Campaign designs from the faculty show this fall:

recycLe Campaign

Ban the Bottle Campaign

I’ve been lax in posting my final pieces from last semester… I worked with simply 2 or 3 transparent blue bottles and the forms I could create from them. They seem to be the least thought about and the most successful. Isn’t that always the case? Sigh.

Based on various poster designs, detailing specific facts, etc.

Layout for my artists book design (flag book). Each page will take on the look / feel of one of my poster designs, and include additional information about the content.

CLICK HERE for the full layout in PDF format >>

Variation 1:

Variation 2:

A version of the original logo design, with a simplified layout; I thought the original was too overwhelming with the dollars / labels:

With the new logo, I embarked on simplifying the poster and the general design.

Variation One, Using New Logo

Variation 2:

Variation 3:

Variation with Money incorporated:

A second variation with money:

One of the things I’ve been working on is showing the low print quality and general low quality of the labels in general. I decided to rework my PureWaste logo so that it appears the letters are more tattered and have been torn and pasted up.

Here’s the original:

Here’s the revised version:

Detail of the tattered, torn letters:

I started experimenting with the idea of bottles coming in and tshirts coming out. I’m not sure I’m happy with it. Basically, the bottles create a pattern as they fall into the funnel, and the negative space suggests the outline of a tshirt. I think this still needs work.

After a fantastic book making workshop with Pet Starr, I was inspired to get creative and produce an artists book based on my poster and printed designs.

I’m specifically developing a “Flag Book” design, an intricate diecut piece (it will be printed and produced by hand), that will showcase some of the various designs I came up with this past year. I’ve gotten good feedback about the prototype, and also had some additional ideas thrown out:

• Produce an e-book, to distribute information and let the consumer decide if they should print it;
• Produce a floor sized book, that could be an interactive piece;
• Produce a grassroots, mainstream book, to be distributed;
• Produce a mockup of a grocery store flier, detailing the issues with bottled water;
• Produce a performance piece, with people entering the grocery store to buy things, and returning bottled water.

So for this spring, I went back to all of my original notes, and started thinking about my original audience: mainstream USA. If I was going to appeal to the mainstream public, I’d have to hit them where it hurts: their wallets.

I started experimenting with the labels themselves – scanning a HUGE number of them from literally, all over the world (continental USA, Bahamas, Saudi Arabia, England, Jamaica, Hawaii, Ireland, Scottland, etc.). I wanted to use these labels in different ways, and pair them with the idea that bottled water is costing the average citizen of the world more than they realize.

Pure Waste and Collage

I kept on with the idea of PureWaste – this could be taken in many ways, but in general, the target was the consumer and the amount of money they were wasting. I think this one, for the first attempt, is interesting. One of my committee members pointed out that the PureWaste logo was more readable (and easier to mistake as “PureWater” as I had intended) when it was in 2 color. So that’s one of the revisions I’ll be working on. Although I like the boldness of the design, I’ll probably experiment with simplifying this – maybe in the form of the bottle.

Pure Waste – Paste-Up Style

I started looking at the typography on the labels and how different it was, from vendor to vendor. It was interesting to me, how certain “local” companies would try to incorporate some local lore, or cultural aspect into the typography and name. I started experimenting with the PureWaste idea, but in the old style paste-up (think ransom letter). I liked it, and ran with it for some of the other designs.

These variations play with the idea that bottled water and money are directly related. I liked the overlapping nature of the PureWaste idea with other images. Again, I think refining and simplifying the design will help.

Halftone Poster Design

Probably the least developed, this design investigates the “promises” made on various labels. It amazed me the promises listed on some of these labels – health, vitality, youth. The tacky printing and design was another thing that really struck me. Many of the labels were printed poorly and you could easily see the halftone moiree patterns on the printed labels. I’ll probably explore this more, once I get more of a grip on where I’m going with it.