Brief 1 - Frame (Photoshop): Experimenting with Numbers

After doing research into how numbers can be used to create a piece of design I began playing around with the number 4 and 6 in a 4"x 6" page. My initial idea was to join them together and create a shape. However after exploring this they are not easy numbers to join together and they don't look aesthetically pleasing. On the left you can see a first attempt at creating this. Afterwards the focus shifted on to not having the whole number on the page so that it created negative space and shapes but was still legible as a number. First on illustrator the 6 was placed over a black background and then the layers were linked together so it divided it down into shapes. As you can see from the first screen shot certain sections have been moved away. Initial thoughts were to have it all white bar the circle and top right corner but this didn't work as well as I had intended as it doesn't look like a 6 and it doesn't leave much room for the 4 or for information. 

I then began playing around with keeping the black background and layering it up. The 6 is in negative because it has a better impact than just normal black on white print. Im not too sure on the inches being where they are but this is something that can be sorted out on the crit. After a rough layout was formed I was able to begin playing with colour. The colour swatch that was originally chosen and can be seen below is #218276. This colour was chosen because its light and airy, its not to heavy and removes some of the impact from the harsh contrast of white on black.  It is suitable for both genders and children alike and could be seen in any room in the house as the colour is very neutral.

This was the first attempt, The turquoise background fits well with the white as there is enough of a contrast but it is not as heavy as the black on the white. The bowl of the 6 and stem leave the page which makes it look like a shape rather than a solid number 6. 

This was a slight variation playing around with the colour and composition of the type. The white is subtle but perhaps now the 4" looks to bold on the background. The type looks best on the top half of the page as otherwise it takes away from the perfect circle in the bottom middle. Because the circle is quite large if the text was at the bottom then it would make the piece very bottom heavy rather than spreading the text equally.

This piece was a happy accident, by creating a second '6' layer and lowering the opacity to 60. It has created a lighter blue/grey around certain areas of the 6. This is the extra aspect that this piece needs to make it stand out and I will experiment with this idea further.

Maybe the black was too black. Here the 4" has been changed to be the same colour as the background. This gives the affect of a cutout on the 6. This looks okay but not amazing, the colours are now all merging to one and there doesn't seem to be that bauhaus look that there was before.

Combining The previous happy accident so that it fitted in. However this is too much of the same thing. It is very much of a case of too much of a good thing. 

Here I tried to keep the movement idea with the 4 but although it is better it was better plain black.

 

These are the two final ideas that I am happy with the design of. The only difference is the positioning of the text. The text has been made smaller compared to the last experiments so that now it is the same size as the cross bar of the 4. The black looks a lot better as from a distance it attracts your eye. The smaller text is better now as before it was distracting from the piece of graphics but now its there and its readable but its not a distraction.

Now I will look into layering the numbers and adjusting the opacity because this idea has worked well in this attempt.