Graphic Design, Photography

Graphic Design and Photography...

In Graphics, we had our first go on the Macs, learning how to create an Adobe Illustrator document and insert some images.  Having already done historical research, we started researching examples of bottles that are currently on the market.

Some Mac Illustrator commands
To see previews of the available fonts: Window > Type > Character
To adjust and stretch the outline of your font: Type > Create Outline

Notes on Commercial Colour Printing
The most common way of printing is called four-colour or full-colour.  It's known as CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black.
Pantone Special colours allow a print to be more vibrant in one area.  You can have four-colour plus a Special -- but that impacts on cost.
But Pantones are cheaper for something small and simple, for example a two-colour logo on a business card or letterhead.

Things To Do:
Research more contemporary labels and posters
Who is your hypothetical competitor and how are they promoting themselves?
Look at two graphic and typographic designers: Herbert Lubalin and one of these: Eric Gill, Stanley Morison, Jan Tshicold, Adrian Frutiger, Neville Brody.
Research nonwestern artists and designers for leftfield inspiration.
Create a mood board to capture your target audience.
(Timetable.)

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Photography

A short history of photography...

Camera obscura (image formed via a pinhole onto a wall)
1727 Prof J Schulze accidentally created first photo-sensitive compound
1800 Thomas Wedgwood's 'sun pictures'
1814 First permanent photo by Nie/pce
1834 William Henry Fox Talbot - negative/positive
1900 Kodak Brownie
1921 Man Ray photograms, rayographs
1924 First commercial 35mm camera, Leica I
1972 Texas Instruments - first electric camera
1990 Adobe Photoshop
1992 PhotoCD Kodak

The brief is to create a book jacket for one of these titles: Alien Nation, Storm Force or Darkness Visible.
Decide what the book is about and write a blurb for the back of 25-30 words.  We'll also be taking author photos.

I spent the session brainstorming ideas for the title Alien Nation.  I came up with a few ideas and the teacher suggested I try doing all of them! 

For the next lesson, bring in a roll of film (HP5 Plus 400 ASA 36 exp) and your digital camera.