Core Concepts- ‘Visual Language’ Research Points:
Research Point 1:
Research the work of graphic designers that interest you. How do they use visual language? What is it about the work that you admire? Make notes on their work, your reflections on it and note down aspects of it that you could use as a starting point yourself.
Jimmy Turrell:
Taken from Jimmy’s website: “He studied at Central St Martins School of Art. He combines a love of handmade collage, drawing, screenprinting and painting alongside digital techniques. He’s presently very inspired by Fade To Mind Records, DJ Rashad, Erin O’Keefe, early copies of Flipside Magazine and good old London Town.”
I came across Jimmy Turrell recently through Instagram. I was immediately drawn to his interesting visuals, my first reaction was ‘how?’ His mixed media process is brilliant, I love the use of his physical and digital methods, including screen printing and painting. The pop art style colours/graphics he uses creates really different visuals, his skill is definitely something I aspire to have. I also like his use of shapes and patterns, the way he combines them with the foreground and background, or has an image as part of a shape/paper is something I would like to try myself. I intend to develop my skillset of merging physical and digital art. I really like the use of bold black images (usually portraits) paired with painterly marks or shapes of colour. This more abstract way of graphic design I find interesting. The compositions of his work is really interesting, he often has images places around the page, looking in different directions, with shapes/marks of colour leading you on a journey around the image. This sort of ‘natural’ way of guiding a viewers eyes over the image is something I would like to develop.
Andy Warhol:
I think almost everybody knows or has heard of Andy Warhol, and I had to mention him and his work. I think Warhol is one of the first artists I can remember hearing of. Warhol is known as the founder of pop art, he began his career in New York working for companies such as: Tiffany's, Bonwit Teller's, Vogue, Glamour and The New York Times.
Andy Warhol used vibrant and bold colours, and often repetitive patterns/images. I love the confidence of the colours he used and how well they worked together. I definitely need to improve my use of colour in my work and be more confident at testing colours which is something I will take from his work. Warhol’s repetitive images were great, I loved his irony of turning some less interesting or boring images into something great, like his 100 Campbells cans painting. I really like his screenprinted portraits, the combinations of paint/printing/marks works well and creates very interesting visuals, this combination is something I aim to test more with and improve on.
James Ronkko:
There isn’t much information about James online but his website is full of work by him. I found James via Instagram a while ago and love his digital graphics.
There is so much I like about James’ work. I love his use of typography, the font types and their compositions in all of his work helps to create interesting visuals. This is something I need to focus on more, is the use of type and fonts within my work. The visuals James uses are great, a combination of different digitally edited photos make images that stand out. I like the use of movement in his images, whether it’s an image of a person moving, eyes looking, or an illustrative pattern it adds to the image and draws the viewers eye to different places. This is something I would like to incorporate more, interesting patterns and shapes which add to my work.
Michelle Thompson:
Taken from Michelle’s website: “Michelle Thompson graduated from The Norwich School of Art with a First Class Degree in Illustration, then a Masters Degree from The Royal College of Art in 1996. Since graduating, she has been at the forefront of illustration working successfully in publishing, editorial and design. Michelle’s work combines found materials (books, magazines, packaging, photographs, postcards and other printed ephemera) with painted, drawn and printed elements. Her work alludes to shared memory - cutting-up and re-assembling images from recent history, to reflect contemporary themes and popular culture. She works using a combination of traditional collage techniques and digital technology.”
Michelle has worked with many clients such as Royal Mail, BBC, Reebok, Penguin Books, The Guardian, City Hall and The Museum of London and has varied work. I more recently came across Michelle via Instagram. I love her combinations of physical and digital collage. The rough cut out images with various textures applied looks great and is definitely something I will take from her work and develop in my own. The use of colour in her images against a more ‘handmade’ style background is really interesting and makes her work standout within an editorial or website post. These handmade markings are definitely something I would like to develop and her use of composition of images/markings. I recently bought one of her illustrations as a print (on the left.) I like the use of different materials to create an interesting background.
Research Point 2:
Becoming aware of how you look at things is useful in understanding how best to construct the visual dynamic of your own design work. Go back to your visual diary, how do your eyes travel around the items you have collected? What do you look at first? Where is the contrast in what you are looking at?
I looked at each ‘mood board’ I had created to collate my visual inspiration for this task and chose the first image I was drawn to. I began to look at each in more depth and look at their composition and colours, but also think why I was drawn to this particular image first.
My initial focus point on this image are the eyes, I feel like that is because they are the most central part, but also maybe because I am familiar with eyes and are drawn to them as a natural reaction? Next I am drawn to the mouth/red colouring. I feel like this is because it stands out very well with the black and white imagery and creates an interesting visual, it is also quite a large section of the image so this would make sense to be drawn to it. The green computer hardware directly above it is green which contrasts well with the red. The fact that it is directly above the red draws your eyes either upwards towards the green or downwards towards the red. I feel like this guides you around the face well, then you look at the other surrounding images such as the necklace. This use of contrasting colours/composition of them is very interesting and something I will keep in mind when testing with my own work.
The first element of this image that I look at is the male and female symbols in the centre of the image. I feel like this is because it is the middle and they both ‘point’ towards this direction. The male symbol lead me to look at the black section, where I then make out another face, this is a good way of drawing the images together. The white symbol creates a pathway between the colours. The female symbol leading into the red then brings me further down the image to the blue section. Here there is very interesting visuals and typography. I really like the more complicated layered images in this section. Similar to the other image I am drawn to contrasting colours. The red being throughout the piece draws you around the image, and the blue at the bottom is a great contrast, it sort of cuts the image up into sections making it easier or more appealing to view. It has given me some elements to think about in the future, how can I link visuals with type within an image etc.
The first place in the image I’m drawn to is the writing “Here’s why:”. I feel like this is because it is relatively central, but also acts as a sort of title to the image as it has a colon after the statement, leading me to look downwards. I then view the black and white image, but more focused on the red dot in the middle. I like this use of read throughout the image as it takes you on a journey around the page. The continuation of this colour from the writing to the dot draws my eye down, then to the interesting polygon shape which points in various directions around the piece. The contrast between the blue background/blue hues in some of the paper works really well, it creates an interesting image that looks visually balanced. The colour isn’t ‘overdone’ and is nicely places over the black/white/earth tones of the other imagery. The use of interesting lines in this image is something I will consider when creating in the future. I like the interesting paper layers, how they move horizontally and vertically and overlap each other is different places. The alignment of the edges with other parts of the image coming ‘off’ the canvas creates a diverse image.
I am drawn towards the plane in the centre of the image when first looking at this image. The plane travelling from left to right sort of adds a movement to the image, almost as if it is flying across the building imagery and colour. The planes wings lead me upwards to where the bold type is “Dessau” a German city. I then follow the coloured box round to “Deutschland” and then to “Alte Kultur” which after a google I found to translate to “odd culture.” The type being a part of the background seen through the colour draws the foreground and background of the image together well. The buildings overlapping the colours also does this. At the bottom of the page the building travels across the two colours, as does the plane, this creates a ‘whole’ sense to the image and makes it look visually appealing. This is a really great collage style by Herbert Bayer, this use of colour/imagery to bring the image together is definitely something I take away from this piece.
