Overall, the suffragist poetry exhibition design has gone well. The design has used a large amount of research in order to create a well reasoned and substantial body of work. The design immediately indicates that it is about poetry due to the fact it takes a typographic approach and the title 'WORDS' is made large in the center of the design.
The initial stages of research into suffragette design have influenced elements of the branding such as colour pallets, typography and imagery - especially the 'Bugler Girl' interpretation. A lot of the suffragette designs (influenced by the tones used in the Art Nouveau style) use warm colour pallets, and as a result the branding uses a warm orange predominantly. This colour was also used because the figure is based on the 'Bugler Girl' design which also used a similar orange tone. A cream tone also also been used instead of white - this is to created an aged, more classic appearance, similar to the aged pages of the poems studied for the exhibition.
Whilst the designs were influenced by Suffragette work, they also needed to be contemporary and modern in order to be popular. From research a lot of current branding is very shape based, using bold colours and negative space. For this reason, the original Bugler Girl image has been refined into a very abstract interpretation of her face. This is to be bold and striking and will appear attractive against other types of exhibition posters
The exhibition highlights the achievements of suffragist poets throughout and paints them as just as strong and powerful as the more physically active suffragettes. The Bugler Girl image has been designed to make her look like a warrior with sharp and angular features. The words she is shouting are bold and in capitals, to give emphasis on her words. These words are made bright against each background suggesting they offer a light in the darkness. Often in the poems the suffragist's wrote, they compare themselves to sources of light for women who needed the vote. For this reason within the poetry exhibition publication, certain words within the quoted sections are highlighted in orange - giving them warmth and significance. The pages also alternate between black and white in order to show more links to the light and dark imagery. Each quote is written in capitals, again to give the words power and emphasis, written as if they are being shouted.
The elongated rectangular shape of the exhibition guide means that there is a lot of negative space around the poems, which means the words seen are bold and vibrant. It also means that for some of the longer poems they can extended further down, and are not interrupted in any way. The shape is directly influenced by traditional poetry layouts and has been used for both the flyers and the poster too. This keeps the work consistent and also means that it has a point of difference when compared to other exhibition posters.
All the branding is consistent with each other and the same figure of the Bugler Girl has been used across all the pieces of design. This is to ensure that it is iconic and distinctive and as people see the design repeatedly in different formats it becomes memorable and they are more likely to visit the exhibition.
Sunday, 5 May 2019
Saturday, 4 May 2019
Final Designs - Suffragette Design - Research-led Brief
Poster Design
The final poster design is bold, powerful and impacting. It is reminiscent of current contemporary exhibition design and derives from a lot of research. The poster design was printed A1 on matte stock and large scale it is striking. The bold shapes are eye catching from quite a distance and the unusual shape of 'WORDS' adds to people's interest in the poster. There has been an emphasis on type to immediately indicate to the viewer that the exhibition is about literature. The design with the black background was chosen for the poster as it means that the central 'WORDS' is bright and glowing from the center of the piece. This is to play with the common idea within the poetry that suffragettes were a source of light for other women stuck in boring/monotonous living. The matte stock means that colour is strong and consistent, the inkjet printer produces a lot of ink which is absorbed by the paper and creates this striking finish. This poster would be displayed around Leeds, within other art institutions and on bandstands etc. The unusual 3:6 shape of the poster ensures it stands out and has a point of difference in comparison to other posters on display. It has been designed like this in order to connote the traditionally poetry layouts - which are often long and elongated.
Flyers
The flyers have also been printed in on the matte stock with the inkjet printed. This makes the colour bold, exciting and rich and indicates the respectability of the exhibition. The flyers adopt the same design as the posters, this is to ensure there is consistency across the exhibition branding and the imagery will become memorable and iconic the more people see it. The flyers are fairly small and this is to ensure that a large quantity could be printed to promote the exhibition. They are still attractive pieces of design which clearly state the relevant information in an informative and legible way.
