Maryam: OCA Graphic Design

Brief

This assignment will consolidate the skills and knowledge you have gained from the projects and exercises so far. At this stage of your development it is important that you focus on research and gathering and evolving your ideas.
The brief
To create images which will be used within a campaign for a supermarket, to package and promote a range of seasonal foods.
The supermarket is respected for the quality of food they supply. They want to promote this notion of quality in their design and packaging.
The finished images will be a‘point of sale’ display sited in a store near to the fruit and vegetables. The final reproduction size will be 12 x12 inches. Your artwork can be same size or in scale.
What to do
Create an illustration of fruit or vegetables. One illustration for each of the ranges:
Summer Autumn
Your images should be objective and based upon direct observation. For each range you may choose an individual piece, dissected or partly sliced sections, or create a group of several pieces.
Then create separate images for Summer and Autumn that reflect both the produce you previously selected and aspects of the season itself. There are no limitations in terms of content – you can include other objects; a place; patterns; people or a combination of these.
Illustrating food is a challenging area of work. Focus on the food in your image. Remember to create a visual distance between you and the food. Put yourself in the place of the customer and ask, “Does this look edible? Would I like to eat it?” Be especially conscious of the way you use colour to describe tone, shadow and surface marks – poor colour choices can result in food looking mouldy, battered, and ultimately unappetising.

Key words:

• Focus on research, gathering and evolving ideas
• Images will be used within a campaign for a supermarket
• Promote a range of seasonal foods
• The supermarket is respected for quality
• They want to promote this notion of quality
• Point of sale display
• Sited near the fruit and vegetables
• Final reproduction size will be 12 x 12 inches
• Create an illustration of fruit or vegetables for each of the ranges: Summer, Autumn
• Images should be objective, based on direct observation
• Create separate images for Summer and Autumn that reflect both the produce and aspects of the season itself

Research

By collecting some images of different point of sale displays in different supermarkets, I found out that each supermarket has got its own style for their displays. It usually contains the colour from their brand identity. Also, using the same font as their brand identity. Images are zoomed in and contain fresh fruits and vegetables. Texts are either separated from the image or within the image.

Then I made some research about summer and autumn fruits and vegetables.

Mind mapping

Thumbnails

After some sketches of summer and autumn fruits and vegetables, I chose; strawberry and watermelon as my summer fruits, grapes and pumpkin as my autumn fruits.

Research about contemporary food illustrators

I made some research about some contemporary food illustrators.

I personally liked the illustrators’ work from the list below:

Design process

I found some images of strawberries, watermelon, grapes and pumpkin that I liked from Pexels. Then used Procreate to make my design. I used watercolour brushes on Procreate. I used splash of paints to show the juiciness of the fruits. Also, I added watercolour paper texture to my work to make my work more realistic.

The size that I set up for my documents was 8 x 8 inch. I thought 12 x 12 inch can be a bit heavy for uploading images.

Final designs

I included some quotes related to each fruit then used inking pen on Procreate and hand wrote them on my final designs.

Self – reflection

I really enjoyed working on this assignment. I’m really interested in watercolour painting. I recently got familiar with digital art. I decided to make my designs on Procreate using watercolour brushes.

My research about supermarket displays and contemporary food illustrators really helped me throughout the process of making my designs.

I think my interest in digital art is quite obvious throughout this part, as most of my designs were created in Procreate. I really need to push myself in using traditional arts more often in the next parts.

Resources

• Freepik. At: https://www.freepik.com. (Accessed: 29/08/2023)
• Google images. At: https://images.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl. (Accessed: 28/08/2023)
• Illustrationx. Food and drink. At: https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/styles/food-and-drink. (Accessed: 30/08/2023)
• Pexels. Summer and Autumn fruits and vegetables. At: https://www.pexels.com. (Accessed: 29/08/2023)

Brief

Collect as many examples of visual metaphor as you can find. Often metaphors are used within political and issue-based works to give complex or subtle ideas greater clarity. For this reason you are likely to trace them more easily within editorial contexts: newspapers and articles in magazines.
Reaching retirement – Dreams of romance – Broken relationship – Censorship of the press – High achievement – Economic catastrophe
Choose one from the phrases above and create a drawn visual list of objects and subjects which could be used to symbolise them. You may find that it is in the way that the symbol can be modified that you can convey your idea most effectively. Don’t be overly concerned with the aesthetic quality or technical accuracy in the drawing. See this as an extension of your visual shorthand. If you find it useful, make a spider diagram around the phrase to generate other words, which will bring other visual connotations.
Show your drawings to someone else to check their understanding of the meanings in your drawings and gauge how far your drawings communicate what you intended.

