505 SB1- Micro-genres: Research and Initial Ideas

Having looked at Lithuanian hip hop/rap, and found that there is a strong connection between the music culture and graffiti culture, I decided to create something that would act as a symbol for both hip hop and graffiti, but also for Lithuania as a country.

My initials thoughts were to do some graffiti, maybe large scale, in an installation manner, or just a print series. However, I knew that graffiti painting was a skill and a technique that I was not familiar with and may not be able to achieve successfully. For this reason, I decided that I should create something less extravagant but still relevant and interesting. Also, knowing that the outcome for this brief was meant to be something for an exhibition, I thought that the object I create should be 3D.

Considering all of these points, I came up with the idea of designing the label for a spray can. The outcome could be displayed on an actual spray can, making my outcome 3D and therefore interesting for the exhibition. Designing a spray can label, also meant that my graffiti skills/techniques did not matter as much, as the work would not be as public, and also because spray can designs are usually not exactly reminiscent of graffiti, but can be any art style. Looking at existing spray can designs proved this to me, and made me more confident in pursuing this idea and designing in my own style.

Existing spray can designs:

 

 

The first things I looked at were existing graffiti typefaces, and experimented with creating the name 'Lit Paint', that would go on my spray can design. I choose the name 'Lit Paint' for its double meaning, 'Lit' is slang terms meaning something cool and exciting, and also 'Lit' is a shortening of 'Lithuania'. I named the can 'Paint' because I did not want to directly make it just about graffiti, but rather open it up and make the can design more approachable, so that if someone like me were to see it, who is not very skilled at graffiti making, they would not feel too intimidated to use the can.
Because I am not very skilled at graffiti making and letterforms, I decided to look at existing graffiti typefaces for inspiration and technique practice.

Existing graffiti typefaces:

 

 

Initial 'Lit Paint' name writing experiments:

I found that attempting to re-create existing graffiti typefaces were quite difficult for me, as I have had not much practice with it. However, I also found that there are very many different styles in writing graffiti, therefore for some of the experiments I played around with my own writing style and designed letterforms from my imagination. These I found to work more successfully as the shapes and forms of the letters turned out not only more aesthetically pleasing, but also seemed more confident and sharp, which is an important visual quality in graffiti writing.

Initial graffiti pattern exploration:

I knew that I wanted some form of illustration as part of graffiti spray can design, not only typography. That is why I looked back on my research and looked at the different shapes and patterns that Lithuanian graffiti has. I thought that drawing from existing Lithuanian graffiti and paying homage to it would be an appropriate and interesting way to communicate and symbolise Lithuania but in a more subtle way.
I decided to focus on Lithuanian graffiti and taking elements from that, rather that directly from Lithuanian Hip Hop/Rap. This was because I wanted the outcome to feel more relatable to a wider target audience, not just Lithuanians themselves. For example, I did not want to illustrate well-known Lithuanian hip hop artists, as the are only well-known to Lithuanians; only Lithuanians can understand the message they send. As this exhibition is in the UK, this only reinforces how ineffective this would be. However, illustrating some of the elements from Lithuanians well-known graffiti would be a lot clearer and communicate the message to a wider audience, as art and visual elements can be read and understood by most people, not just Lithuanians.

503 Penguin 'A Brief History of Time' - Final Design and Mock Ups

The final design of the book cover is based on the 'Space and Time/Past and Future' diagram within the book. This concept was chosen because during feedback it proved to be the most visually interesting and striking. The colours for the 'past' and 'future' cone chosen was green and beige respectively. These colours were derived from research, which revealed that this particular green was though to be the colour of the universe, but recently was corrected as being beige. This is a unique and atypical way of symbolising the 'past' and the 'future', and brings some scientific fact into the design of the cover. This is appropriate as the book by Stephen Hawking is academic and educational, and also based on scientific fact. The background colour was chosen to be white, because it is unexpected, positive and refreshing compared to previous cover designs for this book. The typeface chosen to work with was 'Futura', this was because it is bold and legible; it gives the book design an approachable and friendly feel, which would appeal to a new generation of readers. The title, authors name and reviews on the back cover were given a slight coloured shadow. This was done to bring some consistency and cohesion to the cover design, as well as to make the design more visually stimulating. 

