Final artwork & product range

After finally finishing both RoboCop & Predator poster designs, i found myself with two major issues;

1: I still had another design to do, that was only in the early stages of development.

2: I had totally lost my focus on what this module is all about; Applied Illustration, and had failed to look into a suitable range of product to mock-up with movie poster imagery.

Knowing full-well how long producing another poster design to full vector completion would take i've had to accept failure on the 3 poster design brief, as i've somehow managed to run out of time to execute them all to a good standard. As not to spend the remainder of my time before submission trying to get The Lost Boys poster finished (which i may not have even succeeded in) and in turn run out of time to produce the series of mockups, and put together the A2 boards and project report, I decided not to half-arse it, and to focus my time on producing a quality set of images for the designs i have managed to complete. It's really ,really frustrating that I've let this happen,as producing 3 poster designs shouldn't be such a major task - especially posters of films that i chose myself! Yet again my indecisiveness has stalled my output, and ultimately effected my final submission. 

ROBOCOP •  30th Anniversary Merch range

Even though i maybe a design short, i haven't simply gone for the easy option with the mock-ups & stuck the rectangular image onto every object under the sun - I've generated new imagery by pulling various elements and layers from my PSD artwork files and created packaging and branding  for accompanying products including records sleeves, paper bags and swing tags.I also went back and made 2 other colour variants of the poster design.

PREDATOR • 30TH ANNIVERSARY Merch range

As with the Robocop merch range, i have taken elements from the original artwork and re-worked them to create branded packaging. The ltd edition vinyl design is one I'm pretty happy with, and wish it was a real product! Pressing the soundtrack onto a coloured record is also the sort of thing that makes special edition items more collectable. In this case i made the vinyl 'glow in the dark' - a reference to the Predator's blood, which is florescent green. Again, i went back in and made 2 more colour variants of the poster, should anyone not fancy the green version.

Looking back a the start of the project, i had intended it to be based on 'Object and Environment' - but as i come to the end of the module, my final solutions are leaning 
more to the 'Product & Packging' category.

Mega peer & group crit

There was lots i could/will improve upon with the final design boards. I had run into some real problems with my Ai artwork files - for some reason they've become 'unreable' and crash Illustrator on the college Macs when i try and open them. Sometimes they don't, but mostly they do. Mostly. So the product mock-up boards were done quite hastily after a long night re-doing artwork. Obviously for the full submission i'll be including more info & my name/logo etc - these were just done to show what the the posters will look like & what they'd be used on. Mostly.

Initial , basic design range mock-ups. Had to make a 'white' version for use on tote bags, t-shirts & basically anything with a white surface so that it doesn't just look like I've plonked a big rectangle photo onto a bag without any consideration about how the real product would look. For the film posters i used the Duke of York's Picture House as a reference, as it's a really, really old cinema in Brighton that is known for screening retro classics and back-to-back trilogy nights. Hyde Park picture house is another similar example i could also use.

I've been told to "GO BIGGER IAN", by some kind, anonymous classmate. I don't know what they mean. How big do i need to go.Bigger than huge apparently..?!

SB2: PREDATOR artwork creation & re-creation...

After more or less bringing the Robocop design to close, i focused back onto getting the final artwork made and arranged for the Predator poster - something i i foolishly thought would be pretty straight forward, as i just needed to follow the formula i used for the previous poster. Not so. I've given myself too many options again, and trying to apply similar, minimal aesthetics from the futuristic Robocop artwork just isn't working with The Predator and his 'present day' surroundings. The 'floating body parts' collage type approach wasn't working either, so i reworked it to fit the same basic layout i applied to the final Robocop poster. If i stick to that then even if the line work varies in levels of detail across each design then at least people will be able to see a connection between the compositions and the film titles/credits will be in the same place . 


Also another element that will hopefully make them appear like more of a set is the inclusion of a 'grid' in the background. In the Robocop poster the square grid refers to his digital sighting that you see being installed during the film, as a P.O.V shot. The grid here appears in the form of a mesh/net-like pattern.The mesh is part of its attire, which apparently is what gives the predator the ability to become invisible. The net could also refer to a section of the film where it is briefly captured - it easily escapes however and continues to wreak merry hell.

BELOW: from pencil line work to vector generating & compositional tryouts.

Applied Illustration SB2: THE LOST BOYS - poster development

FILM POSTER 3: THE LOST BOYS (1987)

Dir: Joel Schumacher. 

