OUGD603 - Brief 1 - Souvenir Penny Designs - Initial Ideas and Sketches

Initial Ideas

Choosing areas to be reflected in the designs:

- It was considered that the designs would have to reflect areas of Leeds Art Gallery that don't change. Throughout the year different exhibitions are put on, so creating designs for artwork that isn't going to be there wouldn't make sense as it would not be reflective of things that everyone would see at different points during the year.
- The designs should reflect the different aspects of the permanent collections at Leeds Art Gallery, such as the Ziff Gallery, Henry Moore Sculpture, Tiled Hall Cafe, Stairs artwork by Lothar Gotz and physical features of the building such as the doorway to the Art Gallery, and Henry Moore sculpture at the front of the building.
- The designs need to be reflective of the gallery so must be of things that visitors will see when they visit no matter the time of year 

Initial Drawings 

Celebrating 130 Years / Main Door Designs

- The symmetrical and geometric design of the entrance doorway to Leeds Art Gallery could be used as a frame for 'Celebrating 130 Years' as this will not have changed since the opening of the building, making it a constant throughout the galleries life. The doorway is also reflective of the building itself as this is the first things visitors see.
- Having a vertical design allows the arch to be enlarged to a full bleed design with the stairs also visible, allowing text to be placed within the arch way, however perhaps this loses the sense of the building.
- Creating a design that reflects the entrance as a whole which is square could be a better way of reflecting the entrance as a whole, however for text to be placed around this the design has to be reduced which might mean the detail is lost. It also makes it difficult to fit the gallery name and 'Celebrating 130 years' within the design and for it to still be legible
- Using a similar typeface for 130 to the current branding would reflect the visual identity of Leeds Art Gallery. Using the 130 as the focal point of the design could create a strong typographical design reflecting the celebration of 130 years of the art gallery being open. 
- The Leeds Art Gallery could be used to reflect the gallery in a purely typographical way, however the other text would have to be quite small to fit all the information o.
- Using a simple drawing of the top of the arch at the top of the penny design and lines at the bottom to reflect the stairs to the gallery could be a more refined way of representing the entrance to Leeds Art Gallery without the need of the whole arch. Text can then be placed between these.    
- The signage at the front of the building displays whats going on at Leeds Art Gallery, including the fact that it is celebrating 130 years of the collection. The zig zag effect of the signage at the front of the building could be mimicked and the fromat of the text could be similarly used within the design too. The information on the signage could be directly copied however this potentially won't all fit within such a small design. 'Leeds Art Gallery' could be within one panel, 'Celebrating 130 years' in the next and '1888 - 2018' in the last one. Alternatively the words 'Celebrating 130 years' could be spread across three panels to make it more legible. Swapping the design to portrait may allow more room for the text to be placed within the panels.  

Ziff Gallery

- The frames within the gallery are the most prominent things within the gallery
- The perspective design of the room with the pictures on the walls could be too detailed for such a small design
- Using a variety of different sized frames within the design, viewed as if you were directly in front of the images, would reflect the variety of paintings on display within the room, whilst the different frames would also reflect the varying styles and ages of the work on display. Having empty picture frames would keep the design simple and allow the name of the gallery to be placed within one of the picture frames. Having the frames extending outside the frame of the penny looks a bit odd and is perhaps a little less clear than the design where they all fit within the design.  

Henry Moore Institute Sculpture Gallery

- The close up design of the stone sculpture creates an interesting geometric design which is striking

- Placing the imagery to the left of the penny frame, allowing it to go out of the frame means text can be placed alongside the design

- This sculpture was perhaps one of the most bold and visually striking pieces of sculpture in the Henry Moore Institute section and would be hard to miss for visitors, so would make a good design to reflect highlights of Leeds Art Gallery.

Tiled Hall Gallery

- Using the tiles in the room as a repeat design on the penny would reflect how they are on the walls in the room, however again this may be too busy for such a small design. Placing the name of the cafe in the centre of this repeat pattern with a rectangle to frame it reflects the entrance mat on the floor within the cafe.
- Having a singular tile could allow more of the detail from the tiles to be represented within the design.

- Enlarging the design so that the tiles extend out side the penny frame, would also allow more detail to be shown, however the image design is perhaps lost a little.

West Gallery 

- Using Lothar Gotz's artwork on the stairs could be a good way of representing both the artwork and building.
- Expanding the design so that it extends past the boundaries of the penny creates a further abstracted shapes and allows text to be placed within the shapes
- The Union Jack artwork in the West Gallery would work best with a close up section as this would allow more of the individual items to be recognisable, rather than just simple shapes if the whole design was reflected in such a small area. 
- Using the image trace tool allowed a rough design of the shapes to be mocked up

Typographical designs 

- Designs could be purely typographical for each of the pennies and reflect the gallery they represent through the adaptation of the first letter of the gallery
- The 'Z' in Ziff Gallery could be adapted to reflect elements of the frames within the gallery 
- The 'H' in Henry Moore Sculpture Gallery could be created using the forms of the stone pieces on the floor of the gallery 
- The 'W' in West Gallery could use the forms of Lother Gotz's abstract geometric design to create the shape of the 'W'
- Adapting all the letters for each gallery in such a small design wouldn't be very clear, whilst a single letter would allow more detail to be seen

Considerations:

- Purely typographical designs need to have a focal point, strong hierarchy and minimal use of text to make them legible at a small scale 
- Leeds Art Gallery logo could be put on the back of the pennies to allow more room for the main design
- The designs need to be simple enough to work at a small scale 
- The type could follow the layout of other penny designs with the name of the place arching over the central image and additional text such as the name of the artist or the room could curve underneath the image in the middle. 
- The zoomed in designs create more abstract representations of the different aspects of Leeds Art Gallery, however are perhaps less obviously representative, making them less clear for the viewer? However it does allow for better integration of text into the design.
- Keep all designs either portrait or landscape for consistency within the set of four designs.

Moving Forward:

- It was considered that the typographical designs perhaps would be less reflective visually of the artwork on display so perhaps wouldn't be appropriate as souvenir penny designs.
- The abstract designs and the designs with the image in the middle will be developed further