Research into Dovetail

For the word dovetail I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary and the definition that I got was:

1. A joint formed by a mortise with a tenon shaped like a dove's spread tail or a reversed wedge.
2. Such a tenon
3. Fit readily together; combine neatly or compactly.

After a talk with Sancha and Colin about my words we spoke about a few ideas that I could do. Sancha suggested that I look at an artist called Jacob Epstein who did a sculpture of dove's mating.
I have looked at this piece of work and saw why she thought I should look at his work.

The sculpture called 'Doves' is peaceful and beautiful. I think that the way he has made them fit perfectly together in the act says that they are made for each other in a sense. I think that it explains the word 'dovetail' really well in a way that not just becasue they are doves and that is what you initially think of when you say the word but because of the way there is no gaps between each of the doves.

 For this project, by doing illustration, I am not going to focus too much on looking at scuptures but to not futher look at patterns and repeated patterns. Like Islamic art and the meanings of the repeating of these patterns.

I have done a few ideas for dovetail that I think can easily progress into something worth while and that I could use if I was to develop them with a little more depth. All of these ideas are here:

 

 Here I have just drawn a simple way of showing a dovetail. I have thought that this could come across quite boring but in actual face if I 'jazz' it up a bit using repeated patterns or something along side it I think that it  could end up quite interesting. I spoke to my tutor about this and my thoughts about it being quite boring to show and she suggested that I combine photography as well as illustration instead of simply making it by using illustration and so I think that this would work really well with me drawing over the top. I am going to try and take some photographs of a dovetail joint so that I can experiment with this.

 

Here I have just shown a different way of drawing the dovetail joint. I thought I could make it a little more quirky but using bird tails to illustrate this. I think it looks quite cute and I was thinking of it going diagonally across a page.

 

Here I have just started to draw some cute characters showing fitting perfectly together. I have used birds because I think that I could use birds feathers to make a repeated pattern as such to create a dovetail type of link. 

 

Here I had just a similar idea to the birds. With a couple fitting perfectly together. I really liked this idea initially but I don't think that it will work so well as a piece to show dovetail. If you were to look deeper into the meaning I think that it could be understood, but just because I am only showing a small definition it may be just something that doesn't work well together. 

 

Here I am just experimenting with text. I wanted to create the dovetail word in a form of elegance. I think that it could work well along side the harsh lines on a dovetail joint.

Next I am going to look at the artist Lauren Child. Her work has a child like feeling (Charlie and Lolo) I really like her work and I think that in some respects I think that my style of drawing is quite similar, in a way wit simple line drawing. Her work is a lot more colourful where as I have a more plain and simple approach.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIZbjD3YwoihJjvKp6st6xNs5kca8NXBtb8WL5krgRNRWb3uXDxRh3kZl9ehm8m8oR03Bqay9-PkZ_8UtcR4S33thFe_j_YW1-85tXRHKjF0I93nlUUhgU7wJ2spfQLR6G1k86dqXIklI/s400/LC9.jpg

I really like this illustration because of the simplicity of it. I like the way that there is a few patterns and colours that have been put on the piece in blocks and some parts are still left white and plain. 

http://jillsbooks.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/slightly-invisible-lauren-child-illustration.jpg?w=500

This illustration here I have similar views on. I really like the simple drawing that has been left plain against the background of the wallpaper pattern.

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I have looked more in to ideas and spoke to Tim and we spoke about my original ideas and I have decided that I am quite liking those and have new ways to be able to develop those into ideas that have potential to be something good.

Also speaking to Tim helped me realize that the drawings don't have to be literal. They can simply have some thing to do with the word as the definition tells the reader exactly what they need to know and the drawing just illustrates the word in it most widest view.

I have looked at company magazine where they have some illustrations in their magazine. You can see from them that they do not directly tell you everything about the article but they do relate closely - which I need to remember that is all I need to do so I can be quite abstract.

 

After looking at these I began to think about things that you would automatically put together. Such as

- cheese and buscuits

- beauty and the beast

- ant and dec

-laurel and hardy

-black and white

- romeo and juliet

-salt and pepper

- bonnie and clyde

- tom and jerry

- the chuckle brothers

 - gin and tonic

- fish and chips

- sugar and spice

they are some that I thought of that I can istantly think of when you think of pairs.. the dovetail and fit together compactly or homoniously.

I have decided that I still definitely want to keep my illustrations to my style that I have previously used as I want continuity in my portfolio and also I don't want to stray away from what makes me 'me' in my work and that is what I believe my peers think of my work too. I want them to recognize it as mine. 

I am going to try and find some images that I can experiment with to make these pairs.

 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhELj88nP05Y0yOJv7gnRgrP0QHlZFQeg7xqzi7MsB7aDQ-X2DuvRfv5EuzVQmjFKkngFyEr6vodxB3dd_2jiVR6mnZ_TP2xQfetNE-16ImHNw8ysdJdmwq1OXsbmPzPBF7QVO8GMmvSt9A/s400/laurelhardy.jpg

 

Here are my drawings that I done of laurel and hardy. I am really pleased with the outcome of these and I think that they portray my work well. I think that I am going to develop this idea, maybe add a little bit of colour to brighten them up a bit but I will need to do these on plain paper. 