Key words:

• Collect as many examples of visual metaphor as you can find
• Choose one from the phrases from the list
• Create a drawn visual list of objects and subjects which could be used to symbolise them
• Show your drawings to someone else to check their understanding

Examples of visual metaphor

I searched for visual metaphors on google images and saved couple of them that caught my attention.

Spider diagram

My chosen word from the given list is “economic catastrophe”. I made a spider diagram to investigate all the words that can be related to this word.

Thumbnails

I made some sketches based on the words that I gathered on my spider diagram. I decided to use a globe to show the world that is cracking because of the economic catastrophe and some hands that trying to hold it altogether and save it.

Design process

Final design

Self – reflection

This exercise opened my eyes to the visual metaphors. I’ve seen the examples of visual metaphors before, however, I wasn’t familiar with term. Also, I realized that making a visual metaphor is not an easy process, it needs lots of practice and research.

I personally like my design, I’m not sure about the concept though. When I asked for feedback, mostly thought that the picture is related to the global crisis in general. Probably, I needed to ask for feedback before finishing the design and make some changes accordingly.

Resources

Google images. Visual metaphors. https://images.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl. (Accessed: 26/08/2023)

Brief

Read the following extract and then answer the questions on the next page:
The room was void and unquickened; it was like a room in a shop window but larger and emptier; and the middle-aged man who sat at the desk had never thought to impress himself upon what he entered every day. Comfort there was none nor discomfort; only did the occupant deign to qualify the pure neutrality of his surroundings, it would surely be austerity that would emerge. The spring sunshine turned bleak and functional as it passed the plate glass of the tall-uncurtained windows.
The windows were large; the big desk lay islanded in a creeping parallelogram of light; across this and before the eyes of the man sitting motionless passed slantwise and slowly a massive shaft of shadow.
Perhaps twenty times it passed to and fro, as if outside some great joy wheel oscillating idly in a derelict amusement park. And the man rose, clasped hands behind him and walked to a window – high up in New Scotland Yard. He looked out and war-time London lay beneath… on his brow was a fixed contraction; this he had carried from desk to window, and now there was neither hardening nor relaxation as he looked out… during 15 years he had controlled the file of police papers which dealt with the abduction and subsequent history of feeble minded girls. Here lay his anger as he looked out over London… year by year the anger had burst deeper until it was now the innermost principle of the man.
Michael Innes Adapted from The Daffodil Affair

Make notes on these questions
• If this were to be made into a film what would the main character be like? • What clothes would the character be wearing?
• What furniture is in the main area in which the action takes place?
Collect visual reference for the items on your list
Find a reference book or website for this era.
Use the internet and do an image search. Be selective – don’t go for the first image you encounter. Try to remember your own vision of the story and reflect this in your choices. Stick these images onto a large sheet of paper or in a visual notebook.
The next process is about textural and colouristic visual brainstorming and idea generation
Chose a word, which you feel captures the mood you would like to convey.
Collect and create textures and colours you associate with this word to make a moodboard. Start with a broad vision to describe the overall colour or tone of the image, not specific elements of it. Be minimal and selective and gradually add textures and colours that complement this general impression.
Create a simple portrait (figure, or head and shoulders) of the character, using the reference you have gathered.
Use sketchbooks to help you to select and edit from your reference materials and to explore where to position your figure within the frame or format of the picture. Make the shape based on any book you have to hand.
Use the colours, textures and qualities you assembled for your moodboard to render the portrait. You may literally collage these textures into a drawing, or convey the tonal qualities of the moodboard through the way that you use materials and mark making.
Notice the extent to which you have evolved the reference and used it to inform your illustration. If at any point you felt that you had insufficient visual information what steps did you take to address this? Make notes of this evolution in your learning log.

Key words:

• Read the extract
• Make notes on these questions
• Collect visual reference
• Visual brainstorming and idea generation
• Create a simple portrait from reference
• Use the colours, textures and qualities you assembled to render the portrait

Reading the text

I read the text and underlined some key words, the word that I chose for my mood board was “anger”.

Character research

I collected some photos of a detective in wold war II period. Also, I did some research about the interiors during that era as well.

Visual references

Thumbnails

Design process

I used Procreate to make my design. I tried to use the information I gathered through my research. I used the colour palette and textures that I collected.