The Exhibition Pamphlet
For consistency, the cover of the exhibition pamphlet has also been made with matte stock. This means that the guide is soft and pleasant to handle. It also creates a contemporary and luxurious aesthetic which is important when creating exhibition branding, especially for quite a serious and historical subject matter. The inside pages are printed in a lighter matte card, to maintain the high-quality, professional aesthetic and also to contrast nicely with the thick cover. Again, the cover replicates a variation of the design used for the poster and the flyers for consistency. It has used a cream background so it will contrast nicely with the black posters and also to link to the colour of aged poetry records and reflect the aged appearance in a new and contemporary way. This pale cream has been used for some of the quotes on the inside of the book too. These are very faint and represent many of the women at the time who would look nice but held little power, the words are punctuated with the warm orange to create high contrast and represent suffragette strength. Through-out the publication there is a theme of light and dark, which can be read in the poems. So the book alternates black to white pages to make this contrast apparent. The uses of capitals for the quotes shows strength and force, it almost indicates that they should be shouted - as the figure on the front is doing; giving much indication of suffrage force.
The final poster design is bold, powerful and impacting. It is reminiscent of current contemporary exhibition design and derives from a lot of research. The poster design was printed A1 on matte stock and large scale it is striking. The bold shapes are eye catching from quite a distance and the unusual shape of 'WORDS' adds to people's interest in the poster. There has been an emphasis on type to immediately indicate to the viewer that the exhibition is about literature. The design with the black background was chosen for the poster as it means that the central 'WORDS' is bright and glowing from the center of the piece. This is to play with the common idea within the poetry that suffragettes were a source of light for other women stuck in boring/monotonous living. The matte stock means that colour is strong and consistent, the inkjet printer produces a lot of ink which is absorbed by the paper and creates this striking finish. This poster would be displayed around Leeds, within other art institutions and on bandstands etc. The unusual 3:6 shape of the poster ensures it stands out and has a point of difference in comparison to other posters on display. It has been designed like this in order to connote the traditionally poetry layouts - which are often long and elongated.
Flyers
The flyers have also been printed in on the matte stock with the inkjet printed. This makes the colour bold, exciting and rich and indicates the respectability of the exhibition. The flyers adopt the same design as the posters, this is to ensure there is consistency across the exhibition branding and the imagery will become memorable and iconic the more people see it. The flyers are fairly small and this is to ensure that a large quantity could be printed to promote the exhibition. They are still attractive pieces of design which clearly state the relevant information in an informative and legible way.
The Exhibition Pamphlet
For consistency, the cover of the exhibition pamphlet has also been made with matte stock. This means that the guide is soft and pleasant to handle. It also creates a contemporary and luxurious aesthetic which is important when creating exhibition branding, especially for quite a serious and historical subject matter. The inside pages are printed in a lighter matte card, to maintain the high-quality, professional aesthetic and also to contrast nicely with the thick cover. Again, the cover replicates a variation of the design used for the poster and the flyers for consistency. It has used a cream background so it will contrast nicely with the black posters and also to link to the colour of aged poetry records and reflect the aged appearance in a new and contemporary way. This pale cream has been used for some of the quotes on the inside of the book too. These are very faint and represent many of the women at the time who would look nice but held little power, the words are punctuated with the warm orange to create high contrast and represent suffragette strength. Through-out the publication there is a theme of light and dark, which can be read in the poems. So the book alternates black to white pages to make this contrast apparent. The uses of capitals for the quotes shows strength and force, it almost indicates that they should be shouted - as the figure on the front is doing; giving much indication of suffrage force.
Exhibition Mock-up - Suffragette Design - Research-led Brief
The poetry in the exhibition would be written in vinyl on he walls, with the iconic design of The Bugler Girl figurehead placed at the start of the exhibition. By having them large scale this means that the words can have amazing impact, and be seen as more than just words on a page. Attending the exhibition is about celebrating these words and they need to be proudly on display.
Exhibition Guide Development - Suffragette Design - Research-led Brief
Some experiments into poetry layouts were then conducted. It was important that they were contemporary styles but also reflected the traditional nature of the poetry. For this reason Caslon has been used for the majority of the experiments. The typeface is classic and has a traditional serif aesthetic, it is also is thin and delicate which is perfect to convey the eloquent suffrage poetry. The original published poems by the suffragists were also examined again, and Caslon is very similar to the typefaces which they had typeset back then.
