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W8 Layout Thumbnail Sketches

I created a series of thumbnail sketches for each spread in my publication in order to get my ideas out and start the creating process for my publication. I tried to use layouts and grid systems I've seen through my research into Etter's work; both her publications and other designs - as well as other wider research I've conducted based on bespoke publications that I feel relate to Etter's work in one way or another.

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W8 Further Bespoke Publication Research

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W8 Further Bespoke Publication Design Research/Inspiration

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Further Publication Design Research for Elena Etter

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EASTER BREAK RESEARCH

I also wanted to have a look at some of Elena Etter's publication design to see how she utilises grids in her work. I found this process quite difficult as I was working off not the best photos from her website - which were angled differently and were mocked-up so the margins might not have been entirely accurate.

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W6+7 - EASTER BREAK RESEARCH

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W5 - Final Poster Design - Formative

For my final poster I decided to expand on my third concept by adding in an example of Etter's award winning design “Visual & Syntactic Materialities” of which the typeface used in my poster for headings and titles (Kazmir) appears in - paying homage to the how Etter's project in winning the Type Directors Club Certificate of Typographic Excellence in 2019. I tried to follow a grid as close as possible - however had just felt as though the timeline was too low on the page and decided to move it up a few millimetres which interfered with the grid layout I was attempting. My timeline spans Elena Etter's educational and professional career and starts at 2011 through till 2022. I decided to opt for a black and white colour scheme to limit my palette and nod to works by Etter including “Letter Jumps and Mixed Faces” and “Designing as Translating.” When doing my research for the assignment I noticed that a large part of Etter's work consists of creative typography which inspired me to go out of my comfort zone and experiment with the title of my poster. One of the struggles I encountered when creating my poster was that when exporting my image as a PDF I noticed that the black background lost saturation and was appearing dull. I conducted some research and discovered that since we were working in CMYK, true black was slightly different that 100% black. I changed my black values accordingly and am pleased that my final poster has high contrast.

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W5 - Reflection on Process

Overall I would rate my poster a success as it aligns with Etter’s style, while successfully conveying the appropriate information. Some areas of my success were through the documentation process - where I have documented my thinking pathways and journey to the final poster design. A strength of mine would be my Adobe Photoshop skills in image manipulation - of which I have experienced and utilised throughout my high school courses. This assignment pushed me out of my comfort zone in many regards particularly with putting into practice newly learnt skills in Adobe Illustrator. I had trouble getting my head around the program but found that our tutorials in class helped immensely. In order to mitigate my weaknesses, I rewatched parts of lectures and come back to specific tools I thought I could utilise in my poster design. Specifically, learning how to correctly use the image trace tools, splitting shapes into grids, and how to utilise arrowheads in creating points on our timeline to be new tools that I hadn’t experimented with before. I also struggled to get my head around using grids as this was my first time trying to follow one with my design. However, I am really thankful to have persisted as it has enhanced my composition. If I were to do this project again, I would try focus on a consistent style of work from my designer earlier on as my research appears disjointed. I struggled to do this as Etter’s work ranges widely stylistically and having to focus on a few specific projects made me feel like I wasn’t collating the full picture. Over the next few weeks I will continue practicing what we learn in our Indesign lab sessions, and will go through the Indesign tutorials supplied by Adobe as I find the program quite daunting.

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W5 - Final Timeline Assets

I treated these images using photoshop to create a high-contrast black and white effect to match my poster designs. This will allow the images to work well and dynamically in combination with my design and not appear out of place. The first four images are an example of projects Etter has created through her career that I thought would be interesting to include - this consists of image 1 & 2 being examples of her project titled "Designing as Translating", the 3rd image being an example of her award winning project titled ‘Written & Syntactic Materialities of Written Language’ - which won the Certificate of Typographic Excellence Award in 2019, and the 4th image being her project created for the Frieze art fair in New York City which I found to be interesting and wanted to point out in my timeline. The last two photos are portraits of Etter which I wanted to include in order to give context and allow the viewer of my poster to see the designer behind the work.

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W5 - Sketches & Concepts

I just wanted to include some sketches I've been working on recently as concepts for my poster timeline design! I've gone a few different directions with my poster designs and I think I've honed in on a more black & white, simple direction to go in rather than engaging in more colour which is what I had planned originally. As seen below, a lot of my ideas primarily involved a high amount of colour but moving away from that has allowed me to focus on some specific qualities of Etter's work and allows me to centre my concepts in a similar and more focused direction

I also explored some concepts on illustrator that I want to develop further. I feel as though my third concept has the most potential and will be continuing with it towards a final poster I can submit for my formative. At this point I hadn't rewritten my copy text so once I implement that I feel like the overall flow of the poster will work better and I feel as though shuffling the dates around and including another image will continue to enhance the poster and make it more visually interesting

This first concept worked better in my head than in practice - I really struggled to fit all my information neatly around the E and felt as though it wasn't working well in terms of conveying a start point and end point to my timeline. While I like the idea of making the timeline out of a letter, I felt as though I wasn't getting anywhere with the idea and the yellow lines weren't working cohesively with the rest of the elements.

