TAGS, BAGS and BOOKMARKS

Bookmarks:

These bookmarks are marketed at the youth. Children like these, bright, colourful, strong and interesting themes for themselves. They are the type you would show of rather than a normal/boring/dull tag that won't go to much use. They stand out easily so you won't lose them. I like these kind of bookmarks as they show an interest to design, better than a small black string that just's hold the page you're on. 

I like these designs - I love the vibrant colours used - you can never misplace one of these. The maze one interests me because as well as it being aesthetically pleasing, it gives you a puzzle to do before and after or whenever you read the book. The valentines day ones are clever as they show a play on words and also look good with their bold colours.

They would have been made in a software program like Photoshop or something similar. Images drawn by a pen/mouse or cut round images from photographs and re coloured - similar to my work but I am going to images rather than patterns.

Tags:

The clothes tags are interesting as they show funky, new designs with neutral colours. They show the doodle pictures in dark colour and show the brand names in bright and vivid colour like yellow text on a black label, etc...

I love the red and white tags - I feel the colour scheme is really good and stands out from everything - both colours contrast well. Writing on the top - image at the bottom - simple and elegant. 

The multi colour set here are nice - the white shows throughout all and the colours make them stand out. The clockwork style is interesting and shows complexion in something that is very simple.

All these were printed and drawn on a computer, just like the bookmarks. Themes are a definite in these tags. They all stand out, so if you attach one of these tags to a suit case you could easily spot it in a collection of bags. Some of these themes are made for retail, eg anything to sell in a shop, others are for tagging home objects for order or a label.

My work has coastal themes and would work for both living and retail, for example they can tag items in shops or tag objects at home. 

Preview of my work:

I loaded the template into Adobe Illustrator - used my cropped, edited images from Photoshop and slot them into the template guidelines. I then added text in Illustrator using the text tool and choosing a contrasting colour I made up a phrase relating to reading and wrote it vertically.

Paper Bags:

These bags are nice - they are bright, vivid and have really good and clever designs. Vinyl to simple colour images - these show different design that are both unique and simple. I find the yellow bag with the name on very boring. Where as I love the clever blue one with the simple image of the shoes where the laces become the handle. The red bags are nice but I'm not keen on the colour schemes of them. If they were blue and orange or black and white they would work very well. 

All designed on a computer software and printed in a factory. The middle two bags are made for retail, showing off a brand on the side/front of the bag. The other bags look to be designed for personal use although they are paper/card they don't have and logo's or patterns so they would be used for anything where as the branded bags are often used for holding store merchandise.

My bag is used for a personal use but with an addition of a logo/word/name it would easily be made for retail purposes. I designed mine on Photoshop and would also be made out of card/paper.

Preview of my work:

I loaded two images that I re edited for more neutral colours in Photoshop, into a bag template on Adobe Illustrator. I then added text using the text tool to the bag - song lyrics but I changed them slightly to seem different. I then later cropped the bag in Photoshop (shown at the bottom of the page).

MY TAG LABELS

I love the tones in this tag, the way the 3 images blend together I think is very well done. I reckon this tag would look nice on coastal shop products.

I love the colour and tone put together in these 2 images. I think the red gives the whole image a nice effect/look. The lines remind me of the beach and boats where the puffs remind me of the pebbles on the sand. A little bit of blue really brings it in focus, together it looks great for a coast tag.

I feel these cool tone colours are good to resemble the sea, maybe not in England but that blue/green tone reminds me of the Mediterranean sea and the lines are the waves. My drawing put under a photograph of the sea. I like the way it's integrated into a coastal pebble that I drew and changed the colours in the settings, two highly edited images.

This is a really nice, neutral tone coastal tag. The same drawing I scanned in as in the previous tag but put with a different photo I took of cracked paint on a boat, - gives the whole image a nice natural vibe. I changed the tones and opacity slightly to give a stronger blend.

Two completely different coastal images, one of the road parallel with the beach showing the residents/holiday makers cars and the second image is of the orange buoy on the sea. I like the way they blend and are integrated. I carefully blended the tones so it didn't stand out as much. I love the way the chain sort of separates the road from the sea in the tag.

Two images, one of a boat and one of my drawing I did at the beach, scanned in and I changed the saturation colour to be a nice cooler sunset on sea colour. I neutralized the tones so it wasn't as sharp as the original photographs.

This is just one image with edited saturation, tones and contrast. I reversed the colours to negative so it would seem more blue and make it look like the sea in places.

Two images, one of the sea as a seascape shot and one of the boat. I toned the down a little bit, blended them and made the saturation lighter and the contrast slightly higher. All the edges were made darker and smoother to a slight cartoon effect.

