Studio Brief 1 - Initially: A - Z Poster Process

Layout

I had a really tough time laying this poster out. With the "Pocket" theme decided upon, I knew I didn't want each pocket to be uniform or the exact same size or appearing on the A1 sheet all next to each other in nice straight lines. Looking back this obviously would have made the process a whole lot easier, but in terms of composition - I had to do things the hard way to achieve what I wanted to aesthetically.

I began by drawing a bunch of squares and rectangles on a sheet of A3 to try and get my head around what I wanted to go where. I roughly divided the sheet into a 5 x 5 grid as I knew that would essentially give me 25 squares, then I sort of wiggled things about a bit taking into consideration the variety of sizes I wanted to incorporate and tried to fit in the extra 'pocket' square I needed to make up 26 areas.

Once I had a very rough layout, I stuck two A2 pieces of paper together (as I had no A1 single sheets at the time) and began transferring the information across from my previous A3 workings. All of the squares and rectangles were completely random in size and in no way accurate to a measurement, so once I had everything where I wanted it to an A1 poster scale, I started matching squares and rectangles of similar size. I figured that If I am going to be drawing, cutting, folding and sticking 26 individual pockets I may as well make it easier for myself in terms of the net template design and have a few that were the same dimensions as each other. I marked similar sized squares and rectangles with the same letter for reference and then measured the size of the areas. This way I knew I what size I wanted my net templates to be and where I wanted them in the final layout and also how many I wanted of each. 


For example:

Net Design Letter         Dimensions(cm)       Amount Needed       Orientation
            S                              20 x 20                              2                        Square
            X                              10 x 20                              4                        Portrait
            P                                7 x 14                              3                        Landscape



Process

After I had all of my square and rectangle dimensions and I knew how many I wanted of each, I began drawing out the net templates. I have some experience of paper engineering so I knew how a pocket net design works in theory. The square / rectangle dimension needs tabs on 3 of its sides in order to be attached to the A1 backboard. The bottom tab just needed to be simple tab and the left and right side tabs needed to be divided into 2 so that each could be folded down the centre line to create the pop-up pocket depth. 

First net template design

A variety of pocket net templates all for
the same pocket dimension of 10 x 10 cm

Curved bottom pocket net template

I knew that I wanted some of the pockets to have a flap/lid and so to create this I drew separate net templates in line with their accompanying pocket dimensions. Each flap/lid design had just one primary tab on the top side so that these could be folded back and stuck to the A1 backboard. (All very fiddly and complicated but necessary in creating the desired look)

Tools

After the net template had been drawn, I cut them out using a scalpel and metal ruler for guidance. I then scored with the back of the knife along the necessary fold lines and began to bend the net template into the desired pocket shape. Once this had been done and I could see the pocket take the desired shape, I flattened the net template out again so that I could start designing, adding colour and finishing touches and details the pockets.























I chose to use blue as my primary colour within this brief as I felt it leant itself to the design of the pockets I was creating. I was going for a denim feel as people often associate pockets with the ones they find on their jeans, denim jackets and bag etc and so to create the look I coloured each individual pocket using Pro Marker pens in a variety of blue shades. I also used a variety of grey shades in the final designs of the pockets which now looking back I think may have not been in line with the brief, but it helped make the pockets stand out individually and as a whole having another colour/shade to work in its favour.

Selection of blue pens: Uni Posca,
Pro Marker, Sharpie, Copic Marker etc

Selection of white, grey and black pens:
Kurecolour Marker, Pro Marker, Sharpie
Rotring, Uniball etc

Details of stitching were added with blue, white and black fine liners and other details such as mini additional pockets, patches, buttons and studs were also cut, coloured and stuck on individually.

 

The completed pockets with their stud, button, patches and small pocket
details completed

Once the 26 pockets had been completed, I laid them back on my A1 draft sheet in their respective places to get an idea once more of the final composition. I shifted the pockets around to get a balance of colour and shape and once I was happy with their positioning, I began the very time consuming and very fiddly task of securing them to a back board.

I managed to find an A1 sized white gloss piece of card for the back board, which I was really happy with because it needed to be a strong material in order to hold the pockets and their contents along with the adhesive I was going to use. I didn't want to make any marks on the backboard as it would ruin the final presentation, so throughout the whole process I just used my A1 layout model (above) as reference, sticking one pocket on at a time, starting at the corners and working my way in. I used double sided tape along each tab on every pocket and fiddled, tore, stuck and frustratingly repositioned every pocket again and again until I was happy with the outcome.

Now that the pockets were complete, I could finally begin on the A - Z contents. Using a variety of reference materials including actual contents of friends pockets, I sketched out one item for each letter of the alphabet - one item for each pocket. Once the items were sketched, I finalised them in pen continuing with my blue colour scheme. After each item was complete, I cut them out again using a scalpel and scissors etc and placed them inside the pockets, a random pocket for each (to create a bit of mystery). With all the items in their pockets, the poster for this brief was finally finished.

A few of the completed pocket items: Pen, Plasters, Comb, Coins, Fluff, Sunglasses, Durex Condoms,
Filters, Headphones, Plectrum (Pick), Bus Ticket, Bottle Cap