A visit from Nathan Burton.

Nathan Burton came to give us a talk on his career which is book cover design and current work he is doing. He gave us a brief insight into his profession, his experiences, Where he had worked and what on. He is know a freelancer but he used to work for the publishing firm Penguin, Which put him nicely in with my research for our new project which is designing a book jacket for Penguin.

Some of the things he mentioned in his talk to us I jotted down as an interesting insight into his work profession. Nathan also gave valuable advice on how to approach a brief and how to tackle it, referencing to his own technique. Notes:

Look at things that could be in the book. Draw up rough sketches all the time no matter how messy you know what they mean. Use different mediums make/develop/illustrate. Texture, life to design, Old book, scan in type faces! Simple initial drawings can expand. Always make spine look as nice, add a illustration. Look at type faces in hospitals in the era.  

Some of his past work:

Worked in publishing for 9 years, now freelance and very established. Designed a series for David Lodge. Bobcat & Other Stories. Worked for Penguin in Canada. Why England is England.

 

Some initial sketches and ideas for the new Penguin brief.

These are some of the initial idea's I have drawn up on the computer, I have based these ideas on a transcript I did of my favourite bits of on the audio book. The parts of the novel that particularly found fascinating where where spoken by the character Hardy. All these spoken parts are very descriptive of what being in the metal hospital would feel like, he uses descriptive language when describing certain situations using a lot of metaphor's. I want to focus on these metaphor's because I like the way the reader can relate to the story, it helps you understand the situation in a more familiar way. 

-AUDIO 2, 6.18.

THIS WORLD BELONGS TO THE STONG MY FRIEND,

WE MUST LEARN TO EXCEPT IT,

THE RABBITS EXCEPT THEIR ROLE,

AND RECOGNISE THE WOLF AS THE STRONG,

THE RABBIT DIGS HOLES AND HIDES WHEN THE WOLF IS ABOUT,

MR.MACMEFY,

IM NOT A CHICKEN,

IM A RABBIT,

ALL OF US IN HERE ARE RABBITS,

HIPP-ATY HOPP-ATYING THROUGH ARE WALT DISNEY WORLD.

-AUDIO 5, 3.05.

THAT’S THE SHOCK SHOP MY FRIEND,

ELECTRO SHOCK THEROPY,

THOSE FORTUNATE SOULS IN THERE ARE BEING GIVEN A TRIP TO THE MOON.

-AUDIO 5, 3.35

HERE’S HOW IT CAME ABOUT,

TWO PHYSIARISTS WERE VISITING A SLAUGHTERHOUSE,

AND WHERE WATCHING CATTLE BEING KILLED BY A BLOW BETWEEN THE EYES WITH A SLEDGE HAMMER,

THEY NOTICED NOT ALL THE CATTLE WHERE KILLED,

SOME WOULD FALL TO THE FLOOR IN A STATE THAT RESEMBALED AN EPELETIC CONVOLSION,

‘THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED FOR OUR PATIENTS,

THE INDUSED FIT,’

IT WAS KNOWN THAT MEN COMING OUT OF AN EPELETIC CONVOLSION WERE CALMER AND MORE PEACEFUL FOR A TIME,

VOILENT CASES COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTACT WERE ABLE TO CARRY ON RASIONAL CONVOSATIONS AFTER A CONVOLSION,

IF A SESURE COULD BE INDUCED IN NON-APERLECTICS GREAT BENEFITS MIGHT RESULT,

AND HERE STOOD A MAN INDUCING SESURES IN COWS WITH A HAMMER,

BUT IF THEY WHERE GOING TO KNOCK A MAN IN THE HEAD THEY NEEDED TO USE SOMETHING SURE AND MORE ACCURATE THAN A HAMMER,

THEY FINALLY SETTLED ON ELECTRICITY.

These ideas below are most based on the conceptual side of the novel. I am also considering focusing the front cover more on the emotions that the book tackles. Below i have shown some quick sketches: 

 

I am liking this idea a lot because of the idea i have behind it the concept of the glass where the nurse talks to the patients through, where the patients collect there cigarettes, where MacMerfy smashes through he glass to grab cigarettes. The pain of glass that separates the sane and insane, the apparent wright from wrong, and the divide. 

