In my essay I tried to explain how print media has evolved over the years and how certain groups of people are getting involved in different ways. I touched on the subject of why do people read certain magazines and has magazine culture become a new sub-culture much like how there are groups of people that associate themselves with other people interested in clothe brands or a certain music genre. I moved this point on to talking about stereotypes and wether people who read certain magazines behaved in a certain way for example do they wear similar clothes and do similar things etc.
I am researching into how I will produce a practical side to my COP module. For example, artists and designers that have produced work so a similar nature, inspiration of work that will help me to produce my work and also methods of traditional printing so that I can decide what will be the best route to take.
Matt Blease -
His illustration style is influenced by his graphic design background, communicating ideas in a playful and direct way. His distinctive style is recognisable in its wit and topical observations. His work can currently be seen in his weekly spot in The Guardian’s G2.
What I found most interesting which relates well to the research topic is that he was commissioned to create portraits of “Style Tribes” for The Sunday Times Style Magazine, Kinfolk Man was a recognisable stereotype, complete with sandals, vintage cardie and a tote bag full of (presumably organic) vegetables. The illustrations focus on the way the person looks and what they are wearing, helping people to understand when someone is categorised by a name like "hipster".
As well as his work that he was commissioned to create for The Sunday Times, I looked at his other illustrations. I noticed that how he liked to use tongue and cheek to get people to understand certain social matters and other day to day problems that we might meet.
Kickposters -
Dan Freebairn is a illustrator/Designer that specialises in sneaker/streetwear culture illustrations. He produces illustrations of sneakers and people they are very popular among the street wear scene, as the style of his work is very clean and shows off the beaut of sneakers and other similar subjects.
Screen Printing -
For a detailed design this would be perfect, you are able to come up with as many colour layers as you want, but the more layers the more complicated it gets but this allows you to get a very good quality print, the process is also very straight forward and makes it very easy to print lots of outcomes rather than just one print.
Having not done any screen printing before, I feel that experimenting with the method is the best way for me to go forward win this brief. As I will be able too see how effective the process is and if the design does not work out it is not difficult to clean the screen and start again, although it can take time waiting for screens to dry etc.
After having researched into screen printing and seeing how it will influence my design I have understood the I will have to make sure that the design is no more than 4 colour layers, as I will be difficult enough lining up each layer, so by having more it will make it more difficult to print and get a good result every time. At this point I am un sure of how I my illustration style will be be so I have to make sure that when I am designing not to make the design over complicated.
I felt that other printing methods such as lino-cut and mono printing, would not get me the result and accuracy that I require for this brief. The illustration needs to be crisp as it will be to some what detailed image of a person, so I feel that this would be the best way to achieve this.