OUGD503 - Studio Brief 1: Session 1

• Look for 5 briefs with a time limit within the module deadline - need to be 5 substantial briefs

What do I want to get out of this module?

• Improve presentation skills/quality
• Improve quality of concept proposals/ideas
• Confidence in submitting to live briefs
• Improving working with concepts & carrying it through
• Work confidently with clients
• Design work which has the possibility of being used commercially
• To design a wide range of work & improve my skills in all aspects of design
• Experience working on competition briefs/live briefs
• Time management & discipline
• Understanding realistic timescales
• Effective professional communication
• How not to get exploited & getting paid
• Identify individual practices
• Brief analysis
• Creative compromise
• Exposure
• Portfolio development
• Contacts & opportunities

Why do I think live/competition briefs will be useful?

• Experience working for something real
• Experience working for a client & with client vision
• Work on briefs that you wouldn't have necessarily done before/areas of design you haven't had so much experience in
• Potential to gain exposure & get work from it
• Cash prize
• Improve portfolio
• Improve professional design skills
• Challenge of a professional brief
• Commitment to being more than just a student
• Developing clearer/more effective working practice
• Real world benchmarking
• Contacts
• Professional feedback
• Professional experience

Why have I chosen the briefs?

• different range of outcomes for each & a range of problems
• Possible placement opportunities
• Exposure
• Range of skills needed
• Personal interest/interest in the content
• Where my strengths lie
• Short & simple
• Free to enter
• Prize
• Creative freedom/scope

YCN brief - LEGO

• What is the problem?

Brand confusion - consumers are thinking that competitors products are lego

• What is the brief asking you to do about it?

A promotional campaign showing lego and what is good about it/the differences between its products and those of the competitors

• What is the brief trying to achieve?

A clear campaign so consumers know what products are lego and what products are not. A rejuvenated brand identity.

• Who will benefit?

Lego & the children.

• What is the message?

Lego is the best company in the market and makes high end, good quality products.

• Who is the audience?

Parents of young children.

• How will the message be delivered?

Visual campaign.

• Can you foresee any problems with it?

Outcomes aren't specific.

Task: Identify a brief with a substantial scope for development and answer the following:

• Why have I chosen it?
• What do I want to make?
• What do I need to make?
• What do I want to get out of it?

Also answer the questions above and begin initial concepts/ideas.

Chosen brief:

YCN competition brief - Domino's Pizza

Create a campaign that will reassert Domino's ownership of Tuesdays in the pizza takeaway category.

• Why have I chosen it?

The creative challenge was one that I am quite interested in and I thought this brief was much more open and creative than some of the other briefs I could have chosen.

• What do I want to make?

A series of large scale posters.

• What do I need to make?

A campaign using any specific medium, or a combination of media that will best connect with the audience in the times and places they will be most receptive to it.

• What do I want to get out of it?

I want to be able to come up with an initial concept and stick with it throughout the whole project. I want to do something creative and not just the same old thing, something different from my usual practice.

• What is the problem?

Consumers are overlooking Domino's 'Two for Tuesday's' offer.

• What is the brief asking you to do about it?

Create a visual campaign to get Domino's ownership of Tuesday's.

• What is the brief trying to achieve?

A clear creative campaign that shows consumers that Domino's is there and is doing this offer every Tuesday.

• Who will benefit?

Domino's & the consumer

• What is the message?

Tuesday is Domino's pizza takeaway night.

• Who is the audience?

18 - 34 year olds of both sexes, many of whom are students

• How will the message be delivered?

In the form of a visual campaign over a variety of media, or just one specific medium.

• Can you foresee any problems with it?

There is no specificity to the brief. It is asking to rejuvenate the 'Two for Tuesdays' offer, but not giving any indication into how.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 1: Competition Brief 1: Glacier Coffee Roasters

Glacier Coffee Roasters - Identity & Logo
Brief:
Glacier Coffee Roasters, a startup company which is inspired by Glacier National Park and animals living there, is aiming for providing high-quality coffee through "Third Wave Coffee" movement, like Stumptown and Intelligentsia.
Target audience is coffee drinkers looking for a better cup of coffee and enjoy different flavors from various coffee producing countries.
We are open to all kinds of designs and ideas. Thanks in advance for your efforts. We believe that it will be fun working with you talented designers.
Logo must be associated with Rocky Mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus), which is the symbol of Glacier National Park. It can be a baby, a mother or both.