I found it partially interesting in the book when MacMerf please y goes up the the glass to ask the big nurse to turn the music down that plays repetitively, the nurse replies softly but with conviction 'No', then this is what i found of particular interest... she asks him to take his hand off the glass as his hands are greasy and are dirtying the glass. MacMerfy held it together, agreed and moves away, knowing that the war isn't over yet!

The reason i have chosen this particular small insignificant part of the book is because i feel it encompasses the basic underline story of the book. In the way it shows the relationship between two of the main characters and the divide shown by the glass, the cruel but kind attitude toward each other, that though out the book is a big part that drives the happenings in the hospital. 

I can also imagine an approach to this concept visually for the book cover. My basic idea that i have loosely considered is that  could have an illustrated book cover of the main day room where they all sit, characters dark but the 

Assessment and Reflection

Today we where put into group of speacisims to answer some questions on the way we work. As a group we where given questions to anwser about reflection and assessment and how they relate to use. The First questions we where asked to talk about and make bullet points on:

What do you think reflection is? & When and how does reflection take place? 

Our response was- reflection is evaluating, developing, improvement, to analyse. reflection takes place in presentations, crits, in your design process but the main conclusion we came to is the it happens all of the time.

Reflection= Serious thought and consideration. 

The second question we where asked to answer:

How can you use the assessment process to progress your idea's? & When do you think the assessment process happens and how does it happen? 

Our response was- For the assessment process helps to progress your ideas, to help you meet the criteria, Group tutorials, Look at the brief. We discussed that again that for when the assessment process happen? it should be considered at all times. The key answer is in the question, Gain Knowledge and Learn! 

Once we had as a group shared our options as a class we where agin put into our groups to make our thoughts into a understandable visual poster. that clearly states how reflection and assessment process are closely linked in how the can fuel each other in your work. 

See the full gallery on Posterous

We decided to base our poster on our decided quote that thought summed up our ideas into one sentence- Reflection is Self Assessment. We wanted to make the word reflection visual so we cut the word out and stuck the stencil onto a mirror and took a photograph, then made it black and white for a bolder contrast. 

As a side poster I decided to draw a visual interpretation, my concept was to draw two faces in reflection. One of the faces would show the emotion of reflection and the other assessment, I have shown a question mark as if show questioning and thought. I have shown a light bulb to show enlightenment and idea's. 

Assessment and Reflection

Today we where put into group of speacisims to answer some questions on the way we work. As a group we where given questions to anwser about reflection and assessment and how they relate to use. The First questions we where asked to talk about and make bullet points on:

What do you think reflection is? & When and how does reflection take place? 

Our response was- reflection is evaluating, developing, improvement, to analyse. reflection takes place in presentations, crits, in your design process but the main conclusion we came to is the it happens all of the time.

Reflection= Serious thought and consideration. 

The second question we where asked to answer:

How can you use the assessment process to progress your idea's? & When do you think the assessment process happens and how does it happen? 

Our response was- For the assessment process helps to progress your ideas, to help you meet the criteria, Group tutorials, Look at the brief. We discussed that again that for when the assessment process happen? it should be considered at all times. The key answer is in the question, Gain Knowledge and Learn! 

Once we had as a group shared our options as a class we where agin put into our groups to make our thoughts into a understandable visual poster. that clearly states how reflection and assessment process are closely linked in how the can fuel each other in your work. 

We decided to base our poster on our decided quote that thought summed up our ideas into one sentence- Reflection is Self Assessment. We wanted to make the word reflection visual so we cut the word out and stuck the stencil onto a mirror and took a photograph, then made it black and white for a bolder contrast. 

As a side poster I decided to draw a visual interpretation, my concept was to draw two faces in reflection. One of the faces would show the emotion of reflection and the other assessment, I have shown a question mark as if show questioning and thought. I have shown a light bulb to show enlightenment and idea's. 

Rational- New Penguin brief, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'

Rational,

Penguin brief ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’.

 

I have arrived at a competition brief that suits me well, I have chosen to pursue in the brief based round ‘One Few Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ by Ken Casey. The brief is being set by the publishers Penguin, they want a new fresh book cover for this well-known novel that can relate to a new generation of readers avoiding the obvious images and film promotional graphics. Penguin specifies originality is the key!

