What is Urban Regeneration

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of reconstruction. The process has had a major impact on many urban landscapes, and has played an important role in the history and demographics of cities around the world.

Urban renewal may involve relocation of businesses, the demolition of structures, the relocation of people, and the use of eminent domain (government purchase of property for public use) as a legal instrument to take private property for city-initiated development projects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_regeneration 

In my own words... 

Urban regeneration/ renewal is when an an area is re-designed and renovated to improve the efficiency and use of the public. There have been many regeneration projects all over the UK and i will state examples in a later post.

Urban Regeneration Assignment Brief

Inner cites changed enormously in the 90s and 00s, with run down areas of disused buildings and land, and in some cases substandard housing, being redeveloped into pockets of urban cool, featuring flats, shops, hotels, restaurants, venues and conference centres, with the intension of breathing new economic life into the previously derelict.  In Brighton, two examples of this are the area around the Jubilee Library and the New England Quarter at the back of the train station.  Further afield, the work of Urban Splash has redeveloped areas of English northern cities.

This kind of regeneration has slowed right down in the current recession, but for this assignment you have to imagine that London Road Brighton is being redeveloped into a gentrified urban centre attractive to the young and single or couples without children.  Flats, bars, restaurants, shops, a hotel and a club / music venue are designed to be attractive to the target market of 18 – 39 year old well off students and professionals. 

You have been commissioned to create the graphic design for the promotion of the London Road Brighton project.  You need to develop a consistent visual language across a range of print pieces, using typography and a graphic style in a way that creates a visually coherent campaign.  You need to produce a folding leaflet which promotes the project overall combining text and images, and a series of at least three magazine ads or posters which focus on a specific aspect of what’s on offer in the zone (such as a bar, the hotel and the flats).  The ads are for distribution as full page ads in relevant magazines including Time Out in London and Latest 7 in Brighton.  The posters are to be placed in London and Brighton bus stops and train stations, and London Tube stations.  You will need to create these print pieces at suitable aspect ratios and mock them up into a photo of a location or magazine to show their impact in situ. 

You will start this project by undertaking visual research.  As well as looking at existing posters, magazine ads and leaflets for their design characteristics, you will look into the visual presentation of architectural and urban regeneration projects, and you will also explore the work of artists, designers, design movements and images to select a visual language that will inspire and inform your work.  This research needs to be reflected in your blog. 

You will devise the concept for your campaign (inspiration, imagery, tag line, colour, font, layout etc) from research and design development processes including brainstorms, mood boards, sketches, mock-ups etc and pitch this 

Evaluation

I have researched everything i could think of when it came to the visual graphic elements in terms of layout, typography, colour, look and feel and textures.

How i managed my time
I went through the brief high lighting key points and then went off and researched them. i should have produced an excel spreadsheet for each key point and this would have kept things as organised as possible.

What i think worked well was the graphic elements i used all came together in the end, the poster isnt brilliant but i have included everything proposed to me in the brief.

What could be improved
The organisation both with the digital files and organisation of time. i would have liked to have included more sketches and visual images into my sketch book in order to fully expand ideas. At first i confident at all in terms of my digital design skills, and i did find it challenging at first to get to grips with the software itself. More preparation needed in future in terms of knowing the software.

Overall i feel that i met the brief requirements in terms of the appropriate design, theme, colours and made a correlation between Facebook and the graphic visual language of a researched propaganda era, which in my case was 1942 Japanese invasion.

My Finalised Facebook Propaganda Poster

I have produced my finished poster... 

This is my propaganda poster completed. I think that my design is a success in terms of graphic elements and relating to a specific propaganda style. The layout is very common with the main interest located in the centre and the text is eye catching. The typography use dis very suiting to the poster both bold for the heading and the slogan has a hand written effect which makes it seem a bit more real. The colours are very basic, contrasting and vibrant, i think they all work well with each other. 

Sketches And Ideas For My Own Poster

After gathering ideas from research i then began sketching my ideas into my sketch book. These sketches ranged from small graphic elements through to visualisations and mocks ups.

In the above image i was expanding on my ideas visually trying to get a feel for what sort of sketches i could produce and what i could add or subtract towards other ideas.

This was my first full visual  idea put into a sketch. I thought about including Uncle Sam into this idea, as if Facebook wants you to sign up. Same sort of layout and typography however the colours would we that of my colour swatch that i created.

I then put this idea into illustrator to see how it would come up, experimenting with colour in certain areas...

