Visual Diary

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I really love the colour in these movie posters of recent years. I’d love to play around with similar colours. The colour of Bohemian Rhapsody and Moonlight simulates calmness within me. The Avengers and Wonder Woman scream fun and excitement.  This is my final post for the Visual Communication Visual Diary assignment. I really enjoyed this assignment. It has helped me to become more observant, paying closer attention to typography, signs, art and visual communication forms all around me. I have captured an abundance of street art and signs. I have payed closer attention to the colour and text used in advertisements and billboards and the message they’re trying to communicate. I really enjoyed this assignment and the skills it helped me develop. 

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Here are some signs I have captured images of. It’s interesting how simple illustrations can communicate a clear message to us and how our minds has adapted to naturally understand them, sometimes without any context or text beside them. 

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Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix was one of the post popular movies in 2019. The variety of movie posters produced is astonishing. The NYC steps in the first poster has since become a tourist attraction. The trippy and abstract movie posters reflect the state of the main characters mind.  This was a brilliant film and the movie posters really draws in an audience, making them want to watch this film after seeing the poster. 

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Here are two Pink Floyd music posters that Inspired me when designing my music poster for assignment 2. 

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The Burger King logo redesign is so cool, tracing back to its roots. Burger King changed their logo after 20 years, back to “when it looked at its best’. Simple and clear can really be more effective and accessible. 

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Here are my completed logos for my Desktop Publishing module. The first is the final version, the section is an alternative version and the final one is the black and white version. I had to create a logo for a client I found myself. I designed this logo for the Wicklow Explorer, a nature photographer from Wicklow. My client was very happy with the final piece. 

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I love these Doctor Sleep movie posters. The way he is stepping through the title is very cool, which I now know how to create using the layer mask tool in Photoshop. Even if you never heard of The shining or Doctor Sleep, despite a child being in the poster the red background instantly screams “danger”. As we learned in our first lecture, the important of colour  I actually really liked this movie, it is the sequel to The Shining, which is a 1980 horror movie based on Stephen King’s famous novel. The child in The Shining is all grown up in Doctor Sleep, yet this movie is totally different to what you would initially expect. It’s quite an abstract and wacky concept and I’d really recommend anyone who likes horror movies to watch it.

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My favourite genre by far are horror movies, both supernatural and psychological. Here are some insanely good horror movie posters: 

I really love the black backgrounds, almost going into the darkness and the main subject featured in the centre to grab the viewers attention, on the ‘us’ poster for example. I’d love to try attempt this either in my movie poster or future work I do!

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For our final assignment, we must research, plan and design a film poster. We need to chose a title and genre, this will be the first step in coming up with, and realising a concept to help advertise the film. The poster must be a combination of original imagery and text. We also need to devise a basic storyline for the film, which will help identify the target market and keep this in mind when designing the poster itself. 

Genres that I currently have an interest in are horror, thrillers and romance. 

Here are some iconic film posters for inspiration:

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Back in the week 6 lab, we learned how to use the Layer Mask in Photoshop. A Layer Mask is a reversible way to hide part of a layer. In the above image it’s used to keep the text in front of the background image while still keeping the model in front of the text. A layer mask prevents having to delete part of a layer permanently, it gives greater flexibility when editing. It works by making anything you can see white and everything that is hidden black. It’s a cool way to edit specific objects while keeping the background the same, to cut out objects and to make image compositions. Other Photoshop tools and tricks we’ve learnt in the labs include using the content aware tool to remove anything from an image, removing items from complex perspectives by modifying the selection and using the clone stamp tool, animating a gif by putting layers in a sequence then creating a frame animation in a timeline and whitening someones teeth using a mask are the number of things I’ve learnt how to do in Photoshop, in Visual Communication labs.

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Assignment 3: Image

For the third assignment we were asked to to create 4 photographs, each one based on one of these words: safe, danger, anger and joy.

