EXPOSING PERTHS HIDDEN STREET ART AND ARTISTS

Branding | Publication design

THE PROBLEM

Street art is public art that should be seen as an extension of art outside the art gallery, engaging people from all walks of life. Sometimes confused with graffiti, a form of vandalism which consists of word-based scratchy tags, street art is a legal practice that is a combination of images and words painted on walls or other surfaces of a building or structure.

Perth is quickly becoming Australia’s second best street art city with an abundance of unique street art hidden in laneways, carparks, underpasses, roller doors and on the sides of buildings. It can enliven, enhance and revive places that are cherished, or even places that have been forgotten and neglected.

These beautiful artworks located on our streets are often overlooked and not given the same value as art in an gallery would have. The artworks, as well as the artists are ‘hidden’ and not getting the recognition that they deserve. The importance of street art should not be diminished as it can capture the attention of a person walking by, making them become aware of their surroundings or changing the way they think, something that art in a gallery cannot do. People should realise that these murals are artistic treasures that promote dialogue with their hidden meanings.

I decided to create a guide book on Perth street art and murals created by local Perth artists. It focuses heavily on the underlying meanings of the artworks as well as the artists themselves.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

To create a guide book on 'hidden’ street art around Perth.

To create appreciation and understanding for different kinds of art.

To place artists at the forefront and give them recognition.

To describe the hidden meaning behind each artwork.

RESEARCH

The research stage includes defining the target audience and gaining a deeper understanding into the people affected by creating personas, empathy maps and conducting interviews. Competitors are also looked at to see what has been done in the past and whether or not these ideas have worked.

1. AUDIENCE AND STAKEHOLDERS

For this publication, the audience consisted of tourists and locals. This book benefits both of these audiences, as this self-guided tour will be another activity that not only tourists, but locals can do while in Perth and will enable them to experience the uniqueness and creativity Perth has to offer.

Stakeholders included small businesses such as cafes, shops and communities. They will benefit as it will bring tourists and locals to the area, generating more business and traffic. The artists themselves are also a key stakeholder as it will help to give them recognition and exposure for their work which may help give them more career opportunities

PERSONAS

After defining the audience and stakeholders, I looked at personas. These personas enabled me to identify what sorts of users may use this publication and in the later weeks, helped me to create a brand that would attract this audience.

2. COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

I undertook a competitor analysis of three similar publications to identify positive aspects that could be used in my own publication, and other negative aspects to avoid. From these, I found that creating a strong brand that accurately reflected the content inside was important, as well as having a great emphasis on the photographs to emphasise the artists work to draw the viewers eye.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS 1 - MICHAELANGELO

I do not think that this identity is effective for this publication. The purpose of this book is to showcase Michelangelo’s work which they have done so with large pictures of his work scattered throughout the book. Michelangelo was a renaissance artist and his paintings and sculptures were often realistic and portrayed images of Christ. The book clearly reflects this as it looks quite classic, utilising a serif font and a simple grid structure of 2 columns. I think however, the book could have been slightly more creative in its approach as it is celebrating the life and work of Michelangelo. The non-existent colour scheme could have been fixed by using colours often seen in renaissance paintings such as reds, greens, blues and yellows. This could have been used within the headings or other geometric elements to match the images and create a sense of unity.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS 2 - MUST SEES LONDON

I think this identity is effective as a tourist book, which is the purpose it was made for. It showcases all the attractions London has using pictures, a rating system and provides lots of context. Although this book is effective as a tourist book, it is not very visually engaging or exciting. There is lots of text, with often many attractions placed on the same page, leaving only a small amount of space or no space at all for images. I think that images should be a emphasised more in a publication like this as tourists would like to see where they are going. I also think that the images used are of not the best quality as some are a bit dark and it is hard to see what is actually in the picture. However, I do like the grid system that the book has used. The book uses a two column grid system in which all the elements are placed. It gives a neat and professional look and I feel that this two column grid is something I could use in my own publication. Although the grid provides a cohesive look and feel, it becomes quite repetitive as it is used on every page of the publication. To change the layouts on each page, I think some elements could be overlapped or the grid could be disregarded, which would also make the pages more interesting and visually engaging.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS 3 - PUBLICATION: FORM BUILDING A STATE OF CREATIVITY

