Project 2

Hey guys!

Sorry for the delay in this post - life has been hectic these last two days. Any who, I thought I would make the focus of my blog post Project 2. I had quite a hard time with Project 1 and considering I was unable to make it class yesterday for critique, I thought what a better way to make this project more successful than by connecting with my classmates.

That said, my designer is Martin Scorsese and my concept revolves around the fact that a number of his films feature a character or characters that are not who they seem. For my three films I chose The Departed, Shutter Island and Gangs of New York.

With regard to The Departed, the plot revolves around trying to determine who "the rat" is in the police department. For said poster I used the image of a rat created using the phrase "Cop or Criminal" as it is a portion of a quote from the film (the full quote is from Frank Costello, an integral character: When I was your age they would say we can become cops, or criminals. Today, what I'm saying to you is this: when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?):

With regard to "Shutter Island," the plot revolves around U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels trying to determine the location of Patient 67 at Ashecliff Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island. For this poster I used the image of the lighthouse in the film which is where the truth is revealed regarding said patient. I created the lighthouse using the phrase "Who is 67?," which is from a note given to U.S. Marshal Daniels upon his arrival to the hospital:

Lastly for "Gangs of New York," the identity of one of the characters is hidden from the other characters within the film (excluding one). For this poster I used the image of the trademark hat of said character, created using the phrase "Son of Vallon,"which is the identity of said character:

What are your thoughts regarding my concept and how I handled each, visually? I am open to any and all critique, so please share as you please!

Re: Design Philosophy

Hmmm, design philosophy...I've never really thought about my design philosophy. That said, I think that when designing I make my focus "clean simplicity." I want to convey a message in a clean and modern manner, all the while making said message as simple as possible. Many of my pieces follow this concept, so I guess I can dub it my design philosophy. Hopefully as I keep moving through the program, I will become more focused with regard to my words to live by.

RE: Design Philosophy

I've never really had a design philosophy, but I have learned something that I like to keep in mind when I am working on a new piece that has multiple revisions, versions, etc. I heard this from someone in my words and images class and at first I was a little hesitant about it. However this situation has happened to me and I realize that this is very true.

The philosophy is: "don't submit a proof that you are not absolutely in love with. It will always be the one that they pick." At first I thought this wasn't necessarily true because you may not  like what you created but you shouldn't deny that option to the client. However I was recently creating a logo for a afterschool program and the logo that I liked the least was the one that they chose to go with. All I thought was "damn I should've listened to Heather."

Since it was only a small project and I never actually met with any type of client, I don't feel as disappointed about it, but I feel I provided them an option that seem to stand out more than the other designs because it wasn't as good. And We all know how sometimes the client doesn't make the best decisions.

So this makes me wonder "how do you lead a client in the right direction when what they want doesn't seem to work?" This has definitely helped with my design process in terms of how to present my work to a point where I think that they're going to make the right decisions for what will work best for them.

Re: Design Philosophy

I haven't ever given it any thought but now that you brought it up I realize I always created stuff to me the needs of whatever was being requested. Now that I am gaining professional knowledge in this wonderful program, I do understand that the challenge is to creatively and effectively communicate a solution to a problem. I'm learning so hopefully by the end of the program I will know what my design philosophy is.

Re: Design Philosphy

Hi there everyone! Sorry for my tardiness, I live on my computer therefore you would think I would remember to share my input every week (on time).

So I like the discussion regarding design philosophy, but I can honestly say up to this point - I never thought about "how I think about design." In my head I design expressive communication vessels that tell a story in bold colors and pronounced fonts like this:

https://twitter.com/thisisbeyond

In reality, my execution isn't quite there - but one day! I do find that the point of design to share something with an audience. It can be a communication, or a function, but it can branch in different ways depending on the audience. I recently came back from Louisiana (Tuesday) and enjoyed even walking around the airports seeing how things are designs or redesigned. For instance I noticed since the merge between American Airlines and US Airways, American Airline planes are being redesigned (at least the paint job) to reflect the change. Bright bold colors on the wings, representative to its original brand. On my way to Louisiana I saw the older planes; while on the way home, I had the privilege to see the newly designed ones.

I definitely feel this will get attention! I like especially much more when comparing it to its older (well known) design of just "AA" for American Airlines. Take a look below!

Re: Design Philosophy

So my response may come off as a little off topic but I've never thought about a set design philosophy to follow. However, this quote gives me a great push when I am in doubt.  Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to perfect a certain idea that I am stuck on vs. going through the whole process of eliminating the unnecessary. I've learned that being afraid not only hinders your design process, but it prevents you from going outside of your comfort zone and allowing yourself to try and experience new things when it comes to design. When you doubt yourself and your work, others may doubt your ability to design great things. At times we may have those moments of doubt and being afraid but I've learned to overcome them to allow room for growth and  perfecting over time. 

Here are few more examples:

This is something I do often when it comes to design. I believe there is beauty in many things we that we don't take notice of. There can be inspiration on a true such as the pattern of the tree trunk or simply the shapes of the leaves. There can be a color concept on a business sign or simply an ad on the bus stop. There are inspirations all around us and we won't know it less we take the time to observe our surroundings. 

Re: Design Philosophy

From the other answers I see on here it seems like this is a challenging question but I’ll give it my best shot.

For me design should not be about how you personally express yourselves it’s more so about how your design communicates a problem or the solution to the problem. Aesthetics while visually appealing do not communicate the ultimate goal; it’s just a speck in how I need something to function and without the ability to function properly the design is crap (for lack of a better word). The core of what we do as designers to solve a problem. Of course we all want to make a design visually appealing and we all want to make it different from other designers but what good is it if something looks nice but the ability to function is not there. As designers we are the gap between the needs of the people and their understanding of how business communicate with the world.

Here's a slide share I saw on the topic.