Caitlin Ryan

First year LSAD

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Final image Cover

I am happy with how the finished piece came out. I like how the colours contrast and keep the focus on the central figure. I think the added noise and distortions give the cover more character.

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Final Font Exploration

Next I played around with font and layout to find the best fit. I narrowed it down to these six.

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Final Image

Once I put the whole image together, I started to experiment with colours.

The black was too harsh for the crowd so I changed it to a dark purple. The background will either be purple or green. I want the crowd to the left to be faded into the background to keep the focus on the falling figure.

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Final Silhouette

The falling figure was the hardest to make. I wasn't happy with my reference photos because they weren't very realistic. Eventually I took one I was happy with. I silhouetted it and gave it a drop shadow.

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Continuing the Final Image

In photoshop I lined up all the silhouettes and and coloured them in line with the shapes I drew. The shapes represent the overwhelming sound and emotion in this album. I like the colours I chose, especially the green and pink together.

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Beginning of Final Image

To make the crowd background I contemplated a few methods. I drew the crowd but didn't like how it looked. I tried making paper cutouts but it also wasn't the look I was going for.

In the end I photographed myself in the various poses I wanted then silhouetted them and cleaned them up in Photoshop.

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Final Concept Thumbnails

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Choosing a Final Font

I knew I wanted the font for this album to reflect the grunge, messy aesthetic of the band. I also wanted to keep everything in lower case as the band wanted as it is part of their identity. It was difficult to find distressed fonts in lower case as capitalised is preferred in the aesthetic. I like the bold, sans serif fonts that look like they have been degraded with time. I think they best represent the album.

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Trip to the Galleries

Today I went to the Limerick City Gallery of Art and the People's Museum of Limerick. Unfortunately the gallery was changing exhibitions so I only saw some of the permanent collection. This includes the below piece by Bogan. After visiting the galleries we were tasked with making a poster featuring an art piece that was striking to us. I had to include the first word that comes to mind when I saw the piece, it's name and the artists name.

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Trip to Tom Collins' Studio

Local Sign Painter Tom Collins was kind enough to show us his studio and his work. The space was filled with signage. He showed us the kinds of projects he has worked on and what work he does regularly. This was a great insight into the working world of design. We saw the kind of documents he has to prepare for clients and how much work is involved in that.

Tom demonstrated how he paints letters. Then we were given a chance to paint a letter ourselves using a paintbrush and maulstick.

This was a great experience and I believe that I learned a lot from it.

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Typographic Poster

I had to create a poster using only type in InDesign that included the band name, album name and track list.

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Intro to InDesign

We had a tutorial on InDesign where we learned the basics and experimented with the tools. I worked on a mac which I always find challenging because of its different layout. InDesign is similar to Photoshop but with all of its own functions and shortcuts. Using images, shapes and text I created an album cover and a poster.

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Digital Mood Board and Collage

My mood board is a collection of images I took myself and images I found online. I also included a colour palette.

My collage is similar but more refined. I made both on photoshop. Please click into the images for better quality.

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Thumbnail Development

I did more thumbnails to try and nail down my concept.

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Designers Mood Board Type

I like fonts that look hand made or distressed and distorted.

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Designers Mood Board

I love the bold colours and block shapes that these designers use. I like the high contrast that brings the focus to the main figure.

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Experimental Analogue Type

Building on our exploration into type I experimented with different analogue techniques like paper cutouts, tape lettering and painting. I really enjoyed these compositions. I focused on the name of the band and album but also included names of the songs. I leaned into the grunge, messy aesthetic of the nineties.