Visual Project development post #5

To finish off my visual project, I decided to give the posters a bit of a colour change. I scrapped the ‘secondary’ colours in the shapes that frame the ellipse and opted to give them a solid black coat of ink. My reasoning here was that I wanted these posters to follow a certain style that makes them instantly relatable to each other and the secondary colours seemed to be acting contrary to that.

In relation to my chosen theme of movement, I feel like that theme is well accounted for in this piece through the use of Art Nouveau inspired linearity. The soft curved lines in the ellipses give off a sense of movement that was very prevalent in Art Nouveau design. In contrast, the curved lines that frame the ellipses give of a more dynamic sense of movement, due to the sharpness of the edges.

As a brief self-evaluation, I’d like to point out that I feel like I could have taken this concept so much further were I to use some form of digital media. I feel like it would have been a cleaner and more polished piece, and it would have also allowed for more experimentation with colour and different gradients. I could have also included some of the floral patterning so popular in the Art Nouveau style.

Visual Project development post #4

When I was doing research on how fine arts could inspire me in relation to this visual concept, I looked to the futurists. I wanted to use the way they captured speed on a page and bring it to the modern age with this project. Although I am still very much intrigued by the futurist and their understanding of movement and speed, I could not think of a way that would help my current plans for my project.

The Eiffel Tower 1889

Thus, I moved to the pointillists. Painters such as   Georges-Pierre Seurat gave me inspiration for how I could improve this poster design, from an aesthetic standpoint.

His work, like many of the pointillist artists, involved creating images solely through the use of singular dots of pigment. These pigments together would join together to form the image. I felt like I could take the idea of using dots of pigment and turn it into something similar yet completely abstracted.

Hence, using pencil and ink, I dotted out patters around the  Art Nouveau-like decorations. I was also careful not to add too much of these pointillist features to each poster. I did this to keep with the recurring minimalist theme that appeared to be emerging the further I get in the development of these posters.

As a personal reflection, I do wish I could have added some semblance of the futurists to this concept. I was very much interested in the concept of showing movement through repetition and if I was to have more time with this piece, I would surely have included that somewhere along the way. 

Visual Project development post #3

Using research I had done regarding film in relation to this project I was able to come up with an appropriate colour scheme for these posters.  In my research, I made note of the way colour is depicted in the film ‘The Matrix’. The film used colour in such a way that it relayed information about the plot to the audience. Whenever there was a green tint in the shot, the audience automatically knows that the characters are in the ‘Matrix’.  I wanted to take this concept of colour relaying valuable information to the audience in my work on these posters.

 

This led me to choose this colour scheme for my posters. I wanted to take colours that people will automatically relate to the film in question. With this, I feel like the silhouettes are supported by their respective colours that would hopefully give any viewer enough information to know what the poster is in reference to.

While I am satisfied with the concept in use over here, I do question my colour choices, namely in the ‘Matrix’ and ‘Spider-man’ posters. This will definitely be something I’ll look into as I get further into the development of this visual concept.

Visual Project development post #2

While still not certain how to proceed with the poster design, I decided to start the development of my other poster samples.  As I mentioned previously, I wanted to take iconic moments in film and use them in my poster design. My next two film moments are taken from the films ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘The Matrix’. I’d like to say that these films were chose with some sort of artistic reasoning but they weren’t. I chose these films purely because they are some of my favourite films and why not use examples I love?

By using my first design as a base, I would apply the silhouettes of ‘The Matrix’ and of ‘Kill Bill' to what little of a design template I had.  The example I chose for the matrix was a silhouette of Neo’s (the protagonist) glasses. While I personally was completely fine with that decision, I was unsure of how clear the imagery would be to people who are not as familiar as I was with the plot. This was quite a problem as a poster is supposed to easily tell the view what it is about at first glance.

I honestly could not think of another instance in the movie to use so I decided to keep the glasses in and possibly emphasise the nature of the poster in some other way.

I made progress in the design by again looking at Art Nouveau and how they framed their work. This lead to me repeating the below design at the top of the page to complete the frame.  

While satisfied with my progress so far, I felt that this concept could be so much more if I was to use digital media to produce it. Unfortunately, I have no experience with any digital media but if I was to have more time with this, it would definitely be something I’d look into. 

