Worksop bus station(1981 Drive through the town)

link to video: http://youtu.be/jP9hQRHNvf4

As part of my research(and general interest) i watched this video which showed me worksop in 1981.
Here we could see the old shops that used to be located in worksop.Some shops like wool worths(which had closed down).And how some new roads, like Turner road, had been built.
It was really interesting to see worksop a lot more cleaner and to a degree a lot more quieter.
On the tour places like the flour mill were the same as they are now and have just was much use today.
We also found out before the college was actually made,that it was a mansion that was owned by a rich man who had made the massive house for his daughter and another (Highfield house) for his other daughter.The music room (which was for his other daughter) is still interacted and is being used today.

500 word evaluation.

For are work we were given the task of making a LSG(learning survival guide) for North notts College, We first had to draw up some ideas of what we should do.My first ideas(and the most simple)was what can be found in the college it's self, for example stationary (rulers, pencils,etc.)I thought against the idea though as it would have been to simple and not as eye catching.
We were shown past LSG guides and this gave us a idea of what to do, and what not to do.
For example some lacked colour or imagination.We were then able to determine from this what we wanted to a archive.
I started to develop my first idea,Which I did on the computer.

As you can see I took the concept of The Dominos pizza menus.
I used my basic computer skills to redesign the logo. I made it up of squares and filled the top two squares with images that relate to education (I choose a hat that you get at graduation which would represent what you will achieve by going to North Notts.The second one is a trophy that would represent the rewards you get at the North notts colledge.I found these to be appropriate for my first learning guide.The colors where the same ones as used by dominoes to ensure that people could see the resemblence.I wanted my target audience as a lot of people will have seen or had Domineos before.

My second  LSG design was done using photography. This time I brought in a common object (which was a Game boy in my case). I then started to take pictures of it from diffrent angles,This was to determine which one I would use for the front of my second LSG guide.
When I finally sorted out a picture I went onto Photoshop and editors the Game boy.While on Photoshop I edited the color so it was a more red colour(To relate to the main color of North notts College).I decreased the colour slightly so that it gave it a more professional look.I then made the back of the booklet the same colour.I USED a mixture of Photoshop techniques like saturation,colour balance,

My third LSG design was my final idea. This one went through a lot more thinking then the last two.My idea included using a artist called Peter Strain who I researched into (This research can be found in past blog entry's)  I looked at the way he used fonts the placement of the fonts,colour,size,etc...
I decided from this research I would make a figure up of words that related to the colledge (e.g Path,future,friends,achieve,etc..) this gave the person who would look at the front of the learners survival guide a idea of what the feeling and emotions they would be going throughout while in colledge, what it would be like to be in North Nottinghamshire colledge.
I then started to pick the appropriate colours would be for the texts. These colours would be the ones used in colledge e.g red and white.
As I started to build up my idea I came across a major problem with the picture (which I had drawn by hand taken a photograph of) Because the lines were not dark enough the filling tool on Photoshop could not render them and the colour will over fill everything on the page.  Plus the actual design (when issues mentioned before) had been sorted out, did not have my desired finish.
So I decided to keep the concept of text making up the LSG (learners survival guide) and
Built on from my other idea.This time thought the text did not make up any figure .I researched diffrent types of font (Taken from Dafont.com)and filled a information bubble (which represented speech) with diffrent,Bold, styles of font.
Each having words relating to colledge .
I then stated to think about the back ground and what could be done to give it a more intresting and unique touch.My idea was to paint the back ground my self with a mix of red,white,and green(colors of North Nottinghamshire) .
I stuck the speech bubble with diffrent fonts included onto the painted back ground and began to draw small black pictures that had meanings related to colledge.
I then started to edit my design through Photoshop (I came across minor errors, mainly spelling mistake which had not been seen before hand)But managed to make the design to a good enough standard.

I was very happy with this choice and felt that this design all together was a lot more intresting and was one of my favorite three.In the future though I will be careful of spelling errors and make sure lines are filled in.

LSG(design 2)

This is my second design for LSG .This time I used photography in my work for my front cover.I then cropped the picture so that I could take the back ground away and just have the Game boy in the forground.I used a Game boy because my current generation can relate and may have played on this console.

I then put the words Learners Survival Guide in the screen so this could be the text on the front. 

The background is the same colour as the front cover and has the colledge information on the back e.g Telephone number,Email.

This design has to be my least favorite out of all the others.Mainly because I am not that good at using a came a. So if I was to redo this project I would draw out the game boy by hand and maybe paint it using acrylic like this artist has done:

(This is not mine but would be good for future reference when painting as light and dark parts are separated) .