My second poster I consider to be slightly more successful. I feel as though I haven't yet mastered the placement of the letters and in consequence create some weird gaps - even through my use of a grid system. I like the vertical timeline and feel as though the image assets I've used work pretty well with the composition I've created. I feel as though there is some weird empty space both above the L in Elena and the R in Etter which I would want to resolve if I proceeded further with this concept.

My third concept is by far my favourite as I feel as though the title's distribution works really well and flows quite nicely - drawing the viewer's eyes down the page towards the timeline. I used Kazmir as my main typeface for the years and titles as it was the typeface Etter used in her project "‘Written & Syntactic Materialities of Written Language’ - which won the Certificate of Typographic Excellence Award in 2019. I also really like the actual line of the timeline in this poster and feel as though it is drifted evenly and adds to the composition - moving the viewers eye vertically down the page until the last date. Furthermore, I feel as though image I've chosen to include of Etter that I've treated flows well with my timeline so far. To develop the concept further I want to continue trying to arrange my dates to enhance my composition, I want to continue playing with my letter placement in the title and see if I can improve on anything, and I also want to try and see if I can pick out an image to fill up the gap on the left side of the poster by 2017.

I think that my fourth poster was relatively successful as well, I chose to switch up the type I used for the title. I recreated Etter's '30 days of type' typeface through the image trace tool and used it to create the heading of the piece. I feel as though there are still some awkward spaces around the title which I would need to look into if I were to continue to develop the poster. I do really like how the poster is divided but feel as though the timeline itself doesn't flow to well and feels a little bit disrupted from the rest of the poster.

I also attempted an Illustrator affect I found through my research into poster designs and timelines but felt as though it wasn't working well and decided against including it as part of my timeline posters - but I might come back to it later if I figure out a way to make it feel more dynamic.

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W5 - Reworking Copy

After starting the design process I realised I was way too wordy with my previous descriptions, acknowledging that timelines are used to present information clearly - I recognise the importance of using less words to get the point across. I was also having to sacrifice the point size of my type for everything to be fitting on the page so shortening my descriptions where possible is the natural solution

Rhode Island School of Design | 2011-2011

Etter attended the Rhode Island School of Design or RISD at age 18 for her Pre-College studies.

Universidad de Los Andes | 2012-2015

At 19, Etter commenced her Bachelor of Design degree at the Universidad de Los Andes - with an emphasis on Communication.

Teaching Assistant @ Universidad de Los Andes | 2014 - 2014

From January 2014 to May 2014 Etter assisted a Mixed Media course within the Design Department.

Glasgow School of Art | 2015-2015

In her third year at Universidad de Los Andes, Etter partook in a study abroad program and studied at the Glasgow School of Art.

University of the Arts London I 2016-2017

In her final year of study Etter transferred to Central Saint Martins at the University of Arts London to complete her Bachelor's Degree.

Graphic Designer at William Hall Work | 2017 - 2017

For the last 5 months of 2017, Etter worked as a Graphic Designer at William Hall Work.

Graphic Designer at Fraser Muggeridge Studio | 2017 - 2017

From October to December in 2017 Etter also worked as a Graphic Designer at Fraser Muggeridge Studio in London.

Junior Designer at Frieze | 2018 - 2019 From January of 2018 to August in 2019, Etter worked as a Junior Designer at Frieze.

Type Directors Club Certificate of Typographic Excellence | 2019 In January of 2019 Elena Etter was presented with the award in honour of her work titled “Visual & Syntactic Materialities.”

Graduate Teaching Assistant at Central Saint Martins | 2019 - 2020

From January 2019 to December 2020, Etter returned to Central Saint Martins as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.

Designer at Frieze | 2019 - 2019 From August to December of 2019, Etter was promoted to Designer at Frieze.

Freelance Graphic Designer | 2020 - PRESENT Etter has worked as a Freelance Graphic Designer since January of 2020.

London College of Communication | 2020-2021

Etter returned to complete a Master of Arts in Data Visualisation Degree at the London College of Communication.

Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins | 2021 - PRESENT Etter embraced the role of Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins from January 2021 and still remains within her role there as of present.

