Not really sure what’s going on with Tumblr at the minute but for some reason things like “read more” breaks won’t appear when the post has been published and the option to upload a photo makes the browser stall so for now I’m switching to Blogger! I’ll see you’s there :)

This week I’ve spent time researching websites and other mediums for some design and technical inspiration.

Design Research:

Again, using a mind map, I broke down all the areas that I would like to explore and research regarding my site design. This week I’ve been looking at the influence of Pop Art in cinema and music.

As the name suggests, Pop Art is popular art. So where better to look than the most iconic and popular music artists of the past and present decades to see how Pop Art has aesthetically influenced their music videos (colours, set design, clothing styles), album covers and posters.

The first music artist that popped into my head (no pun intended), was Rihanna. It is clear that her recent video ‘Rude Boy’ is heavily influenced by the quirky characteristics of Pop Art.

The bright neon colours, the focus on contours and shapes and abstract style imagery are all traits of Pop Art that scream at us throughout the video. The movement came about during the late 1950’s - early 60’s and has continued to make an impact on fashion, music, decor, art and cinema since. It has managed to remain a contemporary design and style for over 50 years, and is still being used by other current music artists who are shaking up the pop-music world as we know it, such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.

These artists are creatively reshaping the sound and aesthetic of the music industry and have taken inspiration from older pop legends such as Madonna and Michael Jackson.

The images above have encouraged me to do some creative experimentation based on the different ways Pop Art can be executed. Last week, I practised picking out colours from a black and white image which was inspired by a print of Marilyn Monroe that I absolutely love. I have been playing with the idea of having a black and white site with colours picked out on the navigation and perhaps one image on each page as I love this look. Another idea I have been thinking about is utilizing the cartoon pop art effect that comic strips typically use.

While I was researching Lady Gaga, I came across a video still from her ‘Telephone’ video. This particular shot does not use the typical visual pop art effects such as spotting, block images and grainy textures, but the colours, fashion and American flag reminded me of super hero comic strips.

Creative Experimentation:

I decided to try and combine my favourite two elements of pop-art (picking out only a few colours and the cartoon effect) to see how it would look. I took inspiration from the still of Lady Gaga as well as the comic strip images I found on Google. Using a photo I had taken of my nephew, I used Photoshop to repeat the method used in my last creative experimentation to pick out the colours and then used the cartoon effect to finish. 

The Inspiration:

The Experiment:

I like how the photo turned out but think adding the spotted texture to the face and hands would have resembled the image from the comic strip above more. I haven’t yet worked out how to do this but am curious to find out as I could use this technique alone as the background image on the site or in the font of the logo.

Technical Research:

When it comes to the technical implementation of a website, I struggle a little bit. I find the easiest part of web design is coming up with the concept, layout and general design. This area is where I will be asking for the most help and guidance.

After using Wordpress frequently on placement to update and re-design the Féile an Phobail websites, I would feel comfortable using this platform to create my major project site as it is an effective CMS and can be easily customized and updated. I love the Flash banner used on the Féile main site as it acted as the web banner as well as allowing the user to see at a glance what news and events were coming soon, rather than them having to navigate their way around the site to find the information themselves.

Féile Flash Banner:

I’ve also been having a look at http://php.opensourcecms.com/ which is a great website to explore other CMS platforms. I would like to try using a different CMS as it would give me the opportunity to learn something new but would like a bit of advice on which is the best to use as, as I’ve said, Wordpress is the only one I have used so far.

HTML 5 is another option. I am comfortable using HTML and would like to try some of the new elements of the new version. I plan to go over which are the best tools and techniques to use when constructing my site with Gabriel in Friday’s class.

After speaking with Gabriel on Friday, he mirrored the concerns I had regarding my 3 major project ideas. We both agreed that when building the websites, I may find it difficult to find enough content to add to them. Therefore, Gabriel advised me to start back at square one and concentrate on the things that interest me most as I would be spending a lot of time researching and developing ideas based on my chosen topic. 

I developed a mind map from thinking about my hobbies and interests. I found this really helped generate more solid ideas for my major project.

Major Project Mind Map:

From looking at these ideas and my research from last week, I’ve decided to base my major project on a Pop Art appreciation site. I would have lots to talk about and research on this topic and as I find it really interesting and inspiring, I will enjoy spending time on it.

A bit of Pop Art History:

Pop Art is a 20th century art movement that utilized the imagery and techniques of consumerism and popular culture. Pop art developed in the late1950’s as a reaction against Abstract Expressionism and flourished in the sixties and early seventies. Pop Art favored figural imagery and the reproduction of everyday objects, such as Campbell Soup cans, comic strips and advertisements. The movement eliminated distinctions between “good” and “bad” taste and between fine art and commercial art techniques.

