Gordon's Gin

Pattern and typeface

After  having considered my choice of typeface I have decided to use Futura. I designed a pattern in Illustrator to compliment the Art Deco feel of the label, which I might use as a background to the label on the back of the bottle.

Different version of this pattern could be used for the 4 varieties of Gordon's: Extra Dry, Elderflower, Cucumber and Sloe Gin.

The following are sketches of ideas for the pattern:

I created the pattern in Illustrator. I'm pleased with how the look, and how the type and pattern compliment each other. It works well with gin, as this drink was popular in the 1920's.

Now I need to work out how to combine these elements with the image on the front label.

Photography research in London

Gordon's Gin assignment

I spent a day in London looking for ghost typography, which proved to be very elusive. I also photographed lots of interesting brickwork, some of which I will use in my Gordon's Gin design.

I read about the history of Gordon's Gin on their website, and researched buildings in the Clerkenwell area where the distillery was located. The latest incarnation of the distillery building is still there, but this was a relatively modern building as the previous one was destroyed at the beginning of the 2th century. The building is now one of the largest data centres in the UK.

The first photo is looking east along the Southbank towards the Oxo Tower. I love the colours and greyness of this image, coupled with the red of the building on the left.

The next 3 images of of some ghost typography that I found whilst wandering round Clerkenwell, where the Gordon's Gin distillery was based for over a hundred years. The photo on bottom right is the beautiful Art Deco windows on Tate Modern.

Art Deco buildings really inspired by design, as it conjures up images of when people drank gin and tonic in the roaring 20s.

I wanted to use textures of bricks and concrete to reflect the urban nature of where Gordon's Gin originates.

Photos of brick, tiles and limestone I shot in London.

Art Deco Patterns

Gordon's Gin

I'm considering creating an Art Deco pattern to be used as a background to the text on the rear of the Gordon's Gin bottle, and then perhaps distressing it.

The following are images of Penguin Classics books by F Scot Fitzgerald which are from that era.

I want the pattern to link to the Art Deco lines of the architecture on the front label of my bottle design.

Digital collage

We experimented with a digital collage effect in class. I adapted the concept to my London imagery for Gordon's Gin.

The placement of the typography symbolises smoke coming from the chimneys of Battersea Power Station. I will develop this concept further to see if I can create a useable packaging label for Gordon's.

This concept could be developed for their other gin based products by using different shapes representing different London buildings, and different colour palettes.

The image was produced in Photoshop with various shapes (set to pixel, overlay), overlapping each other. The magic wand was used to select shapes, a layer of texture was selected, then select, inverse, delete. This filled each shape with the texture. A layer of handwritten text was added over the whole image and then I placed a stormy sky underneath everything. Each of the layers were adjusted for colour, opacity, levels, etc.

This works better as the text has room to breathe, and is not fighting with the imagery underneath. The typeface is Gill Sans, but has been stretched. I need to look at something more geometric that reflects the Art Deco architecture of the Oxo Tower and Battersea Power Station. The sky contrasts better with the buildings as it has been desaturated.

Presentation and Annotated Bibliography Brief

Marimekko

I decided to base my presentation for Contextual Studies on the Finnish company Marimekko, who, for the last 60 years have been famous for their printed designs produced for fashion and homewares.

Their most famous print, still in production after 50 years, is Unikko:

This print has been used on everything from clothing,  to dinner plates, to tube train interiors, to airplanes.

I want to research what makes the company and their designs so enduring, in this fast fashion world that we now live in. What it is about the ethics of this company that makes it so successful? How does this fit in with the broader Scandinavian ethos to work and design equality?

I really want to find out more about Marimekko's patterns as I have discovered that I have developed a strong interest in surface pattern design.

Surface pattern design

Fabric samples

I received my 20cm square printed swatches back from wovenmonkey.com today. I'm really pleased with how the pattern translated to actual fabric.  I like the fact that the ink roller texture shows really well on the larger motifs, but is still evident on the medium sized ones too. The best texture is cotton drill, which has a slightly ribbed effect. I think I will stick with a grey and white palette, but go for the largest pattern as the design is for a hanging panel in a window display. I will use the smaller motifs on other items in the window display.

