💌

alex communication design @ rmit Class Exercises Lectures Assessments

[creativemunchies]

Francois Trezin

Lovely neatly organised high colour conceptual photography for Elite Concepts. Print campaign to reflect the different personalities of 4 different restaurants in Asia, that are part of the innovate hospitality group.

[rubytvesday-blog]

A gorgeous and HIGHLY organised display of items that encompass the restaurant dining experience: the food, drink cutlery, interior decor and elements.

[bay--doucet-blog]

And it’s a wrap! 

[luckychvck]

Perfect excuse to go and buy more candles and pillows!

[luckychvck]

FOOD EVENT + REFLECTION

During the first few weeks of introducing the brief for this assessment, I don’t think I’ve ever been so lost with what create. Having a brief that was so broad

in it’s potential was very freeing but also incredibly difficult. I feel as though I’m at a point, as a designer, where I have all of these ideas but not the finely tuned skills to accomplish them.

I became incredibly disheartened after my failed attempts at my initial idea, where I tried to play with the idea of abstract shapes and forms for a more surrealistic feel. I had a vision of a very strong idea but not the skills, however, Andy mentioned something to me which I believe was very important for me to hear as a young designer. By trying to emanate something similar a work i’d previously seen, I wasn’t particularly exploring my own creativity or, I suppose, pushing my limits as a designer. In a sense, I wasn’t really being true to my creative individuality, you could say.

The concept for my final concept came to me quite suddenly. Due to the emphasis on typography this semester, I’d become quite taken with the idea of manipulating and layering text for unconventional readability. Now that I see the final product, and think on how I struggled to come to it, I’m actually quite happy with what i’ve been able to come up with. The piece stays true to my aesthetic influences and allowed me to explore something more unconventional than a food-based recipe,. Furthermore, in the dark the phosphorescent text really stands out, I’ve never created something which is subtly interactive like this, which was enjoyable and something I’d like to explore in the future.

The food event was very fun, the folders with everyone’s work turned out great and it was very fulfilling to see all of the class’ works together as one. As well as exploring other classes works and interpretations of the brief.

[luckychvck]

FINAL DESIGN - STATEMENT

My recipe, ‘How To Have An Existential Crisis’, explores a universal feeling and thought process that plagues the minds of humanity. Through my use of image and materials, I’ve emphasised the feelings of dread and helplessness, as well as tried to emanate the environmental factors, of an existential crisis.

The background image is Janet Leigh’s iconic shower-scene scream in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), which I felt was an accurate and visual representation of the mental anguish around questions like ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What am I doing here?’. Through use of Photoshop I’ve created a glitch-like effect to represent the scattered and confused mind.

The titular text specifically emphasises it’s key words ‘Existential Crisis’, paired with a psychadelic wave effect. The ‘How to...’ part of the text is outlined  as it’s secondary to the aforementioned text.

The glow in the dark overlaying recipe adds to the confusion of it all, the reader unsure of what to read or look at first. The recipe reflects common feelings and scenarios surrounding an existential crisis, while still having element of a traditional recipe, it reads:

WHAT YOU NEED: YOURSELF *THIS RECIPE WILL ONLY WORK BETWEEN 12AM - 4AM* STEPS 1. LAY IN THE DARK AND THINK ABOUT YOUR FUTURE 2. ADD 1 CUP UNCERTAINTY + PINCH OF DREAD 3. STEAM IN SHOWER FOR 15 MINUTES UNTIL HOPELESS 4: QUESTION EVERYTHING AROUND YOU, CONSIDER RISKING IT ALL TO FEEL ALIVE 5: GO TO SLEEP

[luckychvck]

WEEK 8 - CONSUMERISM

This week, Andy’s lecture heavily centred on food and consumerism. It was his understanding that food culture was heavily changed and influenced by the rise of the advertising industry. Given, these days, that food often acts as a status symbol on social media such as Instagram, he is undoubtedy correct that we have moved from a focus on nourishment and simply want to be seen eating aesthetically pleasing food from the latest popular restaurant.

Popular feminist artsist Barbra Kruger made her rightful appearance in the lecture with her infamous ‘I Shop, Therefore I Am’ piece. Which, among many of her works, has strong links to the status side of consumer culture. Duane Hanson’s, ‘Supermarket Shopper' (1970), makes a similar statement, by reflecting the excessive buying of junk food by a ‘slobbish’, overweight woman - an attempt to demonstrate the new common form of the consumer.

Mass production is reflected in Andreas Gursky’s ‘Chicken Workers’. A repetition-focused photograph demonstrating the sheer amount of food being packaged daily by the meat industry. Thomas Hirschhorn’s 2010 piece, ‘Too Too - Much Much’, reflects the sheer quantity of trash we throw away, by filling whole rooms with old, empty cans and trash. The works certainly reflect the research that, by 2020, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

Gabriel Orozco’s ‘Asterisms’ is a gallery show which reflects the same subject matter and values. The artist collects trash from beaches and football fields, a commentary on what humans leave while passing through a space, and artfully arranges them by colour, shape or form within a gallery space.

Lastly, Saatchi & Saatchi’s Catch of the Day (2008), which takes trash and packages it much like how we package meat. Given the sheer amount of artist’s commenting on the issue of consumption and the killing of our planet (along, of course, with scientists and environmentalists), it’s disappointing that we’re largely doing nothing about it.

[luckychvck]

MAKING THE FINAL

In order to make 25 copies of the poster, I discovered it was too expensive to pay for phosphorescent printing, and it is usually only printed on fabric, which I thought could have a negative impact on the result. Given that I now had the phosphorescent paint, I was given the idea in class to make a stencil on to transparent film which would give me consistent results over 25 copies. 

