Graphic Design 1 OCA: May 2012

Thinking of you

My idea for this assignment came from my country, from Poland. As far as I remember people from Poland, celebrate few occasions that people in U.K do not.

Poland celebrates days like:

Name Day

The description of that day you may find under this address:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_day

I cannot find a card on current British market that is appropriate for this day whenever my family has a name day.

Children’s Day the 1^st of June

With reference to Wikipedia In Poland, Children's Day (Dzień Dziecka) is celebrated on June 1. The International Children's Day was introduced in Poland in 1952. It coincides with the beginning of summer and it is usually treated as a holiday, as it takes place near the end of the school year. Schools usually organize special activities for the day of the celebration, and the first week of June is a time of festivities organized in parks and entertainment centers for children. Parents usually buy small gifts for their children.

Personaly I love this day when every kid is happy and wanted.

Flag Day the 2^nd of May

You may find explanation of this term on wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day

My next idea was to create a range of cards for blind people written in Braille Alphabet. I was thinking to make a musical card as w good way of expressing words.

After considering all my ideas, I decided to go with Children’s Day as it has bigger field to explore.

Mood boards

This is a great opportunity for me to play with different textures and colours. I would like to crate as happy cards as I can imagine. They need to be full of colours and positive energy.

I found three of my old mood boards that I created ages ago. I thought it was a good start for my project. I created theme when I was looking for an inspiration for children’s illustrations about three years ago. I used a collage as a way to build a background.

1st old image

2nd old image

3rd old image

This time my concept was similar. I used acrylics paints, masking tape to create a different texture and some parts of old magazines. After an hour of work, I came up with a few new images.

illustration nr.1

illistration nr.2

illustration nr.3

illustraton nr.4

Sketches

I wanted to design a range of cards with happy children. I took my sketchbook and started to draw any idea that came to my mind. I knew that the faces had to be big and smiley. They have to make kids smile. I wanted them to have small nose, small eyes, big happy mouth and some rose cheeks.

I do not like some of them but I know that I found my favourite style, especially the one with open mouth and one missing tooth.

day 2

my previous illustrations that I did a while ago

My inspiration for this task was “Rango”. I loved the last few minutes of the animation with the credits especially for unusual effects. I wanted to create something that looks like a stain glass.

I used my illustration nr. 2 as a background for this card. I played with different filters in Photoshop. The filter that helped me to transform this collage into a nice colourful background is called Stained Glass

Filterà Textureà Stained Glass

I scanned some shapes of stars and flowers than I created another layer to make my illustration more interesting. I thought that I should place a very smiley face in the centre. I used for this the face that looks like a little sunshine. Maybe I will create smiley sunshine.

card nr.1 stage 1

I still need to work on the colours for this face. I am thinking to leave it all white but just with red tongue and rose cheeks. However, if I do this the face will disappear, as the background is very vivid. Well I have something to think about. I need to work on the font and the words that I place on the card as a message.

Once I have found the style that I like, it was easy to produce another illustration. I followed the same way as in the card number one.

card nr.2 stage 1

card nr.3 stage 1

another day......

card nr.4 stage 1

card nr.5 stage

card nr.5 stage 2

another day

Card nr.1 stage 2

I finally managed to find the right colours for the face. I am very happy with the look of it. I think that the boy is in the centre of the card and does not disappear.

I may need to make the background bit darker. I just noticed that it is less visible than I thought.

I have found the font that I think is the best for children card. I am going to use this style for all my cards but with a different message on every one. The font is call Amienne .

another day ....

card 3 stage 1

stage 2

card nr. 4 stage 1

stage 2

card 5 stage 1

stage 2

The last stage of this assignment was to create a back of the card with the message inside. I decided to go for a very simply note using very bright colours. I used the same font as for the front of the card to keep it clear.

card nr. 1