Proof Portraits.

The photography used for the year book we wanted to keep consistant, therefore we worked along side photographers to get the best images for both the work exhibited and the individual portraits, which again worked as a set of three. The portraits needed to give more of a personality to the individual, and worked to develop concept of identity.

The portraits will form a minor part of the individuals double page spreads, however it adds a different dimension to a page, through personality. Something that is rarely seen when designing publication for galleries/exhibitions. 

The photography of the work, we gave certain guidelines  as this would allows us as designers to have a library of images to choose from, we wanted both close up and distance shots of the individuals work, this would improve the ascetics of the final publication. It is important to get both textured close ups and distance shots, due to the manipulation of the images that we have set as our design strategy for the publication. examples below:

Set Rules

Before developing the layouts across the entire 44 students, it is important to first come up with a set of rules so we can all individually work on our allocated students. these rules are shown below and working to push the conceptual ideas already discussed, that of set of three and proof of identity. 

3 Layouts for meeting

After working on the our own versions of the layouts with the concept in mind, we all came together to analyse our work, and pick the best most effective aspects of each to create a 3 layouts we would present to them.

Below are examples of the layouts presented to the fine art team:

The layouts here show how each page will follow a set of rules but be in a different determined to the individual, this also adds to the idea of identity. There is a sense of movement on all the layouts, and the on lookers eyes will be drawn to the images of the work due to this. The document set up allows for white space to highlight the images. The type used will be helvetica neue bold and regular for header text to give a sense of neutrality, and the body text will be perpetua to give a sense of formality. Megenta will be used to hight light buzz words extracted from the text, as well as the page numbers and name of the exhibition down the side of the publication.. 

Below are example of the layouts with images attached:::

Fine Art Initial Development

After being assigned The Fine Art year book, we has an initial meeting and what became clear from previous years was the lack of identity that the publication gave the individuals in the course. Therefore this is something that needed to be adressed. There was also two underlying themes that the fine artist wanted to adress within the publication. The first was the idea of proof, which was the name of there final exhibition. This worked well with the idea of identity, progressing to giving the individual proof of identity with in the publication. The second concept was more complex, that of Aristotle's theory of credibility, which was based on three defining characteristics.

-Logos
-Pathos
-Ethos

From this theory we set rules of three for the individual page, using three images etc. whilst working along side giving a higher level of identity/credibility to the individual. The initial layout experiments are shown below.

You can see how we were initially working to a 3 column layout with 14 mm margins. which fits in with the concept as it currently stands.

The initial layouts are shown below:

From a design perspective i wanted to give a clean identity, that followed a gallery/exhibition style whist giving the individual identity, this was done through the passport style identity photos. I also wanted to use both serif and san serif text. san serif for the Headers would give a universal impact, where the formality of the individuals blurb would be best portrayed in the serif, the blurb is simply 50 words words about the individual which adds to the idea of proof of identity. From this blurb i wanted to take out 3 buzz words (working on sets of three) to further pushes the idea of proof of identity.

As the layouts develop you can begin to see how the pt size of type decreases which allows the images to take center stage, these are far more successful. The use of magenta is to highlight certain areas of the double page spread without being over baring. The next stage in the process is for all members of the group to come together and create three ultimate layouts to present to the fine art students, these would be made up of the best bit of all out layouts.

Initial Proposal GD

The Design process in the winning of the fine art year book, began with pitching for the Graphic Design yearbook. From here the group was assigned the appropriate year book.

The concept for the Graphic design year book is shown above and described below:


Board 1

-Graphic design at leeds college of art is a 360 degree. The culmination of 3 years results in a reinforced, well rounded education that prepares you for a professional environment. The course encompasses every degree of creative practice and inspires you to redefine graphic design. the atmosphere in the studio and relationship between Students and tutors creates A Full cyclical learning experience, Giving you a full 360 degree education.

-To reinforce the concept we wanted to use degree’s as page numbers as well as using angles to seperate and define the page layouts.

Due to the high amount of photographic content within the publication a white satin stock will be used for the majority of the book. We want to use a grey card stock for the cover.

