Dewey Decimal

Dewey decimal is the numerical organisational classification of books in most libraries. For example; Illustration in the UCLAN Library is classification number 741.


In this brief I was given a random Dewey Decimal classification number (808.5) which referenced a book within the university library. I had to select a book from that classification and base a series of images on it, gradually developing to a final idea which can be printed at A1 size. 


My book was 'News Subediting' which describes to a newcomer of newspaper, the process they would have to go through to create the newspaper. After reading through the book, I found a chapter based on typography and punctuation, and I started sketching straight away. After a long winded process within this brief, I finally got to my final idea and printed it professionally. 

As I was playing around with inspiration and typography, I came across a quote by Salvador Dali 'Intelligence without ambition, is a bird without wings'. Initially I started by creating my own type for this quote, then one sketch of a bird, lead to a sketch of a birdcage, to the point where in order to relate the project back to typography, I decided to make the birdcage itself out of the Salvador Dali quote. I created this image by scanning in the best type of the quote, and then duplicating and arranging the layers to create a birdcage in Photoshop. This piece is on plain brown postage paper, however I decided to add to the background by screen printing vintage floral patterns and repeating them alongside each other to create my own wallpaper. 

This is the main focus of the final piece - 

This image is slightly blurred because of my camera, which I had to resort to because the image saved is too big to upload and it won't save on my mac at a smaller resolution. I found due to duplicating the layers and changing the shape of them, the birdcage seems pixelated. If I was to do this project again, I'd aim to make my final piece as hand-made as I could, but at the time of this project, I thought a Photoshop, digital image would be more successful. 

    

Issues And Beliefs

The aim of this brief was to choose our own campaign by researching social, political and environmental issues that already exist and addressing one that we personally feel strongly about.

I decided to choose binge drinking to focus my campaign on, even though it's already been done in various ways before. With being surrounded by a student orientated town with a lot of bars offering the same '2 for 1' drinks, I thought I could create a contemporary campaign to target a younger audience.

After numerous sketches and playing around with the idea of drinking glasses, I found that developing a shot glass idea was probably the best way to go, in reference to all the 'free shot' stickers that are handed out around town.

The final composition was to create 3 image based solutions in an appropriate format;

All in poster format; The composition of each poster is to represent an opticians chart, with the usual lettering being replaced by shots, each poster describing a different characteristic of binge drinking. The writing on each poster is to represent the hours of a night out and the destruction of particular things as the night progresses. The type also relates to what the image is describing. The colour spills in each background are to represent spillages of drinks during a night out/party. I chose particular colours to refer to the colours of alcohol available today eg. apple sours. 

Poster 1; Eyesight

- The shot glasses in this poster are to describe the affects alcohol has on your vision. The shot glasses become faded and harder to see as the night progresses to 3am, to represent how blurred your vision goes as a result of drinking. 

Poster 2; Balance

- The shot glasses in this poster are to describe the affects alcohol has on your balance. As the shot glasses move down the poster they become multiplied and 'off-balance' to represent what happens to the stability of a person after drinking.

Poster 3; Consequences

- The shot glasses in this poster are to represent the destruction of a night out and the consequences drinkers have to face, whether it relates to losing money, breaking relationships, violence and disorderly behaviour. The broken shot glasses represent the later on in the night, the more alcohol as an affect to deliver consequences.

I enjoyed this project, literally because I made it my own, after numerous sketches and ideas I'm happy to have developed this one in particular. I took a step out of my comfort zone by becoming more 'accidental' in my backgrounds however if I was to develop my final pieces, I would create them in a more hand-made process, rather than created and then scanned in and pieced together.