 

This is what I find exciting about this brief it’s challenging in the way that it really will let me experiment with the hard-hitting storyline and meanings behind this novel, at the same time being aware of the wide target audience. I feel like having the chance to design this book jacket, will really give me the opportunity to use my specialist area illustration, which I can integrate with publishing. I have recently listened to the audio book ‘one flew over the Cuckoo’s nest’ read by the author Ken Casey, this really made my mind up when deciding on what brief I should do, as his voice was very atmospheric and instantly visuals came to mind.

 

 As talked about in the brief, there are many messages and themes within the book that I could touch upon.  As listed by Penguin, some of the issues the book explores are political, social, victim, madness, sanity, affection, violence and many more. Listening to the book on audio really helped me realise what the book meant to me and how it made me feel.

 

This brief could help in my dissertation, relating the research on both projects on how hard hitting subjects can be shown using satire and if its correct to use this approach? I want to integrate this throughout my research. I shall look at the way that political illustrations use satire to show current events, this will feed into my other project on the way that the novel ‘One Flew Over the cuckoo’s Nest’ is written. I could compare the way that they both could be seen as quite satirical, which would be up for debate. The novel would be seen as a very complex and delicate subject of punishment and mental health. I wouldn’t want to go into much detail in respects of the subject matter. Instead an overview on the way that past writers and illustrators have shown this is there work and how they’ve dealt the diverse opinions.

 

Designed Project 2 Report.

Project2Report.pdf Download this file

For the theme for my designed project 2 report I decided to keep with he same Concertina Book but with the colour scheme relating to a quote i say in the actual essay 'Blue Sky Thinking'. With this i have made the background blue and the type, this is supposed to boost the saying visually. It is also known that blue is meant to create a positive writing attitude. I wanted the images to relate to the writing so I evolved photographs form us as a group rain storming and creating as well as two clips from he actual film. 

This report explains the design process that us as a group experienced whilst doing this project which was a presentation on what illustration will be in 2022. 

Testing Poster Outcomes?

See the full gallery on Posterous

What did i want the poster say to the target audience? do I want them to ask 'It's what you make it?'

I feel like this tag line supporting the image isn't strong enough, what else could I use? 

I played with the idea that It could be related to his thoughts and how they could relate to viscom! I then started a list:

-What to do? -High Idea's? -Free Yourself? -Think Out of the Balloon. -Great Minds Think Alike.       -Ask Yourself? -Hmmmmmm... - PoP? 

I liked all these quotes, especially liked, -Ask Yourself?, -Think out of the Balloon? and -Great Minds Think Alike. So I decided to ask fellow piers in my class to give me an educated opinion on which one worked best with the image. 

I made a simple tally chart with the options of the three quotes on, next to it I held up the poster with a blank space where the quote would be placed (in the top left corner.) The results follow:

-Great Minds Think Alike.        Total- 8

-Ask Yourself?                       Total- 13

-Think Out of the Balloon.       Total-  4

When I asked the people why they chose -Ask Yourself?, The renonding anwsaer was that is was simple, to the point and it really realted to the monkey thinking. I had got my Quote! 

I was happy with the message it was giving the more I looked at it the more I realised the relevance to the image and what it says not only about the poster but about the course. I thought that this relate to future creatives and get them really thinking about their future on the course and what the possibilities are! 

I also asked, if they where liking the background colour, I got some unsure looks... I had one comment that the colours would complement much more if the background was a soft yellow, I agreed. 

In one of the images above you can see I have briefly played with the thought that the balloon could have a shadow, that didn't last to long as it looked crap, preferring the whole 2D look. 

Welcome to Neil Mabbs World...

Welcome to my world,
Won't you come on in,
Miracles I guess,
Still happen now and then,
Step into my heart,
Leave your cares behind,
Welcome to my world,
Built with you in mind...

 

'There was a horse outside- It never moved' 

Work experience in Amsterdam,

Prospectus for a uni,

Worked in Paris on a book called '27',

Moved to the Big Apple to a new job at Rigelhaupt Design NYC,

-Left,

Back in London to Blue Brick Design,

-Left (not his cup of tea),

Joined We Design,

Oxfam,

Met Tutor Neil on MA,

Designs Tinerlud Festival posters,

Vanackular!