Here was the rough sketch put into illustrator, just looking out the graphic style and type of font. I personally don't think that the typography is the right font type as it seems a little plain and a bit to modern. The typography used in this image was Arial Black.

I then sketched another idea into my sketch book, looking at the same graphic styles i researched.

As you can see from the sketch above i wrote down the sort of colour for each area just to sample the sketch. I really liked this idea, using the japanese rising sun as a Facebook symbol and the earth a notification sign. i then put this into illustrator to see how it would turn out as a mock up.

Here was the turn out. I really liked the graphic style and the colours so i decided to peruse this idea and take it to the net level adding more graphic elements and colours.

I then decided to change the blue rising sun to red in order to keep the original feel and theme of the rising sun however i am going to add the F letter in the sun to symbolise Facebook.

I added more graphics in terms of the notification sign, colours and typography. The notification i feel is a nice touch and makes it more relevant to my chosen social media Facebook. The colours i think go really well, contrasting but not clashing. I think the top header/ typography is great as it copies the colour on the earth. The bottom typography how ever is a bit dull and could do with some stylising both layout and font type.

Feedback From Presentation

Showing some good research into existing designs and graphic styles. Need to expand on my own graphic styles more. Imagery that i included into m presentation was good so far however typography choices need to be more defined and thought about in more detail.

Pitch/ Presentation

Whilst i have been researching for my propaganda poster i have also been putting together a presentation/ pitch to show my findings, ideas and plans. I will include information about existing graphic styles to that of my own. i will receive feed back from my peers and my tutors in order to advance and expand on what works and what doesnt.

Colors And Typography

I researched colour swatches and pallets in order to finalise the colours that i will use in my own. I used a website called Adobe Kulart, this website allows you to browse different colour swatches by typing in search terms. Here are the colour swatches that i looked at...

Colour Swatch One

 

Colour Swatch Two

 Colour Swatch Three

 Colour Swatch Four

 Colour Swatch Five

I found these swatches to be most useful. I found these swatches by simply typing in the terms propaganda and Facebook. These swatches are all relevant to the graphic style how ever after expanding my ideas i decided to make my own.

My Colour Swatch 

I think my colour swatch has kept to the appropriate graphic style and isn't to dull or to extreme. 

Mood boards

I created mood boards in order to gather ideas on graphic styles and to help me understand the certain look and feel needed for a propaganda poster.

Mood board one

This is a mood board of propaganda posters ranging from all different eras and different social backgrounds.

Mood board two

This mood board was that of my chosen social media, Facebook. i wanted to look at the graphic styles that Facebook already has in order to try and combined ideas.

Design Research

I have looked into design ideas in which i could include into my own poster(s) ranging from colours, typography, mood boards, visualisations and graphic styles. 

My Chosen Social Media

After looking into the social medias in which i was presented with within the brief i have chosen to go with Facebook as i feel i could incorporate some good propaganda graphic ideas into the the theme.

Brainstorms

I made some brainstorms in order to expand my ideas and think about what i could incorporate into my own propaganda poster from the social media sites listed in the brief and/or ones of my choice. 

-

As you can see from the brainstorms i mostly looked at the main headings and what the social media sites offer to the users for example images, email, sharing, music, job searching.

Conclusion To Existing Propaganda Poster Graphic Element Research

My conclusion to my poster research was...

Layout
The layout to the posters i researched were all centred and the typography either above or below the main image, sometimes even both.

Typography
The typography of the posters seemed to favour the big bold text as the header. This really stands out compared to other font faces.

Colour
The colour used were all very basic colours however they contrasted very well making the image more powerful. for example background colour and typography colour to add depth.

Existing Propaganda Poster Graphic Element Research

I have looked into many different existing examples of propaganda posters from the twentieth century. These include that of the second world war, the spanish civil war and russian propaganda.

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~pv/pv/courses/posters/posters1.html 

The image above is my first example i analysed. As you can see the poster is clearly promoting the fact that they want you to join the RAF. This is a type of 'specialist recruiting' because it is targeting a key aspect instead of a vast aspect. 

Graphic elements

The graphical style used is very simple yet effective. They have used the imagery of the planes in the sky to emphasise that of the text, adds meaning to the slogan or text. You can see that the top line of text 'join and air crew' is coloured white, and the bottom line of text 'in the RAF' is in blue. This contrasts the the text from each other and the background which adds depth to the poster. Because the depth of the poster makes it eye catching you are then drawn in to the small text at the bottom of the poster which gives you more information. 

