Week 6 - Inspired by Lichtenstein

This week we had a crit session. Nicklas explained how some blogs needed a bit more content and layouts now some needed their layouts tweaked a little to make the content easier to read. He also asked if people were making their own Tumblr/Wordpress themes and if so, to credit it at the bottom of the page so they could consider this when marking our work.

I applied what Nick had said to my blog. I like the layout but when reading it, to make it flow better and look neater, I added some breaks after a few lines of text so that they're is no need for continuous scrolling. I'm using a Tumblr theme but personalised it with my own header. I designed the header in Photoshop and based the design on my Major Project theme, Pop Art.

After evaluating my research so far, it's clear to see that Pop Art has the ability to remain fresh fun and persistent as it is still being used by the most iconic pop stars today and is still current in fashion, music and design.

This has re-established my belief that a website based on this topic would not only be a great source for all things Pop Art, but that the site also has the potential to generate and sustain a great number of users as the art form is still relevant and continues to inspire various forms of media.

I studied German Expressionism as my chosen film genre for my Moving Image Arts A-Level project. I can see a likeness in GE and Pop Art and it's the same things that attract me to both. Like German Expressionism, Pop Art uses strong shapes, abstract/distorted scenery and colour to express its art in a way that is striking. Using these characteristics of Pop Art, I have the opportunity to design a site that's creative, fresh and quirky.

I took the advice from week 4 design lecture and began some paper prototyping. I prefer this method of preparation as I find it easier to sketch my ideas, scribble out mistakes and add in bits and bobs. I find this way shows more of my thinking process, especially during the early stages of development. Once the kinks have been worked out I can then develop them using software.

Design Concept 1: Inspired by Lichtenstein 

Roy Lichtenstein was one of the leading artists of the Pop Art era. Born in New York, he began painting at the age of 14. At the start of his career, he experimented with many art forms and techniques before the old fashioned comic book style became his main subject matter. Two of the first paintings he created using this style were the ‘Ten Dollar Bill’ and Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck paintings.

'Ten Dollar Bill'

Mickey/Donald

The elements he used to create his comic book style paintings are what attract me to his work. I love how he tool inspiration from the Cubist and Expressionist art movements and created paintings using thick lines, expressionist brush strokes, bold colours (pink and blue in particular) and Ben-Day dots to depict an abstract look. These, along with lettering and speech balloons became his signature techniques. 

The graphics used in Belfast City Council's current anti-litter campaign have been inspired by the Lichtenstein comic-strip style.

So why have they used Pop Art in this campaign? Councillor Ian Adamson, chairman of the Belfast City Council's Health and Environmental Services Committee, said;  

“The pop-art images have got people talking and that’s exactly what we were hoping for. People have been discussing the campaign on the council’s Facebook page and it’s great to get their feedback.”

The images used in the campaign resemble one of Lichtensteins more famous pieces of work, 'Drowning Girl' 1963 which now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

I started to look at some of the Marvel comic books and compared them with Lichtenstein's paintings. As mentioned previously, comic books is where Lichtenstein drew his inspiration from. The Marvel collection is a great example of how Lichtenstein adapted the techniques used to create these drawings to create his own style. You can see the same use of thick bold lines, animated wording and abstract backgrounds being used but in different ways. The Marvel comics and Marvel website are other good sources I could use when thinking of design concepts.

Creative Experimentation: 

After taking some inspiration from Lichtenstein's work, I decided to start sketching some ideas.

This is a sketch of an idea I've had for the 'Intro' page. I'm not a big fan of flash intros myself but it's something I could try. If I kept it short it may not be too annoying for users and of course there will be the option to skip it. The idea behind this design is the background of Be-Day dots is all that will be on the page when first opened. Then the comic book will come swirling onto the page and end up in the middle with a 'Pow' or 'Whamm' kind of sound effect. The word enter then appears on the comic book cover and the user can then continue to explore the site. I thought this would be a fun and quirky intro to the site rather than a basic web page appearing.

As mentioned, one of Lichtenstein's signature traits was using speech balloons and comic lettering. Some of the words that people relate with his work are 'Ka-pow', 'Whamm', 'Blam' and 'Zip'. I decided to incorporate this technique in the navigation design. I practiced sketching the words and then roughly sketched my comic book style website complete with speech balloon navigation.

I also like the font and colours used in this site. If you visit it, you will see each page is a different colour. I think this is a really creative way to illustrate the bright/bold colours used in Pop Art.