Ben Freeman External Positioning Portfolio
PENGUIN BOOK COVER
I chose this brief because I am very fond of the film, and book design is something I am interested in and want to pursue further beyond University. For this however, it required a different angle or perspective at which to come at it, perhaps more mainstream. I wanted to use something that was my own and personal on the cover, and from the outset I had the intention of using photography, which is another aspect I enjoy.
I was inspired by a layout of a hardcore band’s poster that I came across online, and I began to play around with squares and rectangles in a grid like above. Although the grid is very regemented, it gives you a great freedom also as it can be moved around in any way you choose. I played around with putting different images into the grid, including the tower above, which is my own personal photography. The idea of it being divided up into different compartments also symbolises the ‘losing of the mind’ and splitting of the personality. Those ideas were something that I wanted to use in my final design. From here, I started the other way round, and instead of splitting the layout, I split the photograph first (next page). These lines are meant to directly symbolise split personality, which is a common theme in mental health. I experimented with a couple of images and splitting them in this way, but obviously the image of Jack Nicholson is from the film, which is totally seperate from the book.
This is the final design, using the image of the tower, with the lines symbolising split personality and the prison-like hospital and ward. I played around with different line widths etc, but this one is by far the cleanest. The use of the font ‘American Typewriter’ is a nod to the era of the novel, and the old-fashioned style of the wards and the hospital itself. I wanted the cover to be simple in the most part, with little details such as the newspaper name on the back and the author’s name on the front in the same orange as the Penguin logo, and the word ‘flew’ on the front cover rising up at the end. This style of cover could also easily incorporated into a series, using similar styles of photographs and simple line work to represent a theme.
Typographic circle brief I chose this brief because it combines two areas of design that I would call my favourites; typography and book design. The three previous talkers at The Typographic Circle that I chose were Anthony Burrill, Studio 8 and Jonathan Barnbrook. From the start I had always wanted to encorporate a simple, geometric style into the book, and began playing around with a circle, obviously to symbolise ‘The Typographic Circle’. I wanted to make the circle the focal point of the cover, and indeed the whole publication. On the right are some of the designs that I began with, experimenting with the three primary colours also, and different layouts and colour combinations. I feel that the designs with the circle in the middle at the top have the appearance of posters more than book covers, which is something that I thought could be an extra with the book, a fold out poster.
This page shows a range of minimally differing designs for the front cover of the Jonathan Barnbrook publication. At this point I was still working towards using colour to differentiate the three books, but to also hold them into a series. I was quite fond of all of the designs, each have their strengths and weaknesses, but again they still have the feel of posters.
I began to play around with the positioning of the circle, and moved it to one side of the page. I think this gave it a much better look and took on the form of a book rather than a poster. Your attention isn’t taken one hundred percent by the circle, but equally by the circle, the text and the Typographic Circle logo. The logo is placed neatly into the top right hand corner, and the artists’ name and the book number (001 through 003) in the bottom left, lining up and balancing the page out perfectly. The white border has also been eliminated, which I think also added to the ‘poster look’ of the earlier designs. I then began to experiment with the size of the front cover and pages. In these images the front and back cover is smaller than the inside pages, however the borders of the inner pages mean that no content shows above and below the cover, just white space. This happened purely by accident, but I really like the affect that it gives. However, due to how I wanted my publications to be inserted inside the circle magazine, it would have looked sloppy I feel. As you can see, the back cover is a mirror of the front cover with the other half of the semi-circle, so when opened out the cover completes the full circle. Simple but effective. Below shows the difference in size between the covers and the inside pages.
From the start I had a good idea of where I wanted the publication to be placed in relation to the circle magazine, and that is inside, bound in with the rest of the pages. The image on the left is another option that I like, outside the main magazine neatly tucked into the bottom left corner. But I stuck with my original idea and placed the publication into the magazine as you can see below. The simplicity of the front and back cover will work well with most content on the pages where the publication is located, as you can see below it stands out nicely in front of the white, mainly textual background.
The top image is the book in front of large photographic pages, and I think it is very effective. Obviously that magazine is not The Circle magazine, but it gives a good idea what the real thing would look like. Above is another view of the layout of the pages. I went with a three column grid, the outside column highlighting specific projects from the artist, with the inside two columns being a flowing narrative of the artists career and an interview etc., basically the main text of the publication. Each page also contains the faint red circle that sits on top of everything on the pages, I wanted to use this just to make the publication a little different, and to again emphasize the circle and tie it in with the front and back covers. The whole series will follow the same structure, the front covers the same all but the text in the corner (002 Studio 8 and 003 Jonathan Barnbrook). The entire publication can be viewed on ISSUU here: http://issuu.com/bennyboy621/docs/anthonyburrill
‘Its all so simple’ zine, handmade & bound
For Handmade & Bound, I made up some zines of my own personal black and white photography with a nice simple layout throughout. The pages are 160gsm white cartridge paper, and the cover is a blue card. The zines were bound with black and white cotton.
The back of the zine contained my contact details and a small flower of life.
DRTE DRTE is a clothing brand owned by a friend of mine, and over the last year or so I have become increasingly involved in all aspects of the brand, overseeing a complete re-branding, design, production etc, and now I consider the brand part of myself! These t-shirts are from a small late summer collection earlier this year, and reflect an immense growth of the style of the brand, and of the minds behind it. The brand is continually inspired by the journey we call life, and this collection was inspired by a great mind of our time, Jiddu Krishnamurti. This can equally go into the external positioning side of the semester.