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~pv/pv/courses/posters/posters2.html

The image above is my second example. The poster above is promoting the fact that the government was to speed up production in there factories. This is telling the public that they need to put in 110% when working in factories in order to help with the war. This poster is very simple in the way it is designed and its straight to the point. There is no small text to read all the text is in bold. 

Graphic elements

The positioning of the graphics are all centred and are all in big. The font is all bold which makes it stand out, the colour is very contrasting and adds depth to the poster. They have incorporated the slogan into the graphic imagery by making the 'o' in 'production' a saw blade.  The background is very plain that allows the images to stand out more. 

http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc192/ 

This is the third example in which i looked at. Nazi sticking a dagger through the Holy Bible. Freedom of religion is one of the cherished rights of Americans and a freedom not often honored by dictators. This poster symbolised to many people an important reason why we were fighting the Nazis in World War II.

Graphic elements 

This is a strong image of a nazi stabbing a dagger through the bible. It seems very aggressive against the bright red background. Emphasises emotions and ideas. The bold text against the black background colour at the bottom of the poster makes the text stand out and adds depth to the image.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:He's_coming_South.jpg 

This poster is from Australia from 1942. This propaganda poster represents the Japanese invasion letting people know that war is on the horizon and everyone should prepare for what is in store. 

Graphic elements 

Japanese flag is clearly visible and in this case is representing the sun coming over the earth. These is a japanese man stepping over the world as if to symbolise that they are not far away and everyone in Australia should prepare. The typography is clearly visible at the top because it is in bold. this typography at the bottom looks hand written which give it a realistic affect. there are wear and tears on this poster, for example rips down the side. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam 

The propaganda poster above is Uncle Sam and its promoting the army's need for people to sign up and join. This is a very popular poster and has been used for generations. This poster was created and used by the American government during the war of 1812. 

Graphic elements 

An elderly man with a goaty beard is the main image, this backs up the bold text which helps to promote the purpose of the poster. The layout is centred and basic. The colours represent that of the American flag mainly consisting of blues, reds and whites. the background colour however makes the image look old. 

Existing 20th century 2.0 Posters

Here is my research into existing 20th century 2.0 posters... 

http://worldfamousdesignjunkies.com/djunk/social-networking-war-propaganda-posters-released-by-aaron-wood/attachment/facebook-propaganda-poster-2/

This is an existing social media propaganda poster promoting you to join by saying if you join then you automatically are victorious. This is definitely a type of original propaganda style but mixed in with Facebook. 

Graphic elements

I like how they have incorporated the like hand into the design and theme. the typography is bold and laid out in space, not all cramped up. the hand is coming out from the left hand side but is mainly centred. The colours are all vibrant and contrast one another. 

  http://www.usernetsite.com/creativity/show-your-loyalty-in-the-social-media-war.php 

What is Propaganda?

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda 


In my own words...
Propaganda is a political scheme created or promoted to advertise and publicise a biased view or cause. This scheme is to push people into a certain frame of mind or understanding about subject (that of best interests of who ever started the scheme). 

Web 2.0 Propaganda Poster Assignment

The Brief - Outlined 

You will produce at least one poster promoting as aspect of Web 2.0 Social Media which can be printed at up to A1 size.  You should choose social media from the following list or discuss an alternative with your tutors:

·       Facebook

·       Twitter

·       Flickr

·       Google+

·       LinkedIn

·       Blogger

·       Vimeo

·       YouTube

The design must be based on propaganda posters from a period of the twentieth century.  You will research, collect and analyse examples of propaganda posters then generate ideas which match these to social media services, creating a suitable slogan which links the design to the service being promoted.

You will generate ideas for this project based on research and design development techniques (such as brainstorms, mood boards, sketches) and you will prepare a pitch which puts forward your proposed design solution with a review of how you reached those decisions.  You need to explore type choices, colour palettes, poster designs and layouts in this pitch.  Illustrator work in progress can be shown as part of this.   

Your colour palette, graphic style and type choices must reflect the style and content of posters from your chosen period. The graphics will be entirely vector and you will create the artwork in Illustrator at A1 size. 

You will keep a blog of research materials and project development, including research into propaganda posters, placing these into their historical context and analysing their design characteristics, design decisions, problem solving, software techniques, comments on drafts and crit, with notes on changes and improvements made in response to feedback. 