I didn’t want to show the whole face of the detective to make it more mysterious, so I used a tinted glasses for him. I tried to show the movement and hustle and bustle of London behind the window by using some black figures and used the blur effect to show some movement.

Final design

Self – reflection

I enjoyed working on this exercise in both research and design phases. By gathering the information and preparing my colour palette and textures, I knew what Kind of effect I’m looking for.

I am pleased with the end result. However, I really wished that I had more time to make my design with pastel on the paper as well. I hope I can come back to this exercise later again.

Resources

Google images. At: https://images.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl. (Accessed: 22/08/2023)

Brief

Produce a line visual around one of these words:
Sea – Extraordinary – Building – Journey
Through brainstorming you may decide to draw from an object or selection of objects or work in a more narrative way around a scene or idea. Ensure that the line visual you produce through visual exploration and development is very clear, employing a line which is solid and definite – fine-liners over a pencil visual should give a clean edge.
Photocopy or scan your image so that it fits into A3. Using the invert function on the copier or computer produce an additional copy where the line has been converted to white and the white of the paper has become black.
Using the lines in your image as a guide, cut shapes from the black copy to collage into the white copy. Your ‘filling-in’ should be considered – are you going to suggest that there is light entering from one direction or use white in a decorative way to create a visual pattern? Work with the biggest areas first and maybe Blu-Tack your pieces down until you are confident about their final placing.
To refine your image re-introduce white shapes to the black areas where needed, by cutting from another sheet. There should be no lines left when this exercise has been completed. You are working with areas of black and white and the lines are the edges that you will cut around.
Keep standing back from your image to assess its readability – you are aiming for visual legibility and need to avoid creating a disjointed piece. As well as physically standing back, visual distance can be achieved by looking at an image in a mirror, by scanning and looking at it on screen or by printing out a scale different from the original.
When you have finished compare your tonal image to your line drawing. How has the use of black and white altered it? Where does the focus now lie within the image? Make notes in your learning log.
An image, which is simplified in this way, is often described as a ‘graphic’ image. Are there any examples of other illustrators’ work which you could describe as graphic?

Key words:

• Line drawing
• Work in a more narrative way around a scene or idea
• Photocopy or scan
• ‘Filling-in’ should be considered
• Visual legibility and need to avoid creating a disjointed piece
• Compare your tonal image to your line drawing
• Examples of other illustrators’ work which you could describe as graphic

Examples of ‘graphic’ illustrators

Lukas Frischknecht

Illustrator and Art Director from Zurich, Switzerland. By focussing only what is most essential, his modern and in part abstract art has a strong emotional impact on the viewer.

Yves-Antoine Lamy

Sketches

The word that I chose was sea. I started by making some sketches related to the sea to find the best composition for my design.

Design process

By using Procreate, I made my line drawing digitally in black and white backgrounds. Then printed off my designs. I cut out some parts from the black background and put them on white background like a jigsaw to find the best result. At the end, I glued them.

Final design

Self – reflection

The brief for this exercise was a bit vague for me at first. I had to read it couple of times to be able to understand what exactly I need to do. I used Procreate for my drawing, which made it easy to make both line drawings on black and white backgrounds. I didn’t make my drawing very complicated, as I thought I might have some problem in cutting the parts out.

Overall, I’m happy with the result. I tried my best not to leave any black lines. There were some lines from the drawing left, which I think they were unavoidable.

Resources

• Art upon. Lukas Frischknecht. At: https://www.artupon.com/lukas-frischknecht/ (Accessed: 18/08/2023)
• Art upon. Yves Antoine Lamy. At: https://www.artupon.com/yves-antoine-lamy/ (Accessed: 18/082023)
• Graphic mama. Black-and-white-illustrations. At: https://graphicmama.com/blog/black-and-white-illustrations/ (Accessed: 18/08/2023)

Brief

Take another object and write a list of a series of words to describe it. In this drawing you are not describing its function or purpose but its particular qualities. Is it shiny, hard, soft, fluffy, delicious or antique? These adjectives are subjective – there is no wrong or right – whichever words you select will be appropriate because they reflect your interpretation and understanding of the object.
Choose one word from your list as the basis of your idea. You don’t need to look at your object; at this stage you are exploring your idea visually. Make a moodboard and include collage and found materials. Cut images from magazines based on their visual properties. Be exhaustive.
Photocopy, trace or scan and print your line drawing. Choose a paper with a texture or surface which best relates to the idea you had about your object
Use colours, textures and materials identified during your exploration with your moodboard to translate the line drawing into an image which communicates the adjective which you associated with your object.
Use them to colour, or fill your line drawing. You are still attempting to describe the object but focussing and exaggerating the quality that you have selected to communicate.

