What is graphic design for?

Dancing babies from Evian. Very cute and quirky and using what they are recognised for. A good example of branding and how the audience will directly link something (such as a dancing baby) to your product and how you can play and fun with that.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/april/evian-babies-dance-betc

What is graphic design for?

John sent out an email containing a few links that he thought we would find useful. I've had a look and although most of them are quite hard to understand entirely because they aren't in English, I have come across some work that I quite like. The first is the logo Tiypo, which as far as I can tell is a font archive.

This is the main logo for the site. Obviously this is aimed at the graphic designers and typographers out there. I love the simplicity of the idea to just misspell the word 'typo' which is something all graphics nerds will be giggling to themselves about (including myself). Also I love how the i has been formed from the stem of the y, its subtle adjustments like this that make a logo interesting.

I think its great how they've made the logo in various different fonts yet is still recognisable as their own. It's not only a clever form of branding, but really relevant to their site of lists of fonts.

InDesign brief. Existing layouts.

I have had a look at some layouts that I really like to aid my own double page spread design. Some of them  I like because they get the point across appropriately, and others because aesthetically they look good. There are some great ones here and some really unique and interesting ways to layout a page.

Here is a kind of swatch book that Charlotte found. Its for a company showing examples of different stocks and types of prints they do. Very similar to our current project, I love the finished product and is definitely something to keep and not throw away. Hopefully our prints will have the same effect when they are finished.

What is graphic design for?

I was browsing the creative review blog and came across this awesome ad for the Land Rover defender. i really like it in all its simplicity. The Land Rovers distinctive shape is made up of stamps in a passport book, suggesting that you can take your Landy to all these locations rather than just using it as an everyday car.

Another older ad by Land Rover, again simple but effective use of the Land Rovers recognisable silhouette.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/may/rkcryr-defender

What is graphic design for?

A genius idea by MTV, along the same lines as Honda's car parts ad (OK maybe not that genius, but still pretty cool). Basically its a kind of flip book but used on bursting balloons. Although this is a great idea, I do feel that it was lost a bit in the final outcome. A key example of how letting the concept steer the entire design can sometimes ruin it, maybe the aesthetic should have been thought through a little more, but its still quirky and fun none the less.


http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/may/mtv-balloons

Speaking from experience

To kick start mine and Charlotte's project about printing processes I have decided to research more about the different techniques and how they are usually done and in what context they are used.
The printing processes that we have decided to use within our project are...

Screen printing 

Collograph

Letterpress

Woodblock 

Monoprint

Foil blocking

Here are some definitions of the processes that I have found on Wikipedia and and briefly how to use them...

Monoprint

Monoprinting is a form of printmaking that has images or lines that can only be made once, unlike most printmaking, where there are multiple originals. There are many techniques of monoprinting. Examples of standard printmaking techniques which can be used to make monoprints include lithography, woodcut, and etching.
A monoprint is a single impression of an image made from a reprintable block, such as a metal plate used for etching, a litho stone or wood block. Rather than printing an edition of multiple copies of a single image, only one impression may be produced, either by painting or making a collage on the block. Etching plates may also be inked in a way that is expressive and unique in the strict sense, in that the image cannot be reproduced exactly.[1] Monoprints may also involve elements that change, where the artist reworks the image in between impressions or after printing so that no two prints are aboslutely identical.[2] Monoprints may include collage, hand-painted additions, and a form of tracing by which thick ink is laid down on a table, paper is placed on top and is then drawn on, transferring the ink onto the paper. Monoprints can also be made by altering the type, color, and pressure of the ink used to create different prints.

 

http://thedesignlane.com/blog/

Letterpress 

Letterpress printing is relief printing of text and image using a press with a "type-high bed" printing press and moveable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image. It was the normal form of printing text from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century until the 19th century and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century. In addition to the direct impression of inked movable type onto paper or another receptive surface, letterpress is also the direct impression of inked printmakingblocks such as photo-etched zinc "cuts" (plates), linoleum blocks, wood engravings, etc., using such a press.

http://www.designweek.co.uk/home/blog/blog-archive/virtual-collaborations/3013460.article

Some great innovative ways to use letterpress in business card design...

http://www.designweek.co.uk/home/blog/blog-archive/virtual-collaborations/3013460.article

Woodblock

The wood block is carefully prepared as a relief matrix, which means the areas to show 'white' are cut away with a knife, chisel, or sandpaper leaving the characters or image to show in 'black' at the original surface level. The block was cut along the grain of the wood. It is only necessary to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. The content would of course print "in reverse" or mirror-image, a further complication when text was involved. The art of carving the woodcut is technically known as xylography, though the term is rarely used in English.