You will also develop a sketchbook of visual research and analyses, sketches and idea development, experimentation in things like colour schemes, typography, drawing style, and proofing.     

Crit Entry

When i put my finished panoramas up for critique i received some useful feedback about my work which i then used and edited my panoramas as best i could before submission.

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages that came up during crit about my work...

Advantages
- Images are well stitched together
- Good choice of location
- Good choice of theme
- Good choice and use of techniques

Disadvantages
- Some of the colours do not match

Evalutation

Overall i enjoyed this assignment as a whole. I feel my images could have been taken better when shooting and i could have included more thought into the time and location and looking in to the weather forecast in order to make sure i shoot on an appropriate day. The rest of my planning however i felt was thorough looking into existing ideas, images, panoramas and artists. I learnt a lot when using photoshop about destructive and non destructive editing techniques. For example copying layers, layer masks, applying a gradient, using colour levels and curves and colour overlays. i feel i met the brief requirements and my panoramas met the description.

Problems i encountered


The main problems i encountered were matching the colours from the images, i over came some of them using photoshop techniques both destructive and non-destructive. However not all of my problems were fixed or over come due to time. i feel i could have allowed myself more time for editing, then again saying that i were given a strict time schedule to keep to and taking the the photos were challenging due to weather and transport.

Finished Panoramas

Panorama 'Brighton City Overlook'

As you can see from the image above the editing and colour matching was going very well up until the last bit. The cut off point seemed to affect the images colour and i tried countless times to try and correct the colour differences but it just wouldn't match up. Lesson learnt here was that to shoot on a day with better weather in order to edit the colour differences seamlessly.  

Panorama 'Splash point Overlook Seaford'

Here is my second panorama. The editing went a lot better then the brighton one in terms of seamless editing and colour. the colour as you see is not 'perfect'. Again it was difficult due to the clouds and the lighting and contrast between the images due to the overcast weather. 

Second shoot for panorama

This was my second panorama that i went out and shot. i went to splash point in seaford east sussex. This was an attempt to capture the seaside theme. Again using the same equipment i positioned the camera at the top of the cliff to achieve the best view. It over looks Seaford town, and some of the sea. The images below are a few examples of some of the pictures i took.

These images came out really well and weren't to hard to piece together. However as i out from the first panorama i took lighting and colour differences were going to be a problem with one as well due to over cast weather and the clouds. however that couldn't be helped as i was on a strict time schedule and had to get this panoramas ready for editing. Again with this panorama i went for a mid range to long range scope in order to get as much in from the horizon as possible with out missing out og the details from close to mid range.

First Shoot for panorama

So i went out and done my first panorama shoot. i went to brighton and found a nice secluded car park just out of the way from the main high street. it had a great view of the houses and shops, roof tops and sky. here are a few images below shown as examples of some of the pictures i took...

As you can see from the images i photographed above they are all high definition and high resolution images shot using the landscape function on my 7D cannon camera. i used a tripod with a bubble level in order to make sure the tripod was set up correctly. One of the problems when editing this panorama was the colour differences between each picture. This was because of the sun reflecting off of different surfaces from different angles. i went for a mid range to long range shoot trying to get as much in the photo from the horizon as possible.

Destructive Vs non-destrustive editing

Definition of destructive editing...

Destructive 'Permanently alters the original sound or sound file'.
filmsound.org/terminology/sound-terms_x.htm 


In my own words Destructive editing is when you alter the image itself and change its natural state. Such as erasing pixels in photoshop, warping or transforming the image, editing colour levels or curves. It is best to copy the original image that you are editing just incase something goes wrong and you then have a back up. 


Definition of non-destructive editing...


Non-destructive 'does not change the original data'. 
http://ronbigelow.com/articles/nondestructive-1/nondestructive.html 


In my own words non-destructive editing allows the user to edit and manipulate the image without editing the images natural state. an example of this would be using layer masks over the top of the image layers in photoshop. 

Proposal

I am going to shoot two or more panoramas for the web, which i am going to upload using some HTML Jquery that has already been given with the brief. These panoramas will keep in theme due to the contrast between one another capturing all aspects from city life, seaside and country. I will take all the pictures myself using a HD camera set to landscape and a tripod with a level (bubble positioning to make sure the tripod is level and not offset). i will use adobe photoshop to edit and put together my panoramas using editing techniques both destructive and non destructive. I will explain these techniques later on.

