Mr.T Article design

Here is my design that I made in correlation with my branding of Mr.T, the article is from a offsite magazine article about how Mr.T represents a whole group of people in the 80's and how he could be a bad image for the afro american society. My design went through many many changes ones that pushed layout and I tried new things. This led me to the current design, I stepped back took some notes of what I was specifically doing and tried to see what I liked and how I could make it better. Over time well spent the design matured and became something that was controlled and had elements that i had liked in the beginning with earlier designs but in a way that made sense and also looked good. 

(Introduction Spread)

(1st Spread)

(2nd Spread)

(cover)

Mr.T Articles and Quotes

Mr.T articles that are to be edited for usage for the Mr.T magazine spread that i will be doing soon. I grabbed some of Mr.T's quotes because I believe they are very important to who he really is. 

It's been a hard decade for non-suckas. The only thing you could find Mr. T in was I Pity The Fool, a reality show featuring a combination of opposites so extreme it should have exploded the universe. The first episode opens with an old and desperately tired-looking Mr. T jogging past a street corner, and would have been less embarrassing if he'd just stopped there and started turning tricks. Instead he continues into a dealership and begins pitying some Grade-A Fool, in this case a group of well-dressed, increasingly confused car salesmen.

The whole thing is enough to make you forget about the peak of the 80s, when Mr. T was at his most ridiculously awesome. Also enough to make you forget about those heady times: Both the decade and Mr. T reached their apex in a movie nobody's ever seen. It is called The Toughest Man in the World, and it's what they will put in museums when trying to explain the baffling decade in which it was released. And they will succeed.

Mr T, born as Laurence Tureaud, is best known for his role in the 1980s television series "The A Team", his role as "Clubber Lang" in Rocky III and for his appearances on the WWF as a pro-wrestler. He is also known for his record called "Mr. T's Commandments", a rap album for kids. His trademark mohawk and and gold chains have made him an icon of the entertainment industry.

Mr. T was born on May 21, 1952 as Laurence Tureaud in Chicago, Illinois. The second-youngest of twelve children, Mr. T grew up in a small, three-bedroom apartment with his siblings and mother. His father left them when Mr. T was only five, leaving his mother to raise twelve children on less than $100 a month from her welfare check. Determined to make his mother proud, Mr. T worked hard in school and sports, eventually becoming a local football star, student of martial arts, and a three-time wrestling champion.

After graduating from Dunbar Vocational High School, Mr. T was awarded a football scholarship to Prairie View A&M University in Texas. He was expelled after one year but was quickly awarded scholarships to other universities. Late, he joined the Army to serve as a military policeman. After his service ended, Mr. T was offered a playing position with the Green Bay Packers. His professional football career was cut short by a serious knee injury and Mr. T looked for work as a bodyguard, instead.

Mr. T's size and strength landed him jobs with Mahammad Ali, Diana Ross, and Michael Jackson. In 1970 he changed his name to Lawrence Tero and soon changed it again to Mr. T. After an appearance on "The World's Strongest Black Man", Mr. T was sought out by Sylvester Stallone to play a boxer in the upcoming movie Rocky III.

▪ Shut up, fool!

▪ Well, maybe Mr. T hacked the game and created a Mohawk class! Maybe, Mr. T's pretty handy with computers! Had that occurred to you, Mr. "Condescending" Director?!

▪ I'm Mr. T and I'm a "Night Elf Mohawk"! What's YOUR game?

▪ I ain't no computer hacker! 

Mr. T found some film success in "The Beastmaster" and "Penetentiary 2" before accepting his biggest role as B.A. Baracus in the television show "The A-Team". The show premiered in 1983 and launched Mr. T into the center of pop culture. One year later Mr. T produced a video entitled "Be Somebody...or Be Somebody's Fool!" that he produced with musician Ice T as a motivational and inspirational video for children. Mr. T's album, "Mr. T's Commandments" came out later that same year. Like his first video, Commandments was designed to teach and inspire youth.