Starring: Kiether Sutherland, Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Jason Patric

After becoming beyond frustrated with ploughing so many hours getting nowhere with the Predator poster, gave myself a break - by starting from scratch on ThE LoSt BoYs poster design, where it really hit me that i don't know what I'm doing anymore with these, yet i continued to sit in front of the computer for hours on end, in the hope of producing something i'm satisfied with.


POSSIBLE COMPOSITION FILM ELEMENTS TO BE INCLUDED:

• David,  leader of the Lost Boys.(as seen on the majority of the films promotional material)
• Chinese takeaway box of rice/maggots or noodles/worms
• The Santa Carla broadwalk, featuring Rollercoaster & fairground silhouettes 
• 'Welcome to Santa Carla' painted sign typeface.
• Deer & antelope skulls
• Santa Carla rail bridge, that the lost boys hang off during the film.
• Candles
•Wooden stake, garlic, holy water
• 'Death by Stereo' - one the one liners from the film
• Bottle of Blood

• Full moon

After spending a good while collecting suitable reference images to mould into the final design, my earlier worries about basing it around a film with main character who doesn't have as strong physical appearance as a Predator or a Robot cop are beginning to be realised somewhat . But as i've spent the majority of the module developing the aesthetics of the other two posters i'll have to stick it out and try and make it fit in the series with what little time i have left. I though once i'd nailed the production process in the first poster design, the others would be pretty straight forward, but it hasn't really turned out that way, as some design processes just don't transfer across to other subject matters as seamlessly as i'd ideally of liked. Or maybe they do, and it's just a case of me thinking about it too much and making issues for myself that aren't really there.

Current mock up. Got the grid involved in the background- this time in the form of the wooden struts from the rollercoaster and fairground rides found on Santa Carla broadwalk - where you first meet the gang of vampires at the opening of the film.

I planned ahead and found a typeface match. A bit of tinkering in Illustrator with the kerning & letter sizes, and bobs your uncle - replica Lost Boys movie poster typeface. Now, i just need poster to go with it! 

  

SB2: Robocop Development & Completion (dare i say it?)

Finally able to wrap this one up, i think. Despite the initial plans to have 'this' & 'that' featured in the composition, i took the decision to strip it all back, and keep it as clean & clinical looking as possible -  keeping Robocop as the predominant feature, with zero clutter. Even omitted the two cars from the film's end chase scene as i i felt they never really sat right with he rest of the image. Having not much going on it often felt like it was incomplete, and i spent a long while producing a number of only slight variations, which mainly involved altering the amount of colour that was added to Robocop's body, textures and lighting. Also reworked the film title typeface to closer match that of the end credits of the film,(apart from the colour) rather the metallic type face from the beginning of the movie, as i felt it looked a bit clunky. 

Not sure how i feel about the final results at this point. It might just be that I've been looking at it too long and need to come back to it & make a fair assessment. But i think I've managed to put my own stamp on it, without producing something too similar to examples i'd seen whilst researching artwork for the film, which has been my main goal throughout this project.

Applied Illustration - Peer Review 19.4.16

Coming into/out of the latest peer review, i realise I've been so caught up in the final appearance of the poster designs (well, currently only one design so far) that i'd totally forgotten to think about a range of products that the designs would be used on, which is the aim of of the whole project! Apart from the obvious 'Mondo' poster solution and advertising posters for 30th anniversary screenings at various 'old' cinemas, i wasn't too sure what other products would be suitable to whack images of 1980's film characters on to. 

The peer review came in handy on that front; Ltd Edition T-shirts, metal dvd cases, tote bags were also suggested as a possible range. I'd also toyed with the idea of making presentation poster tubes and tags to accompany the posters, for delivery purposes and to enhance their collect-ability in general. I'm going to have to get a wriggle on if I'm to have enough time to create all the whistles and bells to accompany the final posters. On paper, making 3 posters should've been done already, but as always I've been guilty of hideously over thinking what I'm doing,trying to consider too many possible final outcomes, rather than just going with my instincts and it's really starting to scupper the progress & enjoyment i should have whilst doing this. I mean, I'm getting to draw Robocop & Predator all day, what could be better?!

I am stil also dilly-dallying over the 3rd film poster i need to design. Initially it was The Lost Boys - but as my other designs feature strong looking characters (alien hunter and a cyborg copper) it was suggested that maybe a good-looking bloke with a ridiculous platinum blonde mullet might be a weak link.