I also quite like the plain ad simple look to these and I think that people will think its quite humorous,  I think that I could even give the pots a little bit of personality in the shadow giving them a little bit of life.

Research into unusual words

Here I am going to show some words that I have found that I think would be interesting to illustrate. Also which are quite unusual and wouldn't be used in every day conversations.

- Crystalline
clear, or sparking
1. Being, related to, or composed of crystal
2. Resembling crystal, as in transparency or distinctness of structure or outline

-Serendipitous OR Serendipity
1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident
2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries
3. An instance of making such a discovery.

- Epiphany
Any moment of great or sudden revelation

- Statuesque
Like a statue, esp. in possessing great formal beauty or dignity.

- Exuberance
Joyful enthusiasm
An over flowing amount; an outburst; an abundance

- Dovetail
To join or fit together compactly or harmoniously

Those are the words that I found and really stood out to me that I could illustrate them. I have to pick two of them and after thinking of ideas and just thinking about words that I really like I have choosen to go for:

STATUESQUE

and

DOVETAIL

I have chosen those words as I think that they could look good together as a piece in my portfolio and also I found them quite interesting. They both seem elegant and lady like, even just the way you have to pronounce statuesque I think has a way of sounding quite beautiful.
I have chosen dovetail because I have never heard of it before. Discovering this word and the meaning seemed quite a special word and it reminds me of something innocent and lovely.

Brief

Preamble

In answer to this brief you must produce outcomes that conform to ONE of the option modules. You should check the appropriate learning outcomes and work to achieve these.

The outcomes for both modules ask you to consider what it would mean to work professionally as an illustrator or photographer. Please include some reflection on this.

This project will be graded alongside the first Options project delivered earlier this term.

The Brief

A book is to be published celebrating unusual words.

You are to produce two double page spreads that celebrate a single word each. You are to include image and type in any way that you feel is suitable. Your image and typeface choice should emphasise the meaning or mood of the word. The two spreads do not have to follow the same style.

Your type should include the specific word and a dictionary definition.

Format of the book is 210mm x 210mm.

You will choose your own words.

Specific Learning Outcomes

Please see Moodle and your course handbook for the specific learning outcomes for each module. Please note that the pathways options (photo and illustration) have different learning outcomes.

Duration

Set: 12^th November 2012

Submission: 14^th December 2012

NEW PROJECT - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

Evaluation

The way in which my pieces of work meet the needs of the brief is that I created a business card, letter head and compliment slip to identify myself as a designer. I think that I have shown myself and my style well with the set of documents that I have created. I have included everything that was required on the brief to be on the documents. The strengths of the documents I have created are my logo and layout on my business card. I am really pleased with the outcome of these, all my documents as a set I think is another strong point. Another strong point is that I the logo that I have made myself is that I am able to change the colour to suit a certain company or scenario. I think that this works well for a CV and a cover letter and I will definitely be using it for personal use for things such as this. The only weakness I think that my documents might have is that they are quite simple. To me this is a strong point but I think to some who has different views might see this as a weakness.The audience for this piece of work is possible clients and fellow designers. I want to show my style of designing with these and so I think people who have an interest in design will see where I am coming from with this. But this could be mis-understood by people who don't really know much about logo design and layout, by only seeing the logo, and not knowing or recognising it. 

My time keeping in this quick project was good. We were all given the brief on Monday and the hand in day is Friday so I only had a week to do enough relevant research and the designing and also getting some experimentation in for the documents. I found my research for this project really helped me get some inspiration, there is so many different business card made my many different amazing designers who make cards in lots of different styles and themes, also using type to create the cards, some use logos but I think by looking at these it gave my my idea. I used experimentation throughout this project, After creating my logo I wanted to see all the different ways in which it can be used, colour wise. I did so many different colour ways to see how each would look, as I thought that I could use this to my advantage for colour of papers and also seasonal business cards. The parts that I enjoyed the most with this project was the designing of the logo and layout of the card. I needed to get the size of the text right so I spent quite a lot of time getting this right but the experimentation brought this along well.

Development of the compliment slip

Here for the compliment slip I have gone for the same kind of layout at the bottom of my letterhead. I wanted to keep my icons as I think that is what made my business card design look quite fun, rather than using a simple letter such as E for email which is what I have seen one quite a few examples of cards.

I have used the same font as the lower case J in my logo. I think by using this as the 'with compliments' at the bottom it links it all in well together.

This is my final design of my compliment slip.

Development of designing letterhead

Here I am going to show ideas that I have had for my letterhead. I am taking it from the business card so that all the pieces that I need to make will link up to look professional and like a set.

I am going to set an actual letter so that I can get everything in the right place. I am going to find an example letter in order to be able to place everything right.