Coffee elements, like coffee beans, cups, portafilters, latte art, etc are not required. Use them if they look great with the logo.

We plan to have our company logo (or part of it) printed on Nuova Point blue PALERMO coffee cups (COLOR:http://www.nuovapoint.com.au/blue_milano.php) & (SHAPE:http://www.nuovapoint.com.au/palermo.php). Please make sure the design can go well with it.

We are looking for an iconic brandable logo. The logo should be applicable to different subjects like coffee bags, signages, coffee cups/mugs, walls, websites, etc. Because of the multiple purposes, it has to look good on black/dark backgrounds and white/light backgrounds. Variations of the same design will be great. And It should be easily resizable, should be identifiable when relatively small.

 My response
From the brief set, the main things I have taken away from it is that they want:

• A logo - something that can be reproduced on cups/other media
• Use of a mountain goat
• Look good on dark or light backgrounds
• Colour variations of the same design will help

The values they want to communicate aren't exactly helpful because they are 50:50 on the majority of them, so at the end of the day, it'll be down to what they as judges personally like.

I drew out some initial ideas as a starting point.

From here I chose the one which I thought was going to be visually strong and something that other people may not think about. I decided on choosing the one in the bottom right as it plays on negative space.

I took this idea into Illustrator and created the initial design.

For the starting point I'm happy with it. The mountain is very defined which is good. When creating this I didn't think it'd work that well, but now it's finished it has worked out the best out of everything and is very clearly a mountain.

What needs changing is the typefaces I am using and the outline of the goat.  The outline isn't a particularly definitive shape for the goat. It wouldn't be that obvious to someone who saw it for the first time. The typeface isn't particularly exciting. It is a little bland and doesn't stand out really, so I need to find one that is a bit more exciting.

I'm also not happy with the shape it makes. It seems to stop quite abruptly, so I would like to have something that brings it all together and makes it obvious that it is a logo.

Taking all of these things into account I created the following:

I changed the outlined goat into a silhouette and moved the position. It works a lot better as it is a lot clearer what it is. Adding the circle to it also makes it seem a lot more like finished and like something that could be used.

The brief writer wrote a note saying for designers to try more colours other than black and white and to try brighter more adventurous colours as a whole, so I did a few variations as shown above. They show that this can work in a variety of different ways with colour, having it all the same colour, or having it in multiple colours.

Following on from this suggestion from the contest holder, I decided to go in a more contemporary direction to see if there was anything else I could do which was better and incorporate a number of colours.

My response is shown above. Initial thoughts are that it is completely different but works well. I'm not too pleased with the typeface used for the title, and the bottom bit of text reminds me of the Starbucks logo, so that's something that I need to change. However I do like the colours used and the overall aesthetic look of the logo. It is a lot more striking as an image than my previous designs and the simplicity of the shapes works well.

From this I continued to work on it. The first thing I did was get rid of the bottom line of text and change the typeface and positioning, getting rid of the green area all together.

I changed the overall shape of the design so it was a semi-circle shape. It is a lot more distinctive. I also changed the title typeface back to the one I was using previously, and this works a lot better with the secondary typeface and fits in with the image design.

The contest holder also asked for it to be shown is different forms so I took the goat and created a couple more options to what it could potentially look like.

I can't say I'm particularly happy about how these turned out, but they are development. At least I know what I don't want to do.

I decided to stick with the original shape, scrapping the other two.

The next thing I did was change the colours. They are a little bit dark and don't look as clean as they could be. I have used too much colour on them so I wanted to get rid of the unnecessary colours.

I changed the blue so it was lighter and got rid of the cream colour altogether (apart from in the goat), and changed the text so it was in black again. This works a lot better as an image as it looks a lot more sophisticated.

I was happy with this design so decided on this one being the one I would enter. I did three colour variations of it just to show the different colours which could be used, keeping it open for the contest holder to see this.

