September 2003 | Sparks

Creative process for September 2003 design
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Stage I We've recently noticed a trend among designers to create designs inspired by Victorian and early 20th century mass culture printed pieces. While we have always been nauseated by what we call "typographic monstrosities" (the Victorians were so excited by the explosion of typefaces available to them they wanted to use as many as possible in a single handbill), we plucked up our courage and dove in, starting with this rather uneasy looking young man for our victim.		Stage II We cut our man out of his background and simplified the image to reproduce with more contrast. Then we dissected him á la Terry Gilliam (Monty Python's cartoonist). Gritting our teeth, we threw down loud decorative type and the little icons that would make any Victorian proud. We enlarged the man's head a bit and had it run into the type to emphasize that sentence. The basic concept is there—now for the finessing!


	Final We added color, softening the contrast overall to give it a more "weathered" look. We then added interior color and decoration to the letterforms to make them even more obnoxious. We offset a red copy of our man in order to make it a little jarring, added decorative elements in the corners to increase dynamism, and threw some big chunky icons in the background to make the composition more playful and contemporary. Last but not least, we "broke" the finger of the pointing hand (that quintessential Victorian icon) after the word "starts" just to underscore the message of the quote that much more. The loud type, broken forms, and scattered icons all create a feeling of "breaking down" that fits this quote perfectly.