https://issuu.com/form-wa/docs/publication_-_form

I think this identity is effective in displaying the work from the artists from the PUBLIC program. Lots of images are spread throughout the pages and often they are quite large, drawing the viewers attention. I think that placing lots of emphasis on these photographs is important as it helps to showcase the artists work. I think that the bright pink colour is effective from this identity as bright colours are often seen in street art. The pink doesn’t take away from the images, but instead works with them. Pink is often placed in spread with images containing pink, which helps to create movement and unity throughout the page. The identity also has a set grid with 8 columns to a page. Because there are so many columns, this grid allows for experimentation so each page has been set up differently, but still complies with the 8 columns. This keeps each page interesting and visually engaging while also unifying the book as a whole. I do feel however, the identity is quite professional and could be slightly more creative. Having overlapping elements or using a decorative font may have added this.

https://issuu.com/form-wa/docs/publication_-_form

3. EMPATHY MAP

During the design stage, I interviewed many people on Perth street art, and whether its something they paid attention to and appreciated, or if it something they ignored. Some of the questions I asked included:

  1. Do you know that Perth has an abundance of street art?
  2. Do you know of any Perth/Australian street artists?
  3. Do you consider street art to be graffiti? Why/Why not?
  4. When you do see street art, what’s your first impression?
  5. Do you care for the meaning behind the work? Why/why not?
  6. Do you think street art should be encouraged? Why/why not?

It was obvious from these interviews that people were only somewhat slightly aware of the street art around Perth.

Of all the people I interviewed, I was surprised to find out that 50% knew that Perth had an abundance of street art, however, no one could name any Perth or even Australian street artists, or even artists who had painted one-off murals.

Also, 90% of people I interviewed said that they didn’t take much notice of street art, and only glanced at it when walking past. However the overall response when asked about street art was quite positive, with interviewees saying its unique and colourful and can spread awareness about different things, so there was a wanting to learn about and appreciate the style. Interviewees also stated that having a guide book on Perth street art would be helpful, because “lots of it is hidden in alleyways and side streets which aren’t seen” (interview 4).

Based off of these interviews, an empathy map was conducted.

VISUAL INVESTIGATION

The visual investigation stage includes creating mind maps to help generate ideas for the development stage. During this stage, I also look at images, websites and other content found on the internet, as well as objects, books and other materials found in my surroundings to find inspiration.

1. VISUAL INVESTIGATION

After clearly identifying the audience, their goals and objectives, I started to look at the actual design for the book and look at other publications and images for inspiration. I created a visual investigation that reflected the colours, layouts, and typography that I wanted to use in the final publication. I tried to look at images and layouts that were playful and creative while still looking stylish and professional. I wanted the publication to be described as grungy, funky, creative and artsy as street art has a more urban feel compared to other styles of art.

1. VISUAL INVESTIGATION

After clearly identifying the audience, their goals and objectives, I started to look at the actual design for the book and look at other publications and images for inspiration. I created a visual investigation that reflected the colours, layouts, and typography that I wanted to use in the final publication. I tried to look at images and layouts that were playful and creative while still looking stylish and professional. I wanted the publication to be described as grungy, funky, creative and artsy as street art has a more urban feel compared to other styles of art.

2. BRAND AND IDENTITY SUMMARY

After all this initial research, I started to have an idea of what this identity would look like and what outcomes it would create. A brand and identity summary was created to identify and solidify the identity personality, character, core values and relationship with the target audience.

DEVELOPMENT

The Development stage includes creating rough sketches and refining them with computer software, as well as experimenting with different elements such as colour, grids, layouts, typography and images until an identity is created.

1. TYPOGRAPHY

Based on the visual investigation I had created, I started to experiment with different design aspects of the book, first looking at typography. I wanted to include a few different typefaces as I wanted to include different fonts for the headings and body to create variation within the book. For the headings and subheadings, I wanted a font that was bold and thick and chose to use the font Poppins. This font has many of variations, such as bold, semi bold, regular etc. I liked the straight edges and simple modern look that it provided as it was easy to read.

Since the book was about street art, I chose a decorative font that reflected this. I felt that the font ‘Walnut’ reflected this urban and grungy feel I want to portray and would contrast well with the neater and simpler fonts used for the body text and the headings. I planned to use this font behind the heading text like the example to the right.

