OUGD505 - Studio Brief 1 - Ambient Music - Colour within the Design and Considering Production

Colour within the Design and Considering Production

It was considered that perhaps each of the elements within the heap could be coloured to match the layer of coloured sand that the symbols would be in. The colours would represent an element of the symbol. However using this idea would limit where the symbols could be place within the heap perhaps restricting the design. 

Using Illustrator helped to roughly visualise the layers of sand within the compost heap. It was considered that the colours of the layers could represent an aspect of each of the different components e.g. a frog being green , stones grey etc. The brightness of the different layers would be visually striking however these would not complement each other and aren't very representative of the colours that would be found in a compost heap. 

It was considered using more earthy tones would be more reflective of a compost heap which is traditionally made using 'green' and 'brown' layers.

It was considered that all the elements would be roughly and randomly placed within the layers in the design. If the compost heap is to be made in a box shape this would allow four different designs to be created, meaning that all the elements could be spread across the four sides. To create contrast within elements in the design it was considered that some designs could be smaller than others. Making sure that there are similar amounts of the different elements e.g. symbols and arrows, on each side would allow balance to be created between each of the sides and avoid repetitive designs. 

The designs could perhaps be printed onto clear acrylic in one big design on the front of the box which would allow the layers to show through any white space in the designs. This however may mean that the designs don't stand out as much because some of the sands may be quite dark which might not contrast enough against the black symbols. Printing them on white vinyl would allow the white lines to be defined and create an outline around each of the symbols making them stand out on the other colours. Potentially some of the elements could be laser cut e.g. the sticks and stones, however some of the other designs can't be laser cuter because of the way they have been constructed. Outlining the designs would allow a solid shape to be cut instead. 

Rather than having such structured and consistent layers it was considered that layers within a compost heap are usually all different and inconsistent. Varying the size of layers creates a more visually interesting design. The use of more of the lighter colours allows the symbols to stand out well.

Using a circle around some of the designs could represent how they are recorded within the production of ambient music. Whilst the other elements are non instruments used to create music with. Using the circles could help create distinction between the two types of symbols whilst also allowing the more complex symbols to stand out.