Unit 3 Artist Influence - Hovercraft

Hovercraft is a full-service and brand focused creative studio. They are a small team of designers who work together to create a broad and diverse selection of illustrations and designs for commission.

I find these selection of their work very influential for my upcoming project, mainly the way they are able to apply one initial design or 'logo' to a wide range of products.

I am also rather interested in their use of circles to form the main symbol or logo.

Here is a typical example of how Hovercraft have attached the 'Riffle' Logo to a range of products including, packaging, menus, placemats. I feel i could use this style of work in my own project, but use it in a more suitable way, given my title of 'Travel'

Unit 3 Artist Influence - Ben O'Brien

Ben O'Brien is a young experienced illustrator, working with a variety of companies and keeps a consistent and well refined pop art/cartoon style of work.
Within the work below, Ben's illustrations were used for 'alternative print media' to appeal to a younger, fashionable audience, at car shows and lifestyle events. The artworked car itself was created for the American launch of Smart Cars in San Jose.

Unit 3 - Travel Brief

Travel

A2 Design Brief

For this project I am going to focus on the conceptual theme of ‘Public Transport’, using my Illustration skills to rebrand and design a local service known as ‘Nation Express’ which are the company which run the entire public transport network through the West Midlands.

I have chosen my Digital design skills from previous projects to continue with development and refining, as they were overall far superior to my other mediums. I have also took a greater interested in to sketching and lino printing as I feel these skills could be linked into my Digital work for a more complex series of overall more sophisticated design.

My design is to be aimed at the general public of all ages and specifically the people who use, or have interest in, public transport. With this in mind it is essential that my design is easily legible and the use of shape and colour is relevant and appealing to the entire audience.

Regarding research I am going to investigate the branding and choice of designs on the current design of ‘national express’ and also look closely at other public transport companies/services such as, Diamond, Hanson and Virgin Train.

Throughout research on ‘Branding’ I have found the work of Ben O’Brien and a company called ‘Hover craft’ to be most relevant. My intentions are to simply take inspiration from these artists and apply some of their methods to my own work.

I am going to focus on using my Digital skills, as here is where I am able to have the most creative control over my designs. I also plan to involve the use of lino printing, being something I have a keen interest in and feel it would merge together well with digital media. Sketches and drawings in both pen and pencil will be included as I use them for planning out ideas and developing the key ideas for future designs.

I am considering a complete rebranding of ‘National Express’ including logos and choice of colour. I will advance this with a range of typical products and related items such as bus/train tickets, holders for passes, posters and advertisement, redesign of the appearance of bus/trains and possibly a Mobile App, featuring time tables.

Mind Map Ideas

An overall view of my planning reveals i have chosen 'Travel' as my Project Title.

Here is a mind maps i produced in a group activity developing ideas i could use within the topic of 'Travel'

With these ideas noted i refined my ideas on a mind map produced independantly. with reflection on the other possible topics.

Review of As Graphics

A2 GRAPHICS

Review of AS work

Within my first year of graphics I preferred working on my ‘Bridges’ project. I felt by being given full creative control it was by far my most successful piece of work, and allowed me to use my own refined skills to peak in potential. Overall the digital aspects to my work are the best as they are where my talent lies, I still feel there is always room for improvement and by experimenting within illustrative software I will be able to gain knowledge in other effects.

I felt my ability to reflect on artists and show development were my biggest successes within both Unit 1 and Unit 2, as throughout all of work there are relevant links and annotations explaining the refinement of my compositions.

I would like to explore combining digital methods with lino printing and hand drawing, which are my weaker skills, I feel this may overall allow me to develop my ability with these mediums.

A key artist of interest so far in my work has been Adrian Bradbury, I find his use of textures and mixture of photography and digital painting very inspirational and reflective of my own techniques, I would also like to venture deeper into the source of his style and have a look at the various softwares he uses and discover where he originally got his style of work from.

I am considering Graphics as a HE course, with a keen interest in Visual Communications at university, Animation is also a further interest.