Project 2 consisted of creating an animation focusing on typography. After researching a watching several viral commercial animation using typography, I decided to take the task more literally and make typography the subject of the project in the form of font families.

After I made this decision, I proceeded to collect a list of font families and their origins. I produced this animation in Apple's Motion which is an alternative for Adobe Premiere Pro; I chose Motion as it uses a high-end particle engine and creates effects which would have taken 10x longer by using keyframes.

I had to adapt my concept several times throughout the animation as I some of the animations were too ambitious for the scope of 1 week, I, therefore, broke the animation down to two-stage - 1: The Introduction 2: The Explosion. This mimicked most TV adverts that I researched, with an introduction or title of the series or product and then an example and mashup of footage.

After completing the two parts, I created a simulation of the lights going out as a transition between the two parts to add suspense and make the view more intrigued by what came next. Following this I exported the Motion file to Apple Compressor and exported as a GIF file, I chose this file type as it is a relatively small file compared to MP4 as well as being an auto-playing video.

This project pitched a promotional flyer in which colour is explored and emphasised. After 2-3 initial ideas, I set my sights on 'The Isle of Wight Art Gallery', a fictional gallery which I designed. Initially, I was designing sketches and started creating a poster of the lighthouse on one of the three needles on the Isle of Wight. But after more consideration, I chose to design and base a flyer around a singular Needle, as the Isle of Wight is famous for its three needles just past it's western peninsular.

The poster was created around the idea of 'BLOCK COLOUR' which is I showed using a 3 column grid with ²⁄₃ containing a bright blue to match the sea on a summer's day (the date of the event). I used a 7 colour scheme as well as just using one font family, Futura. Both the colours and the typography give a simple sea style theme with soft colours and bold serif fonts.

This project grew my skills in colour theory, as I have protanopia colourblindness which caused me to double-check colours that I thought wouldn't complement or contrast retrospectively. I then discovered Colourblind Pal, a software to describe colours as well as mimic on-screen colours in the three different types of colourblindness to make sure it was a appropriate colour choice.

Project 4 was one of the most enjoyable projects. I was briefed to design a piece of digital art inspired by either a traditional or modern artist I focused on the latter and chose David Carson. His style of work balances complexity and simplicity to create meaning in sometimes meaningless typography or picture.

I started by researching his work and came across two pieces that feature a black and white type and grainy portraits, with the edition of a striking red throughout the artwork. I used these as inspiration, to create the initial sketch I was focused on the idea of ageing, time and self-awareness. Although my sketches were rough, I had an understanding of how to follow in the style.

I displayed my focus and Carson's style in my choice of typography and photo manipulation of my passport photo. This improved my Photoshop skills as I was able to age myself realistically by changing the skin tone, hair colour and adding wrinkles. I then used a torn paper effect to match this to the original photo.

Using different typography styles and techniques, I matched Caron's work and produced a piece that had a sense of connection. I displayed an 'old' typewriter style, Remagg CZ, and a modern san-serif font, Hiragino Sans, for the contemporary 'younger' appearance. These two contrasting fonts divided the poster whilst similar attributes, the colour and block black style, brought the two types together.

West Downs Front

West Downs Back - Colourised

Cactus In The Way

Cactus In The Way - Colourised

Covered By Nature

Project 6 was to create a piece of typography art that I could enter in the ISTD. There were five different briefs to chose from with a scope of 3 weeks for the selected brief. I chose the brief titled: Biophilia, the aim was to connect people with nature through typography.

I started by researching previous ISTD project and winner, which gave me a great insight into how important typography is to humans as one of the most significant communication forms. I planned on creating a manual on how to grow indoor plants in a cookbook style. I undertook this as it was one of the best ways for people to connect to nature by holding and growing their plants.

I created a typography scheme that I would use and altered according to the page title and digital art with inspiration from David Carson. Typeface created a dot matrix, style artwork of different opacities and font styles as an overlay for my nature photography pieces.

Having been fond of typography, I enjoyed and developed my typography manipulation skills and my photography skills with this project. Although I gathered skills learnt in my software skills sessions to improve my clipping mask techniques which gave the final project a precise touch.

I hope to continue with this project and submit it to the ISTD once I produce a full book to bring people closer to nature.

My final project for Year 1, Semester 1 was a logo animation for a brand identity. After sketching several ideas and working on a new version for the famous 'Channel 4' logo animation, I drew a design for a bottle similar to the WoodFord Reserve iconic bell shape.

After finishing my sketch, I continued to Affinity Designer to create the final logo. Using the Gestalt principle of closure and the book: 'White Space Is Not Your Enemy'; I designed a cog with 12 spokes which allowed me to control the frames per second. I was aiming for 20-30 FPS to create a smooth animation, I planned on rotating the cog a total of 30°, which I would then repeat 12 times to make a full rotation. I then broke each 30° into steps of 2°, resulting in 15 frames per 12^th rotation.

After establishing how many frames were required I set both the start (f1) and end (f15) frames so they would link seamlessly. I continued to animate the log and mimic flowing water by rotating the cog to produce a mill scene.

I then exported each frame as a PNG and stitched them together as a GIF, with the rate of 24 FPS which gave the final running water effect.

Each semester there is a group project; semester 1 consisted of a game project. My group consisted of 2 designers, a developer and a 3D visualiser. After completing Belbin's team roles quiz, I found my three most prominent roles: Shaper, Specialist and Plant. This played very strongly into our team's hands as well had a very well balanced skillset.

The game brief was to create an educational game for 12-15-year-olds to teach them about climate change. After brainstorming ideas as a group, we agreed on a game with different levels in which the player completes tasks to save the world from pollution. I focused on two fundamental parts of the project: the colour scheme and typography scheme. I also took on the promotional artwork, UI for the tasks, UI for the overall game, and some textures. I first focused on artwork and branding. I then created the name The World's Mission, with the slogan 'save the world from emission . . . The World's Mission'.