RATIONALE
The final 5X5 publication outcome utilises visual language and references to the content of each of the 5 sections; it takes inspiration from elements of the 5 designers and their ethos within their work, as well as connecting to the personal aspects of the design. The format of the publication pays homage to the fake toy design of Obviousplant, in referencing commercial products in a witty sense; this wit within the outcome is crucial in reflecting attitudes towards design such as ‘A Smile In The Mind’ by hijacking objects in creative ways. Despite this, the prominent theme within the 5X5 publication is its ability to convey irony; elements such as the 5X5 business cards (inspired by Elliot Ulm) hijack something considered ‘professional’ and transform them into intentionally ‘bad’ design. This ‘bad’ design comes from designer ethos of not taking ones’ work too seriously, thus creating a playful outcome; the publication uses stereotypes of bad design such as WordArt, Comic Sans and MS Paint, yet executes the outcome in a way that remains contemporary. The intentionally ‘bad’ aspect of the publication also references the ideology of embracing mistakes discussed within ‘Failed it!’. Maintaining a contemporary standpoint was significant in the design process, as it helped push the concept of irony further and provide a consistent outcome through the use of motifs. From a personal standpoint, the addition of stickers within the publication helped to bring the elements together through using recurring shapes/ motifs within all 25 business cards; furthermore, they added an interactive element, thus creating an immersive user experience which links back to the personal nature of the 5X5 publication itself.
5X5 DESIGNERS
Seapunch is a designer that uses nostalgia and playfulness in visual language; integrating illustration and cartoons into imagery is one of his prominent motifs, which inspired the illustrative components of the final publication. As a designer, his ethos follows the concept of taking inspiration from everywhere; in an interview he states that he ‘takes a lot of photos of things that he finds interesting’. His attitudes to finding inspiration strongly influenced the design process in the sense that the publication uses unorthodox methods in image and type, as well as their role in creating nostalgia.
The work of Elliot Ulm is undeniably unique; he uses a consistent business card format on his instagram platform devoted to witty and relatable statements, with a strong contemporary identity. His designs have a personal tone of voice and maintain a playful perspective to design; he has essentially built a whole visual identity on funny graphic design business cards. Resultantly, the format of the 5X5 publication is heavily influenced by Elliot Ulm and his ethos of transforming widely considered ‘formal’ business cards into something fun.
Appear Offline is a ‘weird typography & lettering artist’, that combines graffiti art with clean, contemporary design. The result of this concoction is a distinctive style that has a perfect balance of hand drawn elements and digital manipulation. Appear Offline played a massive role in inspiring the hand drawn elements of the 5X5 publication; they follow the fluid and unrestricted nature of his typeface design, which embodies the ethos of not being restricted by rules as a designer. In a sense, this touches upon the intentionally bad nature of the final publication; it shares the confidence of Appear Offlines’ typefaces.
Obviousplant is a bizarre hybrid between meme culture and design; his work consists of fake toy and packaging design that features often dark and witty humour. His designs embody the idea of intentionally bad design, as it serves as a commentary for the extremes of commercialisation in America; in a sense, this shares the attitude of ‘A Smile In The Mind’, through hijacking formats to develop a playful and interactive user experience. This packaging format inspired how the 5X5 publication would perform as a collection of business cards; pushing the concept to be multilayered and distinctive in the sense that the final outcome wasn’t flat like a traditionally printed publication.
Sauce Designs’ work often plays with themes of nostalgia; his typefaces have an old video game element to them, and are often composed amongst vivid colour palettes and textures/ gradients. This element of nostalgia played a vital role within the 5X5 publication development, as it pushed the final outcome to be more personal; the business card designs often feature soft gradients that are reminiscent of Sauce Designs’ visuals. The typographic side of his designs also influenced the development of the digital typeface for the project, as it encouraged the process to consider personalised type; to an extent, this allowed the final publication to have a much more organic and individual feel to it.
5X5 AIMS
An aim as a designer is to develop a strong contemporary identity; personally, this is crucial as it allows one to distinct themselves within the industry. As well as this, a key area to focus on is type design; it is a significantly versatile tool that enables one to control all elements of visual language, thus providing consistency with style. A typographer that does so is Emilie Vizcano (Fig.6); her typefaces have a lot of character and push her designs to be solely type based due to their prominence.
In regards to the future, the publication focuses on the aims to work in a small studio space, or develop a collaborative partnership such as Dr.Me (Fig.7); as a designer, it would be interesting to work within the publication industry and work on small, niche projects. This would be more personally rewarding as it provides one with a lot more freedom to experiment and support smaller businesses.
