Sophie Taylor Portfolio 2015

PRODUCE CREATE I AM A .CREATORTake a look in- LEARNside, read onand enjoy thestory.



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F or this image, my main goal was to create a very appealing typography image that reflects the vibrant colours within a city, i.e. New York. Making a personal image, I believe is a fairly tough challenge as although you could have a concept, one might not be able to make that concept come to life. This is one of the main dilemmas that I believe I was faced with when creating these images. I wanted to use my knowledge from my photography course in combination with my skills within Photoshop to create a very appealing image. I used the rule of thirds to place my the text within the centre of the image and this thereby drew the audience’s attention to it straight away; causing the illuminated writing to become that much more appealing.. Photoshop. Illustrator. Typography

1 Therefore, bycreating this image, Ibelieve I was able todevelop my knowledgeand skills further within notonly Photoshop, but alsocreating typography thatis appealing to the eyes ofmy audience as this image,not only aimed at childrendue to it’s vibrancy andquirkiness, but is alsoaimed at adults as I believethe ambience createdthrough the blue reflectsvery calm emotions andtherefore could attract thiswider audience.M oreover, Ibelieve that when makingthis portfolio presentmy main explorationwithin both photographyand within my graphicdesign is personality andadventuring deeper intomy emotion sand mind todiscover more about myselfand how once can portraypersonality within images.

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Posters, I believe are a perfect .Illustrator . Photoshopway to convey one’s emotions and . Posterthoughts and this for me is a perfect . Typographyway to convey my personality further.My aim for this image was to create afairly vibrant poster containing a hid-den meaning in relation to the phrasethat many parents like to continuallysay to their children when they sudden-ly act in a way which they wouldn’tnormally, ‘Who are you?’F urther, I decided to explore When I had finished thewhat it felt like to lose one’s self and poster in a relatively simple bold col-this thereby lead to an image of a our, 2D form; I decided that the imagemaze and how you could easily get was missing something and this some-lost. Moreover, I attempted combine thing was texture. I then inserted thethis maze and the idea of our unique image into Photoshop where I addedbrains. Further resulting in a ma- different amounts of noise onto eachtrix-style poster where one has pos- aspect of the image i.e. the face, thesibly lost themselves within the maze maze and the background. By addingwhich is known as their brain, resulting this texture, the image became thatin parents asking ‘Who are you?’ much more dynamic and appealing to the eyes. Through the use of Photoshop The reason why I chose theand Illustrator I was able to createthis attractive poster. Firstly, I drew my colour scheme of this poster (yellow,design on paper, starting off with a grey and red) was purely becausehead and then testing out many dif- I wanted two vibrant colours to ob-ferent ways to set out my maze and struct from the image’s backgroundhow I would portray the idea of being (which would be a dark colour) and‘lost’ within your mind. Further, I then this would create a needed separationscanned the image that I had sketched between the head and backgroundonto my computer to then use the pen and therefore portraying the idea oftool and create the shape of the head. how one is detached from the outside world when this happens. Moreover, through choosing the red within the circle, I believe the colour red has connotations of fear and desperation also red is used within the Red Cross symbol which provides help to people. This thereby adds an even greater notion to the poster and the design as a whole further allowing it to appear that much more effective.



This design, although relativelysimplistic, contained my ideas of a mazeand the brain together. For the planningof this project, I sketched out a head andthen began playing around with the designof the maze within the head. This, I foundwas the most challenging aspect of thesketch as the maze needed to actuallywork. Therefore, the placement of linesneeded to be perfect. I also designed the layout of the poster as I wanted the colours to be bold and vibrant in comparison with the background allowing that sense of separation from the outside world. I did this by choosing a fairly dark grey for the background and then a vibrant yellow for the head and a red dot signifying where you are ‘lost’ within the brain.Fonts, to me, are one of the key aspectswithin posters. I wanted to choose a fontthat was bold and worked with the ideaof a maze. My initial design of a font, Idon’t believe worked extremely well withthe final design and therefore I felt theneed to incorporate all capitals, a boldfont such as ‘Code’. This then allowed thewords ‘Dont lose yourself’ to come acrossas almost a part of the maze (through theway by which I linked the maze with the‘D’) and thereby allowed the poster tolook much more appealing and effective. This initial sketch was then scanned into my computer where I used Illustrator to create the main feature within the poster; the head. By sketching my initial idea, I was able to develop it further within the final piece and I believe that this development within projects is extremely important and an aspect within my designs that I hope to maintain.