Sourced from http://www.biddingtons.com/content/pedigreepop.html

Pop-it.com

Concept: A pop art appreciation site for people who want to purchase pop art, find out about it, admire the gallery or learn how to do it.

Problem: As a lover of pop art, when searching the topic on the web I noticed I was jumping from site to site when researching different aspects of it. I viewed it on several sites, found background info on it on another site, and to buy posters etc I was re-directed to another site.

Solution: To combine all the things people want to see/know/buy/do regarding pop art into the one site.

I’ve decided to call the site pop-it.com. I think it’s quirky and fresh, as is the subject of Pop Art. I found mind maps really helpful to gather my thoughts and being able to physically see them on paper helped me generate ideas from ideas. I decided to make a site map for pop-it.com to help keep the content relevant and compact. 

You can see from the site map that I’ve decided to create a 5 page site. Each page is titled example-it. I decided to do this so that they tie-in with the name of the site and to make it different from the basic ‘Home’, ‘History’, ‘Blog’ type tabs.

The main areas I plan to research in relation to Pop Art over the coming weeks are:

• Music videos
• Pop Art and cinematic imagery
• Fashion
• Iconic artists
• Comic strips
• Font
• My favourite pieces of Pop Art

I also plan to start developing my technical skills and try experimenting with HTML 5, Flash, creating a blog/gallery and online shop.

This week I’ve been looking at various different websites, imagery and fonts for the latest design trends and inspiration.

I came across smashingmagazine.com which provides lots of hints and tips to help freelance web/graphic designers. They mentioned in one post that looking at desktop screen savers can be a great source of inspiration. I probably would never have thought to look at screensavers to help generate some design ideas for my Major Project website. I had a flick through the catalogue of what they consider to be the top 45 wallpapers.

Wallpaper designed by Minhaj Mohamed, sourced via smashingmagazine.com

The things that stood out in this wallpaper were the colours and simplicity of the design. I’m very indecisive when it comes to design and look around for ideas before executing my own, but the one thing I am sure of is that I love clear, crisp and simple design. For me, this type of design is more effective than any other. The layout and colour of a design (web, print and fonts) are the first 2 things that catch my eye. I like both extremes…bright and bold or calm and neutral.

Wallpaper designed by Wirdy Hamidy, sourced via smashingmagazine.com

I love 1950’s pop art inspired design. I love creating strong images from simple photos by posterizing them or using Photoshop to create a pop art effect. This image illustrates what I meant by a bright and bold type of design. I also think it’s really contemporary.

Creative Experimentation:

I used photoshop to edit this image of my nephew. This style of pop art is commonly used and was influenced by Andy Warhol, the other uses a comic book effect which was inspired by Roy Linchenstein. These are my favourite Pop Art artists.

For me, black and white imagery captures clear, simple and effective design. I particularly love the classic black and white images of Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. I found the images below on popartuk.com and visualiseus.com. These are great websites for sourcing pop art material.

Creative Experimentation

I came across a black and white image of Marilyn with the colour on the lips and background picked out. I thought this was a really striking image that had the perfect mix of bright and bold and simple design. Using, Photoshop, I edited some photos that I had taken. I converted them to black and white and following a tutorial I found online, I picked out some colour.

I’ve been looking at websites such as smashingbuzz, webdesignerwall and sixvisions to find some inspirational fonts. I enjoy doodling, mostly when I should be listening, so I really like fonts that look like they’ve been hand sketched. These are some of the best ones that I found….

This week is the start of the prototyping and researching process. I haven’t yet had the chance to speak to anyone about my Major Project ideas so in the meantime I am going to start by looking at the design aspect rather than content.

I recently completed a year’s placement with Féile an Phobail, the West-Belfast Festival. I had amateur experience/skills in software and programming languages such as Photoshop, CSS and HTML. I started with a ‘learn as you go along’ approach to the work and tasks I was given which proved successful as I was given more and more graphic design work as my skills progressed. 

I applied my creative and innovative ideas to the design of publications and projects such as posters, flyers, festival t-shirts, festival programmes and a branding project for an arts based training programme, Outside the Box, which I was delighted to have been asked to do.

I then began working along side the I.T and web design guy in the re-design of feilebelfast.com. I found working on féilebelfast.com and my own online portfolio really beneficial and feel the experience helped develop my skills/knowledge in web design. Throughout my research I will be looking back at the design implementation process we utilized when designing my Major Project website.

My aim over the next couple of weeks is to explore web and graphic design and use some ideas from the websites above, as well as new and exisitng ideas, that I may be able to employ when designing my Major Project website.