The letter that I am going to use is this:


Ms. Rebecca Robson
Director of Recruiting
Apple Advertising
187 Bainbridge Road
Newport, RI  18645

Dear Ms. Robson:

Thank you for interviewing me yesterday for the assistant account manager position.  I enjoyed meeting you and learning more about Apple and your philosophy toward advertising and business relations.

My enthusiasm for the position and my interest in working for Apple have been strengthened because of the interview.

Apple’s emphasis on the client and open communication policy mesh well with my own philosophy of business relationships.  I think my education and experience fit the job requirements, and if offered the position, I am certain I would make a valuable addition to your team.

I want to reiterate my strong interest in working with Apple.  Your company and this position offer the exact opportunity I seek.

Please feel free to call me at (302) 555-1369 if I can provide you with any further information.
Again, thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,


I am going to change the name and address that this one has used.
I got this letter from :
http://www.udel.edu/CSC/pdf/ThanksLetter.pdf

I think that buy using a letter to help me place the bits I need to on the letter head will help me get everything in line and also so that I know where address etc will go.

next I am going to show some developement whilst I am designing my letter head.

This was an idea for the top of the letter head. Putting my logo behind my name. 

This is what I am thinking about doing along the bottom of my letter head. I am placing the address in the top right hand corner as this is what is usually done with letters so I think that it would be a good idea to carry this on in a normal letter form. 

I have done another design of how I would like the top of the letter to look. I think that there needs to be an order similar to my business card. I think that it needs to stay simple but still in a good understandable order. 

This is my final design for my letterhead. I have used all of the information along the bottom as trying out the address at the top didn't look right, the address just didn't seem to fit in anywhere along with the letter that I have used.

Development of designing business card

1...

LOGO 

These screen grabs are from my first idea. I think that the simplicity of the logo that I have designed works really well. I am thinking of trying out printing on to brown paper. As i mentioned before I have experimented with this before and so I think that this would be a good way of trying out new papers. I am also going to try it on coloured paper.. I think that this could work really well if I was to change the colour scheme to a dark yellow - for the brown paper experiment  Also if I try out coloured paper, such as blue or green, I think that trying out black or the colour opposite the paper colour in the3 colour wheel.

For the logo I chose to download a font as I wanted something that was a little more 'me' and I tend to use the same fonts when I design as I find that these fonts, such as Gill Sans and Helvetica Neue, look good with styles that I have developed. And so for the logo design for this card (which I know wasn't an essential for this project) I wanted something slightly different which could be a bit more fun and girly. So I searched www.dafont.com for a suitable font. I came across one called Little Days which when downloaded gave 3 versions. (This was a free download) The top J that is in the circle was a capital letter, I think that looked good but then I wanted to see what the lower case letter J would look like and where it would still be suitable and I found that it looked really good and still simple and recognisable as a J on its own. I chose to make the tittle slightly bigger by making my own tittle using the shape tool. Then went on to copy and paste this to make a full stop.

I am really pleased with my first design and I think that it could represent me quite well as a designer. I like to use simple designs and this shows this perfectly. I am going to carry on designing and experimenting with a few more ideas then I will carry on with the letter head and compliemnt slip ideas, that will link to my business card. I wanted to create the business card first as i think that this is the basis of what the letter head and compliment slip will come from. To me this takes more designing that the letter head, as a business card you have the whole area to play around with, whereas on a letter head there is only a certain amount of space you have to make the text and logo fit perfectly.

I really like my logo design. It completely makes my business card what it is. I am loving how many different colour ways work with the design. Now for my next part of development I am going to try and place an image in there. Just to see if this works with the J inside the circle as well.

I really like these designs. I have used an image of me that was taken a while ago. I think that all these different designs show that my logo is able to change to fit a particular season or if there is a special occasion. I think that it works well with any colour, depending on the paper used but of course as I have mentioned before I would change the colour to fit the colour of paper that the business card would go on.

I have chosen a final design.

I am really happy with my final design. The simplicity of the logo and also the layout on the back of the card. I am going to try and print this on brown paper and also white to see what looks best. I am going to email as my hand in but when it comes to printing later on in the year I will have already figured out which colour paper looks better. If both look equally as good I am going to use both. To show that my card has potential to have more than just one look.

Research into letterhead and compliment slips

The following images are from:

http://websoulz.com/37-unique-letterhead-designs-to-inspire-your-professional-creativity/

United States Postal Service Re-Branding 

I like that the logo has been places in the corner with all of the places coming off it to the right. I think that this works well going along the top because there is the space for the letter. 

WeAreAllConnect Promotion Materials

 This is similar to the kind of business card that I found that used the brown card instead of plain white paper. I think that it looks so good together, using the white paper as the letterhead and then combining it with the extras, such as the business card and compliment slip.

Lewin Consulting
The reason that I think this may have stood out to me is because of the pink in the business cards! But looking more closely looking at the letter head I really like the simplicity of the logo and just the name. I think that the font used makes it look really professional.