Craig Ward Analysis

Craig Ward is a London based Graphics Designer who manipulates words and letters as a typographic illustrator. He is described as a person who brings to life current headlines, he creates new typographic treatments and continuously explores the notion of words as image

Craig ward has released a book this year entitled “Popular Lies About Graphic Design” he describes himself as having a student kind of mindset and he is proud of that, he feels it keeps his work fresh.. Wards opinion and also those of other is nothing is in the book that someone who has been working for 15 years won't have heard before – but hopefully they'll find something interesting in the way it's written. He hopes people will be able to pick it up and be inspired.

My research on Ward suggests he is an opinionated type of guy when it comes to design. He thinks people (designers) who cannot be bothered to design their own websites for clients but who use templates are basically lazy. He describes himself as using different techniques for different projects or in other words he will do whatever it takes to get a professional look to a product.

My first impression of Craig Wards work tells me that number three is cool because it’s combined with the image of a person on the side. This outline shows fashionable hair I think presented in a sophisticated technique.

While observing this image which shows a silhouette of a person combined with a numerical symbol connected together, it could be interpreted as a professional sports player, who is recognised by a number three while playing their sports, football for instance. Or it could’ve been something to do with someone who’s going to die in the next 3 years. Analysing this piece of work makes you think…

I like the old burn effect on the image, which maybe has been done using Photoshop. The burn appears to gives the image/typography a vintage effect which makes you ask yourself a question, what era does the designer wish to reflect?

The symbols that has been used is the number three (3) however I’m asking the question whose face could it be. There has to be a hidden meaning behind the work. The artist is inviting you as the viewer to interpret what the work is. I personally think this could be a logo for a company where the owners face has been used to represent his/her company,  Tt’s an image combined with a symbol to make one final piece.

Without a title I personally think the artist wants you to interpret it however you wish.

The colour is very important in this piece of work which is black and white. I believe black  and white minimiser’s real emotion. If colour had been used on the face instead of the face in black and white, then it would’ve been easy for the viewer to analyse the portrait, but as an artist that’s Ward’s secret or prerogative. The meaning of the work would’ve changed if instead of black photograph a normal digital colour image had been used.

When I first look at this work it just shows a number 3 then you look at the back, you see the head and it make you think, which then you have to spend time on it to investigate why a face and a number. But I don’t think you can see more information if you spend more time looking at the image, for instance if the work was a movie, which is just a number three, then you wouldn’t spend a lot of time looking at it, unless it was in 3D and colour.

To create this piece of work I think that the artist has used either a digital camera to capture someone’s photograph and paste it on a number three, then using a computer software to turn the image black the same colour as the typography (Three) then using a burn tool to produce an old effect on the image. With my skills as a photography and graphics design student at A-Level, I could reproduce this piece of work very easily.