Frankston's new identity and stationary

This is the current logo of my home town, Frankston. In the 22 years I've lived there, I have not spotted a single dolphin. Scandalous.

I wanted to create an image for the City of Frankston that would identify with locals and people coming to visit. First up, I walked around with the camera and took a few shots,

Most of Frankston is stuck in an eighties time warp which makes all the colours and shapes quite strong but lurid. I pulled out the shapes and colours then traced them in illustrator, this created some interesting shapes.

I found that Franga town loves its arched shapes. Particularly in the new development areas where the council has built the new Cinema Complex.

I ended up with this, it looked a bit funky eighties but it didn't buzz enough. Also it didn't really represent Frankston as a whole. The logo needed to be less perfect, Frankston's far from being a perfect place. By at least 15 years.

This is the homepage of one of my favourite local illustrators, Eamo Donnelly. His work draws a lot from his life in Australia. The raw, scraggly line work is really complimented by awesome pastel colours. It also resembles my experience of Frankston a lot more than the above logos.

I went back a step and looked at the shapes of Frankston, I found a lot of awning and arches. Because Frankston's known as the gateway to the Mornington Peninsula, the symbol of an entrance seemed appropriate. I used a dry brush texture to give the impression of a scruffy, seaside town with charisma.

The Frankston City Council seemed like the obvious company to apply this new imagery to. The above are three businesscards for three different positions in the council (Recreation, Building and Development, Arts and Entertainment). Each one is colourized according to my palette and treated with the dry brush texture. Each is a photo of Frankston taken by yours truly :)

The letterhead followed suit, it's pretty straightforward. I didn't want to add more than what was needed because all the white space would be used for letters etc.

Then I started having more fun with the logo and seeing where I could apply it for different situations. This is a flyer for the Frankston Summer Festival. Bringing the community together is an integral part of making Frankston grow as a city. So not only is this a graphic experiment but also a social one. By the way, can you see some of Eamo's colours?

Then i turned the awning upside down and made a wine glass. Clever me. The colours are still in line with the swatch earlier but they were really important for suggesting a classy, formal event although its still rough and charming.

This is definately a visual response to my personal experience with Frankston. However, I like to think this idea can relate to anyone else who grew up there or is just visiting. Everyone has an opinion about this town and that's why I wanted to do a project on it.

If you haven't been before, come with an open mind and between the hours of 7am and 8pm.

Thanks.

Gaga Ooh La La

Hey guys, this week the topic in illustration class was caricatures, one of my favorites. The hardest part was finding someone to draw, there are so many heroes, villains and hedonists out there who'd make brilliant subject matters.

I chose Lady Gaga because she's so unmistakeably recognizable and has a long and prolific future in pop music. She's also someone I definitely wanted to include in my folio because regardless of your music tastes, there are very few people who are unfamiliar with her.

This portrait was done with charcoal because it gives a brilliant, thick, black eyeliner effect. It also allows room for really soft smudging ideal for cheek bones and eye shadow. A copious amount of makeup is definitely something I associate her with.

So you can see the deep shadows above her eyelid and the thick black Italian eyebrow. I really would've liked to put more emphasis on her nose because it's so distinctive but it proves a little difficult when you're doing a front on shot. I didn't like the hair in this one, it looked like a heavy blob with no real form. Definitely not Gaga hair. I drew another hairstyle with a bit more direction.

Then it was time to give her the legendary telephone headpiece, done in the exact same way as above but here I've coloured it on Photoshop.

 

The costume features in her latest video, Telephone, with Beyonce, it runs for about 9 minutes, it's practically a short film. I can confidently say that it's one of the best film clips from the last decade.

All that was needed was some layering and colouring. Once the piece were put together, it was good to go. Here's the final product.

I posted this to Gaga's twitter account, no response yet but apparently she's good with getting back to people :P

I'll let you guys know.

Strange but true...

Hey guys, I have two new illustrations. Both of them are based on stories from The Age's odd spot. The first story read as follows:

A Hong Kong film company is in production for the world's first 3D pornographic film. Shooting for the Chinese film, '3D sex and Zen' is to begin shooting in August. Producers promise the most up close and intimate sex scene ever seen on screen.

I thought I could do something cute with this :P Here's the sketch,

 

The concept is based on the work of French artist, Arthur de Pins, I'm pretty sure I've referred to him on this blog before but I forget when. His web layout is awkward but the content is beautiful. Anyway, What I basically did was take this sketch into Adobe Illustrator and traced it.

   

I kept the colour palette limited to two colours, blue and red, the colour of 3D glasses. And the guy in the audience, it's me.

 

Sometimes it helps to see the actual gesture so it doesn't end up looking out of proportion.

And here's the second illustration,

The caption reads,

Miss Milly chicken is in mourning after its rooster mate was killed by a fox. In her grief, the chicken has taken to strutting around the farm like the rooster.

The aim here is pathos; including a kid, hopelessly trying to impersonate the departed loved one. And what better way to capture that tenderness than with pastel. And no I didn't put an inflated rubber glove on my head to see what it'd look like. Might be fun one day though.

Cheers!