Developing on the tests I carried out earlier in the week, I have produced 3 final responses to the brief. Working to the adjustments I suggested in my previous reflections, I have made relevant alterations and also applied this practice to another of my designs.
GIVE FLOWERS
I am really pleased with the refinements I have made to the tests, particularly within the flowers sticker. By making a minor adjustment to the scale of the central image, the design just makes much better use of the picture area and has so much more impact. Simultaneously, the adjustments to the text have also worked to further enhance the composition of the sticker by framing the central image. Re-phrasing the text to 'Give flowers, spread smiles' seems to suit the brief much more, encouraging an act of kindness by revealing the impact of that act. While 'give flowers' was direct and relevant to the imagery, I feel the new phrasing has helped the imagery to gain more meaning and becomes less generic in that way.
WEAR JAZZY SOCKS
Considering the reflections made on my test version of this sticker, I have enhanced the sense of action created by the marks around the feet, simply by using the stroke adjustment on illustrator to achieve a bolder sense of movement and direction. I also adjusted the tone of orange as I felt the previous choice was too red and a little clashing with the blue tone. The new, warmer orange, seems to better compliment the overall design and in it's warmth and brighter tone, seems to echo the tone of voice of the design more appropriately.
I am particularly pleased with this sticker as I feel I have been able to translate my existing drawing aesthetic into vectors with a good level of consistency. This seems to demonstrate that vectors can be used to create soft and playful imagery as well as the angular and rigid forms commonly seen in vector based work. I feel the consideration of the rule of thirds has worked effectively within this design to allow the face to attain focus but also direct some importance towards the text. This is also supported by the line of sight created by the gestural lines.
Within both the 'shine bright' and 'give flowers' designs, I feel that the use of blending modes has benefited the designs by achieving a third tone. Not only does this work to add visual interest, it also achieves an aesthetic parallel with a screen-print outcome, maintaining tropes of an analogue approach.
PEER FEEDBACK
From a group crit on our final outcomes, I received some good comments. Many of my peers complimented the use of overlays, suggesting that this enhanced the effect of the simple shapes. The colour palettes were also praised for being enhanced by opacity and blending modes. I received positive feedback on the level of reduction I had achieved with my shapes, however, it was suggested that the tapered lines could have been enhanced more to compliment the formality of the imagery.
On the ideas side of things, my peers pointed out the playful sentiment in my imagery as being successful and supported well by the text, in particular within the sock sticker as they said the sense of action tied together the text and image with a dancing narrative.
REFLECTION ON BRIEF
With the brief asking us to work with reduced forms in illustrator, I have identified some advantages and disadvantages of the programme and the brief.
Illustrator is good for encouraging you to work with reduced information, considering the most basic forms to achieve sleek, simplistic illustrations. The brief therefore encouraged us to consider how we can communicate narratives through simplified visual clues. Illustrator is also beneficial in it's use of vectors as images are easily transferable across varying sized outlets.
Alternatively, I did find it difficult to communicate more complex shapes as it is difficult to follow multiple paths and shapes as Illustrator seems to work with lots of separate components. I found that shapes and paths were wrestling with each other meaning that new anchors always wanted to default to existing paths. This made it difficult to work with overlapping shapes as I was not entirely in control of the path of these shapes.
I would say that the complexity of illustrator made me feel like I wasn't competent enough with all stages of the process and so I relied heavily on trail and error for some elements.
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