OUGD504: Design for print and web development

To get ideas flowing a drew up a mind map:

Most recognisable hand gestures:

Thumps up *
Thumps down 
Middle finger *
Two fingers *
Peace *
Fingers crossed *
Live long and prosper *
Pointing
Waving
Holding your fist up *
Three finger salute
Tapping your nose
Shaking your finger
Blowing a kiss
Hand over heart
Clinton thumb
Fist bump
Hand shake *
High five *
Finger gun
Nazi salute *
Loser sign
Surfs Up *
Wanker *
Shocker
Talk to the hand
Hand rubbing
Jazz hands
Clapping
Biting the thumb
Time out
Whatever
Clicking your thumb

My initial ideas:

For some of the hand gestures there isn't hard evidence to prove the actual origin of them. I don't want to create posters which are not entirely true, or have not been factually proven to be historically correct.

I could look at the most common hand gestures, the believed origin, and what they mean today across the globe.

Maybe split it into sections:

Famous hand gestures, from politicians to movie characters?

Hand gestures we use on a daily basis and what they mean in different countries?

Rude hand gestures?

Friendly hand gestures?

Maybe pick a handful of the most common hand gestures in the Uk and focus on them?

Material to design:

Promotional material:

Flyers
Posters
Stickers
*Billboards
*Bus Stops
*Graffiti
Stationary
Pamphlet/ booklet on what the gallery is and on the hand gestures
*Side of buses
Social networking

Gallery space itself:

How will it look?
Door handles being hands?
Focus on hands, and what we use them for?
Get people to use their hands?

Gallery content:

*Hands sculptures sticking out the wall that people can interactive with
*Games people can play to let them communicate with other people
Mainly framed Posters/ large prints
Booklet
Video?
Canvas bags
T shirts

Visitors badges

I've chosen a selection of the most recognisable hand gestures. I found these were the most interesting, and some held some different meaning in other countries.

Thumps up *
Thumps down*
Middle finger *
Two fingers *
Peace *
Fingers crossed *
Live long and prosper *
Pointing*
Holding your fist up *
Fist bump*
Hand shake *
High five *
Nazi salute *
Surfs Up *
Wanker *
A-okay*

I came up with the idea of drawing and painting the hand gestures, and having them on a white page with the gesture name beneath.

I scanned in my ideas and edited them on photoshop:

I then played around with designs of the hands:

I wasn't really liking the painted hands, and it was hard to edit them to look good. I showed my design to my friend who studies graphics at Manchester and he gave me the idea of maybe making it a lot more minimal and make the hand gestures out of type. 

I chose a font and made the hand gestures out of the glyphs. This also related it back to the original ISTD brief:

As well as the posters I attempted to design the booklet for the gallery. I tried a few front cover ideas, and different colours.

 I then ended up on deciding to work with this idea, but I wasnt too sure one what colour to choose:

I used the 'kuler' extension in illustrator to choose a selection of swatches which worked well together. I ended up choosing the colours below. I found that they weren't to vibrant, and the blues and yellow worked really well on the red. The red almost enforces whats being shown but the subtle blues and yellows keep it calm.

I also played around a bit more with poster design:

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