505 SB2 - PRD: Design Development 1 & Feedback

Following my initial idea feedback, I decided to carry on with creating a 'certification' mark for palm oil that was new and different from all the others that already exist. The feedback that I took upon was to work with or alongside an organisation. I chose this organisation to be Greenpeace, this is because unlike RSPO or other organisations, Greenpeace is a lot more reliable when it comes to sustainable palm oil use certification. Also, Greenpeace is a well-known and respected organisation, so in theory working with them would provide my project and certification mark more authority, and make the audience trust it and take it more seriously.

I took my initial logo idea sketches and started to work with them digitally. I focused a lot around manipulating the shape, form and colours of the palm oil fruit. I did this because the palm oil fruit naturally contains colours red and orange, ones that would instantly stand out against all the other 'green' certification marks. Also, because it would allow the audience to be able to visualise what 'palm oil' is more clearly and feel more personally connected to it. They may feel bad and be less likely to buy a product containing unsustainable palm oil if they know it looks like a pretty fruit and remind them of other fruits that they enjoy to eat.

 From some exploration, I decided to on the certification mark to be a quite abstract and simple shape. I believe it communicates palm oil fruit quite well through its shape and colour, as well as having a 'natural' atmosphere and feel to it. This certification mark is effective as it is a more interesting shape and an unconventional colour for 'natural' and 'green' certification marks.
Through this process I also came up with the slogan 'Orange is the new green'. This highlights the use of orange in the certification mark, and makes it more memorable.

I started working with the certification mark and new slogan, and started to create a 'strip' that would go across products to show that they use sustainable palm oil. I choose the form of a strip, as I believe it would be the easiest to implement onto existing products, as it could simply be added over existing packaging. Also, because the shape and area that it would cover on the product would be unavoidable for the audience to see.

I began working with the typeface 'Futura' as it is bold and matched well the lines within the certification mark. I continued the use of the bright orange to strengthen the brand identity and to enhance the slogan 'orange in the new green'.

Feedback:
- Look at different types of packaging, how would the strip be applied to all the different shapes?
- Maybe it could be a sleeve or sticker - some form of temporary packaging? Over the seal fo the product? So you have to look at it before you open it.
- Can it be a temporary thing - a week or month's campaign? Think of how companies would react if you cover half of their designed packaging and product information from the audience?
- If it was a campaign, you could design stickers, posters, adverts, billboards, etc?
- Work with the palm oil fruit, I think the logo is good but could be a little bit more modern.
- The bright orange is very effective, it would definitely stand out in the shop on the shelves.

505 SB1 - Micro-genres: Interview with Lithuanian graffiti artist Zed

So, first, introduce yourself. everything about you, your tag, and your beginning.

Hello, I am Zed from Lithuania, center of the Europe. To start from the beginning, I got into graffiti life about ten or more years ago. There is nothing very interesting about how I started, that happened kind of typical, first look to some extra primitive writings on the walls of the block that I used to live, you know, all these WU-TANG, NIRVANA, RAP and other promotional shit on the walls of the buildings around. That was the first impression that lasts till now. But probably the main reason to do this was my character, that usually forced me to search for some innovative ways of self expression, to do something different that others do and graffiti those days was absolutely new phenomenon. I was all the time more ore less rebellious in some ways, life wasn’t super easy, I used to live the life of a loner, no friends around, no possible ways to socialize, not because I couldn’t have it, just because I probably chosen it, no matter that I was quite a young boy growing up. So that riot in me made me live in a bit different way, I wasn’t a menace to society, wasn’t a bad one, I lived a normal life with some exceptions and aberrations. So it was my childhood, in some cold grey block, usual for the past day bigger towns of Lithuania. I started to find my interest in graffiti writing when I was probably 11 or 12. But back then, back to 1999, I wasn’t doing no street writing because of my age, I didn’t even know what real graffiti is, I was a kid, that says everything. I can not exactly tell how I started being ZED, that was a long time coming thing, I was somehow growing for that, scribbling different kind of words, painting some abstract stuff on the paper and so on. ZED appeared a bit later on, when I already knew what am I doing, what graffiti is, whats the point of that all. Lets say I was already quite mature for that.

