Cop2 Practical - Design Development 2

After having decided on a colour scheme, the next step was to explore how my illustrations can be applied to the existing museum building. There were two ideas that I considered. 

The first was reflecting on my research into supergraphics, and considering the architecture of the building, so that my design could fit into it and work with it. I utilised the white bricked lines that were part of the exterior, that visualised the separate floors. This idea I liked, as my colour scheme consisted of 4 colours, and the white brick lines separated the building walls into 4 almost even lines, which meant that my colour scheme could be used to not only highlight these architectural features, but also to roughly symbolise what was on each floor. As only 4 out of the building's 6 floors has public galleries on them, the visualisation of what's on each floor would not be completely accurate, however, it would still give the audience an idea of what to expect, and provide a hierarchy of information for them to absorb. From my research into supergraphics, I also considered having the royal armouries logo as part of the graphics, so not only is it clear to the viewer what building they are looking at, but so that it could be seen and read from far away, and make it easier for the audience to find it.

The second idea was in a way opposite to the first. Here I looked at ignoring the white lines on the building, and allowing the illustrations to spread over a larger area. This gave the illustrations more grandeur. The audience would be able to spot and recognise the illustrations from further away, this could potentially mean that more people would be tempted to come visit the museum, as they spot an illustration they find intriguing from further away. This also allows more colour to be applied to the building, which may make it more aesthetically pleasing and also easier to spot from far away. However, this means that the illustrations would cover the white lines, and that could create some imbalance between the graphic design and the architecture. The architecture and graphics would lose coherence and the connection with one another, which would leave the two disjointed. This in fact may make the impact of the supergraphics less effective and impressive, as the graphics could turn out to look unconsidered, temporary or poorly designed.

The idea I decided to go with was the first one, this was because I believe the illustrations would work with the architecture more effectively, and allow each other to stand out. Working with the building creates a connection and a coherence between the architecture, the graphics and the museum. This idea fits the brief much better as the graphics highlight and strengthen not only the architecture of the museum, but also it's impact and what it stand for. By highlighting and reinforcing the architecture, I will also be standing up for the work that is inside it, as the graphics show respect to the building, it in turn shows respect to the museum and the work inside.

Having decided on the colour scheme, and the layout of how the illustrations will be applied to the building, I went forward with creating compositions for the different walls of the museum building.
I thought about outline drawings I had made within my initial idea stage, and created 2D flat representations of them to compose my supergraphics in. The 2D designs reflect the different sections of the wall I decided to work with, considering the separations within the walls that are created by the white brick lines, and things such as windows, doors etc.

For the entrance I decided to not use any colour and keep it 'neutral'. This is because the entrance leads to all the galleries and not any specific one, so assigning it a colour would be inappropriate and confusing for the audience. I used white as this is the only colour that occurs within all illustrations as outlines. The illustrations that I had chosen to go onto the main entrance are taken from different 'galleries'. I decided to include a supergraphic of the 'Royal Armouries' logo. This is so that the entrance could easily stand out amongst all the other supergraphics due to it being both a different colour and more typographic. I also did it partly to advertise the museum more and to make it more confident/proud in itself.

To the wall on the right of the entrance I began to add the illustrations to their assigned floor/row. The floor representation is not completely accurate however it does give the audience an idea. The 'Oriental' gallery is on the 4th floor, so it the 'Hunting' and 'Self-defence' galleries. The 'War' and 'Tournament' galleries are on the 3rd and 2nd floor, and the 'Hall of Steel' is on the 1st floor. I have represented this order within the hierarchy of the illustrations also,

Also to the right of the entrance, but further along the wall I have more illustrations assigned to their row and colour. I also have the 'Royal Armouries' logo again. This is to promote and inform the audience of what building this is but from a different perspective.

On the side of the building where there is the glass tower, there is not as much building walls, however, my working the supergraphics around that I am able to keep a consistent and coherent visual language all around the building. The illustrations used for the graphics here begin to repeat as from the other wall of the building, however, this is not an issue an audience member is not likely to walk all the way around the building in search for every single illustration. So making them repeat provides the audience with as much information and intrigue as possible from only one glance/ perspective/ point of view.

To the left side of the glass tower, there is a wall that represents the museum from yet another angle/perspective. Here I simply continued the established pattern, repetition and colour placements and worked with the established visual language.