The current union Jack that has been used for the past 200 years and was first created when Scotland first joined the union.
The fact that this flag is one of the most well known flags around the globe and has been for the last 200 years, as well as the fact it is featured on many other colonial countries flags since they were formed , it would be incredibly difficult to create a revolutionised completely new design that both accurately represents modern Britain while maintaining the traditions and history of this proud nation.
However I do not want to take this opportunity to just slightly alter the original union jack as I feel that if the nation is changing then this would be the perfect opportunity to visualise modern Britain and update the visual message that represents Britain as a whole.
England
St. Georges Flag
Northern Ireland
The Ulster Banner formerly used by the Former Government of Northern Ireland from 1953 - 1973
St. Patrick's flag
Wales
St. David's flag
Below is the finished design that I will follow for this piece and the remaining 2 songs, I received the feedback that the red key at the bottom was too bold so I made it clear and separated it with a thick stroke which works even better, so I am really pleased with the outcome of the layout and have a good idea of how the 3 posters will work as a set.
The feedback I received from the crit was fairly positive, everyone praised the rhythm pattern I had created and agreed that they all understood how it worked once I explained it to them but that was the problem, the fact i had to explain it, it was said that a key was probably going to be needed to give clear instruction on what the pattern s and how it works.
I have now created a key in using Gill Sans bold which is what I have used for the title, I now need to apply it to the design in a way that does not effect the simple clean aesthetic which I have created.
They also said that the majority preferred the white background and the rectangular layout to any of the colour designs as it was commented that it is visually more like a piece of music this way which links well to the way I have formed the pattern, it also allows the main features to be prominent on the page.
One of the major pieces of feedback I received was, as I was planning to screen print these posters, having a solid coloured background would make it seriously difficult to accurately and successfully screen the print without bleed and incorrect placement of each colour, so this helped me make my final decision of which design to continue to develop.
I took the feedback and started to apply the changes that had been suggested, I started with creating a standard grid which the pattern would follow to make sure each shape is correctly placed.
I then started to play around with different placements of the key, which was actually much more difficult than I expected, I didn't want the page to end up looking like a double page spread of a magazine, so I was trying to make the key compliment the piece rather than be a hindrance
I finally produced the outcome below which I thought suited the design the best, however I was still not happy with the overall layout and borders surrounding both the pattern and the key.
I thought by maybe adding a red background to the key would help separate it from the rest of the design.
I added an additional strip of black and red at the top which would be unique colours for each different design created for a different song.
I then wanted to see what scale I should have the pattern and by testing this I actually found i preferred a smaller scale, with a larger clear space surrounding. the mid scale was best suited as it would still be clear enough to see each individual element but not to big that it swamps the page.
The smaller one does look awesome as well but I think at A2 it would but too small to be legible, especially from a further distance.
Finally I added the + and - to the beginning and end of the piece to convey where to start and finish as well as which way to follow the pattern.
i am much happier with this outcome and think it sits nicely on the page
with a good contrast of space and image. the layout is clear and simple
to follow with the key explaining the different elements of the
pattern.
The Beautiful Meme were invited in to give us a live brief, which they presented this morning.
Brief
The aim of the brief is to propose a re design for the Union Jack Flag, for when Scotland possibly leave the UK in 2014.
We have been given the option of either evolving the current union jack design or completely revolutionising the design and taking it in a completely different direction.
This means that we actually have quite a lot of creative freedom throughout this breif, the only thing they ask is that it is 1000mm by 1500mm.
Considerations
The flag should be able to last another 200 years
How will your change in design effect different people around the world, from the different cultures of people now found in the UK to how it will effect colonial countries who use the union jack in their own flag.
How will Wales be respresented?
Will the Scottish element of the flag be removed?
How would you approach the design change?
Ensure you can fully explain your decisions of why you have chosen the direction for your design.
First Crit - 25th November, a range of designs and idea options to be presented.
Having got to a stage of this brief where I was happy and had received good feedback, the next stage was to play around with the layout of the posters which i will follow for the remaining 2 songs I decide to dissect, notate and visualise.
I am relying the production stage of this project to produce a high quality finish on these posters so i want to keep them quite simple to not take away from the main feature. However I feel like something is missing from the poster so i am using this stage to play around with layouts and alternative ways of interpreting the pattern.
In this case i separated each section of the song into individual vertical rows (introduction - verse - chorus etc..). The aesthetic was quite interesting but I think it is a little too abstract and difficult to follow. I also started to play around with the idea of adding black keys to incorporate another musical element but decided this was a little too convoluted as the pattern represents purely the rhythmical elements of the song.
I thought I would try taking the design in a little different direction by playing around with the colour scheme, I was inspired by one of the designs I saw in 'Data Flow' so thought i might try a similar colour scheme or atleast see what it looks like.
I decided to try a couple of variations of how the pattern would be presented, instead of having each voice on a different layer I reverted to an earlier idea which was to merge all the voices into one row, this makes it pretty much impossible to follow but for aesthetic purposes it is quite unique and is still technically accurate.
