OUGD502 - Royal Studio

http://www.theroyalstudio.com/

I've been keeping my eyes on the royal studio for a while now. The art direction and design studio is based in Porto in Portugal, a city that I'd definitely like to visit. Royal's use of colour, shape and texture is like no other studio I have seen. They have been labelled maximalist and after spending time looking at the visual feast that is their website you'd understand why. Everything about their work excites and intrigues me, it could so easily go wrong but it doesn't, it goes so right. The entire attitude and ethos of the studio itself appeals to me, their tag line is 'Grown in Graffiti, Wine and Destruction.'

Everything about the studio is original and exciting. Even the way their copy reads reflects this. When asked why they were named The Royal Studio Joao Castro, Creative Director said this... 

“Chase the Royals on this one. It is hot! As hot as freedom and ego! Blazing fire like the rails on a moving train! The name carries the guts and the instinct. It was nurtured in the frightening vandal runs as a one-man-show graffiti-artist and raised the little tagged crown to a studio’s symbol as the freedom to overcome the show and become more than a designer: a governmental organisation.”

Procrastination Blog

Recently, when I get distracted, I end up just messing about on the Adobe Suite. I actually really like some of the stuff that I make and decided it would be a shame not to share them. Just because they aren't for a client or a university project doesn't mean I should keep them to myself. 

I decided to set up a Tumblr page to share this work:

www.dan-gee.tumblr.com

HandCut Zine Illustration

Shown above is an Illustration I did for a collaborative zine which a friend on VisCom is producing for his self directed project. The zine is based around the blood diamond trade and I was asked to produce an illustration based around this. I was inspired by a tattoo artist called Javier Rodriguez from LTW studio in Madrid.

Yoke Leeds

Shown above is my submission for the Yoke Leeds Dialogue brief. After some mind mapping I decided to focus on the most simple dialogue that we hear everyday and don't even think about. I thought about slang and stuff that I personally say regularly along with other people. I decided to use the phrase 'alright mate' as this is something that many of my friends and other people I know say everyday. It is so mindless we never really even think about it. It's a question but is often not treated as such. Many people often respond to it by asking the exact same question or with a form of greeting. 

I decided to incorporate the thumbs up into the piece as I feel this is also very simple everyday dialogue between people.

I did not think about putting a tattoo into the piece until I went to photograph my friends arm. I considered using someone else but decided that the tattoo would give the halftone image more texture. I suppose tattoos in themselves are a form of communication as well, it is someone expressing who they are as a person so this fits well with the title Dialogue.

I decided against using a typeface and opted for stamping the letters with my thumb print as the image is a thumbs up. I feel this has worked well and is probably the best thing about the piece.

Some classmates and I went to see the exhibition in the corn exchange. I was really impressed with the quality of some of the work there and It was nice to see my work being displayed in a gallery. The image above shows my piece after it had been combined with another submission. I prefer the piece on its own but think the collaboration still works.

I was commissioned to re-design a pump clip for an ale brewed by Dunham Massey brewing company. The beer is sold in a bar where a good friend of mine works. I was told they wanted a design that still looked traditional but had a modern edge to it. I decided to use a emblem style logo with a banner. I felt this would give me scope to produce more designs for the different ales brewed by the company and keep the design consistent throughout. Show below is the finished design, one in grayscale and one in colour. I much prefer the design in colour.