I meant to post this line drawing last time. Its sort of a whimsical approach to all the objects before I chose one.
I chose what I call the "fancy corkscrew" for the first project, based on the vast history of that problem, and the many many objects made to address the same issue. My research went well, and I was able to use some great images from the KU library image archive, as well as a poem about wine, and an article from 1887 about corkscrew manufacturing.
In the end though, I wasn't completely stoked with my layout. I had spent a great deal of time gathering 'floating' images on white backgrounds, which ended up making layout even more difficult. I dumped everything into Adobe Illustrator and started moving things around my virtual 18x24 foam core with a 2" grid. Nothing was working, so I went back to the resources from our first lecture.
I decided I needed to create a layout before I put a single image on the paper. Here is what I ended up creating.
With this layout, I could stop thinking of each image as something that must lay on a grid line, but could bunch them and place that entire grouping within the boundaries. The pink is imagery, the yellow is text. The top row is history and shows wine-making as well as bottling and corking. The next row is 3 sets of the most common solutions in ascending order of complication but also of ease of use. The third row is devoted to the object and the various mutations, as well as an even nicer and newer looking product based around the same lever-type concept. The final, and smallest row is the result, or the why of the product. A small collection of emotional and traditional relations to wine, including, pouring, judging, tasting, and a cherub getting wasted.
The end result is... not amazing. It feels very formal, and evokes the inside of a DK Eyewitness book. You know what I'm talking about. They always have them at Sam's Club, and they cover every topic ever with floating images on a white background.
You remember these right? After using Illustrator, I can't imagine what a pain in the ass it was for books like these to get their layout before it was all digitized. Resizing, which I probably did around 2000 times, probably took quite an effort just to get one image completed.
Here it is then, the digital version of my final piece. The first paragraph bleeds over the grid, and the final row of images, doesn't quite reach the right-hand edge. I went into class feeling very un-stylized. My layout was information based and just didn't look hip or modern. I also realized that my object didn't take quite center stage. Though it gets it's own row and the largest images on the piece are all the "fancy corkscrew", it wasn't quite as obvious as it should have been.
Once we went to critique though, I felt much better. Not because mine looked much better, but because I was a slave to the grid, and very few other people gave it much thought it seemed. Hopefully, though not aesthetically awesome, that will count heavily toward my success.
Sorry it's unreadable, but I'm not going to struggle with that right now. I think I need to host the image if it's going to be bigger than this. I'm going to change the background color of the blog now, so you can see the actual edge here.
That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by and looking at this stuff.
George P.
I'm a utilitarian and I happen to find your layout both logical and functional (if not aesthetically pleasing). It won't get you any points with Apple's design department (or would it????), but it makes teh sense.
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