How long have you been doing graffiti?

I am now doing graffiti for already more then ten years, not excluding my super long months of sketching, finding inspiration and so on and on and on. I think I still have some old primitive sketches from 1998 or even earlier days somewhere in the boxes…huge nostalgia.

What crews do you represent?

I write alone…for already many years I do it alone, so I don’t represent any crews. I used to have one big, almost international crew..huh, that was a big thing for me those days, it was probably in 2003, we then all used to rep AC (ART CRIMINALS etc.), there were around 30 people in the whole Europe and sure in Lithuania, people from Italy, UK, Germany and so on. Well, that wasn’t something like a joke, we gave our hearts out to that project, we really loved it, I remember seeing our tags and bombings all around the country, even more, all around the Europe. It was super nice for a young ambitious teenager to see his crew‘s name while visiting such beautiful countries like Italy, France, remember pulling out the camera every time I saw AC tags or works in foreign countries, taking pictures, collecting everything connected with it. But things changed, changed so radical, it was a time, when I decided to totally rotate everything and start to write history all alone by myself, I did find it somehow mystical, extra interesting, extra huge, I realized that it was more exciting to try to achieve everything alone, one man in the field, when they all used to join the crews, were bombing all together and so on, I went all alone and did my job in silence. ha..it was like that for me, and now I am happy about that decision, no regrets, no doubts, nothing…just me and my graffiti.

What is Lithuania biggest inspiration for you? Biggest in other countries?

I don‘t know, I don’t have any favorite writers, no favorite graffiti artists, no human beings could be my inspiration at all, my life is my biggest inspiration, with its ups and fucking downs, with love and hate for the things around me, they inspire me most, no matter in what way, how – it just mirrors in my works, in the streets. When I was younger, like 17 or 18 years old, I was a bit more sociable than now, so I would probably named a long list of the inspirations, now.. no, that’s probably my ego

I don’t know who could inspire me more in Lithuanian graffiti, no one is more active here, no on does more than I do, no one goes all country. That’s why I get a lot of hate from the different fucks around me, but hey, that inspires me too ! even more.

Are you all about style? How would you describe your style?

Style? No… I don’t have no names for it, I just do my thing, my letters. The best style is no style for me, I don’t want to be identified as a pure bomber, or lets say, as a wild styler too, I wouldn’t like to be identified as a styler at all, I just write, who cares about the style ? I don’t…i try to make my letters look as I want them to look like, sometimes fly, sometimes static, sometimes symmetric, sometimes not…sometimes dirty, sometimes super clean and clear…usually I do them legible, easy to read, so people could identify them with no work at all. That’s my thing, I love it. I can do difficult piece, and in the same time I can write extra easy letters, with no details, no stuff at all, everything depends on my mood, on my thoughts, but usually I try to make it look very aesthetically, I pay attention to the technique, no matter that the piece, the bomb is in the very hot spot of the city, I do it all the time straight and as clean as I possibly can.

Let’s talk about graffiti scene in Lithuania. Is it a large scene? When did it start up?

Lithuanian graffiti scene is quite big, as for the 3 million country is really big, we do have cities bombed all over, we do have people who bomb, people who make strictly pieces, people who tag, and yes, people who talks shit and do nothing too. I think real Lithuanian graffiti scene started in 2002-2005, in this period of time, before that, hm…Lithuania had some attempts to be popular, some clowns used to do polish styles bombings, chromes all over and so on, but there wasn’t nothing unique, nothing interesting at all, all the so called kings of those days were just chasing fame, trying to belong to the scene by all means, without no bigger work, and yes, I must say that writing graffiti in 2002 was ten times easier than it is now, no one was hunting on us, there were no cameras, no stress at all, you could go and do your thing so easily, now…its full stress EVERYWHERE. I think that is why only so few people do the real thing here nowadays.