Each photograph portrays a visual message that was developed from these words, by the use of visual rhetoric. Visual rhetoric is a visual means of persuasion. You can persuade someone’s interpretation of a visual by the use of colour, shape, layout, typography, nature and architecture elements and how you arrange them. Visual rhetoric also involves analysing the meaning of an image, although we can all interpret visuals differently. This is why the photographer has to communication their interpretation effectively so that they can persuade us to interpret the image in the same way. It also depends on the context, for example a comedy about a funeral would be funny to some, but could be offensive to someone who has lost a loved one.

The theme of the four images that I captured is based around the pandemic and the effects COVID-19 and the year 2020 has had on us all emotionally, mentally and physically. Many people have experienced bereavement, illness, losing their jobs and negative impacts on their mental health. No single person’s experience of hardship and trauma is the same. We can all feel things differently and react individually to the problems one can face, especially in times of crisis and the uncertainly of it all. The aim of this assignment is to show my interpretation of safe, danger, anger and joy during the pandemic.

Unfortunately, I don’t own a camera, so I captured these images on my iPhone 7 camera. I applied the knowledge and skills that I learnt in class to enable me to take the best possible images I could on my not so up to date iPhone camera. I used the grids on my smart phone camera which helped me to layout the subject in my photographs.

Image 1 - Safe:

The first image is a reminder that we’re not stuck at home, we’re safe at home. A cup of tea can be a comfort to many and can associate safety with the familiarity of having a cup of this Irish favourite beverage in the sanctuary of your home.

Image 2 - Danger:

This photograph was taken on Henry Street in Dublin City Centre. Something that use to be as innocent and festive as doing your Christmas shopping has now become a risk, the possibility of exposing yourself to the danger of coming into contact with someone who has COVID-19 is very real. 

Image 3 - Anger:

This photograph was taken at night, the subjects black coat blends into the background and the backdoor was left open for lighting to hit the subjects face. He is wearing a mask to show the times we live in and the expression on his face frowning shows anger in his eyes. Fed up and angry with the pandemic and the negative impact and suffering it has caused. 

Image 4 – Joy:

The aim of the final image is so capture the joy of two friend’s seeing each other for the first time since lockdown ended. They are situated in a park, meeting safely outdoors, with the bare trees and clothing such as a scarf setting what season it is. Smiling, elbow ‘hugging’ with joy and happiness on their face.

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This is my first photography assignment that I did for my BSc in Multimedia in first year in 2017. My project was titled ‘A Day in the Life of the Irish Homeless Crisis’. I spoke to homeless people in the City Centre and the above let me take their photos. I spoke to a woman who fled due to domestic violence and even an old woman, I purchased some food for them and conversed for a while. It was a little daunting at first asking strangers, especially in a crisis situation could I take their photo. I was happy with the final images, I hope these people are doing better in 2021.  The camera that I used to take each image was a rental Nikon D3100 digital camera. The lens used was a 18-55mm.

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This is my finished music poster for assignment 2 that I made in Photoshop. It definitely would have been quicker to make in Adobe illustrator but I wanted to give Photoshop a go as I wasn't as familiar with this software. Although in Desktop publishing and from talking to work colleagues, I discovered it’s best practice to design graphics and illustrations in illustrator, anything for print like brochures and posters should be made in Indesign and mainly photographic edits should be carried out in Photoshop. But it was cool learning how to create this in Photoshop and getting better at using the tools!

We’re on Mars in the year 3000. As the band Busted once said, Earth went underwater. Human beings then migrated to Mars. Abba have just come out of cryosleep and are about to rock Mars for the first time. I wanted to make sure this idea was indeed unique and Googled ‘Abba Mars’. An article for the 2015 film ‘The Martian’ popped up (Garber, 2020). It was revealed that an astronaut became trapped on Mars. His crew member is an Abba obsessed fan and the disco music is played throughout the movie. I thought this was a cool coincidence. David Bowie’s music is also featured in the movie. For this reason, Bowie is the supporting act in holographic form! This is how the rationale behind my idea developed. 

