What Is Graphic Design?

There was two parts to this brief that required a lot of research and theoretical knowledge on our subject of Graphic Design. Firstly, we each needed to come up with a way of describing what we think Graphic Design is today. I read a few books and some articles on the internet and I came up with a few explanations that made sense to me. I found a few quotes from current Graphic Designers on the subject that I also agreed with. I then had quite a lot of text to play around with to dissect and make one single explanation. I decided that this was too hard so instead I decided to visually communicate all of my thoughts, ideas and quotes that I had found and display it like this:

I realise it is quite tacky as I have copied the layout of Google and simply changed it to Hooley instead as I was asking myself a question that needed answering. However I enjoyed making this anyway and it displays all of my ideas nicely on one page and it is slightly more interesting that a just a boring old essay.

After we figured out the answer to What Is Graphic Design, we then had to create our own project brief that we felt was a description of what Graphic Designers do today. Here is the brief I set myself:

A fundamental element of Graphic Design is to use a visual language to communicate a message, idea or product. For example, the alphabet was created to be used as a form of verbal expression. When producing a piece of graphic design, your visual language should come as naturally as verbal language. As natural as water is on planet earth; water is a fundamental element for the creation of life. For this project you are to re-brand bottled water in a new and fresh approach for the market today. This will include product design, label design and an advertising poster to accompany your new product.

I came up with Minthe Spearmint Flavoured Water. I have always thought there is room in the market for mint flavoured water as I don't think it is very common. I think it is possible to buy this in other countries, and certainly you can buy mint flavoured tea, but not in a cold, bottled version. The USP is that Minthe water freshens your breath as well as hydrates you. I came up with the  name Minthe as it is the Greek for 'Mint'. In classical Greek mythology there is a story that includes Hades (the Olympian God) and Menthe (a beautiful Water Nymph). It is a story of how the mint herb came into existence. I explain this story on the label of the product itself as it is very interesting myth and it shows that there is meaning behind the name of this drink. Below is my label design (top) and a poster I created for an Ad on the Tube:

Mirrors

For our Mirrors brief we were asked to produce a visual description of our home. "Our homes are mirrors of ourselves". I found that the best way to do this was simply by using photography to take pictures of each room in my home in Southampton and produce a book for them. I chose to do this because the brief states that we were to either make a poster, website or a book. I was interested in learning more about book making as I already have the skills and knowledge to produce a poster and I wanted to do something different this time. Each room provides me with different memories, ones that have definitely shaped me as a person today. I love my home and this project was entirely personal to me and I am aware that it wouldn't have much use in the real world, nor would it sell if it was published. However, I have enjoyed completing this project and learning new skills on Adobe InDesign. For my front cover design, I used a photograph of my wall paper in my bedroom that has lovely arabesque detailing. The text is the same colour as the brightest flower on the pattern which has caught the flash of my camera. The font is called Code Bold and there is a lighter version of this which I began to use at first. I soon realised it was too light so I switched to bold, but I left the page numbers in light as they are less important information than the actual text.