FMP (BA): The Raven

The Final Outcome

The Process

Drawing the Type

I wanted to be as accurate on the type as possible so I measured the width of the whole quote that I had done yesterday and halved it. This would then be the centre point of each section, for example, "Quoth the Raven" measured to 16.2cm so I halved it to get 8.1cm. I measured the centre of the paper I was working on and drew a faint line, as this line would serve as the centre point of all of the quotes. I then measured the points I had earlier according to this line so that all of the quote will sit central on the page. This is quite confusing to explain so hopefully the image below will help out a little bit. 

Now I can work on the type and I focused on the first section first (Quoth the Raven) because this one will be sitting on a straight line. I took reference from my sketches in terms of kerning and character width, and once the guidelines were done I was able to draw each letter.

To retain accuracy I made sure that the thickness of the letters were the same and used a ruler to make sure the lines were straight. This will help me out a lot later on when it comes to inking. 

FMP (BA): Initial & Developing Sketches

I drew some initial type sketches, taking inspiration from Blackletter type and calligraphy. I'm not too sure how exactly to go about this so I thought that the best way to start was by just writing in my usual handwriting and then adding to it.

I first concentrated on the word "Nevermore" because I might not be able to add in the whole quote, and that's one of the most important word throughout the poem. I was leaning more on calligraphy and tried to make the N as elegant as possible but I got a bit worried that it looked too feminine.
To make it less feminine I tried doing the same kind of lettering as I did for one of my sketches for Moby Dick, but I'm not too sure about this so I went back to trying to make the capital letters really elaborate and entwine so that they form one "illustration". I quite liked how my first version was really sketchy so quickly made a note of it for later before carrying on going down the calligraphy route.

I added in some elements of Blackletter in one of my ideas where everything was in uppercase but I think it's too "strong" for my illustration as I want it to be quite delicate. I then concentrated solely on N because if I find a good style for that I could slowly apply it to the other letters. I quite liked the way Sean de Burca did his swashes on some of his letters and tried it out on some of mine.

FMP (BA): Inspiration - Gothic Typefaces & Calligraphy

I've realised that out of all of the type styles that I've looked at, I haven't actually tried out Blackletter. It's strange because I really admire that style although I tend to stray away from it because it looked quite difficult to do (and none of the quotes I had done previously had that kind of "voice"). 

Since I've chosen a gothic, Victorian quote, I am now able to carry out some brief research and gather inspirational Blackletter and gothic typography. I shall also have a look again at general calligraphy to see if there are ways to combine the two. Once again I want to have a look at historical pieces as well as contemporary ones. 

Inspirational Pieces

I waited a little bit until I have done as much inspiration-gathering as possible before picking out the ones that I think would be best in terms of brief analysis for this little 'project'. I have briefly looked at Blackletter before [here] and was tempted to just fill that post out a little bit but as it was so long ago, it would take me ages to scroll through the pages. I've also done some research right at the beginning of this project [here] on calligraphy tutorials from YouTube but once again that was a very long time ago.

I have a rough idea of what I'm looking for and what kind of typeface I was going to do so this process was done very quickly and I picked a few designs that I find most inspirational as well as useful for this project.

image source: https://www.p22.com/family-Victorian

This typeface, Victorian Swash, was exactly what I was looking for. It had that tall structure that mirrored Victorian architecture and it's high ceilings, and the small serifs only emphasise the elongated structure. This is because they are so small that there is more of a focus on the stems of the characters.

There is quite a contrast between uppercase and lowercase, as the uppercase forms seem to be twice the height of lowercase. Usually the cap-height is quite close to the x-height but here it seems to want to get far away from it as possible. The "halfway" point of the uppercase aligns with the top of the lowercase, which makes the character bottom-heavy because the rest of it's form is quite short. Nevertheless, it still retains that tall structure.

FMP (BA): The Raven - Line Work

I wanted to try out some shading in biro just to lift the illustration off the page a little bit and make it look more 'finished', so I photocopied my biro lines that I had done in the previous post just in case I decide not to do any shading. 

It didn't take me as long as expected because I wanted it to retain that sketchy appearance, and I found myself doing scribbles most of the time (especially for the raven's body). 

My main worry with this now that it is all shaded in is that although the raven really stands out, the feathers now just make the whole illustration look too neat and subtracts the chaotic appearance that I was trying to go for. It is a lovely effect, but I still prefer my very first version where I roughly sketched it out in pencil. 

My next thought was to then try and combine the two versions (this and the "sketchy" version) by incorporating some more feathers in the background to fill in the gaps, but this time I won't be shading them. I did this by scanning the document in and reducing the size in Photoshop before printing it out and working with biro.  