In the first experiment, the poems has been laid out in several ways on one page - thinking about how different layouts can create different emphasis on the lines when red. The first experiment seemed far too crowded, the layers of text meant that their impact was removed and the styles conflicted. The idea of having an extract of the poem on a separate page came from the poetry publications I researched, and this was experimented with throughout. Having the quote alone seemed to work better, although the design didn't look refined or professional enough, without a specific text layout for the quote.
There were then experiments involving changing the size of the type, to emphasis how the sentences would be spoken. This approach seemed interesting but also too experimental for the serious nature of the quotes within the book. The design aesthetic of the items produced so far has been very rigid and these designs needed to continue that.
As mentioned previously, a lot of the poems have emphasis on light and dark. So an experiment was conducted which involved a black and white divide. This worked figuratively, but again seemed too 'random' and did not match the previously established aesthetic.
Some more refined experiments were then conducted for the main bodies of the poems. The most successful seemed to be design were the poetry was placed under a central title in two columns. This was eventually refined into just one, but it took the traditional poetry aesthetic and enhanced it be a refined and beautifully typeset page. There was some experiments involving colouring the first word of each verse. This was an interesting way of organising the text but it seemed strange to emphasis the first word each time. I began considering that emphasising the important words might be more appropriate and impactful - highlighting to the viewer immediately what is important.
More experiments were conducted in orange, this was to ensure the design was consistent with the rest of the exhibition branding. The extract was layered over the text, which was a technique I found whilst researching - yet this seemed to make some of the text illegible and again seemed to clutter the space.
Thinking about the designs of the posters and flyers, I began looking at ways that the text could be similarly broken apart to mimic the technique. The word light was broken apart and then scaled to be different sizes and turned to different angles. This again did not look controlled enough and didn't seem to have the same aesthetic as the poster designs. I realised that this could be because the experiments were in lowercase and the poster design was in uppercase.
Some uppercase experiments were then conducted. These seemed to work better and created more of a bold powerful aesthetic for the type. The arrangement of the word light was interesting, but it seemed to conflict with the type above. So I decided to take a simpler approach, to emphasis the words being said within the poetry, rather than the imagery created. As Danielle Pender has said for Riposte magazine - without typeographic tricks it makes the writing speak for itself.
Certain words of the type were then highlighted in orange, similar to the 'Words Not Deeds' title. This worked a lot better. The capitals matched the existing designs much better and conveyed a sense of strength and power behind the words. Something discussed before is the repeated lines of suffrage poetry which discuss suffragists and suffragettes as a source of light. This is conveyed by the orange colouring that the most important words of the poetry have been highlighted in. This led to the idea of having a black background, which appeared to work incredibly well to emphasise the quote. The negative space allows the quote to have high impact. Each of the quotes used for the poems will have their own page and will be placed in slightly different places around the page, but will follow a grid to keep them consistent.
In the first experiment, the poems has been laid out in several ways on one page - thinking about how different layouts can create different emphasis on the lines when red. The first experiment seemed far too crowded, the layers of text meant that their impact was removed and the styles conflicted. The idea of having an extract of the poem on a separate page came from the poetry publications I researched, and this was experimented with throughout. Having the quote alone seemed to work better, although the design didn't look refined or professional enough, without a specific text layout for the quote.
There were then experiments involving changing the size of the type, to emphasis how the sentences would be spoken. This approach seemed interesting but also too experimental for the serious nature of the quotes within the book. The design aesthetic of the items produced so far has been very rigid and these designs needed to continue that.
As mentioned previously, a lot of the poems have emphasis on light and dark. So an experiment was conducted which involved a black and white divide. This worked figuratively, but again seemed too 'random' and did not match the previously established aesthetic.
Some more refined experiments were then conducted for the main bodies of the poems. The most successful seemed to be design were the poetry was placed under a central title in two columns. This was eventually refined into just one, but it took the traditional poetry aesthetic and enhanced it be a refined and beautifully typeset page. There was some experiments involving colouring the first word of each verse. This was an interesting way of organising the text but it seemed strange to emphasis the first word each time. I began considering that emphasising the important words might be more appropriate and impactful - highlighting to the viewer immediately what is important.
More experiments were conducted in orange, this was to ensure the design was consistent with the rest of the exhibition branding. The extract was layered over the text, which was a technique I found whilst researching - yet this seemed to make some of the text illegible and again seemed to clutter the space.
