Looking at contemporary communication designer Colour & Shape Looking at contemporary communication designer Scotty Reifsnyder Dan Stiles Jason Munn

A closer look at shape Shapes are flat and two dimensional Some shapes are drawn with instruments such as set squares and are easily measured; these are referred to as geometric shapes

Shapes that are less regular are referred to as Organic Shapes – the outline of a puddle or leaf

Colour Everything that we see in the world is colour Colour is perceived when there is light and colour refers to the wave lengths of light that are part of the human visible spectrum

Colour can be mixed and created from pigments and is best understood by the 12 Hue colour wheel showing PRIMARY, SECONDARY &TERTIARY colours

Primary – RED, BLUE, YELLOW used to create secondary colours Secondary – are created by mixing two Primary Colours Tertiary – are created by adding additional colours to a secondary colour. A range of browns, greys and blacks ae created this way

COMPLIMENTARY colours (also known as contrasting colours) are positioned opposite on the colour wheel and create TENSION, VIBRANCY & CONTRAST ANALOGOUS Colours ( also known as harmonious colours) are colours NEXT to each other on the colour wheel. They create harmony when used together in a composition.

Monochromatic colour is achieved when one hue is used in a composition with variations in its value, saturation and temperature

Formal qualities of colour SATURATION - describes the level of intensity of that colour. A saturated colour is bright and intense, while a desaturated colour appears muted and dull. VALUE – The value of a colour refers to its level of lightness or darkness which is the tone of the colour created with tints and shades of the same colour TEMPERATURE – refers to how we perceive it in terms of hot or cold. Red is warm and blue is cool. In compositions the warm colours appear to come forward and the cool appear to recede into the background

Colour in the context of computer monitors and printing: In design, colour is used in a number of ways. Colour printers and monitors have a system for reading colour and designers need to specify colour ranges for the production of their designs. This often requires the use of PANTONE matching systems PMS which is a universally understood colour chart hat references each colour in a unique way.

RGB & CMYK COLOUR RGB – Red Green Blue are the additive primary colours of white light. Computer monitors are usually in RGB and use this system to create the perception of all the colours and white on the screen. sRGB – is the international standard colour space for monitors, printing and the internet and ensures accuracy and consistency of colour in applications CMYK – Cyan Magenta, Yellow Black are the subtractive primary inks that are combined to create red green and blue additive primaries in the four colour printing process.

Scotty Reifsnyder, Jason Munn & Dan Stiles are designers who use colour boldly to communicate their message and create interest in their visual communication

Scotty REIFSNYDER

Contempory designer influenced by SAUL BASS Contempory designer influenced by SAUL BASS . “The simple bold colour palette and kinetic line work had me hooked”

Interview “You’ve got a great style full of limited colour palettes, geometric shapes and a very organic feel. What inspires your work? In particular, is there anything outside of other design work that inspires you? Films are probably the most influential art form to my work. Cinematography and how shots are framed are really influential to how I crop a composition. Colour in a motion picture is very big for me too. Colour can help drive a narrative and convey a scene’s emotion. Color and cropping are all things I have to figure out when I’m working on a new commission

Jason Munn Simple shape & often Monochromatic colour are common in his work which focuses predominantly on posters for Indie rock bands

Jason Munn's style is silk screen poster art Jason Munn's style is silk screen poster art. He uses bold, geometric designs to create images that in a way represent the band, or the festival he is creating it for.]His early work used a lot of found imagery or combined multiple pieces of abstract imagery to create something new. Munn rarely use abstract imagery now, but he does work with a lot of common objects, changing them in some way to get a different meaning from the objects and to relate them to the bands. His work usually consist of the same objects; records, cameo-style profiles/heads, nature images, tv, telephones. Munn uses these same objects to create continuity in his artwork.

I try to keep it clean and direct. Even the complex stuff is clean Dan Stiles I try to keep it clean and direct. Even the complex stuff is clean

Based in Portland, Oregon, Dan Stiles is an iconic designer/illustrator. He’s probably best known for his poster work. He states the influence for his work being a combination of the many different roles he’s had in his education/work life and the various pop-culture environments he has invested an interest in. This range includes old comic books, skate board graphics, modern art, Japanese design and art movements like Art Deco and Art Nouveau.

HW Task: Choose one of the designers discussed in this Power Point or alternatively look at ALVIN LUSTIG or PAUL RAND Choose a number of images to stick into your book. Discuss how the designer has used Colour and Shape to create interest within their work. Are the communications effective? Do you like them? How could you use these ideas, styles in your own artworks?

Draw on the images you created/drew/researched for the Hairspray Visual Communication. Redraw one of the images as an outline/shape avoiding any detail Trace the shape . Cut the shape out. This will be your template. Create cut-outs of your image in a primary colour then paste them onto contrasting colour backgrounds . Complete 3 of these, one for each contrasting set of colours. Discuss and Annotate your images.