Comparing this version to the one at the top, it has more of a chaotic appearance and is a mixture of the sketched-version and biro version. This mixture then creates a nice balance because it looks finished rather than a scribble in a notepad. However, I still feel it's a little bit too neat so I might add even more scribbles (feathers), but I'll work on this after I've figured out what to do with the type.

To make things a little easier I placed both version (the sketch-line version and biro version) next to each other:

I'm still a bit torn between the two because although I love how chaotic the original is, I feel that the raven looks a lot better shaded in and the feathers are more obviously raven feathers. There isn't really a messier way to shade them in so I'm a bit stuck.

My next step is to therefore concentrate on my typography and work on compositions, and probably just take a breather from this a little bit so that I could look at it with fresh eyes.

Learning Outcomes:

[5] Developed skills of independent study, resource utilisation, problem-solving and decision-taking.

FMP (BA): Initial Sketches - The Raven

During my mind-map stage I jotted down some initial ideas for this piece, and the one that really caught my eye was where the raven would be shielding Lenore from view. This would create an immediate connection with the narrator as he mourns her death and the fact that they raven replied, "Nevermore" when he asks if he would see her in heaven. It's strange how I haven't really seen many designs that incorporate Lenore, as they mainly focus on the raven itself. In my opinion, Lenore is almost as important as the raven.

I roughly drew a sketch of Lenore's face and had the idea where she would be facing away from the viewer, partly shielded by raven feathers in order to emphasise intrigue. It would also reflect the fading memories of the narrator and that he would never see Lenore again, so in time would forget what she looked like. I wasn't too sure how I would include the raven so I quickly sketched out some poses that I gathered on my Pinterest board.

I then moved onto drawing her hair and how the raven would sit around her, which proved to be more difficult than I had initially anticipated. I was getting worried that my piece would look too similar to John Howe's sketch "Angel Eyes" so decided to start afresh and first focus on the raven's feathers. However, I felt that just drawing the feathers would take out the most important part (Lenore) so I tried to incorporate her into the sketches without it looking too similar to what I had previously.

FMP (BA): Research - Edgar Allan Poe

Ever since I had done my piece for one of my first illustration pieces last year, I've had a fascination with Edgar Allan Poe and his work. I love his "The Raven" poem and would like to do it for the next 'project'.

This is because I am still unsure of how to approach Pride and Prejudice as it's quite a long quote, and something from The Raven would contrast strongly with what I've got already as it's dark and mysterious. I did scribble a little sketch of an idea right near the beginning of this project, so if I already had ideas of it, why not do it?

Before I dive into the sketching process I'll first read through the whole poem to ensure that I understand it completely so that I could hit the right connotations in my design. From what I already know the poem is based around the raven that comes knocking on the narrator's door, although I can't really remember why... 

The Raven - from http://poestories.com/ 

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, 

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, 

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, 

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. 

"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door- 

                Only this, and nothing more." 

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, 

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. 

Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrow 

From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore- 

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore- 

                Nameless here for evermore. 

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain 

Thrilled me- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; 

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating, 

"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door- 

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;- 

                This it is, and nothing more." 

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, 

"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; 

But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, 

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, 

That I scarce was sure I heard you"- here I opened wide the door;- 

                Darkness there, and nothing more. 

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, 

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; 

But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, 

And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?" 

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"- 

                Merely this, and nothing more. 

FMP (BA): Moby Dick - Design Process

The Final Outcome

The Process

With the sketch all inked and scanned in I brought it up onto Photoshop and then went to Image > Adjustments > Invert to make the background black and everything else white. On a new layer I began to fill in the whale in white by drawing around it with the lasso tool and using the paint bucket. This was a lot easier than trying to paint it using the brush tool and erasing the areas that went outside of the lines.

FMP (BA): Moby Dick Sketch Improvements

Choosing the Composition

I lay the two designs down in front of me and took a step back to compare the two, despite having made my decision of going with the first composition. It was quite a difficult decision for me because I do like both designs so I decided to ask my classmates what they think.

They also had some trouble deciding so I asked them to pick out the elements they liked from each design. Some mentioned that they liked my handwriting-lettering on the design on the left, yet they liked the circle "spyglass" design, so I took out some tracing paper and roughly did a faint outline of that type style and placed it atop of the circle design of where the type would be.

The handwriting style didn't sit well with this composition due to the angling of each letter and how the ones at the middle would be really short. This made the h, for example, look more like an n. 

My decision is to thus go with my first composition (the one on the left shown in the top photo) and, if I have the time, to do the second composition. I will be creating a DPS (double-paged spread) so it is possible to use the other composition and adapt it so that I display Herman Merville's (the author) name with the title of the book in the centre. 

