Here is my final print. It took so much longer than I anticipated to screen print this, having not screen printed since first year the process seemed to take longer than usual but after a couple of trail and errors I was finally able to submit a piece. Although the alignment is not entirely perfect, when being used on a net for a cover the binding would be on the left so it would align the design in the centre with equal space either side.
I chose to print the foil on the rustic looking textured stock because I felt this reflected the confusion and disorientation people like ourselves feel in the world, not sure what to do, where to go or who to be. The golden foiled title and design represents almost a sense of hope and strength and that we need to focus on ourselves, only then true inner-peace and self contentment can be achieved. The illustration represents mankind with different religious elements within the circles and squares, the circles on the man's body represents the different spiritual points. Combined they create one universal structure, reflecting life itself.
With more time and stock I would have definitely tried getting a successful print on a different colour stock. The experiments I tried on the different stock I thought visually worked extremely well with the combining of colours, but when it came to the foiling and alignment process I struggled really hard. However I feel much more confident in the screen printing room and for future projects I will not hesitate to use the facilities. I may even screen print the finals again to put them onto my Behance account.
These are some ideas I found from inspiration type posters on Behance. I thought I could incorporate the meaning of the title into the aesthetic visuals of the type. The only english type underneath representing ones self as a person, the more elegant script type on top suggests the matter of us trying to be something we are not, and not embracing who we are. Both together the old english type makes more of an impact, which would reflect that becoming you may not be 'perfect' situation, but to confront it and find inner peace. The colours I found were too harsh and not very appealing to the eye, I took influence from far-east colours which consist a lot of bright reds, blues and yellows. Whether this would work to my advantage I'm not too sure, however if they were to be screen printed I could play about with the transparency of the inks for the type and try getting some layered textures.
Another idea I had was to just use the symbols as they are and form some kind of pattern. But I thought conceptually they do not represent what the book is about which is what I want to communicate to the public.
Another concept I thought was to try and incorporate a fingerprint into the book cover. As every persons fingerprint and DNA is unique to themselves I thought it would be a good representation of what the book is about, inner-peace and self acceptance. I did like the visual I made for the cover however I still wanted to try tracing the Vitruvian man and seeing if that visual works best.
I then traced over the Vritruvain man but simplified the design to make it more clearer on what each symbol means. The circles are placed at the main spirit points in the body, whilst the other shapes combine to represent various religions and faiths. Altogether form the perfection of man and the meaning of existence, embracing all emotions and one self.
I tried different layouts for the book cover and found the centre aligned one was the most successful. It suggests togetherness and being one, flowing down into the illustration below. The typeface I chose
was something that had a mort traditional soothing look to it. I felt its elements suggested assertiveness and stability which would reflect what the book is trying to communicate.
I then decided to use some stock from GF Smith to really really an impact with the design and bring it to life. I will be also screen printing and foiling the design onto coloured and white stock, depending on which one works out the most successful.
Alan Watts was profoundly influenced by the East Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Buddhism, and by Taoist thought, which is reflected in Zen poetry and the arts of China and Japan. After leaving the Church he never became a member of another organised religion, although he wrote and spoke extensively about Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism. Some American Buddhists criticised him for not sitting regularly in zazen, even though he recorded several guided meditations teaching a variety of mediation techniques. Alan Watts responded simply by saying: “A cat sits until it is done sitting, and then gets up, stretches, and walks away.”
I decided to do some research into the symbols used in the far-east. As the book I've chosen from Alan Watts is about being content with ones self and confronting your emotions, only then would you find inner peace, bringing positively to you and those around you, I found different symbols from Buddhism, taoism and even Chinese symbol. These could somehow be incorporated into my design to represent Alan Watts's influences from the far-east and the contents of the book itself, using a symbol is something the audience would refer too.
"The part of our self that wants to change our self is the very one that needs to be change; but it is as inaccessible as a needle to the prick of its own point."
- This stood out to me because I thought it was a good concept of us trying to figure out who we are as a person and changing our ways to become that person, but the bigger picture is we are who we are and we cannot change the ways we work.
- Another phrase I took a screenshot from Alan watt's book. I thought this explained briefly about the psychology behind emotions, something I could try visualise for my book cover.
This paragraph stood out to me the most, its about embracing your emotions that you are feeling for a reason. Nor to ignore them which will conflict with another emotion, but to embrace your emotions and find a solution to them and with that you will feel a sense of more self-acceptance. This is a good concept I would like to try and visualise, representing the different parts of emotions from different parts of the body.
Vitruvian Man is perhaps Leonardo da Vinci's most famous illustration.The Vitruvian ideas, presented by Leonardo, formed the basis of Renaissance proportion theories in art and architecture. He noted that a human body can be symmetrically inscribed within both a circle and a square; this idea influenced his architectural practice.
Leonardo's illustration of the theory of Vitruvius is a pen ink drawing of a male figure whose outstretched limbs touch the circumference of a circle and the edges of a square. His navel falls in the exact center of the circle. There is a changing perspective in the work. It is static in structure but dynamic in its presentation of a moving, living man. Hand-written text surrounds the drawing of the figure. I thought this would be a good concept to research into, not only does it represent mankind in its perfect structural form, but represents our existence as not some form of accident, and that we should accept existence as something to embrace.
I then looked into other forms of Da Vinci's Vitruvian man. These I thought were extremely interesting not only visually but conceptually too. This was something that caught my attention straight away as I thought it could present many things in one simple form.
I thought this was the strongest visual for representing the mind, body and spirit. Have various religious symbols within the circles and squares, each circle representing the body's spirit points and how when these references are put together they fit within one and another, this suggests self-acceptance and the contentment with ones self.
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