Botanic Unit: William Morris

William Morris

I am now looking at some artists who I can look to when creating my final product in my botanics unit. I chose to look at first in my work book William Morris who was a textile designer, arts and crafts artist and many other things. I Will be looking at mostly his botanical styled wallpaper. The first one I had already known before looking at this unit was Strawberry Thief wallpaper pattern, here is an example of this pattern. I like the detail that has been added. The design has been very successful and has been used on mugs, cushions and even shoes.  William Morris also looked at many other designs known for their very ornate style usually botanical in theme. Looking at the detail if these are in fact handmade they would have been very expensive and time consuming to create. He used much of his styles for other things, not just wallpaper and I can see why were popular. 

David Carson Ray Gun

Ray Gun Magazine

I have been looking at the magazine of Ray gun magazine covers (1992-2000). David Carson was the art director there, who is known for his typography work. Although the magazine ran for only eight years. I liked looking at his covers, known for their grunge look. I thought that they showed exactly what the magazine was about. Ray Gun is an alternative rock and roll magazine, David Carson uses many different styles. Ray Gun's magazine covers like this one show this, I find the style unusual and confusing which makes the cover appealing because the image is upside down and I kept seeing it upside down, I also almost stuck it my workbook upside down. The colours used are monotone and the text looks like it was created from an old type writer. I can see that this is an alternative magazine from just looking at the cover, the use of colour, the image and the typography show this.

This back and front cover also show the difference in the covers. Each one is individual; Carson uses the typography well by covering the cover in text.  I really like Carson's covers and I want to try a similar style and see if it will work for my front cover.

The Face Magazine

The Face magazine was a magazine that run from 1980 till 2004. Neville Brody was the typographer and graphic designer of The Face Magazine. He is also known for his work on CD covers and posters in typography. The magazine is a fashion, music and youth culture magazine. I think when I look at Brody's covers this can be seen, the cover up above is a example of this and as is the cover below. He uses colors well as in these pictures we can see he has stuck to red which matches the lips. He commonly uses a portrait of the model/singer etc. in his work.


This other magazine is of show how each cover is individual and bold, like the text in the one below on the side of the magazine cover. Like a lot of magazine covers he uses a lot of text on the page which gives the reader an insight into what is inside of the magazine. He keeps the magazine looking modern and I liker how he uses the triangle in the text. The text I feel shows the exact style he is going for. When I see his magazine covers I think the 80s, as he worked from 1981 till 1986 and that is visible in his magazine covers with its outlandish styles.