 

Very, Very interesting journey, Life and Man.  

 

Presentation

For our presentation for what Illustration will be in 2022, we where split into groups of specialisms, a group of six. We where given 5 minutes to show our group work on what we had produced. We where being critiqued on the quality of what we produced, how well we worked in a group, if it related to our target audience (professional audience), How imaginative it is and the clarity of the presentation. As separate groups we where given these points on paper to swop and change with each other to crit the group that is currently showing. I found this method of critique very constructive. 

To create our presentation we got together as a group of five. Firstly, in particular are group focused on how illustration will evolve over the next 10 years. We pin pointing staple events that could occur each year that could dramatically effects the illustration industry. We where influenced by current events and products which we expanded on, are aim was not to make this too serious and think out side the box. 

Blue Sky thinking! 

Combined we thought up ideas that we could expand on:

We thought that the only thing that we could focus on for 2011 was the tragic passing of a great designer Steve Jobbs from the design industry. It will we feel will take a massive blow to the technology industry that will consequently affect the illustrators. 

As the olympics will be a massive part of 2012, we thought that we defiantly should involve this massive event. As there was a massive uproar when the new London Olympic logo came out we thought we'd predict a possible take over of the logo by rebel illustrators. 

For 2013 we thought there should be a break thought in the way people illustrate. We took the simple concept of 3D pens and made it real. Currently the only 3D pens are the ones above that only merely are metallic. The pens for 2013 that we are preposing give you the actual power to illustrate with layers this makes are freehand drawings come to life off the page. 

Introducing Adobe Illustrator CS6, for 2014! We feel its time for a new programme for all the illustrator across the world. This programme will be a drastic change to the industry offering illustrators new tools to use.. which brings a elements and knowledge to the design industry.

As an amazing turn of events England legalises Street Art in 2015. We thought this would be an amazing prospect and really boost the illustration! You could think of it as the free speech of drawing across a natural environment resulting in a more visually and interesting world.  

In the year of 2016 we see the end of paper as a common art form, now only used for goverment use and toilet paper! We had the idea that paper would become more of a novelty that wasn't used as much just appreciated as an art form. Drawing will become more of a street art or digital affair! 

Ben in my group had an amazing idea of proposing a new product that will come to the market in 2017. To help the design industry in the way we input and interact with our machinery to illustrate. He came up with a new apple product called the 'iSlab'. This idea was loosely based around the iPad but with more ways on inputing by simply putting what you wish to scan over the screen and it will scan and it comes in A3 size. Revolutionary technology...  

The big event that takes place in the year of 2018, is after all the street art and the invention of new illustrating products the interest in illustration has risen. So the first sell-out staduim illustration tour makes history in the design world! 

Now that technology has progressed in the year 2019 we see the invention of holographic books! This will give you the chance to read and be interactive with books by touch this means the use of paper will be completely out of use for the everyday person. It will make book illustration so much interactive and have a new level of detail to accomplish.

As a group we wanted to involve a stronger power in a development of the design industry. So we thought a political trend that could take place in 2020! We then thought how much our government does take an impact on our lives. As it's the future we decided to go a bit wild with the future concept and trend, so we decided on the first Alien president coming into power! Following on from this event the trend of Sci-fi illustration begins. 

2021... NOTHING HAPPENS! We decided to involve a year where nothing happens in the illustration industry. This wasn't due to us running out of idea's but for a light hearted comedy purpose. 

For the Final year of 2022, the progress of technology in the illustration industry moves to a completely new level! The progress of the new government and and trends it is now possible to draw in the space with the stars! We love this idea we feel that it could be possible but in a ay we feel that it has hidden meaning of imagination and illustration can be out of this world, think out side the box when telling a narrative. 

When we got all our ideas together we started to think on our presentation method. We didn't want to produce anything to generic for example a power point presentation. Our specialism is illustration so we wanted to show all of our individual talents in one go as well as predicting the future! We started researching how illustration has been previously done, we found quite a few videos we particularly liked that involved a close up of peoples hands drawing, sped up with an explanation over lapping. This method can show our specialist practice visually can be successful informative.

