Final Thoughts

Overall I'm pleased with the outcome of my project with the art and designs I have created. I've gained a much wider range of skills within Illustrator and Photoshop and a further understanding on how to create emotion through design.
I would have preferred to create more designs for the final implementation onto the consumer products, although I'm very pleased with the final designs I have produced and the message they convey.
I've learnt a great deal about design throughout this whole project and believe I can now continue on to create more work in the future, with the confidence I have the right skills todo so.

Final Images

I'm very pleased with how the final designs translate, I've gained a huge amount of new skills throughout this project on Illustrator and I feel those new improved skills translate since the first pieces of work I created at the beginning of the project.  

Phone Cases

As one of my aims for this project was to create a small line of products, I want to create phone cases as well as tshirt designs. Although the same design used on the tshirts do not always translate as well onto the cases, so I create new yet similar designs for the phone case which correspond to the apparel designs.

These are the two final phone case designs, which correspond to the two tshirt designs.

I continued the use of the forget me nots from the swan design, to create a background pattern for the ribbon banner to sit on, and also continued the same slogan of 'we are in this together', so there is a sense of consistency.

With the shark design, I found it a little harder to transfer the design into a phone case suitable design. I decided to use the same banner as used with the forget me nots, although I felt like with just the banner it didn't quite make sense with the slogan 'welcome to the shark side.' So i've added shark aspects to the other designs which give it a bit more relevancy. I also decided to try it out with the whole shark design but not sure it works as well as a phone cover design. 

Revisiting the Swan design

I decided to revisit the previous swan concept, as swans symbolise love, union and grace amongst other positive things. Therefor I thought a swan design would be relevant in communicating the positive imagery and message I'm trying to convey through design.

The first image is the point I got to with the concept when I originally was developing the idea, although previously the design had to no reason and relevance to what I was doing. However after finalising a meaning and reason behind my project, of projecting a positive image the swan concept became relevant. I previously used roses within the design, as roses are commonly used within the tattoo industry, although since I had used roses in the shark design I thought it would be interesting to chose a different flower within the swan design. After doing doing some research into the meanings of flowers I decided to go for Forget-me-nots as they symbolise love, which relates to the swans and the message I'm trying to convey with this particular concept, of togetherness and love.

These are a couple of concepts I came up with, with the new forget me not design and also with the ribbon banner, where the text will be. Although I felt these designs where not as strong and did not create a strong enough image I was hoping for. 

I settled on this design, making the swans more of a focal point, by being larger. I've also continued the original design style with the different line weights and use of the dotting technique to create subtle shading and depth within the concept. Although the design is quite simple I believe it is easy to understand and quickly communicates the message I'm hoping to convey to the viewer. 

I also quickly implemented the design onto a tshirt, to get an understanding of what the design could look like on apparel. I think this design works well with being centre and large on the front of the tshirt, as because it is relatively simple it still communicates well.

These images are not my own, they where taken from a google search. I will implement the image onto my own photos later.

I also created a coloured image of the swan design, using the same design style as used for the coloured shark design.

Shark Tshirt

I successfully got the shark design printed onto a tshirt and took some pictures to display the design. I'm overall very pleased with how the design turned out on the tshirt, although I think the design on the front would be more successful if it was bigger. 

The dot work has successfully communicated the desired effects of creating shading and depth within the design. 

I believe there is a relevant contrast within the design for the viewer to quickly understand, thus relating to the design and emotionally relating. 

Shark 2.0

After meeting with Dave and showing him my progress on my shark design, it became apparent that the chosen style of design didn't make sense with the message I've been trying to communicate. Therefor I went back to the drawing board and tried to come up with some new ideas, although I still wanted it to be based/inspired by a shark, as to carry through that initial representation of courage from the Sailor Jerry original meanings. It was suggested that I could have a cynical or sarcastic approach, which I wasn't sure exactly how to execute although I do think the message already hold an ironic message by pushing shark illustration as a positive message.

To convey a more positive message through the design of the shark, I created a shark illustration with softer feature and kinder eyes. I also wanted to carry on the tattoo design influence I have previously looked into throughout the project, that is why I chose to have the shark in a frame, made from rope which was connotations to the sea. The reason for the banner and roses is also due to the tattoo influence, I also think these two concepts from the design help develop it further and make the overall design more interesting to view. I also used the dotting technique to create added depth and interest into the design, like previously researched. 

I decided to colour the design below, just to see how the design would look with colour although for implementing onto products I believe the design will work better and look stronger as a design if it was to remain in black and white.

My previous slogan was 'we are better together', which did convey the message very strongly but with the imagery I have chosen I don't think they work together thus making the overall concept and design a little confusing. Therefor a chose 'welcome to the shark side' for the slogan for the shark design, with a play on words it adds some humour thus hopefully emotionally connecting with the viewer even further. Also hoping to convey some irony when pushing the message to the viewer of togetherness with an image of a shark which is normally initially viewed as something being scary. 

I also implemented the design onto tshirts and phone cases. For the tshirt I decided to break up the design, by just using the roses and banner, with the slogan on the front right on the tshirt. Keeping the message and design simple initially to the viewer, also meaning the viewer is not being overwhelmed. 

Then on the back I put the whole design, along with the slogan from the front. 

