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MUST SEE OFF THE BEATEN TRACK | Travel Blog Video

Gorillatrip.wordpress.com is delighted to bring you the best truly off-the-beaten-track experiences from around the world. Feeding the hyenas in Ethiopia, taking a local boat to the most remote islands in Indonesia, snorkelling and scuba diving with mantas and whale sharks, marvelling at the ancient monasteries high up on the Ethiopian mountains, meeting the orangutans and the gorillas in their natural habitats in Sumatra and Uganda, admiring the dramatic landscapes of Venezuela and Iran and so much more We have personally researched and crafted the itineraries to all our off-the-beaten-track destinations, offering unique insights into the people, culture, history, gastronomy of each destination. Please contact us for free information and advice. We will gladly advise you on tried and tested fantastic, unusual accommodation for all pockets ranging from traditional beach bamboo bungalows to ancient monasteries and glass igloos. If you've enjoyed this video do consider subscribing to my travel blog gorillatrip.wordpress.com to discover more travel experiences. 

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Text Effect by Hongkiat Lim

Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/80-best-photoshop-text-effects-tutorials-part-iii/

While playing on text effect for my movie poster, I came across these good tutorials for Photoshop.

Text effect is one of the most frequently used techniques in graphic designing and in Photoshop.

I liked these four because they evoke sensations, the water drop effect made me thirsty when I saw it, while the fire effect  made me feel warm and think of danger. I could feel the form, admired the curves and they connected me with the flow.

You really can create some awesome effects to communicate with your audience and deliver your message!

Typography is an art just like any other. 

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Movie posters by Pixar. 

Source: https://id.pinterest.com/tjokrosaputro/pixar-movie-posters/

I’m a big fan of Pixar movies. Design and creativity play a key role here.

An interesting fact related to Inside Out is the association of each colour with personality. 

The director decided to make a film that would show his daughter life at school and home while illustrating the cancer inside her brain, especially her emotions: Joy, Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger. 

So Joy is a sparky yellow. Sadness is a shy blue bookworm. Disgust is an irritable green,  when you see green food it kind of indicates it's gone bad. Fear is a purple naïve. Anger is a squat trapezoidal hunk. 

I really like the fact they have used strong colours to design the emotion characters because they’re easily recognisable and they look good all together.

80% of what you see is retained by the eye.

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British Academy Film Awards by Levante Szabó.

Source: https://www.behance.net/

These two movie posters were created by artist Levente Szabó. I came across the author while researching for movie poster ideas.

I love the result, drama and suspense created by the artist combining two exposures in one image to obtain an evocative effect. Masking is one of the most used effects used in filmography.

You really can create some mind blowing magic by applying a mask to a specific part of your image and by playing with colours!

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Twilight Together by Ruth Medjber. Street Poster.

Ruth is a photographer from Drumcondra, she spent lockdown photographing people all across Ireland at their front window (150 in total) at twilight, each with their own story to tell.

Her work caught my eye as it’s visually appealing and deeply moving, she has photographed moments of people, expressing the sense of coming together, of a community spirit, of small gestures and above all boundless creativity. 

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Billboard in Camden Street by Coca Cola

Christmassy billboard on Camden Street, very catchy and recognisable. 

I could see it was from Coca Cola from far away as they have created their own visual language, culture, and iconography. Coca Cola makes a great job in terms of brand awareness and identity thanks to the consistency through their marketing campaigns.

Each and every Coca-cola ad creates branding awareness and identity, they never fail to create stories that focus on the individual, keeping real their philosophy of happiness and sharing.

PS: the shoot isn’t great, it was too high on the wall but still gives the idea :)

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Irish Christmas Guinness TV Ad 2019.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-8rlnJwEd8

As we’re approaching Christmas I couldn’t resist from sharing the best Christmas clip from Guinness from 2019: simply magical!

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Creativity colour yourself CALM  by Paul Heussenstamm

Source: Book “Mandalas”.

Mandalas are an ancient form of meditative art. It’s a design that draws the attention towards its centre, which focuses your mind on the present moment and opens up your heart.