As a group we decided to give our selfs two years each to illustrate in our own style. Then when filming us drawing, we could all have an input into the outcome which would be a positive group effort. Whilst drawing we came up with the concept of all our drawings being filmed across a timeline on a long sheet of paper, one after another as a constant film, e.g. a Time Lapse.  

From the photographs above you can get a clearer insight into how we film and worked together as a group. I personally thought this was a very positive way of realising our design process, as we not only made a time lapse of our predictions in our specialism, but we created a hard copy of our drawing process on a long piece of paper. We have decided to show this timeline in the presentation after watching the film. We think seeing us making it on video, to seeing the actual psychical timeline, this would be  an boost of interest. 

I wanted to open our presentation with a short opening speech to introduce our film and will ease everyone into our humours, blue sky inspired  video for 2022. 

- Welcome to an insight into the next 10 years of illustration. We preposing staple events and products that very possibly could occur in the illustration industry. It is Blue Sky thinking, please have an open mind! 

After we had our presentation, the class had the chance to critique our work. I felt that our's went particularly well as our feed back was very positive! Main pointers that people made where:

-The way be presented in a time-lapse film. 

-Imaginative future projection, fantasy.

-Good timeline, showing progression.

-The voice over was fitting (My voice).

-Relevant to use Illustration.  

-Our tutor wanted the youtube address we posted it on to, which i have taken as a positive sign. 

After every thing we had accomplished over the last two weeks as a class we where asked to get into groups of three to evaluate what we had learnt. We where told to refer on our learning out-come in the brief  and then combined we shared our ideas. 

Here's are notes below:

Audience

Taking risks - specialism

Looking at our own designs process

Experimentation

Looking @ own proffessional practice

Acquiring new knowledge

Working in a group- group research

                          - organisation

                          -communication

                          -comparison  

                          -pushing ideas

                          -working in our own time

Trust yourself  

Moving out of your comfort zone 

Under pressure, good for the future employment 

Evaluating and reflecting- Critiquing other peoples work

Target audience 

 

 

 

Penguin Publishing Day!

This year I have decided to make and design a cover letter and Cv to be considered for the Penguin Publishing Day. I am highly interested in learning about and visiting Penguin publishing to further my knowledge of the industry. As long as I can remember, I have loved both Puffin and Penguin books, I have a distinct interest in the greatly diverse range of cover designs.

Whilst attending the Arts University College at Bournemouth, the course on which I study has given me some great opportunities to delve into the area of publishing, which I have found a particular interest in. So, when my tutor informed me of this trip to Penguin, I couldn’t resist.

Penguin_Publishing_Day.pdf Download this file

Natalie_Hill-Cousins._CV1.pdf Download this file

Designed Visual Report.

In the brief and told to create a visual report that was designed to specialist interest to support our poster. This will be a record of your design process in making the poster. I decided earlier on that I wouldn't make this report as illustrative as I could but I needed some advice first before I can make the big step, So I waited until my crit to reassure me on what was needed.

 On the day of my crit I asked my tutor if  I could roll with my idea of making a Constantine book with a timeline of my full process using one undisturbed black line to create images as the bumps in the timeline. It's hard to explain but I drew out visually for them on a piece of paper, they seem to like it a lot so I decided to create it. 

 Firstly I decided on the size of my Constantine book,  which in the end was a three piece of paper folded in half and cuts and men diagonally folded into four sections. This was small but I did not want a big book. I then made a list of all the things I could think of that I did in my design process toward making this poster,  from these I started drawing them visually.  

I wanted to keep to the same medium as what I did in my poster, so I decided to keep to ink using a quill method.  I drew my idea in my sketchbook and then decided to draw on the concertina book freehand in pencil lightly.  the front cover I started off with a line drawing of an ink will starting off the timeline this line carried on to spell 'visual report' the line carried on after page into the concertina book it started making the images to represent my design process.

 These images in order consisted of:   light bulb, to represent my ideas. brain, to represent thought.  the notepad and pen,  to represent notes. an @ symbol, to represent research. a question mark,  to represent doubt.  a monkey with a balloon, to represent my poster. Then it spells '  Ask yourself?'. 

The line carries on off the concertina to the back of the book to spell 'Natalie Hill-Cousins',  my name.  I am proud of this idea and the way it turned out. I do feel very that I may need to make it again as it wasn't made to the highest of standards. 