Gordon's Gin experiments

Some further ideas I have been experimenting with for the drinks packaging assignment:

This woodcut style sketch incorporates the Oxo Tower, The National Gallery and Battersea Power Station. I tried to do an Art Deco style sky, but  it was too dominant, and I'm not happy with how it turned out.

I used photography layered in Photoshop to create grungy effects, reflecting the industrial heritage of the drink, and updating the brand to appeal to a younger consumer. This image gives a leather like effect which would work well with the clear glass bottle, and looks quite subtle and interesting.

The effect below is much lighter and brighter but still retains the texture and image, but looks more summery, and the imagery is much clearer.

PressPausePlay

The digital media age

We watched the documentary PressPausePlay, and I chose to answer the question (with a focus on graphic design): 

How has new technology democratised media? What possibilities and problems are posed by this democratisation?

The advent of cheap and readily available equipment, whatever field your ambitions lie in (i.e. a PC, software and relevant digital equipment - recording, photography, design, etc) has enabled everyone to "have a go". The explosion of the internet and the ability to share whatever you have created immediately has caused a deluge of work to flood the internet, via YouTube and social media. With the plethora out there, it can be hard to break through all the noise and get noticed. However, potentially your work can reach a much larger audience than would have been possible before. If you work the system well and learn the skills of internet networking, you can achieve a huge following. 

Creatives no longer need to get a record deal and a publisher, they have the ability to produce their own music and upload it for anyone browsing, or who subscribes to their blog, Twitter feed, YouTube channel etc, to view it.

Before equipment became so affordable, only professionals would have access to the relevant tools. Only graphic designers would own the equipment necessary and have the skills to create good work. Now anyone can access software relatively cheaply, or even a pirated copy for free. Lessons are viewable online and work can be uploaded to Behance, for instant feedback from the design community. Everyone now thinks they can be a graphic designer. Now YouTube can teach you anything you want to learn, there is no mystery to the profession. 

A graphic designer no longer needs an agent or to work for an agency. Work can be sought on line, or those commissioning work can find designers from their online portfolio or other online presence. The internet has meant that designers can work from home, for a company located the other end of the country, or the opposite side of the world. They can create their own brand and manage their own time. It is possible to publish your work and get a commission or employment immediately now.  It is also very easy to share work and collaborate with anyone, no matter where they are. Software now does it all. It speeds up workflow, meaning jobs can be accomplished in a fraction of the time. Sharing digitally means there is no waiting for the post to arrive, and responses and feedback are immediate. 

More people can now express themselves creatively than ever before, meaning that this way of relaxing, creating and calming has benefitted an enormous amount of people. Younger people can now teach themselves and skills are not necessarily acquired by only those who have served their time and worked their way up the ranks. Producing work that is available to all is not now the preserve of the educated white middle classes who had the opportunities of privilege and education. Work is produced by younger people for their contemporaries, not by people who "think" they know what that generation responds to. Money isn't needed to get your work seen, only Internet savvy and good social media skills. 

However, not everyone has talent, the internet phenomena of a particular kind of celebrity means that recognition goes to those with the most clicks, likes, or fans. Some might say that we are drowning in a sea of mediocrity and that this dumbed down level will become the new norm - are we entering a new dark age of creativity?

For those people that were successful before digitalisation, would they now have been noticed? Would their work be so good, now that computer skills are so relevant? How would their work have got noticed through the noise? The computer can create work that only those with experience and skills could have done before. By downloading templates, photography, and a watching quick YouTube lesson those with basic skills can accomplish a high standard of work, without any creative skills themselves. 

One person can now perform many functions - photographer, illustrator, typographer, and graphic designer meaning that person's vision and ideas do not get watered down. Their vision remains evident in the final work. 

It is now just as important to be taught the skills of ideation and communicating, of team working and self promotion, and of adapting to change, as it is to learn the fundamentals of design. Creativity is more important now than the knowledge of craft. Technology changes so quickly that those skills soon become obsolete. 

