Coastal Concern graphics

My blog dedicated to Graphics and Illustration A2 projects

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Summary

Through out this project I aimed to create illustrations and products to make people aware of the issues that our coast and oceans face, as instructed by my chosen brief of “Issues of Concern”.

I selected some artists that directly linked to the coastal theme such as Daniela Garreton, Sarah Trumbauer and Sally Harless, who create illustrations inspired by the coast and creatures that live in the ocean, however I also chose to study artists like Huebucket, Katie Daisy and James Gulliver Hancock who’s work did not have an immediate relation to a coastal issues theme, but I took inspiration from their style and work to create my own  illustrations and products to make sure that they would fulfill my given brief.

One issue that I faced in my project was making sure that when creating my own work, sometimes the meaning behind the illustration would not be portrayed without some information or typography alongside it. To overcome this I made sure that before making my own illustrations or product designs, I would consider how someone would perceive the illustration from the first glance.

The aim of my overall project, as shown in my final outcome, was to get people to pay attention and be aware of the issues that our coastal landscape and creatures are threatened by. I feel that I was able to successfully reflect the brief in my work through combining my chosen artists with the creation of products that are catered to the idea of encouraging people to help in facing the coastal issues that our present in our lives.

word count: 266

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Documenting

When creating my final piece I created my leaflets on Photoshop using scanned and coloured illustrations of characters inspires by Liz Climo and Sally Harless and typography created inspired my James Gulliver Hancock. The character designs were more of a central focus for the children’s element of the pack so all the products featured my illustrations. The adults leaflet featured my illustrations inspired by Paula Bonet as the main focus because as these were more sophisticated and detailed designs I felt they would be more appealing to adults. I included little “doodle” designs throughout both leaflets to tie both product designs together.

For the products in the pack I used the reoccurring theme that was used thorough out both leaflet designs so the charity design ties all the products together. I ordered the calendar off the printing website “Photobox” and it features illustrations that were created through out my project but the other elements like the pencil box, badges etc were made by hand as prototypes first, to get the correct sizing and design, then the final versions were made so there would be less room for mistakes.

word count: 190

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Reviewing & Refining Ideas

I refined my ideas my making prototypes of my products and doing market research. I asked people what design for a leaflet they preferred and I then created designs to fit around they style that appealed to the majority. I also did the same for the keyring designs as it’s important to when designing products that it appeals to a wide audience.

For my typography development I either wanted to choose between a style inspired by Katie Daisy or James Gulliver Hancock. I found that James Gulliver Hancock’s style would appeal to more people rather than Katie Daisy’s style which would appeal to a more feminine audience. 

These photos show my first development ideas into final designs for my outcome. 

word count: 122

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Initial Ideas

After experimenting with different artist’s styles I created mini-outcomes to relate to my “Issues of Concern” theme. For some of my outcome ideas I designed posters to make people aware of the issues that surround our coast and I also created ideas for products such as key rings, bookmarks and charity membership cards based on the coast/ocean.

My plan for my final outcome is to create a sponsorship pack that will be sent to people when they donate to this coastal charity. When developing ideas for my final outcome, I decided I wanted my work to draw illustrative inspiration from 5 particular artists- James Gulliver Hancock, Paula Bonet, Sally Harless Liz Climo and Huebucket. I chose these artists as I feel that my strongest work was created when studying these artists.

The main layout of my final piece and typography reflect James Gulliver Hancock’s work and I feel that this will make the products eye-catching as his work can appeal to all ages. I also plan to include work from my other chosen artists to put onto products that can come with the pack.

word count: 186

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Initial Research

To begin my research I chose to look at artists that had a simplistic and cartoon-like style, such as Sally Harless and Liz Climo,  I also wanted to include work from artists who make detailed illustrations like Daniela Garreton and Rachel Wilson so that I would be able to explore a wide range of outcomes for varying target audiences. After experimenting with these different styles I found that my strengths lie in the more detailed illustrative styles and I feel that the detail gives more of an impact and would attract a wider audience compared to the simplistic style, which would generally be more aimed at children or a younger audience.

word count: 113

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Coastal - “Issues of Concern”

For the A2 Graphics and Illustration Unit 3 project, we were given the title of “Coastal”. There are many routes that can be taken with this title, for example; seaside cafe, coastal entertainment, coastal issues etc... I decided to go down the route of “Issues of Concern” because I had a personal response to this specific theme as I am very keen on the conservation of wildlife and the natural environment.

The issues of concern theme can include the saving of coastal and sea creatures as well as issues surrounding the saving the coastline itself, linking to more geographical elements such as coastal erosion, pollution and global warming. I wish to explore both of these ideas in my project but I feel that my best work will be achieved through exploring the saving of marine life that surrounds the coast.

I wish to approach this theme in a lighthearted manner to make it appealing to a wider range of people, as I find that environmental conservation organisations that take a more serious and stern approach tend to be viewed as quite extreme, so I feel that using less stern ways of conveying information about coastal issues will be much better whilst retaining the idea that these issues need to be resolved. 

word count: 210