FMP (BA): Grunge Textures & Experimentation

I want to have a look around to see if there were any grunge textures or tutorials available on the internet to work in Photoshop and maybe Illustrator. I'm not too sure whether or not I'll be drawing it out as a vector or just simply painting it in Photoshop so I need to keep my options open.
This idea was influenced by my recent post where I talked about what aspects that the most inspirational designs had, and most of them had grunge/scratched backgrounds to give the design some texture. 

Here's a list of some of the websites that offer free grunge textures:

grungetextures.com

texture king

lost and taken

Photoshop Experimentation

I first started experimenting on Photoshop as I'm quite familiar with using textures there, so I created a new A4 document (the dimensions doesn't really matter right now) and set the background colour in black. 

I then placed a grunge texture that I got from lost and taken on the layer above it. When I changed the layer style to Overplay, Multiply and other styles the texture just totally disappeared... So out of curiousity I used a white paintbrush using a default brush tool and just dotted randomly on the page. I placed the textured layer on Overlay again and it still didn't work. However when I put it on Multiply there was a slight texture to it. 

FMP (BA): Moby Dick Sketches & Experimentation

Initial Sketches

I was so inspired by the typeface styles I showed in my last post that I had done some sketches based off this. I first tried to imitate it but then I wanted to add my own kind of style to it so that I had my "voice". I wasn't too sure how decorative I wanted to go so for now I just drew whatever I wanted as it could always be adapted later. I started small because I just wanted to get the general idea of the typeface I was going to do and didn't want to concentrate on layout just yet.

Developing Sketches - Lettering 

I then picked a few to adapt over the next couple of pages, even if I was only changing a few things. I noticed that during my last 'project' where I was hand-lettering the Lord of the Rings quote that my lettering was better if I focused on just one word to figure out how wide each letter should be. After each type was drawn I used tracing paper to copy it and then add a new feature to it.
I wanted to emphasise the "sailor" theme that I was going for so I added a few swirls and flourishes to the type design inspired by Victorian typography, but I felt that it was much too obvious (as I tried to imitate waves) and much preferred the ones where there was a diamond-shape in the middle. I didn't want to overpower the type and although I do want to try out flourishes I didn't want to add them just yet.

FMP (BA): Inspiration - Vintage Typography

While I was thinking of ideas for my Moby Dick quote "Call me Ishmael" I decided to have a look at ornamental typography, because most of the typography featured on my mood board I had created yesterday featured really decorative typefaces. I also noticed that such typefaces were used when I was looking for other typographic pieces that link in with sailors or the sea. 

Following Jon Contino's suggestion, I decided to go back and look at some historical posters. While I was looking through "Graphic Design: A New History" by Stephen J. Eskilson I really liked the one featured in "Demorest's Illustrated Monthly" and looked for similar ornamental, nineteenth-century typefaces and came across Unicorn Graphics where they had catalogs of Wood Cuts. 

Instead of creating a separate mood board to my Pinterest one and picking pieces from that to analyse, I shall just choose a few to briefly break down so that I could spend more time acting on inspiration than forcing it aside just so that I could write a long essay about why I find a design fascinating. This would allow me more time to experiment and do some sketching, and if I do find another inspirational piece I shall just add it here, briefly write about it, before going back to sketching.

Inspirational Pieces

This was the image within "Graphic Design: A New History" that I mentioned above. The reason why I find this so fascinating is that despite the 'chaotic' appearance there is some sort of structure in that the type is separated from the elaborate illustration by either an invisible border or a shape. This break from the intricate drawings allow more of a focus on the negative space. The area around this space looks as if the illustrator tried to fill the page as much as possible and was fearful of leaving any gaps.

Although I do like the illustration my main focus is on the typography. I have seen this style of typography in recent hand-lettering works so this might be the starting point of that inspiration. For example, in Tobias Saul's illustration "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?" uses a similar type style in the words as well as the detailed flourishes surrounding them. However he made the type fit for the sea-environment by taking out the gradient and making it slightly flatter and with a texture.

To summarise, I am inspired by:

• The elaborate typography
• The flourishes surrounding the type
• The way that the typography has been clearly separated from the illustration 

FMP (BA): Jon Contino's Skillshare Class

I hopped over to skillshare to have a look to see if there were any good bundles of hand lettering classes, and there were loads of them! As I haven't got much time left I wanted to focus on those that didn't have as many videos but just outlined the basics of hand lettering.

That's when I found Jon Contino's skillshare class. Jon Contino has been one of the main inspirations for my past "projects" so I had a look at his introductory video before purchasing his class. 