Purely digital work can be seen as soulless, too perfect and without character. Some designers work with both physical media and digital, combining them to achieve something more personal. Print making is popular because every piece is individual. Buyers want to see evidence of the craft, and they want something just a little bit unique. 

People consume digitally with much less focus - click click click through the Pinterest wormhole while watching TV or eating a meal. Everyone is more distracted and less able to focus. We live in a world where we can't truly relax and unplug ourselves. Everyone wants to be fed snippets of information or imagery, for 2 seconds before moving on. Have we become unable to concentrate?

You don't just have to be a good graphic designer now, you have to be a good marketeer. You need to understand how to make social media work for you. You must embrace it and utilise it, making contacts and gaining a following. Digital content can be given away for free in self-promotion.

Art is no longer elitist, it is truly democratised. The visions of William Morris and the Bauhaus have been realised, in a format that they could never have imagined. As the documentary stated, for most of us "this is the best shot you'll ever get".

Packaging function

What is packaging for?

To protect the product from damage and contamination
To identify with name, brand, description
To contain the product and keep it together
To inform - price, ingredients, safety information
To sell - a marketing tool

Other things to consider are ergonomics and sustainable design.

Surface design is the flat design which goes on the packaging.

Thumbnails for additional packaging for Gordon's Gin:

My two ideas were:
1. Create a foldable chopping board which wraps around the bottle to chop up your lemons with. A knife could hold the board shut around the bottle.
2. Two leather coasters attached the the front of the bottle. The protection only would need to be on one face as when packed together, the front of one bottle would protect the back of the next one.

Gordon's Gin assignment

A collections of London imagery to use for my label design:
The London Eye, The Southbank Centre, Battersea Power Station and the Walkie-Talkie building, representing recent history and modern day architecture.

Art Deco and Bauhaus – similarities and differences

When?

Art Deco: 1919-1929 (Black Tuesday and the Great Depression)

Bauhaus (means ”building house”): 1919-1933 (build up to WW2)

Why?

Art Deco: WW1 ended Art Nouveau – after the war the world had changed. Women had been freed from a life of oppression – they filled the jobs that men at war had vacated and their lives, and of the men, would change forever. They were no longer subservient, they had rights – to work, to vote, to wear what they wanted and be who they wanted. Prudish Victorian values had gone. There was optimism for the future, there would never be another “war to end all wars”. The golden age of Hollywood and screen icons drove consumer culture. The printing press made it easy to produce print which meant there was lots of ad space to sell. Everyone had leisure time.

Bauhaus: Walter Gropius (the founder of Bauhaus) wanted good design for everyone, not the wealthy elite few.

Where:

Art Deco: It was embraced across the world, but particularly in the US.

Bauhaus:

Who?

Art Deco:

Bauhaus: Was a school of art and design in Weimar, Germany. Founded by Walter Gropius, he appointed artists as teachers – Paul Klee, Vassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer and Gunta Stoltz. This was the invention of the modern art school, not for the wealthy, but for all.  The town hated the “long haired radical art students”. The school was totally inclusive, men and women attended. In the first 6 months they studied foundation subjects of form and materials. Then they studied how to use every material in workshops, and studied tools, space, colour, construction, etc, before specialising and working on architectural projects.  Many women applied and specialised in weaving (not through choice!).

Ethos?

Art Deco: Luxury for everyone, embrace the new, only looking to the future and to reinvigorate commercialism. It was all about the image of youth and optimism. Desirable but achievable, project an image of well traveled, exotic, wealthy. 

Bauhaus: Affordable design for the masses. Embracing mass production. Honesty of design and materials. Form follows function. Clean lines. Design through collaboration.  Elevate status of craftsmen. This was about a new future, embracing the machine age, the modern and new, but with an honesty and integrity. Everything was designed, manufactured and showcased in their workshops.

What?

Art Deco: fashion, art, painting, film (eg Batman), sculpture, graphic design. Very geometric designs, luxurious materials, zig zags, steps, guilding, precious and semi precious materials, plastic to fake jewels. Imagery of skyscrapers, ocean liners, travel. with bold colours, symmetry, sunbursts, geometric lines. Broad range of products and no unified look – individual elements of the style may be incorporated on their own.  Everything became stylized, even day to day objects. Suntans became fashionable.

