Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Initial Leaflet Idea

This is my favourite leaflet idea that I chose to develop for my final piece.

I used the same typography, on the front cover, as from on the posters to keep it looking the same.

The blue lines that I have added onto the pages shows where I want to add photos in when i create it in Photoshop.

These pages will contain photographs of different animals that you can see in Kenya.

On the page on the right I want to add a couple of photographs edited and layered up in Photoshop, possibly of people from Kenya.

As this is a leaflet to give people information about Kenya I added in a map and a section on key words to know.

On the back cover I added some contact details and left a section for adding a photograph in. 

To develop this idea I will produce it in Photoshop so I can add in more graphics, images and colours to make it more attractive.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: leaflet ideas

These are some of my leaflet ideas that I have made that I could possibly use for my final one.

My favourite idea is the top middle leaflet, as it is smaller and more practical to keep without it being damaged in pockets etc..It can also contain more information because it has more pages than the others. To develop this idea I will decide what information I should include within the leaflet so I can then plan out the design of each page.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Leaflet Research

Instead of doing 5 posters for my final piece I decided to do 3 posters and a leaflet. These are some examples of different leaflets to give me some ideas.

One- Is more like a booklet, with some key information telling you what it is about on the front, features the logo and has many pages within it.

Two- Has many pages, with each colour strip down the side being a different part of the booklet so people can find what they want easier. It also contains some graphics on the front, featuring the title, logo and slogan of the company.

Three- Is one sided piece of paper containing all of the information needed and contact details, the logo, title and has background images to make it more exciting and colourful.

Four- Is folded into 3 sections, with all the main information inside and the name of the company, logo, website address and images on the front.

Five- Is a small leaflet that folds out to be a long piece containing lots of informations and images. On the front of the leaflet is the logo, title, website address and pictures.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Analysis

I got these images from a graphics design website but the artist of the work is unknown.

The title of this image is 'peace', it was most likely made for a poster or advert. As the title of the image is 'peace' and contains a hand holding up a a spanner with the Christianity symbol at one end and Islamic symbol at the other it suggest that it was made during a time of religious issues. The title of the artwork makes you realize what it is about and makes your think more deeply in to why it was made. The theme of the work is peace and power. The artist is trying to make a strong statement about two different religions making peace, the powerful fist shaped hand holding up the spanner in the centre of the page symbolizes this. It also looks like it has been made out of metal which could symbolize strength or the power of the statement. The fact that the two religious symbols are shown on the same spanner could represent the link between them as it shows them joint together. 

This artwork was most likely created using a range of different techniques and materials such as paints, inks and handmade drawings, that have then been edited in Photoshop or another graphic design programme. I think the artist chose to use these materials to add a grunge/urban/rough look to the artwork. He uses a mixture of dark and bright colours with the bright colours such as yellow and orange focused around the fist to draw attention to it. The orange colour fades out to red then black, this could be for a sense of heat or maybe fire being created from the fist at the centre of the design. The yellow circle that is behind the fist spotlights it so it looks more important and stands out even more. The design of the artwork is structured so that the statement that the artist is trying to make gets across to the audience easily.

I like this piece as it is very powerful and has a lot of deep meaning behind it, it is also very effective and attractive. The design of the piece also reminds me a bit of Danny Alison's work. 

The title of this piece of artwork is 'Eagle', it was most likely made for a magazine or a poster. When the artwork was made is unknown but by looking at the graphics used and assuming it was edited in Photoshop suggests that it is a fairly recent piece. The title of the piece doesn't change the way you look at it because it just states the obvious. The theme of the work is grunge. The image of the eagle could symbolize power, freedom or spirit. Considering the last piece of artwork was based around religion, this could also have a religious meaning behind it. 

This picture was most likely made in Photoshop using a photograph of an eagle and some handmade techniques as well, such as the textural background and the patterns. He has used materials such as acrylic paints, inks and pens. The artist most likely chose to use these materials to achieve the grunge look or to give it a nature feel. The colours that he has used are mostly dull, shades of brown and black, with some yellow and orange to brighten it up. The background colours used are lighter around the eagle head so the dark colour of it will stand out better, with the darkened edges adding depth. The composition of the piece is designed so the eagle at the centre of the page stands out the most and so the lines look as if they are flying out from different directions to give a sense of movement/speed. 

