Week 4 2D Design

This week we had to put forward our best ideas from last weeks practical for the exhibition and as a group choose the best two designs. To figure out which two ideas were the best we took a vote and decided on a T-shirt design and the screen print for lamp as seen in this image.

After choosing the two best concepts we had to explore and challenge both ideas. First we started exploring the T-shirt design by throwing out questions then answering them one-by-one as a group. Here is the brainstorming we went through;

Questions:

• Is it big or small
• Front or back or both
• Sider- location?
• What is it for?
• Young or old?
• Gender?
• Selling what?
• Image? Shape? Text? Graphic?
• Colour?

Answers:

• Design is going to be on the front of the shirt
• The t-shirt is going to be for young females
• Black text with graphic
• The colour can be medium grey
• Culture appropriate
• Printed

Once we explored and made decisions about the T-shirt we could see and make challenges such as;

Challenge:

• Could be too dark
• Might not appeal to the target audience

Solutions

• Make it as a lighter grey
• Image have “group of people brainstorming for what makes women happy”
• Magnify some of the words to give emphasis

Due to time restraints we couldn’t as a group explore and challenge screen print for a lamp so I did it in my own time. First I brainstormed the idea;

Questions:

• Colour?
• Images? Text? Typography?
• Large? Small?
• Fabric? Plastic?
• Printed? Painted? Stencilled?
• Mood?

Answers:

• Pale purple
• Small typography patterns
• Plastic
• Stencilled on and typography painted on in black
• Calming

From this I determined the following challenges and solutions;

Challenges:

• Paint could peel off
• Colours may not appeal to others
• Plastic may not be appropriate with a light due to heat produced from light

Solutions:

• Print stencil design
• Make several different coloured prints
• Use a non flammable plastic

After doing the group exercise we moved onto doing a practical. We had to choose any of our 2D designs we have created. I chose a logo i designed couple years ago that i feel missed its mark. It was a logo I had to design for a DJ company but the logo had to also incorporate my organic object, which was a wavy leaf. After choosing this logo I had to analyses it by thinking of two experiments to do to the design and determine the pros and cons. From thinking about the positives and negatives for both experiments I have to do a choosing and refusing strategy for the different ideas. Here is what I came up with;

(my design for DJ.C logo)

Experiment 1:

• Change the colour green to deep blue or purple with outline
• Background change to white or leaf colour

Pros

• Make the logo stand out more
• Portray the DJ concept more

Cons

• The outline will give too much weight
• Losing the green will lose the merging of the organic object
• Making the background white would lost the contrast of the logo

Experiment 2:

• Bring the letters closer together
• Extend the edge of D and C
• Add a full stop to decipher the DJ to the C so it doesn’t look like an acronym

Pros

• Bringing the letters closer together would help decipher the D from the J and the C and makes it look less like an acronym

Cons

• Extending the edge of the D and C might make it lose its shape of looking like discs

Choosing & Refusing

• Bringing the letters closer I think will help the logo pull more together also with the
• Extending the letters will show the separation of DJ and C as long as the extension doesn’t distort the idea of the circle shape of disc

• Don’t want to change the colours they already have good contrast and keeps connection with the organic object
• Don’t want to insert a full stop because even though it will separate the DJ and the C it doesn’t seem classy instead use other methods to show that definition.

"That's all I have to say about that. " Forest Gump...