My Panorama Design Ideas Existing Example Ideas Continued

After looking into existing examples and designers and analysing the key themes and graphic elements i have started thinking about my own ideas for my panoramas. These thoughts include theme, location of my panorama, props and editing. I want to do one of mine over looking a city, for example brighton. this would be over looking buildings and roof tops.

I have thought about doing my second one at the seaside so weather it would be shot at the beach or on the seven sisters (cliff tops).

my final panorama i thought of doing it in some fields, for example farm land. i want to give this idea the feel of it being inland over looking fields and/or a small village.

Here are a few images in which i have looked at trying to find some sort of foundation imagery in which i could incorporate into my own panoramas..

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBObPnAFgxxKWHR2GiQk23-xoVP1Phzhosv8FvYVlgF4joSn51zjfOcYiSVtFCZQ28eb0S48uDS5Kzbph9a26J48576jU3CwDA_yhHIcwvhrV3p5FWj4YzVKD_PsyYVvZccYjlVQAKKbw/s400/Mullholland+Overlook+view.JPG 

http://www.taylordavidson.com/writing/wp-content/uploads/1214_raw_grand_allee_small.jpg

http://www.taylordavidson.com/writing/wp-content/uploads/1131_quebec_port_600.jpg 

As you can see from the images above they have a wide scope and capture as much as possible in view all the way up to the horizon. I have thought about maybe shooting a panorama at night for the city theme in order to capture the city lights but haven't quite decided yet. 

Panorama Existing Example Research

I have looked into many different panoramic examples from other designers such as Will Pearson ranging from interactive panoramas and still panoramas. I have studied/ analysed the characteristics, themes and settings used. I have also looked into the process in which they have achieved there panoramic images for example 'Gigapan'. 


Will Pearson 
Will Pearson is a panoramic photographer/ designer who composes gigantic Gigapan images/ panoramas at a massive resolution and has been for the past 15 years. His work allows the user to zoom and pan 360 degrees both horizontally and vertically. 


Some of his works are shown as examples below...
Shard View at Night Panorama



http://www.willpearson.co.uk/high_resolution/shard-london-bridge-night-panorama/
The image above is an example of the landscape panoramas, this one is of london city at night. Captured in high resolution, this gigapan image is very vibrant and keeps all its detail in full colour. However this image is not a 360 degree panorama, this is just a landscape image.
The Birds, Trafalgar Square

http://www.willpearson.co.uk/virtual_tours/the_birds/
The image above is another example of Will Pearsons work. This example is a 360 panorama taken in Trafalgar square, an excellent example of Gigapan. This image is in black and white which i think works really well and sets a certain tone. Not all panoramas need to be in full colour in order to be visually impressive, it all depends on the mood and visual effect your trying to achieve.
Vauxhall Bridge




http://www.willpearson.co.uk/high_resolution/vauxhall-bridge-view/
This is another example of a panorama that is not 360 degrees. This is image was taken of Vauxhall Bridge and using up to date technology you are able to zoom in on the finest detail. This is a high resolution image.
Hampstead Heath Views – London Panorama
http://www.willpearson.co.uk/high_resolution.php 
The image above was taken of london over looking Hampstead Heath, this shows the city distant in the background and shows some wild life in the foreground, this is a good contrast between urban an urban setting and a natural setting. This image is not a gigapan image, it is a high definition, high resolution landscape image. 


About Will Pearson 
"I grew up in the Peak District, Derbyshire and after a post-University stint in Nottingham headed south to London and have been a fixture here ever since. I’ve been a professional panoramic photographer since the mid-nineties. I love my job and each day is different, the opportunity to capture these images is a privilege and sometimes an obsession".
http://www.willpearson.co.uk/about.php 


Other Examples 
Panoramas do not only exist as landscape images, gigapan or 360, they can also be made into spherical panoramas as seen below

http://janvrsinsky.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/6-Panorama.jpg

The image above has the same theme/ similar location to that of one of my ideas, city based and urban. The image above has been made in to a sphere and i think this is a great and interesting idea because it gives the image the feel and look as if its its own planet/ orb.

Resolution issues
When saving for web i need to take into account that most monitors are are set to 96 or 72 dpi so i need to save my panoramas to 72dpi so computer monitors can view them.

Panorama height and size
i am going to  save my panoramas to 400 pixels high, this will enable quick loading of the image and still keep the detail and definition of the images/ panoramas.