GFSmith Colorplan Archive - Initial Concept, Scamps & Development

GFSmith Colorplan Archive - Initial Concept, Scamps & Development

Concept

Create a series of prints based on the screen colour spectrum RGB, using a combination of digital print process and screen print process to transition between something digital to something traditional to take the screen based RGB into something physical and printed.

Each colour will be referenced by a precious gem looking into the qualities and grading of these gems to benefit the idea of showing the qualities of the Vermillion, Lockwood and Adriatic color plan papers, the visuals delivery of these designs will be informed by ideas influenced by Ruby coding, Afghan Emeralds and the Idea of the Unknown for Bentonite gems all with a consistent hint towards the transition between digital process's through the use of iconography, pattern, shape and type too the physical qualities of print and paper based design deliveries. 

Visual Scamps & Delivery of Concept Developmet

Emerald

Ideas of a stencil within the screen print aesthetic, this is the traditional method of screenprinting before UV exposing came about. 

Screen print gradients using halftone dots to transition technology to print.

Use shapes to show the organic too the digital, ie curves too angles. 

Think of contrasting colours to show the organic and digital, organic could be using neutral tones digital could use bright hues. 

Traditional type layout and contemporary type layout to show a transition of technology, don't lose focus of the main idea that the marks and aesthetic need to reference the technologies themselves rather than the principles they benefit. 

50-50 Contrast the clean and structured with the abstract and tactile, showing the transition from digital to hands on process's. 

Use the remaining 2 colours with each colour paper for example blue paper use red and green inks? 

Show the various shapes and sizes of emeralds as a form of showing the grading criteria, supported by texture, pattern and colour application to show this sliding scale of quality. 

Use arabic typography to enhance the idea of heritage within the emerald design, as Afghanistan is known for the finest diamonds maybe pay homage to this? Green is also the most important colour in islam and is a key colour in the Afghan flag. 

A quote from a gem expert to add context to the design and idea of quality "The Afghan emerald is renowned as the best in terms of quality... one of the most crystalline, one of the purest"

Work with the transparency of inks and overlaying inks to show the clarity of a gem, ie a clear gem is purer use opaque ink for these images. 

Play with hue, saturation and tone interaction within pattern and shape interaction to carry this grading idea. 

Starting to scamp out the grading system using size, shape, and different patterns to show different qualities of gem.

Introducing lines and circle/square anchor points to reference vector interpretations of the physical gems to bring in ideas of physical to digital capturing. 

Splitting the background up into red green and blue, the negative space been the paper stock this would allow a consistent format to be applied to all the prints. 

Use spray paint scanned in as a gradient to show the physical in a digital vibe, the graininess of the scan would also support the lower quality pitted gems. 

Break the shape up into segments which can then carry colour and pattern. These rectangles could also reference the screen registration bars, that fade in tone to calibrate a screen, a perfect link between digital and print and making up the gem (physical element) with digital elements.

Bring in literal screen references like a tool bar, a mouse icon and drop down menus.

Split the design up, 1 half with a block black and the other using the negative space (paper stock) to play with the use of positive and negative space when designing, using the paper stock to carry the design colour when using negative space and relying on the print process for the positive design elements. 

Started playing around with a deconstructed layout, this will support the idea that there is a lot of visual elements within the design as a whole and add motion to a flat piece of design, something that is evident in screen based artwork like animations etc.

Use a block colour frame to reference the computer screen/frame in a literal print interpretation. 

Ruby

Based on Ruby coding for digital to print transition. 

Range from colourless to to solid colour to show grading use a full tonal range of a select colour that works well with the red stock. 

Use completely different shapes, rough edges hand rendered shapes, vector line gems that are small and perfectly round with detail, solid shapes, vector line and vector point shapes, and shapes full of patterns.

Include the value of the most expensive gem 4.62g $30million to add an element of value and prestige too the link between ruby gems and the colour plan paper. 

Exploring basic stencil ideas with the incorporation of a layer with vector points as a way of showing the potential of adding digital accuracy.

Use fading gradients with digital print, fading from a colour into the paper stock, then screen print basic pattern textures over the top to show a feeling of tactility from these printed patterns and accuracy within the gradient digital prints. Showing the potential of technology, and a range of qualities of the gems.

Add ruby code as a textual reference and context too the whole concept.

The ruby code is an exact representation of the visual elements, eg use the code that would be used to input a certain sized square or line or some other visual content like a colour application using the RGB colour code of the paper stock maybe? A conversion from the physical too the screen? 

Use a mash of lines, squares, circles and rectangles to show a variety of organic and digital references and the random chaos of code. With a neat textual layout of some simple code showing the transition between the textual code and its visual output. 

Use vector lines and points to highlight key points within the layout. 

Digi print a photo texture, screen print the block colour and digi print and screen print the detail lines to tie the physical and digital together. 