Hellraiser had also been on my shortlist, and has a strong looking main character, PinHead, that could depict - the problem is, i can't bring myself to watch the film.I'm not a massive fan of the 'Body-Horror' genre of film, and I've only made it through the first 3 mins of the opening credits ,of which features hooks and lumps of flesh. I may just have to read about it? 

Bad Taste ('Troma' style Z-movie, Peter Jackson'a first directorial outing,as well as doing pretty much everything else to with the production of the film) is another title I've overlooked because of the same reason. Iconic main character,but the actual film is too grim to sit through again. I think i'll stick with Lost Boys and try and make it work, mean he main character is/and does turn into a vampire during the film so i'll draw him him vampire mode. There are several other moments in the cult which the film is still well remembered for,amongst fans and geeks at least.

The Running Man - Arnold at his catch phrasing peak,although one of my favourite films of all time, there's just too much that i'd want to include on this one, and i'm trying my hardest to not do a mega detailed,full-to-the-brim Tyler Stout-esque design (see below) -  as much as i admire them.

What ever i do, i was strongly advised to keep it in the adult sci-fi/horror range & to ignore any urges to go down the fantasy, family film route - so that rules out other personal faves The Princess Bride, Batteries not Included and Harry & The Hendersons which, incidentally, stars 7' 2" Kevin Peter Hall who also played the 'Predator'. Random and useless 80's trivia machine, that's me.

Where was i..?

Peer Crit - Robocop poster development (cont)...

Amongst all the hand drawn design approach work i also had a play around with some minimal photo collage compositions, incorporating 80's colour schemes and paint brush marks/speckles. This has given me further decision problems,as i kind of like what I've done! It's certainly different to any of the alternative film poster designs I've come across, and it's also been appealing to those people who haven't even seen the film. They like it purely because of the way the photo elements work with each other on the page, and the neon colours contrasting with the black grungy background. The colour scheme really has gone down well it seems more than i expected it to.

During the class crit, it was suggested by tutors that i should actually stick with the hand drawn direction i originally started out with, and that although very striking and attractive to look at, with a suitable aesthetic - the photo collage is something that "anyone could've come along and done on photoshop". Which is a fair point, but i could easily argue that point by saying "Go look at Jackson Pollock or Joe Cruz's work"(I'm sure there a many more examples) A monkey could've done what Pollock was doing with his paint drips and splats - but the fact is, no-one had done. Another suggestion was to just try and combine the handrawn parts with the composition and colour schemes of the collage, which was the next step of my experimentation and development in order to finalise the design process of the poster  (see above), and indeed the other 2 posters as swell, which i've yet to get working on.

Applied Illustration SB2: ROBOCOP poster development

 FILM POSTER 1 : Robocop (1987)

 Dir. Paul Verhoven. Starring Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith

Planning for the first design (as it will for all of them) starts with a long old  trawl for suitable reference images of characters and iconic moments from the film. Drawing Robocop over and over again has given me the abloty to eventually quicky knock up scamps without the aid of the reference photos. I spent a good couple of hours finding as many as possible in as many different positions ask could - i'm not a concept artist,  and drawing accurate anatomy is really not my strong suit, so if I'll be cutting and pasting body parts for a bunch of different images to make one body, in a pose that is roughly what i'm aiming for. I can then sketch that and modify it from there.So even though I'm drawing from reference, I'm drawing from compositions that I've made from scratch, so i don't see it as copying.

Small section of reference images i sourced.

Out of all the reference imagery i collected, i managed to whittle it down to just a few elements that i wanted to include - more often than not film, posters usually feature the main character, with the supporting cast, relevant vehicles,creatures, buildings etc.. in the background in various positions. I don't want to follow that formula quite so much, and am looking to keep the layout quite minimal and un- cluttered.

Example of my own simple cut & paste mocks.

From this point it was just matter of producing lots of sketches until i came up with a composition i felt worked. I will be adding the film title in the same (or very similar) typeface as used for the actual films opening credits, and will be aiming to apply the same layout across all three of the posters - so that they all have a connection to each other and they work as a set of designs. A headache i'm currently having is about how 'illustrated' i should make them - as my sketches have had good feedback, and although i don't want to lose that feel to them, at the same time i feel they look too w.i.p. Also, as the film is set in the future and is based around technology, so cleaning up the linework to give it a more clinical,digital tone may be more suitable.