, with Ian Curtis, Simon Le Bon, Dave Gahan (or more likely Martin Gore) and Adam Ant? That would be nice, especially with a garish eighties palette. The values of the notes would be higher than the current ones to reflect the rising cost of living.

But they would have to look amazing and I am not sure I have the skills. I am talking proper fancy stuff like this:

http://blog.iso50.com/27300/redesigning-the-swedish-banknote/

Well, it's a start...

Publication Project - Final Mock

I managed to get a lot done over Easter, which is lucky as we are showing our final mockups tomorrow. My final publication weighs in at sixty pages broken down as follows:

• Cover 250gsm Xper uncoated
• Dedication (page 1) 110gsm GSK Transparent
• Pages 3-40 140gsm Xper uncoated
• Photography section (pages 41-60) 170gsm Freelife Gloss

The idea is to spend the first 40 pages showing the ins and out of amateur astronomy, with an attempt to focus on the DIY "garden shed" nature of the hobby, juxtaposed with the final 20 pages that are a sort of showcase of some of the stunning images my friends have captured with modest kit. The change of paper stock signals the shift in focus and quality from DIY to high-tech.

Anyway, here's my mock cover and a couple of the spreads:

Publication Project - Final Cover

I think I have finally nailed the cover! I designed a little telescope symbol that sits perfectly beneath the title and looks really nice repeated on the spine:

The spine is currently set to 10mm, which I am going to work from until I get a final page count and figure from the printers. The QR code on the back cover takes you to the Bath Astronomers site.

The telescope symbol was originally like this:

However, my tutor pointed out that she wouldn't instantly think of that as a telescope. It is in fact an SCT-type scope design (Schmidt–Cassegrain Telescope) which is very popular with amateur astronomers these days, although I do agree that a more traditional "long and thin" design would work better. So I came up with this one:

It's not only more instantly recognisable but it also looks a lot better in my opinion.

With the cover finished I decided to have another stab at the star-map conundrum. It seems to me that the only workable solution is to have them on the inside covers, or endpapers.

(click for larger image)

The inside-front cover (left) shows the summer sky as at 22.00 BST on June 1st 2012 looking north, while the inside-back cover (right) shows the view to the south. I created these in Adobe Illustrator and got the positions of the constellations, planets, etc from Cartes du Ciel.

It is worth noting that after showing this to the guys at Ripe Digital, I was advised to remove the black from the spine area of the inside cover, as this could adversely affect the performance of the glue in the binding. The book will be perfect bound, in case I haven't mentioned this before.

Publication Project - Illustration Win?

I showed my "Don't Forget..." pages to my tutor and she agreed that they are not really working and jump out a bit too much. So I decided to stretch the "stargazer silhouette" theme that I am using on one of my spreads. I think they are much better and more in keeping with the look and feel of my book.

I want the effect to be subtle but I don't want people to miss the joke altogether, so I had to play around with the CMYK values and print a few test pages. Turns out a good setting is C0, M0, Y0, K100 for the back ground and C40, M40, Y40, K100 for the silhouetted figures.

Thanks to mag design legend Terry Stokes for the top tip!

Publication Project - Illustration Fail

I thought it would be nice to break up some of the main content of my publication with these three handy tips:

Now, I know they prove once again that I am not an illustrator but there is something I quite like about them. The problem is that they kind of jar in the context of my publication so I may have to think of an alternative.

Publication Project - More Spread Ideas

Here are a few more spreads I have been working on. This one is the template for all the Urban Observatory spreads. I think it works pretty well:

The following two spreads are for the Self-Build Scope feature. The first one is based around the original Sketchup designs that Colin gave me, while the second one features the best photos that I took on Clifton Downs of Colin, his fabricator/inventor friend Gabriel (who built the thing) and the scope itself:

Publication Project - A Visit to the Printer

There is no way that I am going to rely on the uni printer to get my book done on time, especially as he is snowed under with third-year's degree show work. Obviously that takes priority. So I arranged a visit to Ripe Digital in Corsham.

They seem like a decent lot and they showed me around the various bits of kit and told me what could and couldn't be done. I have decided to get my books perfect-bound, which they do as individual sheets (as opposed to sections), at least on a job this small. My book/mag looks like it will come in at around 50 - 60 pages.

I want the dedication page to be on tracing paper, so I have chosen a 110gsm GSK Transparent sheet. It is not as light as I would have liked but it seems to be the lightest transparency they will put through their press. The bulk of my publication will be printed on 140gsm Xper, uncoated stock, which has a similar feel to that used in Little White Lies. I plan on using the final 10 pages or so as a showcase of some of the stunning images that my astrophotography friends have captured in their modest observatories, so these will be printed on 170gsm Freelife Gloss. I like the idea of having different paper stocks in the same publication.

The cover will be printed on the 250gsm version of Xper uncoated.

Publication Project - Foldout Star-Maps

A lot of the publications Nigel showed us in the "Formats" tutorial had really cool foldout sections. I know a lot of tutors were keen on stuff like this in the first year too, so I really want to do something in my publication. I don't want to shoehorn it in there for the sake of it though.