Thinking about the designs of the posters and flyers, I began looking at ways that the text could be similarly broken apart to mimic the technique. The word light was broken apart and then scaled to be different sizes and turned to different angles. This again did not look controlled enough and didn't seem to have the same aesthetic as the poster designs. I realised that this could be because the experiments were in lowercase and the poster design was in uppercase.
Some uppercase experiments were then conducted. These seemed to work better and created more of a bold powerful aesthetic for the type. The arrangement of the word light was interesting, but it seemed to conflict with the type above. So I decided to take a simpler approach, to emphasis the words being said within the poetry, rather than the imagery created. As Danielle Pender has said for Riposte magazine - without typeographic tricks it makes the writing speak for itself.
Certain words of the type were then highlighted in orange, similar to the 'Words Not Deeds' title. This worked a lot better. The capitals matched the existing designs much better and conveyed a sense of strength and power behind the words. Something discussed before is the repeated lines of suffrage poetry which discuss suffragists and suffragettes as a source of light. This is conveyed by the orange colouring that the most important words of the poetry have been highlighted in. This led to the idea of having a black background, which appeared to work incredibly well to emphasise the quote. The negative space allows the quote to have high impact. Each of the quotes used for the poems will have their own page and will be placed in slightly different places around the page, but will follow a grid to keep them consistent.
Publication Research - Suffragette Design - Research-led Brief
POETRY - FEBRUARY 2018
An addition of 'POETRY' was looked at as research for how to lay out a poetry publication. This series was founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe and is now on it's 211th volume. The fact it has historical roots means that the design shows an interesting mix of old and new styles. The cover is quite modern, with bold sans-serif lettering yet it uses a lot of traditional layouts and a serif typeface on the inside. The large type immediately indicates the subject of the exhibition - similar to the 'WORDS' design.
The layouts of the publication are simple but attractive. The poetry is laid out so that it is centered in each spread and usually the textbox width varies to ensure that the lines of poetry don't spread over two lines and lose impact. The size of this publication is similar to the 3:6 which has been adopted for the 'Words Not Deeds' designs, it confirms that this long rectangular shape is perfect to lay out poetry.
The first title page is interesting and uses different effects to highlight different pieces of information, creating a refined hierarchy. I hope to adopt something similar for my publication. Each line is centered which creates a traditional and professional aesthetic, this is most likely to link to the publications historic roots.
The contents seemed like an interesting layout, again using italics and capitals to divide the different pieces of information. But since this exhibition will only be containing 6 poems, I will have to consider ways that the contents can show each poem as larger and more significant.
The book also had an introduction section which was something I thought would be important for the 'Words Not Deeds' publication.
Finally something which I thought was interesting was the way that the poems have been titled. They have been given a simple line which varies in thickness and creates a very classic aesthetic. The italics underneath place emphasis the author's name but are slightly separate so the title has equal impact.
FIGUREHEAD Exhibition By Nicola Dale
The Figurehead exhibition guide was also looked at for reference. It shared a resemblance to my initial designs, and employs the extended rectangle shape. Again this works well to emphasise and frame the content, creating a contemporary experience for the viewer and displaying the works of the exhibition well. This also employed the technique of highlighting the first words of each paragraph and I thought it would be interesting to push this further by highlighting the most important words in a more striking format.
An addition of 'POETRY' was looked at as research for how to lay out a poetry publication. This series was founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe and is now on it's 211th volume. The fact it has historical roots means that the design shows an interesting mix of old and new styles. The cover is quite modern, with bold sans-serif lettering yet it uses a lot of traditional layouts and a serif typeface on the inside. The large type immediately indicates the subject of the exhibition - similar to the 'WORDS' design.
The layouts of the publication are simple but attractive. The poetry is laid out so that it is centered in each spread and usually the textbox width varies to ensure that the lines of poetry don't spread over two lines and lose impact. The size of this publication is similar to the 3:6 which has been adopted for the 'Words Not Deeds' designs, it confirms that this long rectangular shape is perfect to lay out poetry.
The first title page is interesting and uses different effects to highlight different pieces of information, creating a refined hierarchy. I hope to adopt something similar for my publication. Each line is centered which creates a traditional and professional aesthetic, this is most likely to link to the publications historic roots.
