Mark Murphy- Design Hero's

In this lecture Mark Murphy shared with us, his design hero’s. He showed us work of people he was highly inspired by. One of the designers was Saul Bass who is an American Graphic Designer, by looking at his visuals I gained an insight to what his work would be like. His work was very unique and stood out from the crowd, as he used a very bold colour palette. I gained knowledge on how Saul Bass tackles very detailed briefs to create such simple, yet effective outcomes. The designer was best known for his branding work and creating posters for various different films.

Above are various poster designs by Saul Bass^

All the film posters above have been well composed by experimenting with the use of white space. This has been done especially so that the initial message will stand out and viewers will then want to find out more about the underlying message. The use of bright colours helps to enhance the features of the simplified shapes to make one aspect of the image look more creative and eye-catching. It fascinates me how Bass uses the simplest of shapes and primary colours to create such successful visual messages.
 Another thing which interests me the most about his work, was how his creative visuals are cut in such a neat and tidy way, however are still able to portray the appropriate message through illustrations and colour. 
One of the main aspects of this lecture which inspired me the most were how Saul Bass uses such complicated notions in a much more simplified way, so that his audiences are able to understand the underlying message in a successful way. I will take this skill on board as a Graphic Designer and be able to encode messages in simpler shapes and form, so that my audience can easily digest the meaning. 

I also found another designer who's work shows alot of similarity to Saul Bass's work. This designer goes by the name of Tiago Campea. In the same way as Bass, Tiago also uses simplified shapes to show neatness and in order to deliver the message successfully his work is kept very consistent and strong. Scrolling through his work I instantly saw a comparison between Saul's work and his. I think they both work within the same style and also stick to the range of similar colour palettes.

Below is some of Tiago's work which inspired me the most.

After looking at these practitioners work thoroughly, I gained an insight on how to make use of simple shapes look effective. I also think that it's important to use symbols in a way in which the audience will understand what your company is about; as this will intrigue them to find out more. Overall from this lecture I will take into consideration how a strong message is needed to portray any brand or company, whether that be a television ad or film poster.  No matter how simple the design, it still has to be effective or else it will not sell your company you are advertising/branding for. These were the main aims I took on board from this lecture and I will now use these key skills, and imply them to my own personal work in the future. 

Mark Murphy also shared with us another one of his design hero's; which funnily enough was one of my all time favorites. David Carson is a very well know American Graphic Designer, he is best known for his innovation magazine design and use of experimental typography. Carson is said to be the most influential graphic designer of the 90's and is known to do things out of the ordinary, this explains why his work always goes 'BAM' in your face and is something other than what you would normally expect. David's work is not always legible and can be hard to read or understand by some of the viewers; however he believes that such in depth visuals, are the key to engaging viewers and setting them a challenge to decode the hidden message. I personally think that he is right, as if I was given one of David's pieces of work to look at, I would find it challenging however I would still want to find out more about the hidden message behind the work. Perhaps this is because I like a challenge. 

Carson always likes to push the boundaries that other designers have not dared to do before. This makes his work stand out from competing designers in the industry and makes it much more unique. I have always thought of Carson's work as puzzles; as they are not always straight forward to understand. Although this can be frustrating and hard for some audiences, I always had the urge to find out more. The use of layers, space, colour and typography are all of the key elements which play a role in the puzzle, which we must aim to solve. David Carson's work always has some sort of influential factor from his own personal life, such as surfing. You will always see some surfing elements implied into his work, this may be due to the passion he has for surfing. He always layers his work with type, images, colour, backgrounds and much more making it look effective rather than plain, simple and boring. 

Overall I was inspired by the way Carson distorts his materials, and layers them upon each other to create something out of the ordinary, I love the use of colours and how you can instantly recognize his work if it was shown to you without his name. I was also greatly impressed by the way he makes it so challenging, for his audience to decode the messages behind his work, not only does this make it fun, but it also engages the audience so much that they will be drawn straight into the objective and find his work hard to forget. Another aspect of his work which inspires me is the fact that his work is not simple and easy to understand; this makes me relate his work to a mysterious adventure which I have to find my way through.