Final entry

My entry entered

My design didn't get shortlisted, but that doesn't particularly bother me because the whole point in entering this was to do just that. I didn't expect it to go any further than me entering it.

I chose this brief because I hadn't done much branding, and this incorporates both text and image working together. 

I did this one in particular because the concept interested me and I thought it would be a good one to test myself on and see how much I could develop my designs from the initial design stages. This brief was also quite well written, which is more than can be said for a lot of the others on this website.

I feel a lot more confident in entering these design competitions after doing this because even though I didn't get short-listed at least I did enter and it's really not as much of a big deal as I initially thought.

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 1: Preparatory Task 1

Task: Look into Live briefs and find 5 that I would like to enter

1 - Design a 7" vinyl for Keane

I have chosen this brief because I have a big interest in music and music artwork. Working on something like this for a very well known band is an opportunity that I didn't want to pass up. It is also quite an open brief with freedom which will allow me to be more creative than other briefs would.

2 - Design Lyric Artwork for The Royal Concept

I decided to choose this brief because of it's emphasis on using typography. Typography is something I am more comfortable using over image, and I think choose briefs like this will work to my advantage. It is also an open brief, only asking for a small amount, so I will be able to be creative.

3 - Design new logo for Glacier Coffee Roasters

I have chosen this brief because it is in branding and identity and this is something that I would like to improve my skills on as I feel I haven't done much in this area and there is a chance to make myself a more rounded graphic designer.

4 - Typoday poster design

I have decided to do this brief because it is a purely typographical brief, with an interesting twist to it which will need a lot of thought and work put into it. A couple of the briefs I have chosen are short, small ones, so having a larger, longer one is something that I can spend time on and develop.

5 - Tiger Print Card Design

I have chosen this brief because it seems like it is quite a fun, playful brief which will be quite relaxed. It also gives me the chance to work commercially as the winning design will be sold in M&S.

OUGD504 - Design For Web: Studio Session 3/Study Task 6

Session 3 29.10.13
In this session we were focussing on navigation through a website.
The first thing we did in groups was make a list of common navigation and uncommon navigation.

After discussing this as a class, we were then given the task to apply it to our websites that we are to design. To do this we were told to create flow diagrams of how we want the pages to navigate/link to.

For my website I want a menu bar that will appear on all the page, linking them all together. This proved difficult in creating an easy to read flow diagram.

 My flow diagram:

 After doing this we were given the task of looking at the five websites we brought in and putting the layout grid over the top.

I then took these into InDesign and made the grids properly.

OUGD504 - What Is Design For Print? (2)

The format that I have decided to go with is the book inside the 'screen print' packaging. I think this is the most interesting and creative idea. I started  to plan out a basic idea of what it could be like and a net for it.

The basic idea that I have come up with so far is that the box is a screen, and the viewer pulled the 'squeegee' down to 'spread the paint', and on the front cover of the book will be the same image/cover that is on the front of the packaging. This idea also helps me get a sizing for the book/publication inside. To make it obvious that it is a screen printing screen, it needs to be a portrait book, and to make sure it's not too overwhelming for the viewer it needs to be of a decent size, around an A4 size.

As I want the tone of the publication to be friendly and seem hand crafted, I want the type throughout the book to have a hand-drawn style, so I started to do a few ideas of how the words could be drawn out. The title I am starting with is 'A Big Book of Print', with particular emphasis on 'Big' & 'Print'.
Lettering ideas:

From these I then put them onto Illustrator and drew over them to create the vector files.

My initial thoughts on these six are that I definitely prefer the bolder ideas, number 1 and numbers 4,5 & 6. These definitely have a lot more emphasis and make the word stand out. They are also less complicated than numbers 2 & 3, which does make them stand out a lot more.

For print, I wanted the word to look like it was paint/printed, so went for quite loose lettering. Both ideas have worked well I think. The second does look more like it has been done in paint, but the first is a bit more structured and is more consistent.

For 'of' I wanted something that wasn't so bold, but isn't completely forgotten about either. I did a few different variations of this and have decided that the ones on the right are better, however I won't be sure until I use them in a mock-up of the front cover.

Like 'of', I didn't want 'book' to be too bold as 'big' and 'print' are the emphasised words on the cover. I wanted it to look like it had been written in a thin pen and be a little more structured and classical hand-drawn look. The second one is the most successful I think, and I will definitely be using this one.

