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.