The geometric designs are relaxing because the different elements are well balanced with a great symbolism from Hindu or Buddhist cultures. 

When colouring, they tend to use the same colours for any repeating pattern. This ensures the design remains balanced, symmetrical and more satisfying to the eye. 

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Guinness Logo Evolution from 1862 till today.

Guinness Logo. Source: https://www.guinness.com/en-ie/

Logo is the soul of a brand and I’m crazy about Guinness brand and logo.

The harp representing the emblem of Guinness is not just a picture, the elegant  golden harp is a symbol, it constitutes the brand philosophy and the business core value.

The very first logo for Guinness was created in 1862 and featured a monochrome badge with a double oval outline where the ornate wordmark in two different styles was placed. The harp was put in the upper part of the emblem, surrounded by cursive lettering. 

In 1955 the Guinness logo was simplified to a detailed monochrome harp on a plain white background without any lettering.

In 2005, the color palette was introduced. The golden harp was placed on a black background, above the white inscription. The first letter was enlarged in comparison to others, which adds style to it. 

2016 brought a three-dimensional emblem to the Guinness visual personality, making the surface gradient and its texture metallic.  A far-sharper looking harp and the white inscription gained a new typeface serifs, which looked a bit old-style yet extremely sophisticated.

Let’s raise our glasses to Guinness!

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Peter Lik photography. Enchanted Heart and Seeking Silence⁣⁣. 

Source:https://www.instagram.com/peterlik

I came across Peter Lik photography in one of the labs for Visual Communication and I simply had to find out more about this artist.

Peter Lik is best known for his nature and panoramic landscape images and for his photograph called "Phantom" which was sold to a private collector for 6.5 million dollars. 

I genuinely admire his art because he knows how to capture magical moments and the power of Mother nature in his epic shots. 

Empire Rising. Source:https://www.instagram.com/peterlik

In Empire Rising the angle and the reflected light on the building is captured in a exact special moment.

Most of his photos are colorful and vibrant, he plays with the saturation of colours making any image intense and captivating!  

The images sometimes seem too good to be real like Moonlit Dreams.

Moonlit Dream. Source: https://www.instagram.com/peterlik

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Stoneybatter Graffiti, expression of visual art.

Dublin is a great city if you are into street art and graffiti - I often lose myself taking snaps of any kind of visual art expressions. 

While I was walking through the neighbourhood of  Stoneybatter, this graffiti caught my attention because of the vibrant and joyful gradient colour play. From fun and cheerful orange and bright yellow, the most luminous colour of the spectrum, symbol of sunshine and optimism to calming, love inspiring shades of pink.

I really like the font used in it, Virna (as per WhatTheFont) and the overall linear design, bubbly and eye-catching. Even though the day was misty and moisty, it did put me in a good mood because it evoked pleasant memories from summer days spent with friends in Stoneybatter. Looking at it, I soon realised that the artist was communicating to me on many different levels and what the graffiti was really telling me was:

Come to Stoneybatter, it is a friendly and inviting place with shiny happy people and memorable moments!

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25 typographic advertisements by Canva.

While browsing for typeface design inspiration, I came across an interesting article from Canva about the most common typeface used in web designing for advertising.

Typography is very effective and communicative, you can express a feeling or an emotion, a dream, an action, or a music genre like for our Visual Communication assignment.

The type can play a central role within the page and really contributes to the overall feel of an ad. Some fonts can connect you to a past travel experience for example by using a floral pattern in Asian culture. Or you can play with letters and three-dimensional shadowing which allows them to stand out like in this coca cola ad here.

Sunset Road typeface for example reminds me of the country music.

Gothic Font really rocks, I associate it to Heavy Metal music.

While Groovy Retro font like the one below works really well with 70′s music. 

There are some interesting ways to use type to express an ideas or a message, you can play with font and size, adjusting the space between individual letters,  capitalization, colour and gradients, shades and contrast, blurring effects.

Surely the most important decision in setting an appropriate tone, is choosing a typeface or font since font same as color affects us emotionally and visually.