Visual Project development post #1

After having completed our research segment of our assignment, I found that while I had an idea of what I wanted to do for this project, the idea was vague and not nearly as substantial as I’d have liked it to be. I was certain that I wanted to use iconic moments in film mixed with some features of Art Nouveau poster design.

'Poetry' Alphonse Mucha

This design by Alphonse Mucha has features which I wanted to use in my own poster design, namely, the ellipse like border around the figure. I very much enjoyed how well framed this work is, using that ellipse border so I wanted to translate that into my idea of using iconic film moments. It is worth noting that movement was something I wanted to take from the works of Art Nouveau due to the emphasis on curvilinearity. 

With this idea in mind, I began sketching my idea. I used ‘Spiderman’s iconic pose and framed the figure using and inspired take on Mucha’s work. I decided to use a solid black colour to make the figure look like a silhouette. I did this in hopes that the iconic figure would be recognised by just the contours of the shape.

The Matrix in relation to my visual project

1999 blockbuster hit ‘The Matrix’, directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski is of personal and significant artistic relevance to me. The clever usage of cinematic techniques still impress me to this day while its philosophical undertones spark an even deeper level of awe in my brain.

In relation to what I could take from this film to use for my visual project, I would like to incorporate the films handling of colour. To further explain, the matrix is set in a dystopian future where machines have taken over and enslaved mankind. Mankind is now being harvested by these machines and their brains remain active with the help of The Matrix. A digital version of earth, pre machine take over.

The matrix and the real world are always very easy to distinguish to the viewer without need for the directors to spoon feed the audience. This was made possible by the use of colour.

The Real World

                        

                                                                                                                                      

The Matrix

                                                                                                                                              

From the very start of the film, before the concept of the matrix is even introduced to us, every shot is covered in a green tint. Suddenly, once Neo ventures out of the matrix for the first time, the green tint is gone and we can see the real world for the first time, just as Neo has. From then on, the audience can  clearly distinguish the two worlds from another by just a change in colour.

This specific use of colour is something I would like to include in my visual project in some way. A colour scheme that instantly tells the viewer something key about the piece without the use words or any other visualizations. The notion that colour is not just something that is there to give pure aesthetic value, it is a plot device that speaks to the viewer and gives them information on the media they are viewing. This is something I’d like to take from this film and possibly translate into a 2D media.

With the idea that my visual project will be either some for of animation or graphic design work I am thinking of incorporating these colour themes in a form of visual duality. The colour difference will distinguish possibly between two contrasting themes in my piece, in a similar way to how The Matrix distinguishes between its two separate worlds.

In summary, the main thing I want to take from my research into this film is the concept that colour is used as more than a aesthetic tool but rather a plot device.

Reference: Imdb-2013-Imdb.com[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/][Last accessed on 18/12/2013]

Art Nouveau in relation to my visual project

In the design world, Art Nouveau played very important role with just how wide spread it was. It wasn't just restricted to poster design or paintings; it was in architecture, furniture, sculpture, as well as many other aspects of day to day life. Art Nouveau is characterised by its close harmony with natural forms and nature and its handling of line. For my visual project, the main characteristic I want to borrow from this style is the way it handled line.

This poster by Alphones Mucha illustrates my inspiration perfectly. The handling of line in this style was done in a very graceful way. The lines are curved and flowing. With specific reference to the lines created in the hair of the figure we can see that the line plays a very important role in this piece. The lady’s hair seems to have been given a life of its own as it dances around her figure.   

For my visual project, I’d like to incorporate this harmonious use of line that is very evident in Art Nouveau. The curvilinear nature of the line also relates to my chosen theme of movement. With the poster by Mucha as a point of reference, we can see that the flowing curves in the image give us an impression that movement has been caught in the scene. While the movement implied in not harsh or dramatic movement, the movement implied is serene yet still present and this is something I’d wish to recapture in my visual project, subtle yet serene movement that entrances the viewer.  

While my chosen media for this visual project is uncertain, I am leaning towards graphic design or animation, both incorporating the curvilinear nature that is present in Art Nouveau. I feel that if I was to choose animation as my media, it would be interesting to give actual motion to the implied motion in the forms created by Mucha.

Reference:

•          Image [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alphonse_Mucha_-_Job_Cigarettes_1.jpg]
•          Wikipedia-2013-wikipedia.org[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau][Last accessed on 16/12/2013]