Year 3, Project 4 - A message from the heart

For this project we were asked to created an interesting way of conveying those deep emotions and thoughts that we struggle to convey. I took a stereo typical notion - a message in a bottle - and made it personal, useful and dam right sexy.

Here is the message -

Click the image for a crisper image 

The idea is to break down your emotions and thoughts into a few simple understandable words and phrases. That wont work you say? We do it by text and instant messaging all the time. Of course it will take a deep and meaningful conversation to get your real point across, this bottle can be that ice breaker that can lead to such conversation.

To buy yours, Click Here

Year 3, Project 3 - My Interview

For this project I filmed an interview with a young film-maker called Ray. Its about the journey he took trying to create a documentary about political/ religious murders that took place in Pakistan.

  

Year 3, Project 2 - Xerox Nightmare

I was given the word "Xerox Nightmare". From that word I derived the phrase "repetition of nightmare". Xerox is a black and white printing process (Machine).

I made a horror movie about the repetition of death.

Yes, I am very good at telling the short version of stories.

 

Year 3, Project 1 - Presentation

Year 2, Project 8 - Impressions of London

For a while now I have been drawing what london looks like to me in a hope of splitting the image in to six "sectors" and using them as backgrounds for my postcards, lets just say I am not the best drawer in the world, in fact i could give the title "worst drawer of the year" a run for its money ..

and so ..

I gave it a thought, London Underground kept coming to mind. I've always loved the maps, have a big collection of them somewhere and so I made these (I know it sounds simple, but I really do like them) -

Here is the collection - 

Year 2, Project 7 - What is Graphic Design?

It's so many things! To make my life easier, I gave my self 120 seconds to write down what I thought it is, I then took key words from the scribbles and turned them into the BEST posterI have made to date, Oh yes -

Yo DJ, Spin that sh*t

(Irrelevant title)

Lately I have gone on a crusade revamping old projects, adding what Iv'e learnt after completing them. For one project we were given a track-list of 11 songs from the album "circus of sound" and asked to create typographic covers for each. The style had to be consistant with each cover. To see my old attempt at this project, click the following link -

http://ahmadaliart.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/year-2-project-3-circus-of-sound.html

Now out with the old and in with the new (does not apply with grandparents and other old people) here is the new cover (front/ back) -

Explanation - 

The basic idea for the cover was to create a "mysterious look". The basic look of the cover replicates the marking on a map and the lettering around it is meant to represent a code of some kind. The letters forming a triangle around the markings are an acronym for "circus of sound" (album title). The lettering forming a square around the cover represents the following information, track number (top, left), initials of the artist (top, right), first  letter of track name (bottom, left) and finally a full stop (bottom, right) drawing all the information to a close.

Traditionally, after the front of the album is checked out viewers always seem to turn it and look at the back. In this case rear cover shows only a QR code. These codes can be scanned using smart phones. The code on each cover will take the user to a youtube video that will play a snippet of the song. 

Both the mystery behind the cover and the use of the QR code where done to try an get a younger audience either sampling of buying this more classical music. The bright colour of the cover also tries to draw attention, then the design kicks in and causes curiosity.

Here's the entire collection - 

Extra, extra. Here is a (simple) promo poster - 

What the FU*K is it?

To help me kick start the "what is Graphic design" project I made a few posters, not as final pieces, but as little exercises to help mw think about the question in hand.

Enjoy -

My virus to SOPA

For my disaster project (Refer to this link: http://ahmadaliart.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/year-2-project-5-disaster-waiting-to.html) I created this final poster, named "Net Face"-

The poster consists of a hidden (sad) face amongst the binary code. I did this as people may not be so threatened by the intrusion of their online privacy and so I wanted "data" to apear more "human" so the topic is more relatable.

If you cant see the face, fear not, I have very clumsily mapped out the face in this picture - 

Its a gift, just not from the fire of Mordor!

Anyone who pops down to my groups exhibition on Wednesday the 11th and actually joins our cult (there is an initiation process) will receive one of these bad boys ..

Now before you head on, check this bad boy out, it's the result of an error that photoshop had whilst saving the work .. 

Show off

Here a series of posters that will be going up on my groups exhibition (coming soon)

Here are the posters in printed form: 

Preparing for the END

FUCK an a2 portfolio, instead I am going to make a glorious book showcasing my work!

Here are some (inner) project covers from the book .. 

(Click to enlarge)

Year 2, Project 6 - Home

"Your Home is a mirror of your self "

For this project we were asked to create a response in accordance to what we perceive as home. I decided to branch out a little bit for this one, I took a trip back to Ireland, my birthplace. 

Was it a brief holiday I took during term? Yes. Did I have fun? Yes. Did I gain more knowledge then being in a class where my tutor was absent? Most definitely!

(Tim, My tutor, was to a trip to America)

As a response to the brief, I decided to create a personal video showing my time spent with my family, I did stay true to the project, nothing was staged. To make sure of this I filmed using my iPhone (edited on iMovie). Every time I was doing something noteworthy with my family, I got the moment recored. 

Each framed was filmed with a "vintage" effect using various apps, combine that with a classical song (taken from the movie "Drive", a must see) and you have a touching short film showcasing the fun you had with a loving family.     

The video - 

An Diadan stands for "Haven" and/ or "Home" in Gallic (Irish) 

Since this was a personal video I do understand that some moments would not have appeared that special to the viewer, so i decided to create a booklet to explain to the viewer why each scene is important to me.

Here are some cover concepts I created for the book - 

The Final Exhibition (Professional Practice)

For the final professional practice project we have been asked (in groups) to put on an exhibition. Only excellent work will do.

Our plan is to create a SPOOF campaign for a modern day Crusade on the "Holy Land". Controversial? Yes, but we honestly mean well.

The whole point of this project is firstly to bring to light the hunan tragedy of the conflict in the region. Secondly were looking into the workings of propaganda and experimenting how effect design can be in manipulating people.

were not doing this as twisted joke. These matters need to be talked about more. We will make people do exactly that.

We have named the campaign, Imperium Pugnis which stands for "Imperial fists" in latin. We chose a silly name to illiterate the fact that it is not a serious campaign. The latin equivalent does sound slightly more serious but were hoping people will look up the term due to it's weird sounding nature.

Here is what the title looks like -

We also made a logo for the "cause". We used a pyramid to symbolise a higher order, it also represents corporate ideals. The politics behind the Middle East largely involves corporate benefactors (I think). The letter eye with in the logo is taken from the title.

Follow the campaign here -

http://imperiumpugnis.blogspot.com/

Here are to early posters I have created for the "fake" campaign -

Here is two poster variations using both the title and the logo - 

After establishing a clear graphical look for our campaign/ exhibition it was time to create the first wave of promotion. These poster do not intend to give a wealth of information but rather they are there to simply make people aware of the campaign.

There is extensive use of the logo in the hope that it's cult like look will generate both hype and curiosity.

Heres are the posters - 

(Please note, the colours of the backgrounds of these posters can easily be changed, any judgment made about them should be made in regards to the size, placement and style of the type and logo)