5X5 EVENTS
An event featured within the publication was when my poster concept was selected to be exhibited by Oriepau (Fig.8). This was significant in the sense that it contributed to confidence as a designer; showcasing recognition for individual work and style. Furthermore other events consisted of Gigs such as King Krule; his new album being a lot more personally matured. As well as this, other events featured in the 5X5 publication were visiting independent bookstores to push an awareness of publication design, and social events such as the pub quiz.
Despite this, another visually influential event included was recent interest in foreign films; a key name in particular being ‘In the Mood for Love’ by Hong Kar-Wai; the film is beautifully shot and uses unique framing methods for composition (Fig.9).
5X5 STRATEGIES
A poignant creative strategy featured within the 5X5 publication is the method of manipulating unorthodox textures to develop unique imagery/ visuals; illustrator and designer Braulio Amado (Fig.1) uses this technique in order to explore abstract textures within his work.
Relating to this, another creative strategy explored within the publication involved the approaches to inspiration discussed in ‘Steal Like an Artist’ by Austin Kleon; Kleon encourages designers to consider taking inspiration from the unorthodox, stating that ‘everything is up for grabs’.
‘Failed it!’ by Erik Kessels (Fig.2) discusses the key creative attitude within design that embraces mistakes; Kessels places emphasis on the importance of making mistakes. In a sense, this strategy aligns with the general theme of intentionally ‘bad’ design for the publication itself, as the design involves stereotypically bad elements.
Another creative strategy featured within the 5X5 publication is the technique of hijacking visuals; pushing designs to play with familiarity yet add their own stylistic twist. Designers that embody this creative method consist of Ermsy and Jay Vaz; both manipulate existing cartoon characters to develop fun and playful visuals. Personally, this strategy inspired previous modules such as the Garfield Minus Garfield project for OUGD401.
Furthermore, another creative strategy that explores this playful element to design is the attitudes discussed within ‘A Smile in the Mind’; the book focuses on the importance of witty thinking in graphic design which helps push designers to consider the concepts behind their work more.
5X5 ADVICE
During the 5X5 research process, a key piece of advice was given in an interview with Seapunch (Fig.4); regarding advice that he would give to a design student, Seapunch stated that one's work should be ‘organic and personal’. This had significance due to the fact that Seapunch himself is a recently graduated student, and has a relatable standpoint.
Another bit of personal advice was the concept of finding inspiration from everywhere; instagram accounts such as @scenicsimpsons and @accidentalcollage feature a lot of interesting visuals/ colours that influence personal design (Fig.5). This approach to design featured within the Oripeau poster concept for OUGD404, as it involved visuals from cartoon ‘Hot Stuff the little Devil’.
To some extent, this also links to the piece of advice to be more aware of contemporary design featured in the 5X5 publication; this pushes designers to look at contemporary design trends, and find inspiration from articles featured on sites such as It’s Nice That.
A bit of advice discussed within the publication was to work by hand; this relates to the idea of having more personal, tangible work, which is crucial in seeing what ones’ designs look like physically. A designer that works frequently by hand is Aga Geicko (Fig.6); she transforms her illustrative work into playful clay sculptures. As well as this, other ways of working by hand to personally explore could be screen printing or risographs.
The final piece of advice included in the 5X5 publication is to collaborate more; personally, it would be interesting to produce more collaborative work and bounce ideas off other designers.
INITIAL IDEAS
The initial ideas process began with generating collages using a scanner (Fig.1); this introduced some interesting textures, and played around with combining the 5 artists’ work through overlapping components. The high contrast was quite nice in the sense that it was reminiscent of comic design, which communicated the nostalgic style of the designers. The initial zines concepts also played with referencing Seapunchs’ method of drawing on unorthodox materials; they feature some personal illustrations drawn on tissue paper which interact with the images in a unique way.
(Fig.2) explores the initial introduction of colour such as elements like coloured paper; the vivid combination of primary colours and the overprinted collage worked nicely and inspired the design development later on in the project. In particular, the primary colour palette inspired the playful packaging design for the final 5X5 publication; this concept was discussed in one of the projects’ initial crits.
In order to experiment with motifs within the 5 designers’ work, the initial zines featured cut out shapes (Fig.3); this allowed the publication to introduce shapes as devices to provide consistency. These shapes inspired the refinement process further by being the silhouettes for the sticker designs and elements of the business card concepts.