Illustration and Lettering: A Hands-on Approach to Label Design

An Online Skillshare Class by Jon Contino

"Layouts for Lettering: Hierarchy, Composition, and Type Systems"

- Jon Contino

Course Overview

1. History

2. Hierarchy & Shapes

3. Type Systems

4. Integrating Type with Image

5. Class Wrap-Up

Each course has a few pointers beneath it on what you'll achieve with each video and he had even included little challenges for us to try out. An example is to look at some old posters and see how they are arranged. 

My Thoughts

As you can see, it's a pretty short course which is perfect for my project as I want to spend more time designing than researching. Even though I have gotten into the rhythm of doing my research, finding the "voice", carrying out some basic thumbnails before going onto the final design I was really inspired by his videos. 

His class shows that the above method I have been using does really work, however I have learnt that I need to structure my designs more as the ones I've done in the past (the "Remarkable Rocket" one in particular) wasn't very strong due to the fact that I didn't think about hierarchy and structure. Hopefully my next piece which will be the one for Moby Dick will be more structured. 

His videos are very detailed and he talks about his steps very thoroughly which had answered all of my questions. I am now more confident in laying out my pieces and I think I'll spend more time fixing the layout and the typography and how it combines with image. 

FMP (BA): Moby Dick

I have chosen to do the quote "Call me Ishmael" as one of the 'classical' quotes for my book, because it was listed in the top ten of the most famous opening lines in literature [according to American Book Review and the Telegraph]. I haven't been able to read Moby Dick and due to my small timeframe I instead searched for the plot summary on Wikipedia. Here is a brief description written on Amazon.co.uk:

"Moby Dick is the story of Captain Ahab's quest to avenge the whale that ‘reaped’ his leg. The quest is an obsession and the novel is a diabolical study of how a man becomes a fanatic.

But it is also a hymn to democracy. Bent as the crew is on Ahab's appalling crusade, it is equally the image of a co-operative community at work: all hands dependent on all hands, each individual responsible for the security of each. 

Among the crew is Ishmael, the novel's narrator, ordinary sailor, and extraordinary reader. Digressive, allusive, vulgar, transcendent, the story Ishmael tells is above all an education: in the practice of whaling, in the art of writing. Expanding to equal his ‘mighty theme’ – not only the whale but all things sublime – Melville breathes in the world's great literature. Moby Dick is the greatest novel ever written by an American." [Amazon.co.uk, [link] 18th March 2014]

Even though the narrator is Ishmael, Moby Dick (the sperm whale) is perhaps the most important character in the book in my opinion because of the fact that the whole story is based around Captain Ahab's fascination with him and other ships who had fallen to it's destruction even though the whale didn't actually appear in much of the story. At the end of the story Moby Dick manages to sink the whole ship, with Captain Ahab attached to it by a harpoon-rope around his neck, and only Ishmael survives.

From this information I have created a mind map to help spark some possible ideas for my typographic piece.

And here are some existing pieces featuring Moby Dick:

Image sources: houseofismay; Stefanoreves; unknown; Tony Millionaire; Vintage Moby Dick cover ; Ashley Honstein; 1947 paperback of Moby Dick


With my background information done I can now move onto looking at some inspiration for this which I had made notes of within my mind map. I have a keen interest in decorative type and would like to look at the original source of this style, which comes from the nineteenth to early twentieth century.

FMP (BA): New Quotes

When I was doing my sketches for the Oscar Wilde quote I decided to hop back onto the Oxford Literary festival website to see what other topics they cover so that I could decide on my next quote. That was when I had the feeling that maybe the designs I had done so far weren't suitable for this project...

This is because some of the quotes aren't that well-known and I feel that maybe I should look at quotes from 'classical' books that literary-enthusiasts would know of. 

I mentioned these thoughts to a family friend and she confirmed that I should stay away from books such as Harry Potter and instead look at Charles Dickens' Oliver, Pride and Prejudice, and other similar books.

I have calculated that I have four weeks left including this one to produce my quotes before I have to move onto thinking about the book covers and printing techniques, so that means I have time for four more quotes. Due to this small timeframe I think that I shall leave my Oscar Wilde quote for now and concentrate on finding at least two or three new quotes that fit with this classical theme, and then go back to it. I have already produced an ideal layout for the Oscar Wilde quote but I would just need to figure out what typefaces to use... Here is my sketch so far:

Because of this realisation and wanting the quotes to fit my target audience I have compiled a new list of possible quotes. I don't think I shall replace any of the quotes I have but just build the book up with classical ones so that I could mix up the pages between classical and non-classical. This means that I would still be aiming at the target audience.

