OUGD505 STUDIO BRIEF TWO - DIGITAL FRONT COVER EXPERIMENTS & RAINFOREST IMAGERY RESEARCH

These are the initial digital experiments for the front cover designs, using the initial sketches inspiration. They had to be explored digitally to see how they would look to scale etc.

Started off by experimenting with different sans serif typefaces for the first considered title. Chose sans serif as it's bold and clean, but also reflects the contemporary side of deforestation, how it's an issue NOW.

Decided to go for the second considered title, as it describes better what the publication is actually about. Chose Soleil sans serif typeface and FreightBig Pro for the serif. These two typefaces work really nicely together, and were discovered when producing the travel brochure for another module. I chose the combination of a serif an sans serif because the sans serif highlights that the issue is a problem today, not in the past or future, however because it's for the government, the serif makes it a little more formal, and also adds a bit of sophistication to the cover as well.

Initial front cover, using a photograph I took but changing it to duotone and adjusting the angles, to give it more of an abstract appearance. The squares at the bottom are in place of charities or organisations logos which are part of this initiative.

Changed the title so the first part was closer tot he left as there was quite a white space there. The text overall was made larger as well so it fits better within the white banners.

Tried it with a different background photograph. Only this on is produced in a dotted half tone to save on ink and also create an interesting effect.

The ground full of trees was used in this experiment, again with the half tones, however it doesn't show the detail I was hoping for, there's not enough contrast.

Final photograph duotoned with half tones as well. This photograph fills the page a lot better as it has a lot of elements and contrast to it.

After looking at the last four examples it was decided that the half tones images don't have the same impact as the regular duotone photograph, and perhaps look too 'trendy'. So the same photographs were applied to the layout again but without the half tone.

 
These photographs work so much better than the half toned ones, you get a much better sense of the depth of the Amazon, and there isn't so much noise.

In the sketches, there was a vector style illustration experiment, so I tried to produce a rough one on Photoshop, however it just looks like camouflage to me. I think some research into vectorised vegetation is needed to produce more relevant imagery.

Rainforest research:

Bit too bright green and fern-y. Shapes are all very regular and rounded and precise. Also has a child-like feeling to it.

Waaaay too many leaves, although these leaves do look more appropriate, and the colours are slightly more toned down.

More of a 'view' image, with more appropriate colours, however includes full trees and actual plants which I want something more abstract.

This has a much more jungle-y feel to it with the colours being like fluorescent and the vines hanging down.

Takes the above design but adapts it into a pillar, which creates perhaps a more realistic design?

Illustration research:

The first series, where leaves have been painted on, could be a great base for the front cover illustration, perhaps using photography instead of illustration. Although this wouldn't be very environmentally friendly, and may also suggest that it's okay to pluck leaves from trees and paint them, which isn't what this guide should promote.

Very delicate but bold illustration, which the colours have a great feeling to them. They are also really simple as well, nothing complicated or overly detailed.

This is a similar style of illustration to the above one, only using one colour instead. It has a much cooler appearance due to the tone of green, which is something I should really consider when producing the illustrations.

This is much more of a rainforest style illustration, with the use of colours and the full depth of the piece as a whole, and the variations of plant species.

This illustration research has been really useful to give me an idea of how other people have drawn the rainforest, and what kind of styles I really like and can apply to my own guide. The next stage will be to hand draw plants and vegetation using different medias to see which gets the best result. Watercolour or inks seem to be the most favoured, as they create a loose and free style.