Visual Designer at CLEVER°FRANKE | 2022 - PRESENT As of February 2022, Etter has taken on the role of Visual Designer at CLEVER°FRANKE, a world leading data design agency located in Utrecht, Netherlands.

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WEEK 05

RESEARCH PART 2

Upon reflection I realised that the research I was conducting was not directly linked to my artist and was more in line with my own personal style. I wanted to do a bit more research to try and find inspiration that directly relates to Etter's style which will hopefully assist me in gathering more ideas for my Timeline poster. At this point in my process I'm feeling quite stuck with my designs so I feel like revisiting inspiration may be what I need.

source: here

I think that with my previous research and some of my previous concepts, I got a little overwhelmed with the usage of colour in posters, I find that this poster helps relate it back to Etter's strong use of typography and limits the page to just two colours. While Etter does include colour in some of her works, she also likes to engage in black and white which might be an interesting avenue to explore.

source: here

This poster design reminds me of Etter's work through their use of a limited colour palette, heavy focus on typography, as well as the use of a warm yellow as their chosen accent colour which mirrors 'Visual & Syntactic Materialities.' I really like how the designer overlays the months with events happening to create their smaller version of a timeline and would be interested in exploring further to see if a similar effect can be achieved if more dates were added.

I really like how this poster uses type and I feel as though I could achieve a similar effect through my work that might respond powerfully to the viewer. If I opted for a similar composition I could replace the type below the ARTICULATE title with my timeline which could be interesting. I will continue to explore this idea further through my concepts. I am wondering what it might be like if I added an accent colour to contrast that harsh black and white of the page.

source: here

Once again I really like how this design manipulates type and creates an image using typography. I like the minimal colour palette and can see myself taking inspiration from the radial sphere of typography through my design. I'm not entirely sure how this could translate into a 'timeline' exactly but through further exploration im sure I could find this resource helpful.

source: here

This poster series by Yve Ludwig I found to be really interesting and an excellent example of information design and using type of different weights and sizes to display. I find their style to be very similar to Etter's and really enjoy all four of these posters in the series. I especially enjoy how the type lays on either side of the column of text in poster 4 and how Ludwig uses circles in poster 2 to act as as text box of sorts for the body text. I think I could take inspiration from the first poster especially and want to play with a similar composition - slicing through typography to form a timeline would be really interesting visually and definitely captures the viewer's attention. My only concern could be for readability as I find that since our posters are going to be printed at A3 size, having type that small will probably be unreadable to someone observing the work - even when they're standing really close.

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WEEK 04

FINAL COPY FOR TIMELINE

I'm hoping for my timeline to include a comprehensive list of Etter's education, work experience, as well as awards and feel as though this is achievable as there aren't an extreme amount of dates to include. I might revisit only selecting one subject area if I feel that there isn't enough room in my design to fit everything in

Rhode Island School of Design | 2011-2011 Etter attended the Rhode Island School of Design or RISD at age 18 for her Pre-College studies. She engaged in classes based in Graphic Design, Life Drawing, and Art History.

Universidad de Los Andes | 2012-2015 At 19, Etter commenced her Bachelor of Design degree at the Universidad de Los Andes - with an emphasis on Communication. She studied there for three years before transferring to Central Saint Martins in London.

Teaching Assistant @ Universidad de Los Andes | 2014 - 2014 From January 2014 to May 2014 Etter assisted a Mixed Media course within the Design Department at the Universidad de Los Andes in combination with her studies to gather work experience.

Glasgow School of Art | 2015-2015 In her third year at Universidad de Los Andes, Etter partook in a study abroad program and studied at the Glasgow School of Art.

University of the Arts London I 2016-2017 In her final year of study Etter transferred to Central Saint Martins at the University of Arts London to complete her Bachelor's Degree.

Graphic Designer at William Hall Work | 2017 - 2017 For the last 5 months of 2017, Etter worked as a Graphic Designer at William Hall Work - a small design studio in London.

Graphic Designer at Fraser Muggeridge Studio | 2017 - 2017 From October to December in 2017 Etter also worked as a Graphic Designer at Fraser Muggeridge Studio in London.

Junior Designer at Frieze | 2018 - 2019 From January of 2018 to August in 2019, Etter worked as a Junior Designer at Frieze.

Type Directors Club Certificate of Typographic Excellence | 2019 In January of 2019 Elena Etter was presented with the award in honour of her work titled “Visual & Syntactic Materialities.”

Graduate Teaching Assistant at Central Saint Martins | 2019 - 2020 From January 2019 to December 2020, Etter returned to Central Saint Martins as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.