These two imageswere both inspired by mylife and how my family andI always move around. Myfather would always saythat our home is whereverour family was. Therefore,I combined an image of thesea, which I relate to myold home and through usingthe rule of thirds, placedmy text within the centre ofthe page and this combinedwith the use of a bold fonthas allowed the text tobecome much more boldand effective as a wholewithin the poster ‘Home iswhere your heart is’. Further, throughthe relatively simple layoutof the poster, I decidedto add colour to enablethe poster to become thatmuch more attractive andI did this by cutting thetext in several placed andplacing coloured circles init’s place; almost creating anew font. Further, I believethis diversity of curved linesand horizontal, vertical anddiagonal lines truly allowsthe image to flow and moreimportantly, present theidea of movement whichrelates to the aim of thisimage; portraying ourfamily moving around. Home, for me is wherever my family are. However, in a literal way a‘home’ is merely a place which you live in. For this desktop background concept; Iwanted to incorporate a brand, which I created, called ‘Home’ which would thenfollow on from the poster as talked about previously. For this image what I want-ed to incorporate was a textured house (In a rustic way) that hovered above thesea and that also had a slightly deeper meaning as the house can double up asan arrow pointing upwards. This arrow could represent movement and the idea ofmoving once more or many times within the future and I believe that this is one of

3 .Illustrator . Photoshop . Poster . Typographythe key aspects within this image.The colour scheme within this image is fairly bleak; mostly grey and blue. However,I did this so that the colours of the logo of the series ‘Home’ would be more appar-ent and attractive to the eyes. For this image I created my own brick texture whichI wanted to appear as if it had been drawn by a child to resemble my childhoodand moving around, which I then applied to a very basic looking house. This sim-plicity I wanted to reflect within my work was inspired by the Swiss style of graphicdesign; simple yet effective.

4 Photography is a way by which I tell stories. Through doing photography A-level I have been able to select my topics and I always try to convey a story through my work. This year I wanted to look at personal- ity and how I could portray that withinthis image is a simplistic black and white image shot within the dark studio fea-turing a friend of mine. The reason as to why I wanted to capture them within myimages and portray their personality was purely because of their uniqueness andthe way by which they convey themselves and because they aren’t afraid to be dif-ferent. This image portrays their more formal side as they are smartly dressed andthis portrays how they possibly want to be conveyed by others; intelligent, wealthyetc. Further, their posture tells us something different as, although I placed themwithin the centre of my image, they decided to lean slightly to the left and forward,this could resemble how they are slightly on edge and could also portray how theyare uncomfortable within their own skin. Further, these subtle hints within my pho-tography, I believe is one way by which I could convey one’s personality.

Gillian Wearing is the inspiration behind this image. Within my projectdiscovering people’s personality and the way by which I could portray that withinmy images, I decided to look at how my subjects think they convey themselves. Igave them a simple task to write ‘I am...” and then a word which describes themthe best. However, as you may already be able to see, this image is very contradic-tory; however, extremely effective. Through the use of shooting within the studio, Iwas able to minimise distractions within the background of the image and thisthereby allowsthe attention ofthe audience di-rectly on the signand the subject.The ambiencewithin this imageis very contradic-tory as althoughthe subject wrotethat they arecomfortable,their facial ex-pression andbody languageis conveyingsomething ratherdifferent. Thiscontradictionwithin the imageI believe is trulyeffective andcould have al-lowed me to cap-ture somethingdeeper withintheir personality.

My aim for this project was to create a minimalistic logo, which could work and look effective on multimedia, such as iPhones and booklets etc. I first sketched out several ideas, circles, and icons the works. I knew that I wanted a sim- ple, yet effective, black and white palette. When creating this logo within illustrator and then within Photoshop, I wanted to use bold shapes such as my ribbon banner and hexagon to attract the eyes of the viewer. These bold shapes then become the base for the project. However, what I found to be slightly challenging was creating the icons as, even extremely small, took a vast amount of my time and were very tedious to create. Within my logo, I wanted to convey the mediums by which I find media most appealing, i.e. photography is a big aspect within my design and I find inspiration through film sand videos etc. To maintain my rustic style to the logo, I wanted to use a script font to allow the sense of movement and fluidity to be con- veyed within my logo; mimicking the idea of the flow of thoughts and concepts within the brain..Illustrator. Photoshop. Platforms. Logo

Furthermore, although this simplisticlogo challenged me to create a concept thatcould be used on many different mediums andalso challenged my skills within illustrator, Ibelieve that this challenging aspect to a projectencourages me, and drives me to continue andcreate something that I believe is effective andfurther, enhances my passion for design. 5

The design for this logo, althoughcontaining a simple concept oficons which inspireme and mydesigns,was fairlydifficult whendecidingwhatshapeto useand whattools Iwoulduse tocreate them. Isketched out severallogos, i.e. a camera,iphone etc. These icons were drawnto represent where I gather myideas and how I create my designs. Iwanted to create a very minimalisticlogo.