What does graffiti mean to you?

Graffiti is my life and in the same way I am graffiti. That’s so simple and complicated in one place. Its my life by all means, but that don’t necessary mean that I am crazy freak of it. I live with my plans about writing everyday, new places, new ideas, new things…i live it, but I also have other plans, other goals to achieve and more. Yes, I love graffiti, I love letters, love the atmosphere while doing it, I love when you succeed, that’s so fantastic, so nice to see yourself everywhere, knowing how much work you did, everything counts, from a single small tag, to the masterpiece in the jungle of the streets. That’s crazy….But without my graffiti life I live a normal one, I have so many things I enjoy, I pay attention to so much, I live everyday usual life, the same that everyone lives, just graffiti takes bigger slice of the pie…

What kind of spray paint do you prefer? Which caps?

I m not selective at all, I can paint with the spray paint I have that moment, starting with Montana (black, gold series), I use it most of the time, and ending with shitty crap paint with extra bad coverage. If we talk about caps…mostly I do everything with a stock fat cap of Montana black, or a pink fat cap, but I also use some skinnies, mostly stock caps, just to get some detailed lines and so on, but I can do everything with one cap too, that’s only the matter of your abilities. Sometimes I even go bombing with skinny caps, no matter that it takes a long time to fill your work and so on, if I don’t have the right thing I need at that moment, I will make it to be right..everything is possible, everything.

Have you traveled to other countries? Where can we find your paintings?

Sure, I have traveled to different countries in my life, but those trips were more for the rest than for the active sports like graffiti. But I tried to paint in as many places as I could, to mention, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria and so on…I did quite a big bombing tours in biggest cities of Spain and Italy, I just had a chance to spend there a bit longer time, so there were a nice possibility for me to bomb there, tag all around, and I must admit, painting there is much easier than here in Lithuania. People there are more tolerant, they enjoy graffiti, and if not, at least they try to understand it, its bigger fun to be a writer there, plus…you get hundred times more possibilities to be famous there, than in such post soviet countries like Lithuania.

Have you experienced any strange/weird/interesting/dangerous things while out painting?

Oh…a lot and lot and lot of them…I usually don’t do easy spots, I try to write only in dangerous or very dangerous places of the cities, some extra hot spots that not everyone can hit. So almost every time I risk so fucking much. The most crazy actions…yes, there were some, including bombing the central police stations (i was the one in the whole pre-baltic countries to do that, I don’t know about the Europe, maybe somebody did that too, though I didn’t find anything similar on the internet or while visiting other countries), what was the most crazy and the most awesome experience in my graffiti life from all possible. I think you can only get one chance from the million to succeed in such missions, it still gives me shivers when I think about it, fuck what some clowns may think and say, but God knows, that was the most hardcore action in Lithuania’s graffiti history, if you ask me, I am not afraid to say it loud. Sometimes, and usually very often it makes you risk your life, so I risk it, remember bombing very high up on the roof of the one of the tallest buildings of the city, I was doing it at the daytime, while thousands and thousands of people were passing by, imagine some 15th floor buildings roof and some half of the meter to stand on, that was nice, after I hit that spot, I remember running 15 floors down not to get caught and I succeed, but the police was already driving to the spot. I wont even talk about the crazy police or security chases I had, because there were really too many of them. A..except maybe one, when I was doing some quick piecing in the Lithuania‘s seaside, Palanga, the main beach, it was a super nice place, the place where the creek meets its tributary to the Baltic sea, and there was some dope spot to hit, some extra visible and not so easy to reach spot, so I decided to hit it, remember my girl was standing on the sidewalk, I jumped down the railings to reach that wall, you needed to stand in the water to paint there, so…she was watching my back, and in the very end of the action I saw her running and probably shouting to me, what I couldn’t hear that moment because of the strong wind, you know, so… that was a few police cars running very fast and super silent to catch me, I remember climbing that wall to reach the railings again like crazy, jumping over these railings like I was weightless, railings were so high..when I jumped, I was running through the dune as fast as I could, while the police was searching for me in the whole beach, lighting everywhere with some extra bright and blinding lights, I could see them running here ant there, shouting something while I was hiding in some bushes. They were searching for me in police vans even out of the beach, I remember running like crazy, through the whole seaside, through smallest streets of the town, that I didn’t even know then, I could hardly orient where I was running, but I was trying to reach a safe zone, to reach the place to hide, I remember hiding for hour or more till it all calmed down, these few hours of runnin and gunnin made me feel like a fucking star of the combat film, you are running they are chasing…you know. And there are so many similar stories I could tell about the missions I had, that’s dangerous, strange, lovely, breath taking and so awesome in one place, I don’t know what could be similar to that. It stresses you so much sometimes, but no matter that you keep doing and doing your job, risking everything, just because of the love of it. Graffiti is not just a hobby, its a sport, best sport I know, one of the best life styles I know, I just cant imagine my life without writing these letters on the playground: earth.