Designer at Frieze | 2019 - 2019 From August to December of 2019, Etter was promoted to Designer at Frieze where she was able to explore information design through her "Frieze Art Fair" project and publication design through her "Frieze Academy" project amongst other works.

Freelance Graphic Designer | 2020 - PRESENT Etter has worked as a Freelance Graphic Designer since January of 2020.

London College of Communication | 2020-2021 After a short break from studies, Etter returned to completed a Master of Arts in Data Visualisation Degree at the London College of Communication, part of University of the Arts London.

Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins | 2021 - PRESENT Etter embraced the role of Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins from January 2021 and still remains within her role there as of present.

Visual Designer at CLEVER°FRANKE | 2022 - PRESENT As of February 2022, Etter has taken on the role of Visual Designer at CLEVER°FRANKE, a world leading data design agency located in Utrecht, Netherlands.

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WEEK 04

POSTER RESEARCH

Gathering Swans Poster by Kel Lauren Source: Kellauren.design

Immediately I'm drawn to the use of typography and colour Lauren uses throughout this poster. The poster serves to promote Choir Boy's new album titled, Gathering Swans and includes elements like a track list, pullout lyric, and other visual elements including stars and a chain graphic. I really like the typefaces Lauren has used and customised to create the type of the album title Gathering Swans, I recognise the use of 'Glacier' by GLYPHWORLD foundry which has been customised in the capital "G" in Gather as well as the "R". The gradient and use of grain captures the albums aesthetic and adds an element of grunge to the design. I'm not sure how many elements I could pull towards my own timeline poster design, but I will definitely continue to experiment with type and colour to reflect Etter's own playful use.

"2021 Poster Series" by Vratislav Pecka Source: Behance

This poster series seems really playful and I really enjoy Pecka's use of graphic elements in combination with colour to create interesting compositions. Pecka's use of type in his "So Maybe Tomorrow Ill find my Way Home" poster us quite visually striking especially when overlayed on top of the red visual graphic. I will take inspiration from the colour palettes within these poster designs and use similar graphic elements in some timeline concepts. The lines specially in poster 4 feel both a mixture of organic and geometric which I really enjoy and might incorporate in the actual line of my timeline.

"The Working Sphere" by Mohamed Samir Source: Behance

Once again I feel immediately drawn to the use of colour used in Samir's poster series. I find the illustrations and graphics really visually interesting and the type works well to create a really pleasing composition. I really like how the type is able to interact with the illustrations like in the "striver" poster how the "Iver" appears over the medal strap and the "Str" is placed under the strap to add depth to the graphic. Similarly I like how in the "Giver" poster the leaf appears somewhat translucent so the type is able to be read from under the top leaf. I want to play with this convention through my own concepts and will take inspiration from Samir's clean typography as well. His use of typeface's intentionally feels sophisticated and plays with spacing, hierarchy, and weights.

Poster Designs, Jasmin Chavez Source: Instagram

One of my favourite designers at the moment, Jasmin Chavez uses intricate gradients and plays with line and form through their poster designs. With a strong knowledge of typography, they are able to manipulate type and letterforms to create their desired effect and I personally really like the conventions of line used throughout these four works as details. Once again I really find their use of colour quite inspirational and is what draws me into the works - which I will bring further through my designs. I also want to incorporate elements of their bold typography as I think it could make my designs more visually interesting and engaging to the viewer.

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WEEK 04

TIMELINE RESEARCH

"Let There be Data" by John Devolle source: Behance

I really really enjoy the graphic style of this timeline poster from John Devolle, however, I recognise many of these elements that I find appealing would not work well with my own poster I'm designing as Etter's style is quite different and less illustrative. I really like Devolle's use of colour in this timeline and can see myself using some of the warmer colours as inspiration as I've noticed Etter's work commonly features various shades of yellow and pink. I'm still debating on whether I like the actual line graphic on the timeline - on the one hand I think that the composition looks a bit clustered and messy, but I think overall it works well for this particulars style as the playful illustration style works well with the geometric shapes used to frame the different dates - I just don't see myself using a similar method as I feel it could make my information hard to read and understand for the viewer.

"Salvation Army History Timeline", Illustrations by Lesia Artymovych source: Behance

I'm not a big fan of the washed out colour palette Artymovych used in this timeline personally, but I feel as though it works really well in this specific context when designing a timeline poster for The Salvation Army. I like this timeline format as I think the information works and flows a lot better than Devolle's timeline and the Illustrations work really well in combination with the type. I want to explore how I could use similar timeline techniques with my own graphic and feel like I could come up with some interesting concepts this work as inspiration. The composition also works really well in my opinion, I find the work feels evenly balanced which can be hard when there are so many dates and information to include, and find the timeline easy to follow from left to right.