Bauhaus: Very specific look. Architecture, furniture, posters, textiles, typography. Geometric and simple. Red, yellow and blue, circles, squares and triangles. Wood was replaced by metal, inspired by cars and planes. They built a housing estate in the town – affordable, modern prefabs.

How?

Art Deco: influenced by international travel, archeological finds, Egyptians, Aztec, Mexican, Japanese and Chinese art.

Bauhaus: influenced by Modernism, Art Deco and Deutscher Werkbund (utility).

The end

Art Deco: Ended with the Great Depression. The end spread slowly, with the end of optimism. People were starving in America, and it was seen as gaudy and in poor taste. Artists were bored of it. Art Deco was dead when WW2 began.

Bauhaus: At the end of WW1 the Treaty of Versailles meant Germany was bankrupt, the reneged on their debt, hyperinflation was a fact of life and there was social unrest. The monarchy was overthrown. Bauhaus was a much a socialist movement as anything else and the Nazis dissolved the Bauhaus because of their communist politics. It was seen as cosmopolitan, Jewish loving and Bolshevik.

Legacy

Art Deco: When countries are feeling rich and people are optimistic, opulence is back in fashion – with a booming stock market in the 1980s bad taste was back in. Using plastics to imitate rare stones continues today.  The desexualisation of the “flapper girl” has disappeared and younger and younger girls are being sexualised now because of exposure to internet images. After the WW1 women may have thought they would finally become equal, but this is still not the case today. Advertising perpetuates the image of women being only valued for sex.

Bauhaus: Teachers and students of the Bauhaus spread throughout the world – their mark is clearly seen on Chicago where many of them emigrated to. The New Typography, and the popularity of sans serifs.

With austerity in the West, there is a backlash against overt displays of wealth now, and people are returning to desiring well made, individual products that outlast trashy throw away goods. The middle classes are willing to pay more for things with these attributes. German design is still perceived as solid, reliable, if unexciting construction. German cars – VW, BMW, Mercedes, are the epitome of this, along with German electrical goods.

The advent of the advertising agency in the 20s and 30s lives on, and graphic design has taken hold. The idea of beauty and youth being the ideals is perpetuated by ads.

Modernism came out of both Art Deco and Bauhaus….

Gordon's Gin development

Some ideas

After doing the woodcut illustration, and being quite pleased with how it came out, I think I will use this method to produce an illustration for Gordon's Gin. I want to include imagery of London such as the Southbank Centre (for it's Brutalist silhouette), perhaps the Gherkin, and another iconic building, but not a tourist attraction (I'm thinking about this one). I'll use the overlaying technique to give the work character and age it, and maybe use concrete, bricks, water, perhaps overlaying different parts of the image with different textures (or maybe not).

Woodcut art and design

We looked at the images produced by woodcut artists in today's lecture. The image is carved in a block of wood and used for relief printing. This was most common way to produce artwork for print during the time of the Guttenburg press.

Vincent Van Gogh produced many woodcuts, and it was a popular way to experiment.

The first two images below were by Paul Bloomer and Maurice De Vlaminck. Although the first image is very naive, I prefer its simplicity. I particularly like the way the sun is depicted with circular carving lines around it. Reduction carving of woodcuts can produce omplex multicoloured images, by taking a print from the first cariving, then carving out the parts you want to remain in that colour, taking another print and so on. Because there is no going back, it is also know as suicide printing. Angie Lewin, a printmaker who produces such work, made the third print from woodcut, below.



Woodcut style illustration

In class we had a go a designing a beer pump clip in a woodcut illustration style.

First we drew a black and white line drawing which was then filled in with different marks and lines, representing movement and texture.

In Photoshop the contrast and brightness were increased. Layers of textures were added - I chose a concrete texture and pebbledash. The layers were set to multiply, but others work too. Fonts were added and rasterised (Layer, Rasterize Type), and everything was aged with a brush (splattered shape), to tone everything down and chop bits out. A layer of creased black paper was added (use Multiply) and only the white creases show.