New list:

“Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life.” - HG Wells, The Time Machine
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins." —Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." — Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
"I am an invisible man." —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way." - Charles Dickens, The Tale of Two Cities
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." George Orwell, 1984
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." - J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticising any one, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” - F.Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."- L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between
“Call me Ishmael.” - Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
“The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.” - Samuel Beckett, Murphy
"All children, except one, grow up." - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
"Mother died today. Or maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure." - Albert Camus, L'Etranger (The Stranger)
"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day." - Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
"Quoth the Raven: Nevermore." - Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven


References: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/3234863-the-time-machine; http://americanbookreview.org/100bestlines.asp; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9817505/30-great-opening-lines-in-literature.html?frame=2458291; http://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2012/apr/29/ten-best-first-lines-fiction;

FMP (BA): Today's Thoughts

After today's session I wanted to take a step back from the designing process and look back at my inspirational mood board that I had produced on Pinterest of everything I had collected for this project, and on the typography board from my last project. 

While I was looking through I began to realise a pattern and that was that I tend to collect pieces that had some sort of structure. There were a few that didn't have them but the typography was mainly within a square, surrounding a shape or within a shape. Another reoccurring aspect was the fact the background or the type had a grungy texture to them. 

To make it easier to explain I picked out the designs I've found most inspirational.

Images sources: Steve Simpson; Bryan Patrick Todd; Franklin Mill; Jon Contino; Tobias Saul; We Are Yawn; Mary Kate McDevitt; Unicorn Empire Prints

Reoccurring aspects:

• Textured background
• Chalk-lettering style
• Strict composition (well, structured)
• No more than three-colour combination
• Simple illustrations
• Mixture of type styles - unusual typefaces - all hand-lettered 

Hopefully this brief "exercise" will help me to gain some inspiration and move forward with my Oscar Wilde design. I think from now on I shall stop restricting myself from looking for inspiration because even though James Franco mentioned how we should stop looking for inspiration and do it, I'm still in the learning process so right now I'm at the stage where he mentioned "to learn everything" which I should then "forget" before designing. 

FMP (BA): Oscar Wilde's Quote - Digital

When I looked back at the line work this morning I decided to make a few adjustments so that the most important words "I am so clever" and "I don't understand" had a 3D effect. I did originally want to create an effect where the words appear to be falling out of firework sparks but felt that it didn't work out so well due to the large number of overlapping lines. Instead, I went for the 'normal' 3D effect but for the top line I drew it so that the shading pointed inwards to create a perspective.

I scanned in the developed line work into Photoshop to start the colouring stage. I deleted all of the white areas and put in the black layer, and when I coloured all of the line work in white just so I could see it against the black I came across a pretty neat look; it was, as people could say, a happy accident. I then played around with different colours and gradients before settling with the orange to red gradient. At the same time I dropped in a midnight-blue-black gradient for the background to make it look closer to the night sky. 

FMP (BA): Oscar Wilde's Quote Sketch

Having finished my LOTR quote I immediately moved onto a new one. I'm getting a bit worried about how little time I have left and after realising that I might have to not only produce six more designs but change everything to double-paged spreads... Well, that made me panic a little.

I spent the whole weekend building up on my initial ideas and forbid myself to go on the computer unless it was to look at reference images, and I only allowed myself to look for inspiration for a few minutes at a time if needed. Despite this, I actually found myself producing more ideas even though there were only slight differences between them.

I stopped after producing two pages of ideas as I realised that they were getting quite stagnate. I circled around two of my strongest ideas to look back on the next day.

FMP (BA): Today's Thoughts

Now that I have four complete designs I thought it was time to do some brief research on printing techniques because it would be ideal to get this professionally printed. I went to blurb.com to look at their pricing and that's when I realised that not only do they use different dimensions but they also require a minimum of 20 pages.

This means that I would have to produce at least twenty designs or ten double-paged spreads, and so I am going to aim to do at least ten DPS because it is slightly more achievable as I would just need to do around six more designs.

My thoughts are that for the DPS I'll do one side with the illustration/typography and the other side blank with a little icon and the author's name. For example, for Dr. Seuss I could have my quote and the icon of the hat and his name beneath it on the other page.

For my dimensions I think I'm going to carry on doing 125x154mm until I get to at least two more designs, and then I'll convert them all to 200x200mm. Or I might just start doing them at 200mmx200mm...

I'm just a bit clueless on how to do my book unless I do it through blurb as all of the tutorials I had looked at used folded pages in their designs, and my dimensions will be too large to fit on A4 so once again I might have to change the dimensions.

I'll be changing them no matter what so the most ideal option is to carry on designing until I have at least two more ideas and then figure out if I have enough time to produce more and think about the designs for the covers and inside pages.


Learning Outcomes:
[6] Developed skills of critical thinking, analysis and evaluation.

FMP (BA): Research - Oscar Wilde

Taking note of what I have learnt from previous experiences I decided to go straight into researching about the meaning behind the quote rather than just about the person who wrote it. The quote I'm researching in question is "I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I'm saying" by Oscar Wilde.

