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.
No comments:
Post a Comment