Extreme small pt lines of code make up the shapes of line art, so from the outset it looks like lines but infact theres more going on behind the scenes. Something that not many people appreciate when it comes to coding, something so simple may be made up of very complex code. 

Play around with scanned in type to add that digital element, or recreate the feeling of scanned in warped type using digital programs. 

Show a transition from roughness/imperfection to accuracy and clarity to support the transition between the 2 print process's.

Use common typographic glyphs to reference ruby code.

Use a large area of code as the background with a digital print (digital aspect) with screen printed patterns, shapes and different sized gems to show the grading criteria (print aspect). 

Work with ideas of glitching, visually present these but use altered code to add context to these technological limitations. 

Bentonite

Create a profile of the only known location in San Benito California and the details of this set of samples while emulating the idea of the unknown and rareness of the gem.

Use the dictionary definition of the unknown to add context too the whole concept of unknown. Highlighting key words like "dark, exotic, hidden, concealed, secret, nameless" that can all hold visual connotation possibilities. 

The idea of the unknown relates to my COP investigations how technological was relatively unknown and was something undiscovered, but then came to influence the design world no end. This idea of progression will be repeated within the progression of print to digital within this print series. 

Birds eye view based on satellite surveillance.

Visually conceal and reveal elements to show the discovery of something. 

Show the birds eye view map of the location of the bentonite samples, using screen marks, shapes that reference the gems, texture, vector lines and marks, screen alignments points as visual cues on the map. 

Use grids to reference a location grid aswell as a layout grid or a layout of pixels, this will allow structure to be added to the layout with added context. 

Use a transition of scribbles too something clean and legible to show the understanding and revealing of something unknown into something beautiful. 

Use iconography like magnifying glasses to connote ideas of discovery, with scaling tools from design software as an idea of showing distance and a range to work with the idea of maps and discovery. 

Spray paint/gradient over important elements, concealing something important that when revealed will be a key discovery. To show a before and after snapshot, not just for the context of the design but also before and after digital print was introduced. 

Using free motion lines to show the river Bentonite is often found in. 

Use texture and cleanness to show the transitioning of polishing a gem, from imperfect to perfect and also shows the tactile qualities of traditional print to the accuracy and cleanliness of digital print. 

Stretched out warped type creates a feeling of the unknown as you need to read into what the text says more, same with splitting it in half, working on a conceal and reveal sort of discovery basis. 

Use an idea of perspective within repeated shape to show the idea of a screen size/program window decreasing increasing within the frame/computer screen

Developed scamps, concept & delivery

Emerald

Use repeated typographic marks to make patterns like + - " = as a form of bringing in the idea of qwerty keyboards as a digital reference, combined with digital screen marks like collaboration marks, contrast bars, rough pixelated edges (zoomed in images screen limitations)


Create offset layers within the 2 process to show the individuality of them and the limitations of the accuracy within screen print and how the imperfections make prints so precious, just like the small details within gem quality grading. 

Figured out a simple scamp to work from, a black half of the design with details like a halftone gradient and line art will be digitaly printed then the rest of the design that consists of calibration bars, vector marks, mouse mark, arabic typography, print registration marks etc will be screen printed over the top. 

Ruby

2 scamps to digital develop on. using simple shape and pattern to block colour will show elements of grading.

A physical image of the Ruby gem combined with a vector repurposing will work in terms of taking the physical (print) into a digital format with a final fine cut ruby made of lines, pattern and texture tying all the process's together.

Offset registration marks but instead of using collaboration marks use open and close square [brackets] used in ruby coding. 

The use of words and glyphs relevant to ruby code will be presented in a deconstructed manner around the design, allowing the eye to piece together the words and in turn piece together the visual content. 

Use a number of repeated lines reversed out on a solid background or printed positively to show the grading of gems. 

RGB colour code conversion of the paper stock.

Add the value of the most expensive gem to add a feeling of prestige and value too the paper stock. 

Use glyphs like + to create patterns to reference the digital ruby code, these patterns will be screen printed to show a clear transition. 

Use the hashtag, a common glyph used for hex colour application for digital designs and used a lot in ruby coding. 

Add neat ruby code to show how something so simple can be interpreted very complex or vice versa. 

Bentonite
Use iconography that reference documentation and discovery; files, magnifying glass, new document iconography. 

Use a series of free motion lines to represent the birds eye view of the river these gems are found.
Texture and block colour transition , showing the unraveling and digging into and revealing something hidden.  

Split the typography up to show a conceal and reveal.

Create a scale from point to point using arrows and line to show progression and discovery. 

Include the definition of the unknown to add context. 

Use repeated shapes to add perspective, sort of like the scaling down of something but also how it looks like your looking down into something, to show the discovering of something. 

Vector points and lines to show a vector reference.