"Infográficos Direitos Humanos" by Eduardo da Costa Pereira source: Behance

What I really like about these specific timeline posters done by Pereira is the rounded rectangle element in poster number 1, I feel like it serves as a really good way of breaking up the timeline and seperating a key point of information to stress its importance and seperate it from the rest of the timeline. However, I find the general timeline structure of both posters a little bit hard to navigate as at the use of image somewhat overpowers the timeline and makes it feel a little messy in my opinion. The colours are also a weakness of this design as I feel the images lack a sense of cohesion and I would have included more pops of colour if I were to redesign Pereira's poster. I do like how the line of the timeline interacts with the copy and descriptions of each event though and could see myself taking it as inspiration for one of my concepts I would try and make it a bit more suited to the overall composition to ensure the viewer is able to follow the dates clearly.

Graphic Design Timeline with a focus on Bauhaus by Seham Hakmi Source: Behance

I really like this timeline design and think that all the elements work in combination well to reflect the visual style associated with Bauhaus, especially the colour, type, and shape used. I think the poster is also successful in portraying the information clearly and the composition works well and allows the viewer to clearly understand the flow of the design and work through the dates clearly. The type is clear and expertly reflects the art movement, with clear hierarchy between headings and descriptions. The image treatment is a little intense with the gradient map or colour overlayed applied, if I were to redesign the poster I would try work around that and for example, treat the images in black and white and create a shape graphic of colour behind the figures.

"The History of the Phone" by Lesia Artymovych Source: Behance

I really like the illustration style used in this timeline design and find that the colours especially work really well in combination with image to create a cohesive feeling throughout the entire timeline design. The composition also works well in readability and allows the viewer to easily navigate the timeline in a simple and easy manner. I will note that the timeline does continue down the page however Tumblr isn't letting me upload anymore images so I was only able to include the first segment of the design. Through looking at these timelines I feel as though one of my biggest design challenges will be to figure out how to condense all my information into one A3 sized page. The majority of the timeline designs I've looked over have spanned quite a significantly larger space and I need to ensure my type is legible to the viewer. I want to take inspiration from the colour palette and how Artymovych highlights key phrases in the descriptions.

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WEEK 03

Some Sketches I made of possible directions I could take the timeline in. My particular favourites are concepts 1, 2, and 4 and am very excited to explore those more. I'm also really interested in experimenting with my timeline just made of type idea.

I also made a couple of assets for my poster. I created a possible title for my timeline made up of Etter's 36 days of type challenge found on her instagram here. I imported the images into Illustrator and used the Image Trace tool we learnt about in class to turn the text into a vector which can be made increasingly bigger or smaller without becoming pixellated which is a great resource to have going fourth.

I also made all of the years necessary for my timeline using the font Kazimir which pays homage to Etter's work Visual and Syntactic Materials (the typeface used in the titles of the work) which won the Type Directors Club Certificate of Typographic Excellence award in 2019!

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Week 03

I'll be continuing my research to see if there are any more dates I'm able to find or any more information I can find online that'll help my understanding grow on Etter's work and/or be useful for my timeline!

I found this work here and it accompanies a really interesting description Etter wrote on the project. I wanted to include this project as a possible start for my timeline, my line of thinking wonders if I could place some visually bold images underneath different categories of education and work events following a sort of timeline structure.

Revisiting this interview/article, Etter mentions the font used in her award winning project, "Visual & Syntactic Materialities," Kazimir - which was inspired by early Russian type errors. I find the typeface really visually interesting and think it would be nice to pay homage to her win of the Type Directors Club Certificate of Typographic Excellence award in January of 2019. I really want to note that award and ensure I include it in my timeline as it's a pretty incredible achievement. I will go into my timeline post and edit it in!

Revisiting the Visual and Syntactic Materialities project above, I really like this composition and am thinking about pursuing something similar as a concept. I am imagining my potential composition as the work rotated clockwise and could see myself splitting the A3 poster in half horizontally, with a title perhaps taking up the white space at the top and the timeline on the yellow side of the page. This is just a concept idea and will definitely be workshopped in weeks to come!

Another way I could pay homage to Etter's work through my timeline could be through a use of her 2019 36 days of type challenge. I really like the process she went to when creating her typeface, by overlapping two glyphs to create a third and new glyph. Through my design I could use some of the type she's designed for headings/titles!

I also created this small colour palette using some of Elena's work I find notable and think it could be a really good way to start exploring colour options for my poster. I want to include elements that are key to Etter's work and pay homage to her previous projects so I think utilising some of her most used colours is definitely a good start!