Source: http://senseslost.com/interviews/zed-interview/

503 Penguin ' A Brief History of Time' - Design Development & Feedback

After some initial ideas and research, I was ready to take my book cover design ideas into the digital. I decided to choose my top 4 favourite ideas, and quickly put together a digital design that would demonstrate my concept. In doing this, I was then able to pitch these digital designs up for feedback and find out which was the strongest.

Initial digital designs:

I created some initial illustrations that I thought I could later develop and use to make the visuals of the book cover more interesting and intriguing. These initial illustrations I knew were not the most successful or appropriate for the target audience, as they felt a little juvenile at this stage.

The design on the left was inspired by content from the book, the style/approach of this concept was to take the retro style of design and give it a more contemporary feel. The design on the right was inspired by the idea of 'The Big Crunch', where the universe eventually closes in on itself. This idea was intended to be portrayed quite subtly, and small illustrations to be used inside. I imagined the background of this concept to be white, as that was something that is less expected.

The design on the left was inspired by content from the book, the style/approach of this concept was to communicate the content in a more subtle and abstract way. I liked the contrast and the strong connection to the content. The design on the right was based simply around the idea of the solar system, however, I imagined that this concept would make the solar system represent the whole universe, and use typography to communicate and demonstrate the idea that we part of the universe. The concept was to make us humans feel small but in a positive way, so it is inspiring and fun.

Feedback:
- I like the retro feel of the first design.
- I like the contrast of black and white in the third design.
- I think the idea of having an all white background is interesting and unique. you wouldn't expect it as it is an untypical association with space.
- The contrast between black and white is striking and eye-catching.
- The illustrations are a little childish, maybe they could be more abstract.
- Maybe you don't even need the illustrations at all, especially with the third design, it would be effective without illustrations at all i think.
- Definitely re-think the colours, as at the moment they're not related at all.
- Third idea is the strongest.

From my feedback, I found that the third idea was most favoured and seemed to have the strongest concept/visual impact. I also agreed with my peers, so I decided to continue my development on this design.

Design Development:

I first decided to explore different typefaces and colours that would suit and be most appropriate for my concept.

The colours red and blue come from my research, which showed that most stars' true colour is either a redish or blueish hue. To communicate this I also experimented with placing red and blue dots inside the 'space and time' cones/shapes. This, although felt like a promising and interesting idea, was not successful, as the dots felt too random and did not feel like they belong here. The typeface I looked at here had a more retro feel, which made the design feel old, and therefore was not suitable.