I used this format and applied it to the new colour scheme and was quite pleased with the outcome, it kind of reminds me of Japanese style design with the thin downward rows, similar to how type is laid out in many japanese designs.
I then went on to layer the original rhythm pattern I created over the top which added an extra visual element, which I thought accompanied the additional pattern well.
By adding the extra colour I have reached my maximum
allowance, but I quite liked the cantrst of the blue and the red but the
black just disappears into the background.
I altered the the secondary colour of the pattern from black to white and just stroked the white to give it a variation between the sections that wasn't just colour, I think this layout again is quite unique and also in this instance makes it quite easy to follow if it is wished.
another variation of the same layout this time with solid white instead of stoked, this creates a much more intense contrast which I really like, it pops out from the blue and really helps the shape that is created by the colour alterations of the rhythm pattern.
A final idea for the poster layout, making the pattern I started with full page, with a thin stroke, this creates a cool aesthetic where the pattern blends nicely with the deep blue background but I think because of the scale when it would be printed it would be nicely clear.
I also really like the positioning of the song title and artist, it adds a nice clean and simple element to the poster which is a refreshing variation to normal placements.
The next stage is for me to take my design options and get them crit in the studio, this has been scheduled for Monday afternoon with Martin and Luke and who ever else is available to give constructive feedback.
At this stage I was trying to develop the concepts that I recieved the most positive feedback for, still aiming for a screen printed outcome.
Below was well praised once completed, as it relates quite closely to the 'Hipster style' design which is very popular at the minute, but even though I do agree that i like the way it fits together, I also don't just want to copy a style of design that is popular and have no relevance between the visuals and the song genre.
Further experiments with the layout of the same structure, by overlapping the different voices would possibly create some interesting visuals once the design is screen printed, as it would layer certain colours so all would still be visual. This would highlight the fact that this pattern shows individual elemets of the kit which are all being played simultaneously.
However it is a little overly complicated and would make it pretty difficult for the listener to clearly follow the song.
Next I was playing around with the rotating groove idea that I explained in the previous post.
By separating and laying out the pattern like this allows the different elements to be seen more clearly, the general aesthetic of this layout works a lot better with the visual concept. However i still feel like this isn't the best way to represent music, it is a little too uniformed and reminds me more of a design that you might see on a design for Philips electronics or Samsung or something more electronically orientated.
i also was messing around with possible ways of connecting this piece together to make it more like an infographic that people could follow. However i also have come to the conclusion that many of the infographics and ways of graphically representing data are very hard (if not impossible) to follow, but yet they still work really well a both visual and informational pieces.
Applying the same visuals to a more DNA style design, these all work to some extent but they all seem like they are missing something. however I don't want to add extra visuals in just for the sake of it, i like the space that is produced and want to utilize this.
By taking the original pattern that I have produced and altering it slightly I have created a more patter orientated design which works well at being tiled. it creates a strong and unique visual element which I think could lead to some interesting outcomes especially when screen printing onto various stocks and materials.
i then wanted to see if I could make it into more of a busy pattern which could be layered but this has resulted in a bit of a confusing piece which then takes away from the structure I worked so hard to produce originally.
However I have got some more positive feedback about this design but that is mainly down to the visual aesthetic rather than the structural relevance of the brief.
Again I have just been trying to experiment with ways of presenting the shapes and patterns I intend to use
This is the final piece which I have spent most time on and think I am leaning more towards, the pattern I originally created to represent the different elements of the drum beat are repeated as if reading a piece of music, but instead of music notes, it holds unique shapes for each voice on the kit.
As there is 132 bars overall in this track I have used colour to show the changes in sections on the song... for example verse to bridge to chorus.
I also believe that by doing a repeated pattern would actually eventually allow you to apply it to more formats, album covers, merchandise etc...
From the feedback I received from the initial ideas I produced I then tried to illustrate some actually structured and mathematically correct responses.
The first response is meant to work as a continuous revolving piece, it obviously wouldn't physically revolve on the printed outcome but the structure i have created can be followed and fits into 360 degrees.
each layer of this pattern represents a different voice on the drum kit.
Outer - Hi Hats and other cymbals
1st inner - bass drum
2nd inner - main snare back beats
Center - snare ghost notes / drags
The structure of this design works to successfully represent the pattern of the drum beat but I am not really a fan of how it fits together but i will try to digitize these ideas and play around with how they will fit together on a poster, which can then be applied to 2 other songs but still work as a series.
Next, I tried to play around with different ways of presenting the actual drum pattern in a visually interesting way, these shapes used, will not be set in stone but I am trying to for some form of understanding of how I would fit it together.
The repetition of certain shapes will provide consistency for the piece.
I then tried to apply this to a hand rendered A2 sheet to see possibly how it would work as an actual poster, this gave me a few ideas that i will be able to apply to the design once it is digitized.