The contents seemed like an interesting layout, again using italics and capitals to divide the different pieces of information. But since this exhibition will only be containing 6 poems, I will have to consider ways that the contents can show each poem as larger and more significant.
The book also had an introduction section which was something I thought would be important for the 'Words Not Deeds' publication.
Finally something which I thought was interesting was the way that the poems have been titled. They have been given a simple line which varies in thickness and creates a very classic aesthetic. The italics underneath place emphasis the author's name but are slightly separate so the title has equal impact.
FIGUREHEAD Exhibition By Nicola Dale
The Figurehead exhibition guide was also looked at for reference. It shared a resemblance to my initial designs, and employs the extended rectangle shape. Again this works well to emphasise and frame the content, creating a contemporary experience for the viewer and displaying the works of the exhibition well. This also employed the technique of highlighting the first words of each paragraph and I thought it would be interesting to push this further by highlighting the most important words in a more striking format.
Poetry Publication Pinterest Research - Suffragette Design - Research-led Brief
I then created a Pinterest board to explore different poetry layouts for the exhibition publication. The exhibition was to display 6 different poems and the guide needed to display each of these poems in a contemporary format which matched the style of branding. I found that in a lot of the publications an extract of the poem would be placed on the opposing page, highlighting key information. This was something that I wanted to use for the suffrage poetry guide. I also noticed that often the text was written in small sizes with a lot of negative space. This frames the poetry nicely and allows room for reflection. This also will be replicated in the guide, especially with the 3:6 ratio I've previously discussed. Finally, it was also interesting that in some of the guides, different aspects have been written in different colours. By using a different colour it gives certain parts of the composition better impact and reflects the feeling of the poem. This is something that will also be experimented with for the guide.
Flyer Development - Suffragette Design - Research-led Brief
After refining the poster design, I decided that I wanted to the flyers and the poster to share a very similar format. This is to ensure that the branding is consistent across all forms of dissemination and remains distinctive for whenever it is viewed. The alteration required was to add a few more details to the flyer, indicating what the exhibition is about.
The first experiment shows small text, used to give the design more emphasis. A line has been placed in between the design and the text to create a sectional more organised appearance to the design. However, when this was printed to scale, the line seemed unnecessary as it meant the shape of 'WORDS' was reduced, meaning it had less impact overall. The print-out also shows that the text size used was too small and wasn't very legible. It needed to be larger so that the flyer was more functional as a source of information.
The design was then edited and printed again. The size of the 'WORDS' shape was made larger, which was far better and more impactful. The size of the text was also made larger but when this was printed it seemed too large and ill-considered. It only needed to be slightly reduced so that it would be a better size and look like an interesting piece of contemporary design.
Then it was considered that through research all the poems I've looked at have had an aged and yellowed feel to them. I thought it would be interesting to convey this within the colour pallet and instead of using white - use a cream tone instead. This went quite well within the designs and rounds them off well - it means there is a warmer atmosphere and links better to the common tones used by suffragette designs and art nouveau. It also indicates a slightly aged feel but in a contemporary format - colliding old styles with the new. Using white still working well for the text to ensure that it stood out, but being used for the figure it appeared too harsh.
The first experiment shows small text, used to give the design more emphasis. A line has been placed in between the design and the text to create a sectional more organised appearance to the design. However, when this was printed to scale, the line seemed unnecessary as it meant the shape of 'WORDS' was reduced, meaning it had less impact overall. The print-out also shows that the text size used was too small and wasn't very legible. It needed to be larger so that the flyer was more functional as a source of information.
The design was then edited and printed again. The size of the 'WORDS' shape was made larger, which was far better and more impactful. The size of the text was also made larger but when this was printed it seemed too large and ill-considered. It only needed to be slightly reduced so that it would be a better size and look like an interesting piece of contemporary design.
Then it was considered that through research all the poems I've looked at have had an aged and yellowed feel to them. I thought it would be interesting to convey this within the colour pallet and instead of using white - use a cream tone instead. This went quite well within the designs and rounds them off well - it means there is a warmer atmosphere and links better to the common tones used by suffragette designs and art nouveau. It also indicates a slightly aged feel but in a contemporary format - colliding old styles with the new. Using white still working well for the text to ensure that it stood out, but being used for the figure it appeared too harsh.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)