Status Report

Ok, so before I begin to crack on with this post I feel that I have to submit a formal warning due to the fact that this is probably going to be a bit of a long one; I am intending to show a few ideas that I have been experimenting with over the past two to three weeks you see. First of all, as you should all be aware of by now, my focus of research fell within the realms of joker cards and their designs. I collected one hundred of these as previously stated and to start off with I thought a few visuals of these could be interesting...



As an initial idea, I was really keen to work with designing a book from one sheet of paper that would fold out into a bigger design, thus housing the format of a poster. I mainly focussed on trying to convey a form of colour swatch using the reverse pattern design of each card as I personally found them rather engaging. When put together into one solid composition I think that the idea is quite successful and does engage an audience visually on some level. Despite this though, if I were to ask the question 'Would I put this on my wall?' ...well, I feel I would have to say no. Revisions are needed I think. What's more, at the time of constructing this design I hadn't come across the work by Deb Rindl which is shown below in the post 'Book? What's that then...'. In looking at his approach it is in my own opinion that his work provides a very successful method of folding and layout which culminates for a better result. Hopefully in coming weeks I will find the time to re-assess this idea amongst other plans I have for a book of jokers.





At this point I felt in my own mind that I had a personal vendetta to produce something that was more 'book like'... on a stereotypical level at least. With this I aimed to produce an A5 scale, thirty-two page booklet that would be able to engage the audience from cover to cover. After a short seminar with Fred, I borrowed the idea of photographing my objects whilst arranged in a pile based on the order of their height. I would then remove a card each time a photograph was taken and therefore be left with nothing; except one hundred photographs to document the process of course. As well as this however, I wanted to incorporate a range of statistics that I had discovered within my initial stages of research as this would not only make the book more unique, but also give an additional level of interest whilst reading.



As shown, I decided upon re-using some of the design work that was originally intended for my poster layout for the front and back covers. This works particularly well although might be a little misleading due to the fact that the content of the book is based on the face side of each card; not their patterned reverse.







Overall the feedback for this booklet was very positive and some rather constructive suggestions were made to make the physical appearance of the book more like a joker card itself. These included such things as rounding off the corners of the book, stylize the page numbering to look like the commonly recognised corners of playing cards, perhaps design a casing along the lines of a card box, to use paper that is of a similar weight to a playing card and to finally opt for a rectangular image format as opposed to square. All in all, a set of trivial details that I think would make the book even more successful; can't ask for more than that really!

So that brings me to now, two weeks left and a whole bunch of ideas to plough on with. Check back very shortly for updates as well as a fresh batch of book research to get your graphical juices flowing.

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Book Binding Workshop

So here we are, another ingenious workshop from the man of the moment - (that's Roger for any of you that couldn't guess). I really can't comprehend his humor in all honesty, it's just too good. Make sure you don't come under the firing line though, he shows no mercy! Either way, as a result of very good tutoring I ended up making this little gem with the bare might of my own crafty hands. Think I done pretty well besides a minor glue leakage at the last hurdle. Burgundy with a sandy brown? I thought so too!






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Confessions of a Graphic Designer...

Just a quick and easy, black on white sticker design for my other passion in life: The Temptress. Don't tell my other half or you'll get me into trouble. If you want one for any reason then give me a shout, free stuff is always good right?


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Book of 100 - Statement of Intent

Focus: The general idea of this brief through the eyes of yours truly is how to document a collective of 100 joker cards in an interesting and visually engaging manner. Just how this will be done? Well, I'm not 100% on that yet. I'm really feeling the whole reverse pattern vibe and what sort of content is portrayed through the main 'joker' character itself. Countries of origin are also of interest as a variation of sizes have become increasingly apparent, as have shape and historical reference information. Perhaps an insight on how various organisations tend to advertise on the joker card could be of some interest? We shall see... Hopefully I can devise a more obscure and complex way forward with this brief. MUST.THINK.OUTSIDE.THE.BOX.

Research: At the time of detailing this post of intent, I currently have in my possession a vast array of 100 joker cards from all over the world. Origins include America, Spain, Egypt, China, Hong Kong, Britain and Japan to name but a few. I also have 24 extras, but that's besides the point. From these I have tried to systematically categorise them in many different ways. Size, shape, number of sides, the amount of text, the amount of imagery, how many actually state the word 'joker', how many advertise somewhere within the design, what the primary colour of the reverse is, etc etc. You name it I have pretty much been there. Where to go from here however? Possibly a few variations of designs from my own creative fingertips and a neatly arranged selection of illustrations would be a good way in which to continue from this point onwards. I would also be keen to somehow use the cards as a prop within a studio based photo shoot; the idea of a 100 card pickup is something I think could really work well. Hopefully it could be humorous too? Ideally I'd aim to get down to the very nitty-gritty details of the cards themselves. I believe that some uncommon yet slightly mundane information may serve as a good point of interest if portrayed in an effective manner visually.

Process: Returning to my favourite method of illustration, I'd most like to work within the realms of collage in order to produce a series of my own designs. This is as well as looking at pre-existing ones found within contemporary popular culture - i.e Batman: The Dark Knight 72 joker card designs picture gallery. (Special Feature discs are always a winner!) If possible however, a highly geeky representation of facts and statistics through illustrative design would be a challenge I'd be more than willing to take. If this route takes my intentions towards the digital side of design then Adobe Indesign would be a key feature when arranging my documents for print.

Evaluation: In order to evaluate my progress and methods of approach I am a firm believer of group conducted crits that obtain various sources of feedback; each of which I hope to be unique in what they say. This way a varied and particularly organic collection of ideas can be acquired which given an appropriate selection can assist in the development of any given task. My main area of purpose that I aim to evalaute against simply boils down to the fact of 'Does this idea make a simple and relatively dull subject matter interesting?' Although this might prove to be slighlty open ended and very vulnerable to personal points of view, I am confident that a general consensus would and could be recognised from a larger cross section of feedback.

Book? What's that then...

Well, where better to start some research into the topic 'book' than with a literal meaning of the word from one of the best selling publications of all time; the dictionary.

1. Portable written or printed treatise filling a number of sheets fastened together (forming roll, or usu. with sheets sewn or pasted hingewise & enclosed in cover); literary composition that would fill such a set of sheets (or several) if printed; (fig.) anything from which one may learn, also imaginary record, list, etc.

So without further ado, here are some of the more creative and visually appealing examples of a so called 'book' that I have come across since embarking upon this quest:

'10 Poems for Pandorra' - Victoria Bean.

'Catelogue; Post-graduate fine arts' - Asli Kalinglu.


'The Book Maker' - Deb Rindl.


'Tiling Books' - Pete Sampsom.


'Pile of Books' - Adriaan Mellegers.

At this moment in time the making of a book from one piece of A2 paper really appeals to me, perhaps even as a simple fold-out poster approach; not too dissimilar from Asli Kalinglu's catelogue?

Either way, I am sure there will be more discoveries to come. Check back!

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