Before starting to develop this idea I found this picture 

Thus is quite a ironic picture as it ties into both my second and my third LSG design booklet . I really like thus picture as it also ties into my personal hobbies (and most of my favorite games).

LSG(final design 3 )

For example ; Success,Enjoy,Shine etc...

These word are meant to aspire the readers (who will be starting out in North Notts college 

Fir this design I looked at well used tattoos people would have(later I would use these as doodles to put on the front of the LSG book)

Here is a example of a bird tattoo that I took inspiration from:

I really love the detail in the wings and the way the bird has a leaf on its chest is quite a nice touch.

I also looked up books that had been op-ed up in diffrent ways(as silly as it's sounds I wanted it to be opened up towards the person so it would look like you could look into it)

This was my result: 

This was the first type of book I considered for my front cover, I like the way the book looks sketchy and old. Although it would not really suit my LSG front cover well as it may be a little complicated for a doodle.

My other search was:

Already this was one of the ones I thought would be more suitable for my doodle as it's a lot less complicated and could easily be draw in black pen.

I finally found one that would help influence my final doodle:

This one's perfect. and easy to work with so I worked on making it into my own design.I mostly got rid of the page details. 

I used a simple enlarge symbol that you see on all computers (Enlarge your future was the idea) I found my ideal doodle straight away:

These not really much else I can say  as there's not much I could change about this design.

My design before hand had a very obvious spelling mistake which was , instead of 'Success' it read 'succses'. This mistake was fixed by using the Lasso tool which helped me select letters and swap them around.

On the back of the booklet there is the email address,Phone number,and where to find North notts.

If i could do this design again and improve it i would have not painted the back ground and left it the same colour as the back of the booklet.Also i would have checked my spellings before i could the letters in so i do not have to edit over and over again.

Things i do like about the design are the clouds and the border they were given (they were used to make sure that the clouds were distinguished from the background).I enjoyed designing this book front the most.

*Here are the rough sketches of my idea for the doodles that will go on the front.

My next step would be to colour these in black.

LSG updated design

I have been trying to update my idea for the learning survival guide.Still using my other idea of text and the idea of it being the main part of the booklet.
In some parts the text is larger then other parts,this is to give it a more dramatic effect.
I have ideas to paint the back ground in a red colour (which is the colour North Notts college)

This is the colour I am aiming for in the back ground of my LSG guide.

As you can see I have painted it myself to give it a more Home made look.(We shall see how this turns out when it is scanned though the computer) .

This is a extends idea of the one below, this includes mini pictures 

Like a bird(which represents ambitions and being able to fly or fly towards the future)

(Please refer to my final LSG 3 for a update) 

This was the initial idea which Sempt a bit bland. 

Here is my final design idea:

I gave the back ground a lighter colour then planned and painted the words

I am still debating whether to bad the pictures (as stated above) or not.

LSG(Student hand book) UPDATE

As one if interned designs did not fit my desired look,I decided I would still use the idea of text in my work,but instead,  would not be making it into any type of shape like seen below:

My new idea was to uses bold and eye catching fonts(that would still include words relating to the college).As you can see it's still a work in progress but I shall research more into this idea.

This design would be the front of the LSG hand book and I will be painting it and scanning it in so I can finish it off. Hopefully in the date given.
While researching I found ideas like mine which interested me like:

This picture in particular intrested me because of the way the text added yo the picture.when I looked closer I noticed that the man's beard was also made out of Text which I thought was quite a intresting touch to the picture.

This picture also looks like the one o like my chosen artist would have done.

I personally like this piece.

Another picture that caught my eye was this one:

One of the main reasons this picture caught my eye was because straight away I could recognize who it was.Using a well know celebrity and lyrics from his song impressed me. I like the way that the colours are simple but contrast well.

I hope to do something like this in one of my future LSG booklets.

I found a very simple (and very basic design)  that I thought was good for guidance lines: 

This one reminded me of something you would see on in cafes (I'm not sure why).The use of colours is okay but I shall avoid this type of font as I personally find it to be quite dull.

I have tried using these styles in some of my sketches,here are some examples:

With this picture I will be colouring it in, for example the hair will be brown so text on the top will be brown.I'm very impressed with how this turned out in the end.This also helped me with portrait work.Not sure if I should have left the shading below the eyes out.

Another idea that was a lot more simple was just to have one or two words(so it wouldn't appear more crowded).

I shall be colouring this up as well to see what it will look like in colour.

learners survival guide pt.4

For my 3rd,and final design, i have decided to use one of Peter strains pieces as influence for my work.As said in my post explaining why I will be using Peter Strain in my future work.