I like this piece as it is skilfully made, has a lot of detail and stands out well.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Poster Development

These are my developed ideas for the posters:

To create these posters I used my handmade drawings, typography, textures and photos that I then edited in Photoshop. To create the handmade drawings I used a thick black felt tip to draw the outlines before scanning them in, once they were in Photoshop I then decided whether to add fill to them or not. I used lots of different layers containing different objects to build up to this effect using different blending effects such as multiply- to make any white areas around the objects disappear. I also changed the opacity of some layers so that they would be less visible or to let other colours show through. I applied the dry brush effect to each photograph separately and then used the eraser tool to get rid of the background before pasting them into a new layer in the poster design. The background layer of this design was made using different coloured inks and acrylic paints that I watered down before adding to the paper, I then sprinkled salt over the top and waited for it to create this unique pattern.

The ink/paint splash effects in these posters don't look very effective at the moment as they don't blend in with the animals and look out of place. I would like to develop this idea to look more like the technique Danny Alison uses for his work, to make the animals flow in with the rest of the picture.

These are my own drawings that I used to create these posters:

I chose different patterns and objects that relate to my travel/African theme such as an air plane, camera and African symbols.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Typography Experiments

These are my typography experiments for the title of the poster. 

My favourite idea that I will add onto my posters is the idea in the top left corner. This is because it stands out from the rest of the ideas, it is in capital letter which I think looks better and it has sharp corners/edges which make it look more powerful.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Review of Ideas

Since the start of the project I have decided to create 5 posters for my final piece and I have chosen to base them on Kenya. After doing the lino printing experiment, which i enjoyed, I was thinking of using the same idea for my final idea but I decided that I would like to do something more complex by using more than one technique with in the poster ideas..


From experimenting with different techniques and materials I found out what I liked, disliked and what I wanted to experiment further with. For example I liked using the lino printing technique, disliked the felt tip ideas and wanted to develop the spray painting technique further. This helped me decide that I wanted to take a multi media approach to my work to improve it and make it more exciting.

Looking at the work of different artists/designers has helped give me inspiration and ideas on how to develop my work. For example I have looked at the work of Danny Alison and used some of the techniques he uses in his work in my own. I also looked at the work of Chris Ede and Miles Donovan which I then used to help inspire my own ideas for my work. 


 I hope to develop my ideas further as I am not 100% happy with them at the moment. I need to experiment with adding to the basic picture I have used for my work at the moment to make it more interesting and skilful. I also plan on researching Danny Alison's work further and learning more skills to use in Photoshop.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Poster Development

This is development of the Chris Ede inspired piece that I created.

I used the same image from my previous idea but added my lino print into the background underneath my other layers, changing the opacity of them so that you could just about see the patterns show through. I also added in three of my drawings into the picture on different layers using the Linear Dodge effect to blend the layers together. At the moment I dislike this piece as it looks quite dull/boring, the drawings don't look very effective and nothing much is really going on within the image but I would like to change and develop it further to make it look more exciting and skilful.

I used the same techniques for this image as in the elephants image above.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Development

These are drawings I created using a fine liner, I would like to add them into my Photoshop idea of the elephants to develop it further, I used photographs from my holiday to Kenya to draw these from. 

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Illustration Development

These are some ideas for techniques I could use for my final posters.

 For this idea I used the two sponge textural backgrounds which I layered on top of each other in Photoshop and applied the artistic- cut out effect to my elephant image. I used the similar technique to Chris Ede to create this piece. I could develop this technique by adding more scenery, effects and layers onto the image. I would like to develop this idea and possibly use it within my final piece.

I used my lino print that I have previously made, opened up my rhino picture in Photoshop and erased the background. I then placed the rhino image under the lino print and used the clipping mask tool to get the rhino shape cut out into the lino print, finally I added a black fill to the background. I like this idea but I don't think it is good enough to use for my final piece.

I used my lino print again for this idea but this time with in the background and I edited the colour of it so its not as powerful. I also used the sponge texture as a layer into the background to add some colour and added my picture of giraffes that I have erased the background from and applied the threshold effect to. I don't like this idea as much as the previous ones so I won't use it for my final piece.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Textures

These are some textural ideas that I could use within my poster.

acrylic paint and sponge roller:

This technique gives a good rough/grunge effect that could be added into the background.

