My project, ‘Fiesta Do Café’, has been successful overall in conveying the idea of Brazil’s Carnival, and the excitement of it. My intentions were to present the liveliness and culture of the festival through bright designs that represent this idea, and I feel that the feathers were successful in doing this, as they not only remind us of costume feathers, but also the feathers of birds, and so they are relevant to multiple Brazilian cultures, and my feather styles have varied, which added interest to my project. Colour has been one of the main successful elements in my project; the combination of both bright and earthier, darker colours enabled me to produce vibrant but professional designs throughout the entirety of my brand. Blue became my key brand identity colour, used within my posters and app also; I found this to be the most friendly and welcoming, tropical-looking, and the most eye-catching also.
This project is a record label focused around the promotion of liquid drum and bass to the younger generations, bringing in a new audience for the music community. It sets out to design a logo and the elements of a CD cover, including cover art and CD disc design, that have a fresh and modern aesthetic. Due to the liquid nature of the music genre, the designs are centred around the forms and colours of water creating fluid designs and
branching out into sea life and sea creatures later in the project. In order to create designs that appealed to younger audiences, the project extensively used digital design tools and gradients throughout the branding but then contrasted this by combining it with traditional watercolour, which can be seen with the whale in the CD cover design and poster. The designs used modern script and sans-serif fonts, keeping the project appealing and fresh.
This project was successful as I created graphics for a new makeup brand ‘Allure’. These being the both the outer packaging, a logo as well as labels for four products. A lip gloss, foundation, blusher and bronzer pallet and a eyeshadow pallet. I intended to make my brand cruelty free and clean as well as luxury and timeless in its design.
Throughout the project I took inspiration from artists such as Picasso, William Morris and Frank Stella as well as brands such as Charlotte Tilbury and Fenty Beauty as both of these are luxury brand that have a strong message of women empowerment.
Each of my graphic outcomes are coherent, and they all link together in aesthetic. The soft colour pallet reflects the femininity of the product. I also developed a pattern with the designs of my packaging to link to the range name of ‘Perennial’ and the one line illustration of an iris presents this.
This project is focused on creating a new brand for a company called Mark’s coffee shop and it includes design work for a new logo, menu and coffee cup design to help promote new sales for the brand. The logo is a simple and modern design that is contained within a square so it can easily line up with text and be used on any other business items. The logo makes use of a large bold font to make the logo easy to read. The coffee cup designs created are very minimalist and work well with the logo. The black coffee cup is an ICED coffee cup while the red serves as the regular hot drinks cup. The menu design forms a triangle design and so it can be displayed on a table and easily viewed by any customers and contains an allergen warning for safety concerns and customer health.
The role of a graphic designer is incredibly varied. You may find yourself immersed in a fantasy world while designing a set of illustrations for a book, or exploring complex data to create exciting and vibrant infographics that inform rather than confuse.
Students at Dudley Sixth are introduced to wide range of graphic design processes and techniques. While using a range of both traditional and digital methods, they are encouraged to move beyond their comfort zones to produce a variety of work supported by an understanding of design theory and a developing awareness of contemporary practitioners to inform and influence their ideas.
I believe this year’s projects show the variety and individuality of our students, producing a collection of work tailored to their interests and specialisms. The students have all pushed themselves to get the best results even when the Covid-19 pandemic threw obstacles at them and this is clearly visible in the end outcomes.
In their second year, students begin to develop their own visual identity while becoming increasingly self-directed and independent. This enables them to create a set of work that has both a personal connection but a wider understanding of the subject area. This could be an advertising campaign, design work for a clothing website or a set of illustrations for an album sleeve or book. Throughout the year, students will be pushed to try new approaches and consolidate the skills they have learned in their first year to produce strong, challenging and professionally-produced designs. I believe you will see all of these qualities in this year’s second year work. I hope you enjoy it.
Chris Worley, A-Level Graphics Tutor, Dudley Sixth
In a usual year A level Fine art students would have the opportunity to complete two projects over the duration of year two. One self-set, the other selected from externally set topics released by the exam board and whose final outcome would be produced during an exam . These would normal form a 60/40 split .This year the students have been completing one project for the whole year. The pieces of work you see here are the results of a very difficult year, both academically and generally. The results are a real testament to my student’s resilience, willingness to engage with online learning and the sheer determination of every single one of them. They should be extremely proud of their achievements, as I am and I wish them all the luck for the future.
Gillian Worley, A-Level Fine Art Tutor, Dudley Sixth