I wanted to mimic the simplistic styleof the Swiss, which I believe to be oneof my main inspirations within my work.Further, I wanted a nice catch phrase,simple yet effective and therefore I chose‘Creative Design’. Moreover, for thefont, I wanted something cursive, script,however, I also needed to maintain thesimple look and therefore went for amore quirky, bolder font which I believeadded motion to the logo further;enabling it to be more effective.

6As I take English Literature A-level, we are encouraged toread as many texts as we possibly can to develop our work.Recently I read ‘The Great Gatsby’ which inspired me todesign a cover for this iconic novel. Gatsby is an extremelywealthy man who developed this wealth only to please hislove. Within my book cover and iconic quotes from the novel,I wanted to portray this aspect of Gatsby. I used Photoshopto design the front cover, using shapes and lines and thenadjusting the bevel and emboss and contour settings to allowthe image to become slightly 3D and resemble that of shinygold, which portrays wealth. I then, within my image, wantedto portray the concept of entrapment as Gatsby, althoughonly across the lake, was trapped within his mansion fromhis beloved. This, I portrayed through the bars; almost repli-cating the ambience of a cell and through placing the quotesand title of the novel within the centre of the design, I believethat this has allowed the message of Gatsby being trapped tobe conveyed effectively.

I used a simple colour scheme of gold and black which I believe contrastagainst each other greatly, further allowing the gold to become much more bold andattractive to the eyes. This contrast between the two colours I connected with Gatsby’sextravagant parties where he flaunted his wealth. Conveying his story within this bookcover and quote design. The aspects of Gatsby’s personality is what I wanted to conveywithin these designs and I believe that I was able to achieve this greatly whist maintain-ing the elegant style of Gatsby and his lifestyle. . . .PosPtherIoltlousshtorpator . Typography

Although challenging, I found this projectextremely enjoyable and through doing sucha project, I felt that I was able to develop myskills further within Photoshop and Illustratorwhich I am extremely pleased with and hopethat this will come in handy within the future.

This design, was actually extremely difficult to create withinPhotoshop. Although the planning done for this project wasextremely simple, I found that I needed to just get stuck in andwork out the mistakes as I go. I was experimenting with font asI felt that the logo needed to be elegant yet extremely bold toenable the full impact of wealth to come across. Further, I alsocollected two of my favourite quotes from the novel to includewithin the ‘Quote book’ which I wanted to create for my EnglishA2 revision.

Emotion is something that I always want to portray within my photographyand this adds to my aim of portraying one’s personality within my own work. Further,emotion can be portrayed in many different ways; subtly through the eyes, through theposture of the subject, through their facial expressions. Within this image I believe theemotions, which are portrayed, are ones of possibly fear and maybe stress. Fear be-cause they might not like having photographs taken due to an inner image of themselvesand anxiety or stress due to the workload that they might have or the stresses of home.Further, I believe I have been able to portray my subject’s personality through the wayby which my subject is positioned and through simplicity of the image. My subject hasfilled the image that could convey their outgoing personality, however, underneath thatthere is a sense of shyness, which they don’t like to portray to others. I shot this image within the black studio and this enabled me to gain a muchgreater contrast between my subject and the background, thereby allowing the subjectto appear much more bold and appealing to the eyes of the audience. Minimal editingwas used within most of my photography and this is purely because I like the idea of araw image. Raw emotions portrayed within the image, which I believe my audience, findmost attractive. The image is slightly de-saturised, this then allows the attraction of detailsuch as the eyes and the pattern of the jumper to become more apparent, which adds tothe image further. Although simplistic, I believe this portrait image truly conveys their hidden per-sonality and this is what I want to capture within all of my work.

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8 I rarely take pictures of myself as I find other’s personalities and lives far moreinteresting than my own, however, for my project on personality I wanted to create amore personal aspect to it and thereby causing me to explore my own personality andopening me up to new ways by which I didn’t realise I had been portrayed. Althoughthis image is relatively dark, I believe that this has then allowed me to identify howeveryone has a slightly darker side, and I believe this to be an aspect that artists try toavoid. I filled the image with my face and this thereby allowed the audience to see myfacial expressions, which I believe contradict with the idea of a ‘darker side’ as theyare somewhat ‘silly’. The simple concept of a black and white image is used within thecreation of this final image and moreover allowing me to convey my personality slightlytrough facial expressions and the detail within the image. One could say that people’s personalities are portrayed through their clothing,and if this is the case I believe my creativity is portrayed through my t-shirts and shortsthat I wear. Colour is always a key aspect to design, such as the pattern of the shirtwithin the image. I believe, through capturing the detail of the shirt clearly, that I havebeen able to portray my creativity within this portrait image and thereby creating animage that conveys more than one aspect of personality. Furthermore, photography being a key aspect within my creativity and design,I believe that images should be that of high resolution, like the one above, and thisfurther enables the audience to truly find the meaning behind the image and enablesthem to attach their own concepts and ideas to the image which I believe to be vitalcommunication between the audience and the creator.