The pen tool was then used (I didn't have time to do this), to create the shape of the label and cut it out. Then path was converted to a selection.

Another option was to convert the image to greyscale, then monotone.

My other option which probably looks better on screen that if it were printed:

Surface pattern design

Fabric design

For a shop visual merchandising project I am creating 4 elements, one of which is a fabric panel. The fabric can also be used for furoshiki (fabric wrapping) and making a Japanese inspired origami bag. I designed lots of fabric tiles within an orange and teal colour scheme, below. I think the orange ones are more successful, and the first couple in the teal panel are the least (these are the first ones I created).

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was prevalent from 1890-1914 and developed from Arts and Crafts to focus on looking forward with excitement and optimism, and as the first truly modern style which did not rely on the past for its influences.

Works included female figures with long flowing hair, and flowing sensual lines. It feature the natural world with flowers and buds. Female nudes feature heavily and in a sexualised way for the first time. Influences were from outside the UK - worldwide communication was becoming easier and shrinking the world, and Japanese influences, brought to the UK by Liberties of London, were introduced to the masses. As well as Japanese influences, the earlier Arts and Crafts, also featured. Gustav Klimt, Lautrec, Munch, Beardsley, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Horta, Lalique, Mucha, Behrens and Gaudi all worked in the Art Nouveau style. Art Nouveau work included jewellery, painting, print design, and architecture. Advertising and marketing was becoming more popular as commercialism expanded. It spread across the world and was embraced by the Americans (the east coast, mid-west, and California) as it embodied their whole forward thinking modern culture. They had a much more commercial approach and were materialists. They did not have the socialist ethical views of their English counterparts.

Art Nouveau work was very diverse and the artists were prolific producing work in many disciplines.

Mackintosh worked with stylised florals, stained glass and furniture, and his work often featured heavily stylised females in soft muted colours. He was a member of the Glasgow School and produced this piece for The Scottish Musical Review. He worked with his wife and 2 others as the Glasgow Four who were very influential in the movement (Eskilsson, 2012).

Beardsley worked with high contrast black and white imagery, nudes, sweeping curves, metaphorical images and myth, and was heavily influenced by the Japanese style. He worked primarily in woodcut. This is The Dancer's Reward.

Gustav Klimt's work was very different - opulent, sensual and passionate. The work on the left is The Kiss.

Toulouse-Lautrec was an artist and graphic designer focused on poster design. Moulin Rouge: Le Goulue. He was renown for his advertising and marketing work with designs such as Le Chat Noir.




















Unlike Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau embraced mass production and new technology, and reflected that in its designs with swooping lines and whiplash curves. Mostly the work was in flat colours (sometimes with texture, but not with depth), with solid outlines and often included flowers, buds and seeds. They liked pre-raphaelite nudes with long flowing hair, exotic woods, opulent glass, and silver and semi-precious stones

Consumers of these products could present themselves as wealthy and well travelled, as reflected in the subjects and influences of the works.

The Paris Metro signs were designed by Hector Guimard. Hill House in Helensburgh near Glasgow was an example of the architecture, along with the Glasgow School of Art and the V&A have a huge collection of their art. Art Nouveau artists were prolific and produced varied bodies of work - Mackintosh produced furniture, glass, print and paintings.

Artists such as Monet, Gaugin, Van Gogh, Ensor, Munch and Lautrec where influenced by Art Nouveau.

Arts and Crafts

The Arts and Crafts movement took place in the UK in 1860 until 1910, when it evolved into Art Nouveau. It was a socialist and design movement, and the first style to incorporate design and art, and not just focus on art.

John Ruskin and Williams Morris were the main proponents of Arts and Crafts. Ruskin was primarily concerned with the social and theoretical aspects of Arts and Crafts and was not an artist or designer and an idealised view of the life of medieval craftsmen. Morris was a designer, a poet and an architect who also commissioned others to design work.

