FMP tattooing in fashion

A lot of my secondary research has come from the book '100 years of tattoos' by David McComb. The book cover a lot of the tattoo history which was also covered at the Exhibition in Falmouth, but what it also featured, was some information on tattooing influences today, and gave some examples of fashion and life style brands who often feature tattoo models in the promotion of their products, as a mean to appeal to a younger audience.

Some examples are: Jean Paul Gaultier, Diesel, Toni&Guy, etc.

FMP - Primary Research

British Tattoo Art Revealed - National Maritime Museum

As Part of my Primary research, I thought it was very appropriate to visit the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, where they held an exhibition all about the history of British tattooing. I learned some much but also saw some really cool art work by current artists in the UK. 

One of the main attractions was the '100 Hands Project', where 100 silicon arms where tattooed by selected artists. 

  

 

At the exhibition, there were also some really cool collectable items, such as old fashioned tattooing kit boxes. 

Another thing I thought was quite interesting was their set up of a 1980s tattooing room. which compared to todays, looks very plain and quite boring. 

FMP - Proposal

For my Final Major Project I intend to explore and create a body of work based on the subject of the tattooing culture, but apply it in the context of Graphic Design by creating a fictitious event or convention. I want to research and investigate a wide range of styles, artist and events that are involved in the world of tattoos. To make this project successful I will have to do primary research: I’m likely to start off looking at some local artist, and how they work and what inspires them. Secondary research will include visiting library’s and reading up on the history and culture of tattoos and where and why tattooing began. One source I will definitely be using is tattoo shops’ and tattoo conventions websites and social media sites. In Addition, I will be looking at advertising, as I want my project to look at the promotion of a non-mainstream interest such as tattooing.  I intend to explore poster design, product branding, logo making and associated ephemera. I am interested in Marc Ostlund who is a blogger who looks at the connections/cross overs of graphic design and tattoos. Through my research, I hope to grasp the subject right from its roots and create a really informed outcome. The reason behind this theme is firstly that Visual Communication is a relatively new subject to me so I want to allow myself to explore it in a subject matter that really interests me and that reflects who I am as an individual. Also, I really wanted to give myself a subject that allowed as much creative play as possible. I hope to utilize my drawing and design skills to successfully communicate my ideas to a given target audience.

Because this project is a mere interest, I’m not sure what my final outcome will be, but this excites me and it allows room for flexibility, mistakes and the unknown of what my project could develop into. I look forward to where my research and development will take me until I come up and create a body of work that I am excited by for my final exhibition.

Aleatory - Exhibition

For the aleatory exhibition we had to make sure our pieces were 1 squared foot. The piece had to relate to our

Final Major Project  theme, mine being tattoo related I started off by drawing some traditional designs. 

 I wanted to use those designs to create a magazine cover or something of the sort. I quite like the idea of it being a bit daring, and almost old fashioned, to contrast the modern take on tattoos. 

My tutor introduced me to misprintedtype.com, a website dedicated to a Brazilian artist, where you can look at and even buy his work, but also where you can download some really interesting brush strokes for photoshop. I downloaded the strokes I liked and played around with them to create an interesting, collage inspired, old looking, background, adding splashes of colour here and there. 

I then added a person and the tattoo designs in the foreground. Coloured tattoos against a black and white image for the modern feel I wanted. finally I played around with some font, settling for a stamp like title: Ink'd. 

Below is the final piece which was displayed at an exhibition in Bristol for a week. 

The Cube - Final Poster

The Cube

The Cube Cinema in Bristol is a very interesting place. Very humble and true to the fact it is volunteer run. Whilst on a trip there I took some really cool pictures of some of the features found in the building which were most authentic.

Interestingly, according to one of the directors there and one of the course teachers, the place is haunted...

The reason for the trip there is due to us having to do a live brief. The brief is that we have to pick one of the events they have happening there in March or April and design a poster promoting the event. The person who designs the best poster will have it printed and displayed all over Bristol and at The Cube, which is pretty cool.

One of the options is the film 1984. I think I'm going to pick that one because I have read the book, and dystopian aspect of it could be portrayed in a really cool, bold way.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took at the venue...

Eat Cake - final identity sheet

Having spent so much of my time designing the logo, little time was left to apply it to products. However, despite so many things hindering my progress I believe I still achieved something great. The business card is really well balanced and due to the rule of thirds being at play it has unity too. The patterned, organic background works really well with the juxtaposed bold black writing of the logo, and the simple calligraphy of the address and contact details counter balances it too, so it isn’t too heavy.