Two images, one of the paint off a boat and the other a seascape shot. The grain of the boat happened to go the same direction as the sea photo so when placed on top of each other they blended so well. I dulled the orange down a bit and brought the blue out more. I didn't feel I had to do too much to the image is it looks good as it is.

My image scanned in, and placed on top of a boat paint grain image. I don't think this works as well as the others but I tried changing the saturation and contrast but it didn't work out.
Overall I love these tags and think they would look great tagged on anything coastal related.

Bookmarks:

I thought the tag images would look great as bookmarks so I transferred the images and cropped them. I added text as I thought it would give the bookmark more meaning.

The right image is new using the same techniques as before. I love the way the text sits nicely amongst it's interesting background.

Love the tones of the words and how they give meaning and stand out with power. My favorite is the right one.

A new image on the left, two images overlapping and changed tones and colours. It was harder to get text onto that one because there are so many dark lines amongst the picture. but overall I love these bookmarks and would gladly have anyone of them.

Bag:

I like the neutral toned images amongst the bag. I changed the left image to blend more into the paper bag, to seem more sandy/beachy with the puffs from textiles that I scanned in to seem like pebbles on the beach. The second image of mine to show the cracked drawing of my pebble I think looks really nice on a bag. The text is taken from a classic sea side song. If this was a shop bag then the company name would fit nicely in that text's tone anywhere.

My work relates to the artists images I researched by having the same meaning - contrast. I like to show contrast in coastal art because not many artists show big differences in colour - often they are all same tone of blue/beige. Also I liked to use my own work I drew/crafted through out my subjects to show coasts in a number of different ways - to show more vivid colours.
I didn't want my bag as contrasting because I felt that a sea side bag shouldn't stand out from the sea side as for retail purposes, people want 'beach bags' to take to the sea side so they need to be different from your average retail bag. Normal beach bags are normally of this tone/colour and are often made from cotton or a certain polymer. 

Coastal Artists

KEITH SHAW - UK acrylic artist

Keith Shaw's intense landscapes are painted in acrylic. He watercolour paints these blocky colours relatively quickly and spends time on the small detailed, intricate shapes/objects. Shown in other images, it's just vibrant colour backgrounds with small and detailed center focuses. 
I like the how the colours are used - how they illuminate the picture - the way anything can stand out. I like the way he shows more sky than the ground/sea as he sees it as very interesting - just as much as anything else in the painting. The techniques used to create these skies are interesting and vivid and show a different side to landscapes. He contrasts all his paintings - the skies to the buildings - the sea to the objects around/in it - clouds to the buildings etc...

He captures emotion in the way he paints - like a photograph - an instant with feeling - calmness - loneliness - peace.

KURT JACKSON - UK Acrylic Artist

With a smilar perspective to Keith Shaw's paintings - Kurt Jackson paints these massive paintings on location - a different method gives different techniques - this is acrylic and is painted over a long times so the scene is not in an instant like Keith Shaw's but more of a time-lapse painting. He shows bright scenes and can show the weather very well - whether it's wind / cloudy or sunny and clear - he shows it very well. 

In the background - you can not very clearly see - some writing that describes the scene - from his hand writing to news paper print - he tells you the image as well as show it. It's hard to read from a photo but you can read the image on a bigger scale. 

I think he captures 'memories' well - he does different scenes of the sea scape and conveys the past well.

JOHN W GOLDEN - American digital illustration Artist

I love these pictures. I like the technique he used - to digitally edit his photographs. I like the way he adds the geometric shapes - to almost show big pixels to exaggerate it is a digital illustration. I love the vivid and vibrant colours. I love the way the blue compliments the other colours - orange/purple/green. I like the sharpness of the pictures - the way they are produced on software. 

I think the artist captures the coast very well - he shows seascapes/boats/skies and they all give feeling and emotion towards the viewer. I feel peace when I see the calm views of water and unused boats. No life is shown in his paintings - it's just strictly the view - of the coast - he always uses some man made structure whether it be a boat, pier or coastal town.

I can use these techniques in my work by scanning in my water colour / drawings and editing them in Photoshop by adjusting the colour, changing sharpness, changing the contrast (I like big contrast as is shown in these artists work - sea against boat for example). I can also use my photographs I took at the sea side and overlay them with other photographs or my drawings.

Preview of my work:

3 Different images stacked on top of each other - adjusted brightness/contrast and the 3rd (red boat image) layer has been changed from 'normal' (standard/no change) to 'Multiply' (darkened and made slightly transparent).

The image is of some textile work called 'suffolk puffs' that have been scanned into Photoshop and I layered two boat paint layers on top.