Tag: oca graphic design

Design 3/10: Managua

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Hello! and thanks for dropping by to look at design 3/10 of my abstract city guidebooks- Managua!

I personally had absolutely no idea where this city was! (I am still confused! – but I do know it is on the bit that joins both Americas together!!) with my poor knowledge of geography I attempted to gloss over this and continue with my design ideas. Again, I wanted to keep the design concept and layout etc for this guidebook cover the same as the others so that it continues to form the series.. I was going in again simplistic and minimalist in approach, using architecture and iconic buildings as the basis of my design and taking key elements away to create my design.

I started my initial research using Pinterest again; I looked up iconic landscapes and architecture in Managua and it came up with the cathedral as the main recognisable building of the city.

Managua Cathedral - Nicaragua - designed in, and shipped from Belgium in 1920 - heavy damage in earthquakes of 1931 & 1972 led to condemnation but as of 2013 it's awaiting renovation.

From first glance it looked like a complicated building to try and recreate in abstract! I took the same approach as last time and printed out this image tracing over it again and again simplifying it each time until I was left with the bare bones.

The main key features that stood out to me from the photograph was the intricately detailed stonework of the cathedral, the small cross that features in the middle of the cathedral on top of one of the triangular brickwork and the fact that the cathedral is in beautiful warm weather with 2 palm trees either side of it!

I used my rough sketches to figure out what to include in my final design.

Again, I wanted to try and stick to the rules of thirds for my design and split the design into 3 sections on the cover. I wanted again to let the eye flow naturally across the whole page. Negative space once again played a big factor into the design, I actually base the design around the negative space each time. I placed a lot of the design to the edge of the page which can sometimes constrain the design to a “box” and restrict the design to be able to “breathe”; however, I still allowed for the design to “breathe” by not constraining the design all of the way around the cover. I added a tiny accent of green at the top left side just to give the eye somewhere else to hop to. The idea was for the eye to flow naturally all the way around the design. The bottom green blocks were representative of the 2 palm trees which I have obviously exaggerated and under exaggerated in size – representative of abstract also. The design is not accurate in scale, size or orientation to the building; the grey ovals on the right edge are representative of the arched windows in the centre of the cathedral and the bottom bar and grey small rectangles are a snippet of the pillars that hold the cathedral to the ground and the steps at the bottom. The cross I have kept small, it is always good to have contrast between elements on a design; the eye is drawn more to the cross and its location in the negative space on the cover- it is representative really to how small it is within the great vastness of the cathedral.

The dominant colours on this design accidentally are the black and grey of the text and the arched windows.. I know black and grey are tints but to me they draw me to the design before any of the other colours. The subordinate colour needs to be the green, although to be honest the blue stands out just as much as the green. It probably doesn’t help that these 2 colours are both cool and don’t particularly contrast each other well. As for accent colours… I would say I have designed something that doesn’t have a accent colour as such. In hindsight now looking back I could have added a contrasting colour as a tiny accent to the piece but I honestly just liked the use of these 3 minimalistic colours.

This is the final mock up of Managua! Overall, (apart from I mentioned that I could have used a warmer colour as an accent) I am happy with this design. I think I have met the abstract needs of the brief.

Design 2/10: Malmo

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Welcome back to design 2/10 city guidebooks! – Malmo!

I was more aware of time (or lack of!) after completing design 1: Madrid, these guidebooks are time consuming! I decided I needed to try and cut down the research part of things although this first stage is crucial to achieving winning over a brilliant design outcome . I always start my research by searching Pinterest, it is the best place to find and record inspiration I find.

I had never heard of Malmo but after looking at some photos of the place and reading about it online, it now seems like a nice place to visit! I learned that Malmo is a modern coastal city in Sweden. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of Madrid by basing it around architecture and landscapes so I searched Pinterest to see what landmarks stand out in Malmo.

Turning Torso

Turning troso2.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turning_Torso

The most intriguing building that I found in Malmo was “The Turning Torso” it is regarded as the first “twisted skyscraper” in the world. It was designed by spanish architect, structural engineer, sculptor and painter Santiago Calatrava. It officially opened on the 27th August 2005 and reaches a height of 190 metres with 54 storeys and 147 apartments within it. In August 2015 the Turning Torso was the winner of the 10 year award from the Council on Tall buildings and urban Habitat. It also won the 2005 Gold Emporis Skyscraper Award.

With the brief in mind I knew that I had to keep my design abstract, I was conscious that I didn’t want to make the design too pictorial and obvious as to what it was. I didn’t want to draw the Turning Torso onto my design and it be obvious what it was! The way I went about designing was to take a photograph of the Turning Torso and trace around it several times, each time taking something away so that I was finally left with the bare bones of the building. I then took the whole drawing apart and found clever ways to piece it back together but in an abstract way!

Sketchbook pages: First sketches and ideas

This is the photograph I found on Pinterest, I printed it out and I based my sketches off it:

What I ended up with was a simplified sketch – the minimalistic “bones” of the building:

From this drawing it is still obvious what the building is, I took key parts of the building and simplified it down to its simplest recognisable form. This formed the basis of my final design.

In my final design I kept the same layout as I did with Madrid as I felt that this would make the guidebooks become part of a series and be obvious that they all belonged together. I wanted to use quite “earthy” “beachy” natural colours because Malmo is a coastal town. I used blue for the Turning Torso which reflects the sky and sea and the fact that this tall building is between the two! I used a natural pop of green and yellow which would reflect sun and sand… Yellow being nice and warm also contrasts against the cool blue and green. I wanted to keep the design simple – I decided to split my design into thirds (rule of 1/3s!) and split the design up into each section. This lets the eye flow naturally and easily across the whole design. The yellow boxes allow for a pop of colour, add interest to draw the eye right to the end of the design but also represent the windows of the Turning Torso. The only flaw in my design is that I enlarged the Turning Torso to only show the lower half and a segment of the top… you can’t actually see the “turning” aspect. However, going down the route of keeping it very much abstract and not too obvious, I still really like this design and I think that you would still be able to recognise what the structure is from the key elements I’ve picked out even though they have been moved around and enlarged slightly. Negative space to me is just as much part of the design as everything else so I was adamant I wanted to keep a lot of space around the design but also to not restrict the design too much to its edges. I wanted it as a whole to remain “breathable”.

The location and how I designed the typography of “Malmo” was just as important as the rest of the design. I really toyed with the type layout again and kept questioning myself as to whether it was the right decision to make; I wanted to do something different and for it to look quite modern and edgy. Splitting Malmo into syllables also forces the eye to follow over to the other side of the design to see what the rest of the design is about.

This is the final mock-up of my Malmo guidebook! I am pleased with how it has turned out, I met my own expectations of how I wanted it to be and look like. The dominant colour used on this design is definitely the blue followed by the yellow being next in line as the subordinate colour. The green is fighting against the blue for attention which is exactly what the accent colour should be doing.