Key words:

• Take an object
• Write a list of words
• Explore your idea visually
• Make a moodboard
• Use colours, textures and materials identified during your exploration
• Communicate the adjective you associated with your object
• Focus and exaggerate the quality that you have selected

Design process

For this exercise, I chose a straw hat. I put all the words that I thought it can be used to describe it.

Mood board

The word that I chose to work on was tropical beach. So, I made a mood board to help me with my design.

I used Procreate to make my design. First, I painted the hat with watercolour brushes. Then I explored the textures and patterns for the background.

I wanted to use the hat as a canopy in a tropical beach. I wanted my design to be colourful, bright and happy.

Design 1

Design 2

Design 2

Self – reflection

To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure that I understood the brief thoroughly. As far as I got it, I needed to make a design that captures my feelings about my object. My instant feeling by looking at a straw hat is all about a summer holiday in a sunny beach.

From the start, I had no idea how I want my final work to be look like. It all happened gradually.

For the background, I wanted something colourful and vibrant and at the same time I wanted my hat to be the centre point. So, I used blur effect and reducing opacity to calm it down a bit.

Overall, I’m happy with my design. I chose one word from my list that I thought had the most connection with my object and made my design based on that. However, I probably needed to make couple of sketches with different words from my word bank, then choose my final choice.

After couple of days, I came back to this exercise. I thought my design is still objective and not subjective. So, I made my second design. I feel that the second design is responding to the brief better.

Resources

Freepik. At: https://www.freepik.com. (Accessed: 15/08/2023)

Shoe – Umbrella – Pair of trousers – Pair of glasses – Hat
Take an item from the list above and explore it visually to become aware of its textures, physical qualities and function. What is the item for – what does it do?
Using a pencil or fine liner do an objective drawing of your object on an A4 sheet. You are trying to achieve a drawing that has a high degree of visual accuracy and is technically controlled. Be analytical and use drawing to clearly convey this visual information.
You are trying to record what you see in this drawing so be aware of the relative scale of different elements of your object and position of component parts. Use marks that describe the texture of the object and vary line quality to suggest its contours. You may find that if you place your item on a white surface you can observe it more easily. Colour is reflected by white and you will be less distracted by background contrasts.

Key words:

• Take an item from the list
• Visually explore
• Become aware of its textures, physical qualities and function
• Using a pencil or fine liner
• High degree of visual accuracy
• Technically controlled
• Use marks to describe texture
• Vary line quality to suggest contours

Photo of the object

Drawing

Self – reflection

For this exercise, I chose a kid’s shoes. I tried my best to have an accurate drawing, however, I think being %100 objective is impossible. For me, the most challenge was showing the right material through my sketch. I used a HB pencil as well as a 6B pencil for my drawing and tried to make different shades mostly with my 6B pencil. If I want to do this exercise again, I would probably use different sketching pencils to achieve smoother and more realistic shading.

Brief

Collect as much reference as you can find for the1950s period. Catalogue the information you find according to these categories:
People and costume
Architecture and interiors
Art – painting, drawing sculpture
Graphic design – posters, books, typography Advertising
Transport
Film and TV
Surface pattern and decoration.
Be eclectic in your sources. Identify the visual qualities that are universal within the categories – shapes, textures, colours, style and other features.
In your learning log write a short review of the 1950s from a visual perspective.
Describe the characteristics that typify the decade and the ideas and visual trends that were prevalent at this time.
Are there reflections of the 1950s in any areas of contemporary art, design or culture? If so what– give examples? It may be useful to look both at what preceded and followed the 1950s to gain a sense of the broader context of this era.
Now make an illustration of someone sitting in a chair surrounded by typical artefacts to give a teenager an idea of the 1950s.

Analysing the brief:

• 1950s collection
• People and costume
• Architecture and interiors
• Art – painting, drawing sculpture
• Graphic design – posters, books, typography Advertising
• Transport
• Film and TV
• Surface pattern and decoration
• Short review of the 1950s from a visual perspective
• Describe the characteristics
• Are there reflections of the 1950s in any areas of contemporary art
• Make an illustration of someone sitting in a chair surrounded by typical artefacts

1950s history

The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the “Fifties” or the “’50s“) (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959.

Throughout the decade, the world continued its recovery from World War II, aided by the post-World War II economic expansion. The period also saw great population growth with increased birth rates and the emergence of the baby boomergeneration.