I used a Futura font for the recipe, as with the poster design itself, as it would be easy to cut around. Using a scalpel, I cut around each letter, which was a painstaking but worthwhile process. I then placed the stencil over each poster, and painted over it in the phosphorescent paint. It’s unfortunate that I couldn’t take a photo of the letters glowing in the dark, as I lacked the proper equipment. But it looked very effective and had great readability. 

[luckychvck]

PHOSPHORESCENT PAINT

Given that the UV & Glow-in-the-Dark pen were sure to run out by the time I’d copied the recipe instructions 25 times. Not to mention the process of layering them enough to stand out was very and difficult and time-consuming. I located paint which gave the same effect at Eckersley’s, which would surely make writing the recipe a lot easier.

[indiaahourihan]

Studio 1, Food Festival: Poster development

My first three poster developments feature my first logo design. Although I changed the logo, I liked the style/aesthetic I had created with either the photo or colour choices from my mood board. With this, I developed more posters with my new logo using the same styles. After this, I was happy with them but still wanted to explore more. I did some more research and wanted to create a collage-like effect. This I felt reflected the camping influence of my food festival as well.

I also decided to change the typography I had chosen for my food festival - the original typeface I had chosen for the name of the festival didn’t really reflect the actual personality I was going for, and didn’t mesh well with the graphic I had made. The new typography I had chosen matched the aesthetic of the graphic and matched the personality more. 

[luckychvck]

I love all of these designs, I don’t know how you settled on just one!

[litaraung-blog]

The 100 QUESTIONS book sold at the festival.

[luckychvck]

CLASS EXERCISE - RECIPE BOOK MOCK UP

Placing prototypes into a blank folder in order to trial placement and fit for our final display of everyone’s recipes.

[luckychvck]

Final Poster Mockup

I’ve decided on this design for my final piece. I felt that having the words ‘Existential Crisis’ in a black fill, while the ‘How to...’ as an outline, allows the former to stand out as the key, focal point of the piece. Furthermore, the image on the background adds to the subject matter, the feelings of despair and helplessness (as i’ve displayed through an edited image of the ‘shower scene’ from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho) reflect the feelings that people tend to feel within an existential crisis. 

[luckychvck]

PROTOTYPE 2

I trialled the Glow-in-the-Dark pen over one of the new designs, I’m going to have to find a new method of applying the glowing text, as the process is very slow and makes it necessary to go over the text numerous times so the text stands out.

[luckychvck]

 POSTER REDESIGNS | COMM DESIGN ASSESSMENT

Andy had suggested in class to trial a few different designs. Because I initially wanted to print white on black a regular printer was a write off, and screen-printing would be my cheapest option, however that just added a new layer of difficulty to the project and would force me to become more pressed for time at this busy stage in the semester. Having black on white would make things easier on me, but I felt it looked super boring, so I also created this glitch-effect on an image of Janet Leigh’s iconic shower scene in Psycho (1960). Even from the beginning, when I was experimenting with the vintage illustrations, i’ve been very drawn to that dramatic, over-acted image of a woman in despair - I feel it represents that internal monologue of existential dread quite accurately. 

[luckychvck]

WEEK 7 - FOOD-BASED ARTISTS & EXPERIENCES

This week, Andy made an interesting statement which really stayed with me, that being: "design (is) a lens for societies desires”. Which is, more or less, the thinking behind many artists which were mentioned in the lecture.

Andy touched on the Futurists, specifically the ‘Cabaret del Diavolo’, which allowed the viewer - or person involved in the experience - a special pass into hell for a night. Essentially, it was a hell-inspired cabaret which centered around a meal.

Another experience-based work Andy showed us was Bompas & Parr’s short film ‘Man Vs Gut’. Which evoked feelings of discomfort by playing amplified sounds of the stomach and mouth whilst eating, with video footage of people eating accompanied it.

Damian Hirst’s ‘Pharmacy 2’, played on the consumerist nature of the pharmaceutical industry. An experience-based exhibition where the ‘pharmacy’ is set up in a restaurant-like fashion, wherein the food is merely pills. An interesting commentary on our society.

Andy also touched on the Tokyo Picnic Club, and Studio Knol’s ‘Foodlab’, but one of the most fascinating parts of the lecture, for me, were the images from Maurizio Cattelan’s Toilet Paper magazine. The imagery of the magazine is bright, crude, and a little surreal - I found these images really appealed to my creative sensibilities, I would love to purchase one of these magazines if possible.

[luckychvck]

PHOSPHORESCENT PEN TRIAL | COMM DESIGN ASSESSMENT

Having never worked with this medium before, I had assumed that the pen would appear clear when writing, and only show up in the dark. Much to my disappointment, the ink appears white/off-yellow in the daylight, which makes me want to consider putting my design on a white background to disguise the pen better. Although I love how it looks in the dark, the phosphorescent pen is a bit of a pain to use. I continually had to stop and shake the pen to supply more ink. It also took a few layers to appear as bright as the second picture shows. Ultimately, I think i’ll stick with the glow in the dark effect, but I need to consider methods other than the pen.

[luckychvck]

UV PEN TRIAL | COMM DESIGN ASSESSMENT

Ultimately, the UV pen isn’t the best option. The pen itself holds little ink, so i’d need to order many more in order to repeat the process on 25 posters. Furthermore, writing with the pen on top of the black printer ink of the poster stopped the UV ink from being absorbed properly, which would make it too easy to rub away when placed in the pages of our recipe book. Lastly, the ink would only appear this bright once i’d repeatedly gone over it. After a short while the text quickly goes dull which would leave me with an unsatisfactory final poster.

[luckychvck]

Time to start experimenting!

I ordered a Phosphorescent and a UV (w/ attached light) pen online to try handwriting the recipe on my poster, as it was too expensive/delayed to get it printed from an outsourced place.