The 'A' isn't particularly important, and I don't necessarily need it. I designed lettering that is simple and nothing too bold. The ones I like are the block letters and the one with serifs on the bottom. The others aren't particularly good when put in Illustrator and I won't be using them.

After doing these letters, I did a couple of mock-ups of layouts for the front cover.

The third one is definitely the one that works the best because the letters all seem to balance each other out and fit together well. In the first one the 'big' is a bit too big and overwhelming and doesn't really fit together with the other words. In the second one the 'big' works quite well, but I do think that the third one is much better.

From this I took the third one and experimented with some ideas of how I could create a background for it and give it a bit more prominence.

These are the two variations that worked the best from this. As I want the print to be in one colour as to look like it has been screen printed I need the design to work completely in just black and white. Taking this into consideration I think the second one will work better because the 'big' will be in full colour instead of the stock colour, so it will stand out a lot more.

To see how this would work with colour I did a few variations:

Overall the red and the bluer colours work better because they have a bit more contrast against the white, but it will all depend on the colour of the stock in the end. The one where the letters are all white does stand out, but I don't think it works well and is hard to look at compared to the others.

I have decided that the red works the best as it has the biggest contrast against the white, and is bolder than the blues or greens.

Chosen colour scheme:

After leaving this work for a couple of days I thought of another idea and general feel for the whole publication. Although I liked the hand drawn element, I did worry that maybe it would be too informal and unstructured throughout, and as someone who likes to work with structured and considered layouts I moved forward with this second idea to see how it went and if it was any better.

Visually it is a lot simpler, but I do think it works a lot better. Sometimes less is more and I do think that this is the case here.

Second idea:

I have found that although this is a lot more straight forward, I do have a lot more room to be creative in the publication as a whole. In the original idea I think I was more focussed on the front cover than the concept for the rest of the book, and in this idea I have a more solid approach for the book as a whole.

When creating the mock up layouts above, I couldn't find a typeface that I was happy with to use throughout the publication, so have decided that I will create my own for the titles, giving the publication a unique edge.

To do this I looked over the lettering I drew for the original idea to see if there was any that I particularly liked and would like to use as influence. The two I particularly liked are below:

I like them because of how simple they are and how the letters are made up of just straight lines and geometric shapes. Taking this, I created a basic shape for the 'A' to start with.

After doing this, I drew out a few variations of how the typeface could look.

I decided on the third one and started working on how the other letters for the typeface could look.

After getting a basic idea into how each element of the letters could work, I went back into illustrator and developed the overall height and angles of the lettering.

Making the letters taller and thinner resulted in the angled edges to be a lot less prominent, so I made them longer because I wanted them to be a noticeable design feature.

After settling on the design for the 'A' I started to create the other letters.

Basic net

Net 2: 'W' & 'M'

Finished typeface

After finishing the typeface I experimented with the general look of it and came up with another 9 variations. Although some will definitely not be used, it is good to see how I can further develop the typeface and how much I can do with it.

Variations:

I then too the original typeface and laid it out on the front cover chosen in place of the text:

Overall I like the look of it and it does seem to flow well and fit in with the overall look I was going for, however putting the letters together for the first time has shown a design flaw that I didn't consider before as I was just designing the letters individually and not together. The 'P' looks quite odd and not as strong next to the other letters, so because of this, I have opted to change the top of it.

Changing the 'P'

I then took it into Fontographer to turn it into a typeface.

When creating a typeface, it gives the options of lowercase and uppercase, so I decided that for lowercase I would use one of the variations I created. I didn't want to have anything too different so went with the typeface outlined.

Lowercase font

Putting the letters into Fontographer:

Uppercase A

Lowercase A

Whole typeface

Finished typeface

Installing to FontBook

The two fonts

I then replaced the text on the front cover designs with the typefaces, doing the two different variations:

As it is a front cover, I want the text to be well seen and prominent, so I thickened the lines to make it a bit bolder.

I then printed the three of these out to see which one looked the best when printed.

All three worked well printed, but like on screen the thicker text did work the best because it stood out a lot more.