Ruskin and Morris focused on the plight of the lives of those working in the factories in the "dark Satanic mills" (Eskilson, 2012) . They wanted to improve the quality and artistic merit of utilitarian objects, and by also focusing on the social aspect of the craftspeople, they could improve the lives of their countrymen in both ways. Williams Morris said "have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

It was a rebellion against the dawning of the industrial age in Britain, where commercialism was at the fore. Morris saw that workers were being exploited to produce cheap mass produced goods, and wanted to his idealised version of the past. This was the naive idea of someone who considered that factory workers had a much better life in rural communities before industrialisation, and he came from a wealthy family himself (Eskilsson, 2012). Morris wanted to produced functional objects that were pleasing to use. However, with handcrafted items, there was an increased cost associated with them, which meant the products were out of the reach of the people Morris wanted them to be for. This was something that troubled Morris but there was little he could do about it. The people who bought his products did not understand that wanting to return to a simpler time, when workers lived in the green and pleasant land, was actually a very idealised view of the working classes. Those who bought these products had little insight in the lives of workers, and whether what would make their lives better or worse, as they were so far removed from the manufacturing classes. In fact there lives had always been hard before and after the industrial revolution.

It was primarily a British movement, but had a global impact, spreading to the US and becoming popular from 1890-1916. The American constitution and politics meant that they didn't have the same scruples about poor working conditions as the (slightly) more socialist Britain.

Arts and Crafts was strongly influenced by Mediaeval and Gothic design. Its imagery was plant based, and of stylised florals, and mostly in muted colours. The block repeats were organic and integrated, compared the more gappy ones from their competitors, who also used the newly invented chemical dyes. They only produced function items, and not art or paintings for display. It was a design movement, not art. Examples of their products included stained glass, furniture, wallpaper, and architecture. He owned Kelmscott Press, making books and designing type.

The Arts and Crafts exhibition of 1888 cited itself as being "for the homes of simple and gentle folk". The Art Workers Guild wanted to raise the standards of decorative arts and the craftsmen, and they wanted to work with the commercial word. The products were designed and made in cities, for city dwellers.

In 1993, Morris was critisized as being "the work of a few, for the few", which was something that Morris was never able to overcome.

This movement has much in common with today - a desire to look back to traditional methods of the past, when the world around us is changing at an exponential rate. We now see the rise of websites such as Etsy, Folksy, Not on the High Street, etc, who champion the handmade and the individual, just like Ruskin and Morris. Sections of modern day British society put high values on unique handcrafted items and are willing to pay for them, and the availability of such products is huge. There has been a huge backlash from the public against companies who have been found to exploit there workers, and there in an increase in wanting to understand the provenance of the products we consume - whether they are food, clothing, electronics, or any other products. The the idea of social utility of good design is also relevant to graphic design today.

Eskilson, S (2012) Graphic Design A History.

Gordon's Gin research

Ghost typography

I have found some imagery of ghost typography on the internet. I am considering using this style of photography/illustration for my bottle packaging. I have taken photos previously, around London, of ghost typography, although I didn't know what it was called!

These are images from Google:

These are some images of peeling paint and other textures, found on Google, that I may incorporate into my design.  

I'm thinking that I might use film to photograph interesting textures, around the Southwark and Clerkenwell areas of London where the distillery was originally located. I will redesign the logo as the script style of font does not reflect the style I want to create. I want the product to reflect it's historical provenance, but also to be more modern and edgy.  I plan to hand drawn the typography to go on the label. 

Some examples of hand drawn typography I have created, based on letterpress type, that I may use:

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition, in this context, is the idea of creating an image which challenges the word being represented. The imagery and text must have opposing and supporting connotations, depending on your viewpoint.

For the first poster, for the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition on beauty, entitled Ugly, I chose to use a picture of a beautiful woman, with underarm hair, as many people in western society would find this unattractive and even repulsive. However, in some cultures, and certainly in recent British history, it was considered attractive. The image represents the ambiguous nature of beauty and ugliness.

The image below is of artist and sculpturer, Alison Lapper. She stands out because she was not afraid to portray her disability, and an installation piece of her was exhibited in Trafalgar Square. To some people a naked person with a disability might not be typically beautiful, however, the poster tries to illustrate that beauty means different things to different people, through a controversial piece.