OUGD406 STUDIO BRIEF 1 - DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGNS

Following on from the feedback I received in my interim critiques, I developed a few of my preferred designs.

The brain:

I filled the eye back in with full colour again, only this time I removed the outlines of the brain. This really emphasises the colour of the brain in this design, and without the outline around the parts of the brain the outline around the eye itself stands out more, with the brain appearing as part of the eye rather than separate.

I put a slight weight on the outlines to make them appear slightly outlines but not as dark as previously.

I increased the outline weight again slightly, as I thought it was too slim before so it looked slightly grey rather than black, and also lessened the round appearance of the brain too. This creates a rounded effect of the brain but also allows the eye itself to stand out, and the colours of the brain too.

I tried a light turquoise colour as I thought this worked really nicely previously, and the grey was appearing a little dull the more I worked on it. The turquoise of the background highlights the pink of the brain, and without the black outlines the whole design stands out as being a more more colourful and cheerful, although still with the eye standing out being a creepy.

I removed the outline around the eye as I thought it stood out as being a little too black and dark in comparison to the rest of the design.

I changed the background to more of a blue colour to reflect the colour of the sky slightly more, as if the eye is looking out to the world, and I prefer this coloured background as it reflects more of an actual scene rather than colours that just go together and look nice.

Here I went back to the half colour half black and white design, only this time removed the outlines from all of the brain and made the black and white side out of different shades of grey. To do this though I first made the whole brain pink, and then dragged the colour picker from the pink colour directly horizontal to a grey shade, so the grey was the same shade as the pink was. I thought this would help make the different colours on the sides if the brain appear more balanced. I also decided to go back to the half colour brain and this time make it grey because I thought this could reflect the brain becoming mechanical and robotic, as everything becomes more digitalised, especially with the lyrics to do with not sleeping, as humans need sleep to survive.

The lightbulb:

I went back to the non gradient design, as I thought I was overcomplicating my design with the gradient, especially as the St. Vincent music video is very simple. I also added a blue background, again for the same reason as for the brain eye, as if the eye is looking out at the world. I feel that the outlines however look a little bold and dark against the light yellow and blue of the design, and also because of the lower opacity on the lightbulb, which was how I created this shade of yellow, the lightbulb outline itself is grey, which doesn't really fit in with the rest of the outlines.

I removed the outline from around the lightbulb, and also from the rings too, as I thought that this was the main problem, that the lightbulb outline was a different colour to all the rest due to it's opacity change, however now I feel that the eye outline stands out as it is the only black thing left on the page except for the curls.

I removed the eye black outline, and I feel this works a lot better. The whole design has a continuous appearance, and the colours are all of similar shades so non really stand out massively.

I tried a grey shade, as I thought this may help the lightbulb itself stand out a little more, especially the yellow, and I feel that it does make the lightbulb look more glowing, however the grey does look a little dull being neutral.

I experimented with colours that you'd never expect to use, such as the pink for the lightbulb and green for the background, as from past experimentations I know that pink and green compliment one another very nicely. I do think that the pink looks a little too shocking and bright however, especially compared to previous colour-ways.

I tried a blue colour for the lightbulb this time, to better fit in with colour of the background, and this colour combination works a lot better together, and is more subtle, however the lightbulb is too dark, it doesn't look glowing at all.

I used a blue background rather than a green, to make the whole design have a continuous colour theme to it, rather than using random colours. I think this design definitely looks more organised and put together now by using different shades of one colour, however the lightbulb is still too dark.

I created the lightbulb a much lighter blue to make it look glowing and I feel this works a lot better. The lightbulb no longer looks dull and switched off, it looks lit up and illuminated, which is the appearance I was aiming for. My only issue with this design is that the curls look quite dark, but instead should be a similar shade to the lightbulb itself as this is the element which glows lighting up the lightbulb.

I made the curls a lighter colour, to make them look like they are lit up, and I feel I have produced a very effective design now at this point. The lightbulb looks as if it is illuminated and bright, and appears clearly as a pupil within an eye. The background also reflects the sky, as if the eye is looking out at the world.

Teeth:

In my interim critiques it was suggested I experimented with black and white designs, so I thought my teeth design was the mot appropriate design to try this out on. I chose this design over other teeth ones as I thought this one represented a jaw, and the positioning of teeth within the mouth more accurately, rather than teeth just flying everywhere. I also thought this design looked the least forced, the most natural, which I think is important in a design, for it to look effortless. To create the shades of grey, I used the original colours for this design, then dragged the colour selection dot exactly horizontal, so the shade of grey was the same shade as the colour. This is the same thing I did when changing one side of the brain grey. I think the black and white colour palette makes this design appear a little more dark and gloomy, which although reflects the mixed emotions in the track, it doesn't reflect the colours used in the music video, which was what I am basing my designs off.

I tried to tone down the colours in the teeth, to make them appear not as bright as they initially were, but not grey either, almost a middle ground. By dulling down the colours, this has made them appear a lot more pastel coloured, which has created quite a feminine appearance, especially with the use of pink and purple colours. I also chose to only use 4 different colours int his design, rather than the large amount I used in the original design, as I thought this would help to simplify the colours of the design more. After this experimentation I think that the original colour palette works the best, as it is bold and not feminine at all, and reflects the mood of the track and music video nicely.

After this development of a few of my preferred designs, I have came to the conclusion that the brain and lightbulb eye designs work the best at conveying an accurate message which can be understood, and is easily recognised in the designs as well. However this message is not too obvious so that the message is staring you in the face, there is still some mystery in the designs. I will present these two designs in the final critique to see which design my peers thinks works the best, to choose for my final outcome for this brief. For Secret 7 though, I think I will submit all 3 designs, as I feel they all have a chance of winning.