Symbol - YSP 1.1

After visiting The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, I was surprised by how large the place was and the amount of prestigious artists work there. The work spans fields and fields along with galleries and an educational centre and cafe. Immediately, I could see the range of different age groups that go to the park. It attracts a lot of school trips from primary schools to elderly people going for walks and enjoying the countryside which reflects the diversity of the park. The symbol needs to be able to stand alone to create an iconic, memorable identity. 

This is Yorkshire Sculpture Park's current logo:

It uses the shape of a circle which I think reflects the countryside because it's a natural shape and the type is more geometric which reflects the angular and manmade sculptures. The soft grey toned circle is contemporary, like the sculptures, and the type is aligned off centre. I like the simplicity and it works on small and large scales.

I took some pictures of the permanent sculptures and the environment I was in to inspire my work and as reference to my designs:

An initial concept that I thought of as I was walking around is how YSP mix the natural countryside with man made sculptures of different styles and mediums. I could also use the negative space to create a more abstract symbol.

I really liked the work of Henry Moore because of the abstract shapes. The soft curves of the huge sculptures instantly attracted me to it. A lot of his pieces also had negative space which was a concept I was looking into. 

I used a primary sourced image of one of Henry Moore's sculptures to create a silhouette. I didn't think about colour but used blue because it stands out and makes it easier to work with. I really like the shape, although it does almost resemble someone putting their thumb up. - Reminds me of some of Matisse's paper cut outs. 

I liked the concept of showing how the sculptures are placed in the countryside as a lot of them really stand out. They contrast in material, colour, texture and shape and I wanted to reflect this as a symbol to represent the park. I noticed the trees were extremely old and dominant over the sculptures so I thought I could incorporate these ideas together. To experiment, I sourced an illustration of the age circles inside a tree:

Using the natural shape from Moores sculpture, I tried incorporating it into the inside of the tree:

I don't think the shape is right to go into a circle because there are two natural shapes overlapped. It is very monochromatic which is likely to get lost on paper or on display.

I didn't want to add a solid green onto the background because it was too overwhelming so I tried using a softer palette but unfortunately it didn't benefit the composition enough to take forward. 
 I still really liked the silhouette of the shape because of the natural curved qualities. I decided to purely stick with it and use simple techniques on Photoshop to see if I could create some interesting negative space or symbol.

I rotated the shape to avoid it looking like someone with their thumb up and made it vertical instead of horizontal. I much prefer this. I then simply layered the shape on a graduated tone. Used natural colours along with greys to give a sense of nature and man made. I like how the colour and shape softly evolve into the next. It reminds me of minerals. I still don't think this idea would make a strong, iconic symbol because the shape isn't balanced and it's still very subtle. I zoomed in on the composition to see if I could focus on certain areas that had interesting tone and shape:

Despite having colour scheme, I put it into black and white because I thought the monochromatic tones were softer and easier to look at. I put a boarder around the shape in order to create more negative space and confine the shapes. This definitely benefited the piece because it felt lost. 

I am really surprised by how well this concept turned out. I was experimenting with lines cutting through the natural curves to suggest a structure. Cutting through the negative space created expanded it. They almost remind me of flags. I still don't think that this is a iconic enough to be the symbol.

I liked the idea of using a boarder to create more negative space and make the symbol easier to see. I used a lot of natural colours to represent the nature such as blue and green. The connotations of coral are calmness and inner piece. I thought this would be a good colour to use as I found the YSP a peaceful place to be. The composition reminds me of looking down onto a map. It still feels very flat and some of the colours are too pastel coloured.

To stop the symbol from looking too flat, I went back and added the original tree print over the top. If If I had more time I would have liked to have taken my own print of the trunk of a tree using traditional techniques. The lines added a texture that reminded me of the contour lines on maps. I have lots of natural shapes and colours but I need to add some geometric shapes in to resemble the sculptures. 

I wanted the shapes to be dissecting the composition as I thought they'd help to break down the colours and textures and make it easier to read. I like the balance between straight and curved lines, however I'm still not happy about the colour scheme because it's so flat. 

Once again I decided to change the colour scheme to black and white and I am very glad I did. I feel like the composition is more complete and all the shapes work together subtly. The line from the tree stump is easier to see because of the bigger contrast which I'm happy about. 

I found the same composition works when rotated to landscape, although it starts to look like the ocean washing up on a beach but I don't think this relates to The Yorkshire sculpture park as it a very rural, rather than coastal. The growth rings from the tree represent the contour lines found on maps. This represents the vast landscape and environment that the sculpture park is in because there are hills and rivers. 

Rotating the composition so that the circle was at the top created balance because of the geometric shapes. The circle at the top also inspired me to add in the current type:

My final outcome isn't made out of lots of different shapes combined. The addition of the geometric line and shape divides the composition up and makes it easier to read. I am going to present my work in a crit to get feedback which will benefit my work.