Printing Options

In my most recent project, I was disappointed that I didn't manage to have the time to have my work professionally printed or experiment with various materials with my final idea. This time will be different, so as a starting point I have ordered a selection of sample packs from the printing website printing.com.

This will give me a hands on feel for what printing options I have such as paper selections, weights and finishes. The website also offer a range of printing products like folded leaflets an saddle stitched booklets, to more professional looking brochures and wire bound books. These options could be a good way of my interpretation of a book, I could make a graphic brochure or a promotional leaflet, or these could be ways of supporting a bigger idea, who knows at this stage?

The range of folded leaflet options could be used for unlimited types of ideas.

A professional looking brochure that uses graphics or illustrations could work, or even a story book could be a potential way forward.

I suppose the overall Idea id to understand the variety of options I have whilst I develop my idea 

Become Someone Else

I'm kicking off my research by looking at selection of clever advertisements that are aimed at selling books. I was drawn to these series of press advertisements because of the way they communicate a message of escapism in a novelty way.

The idea is simple but has been well executed, you can see how they have carefully lined up the image using the right proportions and perspective. It's clever how they have chosen their models to fit with the images on the books, they some how just work. 

The typography works well with the piece, they have clearly gone for a calligraphy look which seems to focus on the aesthetics of the piece, rather than readability because I must admit, the tag line " Become Someone Else" seems a little hard to read.

Yet again, I find myself drawn to this idea of a series of images, I suppose it's because my "Trails Real Ales" piece was probably my favourite over this whole course. you can see the same characteristics that make it apart of a series such as, the composition of the sitter (model), the tag line and the logo which I notice alters in colour using a sample of a colour from the main visual, this is called a limited colour pallet.

Overall, this was a good start, I never thought about the idea of actually advertising books rather than making something, that is an interpretation of one. Another interesting experiment could be this idea of playing with perspective and angle to communicate a message, which could lead to a unique result?

Agency: Love Agency, Vilnius, Lithuania

Creative Director: Tomas Ramanauskas

Creative Team: Gediminas Saulis, Tomas Ramanauskas

Four Diverse Book Interpretations

For the next part of this project, we have been tasked to define what a book could actually be. Rather than focusing your typical book, I have picked out four key areas to explore which I believe could be interpreted as books.

British Gas Television Advert

The first of these areas is television advertisement. Companies are using narrative within their advert to communicate a message to sell their products. I choose the British Gas advert for an example because they find a common ground with their viewers (which is families) and tailor a narrative around the problems you can face when running a house and the solution, which is what they are selling. I would also like to add that a good story keeps you interested and will stay in your mind longer which is why I believe narratives in adverts are used more frequently.

Thomson First Choice Advert By Luke Lucas

Moving away from television adverts, my next logical step is press advertisement. Press or web based advertisement shares similar processes as television advertisement. The key difference is that press has to communicate a message in one still image. A narration would be replaced with written words and the video would be replaced with one still image. Apart form theses differences thought, it's the idea of a showing a narrative within the advert that stays the same. You can see how type, the image and the words all tell a story of the relaxing holidays they offer.

Concept Art & illustration by Jonas De Ro

Moving away from words and narrations you are left only with images, which led me to illustrative ways of telling a story. Concept art and illustration is all about narrative, it's about communicating a message successfully without the need of words. Focusing on this piece of concept art by Jonas De Ro, I have been reading into what the image is trying to communicate. It tells me of a story about a mans lonely return to home. The image gives me the impression that the world he once knew has gone. My point being here is that I got all this information from a single image which is why I can see this as a book.

Alice In Wonderland Altered Book by Susan Hoerth

This last piece is an example of how far you can push the definition of a book. To my knowledge from past experience is that and altered book is where you use the contents of the book (literally or theoretically) to change the appearance or strengthen the message or narrative of the book. Yet again it's this idea of using images to strengthen the narrative which interests me. This piece shows me that I can think way out the box to communicate a message in a more sculptural way.

It has been an  interesting start already to the project, I has fears that we where simply focusing on a typical book as a final piece. This has opened my eyes as to what a book could be potentially be and one that has become and exciting prospect for a major final project. I believe my links to the definition of a book lies within the narrative which will surly be the key to what ever I create. 

I think my next step is to use theses four key areas as abase to start my other module and look further into them with research which will be channelled into my presentation in a few weeks.

The Final Process

Detailing every step would take longere than the time I have left till hand in time, so I will give you a brief description of the steps I took.

Once I had all my drawings, I scaned each of them in to illustrator and begun to draw out the vector paths. I created eacyh panel that represented my expression. This was so I could reuse them within the inside contentin my packaging

I carfully created the type using basic shapes and corner bevels and adjusted the weights to suit the look I was going for. 

Once that was done I drew out the templates using presise measurements and layed out all the componets along all the templates which included the inner and outer packaging, the booklet, art cards and poster.

I them cut them out after print and layed them out on card bfore scoring the folding lines with a craft knife until the box was complete.