The colours green and beige came from my research, which showed that the colour of the universe was thought to be green at first, but was later corrected to being beige. I thought this was a very interesting and obscure way to symbolise 'past' and 'future' cones. I got rid of red and blue dots and colours and kept the design quite simple, to draw attention to the 'space and time' cones. This was more successful. Although I used the same typeface as in the previous design, here the design does not feel as old because it is surrounding my more cotemporary and fresh/minimal design.

Here I tried again implementing the red and blue dots that represent stars, but this time I tried it with a more minimal typeface. I choose a delicate typeface to draw more attention to the contrasting colours and layout. The red and blue dots, although more comfortable within this design, still felt a little awkward and out of place. The typeface choice feels a little dull and the overall book cover design is not exciting so would not draw the readers attention.

Here I experimented with just using one colour for the 'space and time' cones, and one of the 'star' colours. The beige for the cones felt a little dull and does not in my opinion express the difference between the 'past' and 'future' as well as using two colours previously did. The use of just red and white for the text is more interesting visually, however the overall feel of the design is a little too threatening and feels more like a mystery or murder book than a scientific one. The typeface choice here however, I felt was the most effective out of all of them, as it is bold and interesting. It makes the text stand out within the layout/composition, and brings some substance to the designs. 

Here I experimented with using a white background colour instead of black. This instantly I believe gives the design/book cover a more unique and refreshing style and feel. As the use of white makes the contrast of the book less exciting, I implemented back the red and blue dots to give some visual variety. This proved to be quite effective and intriguing. The typeface I chose a more futuristic and space-like, this was also fairly effective, however it does feel a little too expected and cliché.

Having previously enjoyed the look of the more minimal layout, and the white background, here I stripped it all back and tried to create an intriguing but simple design. The use of the green and beige for the 'space and time' cones creates a visually interesting contrast, and works much better with the white background than it did with the black. The typeface 'Futura' that I previously found to favour also seems to work well, as it gives the cover design more substance. Out of all experimentations, this was the direction that I thought would be most appropriate. The use of colour within the minimal layout/composition design I feel is interesting and would catch the readers eye due to it being so untypical and unique for a scientific book. It would also stand out within a book shop against all the other 'dark' and typically 'space' like covers.

Having chosen the colour scheme and typeface that I think is the most effective and interesting, I then went on to explore different layouts of text.

Placing the text centrally I found drew attention away from the 'space and time' cones, and made them fade into the background. This I did not want as I wanted the idea behind the design to be noticeable and memorable. Without the highlight of that I feel the design becomes quite bland and in-exciting.

Aligning the text to the sides of the cover design I feel brings the right amount of attention towards the 'space and time' cones, and creates an interesting balance between the text and the cones. Playing around with the title of the book, I tried to create a sort of grid which would be appealing to the eye, however, by doing this the cohesion between the front and back cover was lost.

Here I tired aligning the text to the centre/spine of the book cover design, I found this to be quite awkward as it leaves a large white space on the right of the front cover. Also, it draws attention away from the 'space and time' cones and makes them look less relevant. This was something I knew I didn't want and so found that I will not place any large chunks of text over the cones. 

Here I tried to place text both centrally on the pages, and aligned towards the centre of the design. I did this to try and create a visually stimulating and interesting experience for the viewer. However, I believe this looks a little bit too random and unconsidered. The design feels messy and doesn't bring the right amount of attention towards the cones in the middle.

After considering different layouts of text, I realised that one of my previous layouts was the most effective in communicating and portraying the concept.

This is the layout design I started with, and I believe it had the most interesting and effective idea. The back cover not included, the design gave the 'space and time' cones the right amount of attention, and placed the text in a way that was interesting to eye, but also appropriate to the concept.

Developing the above design, I changed the thickness of some parts of the typeface. The typefaces I used here were 'Futura Bold' and 'Futura Medium'. This allowed me to create a nice balance on the page, and also highlight the more important parts of information. I also re-considered the colour story, trying a dark grey colour for the background, as I thought that it may be a little bit too plain with just white. However, I realised that making the background grey made all the rest of the design elements less effective and intriguing. 

This was the final design that I came to.