EVALUATION I have enjoyed this side of the semester as it has given us a great chance to experience industry standard briefs, and although I have only attempted two at this moment in time, just looking and reading through the others gave me a great insight into some things that are required for a wide variety of different design problems for a broad range of industry clients. I found it was slightly easier to get into these briefs and this side of the semester than the Independent Practice side, as these briefs give you the guidelines in which to produce work, rather than being one hundred percent open-ended. The briefs that I chose tended to lean towards my favourite areas of graphic design, which is always good, and in hindsight perhaps I could have chosen a brief or briefs that would challenge my skills and brain and give me a new challenge. They also allowed me to bring in outside areas of my work such as photography, more externalising which is the aim of the unit! My favourite was the Typographic Circle brief, as it allowed you to design two contrasting areas of the publication, the inside and the outside. It was a more rounded project than the Penguin one, the whole thing was yours. Looking back, I feel that I may have spent too long playing around with the outside of the book, where I should have focused equally on the content. I am happy with the result, however I would have liked a simpler looking publication on the inside to match the outside. Although the semester is over, the projects don’t neccessarily have to be, and I will look to improve this project in the coming months as a sort of warm up towards my FMP. Saying that, I still very much enjoyed the Penguin brief, as the company has got a long history of publishing fantastic book covers, and looking through the diversity of them gives me great inspiration! Book design is a huge area and it can be wonderfully diverse, as Penguin show as a company. Whether it be working with an artist or producing it yourself, there are so many possibilities which is a big reason why I enjoy it. If I could change anything from that project, it would have probably to use some form of illustration on the front cover, but as it is not one of my strongest points, I decided against it. However, given the chance to work with an illustrator, espescially for the title ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’, would work very well I feel, the ‘wackiness’ of the characters and storyline would fit well with simple yet experimental
illustrations. As well as the briefs giving me a great idea of industry standard briefs, this side of the semester gives you an excellent oppurtunity to externalise your work and one of the great ways you can do this is at Handmade & Bound, the independent publishers book fair where anyone can get the chance to sell their work. For Handmade & Bound, I produced some simple photography zines, containing personal black and white photographs from the last few years. I feel I could have produced some more work for it, using my time to produce some quick fire zines or editorial experiments and selling them for less, as I spent my time focusing on getting some fully finished zines made. There is always next year and that is the beauty of Handmade & Bound. I am in a lucky position that I have been able to externalise before with DRTE, and under it’s previous name Dirrrtee, a ‘clothing label’ owned by a friend. It has given me the oppurtunity to have my photography in Front Magazine, and my T-Shirt design in the same magazine, and to be featured on many popular blogs such as The Daily Street and Deer Brains. I have become much more involved this year, overseeing a complete brand re-design and name change, and a summer release of hats and T-Shirts. A creative director would be an appropriate title. This is an avenue I want to continue to pursue as the brand aims to expand and grow. It has also given me the oppurtunity to work with SB.TV, one of the biggest young brands in the country, and it is also an avenue that I hope will continue to expand as the year goes on. Like the other side of this semester, I feel that the external positioning side has helped me as I go towards my FMP and begin to experiment with ideas. My initial ideas are looking towards producing a publication, and I couldn’t have had better briefs in preparation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Sandu Cultural Media (2011) Type Player II - Gincko Press S. Polano (2006) Achille Castiglioni. 1918-2002 - Mondadori Electa S. Davis (1982) Typography : the annual of the Type Directors Club N. Meulman (2010) Calligraffiti - From Here To Fame Collins Design (2006) Typography v.26 - Harper Collins A. Marcopoulos (2011) Directory - Rizzoli A. Marcopoulos (2005) Out and About - Damiani A. Hyland & S. Bateman (2011) Symbol - Laurence King A. Shaughnessy (2011) Look At This - Laurence King M. Evamy (2007) Logo - Laurence King A. Marcopoulos (2010) Stoopz S. Heller & G. Anderson (2009) New Vintage Type - Thames & Hudson M. Perry (2007) Hand Job - Princeton Architectural Press M. Perry (2011) Pulled: A Catalog Of Screen Printing - Princeton Architectural Press R. Klanten (2011) Cutting Edges: Contemporary Collage - Die Gestalten Verlag R. Klanten (2011) The Modernist - Die Gestalten Verlag L. Blackwell (2000) Issues: New Magazine Design - Laurence King R. Klanten (2010) Turning Pages: Editorial Design for Print Media - Die Gestalten Verlag M. Wilk (1973) Memory Lane: 1890-1925 Popular Music Covers - W&J Mackay A. Fletcher (2001) The Art Of Looking Sideways - Phaidon Press B. Miles (2008) The Greatest Album Covers Of All Time - Collins & Brown B. Darling (2001) Vixens Of Vinyl - Chronicle Books P. Baines (2010) Penguin By Design, A Cover Story 1935-2005 - Allen Lane P. Baines (2010) Puffin By Design, 70 Years Of Imagination 1940-2010 - Allen Lane P. Buckley (2011) Penguin 75: Designers, Authors, Commentary - Penguin Vice Magazine Tank Magazine Another Man Magazine Fantastic Man Magazine Amateur Photographer Magazine The Travel Almanac Used Magazine i-D Magazine XXL Magazine Elephant Magazine Adbusters Magazine Monocle Magazine www.benwalton.tumblr.com www.occupyposterproject.com www.andren.tumblr.com www.friendsoftype.com www.huhmagazine.co.uk www.creativereview.co.uk www.ffffound.com www.itsnicethat.com www.flickr/com/photos/holliefernando www.chelseafc.com www.store.liverpoolfc.tv www.shop.mcfc.co.uk www.joncontino.com www.typocircle.com