The Mind Behind The Madness

As the first module of second year, I think this live brief was a great way to start; Getting us ready for industry and showing us what is expected of us in the future.  Looking back on my designs for this module I am proud of my illustrations, I feel they are easy to recognise and the use of cut-outs and shadows have allowed them to lift from the page. I am also pleased with the direction of my branding; focusing on family and the love that has gone into the business. Using the reds and the heart shape within my logo really brings a family feel to the whole brand. Gella’s Kitchen’s original branding was mainly a dull dark green, that completely distracted us from the products. To counter this I have used similar colours but brightened versions. The lighter colours bring personality to the brand and open up the targeted audience to people of all cultures and backgrounds. The colours I have chosen are all representations of fresh ingredients.

If I could change anything about this project I would go back and edit my mood board. After my live pitch presentation my designs changed direction and I would have loved to create and updated mood board with my new brand colours and illustrations. Throughout this module I have been working on multiple computers (at university and at home) and had trouble finding a font that would translate between them. With more time I would have found a way to use the font I initially wanted on both computers. In addition to this, my labels could be more precise, something I could have achieved in InDesign. I would have liked to edit the font colour and kept it current throughout the branding. This was highlighted when I tried to mock up my packaging designs. I struggled to find a mock up that would emphasise my packaging and would have loved to show the whole label mocked -up.

Throughout this module, I have loved working for a live client. Being able to develop a brand design and receive feedback from the client has been very helpful and a new experience for me. I feel it is easier to develop a design when the client who it’s intended for can add input and collaborate with your ideas. Once I had received feedback, I was able to alter my brand to the clients wishes. Another aspect of this module that I loved was the fact that we were able to work on campus and converse with our peers. Having peer feedback is the most helpful thing throughout this module. Gaining multiple opinions really helped me make informed decisions throughout this module.

A key thing I have learnt these past 4 weeks has been how to use illustrator. I have always worked with pen and paper and then uploaded to photoshop to finalise my designs. This time however, I was told by the tutors that working in Illustrator will help my illustrations to be crisp and presentable because they work in vectors rather than pixels. Because of this feedback I have worked entirely on illustrator and will do continue to do so in the future. I have also learnt that I need to work on my time-management skills, I felt like this last week has been very stressful and that I have needed to rush my designs, next time I will create a timetable for myself so that I give myself adequate time to compete everything to the standard that I expect from myself.

Out of the 4 live briefs offered I was most drawn Gella’s Kitchen. Gella’s kitchen is a condiments and seasonings brand that brings together Jamaican and Brummie flavours. Created in her home kitchen, Gella first sold her products to her family after the Christmas of 2019 and has since won a small business Sundays award. From the interview with Jane, Gella seems like someone who is full of love and has a lot of love to give. Her products therefore are made with love, however her branding does not reflect this.

We have been asked to revitalize Gella’s Kitchen. Turning her branding into a story that explains to her customers what she sells. Wishing to reach a wider customer base, the branding must be inviting and not directed at a specific audience. She also wishes to sell her products to new retailers and in the future larger supermarkets.

Initially, my chosen BA degree course was Design for Performance. As I understood it, I needed to create something that my audience could interact with. After my visit to New York I came back with the idea to create a Totem Pole in a museum exhibition.

I didn’t have a specific audience in mind. Of course as I was stepping into unknown territory, using peoples’ traditions in my work I wanted to respect their history and do right by them. It was important to me to create my own version of a totem pole.

In order to further understand the culture behind the totem pole, how it came to be, I did a lot of research on various websites. Understanding the difference between each type of totem was crucial. The Fabric Lenny workshop really inspired me. I loved working with and manipulating the cardboard and decided that I was going to create my work in the same media.

I wanted to create a portal pole, which acts as the front entrance to a house. There would be a hole at the bottom-center, big enough for somebody to walk through, this would be the doorway into the home. Depicted on these poles were totems of families that had lived there previously, so these poles act as the history of the house. My idea was to create my own portal pole with my family members on it. Each animal would represent a different family member according to their personalities and characteristics.

 I researched different animal traits and characteristics and allocated each one of my family members an animal. To start off with I drew out these animals, from various point of views, to gain a better understanding of the shapes of each animal. Then, because I wanted to use cardboard, I drew out geometric versions of my animals.

I studied a sculptor called Chris Gilmour, he specializes in hyper realistic; life- size objects made solely from cardboard boxes and glue. The way he manipulates cardboard to create what he wants is inspiring. It was strange to see such a mundane material being used in such a varied way.

 It is hard to explain but when I started to create my animals out of cardboard, I did not plan it out first. I saw the animal in my head or in pictures and swapped its skin for cardboard. It was very much a trial and error process. At the end of making my snake, I realized I had made it much too small because I was working in life size in my head.

I liked the thought of making something so delicate like a snake into a sculpture that was not delicate at all. The use of cardboard made my sculpture look strong and bulky, which is how I see totem poles, so it was a perfect fit.

After Covid-19 became an issue and the university was closed I was reduced to creating a totem pole in my Uni kitchen. As I didn’t have access to the supplies I needed (like an abundance of cardboard) I went back to a technique I learnt at A Level, where I scrunched up blue roll and used masking tape to attach it. I ended up creating a frog head in this way, also using empty cider bottles as a center support.

 However, the living conditions were not enough for me. I was on my own away from my family and friends and I felt it would be better for me to move back to my family home. Unfortunately, due to a lack of space I was not able to continue making my totem pole and had to find another route for my project to continue down.

 As I still wanted to base my work on my family history and I still loved the idea of creating a totem pole. I tried to come up with different ways of reducing the size of my work. With a little help from my dad, I decided to do a painting of my original totem pole. If I had painted the totem pole as it would have been, I believe it would have been a bit bland. So, I decided to expand on the idea of individual characteristics and added little details to each of my animals until they became characters.

I studies an artist called Dan Stiles who I have been a fan of for a while. His work is bold and colourful, much like the designs on totem poles. Once I had drawn out my animals, I decided to add colour in the same way.

 I decided to paint my totem pole onto a piece of wood, keeping with the traditional poles. I love to paint and feel more in control of my work when painting than using any other medium. I drew out my design using tracing paper and then added the colour on top.

 I believe that my end product was very successful as I was able to keep with my idea of celebrating the history of the totem pole. The precision of the painting kept it clean and I think that the boldness of the colours used was very effective.

The unsuccessful part of my project was the timing, it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do for this project; and even once I had started working on it I wasn’t sure if I liked what I was doing.

Dan Stiles is a Designer, Illustrator and Author, originally from Michigan. Stiles uses digital illustration to create his artwork.

Dan Stiles uses colourful geometric shapes in a style that has been described as "punk rock modern" and "pop folk".

In each design Stiles uses bright contrasting colours that work effectively together, making the pieces come to life. Throughout his work there is a pattern involving the outline of each of his designs. They are the same colour as the background, which gives the impression that the artwork is made up of separate shapes. On a few of his designs, Stiles has overlapped some of the shapes and has made the overlap a colour which is a mixture of that of the shapes, giving the impression that thay have a low opacity percentage.

A reason I like Dan Stiles' work is that it is in the style of cartoons, with block fill colours rather than looking real. I feel that when I create artwork I perform better in the cartoon style. His artwork has inspired me as I see it as very loud and I believe goes well with the traditional colours and shapes of Totem Poles.