Annie Atkins:
Design Hero
Programs
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe After Effects
Work from the past constantly informs the future of design. I studied the work of Annie Atkins, Graphic Designer for Film, one of my favorite designers working today. Through research and copywriting, I crafted three pieces: a poster, a booklet, and an animated video as unique interpretations of Annie’s work.
Since completing this project, I have had the honor of taking part in one of the workshops Annie teaches in Dublin on Graphic Design for Filmmaking.
Date & Duration
Spring 2021, 12 weeks
Design an informational poster for someone who knows nothing about your design hero. You will gather, curate and craft text, images and typography that best tell the story of your hero and their work. How do you make a poster that both delights and resonates with your audience, while also informing and educating them?
I started off by creating some initial thumbnail sketches in order to generate ideas.
I developed these further digitally, planning out my design in InDesign before printing out assets, then cutting and assembling the poster by hand. I’d then scan in these mockups. This process consisted of me sitting on my floor, watching some Thor movies and cutting out paper rectangles for a couple of hours, then scanning in those rectangles in my studio. I gave the one on the right some texture by crumpling it up and walking on it.
I decided to lean into the unkempt nature of the texturized poster: break the grid, tilt some of the assets.
Then, I started work on my final. This included more building by hand, including the carving of a rubber stamp.
I then scanned my pieces and put them together in InDesign, and ended up with my final product.
Design a booklet for someone who knows nothing about your design hero. You will gather, curate and craft text, images, typography and several other elements to tell the best story of your hero and their work. How do you make a publication that both delights and resonates with your audience, while also informing and educating them?
I started, as with the poster, by creating thumbnails in the style of a layout plan.
I then developed these plans in InDesign, entering the well-known cycle of responses & revisions, responses & revisions. I took inspiration from my own work from the poster project, using the same typefaces and generalized color scheme.
Using the work you’ve done on your poster and booklet, create a short video with your design hero as the subject. This video should be consistent with your poster and booklet but will use motion, time and sound. You will write a script and storyboard your idea before executing it. You will gather and curate your subject’s voice (through interviews, lectures, and existing videos/films) which will act as the “spine” of your video. You will also use typography, images, information graphics, color, music, and other sound effects to give your piece depth, excitement, and resonance.
I once again storyboarded: explored visual possibilities once again inspired by the two previous projects.
I decided what video I was going to draw my sound from — a video that Annie made with Adobe in 2020. I’d made a rough cut of that audio, working around the existing format of the original video. I cut out the audio from that original interview and replaced it with music from the Grand Budapest Hotel, the film in which her work is most notable.
I began working on a rough-cut video version of the storyboard in Adobe Premiere, in order to plan out when my animations should take place alongside the sound. I then started working on the After Effects file.
I then took to animating as much as humanly possible, setting up the general structure of the animation to work off of. I worked back and forth on some sections, replacing and reworking them when needed. I then moved forward, finessing and adding detail along the way.