My idea is to have a foldout star-map at the back. Basically, the back cover will fold out twice to make a panoramic guide to the night sky. I spoke to George at Ripe (my printer) and discovered it is not possible. My foldout would make the cover over 590mm wide (plus spine) which would not be printable on A3. They can print larger format but only single-sided.

So my idea for a foldout cover is a non-starter. Must come up with another solution as I really like the star-map idea...

Publication Project - Silhouette Spread

This is my idea for the silhouette spread, whereby I explain that it's hard to spot your fellow astronomer at night. The starry background is the result of twenty 30-second exposures taken in my backyard, stacked using Deep Sky Stacker and then tweaked in Photoshop. On top of this I have added vector drawings of a scope and an astronomer in suitably silly hat. A friend of mine who works in magazine design said I should set the vectors to C40, M40, Y40, K100 to get an almost spot-varnish black on black effect. I want it to be pretty subtle but I don't want people to miss it.

Publication Project - Spread Ideas

Here are the first few spread ideas I have come up with. As you will see, text pages are two-column and headings are set in OCR. After extensive testing I have decided to use 8pt MetaPro for the body copy.

Urban Observatory Spread

Tiny Saturn Spread

Self-Build Spread

Publication Project - Initial Flatplan

Here's my initial flatplan. I am sure it will change a lot before the publication goes to print but you have to start somewhere and it is difficult to visualise the flow of content without this.

I want the first page to be a dedication to the memory of Dick Phillips, the founder of Bath Astronomers who sadly passed away earlier this year. I think it would be nice to have this on thin tracing paper, setting it apart from the main content of the book.

My main ideas for the bulk of the content include:

Great Expectations (or what you actually see through a telescope)
I have a great photo of Saturn that one of my friends took a few years ago. It's an expanse of black and Saturn is tiny, nestled in one corner. I think this would look great as a spread, with a comment about how blown away I was when I first saw Saturn for myself.

Urban Observatories
These are the photos I took of people's kit in their back gardens (including my own). I have six in total, so I think it could be nice to dot them throughout the publication as a kind of running theme.

In Search of Dark Skies
Profiles of Bath Astronomers' three primary observing sites at Wellow, Gypsy Lane and Marshfield.

Observing the Moon
Did you know that the worst time to look at the moon is when it is full?

Are We Alone?
Responses to my questionnaire about extraterrestrial life.

Imagers vs Observers
Some observational astronomers scoff at amateur attempts at astrophotography. Others admire the craft and dedication required, as well as the staggering results that some imagers can achieve.

Self-Build Scope
One of our number has gone to great lengths (and expense) to design and build a massive telescope from scratch. I will interview him to find out more, plus take some photos of his unique design.

I would also like to scatter a few running themes/gags throughout the publication. Firstly, I mentioned to Teresa how you learn to identify fellow astronomers by their voice and silhouette, such is the total darkness of our observing sites. She liked the idea and thought it could be a strong graphic feature. Secondly, there are a few tips for observing that I would like to present, almost as adverts in the publication, such as:

• Remember torched need red filters to preserve night-adapted vision
• Wrap up warm as the winter is the time for the best dark skies
• Take a flask of hot tea when you go out observing

I think that's enough to get me started generating content. Time to crack on!

Publication Project - Format and Cover Ideas

I really like it when a magazine or book has a slightly unconventional format. Little White Lies is slightly shorter than A4 but also slightly wider. I decided that my astronomy publication should be quite a bit smaller than a standard magazine. Making it A5 would mean that I can print out mock spreads on my home printer in colour, which is definitely a bonus. Also, I spoke to Ripe Digital, a printer in Corsham, and they print at "Super A3" size, so an A5 magazine would be printed four pages to a sheet, making it cost-effective.

I didn't want standard A5 (210x148) though, so I played around a bit before settling on a page setting of 200mm x 148mm.

During my last tutorial, I showed Teresa my proposed cover photo, which she loved, and came up with the title "Don't Look At The Sun" on the spot! It just seemed to really work with the image and it also reinforced the DIY backyard feel. So I set to work on some ideas for the cover...

This is my first attempt at the cover. I think the title font, American Captain, is really rather nice. It looks a bit Star Trek, which is evocative of the sixties, a time where people were wrapped up in the space race and increasingly fascinated by the universe around them. The subtitle "A Celebration of Backyard Astronomy" is set in OCR A Std.

This title is in Dubiel Italic, which I think also has a very sixties feel to it. I am not sure I like it as much as the previous one though. I have rounded the corners of the photo on this one, making more like the sixties surf mags that inspired me.

Not so sure about this one. The typeface is Designer Block, which is pretty nice but I am not sure it really works for my magazine. I have also tried moving the content summary text to beneath the photo for balance but I don't think it is successful. All part of the process...

I really like this one. It is a very delicate retro typeface called Across The Stars which I think works well in all lower-case. This is definitely my second favourite after the first one in this post.

This is called Droid Regular. I like the fact it is condensed as it really seems to balance the page. It's also very sixties in style. I still don't think it's quite there but it's not that far off.