The initial design process was also the startpoint for exploring the 5X5 publications’ intentionally ‘bad’ theme; the initial publication was adorned with poorly drawn illustrations, using tissue paper to distort the quality slightly (Fig.4).. This was successful in the sense that it related to both personal work and the 5 designers, as well as creating a playful and witty sense of voice. This was crucial as the illustrations embodied the concept of not taking yourself too seriously, which pushed them to be a key component in the final publication; they also helped consider what other approaches to intentionally ‘bad’ design the publication could have.
Despite this, the initial design process generated many components used in the final 5X5 publication, yet the format failed to be unique; the A5 zine format lacked a witty sense of voice and didn’t really explore any of the 5 designers' ideas. This issue was highlighted in one of the projects’ crits, and it was then suggested that in order to develop the concepts further, the publication should use a more inventive format; consequently, the business card concept was created (inspired by Elliott Ulm).
DESIGN DEVELOPMENTS
The first key design development was the decision to use a business card format (Fig.1). This example explores the idea of using images of each designers’ work, combined with an intentionally ‘bad’/ nostalgic gradient effect. Although the nostalgic element worked, this initial development failed to fully communicate the intentionally ‘bad’ concept fully, as it used a clean, Helvetica type and overall just looked a bit too neat.
Due to this, the next development was to embrace the concepts of ‘Failed it!’ and use the wrong tools for the design (Fig.2); playing around with WordArt and MS paint to develop a more witty and ironic outcome. These also featured a personal touch through the illustrations which replicate certain aspects of each designers’ work, which linked them closer to their styles. Despite this, the issue with (Fig.2) was that the colour palette for each card was the same; this pushed the final outcome to consider colours that referenced each of the 5 artists.
In order to push the business card concepts to be more organic and personal, the next development for the 5X5 aims cards was to generate hand drawn type; this worked really well at adding a personal style to the cards, as well as creating a playful atmosphere. This allowed the aims cards to represent the concept of embracing mistakes and not taking ones’ work too seriously, as the typeface is somewhat clumsy and has a lot of character (Fig.3).
Linking to typeface developments, to align the business cards with the goal of ‘being better at type’, the design process involved generating a full typeface to be used for the 5X5 creative strategies cards (Fig.4). This typeface was inspired by the work of Sauce Design in the sense that it related to the nostalgic themes in his work; (Fig.5) showcases how the typeface was pushed further through adding 3D rendering/ gradients, which linked the concept back to nostalgic tones. As well as this, the 5X5 creative strategies cards used Comic Sans for the back designs in order to convey the theme/ motif of intentionally ‘bad’ design.
For the 5X5 events, the design development was more focused on generating ‘bad’ illustrations as a motif; drawn on MS paint, the illustrations allowed the business cards to be consistent, thus considering the final outcome as a product. These complimented the 5X5 publication well, as they linked back to the ethos of embracing mistakes; to further explore this, the type for the 5X5 events was also drawn left handed for a messy and personal touch.
On the subject of intentionally bad design, the 5X5 advice business cards were developed to explore meme culture within graphic design; they used cringey stock photos (Fig.7) which generated a witty outcome, thus relating to the motif of irony throughout the publication. It was important to push the design process to consider meme culture, as it referenced both personal style and the work of designers such as Obviousplant.
A key turning point during the design development was the decision to introduce stickers into the final 5X5 publication (Fig.8). Inspired by the shape motifs used in the initial designs, they combined collaged material of imagery relating to each business card; this visually explored the styles of the 5X5 designers within the publication, as well as linking to personal design. The sticker concept helped create an interactive element to the publication, and worked well at visually contrasting the business cards by being in black and white.
Finally, the last element in the design development for the publication was the 5X5 packaging concept to tie all 25 business cards/ stickers together. This concept was massively influenced by Obviousplants’ fake toy designs, which helped communicate a fun personality to the final outcome. Visually, the packaging was developed to be very minimal; using a collage of each 5 sections’ imagery, alongside a block colour background (Fig.9). This was crucial as its minimal design complimented the somewhat chaotic visuals of the business cards, so provided more focus on them in regards to the publications’ visual hierarchy. Furthermore, the packaging referenced the collaged material generated in the beginning of the project, as peer feedback suggested to use such.
