Creature Mark Project
The objective of the Creature Mark project was to create a unique graphic interpretation of an assigned creature. The form language used to graphically interpret the creature was based on an orderly and systematic arrangement of the basic components of visual communication. I chose to use the Ring-Tailed Lemur as my subject, and inherently designed my Creature Mark off of circles.
PART ONE: MARK
Research and benchmarking
Before starting my mark, I had to narrow down the animal on which I wanted to work. I started with the Ring-Tailed Lemur and the Toucan.
Attributes of creature
I was asked to curate a list of characteristics of my creature, both physical and associative, in order to envision how I would portray my animal in the graphic.
Ring-Tailed Lemur Traits
Physical: furry, patterned, long tail, grey, energetic
Associative: silly, mischievous, social, playful
Toucan Traits
Physical: colorful, big beak, feathery, sharp, light
Associative: Sweet, fun, sociable, tropical, clumsy
Initial sketches
This is a collection of initial sketches I used to study my main two animals and decide which direction to move towards.
Graphic sketches
Once I decided to move forward with only the Ring-Tailed Lemur, I created sketches that focused on emphasizing the most important characteristics of the creature.
Digital iterations
After going over my best sketch with ink, I uploaded a scan of it to Illustrator and used circles to recreate it as best I could. Then I iterated on this sketch, tried out different ideas, and made refinements to get to my final.
Final Creature Mark
PART TWO: MARK + INTERPRETIVE PHRASE
PHRASE BRAINSTORMING
After sharing the physical and associative creature traits we joined with a peer and created each other's phrases. I decided on the second phrase, but a shortened version.
EARLY IDEATIONS
At this stage, I had started ideating possible compositions with the mark and some parts of the phrase. I went forward with the first direction, though simplified it over time.
COLOR STUDIES
I experimented with two main color palettes, both of which were based off analogous and complementary color palettes. I initially added brown, but narrowed to the ideation on the right, the complementary palette.
Digital iterations AND REFINEMENT
Below are a few of my main iterations as I moved toward my final composition. I tried altering the color palette throughout a few of the iterations, and also played around with typographic hierarchy and scale.
FINAL COMPOSITION