Charcoal experiments:

I don't like this technique as much as the others because it looks quite messy and wouldn't work well in the background or added to any layers in my poster.

Blue spray paint:

I like this idea but I don't think it would work as well within my poster because it would probably look out of place.

2 colours of acrylic paint and scrunched up tissue:

I like this technique as it gives an effective grunge/rough/messy look and would look effective as a border around the poster to give it extra depth.

Watered down acrylic paint and inks, with salt sprinkled over the top to give this effect:

This technique is my favourite as it gives such a unique effect and goes well with my African theme. Also the bright orange/yellow colours will look good in the background of the poster to make it more colourful and attractive. 

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Photoshop experiements

These are my experiments in Adobe Photoshop of two of my photographs that I have chosen to use for my illustrations.

Chris Ede inspired piece of artwork:

I used many different layers to build up this picture. 

1. I erased the background of the photograph and applied the artistic- cutout effect to the elephants

2. I added a plain background choosing one of the colours from with the elephants layer as the fill.

3. I selected a different, lighter colour from the elephants and used the brush tool to distress the background by adding colour around the edge. I also decreased the opacity of the layer.

4. I opened a picture of a tree separately and applied the sketch- charcoal effect and added the picture in. I then changed the blending mode to 'multiply'.

5. I used the same technique as with the tree to add in some bushes to the image.

6. I added an outline around the elephants using the brush tool. 

I like the techniques used within this picture, such as the cut-out effect used on the elephants and the charcoal effect on the tree in the background but overall I don't think it looks very effective and doing the outline around the elephants is hard to do to make it look good. I would like to use some of these ideas and techniques within my idea but change them slightly.

Miles Donovan inspired piece of artwork:

1. I edited the contrast of the original image in adjustments-levels

2. I then duplicated the layer and added the threshold effect to the image making the threshold level quite high so there was a lot of colour. I then went to select-colour range, made sure image was selected and chose the colour white to be selected and then deleted it. I went to hue/saturation selected colourize and changed the colour to purple.

3. I then duplicated the original image again and applied the threshold effect to it again but this time making the level lower so there was less colour but more detail. I then deleted the white from the image again using select-colour range and left the colour of the image as black.

4. Finally i created a background layer the I filled in another colour of my choice.

I like this design as it works really well and I like the effective it adds to the picture, such as the texture of the grass and the light and shadow effect on the zebra. I would like to develop this idea into my own work and possibly use it within my final piece.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Illustration Experimentation

For this experiment I used different colours of paper that I ripped out of magazines to then create the pictures with a collage effect. I chose to try out this effect as it doesn't seem as commonly used compared to other techniques and I thought it might work quite well to give a bold effect to my drawings.

I think the second picture of the rhino was more effective than the lions because it has a more basic shape and doesn't need as much detail added to it. It was also harder to match the shape of the lions so that it can still be easily recognized. From a distance both of these ideas stand out and look much better.

I wouldn't choose to develop this idea further as I don't think worked as well as I would have liked and its only really effective when creating less detailed pictures.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Illustration Experimentation

I used a black felt tip pen to draw out my pictures. I then chose two different, bold colours that would contrast well for each and used one to colour in the animal and the other to shade in the background.

I got this idea from one of the designs I saw at the Pick Me Up event.

I like this idea because of bold affect the colours give the pictures but it is not very skilful or imaginative.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Illustration Experimentation

Using black red, orange and brown coloured fine liners I drew the same African patterns as I had used in the lino print experiment in these drawings of my illustrations.

I like this idea as the colours and patterns used relate to the African theme of all my drawings. I would possibly like to experiment cutting these designs out on lino and printing them or developing them in some way into a different design.

Unit 2, Encounters, experiences and meetings: Primary research visit to Pick Me Up

I went to the Pick Me Up graphics show at Somerset House in London to look at lots of different designers work and to get inspiration for my own work.

Zim and Zou

Fran Marchesi

I found that Andy Smith's work, mainly illustration or typography based, was the most inspiring to me as it looks exciting, colourful, cleverly made and it stands out well. 

There was a lot of different types of work on display such as typography, illustrations, lino prints, paintings, paper installations and many others.