Updates: Studying Hard

February 07, 2016 Unknown 0 Comments

I've been working a lot on my craft and academics lately. A BFA degree typically involves the assembling of a final portfolio during your last semester. On top of this, I am taking 4 studio classes which is a highly intensive work load. The stress comes and goes with the deadlines. That being said, my graduation is confirmed and I'm gearing up to go to Monash!

Other than working on my projects and stress management, I've been doing some research. I'm pursuing a career in design and art direction so I need to widen my skill set beyond illustration and basic 2D design principles. My masters degree will cover some of these topics in depth (interaction design being part of web design and app design) but I like to learn as much as I can on my own.

My goal with my skill set is to make it as broad as I can so I can make myself more marketable to employers in Melbourne. I want to be a valuable asset. At least enough so I can land sponsorship a few years down the road.

Thus far I've knocked out one book that I purchased titled Essential Elements for Brand Identity: 100 Principles for Designing Logos and Building Brands (purchased from Amazon). It was a good, short read on the basics of branding, identity, and logos. In many ways it felt like what they were discussing was common sense and yet some of their points had not previously occurred to me. I'll be starting my other book on brand identity (pictured left) today and I'm excited to see what else there is to learn! I'll be heading to the library soon to see their selection of visual arts books, I'm hoping they have something on art direction and photographic composition and design.

One of the most interesting things I've found in my research thus far is that design and illustration are considered very different by both illustrators and designers. I find it to be very untrue. In my experience the creative process is very much the same. Perhaps some of the princples that a designer will consider are different than an illustrator. The decisions made in design are tied more closely to function. Illustration has more opportunities to be driven by personal aesthetic based decisions. But overall, they pull from the same things. Illustration and design are both categories of communication design. They rely on visual literacy and thus must pull from the principles behind this subject. These are just some of questions we must ask our selves:

1. Who is the audience?
2. What colors are associated with certain objects, feelings, brands, and their cultural significance? How can I use them to my advantage?
3. What does this imagery and these symbols mean to people? Does this resonate across cultures? Does it need to?
4. What's the most efficient way to make a concept legible, and how do you execute that in a unique way?
5. What purpose does each element of the image/design serve? 
6. Does the execution match the intention? (I.E. was your purpose to evoke excitement in the viewer? was it accomplished?)

Funnily enough, in art school illustration is referred to as being "not real art" by fine artists because it's so commercially based and more often than not client driven rather than creating art for arts sake. Yet, it's too "artsy" in the mind of designers to be considered design. I find that the two are so closely related that the lines are blurred. At some point, designers will illustrate and illustrators will design. It's almost impossible to not encounter the other during your work.

That being said, I do find that I need to suppress my desire to turn everything into an illustration. When approaching a design, I have to try to simplify whatever imagery comes to mind and focus on practicality and legibility. It can be difficult to develop a functioning visual hierarchy in certain types of designs when there's so many aspects involved like text, logos, labels, images, etc. There is a learning curve, but it's not too difficult to adapt to.

I'll leave you all at that and get back to studying. If anything exciting happens I'll keep you updated!