 

Ask Yourself?

monkey2.pdf Download this file

This is my final PDF poster the project was specialist professional practice. I'm happy with the outcome and the feedback that I got at the crit. As you can see I stayed with the illustration of the monkey thinking the balloon attached to his wrist, but I have changed the colour of the background at last minute because I thought yellow was more of a positive colour. I also changed the quote at the top of the poster as I felt it didn't have enough relevance to the actual restoration, I'm glad I changed it because it was commented on in the crit how relevant it was. I feel that it does represent my specialist area very well which is illustration and represent what I do as a designer.

Those Student Posters

A few posters I have found on the internet that students have made for other students to promote various things. Already, by looking at all the design I can spot what makes them popular, as they've already worked on me because i only chose the one'd liked and thought where successful. Anyways, as i was saying they all have very simple layouts, with an illustrated image, what students want is something considered and cool. So achieve this a poster has to relate to the subject with all the right images and information but the key is to make it look effortless and simple in an almost hand drawn way! Giving the sense of for example 'Where the Wild Things Are', With the childish, softly drawn look which is very in trend! 

 The images about show the exact thing i am talking about with the style of illustration and muted colours. Very simple layout, but still having a strong design element and involving all the needed information. 

Poster Crit 14/10/11.

Today we had our hand in of our posters. At the start of the day our class was split into two separate groups. Once we where put into our groups the critique process begun. We all laid out our posters on a long table with a sheet underneath for my piers to evaluate my work, what specialism   i was, to give positive comments, negative and what i should change.

My feed back was mostly positive. I was happy with the fact that everyone guessed correctly what my specialism is Illustration! Everyone commented positively that it was appropriate for my target audience which are student choosing to go to university. Mostly people picked up on my poster being thought provoking and illustration quality being the most successful. The most unsuccessful aspects to my poster where pointed out as not having enough information on the poster and the suggested changed where to change this. 

I have enjoyed this critique process as it gave me the chance to gather a wide net of feed back on my poster in a constructive non verbal way which i liked as it wasn't too judgemental and every one got their say! I have taken the good and bad comments on board, but ti feel that i strongly don't want to change my poster as my aim was to have as little information on the poster as possible. This was for the it to be simple, bold, and obvious what my specialist was, I feel its got all you need to know on it. 

Final Video!! Project 2. where Illustration will be in 2022

New_Project.m4v Watch on Posterous

Video reference for new Project 2.

Those clever Monkeys!

I have decided to carry on with the thought that monkeys can exceed there own minds! I have drawn quite a few monkeys now... all with reflection on there faces. I have also dabbled with my research and tried drawing some of the characters e.g. the clapping monkey.. which was a great exercise to get my drawing monkeys in different ways. 

I have chosen my favourite illustration already, which is a monkey with his hand holding up his chin thinking incredibly hard, this monkey has a red balloon attached to his wrist. I am liking this illustration the best because I can visualise it on a poster (referring back to the poster I research in my previous post.) As a hole the image symbolises what I wanted to communicate and showing what I enjoy doing as a designer which is primarily illustration.

I have the decision of choosing what colour pallet I am running with, I have decided already that its must be bold with warm positive colours! I know already that I want the balloon to be red, other from that the rest will follow through with much testing on photoshop. 

 

 

 

 

 

I understand that it can be quite easy for a designer to get lost in there own design and forget that other people may not completely understand. So I have made sure to involve into the design the logo for the Arts University Collage Bournemouth so it belongs to something. I have involved a short tag line 'ASK YOURSELF', which complements the image in the way that the monkey is thinking and implying so should you. Underneth the tag line I have put in a lighter font 'Visual Communication' this is for recognition of the course and what you as a viewer of the poster should be thinking about. 

Let's create a Visual Report to support this Poster! 

Monkey Business

New week long brief!

Project One.

 For this we have been given a brief to independently promote visual communication to prospective AUCB  students using our own specialist interests. Our solution is to make an A3 poster that communicates our message without further explanation.

  I have decided to base my poster on my own illustration skills, Showing prospective students that there is the option to do this on the course. Hopefully, my own illustration will embody what I'm trying to say about the course which is that you can do illustration and your own style.

