Ziggy Stardust: 8 Visual Elements final

The difficulty in my project was deciding on how to embody Ziggy Stardust, not David Bowie, or the personas of David Bowie, specifically it was Ziggy Stardust. This is a statement that some could argue is what really started to make Bowie so popular and well-known. David Bowie, born David Jones was a lover of theater and portraying what was unexpected. He pulled the persona of Ziggy Stardust from inspirations while he grew up. When he put all of the pieces together he became Ziggy Stardust, an alien from Mars that was sent to Earth and became the epitome of a rockstar. Attempting to define what never quite ever existed, and representing the idea was extremely difficult for me to do.

the essence statement.

the photograph.

My intent was to focus on his clothing and rockstar appeal with the photograph, the side that one associated with Bowie, Ziggy & rockstar all at once. Although the image was originally in black and white, it really added to the strong, rockstar appeal.

the illustration.

I brought in a known image from one of the record covers and overlaid the lightning bolt over the image. I wanted to reference Ziggy without throwing the whole shape at the viewer as it had been in the past; a way to reference without stealing an idea.

the pictograph.

My focus was on the alien rockstar aspect for the pictograph. I pulled inspiration from the "Coneheads" (1993) as well as images of Ziggy playing guitar, as it's well-known that he did.

the lettermark.

My focus was was for the logotype to be "in the spotlight" just as Ziggy was constantly, both on and off the stage. For some parts of Ziggy he seemed to just end up blending with his fans, as they copied his style, so he became almost lost in a sea, kind of like the white on white interaction above, with only the shadow as the base of the logotype. Ziggy did not care what people had to said; he did his own thing and was happy while doing that.

the lettermark.

My focus was for the lettermark to be strong, but significant of the fact that Ziggy was different/unique which is referenced in the lack of straight lines and lack of consistency in letter thickness and shape.

the symbol.

My focus was to push this the furthest which I did by using a representation of a spider and a not quite perfect circle for a planet The reference of the spiders is for Ziggy's band, and the circle is for the fact that he is from Mars.

the swatches.

My focus was on strong, rockstar, flamboyant for my colors; which all three fall under. They are also very close in the color palette.