In 1985 Mr. T entered the world of professional wrestling when he joined Hulk Hogan for the first WrestleMania. Because of his background in Rocky, Mr. T became a special "WWF boxer", although he never made this is full-time career.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Mr. T appeared in numerous television shows and movies, mostly as cameo appearances or small roles. He also worked on commercials for communication companies like MCI and Comcast. In 1995 Mr. T was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma which has limited his ability to work long jobs.

Mr. T continues to be a pop culture icon for generations and still makes appearances on the TBN Christian television network.

I'm not perfect, I'm not an angel, but I try to live a certain way because it brings honour and respect to my mother. I tell people that when they look at me, they're looking at nothing but a big, overgrown, tough mama's boy. That's who I am.

Mr T

People ask what gives me the authority to give advice? I say, First of all, I don't give advice. Dr Phil gives advice. Mr T helps people. I motivate them, I inspire them, I give them hope, and I plant the seed so they can feel good about themselves
Mr T 

▪ Do you know me? Of course you do. 'Cause I'm famous!

▪ Hey, you with the teeth...

▪ Hey, everybody gotta’ put on clothes and if you don’t you get arrested.

▪ Calvin Klein and Gloria Vanderbilt don't wear clothes with your name on it, so why should you wear their name?

▪ Anger - use it, but don't lose it!

▪ I didn't just start doing this today. Not like some people that have a movie coming out, so they go visit kids in the hospital. You don't need that phony crap. All of these celebrities, they turn my stomach with their funny stuff. I've been going in the ghettos without the press, without bodyguards, talking to kids. "Get to reading, stay in school. You don't have to carry a gun." I know about peer pressure and all that, but I say, "Hey, they called me a sissy because I wouldn't join a gang. Who was calling me a sissy? Does it make me a sissy because somebody called me a sissy?" [...] I'm going to fight if you touch me or hurt me or do harm to my family. But if you call me a bad name, or whatnot, I'm too smart for that. That's the message the kids need to hear coming from me. I tell them, "If I fought every time somebody called me a name, I would never get out of jail. But I'm disciplined. I'm smarter than that." So I tell them, like my mother said, "Consider the source." When you see who called you the name, then you understand why they're doing it. Then you don't have to stoop that low.

▪ See, if I come into a black neighborhood and say, "Thanks for watching my show," and give out high fives and all that, I'm not doing no good. I go out and see a kid grabbing his crotch. Ain't nobody telling them that. Where do they get it from? They watch MTV. I say, "If you wash up more often, you won't have to grab your crotch." I'm telling these guys, "Why you gotta grab your crotch?" Then you see Michael Jackson grabbing his crotch 50 times. What's with him?

▪ Everything started as a dream. You gotta have insight, know what you want. You gotta have a plan. Like I tell anybody, if you fail to plan, you're planning to fail. I've been planning ever since I was a youngster. You've got to start from somewhere. There's nothing wrong or demeaning in flipping burgers. It's more proud than selling drugs.

▪ We didn't starve. We spent wisely. Like I tell people in the ghetto, "If you can buy guns and bullets, why can't you buy food? You can buy heroin and crack cocaine, so why can't you buy bread and butter and milk? Why can't you pay your rent?" There's a lot of people in the ghetto who go out and get a fancy car and all that. The car costs more than their house. Meanwhile, your kids need shoes. That's not cool.

MR.T UPDATE V2

MR.T /// PROJECT /// UPDATE


Progress on the Mr.T project has been made, more of how to stylize in how to present Mr.T as an "iconic" "powerful" "bold" person. Here is the project, i will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Photograph

Illustration

Pictograph

Logotype

Lettermark

Symbol

Color Code

MR.T!

MR.T

The iconic macho man of the early 80's, boxer, wrestler, A-team Member, and all around american hero. Not just a black man in the 80's Mr. T really stood up for his friends and family. He stood for equality and the equal opportunity for the average man and woman. He is very iconic just by his presentation of himself and he is unmistakable. His iconic mohawk and ideas of being a warrior is one of his ideology which really resonates with a large group of young adult men in todays society. He is becoming popular again being that the teen/young adults of today are divulging into the 80's culture so it is easy to have him comeback.

