Part four is completed! I drew a broken apart gun all over the background of the wooden piece and I hand wrote type from Gun Mart on it, trying to make it complex and aestetically pleasing. I liked the results a lot! I then photographed the work outside, in different areas. Here was my favorite one:



I am very pleased with the end result!! Yay. Project one is done, and now we have some time off before our next project!

I need to push part 4 to be completely different and a lot more creative. I am not sure what I can do! I nicked a large painted piece of wood from some room in school and have began painting it:



I want to take a pen and draw on it now. I am not sure how to incorporate this piece in everyday use. Maybe I could turn it into an advertisment for GunMart Magazine.

Part 4. I wanted it to look chaotic, dark. Here is what I came up with after a lot of playing around:

Here is what I have come up with so far:

Here is another Sagmeister- I love his approach. I want to incorporate his style into my created layout:




Here is another image that I might like to use:

For the third part of this project, we need to create an entirely new layout, for a new audience (anything we choose) and we need to create this using a new media. I am excited for this part of the project. I have done some research, and I was intrigued by the work and the style of Stephen Sagmeister, which I found in the book "The New Handmade Graphics". I figure, since I don't really have much equiptment (ie, scanner, printer) I should try to work by hand. Here are some things that have inspired me so far:






I think I want to do something with hand drawn typography and images, although I am not sure if this is allowed.

The other day in class, we worked on putting the content from The Gun magazine into The Sun magazine's layout. It was a bit difficult to make decisions about what should go where- what content would fit best here or there, and if images would look better facing a certain way, what we could cut the headlines down to or expand them to so that they could fit, etc. It was an interesting process, but in the end we got the content to fit and look like it could have been part of The Sun's magazine for real. Here are small versions of the work we did:








Now we just need to get them printed for Tuesday!!

Yesterday the first part of the project was due. This was the part that we worked on as a group- putting the layout of the Sun together like a puzzle. We set up the room by lining the tables up around, and then laying our work on the table next to the original copies. We then went around the room, writing critiques of each group’s work- a good experience, because we could see what mistakes other people made and then see what mistakes others found in ours. This way, we could give each other positive and negative feedback about what would work better next time.

The next part of the project is to pair up with another group- Gun Shack- and put their content (text and photos) into our layout. It might pose as a problem to do this, but it is one we must figure out.

I am excited to begin the next part of the project, which is an individual exploration of laying out the same material in a new and exciting way. It will also be nice to not have to rely on other people’s schedules and to be able to work on this project in my own time frame.

Here are some screen shots of the first part of the project:

Today we were supposed to just meet up and go get our cover and spreads printed, but wonder of all wonders, we were there for hours again today. We met up, bought some newsprint, and tried to print it on the newsprint. The colors came out faded and dull, and it looked like crap. So then, we tried a digital print, which would have looked lovely, but the paper got stuck in the machine. Not only that, but we realized there were mistakes- some of the typefaces were a bit off, and some of the kerning and tracking needed to be altered. So, back to the drawing board. We made the changes and then finally got it printed- not at the school printing place, cause the guy was too busy- but at this other place a few blocks away.

Note to self: If I ever become a teacher, I will not give them group projects.

Tomorrow is the big day, I guess. We are going to get our layout printed. Hopefully we will find some cheap newsprint, and the printing place will be cheap if we can split the cost.

Today I got a fabulous typography book on the way to Spitafields market- it is called "Typographic Communications Today" and I opened to a page with Herb Leubelin's work, and then flipped through to see some of Saul Bass' stuff- freakin awesome. I had to.

I am excited to move on to the next part of the project- it will be cool to see how this layout can evolve.

Our brief is to take a publication (my group was assigned to The Sun newspaper) and to copy it exactly the way it is on InDesign. We must scan and Photoshop the photos, and find the exact same fonts and layout the design according to the measurements of the actual paper. We must replicate the cover and a double page spread (we’ve chosen pages 18 and 19). Our group has gotten together at Amalia’s flat twice to work on our stuff, and we have each taken different responsibilities.

We have finished the photos and now we are putting them into the layout. We hope to finish by today (Friday) and then we will have a free weekend!

"Everyone comes into this world naked. As we come, so we leave. We take nothing from the labor we can carry in our hands."

With that said, lets begin working.