I had briefly researched into the life of Oscar Wilde during my dissertation but he was a well-known playwright and was extremely talented. He was known for the 'scandal' he caused as he was a homosexual (and homosexuality was illegal in those days) as well as his flamboyant attire.  

Before I carried out my research I did a couple of doodles of what I was inspired by the quote. I wanted to create that quirky appearance to each of my words but for now I just wanted to try and draw as many different hand-lettering styles as possible.

The next day I then looked into the background story of this quote and found out that it was actually from one of Wilde's short stories "The Remarkable Rocket." The main character, the "remarkable" rocket, was extremely pompous and self-important who thought that the Prince and Princess had reserved him for their special occasion (their marriage) but cried so much that he didn't go off in the end. He was thrown away into the mud because of this, but every character he came across was victim of his constant rambling about how important he was and that he was a distinguished rocket and everyone will witness him when he gets set off. He is then found by a young boy who accidently used him to light their fire, and when he did go off no one saw nor heard him apart from the duck who was frightened by his falling stick. [reference]

I created a mind map of all of my research to generate some ideas:

Now I am ready to start doodling!

Reflective & Critical Thinking - Summary

I decided to look at a new quote while I was still working on my Lord of the Rings one because I felt that I needed to go for something different in order to keep being inspired. After looking back at my previous designs I noticed that I have been leaning on the calligraphic side and so my Dr. Seuss design did look a bit out of place so I wanted to create something just to bulk up that fun style just a little bit. Besides, I really enjoyed creating lots of different hand-lettering typefaces so I think this will be a very light and enjoyable project. 

I only did very brief research on this quote as I already knew a little bit about Oscar Wilde's life, and so fully concentrated on the meaning behind the quote. I was originally going to skip this but I learnt from past experiences that this wasn't a good idea and I wanted to create a piece that related as much to the quote as possible.

I am glad that I did do this because I have now been able to generate a lot of ideas and inspiration for the type of lettering that I am going to do. I am going to produce something quirky and fun like I did for my Dr. Seuss piece but (another thing I learnt from before) I am going straight into traditional media and just colour it on Photoshop. I shall do the same method for my other designs to ensure that I am not wasting any time. 

My next step is to now do some doodles and slowly put my design together. Hopefully it wouldn't take me the whole week to do this so that I could go back to my Lord of the Rings quote! 

References: Classic Reader "The Remarkable Rocket" http://www.classicreader.com/book/208/1/, March 14 2014.

Learning Outcomes:
[4] Developed research skills in the area of contemporary professional practice.
[8] Developed their ability to scan and organise data, abstract meaning from information and communicate knowledge in a variety of formats.

FMP (BA): "Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost"

Final Outcome

The Process

I went back to the ideas I already have in my sketchpad and I realised that my idea might not necessarily be good for my target audience as the message isn't clear enough. Even though I know that the quote is based around Aragorn (after extensive research) other Lord of the Rings fans might not know about this.

This led me back to my idea of drawing out a map, having been inspired by the map of Middle Earth. I wanted to use the same type style but it was just the illustration that would have to change. What I wanted to do is put all of the words as if they are running along a path apart from the word "wander" which will be surrounded by mountains and trees. This design will still link to Aragorn as it would relate to his life as a Ranger where he lived in the wild and travelled around Middle Earth.

FMP (BA): Today's Experimentation - Tea/Coffee Paper and Celtic Lettering

Tea & Coffee Stained Paper

Just before I started on my Celtic lettering exercise I had the idea of trying out tea and coffee stained paper to provide that medieval texture to the design. I got this idea from looking at the map of Middle Earth and from watching Lord of the Rings because whenever they did use paper or read books in the films the paper was slightly yellow. If I could achieve a similar look it would make it more authentic and relevant to the Lord of the Rings theme.

I started by doing tea-stained paper because at the time I thought that coffee might be too dark for my design. What I did was put a couple of tea bags in a jun and left it to brew for around ten minutes to get as much of the colouring as possible. Once that was done I poured the liquid into a dish that was just big enough for the paper and put one sheet in it for around 3 minutes. I had to press it down a couple of times because the paper kept floating to the surface but after those 3 minutes I took it out, used a hair dryer to dry it a little bit and scrunched it before putting it on a plastic wallet to dry all of the way through.
I repeated the process with three other sheets of paper, and each paper was left in the liquid for longer. My second sheet was in it for 4 minutes, the third for 7 minutes, and the fourth for 10 minutes. I decided not to scrunch these ones because I could always ruffle it later and besides, when they dry they would automatically be a little crumpled. After the 10 minute sheet I did the 3 and 4 minute one again without crumpling them.