For colour printing, multiple blocks are used, each for one colour, although overprinting two colours may produce further colours on the print. Multiple colours can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks.

There are three methods of printing to consider: 

Stamping 

Used for many fabrics, and most early European woodcuts (1400–40) These were printed by putting the paper or fabric on a table or other flat surface with the block on top, and pressing or hammering the back of the block.
Rubbing

Apparently the most common for Far Eastern printing on paper at all times. Used for European woodcuts and block-books later in the 15th century, and very widely for cloth. The block goes face up on a table, with the paper or fabric on top. The back is rubbed with a "hard pad, a flat piece of wood, a burnisher, or a leather frotton".

Printing in a press
Presses only seem to have been used in Asia in relatively recent times. Simple weighted presses may have been used in Europe, but firm evidence is lacking. Later, printing-presses were used (from about 1480). A deceased Abbess of Mechelen in Flanders in 1465 had "unum instrumentum ad imprintendum scripturas et ymagines ... cum 14 aliis lapideis printis" ("an instrument for printing texts and pictures ... with 14 stones for printing") which is probably too early to be a Gutenberg-type printing press in that location.

http://thejamfactory.wordpress.com/2009/03/

Foil Blocking

Foil stamping, typically a commercial print process, is the application of pigment or metallic foil, often gold or silver , but can also be various patterns or what is known as pastel foil which is a flat opaque color or white special film-backed material, to paper where a heated die is stamped onto the foil, making it adhere to the surface leaving the design of the die on the paper. Foil stamping can be combined with embossing to create a more striking 3D image.

http://www.dry.uk.com/creative/one-marylebone-road

Here are some examples of foil stamping or blocking used in real life production. I have found these images from the same website i found the screen print examples, they are designed by a company called DRY. I'm really glad that I have stumbled across their site as I love their work and will be following what they produce.

Collograph 

Collography (sometimes misspelled "collagraphy") is a printmaking process in which materials are applied to a rigid substrate (such as cardboard or wood). 

The plate can be intaglio-inked, inked with a roller or paintbrush, or some combination thereof. Ink or pigment is applied to the resulting collage, and the board is used to print onto paper or another material using either a printing press or various hand tools. The resulting print is termed a collagraph. Substances such as carborundum, acrylic texture mediums, sandpapers, string, cut card, leaves and grasses can all be used in creating the collograph plate. In some instances, leaves can be used as a source of pigment by rubbing them onto the surface of the plate. 

Different tonal effects and vibrant colours can be achieved with the technique due to the depth of relief and differential inking that results from the collograph plate's highly textured surface. Collography is a very open printmaking method. Ink may be applied to the upper surfaces of the plate with a brayer for a relief print, or ink may be applied to the entire board and then removed from the upper surfaces but remaining in the spaces between objects, resulting in an intaglio print. A combination of both intaglio and relief methods may also be employed. A printing press may or may not be used.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucyjkingston/page2/

This is an example of collograph used to create letterforms, to be honest I am not a huge fan of  the collographing process and finished result but I can see how people on the graphic design course could benefit from it and may broaden their approach to the designs they produce.

 

http://www.artinwoodstock.com/catalogue_item.php?catID=2466&prodID=13498&PHPSESSID=5f226cacfee46b91026248689288852c

Screen Printing 

Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink past the threads of the woven mesh in the open areas. 
Screen printing is also a stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed on a screen of silk or other fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface. It is also known as silkscreen, serigraphy, and serigraph.

 
http://www.dry.uk.com/creative/bob-eight-pop  

Here are some brilliant examples of how screen printing can turn out if executed well. I really love the simplicity of these designs, this style may work across all of the different medias we intend to use in our project. 

What is graphic design for?

'Worlds smallest animation'. This animation is to promote the Nokia N8s 'cellscope technology'. I love it, something that little bit different to catch your attention that is relevant to what its trying to promote and proves the point.