My Final Piece

One Vision

Another idea which I have drawn form my research is the person who is probably has the most important role in the development of the game. I'm talking of course of the creative director or the art director. It's theses people such as Ken Levine and Hideo Kojima who have the vision a vision which is  steered towards the final goal using all the other talent around them, just like an architect or painters apprentice.

One of my panel has to include a visual to represent this, may be I could show a person mind mapping ideas to emphasise this?

Printing Options

Today I managed to book a printing session within college but also discovered another option through another tutor. She pointed me towards a website called www.printed.com which is a online printing service that offers a range of products which can be delivered in short notice for a price. 

They offer a vast range of printing products and material finishes which could give my packaging a professional finish. You simply choose a product, add how many you want and choose the various options from weights, papers and finishes. 

I could even get a Disc label made, an art booklet which could all be finished in a nice matt gloss finish. This would be great experience for me as it will give me a better understanding of the various printing materials and finishes that are available to me. I will also give experience in sourcing out work to another company to create which can be an essential part of working within the design industry.

The only problem is the lack of time, I have a back up but I think it's worth the money to have ago, just for the experience and hope that it will arrive on time, once the artwork is ready.

Characters

Every game needs characters, so it would be an insult if I didn't include an example of this on my box art. For inspiration, I have turned to a game called Broken Sword by Revolution.

There games are all about the story driven by lovable characters who you interact with. I was fortunate to stumble across these character sheets, which show the characters in various stances and situations finished off with a finished version of them.

I love this idea how shown the process as well as the finished piece. I could draw a simple character but show the stage by stage process as well which would express artistic process and work that goes into them. 

Images and information sourced from: www.revolution.co.uk/games/the-serpents-curse/

Landscape

Continuing my research into revolution studios I discovered some art work which continues this theme of a unfinished deign process look. The images are a scene from the game which have been painted beautifully. It shows the monochrome design first before the artist has blocked out the simple colours before refining it. I particularly like the way the image is a cross between finished and unfinished.

This could tie in perfect with the my box art, I could draw a simple landscape and finish only a section of it so it shows the viewer another process of art which contributes to the bigger picture.

A landscape was going to be essential to my box art but these images have shown me a complete new way of presenting it.

Images and information sourced from: www.revolution.co.uk/games/the-serpents-curse/

The Musical Score

The music of games is a very important part of games, it helps to create an atmosphere and overall theme of the game. The Order 1866 is a game due out very soon which is a dark tale set within the backdrop of Victorian London. The composer wanted to create a heavy musical score which contributed towards the overall theme of the game. 

I can't bring music to my piece but, I can illustrate it. I think it's essential that a box within my game cover tells the story of how music plays an essential role in modern gaming.

Look at the video an you will begin to understand how music can contribute and take the game up onto another level.

Motion Capture

Technology is moving fast and evolving year after year and with this developers are taking full advantage of this using new and innovative ways of improving their games. A part of this is growth has come to see the introduction of motion capture.

Motion capture is a process where developers capture the actual acting of the actors as if they where on a film set. They set up scenes using props to capture the movement using special suits with traces on them and record the sound of voice work at the same time, which results in a more natural performance. This process allows the developers to express emotions better which results in a more believable character which equals a more believable story.

This could be an interesting idea for an illustration, I could draw a set of actors within a motion capture scene kitted up in the suits using props.

If you haven't seen how motion capture works, then I advise you take a look at the video and see how these creative individuals are pushing art in new ways.

The Art of Grand Theft Auto

Just like most games, there is no single name hat can be linked to these amazing illustrations from the senior artists Stephen Bliss and Anthony Macbain and many other illustrators within the Rockstar team.

These illustrations are truly stunning which look like they have been created in photoshop because of their painterly look to them. I can't pin point exactly how they actually created them because of the secret nature of Rockstar but, judging them from observation I see a how they have layered up the images. I like how the characters are painted with precision and vibrancy in contrast with the flat shaded backgrounds, this makes the characters really pop.

This style yet again reminds me of the cel shaded technique that I have found before because the characters have a three dimensional look to them with a thick black out line around them.

This is a style made for me because my strengths lie in line drawing so this may well be a style to draw from when I start my final piece? Maybe a few test pieces would be a good idea.

Images and information sourced from Rockstar Games www.rockstargames.com

I like how the box is broken up, this could be perfect for breaking up my box art up which could each contain illustrations of what type of mediums make up a game. I could have a writer in one with an orchestra in the other, one could contain a charter in the making whilst the other could be a digital landscape! I really like this idea !

I like the idea of reworking the text to fit my name, this would make it instantly recognisable as a game or in this case, game related because this game is probably one if not thee biggest selling piece of entertainment ever sold. 

I like the contrast between the character and the background, the character has been carefully painted whilst the background is almost like a silhouette. I also like how each image tells a story which would work well because I'm trying to express a message to the viewer through illustration explaining why I think games are art.