Design development, SPUR

Grid systems are fun.
Larger bottom margins are necessary because 
of the small a5 leaf format.  The context the 
viewer will be reading it in is more handheld 
than on a table looking down.



The second question on all interviews is always 
one more column closer to the fold.  This is to 
guide the eye but also to make a more interesting 
layout.  Visually, it is a little different from a 
plain interview in a reflective arts journal.

Elements: economical colour application

Smokin Raps, '86.

I saw this in 'The book of Hip Hop cover art' and 

had a slight brainwave on the colour scheme 

application to the event.  

Because we are riso printing, we want to use as few

colours as possible to keep costs down.

Using this type of imagery to inform our economical

decisions within the design process we will create

an identity that will truthfully reflect the visual 

culture of hHip Hop, whilst successfully answering our

costing issues.

I've had a few ideas to do with application already:

-  Promo

4D design incorporating colour, slowly revealing 

context.  To exploit this we would need to do our

research into busy streets where the majority of 

our audience would frequent.

By printing more copies of single colour, and 

significantly less of the four colour posters we

would save a chunk of money from our budget.

-  Wayfinding:

The print process is the main area driving the 

design decisions.

Elements_ Logo

This is our logo. 

No more messin.  

It.  Is.  Done.

Relevant colour application will come once we 

have spoken to Footprint and get an idea of the

possibilities.

This is a logo loaded with a conceptual process.

Behind everything you can see is a reason for 

choosing to do so.

a

Elements: logo evolution

Post - crit with Andy on Wednesday, amendments; 

considerations & experimentation.

Andy's point was that the type was too jarring against the logo.  

The serif looked almost decorative against the geometric shapes 

of the elements.  He proposed we look at more Bauhaus 

influenced typefaces that would marry respectfully with the

surrounding visuals.

Anti - design.  Justification.  So, no!

Final logo concept.
We tried to take a more structured direction, but all 
it did was reiterate the fact that this was the correct
aesthetic to go for.

talk about how it is relevant.  i.e .juxtaposition 
of geometric and shape etc 

Elements: 'The joy of discovery'

'The joy of discovery.'


THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT
It's the feeling you get when you discover a new 
amazing track off your own back.

- the idea is that people retain information successfully
when they experience something for themselves
and are happily surprised by the experience itself.

It will directly feed our visuals for the whole project.
Along with the whole concept.  It gives us a point 
to keep relating our ideas back to in order to sustain
visual consistency.



dis·cov·er·y  (d-skv-r)

n. pl. dis·cov·er·ies

1. The act or an instance of discovering.

2. Something discovered.

3. Law The compulsory disclosure of pertinent facts 

    or documents to the opposing party in a civil action, 

    usually before a trial begins.

Elements: Logo development

Open publication - Free publishing - More elements

d

Open publication - Free publishing - More experiment

SPUR, promo poster

After seeing a promotional poster for the launch night 
of the publication uploaded onto the folder we were all 
working from I got very confused and called a meeting.

The visual inconsistencies from layout of the content to 
promotional work were vast.  

My role is to now work alongside another designer with 
everything that isn't the layout of the content.  This is not
what I would have chosen if I knew straight off, but there 
is nothing I can do about it now.

The piece that brought all of this to my attention was:

Seeing this made me ask quite a few questions.  One was
what exactly it is that they want me to do.  And the next
was, 'is there enough communication?'.  I thought this 
because of typefaces.  The type doesn't at all reflect the
tone of the magazine and content as a whole.

We all decided that based on the whole identity, Gill
Sans and Times would work best together to successfully
communicate the knowledgeable; classic; contemporary 
tone they are going for.  

[INSERT ANNOTATED PRINT OUT]

Looking back at the initial layout concepts I had come up 
with, this poster really does not reflect that.  However, I 
couldn't persuade the creators that they should go in another 
direction to keep visual consistency, so, we opted for an
improvement on the existing poster.

We're all learning to work with one another and learning
from each other.  It's hard but it is very necessary.

Proposal, 'Jukebox'

Proposed logo; identity and flyer for new night at HiFi:

'Jukebox'.

The night is live.  It's about celebrating local to international

level artists with different skillsets in the musical industry.

The event kicks off with a set from a local live band, then

onto a well known national artist, then moves late into the

night with quality tunage from reputable dj's.  There is a 

focus on the quality of the music.  It has to be good.

So below is my proposal, sent off before the deadline.

Elements: Manifesto, draft one.

We needed a manifesto.  If we're going to keep in check 
what we're all about over the course of this project it is 
completely needed.  It's easy to lose sight of the initial 
message when you get so passionate about the content 
- much like we are.

So, initially, that was a job me and Yaf both felt best 
delegated to me.
My plan was to start with a quote.  A summative quote
on what we thought Hip- Hop was all about alongside
exactly what it is we are trying to achieve.  A few of the
results are as follows:

”The World Is Yours”
         - Nas, The World Is Yours

“You know the wisdom is reflected the knowledge when 
its manifested, If not fed in due time the mind is anorexic”
         - Cormega, American Beauty

I finally chose on the two quotes above as they reflect the 
positivity and educational aspect of our project.  Whilst
the meanings of both also resonate with the whole idea 
behind Hip -Hop. 

My reason for wording it in such a lyrical, more ambiguous 
fashion is that it reflects more what our whole project is based 
upon: educating by means of experience and thought provocation.
The reader has to read the text to understand what is being said.
No skimming. 

To try and trick the viewer into reading the whole manifesto i've
adopted manipulative techniques.  For example, i've made the
margins as large as possible so it looks like there is less information 
on the page- not too overbearing.  To do this I decreased the pointsize
as small as readably possible alongside a typeface with a small
x- height to save space.  I have also increased the leading and 
kerning so that it looks relaxed on the page.

To start with a thought provoking quote makes sense, and to finish
on an uplifting and positive quote ties everything together.

Elements: Logo development

This is the logo Yaf and I have collaboratively 
decided to take further.  We felt it had a strong 
connection to the visual culture of Hip- Hop 
that wouldn't alienate our audience.  It also takes
the four elements of our exhibition which will 
strengthen our concept 

We chose to italicise the letterforms because it
gave the word more movement that reflected the 
content.  Less rigid.  The type layout gives a 
boarder that helps with application onto other 
mediums and products.

Pitch. Let's pitch.

Pitch boards for ideas for TPHB album artwork and direction.

An example of the concept boards Luke came up with.  We both had similar ideas and when collated they became a solid foundation for the artwork.

Elements; Logo development

Post - crit with Andy on Wednesday, amendments; 
considerations & experimentation.

Andy's point was that the type was too jarring against the logo.  
The serif looked almost decorative against the geometric shapes 
of the elements.  He proposed we look at more Bauhaus 
influenced typefaces that would marry respectfully with the
surrounding visuals.

Anti - design.  Justification.  So, no!

TPHB, initial Titan track

Visual direction,

SPUR

First meeting with SPUR team.

I chose this work to take with me as I thought it 
would best illustrate the direction they were going 
in visually.  There is no point in going to a meeting 
with someone who doesn't study graphic design and 
talking at them for half an hour about kerning and 
visual heirarchy.  - well, there is never any point in 
doing that.  I have to remember to always show what's 
in my mind through my designs.

- a sample of the file I took with me to the meeting.