To stay away from traditional yearbook design we wanted to remove the names from the pages of work in the attempt to take away the pretence of judgement, and instead communicating the course and its students as equal parts to a full 360 degree.

It is not until the end of the publication, by using the main key (board 240o) the reader can see whose work is whose.

Board 2 

-Here you can see the main key which would appear at the end of the publication. This key is of vital importance in the identification of peoples work and also at highlighting each indivudal person/degree being a part of the overall course and thus the overal publication.

- The infographics are designed to highlight and inform readers not only of the positive aspects the course offers but some of the amusing facts and anecdotes that have come to define our time at Leeds College of Art studying Graphic Design. In this instance for example the coloured bars that follow the colour wheel spectrum and 360 degree concept communicate the amount of night hours spent working before a deadline; something that every student on the course can relate to.

Board 3 

-To allow for the tutor pages to differentiate from the student pages they will be reversed out. Not only will this drawe the readers eye to the pages but it will allow for easier navigation of the book.

The tutors have also been included as angles within the 360o due to their vital input to the successful completion of the rounded education each student receives and completes.

All angles between 0o and 180o are drawn and defines from a baseline at the bottom of the page. All angles from 181o and 360o are defined from a baseline at the top of the page.

-The layout is defined by an angle. Angles are representative of an individual. An Individual is partly responsible for the complete education received. Each individual’s angle is at an interval of the full 360o and the key at the back of the publication informs the reader whose work is whose.

Each individual has their own personal piece of infographics outlining how much they consider themselves to be interested in certain disciplines. Rather than making the infographics too text heavy there are icons designed to represent the 6 disciplines:

Typography & Layout Image Branding Identity Retail and Packaging Editorial and Publishing Design for Screen

Style Of 18th century portraiture-Ted Baker

From the initial concept development i have decided to focus on the british ability to take the piss out of themselves.. using india as the country in which to re locate ted baker i am focusing specifically on the anglo indian relationship in the 1800's. Although this could perceived as something that could be insulting to the indian target audience tedbakers ability to take the piss out of there britishness will detract from this.. It is however important to make all forms of mediums look authentic to the time period.. thus i am looking at how i can interact Ted bakers quirky brand identity with the dull sinister image of the time.

The authentic image of the time that shall be developed in a satirical manner. 

British Sense of Humour-Ted Baker

Features

Published on December 9th, 2012 | by Hector Reid

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The Planet Ivy pocket guide to the British sense of humour

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1 Vote

Of all the traits that Brits are ascribed all around the world, a good and complex sense of humour is probably the best-known and most favourably regarded. From P.G. Wodehouse to Private Eye, Sid James to BoJo, Del Boy to David Brent, The Goon Show to Monty Python, Brits have always enjoyed and cultivated a nuanced, ’British’ sense of humour. For many Britons, it’s the cornerstone of a collective national personality, and for those on the outside, it’s a thing of fascination and, in some cases, mystery.

British comedy is in a golden age that has seen few signs of waning since the 1960s. John Cleese, whose starring role in 1970s sitcom Fawlty Towers – named best British television series of all time by the British Film Institute – was a high point, put it like this: “In the 60s, 70s and 80s, we did have the least bad television in the world, and that’s quite a claim.” Not bad for a small, wet and outwardly humourless island containing less than 1% of the people on earth. It’s not just television, either – for its size, Britain churns out a remarkable amount of world-class stand-ups, humorous radio shows, writers, films and magazines.

British humour is often too subtle for outsiders to understand.

But what makes this country spawn so much comedy? Is it necessitated by the bleak, damp days and polite, conservative society? And what makes our collective sense of humour so, well, British? Stephanie Merritt, in the Observer nearly ten years ago, mused about the dangers of analysing comedy, “how do you achieve that fine balance between writing about humour with humour while not looking as if you’re setting out to compete with the people about whom you’re writing, and the other extreme of reducing what ought to be spontaneous and indefinable to a series of po-faced academic formulae?” In the face of this expert advice, and for our readers domestic and international, here is a look at the inner workings of the peculiar British comedic psyche.