Objectsare a wayby which weportray ourpersonality.I asked mysubjects tochoose theirfavourite item andgo to the studiowith me. I thenphotographed mysubjects holding theirfavourite object in anyway they choose. Thisthen allowed a muchmore natural ambienceto be created within myimages which I believeto be attractive to myaudience. The simplicityof the image is attractiveand the way by which mysubject contrasts greatly fromthe background emphasisesthem within the image. I usedstudio lighting when capturingthis shoot and this therebycaused highlights and shadowsto appear within the image,further highlighting detailwithin the face and thereby

Freedom, an aspect we don’t My subject within the belowrelate to personality. However, our image wants to pursue a career ofsociety has grown to welcome the free- engineering and dreams of designingdom to portray your personality, your and creating cars for Formula One;uniqueness. I find this development to be a job that would not normally betruly extraordinary and further allows us associated with females. I wanted toto portray sides of us that one might not capture an image that portrays herwant to portray. We dress how we want freedom in pursuing this career andto and we usually aren’t frowned upon the development within society today.by society because of it. Therefore, this I believe that this freedom and slightlysense of relief and freedom is something chilled ambience also can be reflectedI wanted to portray within one image. within my subject’s personality. My subject decided to place their head backwards and open their arms. I believe that the arms resemble that of a bird’s wings, therefore connotations of flying which relate to the idea of freedom are resented within the image. 9

Within images, I believeconcepts behind the placement of thesubject and the image as a whole arevital as subtle concepts i.e. flying withinthis image, add an even greater mean-ing to the image and further, allow theimage to be that much more appealingand contain a story. Storytelling with-in images and design is a vital aspectfor designers and is an aspect that Istrive to contain within my own work.Although challenging: in relation to thefinal piece, allows the image to be muchmore enjoyable.



10 Continuing with the concept of portraying personality within images, this image is similar to one that you have seen previously and I believe is truly stunning. My subject is not one that you would relate to the word ‘strange’ as their personality radiates something far more wholesome. However, this word ‘strange’ is how they view themselves. I related this word strange to connotations of unique as my subject truly is unique and is someone who I look up to greatly. The relaxed ambience within the image is conveyed through the subject’s posture and how they seem to appear content in front of the eye of the camera. This aspect of their personality as being comfortable and outgoing is something, which I find appealing within this particular image. Further, my subject decided to draw on their piece of paper, which reflects their creativity and further allows us to depict an even greater aspect to their personality. Their creativity, some could say could be slightly ‘strange’ relating back to the words on the poster.

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Unique? is a brand that I designed containing several images from my projecton personality where I created images that are slightly unique in the sense that I imaginepeople with barcodes as although symbolising the number of product, i.e. product 1,2, 3 etc. which could relate to how we are viewed sometimes as just a part of society.Barcodes are all unique and therefore I wanted to create this concept of how we areunique yet we are just a number apart of society. Therefore we have the contradictionof; are we truly unique or are we only unique because of society and therefore are nottruly unique because everyone is unique and therefore we are merely following norms? I decided to create images that one would possibly find within magazines.Further, a simple colour scheme of black and white, replicating the straightforwardaspect of a barcode and then how a person is not necessarily straightforward in relationto their personality. I chose to continue with the same subjects, which I have been usingwithin my previous shoots on depicting their personality and this then allowed me todevelop this idea of uniqueness further. For the logo of this project I used a font, which replicates the design of abarcode and creates one with the word ‘Unique’ which I found to be truly effectivewithin both images. This then gave the images a brand, which connected them. I believeconnecting images within projects is vital and this notion of connectivity also fascinatesme. We can connect images through colour schemes or a simple logo within each imageand this is what I wanted to do within this project. Both images are that of high resolution and thereby allow the audience to depict detail within each subject and further, allows them to contemplate on the reason behind each image, allowing them to question their uniqueness within the world, which is another aim of mine within this project; forcing people to question themselves.

INSPIRATION S Stefan agmeister M Bichael ierut M Gilton laser

G Willianearing INSPIRATIONL Jee efferiesT Mim antoani

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