As well as typography, geometric forms such as shape and line were allowed to be used. I created the designs using the ellipse and rectangle tools. I also used the pen tool to change the shapes with anchor points, to create new shapes. I used several effects such as an outer glow for lights on the spaceship, drop shadow effect on the craters and gradients throughout.  I downloaded and installed the Roboto font from Google Fonts. This sans serif font is similar to the one used in the Abba logo. I selected ‘edit’ then ‘transform’ to flip a ‘B’, I then decreased the kerning between the characters, to replicate the Abba logo. To take my own twist on the font, I added white swerved shapes to create tentacles at the end of the text. I also lowered the opacity and added an outer glow to the Abba font copy to create a 3D effect. For the Bowie font, I made this in Illustrator and imported it in as a smart object. I used the text reflection effect for the date and ticket prize, the Martian currency is called ‘Zunks’.  I really enjoyed designing this poster. This assignment was a great opportunity to enhance my Photoshop skills, to put the effects learnt in class into practice and to implement the principals of design. 

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For our second Visual Communication assignment we were asked to choose a genre of music and create a poster advertising a concert of that genre, using only typographic elements. Above are typography and posters that inspired my finished design. Psychedelic typography was a big inspiration along with the colour and spiral designs of this era. Pink and orange colours were what I focused on looking up to aid with my research of making my idea a reality. I will include my finished poster in the following blog post. 

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I really enjoy seeing businesses, particularly local businesses, incorporate art and visual communication into their branding. It makes the businesses brand identity stronger, making them stand out and become more recognisable. 

Business’s brand are perceived differently by those who experience it, brands are perceptions. The logo design, colours used, imagery, typography and brand tone are brand guidelines that businesses follow.

I love, love, love hand painted signs! The Vintage Flip and In Dub Reggae Store in Temple Bar have these quirky signs painted on their exterior. They show how funky and cool the business is. Without stepping foot inside you can almost imagine what the employees are like and what the interior could look like. They also reflect what the business sells. The typography is original and unique to their business. I also like the typography on Temple Bar Jewellers. Its traditional style and colours reflect Ireland and fits nicely into what Temple Bar has to offer.

For my daughters past Birthdays I have made hand painted signs and designed different things to match the theme of the party. This year for example, I made a Barbie Photoshoot Box out of an Ikea box and painted it myself. Warning: not the best quality image but I have included it up above.

This colourful laundrette in the City Centre certainly wouldn’t scream ‘laundrette’ without taking a closer look at it’s typography. I really like the colour scheme used, the drippiness of the piece makes it almost trippy. Way funkier than your average laundrette. 

Another form of art I really appreciate is good window art displays. I came across this ‘Cronuts’ window art piece on Dame Street. I can’t wait to move out in the future and try out window art myself for the holidays. Although window art is usually used for decoration purposes during the holiday season, I have seen permeant window art pieces. Hand painted menus on windows, logos and icons for example. They can really add something unique to your business.

We really do have a vibrant and creative city. I love wandering around and capturing all the art and visual communication pieces I see. Having this blog has made me more observation in my every day life and I’m really seeing the beauty and art all around us.  

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Some more recent street art pieces that I’ve captured in Dublin!

I found another ‘wrestlers’ art piece by Submission Control. They’re two ‘martial arts artists’, Guze and Gary who are a part of the brilliant Subset collective. 

Playstation commissioned Aches, a street artist known for his RGB colour effect pieces, to create this ‘play has no limits piece’ to advertise the launch of the new PS5 console. 

I also came across this cool ‘meet me in secret piece’ by Canvaz and this Bear piece advertising a coffee business. 

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Sad to see Quinns on the Northside gone. The site is apparently going to be turned into student accommodation. 

In the mean time theres a gorgeous, colourful mural up, brighting up Drumcondra. The figure piece on the side of the mural is a mixed marital arts street art work by Subset. A number of similar pieces are scattered across Dublin City, have you come across any? My Multimedia BSc in DCU final year group project and thesis was titled Artchive, in which we archived street art through virtual reality using 360-degree video. It was an interesting project that I really enjoyed. Artists we looked at included Subject. We captured ‘Horse Boy’ in 360-degree video during the day and night, in different seasons to see the changing effect on street art pieces, a lot end up graffitied or demolished due to not applying for planning permission.

Of course I included another Dublin Canvas this time in Drumcondra, which fits in nicely beside the mural.