Author: Idilijaʽs Design Blog

After the lessons about graphic designs, my eye was taken by Pop Art because of great textures and colors, but after some more research I chose Bauhaus because of it’s calming rhythm, colors and soft edged typo.

♦ Who designed it? The Design was made by Luis Garcia.

♦ When was it designed? The poster was designed in 2016 (according to the source).

♦ In what style is it designed? It was designed in the Bauhaus style. Can be easily identified from its colors, layout, rhythm, and typography.

♦ If typography is featured, to what type of family does it belong? I think it is Serif and Display mix. Mostly Serifs because of their decorativeness and Display for their large size.

♦ Why did this design catch your eye? First thing that caught my eye was the large and contrasting H B letters, then followed all color palette and how rhythmic it is. Letters seemed to be covered in layers. And definitely the layout. It is clear, and even so dynamic, it gives some kind of systematic and calm feeling.

♦ Is this style still relevant today? Definitely. Not for everything, but this style I would definitely use for art expositions, musical evening at the restaurant, or any other calming and cultural event.

♦ What are you taking away from this design? What design practices can you implement in your own work? I could hardly take out anything, particularly from this design. If I would design the Bauhaus style, I would implement it with some rhythm, colors, and maybe some similarities to fill in.

References: the picture was taken from http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-32501.html Herbert Bayer Universalalphabet 1926 poster by Luis Garcia 2016

Had an amazing time making shapes at Adobe Illustrator and had a great time to make a composition of the face with them. It was extremely fun, especially when I am not an abstract art person, but it got me into it so much. Played with color palette for shapes as well. Got two results and I think that second one is my favorite, haha.

Researching. My favorite and many times tested way to reach as many ideas as I can. I usually take a subject and not just ”Google” it, I take definitions, meanings, and synonyms. Maybe it makes me feel some color in the word, or reminds me of some smell (yup), as well, I sometimes do even a test on the internet! If the subject is about making myself into an animal, I take a test of what is my spirit animal, to find out. Yes, it takes time, but I am a very precise person, and a bit stubborn, when I see a vision in my head, want to realize it as it is, and even better.

ASMR. I am a bit of an ADHD person and concentration is my struggle. Concentration struggle vise, it is not screen timing, it is my problem to focus on one thing. Let’s take an example, when pops up to me that I haven’t put the dishwasher on, there is that toy my kid wanted and I should check it NOW, ”What is the forecast for tomorrow?” or I have to vacuum the room. Sometimes I stop and see that my main activity is forgotten beneath all the small things, so I turn on 3 to 8-hour ASMR which is usually either a hair dryer or rain and fire sounds. It helps me to focus so much, that I even lose perception of time! Useful to me!

Focus time. This is one of those ways I would love to try. Uninterrupted 90-minute work without any phone or other distractions. I think I would start with 30 minutes and increase it by 15 minutes every few days. I feel that this way is more like a kick to the botty to sit and DO IT. I believe that our mind can be trained, and everyone can force their mind to focus after many pieces of training being focused is already our habit. Just like being focused on the screen, just to change the focus point to something more meaningful and useful.

Have to be honest, that I spent on this tutorial around 4 hours and it was confusing and at some point I noticed that things are not going well, so had to start almost from the beginning to fix it and after one and half hour I made it and I am very happy about it! Looking forward to repeat it and to smooth in the information more into my head, haha.

The task was given to find a logo, poster or book cover, etc. which would be reflected gestalt principles in it. I have made some research in my Instagram, where I follow this great page called Amnesty International. It is a community of over 1 million people who are campaigning to end the abuse of human rights. And so I found one of those many powerful posters, which stands for the right of women. The author of this poster is Fons Hickmann, You can find his official poster page, as well as other works, here.

In this poster I can straight see the similarity of these ”matrioshkas” and as well as grouping them. Even though, the inside texture and shapes are changing, the main figure remains more or less the same.

As well as similarity, I can identify a little bit of symmetry in this poster. It feels relaxing to see dolls mirroring, for my eye, mostly the figure of dall it self in the vertical axes.

I had such an amazing experience trying out this great treatment for images! Loved it how detailed but simple it was. It was great that applying correct pattern, the rest of the picture can be adjusted using Your eye and looking for perfect match of this treatment.

I have tried a bit different image. But honestly, I loved that it was a bit different, and enjoyed using a gradient map! My future friend!

The task was to make a grid and make abstract art of following words: joy, sorrow, anxiety, mystery, destruction and reason. Had to use main elements of design as line, shape, form, texture and balance.

Love sketching, but to be honest I am a detail person, so it was challenging to make an abstract art/sketches.

With all my greatest interest I have tried to do this task of neon light and I loved it! I definitely tried it with the same picture as in the video, and it was mind blowing, creating great and futuristic effect.

BUT! I have taken some freedom to try on a few pictures of mine and realized that for this significant effect, the lighting has to be specific and the quality of the image as well. I still upload as an example that even though this picture quality was great, while the light is too bright, the effect just doesn’t look as great as on the darker image.

The second task for the module was divided into two parts. First of the way to surf the web and find two examples where empathy has made an advert effective in reaching the correct audience. My first thought was the famous Dove commercial: “You’re more beautiful than You think”. In my point of view, it was definitely made by reflecting women’s image of themselves, how they see themselves, and how others had seen them. In the advertisement, women are asked to describe themselves, while the artist behind the curtain sketches them by their description. After, other people describe them, as they have seen them, in the same way. As a result, both pictures are different, because the way how they see themselves is different than how they are seen by others. In conclusion, brands understand and try to make women feel better about their appearance. I believe that managers and producers of the Dove brand understand how difficult it is to be a woman and to fit into all the standards of beauty, so through the commercial they send a message, that women are beautiful, but they tend to underestimate themselves.

My second choice was the Lindex brand and its commercial for underwear. That is one of my favorite advertisements because maybe I also have insecurities about my body and this commercial normalizes all body types, skin, and textures. Lindex at this point has these women in the video wearing their brand of underwear, which sends this feeling of comfort and self-esteem. Women in the video are also calm, happy, and joyful. There is also one shot where there is a breastfeeding woman, also a pregnant woman. There are taken all types of women, for my understanding, to touch all possible audiences, to reach them, and normalize that beauty for underwear commercials shouldn’t be just size zero women, in the other words, to break standards and make women feel more confident about their bodies.

Just now, when I began to write a post in my Reflective Journal, I noticed that I HAD a choice between two tasks, but I have gladly done both of them, haha.

So first of them was a great tutorial in Adobe Creative Cloud page, where I have got familiar with some of the tools and editing skills. Have been so much into it, that after giraffe tutorial, grabbed some few more to feed my brain.

Second task was even better – together with Aaron have been developing skills on making hallucinogenic picture of Jelly Fishes! That was incredibly exciting and challenging. Loved it how tools are controlled by just shortcuts on keyboard and how comfortable and flexible is to edit a picture on Photoshop! Here is my mock-up!