Feedback Response
From the group crit I took away 3 pieces of feedback for me to work on, the sheet above shows 3 quick examples exploring the feedback i received. The one in the top left hand corner is an experiment with scale, the point of scale arose because each letter is so detailed with intricate lines is it actually possible for my ideas to work on a smaller scale and for the name badge. I believe it does work on a smaller scale to a point, it's not to hard to read but it doesn't have that same effect that a much larger letter would have because i can't put as many line in it or show as much detail. But I believe it will work well enough to be placed on a name badge if I just use less lines and a smaller pt pen.
Below that letter is another idea taken from the feedback, the feedback was to experiment with strokes and weights of each individual piece of paisley that makes up the letter. I think it turned out a lot better than i originally expected, I thought it would turn out all random and mixed, as if they had just been placed together to form a letter and have no flow whatsoever. However, I believe the different weights of each paisley adds depth and and illusion of layering, as if it's a 3-dimensional image because of the darker and lighter tones created by each off the pens and the meeting point between two paisley shapes.
And the final piece of feedback i received was to play with shapes and spacing, does it all need to be contained within a shape or can they exist without a border. Therefore I created a letter where the paisley shapes don't actually meet or make contact with one and other. I'm not really a huge fan of the way the it's turned out, without the shapes coming into contact with each other they don't really form that uniform shape that forms the latter, I find it hard to make out the shape and I believe with more detailed intricate letters this will be more of a struggle which is why i'm going shelve this idea and concentrate on the basic letters for now.
Above is a simple mock up of how the first 16 letters of my alphabet would initially line up and coincide with each other. I've decided to manipulate my letters to follow imaginary curves to give it more of a psychedelic feel to it but to also relate it more to the works of Wes wilson. I love how the font works in harmony with the imaginary curved lines it follows, accompanied with the Kid Acne inspired lines within my letters it creates a kind of trippy psychedelic illusion. However after thinking long and hard I found a downside to the way I want to lay out my final font, when individual letters are put next to each other for example; H, I and D they don't work together. The H is towering over the I and the D is curved meaning when creating words it just looks a mess. Therefore I have to resort to creating a uniform font where everything is the same pt size etc...
Above is a quick mock up of how the basic outline and shape of each letter will look. The whole alphabet only took me around 20 minutes to create. I think this is a good thing, i've spent hours contemplating what each letter is going to look like but when I came to designing the letters i wanted them to look raw and just look like they flowed together and I think by spending ages drawing out each individual letter things can get over complicated and with too much thought things could actually look worse, when all I want is something inspired from the 60's and early 70's with the same aesthetic quality.
The reason for choosing those glyphs was because at a glance each one reminded me of paisley, I thought it'd be fun to play around with manipulating them into the shapes of paisley. For example the exclamation mark has been manipulated to look like paisley up top, it also adds that groovy feel to it that I set out to achieve.
Name Badge Development
Kid Acne layers colour behind each of his patterns therefore with the name badge I decided to experiment with colour because of the change in requirements and the fact we were allowed to use colour and create it digitally. However I avoided working digitally because I felt I wouldn't be able to achieve the same aesthetics and line quality as I can with a pigment ink pen. I made the decision to use water colours to create the back ground layer based on the washy look I can achieve but also because of the ease to create gradients, the gradients relate back to the era I have been inspired by and represents tie dye and patterns often seen in psychedelic paintings and images. I think is idea is extremely successful, I love the contrast between the harsh bold dark lines upon the washed out watercolours and how each section of the piece is accompanied by a slightly different shade of pink or orange or yellow. The change in colour adds depth and dimension to the shapes, giving the illusion of each shape wrapping round one and other.
Above are 3 different variations of the name badge I created for Oli, I love the colour of the middle one it has the effect of splashes and tie dye whereas the other too just have a gradient background. However the O on the middle one is probably the worst O out of the lot, the lines are untidy and quite heavy. I also think there are too many paisley shapes that are too small which is over complicating the shape of the O. If i could mix and match letters from each badge and lay them on the coloured background I would have the perfect name badge.