FMP (BA): Initial Ideas & Experimentation with Celtic Writing

I decided to follow James Victore's advice on how to find my voice [link here] so instead of spending a day searching for inspirational posters and designs, I focused mainly on gathering inspiration from the Lord of the Rings books and films.

Sketching Ideas 

While I was watching the Fellowship of the Ring I sketched a few rough ideas based on my inspiration, because I prefferred to have something down (no matter how sketchy) so that I didn't forget about it later. I started to draw the Tree of Gondor when I came up with the idea of merging the it with Narsil (Elendir's sword) to portray Aragorn as both are very closely linked to him. I wrote some small notes on how I would briefly look into Chalk Lettering but when I watched the film more I realised that that type style might not be suitable for this 'project'.

I started to think about celtic writing, but I was soon distracted by my other idea that I just left it for a bit and sketched out my tree and sword. I couldn't really decide where I was going to place the type but for now I thought I'd have it overlap the sword & tree and delete the areas they'll overlap so that it's left with a blank space for the text. I thus moved on to focus mainly on the type.

FMP (BA): Research - J. R. R. Tolkien

For my next quote I wanted to do something along the lines of "Not all those who wander are lost", a quote taken from the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R Tolkien. As you might've seen in my last post, I was worried about trying to cover all of the subjects that take place in the Oxford Literary Festival and how it would tie in with literature and I have found a way...

Because, y'see, "Not all those who wander are lost" is a literary quote and it relates to travel. 

This is what I'm hoping to do for the others; find quotes that are from books and then draw connections to them to the other topics (if I have the time to do more than 4 for the book). It's a win-win situation because I'm sticking to my brief as well as aiming to a wider audience.

What I aim to do first is to research into the Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as The Hobbit, mainly focusing on the important aspects of all of the books and films before sketching some rough compositions. I want to create something inspired by the Supernatural t-shirt that I analysed quite a while back because I found it really clever how they manage to connect everything to do with Sam Winchester in it in a subtle way.

Quick Mind Map

I decided to generate a quick mind map on the knowledge I had so far on Lord of the Rings before I carry out my research. This will enable me to pinpoint any initial ideas that I could later develop after my research.

The Quote

"Not all those who wander are lost" is actually only a small section of a quote. The reason why I'm going to keep it this short because if I did the full phrase then it would just be too long to hand letter. Here's the full quote anyway for reference in case I do decide to do the full poem:

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”

FMP (BA): Today's Thoughts

Reflective Thinking

As I was taking a breather from my J.R.R.Tolkien quote I looked back at my Dr. Seuss design and thought about what Carlos Garde-Martin and one of my lecturers said about my sketch and decided to do it traditionally. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't realise this earlier... It was sitting in my sketch work all along, that I actually prefer doing this traditionally. 

This made me decide that from now on I shall mainly work through traditional media and if I wanted to do anything digitally then I would, but I'll never leave the traditional side of it. This is shown in my previous Dr. Seuss design where I had done it all digitally... Well, it just lost all 'emotion' and character behind it because I wasn't able to put "me" into it.

This is a comment that my lecturers made about this quote and how it was actually speaking out to me because this traditional style is me. 

What I was also thinking about was that I might separate my designs in sense that I'll display the author's name on another page so that they become double-paged spreads. This will hopefully fill out the book a little bit more as I think on Blurb I need to produce at least 20 pages, so in reality that's around 10 designs not to mention the front and back covers. This might seem scary but I am hoping that I can do this! I guess now I should focus on my strengths and the final outcome and aim to do 10 designs.

FMP (BA): Dr Seuss - "Sketchy" Version

Reflective Thinking

I have briefly mentioned in a previous post that an illustrator named Carlos Garde-Martin came to visit the university and I managed to have a little chat with him about this project. While I was flicking through showing him some of my sketches and designs he pointed out that he really liked my hand-rendered work, and preferred my sketch version of my Dr. Seuss design than my digital one. This brought me back to when I was talking to one of my lecturers as he also mentioned that he preferred my sketch. I know I said that I would leave this quote until I've designed some more but while I was stuck on inspiration I decided to sketch out my design again. 

The Process

Sketch & Line Work 

To do this I simply traced my printed version onto another piece of paper and started to sketch it out like my old version, using two different thicknesses of micron pens when it came to line the work. 

FMP (BA): Exercise - Dip Pens

Here I went back to trying out the "embrace your handwriting" idea and this time I fully concentrated on using dip pens. It has been a while since I used them so I was surprised to see how well my results were... In fact, they were much better than my previous attempts! I have been able to master the thick and thin strokes (unlike my attempts with the brush pens) which really made me feel good about my handwriting and my ability to use them.

