Workshop - Calligraphy and type play

This workshop was one I found very valuable as it introduced a completely new medium to me in the form of calligraphy inks.  They were very viscose but dried with a glossy finish which I found pleasing. Difficult to control, I found them easy to guide around the page with the smaller calligraphy brushes. I also added multiple layers of the ink as I found that one was often not enough to create a colour deep enough for my liking. 

I decided to take the 'Hello, how are you?' calligraphic piece further and manipulate it further on PhotoShop. At first I decided to simply move the elements of the piece around, however I quickly got caught up in the development of this piece. 

These were the first completed manipulations. I wanted to make the design more compact and readable by improving the aesthetics. I then went on to only manipulating the text and turning the focus to that by deleting the phone illustration or making it smaller in some instances. Colour is also an important aspect of design, so I tried to vary the different tones used in these. I like the softer tones, particularly the pink at the end with the rough edges because it is the imperfection of the piece that makes it stand out. 

The final shape and colours of this calligraphy workshop are shown below. I wanted to use rich, vibrant colours because I felt that they brought out the strokes of the calligraphy brush well. The tones that I picked work well together and look as part of a set which makes this print more commercial. If I had the materials, I would have liked to screen print these variations onto t-shirts and hessian bags to explore this image more. 

  

I layered up the images used for this experiment and tried to add more depth to the whole concept, however I feel that this drew away from the simplicity of the idea. I like the varying tones of colour with the orange, and the deeper maroon which I was able to create by changing the properties of the image, however I chose to stick with the previous ideas.

 

Below are some experiments with the designs on a series of mugs to give the concept some real life application.