Studio Brief 1 - Final 5 ideas

Going through the developing stages of experimenting with different ideas along with marbling and Play-Doh, i have mocked up 5 finished designs for the interm crit.

This idea was for "sledgehammer". Simple but effective approach, working with subtlety with sex, I decided to communicate this message by what every man loves to boast about the most. His genitals! The design showcases 8 drawings of the biggest penises from the animal kingdom. Then at the bottom will be the sledgehammer, bigger than the rest with the hammer representing a penis and implying that 'mine is bigger then yours" attitude. I think the idea works, the design is a modern approach as the main message is the penises, so I wanted this feature center frame with no other conflicting noise.

This idea is for the reflection by The Supreams, using the recent experimentation with marbling. I chose to apply the marbling to this idea. At first i had to edit the marbling in Photoshop to bring out more energy and emotion that i wanted to capture about love. I increased the levels, brightness and saturation. The marbling represents the flow of a river and the reflection captured once the flow is disturbed. I used the colours of red & pink to link in the connection of love. Once changed to red and pink the design dramatically enhances and becomes aesthetically pleasing. All together this idea is the most eye capturing, which is needed when being displayed on a shelf.

However i had a few doubts. It may be the most attractive deign but it isn't necessary the most unique. Marbling has been done before many times over. If it isn't a unique concept then it wont be a strong contender. Also I'm not sure if the design clearly represents a river, as it may be mistaken for the Chemical brothers due the design looking more like a mixture of chemicals. I could use the colour blue to further strengthen the link to a river which should help the purpose.

The concept with this idea was to show the whole movement using a record player. The record player is half in the water with the reflection producing the other half, so I'm using the concept of water reflections to show the vinyl record as a tight link. The middle of the vinyl is also subtly representing the sun in some context. Using the feature of the sun shows the brighter side of life and love and was also implemented to help make sense of the water design. Still using the marbling, which adds depth and guarantees the record will be the focus point.

The use of colour also backs up my design decision about the focus point. The design uses a wide variety of blues. The most vibrant is within the disk to make is more important in terms of hierarchy. The more subtle blues are used for the sky & river but also complementing the inner circle. Blue is also used to represent water but may not represent love but more of a lonely approach.

This idea was based again around sexual subtlety and innuendos. The design as a whole is simplistic & modern. Simple but effective. At a glance the design is just a vinyl player. However at closer inspection the vinyl player is actually a breast with the vinyl arm as a sledgehammer. All the design features link with Peter Gabriel's song. I decided to go for an illustrative approach as the harshness of the breast would be perceived as more fun, excusable and approachable due to the breast looking like a cartoon breast of some nature. However if i had not used a cartoon looking breast and decided to go for a realistic breast then the design can come across as inappropriate, graphic and explicit.

Colours are effective and contrast well against the skin colour & the soft black background. I feel this idea is my best design which effectively communicates the concept in the simplest of formats. Every design shape, colour and feature is there for a reason & compliments every aspects on the page, which in effect strengthens the design concept and overall message.