Illustration | Graphically Speaking

Exercise (p.40 OCA Graphic Design): Your brief is to design a stunning and contemporary cover for one of the 20^th Century’s most acclaimed authors, HG Wells. When you have a range of ideas and have notes in your learning log, make some rough drawings or sketches to show your ideas.

: HG Wells mindmap 1

: HG Wells book cover designs 1

: HG Wells Book cover designs 2

: HG Wells mindmap 2

: HG Wells Thumbnails

I could sense a little hesitation when I first read through the brief, this sounds like ‘proper’ graphic design! Rather than worry about whether I could come up with an appropriate design I thought about the research process. I started with an overarching mindmap drawing out some keywords, identifying research needs, thinking about different angles on the brief and drawing out some of the decision process. This process helped me think about which books I might design the book cover for, secondary online research showed that the most common titles for this sort of exercise seem to be ‘War of the Worlds,’ ‘The Invisible Man,’ ‘The Time Machine,’ and the ‘Island of Dr.Moreau.’

When I looked at HG Wells’ bibliography I came across a number of short stories that I hadn’t read before and decided this was the direction I wanted to take, that way I could perhaps develop something more distinctive. The short stories are full of rich symbolism with a glorious sense of the Gothic; several of them reminded me of Grand Guignol plays. I then decided on the three short stories I wanted to work with and did a further mindmap drawing out keywords for each of the titles. As I did this I had a sense I was starting to visualise how the design might develop, I could see some layouts in my mind’s eye.

In parallel I looked at lots of other examples for inspiration and tried to analyse the designs in terms of what I felt worked and what I might have done differently. I am now deep into playing with typefaces and thinking about which designs I might develop.

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Yesterday, I was being opportunistic and with hindsight a little optimistic about getting to a number of exhibitions in between meetings while I was in London. I have read somewhere about keeping my influences broad and staying in touch with culture in its widest sense to improve my graphic design sensibility. So, I had lined up in my head:

The V&A Illustration awards 2016
William Eggleston at the National Portrait Gallery
Dutch flower painting at the National Gallery
Georgia O’Keefe at Tate Modern

Inevitably travel across London took longer than anticipated and in the end I managed two of the four. I thought I might just squeeze in the O’Keefe but the queue for tickets was just too long. In the case of Eggleston and O’Keefe, although I didn’t get to see the work, it was interesting to see the graphic design involved in their promotion.

The Illustration awards were a bit of a disappointment, not in terms of the work but in their display and presentation. They were tucked away in front of the National Art Library in brightly lit cases with a lot of red in the background. I’m afraid I felt it just didn’t do the work justice. You get a better sense of all the work online as well as being able to see all the entries.

Display case with text a red background and a small figure in the middle of menacing shadows

V&A Illustration Awards 2016: Bill Bragg’s ‘Now I’m Afraid’

The illustration that stood out for me was Bill Bragg’s ‘Now I’m Afraid,’ I found it incredibly powerful and liked its simplicity. It worked so well with the text and completely captured the sense of menace Masuma Rahim conveyed. The quality of all the work was very high and it was interesting for me to think about how I analysed illustrations as opposed to the more familiar photography or painting. I found I was considering them in the light of not just the quality of the art but whether they fulfilled their purpose in illuminating the text or the point being made.

Of those that didn’t make the finalists I really liked Lesley Barnes, Jill & the Dragon. It is lively and engaging, and looks to me like it has some historical references in its Bayeux tapestry type form. Let’s face it what’s not to love about dragons!

Banner for Duth Flowers exhibition at National Gallery August 2016

Dutch Flower Exhibition banner

From the V&A I went to the National Gallery to indulge my recent preoccupation with Vanitas Still Life, I particularly wanted to see if any of the women I had researched for my last photography assignment were included. Although these were specifically flower paintings rather than Vanitas you could see elements of the genre in a number of the paintings – the cycle of life and death.

I was interested in the graphic design incorporated in the promotion of the exhibition that not surprisingly focused on the beauty of the flowers.

It was also fascinating to see the mass of merchandising the exhibition had generated in the shop, everything from notelets to a glasses cleaning cloth. Perhaps surprisingly there wasn’t a catalogue but there was pretty much everything else. Most of the heading font was serif combined with san serif body text. I could understand the use of the serif header text because it looks in keeping with the historic nature of the work.

By this point I knew there wasn’t time to fit in both Eggleston and Georgia O’Keefe so I headed off to Tate Modern, sadly by the time I got there was not enough time left to get a ticket and do justice to the show so that will have to wait for another day.

Banne for Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition outside Tate Modern with St Pauls in the background

Georgia O’Keeffe Exhibition banner

As with the Dutch flower paintings it was interesting to see how Tate Modern was presenting the show, something I might only have shown a passing interest in before now. Would I have used the white flower as the main image? Possibly not. It gives a sense of her fluid style but I don’t think it conveys the vibrancy of much of her work. The font used seemed to be very much in keeping with the Tate house style and very clear and clean. Apparently the brand identity was designed by Marina Willer of Wolff Olins in the late nineties.

It was really about finding the balance between making Tate much more democratic and accessible to lots of people, without taking away any of the things that they’ve built over the years in terms of respect and authority.

Willer, 2011, Creative Review ‘Branding the Art World’

Surprisingly, during my visit to London the piece that most caught my eye was the poster showing the changing design of the London Underground Roundel – it was fascinating!