After studying A Level Graphic Design, I was feeling more confident about this pathway than I had about the others. Our theme of the week was Systems and our task was to create a piece combining image and type in response to the system. After brainstorming ideas and looking at inspiration, I decided on the idea of recipes and cooking, as that is a strict order of steps that you must follow. After an introduction to semiotics – the study of signs – we began to explore typographical ideas by tracing fonts from a sheet. I created 8 different designs, combining different fonts in each, to represent my system.
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On our second day, we began to look at collage, creating images from pages taken from magazines. We experimented with collage by cutting out geometric shapes, figures and objects from the pages and replacing them.
After this activity, we created collages based on our particular theme/system, using a variety of found images, found papers and magazine cuttings. I created three collages, using a combination of drawing, sticking and 3D layering.
I was most pleased with the egg collage as I felt that the limited colours, the use of masking tape and the simplicity of the design give it quite a relaxed feel while still having character and personality. My least successful design was the collage with the pan as it’s irregularity feels messy rather than playful, which was my original intention.
On our final day in the pathway, we combined our earlier type experiments with our collages, to create two final A3 pieces. I chose the most successful of my two collages and combined them with two different pieces of type – the ‘follow the recipe’ and ‘how does it taste?’ phrases. For both pieces, I scanned the collages in digitally and edited them in Photoshop before adding the type in Illustrator, using colours from the images to add to the type. I was really pleased with my final two outcomes and I think that they represent my system clearly whilst being entertaining and aesthetically pleasing in their own right.
My Foundation Year 