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Guinness by Pinterest

Source: https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/426505027182124534/

As a passionate Guinness lover and follower of Diageo, I couldn’t resist from sharing these beautiful Halloween advertising works found on Pinterest - they’re creative, elegant, catchy, funny and “dead scary”, with the popular iconic image of the glass as centrepiece of the campaigns.

Black is a symbol of mystery, power, elegance, as the sophisticated brand itself.

Every time I see a Guinness slogan or advert I’m never disappointed and damn it the marketing team got it right, I’m always thirsty and feel like having one, or two!

What I learnt in my first year in Ireland:

A common misconception is that Guinness is black, but in fact it’s coloured by roasted barley which gives it a ruby red colour.

A study by the University of Wisconsin revealed that Guinness can reduce the risk of heart attacks and blood clots. This is because it contains antioxidants.

Where did the slogan “Guinness is good for you” originate? During the 1920s, Benson, the Guinness advertising agency, carried out market research to find out what customers liked about Guinness. The research showed that a pint of Guinness simply made people feel good, and that’s how the slogan was born.

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“We’re united against racism” billboard by TFI & Immigrant Council of Ireland.

I captured this anti-racism billboard ad from TFI and the Immigrant Council of Dublin in Smithfield Square.

The ad shows a girl artistically created  by combining slivers of people’s faces from a diverse range of ethnicities into a face within a geometrical arrow. 

Arrows are often used to represent motion graphics and movements for instance in airlines or postage logos or for public transportation like in this case here.

There’s not much colour play around the design and background perhaps to  drive our attention to the main objective of the ad, the girl as representation of the anti racism campaign.

"Racism has no place on public transport, or anywhere else in Irish life. Everyone should feel safe and respected while travelling particularly the staff who have kept services running throughout the pandemic"

80% of what you see is retained by the eye.

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“Give up to bring hunger down” poster.

Source:https://www.worldvision.com.au/

This online fundraising image caught my attention while surfing the Internet. Visuals are a great example of how to make a message stand out. According to the Institute for Public Relations “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

The absence of colours, specifically the use of black and grey gives a dramatic and powerful tone to the message of this campaign. The use of the monochromatic black with a range of its tints makes the orange logo and the name stand out. It simplifies and gives the user/reader a better chance to see the elements that are at play (famine). I’ve noticed that black is a popular colour choice used by many social campaigns. 

In this case, the image of a child pointing his finger at the viewer heightens the sense of urgency of the message while making it seem personal and empathic, making it harder for anyone to remain indifferent. As learned today in our visual communication class 40% of users respond better to images than text. 

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Painting a different picture, how digital artists use blockchain by Alexandra Luzan

Source:https://cointelegraph.com/news/painting-a-different-picture-how-digital-artists-use-blockchain

Digital Art and blockchain is a new opportunity and contribution to the art industry.

Starry night by Van Gogh has always fascinated me for the use of the two predominant colours, blue and yellow. The curving brush strokes evoke a sense of well being, like a dream with a feeling of peaceful isolation and balance. During our past lecture of visual communication we have analysed what colours represent and what they communicate to the user along with evoking emotions and feelings. Blue is stable and trustworthy, associated to the sky bring us back to our origins and creates a sense of calmness and relaxation while yellow is warm and cheerful, it represents the sun which suggests hope and happiness.

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5 Big Rules of Typography by Bridgette Mabuto

Source: https://we.graphics/blog/5-big-rules-of-typography-and-examples-of-designers-breaking-them/

While doing my research for typography I came across to this article about so called good old-fashioned calligraphy. As I learned more about Typography I decided to use the tool WhatTheFont to find out what font have been used here: 

Ahra Hand

Bemol Catch Words

Tinka Babe Bold Shadow

Tinka Babe Shadow Italic

I don’t particularly like it because readability is not a big priority here and it seems messy. You don’t see where the image starts or the text ends. While the message still gets across, you need to pay closer attention to read the message. 

The choice of a typeface or their variation (font) in web designing and visual communication is extremely important, it needs to be readable, attractive and in line with the content and structure of your design and theme.