Logo designs 1.2

Well i decided to have a proper play around with a logo for my name/business.

For my existing one i have a simple font and some shapes, its nothing fancy but thats just what i was shooting for.

I feel that the less you do the more classy it can be, although that doesnt work all the time and in other cases depending on your talent, being very detailed can have the same effect.

In the end it all comes down to the look and the feel that it communicates to the viewer.

Lately, i have taken and interest into typography and have slowly begun expanding my skills and talent by branching out into new avenues.

It is the same reason that i choose David Carson that i decided to use type for my logo and that is everyday human curiosity.

I started off with some simple ideas that i really liked straight away and ran with them.

After about 4 large different variations i selected a new font to work with which shed a new light on my designs and had some interesting development.

Website.html

I finally got some time this week to put the main page of the website into flash and experiment with the animation sequences.
While mucking around with the page i thought about a possible alternative that has the main black panel broken into sections that contain the links instead.
Anyway for now here is the link to the main page test site.

www.andrewmoorhead.com/website.html

Logo Design

Before i fully begun to do layout designs i did a few muck around ideas on paper and on computer for the logo design.

Here are two examples i was toying with.

MPI304 Research

For my seminiar talk that i have to present in class i have decided to talk about 2 different designers.
The first is David Carson who is a typographer and graphic designer.
My other choice is london based designer Nik Ainley.

As for david i have already located to books that he has published on graphic design.

The end of print : the graphic design of David Carson

David Carson: 2nd Sight: Grafik Design After the End of Print.

As for Nik Ainley i first became aware of of him through the Web Designer magazine.
I am still wondering if it is possible to make Nik apart of my talk since there is little information found on the net about him.
I have emailed him personally hoping to be able to ask him some questions and get some decent results.
If i havent heard by the following weekend i will go ahead and replace him with someone else.

Intro?

While working on the GUI i was also muling over some ideas i had for my intro to the website.

Originally i wanted to shot for a 10-20 sec intro.

Seeing how this isn't a standard website i bent the rules abit and allowed for time up to 20 secs.

Once i started to storyboard my idea i found that the so called intro was turning into something else.

My idea did not run off with the fairies but was going to be longer then 20 secs and i had to make a choice whether i wanted to cut alot out and make it short enough for the splash page or take this idea and develop it into something else.

With all that in mind i thought about turning this idea into a short promotional animation piece.

It would be in the similar fashion as a short promotional piece that you find on DVDs when you purchase a magazine for example.

Here is the storyboard for my promotional animation.

Basically, there are two assassins (stereotypical ninjas) that are coming to kill the hero (my main character design).

The two assassins finally confront him and both leap into the air too strike.

The hero draws his sword and everything freezes except his sword which causes multiple slashes towards the assassins.

When everything un freezes, the assassins turn to black liquid and it spills on to the ground.

The camera angle then pans to a birds eye view of the liquid which begins to take shape and form the words AM Dezignz.

Here is a character design done in illustrator for a assassin.

Layout Designs

When it comes to digital art, i have always really preferred an abstract approach or designs that are abstract regarding the layout and other elements used.

I find them very confronting, fresh, interesting and overall unique.

For my website i first wanted to create a abstract layout that was unsual yet seemed to be normal.

This was a hard task to perform and can be hard to imagine without knowing what i am thinking.

Below are my first draft proposals for my layout.

The idea behind this layout is to have each section slide out from its corresponding link and push the main layout which states welcome in the opposite direction.

My only real problem with the layout is the actual look of the layout.

It does have a nice abstract feel yet there are small elements clashing like the use of wide stripes and the overlay texture.

I decided to go back to the drawing board and create a background first then build apon it.

Here is my latest design.

This layout seems to work better for the time being and i do prefer how this looks and feels.

In my previous layout, one of the main problems i had was how the main section of the interface did not stand out very well from the background.

This time around i have choosen to use a strong black over a subtle background to being the foreground to the main focus yet still kept the overall feel some what abstract.

Finalized Character Designs

After doing my sketches i decided on a character.

I followed up my rough sketches with some digitalized versions and also added colour to one via photoshop for abit of fun.

Character Designs

I finally got my scanner working which means i can finally upload my sketches that i have been working on for the past 2 weeks +.

The drawings below are different ideas for a main character to be in the opening animation and other assorted media found through out my work and website.

Rough ideas

During last week i worked on some different character designs for my main character for the opening animation.
Before i did anything i went over a variation of different materials like comics, cartoons, manga/anime and random animations.
Ive always like the anime style but it has been done over and over again.
I have found a strange liking to the more loose sketch style which i refer to below in Fig 01.

Fig 01.





Instead of loading my blog up with images i have links to my deviantart page where i place rough sketches and w/e else.

http://audard.deviantart.com/art/sketches-115371217

and with colour.
http://audard.deviantart.com/art/One-Chance-115251680

Resources

Here is a collection of different websites that i like due to certain elements found through the sites.

IDN

http://www.idnworld.com/

"this is a wonderful resource for checking out designers from up and coming to the hot shots."


DesignIsKinky

http://www.designiskinky.com/

"another great resource in checking out different designers and having a sneaking peak into their portfolio."


FWA

http://www.thefwa.com/

" a splendid resource for flash based websites."



http://www.gregorisaavedra.com/

"a lovely black and white abstract website. the sound can be rather annoying yet that black and white images used are very inspirational."


Section 7 Inc

http://www.sectionseven.com/

"once you get past the pain staking loading screen, you are introduced to an extremely modern designed flash website. the site is a panflet that folds out and keeps unfolding as you click on links."



other great websites that i have sourced and wondered over.

http://www.creaktif.com/

http://okaydave.com/

http://lancome.elle.fr/index_presentation.php

http://ghostintheshell2ndgig.manga.com/

http://www.ghostintheshell.com.au/sac/index.html

http://www.ghostintheshell.com.au/2ndgig/index.html

http://ghostintheshell.manga.com/

http://www.2929productions.com/#/home

http://www.hornallanderson.com/#/project/49/18/