 When it comes to the poster and not quite sure what information is needed. I can't see what else more I can do on the poster except draw my own illustration. There is nothing really else to explain as I do not do things in a graphic or typographic manner, so if I did it would be out of my specialism. My specialist area is all about the ButButnarrative and getting what you can from one single image. So my challenge to embody what I think into one image on this poster.

 I have found it hard to decide on what's It is I want on this poster as I figured that I could draw mostly any thing, as long as it had a basic meaning toward design. To start my planning I decided to firstly decide on what I wanted to use which was illustration in ink and watercolour edited on photo shop. Then I sketched down some ideas that I had for the visual on my poster, none of them jumped out at me.

 So I started to think, what could possibly influence me in this project? something I had done recently and was passionate about….

Then I remembered that I went to Monkey World recently, whilst there I observed the monkeys, it was strange I could see their individual personalities and even some of them reminded me of people I knew. That gave me the idea to involve monkeys on my poster, not to say everyone on visual communication is a monkey but that every animal has their own distinctive personality. And whilst looking at the apes it really hit me how my how similar they are to us.

 When I got back to work I started working on this idea, I was at first unsure how I would involve a monkey in my poster. I realised that my specialist style is illustration and I always do it in a humorous way, so I thought that this didn't really have to be so uptight and overcrowded with information.

 I started to research monkeys, and different ways they were being depicted.

See the full gallery on Posterous

 I had a look at the way that the band gorillaz animation characters looked. There style of drawing a monkey. I like how this cartoon version has very strong expressions, looks like a monkey and also has still strong references to a human body and characteristics. The colours and bold outlines really make it for me, I want to be influenced by the colour palette.

 This is a scene from the first film of Planet Of The Apes,  released in 1986.  I have chosen to involve this image because it really shows the relationship between human an ape.  This film plays on the alternative reality that humans and apes switch roles making the apes the overpowering species. I find this idea very interesting and strangely plausible, maybe in future happenings. This image really shows the relationship and how similar we can be, in feelings, recognition, mannerisms and personality. I want to take from this image the idea that monkeys aren't that different from us.

 Evolution. The process when a species improves over time, changing things to suit their environment, all in the name of survival.  I'm showing you this image to show the relationship between humans and apes and the scientific link between us being related. We could say that we are the improved version of an ape, but who's to say that maybe we could go back to basics, a simple outlook and more fresh.  I don't know about you but I love the thought of an ape being able to communicate with us,  and having human qualities. I want my poster to show an ape having a human quality.

The evil monkey from Family Guy. This humorous animation character makes me laugh every time, it doesn't even have to say anything just one expression with one action says all. This character embodies something that a child probably would be very scared of, the creature in there closet. I am a fan of humorous illustrations that make you think, and I feel that this one character is genius. This monkey is simply drawn and in one communicates a message that is very quick and obvious, Which is anger at the person that he is pointing at.  

What will I take away from this image? I think I just want to reflect on how iconic this one character has been in the programme. When referenced to the right person, recognition of the characteristics of the pointing finger and angry clenched teeth. The direct link can be made which shows a strong successful design.

 The three wise monkey's.  I thought I'd involve image because I had one idea that could involve the speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil in my poster. I had thought in my head showing one monkey with his hands over his eyes and the other with his hands over his mouth and the last monkey holding up a sign. The thought behind this was linking the visual aspect of my course with the seeing and the communication aspect with the speaking. the last monkey I was planning his arms to be straight above his head covering his ears still holding sign arms length.  I'm not too sure if I want to carry on this idea as I think it may give the wrong message. As the signals In this image do indicate that they are being stopped from doing something that is not right/evil. This poster is supposed to be inviting and inspiring. I have decided to draw it out but I do not think I will carry it on.

 The terrifying but entertainingly strange Clapping Monkey. When wondering how to depict my monkey I did dabble in maybe using the clapping monkey as my main character. As he is a very old symbol of monkey toy design, I thought it could be quite quirky to use him.  As I was about to draw him I realised that I couldn't bring myself to draw his face as it was not very welcoming for a poster, so I drew him from behind. At this point I realised I shouldn't really use this image, because to me personally the clapping monkey looks quite insane! Giving off the wrong message...

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