For the initial idea for the phone case, from the shark concept I decided to change around the design slightly as I think the whole design would be too much. I also think that the phone cover gives a new opportunity to create something more interesting and play around with the limited space. I used the same font, to keep the shark line coherent and made the overall design more simple, as the phone cover is a lot less space than a tshirt, so if there was a lot going on it wouldn't make sense and would be hard to understand. 

The pictures of the man in the white tshirt are not my own, I have just used them for now to suggest and convey my ideas before using my own images later on in the project.

Stippling Technique

Through researching the tattoo culture and tattoo design, it became apparent that the use of stippling was common technique used within the industry. The use of lots of small dots to build up and create shade and depth within the design or illustration.

This technique is something I want to use within my own work, as Hungarian artist said "each work has its own gravitational field which irresistibly forces us to zoom in, explore more, discover new aspects within the whole".
The stippling technique adds more interest to the illustration all while positively adding to the design and creating depth and shadow.


http://www.thisiscolossal.com/tags/stippling/

Snake

The second character I wanted to create was the snake, which from Sailor Jerrys' symbolic definitions represents power and the ability to ward off evil and misfortune. Thus I believe the snake is relevant to the connotations of 'togetherness'.

Again, continuing with the same design principle as the shark design I wanted to keep the illustration cartoon like rather than super realistic. 

After playing around with some ideas in the sketchbook I came up with this illustration, I decided to use jungle vines for the frame as a lot of snaked inhabit the jungles throughout the world so it made relevant sense. 

I wasn't really sure with how the snake in the frame turned out, so I wanted to try some other designs and see how they looked. I decided to draw up the snake with a 'B' to symbolise 'better' but I'm not sure how obvious that is or if it needs to be obvious? 

I also implemented this design onto a tshirt to see how it works, again I'm not completely sure if I'm pleased with it, I think the shark design is stronger and works better. Although I want to keep pushing the snake as I would rather have more than one character through the line of work I am creating.

Slogan

For my project, in aid of communicating the message of 'togetherness' I started to realise that maybe these characters wouldn't be strong/obvious enough to promote the message I wish to. So I started playing around with some text to see what I could come up with. I wanted to keep it simple and strong and easy to read, as a consumer.

With the word 'together' I played around with the kerning, pushing the characters of the word closer together, playing off the words own definition.

When choosing the colour of the highlight word there was no particular reason, yet.

I also introduced the snake character to play around with combining the text and the illustration. I think some of the text and designs are quite effective. I want the font to be simple and easy to read straight away which I think you get with these fonts I have been playing with. 

I also implemented these ideas onto phone cases to get a feel of what they could look like as well.

Although this time I used the shark character, I think these designs/layouts work out the best so far from what I have experimented with. My favourite design is the one the far left, a design I will be pushing forward.

Shark

After knowing that I want to now promote an underlying message through my work of 'togetherness' as an indirect response to the current situation the world is in. With the continuous negative news reports of more wars and descriptions throughout the world. 

I still want to continue using tattoo design and culture as my main inspiration for my own work, as it holds a lot of meaning behind some designs which I could push forward into my own. So I looked back on my research into Sailor Jerry to understand further the meanings behind some of his own designs, I wanted to find symbolic designs and representations which could relate to the word and meaning of 'togetherness'. From this quick look back on previous research I found that sharks represent courage and will which could be ideal to use of one of my characters for my campaign designs.

I want to keep my designs cartoon like, rather that hyper real life as I want to use the baby face bias to my advantage in the hopes of my design connecting with the consumer/viewer in a quicker fashion. I also want people to relate to the designs more, which the baby face bias theory suggests they will. 

I gathered some images of shark tattoo designs and also real pictures of great white sharks, I chose to base the design on a great white shark as I feel they are the most commonly known sharks to people thus the viewer will understand the design much quicker. 

All images for mood boards where sourced from google.

I then went about drawing some quick ideas up for the shark design first in my sketchbook then I moved onto illustrator to begin work on creating the digital design. 

After playing around with different styles and designs of the shark character I settled on the design below. 

The reason for the frame surrounding the shark relates back to the inspiration from the flash tattoo designs, as a lot of the flash tattoo designs feature a frame. I think the frame closes of the design nicely and makes it look more finished. I also decided to design the frame with the rope as rope is very symbolic of the sailor life and the ocean in general which obviously relates back to the shark, thus being appropriate to use in this design.

I also used the dotting technique previously used to help create shadow and add dimension to the overall design. I'm very pleased with how this design came out, it's very striking and easy to understand which is what I was aiming for.

Here I have added a little colour to the design, but just to the main focus of the design, being the shark. Even though I added slight shading with the colour I decided to keep the dotting work on the design as I feel it just adds even more depth and without the dotting I think the design would loose some of the impact the dots create.

I also added the banner below the design, which is another influence from the tattoo design. I think it works okay here but I don't think it is something I will continue, as I don't think it is as effective as another technique of promoting text could be. 

I also implemented this design onto a tshirt, just to understand what exactly the design would look like.

I used the displacement feature on photoshop so the design would interact with the tshirt folds in the hopes of making the implemented design look more realistic. 

The first photo is a photo I have taken myself the the photos below where images taken from google.

I think the design works quite well on the tshirt, as it is simple so it is still easy to understand once implemented onto the tshirt.