3rd Independent Study Assignment (CC2, Week 13/14)

There are four pages to complete for this Independent Study Assignment...

Page 1 is your rough work page.

Use this page to explore the subject matter. Draw by constructing with basic shapes. To get full marks on this page you must demonstrate that you are drawing using basic shape construction and FILL the page with rough sketches, including sketches of typographic styles.
NOTE: this page goes in the Week 14 Sketchbook Dropbox: ISA#3 Rough Work.



Page 2 is your thumbnail page.

Use this page to thumbnail four (or more) design compositions. You must use values by shading with pencil or grey markers (or a combination). However you do not need to do detailed drawing or render most of the typographic elements. Simple shapes that can be identified as type elements will suffice. Use the examples from last week's lesson as your guide. To get full marks on this page you must do at least 4 unique thumbnails compositions using values. NOTE: A composition that is just flopped or has the type moved from the top to the bottom does not qualify as a unique composition.
NOTE: this page goes in the ISA#3 Dropbox.



Page 3 is your pencil comp page.

Choose your most effective thumbnail composition and do a large comprehensive sketch that includes values rendered in pencil shading and/or grey markers. Type elements should be rendered. That is, your type elements should roughly approximate the type style/face(s)/fonts you would use if you were eventually taking this project to finish on the computer. To get full marks on this page, you must complete Page 4 as well.
NOTE: this page goes in the ISA#3 Dropbox.



Page 4 is your design justification page.

This is an overlay page to Page 3. Use a light table, a light placed under a glass coffee table, or tape your pages to a window. Use arrows, circles, boxes, diagrams and words to justify your design strategy. Demonstrate that you have applied the principles of good composition to create an effective design that moves the viewer's eye through the design and to the focal point.
NOTE: this page goes in the ISA#3 Dropbox.




The Subject Matter: Start by watching this movie trailer:



The premise of the story is that by using the Rekall technology, you can be anyone you want to be - a super spy, a fashion model, a world class athlete, an astronaut - anything!

When the movie was about to be released, Columbia Pictures launched a viral marketing campaign. They hired a company to design fake advertising posters for Rekall - as though the service actually existed here and now in our time period - and plastered Los Angeles with them:

(Google Image Search "Rekall viral campaign" to see more designs)


Your job is to design a new viral marketing poster (same vertical proportions as shown above) for Rekall - but with some different parameters:

The headline on your poster will be...

BE THE YOU

YOU WANT TO BE

(You must break it into two lines as shown above, however you do not have to use all caps)

The subhead on your poster will be...

YOUR FACE

YOUR BODY

YOUR FANTASY

(You do not have to break it into three lines as shown above, you do not have to use all caps)

Your poster must include the REKALL logo in the font style shown on the actual posters above, incorporated in some manner according to how you choose to design it.

Your poster must include the URL rekall.com and may (but doesn't have to) include addition type like "Go to rekall.com for details"

There are three visual elements you must include in some design combination: a face and two figures of you, the person designing the poster - YOU are the subject in all three visual elements

Your poster must include your face, your body in your normal clothes, and your body in your fantasy outfit.

To better understand how a montage design of this sort works, look at movie poster designs:

The poster above cleverly combines a face (Colin Farell) and two smaller figures, along with some secondary visual elements. You may use secondary visuals if you like but they are not required.

NOTE: there is a total of 14 required words in your poster design -- there are 14 words in the movie poster design above in the block of type that includes the names of the stars and the title "Total Recall" and "Is it real Is it Recall" -- so you should have no problem incorporating all the type required in your design.

I strongly encourage you to do more research of how movie posters use montages of faces and figures and apply that design strategy to your poster. Go to Google Image Search and search "movie posters" for many examples.

If you have any questions, email me or post your question in the Facebook study group and tag me.

Composition, Part 4 (CC2, Week 10)

Orient your page in portrait format (vertical) draw your one inch image area border and neatly letter your name in the bottom right hand corner as usual. Divide the image area into four equal quadrants. Leave a half inch gutter between each quadrant.

Study these illustrations. Choose one.

In the top left hand quadrant, redraw the image you chose as a simplified thumbnail sketch with grey tone values.

Now imagine this image is the visual for a magazine cover. In the top right hand quadrant, add the magazine title. Using greeking, add a header, a footer, three story headlines and a UPC rectangle.

In the bottom left hand quadrant, redraw the composition. Use all the original elements but attempt to improve the composition.

In the bottom right hand quadrant, explain in writing and with diagrams why your improved composition work. Describe how you have applied the principles of composition studied over the last four weeks.

Composition, Part 3 (CC2, Week 7)

Turn your sketchbook to vertical format. Draw your 1" border and sketch five equal thumbnail shapes as indicated below. Read the paragraph under each example, then replicate the image. Use grey markers if you prefer.


On a new page sketch five equal thumbnail shapes as indicated below. Read the paragraph under each example, then replicate the image. Use grey markers if you prefer.



On the third page, sketch five equal thumbnail shapes as indicated below. Read the paragraph under each example, then replicate the image. Use grey markers if you prefer.



Choose only one of the two linear thumbnails below. Read the description explaining why the composition is weak. Redesign the composition, first by exploring possibilities by way of 4 small thumbnail sketches near the top of your sketchbook page, then by completing a larger sketch in the remaining space on the same page. Use values. You may make any adjustments you feel are needed to the positions and relationships of the figures in the composition (i.e. moving arms, legs, the distance between them, etc.) but keep in mind the implied interaction between the figures (i.e. they are looking at/talking to each other). Maintain that aspect of their interaction in some way in your redesign.



This week's sketchbook exercise:

Review the movie posters at this link, choose one and sketch it (roughly) in your sketchbook. Indicate with words, arrows, circles, and other shapes etc. why the poster you chose is compositionally working well.