2. COLOUR

While looking at typography, I also experimented with colour. The final colour scheme chosen consisted of greens and blues with the contrasting colour of yellow. These colours created a grungy and funky looking colour scheme that would allow the main content such as the images to stand out. These colours also symbolised uniqueness, creative expression and learning, which is exactly what I wanted the guidebook to portray.

3. GRIDS

The initial grids I created for the publication were quite simple and had been inspired from the books from the competitor analysis, as well as some of the layouts I found in the visual investigation. These initial grids consisted of a 2x4, 2x3, 3x3, and 3x4 grid. However, it was found during the development of the final book that these grids weren’t suitable as they did not allow maximum flexibility in the composition.

A 7x4 and a 7x3 gird were also created to work in conjunction with the other grids. Although slightly more complex, these new grids allowed me to use the pages to their full potential, displaying lots of content in a neat and oriented way. These grids also allowed for the pages to have a similar look and feel unifying the book as a whole and creating cohesion.

3x4

2x4

3x3

7x3

7x4

CONTENT COLLECTION

After sorting out the main aspects of the brand, I started to collect the content such as the images, artist profiles and mural descriptions, as well as creating the graphics. The were many challenges with this part of the project such as collecting the images as I had limited time to do this due to other commitments. Collecting the content for the artist profiles and the mural descriptions was difficult due to the limited information about them online, so the murals I could not find meanings for I did not end up using. Creating the graphics was also difficult as they were very time consuming due to being digital paintings.

4. IMAGES

The images were collected on three different days. The images I took were of high quality, however some murals were hard to get a picture of due to them being covered by plants, or being placed high up on a wall. However I was able to crop most images quite well and remove the background scene so the focus was just on the mural. I did not overly edit these pictures as I wanted them to be a true representation of the mural that was there, and as some had deteriorated quite badly, this was hard to do. I edited the brightness and contrast as well as the vibrance and saturation of the images so that they stood out within the book and captured the viewers attention. While in Photoshop, these images were also changed to 300DPI and CMYK colour mode so that they would be fit for printing. Present on this page are some examples of how I edited the images.

Some images were also edited with dual-tones, using colours from the colour scheme. The dual toned images gave a fun and distinctive feel.

Before

After

5. GRAPHICS

The graphics I created for this publication were all hand drawn using a tablet. The first graphics I created were lots of little stars. I felt that these graphics were fitting to reinforce the ‘treasures’ part of the title and to reinforce that street art should be valued like any other piece of art. While experimenting with the stars, I created a diamond and felt that this graphic was appropriate as the main image or logo for the book. For the final publication this image was present on the front cover and also present throughout the book next to some of the artists names. These graphics were also diverse as the different colours from the colour scheme could be applied to them.

For the final publication, I also wanted to include some images of artists however this was not possible due to copyright issues. Instead, I came up with the idea of creating digital paintings of these artists and thought that this would match the street art style well. I first created a digital painting of artist Anya Brock who is known for her bright use of colours. I felt that adding the flowers in the background was fitting as Anya often includes flowers in her work, relating to the underlying theme she explores of feminine strength.

I also created maps of the locations of the murals. These were all hand drawn on a tablet which created an imperfect and fun feel, but also accurately representing the locations of the murals. Within the final publication, these maps were displayed at the very beginning, and also scattered throughout the book. They were also filled in with a block colour to suit the branding of the rest of the publication.

6. LAYOUTS

After deciding on the visual elements for the book, I could start working on the final deliverable which was the book. I created some initial page layouts in the form of wireframes to help give me ideas of where the content could be placed.

DELIVERABLES

The deliverables includes the delivery of the final outcomes, outputs, products or identities. These outputs should address the issues raised within the problem statement.

1. THE FINAL BOOK

By combining all the visual elements such as colour, typography, grids, graphics and images, I started to create the layouts for the publication. These layouts are eye catching, interesting and trendy which accurately represent the street art style.

Displaying 52 artworks from 20 different artists, this perfect bound book is 64 pages long and full of images and descriptions of the street art around Perth. The book also contains artist profiles, as well as an introduction, explaining to people why street art is important to the community. Scattered throughout the pages are also social media profiles and QR codes to the artists websites to help generate exposure for them.

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