For my final graphics projects we were given a self directed brief in which we had to show ourselves by telling our 'creative story' through a piece. This included trying to get across my work ethic, personality, inspiration, values and our truth. The main thing i had to remember with this piece of work was that it was not a cv but to express myself in my truest form.
At first I found the idea of this rather hard as expressing oneself also means to knows oneself and I feel people tend to change a lot depending on the time, So i tried to focus mainly on what my ideals are and what inspires me. As such I came up with the themes of glitch art as it not only inspires me its the form of design and art I enjoy working in the most. The random elements to this form also creates interesting and unique patterns and style which can be manipulated in ways otherwise not thought of. This coupled with my design ideals that design doesn't always have to be perfect / legible as long as the main idea is shown somewhere in the work, whether that be indirectly or though a message etc.
With these ideas in place I went to work experimenting with what I wanted to make an in what style, Did i want to make a short video a selection of prints, business identity a product etc etc the list was endless. However since this project was to express out creative story, my end goal is to work for myself freelance, so i went with the theme of making self promotional products, this included business cards, a poster and leaflets. I looked at such companies as Bibliotheque and Cartlidge Levene as the way in which they present a brand identity was really interesting to me and helped me have an idea of how I wanted to layout my products.
I'm really happy with the way the business cards and poster came out keeping them in the same style and theme. To create the main body of the poster i used photos from my previous years work (mainly the final project images) and then manipulated to the extent of no longer being legible. This was done through a wide array of different glitch / pixel art techniques from scripts to editing in word pad. I looked at the works of David Carson and omocat for further inspiration on layouts, style and logos. As I wanted a simple block based logo which would't over power the rest of the design. Not only does this tie in with the theme of my creative story and moving forward onto the 'next idea' the tag line 'Next Idea' was also born. This tag line no long fits in with my end goal but also with the style of work, as glitches are random and expressive as such the next idea is just round the corner. I also believe you cannot have a good piece of work without a good idea before hand.
Leaflet Front Leaflet Back
With my poster and business cards all set up printed and ready to go for the exhibit all that was left was to wait for my leaflets to arrive on time but due to the bank holiday the week before which I forgot about my order got delayed, As such I didm;t have them up in time for the exhibit. I printed them out on basic stock card but the effect and shine of the card just didm;t look right on them so I choose not to exhibit them. I feel this was the best choice as I was not 100% happy with them but I would use them again in the future given the opportunity too.
Overall I am really happy with how this project turned out and it was really nice to see the final products up and displayed on a wall where they should be. The strong colours which were perfectly printed really set my work off and allowed it to be easy to see and very eye catching. I'm happy with the end design, with the logo being really simple but effective and having my peers agree made it all the more worth while.