The building blocks of the British sense of humour

Finding fun in the everyday

The Adventures of Adrian Mole, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Peep Show – the British just love the foibles and quirks of everyday life, and the humour inherent in it. We are constantly taken in by the charm of normality, of self-identification with the people on screen – but not in their aspirations to become President, a professional dancer or boy wizard, rather in their idiosyncrasies, anxieties, awkwardness and humanity. In quintessentially British self-effacement, we see ourselves in the unfortunate characters on screen, but rather than cry at the realisation, we laugh.

Satire and parody

This is a country where just about everything is fair game for a send-up, including – and especially – ourselves. The spoof, the pastiche, the parody, they all find welcome home on Britain’s shores. The popularity of satirical panel shows like Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week, typified by irreverent attitudes to the establishment and authority, and political satire like The Thick Of It, is emblematic of a society that peers through the mists of celebrity and says ‘hey, he’s just a bald old bastard like me, what’s so special about him?’.

The lovable rogue and the eccentric

He doesn’t even wear a belt.

We can’t help but have a soft spot for that lovable rogue. Whether it’s Del Boy, trying to sell watches out of his overcoat in Peckham, or Jay from the Inbetweeners shouting ‘bus wankers!’ out of the window of a Fiat Cinquecento, they’re a mirror for our own irreverence and we like that.

Similarly, we’re an eccentric nation and appreciate a bit of quirkiness in our representatives too. If you can name me any country in the world where a man like Boris Johnson would be not just wearing a suit, but also mayor of a capital city and enjoying near-mythical levels of popularity, I’ll eat my bowler.

Social awkwardness      

If you’ve ever gone for the normal handshake when he’s gone for the manly, gladiatorial handclasp, or even the fist bump, you’ll know what this is about. Brits just love watching awkward situations unfold, even if it’s from behind a pillow. It probably stems from our own hyperawareness of social awkwardness, but we can’t get enough of it, whether it’s watching David Mitchell nervously call up his lady friend, Martin Freeman shuffle mutely away after getting a £1 kiss, or Miranda bumbling gracelessly through her terrible, terrible life, social awkwardness is part of the British national consciousness now and it isn’t going anywhere soon.

Surrealism and nonsense

Famously nonsensical British export Mr Bean is part of a dying breed with roots sunk deep in the silent film comedies of yesteryear. Still popular at Christmas time, when British families watch his disturbing, demented adventures and ponder how pleasingly eccentric we are as a nation, that we have created this manchild and set him loose on the world.

The bizarre is represented well in British comedy and comes from good stock – The Goon Show of the 1950s dealt in the ludicrous and the surreal, famous for its songs and pioneering sound effects.

Innuendo

Exemplified by the bawdy Carry On films, a saucy mix of music hall culture and seaside postcards (of the ‘Wish you were her’ variety), this pillar of British humour wasn’t simply an organ (geddit?) for sexy jokes, but a medium for poking fun in true British fashion at the establishment – whether it was the NHS, monarchy, the Empire, the military, trade unions or other film genres.

Say whatever you want, then follow it up immediately by playing this clip, and it’ll sound dirty.

Whimsy

While this final example isn’t technically British, his comedy is a perfect example of the last string in the bow of British humour. David O’Doherty, known for his ‘low-energy musical whimsy’, deals in playfully quaint, fanciful behaviour, usually through the medium of song accompanied by his small electronic keyboard. It’s difficult to imagine that what follows would be popular in many other areas of the world.

The British sense of humour is hard to pin down on a page. It is a curious mix of idiosyncrasies, lyrical wordplay and dry wit. Next time someone tells you that there is no British identity, remind them of our quirky national sense of humour. I mean, at least this is not our reality:

Two men in a club are reading their newspapers when one says: “It says here there’s a fellow in Devon who plays his cello to the seals.” “Oh really”, says the other. “Yes”, says the first, “Of course, they don’t take a blind bit of notice.”