For my cover i have decided to use the concept of the text literally making up the body.This text will include words relating to the college. The text itself will be a mixture of Red and white and my aim is for it to be on a black ground. Similar to the background on the picture above.The text bellow needs work as well as its a very simple idea.

This is a Thumb nail sketch i have done so far;

Here were some examples of pictures I used to influence my work bellow:

This one helped me with drawing backs as it also gives you a good idea of how muscles are shown.You can clearly see the muscles in her back by the way she is posing.

I have drawn up another idea still including my Text idea.This time with a girl in the foreground looking out to the future with words relating to college.

I did not take as much to this idea as it seemed quite sparse and not much could be add to make it into a book cover. I will continue with my other ideas in the future. 

Though the scribble effect picture in the bottom left has hints of a good idea.

Peter Strain

I have continued to research into a artist called Peter Strain. His art always amazes me because of the way the fonts are so dramatic and how well they fit in with the pictures as well. His seem to always theme his work on Movies of the past some include:

Black Swan .a dramatic set out that uses the fonts as part of the ladies dress.

I like that the text makes up her dress and that part of the text is red(so this helps distinguish parts of her dress).

Breaking bad. The way trees and follidge are included in this picture give it such a classic and beautiful look.

And one of my personal favourites, that was featured in the magazine Guide (The Guardian)

Using the faces of both The Joker and Hannibal Lector(And the face of Walter white).

I shall be using him as a future Artsiest.

Pt. 3 of Learners Survival guide(Wip)

Using a well known logo to make my own versions.

This is one my final designs that was made using Adobe photo shop and illustrator.

The theme was a dominos menu.I used a fancy font to give it a more adult look and made the back look like a official menu.For my first attempt at a from t i think it went quite well a;though i had some problem with the logo its self.I have used the actual logo for NNC college as requested. In the future i shall have to learn how to import things from different pages.My over all design does feel empty ,but as i said before, for a first attempt it is not that bad.In the future i will have to work on

my skills using Photoshop.

On the bottom of the booklet i have included the contact information e.g email address,phone number,and website.

This was a drawing i did for another idea for the LSG booklet design.I thought it would relate to this idea as they are both on the same lines of "food products".I have changed the writing from the original text to things i find positive about NNC(North Notts college).

I shall be colouring this design up later(maybe in a red colour like the north notts colours).

Pt.2 of NNC Learners Survival Guide

Continuing on the idea of using old posters I looked up classics like Psycho and found a layout that would be suitable for the Learners survival Guide.

My first impression is how wide the fonts are compared to all the others I have looked at. They give off a more dramatic effect. And the way the characters are squared off  gives it quite a 'Vintage' effect as well. This will link into one of my pieces as I will try to use boxes (layout) in my work .

I thought that in the far left corner I could put 'A frightfully good college!' to stick with the dramatic theme. I will continue my research for now and continue to experiment with different ideas.

 Other examples of Hitchcock poster(and movie style compositions) i found were:

As i am not that familiar with this film by Alfred Hitchcock but i really like this composition.

Mostly because it looks very abstract and simple.The eyeball does not to much of the picture up and gives a sense of mystery to what the film may be about.The colour system also looks appealing.

As i have watched this movie i can easily understand why the maker of this picture has been set out like it has.I love the way that the shadow in the background stands out against the harsh red colour.Also the use of all three colours is very nice.The fonts used are very simple.

This poster is very different from the others are it strays away from the abstract,simple ideas.This poster uses actual pictures from the movies and combines them with a simple movie poster layout.

There is a range of different texts used in this as well.The colours used range from stained coffee paper(i think)to a calm yellow which gives the layout a boost.

NNC Learners survival guide work.

While researching ideas for the front of my Learners survival guide I came the idea to use the template of old movie posters, I searched for templates and came across a artist named 'Peter strain'( unforantly I could not but a link to his page]
whose artwork mixed interesting fonts and his own stylised versions of movies as seen below:

This piece interested me because of the way it made up the face.Also how the landscape behind the figure is normal which i quite like.My favourite part about the picture is the stars behind the picture which gives the picture a interesting look.

As this is from one of my favourite movies this one automatically grabbed my attention.
I love the way the back ground is made up of words(which are actually from one of the songs in the movie).The fonts used on this picture is also quite interesting.

The final picture that caught my eye was this one(which is very much like the first picture in the way  it partly has writing).Generally this picture is something too consider in my future work with the LSG.

When I saw these it gave me the idea to use fonts to maybe make a whole picture. These words could be ones that come to mind when you think of college. For example 'Art' and 'friends' simple words.

Also the colour schemes on the pictures above has lead me to think that I should try include darker colours in my own work. All these ideas will be put into one of three of my designs. After which I will decide on my final one.