Sushi Asset final gathering

Final Acclimation of Assets//


Today Jesse and i spent time gathering all our final assets for the composition. We gathered the photography that will be in the composition, and I spent time to draw all of our items that will be in the the composition. The objects we had to make for the composition was the frying pan which is basically the whole first step. The style we are going for is simple, fun, and youth indie, such as the style of Juno. 


here are the drawn images... 

cucumber

frying pan

rice bag

crab arm (crab meat)

kikomen

sushi knife

The next step is to now place them in the order needed add the photography, and finalize the design.

FUTOMAKING

HOW TO MAKE FUTOMAKI

Poster Over View

Detail Shot

Detail Shot

Detail Shot

Detail Shot

Amtrak Train Poster Final

Stepping Back //


As this poster is now completed to date looking back on all  that has been done to produce the final product. At first looking at this project t was very fast transitioning from break to actually producing a quality product. Making sure that enough effort and work had been placed into the project. The Southwest Chief poster has gone through many revisions from size to color etc. Originally it started off 40x36 which is quite big. After getting all the attributes done to the poster it didn't seem focused it looked nice compositionally but it needed something different. Figuring that making it smaller would not only change the composition to be more active but also it would be cheaper, which is a factor when doing design. Keeping budget checked is something that should never be over looked. Not only did it save money but the design was more active and made a consistent action. Creating a tight view made it more active making the action traveling in a horizontal timeline. Incorporating romantic imagery across the mid slightly off center created a timeline that went from the great city of Chicago to the hollywood hills. The action included a train later on after some refinements which would eventually make its way of staying in the poster for good. One major attribute of the poster was the "chief" incorporation which is very symbolic for the name of the route. The debates if it needed to be in the poster was thrown around for a long time and the poster was made with and without it, the looked good with or without the chief head. Craft refinements of course was sanded down to a better product at the end. 




Progress Photos//

Original design size, 40x36

The more finalized big version

The change from big to a more leaner design

After realizing that the train went through a different Vegas certain efforts were made to change up some of the romantic imagery.

The color pallet was changed, the timeline edited, and type was edited.

more editing of type and colors of the chief and its interaction with the background.

More logistical efforts were made to present the distance, average passenger count, etc. were added to give more context to the poster. In addition type was set and positioning was made the priority of the next step for the poster.

By this point text treatment was the importance, placement and integration to fit the poster was important. In addition the mountain scape was made. 

After all the changes this  is the final product shown at critique

The End//

Train Poster Draft update

The closest form of finality for the train poster is presented now, the romanticism has been refigured. The focus on romanticism has been reduced and the focus on that and started to focus on the logistical  part of the poster. The addition of the american outline had been introduced and clear line of transportation in addition a better visual for the stops had been added. Refinements such as type and some little attributes will be added to it before being "officially" printed.

here is the design used for the critique which had a couple issues that needed to be looked at. In comparison it was very romantic over more informational. These issues would be the main focus after critique to add more of a balance. 

After a decent amount of reflection this is what came out of the changes.

Now that the design was being transformed, there was a concern that it was basically monochrome. So I went from this to get here.

color change was important and to add some depth I added the train passing through the city and mountains, headed to its final destination. 

As of right now more logistical elements are being added such as miles travelled, Im interested in adding time, etc. As more is added more pictures will be added to present the changes. 

Train Poster update

draft one is being worked on, so far this is what i have for an idea.

Train Poster update

Color Pallet//Typeface
So i have narrowed down my color pallet to three choices, one six swatch pallet and two three swatch pallets. All incorporate the same basic color harmony. I also have a page full of possible type faces that I may use on my poster. now i need to at least narrow them down to three or two of my favorite ones that will work with the subject and portrayal of my subject.

Train Poster concept building.

Trains have been out of the light for years now, they hardly get much attention in North America, even though they are are used more than planes on the other side of the world. Since the latest trends of NA have been throwback/ retro looks i thought it would be fun to do a throw back Train poster. Focusing on the old styles but the fact that trains have cleaned up instead of being so gas wasting they have become more efficient than planes.

Some inspiration I pulled online have been the art direction of AMTRAK from previous years, pre 911, the art direction was very interesting and i feel it is applicable to the task of this assignment to date. In addition i threw in some imagery from recent/ older album art that has the orientation i am applying to my design. The placement and illustrative style are possible routes to take on my poster.