Despite this recovery, the Cold War developed from its modest beginnings in the late 1940s to a heated competition between the Soviet Union and the United States by the early 1960s. The ideological clash between communism and capitalismdominated the decade, especially in the Northern Hemisphere.

In the United States, a wave of anti-communistsentiment known as the Second Red Scare aka McCarthyism resulted in Congressional hearings by both houses in Congress. In the Soviet Union, the death of Joseph Stalin would lead to a political campaign and reforms known as “De-Stalinization” initiated by Nikita Khrushchev leading to the deterioration between the relationship of the USSR and the People’s Republic of China in the 60s.

The beginning of the Cold War lead to beginning of the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 and the United States would create NASA in response in 1958. Along with increased testing of nuclear weapons (such as RDS-37 and Upshot–Knothole) called the arms race, the tense geopolitical situation created a politically conservative climate.

The beginning of decolonization in Africa and Asia also took place in this decade and accelerated in the following decade albeit would lead to several conflicts throughout the decade and so on. Wars include the First Indochina War, Malayan Emergency, Korean War, the Algerian War, the First Sudanese Civil War, the Vietnam War, the Cuban Revolution, and the Suez Crisis. Coups include the Egyptian revolution, the Iranian coup d’état, the Guatemalan coup d’état, the 14 July Revolutionin Iraq, and the Pakistani coup d’état in 1958.

Television, which first reached the marketplace in the 1940s, became a common innovation in American homes during the 1950s culminating in the Golden Age of TV. This led many to purchase more products and upgrade whatever they currently had resulting in mass consumerism. While outside of America, it would take a few decades for TV to become commonplace in other countries.

The 1950s saw a turning point for polio with the successful discovery of the polio vaccine. Following the widespread use of poliovirus vaccine in the mid-1950s, the incidence of poliomyelitis declined rapidly in many industrialized countries while it would gradually decline for the next few decades in developing countriesreducing the number of death rates from this disease.

During the 1950s, the world population increased from 2.5 to 3.0 billion, with approximately 1 billion births and 500 million deaths.

1950s People and costume

In the aftermath of World War II, the United States emerged as the world’s leading industrial power. Generous government support for education and home loans coupled with a booming economy meant that Americans in the postwar era had more discretionary income than ever before. In the 1950s and 1960s, the bumper crop of children born after World War II, known collectively as the baby boomers, grew into teenagers and young adults. As the largest single generation up until that point in American history, the baby boomers had a tremendous effect on popular culture thanks to their sheer numbers. Starting as early as the 1940s, savvy marketers identified the baby boomers as a target demographic and marketed products and entertainment geared to their needs and interests.The baby boomers developed a greater generational consciousness than previous generations. They sought to define and redefine their identities in numerous ways. The music of the day, especially rock and roll, reflected their desire to rebel against adult authority. Other forms of 1950s popular culture, such as movies and television, sought to entertain, while reinforcing values such as religious faith, patriotism, and conformity to societal norms.

1950s Architecture and interiors

The 1950s were a decade of immense change. After the Second World War, many families were moving out of crowded inner-city apartments and into newly built suburban homes. This shift had a profound impact on interior design. Suddenly, there was a need for furniture that was both stylish and functional. In response, many designers began experimenting with new materials and methods of production. As a result, the 1950s saw the rise of popular mid-century modern styles such as Danish Modern and Italian Modern.

These new styles emphasized simplicity and functionality, and they quickly became extremely popular with homeowners looking to update their interiors. In addition to furniture, the 1950s also saw an explosion in the popularity of home appliances. Refrigerators, dishwashers, and clothes washers were all becoming increasingly common in American homes, and their sleek design helped to further popularise the mid-century modern style. By the end of the decade, the look of American homes had been completely transformed.

1950s Art – painting, drawing sculpture

The story of 1950s art begins at the end of the Second World War, because it was such a rupture to the body of the world, that the post-war art beginnings extend from mid 1940s to the next decade. Slowly, as the world start recovering from the war trauma, new art movements used to develop worldwide. Major influences on the 1950s art were made by 1920s avant garde movements, modernism, surrealism and abstract painting.

There are only few art styles continued even throughout the period of the war, and those were withheld by individual practices of influential artists from pre-war era such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp. For many artists, World Wars of 20th century brought the migration, and significant authors of 1950s decade were escaping Nazism in Europe by settling in the United States, which made New York the world’s capital of art.

