Core Concepts- Assignment 3: Colour me
Assignment 3: Colour me
To produce a poster (297mm x 420mm) that celebrates a colour of your choice. Work only with your chosen colour, its complementary colour and black and white. You can include text, collages, illustrations and photographs. Use black and white to help establish a range of tints and shades with your chosen colour. These limitations are to get you to work with colour thinking creatively about how to make a limited palette work for you.You need to submit at least three variations of your poster as well as the finished artwork.
I was looking forward to starting this Assignment, I began by documenting some thoughts/initial ideas in my sketchbook, I then looked back at all of my recent mood boards for some inspiration. The mood boards I produced for the previous task 'Photomontage’ and the ones from my visual diary were particularly helpful when planning/ gaining inspiration.
I scanned and organised my images into files to look through and choose from. This was a very long process but something I can use in the future when collecting material.
I created some patterns/textures with spray paint, and took images of them to test with using later in Photoshop.
I wanted to use this assignment as an opportunity to improve my screen printing and collage skills. After deliberating and thinking for a few days I decided to plan to create a piece displaying my current thoughts and feelings at this abnormal time in the world during the 3rd national lockdown during this pandemic. The colour I decided was best to present this was blue. Blue is quite a calm, sombre colour, the term ‘feeling blue’ came to mind.
I began to produce some layout/composition ideas for my poster. I needed to find imagery/type/shapes that portray my feelings best. I was really quite unsure where to begin with a more rigid plan so decided to jot down composition ideas as I went through looking for imagery.
After deliberating which images to use I found the ones I wanted to test further with. I went into Photoshop and played around with image editing and compositions. I got caught up in one particular composition so decided to stop and prepare to print the images, and then create new layouts and visuals physically. I had finally made a board with clamps to use my screens with, and this process made creating multiple version of the same print a lot easier. I printed a few of each image in blue and black, this process was very time consuming but good to do and created some interesting visuals.
As I began to arrange the images into a composition I had made when laying the images out physically I decided I didn’t quite like this layout and began to work on another. Through the process so far of collecting images and typography to use I had decided that I wanted to create one poster which is just images/shapes, one which is minimal, and one including typography and more textures/shapes. I am interested to see which is more effective.
Final 1:
I wanted to convey my current feelings with this poster. I decided to use the colour blue and present the phrase ‘feeling blue.’ I found the image of a boy looking upwards when searching through various books and magazines and I thought it was perfect for the message I was trying to convey. It portrays that there is hope (looking upwards to heaven.) The ripped/two sides of the face, one in blue and the other black also presents the 2 polar moods of positivity and looking ahead in the future (blue) and the present feelings of being trapped and confused (black.) The image above the head I had initially planned to be the clouds/bird imagery again to emphasise the looking into the future and also how this situation feels almost dream like, but I decided to go with the image of the wild cat/mountain lion. I chose this image because it looks like a domesticated animal that could be kept in a house (pinned in, how I feel during this lockdown) but it is free and in the wild. This is what the image of the boy looks forward to being-free. The eyes in a row exaggerate these feelings by being repeated. I also think that the eye is seen as a window into someones mind, what their eyes look like or where they are looking can tell you a lot. The image of the girl walking (it looks like she’s in a rush) with the rubble of burnt down buildings in the background is meant to show how this is almost a dystopian situation, and how everything is ‘burning’ to the ground around us.
I feel like the white border around the final image allows all of the separate images to connect and gives them space to be viewed. I preferred this version where there is a border. I like this outcome, but it is very minimal. Perhaps I should have tested more with different shapes/textures to make it more interesting. I didn’t intend to include typography within this visual but maybe I should have tested it anyway and not ruled it out. I could also have tested the use of orange (the complementary colour) as I had done with the other posters.
With my next version of the poster I decided to include more interesting textures and layers, and some typography. The word ‘towards’ was found from an old soviet weekly news paper titled “Towards Nuclear Death” which I found quite fitting. The word towards is to act as a question, what are we moving towards? Are we moving forwards? Are we moving in an irreversible way? I intended for the textures to look very raw and almost unclean like to add to the dystopian theme.
Final 2:
I was debating between the version with pencil markings or arrows and this one to choose for the next poster. I decided to go with this slightly less ‘busy’ version. I quite like this poster even though I feel like it is lacking something, perhaps I should’ve tried incorporating the orange more or in a different way. I went for the ‘head in the clouds’ type imagery here instead of the mountain lion and feel that it is quite affective. I continued the idea of the border, it allows for the slightly off whites and textures used to look more bold, and for the images to work together. I definitely feel that the typography adds to the image. I wanted it to look stuck on top of the ‘mess’ below, again to show what are we moving towards?
For my final poster I wanted to incorporate the ripped head portrait on a more minimal background. I began by scanning a piece of paper and layering it on the background. I then went through and tested some of the spray paint textures in different compositions. The ‘randomness’ of the spray paint is to show the anger and confusion at the current situation. The best I feel were the blue spray background and the blue spray in replacement of the portrait.
Final 3:
I feel like this poster describes ‘feeling blue’ well. The head ripped/explosion portrays feeling of anger and confusion and literally the ‘blueness.’ The boy is again looking up and ‘towards’ suggesting where are we going? Have we sacrificed our mental health? I like this more minimal approach to a poster the most out of the 3 I have designed, you can see the texture of the screen prints well. Looking back, I feel like I should have screen printed the spray pain textures, again to make this look more hand made. I also should’ve tested with more compositions and colours, I have a habit of sticking to one idea and creating variations rather than new designs. This is something I will have to improve on with future exercises.
These designs were created days apart and as I look back and reflect on each there are many things I would like to change composition wise and with adding typography. The first final piece I feel could benefit from the use of orange, whether as a paint splat over the top, or one of the screen prints having been orange. The orange could also act as the opposite to feeling blue and a more positive side to things, possibly creating a more interesting, oxymoronic image.
I enjoyed this assignment, but I wish I had left myself more time to produce other versions of the posters, as screen printing is still new to me I underestimated how time consuming the process is, although definitely worth it. I also need to focus more on typography and incorporating it in different ways. I feel as I have slightly improved from the previous assignment and I hope to improve further with these new methods in future tasks.