Lastly, the packaging and uniform was kept very simple with only the stamp-like logo on them, again, against simple brown paper bags and/ fabric. Those were positioned in the centre so that each piece, in their own right, would be well balanced and nothing would weigh too much on either side.

eat cake - logo design

When looking at logos, I really liked the simple ones, with minimum to no illustrations in them, or the very blocky/bold ones. It being a cake shop, I did also try to incorporate some elements which are often associated with the business, such as the cupcake shape, slices of cake, ‘fluffy’ fonts, and finally settled for two simple triangles and a dot, embedded in bold typography. The idea behind the shapes is that they doubled as the letter ‘A’ and my tutor even suggested something which sounded like a potential slogan to the shop ‘why have one slice when you can have two’.

Designing the logo was a very long process for me as i had never done it before. There are so many options out there that was got a bit lost during it and lost motivation. Eventually, when playing around with stamps, I found a style which was most successful, I then took it to photoshop and did some more designing with it until I was happy. I think the simplicity of my logo emphasises what the shop is about, yet the boldness brings a bit of dynamic to it which is really interesting.

Here are some initial designs are tried out on photoshop:

Here is a final experimental, sheet which led me to my final design (which is the one on the bottom right).

Eat Cake - Initial research

The ‘Eat Cake’ project didn’t come at the best of times. Amongst University interviews and being ill, I didn’t have the best start. ‘Research week’, which is the first week of each project, was done during week two of the project leaving me way behind. As well as this, this was my first attempt at corporate branding, so the whole thing was very experimental. However, despite the circumstances, I tried my best and had a neat, well balanced and unified outcome.

Due to the nature of the Cake Shop (it being organic), I decided to look at some examples on Pinterest which mostly reflected my vision of what the branding of it should be like. Here are some of my favourites:

Book Project - Final Piece

When making the outside of the book, I tried to look for key features in existing shops, both tattoo and random ones. Once I picked at least six I was interested in, I picked out key features of each and started collaging them onto a brick wall background, playing around with layout and scale to create a balanced piece. I think the outcome was really great. It had direction and rhythm which is key when trying to keep a viewer engaged, specially when it comes to books.

The inside of the book was a tricky one. My original idea for composition was in 3D, where frames of tattoo designs would come together using thread and sticks. The thought behind it was so that the inside of the book would also have the tattoo shop feeling, where you walk in and the first thing you notice is the numerous amounts of framed artwork done by the artists. However, time was limited. I found myself spending too long on the outside of the book, so not enough time was left for this intricate design. Therefore, instead, I cut out ‘frames’ from card, leaving bridges beetween them, so that they would stay together on ‘one page’, as they would if they were on walls. The final outcome was very pleasing.

Overall I was very pleased with my final pieces. Despite some problems with time management, I achieved the best I could. With piece that really reflect careful selection, problem solving, and most importantly, that the principles of design were all taken into consideration when making key decisions.

Book Project - Illustrations

The Book Project was a really exciting one. It allowed me to really push boundaries and create something which really interested me and something which I could incorporate my interests into. 

My first step was to do some research and look for inspiration in other existing ‘books’. Being a tattoo lover I knew I wanted to somehow incorporate that in it. At first I wanted to created a tattoo flash (books filled with tattoo designs often displayed at tattoo shops so the clients can view what each artist is capable of and learn about their style, etc. However I wasn't too sure how to go about it and simultaneously, I thought the idea was a little bland. Finally, I came across some really cool ideas Pinterest. One in particular really caught my attention. It was a collection of book which looked like buildings. Each book (building) had a main front door, windows, etc. The set up sort of reminded me of Harry Potteresc: Diagon Alley, and was the spark to my final outcome. I decided to keep to the tattoo theme, but make the book itself look like the outside of a tattoo shop.

These are some of the designs I drew to go inside the book 'wall'. They were inspired by more traditional 'Old School' tattoo designs which are often thick black lines and dark shading or even colour. 

I decided on black and grey as I tried some different techniques to add colour to my sailor design, however the outcome of those weren't as good as the shaded one so i decided to use that one instead. 

Once the designs were finished, I scanned them in and photoshopped them, so that the lines and shading were bit punchier and bolder to resemble the 'Sailor Jerry' style I wanted to achieve.