FINAL OUTCOME
ADVICE
The final outcome for the 5X5 advice is heavily inspired by the ethos of embracing mistakes within ‘Failed it!’; they feature intentionally ‘bad’ elements such as stock photos and fonts such as Comic Sans. They relate to both the 5 designers/ personal attitudes within design by playing with the concept of meme culture in graphic design; it was crucial that the final publication needed to showcase this standpoint of not taking ones’ work too seriously, as the business cards have a fun and witty personality to them.
AIMS
Focusing on a much more personal subject, the 5X5 aims final outcome uses a hand drawn typeface; it has a much more intimate atmosphere to it and aligns with the publications’ ironic themes by using an intentionally messy typeface for personal aims (e.g. being better at type). To further explore the theme of intentionally ‘bad’ design, the concept features the motif of using the wrong tools; elements of type and illustrations created using MS Paint. Experimenting with using unorthodox tools was somewhat inspired by Seapunch and his tissue paper illustrations; the business cards encourage the concept of taking inspiration from everywhere, even if be outdated software such as MS paint. Furthermore, the motif of using MS paint works well in relating to the theme of nostalgia in the publication, which links to personal styles and techniques as a designer.
DESIGNERS
The 5X5 designers concept was the first outcome of the publication, which mainly pushed it to set the tone of voice for the whole publication; it combines the witty, ironic and playful elements that tie into personal aspects of the context of the publication. The business cards embody the concept of intentionally ‘bad’ design, through generating the motifs of Comic Sans, crappy gradients, MS Paint illustrations and WordArt; all of which link to the meme culture within graphic design. This outcome is also successful in the sense that it finds a balance between nostalgia and contemporary design; although this nostalgic aspect is a current design trend, the final outcome manages to provide a personal twist on the intentionally ‘bad’ concept. Additionally, the role of stickers within the 5X5 publication was inspired by the occurring shapes within the 5 designers’ work; this star shape provided a strong motif throughout the project and helped push a consistent and confident design. The sticker concept is a strong point in the final publication as it introduces an interactive element to the user experience, which further explores playful undertones.
Embracing the ideology of embracing mistakes in ‘Failed it!’, the final 5X5 events outcome uses intentionally messy type at its centrepoint; the typeface being drawn left handed to generate an authentically ‘bad’ and ironic visual language. The strongest aspect within the 5X5 events outcome is definitely the ugly colour palette, which plays with themes of wittiness; to some extent, the witty atmosphere within the publication works well at conveying references to ‘A Smile in the Mind’, through adopting ‘witty thinking’ within design. As well as this, this outcome also features the consistent motifs of MS Paint and Comic Sans, which helps integrate each 5 sections into a consistent visual outcome.
CREATIVE STRATEGIES
The main focus within the final 5X5 creative strategies is the inclusion of a personal typeface design; this referenced the aim of being better at type, and explored a type focused concept in regards to the business cards’ visual hierarchy. The typeface itself was inspired by the work of Sauce Design, in the sense that it was influenced by themes of nostalgia and had that somewhat video game feel to it; this idea was pushed further with the addition of gradients and grainy textures. Despite this, the 5X5 creative strategies outcome was still successful in reflecting the intentionally ‘bad’ themes of the final publication, through the inclusion of Comic Sans and the star shape as a motif; additionally, the business cards’ colour palette was intentionally ugly, thus communicating the ethos of not taking design too seriously.
EVALUATION (PUBLICATION)
Overall, to some extent, the final 5X5 publication is successful in capturing a personal tone of voice through its semantics of irony and witty design; each element is designed to embrace design attitudes such as ‘A Smile in the Mind’ and ‘Failed it!’, as well as reflecting the approaches to visual language used by the 5 overarching designers and their influences.
Despite this, there are several flaws within the final outcome which arguably prevent it from being a stronger design. One of which could be highlighted as the simplicity of the packaging concept (Fig.1); the stripped back combination of a simple collage/ block colour background is intended to juxtapose the somewhat chaotic nature of the business card designs. However, there is a certain feeling that due to this, the packaging does not align with the intentionally ‘bad’ atmosphere of the 5X5 publication; there is certainly a lot of opportunity for the packaging to take more inspiration from designers such as Obviousplant, and focusing on creating a more chaotic and witty design, which the final outcome lacks.
Another weak point in the final 5X5 publication is the 5X5 events business cards (Fig.2), as they all look a bit too similar; although differentiated by colour scheme, it could have been interesting to push the concept further by including varied illustrations. Resultantly, the 5X5 events outcome seems a bit repetitive, as every other card design features something
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