FMP (BA): You are You & It Always Seems Impossible

I spent the whole of today printing out what I had and asking for feedback because even though I do like how the two designs look now, there are some small things that are really bugging me. What I'm doing here is writing down my thoughts and the feedback I had gathered, and the ways I responded to them.

Dr Seuss - You are You

Re-Designing

When I went back to university I asked for some feedback from my classmates and lecturers as I was still feeling a bit iffy with how the lettering looks, and they mentioned that it was probably because it was very structured and the words aren't "free" and quirky like Dr. Seuss' style. This gave me the idea of going back to the original design where the type overlaps the stripes, so all I needed to do really is zoom right in and rearrange the few things.

That's exactly what I did next; I kept my notes beside me that I wrote from my feedback and went back onto Illustrator to change the overall composition. One of the positive feedback I got from this new design was that people found it much easier to read and that it flowed really nicely, and that was one of the main things that I was trying to achieve.

FMP (BA): Sean De Burca's Visit at Uni

Hand letterer and graphic designer Sean de Burca came to visit our university today to talk through his design process. As soon as I found out about the visit I made sure that I stayed behind so that I could ask him a few questions about his work.

I'm still relatively new to the topic and there were a few things on my mind; how did he make his type so accurate? How did he know what style to use? 

Turns out that he actually works on a letter, measures it, and then uses the same measurements across the rest of his letters. I would quite like to use a similar technique because his type looks really neat, almost as if it's computer generated. 

In terms of style it was all down to research and what the client was looking for, so maybe I should perceive each author as being my client and figuring out the best way to represent them. 

Here are some images taken from his presentation slides:

His links:

Facebook Page

Reflective Thinking - Summary

This "lecture" was actually really inspirational as it shows what I could achieve with lots of practice. I hope that I am able to work with different type styles and not just my own handwriting and that "fun" style that Steve Simpson does, and it'll be nice to do something like Blackletter. Even though I'm not working on a Blackletter piece right now I shall keep his work in mind in case I need it for inspiration in the future.

In his work he always makes sure that his type has the same width and height and that everything is consistent. Right now I'm working on my own handwriting techniques so wouldn't need to take this into account just yet, but I'll keep this in mind in the future. It was nice to see his sketches alongside his final pieces because it just shows how much work goes into them. 

The main aspect of his work is that his sketches are always near-accurate so that it's easier to clean up on the computer. I have been using a similar technique with my Dr. Seuss piece, but maybe I should focus on it a bit more to make it easier for me, as I am struggling quite a bit. 

FMP (BA): You Are You Contin (again)

The Final (hopefully) Piece

The Process

It seems like I'm continuously going back to this! As much as I love lettering... This is getting a bit annoying...

I joke, I joke. I mean it's all part of the learning process, right? To always go back and find things to change that you didn't notice before? 

Well hopefully this will be the last time that I drastically change this piece because I am getting a bit worried that I'm running out of time.

My idea is to basically take out the hat completely and just focus on rearranging the type according to the structure I quickly sketched out when I got home from the long train journey. Hopefully this wouldn't take too long to do (but digital stuff always does, sigh). So here goes!

FMP (BA): "It Always Seems Impossible Until It's Done"

The Final Piece

The Process

I mentioned in my last post when I was struck by an idea while I was sitting on the train home and how it was better than my original design because it linked in with Nelson Mandela and his moment of freedom. 

After choosing the most appropriate sketch - another thing I mentioned in my previous post - I spent the next day drawing it out and finishing it off. It didn't take as long as I thought because I had an idea of exactly what I want it, and as soon as I got the thumbs up from my lecturer I just went along and did it.

FMP (BA): Train Journey Home

Critical & Reflective Thinking

I was on a long train journey home when I started to think about my projects. I had taken a couple of days break from design work because I felt that I was getting a bit claustrophobic and was starting to panic about my abilities as a lettering artist.

Nevertheless that train journey really helped in a number of ways.

Dr. Seuss

The first thing I thought about was my Dr. Seuss design and how my mum and some of my colleagues commented that it was a bit crowded. I thought, "Okay, I might just shift it around" but as I continued to think about it I realised that it was the hat itself that was making everything crowded. Using the technique of redundancy I thought of taking the hat completely out of the picture and just concentrate on the letters itself.

As soon as I got home I quickly drafted out a new layout for the letters as I'm hoping to just use what I had already done and then just changed it around slightly. 

New version

Apart from the fact that the old design was a bit crowded, my other reason was that it was too Dr. Seuss-y, it was way too obvious so instead of shoving it in people's faces shouting "LOOK IT'S INSPIRED BY DR. SEUSS" I could just do it subtly and use his signature colours to make it recognisable.