Another style of abstract art, born in New York scene of 1950s was Color Field painting, which is largely influenced by European Modernism and its sublime geometric abstraction. As the name suggests, color was the main subject of the paintings, liberated from any objective context or the meaning in favor of expression of the sublime human emotions. One of the most significant authors within the movement was artist Mark Rothko who even denied his connection to abstract art, insisting on mystic spirituality of his canvases, while Clifford Stills landscapes contained primordial reminiscence on nature or human history. Robert Motherwellpainted great open fields of colors, composited with lines and shapes and Barnett Newman tried to reflect Jewish history and tradition through the language of pure colors.

1950s Graphic design – posters, books, typography Advertising

The 1950s was the post-war era, so designers developed a feeling of idealism. After all the horror and tragedy of the second world war, the design shifted to accommodate the need to rebuild and reconstruct, making things more open and democratic. As a result, there was a sense of social responsibility among designers. Many experiments were happening. The high modernist period started to be broken down, rationalised and codified. The so-called “international typographic style” or Swiss-style emerged. 

Moreover, as Swiss designers were driving innovations in the 1950s, Helvetica was also invented during this period. This was because there was a need for rational typefaces that can be applied in all kinds of contemporary information. Whether it’s sign systems or corporate identity, there was a need for the visual expressions of the modern world to be accessible to the public in an intelligible, legible way.

1950s Transportation

The 1950’s was known as the ‘Golden Age’ of flying. Quanta’s flights were luxurious and involved wide aisles, lots of leg room and an endless supply of drinks from the cocktail bar. The only issues seen were that of smoking cigars and cigarettes as the air inside the plane became thick and difficult to breath.

Underground train systems also became popular in the 1950s. Some people had enough money to ride on the newest form of transportation: the airplane. But for most automobile drivers, long-distance travel remained somewhat difficult. There was no state-to-state highway system.

1950s Film and TV

Films of the 1950s were of a wide variety. As a result of the introduction of television, the studios and companies sought to put audiences back in theaters. They used more techniques in presenting their films through widescreen and big-approach methods, such as Cinemascope, VistaVision, and Cinerama, as well as gimmicks like 3-D film.

1950s Surface pattern and decoration

The late 1940s to the 1970s was a remarkably creative era in British textile design. Aided by post-war confidence and growth, a new wave of designs was produced, influenced by art and design from around the world. Designers created markedly contemporary, buoyant styles that elevated textile design to new heights, lifted public spirits and transformed the home, despite ongoing austerity and restrained colour palettes. 

During the war, in 1941, the British government introduced the Utility Scheme – a regulatory scheme which aimed to ensure the general population would still have some access to consumer goods, despite cutbacks. At the end of the war, ongoing austerity and material shortages meant that textile design remained limited to simple woven and printed patterns which were cheap to produce. One of the chief practitioners of the day, Enid Marx designed abstract geometric pieces with small scale repeating patterns such as Spot and Stripe, Honeycomb, Ring and Chevron, which the manufacturer Morton Sundour Fabrics trialled. Once approved by the Board of Trade Design Panel, these designs went into production.

Illustration

The brief asked to make an illustration of someone sitting in a chair surrounded by typical artefacts to give a teenager an idea of the 1950s.

I used the collection that I gathered earlier for this exercise for some inspiration.

I started with some sketches in different part of a house. The location, I chose was a living room with a housewife and a baby surrounded by different objects from 1950s. Then I used Procreate to make my illustration. I added some pictures of the 1950s art and sculptures to my illustration.

For my colour palette, I collected some colour swatches from 1950s. Then based on that I made my colour palette that I used for my illustration.

Final illustration

Self – reflection

This exercise was very interesting. I’ve learnt a lot about 1950s history. I specifically enjoyed making the illustration.

Overall, I’m happy with the illustration. I think it’s covered everything that the brief asked. I used Procreate to create my illustration. If I had more time I liked to use another media as well to be able to compare them and choose between them.

Sources

• Google images. 1950s. At: https://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en (Accessed: 31/07/2023)
• HelloCreativeAgency. Design through the decades the 1950s. At: https://www.hellocreativeagency.com/blog/design-through-the-decades-the-1950s (Accessed: 01/08/2023)
• V&M. Post war textiles. At: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/post-war-textiles (Accessed: 01/08/2023)
• Widewalls. 1950s art. At: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/1950s-art (Accessed: 01/08/2023)
• Wikipedia. 1950s. At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s (Accessed: 01/08/2023)
• Wikipedia. 1950s in film. At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s_in_film (Accessed: 01/08/2023)